A telecommunications system and method is disclosed for allowing a cellular network to determine the optimum positioning method, having knowledge of all available network-based and terminal-based positioning methods. This can be accomplished by the Mobile Station (MS) sending to the Mobile Switching Center/Visitor Location Register (MSC/VLR) a list of terminal-based positioning methods that the MS is capable of performing. This list can, in turn, be forwarded to the Mobile Positioning Center (MPC) for determination of the optimum positioning method. For example, in a GSM network, the MS CLASSMARK information, which is sent to the MSC/VLR when the MS registers with the MSC/VLR, can be extended to include the MS's positioning capabilities.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications systems and methods for determining the location of a mobile terminal within a cellular network, and specifically to determining the optimum positioning method based upon available network positioning methods and positioning capabilities of the mobile terminal itself.
2. Background and Objects of the Present Invention
Cellular telecommunications is one of the fastest growing and most demanding telecommunications applications ever. Today it represents a large and continuously increasing percentage of all new telephone subscriptions around the world. A standardization group, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), was established in 1982 to formulate the specifications for the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) digital mobile cellular radio system.
With reference now to FIG. 1 of the drawings, there is illustrated a GSM Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), such as cellular network 10, which in turn is composed of a plurality of areas 12, each with a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) 14 and an integrated Visitor Location Register (VLR) 16 therein. The MSC/VLR areas 12, in turn, include a plurality of Location Areas (LA) 18, which are defined as that part of a given MSC/VLR area 12 in which a mobile station (MS) (terminal) 20 may move freely without having to send update location information to the MSC/VLR area 12 that controls the LA 18. Each Location Area 18 is divided into a number of cells 22. Mobile Station (MS) 20 is the physical equipment, e.g., a car phone or other portable phone, used by mobile subscribers to communicate with the cellular network 10, each other, and users outside the subscribed network, both wireline and wireless.
The MSC 14 is in communication with at least one Base Station Controller (BSC) 23, which, in turn, is in contact with at least one Base Transceiver Station (BTS) 24. The BTS is the physical equipment, illustrated for simplicity as a radio tower, that provides radio coverage to the cell 22 for which it is responsible. It should be understood that the BSC 23 may be connected to several base transceiver stations 24, and may be implemented as a stand-alone node or integrated with the MSC 14. In either event, the BSC 23 and BTS 24 components, as a whole, are generally referred to as a Base Station System (BSS) 25.
With further reference to FIG. 1, the PLMN Service Area or cellular network 10 includes a Home Location Register (HLR) 26, which is a database maintaining all subscriber information, e.g., user profiles, current location information, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) numbers, and other administrative information. The HLR 26 may be co-located with a given MSC 14, integrated with the MSC 14, or alternatively can service multiple MSCs 14, the latter of which is illustrated in FIG. 1.
The VLR 16 is a database containing information about all of the Mobile Stations 20 currently located within the MSC/VLR area 12. If a MS 20 roams into a new MSC/VLR area 12, the VLR 16 connected to that MSC 14 will request data about that Mobile Station 20 from the HLR database 26 (simultaneously informing the HLR 26 about the current location of the MS 20). Accordingly, if the user of the MS 20 then wants to make a call, the local VLR 16 will have the requisite identification information without having to reinterrogate the HLR 26. In the aforedescribed manner, the VLR and HLR databases 16 and 26, respectively, contain various subscriber information associated with a given MS 20.
Determining the geographical position of a MS 20 within a cellular network 10 has recently become important for a wide range of applications. For example, positioning services may be used by transport and taxi companies to determine the location of their vehicles. In addition, for emergency calls, e.g., 911 calls, the exact location of the mobile terminal 20 may be extremely important to the outcome of the emergency situation. Furthermore, positioning services can be used to determine the location of a stolen car, for the detection of home zone calls, which are charged at a lower rate, for the detection of hot spots for micro cells, or for the subscriber to determine, for example, the nearest gas station, restaurant, or hospital.
As can be seen in FIG. 2 of the drawings, upon a network positioning request, the Base Station System (BSS) (220 and 240) serving the MS 200 generates positioning data, which is delivered to the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) 260. This positioning data is then forwarded to a Mobile Positioning Center (MPC) 270 for calculation of the geographical location of the MS 200. The location of the MS 200 can then be sent to the application 280 that requested the positioning. Alternatively, the requesting application 280 could be located within the MS 200 itself or within the network (MSC/VLR 260).
In order to accurately determine the location of the MS 200, positioning data from three or more separate Base Transceiver Stations (210, 220, and 230) is required. This positioning data for GSM systems can include, for example, a Timing Advance (TA) value, which corresponds to the amount of time in advance that the MS 200 must send a message in order for the BTS 220 to receive it in the time slot allocated to that MS 200. When a message is sent from the MS 200 to the BTS 220, there is a propagation delay, which depends upon the distance between the MS 200 and the BTS 220. TA values are expressed in bit periods, and can range from 0 to 63, with each bit period corresponding to approximately 550 meters between the MS 200 and the BTS 220. It should be understood, however, that any estimate of time, distance, or angle for any cellular system can be used, instead of the TA value discussed herein for a network-based positioning method.
Once a TA value is determined for one BTS 220, the distance between the MS 200 and that particular BTS 220 is known, but the actual location is not. If, for example, the TA value equals one, the MS 200 could be anywhere along a radius of 550 meters. Two TA values from two BTSs, for example, BTSs 210 and 220, provide two possible points that the MS 200 could be located (where the two radiuses intersect). However, with three TA values from three BTSs, e.g., BTSs 210, 220, and 230, the location of the MS 200 can be determined with a certain degree of accuracy. Using a triangulation algorithm, with knowledge of the three TA values and site location data associated with each BTS (210, 220, and 230), the position of the mobile station 200 can be determined (with certain accuracy) by the Mobile Positioning Center 270.
Therefore, Timing Advance (TA) values are obtained from the original (serving) BTS 220 and two neighboring (target) BTSs (210 and 230). In order for each target BTS (210 and 230) to determine a TA value, a positioning handover to each of the BTSs (210 and 230) must occur. A positioning handover is similar to an ordinary asynchronous handover. The target BTS, e.g., BTS 210, distinguishes the Positioning Handover from an ordinary handover by a new ACTIVATION TYPE in the CHANNEL ACTIVATION message. Unlike an ordinary handover, upon reception of a HANDOVER ACCESS message from the MS 200, the target BTS 210 only calculates the TA value, and does not respond to the mobile station 200, that is, no PHYSICAL INFORMATION is sent to the MS 200. Thus, the MS 200 will then return to the previous channel allocated by the original BTS 220 after the time period defined by the MS's 200 internal counter expires, e.g., 320 milliseconds.
Alternatively, the MS 200 itself can position itself within the cellular network 205. For example, the MS 200 can have a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver built into it, which is used to determine the location of the MS 200. In addition, the MS 200 can collect positioning data based on the Observed Time Difference (OTD) between the time a BTS 220 sends out a signal and the time the MS 200 receives the signal. This time difference information can be sent to the MPC 270 for calculation of the location of the MS 200, or the MS 200 itself, with knowledge of the location of the BTS 220, can determine it's location.
As the market demands higher accuracy, e.g., FCC phase II E-911 service, Mobile Stations 200 which can perform positioning measurements are expected to flood the market. However, in order for a network 205 to be flexible enough to select the best positioning method on a case by case situation, it is necessary that the network 205 have knowledge of the positioning capabilities of all involved nodes, network-based and MS-based. Therefore, based on all available positioning methods, the network (MPC 270) can have the ability to select either a network-based positioning method or a MS-based positioning method after all input factors have been considered. Such input factors include the requested quality of service, time of day of request, requesting application, subscription status of the subscriber, as well as positioning method capabilities of the serving network 205 and of the subscriber terminal 200.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to enable a cellular network to determine the optimum positioning method based upon all available network-based and terminal-based positioning methods.
It is a further object of the present invention to inform the cellular network, serving the location area that the mobile terminal to be positioned is located in, about all available terminal-based positioning methods.

System and method for informing network of terminal-based positioning method capabilities


A method is disclosed of in-situ retention and buffering of an amount of water in soil to support the growth of an agricultural crop. The method comprises the step of adding an effective amount of a hydrogel material as a water retention agent during planting of seed in the soil. The hydrogel material including an insoluble, cross-linked carboxymethyl cellulose. Once penetration of water into the soil is allowed after the planting of seed, a proportion of the water which penetrates the soil is absorbed by the hydrogel material and, over time, the absorbed water is released by diffusion into the soil to support the growth of the agricultural crop. Also disclosed is the hydrogel material which comprises said carboxymethyl cellulose which has been cross-linked with a cross-linking polymer from the group consisting of: an amine monomer; an amide monomer; and an amine-amide co-polymer.

