There is provided a novel integrated process for producing methyl tertiary butyl ether from a C.sub.4 containing hydrocarbon feedstock comprising passing the feedstock through zones of butadiene hydrogenation, MTBE synthesis, paraffin/olefin separation and skeletal isomerization.

In recent years, a major technical challenge to the petroleum refining industry has been the need to establish new means for producing high octane gasolines containing oxygenates in response to pollution control regulations requiring the elimination of lead from gasoline, which was previously employed as an octane enhancer. Further, the development of more efficient, higher compression ratio gasoline engines which require higher octane fuels have spurred the industry to produce new octane enhancers.
Initially, to meet these requirements, the industry developed non-lead octane boosters and reformulated high octane gasoline to incorporate increased fractions of aromatics and branched hydrocarbons. While these and other approaches were sufficient to meet the technical requirements of regulations requiring the elimination of lead, the economic impact on the cost of gasoline was significant.
Accordingly, the industry has intensified their effort to discover new processes to manufacture the gasoline products required by the marketplace. In particular, the industry has centered on blending gasoline with lower aliphatic alkyl ethers as octane enhancers. To this end, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) has been found especially useful as an octane enhancing additive. Therefore, improvements to the processes relating to the production of MTBE have become increasingly important in the petrochemical industry.
It is known that isobutylene may be reacted with methanol over an acidic catalyst to produce MTBE. Methanol is generally in ample supply, but the supply of isobutylene is limited since it is formed only in cracking operations, primarily catalytic cracking and olefins production. Since insufficient isobutylene is available from these sources to meet the growing industry needs, many C.sub.4 production facilities based on dehydrogenation of isobutane are being used to prepare isobutylene feedstocks for MTBE production. See, e.g., Al-Muddarris, U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,516. However, such facilities have proven very expensive to build and operate.
It would therefore represent a notable advancement in the state of the art if a process which provided for the increased production of MTBE from available feedstocks could be developed. To this end, the present inventors have developed an integrated process for the production of MTBE from readily available mixed C.sub.4 feedstocks.


A radome for providing a relatively wide-band operation which in a preferred embodiment uses at least a pair of panel means mounted adjacent each other, each having a plurality of discontinuous conductive elements applied to a selected surface thereof in an array of parallel paths. The discontinuous elements in each path of the array are interconnected by diode means which can be biased in a non-conductive direction during a first transmit mode and in a conductive direction during a second non-transmit mode. The panels are separated by a distance which is substantially equal to one quarter wave length (.lambda..sub.s /4) at a selected frequency within the wide pass-band of electromagnetic energy which is to be transmitted. The overall structure essentially operates as a wide band, low-pass transmission device transmitting energy at frequencies within the selected pass-band during the transmit mode and rejecting transmission at all frequencies within at least this same selected pass-band during the non-transmit mode.

Radome structures are conventionally used to protect microwave antennas and associated equipment, for example, from the physical environment. It is also often desirable to shield such equipment from externally incident electromagnetic energy which can adversely affect the electrical operating characteristics thereof. Ideally, such a shield structure should be arranged, during operation of the antenna equipment, to be substantially transparent to the energy in the selected frequency range handled by the antenna but should reject or suppress all frequencies outside such selected frequency range.
Further, when the antenna equipment is not operating, such a shield structure should effectively reject or substantially suppress the transmission of electromagnetic energy at all frequencies. The structure acts as an electromagnetic "shutter" which is effectively "open" only to the desired operating frequency band during operation and is "closed" to all frequencies when not in operation.
One particular such radome shutter structure is disclosed in my copending U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 415,260, filed Sep. 7, 1982, and entitled "Electromagnetic Energy Shield". In such structure in the "open" state the radome structure provides a selective band-pass characteristic which permits the transmission therethrough of electromagnetic energy having frequencies within a selected pass-band, usually a relatively narrow pass-band, while energies having frequencies outside the pass-band are effectively rejected. In the "closed" state the structure is arranged to substantially reduce the transmission of energy both within the selected band as well as outside the pass-band.
In some instances, however, it is desirable to provide a relatively wide-band structure rather than the relatively narrow band operation as in the structure described in my previously filed application. For example, such a radome structure may be used with wide-band antennas and may be utilized with antennas which are providing only passive "listening" operations in which, in the non-operating state, it is desirable that the structure be "closed" to all frequencies when the passive antennas are shut off in order to avoid detection.


An archery bow holder for compound bows is formed of an upper assembly frame attached to a convex curved lower plate. The lower plate has an elongated slot for adjustment and closely fits with a base plate having a concave upper surface and passage for a bolt. The holder may be installed upon a hunter's tree stand or any other suitable surface with a bolt and cooperating nut, and arcuate adjustment for different bows or non level surfaces is provided by the mating curved surfaces of the slotted lower plate and base. The entire assembly including the base may be pivoted about the axis formed by the bolt for alignment as desired. Thus, a single bolt provides for the attachment, arcuate adjustment, and pivotal adjustment of the bow holder. At least some portions of the assembly may be covered or coated with a resilient coating or covering in order to protect a bow being held therein, and also to reduce or prevent noise if the otherwise hard surface of the bow holder were to be struck by another article.

Hunters, particularly those who prefer to hunt using archery equipment, increasingly employ various advantages in the art. One of these advantages is the use of a tree stand, which serves to elevate the hunter above the normal horizontal line of sight of the game and provide the hunter with a wider field of view.
However, many archery hunters find the use of tree stands to be inconvenient at the vary least, due to the fact that such stands tend to be relatively small in order to provide for portability and ease of setup. The relatively small size tends to preclude the storage of any significant amount of equipment by the time a hunter has positioned himself upon the stand. Obviously, there is no adjacent ground or other surface to use for the placement of such equipment when such a stand has been erected in a tree.
When a hunter must remain in position for perhaps several hours, it is most inconvenient to hold a bow or other equipment at the ready at all times. Some have partially solved the problem by hanging the bow upon a short branch or even a nail driven into the tree, but this presents potential problems if the bow is not carefully removed to avoid damage, as well as the fact that additional equipment must be provided in order to drive a nail and moreover many hunters find the damage to a tree from the use of a nail to be unacceptable.
While some supports have been developed in order to attempt to overcome the above problems, they are generally relatively cumbersome to sue and costly to manufacture. The need arises for an archery bow holder for use in hunting, which holder may be easily secured to a level surface in order to hold a bow for ready use by a hunter. The holder should provide adjustment for various bow types and configurations, and moreover should be easily attachable, detachable and adjustable using a minimum of separate components and fasteners.


A hearing aid is provided comprising a microphone, an amplifier, an earphone, and at least one data storage. A large number of detailed hearing aid features are identifiable in an easy way. The data storage forms a component part of an identification means and stores at least one hearing aid feature which can be wirelessly output via an output means of the identification means allocated to the hearing aid for the identification of the hearing aid.

The present invention is directed to a hearing aid comprising a microphone, an amplifier, an earphone, and a data storage.
Known hearing aids of the type initially cited have their transmission properties individually matched to the respective residual hearing of a user of the hearing aid. A great number of types of hearing aids are required for this purpose. Even hearing aids having a structurally identical housing can differ considerably from one another in terms of their electrical type (electrical data) due to the different parts integrated therein such as, for example, microphone, earphone and/or electrical amplifier circuits, or due to the different performance data of these integrated components of the hearing aid. A presentation of more detailed distinguishing features (transmission properties) of the respective hearing aid type at the housing of the hearing aid for precise identification of the hearing aid is not possible, if only because of inadequate space at the respective hearing aid, particularly at an in-the-ear hearing aid.
CH-A-671 131, incorporated herein, discloses a hearing aid whose data storage also contains memory locations for only one type of information that can be output in wire-bound fashion to a programming device. What this is intended to achieve is that the audio channels of hearing aids differing in type can be rapidly set in succession with a single programming device. The wire-bound output, however, requires at least one space-consuming plug contact at the hearing aid.
EP-A-0 341 995, incorporated herein, discloses a hearing aid having a data storage as a component part of a calibration means. The calibration means stores data about individual characteristics of the individual hearing aid. A programming system is programmed with these data. An external programming means and an input and output unit in the hearing aid are provided for this purpose.
Knowledge of detailed transmission properties (hearing aid feature/hearing aid data), however, is required for a correct matching of the hearing aid to the residual hearing of the hearing-impaired user. Persons, for example audiologists, who adapt hearing aids to hearing impairments must therefore laboriously seek out the relevant hearing aid features in a time consuming way in separate data lists with reference to the type and manufacturer identification arranged at the housing of the hearing aid. Such lists must always be kept up to date, this involving additional time expenditure. On occasion, data lists in the possession of the audiologist are already superseded. Consequently, time-consuming measurements must be implemented at the hearing aid in order to exactly identify hearing aid properties.


A vehicle body panel structure, wherein an inner panel is disposed on the inner surface of an outer panel and a reinforcing inner panel is disposed on the inner surface of the inner panel. A plurality of recesses and projections forming a wave shape in cross section are formed on the inner panel and the reinforcing inner panel in the longitudinal direction of a vehicle body. These panels are joined to each other so that a closed cross section is formed of the inner panel and the reinforcing inner panel at the lower part of a joined part between the outer panel and the inner panel and a closed cross section is formed of the outer panel and the inner panel at the upper part of a joined part between the inner panel and the reinforcing inner panel. Accordingly, even if a head part moving distance is small, an HIC value can be lowered and uniformized at those portions other than an impact portion. Thus, even an Al alloy hood can sufficiently reduce the HIC value to contribute to a reduction in the weight of the vehicle body.

