This invention relates to detergents, lubricating oil additives and compositions, and methods of preparing detergents, lubricating oil additives and compositions. More specifically, this invention relates to novel phenolic dimers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to detergents, lubricating oil additives and compositions, and methods of preparing detergents, lubricating oil additives and compositions. More specifically, this invention relates to novel phenolic dimers.
2. Background Art
Lubricating oil compositions, as used in the internal combustion engines and transmissions of automobiles or trucks, are subjected to a demanding environment. This environment results in the lubricating oil composition suffering oxidation that is catalyzed by the presence of impurities in the lubricating oil composition, such as iron compounds. Additionally, oxidation of the lubricating oil composition is promoted by the elevated temperatures of the lubricating oil composition during use.
The oxidation of the lubricating oil composition during use is usually controlled to some extent by the use of additives, such as antioxidants or acid neutralizers, which may extend the useful life of the lubricating oil composition, particularly by reducing or preventing unacceptable viscosity increases.
One class of antioxidants and acid neutralizers generally employed in lubricating oils are metal alkyl phenates. The metal of the metal alkyl phenates is generally an alkaline earth metal such as calcium, magnesium, or barium.
Examples of metal alkyl phenates are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,330,665 and 5,162,085. The metal alkyl phenates disclosed in these patents are overbased, monomeric, alkyl phenols.
In recent years, phosphorus compounds and sulfur (from sulfonates, sulfur-containing phenates, and metal-containing dithiophosphates) derived from engine lubricants have been shown to contribute in part to particulate emissions. Also, sulfur and phosphorus tend to poison the catalysts used in catalytic converters, resulting in a reduction in performance of the catalysts.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,009 B1 and U.S. Publication No. 2004/0102335 A1 describe the use of an overbased saligenin derivative additive in lubricating oil compositions to reduce engine wear and corrosion that is capable of decreasing sulfur and phosphorus containing emissions.
A need exists in the art for improved additives that act to control viscosity, neutralize acid, and/or reduce oxidation. The novel phenolic dimer and the overbased phenolic dimer detergent of the present invention provide anti-wear benefit to lubricating oil compositions with a low phosphorus content and a low sulfur content.

Phenolic dimers, the process of preparing same and the use thereof


A quartz crystal device includes a crystal resonator element and a package including a plurality of components. The plurality of components are bonded using a metal paste sealing material containing a metallic particle having an average particle size from 0.1 to 1.0 μm, an organic solvent, and a resin material in proportions of from 88 to 93 percent by weight from 5 to 15 percent by weight, and from 0.01 to 4.0 percent by weight, respectively, to hermetically seal the crystal resonator element in the package.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a metal paste sealing material for hermetically sealing, e.g., a tuning fork type or thickness shear vibration mode crystal resonator element in a package in a quartz crystal device such as a crystal unit, a crystal resonator, a crystal oscillator, a crystal filter, or a crystal sensor, and a quartz crystal device sealed using the metal paste sealing material and a method for sealing the quartz crystal device.
2. Related Art
Demands for smaller, thinner piezoelectric devices have been increasing, and many surface mount piezoelectric devices, which are suitable for mounting onto circuit boards and the like, have hitherto been used.
In surface mount piezoelectric devices, a configuration is employed in which a piezoelectric resonator element is sealed in a package made of an insulating material such as ceramic.
With a package in this former configuration, a piezoelectric resonator element is mounted in a cavity where thin plates made of ceramic materials are laminated on a box base, and a lid is hermetically bonded to the base so that the piezoelectric resonator element is sealed.
Regarding bonding of a base and a lid, in the case of a lid made of metal, a method of placing a metal seal ring on the top end surface of the base and seam-welding the lid to the seal ring (e.g., JP-A-2000-223606) and a method of placing a brazing metal material on the top end surface covered with a metal film of a base and heating and melting the material (see, e.g., JP-A-11-307661) are known.
In the case of a lid made of a ceramic or glass material, a method of heating and melting low-melting glass or resin placed between a base and a lid (see, e.g., JP-A-2001-244772) and a method of forming a metallized layer on the lower surface of a lid and melting an eutectic solder so that the lid is bonded to a ceramic case (see, e.g., JP-A-9-36690), and a method of heating and melting an eutectic metallic film layer formed in a bonding portion of a lid (see, e.g., JP-A-54-78694) are known.
However, there is a possibility that a gas produced from low-melting glass and high heat of seam-welding decrease or degrade frequency characteristics of a crystal resonator element.
Low-melting glass contains lead in many cases, and therefore may be not desirable in terms of a possibility of adversely affecting the environment.
To address these points, there has been proposed a crystal unit with a structure having a reduced size and a thinner thickness, in which a crystal plate having a crystal resonator element and an outer frame integrated therein is formed and substrates serving as a base and a cover are bonded on and under the crystal plate.
To hermetically seal such a structure, for example, a method of anode-bonding of metallic layers, which are formed on the upper and lower surfaces of an outer frame integrated with a crystal unit, with a cover and a case made of glass is known (see, e.g., JP-A-2000-68780).
A method in which surfaces to be mutually bonded of a piezoelectric plate and a substrate that have been subjected to mirror polishing are cleaned by applying ultraviolet rays or oxygen plasma, and the surfaces are bonded together using hydrogen bonding of —OH base by absorbing moisture is also known (see, e.g., JP-A-7-154177).
A method of putting together a bond surface having an Au film thereon of a piezoelectric substrate and a bond surface having an Ag film formed thereon of a protective substrate after plasma treatment and applying pressure and heating the surfaces to achieve diffusion bonding is also known (see, e.g., International Patent Publication No. WO 00/76066 pamphlet).
Further, a surface acoustic wave device formed by applying pressure to a metallic film formed on the main surface of a piezoelectric substrate having an interdigital transducer (IDT) formed thereon and a metallic film formed on the main surface of a base substrate, after activating the surfaces by ion beam and plasma irradiation, to directly bond together the surfaces is known (see, e.g., JP-A-54-78694).
Recently, there have been proposed methods that, in a container to contain electronic components such as piezoelectric resonators, hermetically seal a bonding portion of a box-type container formed of a ceramic material and a cover made of metal using a paste-like sealing member composed of metallic fine particles having an average particle size of 1 to 100 nm and a dispersion material such as amine (see, e.g., JP-A-2005-317793 and JP-A-2005-31-7794).
A method described in JP-A-2005-317793 applies a sealing member to a container or a cover by screen printing or an inkjet method and heating both the container and the cover in an atmosphere of 250° C. or less to bond together them.
A method described in JP-A-2005-317794 makes a paste-like sealing member become a sheet-like one and, using this one as a cover, bonds together the cover and the container to achieve a hermetic seal.
A piezoelectric device such as a crystal unit is also known.
In this device, a crystal plate are bonded with upper and lower plates with a metallic fine particle paste bonding material containing metallic fine particles that has an average particle size of 1 to 100 nm, the surfaces of which are coated with organic films, and which are dispersed in an organic solvent (see, e.g., JP-A-2006-186748).
The paste bonding material hermetically seals a piezoelectric device by metal-to-metal bonding between metallic fine particles and between metallic films that melts the organic films by heating at about 200° C. to make the metallic fine particles melt with each other, that is, to sinter them.
However, in a pasty sealing member or bond material made of the above-described metallic fine particles, nanoparticles having an average particle size of 100 nm or less are used as the metallic fine particles.
To prevent aggregation of the nanoparticles, a relatively large amount of organic solvent is required as the dispersing agent.
Therefore, gas may be generated from the organic solvent during sealing and remain inside a package, or gas may be generated over time from the organic solvent remaining in a bonding portion, causing a possibility of deteriorating the quality and frequency characteristics of a piezoelectric resonator element.
In general, organic solvent is difficult to handle, and therefore one problem with a sealing member containing a large amount of organic solvent is that the sealing member is not suitable for mass production and requires careful handling for its storage and transportation.

Method for sealing a quartz crystal device


The invention provides a novel polyisocyanate compound which is useful as a starting material for an optical material having a high refractive index, a low dispersion and excellent optical characteristics, and a process for producing this compound at good efficiency. The invention also provides an optical material having a high refractive index, a low dispersion, an excellent transparency without optical distortion and having good heat resistance.

