Provided is a transmission unit that, if transmission of a PUCCH of a first CG overlaps transmission of a PUSCH and/or a PUCCH of a second CG in a certain subframe and UCI including HARQ-ACK is transmitted on the PUCCH of the first CG, upon transmit power of the PUCCH of the first CG exceeding a first upper limit value, performs scaling on the transmit power of the PUCCH of the first CG such that the transmit power of the PUCCH does not exceed the first upper limit value, and upon the transmit power of the PUCCH of the first CG not exceeding the first upper limit value, sets the transmit power of the PUCCH of the first CG to power required for the PUCCH of the first CG.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which is a standardization project, standardized the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (hereinafter referred to as EUTRA), in which high-speed communication is realized by adopting an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) communication scheme and flexible scheduling using a unit of prescribed frequency and time called resource block.
Moreover, the 3GPP has been discussing Advanced EUTRA, which realizes higher-speed data transmission and has backward compatibility with EUTRA. EUTRA relates to a communication system based on a network in which base station devices have substantially the same cell configuration (cell size), but, regarding Advanced EUTRA, discussion has been made on a communication system based on a network (different-type radio network, heterogeneous network) in which base station devices (cells) having different configurations coexist in the same area.
Discussion has been made on a dual connectivity technique, in which, in a communication system where cells (macro cells) having large cell radii and cells (small cells) having smaller cell radii than those of the macro cells coexist as in a heterogeneous network, a terminal device performs communication by connecting to a macro cell and a small cell at the same time (NPL 1).
In NPL 1, discussion has advanced regarding a network based on a situation that, when a terminal device is to establish dual connectivity with a cell (macro cell) having a large cell radius (cell size) and a cell (small cell (or pico cell)) having a small cell radius, a backbone network (backhaul) between the macro cell and the small cell is slow, and a delay occurs. Specifically, there is a possibility that it is impossible or difficult to enable a function which has been enabled in prior scenarios, due to delay in exchange of control information or user information between the macro cell and the small cell.
Meanwhile, NPL 2 describes a method of, when a terminal device connects, at the same time, to a plurality of cells connected via a high-speed backhaul, feeding back channel state information of each cell.

Terminal device, base station device, and method


A process for hydroprocessing a hydrocarbon feedstock, includes the steps of providing a hydrocarbon feed having an initial characteristic; providing a first hydrogen-containing gas; feeding the hydrocarbon feed and the first hydrogen-containing gas cocurrently to a first hydroprocessing zone so as to provide a first hydrocarbon product; providing a plurality of additional hydroprocessing zones including a final zone and an upstream zone; feeding the first hydrocarbon product cocurrently with a recycled gas to the upstream zone so as to provide an intermediate hydrocarbon product; and feeding the intermediate hydrocarbon product cocurrently with a second hydrogen-containing gas to the final zone so as to provide a final hydrocarbon product having a final characteristic which is improved as compared to the initial characteristic.

This is a division of application Ser. No. 09/797,448 filed Mar. 1, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,649,042.
The invention relates to a deep hydroprocessing process and, more particularly, to a process for advantageously removing substantial amounts of contaminant such as sulfur from hydrocarbon feedstocks.
A persistent problem in the art of petroleum refining is to reach acceptably low levels of sulfur content and other contaminants.
A large portion of the world's hydrocarbon reserves contain sulfur, and removal of this sulfur is critical in order to provide acceptable fuels.
Government agencies are currently formulating new regulations which will require sulfur content in fuels to be substantially lower than current practice. It is expected that such regulations will require sulfur content of less than 15 wppm.
A number of processes have been attempted for use in removing sulfur, one of which is hydrodesulfurization, wherein a hydrogen flow is exposed to the feedstock in the presence of a suitable catalyst so that sulfur compounds react to produce a volatile product, hydrogen sulfide.
Such processes do provide substantial reduction in sulfur in the feed. However, existing facilities do not readily provide for reduction of sulfur content to desired levels. Known hydrodesulfurization methods include cocurrent processes, wherein hydrogen and hydrocarbon feed are fed through a reactor or zone in the same direction, and countercurrent processes wherein hydrocarbon is fed in one direction and gas is fed in the other direction.
Known cocurrent processes do not provide acceptable levels of sulfur removal, and countercurrent processes typically experience difficulty in reactor flooding which occurs when the desired amount of gas flow to the reactor prevents flow of the hydrocarbon in the counter direction. Reduction of gas flow to address flooding reduces the effectiveness of countercurrent hydrodesulfurization processes.
Another potential problem with countercurrent processes is that adiabatic countercurrent processes may operate at temperatures much higher than adiabatic cocurrent processes, and this temperature is detrimental to hydrodesulfurization and other catalysts used in the process.
Based upon the foregoing, it is clear that the need remains for an advantageous process for removal of sulfur to levels which will meet the expected regulations on hydrocarbons for use as fuel.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a process whereby sulfur content is advantageously reduced to less than or equal to about 10 wppm.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process which can be carried out without substantially increasing the equipment size and space occupied by same in current hydrodesulfurization systems.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a hydrodesulfurization system which accomplishes the aforesaid objectives.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will appear hereinbelow.


Described is a system for localizing and controlling a tool tip with a robotic arm. The system receives three-dimensional (3D) visual information of a scene having a tool with a tool tip proximate a target. A depth disparity map is generated based on the 3D visual information. The depth disparity map is filtered by depth continuity to generate boundaries of the tool. The boundaries of the tool are initially loose to ensure that the tool is contained within the boundaries. Thereafter, using level set segmentation, the boundaries of the tool are shrunk and extracted. Ends of the tool tip are identified based on the extracted boundaries, which are then used to generate a pose of the tool tip.

Visually locating a tool tip on a robot is essential for vision-based robot control, which uses feedback from vision sensors to control the motion of a robot. The visual feedback reduces the reliance on precise calibration of the camera lens system as well as the entire robot system. To improve the positioning accuracy and stability, real world robot applications demand highly reliable algorithms for localizing robot end-effectors in unconstructed and dynamic environments.
Most researchers use template matching (using an image template) to locate the end-effector. The image template describes color, texture, and gradient-based edges. A region providing the maximal similarity measure is selected as the location of the object in the image. This kind of modeling includes assumptions about ambient lighting and background color that are not object features and, therefore, demonstrates a lack of robustness that is primarily due to lighting and background variation (see, for example, the List of Cited Literature References, Literature Reference No. 4). Other researchers apply feature-based methods, such as Harris corner features (see Literature Reference No. 5), KLT features (see Literature Reference No. 6) and SIFT features (see Literature Reference No. 7). Significant work has also been reported in object detection and recognition (see Literature Reference No. 8). Such methods usually require that the object has a rich surface texture, which is typically not available for most end-effectors, like a drill bit. Another problem in feature-based segmentation is the separation of features belonging to the objects from features belonging to the background. Binocular disparity and consistency optical flow may be included to allow separation of the object from the background. However, the disparity is not suitable when the difference in depth between an object and its background are small. Further, existing optical flow-based object segmentation methods often result in noisy and inconsistent flow patterns, especially if motion of the object is big. Moreover, they require oscillation-like movement of the tool (see Literature Reference No. 9), which is undesirable for a tool like a drill.
As another prior art example, active contours or so-called snakes are able to segment rigid and semi-rigid objects and are better able to preserve the shape of object (see Literature Reference No. 10). Such snakes allow tracking of arbitrary shapes and are relatively robust to occlusions. However, Snakes are sensitive to parameters and the initialization of the algorithm. Moreover, Snakes have a limited capture range and fail to detect concavities.
The performance of visual servoing highly depends on the robustness of the end-effector location. In a cluttered environment, the visual appearance of an end-effector depends upon a variety of parameters including geometry, surface characteristics, illumination, the geometric relation between camera and object(s), etc. The large number of parameters often results in a noisy and inconsistent appearance of the end-effector, obscuring its extraction. Therefore, almost all of the existing techniques are either model-based and require an off-line calibration or require special markers/fiducial points on an end-effector. Moreover, the lighting and environment are usually contrived (for instance using white backgrounds and dark objects) to yield a high contrast and thereby naturally distinguish foreground objects from the background. Vision under natural conditions remains very challenging.
Thus, a continuing need exists for a device and system that can robustly locate a drill bit or other tool tip in a variety of conditions.

Device and method to localize and control a tool tip with a robot arm


A solid state device for performing multi-analyte assays, comprises a substrate and a multiplicity of discrete reaction sites each bearing a ligand covalently bonded to the substrate, wherein the surface of the substrate between the reaction sites is inert with respect to analyte. Such a device may be obtained by a process of activating the surface of the substrate, and applying an array of ligands on to discrete areas on the surface.