Conventionally, as a panel structure of a vehicle body member in for example an automobile there has been employed a structure comprising an outer panel (called an external panel or outside sheet) and an inner panel (internal panel or inside sheet) which are combined to have a closed cross-sectional structure separated by a space.
Particularly, in a panel structure employed as for example the hood, roof or door of an automobile, the outer panel and inner panel, which is provided on the side of the outer panel facing the interior of the vehicle in order to reinforce this outer panel, are mechanically joined or are joined by welding or using for example an adhesive such as resin.
In a panel structure for a vehicle comprising such an inner panel and outer panel, in addition to or instead of the steel members that were conventionally employed, in order to achieve weight reduction, aluminum alloy sheet of high strength and high moldability such as 3000 grade, 5000 grade, 6000 grade or 7000 grade aluminum "aluminum" will hereinbelow be abbreviated as Al) alloy sheet as specified by AA or JIS has started to be used.
Recently, with a view to protection of pedestrians, there is a trend to mandate safety on head impact as a design requirement in relation to hoods. Various techniques have been proposed in relation to beam type hood structures (Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 7-165120, Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. H. 7-285466, and Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. H. 5-139338). Also, regarding impact-proof properties in relation to adults' heads and children's heads, the EEVC (European Enhanced Vehicle-Safety Committee) has laid down an HIC value of no more than 1000 as a requirement in respect of hoods (EEVC Working Group 17 Report, Improved test methods to evaluate pedestrian protection afforded by passenger cars, December 1998).
The present inventors have already applied for a patent (Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-205866) in respect of a corrugated inner panels both in the case where the corrugated cross-section is regular and the case of an irregular spline type inner panel. Such a corrugated inner panel is a more preferred construction for pedestrian protection than a beam type inner panel or cone type inner panel in that, even though the clearance from the outer panel to rigid bodies such as the engine is smaller, it makes possible a further lowering of the HIC value. Specifically, with the invention according to the previous application using such a corrugated inner panel, the desired object was achieved of a vehicle body panel structure offering excellent protection for pedestrians. However, for further pedestrian protection, further reduction in the HIC value is desired.
On the other hand, many techniques have been disclosed relating to perforated-sheet sound absorbing panels, based on the Helmholtz resonance principle. The basic principles are indicated in acoustics textbooks. A resonant frequency is determined by simple expressions from for example the sheet thickness, hole diameter, aperture ratio, and thickness of the back air layer. A prescribed sound absorption performance can be obtained by determining these dimensions in accordance with the frequencies to be absorbed. The following provisional formula is indicated for a perforated-sheet sound absorption structure in Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. H. 6-298014.f=c/2π×√(β/(t+1.6b)d)  [math 1]
Where, f is the frequency, c is the speed of sound, β is the aperture ratio, t is the sheet thickness, b is the aperture radius (radius of the holes) and d is the thickness of the back air layer.
It has been discovered that the sound absorption characteristic improves as the holes are made smaller and a high sound absorption performance is obtained due to viscous attenuation at hole diameters of 1 mm or less (H V Fuchs and X Zha: The application of micro-perforated sheets as sound absorbers with inherent damping, Acustica, 81, 107-116, 1995). As an example, in Patent document 1 (Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-199287), it is stated in claim 4 that the hole diameter is 0.1 mm to 3 mm.
Although, in Patent document 2 (Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-50586), Ueda, Tanaka and Uzuno et al specify that a suitable hole diameter is no more than 3 mm, with an aperture ratio of no more than 3%. This can easily be found assuming that the absorption frequency range is no more than 1000 Hz, as specified in Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-122050. A perforated sound absorption structure is proposed therein wherein an external panel and internal panel are formed arranged facing each other, and the frequency bandwidth for which the noise absorption effect provides a noise absorption rate of at least 0.3 is set at 10% or more of the resonant frequency. In a range of panel thickness of the internal panel of 0.3 mm to 1 mm a range of aperture ratio of 1% to 5%, and a range of hole diameter of 0.5 mm to 3 mm, the effect on absorption rate of these parameters is investigated. In this case, it appears that, if the aperture ratio is no more than 3% and the hole diameter is no more than 3 mm, in particular if the hole diameter is no more than 1 mm, a fully satisfactory noise absorption effect is obtained i.e. the prescribed effect appears to be obtained. In the above publication, there is further proposed a perforated sound absorption body structure wherein at least two internal panels are provided, with an intervening air layer. However, a vehicle body hood structure that satisfies the requirements of both a sound absorption structure and a pedestrian protective structure has not as yet been developed.
In Patent document 3 (Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. H. 6-298041), Patent document 4 (Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. H. 6-81407) and Patent document 5 (Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-276178), it is disclosed that wide-band sound absorption properties can be obtained by superimposing a plurality of flat sheets and perforated sheets of curved surface shape or perforated sheets of flat sheet shape, and providing a plurality of back air layers of varying cross-sectional shape. This is because, with such a structure, a wide range of resonant frequencies exist due to the changes in thickness of the back air layers, and, as a result, a sound absorption characteristic having a peak which appears in the case of only a single perforated sheet, is eliminated, and a substantially uniform wide-band sound absorption characteristic can be obtained over a wide frequency range.
Regarding a vehicle body hood structure that satisfies the requirements of both a sound absorption structure and a pedestrian protective structure, there are Patent document 6 (Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-226264), Patent document 7 (Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-252246) and Patent document 8 (Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-261070).
In general, impact-resistance in respect of the head is evaluated using the HIC value described below (head performance criterion) (Automobile Technology Handbook Part 3, Test Evaluation Edition, Second Edition, 15 Jun., 1992, compiled by the Automobile Technology Association).HIC=[1/(t2−t1)∫t1.t2adt]2.5(t2−t1)  [math 2]
Where, a is the triaxial resultant acceleration (units: G) at the center of gravity of the head, t1 and t2 are time-points such that 0<t1<t2, and the action time (t2−1) is specified as no more than 15 msec at the time where the HIC value is a maximum.
In the EEVC Working Group 17 Report, as the condition to be satisfied in respect of the hood, an HIC value of no more than 1000 is respectively laid down for impact-resistance in respect of adults' heads and children's heads. The head impact speed that is therein specified in the case of a head impact test is 40 km/hour, an adult head being specified as of weight 4.8 kg, external diameter 165 mm, impact angle 65°, and a child's head being specified as weight 2.5 kg, external diameter 130 mm, impact angle 50°.
In the case of head impact, the head of a pedestrian collides first with the outer panel. Next, as deformation proceeds, reaction force is transmitted through the inner panel to rigid components such as the engine in the engine room, resulting in excessive impact force being generated at the head. The acceleration acting on the head comprises a first acceleration wave generated mainly by impact with the outer panel (generated during the 5 msec from the start of the impact) and a second acceleration wave (generated about 5 msec later than the start of the impact) generated on impact of the inner panel with a rigid object. The magnitude of the first acceleration wave is determined mainly by the elasticity and rigidity of the outer panel and the magnitude of the second acceleration wave is determined mainly by the elasticity and rigidity of the inner panel. The kinetic energy of the head is absorbed by deformation energy of this outer panel and inner panel. However, if the distance of movement of the head exceeds the clearance of the outer panel and the rigid object such as the engine, the head directly receives the reaction force from the rigid object and so receives an excessive impact force greatly exceeding the limiting value of 1000 of the HIC value, resulting in fatal damage.
Accordingly, it is necessary that it should be possible to decrease the HIC value even if the distance of movement of the head is small (problem 1). First of all, it is true that the larger the clearance between the outer panel and the rigid body such as the engine, the larger can be made the distance moved by the head, and this is beneficial in terms of reducing the HIC value. On the design of the hood, the clearance between the outer panel and the rigid body such as the engine has a limit itself. So a hood construction is sought that makes possible reduction in the HIC value even with a small clearance and small distance of head movement.
In particular in the case of head impact of an adult, the impact conditions are more severe than in the case of head impact of a child. So it is necessary to provide an excessively large clearance exceeding the allowed design range with regard to clearance from the outer panel to the surface of a rigid body, and this presents a problem (EEVC Working Group Report p 17).
Furthermore, it is considered to be a problem that it is very difficult to satisfy an HIC value of 1000 in respect of both children and adults, which have different impact characteristics on the WAD1500 line (line at the leading end of the vehicle from the road surface to the hood impact position with a distance of 1500 mm from the contour line) on which impact with either a child's head or an adult's head is possible. In particular, in the case of the hoods of large sedans, the WAD1500 line is directly above the engine where the clearance between the outer panel and rigid body surface is small, so effective counter-measures are desired regarding improvement of impact-resistance (EEVC Working Group 17 Report).
Next, it is necessary that the HIC value should be uniform irrespective of impact location (problem 2). Regarding the position of head impact, the HIC value is large at a position directly above the frame in the case of a beam type hood construction and at the position of the cone vertex section in the case of a cone type hood construction. This is because these locations have high local rigidity and little deformation when colliding with the rigid body portion and receive high reaction force from the rigid body. Consequently, from the point of view safety, a hood construction is desired in which a roughly uniform HIC value is obtained irrespective of the location of impact.
In addition, it is necessary that it should be possible to employ Al alloy material, which makes it possible to reduce vehicle weight (Problem 3). Excellent head impact-resistance is necessary even if Al alloy material is employed as the hood material for purposes of weight reduction. Al alloy material is frequently employed for purposes of hood weight reduction, but, in this case, compared with the use of iron-based material, is considered to be generally disadvantageous from the point of view of pedestrian protection. This is caused by the fact that the elasticity coefficient and specific gravity of Al alloy material are both about one-third of those of steel material, so the sheet rigidity and the weight of a hood made of Al alloy as a panel structure are insufficient, compared with a hood made of steel, for the kinetic energy of the head to be absorbed by the hood.
The bending rigidity of a sheet member is proportional to ET3 (where E is the Young's modulus and T is the sheet thickness) and the sheet rigidity is proportional to ET. When an iron-based material (Young's modulus Es, sheet thickness Ts and specific gravity γs) is substituted by an Al alloy material (Young's modulus Ea, sheet thickness Ta, specific gravity γa) usually, the sheet thickness is determined such that the bending rigidity is the same. In this case, EaTa3=EsTs3, Ea/Es=⅓, and Ta/Ts=31/3=1.44. The sheet rigidity ratio of a hood made of aluminum alloy and a hood made of steel is (EaTa)/EsTs=1.44/3=0.48, and the specific gravity ratio is likewise (Taγa)/(Tsγs)=1.44/3=0.48, so the sheet rigidity and weight of an aluminum hood are only 0.48 times those of a steel hood. As a result, in the problem of impact of the head and hood, the distance moved by the head is increased, making impact with a rigid body more likely, and decreasing the energy absorption of the outer panel in the first acceleration wave, while increasing the second acceleration wave; as a result, the HIC value, with a conventional hood construction, is increased, making it extremely difficult to satisfy the limiting value in respect of the HIC value.
Of course, if Ta is made three times Ts, the sheet rigidity ratio and weight ratio will both be equivalent to those of a steel hoods but costs will be excessively increased so that such a design cannot be adopted.
Thus it is fairly difficult to satisfy the limiting conditions under head impact with these conditions if aluminum alloy material is employed for the hood. Of course, if a hood construction could be found whereby these conditions were satisfied with aluminum material, such a construction would make possible even further reduction of the HIC value in the case of a steel hood adopting this construction.
Patent document 1: Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-193287
Patent document 2: Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-50586
Patent document 3: Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. H. 6-298014
Patent document 4: Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. H. 6-81407
Patent document 5. Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-276178
Patent document 6: Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-225264
Patent document 7: Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-252246
Patent document 8: Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-261070


