A line reel includes a spool for line, a drive shaft effecting rotation of the spool through suitable gears and a manually operable crank hinged to the drive shaft. The drive shaft has a clutch part releasably engageable with a cooperating clutch part on one of the gears. A cam surface on the crank causes the crank, when pivoted to a selected locked or cranking position, to be moved to an over-center position at which a spring holds the crank in selected position. In locked position, the clutch parts are disengaged and the spool stops are engaged. In cranking position, the clutch parts are engaged and the stops are disengaged. The crank may be moved to disengage both the stops and the clutch parts so that the wound line may be manually extended from the spool without effecting rotation of the crank.

This invention relates generally to a line reel and, more particularly, to such a reel having a crank for rewinding line on the reel which can be locked or unlocked as desired.
In the prior art, line reels are known. Typically, in a line reel such as a chalk line reel, a spool of line is journaled within a chalk-filled housing so that line unwound from the spool end and payed out of the housing is covered with chalk. In one form of prior art reels, a crank directly drives the spool. In another form, gears are employed to drive the spool and increase the rate at which the line may be rewound.
During use, it may be desirable to manually pull the chalk line from the spool until the required length of line has been extended from the housing. At other times, it may be desirable to prevent the line from being pulled from the housing as, for example, when the line is being used to mark a guide line. In conventional direct drive and gear drive reels, manual extension of the line causes the crank to turn, while the line can only be locked by manually holding the crank fixed relative to the housing. Clearly, this kind of operation is not desirable.
A clutch mechanism has been provided to release the crank from the spool to permit unwinding of line from the spool without causing the crank to be turned. The above clutched reel also has a structural configuration permitting the spool to be locked in position. However, no means has been provided to positively maintain the spool in a locked position until affirmatively released by the operator.


A drive for a rotating field machine which has two AC voltage integrators of identical design for forming two electric voltage signals each of which is proportional to a flux component in the machine. Each voltage integrator includes an integrator and a zero-controller having negative feedback for suppressing the DC component of input voltages fed to a summing point of the integrator. Each integrator, is fed, as one input voltage, a voltage proportional to the phase-voltage belonging to the flux component and a voltage proportional to the corresponding stator current in a machine supply lead, for compensating the ohmic stator voltage drop. A second voltage, also depending on the phase current, is processed to compensate for the inductive stator voltage drop. To ensure optimum converter and machine utilization over an increased speed control range by reducing the phase errors of the determined flux components, each zero-controller includes a proportional controller and an integrated controller having output signals fed to the summing point. The output signal of the integrator, corrected for the ohmic stator voltage drop and the inductive stray voltage, is fed, weighted proportionally to the frequency of the machine, to the input of the proportional controller, and weighted proportionally to the square of the frequency, to the input of the integrated controller, the weighting factor having a maximum value of 1.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a drive for a rotating-field machine, especially a synchronous machine which is supplied from a frequency converter and to a control providing self-controlled, field-oriented operation of the machine. Two AC voltage integrators of identical design are provided for forming two electric voltage signals which are each proportional to a different flux component in the rotating-field machine. Each AC voltage integrator comprises a zero controller having negative feedback for suppressing the DC component of the integrator output voltage, the feedback being connected from the output of the integrator to a summing point at the input of the integrator. A voltage proportional to a Y-voltage belonging to a flux component is connected to each integrator as an input voltage along with a voltage proportional to the corresponding phase current in a machine supply lead to compensate for the ohmic stator voltage drop. Another voltage, dependent on the phase current, for compensating for the reactive (inductive stray) voltage drop, is processed. The invention also relates to a method for operating the rotating-field machine drive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A rotating field machine drive of this kind is described in German Auslegeschrift No. 26 35 965.
In one known rotating field machine drive, information regarding the position and magnitude of the flux vector in the machine is formed directly from the voltage and current at the terminals. In a three-phase rotating-field machine, it is sufficient to measure the Y-voltage and the phase current twice only and to process them in two AC voltage integrators of identical design connected thereto. In the known rotating-field machine drive, the main field voltage of the machine is determined first by subtracting from a Y-voltage, at a summing point in the input of each AC voltage integrator, a voltage proportional to the ohmic stator voltage drop of the rotating field machine as well as a voltage proportional to the derivative of the stator current with respect to time, to take the reactive (inductive stray) voltage drop into consideration. Subsequently, two of the three flux components in the rotating field machine are determined in the two AC voltage integrators by integration of the main field voltage. These two flux components determine the position and the magnitude of the flux vector.
Information describing the position and the magnitude of the flux vector makes it possible to operate the synchronous machine field-oriented (see Siemens-Zeitschrift 1971, pages 765 to 768 and German Pat. No. 23 53 598).
When starting the synchronous machine, it is of particular importance to determine the flux components as accurately as possible for localizing the position of the rotor. In the worst case, a measuring error can lead to a failure of the synchronous machine to start.
In the rotating field machine drive described in German Auslegeschrift No. 26 35 965, the zero-controller in the DC voltage integrator, consisting of an integrator and a proportional-integral-zero controller with negative feedback, is designed so that it can be disconnected. The zero-controller serves to prevent the output voltage of the integrator from drifting off, due to DC components of the input voltages present at the summing point.
To start the synchronous machine in the rotating field machine drive referred to, the position of the rotor at standstill is determined by first switching on the field excitation, the stator windings being initially not supplied on the converter side. The flux components can then be obtained very precisely from the voltage components induced in the stator windings, when the zero control is disconnected, since the zero drive, if it were connected, would strive to control the starting values determined by the integrator by localizing the position of the induced voltages toward zero, thus falsifying the determination of rotor position. After the stator current is switched on and the synchronous machine has been started, the zero control is then connected, and the DC components of each flux component occurring in normal operation are regulated. However, when the zero control is suddenly connected to the running machine, transients in the nature of a decaying oscillation occur in the control loop and also in the torque. This can temporarily reduce the available torque of the synchronous machine.
In addition, angle and amplitude errors occur, with the zero-controller of the above described rotating field machine drive, which depend on the frequency of the machine. The angle errors, in particular, are significant. Due to the relatively large angle errors, the excitation vector, which has a fixed relation to the flux vector, is not in the desired relationship to the flux vector, with the control concept employed, so that only a reduced component contributes to torque production. As a result, to obtain the needed torque, the converter and the rotating field machine must be designed for larger currents to provide a sufficiently large component of the excitation vector, perpendicular to the flux vector, to accommodate larger angle errors. Heretofore, the capacity of the existing rotating-field machines has been limited by the angle errors.
In addition, stability problems arise in the rotating field machine drive mentioned above, when beats occur between the network and the machine frequency; these problems limit the permissible frequency range. If, for instance, the zero control is designed so that, at an operating frequency of 100 Hz, beat frequencies of 1 Hz are sufficiently damped, then operating at a frequency of 1 Hz is impossible since this frequency is interpreted by the zero controller as an interference frequency and is attenuated beyond the permissible degree.
It is an object of the invention to provide a rotating field machine drive of the type mentioned at the outset having optimum converter and machine utilization in an enlarged speed control range, and in which problems arising from the connecting of the zero control are avoided.