Plants require water to grow and thrive. In commercial agriculture, the availability of water is a key factor determining the viability of a farming enterprise. Some of the factors which influence water availability include:                Frequency (periodicity) and quantity of rainfall, which is difficult to predict;        Limitations on water extraction licenses (from rivers, lakes or aquifers); and        Availability of water storage and irrigation systems.
There can also be limitations on agricultural productivity due to declining soil quality from over-use of irrigation (leaching), erosion, and the presence of residual fertiliser materials. In order to maintain an income stream, farmers often turn to other approaches, which may be costly and/or problematic for other reasons. Such approaches include:                Clearing of land, to bring more of it into production;        Over-exploitation of existing land by overcropping, over-fertilizing;        Investing in costly irrigation and/or water storage systems; and        Purchasing and using more fertiliser than is needed (a significant proportion can be wasted due to run-off, leaching, and so on).
Apart from attempting to access more water, a farmer can also seek amendment of the soil by:                Manuring—well manured soil has better soil retention properties, but there are significant cost and hygiene issues;        Use of fertiliser—nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) can be added in various forms, either as amendment to irrigated water, or by dry application to soil surface or during tilling or plowing. However, NPK fertiliser use can be poorly targeted and over-used, and is subject to leaching into the ground water. There is also the possibility of plant leaf burn from the use of NPK fertiliser; and Use of water retention agents—                    It is known to increase the water holding capacity of many products using agents which fall under the general category of hydrogels (also referred to as super-absorbent polymers (SAPs)). These products can swell upon contact with water and absorb many multiples of their initial weight in water;            The water absorbency and water retention properties of hydrogels are broadly applied in disposable nappies/diapers and sanitary products, as well as for use as viscosity modifiers, drilling aids and food additives;            Hydrogels occur in numerous forms including liquids of a wide viscosity range, powders, and water storage "crystals", which are made of synthetic materials such as acrylamide and polyacrylamide copolymer. The performance of such products relies on the physio-chemical properties of the polymers to absorb water, and then to release it over time;            Synthetic hydrogel materials (polyacrylamide, polyacrylate and related products) are produced from hydrocarbon-based feedstock, but these can be problematic in use. The use of polyacrylamide is declining in favour of alternative synthetics, due to the potential for break-down of the acrylamide monomer, and various suspected side effects of this compound.
There remains a need for a farmer to be able to access and retain more water to facilitate crop growth in an efficient manner and at lowest possible cost, to overcome the water supply limitation issues mentioned, and to avoid entering into costly capital expenditure to improve agricultural productivity to maintain an income stream.

Method of supporting the growth of an agricultural crop


Embodiments of an automated telescope system are operable in multiple modes, including alt-az and equatorial modes. The telescope system aligns and orients itself to the celestial coordinate system using, for example, data gained through tracking the drift of a celestial object. In various embodiments, an imager may be used to find and track celestial objects.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automated telescope systems and, more particularly, to systems and methods for aligning and orienting such automated telescope systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The continuing evolution of low cost, high performance integrated circuit processors has enabled the recent introduction of fully automated telescope systems which are capable of performing alignment and orientation operations under software program control with a minimum of intervention by a user. Telescope systems are able to perform alignment and orientation functions regardless of whether they might be configured as an alt-azimuth telescope or as an equatorial telescope. The system is provided with sufficient processing power and with a multiplicity of application routines, such that alignment and orientation is performed with regard to a large number of different algorithms and with respect to a variety of user definable data-type inputs.
Such telescope systems might be described as intelligent, in that they typically include a command module which is a fully functional microprocessor controlled command unit, capable of executing high level application software routines and performing numerous data processing tasks, such as numerical calculations, coordinate system transformations, database manipulations, and managing the functional performance of various different peripherally coupled devices.
Central interface panels might be provided on the telescope systems which support interconnection between and among various intelligent motor modules, command modules and peripheral devices. Communication between and among component parts is made over serial data and control communication channels in accordance with a packet-based serial communication protocol. An RS-232 port is also provided such that a command module is able to communicate with ancillary RS-232 capable devices such as personal computer systems.
Use of the various communication channels allows the telescope system to communicate with other devices in order to exchange stored information, exchange created and stored operating routines, obtain updates to programs and/or internal databases, and the like. In this regard, such computer systems include a number of internal databases, including at least one database of the celestial coordinates (RA and DEC) of known celestial objects that might be of interest to an observer. Further, the system might include a database of the geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude) of a large body of geographical landmarks. These landmarks might include known coordinates of cities and towns, carte graphic features such as mountains, and might also include the coordinates of any definable point on the earth's surface whose position is stable and geographically determinable. Each of the databases are user accessible such that additional entries of particular interest to a user might be included.
Distributed intelligence might be further characterized in that the telescope system hand-held command module might be provided in two separate configurations. The first configuration might be termed a simplified configuration, and might be functionally limited in that it is able to provide direction and speed commands to the intelligent motor modules, but might only be provided with limited operational command processing capabilities so as to offer a low-cost alternative. In this particular configuration, system intelligence would reside primarily in the motor modules, with the command module functioning more as a steering guidance control, or directional joystick. However, even given its reduced computational elegance, the simplified command module is nevertheless capable of executing a wide variety of command instructions including those relating to numerical processing and arithmetic calculations.
In particular, the solution to any given problem in celestial trigonometry depends on being able to convert measurements obtained in one coordinate system (Alt-Az, for example) into a second coordinate system (the celestial coordinate system). Performing such coordinate system transformations is well within the capability of limited functionality processors such as might be provided with a limited intelligence command module.
Accordingly, limited intelligence command modules should be able to support various alignment and orientation schemes so as to allow a simplified automated telescope system the ability to align and orient it self with respect to the celestial sphere and provide a relatively unsophisticated user with capability of, at least, tracking a designated viewing object throughout its determinable motion across the night sky.

Systems and methods for automated telescope alignment and orientation


Providing methods and systems to quickly and accurately respond to a natural-language question. The responses to the question can depend on additional information about the user asking the question, and the subject matter of the question the user asked. For example, the system knows that the user understands French, and can supply French answers to the user. Such additional information can improve on relevancy of the responses to the question. More than one responses can be provided to the user to allow the user to pick the more appropriate one. One embodiment uses a computer with a database having many phrases and question formats. The computer identifies phrases in the question based on at least one grammatical rules and phrases in the database. Then the computer links the phrases to categories based on at least one semantic rule, the subject matter of the question, and information about the user, such as previous questions asked by the user. The computer then selects at least two question formats based on at least the scores. After the question formats are selected, the system allows the user to pick at least one of the question formats so as to have an answer to the question generated.

