The present invention discloses a laser tilt apparatus and the method thereof. The present invention comprises an input device, a tilt sensor, a motor, a microcontroller unit, and at least a laser module. The input device is used to input a tilt value. The tilt sensor supplies a tilt signal to represent the levelness of the laser tilt apparatus. The motor, electrically connected to the tilt sensor, adjusts the levelness of the laser tilt apparatus. The microcontroller unit samples the tilt signal to judge the levelness of the laser tilt apparatus. When leveling, the microcontroller unit drives the motor to adjust the tilt apparatus until the tilt signal matches the tilt value. After adjusting, the power supplied to the tilt sensor and the motor is suspended. The laser module is used to transmit laser light.

In architecture, when demarcating moldings and leveling the ceiling with the ground, keeping a tilt meter horizontal to the ground all the time is an important issue. Reference is made to FIG. 1 illustrating a conventional leveling device in a tilt meter. As shown in FIG. 1, the plumb 102 is always perpendicular to the horizontal by gravity. Such a tilt meter can be used on any kind of ground, and since the plumb 102 is always perpendicular to the horizontal by gravity, the laser scanning apparatus associated with the plumb can indicate the horizontal status precisely. Although determining the horizontal by the plumb is a simple and effective method, the horizontal status can be acquired only after the swinging plumb becomes still. The usefulness of this kind of leveling device is therefore not optimum. Furthermore, the location of the plumb 102 of the conventional leveling device is not stationary during use. Thus, the laser beam at a distance trembles and the precision of the device is thus adversely affected.
Another kind of laser tilt meter exists which determines the horizontal by using a level-adjusting apparatus comprising a tilt sensor associated with a laser transmitter to project horizontal rays of light. Tilt sensors can be classified into two kinds: the single-axis tilt sensor and the dual-axis tilt sensor. The single-axis tilt sensor measures the slant of one direction, whereas the dual-axis one estimates the slant of a plane. How the tilt sensor works is illustrated in FIG. 2. It is known that the conductivity between two electrodes is proportional to the length of electrode immersed in an electrolyte. Even if the ground is not horizontal, the surface of the electrolyte in the tilt sensor remains level due to gravity. The electrolyte is electrically conductive, and since the conductivity between the two electrodes is proportional to the length of electrode immersed in the electrolyte, the resistance changes in proportion to the tilt angle. Therefore, the slant of the tilt sensor is derived from the resistance corresponding to the tilt angle.
However, in the level-adjusting apparatus, if the tilt sensor has been used for a long time, it will become unstable and consume more power. Furthermore, the present laser tilt meters do not have laser-beam-locking functionality. When the user moves the level-adjusting apparatus, the system self-adjusts automatically and points to the level again. Therefore, the apparatus cannot be used in other applications.

Laser tilt apparatus and the method thereof


A method of administering network selections for a mobile station between a second generation/third generation wireless network and wireless local area networks includes detecting when the mobile station encounters a wireless area network, and communicating an identity of the encountered wireless area network to the second generation/third generation wireless network. The communicating prompts a query for permission to establish a session between the mobile station and the encountered wireless local area network. When permission is granted, the method includes receiving a key distributed to the mobile station. The key is used by the mobile station to establish a session between the mobile station and the encountered wireless local area network.

Second generation (2G) (e.g., digital personal communication services (PCS)) and third generation (3G) wireless technologies typically provide data access rates which vary from a low of, e.g., approximately 14.4 kilobytes/second (Kbps) for 2G, to a medium rate of, e.g., somewhere around 384 Kbps, to a maximum high end of, e.g., approximately 2 megabytes/second (Mbps) for 3G. These rates are generally adequate for services employing a low to medium bandwidth, e.g., voice communications, text messaging, instant messaging, electronic mail (e-mail) with no or relatively small attachments, etc. These data access rates tend to be marginal, if not sufficient at all, for services which demand or would otherwise benefit from a higher bandwidth, e.g., video e-mail, full motion video on demand, large file downloads, etc. However, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) employing, e.g., the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of protocols, HIgh PErformance Radio Local Area Network HIPERLAN standards, or other like protocols, specifications or standards, can achieve data access rates from 2 to 55 Mbps.
The installation of and/or access to WLANs is becoming more widespread. In addition to offices, WLANs can be found in many places including, e.g., airports, hotels, restaurants, educational institutions and/or campuses, etc. Often, depending upon the amount of data and/or speed desired, it would be advantageous to utilize the relatively faster data access rates achievable via the WLAN when it is available. However, the geographic range of a WLAN is more limited as compared to 2G and 3G wireless technologies. Therefore, mobility is relatively limited with a WLAN.
The present invention contemplates a new and improved method and/or system for handling wireless network selection which overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.

Selection of networks between WLAN and 2G/3G networks based on user and provider preferences