This invention relates to a device and apparatus for the simultaneous detection of multiple analytes.
Traditionally, structurally-diverse analytes have been analysed by means of specific methods, e.g., enzyme immunoassay, high performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, enzymatic methods and colorimetric methods. These methods are predominantly one-analyte, one-test methods.
Automation of analytical methods has generally focused on batch and random access analysers, where multiple analysis on individual test samples is performed using sequential individual test methods. This necessitates the use of multiple packs of individual test kits. In addition, analysis requires employment of several types of equipment, e.g. clinical chemistry analysers, HPLC, GCMS, automated immunoassay instruments or atomic absorption instruments.
A multi-analyte system should involve a means of providing simultaneous analysis of several analytes in a test sample. This analysis should provide results which identify individual analytes and enable the quantitation of each individual analyte in that test sample. A method of multi-analyte analysis is often claimed but the given criteria are generally not both fulfilled.
In a multi-analyte system, a typical substrate contains a plurality of individual test reaction sites each possessing a different binding ligand. The test sample contacts each of the reaction zones and thereafter a range of detection techniques is implemented to identify the analyte present. It is important that the detection method used enables quantitation of each individual analyte.
In order to produce multi-analyte arrays of spatially-distinct areas of biologically-active ligands on a substrate, the most common approach has been through photolithographic techniques. The substrate is coated with a photolabile linker. In theory, this linker should only become reactive towards a binding ligand following irradiation with light of a suitable wavelength. Spatial resolution is achieved by placing a physical mask (normally manufactured from chrome) on the substrate. The pattern of holes in the mask determines the pattern of binding regions on the substrate.
For each biological ligand to be immobilised, the general protocol is: irradiation of first sites, incubation of irradiated substrate with a first ligand to be immobilised, washing to remove loosely bound ligand, blocking unreacted sites activated by the irradiation step, and irradiation of regions where the second biological ligand is to be immobilised, with subsequent steps repeated as for the first ligand. The spatial resolution is dictated by controlling the site of irradiation, either by controlling the site of irradiation by means of a coherent UV light source from a laser or by a number of physical masks and an incoherent light source. This makes the task of immobilising a plurality of biological ligands a time-consuming process. Another disadvantage of the photolithographic approach is the need for expensive physical masks or a laser light source. Further, there is a high degree of non-specific binding.
For example, the use of arylazides, fluoro-arylazides and benzophenones has been associated with a high degree of non-specific binding. High non-specific binding results in assay background being high, significantly reducing the dynamic range of each multi-analyte assay. The non-specific binding is largely due to passive adsorption of molecules to the non-activated photolabile linker surface through ionic interactions, Van der Waals forces etc.
WO-A-9516204 describes a photolithographic approach to reducing the problems associated with high non-specific binding. In this approach, the surface linking molecule was avidin and the photolabile molecule was photobiotin or a derivative thereof. Whilst reduced non-specific binding is claimed, this technique still requires the time-consuming sequences outlined above. Immobilisation of a plurality of 20 separate biological ligands would require a total of 80 steps, assuming the basic requirement of irradiation, binding, blocking and washing steps for each separate ligand to be immobilised.
Spatial resolution has also been achieved by passive adsorption. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,099 discloses binding whereby the ligand to the substrate surface through a combination of ionic interactions, hydrophobic interactions, and Van der Waals forces.
Passive adsorption processes are dependent on changes in pH, temperature, ionic strength and on the type of substrate used, making the binding process more difficult to control.
The major drawback with this approach is the susceptibility of a proportion of weakly immobilised ligand to be desorbed during the washing step or incubation steps of the biological assay, resulting in poor intra and inter-assay precision.
A cross-linker used in many publications has been glutaraldehyde. This linker presents many disadvantages, including the tendency of proteins to cross-link which is likely to alter the function of the protein. A further disadvantage is that the coupling procedure should include a reduction step which is time-consuming and potentially very hazardous, e.g. if sodium cyanoborohydride is used as the reducing agent.
Heterobifunctional linkers have been used but in many cases these involve the need for free sulphydryl groups on the protein to be bound. This necessitates modification of the protein prior to immobilisation.
In a multi-analyte assay, it is desirable to provide both qualitative and quantitative results. Multi-analyte assays have been available for antibiotics, for example. These are largely based on microbial inhibition assays, where an antibiotic present in the sample inhibits bacterial growth and forms a zone of clearance which is proportional to the concentration of the antibiotic present in the sample. However, this method cannot provide any indication as to the identity of the antibiotic, or an accurate determination of its concentration. Microbial inhibition methods are also very slow, the complete process taking several days.
Chemical screening methods such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or gas/liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS/LCMS) struggle to accommodate the structural diversity/polarity extremes of each antibiotic group, e.g., penicillins, sulphonamides, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines etc. In addition, chromatographic methods necessitate extensive sample preparation in order that the signal-to-noise ratios are such that the required detection limits can be achieved.
Available multi-analyte devices include the Triage (see Clinical Chemistry 38(9):1678-1684 (1992)) and Advisor (see Clinical Chemistry 39(9):1899-1903 (1993)). These devices are only suitable for qualitative analysis.
The Triage device is for the simultaneous detection of a panel of seven drugs of abuse in human urine. Each device is only capable of analysing one urine sample. At the end of the procedure, the operator visually examines each of the drug-specific test zones for the presence of a red bar. All steps of the assay protocol must be performed manually by the operator. There is also no hard-copy of the test result available.
The Advisor device is similar in its application to that of the Triage device. The Advisor device screens for five different classes of drugs of abuse. The device operates using agglutination assay principles, with individual channels for each drug. All steps of the assay protocol are performed by the operator. Negative samples have agglutinated particles, whereas positive drug samples provide an unaggregated pattern of particles.
The majority of biosensors/microfabricated devices for biological application have employed silicon as the substrate. Others use glass or quartz substrates. Silicon has a very controlled crystallographic structure with well-defined crystal planes. The uniformity of the silicon substrate makes it an ideal choice for the development of a multi-analyte test device.
However, dark substrates such as silicon give so-called black body effects. In the case of detection by fluorescence, in which a fluorophore is excited using light of a particular wavelength, a dark substrate may absorb the incident excitation light energy, thus diminishing light emission from the fluorophore.
According to the present invention, a device for performing multi-analyte assays, comprises a substrate and a multiplicity of discrete reaction sites each bearing a ligand covalently bound to the substrate, and in which the surface of the substrate between the reaction sites is inert with respect to analyte. This invention thus provides a solid state, multi-analyte device which exhibits little or no non-specific binding.
A device of the invention may be prepared by activating the surface of a suitable substrate, and applying an array of ligands on to discrete sites on the surface. If desired, the other active areas may be blocked. The ligands may be applied in an aqueous system, and it is preferred if the other areas are rendered hydrophobic. The ligands may be bound to the substrate via a linker. In particular, it is preferred that the activated surface is reacted successively with an organosilane, a bifunctional linker and the ligand.
As part of this invention, bifunctional cross-linkers have been used to provide highly efficient coupling chemistries between organosilanes covalently immobilised on microfabricated silicon or ceramic substrates. Biological ligands can thus be immobilised in multi-analyte arrays.
This invention removes the need for multiple individual test reagent kits and also several instrument types, thereby facilitating the simultaneous detection of multiple analyses on a single sample. The invention provides a single integrated analyser capable of providing simultaneous detection of a wide range of chemistries. In addition, test reagents may be supplied in a combined format for a particular panel of analytes.
As part of this invention, a plurality of biological ligands is immobilised in a spatially-defined pattern of spots or lines by means of microfluidic dispensing of the ligand onto a chemically-activated substrate. The biological ligand is covalently attached to the substrate. The coupling efficiency of the biological ligand can be such that the chemical reaction is completed within a few minutes. The immobilisation procedure can ensure that the biological ligand retains its biological activity both in the short term and in the long term.
This invention also provides an integrated analyser system for the simultaneous detection of a wide range of analytes in a multi-analyte format. The analyser system is designed for maximum end-user convenience, with the capability of obtaining multi-analyte identification and quantitation from each test sample. The preferred analyser system is a combination of a X-Y translational platform, a sample handling unit, liquid handling/flow control means, a temperature-controlled dark box, a CCD camera, and image-processing software. The platform may be associated with a stepper motor, to achieve a positioned accuracy of, say, 10 xcexcm, for positioning device(s) at each stage of the analytical procedure.

Method for making a device for the simultaneous detection of multiple analytes


A binding member, including a first disk ring portion configured for reception in a binding recess of a sheet member. The first disk ring portion can have an inner surface that faces radially inward for engaging and retaining a first binding protrusion of a sheet member for binding the sheet member. The first disk ring portion can be configured for allowing the bound sheet members to slide around the first disk ring portion while retaining the engagement. The binding member can also have an axial extension member associated with the first disk ring portion and extending generally in an axial direction with respect thereto.