The present invention relates generally to methods and systems to answer a question, and more particularly to methods and systems to accurately answer a natural-language question.
Numerous search engines in the market have provided us with an unprecedented amount of freely-available information. All we have to do is to type in our questions, and we will be inundated by information. For example, there is a search engine that regularly gives us tens of thousands of Web sites to a single question. It would take practically days to go through every single site to find our answer, especially if our network connections are through relatively low-speed modems. We do not want thousands of answers to our questions. All we want is a handful of meaningful ones.
Another challenge faced by users of many search engines is to search by key words. We have to extract key words from our questions, and then use them to ask our questions. We might also use enhanced features provided by search engines, such as + or xe2x88x92 delimiters before the key words, to indicate our preferences. Unfortunately, this is unnatural. How often do we ask questions using key words? The better way is to ask with a natural language.
There are natural-language search engines. Some of them also provide limited number of responses. However, their responses are inaccurate, and typically do not provide satisfactory answers to our questions. Their answers are not tailored to our needs.
Providing accurate responses to natural language questions is a very difficult problem, especially when our questions are not definite. For example, if you ask the question, xe2x80x9cDo you like Turkey?xe2x80x9d, it is not clear if your question is about the country Turkey or the animal Turkey. Add to this challenge is the need to get answers quickly. Time is very valuable and we prefer not to wait for a long time to get our answers.
To further complicate the problem is the need to get information from documents written in different languages. For example, if we want to learn about climbing Mount Fuji in Japan, probably most of the information is in Japanese. Many search engines in the United States only search for information in English, and ignore information in all other languages. The reason may be because translation errors would lead to even less accurate answers.
It should be apparent from the foregoing that there is still a need for a natural-language question-answering system that can accurately and quickly answer our questions, without providing us with thousands of irrelevant choices. Furthermore, it is desirable for the system to provide us with information from different languages.
The present invention provides methods and systems that can quickly provide a handful of accurate responses to a natural-language question. The responses can depend on additional information about the user and about the subject matter of the question so as to significantly improve on the relevancy of the responses. The user is allowed to pick one or more of the responses to have an answer generated. Furthermore, the answer to the question can be in a language different from the language of the question to provide more relevant answers.
One embodiment of the present invention includes a system with an input device, an answer generator and an output device. The answer generator, having access to a database of phrases and question formats, identifies at least one phrase in the question to generate phrased questions. This identification process uses phrases in the database and at least one grammatical rule.
The identified phrase can then be linked to at least one category based on, for example, one semantic rule. Then the system provides a score to the categorized phrase. This score can depend on a piece of information about the user and/or about the subject matter of the question. In one embodiment, this piece of information is different from the fact that the user has asked the question.
The piece of information can be related to the user""s response to an inquiry from the system. For example, the system can ask the user to specify the subject matter of the question. Assume that the user asks the following question: xe2x80x9cIn the eighteenth century, what did Indians typically eat?xe2x80x9d The system can ask the user if the subject matter of the question is related to India or the aboriginal peoples of North America. Based on the user""s response, the system can provide a more relevant response to the user.
In another example, the piece of information is related to an interest of the user. Again, if the user is interested in traveling, and not food, certain ambiguities in his question can be resolved. Based on the user""s response to certain inquiries from the system, the accuracy of the answer can be enhanced.
In another embodiment, the piece of information about the user is related to a question previously asked by the user. For example, if the user has been asking questions on sports, probably the word, ball, in his question is not related to ball bearings, which are mechanical parts.
Typically, the more information the system has on the user and the subject matter of the question, the more accurate is the answer to the user""s question. The reason is similar to the situation of our responding to our friend""s question before he even asks it. Sometimes we understand what they want to know through non-verbal communication or our previous interactions.
Based on information on the user, the score of the categorized phrase can change. In another embodiment, based on information of the subject matter the question is in, the score of the categorized phrase can change.
After providing the score to the categorized phrase, the system can identify at least two question formats in the database based on the score. These question formats can again help the system resolve ambiguities in the question. For example, the question is, xe2x80x9cHow to play bridge?xe2x80x9d Assume that the question is in the general subject area of card games. It is not clear if the user wants to find out basic rules on the card game bridge or to learn some more advanced techniques. Then, one question format can be on basic rules on bridge, and the other format can be on bridge techniques. The user is allowed to pick at least one of the question formats to have the corresponding answer generated.
In another embodiment, the answer can be in a language different from the language of the question. This improves on the accuracy of the answers to the question. For example, if the user is interested in Japan, and if the user understands Japanese, based on the question format picked, a Japanese answer is identified to his English question. Such answers can provide more relevant information to the user.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, which, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrates by way of example the principles of the invention.

Method and system to answer a natural-language question


An apparatus for preparing water from water-containing gases released in a conversion device for converting chemical energy into mechanical energy, comprising: at least one membrane which is adapted to at least partly allow passage of water molecules and substantially prevent passage of other molecules; a passage for guiding the waste gases along a first side of the membrane, a discharge pipe arranged on the second side of the membrane for discharging the water released on the second side of the membrane. The conversion device for converting chemical energy into mechanical energy is formed by a conversion device with external combustion, and the discharge pipe are formed at least partly by auxiliary equipment associated with the conversion device with external combustion.

The present invention relates to the preparation of low-salt, low-TOC and perhaps low-gas water, in particular water of high quality.
In a large number of countries in the world there exists a shortage of potable water. This is particularly the case in dry regions and in regions where the infrastructure for careful preparation and transport of potable water is inadequate.
It is therefore generally important to manage potable water as economically as possible and to utilize possible potable water sources as well as possible.
The currently most used sources of potable water are groundwater, spring water and surface water which, after purification, can be used as potable water. In some cases rainwater is also used.
The object of the present invention is to provide means for the preparation of water from sources which until now have not been used. The attempt is hereby made to provide water of a high purity which can be used directly as boiler feed water or for other technical applications. The usual sources of potable water need hereby no longer be drawn upon for this use.
The attempt is further made to provide such a apparatus wherein efforts in respect of investment, energy consumption and other effort are minimal.
Known from EP-A-O 192 893 is a preparation apparatus for preparing water from water-containing gases released in a device for converting chemical energy into mechanical energy, wherein the preparation apparatus comprises:
at least one membrane which is adapted to at least partly allow passage of water molecules and substantially prevent passage of other molecules;
means for guiding the gases containing water vapour along a first side of the membrane,
discharge means arranged on the second side of the membrane for discharging the water released on the second side of the membrane.
This prior art publication relates to a conversion device with internal combustion. Such devices are used in large numbers in the form of combustion engines, both stationary and mobile. Heavy and bulky auxiliary equipment is required to prepare water from the exhaust gases of such a motor. A vacuum pump must thus be used to maintain a sufficiently low pressure on the second side of the membrane and a condenser must be used to allow a sufficiently low temperature to prevail on the second side of the membrane.
These are costly, heavy and bulky apparatuses which it is hardly possible to accommodate in a vehicle, certainly when provisions must be made for storage of the prepared water. This is already in no way proportional with the thus obtained yield of water. These drawbacks are also relevant in respect of stationary engines.
The object of the invention is to provide an application of such a preparation apparatus in a situation in which these drawbacks do not occur.
This object is achieved by such a preparation apparatus which is characterized in that the conversion device for converting chemical energy into mechanical energy is formed by a conversion device with external combustion, and in that the discharge means are formed at least partly by auxiliary equipment associated with the conversion device with external combustion.
These measures enable the use of the auxiliary equipment required in a conversion device for chemical energy to mechanical energy with external combustion. The external combustion supposes a Carnot cycle through which an auxiliary medium must progress as energy carrier. The progression through a Carnot cycle requires the presence of a condenser. A pump is usually present to cause an underpressure to prevail in the condenser.
The measures according to the invention enable the fruitful use of these facilities, so that these per se bulky appliances do not have to be placed separately.
It is thus possible to use a heretofore unused source of water of a high quality, i.e. gases containing water vapour, such as the waste gases of an energy conversion device. It is noted here that in the presently proposed use the prepared water is used as boiler feed water or as water for other industrial applications. This is the consequence of the high purity of the water attainable with the apparatus according to the invention. It is conceivable to use the water as potable water, i.e. after the addition of substances normally present in potable water, or by using membranes which allow through the substances in question.
According to a first embodiment the conversion device forms part of an electric power station.
A conversion device of exceptionally large dimensions is present here with a high rate of water-containing gas flows. The auxiliary equipment is moreover of corresponding dimensions, so that the additional load by the flow of the water preparation according to the invention has no or hardly any effect on the dimensioning of the auxiliary equipment. It is usually even possible to use this auxiliary equipment without modifications, so that it is easy to arrange such a water preparation apparatus in an existing power station.
In view of the exceptionally large quantities of flue gases which are produced by an electric power station, it is particularly attractive to use the flue gases as a source of water. As stated above, this results in large saving.
According to another embodiment the auxiliary equipment comprises a condenser and the discharge means re formed at least partly by the condenser associated with the auxiliary equipment.
According to a further embodiment the condenser is connected to a pump for maintaining a pressure in the condenser which is lower than the ambient pressure.
These measures also result in an effective use of components already present.
According to another preferred embodiment the membrane is only suitable for allowing through water molecules in vapour form. This has the consequence that on the discharge side of the membrane only water becomes available which has been in vapour phase, thus precluding the presence of substances dissolved or otherwise present in the water.
According to yet another preferred embodiment the membrane is formed into a number of substantially cylinder surface-shaped units, wherein the axes of each of the cylinder surfaces extend mutually parallel, and wherein at least one end of the cylinders is connected to a collecting tank forming part of the discharge means.
It will be apparent that in a large-scale application of the present invention, where the object is of course to achieve sufficient water output, the membrane will have to have as large a surface area as possible. It has been found that with the above stated measures a large surface area of the membrane can be realized within a relatively small volume, but wherein the dimensioning has yet to be determined. This in any case depends on the properties of the membrane, the thickness thereof, the flow rate of the gas from which the water must be extracted, pressures, temperatures and so on.
It is also possible in principle to apply other configurations of the membrane, such as a membrane in the form of a plate, a spiral and so on.
According to a preferred embodiment the substantially cylinder surface-shaped units are manufactured from hollow tubes or fibres of the membrane or from capillaries.
The initial processing of the membrane material into tubes or fibres makes it particularly possible to manufacture the above stated structure.
Another preferred embodiment teaches that the substantially cylinder surface-shaped units are placed with a vertical axis in a substantially vertically extending flue gas duct.
The advantages of the above stated configurations are hereby combined.
It is otherwise also possible to fold the axis of the cylinder surfaces horizontally.
When the apparatus is applied in a flue gas discharge duct of an incineration plant provided with a flue gas desulphurizing installation operating with water, the apparatus is preferably placed downstream of the flue gas desulphurizing installation.
Flue gas desulphurizing installations generally operate with large quantities of water, a part of which remains in the flue gases saturated with water vapour to be further released to the atmosphere. It is therefore important to place the apparatus according to the invention downstream of the flue gas desulphurizing installation in order to also enable recovery of the water fed into the flue gas desulphurizing installation.
It is also possible for the cooling means to be adapted to maintain a temperature below the dew point of water in the collecting tank.
Another measure teaches that the means for maintaining a low temperature on the second side of the membrane are adapted to make effective use of the heat released on the second side of the membrane. The efficiency of an electric power station can hereby be improved slightly.
A further improvement in efficiency is possible in that the water content of the flue gases is decreased. The danger of condensation occurring is also reduced. The need for additional heating of the flue gases before they are carried to the chimney in order to prevent condensation is hereby reduced.
An electric power plant not only produces water but also consumes considerable quantities of water as boiler feed water. The boiler feed water comes for the greater part from the condenser, so that a circulation is obtained. The circulation is however not completely closed, since water loss does occur. This water loss can be easily compensated with a apparatus according to the invention. A considerable saving of potable water is obtained herewith, since the boiler make-up water must be of high quality and pre-treated potable water or spring water, groundwater or surface water is normally used.


