It is provided a connecting portion for a boarding bridge that eliminates the level difference between the doorway portion of the aircraft and the passage, reduces the anxiety of the passengers, and can be raised and lowered smoothly. A passage (27) is formed by a stationary passage (29) and an alignment passage (31) that is arranged at the distal end portion of the stationary passage (29) and adjusts the level difference between the stationary passage (29) and the doorway portion (23); the alignment passage (31) includes an elevating floor (35), on the stationary passage (29) side, having a pivot shafts (41) that is substantially perpendicular to the passenger traffic direction (T) and pivots centered on the pivot shafts (41), and an alignment floor (37), at the stationary passage (29) side, having a pivot shafts (53) that extends in a direction that is perpendicular to the passenger traffic direction (T) and that pivots centered on the pivot shafts (53); and wherein one of either the elevating floor (35) or the alignment floor (37) is installed at the stationary passage (29), the latter is installed in-plane to the former, and thereunder a sliding floor (39) that can be raised or lowered is installed in the passenger traffic direction (T).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a boarding bridge that is used by passengers to board and deboard an aircraft or boat or the like, and a connecting portion for the same.
2. Description of Related Art
A boarding bridge is a tunnel-shaped walkway passage that links, for example, a terminal building of an airport and an aircraft, and enables the direct boarding and deboarding of passengers between the terminal building and the aircraft.
The distal end portion of a boarding bridge is connected to the doorway portion of the aircraft, and a walkway passage is formed by the floor portion of the doorway portion and the passage of the boarding bridge. The bottom end portion of the door of the doorway portion is positioned lower than the floor portion of the doorway portion, and thus if the level difference between the floor portion of the doorway portion and the passage of the boarding bridge is completely eliminated, the door abuts the passage and thus becomes difficult to open and close. In order for the opening and closing of the door to be carried out reliably and to provide a tolerance that takes into consideration the tracking precision, by which the boarding bridge is made to track the vertical movement of the airplane as the passengers board and deboard and the like, the position of the passage is set lower than the position of the floor portion of the doorway portion, for example, by about one-hundred and tens of millimeters.
There is a concern that passengers may trip and fall at this level difference, and in particular, passengers in wheel chairs cannot easily board and deboard an aircraft. As a solution for eliminating this problem, the invention of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2004-155257 has been proposed. This invention provides an elevating lift, at the distal end portion of the boarding bridge, that enables the passage portion thereabove to move vertically. After connecting to the distal end portion and opening the door while the passage portion of the elevating lift is at a lower position, the passage portion is raised as necessary, for example, when passengers deboard from an aircraft. The passage portion and the floor surface of the doorway portion are set to substantially identical heights, and it is possible for the passengers to move from the aircraft without a level difference being present. After the passengers have moved to the passage portion of the elevator lift, the elevating lift is lowered so that no the level difference is present between the elevating lift and the back floor surface, and then the passengers move to the terminal building. When entering the aircraft, the procedure is reversed.

Connecting portion for boarding bridge and boarding bridge

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Transportation Equipment Engineering & Service Co., Ltd.


The present invention includes both sterilized and unsterilized hemostatic compositions that contain a biocompatible liquid having particles of a biocompatible polymer suitable for use in hemostasis and which is substantially insoluble in the liquid, up to about 20 percent by weight of glycerol and about 1 percent by weight of benzalkonium chloride, each based on the weight of the liquid, all of which are substantially homogenously dispersed throughout the liquid to form a substantially homogenous composition, methods for making such compositions, medical devices that contain such hemostatic compositions disposed therein and methods of making such devices.

Gelatin-based hemostats, both in solid sponge or powder form, are commercially available and are used in surgical procedures. Gelatin powder, when mixed with fluid, can form a paste or slurry that is useful as a flowable, extrudable and injectable hemostat for diffuse bleeding, particularly from uneven surfaces or hard to reach areas. The conventional slurry is prepared at the point of use by mechanical agitation and mixing of the powder and liquid to provide uniformity of the composition. The paste then is placed into a delivery means or applicator, e.g. a syringe, and applied to the wound.
The main disadvantage of this approach is the need to mix the powder with the liquid, knead it into a paste and back-fill it into the delivery device of choice, all at the time of need and at the point of use. The manipulations are time consuming and potentially can compromise the sterility of the delivered product. Thus, a need exists for a sterile, flowable, moldable hemostatic composition that is ready to use at the point of use or can be prepared with minimal manipulation and without risk of compromising the sterility of the product.
It would be desirable if a hemostatic device, e.g. a delivery means such as a syringe or other applicator, would be pre-filled with a hemostatic composition and instantly available to the surgeon at the point of use without need for further manipulation. The hemostatic composition pre-filled in the device or applicator should be sterile and flowable and should require minimum preparation time and minimal force when extruded or injected through the delivery means at the point of use. The compositions of the present invention provide such properties and pre-filled devices.


A boot image discovery and delivery system includes one or more subsystems to provide a host device, provide an image discovery client on the host device, transfer control of a start-up initialization to the image discovery client, receive authentication credentials from a centralized database, provide a first boot image to the host device for a first set of credentials and provide a second boot image to the host device for a second set of credentials.

The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a boot image discovery and delivery system for booting an information handling system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Initial start-up procedures for an IHS generally include bootstrapping or booting-up the IHS. During a boot-up, a program, such as a basic input/output system (BIOS), initializes and tests hardware, peripherals, external devices and starts-up the IHS operating system (OS).
FIG. 2 illustrates block diagrams of several prior art boot image discovery architectures for use with an information handling system, where the boot image information is stored either in the host BIOS, a network interface card (NIC) option read only memory (ROM) or on a centralized dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server, which associates boot images to the physical media access card (MAC) address of the host, as should be readily understood by a person having ordinary skill in the art. See option 1, 130, option 2, 132, option 3, 134 and option 4, 136. In other words, prior storage solutions for internet small computer system interface (iSCI) boot of diskless hosts (e.g., servers or clients) perform host to boot image association based on the unique physical ID of the host, typically a MAC address, of the NIC port.
In these prior solutions, the location of the boot image is either stored in the persistent (non-volatile) storage in the host BIOS or in the Pre-OS code download through pre-boot execution environment (PXE), which is used to boot-up the client machine. These solutions do not support provisioning images for a logical user or a group of users.
Because boot image location is stored on the host or known to the host via the code downloaded from PXE, these solutions do not customize (e.g., update hardware drivers, update OS boot configuration and etc.), the image dynamically based on the host platform hardware.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved boot image discovery and delivery system absent the disadvantages discussed above.

Boot image discovery and delivery system


A cultivator sweep assembly having a sweep adapted for releasable attachment to a shank of a mobile agricultural apparatus. The sweep assembly includes a sweep having a more narrow profile, and a coupling attached to a tapered end portion of the shank and disposed between the sweep and the supporting shank. The sweep includes a stem portion that defines a housing configured to frictionally receive and engage the tapered end portion of the shank. The end portion of the shank having the coupling attached thereto is slidably received within the housing until a projection of the coupling is received through a top opening of the housing. The projection received through the top opening indicating that the end portion of the shank is sufficiently received within the housing of the sweep, and that the sweep is mounted to the shank with sufficient force.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to agricultural tools, and in particular, to a cultivator sweep having an improved narrow design for enhancing operation of the sweep, and a coupling or attachment between the sweep and a supporting shank.
2. Brief Description of Prior Art
It is conventional to provide field cultivator sweeps that are drawn through the soil for the purpose of loosening earth for seeding, and to kill weeds which otherwise might rob the soil of valuable moisture and nutrients.
A well known form of cultivator sweep has a generally V-shape configuration with a nose portion including a forwardmost ground penetrating point and a pair of wing portions which diverge outwardly and rearwardly from said point. During operation, the cultivator sweep is normally disposed about 3 inches to about 6 inches below the top surface of the soil.
Standard assemblies for cultivator sweeps typically include an upright shank connected at its upper end and extending downwardly to a receiving portion of the sweep. The shank being generally attached to a mobile agricultural apparatus. Available mounting means for attaching the shank to the sweep include bolts extending through aligned holes in the sweep and the shank. Another known mounting structure includes the use of a tapered adapter brackets fastened to the end of a self-locking fit with a taper on the sweeps. However problems associated with such assemblies include loss of sweeps during transport if the tapers do not match correctly or if the sweep is not mounted with sufficient force.
In many of the shank assemblies that have a quick attaching feature for mounting the sweep on the shank, a relatively wide profile is presented along the shank and at the mounting location of the sweep. Such a profile generally results in unwanted residue disturbance and higher draft loads.
As will be seen from the subsequent description, the preferred embodiments of the present invention overcome shortcomings of the prior art.


