A photovoltaic cell module tile that includes a tile body, a recess, a fitting section, and a pressure member. The recess is provided in a top surface of the tile body, which stores a photovoltaic cell module. The fitting section is provided in the recess on an eaves side of the tile body. An eaves-side end portion of the photovoltaic cell module is inserted and fitted in the fitting section. The pressure member is provided on a ridge side of the tile body and presses a ridge-side end portion of the photovoltaic cell module against the tile body.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Applications No. 11-162352, filed Jun. 9, 1999, No. 11-162353, filed Jun. 9, 1999, No. 11-223850, filed Aug. 6, 1999, No. 11-265283, filed Sep. 20, 1999; and No. 11-266900, filed Sep. 21, 1999, the entire contents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a photovoltaic cell module tile which is used as roofing material of buildings and on which a photovoltaic cell module is mounted.
2. Description of the Related Art
The technique of mounting a solar battery on a tile used as roofing material of buildings and converting solar energy into electricity is known in Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publications Nos. 62-52610, 1-148417, 4-28524, 5-3430, etc.
Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 62-52610 discloses that a recess whose shape conforms to that of a solar battery is formed in the top surface of exterior material dedicated to tiles and outer walls and the solar battery is fitted into the recess.
Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 1-148417 discloses that a solar battery is provided on the undersurface of a flat-plate tile and a lead of the solar battery is drawn from a space formed under the upper edges of the flat-plate tile.
Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 5-3430 discloses that a solar battery is adhered to the surface of a tile, an opaque sheet is stuck to the surface of the solar battery such that it can be peeled therefrom, and the solar battery is protected by the sheet in a tiling operation.
In the prior art solar-battery mounted tile as described above, a solar battery is directly adhered to a tile body by an adhesive, a recess is formed in the tile body, the solar battery is adhered to the bottom of the recess through the adhesive, and the solar battery is fixed into the recess by filling a gap between the solar battery and the inner surface of the recess with caulking materials.
However, the adhesive and caulking materials are easy to deteriorate. In a roof that is exposed to sunlight and increased in temperature and exposed to the weather, the deterioration makes rapid progress to cause a crack, which rainwater is easy to enter. When the roof has a steep pitch, the solar battery is likely to drop from the tile body. Further, when the caulking materials are squeezed out and adhered to the surface of the solar battery, a problem of decreasing photoelectric conversion efficiency occurs.
In the tile having a recess on its surface to which a solar battery is adhered as disclosed in the foregoing Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publications Nos. 62-52610 and 4-28524, rainwater is collected at the bottom of the recess and the collected rainwater is heated and expanded by solar heat, with the result that the solar battery is likely to rise..
In the prior art wherein a lead of the solar battery is drawn from a portion of the undersurface of the upper edges of the flat-plate tile where a space is to be formed as disclosed in Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 1-148417, a wiring operation is difficult to perform, and the entry of rainwater is likely to cause a short circuit and a leak of electricity. Even though an operator is going to replace one tile together with the solar battery, he or she has to perform a difficult operation of removing several tiles around the one tile. Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 5-3430 discloses a structure in which the solar battery is likely to separate and drop from the tile when the adhesive deteriorates.
In all of the publications described above, the photovoltaic cell module is fixed to the tile body by the adhesive. Thus, when an operator is going to replace one photovoltaic cell module to maintain and inspect the module or when it is broken, he or she is difficult to separate the tile body and the photovoltaic cell module from each other because they are formed integrally as one component and thus needs to replace the module together with the tile body.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a high-reliability tile for a photovoltaic cell module in which the photovoltaic cell module is detachably fixed to a tile body and one photovoltaic cell module can easily be replaced when it is broken, and the photovoltaic cell module can easily and reliably fixed to the tile body.
A photovoltaic cell module tile according to the present invention includes a recess provided in a top surface of the tile body, which stores a photovoltaic cell module, and a fitting section which is provided in the recess on an eaves side of the tile body and in which an eaves-side end portion of the photovoltaic cell module is inserted and fitted. A pressure member is provided on a ridge side of the tile body and presses a ridge-side end portion of the photovoltaic cell module against the tile body.
A photovoltaic cell module tile according to the present invention includes a mounting section provided on a tile body, which mounts a photovoltaic cell module having a terminal box on an undersurface of the photovoltaic cell module. A tightening member provided in the terminal box penetrates the mounting section of the tile body and fixes the photovoltaic cell module to the tile body from under the mounting section. The tightening member has a nut and a bolt.
A photovoltaic cell module tile according to the present invention includes a mounting section provided on a tile body, which mounts a photovoltaic cell module having a terminal box on an undersurface of the photovoltaic cell module. The photovoltaic cell module also includes a tightening member for fixing the photovoltaic cell module to the tile body. The tightening member has a fixing member body interposed between adjacent tile bodies of a plurality of tile bodies arranged in a row, a pressure piece which is formed on an upper end portion of the fixing member body to be integral with the fixing member body and presses photovoltaic cell modules of adjacent tile bodies against the tile bodies, and a holding piece which is formed on a lower end portion of the fixing member body to be integral with the fixing member body and holds under the tile body.
A photovoltaic cell module tile according to the present invention includes a mounting section provided on a tile body, which mounts a photovoltaic cell module having a terminal box on an undersurface of the photovoltaic cell module. The photovoltaic cell module also includes a tightening member for fixing the photovoltaic cell module to the tile body. The tightening member has a fixing member body interposed between adjacent ones of a plurality of tile bodies arranged in a row, a pair of left and right pressure pieces which are formed on an upper end portion of the fixing member body to be integral with the fixing member body and are each connected to a top surface of the photovoltaic cell module mounted on a corresponding one of the plurality of tile bodies to press the photovoltaic cell module against the tile body, and a holding piece which is fomed on a lower end portion of the fixing member body to be integral with the fixing member body and holds, together with the pair of pressure pieces, the tile body.


Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable media for sampling network traffic. The method includes receiving a desired quantity of flow record to sample, receiving a plurality of network flow record each summarizing a network flow of packets, calculating a hash for each flow record of based on one or more invariant part of a respective flow, generating a quasi-random number from the calculated hash for each respective flow record, generating a priority from the calculated hash for each respective flow record, and sampling exactly the desired quantity of flow records, selecting flow records having a highest priority first. In one aspect, the method further partitions the plurality of flow records into groups based on flow origin and destination, generates an individual priority for each partitioned group, and separately samples exactly the desired quantity of flow records from each partitioned group, selecting flows having a highest individual priority first.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network traffic sampling and more specifically to trajectory-based and priority-based network traffic sampling.
2. Introduction
Routers summarize traffic flows in flow records which are exported to collectors, possibly through a mediation device. The mediation device has the ability to sample or otherwise select subsets of flow records in order to achieve different traffic analysis goals. Some current approaches to network traffic sampling include trajectory based (or hash based) sampling, priority-based sampling, and threshold based sampling. Trajectory based sampling observes trajectories at each router of a subset of all packets traversing the network. Priority-based sampling selects a fixed number of flow records which best represent all the flow records from a population of flow records, for example, those generated by router during a certain time interval. Threshold sampling selects a subset of flow records each being selected with a probability P that may depend on the flow record, for example being a function of the recorded size of the flow and a threshold parameter set by the user. None of these methods can consistently select subsets of flow records at different routers that a flow traverses with a selection probability that depends on the fields of the flow record while also have explicit and exact direct control over the number of flow records sampled. A user can experiment with changes to the threshold to provide some coarse, imprecise control over the number of flow records sampled and/or required bandwidth for flow sampling. When flows are selected independently with some probability, the number of flows is a random quantity and hence will not conform exactly to required bandwidth limit. Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an improved way to sample a fixed number of packets that best represents all the traffic flows in a network while retaining characteristics of trajectory-based sampling.