A needle plate module is provided with fingers having a bent portion received in a lateral channel portion enabling standard screw sizes to the fingers into the module over a wide range of finger gauge spacings.

Tufting machines preferably operate at relatively high speed with one or more reciprocating rows of needles cooperating with loopers or hooks to form loops or bights of yarn on the reverse side of a backing material penetrated by the needle. The needles, loopers or hooks, knives, and needle plate fingers between which needles pass in their reciprocating movements, must be aligned with precision and accurately and uniformly spaced from each other so that the bills of loopers and hooks pass closely adjacent to the needles for engaging and holding yarns and the needle plate fingers do not interfere with the travel of the needles, and the knives interface with hooks to provide cutting action. When manufacturing these gauge components and the supports which carry the gauge components, any error or tolerance in positioning the components may accumulate or be repeated across the width of the tufting machine, which may be as much as four meters. In order to provide greater consistency, gauge elements have been manufactured in modular components. In many cases, modular components are cast or permanently fixed within blocks that are then mounted to specified positions along gauge bars. Examples of such modules are shown in Neely, U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,450.
In fine gauge machines, the use of modular components has become particularly widespread. So long as the mounting positions are accurately located along the gauge bar, the use of small modular sets of gauge components helps avoid accumulated error, allows for accurate and rapid location of replacement modules upon gauge element breakage, and is believed to minimize twisting of gauge elements during high speed operation.
Apart from cast modules containing gauge elements including needle plate fingers, two other general alternative modular needle plate element designs have found general acceptance. The first, as reflected in FIG. 9 of Price, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,140, utilizes screws to lock the fingers in place within a module, and would be referred to as a screw lock type needle plate module. The sizes of the screw posts and screw heads have conventionally acted as a limit upon the range of gauges of needle plate fingers that might reasonably utilized in screw lock style needle plate modules. Accordingly, these modules have been most frequently used when the gauge of a tufting machine is between about one-eighth and one-fourth gauge (between 8 and 4 yarns per inch (2.54 cm) of width). An alternative configuration utilizing a top clamping plate to hold the needle plate fingers in place is depicted in FIG. 4 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,140. This configuration has been adapted for use in situations in which the gauge of the tufting machine elements is to be outside the range of one-eighth to one-fourth gauge.
Thus, although the screw lock type needle plate block is desirable, until the present invention, no such construction had been developed that was deemed acceptable outside the one-eighth to one-fourth gauge range.


A reversible vacuum filter cartridge for connection to a pair of tubes or other entities to filter a liquid medium placed in one of the tubes or other entities is described. The filter cartridge is comprised of a male coupling and a female coupling. The couplings are interconnected to one another by simply pushing a mating projection of the male coupling into a mating cavity of the female coupling. A connecting port is provided in the male and female coupling and has a conduit communicating with tube connecting ends of each of the couplings which communicate with an open end of a tube connected to each of the couplings. The connecting port is identical in each of the couplings and serves either as vacuum port or an air intake port. A filter disk is retained captive between perforated outer walls of each of the couplings when interconnected together in fluid-tight relationship.

The filter cartridge of the present invention is of the type as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,967 wherein there is described a vacuum filter device adapted to connect to a pair of tubes with the upper one of the tubes containing a sample liquid medium to be filtered and the other tube or other entities receiving the filtrate passing through the filter. It is important with that filter device that the tube containing the sample liquid medium always be connected to a specific side of the filter as it will only operate in that position due to the construction of the filter cartridge. It is further pointed out that these filter cartridges are constructed for one-time use and after a liquid medium placed in a tube or other entities has been filtered the cartridge is discarded as the filter element cannot be replaced. The filter element is a porous membrane which is welded at its periphery to a plate prior to bonding the two holders of the cartridge together. The filter membrane is constructed from suitable polymeric materials such as mixed esters of cellulose, cellulose acetate, polycarbonate, polyvinylydene fluoride, polytetrafluoroethalene, nylon, polypropylene, polyethylene and other such polymeric substances. Because the filter membrane is welded it is not possible to re-use the entire cartridge after a single use as the porous membrane becomes saturated with trapped particles of the sample fluid medium that was filtered. It is also not possible to use a paper membrane with this filter cartridge.
Because of the welding of the filter membrane the assembly of the cartridge requires a further step in its construction and is therefore not simple in construction and assembly. The holders of the cartridge are also bonded in a back-to-back relationship by a welding technique such as ultrasonic welding to form an integral body. All of these steps in the assembly of the cartridge and associated welding equipment add to the cost of the cartridge which will eventually be discarded after a one-time use.
With these types of cartridges, a vacuum port is provided whereby a vacuum can be applied to the bottom tube whereby the sample liquid medium to be filtered in the upper tube is drawn through the filter. An air vent is provided in the cartridge to permit the ingress of air into the upper tube containing the sample liquid medium. As described in the referenced patent, injection molding methods generally provide the greatest dimensional control of shape with plastic parts. To apply conventional molding techniques for the fabrication of the cartridge would be desirable if one could mold a passageway into the wall of a cartridge to dimensions of 0.015 inches or less. However, because there is deformation caused by flashing when the molded parts are separated, this is not feasible. As described in that patent, this is because as the molten plastic enters the mould cavity the pin used to create the passageway would deflect leading to fatigue and breakage. Also, for the pin to seal off against the other wall of the cavity, the sealing end of the pin will be peened over in time leading to flashing. Flashing is an uncontrollable, undesirable migration of plastic, which in this example would lead to filling and dimensionally distorting the venting passageway. The fact that the venting passageway is dimensioned at 0.015 inches or less provides significant advantages in that the filtration device maintains its liquid-tight capabilities while air is admitted in the upper tube without employing an additional membrane covering the venting passageway to prevent solution from leaking out of the device during normal use. With the prior art this passageway is formed by a more expensive technique than would be the case with injection molding.


This disclosure describes techniques that enable a subscriber of a data center to manage a site collection group hosted by the data center. A site collection group is a set of site collections that belong to a single subscriber. A site collection is a collection of websites. A website is a collection of related resources. Each of the site collections is associated with an “owner”. As described herein, the data center presents management interfaces that enable owners of site collections to manage the site collections. In addition, the data center presents management interfaces that enable subscribers to manage architectural aspects of their site collection groups.