The present invention refers to the use of a selection of imidazole compounds in a method of obtaining extracellular or intracellular pH images in biological systems, by magnetic resonance, consisting of administering the imidazole compound to said biological system and acquiring a pH image through magnetic resonance measurements, and said method selected from the group consisting of proton magnetic resonance chemical shift imaging (1H CSI), proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H MRSI), fluorine magnetic resonance chemical shift imaging (19F CSI), fluorine magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (19F MRSI), and combinations thereof.

This application is a 371 of PCT/ES98/00045, filed Feb. 26, 1998.
Physical Medicine
Pharmacy
Biomedical Research
Imaging Diagnostics
The biomedical applications of Magnetic Resonance (MR) have experienced an important development over the last few decades (Andrew, E. R., Byders, G., Griffiths, J., Iles, R. and Styles, P. Eds (1990) Clinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy. John Wiley and Sons. New York) Both Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and Imaging (MRI) have been used for non-invasive studies on both animal and human pathological and physiological processes (Gillies, R. J. Ed. (1994) NMR in Physiology and Biomedicine, Academic Press, New York). Further, it has been possible to extend the applications of MR to study pathological and physiological processes at the cell level (Gillies, R. J., Gallons, J. P., McGovern, K. A., Scherrer, P. G., Lien, Y. H., Job, C. R., Chapa, F., Cerdan, S. and Dale, B. E. (1993) NMR in Biomedicine 6,95-104). Taken together, these advances have permitted to apply MR to study some fundamental aspects of Biology and Medicine, like cellular proliferation and differentiation, or tumoral transformation. These processes do occur with accompanying changes in intra and extracellular pH. Further, pH is a crucial physiological variable in other fundamental processes such as physical exercise and muscle fatigue, metabolic control, and hormonal message transduction (Roos, A. and Boron, W. F. (1981) Physiol. Rev 61, 296-696).
The intracellular proton concentration results from a balance between a number of factors including the intracellular proton production and consumption, proton uptake from and extrusion to the extracellular medium, and the intracellular proton buffering capacity (Molde, M., Cruz, F., Chapa, F., Cerdan, F. and Cerdan, S. (1995) Quart. Mag. Res. in Biol. Med. 2, 5-17). Considering that the latter is fairly constant under normal conditions, an increase in intracellular proton production may be balanced by either acid extrusion to or base uptake from the extracellular medium; whereas an increased intracellular base production could be compensated by the opposite mechanism. Thus, changes in extracellular pH normally reflect a change in intracellular pH, and measuring extracellular pH provides a useful mean to monitor any alteration in intracellular pH homeostasis.
Methods currently available for pH determination in biological samples include potentiometric methods (pH electrodes), radiometric techniques, optical methods and Magnetic Resonance (Henderson, R. M. and Graf, J. (1988). In pH Homeostasis: Mechanisms and Control (Hxc3xa4ussinger, D. Ed.) Academic Press, pg. 5-26). In principle, any of these procedures is able to measure exclusively extracellular pH, provided that a non-permeable molecular probe, be it radioactive, chromophoric, fluorescent, phosphorescent, or active in the case of MR, is used. However, among all these methods, only MR allows one to collect non-invasive images from the entire volume of optically opaque samples. For this reason, MR is the most suitable method for non-invasive determinations of extracellular pH in biological specimens. In this patent we describe the use and applications of a new series of indicator molecules, which allow determining the intracellular and extracellular pH, using the MRS and MRI methods.
Previous approaches have mainly used 31P MRS and chemical shift of the inorganic phosphate to measure intracellular pH in cellular suspensions, perfused organs, tissue samples, intact animals and even human beings (Moon, R. B. and Richards, J. H. (1973) J. Biol. Chem. 248,7276-7278). A variation of this method applied to cell suspensions has made possible 1D-31P MRS measurements of the extracellular pH exclusively, by using phosphonates non-permeable to the plasma membrane (Guillies, R. J., Liu, Z. and Bhujawalla, Z. (1994) Am. J. Physiol. 267, C195-C203). On the other hand, localized 31P MRS techniques to obtain 31P NMR spectra from a restricted spatial region (voxel) within an intact animal, and thus determine the average intracellular pH for that particular region, using Pi chemical shift, have been previously reported (Aue, W. P. (1986) Rev. Mag. Res. Med. 1, 21-72; Ordidge, R. J., Connelly, A. and Lohman, J. A. B. (1986) J. Mag. Res. 66, 283-294; Frahm, J., Bruhn, H., Gyngell, M. N. L., Merboldt, K. D., Hanike, W. and Sauter, R. (1989) Mag. Res. Med. 9, 79-93). Multivoxel imaging 31P MRS methods have also been developed. With these techniques, it is feasible to obtain 31P NMR spectra simultaneously from a collection of adjacent voxels that completely span the 3-D volume of the specimen, which provides tridimensional maps of pH distribution throughout the sample (Brown, T. R., Kincaid, B. M. and Ugurbil, K. (1982) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 79, 3523-3526; Maudsley, A. A., Hilal, S. K., Perman, W. H. and Simon, H. E. (1983). J. Mag. Res. 66, 283-294; Vigneron, D. B., Nelson, S. J., Nat, R., Murphy-Boesch, J., Kelley, D. A. C., Kessler, H. B., Brown, T. R. and Taylor, J. S. (1990) Radiology 177:643-649; Shungu, D. C. and Glickson, J. D. (1993) Mag. Res. in Med. 30, 661-71; Shungu, D. C. and Glickson, J. D. (1994) Mag. Res. in Med. 32, 277-84).