System and method for spatially consistent sampling of flow records at constrained, content-dependent rates


Substrates having films are used to produce flat panel displays and similar devices. Various embodiments of transparent conductive films and methods for the same for flat panel displays and similar devices are disclosed herein.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to transparent conductive layers (TCL) used for flat panel displays, solar panels, emissive backlight constructions, and the like.
2. General Background and State of the Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a type of flat panel display used in various electronic devices. Generally, LCDs comprise two sheets of polarizing material with a liquid crystal solution therebetween. Each sheet of polarizing material typically comprises a substrate of glass or transparent plastic; a liquid crystal (LC) is used as optical switches. The substrates are usually manufactured with transparent electrodes, typically made of indium tin oxide (ITO) or another conductive metallic layer, in which electrical "driving" signals are coupled. The driving signals induce an electric field which can cause a phase change or state change in the LC material, the LC exhibiting different light-reflecting characteristics according to its phase and/or state.
Liquid crystals can be nematic, smectic, or cholesteric depending upon the arrangement of the molecules. A twisted nematic cell is made up of two bounding plates (usually glass slides or plastic plates), each with a transparent conductive coating (such as ITO or another conductor) that acts as an electrode, spacers to control the cell gap, two cross polarizers (the polarizer and the analyzer), and nematic liquid crystal material. Twisted nematic displays rotate the direction of the liquid crystal by 90°. Super-twisted nematic displays employ up to a 270° rotation. This extra rotation gives the crystal a much deeper voltage-brightest response, also widens the angle at which the display can be viewed before losing much contrast. Cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) displays are normally reflective (meaning no backlight is needed) and can function without the use of polarizing films or a color filter. "Cholesteric" means the type of liquid crystal having finer pitch than that of twisted nematic and super-twisted nematic. Sometimes it is called "chiral nematic" because cholesteric liquid crystal is normally obtained by adding chiral agents to host nematic liquid crystals. Cholesteric liquid crystals may be used to provide bistable and multistable displays that, due to their non-volatile "memory" characteristic, do not require a continuous driving circuit to maintain a display image, thereby significantly reducing power consumption. Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) use liquid crystal substances that have chiral molecules in a smectic C type of arrangement because the spiral nature of these molecules allows the microsecond switching response time that makes FLCs particularly suited to advance displays. Surface-stabilized feroelectric liquid crystals (SSFLCs) apply controlled pressure through the use of a glass plate, suppressing the spiral of the molecules to make the switching even more rapid.
Some known LCD devices include chemically-etched transparent, conductive layers overlying a glass substrate. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,853 to Fukuyoshi et al., incorporated herein by reference. Unfortunately, chemical etching processes are often difficult to control, especially for plastic films. Such processes are also not well-suited for production of the films in a continuous, roll-to-roll manner, on plastic substrates.
There are alternative display technologies to LCDs that can be used, for example, in flat panel displays. A notable example is organic or polymer light-emitting devices (OLEDs) or (PLEDs), which are comprised of several layers in which one of the layers is comprised of an organic material that can be made to electroluminesce by applying a voltage across the device. An OLED device is typically a laminate formed in a substrate such as glass or a plastic polymer. A light-emitting layer of a luminescent organic solid, as well as adjacent semiconductor layers, are sandwiched between an anode and a cathode. The semiconductor layers can be hole-injecting and electron-injecting layers. PLEDs can be considered a subspecies of OLEDs in which the luminescent organic material is a polymer. The light-emitting layers may be selected from any of a multitude of light-emitting organic solids, e.g., polymers that are suitably fluorescent or chemiluminescent organic compounds. Such compounds and polymers include metal ion salts of 8-hydroxyquinolate, trivalent metal quinolate complexes, trivalent metal bridged quinolate complexes, Schiff-based divalent metal complexes, tin (IV) metal complexes, metal acetylacetonate complexes, metal bidenate ligand complexes incorporating organic ligands, such as 2-picolylketones, 2-quinaldylketones, or 2-(o-phenoxy) pyridine ketones, bisphosphonates, divalent metal maleonitriledithiolate complexes, molecular charge transfer complexes, rare earth mixed chelates, (5-hydroxy) quinoxaline metal complexes, aluminum tris-quinolates, and polymers such as poly(p-phenylenevinylene), poly(dialkoxyphenylenevinylene), poly(thiophene), poly(fluorene), poly(phenylene), poly(phenylacetylene), poly(aniline), poly(3-alkylthiophene), poly(3-octylthiophene), and poly(N-vinylcarbazole). When a potential difference is applied across the cathode and anode, electrons from the electron-injecting layer and holes from the hole-injecting layer are injected into the light-emitting layer; they recombine, emitting light. OLEDs and PLEDs are described in the following United States patents, all of which are incorporated herein by this reference: U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,745 to Forrest et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,160 to Forrest et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,026 to Forrest et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,834,893 to Bulovic et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,219 to Thompson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,916 to Tang et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,986,401 to Thompson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,998,803 to Forrest et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,013,538 to Burrows et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,543 to Bulovic et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,573 to Tang et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,630 to Burrows et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,066,357 to Tang et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,226 to Forrest et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,223 to Hung et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,242,115 to Thompson et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,274,980 to Burrows et al.
In a typical matrix-address light-emitting display device, numerous light-emitting devices are formed on a single substrate and arranged in groups in a regular grid pattern. Activation may be by rows and columns, or in an active matrix with individual cathode and anode paths. OLEDs are often manufactured by first depositing a transparent electrode on the substrate, and patterning the same into electrode portions. The organic layer(s) is then deposited over the transparent electrode. A metallic electrode can be formed over the electrode layers. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,703,436 to Forrest et al., incorporated herein by reference, transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) is used as the hole-injecting electrode, and a Mg—Ag-ITO electrode layer is used for electron injection.
Previous methods of manufacturing such films have not succeeded in manufacturing such films by a continuous process on flexible substrates, yielding films with desirable properties such as high transmittance, low electrical resistance, and stability to temperature and humidity.
For example, PCT Publication No. WO 99/36261, by Choi et al. (Polaroid Corp.) published on Jul. 22, 1999, and incorporated by this reference, describes the deposition of ITO/Au/Ag/Au/ITO multilayered films on polymer (Arton substrate). In this multilayered structure, the Ag layer has a thickness of 10–15 nm and the two ITO layers have a thickness of 35–50 nm. As compared with ITO/Ag/ITO multilayered films, an Au/Ag/Au sandwiched layer works as a conductive layer in the multilayered structure and exhibits an enhanced corrosion resistance as the 1–1.5 nm Au layers prevent the water or oxygen from entering the Au/Ag interfacial area. It was reported that the ITO/Au/Ag/Au/ITO films have a sheet resistance below 10 Ω/square and a transmittance above 80%. However, the deposition process for these multilayered films is much more complicated than the deposition process for ITO/Ag/ITO films.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,853 to Fukuyoshi et al., incorporated herein by reference, describes the formation of InCeO/Ag/InCeO films in which the indium cerium oxide (InCeO or "ICO") layers have a thickness of about 35–50 nm and the Ag layer has a thickness of about 10–15 nm. The InCeO films were deposited by sputtering a target that was formed by doping 10–30% CeO2 into In2O3. The cerium can effectively block the diffusion of oxygen atoms from the InCeO films to the InCeO/Ag interfacial layer. On the other hand, the Ag layer actually contains 1 atom percent Au and 0.5 atom percent Cu to enhance the stability of Ag atoms in the Ag layer. The design of the chemical compositions in both the InCeO and the Ag layers was reported to effectively improve the structural stability of the InCeO/Ag/InCeO films. The InCeO/Ag/InCeO films exhibit a low sheet resistance of 3–5 Ω/square and a high optical transmittance of above 90%. The deposition of InCeO/Ag/InCeO films was also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,082 to Fukuyoshi et al., incorporated by this reference. However, the deposition of these films was only performed on a rigid glass substrate. The invention was not applied to the actual manufacture of information displays.
Other methods for producing such films and the films thus produced are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,876 to Chiba et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,654 to Teijin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,000 to Kawazoe et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,525 to Kawazoe et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,964 to Nakamura, U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,957 to Kolpe et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,663 to Hanada et al., U.S. Published patent Application No. US 2001/0050222 by Choi et al., PCT Patent Publication No. WO 98/12596 by Staral et al., European Patent Publication No. EP 1041644 by Cheung, and European Patent Publication No. EP 1155818, all of which are incorporated herein by this reference.
The technology disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,853 employs silver (Ag) or a silver-gold alloy (Ag/Au) sandwiched between two layers of indium cerium oxide (InCeO). The Ag or Ag/Au alloy is susceptible to oxidation when exposed to air and in the presence of water and electrical voltage. Under these conditions, the metal tends to diffuse. This can cause electrical short circuits or visible stains, which damages the appearance of the display. The use of the InCeO layers is an improvement, making the Ag or Ag/Au construction much more stable and making the total layer transparent. However, for the purposes of flat panel displays, the electrode needs to be patterned by etching. The edged edge exposes the Ag or Ag/Au metal. Unless the metal is protected in some manner, the oxidation or corrosion might start from this location. Therefore, there is a need for a more stable construction for flat panel displays.
Moreover, Furukawa Metal (Tokyo, Japan) developed an alloy of silver which resist corrosion even after immersion in a salt water for 24 hours. The Alloy (APC) is Silver with small amount of Palladium and Copper (Silver 98%, Palladium 0.5% and copper 1.5%). This material is currently used for metallizing the digital video disc (DVD) or Comapct disc (CD) for improving reflectivity. This application require oxidation resistance for the life of DVD or CD. The use of this alloy for combination with the oxide layers to provide the optical transparency and to improves the stability of transparent conductive film even in a harsh condition of wet etching.
Accordingly, there is still a need for an improved construction for flat panel displays that avoids oxidation and corrosion.