A technique enables Traffic Engineering (TE) on paths between customer edge devices (CEs) across a provider network (“CE-CE paths”) in a computer network. According to the novel technique, TE is configured on a link from a sending provider edge device (PE) to a first CE (“PE-CE link”), e.g., a CE of one or more virtual private networks (VPNs). The sending PE conveys TE information of the PE-CE link to one or more receiving PEs in the provider network. Upon receiving the TE information, each receiving PE expands a TE database (TED) for information regarding the provider network (i.e., a “core TED”) to include TE-configured PE-CE links, e.g., by updating one or more corresponding VPN TEDs (VTEDs) for each VPN maintained by the receiving PE. Once the receiving PEs have the TE information for configured PE-CE links from the provider network, one or more TE techniques may be applied to paths from a second CE of the receiving PE to the first CE (a CE-CE path) to thereby facilitate, e.g., establishment of TE-LSPs along CE-CE paths.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer networks and more particularly to traffic engineering (TE) between customer edge devices (CEs) across a provider network in a computer network.
2. Background Information
A computer network is a geographically distributed collection of interconnected subnetworks, such as local area networks (LAN) that transport data between network nodes. As used herein, a network node is any device adapted to send and/or receive data in the computer network. Thus, in this context, "node" and "device" may be used interchangeably. The network topology is defined by an arrangement of network nodes that communicate with one another, typically through one or more intermediate nodes, such is as routers and switches. In addition to intra-network communications, data also may be exchanged between neighboring (i.e., adjacent) networks. To that end, "edge devices" located at the logical outer-bound of the computer network may be adapted to send and receive inter-network communications. Both inter-network and intra-network communications are typically effected by exchanging discrete packets of data according to predefined protocols. In this context, a protocol consists of a set of rules defining how network nodes interact with each other.
Each data packet typically comprises "payload" data prepended ("encapsulated") by at least one network header formatted in accordance with a network communication protocol. The network headers include information that enables network nodes to efficiently route the packet through the computer network. Often, a packet's network headers include a data-link (layer 2) header, an internetwork (layer 3) header and a transport (layer 4) header as defined by the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Reference Model. The TCP/IP Reference Model is generally described in more detail in Section 1.4.2 of the reference book entitled Computer Networks, Fourth Edition, by Andrew Tanenbaum, published 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein. A data packet may originate at a source node and subsequently "hop" from node to node along a logical data path until it reaches its addressed destination node. The network addresses defining the logical data path of a data flow are most often stored as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in the packet's internetwork header.
A computer network may contain smaller groups of one or more subnetworks which may be managed as separate routing domains. As used herein, a routing domain is broadly construed as a collection of interconnected network nodes under a common administration. Often, a routing domain is managed by a single administrative entity, such as a company, an academic institution or a branch of government. Such a centrally-managed routing domain is sometimes referred to as an "autonomous system" or AS. In general, a routing domain may operate as an enterprise network, a service provider or any other type of network or subnetwork. Further, the routing domain may contain one or more edge devices having "peer" connections to edge devices in adjacent routing domains.
Network nodes within a routing domain are typically configured to forward data using predetermined paths from "interior gateway" routing protocols, such as conventional link-state protocols and distance-vector protocols. These interior gateway protocols (IGPs) define the manner with which routing information and network-topology information are exchanged and processed in the routing domain. The routing information exchanged (e.g., by IGP messages) typically includes destination address prefixes, i.e., the portions of destination addresses used by the routing protocol to render routing ("next hop") decisions. Examples of such destination addresses include IP version 4 (IPv4) and version 6 (IPv6) addresses. As such, each intermediate node receives a consistent "view" of the domain's topology. Examples of link-state and distance-vectors protocols known in the art, such as the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol and Routing Information Protocol (RIP), are described in Sections 12.1-12.3 of the reference book entitled Interconnections, Second Edition, by Radia Perlman, published January 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.
The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is usually employed as an "external gateway" routing protocol for routing data between autonomous systems. BGP is well known and generally described in Request for Comments (RFC) 1771, entitled A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4), by Y. Rekhter et al., published March 1995, which is publicly available through the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. External (or exterior) BGP (eBGP) is often used to exchange routing information across routing domain boundaries. Internal BGP (iBGP) is a variation of the eBGP protocol and is often used to distribute inter-network reachability information (address prefixes) among BGP-enabled edge devices situated within the same routing domain. BGP generally operates over a reliable transport protocol, such as TCP, to establish a TCP connection/BGP session. BGP also may be extended for compatibility with services other than standard Internet connectivity. For instance, Multi-Protocol BGP (MP-BGP) supports various address family identifier (AFI) fields that permit BGP messages to transport multi-protocol information, such as is the case with RFC 2547 services, discussed below.
A network node within a routing domain may detect a change in the domain's topology. For example, the node may become unable to communicate with one of its neighboring nodes, e.g., due to a link failure between the nodes or the neighboring node failing, such as going "off line," etc. If the detected node or link failure occurred within the routing domain, the detecting node may advertise the intra-domain topology change to other nodes in the domain using IGP messages. Similarly, if an edge device detects a node or link failure that prevents communications with a neighboring routing domain, the edge device may disseminate the inter-domain topology change to other edge devices within its routing domain (e.g., using the iBGP protocol). In either case, propagation of the network-topology change occurs within the routing domain and nodes in the domain thus converge on a consistent view of the new network topology, i.e., without the failed node or link.
A virtual private network (VPN) is a collection of network nodes that establish private communications over a shared backbone network. Previously, VPNs were implemented by embedding private leased lines in the shared network. The leased lines (i.e., communication links) were reserved only for network traffic among those network nodes participating in the VPN. Today, the above-described VPN implementation has been mostly replaced by private "virtual circuits" deployed in public networks. Specifically, each virtual circuit defines a logical end-to-end data path between a pair of network nodes participating in the VPN. When the pair of nodes is located in different routing domains, edge devices in a plurality of interconnected routing domains may have to co-operate to establish the nodes' virtual circuit.
A virtual circuit may be established using, for example, conventional layer-2 Frame Relay (FR) or Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. Alternatively, the virtual circuit may "tunnel" data between its logical end points using known layer-2 and/or layer-3 tunneling protocols, such as the Layer-2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) and the Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) protocol. In this case, one or more tunnel headers are prepended to a data packet to appropriately route the packet along the virtual circuit. The Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) protocol may be used as a tunneling mechanism for establishing layer-2 virtual circuits or layer-3 network-based VPNs through an IP network.
MPLS Traffic Engineering has been developed to meet data networking requirements such as guaranteed available bandwidth or fast restoration. MPLS Traffic Engineering exploits modern label switching techniques to build guaranteed bandwidth end-to-end tunnels through an IP/MPLS network of label switched routers (LSRs). These tunnels are a type of label switched path (LSP) and thus are generally referred to as MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE) LSPs. Examples of MPLS TE can be found in RFC 3209, entitled RSVP-TE: Extensions to RSVP for LSP Tunnels dated December 2001, RFC 3784 entitled Intermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (IS-IS) Extensions for Traffic Engineering (TE) dated June 2004, and RFC 3630, entitled Traffic Engineering (TE) Extensions to OSPF Version 2 dated September 2003, the contents of all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Establishment of an MPLS TE-LSP from a head-end LSR to a tail-end LSR involves computation of a path through a network of LSRs. Optimally, the computed path is the "shortest" path, as measured in some metric, that satisfies all relevant LSP Traffic Engineering constraints such as e.g., required bandwidth, "affinities" (administrative constraints to avoid or include certain links), etc. Path computation can either be performed by the head-end LSR or by some other entity operating as a path computation element (PCE) not co-located on the head-end LSR. The head-end LSR (or a PCE) exploits its knowledge of network topology and resources available on each link to perform the path computation according to the LSP Traffic Engineering constraints. Various path computation methodologies are available including CSPF (constrained shortest path first). MPLS TE-LSPs can be configured within a single domain, e.g., area, level, or AS, or may also span multiple domains, e.g., areas, levels, or ASes.
The PCE is an entity having the capability to compute paths between any nodes of which the PCE is aware in an AS or area. PCEs are especially useful in that they are more cognizant of network traffic and path selection within their AS or area, and thus may be used for more optimal path computation. A head-end LSR may further operate as a path computation client (PCC) configured to send a path computation request to the PCE, and receive a response with the computed path, which potentially takes into consideration other path computation requests from other PCCs. It is important to note that when one PCE sends a request to another PCE, it acts as a PCC. PCEs conventionally have limited or no visibility outside of their surrounding area(s), level(s), or AS. A PCC can be informed of a PCE either by pre-configuration by an administrator, or by a PCE Discovery (PCED) message ("advertisement"), which is sent from the PCE within its area or level or across the entire AS to advertise its services.
One difficulty that arises in crossing domain boundaries is that path computation at the head-end LSR requires knowledge of network topology and resources across the entire network between the head-end and the tail-end LSRs. Yet service providers typically do not share this information with each other across domain borders. In particular, network topology and resource information do not generally flow across area boundaries even though a single service provider may operate all the areas. Neither the head-end LSR nor any single PCE will generally have sufficient knowledge to compute a path where the LSR or PCE may not have the required knowledge should the destination not reside in a directly attached domain. Because of this, MPLS Traffic Engineering path computation techniques are required to compute inter-domain TE-LSPs.
In order to extend MPLS TE-LSPs across domain boundaries, the use of PCEs may be configured as a distributed system, where multiple PCEs collaborate to compute an end-to-end path (also referred to as "Multi-PCE path computation"). An example of such a distributed PCE architecture is described in commonly-owned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/767,574, entitled COMPUTING INTER-AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM MPLS TRAFFIC ENGINEERING LSP PATHS, filed by Vasseur et al., on Sep. 18, 2003, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. In a distributed PCE architecture, the visibility needed to compute paths is extended between adjacent domains so that PCEs may cooperate to compute paths across multiple domains by exchanging virtual shortest path trees (VSPTs) while preserving confidentiality across domains (e.g., when applicable to ASes).
Some applications may incorporate unidirectional data flows configured to transfer time-sensitive traffic from a source (sender) in a computer network to a destination (receiver) in the network in accordance with a certain "quality of service" (QoS). Here, network resources may be reserved for the unidirectional flow to ensure that the QoS associated with the data flow is maintained. The Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP) is a network-control protocol that enables applications to reserve resources in order to obtain special QoS for their data flows. RSVP works in conjunction with routing protocols to, e.g., reserve resources for a data flow in a computer network in order to establish a level of QoS required by the data flow. RSVP is defined in R. Braden, et al., Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP), RFC 2205. In the case of traffic engineering applications, RSVP signaling is used to establish a TE-LSP and to convey various TE-LSP attributes to routers, such as border routers, along the TE-LSP obeying the set of required constraints whose path may have been computed by various means.
Layer-3 network-based VPN services that utilize MPLS technology are often deployed by network service providers for one or more customer sites. These networks are typically said to provide "MPLS/VPN" services. As used herein, a customer site is broadly defined as a routing domain containing at least one customer edge device (CE) coupled to a provider edge device (PE) in the service provider's network ("provider network"). The customer site may be multi-homed to the provider network, i.e., wherein one or more of the customer's CEs is coupled to a plurality of PEs, thus providing a redundant connection. The PEs and CEs are generally intermediate network nodes, such as routers or switches, located at the edges of their respective networks. PE-CE links may be established over various physical media, such as conventional wire links, optical links, wireless links, etc., and may communicate data formatted using various network communication protocols including ATM, Frame Relay, Ethernet, Fibre Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), etc. In addition, the PEs and CEs may be configured to exchange routing information over their respective PE-CE links in accordance with various interior and exterior gateway protocols, such as BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, RIP, etc.
In the traditional MPLS/VPN network architecture, each customer site may participate in one or more different VPNs. Most often, each customer site is associated with a single VPN, and hereinafter the illustrative embodiments will assume a one-to-one correspondence between customer sites and VPNs. For example, customer sites owned or managed by a common administrative entity, such as a corporate enterprise, may be statically assigned to the enterprise's VPN. As such, network nodes situated in the enterprise's various customer sites participate in the same VPN and are therefore permitted to securely communicate with one another via the provider network. In other words, the provider network establishes the necessary LSPs to interconnect the customer sites participating in the enterprise's VPN. Likewise, the provider network also may establish LSPs that interconnect customer sites participating in other VPNs. This widely-deployed MPLS/VPN architecture is generally described in more detail in Chapters 8-9 of the reference book entitled MPLS and VPN Architecture, Volume 1, by I. Pepelnjak et al., published 2001 and in the IETF publication RFC 2547, entitled BGP/MPLS VPNs, by E. Rosen et al., published March 1999, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.
One problem associated with MPLS/VPN networks is their current inability to distribute TE information regarding PE-CE links across the provider network to other PEs. Traffic Engineering (TE), generally, refers to utilizing TE information to engineer (compute, determine, detect, etc.) traffic, such as for computing paths, creating TE-LSPs (e.g., MPLS TE-LSPs), load-balancing traffic, etc., as will be understood by those skilled in the art. Examples of TE information, e.g., as described in above-referenced RFCs 3784 and 3630, comprise, inter alia, the dynamically measured IP bandwidth, reservable MPLS bandwidth, unreserved bandwidth, administrative group (color), TE metric, etc.
One solution for distributing static link bandwidth of PE-CE links (or, more generally, an AS exit link) has been described in the document entitled BGP Link Bandwidth, published by Cisco Systems, Inc., March 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein. Here, the static link bandwidth of the PE-CE link (i.e., the maximum link capacity) may be advertised to BGP neighbors (e.g., other PEs). However, this solution does not provide TE information of the PE-CE links, such as, e.g., the dynamically measured IP bandwidth, reserved MPLS bandwidth, color, etc. of the PE-CE links.
Another solution to distribute TE information of PE-CE links is to leak the information into the provider network (the "core"), such as through IGP messages. This solution suffers numerous problems, however, such as VPN private addressing constraints, i.e., where CEs of different VPNs may share the same address, which may cause route confusion at receiving devices. Also, a lack of scalability may exist considering the possible number of PE-CE links (e.g., hundreds of thousands), which may surpass the limitations of internal route leaking (e.g., of IGP messages), thus possibly causing fragmented messages, error messages, etc., as will be understood by those skilled in the art. This lack of scalability may also apply to attempts to manually configure TE information, which would be overly cumbersome given the dynamic nature of TE information.
As a result of the inability to efficiently distribute dynamic TE information, various TE techniques may not be applied to the PE-CE links from other PEs not attached to the PE-CE links. In particular, TE techniques may not be applied to paths from one CE to another CE across the provider network ("CE-CE paths"). For example, current MPLS/VPN networks do not have the ability to efficiently create TE tunnels (e.g., MPLS TE-LSPs) along CE-CE paths, such as for reserved bandwidth, fast convergence, fast re-route (FRR), diverse paths, etc. Service providers and customers often desire to have these and other TE techniques/benefits applied to PE-CE links and CE-CE paths in their provider/customer network (e.g., MPLS/VPN networks), such as for backup data centers, voice over IP (VoIP) traffic (e.g., C4 switches to carry legacy voice traffic), etc.
There remains a need, therefore, for a technique that expands the TE topology of a provider/customer network (e.g., an MPLS/VPN network) to include the TE information of PE-CE links, such that various TE techniques may be applied to the network. There also remains a need for a technique for creating TE-LSPs along CE-CE paths, and for applying PCE techniques to MPLS/VPNs, generally.