An objective measure of human beauty is determined by a beauty quantification system. The beauty quantification system comprises a beauty quantification processor, a beauty measure datastore, a beauty score datastore, a user computing device, and a network. The beauty measure datastore comprises quantifiable measures of beauty of a body region. The beauty quantification processor comprises instructions for receiving user data indicative of physical attributes of a selected body region of the user, obtaining measures of beauty from the beauty measures datastore associated with the selected body region, evaluating the user data against the beauty measures of the selected body region, determining a user score indicative of the beauty of the selected body region of the user, storing the user score in the beauty score datastore, and comparing the user score to a score stored in the beauty score datastore. The beauty quantification processor may also suggest enhancements to one or more body regions to improve the user score. The suggested enhancements may be presented as an ordered listed organized by a relative cost benefit measure.

Beauty is commonly defined as a characteristic present in a person, place, object or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning or satisfaction to the mind or to the eyes, arising from sensory manifestations such as a shape, color, personality, sound, design or rhythm. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology and culture. Beauty, as a cultural creation, is also extremely commercialized.
In a subjective sense, beauty is determined by characteristics that are perceived in such a way as to provide the "viewer" a feeling of attraction or a sense of well-being. A person, scene, or thing may be perceived as beautiful or ugly by different individuals. In the subjective sense, "beauty exists in the eye of the beholder."
Objective beauty is more difficult to define. Advances in mathematics marked attempts to define beauty in theoretical terms. Symmetry in architecture and objects proportioned according to the golden ratio seemed more attractive. Modern research also suggests that people whose facial features are symmetric and proportioned according the golden ratio are more attractive than those whose faces are not. There is evidence that a preference for beautiful faces emerges early in child development, and that the standards of attractiveness are similar across different cultures.
A strong indicator of physical beauty is "averageness." When images of human faces are averaged together to form a composite image, they become progressively closer to the "ideal" image and are perceived as more attractive. This was first noticed in 1883, when Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, overlaid photographic composite images of the faces of vegetarians and criminals to see if there was a typical facial appearance for each. When doing this, he noticed that the composite images were more attractive compared to any of the individual images. Researchers have replicated the result under more controlled conditions and found that the computer generated, mathematical average of a series of faces is rated more favorably than individual faces.
Against this background, embodiments of the present invention utilize mathematical models of idealized regions of the body to provide an objective measure of beauty of those regions and of the body as a whole and an objective comparison of an individual's beauty measures to known individuals or groups of individuals.

System and method for determining an objective measure of human beauty


A processing method for automatically opening a slide-open package of tobacco articles with a hinged lid; the processing method including the steps of: mechanically clamping an outer container of the package; exerting pull on the lid to rotate the lid into an open position by means of a first actuator, which contacts a top wall of the lid, and has a suction head which engages the top wall by suction; and, simultaneously and in coordination with the step of exerting pull on the lid, exerting thrust on an inner container of the package, to slide the inner container axially with respect to the outer container, by means of a second actuator, which contacts a wall of the inner container through a window formed through a corresponding wall of the outer container.

Rigid, hinged-lid packets of cigarettes are currently the most widely marketed, by being easy to produce and easy and practical to use, and by effectively protecting the cigarettes inside.
In addition to the above rigid, hinged-lid packets cigarettes, rigid slide-open packets have been proposed comprising two partly separable containers, one inserted inside the other. In other words, a rigid, slide-open packet of cigarettes comprises an inner container, which houses a foil-wrapped group of cigarettes and is housed inside an outer container to slide, with respect to the outer container, between a closed configuration, in which the inner container is inserted inside the outer container, and an open configuration, in which the inner container is partly extracted from the outer container.
A rigid, hinged-lid, slide-open packet cigarettes has also been proposed in which the outer container has a hinged lid, which rotates between a closed position and an open position closing and opening an open top end of the outer container. The outer container lid has a connecting tab connected at one end to the lid, and at the other end to the inner container, to 'automatically' rotate the lid (i.e. without the user having to touch the lid) as the inner container slides with respect to the outer container.
Some embodiments of rigid, hinged-lid, slide-open packets of cigarettes, however, have proved difficult to open the first time (i.e. the first time the inner container is slid out with respect to the outer container to rotate the lid into the open position), even to the extent of giving the user the impression the packet is somehow defective. The reason for this difficulty lies in the packing material the packet is made from initially resisting deformation along the hinge lines. That is, locally, the packing material is still substantially whole, and is only weakened locally (the mechanical bonds within the material are only broken or at any rate relaxed) when the packet is opened the first time.
To make first-time opening of the packet easier for the user, it has been proposed to open and close the newly completed packet of cigarettes at a processing station downstream from the last packing station. The packet is opened and closed automatically by a mechanical actuator at the processing station. The mechanical actuators used in known processing stations, however, have the drawback of handling the packet fairly roughly, thus possibly resulting in irreparable damage, and of being highly unreliable (i.e. guaranteeing no certainty of success of the operation).

Processing method and unit for automatically opening a hinged-lid slide-open package of tobacco products


Disclosed is an apparatus and method for holding, water-proofing and retaining an electrical connection between two electrical power cords which includes a hinged housing defining two openings with the openings receiving inserts to accommodate various sizes and shapes of electrical cords. The inserts are adjustable to allow the user to snug them up against both connectors within the housing. Also, disclosed is a sheath made of rubber or NEOPRENE which is installed over the connection before inserting the connections in the housing to substantially water-proofing the connections.

The interconnection of several flexible extension cords to transmit power from a source, such as an electrical outlet, to a device is very common. In a household environment, several extension cords may be interconnected to provide power to a device, such as a lawn-mower or hedge trimmer for use at a distance from a power outlet. Interconnected extension cords may also be used on commercial applications, particularly by construction workers operating hand tools or other devices operated remotely from a power outlet.
The typical extension cord includes male and female plugs interconnected by a flexible cable. In many extension cords, the female plug of one cord is connected to the male plug of another cord by receiving spade type conductors from the male plug and urging internal conductors in contact therewith. On many occasions, the application of tension to a cable of a connected pair of extension cords will induce separation or disconnection of the conductors in the plugs and prevent the transmission of power. This naturally results in inconvenience and expense caused by the necessity to reconnect the plugs.
In certain industrial applications, heave duty electrical conductor cords capable of handling 220-400 volts, and having mating terminals are coupled, and the coupled region is exposed to weather conditions or utilized in a harbor environment where immersion in water is likely. In such conditions of use, penetration of the coupling by water or water-borne contaminates can disrupt the electrical system and may lead to damage of the terminals, potentially dangerous sparking and possible electrocution of personnel.
Numerous housings have earlier been disclosed for the purpose of preventing inadvertent separation of coupled electrical terminals, and some of said housings are further intended to prevent entrance of water into the coupling.
In the past, several attempts have been made to alleviate this problem. The connected extension cords may be tied in a knot adjacent the plugs. However, this caused fatigue in the cable and may result in cord failure.
Examples of other attempts to solve these problems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,643,505 to House, issued Feb. 17, 1987, 4,869,683 to Nelson, issued Sep. 26, 1989, 3,048,810 to Steen, issued Apr. 7, 1962 and 3,183,302 to Wochner & Toediman, issued May 11, 1965.
These examples and others are limited in their individual functions and the present invention addresses these and other functions in a unique and unobvious manner heretofore undisclosed.