Binding systems are used in connection with binders, folders, books, notebooks, and the like. A binding system functions to maintain two or more sheets, which may be paper, paper-like sheets, or sheets of any other material, in a bound association with one another. A binding system may also function to maintain such sheets in a bound association one or more cover members, the cover members being optionally bound to the binding system.
Various forms of binding systems are known in the art. For example, typical a spiral binding system includes a thin, coiled, binding wire with coils that pass through holes at an edge of the sheets. A typical ring binding system includes one or more rings or ring-like members, optionally connected to one another by a spine member, that pass through the holes in the sheet edges. An adhesive binding system includes a spine member with an adhesive thereon for adhesively binding the sheets along an edge thereof Other binding systems are known by those having ordinary skill in the art.
A subset of ringed binding systems are disk ring binding systems. In one example thereof, U.S. Pat. No. 5,015,114 discloses a binder ring having a disk shaped central portion, an aperture formed substantially in the center of the central portion, and an annular outer rim formed on the periphery of the central portion. The outer rim includes an arcuately shaped, outer surface configured as an outer segment of a circle, and has an axial width greater than the axial width of a central portion. The paper sheets have die cut perforations on one edge sized to fit about the outer rim of the binder rings. U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,959 discloses a disk ring binding system in which a stack of sheets is bound together using a plurality of disk fastening members insertable into openings of the stack of sheets to retain the sheets in the stack. The disk members have a substantially flat disk-like central surface portion and an enlarged continuous rim portion which extends around the periphery of the central surface portion of the disks. The rim portion extends outwardly in a direction perpendicular to the flat central portions of the disks, and the central surface portion has a radius which is larger than the thickness of a stack of sheets to be bound thereby. U.S. Pat. No. 6,074,152 discloses a binding system for index-books and notebooks, with mutually aligned disks having a double-T cross-section. The edge portion of the sheets receives the disks inserted in seats formed in the sheets. Further examples of disk ring binding systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,350,096, 6,364,560, and PCT Patent Application Publication No. WO 2007/060185.
It would be desirable to provide an improved disk ring binding system over those systems known in the art.


A high-speed end-milling router for ramping entry into a workpiece has plate-like hard metal cutting inserts fitted in pockets milled in chip gullet surfaces to present the insert at a desired axial rake angle and with radially inwardly and outwardly facing cutting edges. Each insert is secured in its pocket by two countersink headed machine screws whose holding power against centrifugal dislodgement of the insert is reinforced by a projection from the seating surface of the pocket extending into a blind recess molded in the undersurface of the insert.

In this demanding service, where tooling is pushed to its limits, a 2-inch router turning at 20,000 r.p.m. will be pushed to feed rates to extract the maximum power available from the spindle, in some instances at feed rates up to 400 inches per minute when using machine spindles capable of 100 HP.
The high metal removal rates and the high centrifugal forces encountered do not in themselves constitute the most rigorous aspect of such high speed milling, which occurs rather on plunging entry into the workpiece by ramping, of which such tools must be capable. That is, the tool must be capable of entering the workpiece by axial penetration of its surface without prior preparation of the workpiece by drilling. This is accomplished by feeding the rotating tool both axially and laterally, either simultaneously or alternately in repetitive steps, procedures which require a cutting capability of each cutting insert in both radial directions, i.e., outward and inward.
The latter cutting action, utilizing the radially inwardly facing cutting edge of the insert, results in a cutting force reaction on the insert whose radial component is outward, acting additively to centrifugal force without benefit of any offsetting inwardly-directed reaction component from the outwardly-facing cutting edge, which is idle in the half-revolution during which the inwardly facing cutting edge cuts.
If the ramping feed is aggressive, the added load upon the insert retainers can be substantial, increasing the danger of separation of the insert from the tool body at high speed.
To the extent the problem has been recognized by the prior art, it has been met by forming the inserts and the insert pockets of the tool body with integral interengageable projections and recesses respectively, in one instance a keel-like projection on the insert receivable in a kerf milled in the seating surface of the pocket. Such measures however are difficult to control in manufacture, and stress the hard metal projections of the insert in a manner that that material is not best suited to withstand.
It is accordingly the object of this invention to provide a simple, easily manufactured, interlocking reinforcement of the attachment of inserts to high-speed, heavy duty routers, to enable them to withstand not only the high centrifugal forces encountered, but also the added force upon the insert retainers resulting from ramping entry into the work.


Methods and systems for providing scaleable flow based application control in private and public Internet. A flow table can be used to control the application and subscriber traffic for communication flows in access networks. The flow table entry can provide granular, unidirectional packet transmission of data for all or a subset of all host and application communications originating from or destined to network hosts in the access network. Using a flow table entry for multiple unidirectional packet transmissions of data provides efficient use of flow table entries and allows varying operator control of application communication exchanges between network hosts and applications. By using variable masking techniques, the flow table can be used for varying degrees of control over the packet transmissions in the network.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for application control in private and public Internet, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus of providing scaleable flow based application control in private and public Internet.
2. Description of Related Art
Private and public Internets are interconnected with communication nodes that route packets from a source network host to a destination network host. Packets are a whole or a portion of a transmission between two host nodes, with each node having a unique network address. The Internet is made up of a variety of different networks, each assigned a unique network identifier. The network address is hierarchical in that it is made up of a network identifier, a sub network identifier, and a host identifier. Communication nodes called routers use the network portion of the address to make routing decisions at the points where networks are interconnected. This allows networks to be interconnected without communication nodes having to know the details of all the sub networks and networks hosts inside a destination network. However, within a destination network, a router would need to know the sub networks that are with its network and then subsequently within a sub network a router would need to be able to resolve all of the addresses for network hosts directly connected within the subnet. This hierarchy is analogous to the hierarchy of addresses when routing a telephone call in a circuit switched network: the county and area codes are used to aggregate the routing and addressing for all of the handsets within an area.
Because of the network addressing hierarchy, routers end up being very efficient in scaling the number of hosts that can connect to the Internet because they rely on the network identifiers only. However, in the access network where network hosts attach to the Internet, service providers increasingly want to provide "granular" services in which individual subscribers and applications can be differentiated from the "best effort" services provided on the Internet. One of the ways service providers are providing granular services is with flow-based network appliances.
However, because of the vast number of hosts that can connect to the Internet, in comparison with the number of networks that can connect, flow-based appliances cannot scale and aggregate Internet traffic they way Internet routers can if all communications are treated as flows.
In addition, each flow setup could experience significant latency in comparison to the latency once a flow is established because of the complex logic applied to the first instance of communication exchange and creating a flow entry in a lookup table.
Lastly, because flows are set up on each communication exchange between applications on network hosts, flow-based appliances can be susceptible to denial of service attacks simply by having a network host generate a new communication exchange to a network destination address or communications port, causing a flow-entry to be created for each exchange. Network service attacks can take many forms, including IP address sweeps, port scans, worms and email viruses. In an IP address sweep, the attacker attempts connections with many IP addresses on a particular TCP or UDP port. In a port scan, the attacker targets a specific machine and tries to initiate connections on hundreds or thousands of ports looking for a point of entry.
There is a need in the art for a flow-based appliance that can provide both the scale necessary to interconnect Internet hosts and the granularity required to provide differentiated services, for example, on a per-subscriber or per-application basis.

Scaleable flow-based application and subscriber traffic control


A method and system for improving the performance of diesel particulate filters. Before entering the filter, the exhaust gas is subjected to sonic waves to agglomerate the particles.

Internal combustion engines used for mobile or stationary applications are currently subject to strict emission limits. In-cylinder design changes have fallen short of allowing these engines to meet these emissions limits. Technology advances in the catalyst field have made it possible for integrated systems of engine and exhaust treatment to achieve extremely low emissions. Even so, more emission reduction efficiencies are sought from existing systems and new catalytic reduction solutions are needed to achieve even lower emissions.
In diesel engines, especially those that are classified as heavy-duty, gaseous emissions of unburned hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide are extremely low due to the lean burn nature of diffusion combustion. However, both nitric oxide and particulate matter emissions present a challenge to engineers. The challenge for catalytically treating and reducing nitric oxide is presented due to the excess oxygen in the exhaust of a typical diesel engine. The challenge of reducing particulate matter results from the nature of diffusion combustion. In spite of the recent advances in combustion technology, diesel engines are now requiring particulate filters to satisfy regulations.
Filtration of diesel particulate matter is achieved at a high efficiency rate (over 90 percent) when the exhaust is allowed to pass through porous media such as in ceramic cordierite filters (wallflow). However, a penalty associated with such high filtration efficiency is high exhaust system restriction. This exhaust restriction increases as trapping continues, and generally adversely impacts engine performance and fuel economy.
Recent work by some filter system manufacturers has resulted in filters that are characterized by "flowthrough" exhaust. As compared to wallflow filters, flowthrough filters have less exhaust restriction, but are also less efficient.

Diesel particulate filter performance using sonic particle agglomeration


A watercraft having a turnable (i.e., pivotable) planing surface, preferably with at least one skeg projecting generally vertically downward from the planing surface. This structure is designed to provide improved steering performance of watercraft, particularly jet-powered boats, while minimizing drag. The turnable planing surface is formed by a bottom surface of a steering pad mounted beneath a jet propulsion unit. In one embodiment, the water jet propulsion unit is fixed (i.e., not turnable) and the skeg-bearing planing surface is turnable relative to the water jet propulsion unit. In another embodiment, the water jet propulsion unit is turnable relative to the hull centerline (e.g., in the manner of an outboard engine) and the skeg-bearing planing surface is fixed relative to the water jet propulsion unit (i.e., the skeg-bearing planing surface turns in unison with the jet propulsion unit). The planing surface may optionally have strake-like sides.