In spite of this progress, the low sensitivity of the 31P nucleus poses a limiting factor for the application of 31P MRS to pH determination. Thus, 31P MRS methods typically require long acquisition times as well as large voxel size, in order to have a good signal to noise ratio. These two requirements greatly reduce the spatial and temporal resolution of pH determination by 31P MRS. Both limitations can be lessen by using either 1H or 19F, as these nuclei are inherently more sensitive than 31P in MR (Gadian, D. G. (1982) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and its applications to living systems. Oxford University Press. Pg. 8). The increased sensibility of 1H (19F) MRS compared to 31P MRS would allow one to obtain spectra, or 1-D, 2-D or 3-D images, with a similar signal to noise ratio as those from 31P MRS, but 4(3), 16(12) or 64(43) times faster. In like manner, using 1H (19F) MRS it would be possible to obtain a significant reduction in voxel size, by comparison to that required in 31P MRS acquisition, while keeping the same signal to noise ratio. However, the presence of intrinsic metabolites with the right 1H resonance is rather exceptional (Yoshisaki, K., Seo, Y. and Nishikawa, H. (1981) Biochem. Biophys. Acta 678, 283-291), and there are no natural metabolites containing 16F. Consistently and in order to successfully implement the 1H or 16F MRS (or MRI) technique for intracellular pH determination, the use of extrinsic probes containing 1H (Rabenstein, D. L. and Isab, A. (1982) Anal. Biochem. 121, 423) or 16F (Deutsch, C., Taylor, J. S. and Wilson, D. F. (1982) Proc. Natl; Acad. Sci; U.S.A., 79, 7944) pH sensitive nuclei is a must.
Part of our team has recently reported the synthesis of a new series of indicators for intracellular pH, extracellular pH and cellular volume 1H MNR measurements in cellular suspensions (Gil, M. S., Cruz, F., Cerdan, S. and Ballesteros, P. (1992) Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2, 1117-1722; Gil, M. S., Zaderenko, P., Cruz, F., Cerdan, S. and Ballesteros, P. (1994) Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2, 305-14; Zaderenko, P., Gil, M. S., Ballesteros, P. and Cerdan, S. (1994) J. Org. Chem. 59, 6268-73). In this patent, we described some pharmacological and toxicological properties of these molecules, in view of their use as pH indicators in cell cultures and intact animals; and we also explain the procedures followed to obtain pH images from both model systems in vitro as well as from mice carrying RIF-1 tumors in vivo. The use of these new indicators, in conjunction with 1H MR techniques, such as chemical shift imaging (CSI) or spectroscopic imaging (SI) results in a considerable reduction in acquisition time and a significant resolution increase for pH measurements, when compared with previous methods based on 31P MR.

Method of obtaining extracellular and intracellular pH images and spectra by magnetic resonance using extrinsic indicators containing 1H or 19F

Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia


The back and stomach support device is utilizable by weightlifters, stevedors, etc., and includes an elongated flexible back strap with a resilient, flexible back cushion attached to the inner surface thereof. The back strap extends forwardly at the sides of the device and ends in opposed front loops through which the opposite ends of a front belt extend. To the inner surface of the front belt is connected a resilient, flexible stomach cushion. The front belt can be cinched tight by means of its opposite ends and be releasably held in place for example by hook-bearing strips and hook-receiving strips on the belt. The device encircles the waist and effectively supports both back and stomach to prevent muscle strain. The strap and belt are shorter in height than the cushions so that no pinching of the skin occurs during tightening. The opposite ends of the cushions may be tapered down for a similar reason and the cushions are short enough not to intercept each other. Preferably, they are of flexible foamed plastic, while the belt and strap are preferably of unfoamed flexible plastic. Detachable shoulder suspenders may be connected to the cushions and/or strap and belt to hold the device loosely in place when not needed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to weightlifting protectors and more particularly to an improved back and stomach support device for weightlifters.
2. Prior Art
Various protective belts have been devised to help support the back and stomach of weightlifters, stevedores and the like in order to prevent strains and damage to muscles, soft internal organs, cartilage, and the spinal column and other bones during lifting of heavy weights such as are encountered by professional and amateur weightlifters, movers, stevedores, etc.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,401 discloses a belt with a rubber core in which is embedded an inflexible rigid strip. The core is backed by a strap of equal height, and the belt is releasably secured in front by overlapping opposed VELCRO brand hooks and receptors. In one embodiment a buckle is provided to help cinch the belt. This belt has certain disadvantages: (1) the inflexible strip in the core makes close fitting of the belt to the body difficult and/or painful; (2) since the core and backing strap are of the same height, they can dig in and pinch the skin during tightening of the belt; (3) moreover, the means of tightening the belt is merely by overlapping its two ends or also using a single front buckle, so that close cinching and proper centering of the belt may be difficult. U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,668 discloses a weightlifting belt with similar difficulties.
There remains a need for an improved, inexpensive, durable weightlifting belt which will efficiently protect the weightlifter against muscle strain and damage the soft internal organs, cartilage and bones. The device should be easy to don and to center properly and should not pinch the skin, even when cinched tight. Preferably, the device can be left loosely in place without falling off.