Technique for enabling traffic engineering on CE-CE paths across a provider network


Novel proteins providing the new approach to development of the drugs and pesticides with the use or application of a hemolytic activity, and novel proteins having the following properties and the genes encoding thereof are provided:                (1) having hemolytic activity;        (2) having a molecular weight of about 50,000 Da (determined by SDS gel electrophoresis);        (3) having an amino acid sequence represented by any of SEQ ID NO 1 to SEQ ID NO 3 as a partial amino acid sequence; and        (4) having an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO 5 as the full amino acid sequence.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to proteins having a hemolytic activity and genes encoding them. More specifically, the present invention relates to novel proteins having the hemolytic activity, a process for producing and the use of the same as well as antibodies for such proteins.
2. Background
The sting injury by the jellyfish in sea bathing has occurred in various parts of the world. The sting injury by Carybdea rastonii or Physalia physalis has also occurred frequently in Japan every year in the season of sea bathing of the summertime. The degree of the symptom by sting differs by species of a jellyfish and the individual differences of patients. The first symptom is dermotoses, such as pain, flare, papule, vesicle and so on in the sting site. In a serious illness, patients may die with generating of hemorrhagic maculae and the necrosis, and also constitutional symptom, such as headache, high fever, nausea, dyspnea, and the fluctuation of a pulse. Although such sting injury is occurring frequently, the determination and pharmacological properties of the toxic components of jellyfish have not been studied intensively. Therefore, the development of medicines for treatment of the sting by the jellyfish is also hardly performed before the present invention.
The studies on the toxic components of Carybdea rastonii have reported by Sato et al., and they found that there are some active substances having physiological activities, such as hemolysis, platelet agglutination, mast cell degranulation, the vessel smoothness muscle contraction, the dermal necrosis, the heart poison and the fatality in the crude extract fractions from the freeze-dried tentacle of Carybdea rastonii. They also examined on the platelet agglutination effect and vessel smoothness muscle contraction effect of the toxic component (Akihiko Sato, "Research on the toxic component of Carybdea rastonii", The Journal of the Ochanomizu Medico-dental Society, vol. 33, No. 2, 131-151, June, 1985).
On the one hand, since the poison from the nematocyst of a jellyfish was a non-dialyzable high polymer and deactivated by treatment with acid or alkali, or by heating processing, organic solvent processing, protease processing, etc., it was thought that the main components of this poison were proteins.
Moreover, the purification of the protein toxin derived from a jellyfish has also been tried; however, the isolation and the purification of the active components maintaining the hemolytic activity were not performed since the toxin of a jellyfish itself was very easy to be deactivated. Therefore, the physical and chemical properties of the toxin from jellyfish were not known up to now.
The detailed studies on the toxic component of a jellyfish is very important for the development of drugs applying their various physiological activities, in particular, specific hemolytic activity and the platelet agglutination effect.
Therefore, the problems to be solved by the present invention is providing an approach to development of the drugs for treatment of the sting injury by the jellyfish by means of isolating the proteins or peptides having as potent hemolytic activity as possible, in the state where the physiologic activity is retained. The present invention further provides the approach to study similarities on embryology or structure, and the species specificity of the protein having hemolytic activity to evaluate the structure-activity relationship thereof.

Hemolytic active proteins and genes encoding the same


A composite fan case has a generally cylindrical composite shell, at least one band of sacrificial composite material circumscribing an outer surface of the composite shell, and a metallic rail mounted on the band of sacrificial material. Also disclosed is a method of construction the aforementioned case.

The disclosure herein relates to structures and methods for making structures having metallic rails about a composite structure. More specifically, the disclosure describes methods for making composite fan cases having a metallic rail disposed thereabout.
In gas turbine engines, such as aircraft engines, air is drawn into the front of the engine, compressed by a shaft-mounted compressor, and mixed with fuel in a combustor. The mixture is then burned and the hot exhaust gases are passed through a turbine mounted on the same shaft. The flow of combustion gas expands through the turbine which in turn spins the shaft and provides power to the compressor. The hot exhaust gases are further expanded through nozzles at the back of the engine, generating powerful thrust, which drives the aircraft forward.
Because engines operate in a variety of conditions, foreign objects may undesirably enter the engine. More specifically, foreign objects, such as large birds, hailstones, sand and rain may be entrained in the inlet of the engine. As a result, these foreign objects may impact a fan blade and cause a portion of the impacted blade to be torn loose from the rotor, which is commonly known as fan blade out. The loose fan blade may then impact the interior of the fan casing causing a portion of the casing to bulge or deflect. This deformation of the casing may result in increased stresses along the entire circumference of the engine casing.
In recent years composite materials have become increasingly popular for use in a variety of aerospace applications because of their durability and relative lightweight. Although composite materials can provide superior strength and weight properties, and can lessen the extent of damage to the fan casing during impacts such as blade outs, designing cases that are capable of both withstanding internal impacts, as well as supporting hardware mounted on the external surface.
Laminated composite structures generally have superior strength in-plane due to the presence of continuous reinforcing fibers. However, issues may arise when attaching a secondary structure about the body of the composite structure, as opposed to about an end of the composite structure. Secondary structures and instrumentation are often utilized during the design and testing of an engine, and must be attached to the composite fan case. Drilling of additional holes in a composite fan case is undesirable as this weakens the structure at the point of the aperture. Alternately, using a metallic fan case to support the additional external testing hardware allows for adequate support, but the case does not maintain the same lightweight properties as a composite structure. Thus, there exists a need for composite fan case structure capable of withstanding both internal and external forces.


A system and method for managing a time stamp wherein a table of time stamps is maintained. Each time stamp corresponds to the age of a block of data. The age of the data is determined from the value of the time stamp in the table. When a block of data is written, the time stamp corresponding to the data is individually reset by writing a zero to the stamped value. Each stamp is aged by updating the time stamps at predetermined time intervals. Aging a time stamp includes reading the time stamp, determining whether to advance the time stamp, and advancing the time stamp. A random number is generated for each time stamp. The random number is compared to an increment threshold value. If the random number matches the increment threshold value, the time stamp is incremented.

Time stamping systems have a variety of uses. Often these systems are used by computer systems to determine the age of data. A time stamp is associated with each block of data when the data is originally written or modified. The computer system reads the time stamp for a particular block of data in order to determine the age of the block of data. Once the age of the data is known, the computer system can decide whether to keep the data, erase the data, or store the data in a different format.
Conventional time stamp systems are absolute. Absolute time stamp systems initiate a time clock when power is supplied to the system for the first time. As each block of data is written, a time stamp is associated with the block of data and stamped with the time the data was written. To determine the age of a block of data, a computer system must read the block's associated time stamp and subtract the value of the time stamp from the current value of the time clock.
Additionally, conventional time stamp systems are linear. Linear time stamp systems increment time stamps with each update cycle. In order to provide a time stamp system with a sufficiently wide range of time stamps, a relatively large block of memory is needed for each time stamp. A typical relatively large block of memory is 20 bits for each time stamp.