This invention generally relates to mechanisms for steering powerboats and other watercraft.
Powerboats can be categorized in part in accordance with the design of their hulls. There are basically two kinds of hull designs for powerboats: displacement hulls and planing hulls. Displacement hulls are designed for vessels intended for cruising through water, while planing hulls are incorporated in boats designed to lift a part of the hull out of the water to skim the water surface. Planing boats are typically used in activities which require high boat speed, such as water-skiing and powerboat racing.
Powerboats also differ in the types of propulsion systems used. The powerhead can be mounted either inside the hull or outside the hull. In the latter case, the powerhead is mounted on the transom portion of the boat hull and is detachable. Another type of system, called a stern drive system, and sometimes referred to an inboard-outboard system, utilizes a powerhead mounted inside the hull of the boat with a portion of the drive unit extending through the transom. These systems create thrust through rotation of either a propeller or an impeller, which draws water from ahead and impels the water rearward to propel the boat forward.
In a conventional xe2x80x9cVxe2x80x9d type hull, the bottom of the boat terminates at the transom. In boats of this nature, either an outboard motor can be set on the transom or a stern drive, which has a motor within the boat directly in front of the transom and a drive shaft penetrating the transom, can be used to power the boat. In these types of boats, the driving force is produced (e.g., by a propeller or an impeller) behind and below the rearmost portion of the boat. In other hull constructions, the bottom of the central portion of the hull actually terminates forward of the transom so that there is a step between the bottom of the hull and the transom, forming a pocket in which, e.g., a jet propulsion unit can be mounted.
When boats of either of the above general types go from a rest or idle condition to a full-speed planing condition, they must accelerate through a condition which is known as xe2x80x9cgetting on planexe2x80x9d. When these boats are getting on plane, the angle of the boat in the water can be quite steep, which can hinder the visibility of the operator, as well as creating an inefficient running condition. Depending on the weight of the boat, the position of the load in the boat, and the power level of the engine, the condition of getting on plane can last an extended length of time. Once xe2x80x9con planexe2x80x9d, the angle of attack of the boat with respect to the water will level off and visibility is restored to the operator. The term xe2x80x9cplaning surfacexe2x80x9d, as used herein, refers to those portions of the hull surface which contact the water and support the weight of the boat when the boat is xe2x80x9con planexe2x80x9d, and specifically excludes stationary, generally vertical surfaces used to provide lateral stability and control, e.g., sidewalls of strakes or skegs, and movable, generally vertical surfaces used in steering, e.g., surfaces of rudders.
The steering systems for boats and watercraft vary widely in design and construction. On some single-propeller, inboard-engine powerboats, the shaft and propeller are fixed along the centerline of the hull, and the boat is steered using a vertical rudder blade pivoted on a post and located near the stern of the boat in close proximity to the propeller. Outboard and stern-drive boats, on the other hand, generally use directed-thrust steering to propel and the steer the boat through water.
In the case of a jet propulsion unit mounted to the hull and driven by an inboard motor, the jet propulsion unit intakes water through an opening in the bottom of the hull and discharges it through a thrust nozzle for propelling the watercraft and then through a pivotally supported steering nozzle for steering the watercraft. The steering nozzle directs the exiting water jet to one side or the other, thereby causing a steering rotation or yaw of the vessel which, in combination with the characteristics of the bottom surface of the hull, produces a turning maneuver.
Although the foregoing type of steering device is advantageous under normal running conditions, i.e., when there is sufficient thrust to overcome the momentum and directional drag of the vessel, at low speeds the jet propulsion unit does not develop significant thrust and the steering effectiveness is greatly reduced. Thus there is a need for a means of providing a positive turning force when a jet drive unit of a watercraft is turned off or operating at low rpm""s.
The present invention is directed to a watercraft having a hull with at least one turnable (i.e., pivotable) planing surface. In accordance with one preferred embodiment, the turnable planing surface is generally planar with at least one skeg or equivalent control surface projecting generally vertically downward from the planing surface. If two or more skegs are employed, these skegs are preferably parallel to each other. In a neutral position, the skegs are generally aligned with the centerline of the hull, causing no steering forces.
In accordance with another preferred embodiment, the turnable planing surface is a cylindrical section having a concave curved cross section, with opposing sides each having a strake-like structure. In a neutral position, the axis of the cylindrical section is generally aligned with the centerline of the hull, causing no steering force. In accordance with a more preferred embodiment, the turnable planing surface with strake-like sides is combined with at least one generally vertical, downwardly projecting skeg disposed between the strake-like sides.
Each of the above-described structures is designed to provide improved steering performance of watercraft, particularly jet-powered boats, while minimizing drag. Using a portion of the surface of the boat that is in contact with the water to provide the steering force improves the maneuverability of the boat.
In accordance with further preferred embodiments of the invention, a jet-powered watercraft is provided with a pair of skeg-bearing planing surfaces arranged along the centerline of the watercraft and turnable relative to that centerline. One turnable skeg-bearing planing surface is located in the foremost region of the area of the hull bottom which is wetted during planing and the other turnable skeg-bearing planing surface is mounted, either fixedly or pivotably, beneath the water jet propulsion unit. In one embodiment, the water jet propulsion unit is fixed (i.e., not turnable) and the skeg-bearing planing surface is turnable relative to the water jet propulsion unit. In another embodiment, the water jet propulsion unit is turnable relative to the hull centerline (e.g., in the manner of an outboard engine) and the skeg-bearing planing surface is fixed relative to the water jet propulsion unit (i.e., the skeg-bearing planing surface turns in unison with the water jet propulsion unit).
Preferably each turnable skeg-bearing planing surface comprises a bottom surface of a respective pivotable steering pad, with the area of the forward pad being less than the area of the rear pad. The front pad turns counter to the rear pad. The rear pad is designed to carry most of the boat weight at high speeds.
In accordance with another preferred embodiment of the invention, the front steering pad is provided mainly to enhance low-speed maneuverability. More specifically, means are provided for coupling the front steering pad to the steering wheel (and to the rear steering pad) only when the motor rpm""s are less than or equal to a predetermined threshold and then uncoupling the front steering pad from the steering wheel (and from the rear steering pad) when the motor rpm""s exceed the predetermined threshold.

Watercraft with steerable planing surface


The present specification relates to a system and a method for preventing overheating of an axle in a construction equipment. A system for preventing overheating of an axle in a construction equipment is mounted in the construction equipment and transmits driving power of an engine to a wheel, and the system includes: a brake pedal; a brake sensor which detects displacement of the brake pedal when the brake pedal is manipulated by an operator; an exhaust brake which is mounted in the engine and operates and controls an opening degree of an exhaust gas discharge passageway of the engine; and a control unit which adjusts the opening degree of the exhaust gas discharge passageway by controlling the exhaust brake corresponding to the displacement of the brake pedal when manipulation of the brake pedal is detected by the brake sensor.

In general, an axle in a wheel-type construction equipment is a device for transmitting driving power of an engine to a wheel, the largest amount of impulsive load and workload are applied to the axle, and the axle performs an important role in terms of a traveling performance A service brake is sometimes embedded in the axle, and in this case, the service brake and the axle share lubricating oil.
Typically, the service brake of the construction equipment is operated as the amount of oil to be supplied from an oil pump is controlled when an operator manipulates a brake pedal, thereby braking the construction equipment. Heat is generated when the service brake operates, and lubricating oil in the axle is heated by the heat. Due to the nature of the construction equipment, the service brake often operates, and thus the lubricating oil is heated and then overheated by the service brake. The overheated lubricating oil is degraded or adheres in the axle, which may cause a severe breakdown of the axle or the service brake. Therefore, there may occur a problem that safety of the operator, which operates the vehicle, cannot be ensured.
A separate cooler may be installed to prevent overheating of the lubricating oil in the axle, but the installation of the cooler increases manufacturing costs of the construction equipment and complicates a structure of the construction equipment. In the case of a large-scale construction equipment or a special purpose construction equipment, a high-capacity cooler is needed, which causes additional problems in terms of the increase in manufacturing costs and the complicated structure.
There is a need for development of a system capable of eliminating or minimizing a method of mounting the cooler in order to prevent the degradation and adhesion of the oil in the axle.