This application is based on Japanese patent application Nos. H10-198798 and H10-198799, both filed on Jul. 14, 1998, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to a polyisocyanate compound and a process for producing the same. In particular, it relates to a novel polyisocyanate compound useful as a starting material for an optical material, and a process for producing the same at good efficiency. It also relates to an optical material and an optical product using the same. Specifically, it relates to an optical material which has excellent optical characteristics such as a high refractive index, a low dispersion, an excellent transparency, lack of optical distortion and the like and good heat resistance, and to an optical product formed of this optical material, such as a lens, a prism, optical fibers, a substrate for a recording medium, a filter, a glass, a vase and the like.
Recently, plastic materials have been used for optical parts in place of inorganic glass, especially for eyeglass lenses, because they are lightweight and have good dyeability and good impact resistance. In particular, a polyethylene glycol bisallylcarbonate polymer (hereinafter referred to as CR-39) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) have been used, primarily for plastic lenses. However, it has a refractive index of 1.50, which is lower than that of inorganic glass. Therefore, when they are used as lens materials, for example, the thickness of the lenses has to be increased with the increasing power. Consequently, not only is the superiority of plastics as lightweight material been impaired, but also they have not been preferred in view of the aesthetic property. Furthermore, the concave lens, in particular, has had problems when the thickness (edge thickness) of the surrounding portion of the lens is increased causing a birefringence or a chromatic aberration to occur.
For these reasons, in order to be able to decrease the thickness of the lens while applying most of the characteristics of plastics having a low specific gravity, a plastic material having a high refractive index has been in demand. As a material having such a performance, for example, (1) a polymer comprising a xylene diisocyanate compound and a polythiol compound (official gazette of JP-A-63-46213), (2) a resin comprising an aliphatic linear sulfur-containing diisocyanate and a polythiol compound (official gazette of JP-A-2-153302), (3) a polymer comprising a dithian derivative substituted with two isocyanatoalkyl groups and a polythiol (official gazette of JP-A4-159275) are disclosed.
Although the resin in the above-mentioned item (1) and the resin in the above-mentioned item (2) have an increased refractive index by limiting a combination with a polythiol compound to be polymerized, the resin of item (1) has problems in that an Abbe number is decreased and a chromatic aberration is increased, and the resin of item (2) has a problem in that its heat resistance is decreased.
The polymer of item (3) has a high refractive index and a low dispersion (high Abbe number) and has an excellent heat resistance. However, in recent years, there has been a demand for a material having a higher refractive index and a lower dispersion.
In order to overcome many of the problems in the prior art, the invention provides an optical material having the above-mentioned desirable properties. It is a feature of the invention to provide a novel polyisocyanate compound which can give an optical material having a high refractive index, a low dispersion and an excellent heat resistance, and a process for producing this compound at good efficiency. It is also a feature of the invention to provide an optical material which has excellent optical characteristics such as a high refractive index, a low dispersion, an excellent transparency, lack of optical distortion and the like, and which has good heat resistance. It is also a feature of the invention to provide optical products made from the optical material.
In particular, the invention provides a polyisocyanate compound having a 1,4-dithian ring and an isocyanate group in a side chain connected by a sulfur atom. The compound exhibits a high refractive index, a low dispersion and high heat resistance. In addition, the invention provides methods for producing the polyisocyanate compound by an efficient processes. It also provides an optical material formed of a poly(thio)urethane obtained by subjecting a component comprising a polyisocyanate compound and a component comprising a compound having two or more of hydroxyl groups or mercapto or both groups to a polyaddition reaction.
In one aspect, the invention provides a polyisocyanate compound having general formula (I)
wherein X and Y independently represent an alkylene group having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms or an alkylene group having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms to which group an isocyanatoalkyl group is bound, wherein the carbon number of the alkyl group of the isocyanatoalkyl group is between 1 and 3 the alkylene groups optionally contain a sulfur atom, and m and n independently represent an integer from 1 to 3.
In another embodiment, the polyisocyanate compound can be produced by one of the following processes: production process 1 and production process 2.
Production process 1 of the invention is a process for producing a polyisocyanate compound represented by general formula (I-a)
wherein m and n, independently represent an integer from 1 to 3, X1 and Y1, independently represent an alkylene group having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms, and this alkylene group may have a sulfur atom.
Process 1 comprises:
(a) obtaining a dicarboxylic acid ester from a 2,5-bis(mercaptoalkyl)-1,4-dithian compound, said dicarboxylic acid being represented by general formula (III)
wherein R1 and R2, independently represent a lower alkyl group, X1, Y1, m and n are as defined above, said 2,5-bis(mercaptoalkyl)-1,4-dithian compound being represented by general formula (II)
wherein m and n are as defined above,
(b) converting the dicarboxylic acid ester to a dicarbonyl hydrazide represented by general formula (IV)
wherein m, n, X1 and Y1 are as defined above,
and
(c) converting the carbonyl hydrazide group into an isocyanate group.
Production process 2 of the invention is a process for producing a polyisocyanate compound represented by general formula (I-b)
wherein A1 and A2, independently represent a substituted alkylene group having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms, this alkylene group may have a sulfur atom, B1 and B2, independently represent an alkylene group having from 1 to 3 carbon atoms, m and n, independently represent an integer from 1 to 3, and k represents 0 or 1.
Process 2 comprises:
(a) obtaining a tricarboxylic acid ester or a tetracarboxylic acid ester from a 2,5-bis(mercaptoalkyl)-1,4-dithian compound, the tricarboxylic acid ester or the tetracarboxylic acid ester being represented by general formula (V)
wherein A1, A2, B1, B2, k, m and n are as defined above, and R3 and R4, independently represent a lower alkyl group, the 2,5-bis(mercaptoalkyl)-1,4-dithian compound being represented by the above-mentioned general formula (II),
(b) converting the tricarboxylic acid ester or a tetracarboxylic acid ester to a tricarbonyl hydrazide or a tetracarbonyl hydrazide represented by general formula (VI)
wherein A1, A2, B1, B2, m, n and k are as defined above, and
(c) converting the carbonyl hydrazide group into an isocyanate group.
In another embodiment, the optical material of the invention is formed of a poly(thio)urethane comprising a polyisocyanate compound represented by general formula (I):
The polyisocyanate compound has an alicyclic structure. Preferably, the compound comprises isocyanatoalkyl groups having at least one sulfur atom and the groups are bound to the 2- and 5-positions of the 1,4-dithian ring.
In another aspect of the invention, in the above-mentioned general formula (I), X and Y, independently represent an alkylene group having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms or an alkylene group having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms to which group an isocyanatoalkyl group (in which the carbon number of the alkyl group is preferably between 1 to 3) is bound, and these alkylene groups may have a sulfur atom. It is preferable that the sulfur atoms are bound to two carbon atoms in the alkylene groups. The X and Y groups are independently a methylene group or an ethylene group, or a group represented by the formula:
The groups are preferably: (a) a methylene group to which an isocyanatomethyl group is bound, (b) an ethylene group in which an isocyanatomethyl group is bound to a carbon atom bound to a sulfur atom or (c) an ethylene group in which an isocyanatomethyl group is bound to a carbon atom bound to an isocyanate group.
It is also preferred that m and n, independently represent an integer from 1 to 3.
It is preferred that the polyisocyanate compound represented by general formula (I) contains not only the 1,4-dithian ring but an additional sulfur atom outside the 1,4-dithian ring, preferably positioned to increase the refractive index and the Abbe number of the polyisocyanate compound. Accordingly, when an optical material is produced using this polyisocyanate compound, the refractive index and the Abbe number of the optical material are also increased.
Furthermore, it is preferred that the 1,4-dithian ring in the polyisocyanate compound is rigid. Therefore, when an optical material is produced using this, excellent mechanical characteristics can be given to the optical material.
Furthermore, it is preferred that in the polyisocyanate compound, when the isocyanatoalkyl groups (in which the carbon number of the alkyl group is preferably between 1 and 3) are bound to the alkylene groups having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms which groups may have a sulfur atom as indicated at X and Y in general formula (I), this compound itself becomes a crosslinking agent.
When an optical material is produced using the polyisocyanate compound, high heat resistance and a high solvent resistance can be imparted to the optical material without adding the other crosslinking agent as a secondary component.

Polyisocyanate compounds, process for producing the same, and optical materials using the same


The present invention discloses a method and policy enforcement functional entity (PE-FE) for implementing quality of service (QoS) request information. The method comprises the following steps: a PE-FE sends a policy decision functional entity (PD-FE) a QoS request message including predetermined parameters which are used to represent the QoS request information of the transport layer. The technical solutions mentioned above enable the QoS request information of the transport layer to be accurately represented, and implement the resource request process in the pull mode.