Water resistant extension cord connector housing


An enhanced liquid filter bag is disclosed. The enhancements to a liquid filter bag disclosed herein include the addition of an internal filter cartridge and the addition of a liquid impermeable liner material that directs the flow of liquid to a centrally located void in the internal filter cartridge.

Liquid filter bags are used in liquid filtration process. Liquids, such as water, containing solid contaminants are introduced into a liquid filter bag in a liquid filtration process. The liquid flows through the liquid filter bag's filtration media. The liquid filter bag's filtration media captures the solid contaminants, so the liquid emerging through the liquid filter bag's filtration media is cleaner than the liquid entering the liquid filter bag. Liquid filter bags come in a number of standardized sizes designed to fit within housings of a corresponding size. Liquid filter bags are constructed of different filtration media designed to filter solid contaminants of a predetermined size.
It is desired to provide enhancements to a liquid filter bag that improve the lifespan and efficiency of a liquid filter bag.


Provided is a medium feeding aparatus having at least one align roller to align medium in a path, wherein the align roller is positioned below the medium and is driven to transport the medium in the path. A feed assistance member includes a shaft and a feed assistance roller rotably mounted to the shaft and positioned to apply pressure on the medium in the path to stabilize the medium while the medium is being aligned in the path by the at least one align wherein the feed assistance roller is not vertically aligned with any roller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for feeding a medium, such as paper, in a medium processing device such as a printer. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved apparatus for increasing the precision in a feed operation of the medium through the medium processing device.
2. Background Art
As is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,848 (assigned to Olivetti), shown in FIG. 5, the correction of position of an inserted medium is made by running the edges of the medium against a left guide 171, and shutters 121, 123, 125 and 127. Then the medium is fed into the processing device, such as a printer. FIG. 5 is a plan view of a portion of the medium processing device 100 parallel to a feed path.
In this approach, the medium 200 is inserted, and when an IN sensor (an insertion sensor) 163 is turned on, rotation of an align roller 151 arranged in a lateral direction and align rollers 141 and 143 arranged in a vertical direction is initiated.
The align roller 151 feeds the medium in a leftward direction, and the align rollers 141 and 143 feed the medium in a forward direction. The shape of these two kinds of rollers is oval rather than circular, as shown in cross section A—A and cross section B—B. These rollers contact with idlers 145 and 153, respectively, for each rotation of 180 degrees. The idlers 145 and 153 are applied with a bias force such as a spring in a direction toward the align rollers so that a proper feed force or a feed power (a force for sustaining the feed operation) is generated.
The top of the align roller 151 is shifted from the tops of the align rollers 141 and 143 by 190 degrees, as shown in FIGS. 5, to alternately feed the medium incrementally toward the leftward direction and then in the forward direction. That is, when one, such as the align roller 151, feeds, the medium, the other, such as align rollers 141 and 143, does not disturb the feed operation of the align roller 151. When align sensor 165 is turned off, align roller 151 is operated, and when align sensor 165 is turned on, align roller 151 is stopped. When sensor 161 is turned off, align rollers 141 and 143 are operated, and when align sensor 161 is turned on, align rollers 141 and 143 are stopped. Finally, medium 200 is stopped by the left guide 171 and shutters 121, 123, 125 and 127.
As shown in FIG. 7, when both align sensors 161 and 165 are turned on, the correction of position is considered to be completed, and align rollers 141, 143 and 151 are stopped. Then the shutters 121, 123, 125 and 127 are opened, and the medium is fed into the inside of the processing device by feed rollers 131 and 133, and a process, such as a print operation or a character recognition operation, is performed.
However, when the medium is very thin, or the surface of the medium is very smooth, a sufficient friction force between a back surface of the medium and a surface of a plate for supporting the medium is not generated. Accordingly, when the oval shaped align rollers 141, 143, and 151 do not contact the idlers 145 and 153, the inertia force of the medium 200 driven by the previous contact with the align rollers 141, 143 and 151 becomes larger than the friction force of the surface of the medium, so that an overrun of the medium 200 occurs. As a result, when the medium 200 runs against the left guide 171 or the shutters 121, 123, 125 and 127, a bounce back of the medium 200 occurs, so that a proper correction of position of the medium becomes impossible.
One approach to solve this problem is to decrease the inertia force of the medium to the same strength as the friction force of the medium by either decreasing the rotational speed of the align rollers 141, 143 and 151 or by using align rollers with a smaller diameter so as to decrease the amount of movement of the medium. This alternative approach, however, increases the time for processing the medium to an unacceptable level.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism for feeding a medium at a high speed which is not affected by a physical characteristic, such as thinness or smoothness, of the medium.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism for realizing a high speed correction of position of the medium which is not affected by a physical characteristic of the medium.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a feed mechanism for decreasing a shear force or a tension force applied to the medium to as small a value as possible.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved feed mechanism in which production cost is low and the number of fabrication steps are decreased to a minimum.

Feed assistance member and a medium processing apparatus

International Business Machines Corporation


An improvement in the production of imidazole derivatives including histamine H3 agonist immepip and histamine H3 antagonist VUF4929. Desired imidazole derivatives can be easily obtained in high yield by using novel intermediates represented by the general formula (I): (I) wherein R1 is an amino-protecting group; R2 and R3 are each independently hydrogen, lower alkyl, or hydroxylated lower alkyl; R4 is lower alkyl, halogenated lower alkyl, or substituted or unsubstituted phenyl; and A is C1-3 alkylene

It is known that 4-(1H-imidazol-4-ylmethyl)piperidine (nonproprietary name: immepip) has histamine H3 agonistic activity and it is useful as histamine H3-positive control reagent, and also is commercially available. Additionally, it is known that 4-(1H-imidazol-4-ylethyl)piperidine (known as VUF4929) has histamine H3 antagonistic activity.
A process for manufacturing these imidazole derivatives is known, which comprises reacting 5-lithio salt of 1,2-di-protected-imidazole (e.g. 2-trimethylsilyl-N,N-dimethyl-1H-imidazole sulfonamide) with 4-pyridine-carbaldehyde to introduce a pyridin-4-ylhydroxymethyl group onto the 5-position of the imidazole nucleus, acetylating the hydroxyl group thereof, reducing it under a high pressure, and then deprotecting it (R. C. Vollinga, et al., J. Med. Chem. 37, 332-333, 1994 and WO 9506037).
However, this process has some disadvantages, such that it needs multiple reaction steps, and needs long reaction time under a high pressure in the reducing reaction, and so on. Additionally, it is a problem that the overall yield is very low, only 20% from the starting imidazole compound.
Alternatively, there is also known a process which includes reaction of imidazol-4-ylmethyl chlorides with the Grignard reagents prepared from N-protected-4-chloro-piperidine in the presence of a cupper salt, and then deprotection of the reaction product (WO 9312107). However, this process has problems, such that it needs to use a lot of heavy metals, and so forth.
Accordingly, it is desirable to develop an improved process for producing the above imidazole derivatives more easily and in higher yield.

Production of imidazole derivatives and novel intermediates of the derivatives


A raster image serial printer in which a printing operation can be carried out using a buffer having as small a capacity as possible by altering the form of bit map data in proportion to the amount of the memory that can be used as an image buffer. The inventive raster image serial printer includes a print data decision unit for determining the type of input data, a buffer capacity decision unit for determining the capacity of a buffer in which raster image data is assembled, an image assembling unit for assembling the image by determining the number of bits to be assembled corresponding to the available memory capacity, and a latch for latching the image data assembled in the buffer and null data for making up the deficiency. When the input data is raster image data and the capacity of an image buffer is small, the printing operation is carried out while the deficiency is made up by null data in such a way that bit map data lines fewer in number than the dot forming elements of a recording head are stored in the buffer.

The present invention relates to a raster image serial printer for producing printed data by carrying out raster scanning with a serial recording head in response to bit map data received from a host computer.
A printing operation in a raster image mode is started when bit map data is store in a print buffer. Conventionally, when a printhead with 24 dot forming elements arranged in the subscanning direction (i.e., in the paper feeding direction) is used, for instance, printing cannot be started until data has been assembled and stored corresponding to all 24 dots in the subscanning direction and the number of print columns, i.e., a number of dots in the subscanning direction determined by the desired printing resolution. For this purpose, there has been provided a print image buffer having a capacity equal to the product of the number of print columns and the number of dot forming elements of the recording head.
The storage capacity of the print image buffer must be increased as the numbers of print columns and dot forming elements are increased. Therefore, to be able to print all types of data, it is necessary to either provide an image buffer having a large storage capacity or allow the printer to wait a relatively long period of time while the necessary data is assembled and stored in the print image buffer.