Relative logarithmic time stamps for reduced memory map size


A instrument and method of applying house wrap to exterior walls. The instrument or tool or apparatus allows the roll of house wrap to be positioned with an axis of rotation substantially parallel with the wall. The house wrap can then be rolled and applied onto the wall as the apparatus is moved along the length of the wall. The apparatus can roll along an upper surface of the wall so that the apparatus need not be lifted. The apparatus also may have a guide wheel to maintain the house wrap roll at a substantially fixed distance from the wall.

This invention relates to the residential and commercial construction practice of applying "house wrap" over the sheathing. More particularly this invention is an apparatus and method to apply house wrap.
Building construction, both residential and commercial, involves the application of house wrap over the sheathing. The sheathing is usually applied on the exterior surface of an exterior wall.
Presently, this is done by manually rolling the house wrap roll along the wall to which the sheathing is applied. This sometimes involves one person on a chair or scaffolding, and one person walking along the ground, as both manually manipulate the roll of house wrap. In windy conditions the house wrap may unravel, which then takes time to replace on the roll by "reverse rolling."
As can be seen, there is a need for a tool to enable a safe and more efficient method of applying house wrap onto walls, which does not require the lifting of the wrap as it is being applied.

Construction wrap applicator apparatus and method


Techniques related to a hinge in a computing device are described herein. The techniques may include forming a shaft to move rotationally, and forming a sliding component to move translationally as a result of rotational movement of the shaft.

Computing devices may include certain hinges to enable a user to adjust an angle of a component based on a given situation. With the fast growth of computing devices, lighter, thinner computing devices are increasingly preferred by users. In some scenarios, a computing device may include a portable All-in-One (AIO) wherein the display and the processing components are located within the same housing. A hinge may enable a user to adjust the angle of the display to achieve a desired viewing angle.
The same numbers are used throughout the disclosure and the figures to reference like components and features. Numbers in the 100 series refer to features originally found in FIG. 1; numbers in the 200 series refer to features originally found in FIG. 2; and so on.

Rotational to translational locking hinge


A method and device for wireless directional beam-forming transmission. The method for wireless directional beam-forming transmission between a first device and a second device comprises conducting one or more omni-directional transmissions between the first device and a third device; conducting one or more omni-directional transmissions between the second device and the third device; and determining directional information for directional beam forming transmissions between the first and second devices based on the omni-directional transmissions.

Current wireless communication methods typically employ the use of an omni-directional antenna in a device for transmitting and receiving data. When the device uses the omni-directional antenna to transmit a data packet into a wireless medium, the transmission is of a broadcast nature since the transmission is typically transmitted in equal strength in every direction. However, one problem with using the omni-directional antenna is that the antenna typically limits the range of the device. For example, in a star-topology network, slave devices may be assumed to be in omni-directional transmission range of a master device since they are associated with the master device but the peer slave devices may be unable to communicate directly with each other despite the fact that they are in the same network.
One method to overcome the range limitation is to increase the transmission power of the transmitting device such that the transmission may reach an intended receiving device that was originally out of range. One problem may arise since increasing the transmission power typically increases the power consumption of the transmitting device. This may be disadvantageous for a battery-powered device with limited power resources. Another problem that may arise with increasing transmission power to increase range is that increasing transmission power typically increases the interference range. In other words, there may be increased interference with potential communication between other devices that were originally out of range of the transmitting device.
Another method to overcome the range limitation is typically to use multi-hop communication to relay data packets. However, one problem that may arise when multi-hop communication is used is that performance typically suffers since latency between the transmitting device and receiver device typically increases when relaying data packets during multi-hop communication. Another problem that may arise when using multi-hop communication is that assistance is typically required of one or more relaying devices. This typically prevents the relaying devices from transmitting their own communication and also typically increases their overall power consumption when relaying is carried out. Yet another problem that may arise when using multi-hop communication is that having the same data packet transmitted and then relayed one or more times typically causes inefficiency as the wireless medium access resource may be consumed for transmissions of duplicated packets.
It has been recognised that another type of antenna that may be used for wireless transmission by a device is a directional antenna. When using the directional antenna, the transmission is typically "beam-formed" into a particular direction towards an intended receiver instead of a general transmission broadcast in every direction when using an omni-directional antenna. Thus, by using directional beam-forming, transmitting devices are typically able to extend their range towards intended receiver devices, thereby establishing direct communication without increasing transmission power or using intermediate devices for relaying data. The range is typically extended without increasing transmission power due to the fact that the transmission energy is concentrated toward a particular direction. Apart from beam-forming during transmission, the device may also beam-form in a particular direction during reception. Beam-forming in a particular direction during reception typically increases the gain of the receiver device in that particular direction and hence typically enhancing reception. In addition, multi-path interference arriving at the receiver device from the non-intended directions may be filtered away. This may increase the signal-to-noise ratio to improve reception.
Another advantage of using directional beam-forming is better spatial re-use of the wireless medium. Since receiver devices may beam-form their receivers in the direction of their respective intended sender devices, the respective transmissions are typically carried out without causing interference at neighbouring receiver devices. This may improve spatial reuse of the wireless medium since the neighbouring receiver devices typically do not require waiting for the beam-form transmissions to be completed before receiving their own data packets.
However, having discussed the above advantages of directional beam-forming over using an omni-directional antenna, one problem of using directional beam-forming is a "device deafness" issue. The deafness issue typically refers to a situation when a device appears to be "deaf" and does not respond to any incoming communication packet. This may occur when the reception antenna of the receiving device is beam-formed in an intended direction of a transmitting device. Thus, the receiving device is typically unable to receive other transmissions sent from other devices disposed in other directions. When no response or acknowledgement packets are received from the receiving device in relation to these other transmissions, the other devices are typically unable to determine whether the receiving device is busy or whether the transmitted communication packets have not reached the receiving device. The other devices typically continue re-sending the communication packets thus not utilising fully the wireless medium access resource. In the above event, the receiving device which is not responsive to incoming communication packets, other than those transmitted from its intended transmitting device, is termed as "suffering" from "device deafness".
Another problem that may arise when using directional beam-forming is how a transmitting device determines the direction of an intended receiving device. The problem also applies to how a receiving device determines the direction of the transmitting device to beam-form its receiver. Although there are currently some solutions to address the above problem, further problems may arise with each of these solutions. One of these solutions is to assume prior knowledge of the relative directions of the receiving device and of the transmitting sender device. One problem that may arise from this assumption is that mobile devices typically move and rotate on a frequent basis. Therefore, the prior knowledge may become obsolete and typically requires constant updating.
Another of the above solutions is to use an external positioning device (e.g. a Global Positioning System or GPS device) or to use the capability of the transmitting/sending device to perform real-time ranging and location-positioning measurements. However, one problem that may arise is that external positioning devices are typically expensive. As for real-time ranging and location positioning measurements, distance calibration is typically required to be performed by the device and the calibration is typically both time- and power-consuming.
Yet another of the above solutions is to use the transmitting device to first use an omni-directional transmission of control signals to reserve the wireless medium access time for subsequent communication using directional beam-forming with the intended receiving device. As the control signals are sent via the omni-directional transmission, the transmitting device typically need not know the direction of the intended receiver in advance. The receiving device typically determines the direction of the transmitting device from the control signals sent via the omni-directional transmission using a Direction-of-Arrival (DOA) calculation and responds to the transmission using either a directional beam-forming or an omni-directional transmission. The transmitting device typically determines the relative direction of the receiving device using the DOA calculation based on the received response transmission. One problem that may arise is range limitation. As the medium access time reservation and relative direction calculations are typically initiated by the omni-directional transmission of the transmitting device, the receiving device must already be located within the omni-directional transmission range of the transmitting device. Thus, the range extension advantage of directional beam-forming is not harnessed and the above scenario does not address the situation of devices not being able to communicate with other devices outside their respective omni-directional transmission range.
Yet another of the above solutions is for the transmitting device to utilise directional beam-forming to transmit a control signal to reserve the wireless medium access time for subsequent communication with its intended receiving device. As the transmitting device typically has no prior knowledge of the relative direction of the intended receiving device, the transmitting device transmits the control signal in a rotational manner such that the directional beam-forming transmission covers an entire 360°. However, one problem that may arise is that the sending of multiple duplicated control packets in the above manner is typically inefficient and typically degrades performance of the devices.
Hence, there exdsts a need for a method and system of wireless directional beam-forming transmission to address at least one of the above problems.

Method and device for wireless directional beam-forming transmission


The apparatus is designed to dispense sealants and adhesives onto a workpiece in a robotic or manual application. The apparatus has a motor, a through shaft and a rotating shaft. The rotating shaft is hollow and has an off-center aperture at the end thereof through which extends one end of the through shaft. By rotating the rotating shaft, the end of the through shaft has imparted to it an orbital motion which is capable of providing a swirl type pattern onto the workpiece.