Web pages are important means for communication and collaboration for enterprises. An enterprise may use web pages to communicate with its employees, with the public, with its partners, and with other groups. An enterprise may organize web pages targeted to different audiences into groups of web pages known as "websites". For instance, an enterprise may organize a set of web pages targeted to its employees into an intranet website. Furthermore, in this instance, the enterprise may organize a set of web pages targeted to the public into an Internet website.
In order to provide web pages, an enterprise may establish its own information technology infrastructure. Establishing an information technology infrastructure may require the purchase of one or more servers that provide the web pages and may require the purchase of bandwidth from a network access provider. In addition, the enterprise may be required to hire employees to administer the information technology infrastructure.
Expenses associated with establishing and maintaining the information technology infrastructure may be considerable. For instance, high-end servers may cost several thousand dollars each. Furthermore, the salary of a network administrator hired to configure and maintain the information technology infrastructure may be several thousand dollars per month.
In order to reduce expenses associated with establishing and maintaining its own information technology infrastructure, an enterprise may enter a subscription agreement with an operator of a data center. A data center is a collection of servers and other network appliances that operate to perform network services on behalf of one or more subscribers. The subscription agreement may specify that, in exchange for a periodic fee, the operator of the data center will provide a web hosting service that hosts a website of the enterprise.
The operator of the data center may make many such subscription agreements with many different enterprises, organizations, or individuals. Enterprises, organizations, and individuals that enter subscription agreements with an operator of a data center for network services are referred to as "subscribers" or "tenants."
In some circumstances, it is not necessary for a data center to include a server that is exclusively dedicated to providing web hosting services on behalf of a single subscriber. For example, a website of a first subscriber may not receive enough hits from client devices to justify the expense of maintaining a separate server to operate a web hosting service that exclusively hosts the website of the first subscriber. In such circumstances, a single server in the data center may provide a shared web hosting service that hosts the websites of a plurality of subscribers. When a single server provides a shared web hosting service that hosts the websites of a plurality of subscribers, the data center may endeavor to ensure that it appears to each of the subscribers that the data center has provided a dedicated server that provides a web hosting service that exclusively hosts the subscribers' individual websites. In other words, the data center tries not to give any indication to a subscriber that a server that provides the web hosting service for the subscriber is also providing web hosting services for other subscribers.
In some instances, a subscriber of a data center may use the data center to host several separate websites. For instance, a subscriber may operate a plurality of different e-commerce enterprises, each of which has its own website. In another example, a subscriber may operate an intranet site that is accessible to employees of the subscriber and an extranet website that is accessible to a group of employees of the subscriber and a group of employees of a partner enterprise.


A mold and a die-cast manufacturing method for the die-cast product, in which a main frame which is contiguously formed with a head pipe constitutes a portion of a hollow light-weight-metal-made vehicle-body frame. The mold includes a core for forming an inner space of the hollow vehicle-body frame. The core includes a core body and a plurality of splints mounted on the core body, the splints having approximately elliptical cross-sectional shapes. The long axes direction of ellipses of the splints are set parallel to a mold split surface of the mold. As a result, measurement of the positional accuracy of the splints is facilitated, a clearance between the splint and the mold can decrease by increasing the dimensional accuracy of splint mounting portions of the mold based on sizes of the splints, and the frame can be manufactured with high dimensional accuracy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to, for example, a vehicle body frame of a motorcycle or the like, a die-cast product which constitutes a portion of the vehicle body frame, and a mold and a die-cast method for the die-cast product.
2. Description of Background Art
Among vehicle body frames of motorcycles, some vehicle body frames are manufactured by casting using light-weight metal such as aluminum. In manufacturing such vehicle body frames by casting, since it is necessary to make the inside of the vehicle body frame hollow to achieve the reduction of weight, casting is performed by setting a sand core in a mold. (See, for example, JP-A-1-254479.)
The core includes splints for setting the core in the mold and the core is set in the mold by inserting the splints into the mold. However, there exists a drawback that it is difficult to reflect the positional accuracy of the splints to the mold in which the splints are mounted. Particularly, even a slight distortion of the mold attributed to heat causes the interference of the splint with a splint mounting portion of the mold. Accordingly, to prevent the occurrence of damages on the splints at the time of clamping the mold, it is a prerequisite to ensure a large clearance between the splint mounting portion of the mold and the splint. As a result, when the core is displaced due to a molten flow at the time of casting, there arises a drawback that a wall thickness of a product becomes non-uniform.

Vehicle body frame, die-cast product, mold for die-cast product and die-cast method


A manganese dioxide (MnO2) or silver vanadium oxide (SVO) or other battery of an implantable medical device having a relatively flat quiescent battery voltage during a beginning portion of the battery's useful life, makes it difficult to use quiescent battery voltage as an indicator of remaining battery energy during this portion of the battery life. A substantially constant load current pulse is drawn from the battery and a pair of loaded battery terminal voltage measurements is taken during this pulse. A difference between the voltage measurements is computed. This difference can be expressed as a rate of change, a slope, or a polarization angle, and can be used with stored data from similar batteries to determine remaining energy of the battery. A quiescent battery voltage can also be used in combination with this technique, and/or for distinguishing between different remaining energies corresponding to the same difference, slope, or polarization angle.

Implantable medical devices include, among other things, cardiac rhythm management (CRM) devices such as pacers, cardioverters, defibrillators, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) devices, as well as combination devices that provide more than one of these therapy modalities to a subject. Such devices are typically powered by self-contained energy sources, such as batteries. It is useful to know how much energy capacity remains in a battery carried within an implanted medical device, such as to ascertain when the implanted device should be explanted from the subject and replaced by a device with a fresh battery. Determining how much energy is left in a battery is particularly difficult when a measured battery characteristic (e.g., the quiescent voltage at the battery terminals) does not change appreciably during a large portion of the battery life. Yet such a characteristic is particularly desirable for use in a cardiac rhythm management device because it provides a predictable battery characteristic during that large portion of the battery life.

Indicator of remaining energy in storage cell of implantable medical device


In an antenna feed structure for electrically connecting a rotatable antenna to a circuit formed on a circuit board by means of a feeding metallic part, an antenna rotary shaft formed so as to protrude from one end of the antenna and formed of a conductor has a preferably spherical end. The feeding metallic part has a mounting portion, an antenna contact-and-connection portion, and an elastic supporting portion. The mounting portion is mounted to the circuit board. The antenna contact-and-connection portion is brought into contact with and is connected to the end of the antenna rotary shaft. The elastic supporting portion supports the antenna contact-and-connection portion at the mounting portion and produces biasing force towards the antenna rotary shaft from the antenna contact-and-connection portion. The antenna contact-and-connection portion has a recess wall preferably having a spherical shape which is in correspondence with the spherical shape of the end of the antenna rotary shaft. The spherical end of the antenna rotary shaft press-contacts the spherical recess wall of the antenna contact-and-connection portion.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an antenna feed structure for electrically connecting a rotatable antenna to a circuit on a circuit board, the connection being made with a feeding metallic part on the circuit board.
2. Background Art
FIG. 9 is a schematic view externally showing a card device in simplified form. A card device 41 comprises a card case 42, a circuit board 43 accommodated in the card case 42, and an antenna 44 rotatably disposed at the outer side of the card case 42 for being electrically connected to a circuit (not shown) formed on the circuit board 43.
An antenna rotary shaft 45 formed of a conductor is formed so as to protrude from one end of the antenna 44, and a through hole for inserting the antenna rotary shaft 45 into the card case 42 from outside the card case 42 is formed in a side wall of the card case 42. The antenna rotary shaft 45 is electrically connected to the circuit at the circuit board 43 by inserting the antenna rotary shaft 45 into the card case 42 through the through hole for inserting the antenna rotary shaft. As a result, the antenna 44 is electrically connected to the circuit on the circuit board 43 through the antenna rotary shaft 45.
Other antenna feed structures of background interest are described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-339211, and PCT Japanese Translation Patent Publication No. 11-504771.
The antenna rotary shaft 45 rotates. Therefore, due to various reasons arising from the rotation of the antenna rotary shaft 45, it is not desirable to directly connect the antenna rotary shaft 45 to the circuit board 43. Consequently, the use of a feeding metallic part such as a feeding metallic part 46 shown in a model diagram in FIG. 10 has been proposed. The feeding metallic part 46 electrically connects the antenna rotary shaft 45 to the circuit at the circuit board 43, so that the antenna rotary shaft 45 is not directly connected to the circuit board 43.
The entire feeding metallic part 46 is formed of a conductor. The feeding metallic part 46 comprises a mounting portion 47 for mounting to the circuit board 43, an antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 for contact and connection with the antenna rotary shaft 45, and an elastic supporting portion 49 for elastically supporting the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 at the mounting portion 47. The elastic supporting portion 49 possesses elasticity (springiness) allowing biasing force to be produced from the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 towards the antenna rotary shaft 45.
The mounting portion 47 of the feeding metallic part 46 is electrically connected to the circuit on the circuit board 43. By bringing the antenna rotary shaft 45 into press-contact with the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 of the feeding metallic part 46, they are electrically connected together. This causes the antenna 44 to be electrically connected to the circuit on the circuit board 43 through the antenna rotary shaft 45 and the feeding metallic part 46.
Accordingly, when the feeding metallic part 46 shown in FIG. 10 is used, the antenna 44 is electrically connected to the circuit on the circuit board 43 without directly connecting the antenna rotary shaft 45 to the circuit board 43. However, when the feeding metallic part 46 shown in FIG. 10 is used, the following problems arise.
Whereas an end surface of the antenna rotary shaft 45 is spherical, a portion of contact of the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 of the feeding metallic part 46 with the antenna rotary shaft is planar. Therefore, the antenna rotary shaft 45 and the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 of the feeding metallic part 46 are in point contact with each other, as a result of which the area of contact is very small. In addition, since the antenna rotary shaft 45 tends to swing due to the rotation of the antenna 44, when the antenna 44 rotates, the location of contact of the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 of the feeding metallic part 46 with the antenna rotary shaft 45 tends to vary. These two problems, that is, the problem of the area of contact between the antenna rotary shaft 45 and the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 being small and the problem of the location of contact of the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 with the antenna rotary shaft 45 varying, make it difficult to provide stable contact and electrical connection between the antenna rotary shaft 45 and the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 (that is, stably electrically connect the antenna 44 and the circuit on the circuit board 43).
Further, the distance between the circuit board 43 and the antenna rotary shaft 45 is determined by various factors. Because allowance must be made for the distance between the circuit board 43 and the antenna rotary shaft 45, the design of the feeding metallic part 46 cannot be carried out with much freedom. When one tries to vary the contact pressure between the antenna rotary shaft 45 and the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 of the feeding metallic part 46, the design of the feeding metallic part 46 is changed, for example, to vary the location where the feeding metallic part 46 is mounted to the circuit board 43 or to vary the elastic force of the elastic supporting portion 49 of the feeding metallic part 46. However, since the distance between the circuit board 43 and the antenna rotary shaft 45 is small, a range in which the mounting location of the feeding metallic part 46 can be moved is small. Therefore, the contact pressure between the antenna rotary shaft 45 and the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 substantially cannot be adjusted by adjusting the mounting location of the feeding metallic part 46. Still further, since the feeding metallic part 46 is designed considering various factors, such as material costs and manufacturing process, the feeding metallic part 46 is designed under many constraints. Therefore, it is difficult to change the design for varying the elastic force of the elastic supporting portion 49. Consequently, the structure of the feeding metallic part 46 shown in FIG. 10 has the problem that it is difficult to adjust the contact pressure between the antenna rotary shaft 45 and the antenna contact-and-connection portion 48 of the feeding metallic part 46.