A system for generating a slicing scheme for slicing a specimen is disclosed. A parameter unit (1) is arranged for determining at least one parameter of a lesion in a specimen, based on an image dataset (14) representing at least part of the specimen. A slicing scheme unit (2) is arranged for determining a slicing scheme (15) for pathologic examination of the specimen, based on the at least one parameter. A specimen preparation unit (3) is arranged for determining a slicing preparation protocol, based on the image dataset, wherein the slicing preparation protocol comprises a representation of preparation steps relating to the specimen. A segmentation unit (5) is arranged for segmenting the lesion in the image dataset (14), wherein the parameter unit (1) is arranged for determining the at least one parameter, based on the segmented lesion.

Although most cancers are detected by clinical and radiological examination, pathology is the gold standard for the diagnosis of different types of cancer, including breast cancer.
The accuracy of the pathologic examination depends on the appropriate preparation and slicing of the specimen, in particular when the lesions are small. This is especially true in breast cancer, with a high percentage of early detected cancer, for example ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), where lesions are typically small. As the early detected cancers provide no haptic feedback and are invisible to the pathologist, the specimen has to be sampled carefully in order to minimize the number of missed cancers.
Pathologists generally need a number of histologically prepared sections from a tissue specimen. These sections are photographed using microscopic photography. The specimen can be obtained by a surgical procedure or by biopsy, in which a tissue sample is removed from the body.
The histological slices typically represent a common set of sections selected to provide information for diagnosis and treatment monitoring, for example by determining the type of pathologic lesion and its extent. This suite of sections are produced by following a slicing scheme, and for example includes at least one section along the long axis of the specimen, at least one to two sections on each side of the tissue specimen transversing the long axis, and at least three to four sections from the center of the lesion. The number of slices typically increases with the size of the lesion. A description of the preparation of histological sections is given, for example, in appendix H of Ackerman's Surgical Pathology, 8th Edition (1996).
WO 98/36682 discloses a system for facilitating pathological examination of a lesion in tissue, in which the lesion is optically scanned using confocal optics to generate confocal images representing microscopic sections of a lesion to provide information traditionally available to a pathologist by viewing, under a microscope, slides of a suite of histologically prepared sections of a lesion. Moreover, the cited document discloses storage of such confocal images and their transfer from one location to a pathologist at a remote location for their interpretation.

Generating a slicing scheme for slicing a specimen


Environments are disclosed in which a server executes an application on behalf of a client device and, in particular, to providing responsive scrolling in server-hosted applications. In one example, a remote computing device may be a mobile (or stationary) computing device with (or without) a touch screen input surface. Some or all of the client-server communication between a client-side scrollable UI control module of the remote computing device and a server-side scrollable UI control module of the server device may occur in an asynchronous manner.

With the increase of mobility in computing devices, there has also been an increase in the need to access and execute applications from mobile devices. Many mobile devices have limited computing and storage capabilities. Mobile devices overcome these limitations by connecting remotely to a server to execute an application on its behalf.
One of the core problems with server-hosted applications accessed by a mobile device arises from network latency and bandwidth limitations. For server-hosted applications, there will usually be a lag between user input and graphical feedback, mostly attributable to network latency when connected over a network. On touch-based mobile devices without a mouse or keyboard alternatives usually do not exist or are cumbersome, and user expectations are generally higher. This problem is troublesome with touch-based mobile devices especially when coupled with the potential for adverse network conditions over wireless network connections, especially 3G services with unpredictable and anecdotally high latency (100 ms to 300 ms is not uncommon). High latency networks also include any network where conditions impose a perceptible reduction in user responsiveness when compared to using a locally installed application.

Responsive scroller controls in server-hosted applications


Interior design structures and lightweight furniture formed from a felted fibrous material such as needle punched felt as the material of construction in replacement for wood. The felted fibrous material is adapted to provide adequate strength to permit construction of three dimensional structures by use of standard joining techniques such as screws, nails, glue and the like. At the same time, the nature of the felted fibrous material affords the opportunity to bend and shape the material thereby allowing additional freedom in construction and use.

Interior design structures such as furniture, cornices, lambrequins, headboards, corona treatments and screens are well known. Typically in the past such structures have been formed from board stock materials such as wood or the like with segments of such material being cut to predefined shapes and thereafter being nailed, stapled or glued together to yield a desired construction. While such materials have been useful, they have faced limitations due to their relatively high weight as well as their inability to be easily bent to different geometries.

Interior treatments and furniture of fibrous felt construction


A text editing assistor comprises a table storing section storing a candidate table, a candidate displaying section, a character sequence finalization section, an environment information acquisition section, a determination section, and a first updating section. The candidate displaying section displays at least one prospective character sequence in response to a character sequence which is input by the user. The character sequence finalization section allows the user to select one of the at least one prospective character sequence displayed by the candidate displaying section as a final character sequence. The environment information acquisition section acquires environment information. When a final character sequence is selected by means of the character sequence finalization section, the determination section determines whether or not to update the candidate table based on the environment information. The first updating section updates the candidate table only when the determination section determines that the candidate table is to be updated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a text editing assistor, and more particularly to a text editing assistor which displays a prospective character sequence based on a character sequence which is input by a user.
2. Description of the Background Art
The rapid prevalence of cellular phone-based e-mail services in recent years has resulted in much increased opportunities for users to input text via key operations. Under such circumstances, various proposals have been made for realizing text editing assistors which enhance the efficiency and ease of text input operations performed by the user. Behind such needs is the fact that written Japanese consists of different sets of alphabets (hiragana, katakana, etc.), with which further types of characters (Chinese characters, or the English alphabet) may be mixedly used. Furthermore, when a Japanese sentence is typed on a keyboard (as in the case of a computer), it is commonplace to employ the English alphabet system (known as Romaji) to first phonetically type up the Japanese sentence as heard to obtain an input character sequence spelt in hiragana, and then convert portions of the input character sequence to other types of characters such as katakana or Chinese characters. Throughout the present specification, such conversion will be referred to as "finalization", and the entire sequence obtained after the finalization will be referred to as a "final character sequence". Note, however, that a final character sequence is not irrevocably "final", but maybe subjected to further editing by the user, e.g., deletion and/or addition.
A typical example of conventional techniques for enhancing the efficiency and ease of text input operations is presenting prospective character sequences based on a character sequence which is input by a user. For example, for a given character sequence which is input by the user (composed of hiragana, katakana, or the English alphabet (Romaji)), a text editing assistor may present to the user a list of "conversion candidates" (i.e., words or fractions of words as spelt in Chinese characters), the list being presented in an estimated order of frequency. On the other hand, for a given character sequence which is input by the user (e.g., a character sequence "oha"), a text editing assistor may predict the rest of the word and present the result of the prediction as a "prediction candidate" (e.g., "ohayo", or 'good morning'). Hereinafter, more specific instances of such techniques will be described.
One specific example is a technique of presenting to the user a curtailed list of candidates, from which unlikely or impossible candidates are omitted. In this technique, automatic predictions are made in the middle of the user's inputting operation of a character sequence. Then, based on consistency with any previously-finalized sequence of Chinese characters, hiragana, and/or katakana, or user instructions as to which conversion candidates are adopted or dismissed, a curtailed list of candidates from which unnecessary prospective character sequences are omitted is presented to the user. Thus, the burden of the user's input operations is reduced.
Another specific example is a technique in which prospective character sequences to be presented to the user are "learned" based on input character sequences and finalized character sequences (final character sequences). According to this technique, a prospective character sequence which is selected as a final character sequence for a given input character sequence will be presented as a most prospective character sequence the next time the same character sequence is input. A further modification to a text editing assistor having such a learning function is a technique in which, if a once-finalized character sequence is corrected, the correction is reflected in the learning. This technique works in such a manner that, if a user has inadvertently selected the wrong final character sequence, this wrong final character sequence is prevented from being presented as the most prospective character sequence.
The purpose of using a text editing assistor, or the environment in which it is used, may vary. For example, the same user may use a text editing assistor to write a text for business purposes or use it in a more private situation. Since the frequency which a given character sequence is used varies depending on the purpose and/or environment associated with the text editing assistor, the character sequence to be presented as the most prospective character sequence should also vary depending on the purpose and/or environment associated with the text editing assistor. For example, a sentence like "to whom it may concern" is often used in business situations, and therefore, it would be convenient if such a sentence is presented as a prediction candidate when the user has input a character sequence "to". On the other hand, such a sentence is less often used in private situations, so that it may detract from the user's convenience if the above sentence is presented as a prediction candidate in private situations.
As described above, prospective character sequence which are presented on a conventional text editing assistor do not reflect the purpose or state for/in which the text editing assistor is used. In other words, a conventional text editing assistor will always present the same prospective character sequence in response to a given input sequence, irrespective of the purpose or state. Therefore, depending on the purpose for which the text editing assistor is used, the function of presenting prospective character sequences may not provide much convenience to the user.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A gear having a thin-walled section formed on one end face among two end faces of a tooth in a tooth-width direction is provided. A portion of the thin-walled section is projected and formed so as to serve as an overhanging section. The overhanging section prevents backlash. A thickness T3 of the overhanging section, a thickness T2 of a tooth flank corresponding section, and a thickness T1 of a tooth crest corresponding section positioned therebetween satisfies the relation T1<T3<T2.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gear structured to reduce backlash.
2. Description of the Related Art
Compared to a metal gear, a plastic gear has operational advantages such as being light in weight, being self-lubricating, thereby allowing use without a lubricant, and having low noise. At the same time, the plastic gear has manufacturing advantages such as allowing high productivity and allowing mass-production, thereby allowing a reduction in manufacturing costs. In recent years, the plastic gear having such advantages has been widely used in, for example, gear trains in ink-jet printers, power transmission sections of automobiles, and gear trains in precision machinery. The range of use of the plastic gear is expanding.
Even in the plastic gear having low noise, as described above, teeth-knocking noises (undesirable noises) frequently occur depending on usage methods, causing undesirable noises. For example, when the plastic gear is used in an intermittent rotation transmission mechanism, two gears that are intermeshed transmit power while frequently repeating rotation-start and rotation-stop. Therefore, at rotation-start, a tooth of a gear on a driving side immediately after the rotation-start collides with a tooth of a gear on a driven side that is not moving. As a result, the teeth-knocking noise occurs. At the same time, at rotation-stop, the tooth of the gear on the driven side collides with the tooth of the gear on the driving side that has stopped before the gear on the driven side, as a result of inertia. As a result, the teeth-knocking noise occurs. In the intermittent rotation transmission mechanism, rotation-start and rotation-stop are frequently repeated. Therefore, the teeth-knocking noises frequently occur and become undesirable noise.
To prevent such teeth-knocking noises during power transmission, innovative plastic gears have been proposed.
For example, a plastic gear disclosed in Patent Literature 1 includes an almost triangular cavity section on both end faces of a tooth in a tooth-width direction. The cavity section reduces the thickness of the tooth. An angular thin-walled section is formed surrounding the cavity section. The gear is structured so that, as a result of differential shrinkage after injection-molding, the tooth thickness of the thin-walled section is thicker than the tooth thickness of an area without a thin-walled section. In other words, the thin-walled section is formed so as to project from a tooth flank in the area without the thin-walled section. In the gear, the thin-walled section is flexibly deformed during an initial stage of meshing with a partner gear and absorbs impact. Therefore, the gear can prevent the teeth-knocking noises from occurring.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-90412