Devices have been used to apply adhesive to work pieces such as automotive bodywork for a number of years. Such devices have ranged from simple nozzles which dispense a bead of material in a line according to the motion of the robot to swirl type applicators such as those shown on U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,911,173; 4,031,854; and 4,098,632. Efforts have also been made to provide a swirl pattern in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,659,018 and 5,322,564.
While such devices are effective in some applications, often they lack the versatility necessary to perform a wide variety of operations using the same applicator.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a single application device which is capable of dispensing material having a wide range of viscosities in both wirling and streaming patterns and which provides accurate control over the bead characteristics of the material applied.
It is further an object of this invention to provide a dispenser which is capable of being used with all manual and automatic sealant and adhesive dispense valves and associated equipment and which can be used for applications such as PVC, hem flange, liquid mask, body shop and trim shop applications.
This dispensing apparatus consists of eight main components. The first component is a bellows, dust cap or other cover which is used to protect the end of the device and prevent adhesive materials and other potentially damaging particles from entering the device. Secondly, bearings are provided to allow the parts to rotate relative to one another. In the preferred embodiment ball or spherical bearings are used, however it is understood that other types of bearings such as polymeric bearings may be utilized to allow relative rotation of parts.
A motor is used to provide rotational energy and in the preferred embodiment the rotational speeds may be up to 32,000 RPM. Optionally, on the back of the motor is a rotary encoder which is used to determine the angular position of the motor shaft. The motor shaft is in turn attached to a rotating shaft which has on the end thereof a off-center aperture such the diameter of the orbit imparted is approximately {fraction (1/16)}xe2x80x3 in the preferred embodiment. Of course larger or smaller orbits may be used as desired and such modifications are easily within the ambit of one skilled in the art.
Extending through the center of the rotating shaft and separated by an annular space therefrom is a through shaft which in the preferred embodiment is formed of a solid stainless steel tube that flexes and which is capable of retaining pressures of upwards of 3500 psi (including a substantial safety factor). This stainless steel tube allows the through shaft to flex and transport the material to be dispensed to the tip which may be anything from a simple single aperture to shaped or multiple apertures located at the end of the through shaft. Alternatively, a hose having a braided steel covering may be used for a through shaft.
Thus, one apparatus (and tip) can be used to provide multiple separate, unique and desirable application patterns (stream and swirl) and further allows reduced maintenance compared to existing systems. It is believed that the instant invention also allows faster material application and robotic applications and allows exact control over the dispensing pattern. It is also further allows independent control of the flow and bead pattern, such independent control being more difficult in the known prior art.
The bead pattern of the material can be accurately controlled by varying the following factors: standoff distance of apparatus from substrate, material pressure, motor speed, rotating shaft hole offset, nozzle tip and feed rate (rate at which the applicator moves with respect to the substrate). By changing these factors, the bead width can be varied from less than one inch to several inches. The bead height can also be varied over any range desirable and additionally the bead pattern can be open or closed (whether the substrate is entirely covered or not covered along the length where material has been deposited).
It is further understood that located inside the through shaft may be a static mixer which is in turn connected to an inlet for multiple component materials. Such an apparatus allows application of multicomponent materials while at the same time having the extreme flexibility with respect to applications set forth above for the basic single component material apparatus.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description made in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views.

Pattern controllable dispensing apparatus


Disclosed is an artists' easel which has a pivotally adjustable frame which carries the artists' canvas. A bag retaining assembly attached to the easel frame is adapted for a bag, e.g., a plastic garbage bag, to fit thereover with a apertured splatter panel covering the mouth of the bag. A beater bar inside the bag frame permits the artist to beat the paintbrush on the beater bar while the bag traps the solvent inside. The easel also is adjustable in height, and has provision for a tray, a paper towel holder, and a container holder (e.g., for solvent). Provision for holding the bag in place is provided also.

The present invention relates to artists' easels and more particularly to one which has a paintbrush cleaning assembly for removing paint thinner or other solvent from paintbrushes.
Artists that work with the wet-on-wet technique are constantly changing from one paint color to another paint color. Between each paint color change, the artist must clean the paintbrush, usually with odorless paint thinner, though other paint solvents could be used. A can or jar filled with paint thinner, and usually containing a screen or other device for the brush to rub up against to aid in its cleaning, is used to clean the paint-laden brush. Thereafter, the brush must be dried of the paint solvent, such as by use of paper towels. As an alternative to or adjunct with the use of paper towels, the brush can be dried of solvent rapidly by beating the brush rapidly against a bar. One well-known wet-on-wet technique artist, Bob Ross, enchanted his television audiences by beating his solvent-laden paintbrushes on the lower leg of his easel and quipping that the camera operators and other TV personnel present had to duck when he beat his brush to avoid the splatter that he created. Nevertheless, such operation was quite effective in quickly drying the paintbrush so that he could move on to the next color as required by the wet-on-wet technique.
It would be quite advantageous for all wet-on-wet technique artists to be able to beat their paintbrushes as Bob Ross did on his TV shows. Yet, to do so would create quite a mess, thus limiting where the artist could paint. Moreover, it is not environmentally safe to splatter paint solvent into the atmosphere and onto nearby objects, especially if the artist were outdoors.
Heretofore, some artisans have developed splatter containment for use in the cleaning of paintbrushes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,736 proposes a paint splatter box having an open front and drain for the expelled paint thinner to collect in a collection box, A crude easel also is provided. U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,554 proposes a stand for insertion into a conventional wastebasket for cleaning paintbrushes of artists employing the wet-on-wet technique. U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,267 proposes a brush cleaner confined within a housing for similarly cleaning paintbrushes. Other than the '736 patent, none of the other proposals involve an artists easel and none of these proposals include an adjustable artists easel, such as proposed elsewhere. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,488 discloses an artist's collapsible wall and table mountable easel with U-shaped base. U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,614 discloses a mobile easel and seat having base pegs for hanging a cleaning cloth.
Despite these proposals, there still is a need for a full adjustable artists easel for use by artists who both stand and sit, while also providing splatter containment for use in the cleaning of paintbrushes. The present invention is addressed to such need.

Easel with integral paintbrush cleaning assembly


A corner trim member for mounting on a wall surface in combination with decorative siding panels. The corner trim member includes a plurality of integrally formed decorative elements. The decorative elements define a front face of the corner trim member. The corner trim member may also include a top edge disposed above the decorative elements; a bottom end; a pair of side edges; and a longitudinally extending channel located adjacent each side edge for receiving a laterally disposed decorative siding panel. The longitudinally extending channels may be defined by a back surface of the side edges, an angled end wall extending from the back surfaces, and a mounting flange extending from the end walls. The angle between respective end walls and back surfaces may be an acute angle. The front face and the decorative elements may be mounted in alignment with a corner of the wall surface.

The present invention relates to decorative exterior wall coverings, and in particular, to an injection molded corner trim piece having integrally formed elements to improve the appearance and fit of the corner trim pieces when attached together or to siding panels.
Many types of exterior panels are currently known and used in the construction and improvement of residential, commercial, industrial and other buildings. Typically, such panels are formed from a light-weight composite material and are manufactured using conventional extrusion molding, injection molding, impression molding or thermal forming processes. Such panels may be formed in various shapes, such as individually elongated sections similar to standard aluminum siding or single panels incorporating one or more rows of individual decorative elements, such as for example, simulated cedar shake siding. Individual panels are often connected to other previously installed, identical panels through a vertical attachment and a horizontal attachment by which portions of the panel to be installed overlap portions of previously installed panels.
A natural joint is formed between the panels at corners of the structures or buildings to which the panels are mounted. The corners may be covered with trim boards or other trim members to hide the corner joint. In the case of siding have simulated cedar shake elements, it is aesthetically desirable to cover the corner joints with trim pieces that match the simulated cedar shake elements. One such corner trim piece is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,391 to Epstein et al. entitled SIMULATED CEDAR SHAKE CONSTRUCTION, issued Apr. 5, 1977, which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference. Epstein et al. discloses single row simulated cedar shake corner trim piece elements. The corner trim piece elements have no side joints or connections and are designed merely to overlap horizontally adjacent siding panels. The trim piece elements do include a vertical lip upstanding on the bottom inside edge and an extension tab extending from the top edge having a nose-like member projection forward from the planes of the shake faces. A slot receptor is formed between the base of the nose and the extension tab that is configured to receive the vertical lip on a corner trim piece member to be mounted directly above.
Another simulated cedar shake corner trim piece is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,784 to Crick et al. entitled DECORATIVE WALL COVERING WITH IMPROVED INTERLOCK AND CORNER CONSTRUCTION issued Sep. 20, 1994, which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference. The corner trim piece disclosed by Crick et al. has three tiers of simulated cedar shake elements. Along the sides of the corner trim pieces an outwardly opening pocket is formed for receiving an end of a respective panel mounted horizontally adjacent the trim piece. The corner trim piece disclosed by Crick et al. also includes upwardly extending notches at the lower end thereof, which are intended to permit positioning of the lower end of the corner trim piece over a previously mounted corner molding. The corner trim pieces also include small horizontal locating ledges at the upper end that are intended to facilitate proper positioning of the notches of a corner trim piece onto a previously mounted trim piece.
Another simulated cedar shake corner trim piece is disclosed in related U.S. Publication Nos. US 2002/0121057 A1, published Sep. 5, 2002 and US 2002/0162291 A1, published Nov. 7, 2002, both to Steffes et al. and entitled CEDAR IMPRESSION SIDING CORNER. The design of this simulated cedar shake trim piece is also disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. No. D454,648 S to Shaw et al. entitled CEDAR IMPRESSION OUTSIDE SIDING CORNER, issued Mar. 19, 2002, and all of those are incorporated in their entirety herein by reference. The simulated cedar shake corner piece disclosed by Steffes et al. and Shaw et al. is formed with two offset tiers of simulated cedar shake elements. The elements do not have any grooves or attachment joints along the side edges; however, the side edges of the upper simulated cedar shake element are laterally offset from the side edges of the lower simulated cedar shake element. The corner trim piece disclosed by Steffes et al. and Shaw et al. also includes catches disposed at the inner bottom end and nailing flanges extending vertically upward from the top end of each trim piece. The nailing flanges also include catches that extend downward from the front sides of the trim pieces. The catches disposed at the bottom end of one corner trim piece fit into the catches disposed on the nailing flanges of a corner trim piece that is mounted below.
There continues to be a need for corner trim elements that have an improved aesthetic appearance and locking configuration to lock with other corner trim elements above and below and to join with laterally disposed siding panels. It is therefore, an object of the present invention to provide corner trim piece with improved locking features. It is a further object of the invention to provide corner trim pieces that have simulated cedar shake elements and that provide a natural looking fit and appearance with other corner trim pieces as well as laterally disposed siding panels having simulated cedar shake elements. These and other objects of the invention have been accomplished with the decorative corner trim members set forth and described below.