Transparent conductive film for flat panel displays


A data scrambler is capable of scrambling N bits of data in parallel using a 2B−1 bit scrambling sequence. The scrambler may store scrambling values of an m-sequence in a table. The table may be formed into at least two overlapping swaths of N columns, wherein each swath may store the m-sequence and the m-sequence of one swath is shifted from the m-sequence of a second swath. The scrambler may read a current swath N bits at a time and then may scramble N bits of input data in parallel using the N bits of the swath. When the swath is finished, the scrambler may shift to another swath.

Data scramblers can be found in many communication systems and operate to scramble transmitted data. One type of scrambler is a feedback scrambler whose output is XORed with the data to be transmitted. The scrambler operates serially; as eat bit of the data is received, it is XORed wit the current value produced by the scrambler.


The present invention provides a fibrous protein-immobilization system composition comprising a fiber comprising fiber-forming material, and a protein attached to the fiber-forming material.

Enzymatic biotransformations have been pursued extensively for many important chemical processing applications such as chemical production, drug synthesis, pollutant degradation, and petroleum refining because of their unparalleled selectively and mild reaction conditions. In many cases, however, low catalytic efficiency and stability of enzymes have been seen as barriers for the development of large-scale operations to compete with traditional chemical processes.
In practice, almost all large-scale industrial operations preferably employ immobilized enzymes because they afford easy recycling, feasible continuous operations, and simplified product purification. Many methods have been developed to incorporate enzymes into a variety of organic and inorganic solid supports, entrap enzymes in hollow fibers or microcapsules, and cross-link enzymes via covalent bonds. Among other factors, the structure of the support materials has a great impact on the performance of the immobilized enzymes. Nonporous support materials, to which enzymes are attached at the surfaces, are subject to minimum diffusional limitations. However, enzyme loading per unit mass of support is usually low. Alternatively, high enzyme loading can be achieved with porous materials such as membranes, gel matrices, and porous materials. Porous materials, however, suffer much greater diffusional limitation. For example, the value of effectiveness factor (η, which measures the ratio of apparent heterogeneous reaction rate to homogeneous reaction rate) for α-chymotrypsin entrapped in polyacrylamide hydrogel was reported to be ˜0.3; for α-chymotrypsin incorporated into hydrophobic plastics, η was below 0.1; for cross-linked α-chymotrypsin, η was below 10−3. Higher η values are possible for the same immobilized enzyme but used for nonaqueous reactions, mostly due to the relatively slower reaction rates involved there.
The reduction in size of support materials can effectively improve the efficiency of immobilized enzymes. In some cases, such at in the case of surface attachment on non-porous materials, smaller particles have been shown to provide relatively higher enzyme loading per unit mass. For porous materials, smaller particles are subject to much reduced diffusional resistance because of a shortened path of diffusion.
Many studies on the use of micrometer sized materials have been conducted. However, it has only been recently that even smaller scale materials have been studied. In these newer studies, nanoparticles have been used as carriers or supports for enzyme immobilization. The effective enzyme loading on nanoparticles can be very high, and a large surface area per unit mass is also available to facilitate reaction kinetics. It will be appreciated that the enzymes are attached to the nanoparticles.
While the use of nanoparticles provide excellent results in terms of balancing the contradictory issues of surface area, diffusion resistance, and effective enzyme loading, their ability to be dispersed in reaction solutions and their subsequent recovery for reuse are dauntingly difficult.
There is, therefore, still a need for immobilizing enzymatic catalysts by employing substrates that have the benefits of nanosized materials, e.g., have relatively high enzyme loading capability, have large surface area, and have minimal diffusional limitations, but yet are easily recoverable for reuse or continuous use.


A quick-acting closure (1) for connecting a mixer tube (3) and a connecting part (2) of an extruder unit. The connecting part (2) has a connector (9) with a conical threaded base member, on which an external thread (12) is arranged. The mixer tube (3) has a conical threaded base member, on which an internal thread (19) is arranged. The internal thread (19) on the connector part (16) of the mixer tube (3) is a multi-path internal thread.

The invention relates to a quick fastener for connecting a first part and a second part for connecting a mixer tube and a connector part of an extruder unit. The first part has a conical threaded base member with an external thread running along the conical threaded member. The second part has a conical threaded base member with an internal thread running in the conical threaded base member.
The bayonet coupling is known as a quick-acting fastening or closure, wherein one part is inserted with a tappet into another part having a corresponding receptacle, and by rotation is fastened to the first part. DE 198 38 560 discloses a rotary quick-acting closure for interconnecting a plurality of structural parts with each other, whereby the holding part has clamping projections, which engage a second structural part by rotating the holding part. This known quick-acting closure can be quickly closed and can translate only limited high forces.
Particularly in an extrusion unit for paste-like masses high forces occur at the interface of connecting part and a mixer tube, said forces having to be sustained by the connection. Cylindrical round threads are well-known for translation of these high forces over the connection. These are expensive in this application because several rotations are required for establishing the connection between the parts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,195 A discloses a closure that has a connection associated with a conical thread with progressively decreasing diameter in the direction of the opening. The container can be closed with minimum rotation by virtue of the closure cap configured to be complementary to the connection. The drawback in this solution is that manufacturing the thread in an injection molding process is very expensive, in terms of time and cost, because of the completely necessary unwinding of the thread.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,285 A discloses a closure for bottles, wherein the thread are conically inclined on the bottle and the zone of the thread has a constant wall thickness and uniform flank height. The drawback of this solution is using this connection that is capable of sustaining only conditionally high forces such as those that occur in connections in extrusion units.


The disclosure herein describes a vapor tight floating roof support leg for a liquid storage tank characterized by a leg and a seal at the top of the leg so as to prevent the escape of fugitive volatile organic or other gaseous compounds from evaporation from the surface of the liquid. In one embodiment, the leg is of one fixed length and the seal is comprised of a blind welded, bolted or otherwise firmly affixed to the top of the leg. In another embodiment wherein the support leg is comprised of two pieces, an inner pipe leg slides into a hollow sleeve. The seal at the top of the support leg is comprised of a flange firmly attached to the sleeve, and a blind is welded, bolted or otherwise firmly affixed to an inner leg which may be any predetermined length. The blind is firmly attached to the flange.