An airlock latch assembly for restraining a disk drive actuator when the disk drive is subjected to rotary shock forces includes a first member and a second member rotatably mounted to the disk drive base. The second member engages the first member, preventing the first member from disengaging with the actuator assembly while the disk is not spinning. The two members are mechanically related such that one member can rotate in one direction only when the other member rotates in the opposite direction. The latch assembly also restrains the actuator in its proper position when the disk drive is subject to linear shock forces.

In conventional Winchester disk drives, a read/write head or transducer assembly "flies" upon an air bearing or cushion in very close proximity to the rotating surface of the data storage disk. The disk surface carries a thin film magnetic material having a multiplicity of magnetic storage domains that may be recorded and read back by the head. The transducer assembly, which can be any conventional, combination of transducers, sliders and load beams, is positioned and supported proximate the surface of the data storage disk using an actuator. The combination of the transducer assembly and the actuator is known as the transducer actuator or actuator assembly. The actuator supports the load beams and sliders and accurately positions the transducers above the surface of the disk within a "data area" to read and write data from/to the disk. When not in operation, the actuator assembly remains stationary in a "landing zone" along the inner diameter of the disk wherein the transducer rests on the surface of the disk. An actuator latch prevents the actuator assembly from moving into the data area during non-operation. The latch, may include an air vane portion which extends over the surface of the disk and pivots about an axis of rotation. As airflow generated by the rotating disk overcomes a biasing force from e.g. a magnet and moves the latch to release the actuator assembly. Such actuator latches are known as "airlocks".
The disk drive industry is moving towards the adoption of extremely smooth media (rotating recording disk) to enable the read write slider element to fly closer to the magnetic recording disk surface. Although closer flying proximity is desirable for improved read/write performance, a problem remains that if the slider were to come into contact with the smooth surface while the disk is not spinning, a "Jo-block" effect between the smooth disk surface and the slider could effectively adhere the two together. In response to this problem, the disk manufacturing industry has developed what is referred to as "zone textured" media. As the name implies, the landing zone is textured to reduce the coefficient of friction between the slider and disk. Texturing enables the slider to break free of the disk during disk spin-up, without detrimentally affecting the slider and/or disk. Texturing may also be applied to air bearing surfaces of the slider.
FIG. 1 shows a plan view of a somewhat simplified disk drive, incorporating a typical air vane actuator latch 11. The latch 11 includes an air vane portion 12, depicted in a latched position, wherein a transducer 4 rests on a disk 13 at a landing zone 2. As shown in FIG. 1, in order for the transducer 4 to enter a data storage area 3 of the disk 13, air vane actuator latch 11 must first rotate clockwise, to disengage from the actuator assembly 17, followed by a clockwise rotation of the actuator assembly 17.
The latch 11 is specifically designed to be mass balanced about its axis of rotation so that linear shocks will not cause it to rotate and possibly permit the actuator 17 to escape from its latched position. In practice, conventional rotary airlock actuator latches have proven to be reasonably reliable in keeping the actuator assembly latched, provided that the input shock is linear in nature.
However, conventional air vane actuator latching mechanisms such as that of FIG. 1 offer less protection against rotary shock forces. When subjected to rotary shock, which may be described as sudden and rapid rotational movement of the disk drive 10, the respective inertia of the air vane latch 11 and the actuator assembly 17 tend to maintain their relative angular orientation, rather than rotate with a disk drive base 18. Thus, if the base 18 is suddenly rotated counterclockwise, the air vane latch 11 and the actuator 17, will tend to rotate with the base 18. In effect, the latch 11 and actuator 17 undergo a clockwise rotation with respect to the base 18, resulting in the orientation shown in FIG. 2 and an unwanted release of the actuator assembly 17. When the disk 13 is not rotating, release of actuator 17 causes unwanted contact between the slider and the data storage area 3. (FIG. 2 shows this problem) In practice, it is fairly easy to cause the prior air vane latch to fail in response to certain rotary shock forces, more frequently present especially in portable and laptop computers.
Thus, there exits a hitherto unsolved need for an improved, simple and cost efficient latching mechanism which can effectively protect against rotary as well as linear shock forces.

Air actuated latching mechanism rotationally resistant to rotational shock force


Scheduling on a wireless communications channel is carried out on the basis of demanded traffic on the channel. A root scheduling cycle is set on the basis of traffic levels, and alignment parameters are defined to define how traffic is to be allocated to the scheduling cycle.

Numerous wireless communication protocols rely on scheduling for granting access to a communication channel. Scheduling is used to ensure that transmissions take place at times which are expected by potential recipient devices, and to ensure that the channel is in use only by a single transmitting device at a time. In certain standardized communications protocols, scheduling is carried out according to a strict set of rules to ensure that all devices can be configured to be ready to receive scheduling information from a centralized source, often a Base Station, to determine if they should then configure themselves to transmit information thereafter and in what time slot.


A system is formed with a controller that is connected to and is adapted to control devices. A tool is attachable to the controller and functions to create control program for specifying the device by an object name, to create correlation data for correlating the control program with device data on the device, and to download the correlation data to the controller.