System and method for preventing overheating of axle in construction machine


A sensor system has an AlN substrate, a W layer on the substrate, a signal source adapted to apply an electrical actuating signal to the W layer, and a sensor adapted to sense the response of the W layer. The W layer can comprise a thin film, with various types of optional protective layers over the film. Applications include sensing temperature, fluid flow rates, fluid levels, pressure and chemical environments. For a planar heater, the W layer comprises a plurality of conductive strands distributed on the substrate, with the strands generally parallel and serpentine shaped for a rectangular substrate, and extending along respective lines of longitude that merge at opposite poles of the substrate for a circular substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to sensing systems suitable for high temperature applications, and more particularly to the use of tungsten on an AlN substrate as a sensing and/or heating element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Improvements are continually sought in the capabilities of various types of sensing and planar heating systems, such as systems for sensing temperature, fluid flow rates and levels, pressure and gaseous environments, self-sensing planar heaters and fast, uniform heaters. The characteristics sought to be enhanced include faster response time, greater sensitivity, higher temperature capability and low drift.
Temperature Measurements
Devices employed as temperature sensors are generally segmented into 6 categories: (1) Integrated-Circuits (ICs); (2) Pyrometers; (3) Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTDs); (4) Thermistors; (5) Thermocouples (TCs); (6) Electro-Mechanical & Volume (EMV). ICs include transistors, bolometers and pyroelectrics. Pyrometers, sensitive to infrared, optical and acoustic wavelengths, convert the input wavelength to an optical or electronic output by means of an IC, RTD, thermistor or TC. RTDs include all metals in the form of wire, thin/thick-films on Al2O3, and foil, in which the change in metal resistance vs temperature produces a change in voltage drop, under constant current bias. Thermistors include hot-pressed and/or fired ceramics (usually oxides), with embedded electrical contact wires; the principle of operation is identical to that of RTDs. TCs include metals, in the form of wires or thin-films, in which the junction formed between 2 dissimilar metals generates a temperature dependent voltage. TCs do not require electrical input to the TC junction (e.g., current), but they do require an electrical input to maintain a reference junction. EMVs include devices such as metal coils and strips, and volumetric tube and bulb thermometers, in which expansion/contraction of the metal/fluid is used to measure temperature.
Flow Rate and Fluid Levels
Precision flow rate monitoring and control of gases is accomplished by temperature sensors (usually RTDs) in devices known as mass flow controllers. In these devices, part of the total gas flow is fed around the main flow path. As the gas passes through this alternate path, it is heated. Each gas has a known and unique heat capacity, at constant pressure. Thus, the difference in temperatures, between 2 to 4 temperature sensors positioned in series along the alternate flow path, can be used to measure and control the gas flow rate through the device. Applications encompass all processes requiring precise control, e.g., semiconductor chip manufacturing.
For a single flow sensor or a fluid level sensor, the heat capacity of the surrounding environment depends on its composition, state (gas or liquid), density and the rate at which it flows past the sensor. A self-heated temperature sensor, located at a known level in a tank, indicates whether the tank is filled below or above the sensor location, or the flow rate of a gas/liquid past it.
Pressure Sensors
The most commonly employed pressure sensor relevant to the present invention is the thermocouple (TC) gauge. TC gauges are used to measure pressures between atmospheric and 0.0001 torr in vacuum systems. However, their sensitivity to surface temperature change, resulting from pressure change, as well as their high temperature capabilities, is limited.
Planar Heaters
Planar heaters are capable of providing uniform and efficient heating over the entire area of a substrate, except at the substrate edges, and they require only a single bias control. There are 2 types of planar heating technologies: bulk and thin/thick film.
Bulk heaters are ceramic materials (e.g., graphite, SiC, and BN), which provide the electrical conduction path and act as the planar heater. SiC and BN are electrical insulators at room temperature, and must be heated by high voltage/low current to a temperature at which they become electrically conductive. They then require low voltage/high current for further heating. Bulk heaters require cables or post electrical contacts, because the cross-section of the electrical leads must be greater than the heater cross-section between leads, or the lead-wires will be hotter than the heater. They are slow and difficult to control.
Thin/thick film planar heaters heat a substrate by resistive power dissipation through a thin/thick film conductive circuit on the substrate. This type of heating has been limited to low temperature (˜700° C.) convective heating, because of circuit/substrate materials, circuit designs and lead-wire bonding limitations. The circuit substrate materials have not been matched to avoid reactions between them, or peeling of the circuit materials. Existing circuit designs can lead to thermal gradients, which cause the substrate to crack when the heater is ramped too fast. Finally, materials that have been used in electrodes are not stable above about 700° C.
Uniform, high temperature, radiative heating has been accomplished by using an array of tungsten-wire filament, halogen lamps. Such arrays are used in rapid thermal process (RTP) furnaces to heat semiconductor wafers from room temperature to 1100° C. in a few seconds. In RTP furnaces, as many as 300 such lamps may be arrayed. The power of each lamp must be monitored and adjusted to maintain a uniform temperature distribution across the wafers. Control of this type of technology is complicated and expensive.
Prior art directly related to the present invention includes:
R. Holanda, "Thin-Film Thermocouples on Ceramics", NASA Technical Briefs, March 1997, p. 62: Pt vs PtRh metal thin films are deposited on AlN dies for use as thin-film thermocouples (TCs). The drift of the TC junction vs temperature (to 1500° C.) is discussed.
Y. H. Chiao et al., "Interfacial Bonding in Brazed and Cofired Aluminum Nitride", ISHM '91 Proceedings, pp. 460-468: The reactions for joining interfaces between AlN and several metals, including W, is discussed and compared with the joining method (braising or cofiring). A multilayer AlN/W structure is disclosed, in which the interface joining is due to interlocking grain-boundaries. Although not disclosed in the article, such a structure has been used as a heater, but without any mechanism for sensing the actual temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,084,221: Silver and silver alloys on AlN are discussed for planar heater applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,103,146: Thick film, screen-printable circuits, comprised of conductive paste compositions which facilitate the application of Au, At, Pt, Pd and Rh mixtures and alloys, are applied directly to AlN substrate surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,242,719: Thick films are described as being deposited on AlN by chemical vapor desposition.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,432, issued May 29, 2001 in the name of the present inventor: An IR absorbing body of SiC is electrically and mechanically connected to an AlN substrate by an electrically conductive mounting layer that includes W, WC or W2C.

Stable high temperature heater with serpentine heating strands on insulative substrate


Disclosed is p-nitrophenyl 2-acetylamino-4-O-(2-amino-2-deoxy-.beta.-D-glucopyranosyl)-2-deoxy-.beta. -D-glucopyranoside of formula (1) and its acid-addition salts. ##STR1## The compound of formula (1) is produced by reacting a p-nitrophenyl derivative of chitin dimer with a microorganism-derived deacetylase. The compound and its salts do not act on exo-type chitinases, and are specific to only endo-type ones.

Chitinases exist widely in bacteria, fungi, plants, arthropods and vertebrates, and various studies of chitinases have been being made for the purpose of clarifying the meanings of their existence in such organisms and for applying them to industrial use.
On the other hand, for determining the activities of chitinases, known are a turbidimetric method, a method of measuring viscosity, a method of utilizing radioactivity and a method of quantifying reducing sugars, all of which are problematic in that they take much time and are troublesome.
With the development of glyco-chain engineering, a method of using a monose derivative having a p-nitrophenyl group at its reducing terminal to measure enzymatic activities has been developed, in which the activities of enzymes, especially those of exo-type ones are measured rapidly. However, no effective method has as yet been developed for measuring the activities of endo-type enzymes.
P-nitrophenyl derivatives of chitin-oligosaccharides which have been considered to be usable for the measurement of the activities of endo-type enzymes are problematic in that they are also substrates for exo-type enzymes capable of decomposing oligosaccharides successively from their end. Therefore, the development of substrates having a high specificity to endo-type enzymes is desired.
In practice, to identify endo-type or exo-type enzymes, employed is a complicated method of determining the reduction in the viscosity of the reaction system comprising an enzyme being reacted with a substrate. In this method, the viscosity of the reaction system comprising an endo-type enzyme being reacted with a substrate is rapidly lowered, while that of the reaction system comprising an exo-type enzyme being reacted with a substrate is slowly lowered.

p-Nitrophenyl 2-acetylamino-4-O-(2-amino-2-deoxy-.beta.-D-glucopyranosyl)-2-deoxy-.beta. -D-Glucopyranoside and its salts, and method for producing them

Director of National Food Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries


Systems and methods for user guided iterative frame and scene segmentation are disclosed herein. The systems and methods can rely on overtraining a segmentation network on a frame. A disclosed method includes selecting a frame from a scene and generating a frame segmentation using the frame and a segmentation network. The method also includes displaying the frame and frame segmentation overlaid on the frame, receiving a correction input on the frame, and training the segmentation network using the correction input. The method includes overtraining the segmentation network for the scene by iterating the above steps on the same frame or a series of frames from the scene.

Segmentation involves selecting a portion of an image to the exclusion of the remainder. Image editing tools generally include features such as click and drag selection boxes, free hand "lasso" selectors, and adjustable cropping boxes to allow for the manual segmentation of an image. Certain image editors also include automated segmentation features such as "magic wands" which automate selection of regions based on a selected sample using an analysis of texture information in the image, and "intelligent scissors" which conduct the same action but on the bases of edge contrast information in the image. Magic wands and intelligent scissor tools have a long history of integration with image editing tools and have been available in consumer-grade image editing software dating back to at least 1990. More recent developments in segmentation tools include those using an evaluation of energy distributions of the image such as the "Graph Cut" approach disclosed in Y. Boykov et al., Interactive Graph Cuts for Optimal Boundary & Region Segmentation of Objects in N-D Images, Proceedings of ICCV, vol. I, p. 105, Vancouver, Canada, July 2001.
In certain applications, the segmentation is semantic in that a portion of an image associated with a given meaning is segmented to the exclusion of other portions. One example of a semantic segmentation problem is segmenting the foreground of an image from the background where pixels associated with the foreground are segmented from pixels associated with the background. However, segmentation targets can include more specific targets than what is traditionally considered the foreground of an image and can include specific subjects in the image such as an individual actor, an article of clothing, a hand, or any other portion of the image with a defined semantic association. In general, the portion of the image which is not part of the subject can be referred to as the "background" in this disclosure as the background is defined with reference to the segmentation of the image as opposed to the vantage point of the image.
Segmenting can involve generating a hard mask, which labels each pixel using a one or a zero to indicate if it is part of the foreground or background, or generating an alpha mask which labels each pixel using a value from zero to one which allows for portions of the background to appear through a foreground pixel if the foreground is moved to a different background. The "segmentation" of the image can refer to the geometric arrangement of these masks relative to the image and can be represented by the mask values mentioned above or the values of the original image.
Recent development in image segmentation has been driven by the need to extract information from images available to machine intelligence algorithms studying images on the Internet and for facilitating autonomous vehicle awareness. The most common tool used for this kind of image analysis is a convolutional neural network (CNN). A CNN is a specific example an artificial neural networks (ANNs). CNNs involve the convolution of an input image with a set of filters that are "slid around" the image data to test for a reaction from a given filter. The filters serve in place of the variable weights in the layers of a traditional ANN. A segmentation tool that utilizes this type of trained network architecture is described in V. Badrinarayanan, et al., SegNet: A Deep Convolutional Encoder-Decoder Architecture for Robust Semantic Pixel-Wise Labelling, CVPR'15, 1468, Nov. 14, 2014.
The networks mentioned above can be trained via supervised learning in which a large amount of training data entries, each of which includes a ground truth solution to a segmentation problem along with corresponding image data, are fed into the network until the network is ultimately able to execute analogous segmentation problems using only raw image data. The training process involves iteratively adjusting the weights of the network (e.g., filter values in the case of CNNs). The result is a trained network capable of identifying a specific target such as "cats" or "pedestrian" in any image provided as an input to the network.