Raster image serial printer having variable buffer memory and method for operating same


A generally cruciform-shaped control rod for a nuclear reactor is formed by vertical stiffeners laterally spaced one from the other and interconnected by horizontal stiffeners at their ends defining discrete compartments in each wing of the cruciform-shaped control rod. Sheathing overlies the stiffeners to seal each of the compartments from its surrounding environment. Neutron-absorbing material, such as boron carbide and/or hafnium tubes, are disposed in each compartment. Each wing is secured to a generally cruciform central tie rod formed of planar plates superposed one over the other alternately at right angles with the outer edges of the plates welded to the inner edges of the wings, affording structural support to the control rod. The innermost vertically extending stiffeners have apertures communicating between adjacent compartments whereby helium gas generated by the boron-neutron reaction in the boron capsules leaks from the boron capsules into each compartment thereby equalizing the pressure across each wing of the control rod.

As well known, control rods in a nuclear reactor perform the functions of power distribution, shaping and reactivity control. This is accomplished generally by providing a plurality of control rods containing material for neutron absorption and manipulating the control rods within the reactor. Generally, a control rod used in a boiling water reactor (BWR) is provided in a cruciform shape and extends in complementary cruciform-shaped interstices between fuel channels. While there are a number of different control rod designs, two basic control rod designs have been typically employed previously in boiling water reactors. In one design, each control rod consists of a plurality, e.g., either 48 or 84, boron carbide absorber or hafnium rods, or a combination of boron carbide and hafnium rods, separated into four cruciform-shaped wings of either 12 or 21 tubes each. The tubes are enclosed in a perforated outer sheath which is welded to a full-length central tie rod which has a handle and connector/velocity limiter at the respective opposite ends of the rod. The perforated sheath affords a cooling medium to the tubes. If a tube fails in this design, the boron carbide powder is exposed to the reactor coolant.
In another type of control rod, essentially square tubes are welded to one another to form the four wings of the cruciform-shaped control rods. Each wing contains 12 to 15 square tubes welded to one another and to a handle at one end and a connector/velocity limiter at the opposite end. The welds between the tubes and the tubes themselves provide the structural support for the control rod. The tubes serve as individual pressure vessels, as well as structural members subjected to all reactor induced loadings. In this design, the boron carbide powder is contained in sealed capsules inserted into the individual square tubes. One of the difficulties with the latter type of control rod construction is the magnitude of the welding required to weld each of the individual square tubes to an adjacent tube to provide the structural support necessary for the four wings of the control rod. While that construction has served well, it is quite expensive to manufacture.
Another problem associated with the design of control rods is that the reaction of the neutron-absorbing material, e.g., boron carbide, with neutrons produces a helium gas. Thus, the tubes of each of the previously noted designs must have structural integrity to maintain the generated helium gas within the tube at increasing pressure throughout the lifetime of the control rod. It is known that the mechanical lifetime of a control rod is limited by the reactor burn-up and the corresponding helium pressure build-up in the tube containing the boron carbide exposed to the highest neutron flux. The magnitude and pressure of helium gas generated depends on the location of the tube within the control rod. That is, the boron carbide containing tube which has the highest exposure to neutrons in the control rod determines the mechanical life of the control rod. However, in each prior design, the neutron-absorbing material was contained in discrete tubes individually subjected to helium gas pressure build-up and without any relief. Consequently, the life of the control rod is dependent upon the structural integrity of only one of a large number of absorber tubes.


In a vibration driven motor or actuator, which has members for generating a first bending vibration and a second bending vibration in a direction different from the first bending vibration therein, and in which a combined vibration of the first bending vibration and the second bending vibration is caused, rigidities in two directions of the vibration member are set to be equal to or substantially equal to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bar-shaped vibration driven motor or actuator and, more particularly, to a bar-shaped vibration driven motor suitable for use in optical equipment such as cameras, and OA equipment such as printers.
2. Related Background Art
A bar-shaped vibration driven motor is basically constituted by a bar-shaped vibration member 1, and a rotor 2 contacting the end face of the vibration member 1, as shown in FIG. 2. When a positional phase difference among piezo-electric elements 1b11, 1b12, 1b21, and 1b22 of the vibration member 1, and a temporal phase difference of an applied AC voltage for an ultrasonic wave are properly selected, surface portions of the end face, which serves as the driving surface of the vibration member 1, are caused to follow a circular or elliptic motion, thereby rotating the rotor 2 contacting the driving surface.
In the vibration member, the driving piezo-electric elements 1b11, 1b12, 1b21, and 1b22, and a vibration detection piezo-electric element 1b3 are arranged between columnar vibration member structural bodies 1a1 and 1a2, which are formed of a material such as metals (e.g., Bs, SUS, aluminum, and the like) causing less vibration attenuation. Electrode plates 1c3 to 1c6 are arranged between each pair of adjacent piezo-electric elements. A fastening bolt 3 having a male screw thread is inserted from the side of the vibration member structural body 1a2, and is threadably engaged with a female screw portion of the vibration member structural body 1a2 to clamp and fix the piezo-electric elements therebetween, thus constituting an integrated vibration member.
The rotor 2 is press contacted to the driving surface of the vibration member 1 via a spring case 5a by the biasing force of a compression spring 5 so as to obtain a frictional force. A rotary output member 6 frictionally contacts the spring case 5a. The member 6 has a gear portion on its outer circumferential surface, and is meshed with a gear (not shown) to transmit the rotational force of the rotor 2 to an external mechanism. The rotary output member 6 has a bearing 7.
Therefore, when the driving surface of the vibration member 1 makes a circular or elliptic motion, since the rotor 2 contacts near the peaks of the locus of, e.g., the elliptic motion, it is frictionally driven at a speed substantially proportional to the tangential speed. In order to increase the rotational speed of the motor, the vibration amplitude on the driving surface must be increased.
Most of the energy losses in the vibration member are internal frictional losses caused by strain in the vibration member caused by the vibration, and depend on the total sum of the strains.
For this reason, in order to increase the rotational speed of the motor, and to reduce the energy losses, it is desirable to increase the vibration amplitude of only a portion of the vibration member near the contact portion.
Thus, the present applicant has proposed a vibration 10 member in which a circumferential groove 1d is formed in the vibration member 1 so as to increase the vibration amplitude of only a portion of the vibration member near the contact portion.
FIGS. 3A and 3B show radial displacement distributions of the shaft portion of the vibration member depending on the presence/absence of a circumferential groove 1d of the vibration member 1. FIG. 3A shows the case of a vibration member having no circumferential groove 1d, and FIG. 3B shows the case of a vibration member having a circumferential groove 1d. As can be seen from FIG. 3B, in the vibration member having a circumferential groove 1d, the rigidity of the portion of the vibration member at the circumferential groove 1d is lowered, and a large displacement is obtained at the side of the contact portion with the rotor as the driving surface.
From this fact, if the vibration members of FIGS. 3A and 3B are designed to have the same displacement at the contact portion with the rotor, then the displacements in other portions of the vibration member shown in FIG. 3B are generally smaller than the corresponding portions of the vibration member shown in FIG. 3A. As a result, the total sum of strains, i.e., the internal loss in the vibration member can be reduced.
A bar-shaped vibration driven motor utilizes orthogonal bending natural vibrations in two directions (x- and y-directions) as the driving force.
Therefore, it is impossible to obtain large amplitudes in both directions unless the two natural frequencies are substantially equal to each other. In this case, the locus of the surface portions of the vibration member is considerably shifted from a circular motion, and undesirably becomes closer to a linear motion.
As a result, a high rotational speed cannot be obtained as a motor output, resulting in poor efficiency.
Note that the two natural frequencies can be originally matched with each other by design calculations.
However, in practice, the two natural frequencies have a difference (to be referred to as .DELTA.f hereinafter) therebetween, and the difference varies depending on individual vibration members.
As a result, the motor performance varies depending on individual motors.
Upon examination of the cause for the variation, it has been found that when a screw portion 4 for clamping and fixing the upper and lower vibration member structural bodies 1a1 and 1a2 (see FIG. 2) is present near the circumferential groove 1d, the variation .DELTA.f becomes large.
It is believed that the above-mentioned fact is caused by the presence of strong and weak meshing portions due to machining errors of the male and female screw portions. More specifically, this causes a nonuniform rigidity, and the natural frequencies have a difference therebetween depending on a rigidity difference in the x- and y-directions of the vibration member.
As can be seen from FIG. 3B, at the position of the circumferential groove 1d having a low rigidity, a change (.theta..sub.2 -.theta..sub.1) in inclination angle of a vibration mode is large, and a large strain occurs.
Therefore, the rigidity difference at this position tends to appear as a difference between the bending natural frequencies.