This invention relates to a tool attachable to a controller.
As is well known, control systems for use in industries are usually formed by appropriately combining controllers such as a PLC and devices which are controlled by such controllers. FIG. 1 shows a prior art example of such a system comprising a controller 1 to which a plurality of devices 3a, 3b are connected through a network 2. Control programs (also referred to as drivers) 4a, 4b for handling the devices 3a and 3b are installed in the controller 1. These control programs 4a, 4b are prepared individually for these devices 3a, 3b and serve to transmit and receive data to and from the corresponding one of the devices 3a, 3b by making use of an I/O memory 5 in order to carry out a specified process. Numeral 6 indicates a control program (X) for retrieving the control programs 4a, 4b. They may altogether form a task.
The devices 3a, 3b may be of different types. They may be of a type, such as ON/OFF sensors and digital I/O, serving to transmit and receive ON/OFF data to and from the controller 1. They may be of another type, such as photoelectric sensors (having the quantity of light and a threshold value as parameters) or temperature adjusters (having a target temperature and PID as parameters), having parameters to be set within the device and operated by a program prepared by the user.
Although FIG. 1 shows an example with the devices 3a, 3b connected to the controller 1 through a network 2, communications between devices and a controller may be effected through a bus within the controller. This would be a case if a building block-type PLC is used as the controller and motion control units and PID control units are directly connected to the slots on its base unit.
For carrying out such communications, it is necessary to correlate the control programs 4a, 4b with the devices 3a, 3b to be accessed thereby. For this purpose, it is normally done to assign node numbers serving as identifiers to be uniquely set on the network 2 for the devices 3a, 3b and to specify these node numbers to make an access. When the devices are connected through a bus, the node numbers become unit numbers, but the basic idea remains the same.
For the example shown in FIG. 1, the node number of Device A 3a is #5 and that of Device B 3b is #6. Thus, when Control Program A 4a makes an access to Device A 3a by message communication, the node number #5 for Device A 3a is written in the program.
It is convenient if a control program, after having been created, can be used again ("reuse") for another program because the trouble of creating a completely new program can be obviated and the labor for the development can be reduced. On the other hand, however, a control program (referred to as a driver) can manifest its usefulness only after this control program (software) is integrated into the device (hardware) to be accessed and it is preferable to treat the software and the hardware together. When a control program and a device is thus integrated together, it is hereinafter referred to as a "control object" or simply as an "object".
With prior art systems, however, there was no way to treat a control program and a device as an integrated object although individual programs could be reused in units of programs. Thus, the programs were reused only separately, and it was a cumbersome process.
It also happens sometimes, as shown in FIG. 1, to reconnect a device (such as Device A 3a which has been in use with a controller 1) to another controller 1′ and to use it therewith, say, for changing, reinforcing or repairing a production line. If the user remembers the concept of control object introduced above and attempts to shift both the control program and the device to the reusing controller 1′, the control program can be easily downloaded to the controller through a programming tool or a memory card provided to the controller, and the device (such as Device A 3a) can be shifted as hardware by connecting to the network 2′ to which the controller 1′ is connected.
With such a simple connection, however, the control object cannot be made operable. Although a configuration is required for carrying out communications with the device paired with the control program, the data which were being used by the controller 1 cannot be directly used for the operation.
This will be explained more in detail with reference to the example of FIG. 1. In this case, the node number of Device A controlled by Control Object A 4a was #5, to start with. Thus, Control Program A or Control Program X for retrieving Control Program A includes a portion where the node number #5 is specified for accessing Device A. In the reusing controller 1′, however, the node number #5 is already used by another device. Thus, there will be an error if the portion of Control Program A or X containing the node number #5 is left unmodified. In the case of the example shown in FIG. 1, therefore, the portion of Control Program A or X must be modified to rewrite #5 as #2, which is the correct node number. This must be done, however, with extreme care such that the rewriting will not affect other programs.
It also happens sometimes that Device A is assigned differently in the I/O memories of the controllers I and I′ (I/O configuration). Even if the programming style is such that the I/O memory 5 to which Device A is assigned to is accessed by specifying its address or by a variable programming, relevant portions of the program must be modified in view of the possibility that the assignment may have been changed at the time of a reuse. This makes the procedure cumbersome, and the operation cannot proceed if a wrong address is used.
There are also additional problems if a reassignment to the I/O memory 5 is required, as explained above, when a control object is to be reused, because the program developer must be aware of how the I/O memory 5 of the reusing controller 1′ is being used, or the memory map showing where to find an empty area of a specified size. In other words, the program must be prepared such that empty areas can be efficiently utilized. During this process, human errors such as erroneous assignment are likely to take place.
It also happens sometimes that even the I/O assignment for an already assigned device is changed. In such a situation, the control program for the already connected device must be modified. Not only is this cumbersome but it also tends to increase the possibility of introducing errors.
As explained above, furthermore, there are devices such as photoelectric sensors and temperature adjusters that are provided with parameters to be set within the device. For setting such parameters and programs for such a device, it may be necessary to attach tools directly to the device or to the controller and to carry out setting of different kinds through such a controller.
Thus, if a device malfunctions and is replaced, the same work procedure that was carried out on the replaced device such as the setting of parameters must be repeated over again on the new replacing device. Such procedure is usually carried out manually by an operator according to data recorded either in a memory device or in a notebook. This means that input errors are likely to occur. It also happens frequently that such data are misplaced or otherwise difficult to find immediately or wrong data are erroneously consulted.
FIG. 2 shows another prior art system. If an error occurs in the device 3 in this system, there is a change in a bit in the I/O memory 5 of the controller 1 assigned to the device 3. If this change is detected by a display device 7 which keeps monitoring the I/O memory 5 of the controller 1, an error warning is outputted thereby. Explained more in detail, the condition of the device 3 is detected by system software (First Communication Process 8a, or "COMM PROC 1") of the controller 1 and is stored at a preliminarily specified address on the I/O memory 5 of the controller 1. A control program 4 in the controller 1 is monitoring this address of the I/O memory 5, and if a change in the condition (such as the "flag" condition) at this address is detected, the control program 4 indicates it at another address(say, by raising a flag at this address). When this happens, the control program 4 causes data such as the screen number to be displayed on the display device, numeral data such as an abnormality code and character array data (such as the details of the abnormality) to be stored in a specified area on the memory 5 according to the condition of the device. Such data are then transmitted to the display device 7 through the Second Communication Process (or "COMM PROC 2") 8b and stored in the memory 5 inside the display device 7 according to data received by its communication processing means (or "COMM PROC") 8c. The screen number at which the display is to be made on the display device 7 is retrieved by the image display processing means ("IMAGE DISPLAY PROCESS") 4c together with the data stored in the memory 5. As a corresponding image is retrieved from the image memory 9, the retrieved image is displayed.
Even if an abnormal condition in a certain device is thus indicated, however, it cannot be readily understood from the display what is the role being played by the device within the system. For example, the user may recognize a logical unit called "Robot" but if it is reported that there is an abnormality in a communication address of a device which is its constituent element or that there is an ON/OFF error at a certain bit of the controller to which the device is assigned, it is not easy at all to understand in what kind of control element an abnormality has occurred. Thus, it is usually required to consult a table of some kind to understand the logical meaning and to carry out a proper maintenance work.
Production lines include many pieces of equipment, each provided with a so-called human-machine interface (HMI) such as display devices and panel computers. When the value of a device connected to a controller is to be displayed, if the memory of the device is connected to the memory of the controller, the HMI consults the memory of is the controller to which the device is connected through communication and its value is displayed by the HMI. If calculations are required for the display, such calculations are usually carried out by a HMI suited for carrying out data-related programs.
From the points of view of program designers who design programs for HMI and display images and users who watch such HMI, it is desirable to collect data on devices by making an access with an object name for easy understanding. With a prior art system such as shown in FIG. 2, however, the user will initially have to map the memory of the device to the controller by I/O configuration and, after understanding its data, to use a tool of the HMI to specify the address of the memory of the controller.
Thus, if the memory of the device has been changed, say, as a result of an equipment change, the calculation program of the HMI must also be rewritten. Thus, when a control program and a data program are to be developed concurrently in parallel, the developer of one program must always be attentive of the development in the other program. This makes the development of various programs very complicated and time-consuming.


A coaxial cable covering apparatus includes a plate that has a first side, a second side and a peripheral edge. The plate has at least one mounting opening extending therethrough. A flange is attached to and is coextensive with the peripheral edge. The flange is angled with respect to a plane of the plate. The flange has an outer edge has a notch therein. The notch extends toward the peripheral edge of the plate. The first side of the plate has a trough therein aligned with the notch. The trough is elongated and a coaxial cable is positionable in the notch and extended along a portion of the trough. At least one fastener may be extending through the at least one mounting opening to secure the plate to a dwelling wall. The plate is positioned over an outlet to hold the coaxial cable flush with the dwelling wall.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cable outlet and covering devices and more particularly pertains to a new cable outlet and covering device for holding a coaxial cable flush with a dwelling wall to prevent the coaxial cable from being snagged or caught by adjacent furniture or other articles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of cable outlet and covering devices is known in the prior art. While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a device that will hold a coaxial cable flush against a wall after it has been plugged into an outlet. This will provide a more clean appearance and will prevent the cable from interfering with adjacent pieces of furniture or items positioned on desks or tables.


An apparatus, e.g., a boost converter, includes a first switch configured to be coupled to an inductor and to support a charging current in the inductor from a power source and at least two serially-coupled second switches coupled in parallel with the first switch and configured to selectively route current from the inductor to at least two serially-connected capacitors. The apparatus may further include a control circuit configured to operate the first switch and the plurality of second switches.

Boost converters are used in a wide variety of applications, such as in motor drives and in interfaces for solar and wind power generators. Many such applications require boosting of an input voltage to a much higher voltage. For example, a solar application may require boosting of a relatively low voltage produced by a solar string to a much higher voltage required for an inverter that is coupled to the power grid.
Various converter configurations have been developed to provide such high levels of boost. These converter arrangements include cascaded boost circuits that include multiple boost stages, as well as coupled inductor, interleaved and multi-level boost converter arrangements. Such conventional boosts converters may suffer reduced efficiency due to excessive switching losses and/or may stress transistors and other components of the circuits.

Boost converter with reduced switching loss and methods of operating the same


A system and a method for autonomous decisioning and operation by an autonomous agent includes: collecting decisioning data including: collecting a first stream of data includes observation data obtained by onboard sensors of the autonomous agent, wherein each of the onboard sensors is physically arranged on the autonomous agent; collecting a second stream of data includes observation data obtained by offboard infrastructure devices, the offboard infrastructure devices being arranged geographically remote from and in an operating environment of the autonomous agent; implementing a decisioning data buffer that includes the first stream of data from the onboard sensors and the second stream of data from the offboard sensors; generating current state data; generating/estimating intent data for each of one or more agents within the operating environment of the autonomous agent; identifying a plurality of candidate behavioral policies; and selecting and executing at least one of the plurality of candidate behavioral policies.