User guided iterative frame and scene segmentation via network overtraining


An apparatus accurately controls output water temperature of an instantaneous water heater to maintain a desired outlet temperature. A first electronic sensing device senses a flow of water through the heater, and an ignition sequence commences when flow has been detected. A second electronic sensing device senses an outlet water temperature of the heater, and a third electronic sensing device senses a midway water temperature of the heater. The burner output or outputs are controlled to maintain the desired outlet temperature, based on changes in water flow and incoming water temperature. With multiple burners, the burner outputs are staged to accurately control the output water temperature of the instantaneous water heater to maintain the desired outlet temperature.

The present invention relates to instantaneous water heaters and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for accurately controlling the output water temperature of an instantaneous water heater.
Typically, most buildings, both houses and commercial, are built with heating sources for domestic hot water. This includes energy conversion units and distribution systems, largely tank type storage units, namely gas or oil burners or electric elements; sets of controls, namely thermostats, thermocouples, electric valves and regulators; hot water storage tanks and heat exchangers; and conduits for transferring the heated water. All of these components result in an unduly large system required for heating water.
Such large systems tend to be inefficient and inconvenient in large homes or buildings, and entirely impractical for vacation cabins, land and water based recreational vehicles, house trailers, firemen's hazardous material decontamination units, and military field water uses, all of which have limited space and weight and require their own independent water sources as distinguished from those using common water supplies of municipalities.
In situations where space is at a premium, it has been the general practice to provide a liquid or gaseous hydrocarbon tank type water heating unit having a very low water capacity and heating capacity. Although the unit satisfies the requirement of compactness, the low capacity places limits on bathing and other hot water usage. Another problem associated with tank type water heaters is rather low efficiency and standby heat loss. The result is higher energy use. When water is heated and stored, heat loss from the tank occurs and the water has to be re-heated to the appropriate temperature.
One solution, in situations where water is readily available, is to use a tankless, on-demand water heater to provide hot water. Such a heater conserves space and produces higher quantities of hot water when compared to the comparable sized tank type heater. These systems tend to be more energy efficient because tank stand-by heat loss is eliminated. Unfortunately, a problem which exists with instantaneous water heaters is maintaining precise temperature control with varying flow rates and varying incoming ambient water temperatures. Wide temperature fluctuations occur as additional water taps are opened or closed. Obviously, poor control of water temperature can create negative responses from users, from mild annoyance to actual safety hazards. For example, fluctuations in hot water temperature can cause burns to bathers during a shower, and to small children using hot water.
It is seen then that there exists a need for a system and method for heating water which can precisely control output water temperature, even with varying flow rates and varying incoming ambient water temperature. It would also be desirable to have such a system and method which eliminates some of the troublesome mechanical components of current instantaneous water heaters. Finally, it would be desirable to have such a system and method which has a higher heating capacity, giving it the ability to precisely control large heat exchangers at low water flows.

System and method for controlling outlet water temperature of an instantaneous water heater


A distillation process for separating a target component from a mixture containing a solvent and the target includes the steps of flashing off a vapor mixture of said solvent and said target in an evaporator, separating said target from said vapor mixture, and providing additional solvent to said evaporator to maintain the temperature of said evaporator substantially below the boiling point of said target. The process also includes the step of removing accumulated non-volatile components from said evaporator by allowing the non-volatile components to precipitate from a mixture of the target and the solvent.

Separating volatile components from a solution by distillation is known, and several types of distillation are well known. Distillation takes advantage of differences in the property of volatility, or boiling point, which refers to the tendency of a substance to evaporate. Substances of higher volatility evaporate more easily, and a highly volatile substance has a low boiling point. Conversely, a substance of low volatility has a high boiling point. Another quantitative measure of the volatility of a substance is its vapor pressure.
Standard distillation is typically performed in a distillation column, which includes a series of vertically spaced plates. A feed stream enters the column at a mid-point, dividing the column into two sections; the top section being called the rectification section, and the bottom section being called the stripping section. Condensation and vaporization occur on each plate, causing lower boiling point components to rise to the top of the column and higher boiling point components to fall to the bottom. A re-boiler is located at the base of the column to add thermal energy. The "bottoms" product is removed from the base of the column. A condenser is located at the top of the column to condense the product emanating from the top of the column, which is called the distillate. A reflux pump is used to maintain flow in the rectification section of the column by pumping a portion of the distillate back into the column.
In any solution, the vapor above the solution will be a combination of all of the volatile components in the solution, but it will have more of the component that evaporates more easily (i.e., the more volatile substance). In other words, the vapor above a 50/50 mixture of two different liquids will have more than 50% of the component having a higher volatility, and the gases from the less volatile liquid would constitute less than 50%. If one were to collect the gases above the mixture and condense them (turn them back to liquid), the condensed liquid would no longer be a 50/50 mixture. The condensed liquid would be "enriched" with the more-volatile liquid. Enriched means the condensed liquid would contain more than 50% of the more-volatile liquid and less than 50% of the less-volatile liquid. In a normal distillation process, the original mixture is heated to increase the rate at which the liquids evaporate so that the separation occurs more quickly.
For example, standard distillation can separate pure water from a solution that contains table salt (NaCl) and water. The "normal" boiling point of water is 100° C., and the boiling point for NaCl is 1413° C. Because water has the lower boiling point, it is more volatile and evaporates more easily than does NaCl. In distillation of salt water, the mixture is heated until it boils. The water vaporizes but the NaCl does not to any measurable extent. The water vapor leaves the original container and is condensed back into liquid water. Since the NaCl never vaporized, it remained in the original container, and the condensed liquid is essentially pure water.
Distillation may also be used to separate the components of a mixture of ethanol and water. Because ethanol is more volatile than water, it evaporates more easily. The condensed liquid, after distillation of a mixture of ethanol and water is enriched in ethanol. The boiling point of ethanol is 78° C., and the boiling point of water is 100° C. Because these boiling points are so close to each other, several distillations are required to achieve maximum separation. Due to the fundamental natures of ethanol and water, 100% separation is not possible by simple distillation because an azeotrope forms. The maximum separation of ethanol and water by simple distillation is about 95% ethanol and 5% water solution.
To get best separation distillation and condensation must be performed a number of times. By using a technique called fractional distillation, many distillations can occur at the same time. In a common oil refinery, this occurs in a fractionating tower, where the temperature at the top is lower than the temperature at the bottom. As a result, the gas fraction comes out at the top of the tower followed by gasoline, kerosene; diesel fuel, lubricating oil, and, finally, the asphalts at the bottom.
Azeotrope distillation utilizes or forms an azeotrope by adding a pure liquid to a liquid mixture to enhance the separability of two or more of the components with similar boiling points. Azeotropic distillation separates liquid mixtures according to their vapor pressures. A liquid mixture having components X and Y, where X and Y cannot be separated by the simple distillation described above, a third liquid Z can be added to create an azeotrope. Component Z, the entrainer, is chosen because it will form a relationship with component X such that they have the same proportions in both the liquid and vapor phases. This means that at a given temperature both Z and X will remain in the liquid phase and all of component Y will vaporize or Y will remain in the liquid phase and a portion of X and Z will vaporize. Maximum boiling point azeotropes are removed as bottoms and minimum boiling point azeotropes are removed as distillates.
In a typical azeotropic distillation procedure, a third component, such as benzene, isopropyl ether or cyclohexane, is added to an azeotropic mixture, such as ethyl alcohol/water, to form a ternary azeotrope. Since the ternary azeotrope is richer in water than the binary ethyl alcohol/water azeotrope, water is carried over the top of the column. The ternary azeotrope, when condensed, forms two phases. The organic phase is refluxed to the column while the aqueous phase is discharged to a third column for recovery of the entraining agent. Certain azeotropes such as the n-butanol/water mixture can be separated in a two-column system without the use of a third component. When condensed and decanted, this type of azeotrope forms two phases. The organic phase is fed back to the primary column and the butanol is recovered from the bottom of the still. The aqueous phase, meanwhile, is charged to the second column with the water being taken from the column bottom. The vapor streams from the top of both columns are condensed, and the condensates run to a common decanter.
The combination of chemical reaction with distillation in only one unit is called reactive distillation. Reactive distillation combines reactors and distillation units when reversible or consecutive chemical reactions occur. In reactions where the amount of desired product formed is limited by an equilibrium equation, such as esterification and ester hydrolysis reactions, continuously removing the product from the reaction by distillation yields an extent of reaction that far exceeds the amount of product that would be obtained by a batch reaction followed by distillation. Extractive distillation is somewhat similar to azeotropic distillation in that it is designed to perform the same type of task. In azeotropic distillation, the azeotrope is broken by carrying over a ternary azeotrope at the top of the column. In extractive distillation, a higher boiling compound is added and the solvent to be recovered is pulled down the column and removed as the bottom product. A further distillation step is then required to separate the solvent from the entraining agent. This is the process by which an agent is added to modify the relative volatility between the key components without forming an azeotrope.
In distillation terminology, "stripping" refers to the removal of a volatile component from a less volatile substance. For example in an ethyl alcohol/water system, stripping is done in the column below the feed point, where the alcohol enters at about 10% by weight and the resulting liquid from the column base contains less than 0.02% alcohol by weight. This is known as the stripping section of the column. This technique does not increase the concentration of the more volatile component, but rather decreases its concentration in the less volatile component. A stripping column also can be used when a liquid such as water contaminated by toluene cannot be discharged to sewer. For this pure stripping duty, the toluene is removed within the column, while vapor from the top is decanted for residual toluene recovery and refluxing of the aqueous phase.
The term "steam stripping" can be applied to any system where rising steam vapors in a column strip out the volatile components in the liquid. In particular, the term is applied to systems where steam is used to strip out partially miscible organic chemicals, even though the organic chemicals have boiling points above water. For example, toluene, which has a boiling point of 110° C., can be stripped out of water with steam. The low solubility of toluene in water changes the activity coefficient, and the toluene can be stripped off as the water/toluene azeotrope.
For water miscible and water immiscible high volatile compounds, the process is a relatively straight forward distillation system. For many of the systems, vapor liquid equilibrium data are available in the literature and in the many process simulation software programs. Steam stripping can also be used to remove low-volatile components when the components have low miscibility with water. Those compounds can all be effectively removed from water by steam stripping, even though they have a lower volatility than water. This technique has been used for many years, particularly in the petroleum industry, where the presence of steam with low miscibility organics has allowed for high boiling compounds to be distilled at lower temperatures. Due to the low solubility in water, the activity coefficient is greatly increased and the compound forms a low boiling point azeotrope with water. The lower the solubility, the higher the enhancement of the activity coefficient. A general rule is that the ease of stripping of any VOC is directly proportional to its volatility, and since, in practice, it enables some high boiling toxic compounds such as PCBs to be removed by steam stripping. High boiling, fully water miscible compounds cannot be removed by steam stripping. In these cases the water can be removed as distillate from a distillation process.
A problem arises with separating components by known distillation processes when the target component to be recovered is of low volatility and yet tends to degrade at the higher temperatures required for its vaporization at any significant rate. This problem is accentuated further when the starting solution contains contaminants of even lower volatility, such as the numerous salts that are ordinarily found in recovered water/ethylene glycol solutions. For example, in the common separation of ethylene glycol from water, the water is first removed by distillation at one temperature, and the ethylene glycol is separated from the contaminating salts at a higher temperature. Because the ethylene glycol degrades at the higher temperature, the ethylene glycol obtained by this process is degraded and of lesser value. Another example is the separation of amines from non-volatile contaminants, such as the amines used for removing carbon dioxide from natural gas. These amines accumulate contaminants but separation by known distillation techniques degrades the amines.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a process that allows separation of a target component from a solution by distillation at lower temperatures that do not degrade the target component.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method whereby a target component is removed from a mixture and contaminating components are easily separated from the evaporator bottoms by precipitation.