An article of insulated apparel, the integral continuous parts of which include a body and appendages formed of an insulated, resilient fabric material. The article of insulated apparel further includes segmentally arranged supplemental insulation for insulating less mobile regions of a user's body, such as the upper and lower arms, and the upper and lower legs. The midriff and the upper torso may be insulated as well. By providing segmentally arranged supplemental insulation, that is, discontinuity in supplemental insulation over more mobile regions of the user's body, such as, for instance, the shoulder, elbow, and wrist regions, the user is permitted to move more freely.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to articles of insulated apparel and more particularly, to an insulated undergarment comprised of a body and appendages continuously and integrally formed of insulated, resilient fabric material and having segmentally arranged supplemental insulation for insulating less mobile regions of a user's body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous activities are performed during the cold winter season. Availability of specialized apparel to be worn while participating in certain of these activities is somewhat limited. Some measures have been taken to protect participants of certain activities from the cold ambient environment. One such measure includes controlling the environment in which the activity is being performed, for instance, enclosing a stadium to form a "dome" for insulating participants, such as football players, from the cold ambient environment. However, domes are very costly and time consuming to construct and therefore, fail to provide an instant solution to an immediate problem. Focusing on a solution to independently protect each participant from the cold certainly provides a more economical short term solution. Moreover, such a form of protection would be useful in activities, such as hunting and fishing, where providing an enclosure is impractical.
It is not uncommon for participants of winter activities performed in a cold ambient environment to wear several layers of clothing. Unfortunately, the layering of clothing is typically continuous over the more movable regions of the user's body, such as the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, greatly restricting the ability of the user to move freely. A single insulated undergarment having segmentally arranged supplemental insulation for insulating less mobile regions of a user's body economically protects each participant independently from other participants regardless of the environment in which the activity is performed.
Garments for protecting certain regions of a user's body are known. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,135,961, issued Jun. 9, 1964 to Marshall E. Roderick, discloses a shirt-like garment having a singular pad to protect the wearer's chest or abdomen. Another protective article of clothing is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,042, issued Mar. 23, 1976 to Alfred D. Lobo, which discloses a protective garment for skaters, and the like, comprising a fabric layer upon which a plurality of foamed plastic cylinders may be removably fixed. A cover is provided over the cylinders so that the garment has a conventional appearance when worn. U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,801, issued Apr. 2, 1985 to Frank J. Kavanagh et al., shows yet another protective garment having a plurality of pockets for receiving pads formed to fit the wearer. The pads protect the wearer's spine, shoulders, and ribs. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,706, issued Oct. 3, 1989 to Kenneth E. Ketcham et al., describes a shirt-like protective garment having air inflatable pads positioned in fabric compartments located adjacent the wearer's spine, shoulders, and ribs. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,108, issued Apr. 16, 1991 to Raymond Laberge et al., provides a chest protector having a plurality of overlapping padding sections capable of covering the entire arm. The wearer's torso is also shielded with protective padding in this formidable appearing piece of clothing.
The aforementioned patents disclose protective garments which are generally bulky and reduce the freedom of mobility of the user. Further, the protective garments disclosed provide protection against trauma. Unlike the aforementioned prior art, applicant's instant invention is a undergarment which protects the user from the cold ambient environment and which provides supplemental protection against the cold ambient environment for less mobile regions of the user's body.
None of the above patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.

Insulated athletic undergarment with segmentally arranged supplemental insulation for cold weather protection


A gearbox housing of an aircraft includes a surface configured to contact with and support a load of a component of the aircraft such that the surface is susceptible to corrosion. The surface has an area from which a portion of material was removed. A structural deposit is formed by cold spraying one or more layers of powdered material within the area. The structural deposit is configured to share the load applied to the surface by the component.

Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to components of a rotary-wing aircraft susceptible to corrosion damage and, more particularly, to a method for preventing or reducing corrosion damage to such a component of a rotary-wing aircraft.
Rotary-wing aircrafts include components, such as gearboxes for example, typically constructed from aluminum and magnesium alloys. As a result of exposure of such components to the environment, these alloy materials are susceptible to both general corrosion and galvanic corrosion. For example, the presence of water or moisture on the outer surface of the component may cause corrosion and other environmental conditions, such as chemical fallout and saltwater for example, may exacerbate corrosion. Alternatively, electro-chemical incompatibility with adjacent components can lead to galvanic corrosion. Both corrosion modes cause the material of the component to deteriorate, thereby reducing the cross-section thickness thereof. In some instances, the component's effective cross-section may be excessively reduced such that the structural integrity of the component is compromised.
Conventional rotary-wing aircraft component repair methods allow for dimensional restoration of aluminum and magnesium structures using a variety of techniques including, but not limited to, epoxy bonding, plasma spray, high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) thermal spray and fusion welding for example. High temperature repair techniques may result in unacceptable component distortion and degrade the substrate material properties by over-aging or solutioning. Epoxy bonding can break or spall during service, allowing the environmental elements to attack the underlying material. Subsequent attacks on the material will deteriorate wall thickness such that the component is no longer usable. In addition, none of these repair methods result in the formation of a deposit suitable for carrying a load.