This invention relates to a sealed support leg mounted to a floating roof of a large liquid storage tank. The support leg keeps the roof from traveling downward beyond a certain point while preventing any volatile organic or other gaseous compounds ("VOC's") from escaping upwards from the surface of the liquid through roof penetrations where the support leg is mounted. Without a sealed support leg, the VOC's would disperse in the atmosphere as air pollution. Stringent governmental regulations make it imperative that any loss of VOC's be minimized.
Large, usually round liquid storage tanks may contain a floating internal roof to minimize the loss of liquid products, typically hydrocarbons. These roofs float directly on the liquid surface, and rise or fall with changes in the level of liquid in the tank. Some floating roofs have legs mounted thereon to prevent downward travel of the roof beyond a certain point once the bottom of the leg comes to rest on the floor of the storage tank. These legs typically extend through the floating roof to keep the roof from hitting the bottom of the tank or traveling beyond a certain point when the liquid is withdrawn. Many such legs are slidably adjustable in a substantially vertical plane at right angles to the roof to change the point at which the downward travel of the roof is stopped. However, a continuing problem with floating roof support legs is the inability of such legs to stop or reduce VOC emissions from escaping through or around the top of the leg and thus polluting the atmosphere.
The conventional floating roof support leg comprises an inner support member such as a rod or pipe, and an outer sleeve which is greater in diameter than the inner member. The leg commonly projects through the roof for a certain distance. The height of the leg is adjustable by means of the inner member inserted or slidably mounted into the larger diameter sleeve. Both the sleeve and inner member have a series of holes spaced throughout their length such that a throughbolt can be inserted through the sleeve and member to secure the inner member at a certain fixed length.
The position of the inner pipe relative to the enclosing sleeve results in the accumulation of VOC's in the annular space between the inner pipe and the sleeve above the liquid level in the tank. These VOC's then escape up through such annular space into the atmosphere. Believed exemplary of such conventional support legs are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,587,911 (Creith), 3,915,332 (Pladys), and 4,018,356 (Szasz). These patents disclose support legs which are not designed to solve the problem of VOC emissions from the tops of such legs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,151 (Bruening) addresses the general problem of VOC emissions resulting from penetrations in floating roofs. The Bruening patent discloses a stationary vertical member, such as a support column or a ladder, penetrating the floating roof of a liquid storage tank. The stationary vertical member extends up through a well, which in turn is surrounded and partially enclosed by a well wall. The well wall is partially above and below the level of liquid stored in the tank, and is separated from the vertical member by a vapor seal. The well wall physically prevents liquid from spilling through the area surrounding the vertical penetration, and the vapor seal within the well wall reduces the space in which vapor from the liquid can first accumulate and then be dispersed into the atmosphere.

Vapor tight floating roof support leg for liquid storage tank


A system for use with a normally open manually actuated water valve, or any other suitable manually actuated device, for automatically closing the valve, or device, upon sensing water. The system includes at least one water sensor electrically connected to a motorized actuator mounted on the valve, or device, whereby a signal is transmitted either by electrical conductor, or in an alternate embodiment by RF transmission, to the motorized actuator upon sensing water, whereby said manual valve is automatically actuated to its closed position. The system may be installed on an otherwise conventional manual shut-off valve, without replacing the valve or otherwise interrupting flow through the valve.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for preventing the flooding of a dwelling, and, more particularly, to an apparatus for generating a mechanical output responsive to the presence of leaking water to prevent water damage.
2. Description of the Background Art
The flooding of dwellings caused by a failure in the water supply system is a well known problem. Specifically, broken water lines, or the failure of appliances such as hot water tanks and automatic washers, have been responsible for extensive property damage caused by the internal flooding of a dwelling. Such a problem can be further exacerbated in multi-story structures where there are numerous hot water tanks, each of which expose multiple units to potential water damage.
Accordingly, a number of devices are known in the prior art for shutting off water flow in a dwelling in the event of an internal rupture in the plumbing system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,650, issued to Hoiberg, discloses a battery-powered, liquid-detection alarm and shut-off system including an elongated sensor, an electronic controller, and a spring biased shut-off valve assembly. However, the system disclosed by Hoiberg requires the installation of a specialized shut-off valve assembly in the plumbing system thereby complicating installation.
Another prior art device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,686, issued to Tom, which discloses a resistive liquid detection and shut-off system used to protect a floor area from water damage. Tom also teaches a system requiring extensive installation and wiring from the liquid sensor to a specialized water shut-off solenoid valve which must be installed in the plumbing system. In addition to the disadvantages of having to install a specialized solenoid valve, the fact that solenoid valves require continuous electrical current to operate mandates additional wiring. Furthermore, Tom teaches use of a tape water sensor which would have to be run throughout the dwelling and is subject to failure in the event of a break in the tape.
Yet another prior art device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,022, issued to Franklin. The Franklin device also requires the installation of a specialized spring loaded ball valve in the water supply line; such installation requirements result in a system that can not be easily moved from one appliance or structure to another. Finally, the Franklin system does not preserve full manual actuation of the valve.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,037, issued to Wheeler et al., discloses an automatic device for the detection and shutoff of excess water in pipes using a microphone. The Wheeler device has a complex control panel and a motorized actuator mounted and anchored to a manual valve stem using sheet metal screws and a metal bracket. The Wheeler device, however, detects water flow within a pipe and does not detect water leaking from a pipe. Furthermore, the Wheeler device is not sufficiently sensitive to detect small (pin hole) leaks which result in insignificant overall flow within a pipe, and is overly sensitive to large leaks, and further provides no protection when turned or scheduled off. Furthermore, in a residential application it may be desirable to turn the Wheeler device off for substantial portions of time to allow for water usage around the clock.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,567, issued to Grant, discloses an automatic valve closer mounted and anchored to a valve by a complex metal bracket. The valve closer disclosed by Grant is triggered by an electrolytic switch which includes a container having salt and a pair of contacts therein such that leaked water entering the container causes the salt to dissolve forming an electrolytic solution that conducts electric current and closes the circuit. Grant, however, does not disclose the structure of such a salt filled container and it is believed that such a triggering mechanism suffers from disadvantages relating to sensitivity and reliability. In addition, the metal bracket mounting assembly disclosed by grant results in metal to metal contact with the pipe system thereby causing corrosion of the water pipe from an electrolytic reaction between the pipe and the metallic bracket components.
A number of other patented devices suffer from similar disadvantages, as well as a number of additional shortcomings. For example, many prior art devices contemplate an alarm as the main function thereby leaving the possibility of extensive damage if triggered when the dwelling were vacant or if the alarm were not heard. Further, many prior art devices are designed to protect one relatively small area, and others have proven too complex or difficult to install, and, have not gained wide acceptance. It is to these prior art disadvantages that the present invention is directed.

Shut-off system for preventing water damage


Common-substrate semiconductor devices having nanowires or semiconductor bodies with differing material orientation or composition and methods to form such common-substrate devices are described. For example, a semiconductor structure includes a first semiconductor device having a first nanowire or semiconductor body disposed above a crystalline substrate. The first nanowire or semiconductor body is composed of a semiconductor material having a first global crystal orientation. The semiconductor structure also includes a second semiconductor device having a second nanowire or semiconductor body disposed above the crystalline substrate. The second nanowire or semiconductor body is composed of a semiconductor material having a second global crystal orientation different from the first global orientation. The second nanowire or semiconductor body is isolated from the crystalline substrate by an isolation pedestal disposed between the second nanowire or semiconductor body and the crystalline substrate.