Method for separating volatile components by dilutive distillation


In a liquid crystal display apparatus including first and second substrates having a liquid crystal layer therebetween, a plurality of pixel electrodes formed over the first substrate, and a counter electrode formed on the second substrate, the liquid crystal layer is divided into a plurality of regions having different orientation of liquid crystal for one of the pixel electrodes, and openings are provided in the pixel electrodes in alignment with discontinuity of orientation of liquid crystal formed by the different orientation of liquid crystal. Also, a plurality of conductive light shield layers are provided in alignment with the openings. Further, a bias voltage is applied to the conductive light shield layers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an active matrix-type liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus, and more particularly, to a twisted nematic (TN)-mode LCD apparatus having pixels of different orientation of liquid crystal.
2. Description of the Related Art
An active matrix-type LCD apparatus is thin, so that it is often used in various display apparatuses. In this type of active matrix-type LCD apparatus, since individual pixel electrodes are independently driven, the display contrast is not reduced based upon the reduction of a duty ratio.
As an active matrix-type LCD apparatus, a TN-mode type LCD apparatus where the orientation of liquid crystal between pixel electrodes and a counter electrode is twisted in an OFF state.
In a first prior art TN mode LCD apparatus, the orientation of liquid crystal for one pixel is uniform. This will be explained later in detail.
In the first prior art TN-mode LCD apparatus, however, since the orientation of liquid crystal molecules is not symmetrical with respect to the center thereof, the visual angle dependency characteristics are remarkably reduced.
In a second prior art TN-mode LCD apparatus, each liquid crystral for one pixel is divided into two TN layers. That is, a rubbing direction of one TN layer is opposite to a rubbing direction of the other TN layer. As a result, since the orientation of liquid crystal molecules is symmetrical with respect to the center thereof, the visual angle dependency characteristics are improved. This will also be explained later in detail.
In the second prior art TN-mode LCD apparatus, however, a discontinuity of orientation of liquid crystal is generated between the two TN layers. As a result, if the LCD apparatus is a normally-white-mode apparatus, leakage of light through the discontinuity of orientation of liquid crystal reduces the display contrast.
In a third prior art TN-mode LCD apparatus (see JP-A-5-224210), a light shield layer is provided at the discontinuity of orientation of liquid crystal, which reduces the leakage of light therethrough. This will also be explained later in detail.
In the third prior art TN-mode LCD apparatus, however, the alignment of the light shield layer with the location of the discontinuity of orientation of liquid crystal is unstable, and therefore, it is difficult for the light shield layer to completely shield leakage of light through the discontinuity of orientation of liquid crystal.

Liquid crystal display apparatus having pixels of different orientation of liquid crystal capable of shielding leakage of light through the discontinuity of orientation


An X-ray CT apparatus has an operating guide unit for guiding a series of operations necessary from preparation till completion of scanning. The operating guide unit selectively displays a patient information input operating guide, a scanogram imaging operating guide, a scan plan selection operating guide, a scan range setting operating guide, a bed move starting guide, a scan operating guide, and a scan completion operating guide, in accordance with respective operation stages.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an X-ray CT apparatus (X-ray computed tomographic apparatus) for reconstructing images of the inside of a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an X-ray CT apparatus which reconstructs images of the inside of a subject by emitting X-rays to the subject from multiple directions, and handling the X-rays having passed through the subject as projection data.
To acquire and reconstruct the images of the inside of the subject by the X-ray CT apparatus, various settings are required, including: scan conditions such as tube voltage and tube current of an X-ray tube and X-ray emission time; a scanning method such as dynamic scan and helical scan; and a scanning range.
Accordingly, in a recent X-ray CT apparatus, scan operations are divided into small operation states, including: storage of information given to images to be scanned, such as a subject ID and a subject name; review of a scanning range by scanogram scanning; setting of scan conditions to determine scan conditions by dividing the scanning zone into small positions such as head, chest and abdomen; scan planning for minutely specifying the scanning ranges; bed moving for moving a bed to the scanning start position; and a scan operation for scanning as desired. An operator of the apparatus sets the operations at each stage of operation, completes the operation stage by stage, and finally acquires the desired images of the inside of the subject (see, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-204960).
As a result, it is not required to set all the conditions at a time to scan in the subject, and demand for professional knowledge of scanning of the operator of the apparatus is considerably alleviated.
However, an operating method peculiar to an X-ray CT apparatus used still demands professional knowledge and skill. Along with continued development of the X-ray CT apparatus and rapid progress in the medical technique, specifications of the X-ray CT apparatus are changing, and operating methods are also changing. Besides, operating methods vary depending on manufacturers and types of X-ray CT apparatuses.
Therefore, an operator of the apparatus not experienced sufficiently in a specific X-ray CT apparatus must set the conditions at each stage of operation of the X-ray CT apparatus while referring to an operation manual and checking an operating screen of the apparatus, and prompt inspection may not be always expected.


The present invention provides a method for preparing pure Stavudine having purity more than 99.5% comprises: i) Converting 3′,5′-anhydrothymidine to crude Stavudine, ii) Converting crude Stavudine to stable solvates of Stavudine, iii) Desolvation of the solvates to give pure Stavudine. The present invention also disclosed novel solvates of Stavudine and conversion of novel Stavudine solvates to Stavudine.

2′,3′-didehydro-3′-deoxythymidine (Stavudine) has the formula given below.

Stavudine is also known as d4T which is approved by U.S. FDA for the therapeutic treatment of patients infected with retroviruses.
Synthesis of Stavudine is first reported by J. P. Horwitz et al (J. Org. Chem. (1996) 31, 205) starting from 3′4′-dimesylthymidine as shown in Scheme-1.