A battery having a zinc or zinc alloy anode, a metal oxide or hydroxide cathode and an alkaline electrolyte comprising a solution of a salt formed by the reaction of boric acid, phosphoric acid or arsenic acid with an alkali or earth alkali hydroxide present in a sufficient amount to produce a stoichiometric excess of hydroxide to acid in the range of 2.5 to 11.0 equivalents per liter, and of a soluble alkali or earth or earth alkali fluoride in an amount corresponding to a concentration range of 0.01 to 1.0 equivalents per liter of total solution.

In U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,391, it was described that the employment of electrolytes which contain salts of strong alkali or earth alkali hydroxides with weak acids, with a slight excess of hydroxide and a pH value of between 9 and 14, reduced the solubility of zinc anode batteries. Electrolytes prepared from a mixture of alkali or earth alkali metal hydroxide solutions in water and boric acid, phosphoric acid or arsenic acid, with excess hydroxide ranging from 0.02 to 3.0 equivalents per liter of solution, produces particularly favorable anode performance. Such electrolytes substantially eliminate the dual problems of shape-charge and dendritic deposition leading to a substantial improvement in the cycle life of rechargeable alkaline batteries containing zinc anodes. In that patent the combination of the alkali or earth alkali hydroxides and selected acids or their equivalent salts, such as borates, metaborates, various phosphate or arsenate salts, was taught to result in a net stoichiometric excess of the hydroxide in the range of 0.02 to 3.0 equivalents per liter.
Considerable improvements in the charge-discharge cycle life of alkaline rechargeable batteries, such as nickel oxide-zinc batteries, have been reported based on the previous invention. See, for example, M. Eisenberg, "A new Stabilized Nickel-Zinc Battery System for Electric Vehicle Applications", Paper #830287, Soc. of Automotive Eng., Mar. 4, 1983 and M. Eisenberg and J. R. Moden, "New Stabilized Chemistry Nickel-Zinc Cells", 31st Power Sources Symp., p. 265 (Electrochem. Soc. 1984). With the new electrolyte system based on U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,391, nickel oxide-zinc cells could be cycled at 80% depth-of-discharge (D.O.D.) up to 600 or more cycles compared with a typical 50-200 cycle life for conventional cells containing 34-38% by weight potassium hydroxide solutions.
Unfortunately, as cycling proceeds of rechargeable alkaline batteries of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,391, gradually the capacity yields, expressed in ampere-hours, diminish. Typical capacity losses within 500 cycles may amount to 30-50% of the original fresh cell capacity.
Investigations have also been made combining potassium hydroxide with potassium fluoride. These are reported in Paper No. 15 of the 10th International Power Sources Symposium in Brighton, England, 1976 by N. Cenek et al and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,610 (1981). However, cycle life and capacity results with these have remained limited.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,841 (Carlson) a ternary electrolyte composed of potassium hydroxide (KOH), potassium phosphate (K.sub.3 PO.sub.4), and potassium fluoride (KF) is proposed in concentration ranges of 5-10%, 10-20% and 5-15%, respectively. Assuming average densities of 1.28-1.37 g/cc, these concentrations can be translated in terms of molarities as follows:
KOH: 1.14-2.44 ML; K.sub.3 PO.sub.4 : 0.603-1.291 M/L and KF: 1.10-3.54 M/L.
These electrolytes however have been found to provide quite limited capacity of the nickel oxide electrodes, both in the beginning and later on as charge-discharge cycling proceeds.


The present invention relates an electric rotating machine comprising a plurality of phase coils each composed of a plurality of partial coils each made by connecting segments each composed of an inside-slot conductor portion to be accommodated in each of slots of each of phase slot groups made in a stator core and an outside-slot conductor portion protruding from the slot. Of the plurality of partial coils constituting each of the phase coils, in each of the partial coils to be connected to an input/output terminal, its inside-slot conductor portion is accommodated in the slot other than end portions of the phase slot group in a circumferential direction of the stator core. This reduces the electric potential difference between the outside-slot conductor portion continuing thereinto and the outside-slot conductor portion of an adjacent phase coil, thereby improving the insulating performance.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-voltage electric rotating machine.
2) Description of the Related Art
In an electric rotating machine for use in a vehicle, stator windings are accommodated in slots made in a ring-like stator core so that the stator windings partially protrude from the stator core toward the exterior thereof in axial directions, i.e., toward coil end.
In the recent years, to meet the requirements for mounting without changing the volume in an engine room, there is a need to achieve the size reduction and high output of an electric rotating machine including coil ends. For the requirement to reach satisfaction, it can be considered to shorten the distance between the adjacent conductors to the utmost. However, in this case, an extremely large voltage difference occurs between the conductors, which creates a problem in insulating performance.
Concretely, an effective means for this requirement to reach satisfaction is improving the space factor of the windings, and a conventional electric rotating machine employs a technique using conductors (straight-angle lines) each having a rectangular configuration in cross section for stator windings, such as is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-92766. However, this construction is such that the conductors in a slot are put in phase while the slots adjacent to each other in a circumferential direction take different phases. For higher voltage, in other words, for enhancing the output of the electric rotating machine, an increase in number of turns, i.e., number of conductors in one slot, causes the conductors to overlap more at the coil end section, and when the electric rotating machine is designed to handle a high voltage, this creates a problem in insulating performance between the conductors adjacent to each other. On the other hand, lengthening the distance between the conductors creates a problem of the axial size of the electric rotating machine being enlarged.
For solving the above-mentioned problems, in a conventional electric rotating machine, conductors constituting a specific phase are accommodated in a plurality of slots adjacent to each other in a circumferential direction to increase the number of turns, such as is closed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-228852. This enables increasing the number of turns without increasing the number of poles of the rotor while reducing the number of conductors in one slot to maintain a small outer diameter. Moreover, since there is no need to increase the number of poles of the stator, it is possible to lower the frequency of the stator coil voltage at the same speed of rotation, which enables the reduction of the wiring inductance loss and the inverter switching loss (switching transient loss), thus leading to the improvement of efficiency. Accordingly, this realizes the cost reduction of the inverter and wirings and the reduction of loss and heat generation.
However, in the case of handling a higher voltage, even the construction disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-228852 requires an increase in number of conductors and a reduction of coil ends, which leads to the necessity to shorten the distance between the conductors to the utmost, thereby creating a problem in insulating performance, for that an extremely large voltage difference occurs between the conductors.