In the technical field of known cardholders for devices such as cards with magnetic stripes on which is encoded information and or data in the form of patterns of magnetism, the known cardholders offer no method of `keeping` (in magnetism terminology) the magnetic patterns. The present invention is characterised by incorporating into the cardholders, keepers in the form of sheets of magnetically soft ferromagnetic material with high resistance. The benefit of the invention is obtained when devices are placed with the reading surface of their magnetized stripes in close contact with the surface of the ferromagnetic material which, making use of known properties of the material, then acts as keeper of the magnetic patterns.

Credit cards and similar devices are normally carried around in holders of some sort. Known cardholders are designed to protect the tangible substance of the devices and some cardholders offer shielding against extraneous magnetic fields. Known cardholders do not provide any means of `keeping` the information and/or data encoded on the magnetic stripes.
Cardholders may be designed for the sole purpose of carrying the devices, may be attached to a garment or may be part of a more comprehensive multi-purpose holder such as a wallet, pocketbook, handbag, purse, belt, bum-bag, tum-bag, briefcase, file (personal, hand held or otherwise) or anything else into which the devices may be placed, carried or stored.
As further background art, it is well known that magnetically soft ferromagnetic material has the properties of low reluctance, low remanent magnetism, high relative permeability, and a narrow hysteresis loop and that the said material provides a ready path for magnetic lines of force. A well known use of these properties is in keepers for permanent magnets. Known ferromagnetic materials are manufactured in many forms, including sheet, strip, granules, powders and composites with other materials.


The dynamic switching of a bi-endian processor between endian modes is described. A device having the bi-endian processor may also have an endian select circuit. The endian select circuit may receive a signal from the processor that determines what the endian-ness should be after the processor resets. Special instruction code may be executed by the processor in both little and big endian modes. The special instruction code may, for instance, cause a processor in a first endian mode to output a signal and reset, while the same instruction code may cause a processor in a second endian mode to neither output the signal nor reset. Instead, the processor in the second endian mode may jump to a new instruction address and proceed with normal processing.

Many existing processors are designed to selectably operate in either "big-endian" or "little-endian" mode. These devices are known as "bi-endian" processors. For example, the BCM4702 processor chip, marketed by Broadcom Corporation, is bi-endian and operates in either little-endian mode or big-endian mode depending upon the voltage level applied to a particular one of its EIF_DATA pins when the processor is initialized. In little-endian mode, for a given numerical value, the lowest memory address for the value represents the least significant portion of the value, while the highest memory address for the value represents the most significant portion of the value. For instance, where the value is defined by four bytes, the least significant byte is found in the lowest memory address for that value and the most significant byte is found in the highest memory address for that value. In big-endian mode, the reverse is true; the lowest memory address in the value's address range represents the most significant portion of the value, while the highest memory address in the value's address range represents the least significant portion of the value.
Most computer architectures operate under little-endian mode. For example, most personal computers that use Microsoft WINDOWS brand operating systems operate in little-endian mode. However, some computer architectures use big-endian mode. It is sometimes desirable to be able to switch a device between endian modes so that a different set of software (e.g., a different operating system) may be used in the device. For example, assume that the firmware of a broadband router is running the VxWorks operating system, which uses big-endian mode. It may be desirable to switch the router over to run the Microsoft WINDOWS CE brand operating system, which uses little-endian mode. If the router has a bi-endian processor, then such switching may be performed.
However, in order to switch a bi-endian processor embedded in a device (such as the above-described router) between endian modes, the device power must be turned off, the casing of the device must be opened (usually by the end user) and a physical jumper wire must be reconfigured. By reconfiguring the jumper wire and then reapplying power to the device, the input to the bi-endian processor receives an appropriate signal defining which endian mode to use. Unfortunately, requiring a user to open a device and move a jumper is inconvenient and requires a level of skill that many end users simply do not have. Therefore, a need exists to allow a device having a bi-endian processor to conveniently switch endian modes without necessarily requiring a user to open the device, move a jumper, and/or make any other hardware change to the device.


Structural design permits efficiency to increase, which allows for the levitation of power generation equipment in a power plant. Rotational gyroscopic levitation motion is achieved by spinning stabilization without physical bearings on a generator. The phenomena of magnetic levitation of a rotational moving part with a degree of vertical allowance permit the torque resistance to lessen allowing for the reduction in heat rate to kilowatt-hour ratio. The magnetic levitation is further enhance by containing the magnetic bearings in a cooled chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the generation of energy and more specifically to a mechanical process for converting thermal energy to mechanical energy. The art of converting thermal energy to mechanical energy herein is for producing electricity. The use of an electric generator as a rotational device in order to excite an electric field between a stator and a rotor. The rotation will cause an armature to conduct electricity due to magnetic flux by either permanent magnets or electromagnetic magnets.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Conventional power production has come a long way since Mr. Nickola Tesla and Mr. Thomas Edison put the initial production dynamo into production, late in the nineteen century. Since then not much attention was place in efficiency and in residual contamination of the environment.
In present times, electric power utilities bestow electrical power to the masses via distributed power plants. These power plants produce electricity that are then interconnected through high power transmission lines which then down convert the power through substations which in turn distribute the power to communities and cities.
The main source for producing power is the use of fossil fuels, followed by nuclear power, and then imminently important but to a lesser extent in use is hydropower. Other forms also contribute to producing electricity such is the case as solar thermal, photovoltaics, wind, geothermal, and biomass.
Conventional sources such as fossil fuels have become the most critical as contamination of the atmosphere by power plant emissions have led to a gradual anthropologic climate change. The continuation of burning fossil fuels contributes to a climatological positive feedback. It has become apparent as every year the Keeling Curve continues on a logarithmic rise. Although technologies have progress in restricting emissions, the efficiencies have only gradually improve, nonetheless, the efficient production of electric power as measure as heat rate has being slow in coming.

Thermal efficiency heat rate improvement over power generation and emissions control


A light emitting diode (LED) optical system. Implementations disclosed in this document may include two or more LEDs coupled with a circuit board and two or more optics. The two or more optics may each include a first end and a second end where the second end opposes the first end and a first optical stage including the first end. A second optical stage may be included that includes the second end. The first optical stage may include a total internal reflector and the second optical stage may include an upper reflector portion located at the second end. The two or more optics may be coupled over the two or more LEDs at their first ends and the two or more optics may be coupled to each other along a portion of their first optical stages and at their second optical stages.