A DC power source voltage is supplied to a center tap of a primary winding, and first and second semiconductor switches alternately turned on are disposed between each of both ends of the primary winding and a common potential point, and a current flowing through a load is fed back and PWM control of each of the semiconductor switches is performed. Also, snubber circuits are respectively connected between a ground and the center tap of the primary winding, and an abnormal high voltage at the time of switching is reduced. Also, a parallel running of plural inverters is simply performed by disposing PWM comparators corresponding to the first and second semiconductor switches.

A cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) has been used as a backlight light source of a liquid crystal display such as a liquid crystal television set or a liquid crystal monitor of a notebook personal computer. This CCFL generally has higher efficiency and longer life than those of a normal hot cathode fluorescent lamp and then, a filament which the hot cathode fluorescent lamp has is omitted.
A high AC voltage is required in order to start and operate this CCFL. For example, a starting voltage is about 1000 V and an operating voltage is about 600 V. This high AC voltage is generated from a DC power source of a notebook personal computer, a liquid crystal television set, etc. using an inverter.
Conventionally, a Royer circuit has generally been used as an inverter for CCFL. This Royer circuit is constructed of a saturable magnetic core transformer, a control transistor, etc., and then self-oscillates by characteristics of non-linear current gain of the control transistor and non-linear magnetic permeability of the saturable magnetic core transformer. The Royer circuit itself does not require an external clock or a driver circuit.
However, the Royer circuit is basically a constant-voltage inverter, and cannot maintain a constant output voltage when an input voltage or a load current varies. Therefore, a regulator for supplying electric power to the Royer circuit is required. Because of this, it is difficult to miniaturize the inverter using the Royer circuit and also, electric power conversion efficiency is low.
An inverter using a center tap type transformer having a primary winding in which a DC voltage is supplied to a center tap and a secondary winding for AC voltage output has been proposed (see JP-T-2002-500427 and JP-A-6-14556).
In the inverter of JP-T-2002-500427, a DC voltage is supplied to a center tap of a primary winding and semiconductor switches are respectively had between a ground and each end of the primary winding and their semiconductor switches are alternately turned on and off. A PWM control apparatus for performing PWM control of a DC voltage supplied to its inverter is disposed. Then, electric power supplied from the inverter to a load is controlled by control of a DC current by the PWM control apparatus.
The inverter of JP-A-6-14556 comprises a step-up transformer having a primary winding in which a DC power source is connected to a center tap, a secondary winding for AC voltage output and a tertiary winding for feedback, a resonance capacitor which is connected between both ends of the primary winding of its step-up transformer and constructs an LC resonance circuit between the resonance capacitor and an inductance of this primary winding, a pair of semiconductor switches alternately turned on and off by an output voltage of the tertiary winding, one end sides of the semiconductor switches being respectively connected to the different ends of its resonance capacitor and the other end sides being earthed, and a variable inductor connected to the inside of its LC resonance circuit. Then, an output voltage of the inverter is controlled by controlling an inductance of the variable inductor.
Means using a Royer circuit has problems that it is difficult to miniaturize the means and also conversion efficiency is low. In the inverter of JP-T-2002-500427, the PWM control apparatus for performing PWM control of a DC voltage supplied to its inverter is required in addition to the inverter, so that a structure as the whole DC-AC conversion apparatus becomes complicated and also it is difficult to miniaturize the inverter. Also, the inverter of JP-A-6-14556 comprises the variable inductor connected to the inside of the LC resonance circuit and an output voltage is controlled by controlling its inductance, so that a structure becomes complicated and also it is difficult to miniaturize the inverter.
Further, with an increase in screen size of a liquid crystal display such as a liquid crystal television set or a liquid crystal monitor of a notebook personal computer, plural CCFLs have been distributed and arranged as a backlight light source. In this case, light from the plural CCFLs mutually interferes and becomes a cause of flicker etc., so that it becomes necessary to synchronously turn on each of the CCFLs in the same phase.
For this purpose, it is contemplated to construct an inverter of a discrete circuit and supply AC power of the same phase to plural CCFLs.
However, by reasons that it is necessary to reduce an influence on other apparatus by decreasing a routed distance of high-voltage wiring to the CCFL and also that parasitic capacitance of the CCFL is effectively used in resonance with a transformer, it is desirable that the inverter for controlling each of the CCFLs be arranged as close as possible to the CCFLs.
JP-T-2002-500427 and JP-A-6-14556 are seen as the related art.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
Problems that the Invention is to Solve
An object of the invention is to provide a DC-AC conversion apparatus (an inverter) for generating an AC voltage for driving a load from a DC power source, a DC-AC conversion apparatus suitable for parallel running of plural loads, the DC-AC conversion apparatus capable of finely adjusting electric power supply to the loads by a simple configuration using a transformer having a primary winding with a center tap to which a DC voltage is supplied, a controller IC used in the DC-AC conversion apparatus, and a parallel running system for synchronously controlling plural DC-AC conversion apparatus in the same phase.
Means for Solving the Problems
The invention provides a controller IC for controlling a first semiconductor switch and a second semiconductor switch for driving a load, having an oscillator block for generating a first triangular wave signal and a second triangular wave signal having a relation in which the first triangular wave signal is reversed when a capacitor for frequency decision and a resistor for frequency decision are connected, a pulse width modulation circuit for comparing the first triangular wave signal with a feedback signal formed based on a current flowing through the load and generating a first pulse width modulation signal and comparing the second triangular wave signal with the feedback signal and generating a second pulse width modulation signal, and a driving signal output block for alternately outputting a first switch driving signal for turning on the first semiconductor switch based on the first pulse width modulation signal and a second switch driving signal for turning on the second semiconductor switch based on the second pulse width modulation signal, characterized in that the driving signal output block generates the first switch driving signal and the second switch driving signal at timing at which an off period during which both of the first semiconductor switch and the second semiconductor switch are turned off is set between a period for which the first semiconductor switch is in the on state and a period for which the second semiconductor switch is in the on state.
In the controller IC, the oscillator block to which the capacitor for frequency decision and the resistor for frequency decision are not connected generates a triangular wave signal supplied from the outside and a triangular wave signal having a relation in which the triangular wave signal is reversed.
In the controller IC, the driving signal output block outputs the first switch driving signal from a point in time of one vertex of the first triangular wave signal to a point in time when the first triangular wave signal immediately after the point in time becomes equal to the feedback signal, and outputs the second switch driving signal from a point in time of the one vertex of the second triangular wave signal to a point in time when the second triangular wave signal immediately after the point in time becomes equal to the feedback signal.
The invention also provides a DC-AC conversion apparatus having a transformer having a primary winding with a center tap and at least one secondary winding, the center tap being connected to a first potential point of a DC power source, a first semiconductor switch connected between one end of the primary winding and a second potential point of the DC power source, a second semiconductor switch connected between the other end of the primary winding and the second potential point, a current detection circuit for detecting a current flowing through a load connected to the secondary winding, an oscillation circuit for generating a first triangular wave signal and a second triangular wave signal having a relation in which the first triangular wave signal is reversed, a pulse width modulation circuit for comparing the first triangular wave signal with a feedback signal formed based on a current detected by the current detection circuit and generating a first pulse width modulation signal and comparing the second triangular wave signal with the feedback signal and generating a second pulse width modulation signal, and a driving signal output circuit for alternately outputting a first switch driving signal for turning on the first semiconductor switch based on the first pulse width modulation signal and a second switch driving signal for turning on the second semiconductor switch based on the second pulse width modulation signal, characterized in that the driving signal output circuit generates the first switch driving signal and the second switch driving signal at timing at which an off period during which both of the first semiconductor switch and the second semiconductor switch are turned off is set between a period for which the first semiconductor switch is in the on state and a period for which the second semiconductor switch is in the on state.
In the DC-AC conversion apparatus, the driving signal output circuit outputs the first switch driving signal from a point in time of one vertex of the first triangular wave signal to a point in time when the first triangular wave signal immediately after the point in time becomes equal to the feedback signal, and outputs the second switch driving signal from a point in time of the one vertex of the second triangular wave signal to a point in time when the second triangular wave signal immediately after the point in time becomes equal to the feedback signal.
The DC-AC conversion apparatus has a first snubber circuit connected between one end of the primary winding and the second potential point and a second snubber circuit connected between the other end of the primary winding and the second potential point.
The DC-AC conversion apparatus has a first snubber circuit connected between one end of the primary winding and the first potential point and a second snubber circuit connected between the other end of the primary winding and the first potential point.
In the DC-AC conversion apparatus, the first potential point is a contact point to which a power source voltage of the DC power source is applied and the second potential point is a ground.
The invention also provides a parallel running system of DC-AC conversion apparatuses, having a transformer having a primary winding with a center tap and at least one secondary winding, the center tap being connected to a first potential point of a DC power source, a first semiconductor switch connected between one end of the primary winding and a second potential point of the DC power source, a second semiconductor switch connected between the other end of the primary winding and the second potential point, a current detection circuit for detecting a current flowing through a load FL connected to the secondary winding, an oscillation circuit for generating a first triangular wave signal and a second triangular wave signal having a relation in which the first triangular wave signal is reversed when a capacitor for frequency decision and a resistor for frequency decision are connected and also generating a triangular wave signal supplied from the outside and a triangular wave signal having a relation in which the triangular wave signal is reversed when the capacitor for frequency decision and the resistor for frequency decision are not connected, a pulse width modulation circuit for comparing the first triangular wave signal with a feedback signal formed based on a current detected by the current detection circuit and generating a first pulse width modulation signal and comparing the second triangular wave signal with the feedback signal and generating a second pulse width modulation signal, and a driving signal output circuit for alternately outputting a first switch driving signal for turning on the first semiconductor switch based on the first pulse width modulation signal and a second switch driving signal for turning on the second semiconductor switch based on the second pulse width modulation signal, the parallel running system having plural DC-AC conversion apparatuses in which the driving signal output circuit generates the first switch driving signal and the second switch driving signal at timing at which an off period during which both of the first semiconductor switch and the second semiconductor switch are turned off is set between a period for which the first semiconductor switch is in the on state and a period for which the second semiconductor switch is in the on state, characterized in that the capacitor for frequency decision and the resistor for frequency decision are connected to the oscillation circuit in only one of the plural DC-AC conversion apparatuses, and the first DC-AC conversion apparatus having the oscillation circuit to which the capacitor for frequency decision and the resistor for frequency decision are connected supplies only the first triangular wave signal of the first triangular wave signal and the second triangular wave signal generated from the oscillation circuit to the DC-AC conversion apparatuses other than the first DC-AC conversion apparatus, and the plural DC-AC conversion apparatuses perform pulse width modulation control of the same phase synchronously respectively using the first triangular wave signal and the second triangular wave signal.
In the parallel running system of the DC-AC conversion apparatuses, a resistance value of the resistor for frequency decision is set at different values after starting and at the time of starting of the DC-AC conversion apparatus, and the resistance value set at the time of the starting is smaller than the resistance value set after the starting.