A foot-launched and foot-landed hang glider is powered by an internal combustion two-cycle engine drivingly connected through a reduction-drive unit to a large relatively slow-moving propeller. A reduction mount, so referred to because it couples the reduction-drive unit closely to the engine, allows the engine to rotate a large propeller relatively slowly, thus providing more thrust at near-stalling flight conditions. The hang glider, thus powered, also obviates the necessity of being launched from the edge of a precipice and permits flight which is not predicated on the fortuitous selection of favorable air currents.

Hang gliders and hang gliding are as old as man's first dreams of simulating the flight of birds. However, it is only recently that successful hand gliders have burst upon the horizon, made possible by the availability of a unique combination of high strength synthetic resinous fabric and film, and light-weight high-strength rigid structural components.
A hang glider is defined as: "An un-powered single place vehicle whose launch and landing capability depends entirely on the legs of the occupant, and whose ability to remain in flight is generated by natural air current only" (see FAA Advisory Circular 60-10 published May 16, 1974). It is such a craft, which is powered by an engine now combined surprisingly effectively with a reduction drive unit, which is the subject matter of this invention.
The essential requirements of any winged aircraft in the 25-35 mph (miles per hour) range have been generally ignored since the Wright brothers powered a low-speed glider. This attitude is understandable because, logically, having learned to power a craft, the goal to be attained was ever-greater speeds. Subsequent world wars placed an additional premium on speed, and as a result, data on low-speed, winged, powered aircraft are virtually non-existent.
Since reliance for relatively safe flight solely upon the vagaries of air currents presents an undesirably high level of risk, it was inevitable that this reliance be better founded. An obvious way of providing a more reliable source of air currents is to power a hang glider with a small engine, and this has been done. Particularly in those parts of this country where the land stretches flatly to the horizons, powered or motorized hang gliders have been used in which an engine directly drives a propeller which is mounted on the crankshaft of the engine. These direct-drive powered hang gliders are not without problems. In simple terms it might be said that known, powered direct-drive hang gliders have delicate handling characteristics because they fly at near-stalling speed, a condition arising from the limited thrust of the necessarily small engine. To maximize thrust, a directly driven propeller is rotated as fast as the small engine will permit. Because of the weight limitation of a hang glider, it must be powered by a light-weight two-cycle internal combustion engine operating in the range from about 6500 revolutions per minute (rpm) to about 10,000 rpm. The handling problem of a powered hang glider is particularly acute at lift-off because, though the relatively small diameter propeller of a direct-drive engine rotates at high speed, there is insufficient reserve thrust to provide an adequate safety margin at lift-off. In other words, a small diameter direct-drive propeller does not provide sufficient thrust to make a quick and controlled transition from launch speed to the minimum safe control speed for the craft. Though this problem would appear to lend itself to a simple substitution involving using a more powerful engine, the fact is that such a substitution is impractical. The weight of a two-cycle engine having a rated brake horsepower greater than about 15 HP, even if cast from aluminum or other light weight alloy, is too great. Since a hang glider must be foot-launched and foot-landed, the critical weight of an engine to power it, is limited to 20 pounds (lbs). Thus, in powered hang glider design, the weight of an engine is essentially constant. Because launching a hang glider is accomplished by a person lifting it up and running with it to commence to lift off the ground, the weight of the enigne and hang glider together should not exceed 100 lbs.
The power of the two-cycle engine and its weight are critical factors because there is no known engine obviously suitable for the purpose of powering a hang glider, which engine can provide substantially greater power per pound weight, so as to rotate a large propeller slowly, without using a reduction-drive. These critical factors necessitate present direct-drive driven hang gliders to be operated without a muffler on the engine, so as to provide a reasonable margin of safety in making the transition from launch speed to crusing speed. Such an un-muffled engine requires the occupant pilot to use ear plugs or the like. It should also be recognized that the noise generated by a relatively small, high-revving propeller is so great that ear protective devices would be necessary even if the engine was quiet. A slow-revving propeller in the range from about 0.9 meter (m) to about 1.4 m, revolving at a speed in the range from about 2500 rpm, but below 5000 rpm, is relatively quiet. Because the engine provides more usable thrust with a large propeller driven with a reduction-drive unit, the engine may be adequately muffled so that the hang glider may be flown without ear plugs.
Recognizing that the cruise speed of a powered hang glider is in the range from about 25 to 35 miles per hour (mph) with a maximum speed of about 40 mph, it is essential that the transition from ground running speed of about 8 to 10 mph, to cruise speed, be made as quickly as possible. Since the stall speed is about 20 mph, it will now be appreciated that it is desirable to have as much reserve thrust as possible above a level required to maintain the hang glider in sustained flight. It is this reserve thrust which is lacking in a direct-powered hang glider.
Despite the inadequacies of direct-drive powered hang gliders, those skilled in the art have continued to use them, methodically attempting to overcome the problems . . . but with little success. The powered hang glider of this invention provides an effective solution to the problem of direct-powered hang gliding.

Powered hang glider with reduction drive


In laser micromachining and laser defect repair of a first material, a first set of one or more laser wavelengths is selected in accordance with the first material's absorption characteristics and is combined and delivered concurrently with a second set of one or more laser wavelengths which is selected in accordance with the absorption characteristics of a second material generated by and remaining from the ablating interaction of the first material with the first set of laser wavelengths. The concurrent presence of the second set of one or more laser wavelengths removes the residual second material.

The present invention relates generally to the non-contact repair of micro-circuits, and in particular to the repair of active matrix liquid crystal display panels.
During the manufacturing of liquid crystal (LC) displays, large clear plates of thin glass are used as a substrate for the deposition of thin film transistor (TFT) arrays. Usually, several independent TFT arrays are contained within one glass substrate plate and are often referred to as TFT panels. Alternatively, an active matrix LCD, or AMCLD, covers the class of displays utilizing a transistor or diode at every subpixel, and therefore encompasses TFT devices, such glass substrate plates may also be referred to as AMLCD panels. Flat panel displays may also be fabricated using any of the OLED technologies and though typically fabricated on glass, may also be fabricated on plastic substrate plates.
TFT pattern deposition is performed in a multitude of stages where in each stage, a particular material (such as a metal, indium tin oxide (ITO), crystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, etc.) is deposited on top of a previous layer (or glass) in conformity with a predetermined pattern. Each stage typically includes a number of steps such as deposition, masking, etching, stripping, etc.
During each of these stages and at various steps within each stage, many production defects may occur that may affect the electrical and/or optical performance of the final LCD product. Such defects include but are not limited to metal protrusion 110 into ITO 112, ITO protrusion 114 into metal 116, a so-called mouse bite 118, an open circuit 120, a short 122 in a transistor 124, and a foreign particle 126, as shown in FIG. 1. Other defects include mask problems, over or under etching, etc.
Even though the TFT deposition processes are tightly controlled, defect occurrence is unavoidable. This limits the product yield and adversely effects production costs. Typically, the TFT arrays are inspected using one or multiple Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) system(s) following critical deposition stages and by an electro-optical inspection machine, also referred to as array tester or array checker (AC) to test the finished TFT arrays. Commonly AOI and AC systems provide defect coordinates; they do not provide high resolution images required to classify defects as killer, reparable or just imperfections not affecting the TFT array performance (so called process defects). The defect coordinate information is passed to a TFT array repair tool, also referred to as array saver (AS), and such classification is conventionally done manually by the TFT array repair machine operator.
The average number of defects per plate may vary from one TFT array manufacturer to another and from one manufacturing plant to another. Typically, the defect review and repair capacity within the TFT array fabrication line is sized to process 300 to 400 defects per 7th generation plates. Typically 5 to 10% of defects per plate may require repair.
Since the TFT array features are typically very small (sub-pixel size may be 80 micrometer by 240 micrometer and up to 216 micrometer by 648 micrometer for large 40 inch LCD televisions made from 7th generation plates), the array repair tool includes a microscope to perform a defect review to decide whether the defect is repairable. The microscope field of view is small, ranging from 100 micrometer by 100 micrometer to 2 millimeter by 2 millimeter, relative to the plate size, which is typically 2.1 meter by 2.4 meter. The microscope is installed on a precision XY stage so that it can be dispatched from one defect to another. The defect coordinates are known from inspections carried out earlier by AOI and AC inspection systems. The glass plate remains immobilized under the XY stage by means of a vacuum chuck during the defect review and repair. Following the review, the repairable defects are typically treated by means of laser trimming, laser welding or by bridging open line.
The above series of general events is typical of all array repair tools. However, because the number, type, locations, size, degree of defects often vary from panel to panel, a means to pass judgment is required at almost all of the tool steps following capture of the defect images—for example, whether an image is truly a defect rather than nuisance, what kind of defect has been found, whether or not a specific defect needs repair, what kind of repair is required, what repair parameters are needed, what is the next defect to be repaired, and so forth. Many repair tools combine tool operation with human operator judgment and intervention to identify, classify, and then repair such defects.
FIG. 2 shows a defect repair example in cross section. Several typical layers are shown: a passivation layer 210 may cover the metal circuitry 212 and both lie on top of substrate 214. Metal protrusion defect 110 is shown in FIG. 2A (see FIG. 1 for top view). In this example, after identifying and classifying the defect 110, a repair recipe is created, and then executed to remove the protrusion using laser 220, as shown in FIG. 2B. Precision laser abalation or laser micro-machining requires matching the laser properties (wavelength, pulsewidth, energy, etc.) to the material being removed. Material removal can be a relatively straightforward process, using typical laser cutting or ablation techniques in which first the most appropriate wavelength is selected followed by careful optimization of the laser energy and process.
However, in some cases the material to be removed does not abalate well and excessive debris is generated in the process. In other cases, a thin layer of one material needs to be cleanly removed without damaging an underlying layer which may respond differently to the laser wavelength due to having different optical properties. For such thin layers, the laser fluence (energy per area) must be uniform over the beam cross-section so as not to damage underlayers inadvertently because of "hot" spots within the beam cross-section, or to leave excess material because of having too little energy density. Multiple passes to clean up the debris are sometimes used, although often this leads to damage to the substrate or other layers underneath and longer tact times.
FIG. 3A shows a layer to be removed 310 on top of layer 312, which must not be damaged, both of which lie on substrate 314. FIG. 3B shows application of a laser beam 320 having wavelength λ1 to layer 310. FIG. 3C illustrates the results after attempting to ablate layer 310 with laser beam 320 at a fluence that does not damage underlayer 312. As shown, the material making up layer 310 may generate debris 330, which must be removed before continuing fabrication of the circuitry.
Ensuring that no debris remains may be addressed in several ways. One conventional method is to apply a higher fluence laser beam 320, as shown in FIG. 3D, so that no debris is generated, but this method increases the likelihood of damage to the underlayer 312, which may be partially ablated due to the higher fluence, as shown in FIG. 3E. Another prior art method allows generation of debris as in the steps illustrated by FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C, but then introduces an additional step in which a laser of different wavelength λ2 322 is directed at the debris 330 (FIG. 3F). In this case, the debris 330 and the underlayer 312 may have similar optical properties, and therefore the underlayer may still be at risk for damage, since it will absorb λ2 as well (FIG. 3E). In the case in which the debris and underlayer have different optical properties, removal of the debris in a subsequent step using wavelength λ2 requires careful control of the laser fluence, since too high a fluence may still damage the underlayer, while too low a fluence may be insufficient to ablate the debris. Since debris may be of different size and volume, the laser fluence will need to be adjusted for each case. That is, the process window to achieve clean cuts without residual debris may be very narrow making automation of such a debris removal process difficult.