State of the art vehicle automation presently enables some vehicles, such as cars, to operate in a substantially and/or sometimes fully autonomous state. An ability of such autonomous agents to operate effectively and safely in busy or active environments often relies on an ability of the autonomous agent to observe its operating environment and make operating decisions that enables the autonomous agent to achieve a routing or traveling goal in a safe manner.
A technical problem that may arise in many operating circumstances involving an autonomous agent may relate to an inability of the autonomous agent to select or make the most optimal operating decision when multiple operating decisions are possible in a given operating circumstance. While route planning and low-level control instructions may provide a basis for performing self-controls by an autonomous agent for achieving a particular destination, behavioral planning typically provides a basis for performing real-time decisions by the autonomous agent according to live observations of the operating environment made by one or more sensors onboard the autonomous agent. In particular, the autonomous agent's perspective of its real-time environment for selecting behavioral policy is primarily shaped by onboard sensors carried by the autonomous agent. Thus, the technical problem persists because the autonomous agent may have only a singular view of its operating environment rather than comprehensive perspectives of the operating environment to enable an optimal selection of behavioral policy in real-time operating circumstances.
Thus, there is a need in the vehicle automation field for enabling a multi-perspective view of an operating environment of an autonomous agent that enables an optimal selection of behavioral policy by an autonomous agent in real-time operating conditions. The embodiments of the present application described herein provide technical solutions that address, at least, the need described above.

Multi-perspective system and method for behavioral policy selection by an autonomous agent


An illumination apparatus of light emitting diodes and method of heat dissipation thereof are provided. The present illumination apparatus is associated with a loop heat pipe (LHP) device. The LHP device includes a condenser communicating with an evaporator. The illumination apparatus includes a base having a plurality of light emitting diodes disposed thereon and a cover with a light exit enclosing the base. The evaporator is associated with the base and the condenser is associated with the cover. The heat generated from the light emitting diodes is conducted to the cover, and thereby dissipated away.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an illumination apparatus of light emitting diodes with a heat dissipation device, and more particularly to an illumination apparatus of light emitting diodes associated with a loop heat pipe device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Light emitting diode (LED) has many advantages, such as small volume, higher illumination efficiency, energy saving and so on. Especially, the photo-electrical power conversion efficiency of the light emitting diode has been rapidly improved during the last twenty years, thus the light emitting diode is regarded as the main illumination source in the future. For energy conservation, the light emitting diode will certainly and gradually being substituted for a lot kinds of today's illumination sources, such as light bulbs.
Today, the light emitting diodes are applied popularly and commonly used in traffic signal lights, electric broads, flash lights, and so on. Although improving the high-power illuminating technology or quality of the light emitting diodes is the future trend and demanded urgently, such as demanded in the application of reading light or protruding light, etc., that still exists some technical bottlenecks to overcome. The main bottleneck for the high-power illuminating technology is the insufficient heat dissipation ability of the traditional illumination apparatus of light emitting diodes often leads to the light emitting diodes in a high operational temperature to decrease theirs service life, further, even to cause them to burn down.
As a high-power or high-brightness illumination apparatus of light emitting diodes concerned, such as above 30˜100 W (watt), it is hard to design an effective heat dissipation means for the LED illumination apparatus without fans. A traditional method of solving the heat dissipation problem is adapting a plurality of cooling fins attached on a base of the illumination apparatus and the heat generated from the light emitting diodes is conducted to the cooling fins via the base, then using an electric fan to blow the heat away, and thereby the heat is dissipated away. As the above-mentioned descriptions, the traditional method of heat dissipation usually requires a large space for setting up the plurality of cooling fins near the illumination apparatus and further needs to install an electric fan, that causes noise and reliability problems when it was used outdoors.
Another method of heat dissipation is adapting a conventional heat pipe device, however, the heat dissipation ability is limited due to the rigidity of the conventional heat pipe device and the limited length of conventional heat pipe device, usually can not be longer than 30 cm. The heat dissipation ability of a conventional heat pipe device is thus mostly less than 30 W. Therefore, the other traditional method also can not solve the heat dissipation problem of the high-power illumination apparatus of light emitting diodes effectively.

Illumination apparatus of light emitting diodes and method of heat dissipation thereof


A pixel driving method is adapted for a liquid crystal display. Each pixel includes a first sub-pixel and a second sub-pixel, in which the first sub-pixel and the second sub-pixel each includes a first display region and a second display region. The pixel driving method includes providing a first voltage to the first displaying region of the first sub-pixel and the second sub-pixel; providing a second voltage to the second displaying region of the first sub-pixel and a third voltage to the second displaying region of the second sub-pixel; and when the provided first voltage is larger than a predetermined voltage, providing the second voltage so that the provided second voltage is smaller than the provided third voltage.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a pixel driving method. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a pixel driving method for pixels at a high gray scale range.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of various liquid crystal display products have become commonplace in recent times. However, the conventional liquid crystal display still has the problems of a narrow viewing angle, i.e., the image is partially white when viewed at an oblique angle on both sides of the liquid crystal display, so that the screen of liquid crystal display generates a color washout situation. The conventional approach is to divide each pixel of the liquid crystal display into a red sub-pixel, green sub-pixel and blue sub-pixel, and each sub-pixel is divided into two display regions. Through a pixel circuit design that enables two display regions of each sub-pixel to have different pixel voltages such that the luminance of one display region is different from the luminance of another display region, the quality of the image is improved.
However, although this approach achieves white balance compensation when users watch the liquid crystal display at oblique viewing angles, if it is desired to display a high gray scale, the degree to which the luminance of the blue sub-pixel decreases is much greater than the decrease in the luminance of the red sub-pixel and green sub-pixel. Accordingly, when users watch the liquid crystal display at oblique viewing angles, the image quality is poor since the display image is partially green.
Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a relation between gray scales and normalized luminance of a conventional red sub-pixel, green sub-pixel, and blue sub-pixel at an oblique view (45 degrees) and direct view. There are six curves L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, and L6 in FIG. 1. The curves L1, L2, and L3 represent relations between normalized luminance of the red sub-pixel, green sub-pixel, and blue sub-pixel respectively at a direct view. The curves L4, L5, and L6 represent relations between normalized luminance of the red sub-pixel, green sub-pixel, and blue sub-pixel respectively at an oblique view.
As shown in FIG. 1, when a pixel has a gray scale value larger than 192, i.e., the pixel has a gray scale value within a range A1, the curve L6 (blue sub-pixel) at an oblique view is more concave than the curve L3 at a direct view. In other words, the luminance of the blue sub-pixel at an oblique view is lower than the luminance of the blue sub-pixel at a direct view. On the other hand, the curve L4 (red sub-pixel) at oblique view is less concave than the curve L3 at a direct view. The curve L5 (green sub-pixel) at an oblique view is also less concave than the curve L2 at a direct view.
Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a relation between normalized luminance at an oblique view (45 degrees) and normalized luminance at a direct view for a conventional red sub-pixel, green sub-pixel, and blue sub-pixel, in which the curves N1, N2, and N3represent the red sub-pixel, the green sub-pixel, and the blue sub-pixel, respectively. The reference line N4represents no color washout effect. As shown in FIG. 2, when the normalized luminance at direct view is larger than 0.7, i.e., when the pixel has a gray scale value within a range A2, the difference between the curve N3(blue sub-pixel) and the reference line N4is larger than the difference between the curve N1(red sub-pixel) and the reference line N4, and the difference between the curve N2(green sub-pixel) and the reference line N4. In other words, when the pixel has a large gray scale value, the reduction of the luminance of the blue sub-pixel is larger than the reduction of the luminance of the red sub-pixel and green sub-pixel at an oblique view (45 degrees) causing the luminance of the pixel to appear to lack blue. Therefore, when the pixel has a large gray scale value, a condition in which the image is partially green at an oblique view (45 degrees) occurs.

Pixel driving method and liquid crystal display implementing the same


A method for detecting rotating stall in a compressor is disclosed herein. The method comprises measuring radial vibration of the rotor relative to the stator and generating a vibration measurement signal, calculating a frequency spectrum of the vibration measurement signal, identifying a plurality of frequency bandwidths of the frequency spectrum, neglecting one first frequency bandwidth of the plurality of frequency bandwidths if the rotation frequency of the rotor falls within the first frequency bandwidth, neglecting at least one second frequency bandwidth of the plurality of frequency bandwidths if the rotation frequency of the rotor falls below the second frequency bandwidth, determining the maximum magnitude of the spectrum in each of the non-neglected frequency bandwidths, and comparing each determined maximum magnitude and a predetermined value. Rotating stall is considered occurring if at least one of the comparisons shows that the corresponding determined maximum magnitude is greater than the predetermined value.