For the past several decades, the scaling of features in integrated circuits has been a driving force behind an ever-growing semiconductor industry. Scaling to smaller and smaller features enables increased densities of functional units on the limited real estate of semiconductor chips. For example, shrinking transistor size allows for the incorporation of an increased number of memory devices on a chip, lending to the fabrication of products with increased capacity. The drive for ever-more capacity, however, is not without issue. The necessity to optimize the performance of each device becomes increasingly significant.
Maintaining mobility improvement and short channel control as microelectronic device dimensions scale past the 15 nanometer (nm) node provides a challenge in device fabrication. Nanowires used to fabricate devices provide improved short channel control. For example, silicon germanium (SixGe1−x) nanowire channel structures (where x<0.5) provide mobility enhancement at respectable Eg, which is suitable for use in many conventional products which utilize higher voltage operation. Furthermore, silicon germanium (SixGe1−x) nanowire channels (where x>0.5) provide mobility enhanced at lower Egs (suitable for low voltage products in the mobile/handheld domain, for example. Many different techniques have been attempted to fabricate and optimize nanowire-based devices. However, significant improvements are still needed in the area of nanowire devices.
In the manufacture of integrated circuit devices, multi-gate transistors, such as tri-gate transistors, have become more prevalent as device dimensions continue to scale down. In conventional processes, tri-gate transistors are generally fabricated on either bulk silicon substrates or silicon-on-insulator substrates. In some instances, bulk silicon substrates are preferred due to their lower cost and because they enable a less complicated tri-gate fabrication process. In other instances, silicon-on-insulator substrates are preferred because of the improved short-channel behavior of tri-gate transistors.
On bulk silicon substrates, the fabrication process for tri-gate transistors often encounters problems when aligning the bottom of the metal gate electrode with the source and drain extension tips at the bottom of the transistor body (i.e., the "fin"). When the tri-gate transistor is formed on a bulk substrate, proper alignment is needed for optimal gate control and to reduce short-channel effects. For instance, if the source and drain extension tips are deeper than the metal gate electrode, punch-through may occur. Alternately, if the metal gate electrode is deeper than the source and drain extension tips, the result may be an unwanted gate cap parasitics. Many different techniques have been attempted to fabricate and optimize three-dimensional devices. However, significant improvements are still needed in the area of three-dimensional semiconductor devices.


Disclosed herein is a xerographic print comprising a substrate having a printed image thereon comprising a low melt temperature toner, and a polyolefin wax coating formed over the printed image having a dry thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 5 microns. The wax coating substantially prevents toner offset at temperatures up to at least 70° C. A printing system and coating method also are disclosed. The prints, printing system and method are useful for making brochures and books that will be subjected to high temperatures, pressures, and/or humidity levels, such as manuals stored in automobile glove compartments.

The embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to coated xerographic prints. The coated prints have toner-based image stability under conditions of high temperature, humidity and/or pressure.
In conventional xerography, electrostatic latent images are formed on a xerographic surface by uniformly charging a charge retentive surface, such as a photoreceptor. The charged area is then selectively dissipated in a pattern of activating radiation corresponding to the original image. The latent charge pattern remaining on the surface corresponds to the area not exposed by radiation. Next, the latent charge pattern is visualized by passing the photoreceptor past one or more developer housings comprising toner, which adheres to the charge pattern by electrostatic attraction. The developed image is then fixed to the imaging surface or is transferred to a receiving substrate, such as paper, to which it is fixed by a suitable fusing technique, resulting in a xerographic print or toner-based print.
Although xerographic equipment is used worldwide, it possesses a significant disadvantage in that in some cases the energy consumption is quite high. Thus, equipment with lower power consumption has been designed. Toners that function in the lower power consumption equipment, known as "low-melt toners," are designed to have low glass transition temperatures (Tg's) of about 55° C. to about 65° C. However, an image defect known as document offset (or "blocking") can occur at temperatures as low as about 54° C. to as high as about 70° C. or more, which is when the toner begins to melt. Thus, low-melt toners often have a significant document offset problem. The onset of document offset for various toners is set forth in Table 1.
TABLE 1Comparison of Onset Temperatures for DocumentOffset for Various Low-Melt TonersTonerMachineTemperature*FC IIDC2060 & DC1262° C.(144° F.)FC IDC40 & Majestik .RTM.61° C.(142° F.)(Xerox Corp.)5090DT18055.5° C.(132° F.)C6 & M4iGen3 .RTM. (Xerox Corp.)55.5° C.(132° F.)*where Document Offset (DO) = 4.0 @ 10 g/cm.sup.2
At document offset-provoking temperatures, when combined with pressure, such as several reams of paper in an output tray of a printer, some toner will stick to the sheet above it, or, in the case of duplex printing, the toner on the sheet above it. This yields two sheets that have to be pulled apart. In the worse case scenario, the toner pulls off part of the image on or paper fibers from the sheet above it. Clearly, this results in a loss of quality of the toner-based print (also referred to as a toner-based image, xerographic print, or xerographic image).
Known methods of reducing document offset include adding wax to the toner and applying an overprint coating to the substrate. The overprint coating, often referred to as an overprint varnish or composition, is typically a liquid film coating that may be dried and/or cured. Curing may be accomplished through drying or heating or by applying ultraviolet light or low voltage electron beams to polymerize (crosslink) the components of the overcoat. Overprint coatings are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,070,262, 4,071,425, 4,072,592, 4,072,770, 4,133,909, 5,162,389, 5,800,884, 4,265,976, 5,219,641, and 7,166,406, and U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 2005/0250038, 2005/0250039 and 2007/0021522.
It would be useful to develop further systems and methods for treating xerographic prints to provide for stability under conditions of high heat and/or high humidity.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Coating, system and method for conditioning prints


A collapsible rectilinear or cylindrical ice bucket for transporting, displaying and chilling a wine bottle or other beverage container is fabricated from a deformable, water-impermeable and polymeric material, and is dimensioned to receive the bottle and a sufficient quantity of crushed ice or ice cubes. The upper edges of the collapsible ice bucket have a double thickness of the material for retaining the opening in a substantially non-collapsed state during use, and is provided with a handle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to ice buckets, and more particularly, to a collapsible water-impermeable ice bucket for carrying, displaying, chilling and serving a beverage, such as wine, in a beverage container.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ice buckets and coolers suitable for cooling or chilling beverages stored in a container, such as wine bottles, spirits or other drinks are conventionally known in the art. For example, ice buckets are often used to chill bottles of wine by waiters at restaurants and by consumers at their residences. Although ice buckets and containers are typically aesthetically pleasing, they are not convenient for transporting, displaying, chilling and serving the wine from a bottle or other beverage container.
In U.S. Pat. No. D494,853 to Chan, a rectangular gift bag with water container is shown and described in an open and folded configuration. Although the gift bag is designed to retain water therein, the design patent fails to disclose the materials or construction methods used during fabrication of the bag. Further, there is no disclosure regarding the ability to display content other than water in the bag, or its suitability to chill a beverage in a beverage container.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,118,276 to Clark, a gift bag is disclosed which fabricated from a napped filamentary material, such as woven fabric. Although the gift bag is suitable for transporting content, the gift bag is incapable of retaining water and ice to chill a beverage in a beverage container.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,890,101 to Blau discloses a transparent plastic bag or container fabricated from non-rigid plastic sheets which can be easily folded. The clear plastic sheets are attached to gusset members, which function to attach the various plastic panels to one another and to provide rigidity to the bag structure. Although the transparent bag can be used for displaying or storing content, the patent is silent as to the fabrication material and techniques of the gussets, and accordingly, whether the bag is capable of retaining water and ice to chill a beverage in a beverage container.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,990,786 to Kilmartin discloses a method of advertising on wine and spirits bottles, which provides both advertising and a way to protect the bottles from damage in a shopping bag or box. Bottle packaging dividers are imprinted with advertising material, and then distributed to retail sellers of wine and spirits so that employees may use the bottle packaging dividers to cushion the wine and spirit bottles sold by them to consumers, while at the same time providing an advertising vehicle. Although the bag of the Kilmartin patent is suitable for transporting alcoholic beverage containers, the patent provides no indication that the bag can be used to retain water and ice to chill beverages in the beverage containers therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,254 to Berry discloses a freezable container which uses water that is frozen to keep a beverage cold, and which does not require that the beverage be placed into the freezer along with the container filled with water. The freezable container has a removable sleeve placed concentrically inside the container and held in place by a pair of rods. Water is placed between the container and the sleeve and both are placed in the freezer. When the water has frozen, the container is removed from the freezer and the sleeve is removed from the container to allow a beverage container to be placed into the container in place of the sleeve. Although the ice container is suitable for chilling and displaying the beverage container (e.g., wine bottle), the device is not suitable for transporting the beverage container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,484 to Rattay, et al. discloses a portable wine bottle carrier configured as a tote bag having a non-rigid bottom, sides and an open top. The bag is formed from a single piece of fabric material such as cotton duck, such single piece of material having a medial portion forming the bottom and end portions extending upwardly from the edges of such medial portion to form the sides of the bag, such end portions having vertical juxtaposed edges stitched together at seams. Although the tote bag is suitable for transporting alcoholic beverage containers, the patent provides no indication that the bag can be used to retain water and ice to chill a beverage in a beverage container.