In the above synthesis, 3′,5′-di-O-mesylthymidine is first treated with sodium hydroxide in refluxing water for 2 hours and the resultant 3,4-anhydrothymidine is treated with potassium t-butoxide in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) at room temperature for 2 hrs. The reaction mixture is neutralized, evaporated to dryness and after a series of manipulations which included extraction, declourization, precipitation and recrystallization, gave Stavudine in 79% yield and an overall yield of 56%.
The above procedure is modified by Mansuri et al (J. Med. Chem. (1989) 32, 461) where the potassium t-butoxide/DMSO mixture is poured in to 30 volumes of toluene whereby the Stavudine precipitates as the potassium salt along with excess potassium tert-butoxide. This modification avoided the distillation of DMSO which caused decomposition of Stavudine. The obtained salt is neutralized in water and the precipitated product is extracted with acetone and then evaporated to dryness to give an off-white solid in 57% yield.
Adachi et al. [Carbohydrate Research (1979) 113] over-came some of the decomposition problems by employing sodium hydroxide in hexamethyl phosphorictriamide (HMPA). HMPA is removed by forming a chloroform complex in an aqueous mixture and Stavudine is isolated from the aqueous phase.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,099 discloses a modified route for producing Stavudine as shown in Scheme-2.

However, all the above discussed processes have one major draw back in common in that the final purity of Stavudine is less than the desired 99.5%. Known impurities which are difficult by using conventional techniques are still present, some of which were thymine, thymidine, threo-thymidine, 3,5-anhydrothymidine and 5′-O-[stavudin-5″-yl]-thero-thymidine being particularly difficult to remove.
Further U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,099 teaches the use of only N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone as suitable to form a solvate of Stavudine whose recovery requires the use of an aprotic ester, amide or ketone solvent. No consideration is given for their use to form a solvate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,635,753 discloses the novel Stavudine solvates of N,N-dimethyl acetamide, N,N-dimethylacrylamide, N,N-dimethylpropionamide etc. and recovering substantially pure Stavudine by breaking the solvate produced.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved process which is more efficient, using less toxic materials (for example, using solvents which are less toxic than N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidinone, DMA, DMAC and DMP) and providing pure product before recrystallization steps are carried out.

Process for the large scale production of Stavudine


The present invention is directed to a combustion powered setting device for driving fastening elements such as nails, bolts and pins into a receiving material, with a fuel source, and a fuel line (12.1, 12.2) from the fuel source (11) to a combustion chamber (13) and with at least one metering device (20) for fuel which is arranged in the fuel line (12.1, 12.2) between the fuel source and the combustion chamber. In order to improve setting devices of this type, the metering device (20) has an adjusting device (30) for the metered volume, which adjusting device (30) responds to the fuel pressure.

The present invention is directed to a combustion-powered setting device for driving fastening elements such as nails, bolts and pins, into a receiving material. Setting devices of this kind can be powered by gaseous or liquid fuels that are burned in a combustion chamber and, in so doing, drive a piston for inserting fastening elements.
Generally, metering a balanced amount of fuel to a corresponding amount of air or oxygen, which is used as an oxidizing agent, for each work cycle constitutes a problem. In particular, the air which is drawn from the environment is subject to variations in pressure and temperature which can unfavorably affect the combustion of the air-fuel mixture when this mixture is too rich or too poor with respect to the fuel.
EP 0 597 241B1 discloses a combustion-powered setting device in which the metering of the fuel from the fuel source to the combustion chamber is carried out through a valve which is excitable by means of a solenoid and which is normally closed. Excitation is carried out electronically by means of a switching circuit which responds to the closing of a switch and which opens the valve for a controllable, predetermined time interval so as to enable the liquid fuel to flow from the fuel source to the combustion chamber. However, this is disadvantageous in that the flow velocity of the fuel decreases when the pressure decreases in the fuel source resulting in a discrepancy between the amount of fuel actually metered and the desired amount of fuel. This lowers the performance of the setting device.
Further, DE 42 43 617 A1 discloses a combustion-powered setting device in which a gas inlet valve is opened mechanically in a work cycle, so that fuel flows from a fuel source into a storage space communicating with the surrounding air. A pressure equilibrium and possibly a temperature equilibrium in relation to the surrounding air can take place through this connection, so that a suitable air-fuel mixture reaches the combustion chamber. The fuel then reaches the combustion chamber at a given time proceeding from this storage space. This is disadvantageous in that a loss of fuel may also occur through the connection with the surrounding air.
DE 40 32 204A1 discloses a setting device in which a piston is arranged in a metering chamber and can press a fuel volume out of the metering chamber into the combustion chamber. The metering stroke of the piston can be adjusted by an adjusting screw which is actuated manually. This is disadvantageous in that the manual adjustment is inconvenient. Further, continued metering of the fuel is carried out via a pressure compensation channel so that a loss of fuel may occur.


An aqueous binder vehicle dispersion and coating media, which can be used for multi-layer coating, wherein the dispersion is obtainable by the reaction of. I. 20 to 97% by weight of a polyurethane(-urea) resin containing groups which are reactive towards a chain extender IV), having a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 1000 to 10,000, and 8 to 80 milliequivalents per 100 g of ionic groups, groups which can be converted into ionic groups and/or hydrophilic groups, PA1 II. 0 to 30% by weight of a polyester resin having a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 500 to 5000, and having the same groups as in I) which are reactive towards IV), and PA1 III. 3 to 80% by weight of a (meth)acrylic copolymer containing 0 to 40 milliequivalents per 100 g of ionic groups, groups which can be converted into ionic groups with the same charge as in I) and/or hydrophilic groups, having the same groups as in I) and II) which are reactive towards IV), wherein at least 50% by weight of III) has been produced in the presence of at least part of components I) and/or II), with PA1 IV. one or more chain extenders,. and conversion into the aqueous phase.

In the automobile industry, metal and plastics parts are provided with multi-layer coatings. These serve to protect the substrates from corrosion, but should also exhibit a good decorative effect. They are generally multi-layer coatings based on a primer coat and one or more subsequent coats, e.g. base lacquer coats, covering lacquer coats, which can then be provided with a transparent clear lacquer as a subsequent coating.
Water-thinnable base lacquers based on polyurethane/poly(meth)acrylate polymer hybrids are known.
EP-A-0 297 576 describes the polymerisation of (meth)acrylic monomers in the presence of polyurethane dispersions which have been produced beforehand. After polymerisation is complete, aqueous base lacquers can be produced from the dispersions obtained.
EP-A-0 353 797 describes the production of a hydroxy-functional polyurethane resin in an unsaturated monomer as a solvent, wherein the unsaturated monomer may be reactive towards isocyanate. After conversion of the polyurethane solution into the aqueous phase, an emulsion polymerisation is carried out. The hybrid polymer dispersion which is obtained can be used as a binder vehicle for aqueous base lacquers.
EP-A-0 401 565 describes aqueous base lacquers, the binder vehicles of which are produced by the emulsion polymerisation of aqueous emulsions, which are prepared with the addition of external emulsifiers, of polyurethane macromonomers which have been functionalised to render them unsaturated and which are dissolved in unsaturated monomers.
EP-A-0 424 705, EP-A-0 521 928, EP-A-0 522 419, EP-A-0 522 420, EP-A-0 662 992 and WO 95/14721 describe aqueous base lacquers which are based on polyurethane/poly(meth)acrylate polymer hybrids, wherein the polymer- hybrids have been synthesised by the graft or block polymerisation of unsaturated monomers with polyurethane macromonomers which have been functionalised to render them unsaturated. In this connection, the unsaturated groups of the polyurethane macromonomers may be lateral or terminal groups. The unsaturated polyurethane macromonomer may have been prepared dissolved in an organic solvent, for example in the unsaturated monomer itself, or in the absence of solvents. Copolymerisation can be conducted in the aqueous or non-aqueous phase, namely before or after conversion into the aqueous dispersion.
Aqueous emulsions, particularly those which are free from emulsifiers, of crosslinkable polymer-polyurethane resins which contain hydroxyl groups are known from DE-A-44 13 737. These aqueous dispersions can be obtained by the joint chain extension of polyurethanes, which are free from urea groups and which comprise OH groups which are substantially terminal, together with polymers which contain hydroxyl groups and which are based on ethylenically unsaturated monomers, with diisocyanates in a non-aqueous medium, neutralisation of carboxyl groups which are present and which can be converted into anionic groups, and conversion of the resulting product into the aqueous phase. The aqueous binder vehicle dispersions which are obtained in this manner are very suitable as binder vehicles for aqueous base lacquers such as those which are used in the production of decorative multi-layer coatings in the field of motor vehicle coating.
The known aqueous base lacquers are in need of improvement as regards the stone impact resistance of the multi-layer coatings which are produced with them. If these aqueous base lacquers are used in repair coating operations in the context of mass production coating, for example for what is termed final assembly repair work, the adhesion of the base lacquer coats produced with them to the outer clear lacquer coat, particularly to a clear lacquer coat which has not been sanded, is insufficient for a multi-layer coating.

Aqueous polymer/polyurethane resin binder vehicle dispersion and the production thereof, and coating media and the use thereof