Embodiments of the present invention disclosed herein generally relate to a method and apparatus for detecting rotating stall in a compressor, in particular in a centrifugal compressor.
Rotating stall, also known as rotational stall, is a local disruption of airflow within a compressor which continues to provide compressed fluid but with reduced effectiveness.
Rotating stall arises when a small proportion of aerofoils experience aerofoil stall, disrupting the local airflow without destabilizing the compressor. The stalled aerofoils create pockets of relatively stagnant fluid (referred to as stall cells) which, rather than moving in the flow direction, rotate around the circumference of the compressor. The stall cells rotate with the rotor blades, but at a lower speed, affecting subsequent aerofoils around the rotor as each encounters the stall cell.
A rotating stall may be momentary, resulting from an external disturbance, or may be steady as the compressor finds a working equilibrium between stalled and unstalled areas. Local stalls substantially reduce the efficiency of the compressor and increase the structural loads on the aerofoils encountering stall cells in the region affected.
In many cases, however, the compressor aerofoils are critically loaded without capacity to absorb the disturbance to normal airflow such that the original stall cells affect neighboring regions and the stalled region rapidly grows to become a complete compressor stall which is commonly known as surge. If surge continues and no action is taken to stop it, the rotor blades will be severely damaged and, eventually, the whole compressor will be damaged.
Therefore, it is important to try to avoid surge in a compressor.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,029 discloses a method and an apparatus for diagnosing rotating stall of a rotating machinery by monitoring dynamic shaft precession of the machine and comparing this precession with a standard one and altering the precession as the machine approaches a destabilizing condition when indicated by the comparison step. Axial vibration monitoring means is also provided for monitoring and comparing a dynamic axial vibration of the machine with that of a standard one and altering the axial vibration as the machine approaches a destabilizing condition when indicated by the comparison step. Furthermore, the complex dynamic stiffness of the machine is measured and the direct dynamic stiffness and the quadrature dynamic stiffness are computed for use as a destabilizing warning.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,433 discloses a method and an apparatus for continuous prediction, monitoring and control of compressor health via detection of precursors to rotating stall and surge; at least one sensor is operatively coupled to the compressor for monitoring at least one compressor parameter. According to the embodiments, a plurality of sensors are disposed about the casing of the compressor for measuring dynamic compressor parameters such as, for example, pressure, velocity of gasses flowing through the compressor, force, vibrations exerted on the compressor casing. A system is connected to the sensor for computing stall precursors. According to an embodiment, compressor data are measured as a function of time, FFT is performed on the measured data and changes in magnitudes at specific frequencies are identified and compared with baseline compressor values.
US2004/0037693 discloses a system and method for detecting rotating stall in a centrifugal compressor, particularly in the diffuser region of a centrifugal compressor. The process begins with the detection or sensing of acoustic energy associated with the onset of rotating stall. A pressure transducer is placed in the gas flow path downstream of the impeller, preferably in the compressor discharge passage or the diffuser, to measure the sound or acoustic pressure phenomenon. Next, the signal from the pressure transducer is processed either using analog or digital techniques to determine the presence of rotating stall. Rotating stall is detected by comparing the detected energy amount, which detected energy amount is based on the measured acoustic pressure, with a predetermined threshold amount corresponding to the presence of rotating stall.
US2010/0296914 discloses a stall and surge detection system and method for a compressor. The system comprises a vibration monitor that monitors radial vibrations, axial vibrations and axial displacement. According to a first embodiment, radial vibrations in one fixed and predetermined frequency bandwidth based on the minimum operating rotating speed of the rotor of the compressor, specifically from 2.5 Hz to 45 Hz, are monitored for detecting incipient surge, i.e. rotating stall. According to a second embodiment, using a tracking filter, tracked to the rotational frequency of the rotor of the compressor, radial vibrations in the range of frequencies from e.g. 5% of the rotational frequency to e.g. 90% of the rotational frequency are monitored for detecting incipient surge, i.e. rotating stall.
WO2009/055878 discloses a method to avoid instable surge conditions with centrifugal compressors. The method provides to measure and/or calculate forces on the bearings of the rotor of the compressor, and to detect timely exceptional imbalance of radial forces on the bearings which occurs before the centrifugal compressor ends up in an unstable condition. According to one embodiment, the component of the radial forces which is synchronous with the rotational frequency of the rotor is eliminated.
Therefore, there are solutions in the prior art that detect one or more indicators of an incipient surge in a compressor; some of these known solutions monitor the axial vibration of the compressor.
There is still a need for a solution to the problem of detecting incipient surge that is accurate, simple and flexible.

Method and equipment for detecting rotating stall and compressor


The present invention relates to a synchronizing ring comprising a tapered internal bore provided with sharp axial teeth. The synchronizing ring comprises axial grooves distributed on the tapered internal bore, each groove extending over a surface corresponding to at least three consecutive axial teeth, two successive grooves being separated by at least ten axial teeth.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sintered synchronizing ring of the type used in gear boxes.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A conventional gear box comprises an input shaft and an output shaft on which are distributed gears. Each gear supported by the input shaft generally permanently is in mesh with a gear supported by the output shaft. When no gear is engaged, that is, at the dead point, one of the gears, called the idle gear, of each pair of meshed gears freely rotates with respect to the associated shaft.
The selection of a gear ratio consists of making one of the idle gears solid with the associated shaft. This is done especially by means of a sliding gear rotated by the shaft supporting the idle gear to be selected and comprising dogs capable of meshing with dogs of the idle gear to make it solid with the shaft. For the meshing of the sliding gear dogs with the idle gear dogs to occur flexibly and smoothly, the rotation speeds of the gear and of the shaft must be equalized. A synchronizing ring capable of cooperating with the idle gear to progressively bring by friction the idle gear to the same rotation speed as the shaft rotation speed before the dogs of the sliding gear mesh with the dogs of the idle gear is thus provided.
FIGS. 1A and 1B respectively are a front view and an enlarged partial cross-section view of a conventional synchronizing ring. The synchronizing ring comprises ramps 10 distributed along its periphery on which the pushing force of the sliding gear (not shown) applies during the speed equalization phase. As visible in FIG. 1B, ramps 10 only extend along a portion of the ring height and flush an end thereof. Further, the ring comprises a thinned down peripheral area 12 which connects to ramps 10.
The synchronizing ring is provided with a tapered central bore 14, the largest diameter being on the side of ramps 10, as visible in FIG. 1B. The tapered bore is intended to cooperate with a tapered end of the idle gear by axial translation of the ring to ensure fast synchronization of the ring and of the gear by friction until the speeds of the tapered portions are equalized.
It is known to use brass, or a brass-based alloy, to form the synchronizing ring. Indeed, brass provides a proper coefficient of friction between the synchronizing ring and the idle gear, especially at the end of the synchronization step.
The components of a gear box are generally lubricated to avoid wearing and jamming. However, the lubrication of the tapered parts of the synchronizing ring and of the gear are incompatible with the desire to obtain a fast synchronization of the two components with respect to each other.
A conventional solution used to improve the synchronization of the synchronizing ring and of the gear consists of providing a threading at the level of tapered bore 14 of the synchronizing ring. Such a threading enables efficient evacuation of the lubrication oil when the synchronizing ring and the tapered end of the gear are brought close to each other and enables faster synchronization of the ring with respect to the idle gear. It is further also known to complete the threading with axial grooves distributed at the level of the tapered bore.
A disadvantage of such a synchronizing ring is that it requires a relatively complex manufacturing process. Indeed, the threading, which provides many undercut surfaces, cannot be obtained by a single casting or sintering operation and must thus be performed by an additional machining step, which increases the ring manufacturing cost. It is thus desired to define a synchronizing ring having a specific shape enabling its forming in a single casting or sintering operation.
Another disadvantage of the previously-described synchronizing ring made of brass or of a brass-based alloy is that a significant wearing of the synchronizing ring can be observed at the level of the dogs, which tends to reduce the ring lifetime. This is essentially due to the mechanical resistance properties of the used brass or brass alloy. It is thus desirable to be able to use a material different from brass, having a lower production cost than brass, and having improved mechanical resistance properties to form the synchronizing ring. It would be desirable to be able to use steel to form the synchronizing ring, which generally has a lower production cost than the production cost of brass and which has improved mechanical resistance properties.
To form a synchronizing ring in a single casting or sintering operation, one possibility is, as described in European patent application EP 0965769 filed by the applicant, to provide axial teeth 16 regularly distributed over the surface of bore 14, as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C. Indeed, axial teeth 16 offer no undercut surface and can thus be obtained by sintering or casting with no additional machining operation. To obtain adequate friction properties especially enabling use of a steel to form the synchronizing ring, sharp teeth 16 arranged along the axial direction of the ring, which prevent any jamming phenomenon between the ring and the tapered end of the gear, are provided.
FIG. 2 shows curves of the variation of friction coefficient μ between the synchronizing ring and the tapered end of the gear in a synchronization step of duration ΔT. The curve in dotted lines 20 shows the desired variation of the friction coefficient in a synchronization step and approximately corresponds to the variation of the friction coefficient for a brass synchronizing ring comprising a central threaded tapered bore and a steel tapered end. For such a curve, friction coefficient μ increases rapidly towards an optimal friction coefficient μOPT and stabilizes at this value. The optimal friction coefficient corresponds to a compromise between a friction coefficient sufficiently high to enable fast synchronization and a coefficient low enough to avoid any jamming.
The variation of the friction coefficient for the synchronizing ring shown in FIGS. 1A to 1C, that is, for a steel synchronizing ring having its central bore 14 comprising sharp axial teeth 16, is shown by curve 22 in full line. It can be acknowledged that the increase of the friction coefficient up to optimal coefficient μOPT is slower than for curve 20 and that, at the end of the synchronization, the friction coefficient tends to exceed optimal coefficient μOPT. A phenomenon substantially opposite to that which can be observed with a steel synchronizing ring with a threaded internal bore for which the friction coefficient tends to keep a value smaller than optimal coefficient μOPT is thus obtained at the end of the synchronization.
Regarding curve 22, the delay taken by the friction coefficient to reach optimal coefficient μOPT translates as a less efficient synchronization of the ring and of the gear at the beginning of the synchronization, which is not desirable given the short duration of the synchronization step. Further, the value reached by the friction coefficient at the end of the synchronization step corresponds to the static friction coefficient, or adherence coefficient, between the synchronizing ring and the tapered end of the gear, and is thus representative of the efforts which will have to be subsequently made to separate the synchronizing ring from the tapered end of the gear. It is thus not desirable for such a value to be too high.