Controller IC, DC-AC conversion apparatus, and parallel running system of DC-AC conversion apparatuses


In a direct contact plug-in connection having a circuit board, which has contact surfaces on its one side, and having a direct contact plug that is plug-connectible to the circuit board, which has contact elements for the electrical direct contacting of the contact surfaces of the circuit board, the contact surfaces are provided on a circuit board section that runs transversely to the plugging direction of the plug connection, the contact elements each contacting the contact surfaces, using their front end face, in the plugging direction.

Control units are mostly made up of a circuit board, on which electronic components are placed, and a housing. In engine control units, a male multipoint connector is usually mounted on the circuit board, in order to produce the electrical connection between a wire harness plug and the circuit board. The male multipoint connector thus represents an additional component in the assembly of the control unit.
So-called electrical direct contacts are also known in which the male multipoint connector is omitted and the individual poles of the wire harness plug are contacted directly on the circuit board. For this, electrical contact surfaces ("lands") are provided, which are contacted directly by contact elements of the male multipoint connector. The contact surfaces of a direct contact plug-in connection are mostly positioned in two rows, namely in respectively one row on the upper and the lower side of the circuit board edge. By contrast to a contact male multipoint connector, which may be made up of a plurality of contact rows, in a direct contact plug-in connection there may thus be the disadvantage of a low number of pins. If the possibility of mounting contact surfaces on the upper and lower side of the circuit board edge has already been utilized, up until now there existed only the possibility of diminishing the distance between the pins. This possibility is usually declined, however, for reasons of reliability.

Direct contact plug-in connection having end face direct contact


An automatic image data aligning technique for an image processing apparatus, such as a facsimile machine including the steps of assigning coordinates corresponding to horizontal and vertical lines of the document to be sent as the document is scanned with a laser beam, reading out a fiducial coordinate value of the horizontal line in the document, and computing and storing the respective compensatory coordinate values of the image data's horizontal lines; reading out a fiducial coordinate value of the image data's vertical line and computing and storing the compensatory coordinate values of the image data's vertical line; and aligning the image data's coordinates by using the respective compensatory coordinate values of the horizontal and vertical lines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automatically aligning image data in an image processing apparatus, such as a facsimile machine. More particularly, it relates to automatically aligning image data in an image processing apparatus, such as a facsimile machine that may be reproduced askew on paper because the document to be sent is conveyed to a readout device at a slant by a feeding roller when the document is scanned by a laser light source for document transmission or reproduction.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to a facsimile technique that has been used for years for the rapid transmission of documents, the document that is on the document-to-be-sent position is conveyed by a feeding roller and scanned by a laser light source from a laser scanner. The document passes through a readout device, communication information system (CIS) or charge coupled device (CCD) so that image data to which the contents of the document are converted is read out. When the feeding roller fails to convey the document to the readout device in a straight line, however, the image data is transferred to plain paper at a slant to cause poor reproduction quality and deterioration to the quality of a facsimile machine.
Exemplary efforts representation of contemporary practice with image processing apparatus having techniques for automatically aligning image data include: U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,435 to Arai et al. entitled Picture Printing Device, U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,230 to Kurose entitled Document Image Processing System, U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,227 to Kita entitled Image Rotating Device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,653 to Ikehira entitled Image Processing System Having Skew Correcting Means, U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,260 to Kurosu et al. entitled Method For Determining The Amount Of Skew Of Image, Method For Correcting The Same, And Image Data Processing System, U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,438 to Katsurada et al. entitled Facsimile Device With Skew Correction And Text Line Directions Detection, U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,607 to Crosby entitled Facsimile Machine For Printing Documents All With Corresponding Edges Aligned But Without Requiring Scanning, U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,420 to Bloomberg et al. entitled Method And Apparatus For Identification Of Document Skew, U.S. Pat. No. 5,373,371 to Masui entitled Image Processing apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,621 to Hatchet al. entitled Document Detection Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,417 to Kuznicki et al. entitled Method And Apparatus For Correcting An Angle Of An Optical Image For Improving The Efficiency Of Facsimile Encoding Of The Image, U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,918 to Ishitani entitled Document Skew Detection/Control System For Printed Document Images Containing A Mixture Of Pure Text Lines And Non-Text Portions, U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,387 to Kelly et al. entitled Electronic Image Registration for A Scanner.

Automically aligning image data in an image processing apparatus


The present invention relates to a rapidly curable, silicone-free release coating composition comprising (a) between about 50 and about 95 wt. % of a vinyl ether having the formula C.sub.n H.sub.2n+1 O--CH.dbd.CH.sub.2 wherein n has a value of from 8 to 20, optionally containing a cationically polymerizable comonomer; (b) between about 5 and about 50 wt. % of a multifunctional vinyl ether monomer and (c) between about 0.1 and about 10 wt. % of an onium salt photoinitiator.