As a hot-spot research subject in today's communication standardization field, NGN adopts IP packet technology as the carrier network technology and combines fixed communication technology and mobile communication technology. NGN can provide more abundant multimedia services, such as emerging services with real-time requirement (e.g. IP TV, video conferencing, multimedia remote teaching and video-on-demand), these services require the communication network to provide highly efficient end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) support, and meanwhile the customer has increasingly higher requirements on network service quality. Therefore, how to provide end-to-end QoS support may be one of the core issues of NGN.
The International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunications Standardization Sector (ITU-T), as the telecommunications unit of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has developed a standard regarding resource and admission control. The latest draft of Resource and Admission Control Functions (RACF) issued by ITU-T provides a RACF-specific functional framework as shown in FIG. 1, which is a functional architecture diagram of RACF in pertinent prior art. The RACF comprises two parts, which are, respectively, a Policy Decision Functional Entity (PD-FE) and a Transport Resource Control Functional Entity (TRC-FE). The TRC-FE interacts with the transport function via Rc interface and interacts with the Transport Resource Enforcement Functional Entity (TRE-FE) via Rn interface. Moreover, the PD-FE interacts with the TRC-FE via Rt interface, interacts with the Customer Premises Network (CPN) via Rh interface, interacts with the Service layer's Service Control Functions (SCF) via Rs interface, and interacts with the Network Attachment Control Functions (NACF) via Ru interface. The PD-FE interacts with other Next Generation Networks via Ri interface.
In addition, the PD-FE is dependent of neither the transmission technology nor the SCF. The PD-FE makes the final decision for resource and admission control on the basis of network policy rules, service information provided by the SCF, transport layer subscription information provided by the NACF, and the result of resource availability decision provided by the TRC-FE.
The TRC-FE is independent of services, but is dependent on the transmission technology. The TRC-FE is responsible for collecting and maintaining the transmission network information and resource status information. After receiving a resource request from the PD-FE, the TRC-FE enforces resource-based admission and control on the basis of QoS, priority requirement, resource availability information and transmission-related policy rules.
The transport layer comprises a Policy Enforcement Functional Entity (PE-FE) and a Transport Resource Enforcement Functional Entity (TRE-FE). The PE-FE is a packet-to-packet gateway, which may be located between a Customer Premises Network (CPN) and an access network, between an access network and a core network, or between networks of different operators, and is the key node which supports dynamic QoS control, port address translation control and Network Address Translator (NAT) crossing. The TRE-FE enforces the transport resource policy rules sent down by the TRC-FE. The scope, function and the Rn interface of the TRE-FE, which need further research, are not the research object of R2 stage.
FIG. 2 shows a resource request process in the pull mode in prior art. As shown in FIG. 2, the resource request process comprises the following steps:
Step S202, A transport layer signaling from the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) triggers the PE-FE to generate a resource decision request so as to reserve required QoS resources for the specified flow.
Step S204, After receiving a QoS request from the CPE, the PE-FE sends the PD-FE a resource decision request message via the Rw interface to request the PD-FE to make an admission control decision. The resource decision request message comprises flow description and QoS parameter information.
Step S206, If the SCF has provided QoS pre-authorization to the related flow, the PD-FE, after receiving the resource decision request message from the PE-FE, interacts with the SCF so as to obtain the service information of related flow. Step S206 is optional.
Step S208, The PD-FE checks the flow description, the requested QoS resource and the service information to see if they are consistent with the network policy rules in the PD-FE and with the transport layer subscription information in the NACF.
Step S210, Under the condition that the check in Step S208 has passed, the PD-FE determines the access network and the core network required by media flow and interacts with the TRC-FE to check the availability of resources.
Step S212, After Step S208 and Step S210, the PD-FE makes a final admission decision.
Step S214, The PD-FE sends a resource decision response message to the PE-FE, and the message contains the final decision rules. Then, the PE-FE performs policy installation and replies to the CPE through the transport layer signaling.
It has been seen from the above mentioned process that in existing Rw interface protocol, the CCR command can be used for the PE-FE to send a resource decision request message to the PD-FE in the pull mode (i.e. Step S204). However, the CCR command provides no clear definition about how to include the flow description and QoS parameter information, and, in the pull mode, in addition to the flow description and QoS parameter information, it is also required to include other information such as flow status, user name, IP address, logical access ID, and physical access ID, etc. Unfortunately, these are not yet defined in the existing Rw interface protocol.
In pertinent prior art, although the resource request process in the pull mode is given, the QoS request information from the transport layer has not been accurately represented. Therefore, it is still problematic in actually implementing the above mentioned process.

Method and policy enforcement functional entity for implementing quality of service request information


A method for producing micromechanical components is provided. A liquid starting material which can be cured by means of irradiation is applied onto a substrate. A partial volume of the starting material is cured by means of a local irradiation process using a first radiation source in order to produce at least one three-dimensional structure. The three-dimensional structure delimits at least one closed cavity in which at least one part of the liquid starting material is enclosed. Alternatively or in addition, a micromechanical component is provided that contains a liquid starting material, which is partly cured by means of irradiation, and at least one cavity in which the liquid starting material is enclosed.

U.S. 2012/0325775 A1 discloses a method for producing three-dimensional microstructures. In this known method, a liquid material is cured by means of exposure using a focused laser beam. Having concluded the exposure, the remaining liquid material can be removed and the desired micromechanical component remains on the substrate.
However, the drawback of this known method is that merely static structures can be produced. A subsequent adaptation or post-processing of the components and the production of movable components are excluded.

Micromechanical component and method for producing same

FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FÖRDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.


A light emitting device is disclosed herein. An embodiment of the light emitting device comprises a substrate and a reflector extending from the substrate. The reflector forms a cavity in conjunction with the substrate. A light emitter is located in the cavity. At least one first recessed portion is located in the reflector, the at least one first recessed portion extends substantially axially around the reflector.

Light emitting devices typically include a light emitting diode (LED) located in a cavity. The walls of the cavity may be reflective in order to increase the efficiency of the light-emitting device. The cavity is filled with an encapsulate, such as silicone, in order to protect the LED and the reflector.
Encapsulants tend to delaminate or pull away from the reflector walls. Once the delamination has started on a small section of the wall, the delamination typically continues rapidly. The delaminated areas may enable contaminants to enter the light-emitting device and either cause failure or a reduction in the efficience of the light-emitting device. The delamination may also adversely affect the light pattern proximate the delaminated wall, which may reduce or diffract the emitted light. Eventually, the delamination may spread to the LED, which may cause damage to the LED and failure of the light-emitting device.

Avago Technologies ECBU IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


An aromatic polycarbodiimide comprising a structural repeating unit represented by the following formula (I): ##STR1## wherein n is an integer of 2 to 200.

There have conventionally been known some aromatic polycarbodiimides obtained by polymerizing diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) or tolylene diisocyanate (TDI) as a monomer. Such polycarbodiimides are used as a flame-retardant film or a heat-resistant adhesive because of its excellent heat resistance.
Although the polycarbodiimide film has a heat-resistance in the point that a volatile gas or decomposed monomer is not generated even if it is exposed to a high temperature of 400.degree. C. or more, if it has a low-moisture resistance or it is thermally treated at a temperature of 200.degree. C. or more, it will lose a self-supporting property and become brittle. As the result, the film cannot be practically used. Furthermore, the polymer has a low solubility in an organic solvent and has a low processability.

Aromatic polycarbodiimide and film thereof


The present invention relates to a mechanical compensating device for a waveguide (1). More precisely, the present invention provides a technology for ensuring phase stability in a waveguide (1) subject to expansions and contractions owing to temperature changes. To do this, actuators, which may consist of pairs of prongs (8-9, 10-11), connected to longitudinal ribs (2, 3) cut in the body of the waveguide (1) and integral therewith, cause, because of a large difference between the respective coefficients of thermal expansion of the waveguide (1) and of the actuators, a rotation of the longitudinal ribs (2, 3) about themselves, deforming the short sides (4, 5) of the waveguide (1) when said waveguide (1) expands or contracts according to the changes in temperature.

In particular, in the case of multiplexers-demultiplexers (or Omux) integrated for example into space instruments, and comprising specific waveguides commonly called manifolds, the temperature changes may be large. These manifolds, which typically are made of aluminium, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of which is equal to 23 ppm, the deformations induced by these temperature changes are such that phase shifts are introduced into the guided waves. These phase shifts result in malfunction of the equipment. For example, Omux channel mismatches may occur.
To correct this problem, several technologies have been developed. The first method consists in producing the waveguide and the manifold in a material having a coefficient of thermal expansion as low as possible. Materials such as Invar™ have a coefficient of thermal expansion that may be down to 0.5 ppm, giving them a very low deformability with respect to temperature changes. However, for practical reasons, notably because the waveguides are mounted in space equipment generally produced in lightweight materials, the coefficients of thermal expansion of which are high, such as aluminium for example, mechanical compensation solutions are sought, notably for operating with aluminium waveguides. This is because too large a difference between the coefficient of thermal expansion of the manifold and that of the complete equipment on which it is mounted induces large mechanical stresses. To reduce these stresses, it is necessary to even out the coefficients of thermal expansion.
Nowadays, it is known that the thermal expansion of a waveguide of rectangular cross section can be compensated for by applying a deformation on its short sides so as to ensure phase stability. One existing technology consists in deforming the waveguide by pressing or pulling on its short sides by means of spacer components that move along an axis orthogonal to the short sides of the waveguide.
However, these technologies generally require the use of very large plates made of Invar™ (or another material having a similar coefficient of thermal expansion) that are parallel to the long sides of the waveguide and keep them spaced apart. The presence of these plates increases the space taken up by the waveguide.
To alleviate this drawback, the invention proposes the use of actuators made of Invar™ or another material of low coefficient of thermal expansion which, under the effect of a temperature change, cause longitudinal off-axis ribs, cut from the body of the waveguide and integral therewith, to rotate, deforming the short sides of the waveguide.