A radiation shielding body unit comprises a bag, a reinforcing wall connecting between inner wall surfaces of the bag opposite to each other, a liquid supply/discharge port for radiation shielding liquid, provided in the bag, and a hole portion provided in the bag for engagement with a connection device used when the bag is supported by suspension. And a radiation shielding body comprises a frame and a plurality of the above-mentioned radiation shielding body units, each of the radiation shielding body units is suspendedly supported by the frame through a connecting device engaged with the hole portion of each of the radiation shielding body units.

The present invention relates to a radiation shielding body used for protecting a worker or workers in radiation environments from radiation exposure.
In a case where any work is carried out in radiation environments, a radiation shielding body is used as a means for protecting a worker attending to the work.
An example of the radiation shielding body is proposed in Japanese Utility-model Laid-open Application 61-147998. The proposed radiation shielding body has a bag of synthetic resin, which has a radiation shielding liquid such as water, sodium borate, etc. injected therein and is arranged to cover piping having therein radioactive substances, and shields radiation with the radiation shielding liquid. In this proposed example, a plurality of the bags are connected to each other by fasteners at the outer periphery of the piping containing therein radioactive substances, and the connected bags are wound around the outer periphery of the piping and used. Therefore, the piping supports the plurality of bags and the radiation shielding liquid.
In radiation shielding work that winds a radiation shielding body around piping and devices having therein radioactive substances and covers them therewith, since a worker attending to the work must approach the piping and devices, the worker is in danger of being exposed to radiation.
In a case where the piping and devices are covered with thermal insulating material, since work for removing the thermal insulating material is carried out before winding the radiation shielding body around the piping and devices, a worker attending to the removal of the thermal insulating material also is in danger because the dose of radiation to which the worker is exposed increases.
In a case where the method of winding the radiation insulating body around the piping and devices and covering them with the radiation insulating body is taken, when the piping and devices have complicated shapes as in piping provided with pipe rests and valves thereon or elbow portions and T-shaped branch portions of piping, it is difficult and takes much working time to wind the radiation shielding body around that portion, whereby there occurs a danger that the radiation exposure dose to a worker attending to the work for winding the radiation shielding body around that portion increases.
Further, a radiation shielding body that a radiation shielding liquid such as water is enclosed inside a container made of resin or metal is known in JP A 59-12398, JP A 8-211192, JP A 6-230178.
In those prior arts, since the container containing therein liquid such as water as a radiation shielding liquid stands upright by itself and is arranged on a floor, it is difficult to set it on a portion made narrow by obstacles disposed on the floor.
Further, since the container has water inside, it is difficult to make the height tall and shield radiation in a vertically wide region by one container.
In order to increase a vertical region covered by one radiation shielding body and make it possible to use it for radiation shielding in a narrow portion, a radiation shielding body, which is made of a lead plate or lead hair worked in a thin and wide mat-like shape and which is hung for use or stood between radioactive devices and a worker, is disclosed in JP A 7-84091.
However, the radiation shielding body formed of the lead plate or lead hair worked in a mat-like shape has a much heavier specific weight than radiation shielding liquid, and when radiation shielding is effected over a wide range, its weight becomes larger and its handling such as mounting, removing and transferring it is not easy. Therefore, there occurs a danger that the worker attending to the work could receive a large dose of radiation exposure during the handling of the radiation shielding body in a radiation environment.


A telesurgical mentoring platform with a wheeled base, a lower rack mounted on the base, an upper rack extending vertically from the lower rack, a compactly foldable articulated arm that is configured to extend horizontally outward away from the upper rack and configured to connect to a connector piece holding an end effectuator at its distal end, a tablet personal computer; the console configured to be readily mobilized on the floor of an existing operating room and is capable of providing a connectivity point for communication, audiovisual, and data transfer services in an operating room.

Telesurgical mentoring platforms have evolved as an important subset of telemedicine, yet has remained an underutilized technique in the operating room.
Telesurgical mentoring typically allows a more experienced surgeon to assist or direct another less experienced surgeon while is operating at a remote location. The benefit is that the more experienced surgeon can assist in a morning surgery in Miami and an afternoon surgery in Los Angeles, while never leaving his practice in New York.
Doctors can also benefit from the advice of device manufacturers representatives during surgery. For example, a doctor that is installing a new type of stent may need some installation guidance from the manufacturer. The manufacturer's representative can provide this guidance without having to travel to the medical room.
One of the primary requirements for conferring telesurgical mentoring is the availability of a clear view of the site of incision on the patient's body for a remote surgeon. When the local surgeon is working, the camera should be easy to adjust and the platform on which it sits must be very mobile to remotely position the camera in various position via controlling the articulated arms.
The art in this field demonstrates a need for the continuous improvement on systems that can provide telesurgical mentoring. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,473 issued to Arnett describes about a telesurgical gripper for robotic apparatus used for various applications. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,892 issued to Brown et al. describes a process and apparatus for imparting linear motion to tooling. The tooling is attached to a manipulator device having two different length arms. U.S. Pat. No. 6,343,601 issued to Kiske et al. describes a mobile medical supply device with an anesthesia apparatus, with a plurality of supply and drain lines. U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,329 issued to Phillips describes a robot with an arm and the movement of the arm defined in XY plane.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,572 issued to Rouchan a device for the angular positioning of a mass with respect to a horizontal support axis which includes a support arm intended to carry the mass and mounted such that it can be angularly displaced about the support axis.
Most of the articulated arms described in the prior art may be able to do the job of positioning the camera at various positions. But none of the above described articulated arms can move the camera dexterously by infinitely incremental positions. Even if they do so, they would require repeated manual adjustment which would become a labor-intensive task and would be cumbersome.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an articulated arm for a medical mobile cart which can be easily maneuvered to infinitival location displacements and controlled efficiently from a remote location.

Systems and methods for imaging communication and control


A barrier with local spinning. The barrier is described as a barrier object having a bit vector embedded as a pointer. If the vector bit is zero, the object functions as a counter; if the vector bit is one, the object operates as a pointer to a stack. The object includes the total number of threads required to rendezvous at the barrier to trigger release of the threads. The object points to a stack block list that describes each thread that has arrived at the barrier. Arriving at the barrier involves reading the top stack block, pushing onto the list a stack block for the thread that just arrived, decrementing the thread count, and spinning on corresponding local memory locations or timing out and blocking. When the last thread arrives at the barrier, the barrier is reset and all threads at the barrier are awakened for the start of the next process.

Some algorithms have inherently parallelizable structure due to non-overlapping data. For example, matrix multiplication requires each row of one matrix to be multiplied by the column of a second matrix (the inner product). This matrix product could be computed by multiple threads concurrently in a number of different ways. For example, one thread could multiply row a1 by each column b1 while another n−1 threads do the remaining rows. The outputs do not overlap as each row and column generates one distinct scalar in the product matrix.
This notion gives rise to an idea of a primitive that contracts out disjoint work items to threads, knows when the threads have completed the associated work, and hence, is safe to process and generate the output. If the work to be done has multiple steps this generalizes to a primitive that handles multiple stages where at each stage threads wait for all other threads to complete before all move to the next stage. Each stage may safely read the data from previous stages as it can be guaranteed that every thread has completed previous stages before continuing to the next. In the literature this construct is known as a barrier.
One conventional algorithm used for barrier synchronization is a sense reversing barrier that uses a thread local Boolean flag to maintain the parity of the work stage and counters to track the threads joining the barrier. In earlier work, the sense reversing barrier was enhanced to eliminate the thread local storage and provide a barrier that could spin and block on late arrival of threads. However, this generates a large structure footprint (e.g., in memory for both user mode and kernel mode). Moreover, attempts at memory contention issues have been addressed with constructs such as the combining tree barrier, but at the expense of additional storage.
If a thread is put to sleep to wait for some event to come true, there is a fixed cost associated with this process, which is basically the cost to go into the operating system, go to sleep, and have a scheduler select another thread. This involves swap time. If the amount of time that it actually takes to complete a process is small relative to the swap time, the overhead associated with going to sleep and coming out of sleep can be avoided.