A method (100), an apparatus, and a computer program product for automatically producing a compact representation of a colour document are disclosed. In the method, a digital image of a colour-document page is segmented (110) into connected components in one-pass, block raster order. The digital image of the page is partitioned into foreground and background images using layout analysis (120) based on compact, connected-component statistics of the whole page. At least one portion of the background image where at least one portion of the foreground image obscures the background image is inpainting (520) in one-pass block raster order. The foreground and background images are combined (130) to form a compact document. A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for segmenting a digital image comprising a plurality of pixels are also disclosed.

Image segmentation is a process of dividing or separating an image into semantically or visually coherent regions. Each region is a group of connected pixels having a similar attribute or attributes. A basic attribute for segmentation is the luminance amplitude for a monochrome image and the colour components for a colour image.
The proliferation of scanning technology combined with ever increasing computational processing power has lead to many advances in the area of document analysis systems. These systems may be used to extract semantic information from a scanned document, often by means of OCR technology. Such systems can also be used to improve compression of a document image by selectively using an appropriate compression method depending on the content of each part of the page. Improved document compression lends itself to applications such as archiving and electronic distribution.
Segmentation is a processing stage for document image analysis where low-level pixels must first be segmented into primitive objects before higher-level processes, such as region classification and layout analysis, can be performed. Layout analysis classifies primitive objects into known object types according to some predefined rules about document layout. Typically, the layout analysis does not analyse the original scanned image data, but instead works with an alternative data set, such as blobs or connected components from a segmentation of the page. The layout analysis may use object grouping in addition to individual object properties to determine their classification.
A number of existing methods for image segmentation are described hereinafter.
Thresholding is the simplest method for segmentation and can be fast and effective if an image to be processed is bi-level (e.g., a black and white document image). However, if the image is complex with regions of multiple luminance or colour levels, some of these regions may be lost during binarisation. More sophisticated thresholding techniques employ adaptive or multilevel thresholding, where threshold estimation and binarisation are performed at a local level. However, these methods still may fail to segment objects correctly.
Clustering-based methods, such as k-means and vector quantisation, tend to produce good segmentation outcomes, but are iterative algorithms that require multiple passes. Thus, such method can be slow and difficult to implement.
Split-and-merge image segmentation techniques are based on a quadtree data representation, in which a square image segment is split into four quadrants if the original image segment is non-uniform in attribute. If four neighbouring squares are found to be uniform, those squares are merged by a single square composed of the four adjacent squares. The split and merge process usually starts at the full image level. Thus, processing can only begin after the whole page has been buffered, requiring high memory bandwidth. Furthermore, this approach tends to be computationally intensive.
Region-growing is a well-known method for image segmentation and is one of the conceptually simplest approaches. Neighbouring pixels having a similar attribute or attributes are grouped together to form a segment region. However, in practice, reasonably complex constraints must be placed on the growth pattern to achieve acceptable results. Existing region-growing methods can have several undesirable effects in that the methods tend to bias towards initial seed locations. Different choices of seeds may give different segmentation results, and problems can occur if the seed point lies on an edge.
The proliferation of scanning technology combined with ever increasing computational processing power has lead to many advances in the area of document analysis systems. These systems may be used to extract semantic information from a scanned document, often by means of OCR technology. This technology is used in a growing number of applications, such as automated form reading, and can also be used to improve compression of a document by selectively using an appropriate compression method depending on the content of each part of the page. Improved document compression lends itself to applications such as archiving and electronic distribution.
Some document analysis systems perform a layout analysis to break the document into regions classified according to their content. Typically, the layout analysis does not analyse the original scanned image data, but works with an alternative data set, such as blobs or connected components from a segmentation of the page. The layout analysis may use object grouping in addition to individual object properties to determine their classification.
In general, a binary segmentation of the page is performed to generate data for the layout analysis, and this may be obtained by simply thresholding the original image. One advantage of this binary segmentation is that the segmented objects sit within a simple containment hierarchy that aids the layout analysis. Unfortunately, the layout of many complex colour documents simply cannot be represented completely by a binary image. The reduction in information content inherent in the colour to binary image conversion may result in degradation of important features and even loss of the detailed structure of the document.
A colour segmentation of the page document analysis therefore has advantages in terms of preserving the content of the page, but brings with it additional complexity. Firstly, the segmentation analysis itself becomes more involved and the processing requirements increase. Secondly, the analysis of the segmented page objects is complicated by the fact that the objects do not form a containment hierarchy. This limits the accuracy and efficiency of the layout analysis.
Document layout analysis systems may also employ techniques for verifying the text classification of a region of a document. Some of these methods use histogram analysis of pixel sums, shadowing and projected profiles. These methods are often unreliable as robust statistics are difficult to apply to such method and difficult to tune for text that might be either a single line or many lines and for which the character set and alignment of text in the document is unknown.