Transparent bag for carrying, displaying, chilling and serving a beverage in a beverage container


The invention provides systems, methods, and devices relating to the provision of system-wide coordinated control voltage regulation support in power transmission and distribution networks using multiple inverter based power generation or absorption facilities, which are coupled to the power transmission and distribution networks for minimizing transmission and distribution line losses and for performing Conservation Voltage Reduction. The invention uses a novel control method of inverter based Distributed Generators as Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) in a way that provides a dynamic voltage regulation/control with the inverter capacity remaining after real power generation or absorption, thereby decreasing system line losses and performing Conservation Voltage Reduction.

Utility companies everywhere are faced with excessive electric power transmission and distribution losses. These losses occur due to the conversion of electricity to heat and electromagnetic energy. Ever since building the first electric power transmission line, this has simply been an accepted cost of doing business in the utility industry. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, national annual electricity transmission and distribution losses average about 7% of the electricity that is transmitted in the United States. If we compare this value to those submitted by other countries to the World Development Indicators (WDI) database, it is clear that 7% is a relatively modest number. A majority of countries face line loss problems of 20% or more, while others in less developed areas exceed line losses of up to 30%, and by doing so they are not only losing revenue (millions of dollars), but also causing higher emissions for the same amount of delivered electricity.
To manage the losses associated with the electric power transmission and distribution, voltage levels along the distribution line must be controlled. Traditional methods of reducing line losses involve the use of transformer taps or the installation of voltage regulators and bus capacitors at several locations for voltage control. However, these methods are coarse and do not provide a suitably rapid and precise control of voltage for reducing line losses in an optimal manner.
In light of the above, there is a need for systems, methods, and devices which provide dynamic voltage control to thereby minimize line losses.

Use of distributed generator (DG) inverters as STATCOMs for decreasing line losses


Provided is an inkjet adhesive which is applied using an inkjet device, wherein the adhesive can suppress generation of voids in the adhesive layer and, after bonding, can enhance adhesiveness, moisture-resistant adhesion reliability, and cooling/heating cycle reliability. An inkjet adhesive according to the present invention comprises a photocurable compound, a photo-radical initiator, a thermosetting compound having one or more cyclic ether groups or cyclic thioether groups, and a compound capable of reacting with the thermosetting compound, and the compound capable of reacting with the thermosetting compound contains aromatic amine.

A paste-like adhesive is mainly used as an adhesive for fixing a semiconductor element for joining between a semiconductor element and a support member such as a substrate. In recent years, downsizing of the support member to be used is also required with downsizing of semiconductor elements, and downsizing and improvement in performance of the semiconductor packages. For such a requirement, the paste-like adhesive paste-like adhesive unfortunately spreads, causing protrusion. Further, in the paste-like adhesive, it is difficult to control a thickness, and consequently, the semiconductor element is inclined to cause problems such as a defect of wire bonding. Therefore, joining using a conventional paste-like adhesive cannot adequately respond to recent semiconductor packages.
Further, in recent years, as described in Patent Document 1 described below, an adhesive sheet having a film-like adhesive layer has been used.
In a joining method using the adhesive sheet, the adhesive sheet (adhesive layer) is bonded to a back surface of a semiconductor wafer first, and a dicing sheet is bonded to the other surface of the adhesive layer. Thereafter, the semiconductor wafer is singulated with the adhesive layer bonded to the semiconductor wafer by dicing to obtain a semiconductor element. Next, the semiconductor element with the adhesive layer is picked up and joined to the support member. Thereafter, undergoing assembling steps such as wire bonding, sealing and the like, a semiconductor device is obtained.
However, in the production of a semiconductor device using the adhesive sheet, since the adhesive sheet clings to a cutting blade at the time of dicing to deteriorate a cutting property, there is a problem that the semiconductor chip chips, resulting in a reduction of a yield. Further, since a support member such as a substrate has a height difference of a wiring pattern, voids easily remain in the height difference portion. The void causes the reliability to deteriorate.
Further, Patent Document 2 discloses an adhesive containing a radiation-polymerizable compound, a photo initiator, and a thermosetting resin. However, in such an adhesive, there is a problem that with a substrate having a height difference of a wiring pattern, voids are generated to deteriorate reliability.
Patent Document 3 described below discloses an adhesive including (1) an epoxy resin, (2) a radically curable resin, (3) a photo-radical initiator, and (4) a latent epoxy curing agent. (4) The latent epoxy curing agent can be obtained by reacting (a) an amine compound represented by a specific formula (I), (b) a polyamine compound having two or more amino groups in a molecule, (c) an organic polyisocyanate compound, and (d) an epoxy compound. However, even if using such an adhesive, there is a problem that in a substrate having a height difference of a wiring pattern, voids are generated to deteriorate reliability.
Further, in conventional adhesives, adhesiveness after bonding may become low. Moreover, the conventional adhesives also have a problem of low reliability since the adhesiveness of the adhesive may become low when the adhesive is exposed to extreme conditions such as a high temperature or a high humidity.

Inkjet adhesive, manufacturing method for semiconductor device, and electronic component


A computer-implemented method of automatically configuring a platform of storage devices includes querying components of the platform to gather information about the capability of the platform, locating one or more storage devices within the platform, automatically determining one or more RAID levels that are supported by the platform, and automatically configuring one or more storage devices within the platform as a RAID system having a particular RAID level, where the particular RAID level is selected based on the capability of the platform.

A RAID system creates one or more pools of data storage space from several physical storage devices. RAID systems can use a variety of different techniques for allocating data among disks of the array, where the different techniques are commonly identified by a RAID level. Different RAID levels each have different requirements and capabilities.
RAID level 0 provides striping of data, meaning that a large data block is broken into smaller pieces and written in an interleaved manner onto multiple disks. RAID level 0 boosts performance for high-bandwidth operations, but does not provide any fault tolerance because it does not offer data redundancy.
RAID level 1 provides fault tolerance by mirroring data on two or more disks. RAID level 1 is relatively expensive because, when compared with non-mirrored storage space, it requires storage space in quantities that are at least twice the quantity of data to be written.
RAID level 10 (also known as RAID 0/1) is a combination of RAID levels 0 and 1, in which a RAID level 0 stripe set of data is created across a two disk array and a duplicate of the first stripe set is then mirrored on another two disk array for fault tolerance. This configuration provides the performance benefits of RAID level 0 and the redundancy of RAID level 1, but is costly because at least four disks are necessary to create a RAID 10 configuration.
RAID level 2 uses Hamming Error Correcting Codes to achieve fault tolerance and parallel access for input/output operations. In RAID level 2, bytes of data are striped across an array of disks, which allows very high data transfer rates when accessing large quantities of data, but may provide unacceptable performance for read/write operations for smaller data blocks. RAID level 2 also requires one check disk for each data disk to detect and correct any errors. For these reasons, RAID level 2 is not commonly used.
RAID level 3 essentially provides a fault tolerant version of RAID level 0 that trades some data storage capacity to provide fault tolerance. In RAID level 3, data are striped in bytes across a plurality of disks, while at least one disk is reserved to store parity information. The parity data are used to maintain data integrity across all drives in the RAID system. RAID level 3 achieves high data transfer rates by reading from or writing to multiple drives in parallel while providing the ability to reconstruct data if a single drive fails.
RAID level 4 is similar to RAID level 3 in that it stripes data across different disks and reserves a disk for parity data, except that data are striped across multiple disks in sectors rather than in bytes. Thus, RAID level 4 is efficient for high input/output transactions.
However, as with RAID level 3, an inherent bottleneck exists with RAID level 4 at the parity disk because parity encoding on the parity disk is required whenever data are written to the disk array.
RAID level 5 is similar to RAID level 4 in that it stripes data across different disks in sectors. However, RAID level 5 avoids the inherent bottleneck of RAID level 4 by also striping the parity data across disks of the array. Although RAID level 5 provides fast data throughput, performance is sacrificed for data rebuilds or reading data from an array with a failed disk because of parity striping.
RAID level 6 is similar to RAID level 5, except that it uses a second level of independently calculated and distributed parity information for additional fault tolerance, which provides additional security in the event that two drives fail.
RAID level 50 (also known as RAID 0/5) is a combination of RAID level 0 and RAID level 5. Multiple RAID level 5 arrays are striped together using a RAID level 0 configuration. Parity is maintained separately for each RAID level 5 group within the striped array. The configuration provides the advantages of RAID level 5 for small data transfers with the added performance of striping for read/write operations.