Laser ablation using multiple wavelengths


A heat dissipation device for an electronic device includes a base, a plurality of fins and at least one heat pipe. The base has a front surface and a rear surface opposite to the front surface. A heat-generating component of the electronic device is disposed adjacent to the rear surface. The plurality of fins extend from the front surface of the base. The heat pipe is disposed on the front surface of the base and in a cutout portion of the plurality of fins. The heat dissipation device, which removes heat from the heat-generating component, has a low profile and improved heat dissipation capability.

An electronic device may include a central processing unit (CPU) or other electronic circuit, which generates a significant amount of heat during operation. A heat dissipation device may be provided at the electronic device to remove heat from the heat-generating component. The trend has been toward increasing operating speed of the electronic device while decreasing the size of the electronic device.
The typical heat dissipation device, however, has a bulky configuration, which undesirably increases the overall profile of the electronic device. Moreover, the typical heat dissipation device does not provide efficient heat dissipation to rapidly transfer heat energy away from the heat-generating component. The electronic device may be susceptible to heat failure or decreased reliability if the heat energy is not effectively removed from the heat-generating component.


This invention provides a method for killing fungal cells without lysing in fermentation processes in order to prepare the fermentation mixture for processing to recover or extract an extracellularly expressed enzyme from the fermentation mixture. A preferred method of this invention comprises adjusting the pH of the fermentation mixture to less than 2.79 using a mineral acid, then adding sufficient acetic acid to the mixture to affect a substantially complete cell kill in mixture. A salt of the acetic acid can be used. The organic acid or salt can be added, then the pH adjusted to the desired level. Other organic acids can be used, in which case the pH of the mixture is adjusted to the pK.sub.a of the selected organic acid before the organic acid is added to the mixture. The method of this invention is useful for stopping the growth and killing the cells in any micro-organism, culture or fermentation such as those containing yeast, bacteria or fungi and is particularly useful in systems where it is desired to kill the cells without lysing them.

In the various processes of culturing or fermenting microorganisms, it is sometimes necessary at the conclusion of the growth of the culture or the conclusion of the fermentation process to be able to kill the active cells in the mixture so that the growth activity is stopped and the desired product can be recovered from the culture or fermentation mixture. This is particularly true when organisms containing recombinant DNA are grown as production hosts and it is necessary to prevent any viable recombinant organisms from being released into the environment.
It is sometimes desirable to also lyse the cells at the time the cells are killed in order to recover any desired product which is produced intracellularly. One conventional way that cells are killed and lysed is by the use of heat. U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,986 to Wegner, et al. is an example of the use of heat to kill the cells and stop the growth of microorganism cultures. Another method useful on certain microorganisms is to change the osmotic pressure which causes the cells to lyse. An example of this method is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,858 to Aubert, et al. Another conventional method used for lysing cells is by introduction of enzymes which break down the cell walls or membranes. Examples of this method are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,260 to Sugiyama, U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,198 to Kobayashi, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,510 to Kitamura, et al. The disclosures of the above patents are incorporated herein by reference.
However, in other instances it is desirable to simply kill the cells to stop the microorganism activity without lysing the cells. This is particularly true in systems where the cells manufacture and secrete the desired product. In such systems it is very desirable to kill the cells without lysing the cells, because lysing the cells releases additional cell debris and materials, thus making recovery and purification of the desired secreted product more difficult and costly. Therefore, when the cells in such a system can be killed without lysing them, process efficiencies in recovery and purification of the secreted products are recognized.
In many systems the host microorganism is difficult to kill, for example fungi. Conventional methods, such as heat, are too severe and will destroy or alter the desired secreted product before the cells are killed. In such systems the product must be recovered without killing the cells, which requires the use of tedious and costly containment procedures and equipment.
In large scale commercial fermentation processes, it is desirable to have more efficient and faster methods for killing the cells and stopping the cell growth so the resulting fermentation mixture can be processed to extract and recover the desired product being produced without lysing the cells thus eliminating the need for containment. The heat method and other known methods for killing cells are too slow and energy inefficient for commercial use and often result in unwanted lysing of the cells. In addition, many of the conventional methods for killing cells are not compatible with culture and fermentation processes for microbial production of enzymes. Conventional methods frequently denature or alter the desired enzyme before it can be isolated and recovered, or those methods introduce materials, e.g., other enzymes, which make the isolation, recovery and purification of the desired enzyme product more difficult, less efficient and, consequently, more expensive.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a faster, more efficient method for killing cells. It is a further object of this invention to facilitate the extraction and product recovery processing of enzyme products found in a fermentation or culture mixture or medium. It is still a further object of this invention to provide a method for effecting desired cell kill which is compatible with microbial production of enzymes and the recovery and purification of such microbially produced enzymes.

Killing cells without lysis in a method for enzyme recovery from a fermentation broth


Two identical mechanical seals (6, 7) and (8, 9) respectively and an intermediate spring device (17) are arranged in a holder which is easily replaceable. The spring (17) is common for the two seals and is connected to sockets (13) and (14) respectively which anchor the rotating seal rings (6) and (8) respectively. The oil containment area (20) of the machine is connected to the area containing the spring (17).

The invention concerns a seal device for a submersible machine such as a pump or a mixer.
A machine of this type normally comprises an electrically driven motor and a hydraulic unit with an impeller connected to the motor via a rotary shaft.
In order to prevent the medium within the hydraulic unit from entering the motor along the shaft, one or several seals are arranged between the hydraulic unit and the motor. A common type of seal is the so-called mechanical seal which comprises a seal ring rotating with the shaft and a stationary ring attached to the surrounding housing. The two seal rings are pressed against each other by spring force preventing medium from entering between the seal faces.
If the medium within the hydraulic unit contains pollutions those may, as the pressure is higher in the hydraulic unit, enter between the seal faces and damage them causing a bad seal result.
It is thus common to arrange two mechanical seals parted by a room filled with oil which lubricates and cools the seal faces. In this way the seal adjacent the motor will always operate with a clean medium thus diminishing the risks for damages. If the seal adjacent the hydraulic unit should be damaged, medium may enter the oil housing, but by controlling the oil at certain intervals the damaged seal may be replaced before the oil has been too diluted. An example of such a solution is shown in the Swedish Patent No. 381 318.
If it has been noted that the dilution of the oil has gone beyond a certain limit, the seal adjacent the hydraulic unit must be replaced. If the dilution has gone very far, the other seal might have been damaged as well and thus it is often advisable to replace both seals at the same time.
In order to simplify replacement of the seals it has been suggested to connect the two seals into one single unit. An example of such a solution is shown in the Swedish patent No. 200 144 (U.S. Pat. No. 2,950,931). This construction shows many advantages, but because of the great number of details it is too expensive to be used extensively. In addition to that, the attachment of the seal means is carried out by the pump impeller causing axial loads which might damage the seal rings and mean bad alignment. This invention is a further development of this known device where the disadvantages have been eliminated.