Segmenting digital image and producing compact representation


In various embodiments, an electronic component is provided. The electronic component may include a supply bus configured to provide a supply voltage for an electronic circuit. The electronic component may further include a voltage-controlled oscillator, which is coupled to the supply bus and is configured to generate a clock signal with a clock frequency according to the supply voltage. The electronic component may further include at least one reference oscillator, which is configured to generate a reference clock signal with a reference clock frequency, and a comparator, which is coupled to the voltage-controlled oscillator and the at least one reference oscillator and is configured to compare the clock signal with the reference clock signal and, on the basis of the comparison, either to output the clock signal to the electronic circuit or to suppress it.

In general, electronic circuits, for example integrated circuits (ICs), which operate in a clock-based manner, are used for a large number of functions. The clock frequency with which the electronic circuit is operated can for example define its power consumption, a higher clock frequency usually being accompanied by a higher power consumption. Consequently, an adaptation of the clock frequency can be used for example to optimize the energy consumption of an electronic circuit. A reduction of the clock frequency can also be used to protect the electronic circuit from overheating, for example in the form of so-called heat management.
In systems with a limited energy supply, for example in battery-operated or passively operated electronic circuits (for example in passive wireless communication circuits), it may be helpful to adapt the dynamic power consumption to the resources available (for example the available electrical voltage or electrical power). For example, contactlessly communicating chip cards, in the case of which the operating energy is fed in wirelessly (for example in the case of credit cards), obtain varying amounts of electrical power for operating them, depending on how far away they are from the reader. It may be helpful in this respect to interrupt the clock-based operation of the electronic circuit when the supply voltage for the electrical circuit to be operated falls below a predefined supply voltage. In this way it is possible for example to avoid faulty operation of the electronic circuit. When a sufficient supply voltage or electrical power is available again, for example above the predefined supply voltage, the clock-based operation of the electronic circuit can be continued. The interruption of clock-based operation of an electronic circuit may be referred to for example as a clock stop. For example, a clock signal may be deliberately suppressed.
By means of a voltage-controlled oscillator, it is possible to generate on the basis of an input voltage a clock frequency assigned to the input voltage. This can for example make it possible when there is a falling supply voltage (as the input voltage of the voltage-controlled oscillator) of a circuit also at the same time to lower the clock frequency, and consequently the energy consumption. This alone however does not allow for the requirement that, as from a minimum supply voltage, a clock is no longer to be processed.

Voltage comparator arrangement, electronic component, chip card, embedded secure element


The invention concerns a pad-printing ink cup fitted with at least one magnet (10). The minimum of one magnet (10) may be positioned at different heights relative to the plane of the doctor edge (22), the magnetic force effective in the said plane depending on said heights.

The invention relates to a pad-printing ink cup fitted with at least one magnet.
A pad-printing ink cup is known from the European patent document EP 0 347 762 B 1. In a pad printing machine, the ink cup sits on a printing plate containing recesses in the form of a print picture to be transferred. The ink from the ink cup penetrates the recesses. The printing plate is displaceable underneath the ink cup and as a result the recesses constituting the picture to be transferred a first time shall be situated underneath the ink cup and another time underneath a printing pad (tampon). The pad is lowered onto the ink-filled recesses from which it removes the ink and hence the print image which it transfersxe2x80x94once the printing plate has been moved out of the pad""s vicinityxe2x80x94onto an object to be printed. A pad printing machine is known for instance from the European patent document EP 0 315 769 B 1, (U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,594).
The following documents contain further state of the art: DE 196 44 366 A1; DE 195 02 802 A1; DE 42 10 521 A1; DE 40 15 684 A1; EP 0 945 266 A1; WO 99 07 556 A1 and WO 93 04 862 A1.
Printing plates illustratively are made of metal or plastic.
Depending on the printing-plate surface material, a hard or soft ink cup doctor edge, shall be advantageous. The doctor edge may be constituted by the very wall of the ink cup or by means of a doctor ring affixed to the ink cup wall. The doctor edge may consist of a metal, a plastic or ceramic or another material.
Depending on the material of the printing-plate surface and of the doctor""s edge, this edge may be pressed more or less hard against said surface to prevent ink from leaking between the doctor edge and the printing-plate surface. The higher the printing rate (image transfer from printing plate to an object being printed), the more rapidly the ink cup must be moved above the printing plate. However speeds entail dynamic pressures inside the doctor and there will be a commensurate danger of the ink leaking between the printing-plate surface and the doctor edge, or that it will float on the printing-plate ink (aquaplaning). As a result, and depending on the materials of the doctor edge and printing-plate surface and on the printing rate, the doctor edge may have to be pressed harder against the printing-plate surface in order to avoid unduly high friction on one hand and on the other hand to assure cleanly wiping the ink from the printing-plate surface.
This problem is solved by a pad-printing ink cup fitted with a cup structure open at its bottom and at the lower end of its wall with a doctor edge to wipe the ink off a printing plate, and further fitted with a magnet situated in the lower zone of the ink cup to attract this ink cup against the printing plate, the ink cup being characterized in that the minimum of one magnet is displaceable relative to the plane of the doctor edge to assume different heights from the plane, the magnetic force effective in the doctor edge plane varying with height.
In particular the invention offers the following advantages:
The invention allows adjusting in simple manner the magnetic force by which the doctor edge is attracted against the printing-plate surface. In this manner the compression of the doctor edge against the printing-plate surface can be matched to various materials which in practice are used for the doctor edge and/or the printing-plate surface. Moreover the compression against the printing-plate surface can be matched to the various viscosities of the inks in the ink cup and deposited by said ink cup on said plate. Thus the same ink cup can be used for different kinds of printing plates. Henceforth it will no longer be necessary to use different ink cups for different printing plates. Advantageously the doctor edge shall be an exchangeable element allowing affixing different doctor edges to the ink cup wall to match different kinds of printing plates and different kinds of inks or ink viscosities.