Mechanical temperature-compensating device for a phase-stable waveguide


In a semiconductor photo-detector of the present invention, a first semiconductor layer, a second semiconductor layer having, and a photo-absorption part composed of a photo-absorption layer sandwiched between these layers are disposed on a substrate, at least the photo-absorption layer is formed at a position apart inwardly by a finite length from an end surface of the substrate, an end surface of the second semiconductor layer and the substrate or the end surface of the substrate is provided with a light incident facet angled inwardly as it separates from the surface of the second semiconductor or the surface of the substrate. Further, a groove as a guide of an optical waveguide for guiding incident light is disposed opposing the light incident facet, or the substrate end surface at the light incident facet side is protruded by a finite length from a tip part of the light incident facet, or between the optical waveguide and the semiconductor photo-detector is buried in a solid or liquid, or a main reaching area of incident light refracted at an upper layer of the photo-absorption layer is terminated with a substance having a smaller refractive index than the semiconductor layer of photo-absorption region part, or the light incident facet and its vicinity are buried in an organic substance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refraction type semiconductor photo-detector, a semiconductor photo-detection device comprising the semiconductor photo-detector combined with an optical waveguide, and production methods thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional refraction type semiconductor photo-detectors have a structure in which, as shown in FIG. 1A, a light incident angled facet 21a is formed across a photo-absorption layer 23a from the top surface, or, as shown in FIG. 1B, an angle begins from a layer right beneath a photo-absorption layer 23b while contacting with the photo-absorption layer 23b (for example, Japanese Patent Application 9-52760 (1997)).
In FIG. 1A, numeral 21a indicates a light incident facet, 22a is a p-InP layer, 23a is an InGaAs photo-absorption layer, 24a is an n-InP layer, 25a is an n-InP layer, 26a is a p electrode, and 27a is an n electrode.
Further, in FIG. 1B, numeral 21b indicates a light incident facet, 22b is a p-InP layer, 23b is an InGaAs photo-absorption layer, 24b is an n-InP layer, 25b is an n-InP substrate, 26b is a p electrode, and 27b is an n-electrode.
Still further, in FIGS. 1A and 1B, numeral 28 indicates an optical fiber as an example of an optical waveguide for conducting the incident light. This optical waveguide 28 is combined with a semiconductor photo-detector shown in FIG. 1A or 1B to construct a semiconductor photo-detection device.
In the production process of above described photo-detector, when forming the reverse-mesa optical incident facet by using wet etching with bromine-methanol or the like, in etching including the photo-absorption layer 23a as a narrow gap or where the photo-absorption layer 23a exists close to the etching, the photo-absorption layer 23a as a narrow-gap is relatively fast in etching speed and, since side etching is liable to occur, an etching irregularity such as uneven side etching tends to generate during deep etching, resulting in a problem of generating fine irregularities or waves on the etching surface.
When the spot size of incident light is large, effect of irregularities or waves is small. However, when an optical beam is focused and applied using a tapered fiber or a lens, this effect becomes conspicuous, the beam is diffused, and focusing of the beam is degraded.
Further, in the prior art structure, in order to obtain a high-speed response, the incident position must be set at the top surface side as possible so that the photo-absorption area is the smallest, when the incident light position is moved down to the substrate side, the photo-absorption part is required to be increased in length to make photo-absorption possible.
As a result, the photo-absorption area is increased resulting in degraded high-speed response characteristics.
Still further, in the above-described prior art semiconductor photo-detector, the chip is formed by using cleavage or the like from the vicinity of the light incident angled facet.
Thus, the chip does not have a guide structure for optical-connection with an optical waveguide such as an optical fiber.
At the time to connect the optical fiber with the photo-detector optically, when the optical beam center of the optical fiber is fitted to the center of the optical-absorption area of the photo-detector, the responsivity becomes maximum, and when the optical beam center of the optical fiber is shifted from the center of the optical-absorption area of the photo-detector, the optical-absorption amount of the photo-detector is decreased, thereby the responsivity is deteriorated.
Although permissible range of the shifting depends on size of the photo-detector and a direction of the shifting, etc., the permissible range is usually several μm in the minimum direction.
As a result, in optical coupling with fibers or the like, fine mechanical adjustment of fiber optical end with an accuracy of several microns is required to a position where the responsivity is the maximum.
Therefore, there is a problem in that when fabricating a module (semiconductor photo-detection device) by combining a photo-detector with a fiber, a very precise positioning technique is necessary, and even a small deviation generates a degraded responsivity or a degraded response speed.
Therefore, in general, one or two lenses are inserted between the photo-detector and the fiber to moderate the positioning accuracy.
However, there is a problem in that the insertion of such a lens system leads to increases in the number of parts or fabrication steps resulting in an increase in module cost.
Further, there is a report of a structure in which to perform good optical coupling with the fiber without using the above lens system, the photo-detector is mounted on an optical fiber holding substrate having a V-shaped groove comprising silicon or the like. However, in this construction, it is required that the optical fiber holding substrate and the photo-detector be connected in high mechanical precision, which requires a high-precision positioning technique, and a small deviation generates reduction of responsivity or response speed.
Still further, even when the lens system is inserted as described above, there is some distance deviation between the device and the lens system during positioning, which is a cause of deviation in responsivity in a device with a small misalignment tolerance.
Yet further, in the above-described prior art semiconductor photo-detector, the electrodes 26a and 26b of the upper layer are, in general, alloyed with the semiconductor layer by heat treating metals such as AuZnNi for the case of p-type or AuGeNi for the case of n-type to form ohmic electrodes.
By virtue of such alloying, fine irregularities are generated between the electrodes 26a and 26b and the p-InP layers 22a and 22b as semiconductor, even if refracted light reaches here, it is diffuse reflected or absorbed by the electrode metal itself, and the electrode part is small in light reflectivity.
Therefore, although the thicknesses of the photo-absorption layers 23a and 23b can be reduced by increasing the effective absorption length through which the refracted light transits diagonally with respect to the layer thickness direction which is a characteristic of the refraction type semiconductor photo-detector, to obtain a sufficiently large responsivity, refracted light to the photo-absorption layers 23a and 23b is required to be sufficiently absorbed by one transit, there has been a limitation in reducing the thickness of the photo-absorption layers 23a and 23b.
As a result, a transit time of carriers transitting the photo-absorption layers 23a and 23b is a limitation factor of response speed of the semiconductor photo-detector, and there is a problem in that an ultra-high speed and high responsivity device cannot be fabricated.
Yet further, in the prior art refraction type semiconductor photo-detection device, for example, as shown in FIG. 1A, the light incident facet 21a of the refraction type semiconductor photo-detector and an optical waveguide such as a single mode optical fiber are disposed in opposition, and a gas such as air or an inert gas is filled in between.
Here, since the gas has a refractive index of nearly 1 and the refractive index of the photo-detector material is constant, the refraction angle at the light incident facet 21a is determined only by the reverse-mesa angle.
In general, in the production process of refraction type semiconductor photo-detector, when fabrication is made by determining the reverse-mesa angle, mesa angles of devices in the same wafer become all in line with each other.
Since the refraction type semiconductor photo-detector utilizes an increase in effective absorption length by transiting light the optical absorption layer by refraction, the refraction angle is determined equally in the prior art, and the effective absorption length is also constant.
Therefore, there is a problem in that to change the effective absorption length according to various applications, wafers of different mesa angles or different absorption layer thicknesses are required to be prepared to change the refraction angle.

Semiconductor photo-detector, semiconductor photo-detection device, and production methods thereof

Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corporation


Improved safety devices comprising a container; a closure means for the container having a plurality of annular bands rotatably mounted on the closure means, each of these bands being formed with a plurality of elements which are selectably removable for programming the closure means and which must be aligned in the selected manner in order to gain access to the contents of the container; and indicia carried by the container for indicating when the selected elements are aligned in the selected manner.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to closure means and is particularly directed to controllably openable closure means for safely locking containers for liquid and solid medicines and other dangerous substances to prevent accidental or undesired access to the contents of such containers.
2. Prior Art
Although accidental poisonings have decreased since the enactment of the Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1971, a tragic and unacceptable mortality rate still exists, indicating that even the latest safety packaging is ineffective. Statistics from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the American Association Of Poison Control Centers clearly identify children, 5 years of age and under, and the elderly as the two groups most effected by the child-resistant cap issue. Conventionally, these safety caps have required multiple actions to accomplish removal of the caps. Thus, for example, some prior art safety caps have required the user to press inwardly on a portion of the cap while simultaneously twisting the cap to achieve removal of the cap. Other prior art safety caps have required the user to twist the cap in a first direction, lift it slightly and, then, twist it in a second direction in order to remove the cap. Numerous other multiple action safety caps have been proposed. However, many of these have been so complicated to remove that even authorized persons have had difficulty in removing the caps. Other so-called safety caps have been ineffective and can be removed by anyone with little or no effort. Still other prior art safety caps have been complex devices which have been prohibitively expensive to manufacture and purchase. Furthermore, most of the prior art safety caps have been useful with either solid or liquid medications, but have not been adaptable for interchangeable use. Thus, none of the prior art safety caps have been entirely satisfactory.