1. Technical Field
Aspects of this document relate generally to optical systems such as optics used for transmitting, projecting, or reflecting light for light emitting diodes (LEDs).
2. Background Art
The use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) as light sources in a wide variety of applications is well known. Lighting systems employing a wide variety of LED optical systems have been devised to direct the light emitted by one or more LEDs in a desired direction. Because light is naturally emitted by most LEDs in a broad angular pattern, conventional LED optical systems utilize collimation or focusing optics to gather the light emitted and direct it to form a desired light pattern. In systems where light is desired to be directed primarily laterally from the LED, turning mirrors or specialized side-emitting LEDs are sometimes be employed.

Light emitting diode optical system and related methods


A method for shaping a consolidated, substantially oxygen-free, equiaxed MoSi.sub.2 /SiC composite body having an average grain size of 10 .mu.m or less, a SiC content of 2 to 60 v/o and relatively low strength and relatively high ductility comprising subjecting the composite body to plastic deformation under conditions of forming temperature and rate of deformation such that grain growth is substantially avoided, the MoSi.sub.2 /SiC composite body being obtained by providing particles of molybdenum, silicon and carbon in a proportion relative to each other required to produce a composite powder of MoSi.sub.2 and SiC having a composition in that segment of the ternary diagram of FIG. 1 designated A, and subjecting the particles to mechanical alloying under conditions and for a time sufficient to produce the composite powder, followed by consolidation of the composite powder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for shaping a particular consolidated ceramic composite having relatively low strength and relatively high ductility.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Silicides of transition metals such as molybdenum disilicide and composites comprising matrices of the transition metal silicide reinforced with silicon carbide (SiC) are considered potential materials for structural applications due to their high melting points, excellent oxidation and corrosion resistance, low densities and good electrical and thermal conductivity. However, the use of MoSi.sub.2 is limited as a structural material due to its low ambient temperature, fracture toughness and poor elevated temperature strength.
The high melting point of MoSi.sub.2, coupled with its line compound characteristics, pose considerable difficulties in its processing. Consequently, powder processing has been the preferred fabrication route due to the lower processing temperatures that it affords. Unfortunately, it also results in the incorporation of silica (originally formed on the surfaces of the powders as an oxide layer) into the consolidated bodies. The presence of grain boundary silica in the consolidated bodies is detrimental to the high temperature properties of the MoSi.sub.2 composites since it softens above approximately 1,200.degree. C. and causes enhanced deformation of the MoSi.sub.2 body by possibly promoting viscous grain boundary sliding. Thus, control and reduction of the grain boundary silica is essential in order to improve the high temperature properties of MoSi.sub.2.
Prior art methods have endeavored to control the silica content (hence, the oxygen content), and thus improve the high temperature properties of MoSi.sub.2. For instance, Maxwell NACA RM E52B06 (1952)! varied the grain size and the carbon content and found that a fine grained material with carbon additions had better creep properties and a lower high temperature plasticity than a similar grain sized material without carbon additions. More recently, Maloy et al Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol. 74, page 2704 (1991)! also reported improved high temperature fracture toughness with increasing levels of carbon additions. However, substantial (.about.40%) weight losses were reported on consolidating these samples, resulting in uncontrolled formation of molybdenum rich second phases. Hardwick et al at Rockwell International Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia, Vol. 27, "Reaction Synthesis of MoSi.sub.2 from High Purity Elemental Powders," pages 391-394 (1992)! attempted to process oxygen-free MoSi.sub.2 by conducting all the powder handling and consolidation operations under a vacuum or inert atmosphere. However, these approaches Hardwick et al, supra; and Schwarz et al, Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. A155, page 75 (1992)! are impractical from the standpoint of processing bulk structural parts due to the difficulties involved in the scale-up of evacuation systems, as well as the excessive costs associated with such processes. Other methods of forming MoSi.sub.2 /SiC composites, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,927,792 and 5,000,896, still do not deal with the problem of controlling or limiting the oxygen content in the MoSi.sub.2 matrices.
In view of these considerations, it is clear that further enhancements in the properties of MoSi.sub.2 and MoSi.sub.2 /SiC composites are possible only by limiting/eliminating the silica in the matrix, along with close control of the overall stoichiometry of the body, through the use of economic processing schemes which do not necessitate elaborate care during powder handling. Such methods embodying these requirements are taught in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/538,004 filed Oct. 2, 1995, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,454,999 and 5,340,531, and represent considerable advancements in the art of processing of MoSi.sub.2 bodies. The entire contents and disclosures of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/538,004 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,454,999 and 5,340,531 are incorporated herein by reference.
Formation of shaped bodies of MoSi.sub.2 also poses significant challenges. Being hard and brittle at room temperature, MoSi.sub.2 thus has very poor machinability. Accordingly, room temperature shape forming is limited to such processes as grinding and polishing. In addition to being expensive and time consuming, such processes result in a considerable waste of expensive material. Such processing bottlenecks increase production costs, thereby hindering the large volume production of MoSi.sub.2 bodies.
A variety of conventional shape forming processes such as sintering, chemical vapor infiltration, liquid metal reactive infiltration and injection molding have been utilized in the fabrication of MoSi.sub.2 bodies. However, each of these processes has intrinsic limitations.
The use of sintering, for example, results in shrinkage of the body, the extent of which is dependent on the green density, sintering temperature, sintering atmosphere, etc. Moreover, recent studies on the sintering of MoSi.sub.2 bodies have shown that substantially high temperatures and very fine particle sizes are needed to achieve full densification by sintering, in addition to the use of hydrogen-containing atmospheres.
Chemical vapor infiltration Stinton et al, "Advanced Ceramics by CVD Techniques," American Ceramic Society Bulletin, Vol. 67, No. 2, pages 350-355 (1988); and Stinton et al, "Synthesis of Fiber Reinforced SiC Composite by CVI," American Ceramic Society Bulletin, Vol. 65, No. 2, pages 347-350 (1986)! of MoSi.sub.2 and SiC bodies, aside from needing appropriate gaseous precursors, is nevertheless limited by the very slow deposition rates 1-2 weeks!. Furthermore, the clogging of the exterior pore channels during the processing necessitates expensive modifications to the process such as the superimposition of appropriate temperature gradients and the use of intermediate (time-consuming and expensive) machining operations in order to form a pore-free, fully dense body.
Liquid metal infiltration, while being a well established, relatively quick and inexpensive method of forming dense MoSi.sub.2 /SiC bodies, has been traditionally plagued by the inability to achieve complete conversion of the reactant silicon and carbon; the result is the presence of residual silicon and carbon in the material, which is detrimental to the optical and mechanical properties. Furthermore, issues such as capillarity effects and wetting, which are dependent on the preform and melt characteristics, need considerable optimization as a prerequisite to extension of such techniques to systems of variable compositions. However, there have been recent successes in resolving this problem, as for example, by the methods of Chiang et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,195 and Messner et al in J. Am. Ceram. Soc., Vol. 73, No. 5, "Liquid Phase Reaction Bonding of Silicon Carbide Using Alloyed Mo--Si Melts," pages 1193-1200 (1990). Similarly, injection molding, while certainly being amenable to the formation of complex shapes, is limited in the maximum dimensions of producible parts, due to the difficulties associated with the efficient burnout and removal of the organic binder material used in the green forming steps.
In view of the difficulties experienced in the traditional ceramic processing routes, traditional plastic deformation processes offer an attractive, worthwhile, low cost alternative to the net shape manufacture of MoSi.sub.2 articles in consideration of the ductile characteristics exhibited by MoSi.sub.2 above .about.1,200.degree. C. Plastic deformation offers the possibilities of a drastic reduction in the production costs compared to the earlier described processes while enabling larger scale production of bodies for use in structural applications.
However, the phenomenon of work hardening, wherein a body suffers increasing resistance to an applied deformation with increasing strain, makes shape-forming difficult to achieve in practice. It has been noted that the large grained MoSi.sub.2 materials undergo considerable work hardening at elevated temperatures. Such work hardening characteristics, while being welcome from a service consideration, are detrimental from a processing standpoint since they imply increasing resistance to deformation. The problem is further compounded considering the fact that the deformation processing of advanced materials is usually in the regime of 1,250.degree. C. and above, where the choice of die and plunger tooling materials becomes restricted and expensive with an increase in the operating stress levels of the forming presses. Furthermore, work hardening characteristics also increase the tendency of the body to fracture (crack) with increasing levels of deformation, thereby limiting the extent of deformation imparted in the forming operation. In addition, necking (plastic) instabilities may occur during the deformation process and limit the useful attainable deformation.
On the other hand, some metallic and ceramic materials undergo large deformations under relatively low stresses at temperatures above half their absolute melting temperatures, when their grain size is small, below 10 .mu.m. This phenomenon is referred to in the art as "superplasticity." For such metallic and ceramic materials, it is preferable to shape these materials by initially deriving materials comprising fine grain structures and subsequently deforming them under controlled conditions of strain rate and temperatures, thereby utilizing their favorable (superplastic) deformation characteristics. Such deformation occurs at stress levels far lower than the usual yield points (in coarse grained material) without the instabilities associated with necking. Thus, large, uniform, crack-free deformations of the order of several hundred percent can be obtained as a result of such deformation.
Low stress, high ductility-imparting deformation processes such as superplastic deformation have been used considerably in the past in the production of metallic/ceramic articles and composite articles possessing high strength at high temperature. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,519,503, Moore et al teach a forging process wherein certain alloys, including those suitable for high temperature gas turbine applications, may be shaped to complex configurations under very low pressures. The processes taught therein also depend on the proper processing of the alloys to their temporary condition of low strength and high ductility and maintain such conditions throughout the duration of the forming process. The "Gatorizing" process, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,519,503, is thus an excellent example of the utilization of the low flow stresses to produce hitherto unworkable superalloy forgings with very close tolerances.
An important point to be noted herein is that the design criteria for high temperature structural components, to which structural materials in general, and MoSi.sub.2 in particular have particular relevance, requires the use of alloys that maintain a high degree of strength at high temperature, in addition to oxidation resistance. Generally, while it has been possible to find materials which meet the high strength requirements at high temperatures, the very improvements in the service properties that are required of these materials are often achieved at the expense of the fabricability of the alloys. For instance, substantial difficulties, as encountered during the sintering of high strength borides and carbides, have been attributed to their covalent-bond characteristics which, while causing enhanced resistance to deformation, also restrict diffusion, so essential for the sintering operation. Fabrication of such bodies has thus been traditionally performed under conditions of high temperature and pressure, which increase the processing costs. Likewise, conventional casting routes, while generally providing the large grain sizes desirable for high temperature use, are unsuitable for high melting materials due to problems of crucible-melt interactions (in addition to lack of suitable containment materials) and the ubiquitous segregation problems. In addition, volatilization of certain elemental components is also frequently encountered while melting these materials. Powder routes, while seemingly offering a viable alternative for the production of large grain sizes, are also constrained by densification problems, especially for materials with coarse starting powder sizes. The primary reason is that the governing mechanisms for strengthening are the same as those of deformation in the service and processing temperature regimes. Such difficulties in processing seriously hinder the development of viable structural materials due to unfavorable economics involved in their processing.
In view of the potential attractiveness of the low stress, high ductility imparting deformation processes (superplastic deformation), it would be desirable to adapt this process to MoSi.sub.2 bodies. When subjected to uniaxial compressive stress at controlled strain rates and controlled temperatures, MoSi.sub.2 /SiC bodies show a high degree of uniform deformation at a constant stress. Furthermore, the stress levels associated with such deformation are in the range of 5-50 MPa, under reasonably high strain rates and at reasonably low temperatures. However, these low stress levels imply that the material is not best suited for use in load-bearing applications.
Fabrication to close tolerances is critical to the utility of a material on an economically feasible scale in aerospace engine applications. Many of the parts are moving/rotating, thus requiring close tolerances not only in initial assembly, but also during subsequent use at service temperatures. Therefore, the use of near net shape forming techniques to form parts to within tight dimensional tolerances would greatly enhance the economic and technical viability of MoSi.sub.2, provided that the products would be useful in load-bearing applications.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of producing substantially silica-free compositions of matter comprising the matrix of molybdenum disilicide having SiC dispersed therein.
It is another object of the present invention to produce articles of high formability (temporary high ductility and low strength condition) through providing a microstructure that is substantially homogeneous, both in composition and structure, which possesses fine equiaxed grains of MoSi.sub.2 with a fine, uniform dispersion of SiC therein, and with substantially low silica content.
It is a further object of the present invention to shape-form the bodies to the desired configuration and tolerances in this temporary condition of high formability.
An additional object of the present invention is to retrieve the bodies from their temporary condition of low strength and high ductility to one of high strength and low ductility and, most importantly, to control the level of such achievable strength maximum through the control of the starting alloy composition.
Yet another object of the present invention is to indirectly achieve such control through a control of the maximum grain size obtainable after a heat treatment step.
A further object of the present invention is to control such attainment of grain size through control of the volume of SiC in the matrix which, in turn, is obtainable through appropriate control of the starting composition.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide for improved reliability of the objects manufactured.
It is an additional object of the present invention to produce intricate-shaped articles to close tolerances with minimum wastage of charge material and with a minimum of post-finishing operations such as grinding, etc.
Finally, it is yet another object of the present invention to provide articles containing MoSi.sub.2 and SiC that are useful at elevated temperature or at ambient temperature through appropriate modifications in the processing conditions such as composition, grain size and the like.