In a method for fastening electronic components on a substrate by means of pressure sintering, which includes providing a layer of sinterable metal powder on a surface of one component, assembling the components engaging the layer and then, while exerting a pressure on the components, applying heat to sinter the layer of material, an improvement comprises forming the layer of sinterable metal powder by vaporizing a metal and condensing the metal as a nanocrystalline metal powder on the surface. Preferably, the metal powder is silver and is applied in a precipitation chamber.

The present invention is directed to a method for fastening electronic components on a substrate by means of pressure sintering, wherein a layer of a sinterable metal powder is coated onto one of the contact surfaces of either the component or the substrate. After coating the contact surface, the component and substrate are assembled with the contact surfaces facing one another and are then pressed together with a predetermined pressure and, while in the pressed-together state, heated to a sintering temperature at which the layer is sintered to bond the component on the substrate.
A method for fastening electrical components on a substrate by means of pressure sintering, wherein a layer of sinterable material, such as silver, is provided on one of the contact surfaces, the component and substrate are assembled with their contact surfaces facing each other and engaging the layer, then applying a pressure to a predetermined amount, such as at least 900N/cm.sup.2, and heating to a range of 180.degree. C. to 250.degree. C. to sinter the layer to form the bond is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,672, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference thereto and which claims priority from the same German Application as European 0 242 626. To produce a layer from the metal powder in this known method, a paste is made up of the metal powder and a solvent and this paste is deposited on the contact surface to be coated in the form of a layer. The deposited paste is then dried. Before the component and the substrate are brought together, for better handling of the coated component, the deposited layer is advantageously presintered, for example at a temperature of 250.degree. C.
The layer of metal powder serves as a compensating layer for the surface roughness and must be compressible and porous.

Pressure sintering method for fastening electronic components on a substrate


A sunshade includes a securing ring fixed on an upper end of a metal rod, a plurality of ribs pivotally connected to the securing ring and tied with a circumferential edge of a sunshade cloth, and each stretcher having two ends respectively connected pivotally to an intermediate portion of each rib and a runner, which is movably fixed around the metal rod. The metal rod has a hole in an upper end portion for a spring and a top rod on the spring to fit therein. The top rod has female threads for screwing with a bolt to secure the center of the sunshade cloth.

This invention relates to a sunshade, particularly to one provided with a top rod pushed by a spring to cause a pulling force between the center of the sunshade and plural ribs for spreading the sunshade smoothly.
A known conventional sunshade shown in
FIG. 6 includes a metal rod 10, a secure ring 30, a plurality of ribs 20 pivotaly connected to the secure ring 30, a plurality of stretchers 40 pivotally connected to the related ribs 20, a runner 50 movably fitted around the metal rod 10 and piovatally connected to inner ends of the stretchers 40, and an upper stop 101 located between the secure ring 30 and the runner 50. Then the runner 50 is pushed upward to spread the sunshade, and the upper stop 101 stops the runner 50 after passing up the stop 101, preventing the runner 50 from moving down and keeping the sunshade in the spread position.
If the sunshade is wanted to be collapsed from the spread position, the upper stop 101 is pressed down inside the metal rod 10, permitting the runner 50 move down to its original collapsed position. However, when the stop 101 is pressed down and the runner 50 slides down, a finger or a hand of a user is liable to be pinched between the stop 101 and the runner 50, very inconvenient.
Another known conventional sunshade shown in FIG. 7 includes a metal rod 10, a manual winder 70 fixed on a lower portion of the metal rod 10 for spreading and collapsing the sunshades,roller 102 provided on a metal rod 10 and passing through by a string 701 wound around the winder 70, and two ends of the string 701 fixed on the runner 50. When a swing rod of the winder 70 is handled, the string 701 is pulled to move the runner 50 upward, pulling the ribs 20 upward to the spread position. If the sunshade is wanted to be collapsed, then winder 70 is operated to move the runner 50 down to its original collapsed position. But this conventional sunshade is rather complicated in its structure in spreading and collapsing.


A sound deflector apparatus having mutually coextensive tab and wall portions, the tab portion mounted to an area of an electronic device adjacent the speaker outlet(s), and the wall portion having a curvilinear segment or bend directing sound waves toward the listener(s) viewing programming on a flat-screen television, monitor, smart device, and/or similar electronic devices with such speaker outlet configurations.

For several years, flat screen televisions and other electronic devices with audio playback and sound systems have been known to provide inadequate sound volume and quality to the listening audience. Manufacturers of flat screen monitors, televisions, laptop and PC computers, hand held smart devices (including tablets and phones), and the like have chosen to sacrifice sound quality in favor of a clear television surface. This in turn distorts the sound quality, especially to those having minor hearing deficiencies.
Poor sound quality has been document in many reviews of such devices, and especially for flat screen televisions and monitors used in home entertainment settings. At the present time, the only way to correct this problem is to separately purchase a stand-alone single component or multi-component sound or amplification system to boost the sound and quality levels and to specifically direct the amplified sound at the listener. However, such sound systems are usually quite expensive, and often cost prohibitive, especially when the listener can often raise the sound level through the remote or television controller. Yet, raising the sound level of the television or monitor through the remote or television controller causes several additional problems, including sound quality distortion, speaker and sound reverberation, distracting echo and/or feedback, as well as causing annoyance to other inhabitants of the dwelling because of the boosted sound signal, reverberation, and/or echo.
This problem is particular acute with senior citizens, who often have minor to significant hearing problems associated with aging and/or earlier damage or injury from work-related exposure(s). However, many of the hearing problems associated with aging and/or injury/damage have been typically addressed through expensive surgical and/or medical appliance installations, the purchase of expensive assisted listening devices or systems, or combinations thereof.
Yet, the problem of sound signal and quality is not only a problem for senior citizens, this has been a problem for anyone that uses electronic devices with built-in speaker systems that are designed to consume as little space as possible. Flat-screen televisions, monitors, and hand-held devices are progressively designed to be thinner and lighter, thereby limiting the placement or location of speakers outlets and the necessary components to provide acceptable sound level and quality controls. For example, many flat screen television and monitor speakers are located along the lateral edges of such devices, with a small, defined width to accommodate the speaker outlet and components, which provides an particular or specific aesthetic appearance to the visible surface of the device, but fails to optimize sound level and quality. Moreover, hand-held devices (such as smart phones and tablets) are dimensionally designed so that speaker outlet placement often is facing downwardly or away from the user, such as along the backside of the device.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device or apparatus that improves the sound level, intensity, and/or quality.


The invention provides a prepreg comprising matrix and fibers, having deposited thereon a plurality of regions raised at least 5 micrometers relative to the surface of the matrix, a method of preparing such a prepreg, a method of curing a laminate of a plurality of such preprags and the cured laminate produced by such a method.

Composite materials have well-documented advantages over traditional construction materials, particularly in providing excellent mechanical properties at very low material densities. As a result, the use of such materials is becoming increasingly widespread and their application ranges from "industrial" and "sports and leisure" to high performance aerospace components.
Prepregs, comprising a fibre arrangement impregnated with resin such as epoxy resin, are widely used in the generation of such composite materials. Typically a number of plies of such prepregs are "laid-up" as desired and the resulting laminate is cured, typically by exposure to elevated temperatures, to produce a cured composite laminate.
One hazard associated with such a process is the entrapment of gas between the layers of prepreg which results in undesirable porosity in the cured composite laminate. Porosity has a negative impact on the mechanical properties of the cured composite laminate and is therefore ideally minimised or eliminated.
It is known that the application of pressure during the curing process can reduce the final porosity of the cured laminate. If a low porosity composite is desired, e.g. for demanding applications such as aerospace, then prolonged exposure to high temperature and pressure, e.g. by curing the laminate in an autoclave, is the only practical option. However, the application of high pressure and temperature for prolonged periods is costly and slow.
Curing methods which involve lower pressures, e.g. the known vacuum bag process, are cheaper and quicker alternatives but usually result in higher porosity in the cured laminate.
Consequently, efforts have been made to reduce porosity by adapting the structure of laminates before curing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,718 discloses a laminate of prepregs wherein the prepregs have longitudinal grooves parallel to the unidirectional fibres within the prepregs.