Programmable safety container and closure means


A system for providing failover redundancy in a remote access solution includes at least one application resource on a back-end server, and multiple gateway servers. One of the gateway servers is a primary gateway server while the others are failover gateway servers. Each gateway servers hosts a session with at least one executing application instance for the same application, each session on the failover gateway servers maintained in the same state as that on the primary gateway server. The primary gateway server is the only gateway servers allowed to communicate with the application resource(s). The system further includes a client device in communication over a VPN with the primary gateway server, receiving output of the application instance executing on the primary gateway server and displaying the received output on a viewer of the client device. The client device also sends input to the primary gateway server.

Remote access solutions enable workers away from a company to securely access the company network. Through the use of IPSec VPNs or SSL VPNs remote users are able to access a company network in a secure manner. Access from a client device may be routed through one or more gateway servers which are utilized in maintaining the remote access session. With conventional remote access solutions, failure in a gateway server maintaining the remote access session results in a terminated session and lost data.
To address the issue of gateway server failure, a number of different conventional techniques have been applied in an attempt to ensure redundancy and full availability of system resources in the event of hardware or software failure. In an active/passive server arrangement an active server hosts a number of executing processes and applications. The active server may be hosting an IPSec VPN-based session or an SSL based session. One or more other servers are designated as backup or "failover" servers. The failover servers include the capability of executing the same applications and processes that are executing on the active server but the failover server(s) do not execute the applications and processes until notified of a problem with the active server. The failover servers are known as "passive" servers in this arrangement because they may be thought of as quietly waiting to execute the applications and processes that are being executed on the active server while the backup server is operating in failover mode. Once notified of a problem with the active server, one of the failover servers is selected as the new active server, receives the last saved state/session information from the formerly "active" server and proceeds to execute in the manner in which the previous active server was executing prior to the detected failure/problem. Unfortunately, the active/passive arrangement results in a loss of data during the transition from the first active server to the newly designated active server.
It will be appreciated that the failover servers may be located on either the same or a separate physical node. An implementation that includes a failover server on the same physical node runs the risk that the failure causing the failover is associated with a physical node element that will also impact the failover server. Locating the failover server on a separate physical node that includes separate physical resources (e.g. memory, disk arrays, motherboard, etc.) lowers the risk of a single physical element causing both the active and failover servers to fail but increases the cost of the overall system in both hardware acquisition and management.
Another technique to provide redundancy amongst servers is to arrange servers in an active/active arrangement. In an active/active arrangement, both the active and passive failover servers are executing the same set of applications and processes. When the first active server goes down, the second active server allocates resources to those application instances and processes that were previously being handled by the failed server.
Unfortunately, neither the active/passive nor the active/active failover server arrangement lend themselves to preserving session state for a remote access session. Neither conventional failover implementation allows a remote session state to be mirrored in a failover server such that the failover server may be transitioned to without terminating the existing session and losing session data. It would be desirable to be able to preserve an existing remote session and its session data in the event of a failure affecting an active server hosting the remote session.

Method for maintaining transaction integrity across multiple remote access servers


A direct resistance heating electrical furnace of the type in which a bed of electrically conductive elements are located between two spaced electrodes in the furnace, and a method of controlling the operation of same, are provided. The furnace is of the type having a generally tubular heating chamber with a pair of spaced electrodes associated therewith and conveniently located one at each end of the tubular heating chamber. The furnace has feed or discharge control means and the rate of feed or discharge is controlled according to the electrical resistance or current flow between the electrodes. No temperature measurement is required to control the furnace operation.

Direct resistance heating electrical furnaces of various types have been proposed in which electrical current is passed between two spaced electrodes having a bed of conductive particulate material therebetween. The resistance of the bed causes it to heat and thereby give rise to some form of chemical or physical change in the material or other sub-divided, solid or gaseous materials admixed therewith.
As far as applicant is aware, the control of such furnaces is generally achieved either empirically by an operator or by measuring the temperature of the bed of particulate material at one or more predetermined positions within the furnace. The residence time of the material in the furnace at a predetermined temperature determines the extent of the chemical or physical change and thus the quality of the product.
The disadvantage of utilising temperature measurements, for example by means of one or more thermocouples at one or more specific locations within the furnace, is that the measurement may be inaccurate by reason of prevailing hot or cold spots at such location or locations. Also, where thermocouples are employed, their life is generally limited and often the operation of a furnace is interrupted when a thermocouple ceases to function correctly. These factors, in turn, lead to supervision being required and also to repair and replacement of components, in particular thermocouples, being necessary from time to time.
Furthermore, such furnaces often have an outlet valve at the bottom of the furnace which can have a deleterious effect on certain particulate materials being treated therein, for example granular activated carbon which is being reactivated.
It is the object of this invention to provide a direct resistance heating electrical furnace assembly and method of operating same in which the aforementioned disadvantages may, at least to some extent, be alleviated.

Direct resistance heating electrical furnace assembly and method of operating same


A hybrid vehicle in which, by using a continuously variable transmission inserted between output shafts of a heat engine such as an internal combustion engine and an electric motor as a torque distributor, the torque acting upon the driving wheels is distributed to the two and the distribution ratio between the engine and motor is changed, and control is performed so that the speed and/or torque of the heat engine becomes a predetermined constant value and the exhaust emission and fuel consumption are enhanced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle using a heat engine such as an internal combustion engine and an electric motor in combination as a power source, i.e., a so-called hybrid vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hybrid vehicles using both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor may be roughly classified into two types. One type is referred to as the "SHV system" in which the internal combustion engine is connected to a power generator and performs only generation of electric power and charging of the battery and the electric motor receives the supply of the electric power from the power generator and the battery to drive the wheels (which can serve also as the power generator for the brakes). The other type is referred to as the "PHV system" in which both of the internal combustion engine and the electric motor (which can serve also as the power generator for the brakes) are mechanically connected to the wheels and can drive the wheels in parallel. The SHV system has a problem that the fuel consumption is degraded due to the conversion loss when converting all of the power of the internal combustion engine to electric power and then converting the same to power again. The PHV system has a problem that the exhaust emission deteriorates since the speed and output torque of the engine fluctuates while the vehicle is being driven.
As a countermeasure with respect to these problems, as disclosed in for example Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-15805, there has been proposed a system in which the internal combustion engine and the electric motor are connected with the drive shaft by a sun-and-planet gear mechanism or a differential gear mechanism, the wheels are driven by the internal combustion engine so as to reduce the conversion loss, and, at the same time, the electric motor is controlled so that the speed of the internal combustion engine becomes constant, and thereby the deterioration of the exhaust emissions is prevented. However, the sun-and-planet gear mechanism and the differential gear mechanism function to divide the torque to be transmitted by a constant ratio, therefore if the driving torque of the wheels fluctuates in accordance with the state of driving, the required torque which should be generated by the internal combustion engine also changes. Thus, this is not sufficient as a means for preventing the deterioration of the exhaust emissions.
Further, as another system, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-233411, there exists a system which deals with the problem that when an internal combustion engine is connected to the wheels and operated under the conditions of a constant torque, the constant torque the engine exhibits will either be excessive or insufficient with respect to the driving torque of the wheels, which fluctuates in accordance with the state of driving. Therefore, that amount is adjusted by the control of the electric motor. In this case, however, even if the torque of the engine can be made constant, the speed of the engine will be changed in accordance with the state of driving of the vehicle, therefore the exhaust emissions still cannot be sufficiently improved.
Contrary to this, a technology separately providing an electric motor at the driving shaft to maintain the torque generated by the engine at a predetermined value is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 50-30223. However, the technology disclosed in this publication uses a plurality of sun-and-planet gear mechanisms, and therefore that structure becomes complex.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 05-008639 discloses a hybrid automobile having a simple structure as a whole in which an electric motor and a continuously variable transmission, referred to as a CVT, are mounted in the vehicle in place of the sun-and-planet gear mechanism. In this publication, it is described that a low fuel consumption and a low emission can be realized by stopping the engine at the time of deceleration, but no method is disclosed for freely controlling the output of the engine. Further, in this case, there is a problem in that the emission is considerably increased by the frequent stopping of the engine or the vibration and noise are increased due to the torque fluctuation generated at the stopping and starting of the engine.


A bread keeper is formed as storage container for holding bread, and may be configurable between expanded and contracted positions. A door is attached to allow access to the bread within the container. The door folds flat to rest on a horizontal surface such as a countertop, and is constructed from a material suitable for use as a cutting board, thereby allowing the bread to be cut while extending partially out of the container and onto the cutting board.

Bread can be challenging to store, particularly in the case of homemade bread because, unlike store-bought bread, it does not come in its own wrapper. Homemade bread can be stored by using plastic wrap or foil, but neither provides a sufficient seal and the bread may get stale quickly. Containers with removable lids are typically not sized appropriately for storing bread. Bags may sometimes be available and sized appropriately for holding the bread, but can be awkward to use when removing the bread for slicing and then returning it for subsequent storage.