A plurality of recording magnetization portions is arranged in a concentric manner around a center of a glass substrate. A plurality of non-magnetization portion having a thermal conductivity lower than that of the recording magnetization portions is formed each between adjacent recording magnetization portions along a circumferential direction on a main surface of the glass substrate. A mean squared roughness of a surface of an area where each of the non-magnetization portions is formed is equal to or smaller than 1 nanometer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a glass substrate for manufacturing a thermal-assisted magnetic recording disk and a thermal-assisted magnetic recording disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
With an increase of amount of information to be handled in the recent information processing, the recording capacity of a magnetic recording disk such as the hard disk is increased with each passing year, with which the recording density of the magnetic recording disk is also increased year after year. For example, in recent years, even a magnetic recording disk having an ultra-high recording density of 100 gigabytes per inch has been developed.
As a method of realizing the high recording density, it is often employed to lower the flying height of the magnetic head from the main surface of the magnetic recording disk. However, if there is an undulation with a period such that the magnetic head cannot approach the main surface of the magnetic recording disk, the flying height cannot be set beyond the surface roughness. To cope with the problem, for example, a technology for lowering the flying height is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-200414, by suppressing the surface roughness of a glass substrate that becomes a base material for the magnetic recording disk with the average roughness of equal to or smaller than 1 nanometer and the maximum roughness of equal to or smaller than 15 nanometers.
Another method of realizing the high recording density includes a method of using a thermal-assisted magnetic recording system. In this method, when performing a magnetic recording, a laser device installed at near field illuminates an area where information is to be recorded with a laser light to lower the coercivity by increasing the temperature of the area, so that the magnetization of the area by the magnetic head becomes easy. By employing this method, because the recording magnetic portion can be formed using magnetic material having a high stead-state coercivity, it is possible to increase the recording density by narrowing the width of each recording track of a magnetic recording disk while preventing a loss of magnetization due to thermal fluctuation. Hereinafter, the magnetic recording disk employing the thermal-assisted magnetic recording method is referred to as a thermal-assisted magnetic recording disk.
However, in the thermal-assisted magnetic recording method, the temperature-elevated area is spread beyond the area where the recording is performed due to the thermal diffusion. As a result, a partial magnetization occurs also in a track adjacent to the recording track, resulting in a possibility of leading a degradation or a loss of data in the adjacent track, which is called the cross write. To cope with this problem, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-134004, a technology is disclosed in which the cross write is prevented by keeping an area where the temperature is elevated by the laser illumination from being spread to an adjacent recording track by separating each recording track with a non-magnetization portion having a thermal conductivity equal to or lower than one hundredth of that of the recording track.
Nevertheless, the conventional thermal-assisted magnetic recording disk still has a problem of the cross write even when the non-magnetization portion is provided between the recording tracks.

Glass substrate and thermal-assisted magnetic recording disk


A nonresonant, traveling-wave V-shaped slot antenna providing high gain and a broad bandwidth for coupling infrared radiation onto a detector. The V-shaped slot antenna includes a relatively thick dielectric substrate and a metallization layer formed on the substrate. The metallization layer includes a pair of slots positioned at an angle .phi..sub.1 to form a V-shaped slot. The slot angle .phi..sub.1 is equal to approximately twice the radiation angle .psi., which is defined as the arccos of v.sub.d /v.sub.s, where v.sub.s is the propagation velocity of the infrared radiation in the two slots and v.sub.d is the propagation velocity of the radiation in the dielectric substrate. At the slot angle .phi..sub.1, the radiation in the two slots adds in phase to produce a single high-gain beam along the V axis.

This invention relates generally to slot antennas and, more particularly, to slot antennas fabricated on relatively thick dielectric substrates.
Semiconductor infrared detectors are often arranged in focal plane arrays and cryogenically cooled to very low temperatures to provide sensitive detection of infrared radiation for various types of space-based sensor systems. These detectors are usually made as small as possible to not only increase the sensitivity and speed of each detector, but also to increase the sensitivity of the entire array by allowing more detectors to be placed in the array. However, it is difficult to couple infrared radiation directly onto a detector that is smaller than about a wavelength of the radiation. Therefore, a small antenna is often used to couple the incident infrared radiation onto the detector.
Infrared detector arrays are typically fabricated on dielectric substrates, such as silicon or quartz, using integrated-circuit fabrication methods, and the antennas are typically fabricated as thin metal film patterns on the substrates. Several types of antennas are often used, such as bow-tie antennas or slot antennas. However, these types of antennas tend to have low gains and poor radiation patterns. One alternative is to make the dielectric substrate very thin, on the order of .lambda./100, thus preventing large energy losses in the dielectric substrate. However, thin substrates on the order .lambda./100 are very difficult to fabricate for infrared wavelengths. Another alternative is to add a superstrate to the dielectric substrate so that the antenna is entirely inside the dielectric, thus increasing the gain. However, the gap between the superstrate and the substrate must be exceedingly small, on the order of .lambda./100, which is also difficult to fabricate for infrared wavelengths. Accordingly, there has been a need for a high-gain, broadband antenna that is easily fabricated on dielectric substrates. The present invention is directed to this end.

High-gain broadband V-shaped slot antenna


An improved shiftable change speed transmission is provided. The improved transmission is preferably provided with at least one countershaft having countershaft gears thereon disposed in meshing engagement with main shaft gears encircling the transmission main shaft. Gears are selectively axially movable relative to the associated shaft by conventional means for effecting shifting of the transmission. The axially movable gears cooperate with clutch rings which surround and are supported on and for rotation with the associated shaft by splines, preferably the clutch rings also are axially movable relative to the associated shaft and are resiliently urged in a direction toward the respective gear with which same cooperates, whereby shifting of the axially movable gear toward its respective clutch ring causes resilient axial movement of the latter until synchronization is achieved to permit the clutch ring to move axially in response to said resilient urging and engage the main shaft gear. The improvement comprises providing spline teeth on the clutch ring or the associated shaft which are of a substantially constantly varying thickness and are arranged such that, when the clutch rings are in the non-axially displaced position, the circumferential spacing betwen cooperating clutch ring and shaft spline teeth is smaller at the axial end of the clutch ring closest to the gear with which it is associated than at the other end of the clutch ring.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to shiftable change speed shifting mechanisms comprising selectively, axially movable gears and, in particular, relates to multiple countershaft transmissions utilizing resiliently yieldable shifting mechanism comprising selectively, axially movable main shaft gears having clutch teeth associated therewith and axially movable, resiliently biased clutch collars splined to the main shaft for selectively rotationally fixing said main shaft gears to said main shaft, said clutch collars having clutch teeth associated therewith for engaging the clutch teeth associated with said main shaft gears, wherein the spline teeth of one of the main shaft or clutch collar are of a constantly variable thickness to prevent or minimize undesired disengagement of an engaged mainshaft gear and clutch collar.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Change speed transmissions utilizing resiliently yieldable shifting mechanisms incorporating selectively, axially movable gears and, in particular, multiple countershaft, floating main shaft transmissions utilizing resiliently yieldable shifting mechanisms, are known in the prior art and may be seen by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,799,002; 3,910,131; 3,921,469; 3,924,484; and 3,983,979, all of which are assigned to the assignee of this invention and all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Briefly, the above mentioned multiple countershaft, floating main shaft transmissions utilizing resiliently yieldable shifting mechanisms comprise selectively, axially movable main shaft gears and axially movable clutch collars splined to the main shaft which are resiliently biased toward said main shaft gears and which are positively stopped from moving into engagement therewith until said main shaft gears are axially moved toward said clutch collars. The main shaft gears have clutch teeth associated therewith, preferably integral internal clutch teeth, and the clutch collars have integral external clutch teeth which are adapted to engage the clutch teeth associated with said main shaft gears. In the preferred embodiments of the above mentioned transmissions, various types of blockers are utilized to prevent engagement of the clutch teeth until the main shaft gear selected to be rotationally fixed to the main shaft is rotating at a synchronous speed with the main shaft. The main shaft gears are selectively, axially movable by shift fork mechanisms as is well known in the prior art and the shift fork mechanisms were manipulated by either a linkage mechanism or by a pressure fluid motor, such as an air cylinder, as is also well-known in the prior art.
While the above mentioned transmissions have proven to be highly desirable, especially for substantially simplifying shifting of the transmissions, in certain circumstances, especially in those transmissions utilizing air motor manipulated shift forks, the clutch teeth associated with certain engaged main shaft gears occasionally tended to undesirably disengage from the clutch teeth associated with the engaged clutch collar. This problem, which is sometimes referred to as "kick out", most often occurred during severe usage of the transmission. Such undesirable disengagement, or "kick out", while not completely understood, is believed to be caused by the engaged, selectively axially movable main shaft gear wobbling in respect to the axis of rotation of the main shaft which is believed to cause the main shaft gear to move axially against the shift fork and the bias of the shift cylinder until the clutch teeth associated therewith became disengaged from the clutch teeth associated with the clutch collar. The problem of undesirable disengagement, although not fully understood, is most often associated with those types of multiple countershaft transmissions wherein the main shaft gear is selectively axially moved toward engagement with a clutch collar, rather than with those types of transmissions wherein the main shaft gear is axially fixed with respect to the main shaft.

Transmission with resilient shifting mechanism