Method of manufacture of low O.sub.2 content MoSi.sub.2 /SiC composite bodies


A digital copying machine capable of two-sided copying, which forms an image on one side of a paper sheet, transports the paper sheet through a sheet re-feeding path provided with a sheet turning over unit, forms an image on the other side of the paper sheet, and finally delivers the paper sheet outside. When two-sided copy mode is set in accordance with an instruction from the user, paper sheets are supplied at sheet intervals shorter than sheet intervals at which paper sheets are supplied in one-sided copy mode.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a copying machine which performs two-sided copying, more particularly to a digital copying machine having a circular-type duplex function.
(2) Related Art
Digital copying machines having a circular-type duplex function have been proposed in the past. With the digital copying machine of this type, two-sided copying in a two-sided copy mode is performed in the following manner.
A copying sheet fed from a sheet cassette is transported to a toner image transferring position, where a toner image is transferred onto one side of the copying sheet. The copying sheet is then transported to a fixing unit, by which the toner image is fixed onto the sheet surface with heat. The copying sheet with an image copied on one side is returned to the toner image transferring position through a sheet re-feeding path including a sheet turning over device. Another image is ther formed on the other side of the copying sheet in the same manner. The copying sheet with an image formed on each side is discharged outside the copying machine without passing through the sheet re-feeding path. The passage starting from and ending back in the toner image transferring position via the sheet re-feeding path is called a circular transport path. When performing two-sided copying on a plurality of copying sheet successively, copying sheets simultaneously containable in the circular transport path are fed from a sheet cassette, and two-sided copying is performed on all the sheets. The same number of copying sheets are then fed from the sheet cassette, and the same process is repeated until two-sided copying is completed on a predetermined number of copying sheets.
When a one-sided copy mode is selected, copying sheets with an image formed on one side are discharged outside the copying machine without passing through the sheet re-feeding path.
With the copying machine having the above structure, an interval between copying sheets is determined in advance so that the heat-fixing of a toner image is not adversely affected when performing one-sided copying on a plurality of copying sheets successively. In the case of large size sheets, the sheet intervals are made long so as to prevent the fixing unit from cooling, while in the case of small size sheets, the sheet intervals are made short.
With the conventional copying machine, however, there is a problem that the two-sided copying speed is sometimes lower than the one-sided copying speed, depending on the sheet size in successive copying.

Digital copying machine capable of two-sided copying


In the present invention, when hollow polyhedral fine particles consisting of atoms of a first element and atoms of a second element are produced, atoms of the first element and atoms of the second element are structured in a reversed micelle composed of a surfactant. Thereby, hollow polyhedral fine particles can be synthesized by simple and easy procedures.

Hollow polyhedral nonsocial particles consisting of from several atoms to several thousand atoms exhibit physical properties which are different from those of bulk crystal structures consisting of the same atoms, and the physical properties of the nonsocial particles greatly vary in accordance with the number of structural atoms, the atomic arrangement states, and the like. For this reason, research thereon has been carried out from a broad perspective of them as "new materials" applicable to various uses.
As the hollow polyhedral particles described above, carbon fullerenes such as Chad 60 and the like are already known. However, hollow polyhedral fine particles which are stable in the atmosphere and are next to the carbon fullerenes in rank have not been discovered or created. In addition, the carbon fullerenes are synthesized by high energy consuming methods such as vapor growth methods, arching methods, and the like. Therefore, production costs of the carbon fullerenes are extremely high due to low production efficiency, and therefore, practical application thereof to various uses is inhibited.

Multiply structured particle and method for producing the same