A software method and computer system using said method are disclosed for efficiently reallocating unused system resources in a system in which unused system resources are initially allocated among groups that may become active or inactive. The method reallocates unused resources among active groups by scaling up these groups' initial entitlement shares, subject to maximum caps that may apply. For each group, the method calculates a scaling ratio equal to the cap divided by the entitlement, and then sorts the groups according their scaling ratios. The method processes each group in increasing order of their scaling ratios and reaches a maximal share of system resources to be allotted to each group, where the maximal share for an active group is between, or equal to, the group's initial entitlement value and its cap. Inactive groups have maximal shares equal to zero, reflecting that they receive no system resources. As the method processes the groups, it attempts to simply scale each active group by its scaling ratio. If scaling all unprocessed groups by the current group's scaling ratio would exceed the unallocated resources, then the remaining groups are scaled by the remaining resources divided by the sum of the entitlements of the remaining groups. Because the groups are sorted in order of increasing scaling ratios, the remaining active groups may be scaled as described without exceeding their caps.

In the field of computer systems, it is desirable to allocate system resources among various groups of processes running on the system. A computer system may have limited resources, and users of that system may want to ensure that those resources are allocated in a particular manner so they may be used most efficiently. The user may allocate system resources among groups directly, or indirectly through the system whereby the allocations are determined by other system processes. The user may also allocate maximum limits of allocations for some or all of the groups to improve efficiency.
System resources include any limited resource in the computer system, including but not limited to memory resources, central processing unit (CPU) resources, disk bandwidth, etc. Groups of processes using those resources may be software applications running on the system, portions of applications, or any other processes that use system resources.
By way of illustration, a system may run four groups or applications—A, B, C, D—and may allocate 100% of a particular system resource among those groups. FIG. 1a shows a pie chart dividing one of the system's resources according to groups' entitlements. A system resource, such as memory, is represented by the entire chart which is divided among groups. For example, the system's memory resources may be allocated as follows: Group A 10%, Group B 20%, Group C 30%, and Group D 40%, as shown in FIG. 1a. The relative amounts of system resources initially allocated to each group are referred to herein as the entitlement (E(i)), where i is a particular group. As used herein, E(i) is expressed as a percent value of the total amount of a particular system resource.
A problem occurs when one of the groups is inactive or not enabled. By way of example, a group may become inactive if it is taken off-line, if it only operates during certain hours of the day, or if it is otherwise turned off and is not using a system resource. In the case of a software application as a group, the application may run only at certain times of the day or only in response to certain other system activities.

Method and system for scaling of resource allocation subject to maximum limits

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Disclosed is a fluid, namely stormwater, management system employing a chamber having an overall substantially constant curve cross-sectional geometry, with an a-semicircular constant curve cross-sectional geometry preferred. This chamber, which preferably follows both AASHTO standard specifications for Highway Bridges, Section 18, and Corrugated Polyethylene Pipe Association (CCPA) specifications, can further comprise corregations, support members and/or connecting elements to further add structural integrity.

In cities, particularly large metropolitan areas, as more and more of the land surface becomes covered with buildings or paved with streets, parking lots, and the like, a significant problem exists with respect to the disposal of the water run-off which occurs during rain storms. Parking lots and streets typically are built with slopes toward storm drain outlets, which empty into underground storm sewers. In order to handle storm surges to inhibit overload of municipal systems, and to reduce pollutant entry into the drainage system, governments now typically require new construction sites to include a drainage management system.
Conventionally, storm drainage is often addressed using man-made ponds, large basins, or the like, designed from concrete and made to function as constructed wetlands. Because these basins are open to the atmosphere, they are subject to wide ranges of flooding and drying, with extensive evaporation frequently leading to desiccation and death of the wetland plants. An additional problem with these basins is that they form a pool, i.e., standing surface water. Unfortunately, standing water commonly result in a mosquito habitat, which can present both a nuisance and potentially a public health hazard. Furthermore, as pollutant concentrations can be expected to be high in this standing water, mosquitoes and other wildlife are subjected to elevated levels of bacteria, viruses, metals and hydrocarbons. This can result in both acute and chronic impacts to wildlife.
Alternatively, large beds of gravel surrounding a perforated pipe have been employed. In this embodiment, large pipes (diameters of 24 inches to 60 inches) are disposed horizontally in the desired drainage area at depths of up to about 4 feet. Stormwater from the surrounding area is diverted to and through the pipe when necessary.
What is needed in the art is a structurally sound, stormwater management system which does not consume development space, e.g. parking lot area, etc., and which handles the ebb and flow of the storm water.


A paper tape locating/guiding device of a bill tying machine is disclosed. A tape guiding device is disposed in a housing of the machine. The tape guiding device includes an upper guiding block and two lower guiding blocks arranged into a U-shaped pattern. A bill compressing/sealing mechanism serves to push the lower guiding blocks upward to be close to the upper guiding block so as to define a close space. The inner sides of the upper and lower guiding blocks are respectively formed with inner channels for the paper tape to travel therein. Two opposite L-shaped resilient plates are respectively secured to two sides of the inner channels to define a rail for the paper tape to continuously travel therealong. When the bill tying machine is activated, the paper tape is circulated along the rail. When is paper tape is retrieved for tying the bills, the paper tape can be easily released from the restriction of the resilient plates to complete the bill tying and sealing operation.

The present invention relates to a paper tape locating/guiding device of a bill tying machine, including an upper guiding block, two lower guiding blocks and L-shaped resilient plates which together define a rail for the paper tape to continuously travel therealong. When the bill tying machine is activated, the paper tape is circulated along the rail. When is paper tape is retrieved for tying the bills, the paper tape is automatically separated from the rail for tying the bills. The paper tape is retrieved and separated without using any assistant power so that the bills can be accurately and reliably tied up and the structure of the bill tying machine is simplified and the manufacturing cost is reduced.
In a general financial institute, a stack of bills are mostly manually tied up with a tape into a unit. Such procedure is time-consuming and laborious. Moreover, due to difference of experience between different operators, the quality of the tied up bills is often varied. An operator with less experience often fails to accurately tie up the bills so that some of the bills are apt to be drawn out of the unit. A mechanically operated bill tying machine is developed for tying the bills with a plastic tape or tying string. Such plastic tape or string can hardly achieve a sealing effect for the bills and thus still cannot substitute for the paper tape which has larger sealing area. However, till now no satisfactory bills tying machine is available for accurately and reliably tying the bills with the paper tape.

Paper tape locating/guiding device of a bill tying machine

2F.,No.3,Lane 538, Chung-Chen Rd., Hsin-Dien


Methylglyoxal (MGO)-modified recombinant TNF-alpha antibodies (e.g., Adalimumab) are identified. MGO modification decreases binding between Adalimumab and TNF-alpha. Methods are disclosed for reducing the presence of MGO-modified antibodies in the production of Adalimumab TNF-alpha antibodies.

Tumor necrosis factor alpha ("TNF-alpha") is a cytokine produced by many cell types such as monocytes and macrophages. See e.g., Old, L. Science 230:630-632 (1985). TNF-alpha plays an important role in many biological processes and has been implicated in the pathophysiology of a variety of other human diseases and disorders, including sepsis, infections, autoimmune diseases, transplant rejection and graft-versus-host disease. See e.g., Vasilli, P., Annu. Rev. Immunol. 10:411-452 (1992); and Tracey, K. J. and Cerami, A. Annu. Rev. Med. 45:491-503 (1994).
In an effort to treat/prevent these diseases, various therapeutic strategies have been designed to inhibit or counteract TNF-alpha activities. U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,382 disclosed human antibodies (e.g., recombinant human antibodies) that specifically bind to human TNF-alpha with high affinity and slow dissociation kinetics. Nucleic acids, vectors and host cells for expressing the recombinant human TNF-alpha antibodies were also disclosed. One example of such recombinant TNF-alpha antibodies is called Adalimumab, which is marketed under the trade name Humira®. The entire contents of U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,382 is hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure.
Recombinant biotherapeutics are typically produced by live cells and are inherently more complex as compared to traditional small molecule drug. Various post-translational modifications have been reported as major contributors to heterogeneity in recombinant monoclonal antibodies (References 1-4). Some of these modifications, for example, glycosylation and sialic acid incorporation, may occur during fermentation (References 5-7). Some other modifications, such as oxidation and disulfide bond scrambling, may occur during production, purification and storage.
One example of such modifications is the so-called acidic species (charge variants). Acidic species are observed when recombinant monoclonal antibodies are analyzed by weak-cation exchange chromatography (WCX) (FIG. 1). One major contributing factor is the removal of the C-terminal lysine of the heavy chain by cell-derived carboxypeptidease, reducing the overall positive charge (Reference 8). These variants are commonly referred to as Lys0, Lys1 and Lys2 species, respectively.
C-terminal amidation (Reference 9) is another enzymatic process during fermentation. Another type of variant is caused by spontaneous non-enzymatic transformations, which include the formation of pyruglutamate (Pyro-Glu) from an N-terminal glutamine (Gln) that remove the positive charge of the free N-terminus (Reference 10), and the deamidation of asparagine (Asn) to aspartic (Asp) or isoaspartic acid (isoAsp or isoD) that introduces negatively charged carboxylic acids (References 11 and 12).
Some modifications may shift the retention time of antibody on weak cation exchange chromatography even though they do not alter the formal charges of the antibody molecule. These modifications may exert their effects through perturbation of local charge and conformation. For instance, incomplete glycosylation (Reference 13) or the presence of free sulfhydryl (References 14-16) may shift the retention time of antibody on weak cation exchange chromatography. It is worth noting that some modifications are imparted by metabolites, such as glycation by glucose, methionine oxidation by reactive oxygen species (ROS), cysteinylation by cysteine (Reference 17), and S-homocysteinylation and N-homocysteinylation by homocysteine (References 2, 18-23). Although the mechanisms of many modifications have been reported, these mechanisms cannot fully explained the observed heterogeneity of recombinant monoclonal antibodies on weak cation exchange chromatography.