Release coatings are substances which control or eliminate the adhesion between an adhesive and a substrate surface, many of which have been prepared using silicone based materials. Curing of such silicone based liquid release coatings has been accomplished by solvent removal and thermal crosslinking, as is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,344. However the removal of solvent is not only energy intensive but also raises environmental concerns over solvent removal and recovery. To obviate this disadvantage, solvent free "100% reactive" organo polysiloxane compositions such as those taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,596 have been developed. These coatings, based on platinum catalyzed hydrosilation reactions, address the issue of solvent omission but are nevertheless energy intensive. Additionally, curing temperatures are typically within the range of from 140.degree. to 160.degree. C., thus precluding their use on temperature sensitive substrates. When applied to paper at these temperatures, the release coated paper has a tendency to curl and drastically change dimensions during thermal cure as dehydration of the paper substrate takes place. UV-curable release coatings in the absence of solvent is therefore desirable, since these coatings can be cured at room temperature.
Free radical initiated systems based on thiol-ene reactions are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,282. These systems, however, have an offensive mercaptan odor; moreover, thiol-ene systems are known to cure slowly and are thus commercially not attractive. Although the cationically curable epoxy and vinyloxy organo polysiloxanes described (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,617,238 and 4,279,717) cure rapidly with UV exposure and provide excellent low or "easy" release, in practice these UV-curable release coatings have several limitations. First, while UV-curable silicone release coatings can readily provide a low energy surface for easy release, coating formulations with controllable level of release are difficult to achieve. Attempts to counter this with control release additives have been only partially successful in developing moderate release properties. Secondly, many potential consumers object to silicone based products because of potential contamination of conventional components in coating lines. Specifically, silicones can cause adhesion and wetting problems when present as a contaminant in protective coating resins. Also, the UV curing of silicone-based release agents exhibit a strong substrate dependence. Finally, silicones are fairly expensive and their compositions are less economically attractive than other organic resins.
An example of a UV-curable non-silicone release coating has been reported (U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,974) which employs mixtures of C.sub.(8-28) alpha olefin oxides. These are reported to be useful in paper release applications. However, the cationic polymerization of alpha olefin oxides is much slower than UV-curable silicones.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to obviate the above problems and to provide a rapidly curable release composition which is economically prepared and used as a release coating.
Another object of this invention is to provide a release coating composition which can be adapted to possess easy, moderate, or strong release properties.
Still another object is to provide a release coating which may be applied to a wide variety of substrates and can be rapidly cured at about room temperature.
Yet another object is to provide a silicone free release coating composition.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description and disclosure.

Rapidly curable vinyl ether release coatings


A reclaimer system is provided for collecting and recycling a viscous coating batter in a foods processing line, particularly such as in a production line for making batter coated French fry potato strips. The reclaimer system comprises an elongated collection trough mounted at the downstream end of a product conveyor used to transport batter coated food products to a fryer, wherein the conveyor is positioned to collect excess batter dripping from the conveyor and the food products and further wherein this excess batter would otherwise undesirably fall into the fryer. A paddle is reciprocated back and forth within the trough to sweep collected batter therein from opposite open ends of the trough into appropriate collection vessels or funnels for recycling. The trough is water cooled to prevent significant cooking of the batter therein, and the paddle includes a central overflow port to permit large quantities of batter to spill therethrough without being swept over the longitudinal edges of the trough.

This invention relates generally to an improved system for reclaiming and recycling excess viscous batter in a foods processing line for producing batter coated food products such as batter coated French fry potato strips and the like. More particularly, this invention relates to a batter reclaimer system designed to collect and recycle excess batter dripping from the food products as those food products are delivered to a cooking vessel such as a fryer, wherein the batter is collected and recycled substantially without cooking thereof.
Batter coated food products are generally known in the art and have enjoyed increasing consumer popularity in recent years. For example, in one common form, a selected food product such as French fry potato strips is subjected to a batter coating step by immersion or spraying to encase or enrobe the food product within a liquid albeit relatively viscous batter containing a desired blend of ingredients such as flavorings and seasonings and the like. The batter coated food products are then transported typically on a porous mesh conveyor to a cooking vessel such as a fryer for at least partially cooking the products prior to further processing steps such as freezing and final packaging. The cooking step, especially in the case of a fryer for parfrying batter coated French fried potatoes, solidifies and sets the batter adhering onto the external surfaces of the food products. The batter coating thus remains on the products at the time of reheating and/or finish cooking immediately prior to consumption.
During the production of batter coated food products as described above, significant excess quantities of the liquid-based batter tends to drip or fall from the products particularly during transport thereof from a batter coating station to the cooking vessel. In this regard, a drip tray is commonly positioned beneath the transport conveyor to catch this excess batter and thereby permit convenient and economical recycling thereof to the batter coating station. However, it has been difficult or impractical to position this drip tray for effective collection of batter at the downstream end of the transport conveyor, or otherwise to catch batter dripping from the products as they are delivered from the conveyor into the cooking vessel such as a fryer containing hot cooking oil. Excess batter at this location has in general been allowed to enter the fryer where it is cooked to form solid crumbs which contaminates the cooking oil and also absorbs oil to result in overall increased oil usage and cost. Periodic screen-off removal of the batter crumbs has been required to prevent undesirable accumulation thereof. Efforts to collect excess batter at the downstream end of the conveyor have not avoided exposure of the batter to the heat of the fryer, resulting in at least partial batter cooking which renders any collected batter unsuitable for recycling.
There exists, therefore, a need for further improvements in and to systems and devices for reclaiming excess liquid-based batter in a foods processing line, particularly with respect to collecting excess batter at the point of delivery of batter coated food products into a cooking vessel such as a fryer, while preserving the collected batter substantially without cooking thereof to permit optimum and efficient recycling to a batter coating station. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.

J. R. Simplot Company a Nevada corporation


The invention relates to a method and system for processing a search request. A search request including a sequence of data strings and representing a plurality of search parameters is received. The strings are parsed and the search request is interpreted so as to define search parameters by recognizing items reflecting search criteria within the sequence of data strings. A query is built based on the result of the preceding process and at least one travel data service can be interrogated. This improves the search for information based on free-text input from the user.

Web based techniques applied to the travel and tourism industry have dramatically improved the processing of search queries. First a graphical user interface is now a typical means for inputting request data in a quite friendly manner. This interface includes several fields to be filled to specify the criteria of the request. One drawback of the current interfaces is that the user is required to fill several fields each time he/she wants to build a request.
This drawback can be illustrated in the case of web-based computer reservation systems in the travel and tourism industry.
Online distribution systems of travel and leisure are known on the market today. Among some well-known ones are found: Kayak®, bing®, Expedia®, Orbitz®, Yahoo® Travel®, and Travelocity®.
In general, when a user wants to book e.g. an airplane ticket online, the user must fill at least three different fields: one for the origin, one for the destination, one for the requested departure date and still another one for the return date. Furthermore, the user must also fill one additional field for each of the following options: cabin, number of travelers, preferred time of departure, etc. Another drawback is, if the user wants to change the destination or any other information provided after a first search, he/she will in most cases need to start all over, filling all the fields once more, including the mandatory ones.
Hence there is a need for an improved method for processing search requests where the user's input is made easier. There is also a need for a method and a system that preserves accuracy of source interrogation with the use of well-defined search parameters, without implying a complex input from the user's standpoint.
There is also a need for a universal interface which does not require any user expertise as to field formats or significations.

Method and system for processing a search request

Abstract: Application to methods for travel data service interrogation and to search engines.


Unused fuel in a fuel cell is recirculated in the anode loop and combined with fresh fuel using an electromagnetically driven pump. The pump includes a magnetic rotor mounted inside a conduit of nonmagnetic material that recirculates the fuel, and a plurality of electric stator coils disposed around the outside of the conduit. The stator coils are powered by either a AC or pulse train signal produced by a controller, and generate synchronous electromagnetic forces that spin rotor to force the gas through the recirculation loop.

Fuel cells are electrochemical energy conversion devices that generate electricity and heat by converting the chemical energy of fuels. A single fuel cell normally consists of an electrolyte sandwiched between two electrodes, a porous anode and a cathode. While a variety of different fuel cell types have been developed, all operate on essentially the same principle. For a PEM fuel cell, hydrogen, or a hydrogen-rich fuel is fed to the anode where a catalyst separates the hydrogen's negatively charged electrons from positively charged ions (protons). The electrons from the anode side of the cell cannot pass through the membrane to the positively charged cathode; they must travel around it via an electrical circuit to reach the other side of the cell. This movement of electrons is an electrical current which is advantageously used to drive a load, such as an electric motor or other electrical system. Once delivered to the cathode via the electrical circuit, the electrons combine with the protons that have crossed the membrane and the oxygen from the air, resulting in water or hydroxide. For proton exchange membrane (PEM) and phosphoric acid fuel cells, protons move through the electrolyte to the cathode to combine with oxygen and electrons, producing water and heat. In other types of fuel cells such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC's), negative ions travel through the electrolyte to the anode where they combine with the hydrogen or other oxidizable "fuel"
In the case of hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen fuel may be fed to the anode in what is sometimes referred to as the anode loop. The quantity of hydrogen fed to the anode is a function of variety of factors, including the relative purity of hydrogen fuel, low demand and other variable parameters that are unique to each fuel cell application.
In order to operate efficiently, the fuel cell must be supplied with more hydrogen fuel then it can actually convert. As a result, extra, unused hydrogen gas is discharged from the fuel cell. In order to increase operating efficiencies, it has been proposed that the unused hydrogen gas be circulated and combined with fresh gas from the hydrogen source before being redelivered to the anode of the fuel cell. Known hydrogen recirculating systems rely on comparatively complicated mechanical components, or electrical control systems that expose sensitive electronic components to potentially harsh environments found in fuel cells. It would therefore be desirable to provide a system for recirculating unused hydrogen fuel that is both simple in construction and well suited to operate within the adverse environment of the fuel cell. The present invention is directed toward satisfying this need.

Method and apparatus for recirculating unused fuel in fuel cells