An apparatus for fixing a curtain air bag cushion to a pillar of a vehicle includes a cushion bracket configured to be attached to the pillar. The cushion bracket has a fixing portion provided with a bolt hole, a support portion provided with a cover hole, and locking grooves between the fixing portion and the support portion. A cushion tab cover is configured to pass through the cover hole. A cushion band has a cover end coupled to the cushion tab cover and a hole end provided with a band hole. The band hole is configured to receive the first side of the cushion bracket such that the hole end of the cushion band is seated in the locking grooves.

Generally, a vehicle is equipped with various kinds of air bag apparatuses for protecting passengers in case of an accident. Among those, the curtain air bag apparatus is installed to prevent indoor passengers from being catapulted out of a vehicle through a door window glass in case of a rollover and a broadside collision of the vehicle.
The curtain air bag apparatus is configured to include an inflator, an air bag cushion unfolded by a gas pressure which is generated at the time of an explosion of the inflator so as to cover a door window glass, a cushion tether keeping a shape of the unfolded air bag cushion, and the like. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the air bag cushion 1 before the inflator is exploded is installed at a pillar 2 of a vehicle body in a folded state (rolled up and folded state) by a fixing apparatus. The fixing apparatus is configured to include a plurality of cushion bands 3 which are formed in a band shape having a predetermined length and a cushion bracket 4, in which the cushion band 3 encloses the folded air bag cushion 1 and the cushion band 3 enclosing the air bag cushion 1 is coupled with the cushion bracket 4 and the cushion bracket 4 is fixedly coupled with the pillar 2 of the vehicle body by a bolt or a screw.
The cushion band 3 is provided with a tear line. By this configuration, the folded air bag cushion 1 is unfolded while tearing the tear line by the gas pressure at the time of the explosion of the inflator.
However, the existing fixing apparatus configured as described above has a problem in that when the cushion band 3 enclosing the air bag cushion 1 is coupled with the cushion bracket 4, the cushion band 3 is not coupled with the cushion bracket 4 so as to be completely fixed to the cushion bracket 4 and thus the air bag cushion 1 and the cushion band 3 may shake at the time of the behavior of the vehicle and when the shaking as described above is continued for a long period of time, a load is delivered to the cushion bracket 4 and thus a bonding strength between the cushion band 3 and the cushion bracket 4 may be weak and, in severe cases, a quality problem of headlining may occur due to a deflection of the pillar 2.
Further, the existing fixing apparatus has a structure in which the cushion bracket 4 may not support the folded air bag cushion 1. In this case, when the air bag cushion 1 is unfolded, a portion of the cushion is likely to be unfolded toward the exterior of the vehicle and the portion which is unfolded toward the exterior of the vehicle is likely to be damaged and broken due to an interference with a panel of a vehicle body.
The contents described as the related art have been provided only for assisting in the understanding for the background of the present inventive concept and should not be considered as corresponding to the related art known to those skilled in the art.

Apparatus for fixing curtain air bag cushion


Tape guides for guiding a magnetic tape in a tape cassette including a two-half cassette housing one half of which holds a pair of tape reels and a length of magnetic tape wound on the reels, said housing half having openings formed on the front side for supply and takeup of the tape, said tape guides being located at both corners of the front side and adjacent the openings, are made basically of a composite resin material of polyethylene and polypropylene resins and contain a carbon black and an anisotropic inorganic filler.

This invention relates to tape guides for use, in a pair, in a magnetic tape cassette.
Conventional magnetic tape cassettes use a pair of tape guides to guide the tape in its travel. For example, FIG. 1 shows, as exploded, a video tape cassette of the VHS format. The cassette comprises an upper housing half a, a front lid b pivotally connected to the both ends of the front side of the upper housing half, a pair of reels c on which a length of magnetic tape is wound, and a lower housing half d, with a pair of tape guides e located at both corners of the front side of the lower housing half d. When the magnetic tape is played back, it runs in sliding contact with the tape guides e. To ensure smooth running of the tape, the tape guides must be of a material having sufficiently high surface precision, dimensional stability, low rate of abrasion, and high slipperiness. Heretofore most tape guides have been made from metals such as SUS grade stainless steels and hard chromium-plated brass that can meet these qualitative requirements.
However, the metallic tape guides have the disadvantages of low productivity and high cost because their manufacture involves many steps including stock forming, grinding, plating, finish polishing, and inspection.
It has been proposed to replace metals for tape guides by acetal plastic (POM) or ultra-high-molecular-weight polyolefin, with or without lubricant, wear-resistant pigment, etc. The use of these substitutes has, however, been limited because of their high material prices and rather inadequate properties. For example, Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 1-292045 teaches fabrication from an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene or polypropylene having a molecular weight of half a million to one million or their copolymer in which an anisotropic inorganic substance, e.g., inorganic particles in the form of whiskers or rods such as glass fiber, or planar inorganic particles, e.g., of graphite or molybdenum disulfide, is dispersed. However, POM has low wear and other properties yet to be improved and is, moreover, too expensive. Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyolefins have desirable properties but have shortcomings of poor moldability and costliness.
Other problems common to the guide members made from the polyacetal and ultra-high-molecular-weight resins are adsorption of ambient dirt and dust or tape sticking by dint of static charge caused by friction.
As stated above, the manufacture of metallic tape guides that involves many steps such as stock forming, grinding, plating, finish polishing, and inspection have the disadvantages of low productivity and high cost. POM and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyolefins are inferior in abrasion wear and moldability and, moreover, are costly.
The present invention is aimed at providing tape guides for tape cassettes which eliminate the disadvantages of the prior art and exhibit performance as tape guides comparable to those of metals, the guides being able to be made from low cost material, with good moldability, and at low manufacturing cost.


This invention provides a method and apparatus that uses a mobility management server (MMS) device for supporting mobility management in wireless networks. With the MMS device for services of resource management and packet relay, this invention speeds up the handover procedure for a mobile device switching from a first network domain to a second network domain in a wireless network environment having a session initiation protocol (SIP) server. When the mobile device needs to switch to the second network domain, the MMS allocates the required resources for packet relay, provides the related information for the second network domain, and takes care of the packet relay. This invention shortens the inter-domain handover latency and reduces the number of lost packets during the handover procedure. Thereby, the transmission efficiency of the present invention meets the requirement for real-time multimedia applications.