Human antibodies that bind human TNF-alpha and methods of preparing the same


A digitally controlled PLL oscillation circuit has a VCO, a frequency divider, a reference oscillation circuit, an A/D converter, a phase comparator, a digital filter, a D/A converter, and an analog filter. A reference signal supplied from the reference oscillation circuit is output through a narrow-band crystal filter (MCF) to the A/D converter to cancel noise, jitter and a spurious wave included in the reference signal, making it possible to prevent the phase noise characteristic and spurious characteristic of a VCO output from being degraded.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a PLL (Phase Locked Loop) oscillation circuit, and, more particularly, to a PLL oscillation circuit which prevents the phase noise characteristic and spurious characteristic of a VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) output from being degraded.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional digitally controlled PLL oscillation circuit will be described referring to FIG. 10. FIG. 10 is a configuration block diagram of the conventional digitally controlled PLL oscillation circuit.
As shown in FIG. 10, the conventional digitally controlled PLL oscillation circuit has a VCO 1, a frequency divider 2, a reference oscillation circuit 3, an A/D (Analogue/Digital) converter 4, a phase comparator 5, a digital filter 6, a D/A (Digital/Analogue) converter 7, and an analog filter 8.
The VCO 1 is a voltage controlled oscillator that generates a desired frequency Fout in response to an input from the analog filter 8 as a control voltage.
The frequency divider 2 divides the oscillation frequency Fout generated by the VCO 1 to 1/N, and sends the resultant frequency to the A/D converter 4.
The reference oscillation circuit 3 generates a reference signal (reference clock) Fref.
The A/D converter 4 converts an analog signal from the frequency divider 2 to a digital signal according to the reference clock supplied from the reference oscillation circuit 3.
The phase comparator 5 compares the phase of the digital signal from the A/D converter 4 with the phase of the reference signal from the reference oscillation circuit 3, and outputs a phase difference signal.
The digital filter 6 filters the phase difference signal from the phase comparator 5.
The D/A converter 7 converts the digital signal from the digital filter 6 to an analog signal according to the reference clock supplied from the reference oscillation circuit 3.
The analog filter 8 smooths the analog signal from the D/A converter 7, and outputs the analog signal as a control voltage to the VCO 1.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-253945 discloses a related art relating to a PLL circuit. The related art is a signal phase synchronization apparatus that stably extracts a clock with a less frequency variation from a PLL circuit using a bandpass filter (XBPF) comprising a crystal oscillator.
The related art is premised on an analogously controlled PLL circuit and configured to allow a reproduction signal input to the phase comparator to pass the XBPF.
In the PLL oscillation circuit, the reference signal Fref is used in each of the A/D converter 4, the phase comparator 5 and the D/A converter 7. Because the reference signal Fref significantly influences the PLL performance, the reference signal Fref should desirably be stable free of noise, jitter or a spurious wave.
If the reference signal contains noise, jitter or a spurious wave, however, the phase noise characteristic and spurious characteristic of the output Fout of the VCO 1 would be degraded.
Particularly, the A/D converter 4 generates a digital signal to be subjected to phase comparison, and is likely to be influenced by the reference signal Fref, thereby significantly influencing the whole PLL oscillation circuit.


A valve controller includes a detector detecting a shutdown command signal to shutdown an engine, a driving circuit for driving a motor, and a power source controller. The power source controller turns on the driving circuit until the predetermined period has passed since the shutdown command signal is detected. Thus, the valve controller adjusts the valve opening/closing character in such a manner as to be suitable to an engine condition.

JP-U-4-105906A shows a valve-timing controller which utilizes a motor torque. JP-11-324625A shows a valve lift controller which utilizes a motor torque. In these controllers, an electric power source of a driving circuit is turned ON from the time an engine-start signal is generated until an engine-stop signal is generated, otherwise the electric power source is turned OFF. A rotation sensor detects engine rotation speed to output an engine speed signal, on which a control circuit generates a control signal. The driving circuit supplies an electric current to the motor according to the control signal.
The engine continues to run by inertial force for a moment after the engine-stop signal is generated. At this time, the motor receives no electric current from the electric power source which the driving circuit operates. That is, the driving circuit supplies no electric current to the motor after the engine-stop signal is generated, so that the motor serves a load that generates a deviation in the valve opening/closing character. Thus, it is difficult to later realize a proper valve character required for starting the engine.
As described above, the driving circuit cannot supply the electric current to the motor before the engine-starting signal is generated. Thereby, if the valve opening/closing character is deviated before the engine-start signal is generated, the valve opening/closing character cannot be adjusted to the proper character for starting the engine.
The rotation sensor detecting engine rotation speed inherently has a lower-limit in which the rotation sensor can detects the lowest engine rotation speed, so that the rotation sensor outputs no engine speed signal for a moment after the engine is started. Until the engine speed signal is generated, the control circuit generates no control signal and the driving circuit conducts no activation of the motor. Thus, the motor again serves a load that generates a deviation in the valve opening/closing character, so that it is difficult to realize the proper valve character that is required for starting the engine.


A gas stirring plug for introducing gas into a mass of molten metal. The plug is a generally frusto-conical shaped member which is worn away during use and which should be replaced when it has worn away to a predetermined point and comprises a shell, a core, and a low melting point component disposed within a cavity in the core. The core is located within the shell and is comprised of a refractory material extending between the bottom end and the top end of the plug. The cavity is of a predetermined height and has a bottom located a first predetermined distance above the bottom end of the plug. The cavity is filled with the low melting point component, e.g., soapstone, calcium silicate, talcum, or some other material having a melting point lower than steel, from its bottom to an intermediate point located a predetermined height above the bottom of the cavity. Mortar or some other high melting point refractory component is disposed in the cavity from the intermediate point to the top of the plug. The device is operative so that when it has worn away to the intermediate point the low melting point component will be exposed to the molten metal, whereupon it will melt and flow out the cavity and molten metal flows will flow therein to provide a predetermined visual appearance, e.g., a glowing dot surrounded by a darker area. That predetermined visual appearance changes, e.g., the glowing dot disappears, when the plug has worn away to the bottom of the cavity, thereby indicating that it should be replaced.

This invention relates generally to devices for insufflating gas into a mass of molten metal such as steel, and more specifically, to an optical wear indicator that indicates when the device should be replaced.
The making of steel or other metals typically involves the introduction of gases into the ladle or vessel holding the molten metal to stir it. The gas is typically introduced into the ladle via a device called a stir plug. Such a stir plug may be mounted in the bottom or side of the vessel. Prior art stir plugs have taken numerous forms and constructions.
For example, one common type of stir plug comprises a solid, non-gas-permeable, conical refractory member disposed within a loose fitting metal or ceramic shell or canister. Such a "canistered" plug is commonly disposed within a seating block in the wall, e.g., the bottom, of the vessel holding the molten metal, and the purging gas is transported through the gap between the refractory cone and the metal canister into the molten metal.
Another common type of stir plug comprises a conical shaped member or plug formed of a porous refractory material through which the purging (stirring) gas is passed to produce fine gas bubbles to stir the molten metal. Thus, that type of plug utilizes the porosity of the material forming the plug to create a capillary system formed by the interstitial spaces between the porous material for carrying the stirring gas through the plug. Such plugs are commonly disposed within a seating block in the wall such as the bottom of the vessel.
Another type of uncanistered plug is the so-called directed porosity plug. That plug comprises a conical body of cast refractory material containing an array of fine (0.7 mm diameter) channels that run in a straight line from the bottom to the top of the plug. When these plugs are used, the gas is distributed very finely in the molten metal by means of the capillaries, but as it passes through the capillaries, it undergoes a very high degree of friction loss as a result of the turbulence which develops on the inside surfaces of the capillaries. The effects of this turbulence on the flow of gas decreases with increasing size of the capillary cross section. Thus, it is not possible to increase the diameter of the capillaries to any desired extent in order to minimize friction, since such action would enable the molten metal to penetrate too deeply into the capillaries and block them in the event that the flow of gas should cease.
Only a large number of capillaries can guarantee the very high gas flow rate frequently desired in a steel mill. From the production angle, however, this turns out to be very expensive. Thus, to reduce friction losses, it was found advantageous to form a conical stirring plug of a single or multi-part construction to provide plural identical joints (in the case of a multi-part construction) or slots or passageways (in the case of a single part construction) extending linearly from the bottom to the top of the plug. Such "jointed/slotted" plugs exhibit similar gas agitation properties as the capillary tube plugs, but with significantly smaller pressure losses.
Other types of prior art stir plugs are also disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,438,907 (Kimura et al.); 4,535,975 (Buhrmann et al.); 4,539,043 (Miyawaki et al.); 4,560,149 (Hoffgen); 4,647,020 (Leisch); 4,657,226 (Illemann et al.); 4,741,515 (Sharma et al.); 4,836,433 (Perry); 4,840,356 (Labate); 4,858,894 (Labate); 4,884,787 (Dotsch et al.); 4,898,369 (Perry); 4,899,992 (Thrower et al.) 4,905,971 (Rothfuss et al.); and 4,925,166 (Zimmermann).
Any refractory material, such as any of the foregoing stir plug devices, is subject to wear due to extreme operating conditions. As the stir plug is worn down, the longitudinal height of the plug decreases. Stir plugs must be replaced as soon as a certain critical minimal, residual or remnant height is reached. If the stir plug is permitted to erode too much before it is replaced, a burn-out of the ladle in which the stir plug is located might occur, which is not only dangerous, but costly to replace.
Stir plugs with various devices to facilitate the determination of the critical remnant height have been generally available but with certain tradeoffs. For example, electrical indicators are generally available, but they may be expensive to install and maintain, they require an external recording apparatus and are a possible source of disturbance in an already error sensitive system.
One type of electrical indicator is the device described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,809 (LaBate) which utilizes several Hall effect transducers and circuitry to monitor the output thereof.
Another electrical indicator is that disclosed in German Patent No. DE 3,424,466 (Grabner) which utilizes two electrical wires within a probe. Both ends of the wires at the tip of the probe are separated. The wires consist of an alloy that melts at the critical temperature which indicates the critical wear height. The melting alloy closes the circuit and allows an electrical current to flow from the power source. Temperature indicators are also available, but suffer from similar drawbacks as do the electrical indicators. One such device is the one disclosed in German Patent No. DE 3,526,391 (Fischer) which utilizes a thermocouple located inside the body of a ceramic stir plug. The critical temperature inside the plug is measured to determine the critical wear height of the plug. One deficiency of this device however, is that in the event the temperature of the liquid metal destroys the thermocouple, the temperature can no longer be measured and therefore the plug may have to be prematurely replaced.
Other prior art devices measure thermal conductivity to provide an indication of the lifetime of a stir plug. For example, German Patent No. DE 3,833,503 (Rothfuss) discloses a valve configuration inside a ceramic gas stir plug. A low melting alloy keeps the gas flow valve control in the open position. Concurrent with the erosion of the stir plug, high temperatures will ultimately cause the alloy component to melt. This causes the gas flow valve to close, thus either reducing or eliminating gas flow. The reduced or discontinued gas flow indicates the stir plug wear.
Another device disclosed in German Patent No. DE 3,623,609 (Rothfuss) uses a gas flow restriction as a wear indicator. However, a gas flow restriction is not an unmistakable criterion, because a premature steel penetration of the gas passageways result in a low gas flow, thus causing a premature replacement of the stir plug.
German Patent No. DE 3,802,657 (Winkelmann) discloses a refractory wear indicator incorporated in a gas stir plug. This device is an optical indicator which makes use of the geometrical arrangement of the gas passageways situated inside the plug. A certain configuration of gas passageways inside the refractory cone separates the inner refractory portion from the outer one. The inner portion includes a round cross section at the tip of the stir cone. The round cross section changes into a square one at the bottom of the refractory cone. In use, when the metal has been tapped from the ladle and the stir plug is hooked up to a natural gas purging line, the natural gas escapes in a circle configuration from the plug. If the plug is worn down below the critical height, the configuration of the natural gas flames changes from round to square. This indicator system can only work as long as the gas passageways are free from steel. Steel penetration of the passageways prevents gas flow, thus rendering the passageways invisible.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,544 (LaBate et al.) describes a visual wear indicator for a metallurgical vessel that uses a metal rod which is inserted in the upper portion of a refractory body and extends inwardly of the surface of the body, at a length less than the known thickness of the refractory body. In this device, the metal rod and the refractory material therearound are elevated to the same temperature by the molten metal, but their light emission coefficients will be different whereupon the end of the rod will glow red hot while the surrounding refractory material exhibits a different color (appearance). Thus, one can readily determine if the cone has worn down beyond the length of the rod. While this wear indicator is generally suitable for its intended purposes, it still leaves much to be desired. In this regard, since the refractory plug and the steel rod of this wear indicator have different thermal expansion coefficients, elevated temperatures will result in different expansions of both materials, which action may crack the refractory body. Moreover, a faster wear of the refractory cone may occur, in part, caused by the drilling of the hole to accommodate the metal indicator. Further, the metal rod may be blown out of its hole by high gas pressure or it may prematurely melt away, thus effecting a premature plug exchange.
In copending U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 07/868,598, filed on Apr. 14, 1992, entitled Gas Stir Plug With Visual Wear Indicator, there is disclosed a gas stir plug device with a visual wear indicator which overcomes many of the disadvantages of the prior art. In particular, that device is of frusto-conical shape for introducing gas into a mass of molten metal and comprises a plug having an outer core formed of a first refractory material. A wear indicator in the form of a central core comprised of a second refractory material is located within a centrally located recess in the outer core adjacent the bottom end of the plug. The central core extends from the bottom end of the plug towards the top end of the plug and is of a predetermined height less than that of the outer core. The upper end of the central core when exposed by the erosion of the stirring plug provides a visual indication of when that plug should be replaced.
While the aforementioned invention overcomes many of the disadvantages of the prior art it still leaves something to be desired from the standpoints of simplicity of construction and cost.
Accordingly, a need exists for a visual wear indicator for a gas stir plug which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.

Gas stir plug wear indicator including low melting point component and method of use


An actuating device for actuators, such as switching, throttle or swirl flaps, in internal combustion engines for motor vehicles comprises a shaft connected with an actuating motor. The shaft is connected with an actuator, such as a switching flap or the like. In a predetermined position relative to the shaft two pin-type magnets are arranged and preferably connected with a partly toothed gearwheel. When the shaft is rotated, the pin-type magnets move relative to a preferably fixed magnetic field sensor. The magnetic field sensor is a linear Hall sensor. Provision of a linear Hall sensor allows three different shaft positions to be determined. The positions are the two shaft positions defined by the pin-type magnets in which the magnets are arranged opposite the Hall sensor, and a position in which the location of the pin-type magnets does not allow the Hall sensor to detect a magnetic field. In the latter position the linear Hall sensor has a defined bridge voltage.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates to an actuating device for actuators, such as switching, throttle or swirl flaps, in internal combustion engines.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
Such actuating devices, which are in particular used for actuators arranged in internal combustion engines of motor vehicles, comprise a typically electric actuating motor, as described in DE 103 21 653, for example. Said actuating motor is connected with a shaft via a gearing. Here, the gearing may comprise a worm gear connected with the motor shaft, and a gearwheel connected with the shaft and/or the driven shaft. Since the driven shaft, which has connected therewith the actuator, i.e. in particular a flap, is frequently only moved in both directions by a specific angle of preferably 90°, a partly toothed gearwheel may be provided instead of a fully toothed gearwheel. The gearwheel has connected therewith two pin-type magnets arranged in spaced relationship to the shaft and at an angle to each other. At a positioning angle of 90° the two pin-type magnets are also arranged at an angle of 90° to each other. In the housing of the actuating device described in DE 103 21 653 a Hall sensor is fixedly arranged. Once a pin-type magnet is arranged opposite the Hall sensor, the Hall sensor generates a voltage signal. Said signal is transmitted to a logic circuit means, wherein the logic circuit means detects only the end position of the actuator and turns off the motor, for example. Simultaneously, the logic circuit means may effect a reversal of the rotation direction of the motor such that, when the actuating motor is operated next, the shaft rotates in the reverse direction and thus the actuator is operated in the reverse direction. The shaft is rotated and the flap is operated until the other pin-type magnet is located opposite the Hall sensor, and again a voltage signal is generated in the Hall sensor. Said voltage signal is again processed by the logic circuit means. Such an actuating device can detect the respective end positions of an actuator, such as a flap. It is however not possible to determine whether an actuator has moved out of the required end position due to vibrations. Here, a change in the required position of the actuator may result in adverse effects on the running behavior of the internal combustion engine, such as reduced power output, increased fuel consumption etc.
It is an object of the disclosure to provide an actuating device which allows an actuator to be arranged outside the required end position in a simple and inexpensive manner.