To support the mobility of a communication/mobile device in a wireless network, there are procedures in both media access control (MAC) layer and network layer in a network configuration trying to maintain the upper level on-going communication uninterrupted. The MAC layer handover occurs when a mobile device leaves one access point (AP) and enters another AP. The network layer handover occurs when a mobile device switches from one network domain into another network domain under a new internet protocol (IP) address, which is mainly based on mobile IP techniques. If a mobile device needs to switch across different network domains, in other words, when a mobile device leaves the home network and enters a foreign network, this mobile device has to obtain a new IP address in the foreign network as the care of address (CoA), and at the same time, needs to register the new IP address in the foreign network at the home network, so that the home agent can automatically relay the transmission packets for the mobile device to the new IP address in the foreign network and keeps the ongoing communication uninterrupted. With the current internet operation in reality, the prevalence of mobile IP is still limited.
FIG. 1 illustrates the procedure involved for a mobile device switching from access point AP1 to access point AP2. When the mobile device detects the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of AP1 is lower than its cell search threshold, an automatic scan mechanism is activated for a new access point. When the signal magnitude of AP2 is stronger than the signal magnitude of AP1 by a certain value (ΔSNR), the mobile device automatically handovers to the new AP2.
FIG. 2 shows an example for a session initiation protocol (SIP) based mobility management in a wireless network. Referring to FIG. 2, there are two SIP clients in communication session, the mobile device MS in A1 network domain 201 and the corresponding node CN in the B1 network domain 202. While the mobile device MS switches from A1 network domain 201 to a new A2 network domain 203, a conventional mobility management procedure includes the following steps.
Step a. While switching network domains, the mobile device MS keeps on detecting and determining if the signal from AP1 has dropped below the cell search threshold. If yes, then mobility management procedure jumps to step b, otherwise, repeats the current step a.
Step b. The mobile device MS initiates a scan mechanism for a new access point and detects a stronger signal from the AP2 of the network domain A2. With MAC layer connection, mobile device MS connects to the AP2 of the A2 network domain. At this step, the communication status of the mobile device MS and the corresponding connection node CN is temporarily disconnected.
Step c. The mobile device MS. via AP2. obtains an IP address within network domain A2 from the server for dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP). At this step, the communication status of the mobile device MS and the corresponding connection node CN is still temporarily disconnected.
Step d. The mobile device MS registers a new IP address in network domain A2 at the SIP proxy/registrar server, so that the other clients can reach the mobile device via the SIP proxy/registrar server. At this step, the communication status of the mobile device MS and the corresponding connection node CN is still temporarily disconnected.
Step e. The mobile device MS issues an SIP INVITE message to the corresponding connection node CN to re-establish the communication. Only with successful SIP INVITE process can the previously broken connection be re-established.
Whenever a mobile device switches across different domains and needs a new IP address, the fore going handover procedure takes about more than 10 seconds, which includes time for MAC layer, network layer and application layer handovers. For networks providing real-time voice services, due to the lengthy network domain handover time, the communication interruption is too long to be of an acceptable service quality.
When a mobile device moves across different network domains, the sources of the communication interruption come from affected interfaces for MAC layer, network layer and application layer. In the whole domain transition process, the time for service interruption includes three categories as shown in FIG. 3. The time when the mobile device stops connecting with AP1 till the time the mobile device connects to a new AP2 in a new network domain is defined as the MAC layer handover time, denoted as Δ1 in FIG. 3. Secondly, the time when the mobile device starts connecting to the new AP2 till the time the mobile device obtains a new IP address via the DHCP server in the new network domain is defined as the network layer handover time denoted as Δ2 in FIG. 3. Finally, the application layer handover time is defined as the time for re-establishing the communication service with the new IP address in the application layer, which includes the mobile device MS registers a new IP address in network domain A2 at the SIP proxy/registrar server, the mobile device MS issues an SIP INVITE message to the corresponding node CN to re-establish the communication, till the completion of the new communication connection, denoted as Δ3 in FIG. 3.
The total latency for service interruption from mobile device inter-domain handover is the sum of Δ1+Δ2+Δ3. In other words, for an efficient mobile communication service, the total handover interruption time, Δ1+Δ2+Δ3, can be minimized by speeding up the connection time to a new AP in the MAC layer, by minimizing the time for obtaining a new IP address or even by pre-assigning an IP address in the network layer, and by avoiding the repetition for re-establishing the new connection in the application layer.
The US patent publication 2002/191593 disclosed a method and apparatus for session signaling and mobility management in communication systems. In this method, the session signaling and mobility management is accomplished by SIP integrated with the mobile IP. In a SIP-based configuration, each cell area includes many modules, such as session signaling server module, mobility agent modules, etc. When a mobile device switches to a new cell area, this mobile device first registers itself at the session signaling server module with attached mobile device information before the transition. In the mean while, the session signaling server module informs the mobility agent module and the original mobility agent module for the requesting mobile device of a handover procedure. This handover procedure includes the following steps. The original session signaling server module issues a request message to the session signaling server module of the new cell area, and switches the associated state information of the requesting mobile device to the modules in the new cell area. After receiving the request message, the session signaling server module in the new cell area replies a response message back to the home session signaling server node with the location of the mobile device.
This technique disclosed the method for inter-domain handover, and assures a seamless session after the mobile device switches to the new cell area and obtains a new IP address. This technique, however, still cannot resolve the overhead for requesting a new IP address after the mobile device switches to the new cell area. During the cell area handover, packet loss remains an issue. This technique still cannot fulfill the data transmission quality required by most real-time multi-media service applications.
In the patent WO0131472, with respect to the 3G all IP network environment, disclosed a mobility management protocol to support the real-time and non-real-time multi-media application programs for mobile devices. This technique utilizes and extends the SIP in order to provide domain handover and subnet handover in such a way that a user can always access Internet via the mobile device from any location while roaming in different 3G all IP networks. This technique also supports the portability for the application programs of the transmission control protocol (TCP), so that there is no need to modify the TCP. When a mobile device switches to a new network domain, with SIP INVITE and INFO method, IP address binding and user authentication can both be accomplished. With SIP registration, a new IP address can be obtained from a DHCP server, and the TCP connection on a mobile platform can also be maintained with a media agent named SIP_EYE.
The technique disclosed in this patent starts the process of new registration as well as the informing the corresponding node (CN) and edge router controller of re-establishing new connection and transient tunnel after the communication device switches to a new domain. Consequently, before the new connection is established, the packet loss issue still exists. This technique saves the overhead for requesting a new IP address from the new DHCP, the latency is still needed for completing the registration at the SIP server. The data transmission quality of such technique still cannot fulfill the requirement for real-time multi-media service applications.
A U.S. Pat No. 6,766,171 disclosed a method and apparatus for a duplex soft handover in a network environment with no carrier control. By utilizing the media gateways installed in different network environments, this technique allows a duplex soft handover operation leaving the signaling of the carrier network untouched. In such a configuration, a mobile device always needs to establish a connection via a media gateway before establishing connection with target node. On detecting a mobile device moving into a transition area, a media gateway informs the mobile device to establish a new connection. As the mobile device continues moving, its media gateway automatically handovers into the new connection, and disconnects the original communication.
The technique disclosed in this U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,171 requires the mobile devices to have two receivers. This results in not only higher manufacturing cost but also more power consumption. These two issues affect the evaluation for designing mobile device.
In conclusion, the mobility management in most conventional wireless networks is supported by mobile internet protocol (mobile IP) with home agent and foreign agents to avoid the handover in the application layer procedure. With mobile IP available in lower layers, the upper layer application procedure can minimize the time in Δ3, but still needs overhead for registering a new foreign agent at the home agent. For choosing mobile IP as the network layer protocol, the most criticized issue is triangular routing problem. Besides, the prevalence of mobile IP is still limited. The cost for installing facilities for mobile IP not only includes deploying many home agents and foreign agents, but also involves the fact that the mobile IP needs two IP addresses in most of time in services. These disadvantages are even more unfavorable in the IPv4 environment in which IP address is a rare resource. From the perspective of the whole service latency, the mobile IP approach although reduces the time in Δ3, other mechanism is still needed to minimize both Δ1 and Δ2.

Method and apparatus for mobility management in wireless networks

Industrial Technology Research Institute