A motor speed controller implements a speed control to phase control switch over. When the switch over occurs on initial offset between the reference speed signal phase and the current motor position phase is determined. The reference speed signal is then offset by this phase difference thereby achieving a quicker servo lock.

A recording medium such as a magnetic tape in a VTR or a video floppy disk used for recording a video signal is rotated by a motor relative to a video head. For the purpose of motor phase control, a vertical synchronizing signal contained in the video signal is used as a reference signal phase which is compared in a phase system with a comparative signal phase provided by a phase generator (PG) signal indicative of the phase of one complete rotation of the motor.
On the other hand, in the case of motor phase control in an electronic still camera, quick start-up is demanded for a motor in view of the specific function of the camera. However, the motor phase control based on the phase comparison between the vertical synchronizing signal and the PG signal cannot satisfy the demand. This is because, when the NTSC signal having the field frequency of 60 Hz is used for the phase comparison, a period of time as long as several seconds is required until phase pull-in is completed.
Therefore, it has been a prior art practice that a high-speed signal generated from the synchronizing signal generator (SSG) is the image pickup system of the electronic still camera is used as a reference phase, while the FG signal indicative of the rotation speed of the motor is used as a comparative signal phase. Further, these signal phases are compared at the frequency higher than that of the PG signal, thereby completing the phase pull-in within a short period of time.
However, in the case of the above manner of phase control, the phase of the vertical synchronizing signal does not match that of the PG signal. That is, the mechanical position of the recording medium and the position of the vertical synchronizing signal on the magnetic pattern do have not a predetermined relation between them.
Therefore, it is now a common practice that, after the motor is servo locked, only the PG signal indicative of one complete rotation of the motor as well as the rotation phase of the magnetic sheet is used to reset the video synchronizing signal from the SSG, and the phase difference between the PG signal and the leading edge of the vertical synchronizing signal is set at 7H (H: one horizontal scanning period).
By the above manner of phase control, the phase pull-in is completed within several hundred milliseconds. Therefore, the period of the time required for the electronic still camera for recording an object could be shortened, and the possibility of losing the shutter chance by quick depression of the release switch of the camera could be minimized.
However, the factor which actually limits the length of time required until video recording is enable in the electronic still camera system is the period of time elapsed until the PG signal and the vertical synchronizing signal are stably and positively synchronized. Because the period of time required until the motor is placed in its servo locked condition occupies the greater part of the above period of time, it is further demanded to place the motor in the servo locked condition as quick as possible without any fluctuation in the period of time.
Among a plurality of methods for deciding the servo locked condition of the motor which provides the basis for resetting the SSG, there are the following two typical methods:
1. The method in which the phase error voltage is continuously detected so as to decide that the motor is servo locked as soon as the phase error attains a level within a predetermined range.
2. The method in which the decision for the servo locked condition of the motor is not especially made, and the motor is presumed to be servo locked when a certain predetermined period of time has elapsed after the motor is started.
However, although the first method can positively decide that the motor is completely servo locked, the first method has such an essential disadvantage that the period of time elapsed, until the motor is servo locked, tends to fluctuate. This tendency adversely effects the decision.
On the other hand, in the case of the second method, the period of time elapsed until the motor is decided to be servo locked is freed from fluctuation. However, in the second method, it is necessary to take into consideration various kinds of other sources of fluctuation encountered until the motor is actually servo locked, and it is also necessary to take into consideration a margin for compensation of the fact that the servo locked condition of the motor is not directly detected. In view of the above necessity, the second method has such a disadvantage that a considerably long period of time must be prepared before the SSG is reset.
Thus, each of the first and second methods can satisfactorily work when the fluctuation of the period of time required until the motor is servo locked is made uniform, and the phase is pulled in within a short period of time.
In order that the phase pull-in can be achieved within a short period of time, it is generally necessary to widen the operation bandwidth of the phase system in the servo system, that is, to widen the f (frequency) characteristic of the servo system.
However, when the f characteristic of the servo system is widened, the servo system may respond to internal noise, disturbance, etc. Therefore, the f characteristic of the servo system cannot be excessively widened. Especially, when the f characteristic is set so as not to respond to an "encoder FG error" which appears once for every one complete rotation of the motor, the step response time is determined by such an f characteristic, so that the period of time required until the motor is servo locked cannot be shortened beyond a certain limit. Thus, there is such a disadvantage that maximum fluctuation may occur finally in the period of time required until the motor is servo locked.


A telemetry architecture is described that enables multiple programmers to concurrently interact with associated implantable medical devices within a viable telemetry range. The programmers communicate with implantable medical devices over one or more communication channels. Inter-programmer communication is accomplished over a particular communication channel that may be selected from one of the programmer-to-device channels or via an independent back channel. The programmers use the inter-programmer communication to coordinate communication between associated programmers and implantable medical devices within the viable telemetry range.

There are many kinds of implantable medical devices. Some monitor patient conditions while others disperse some form of therapy. One particular type of implantable medical device is an implantable cardiac therapy device, or ICTD. ICTDs are implanted within the body of a patient to monitor, regulate, and/or correct heart activity. ICTDs include implantable cardiac stimulation devices (e.g., implantable cardiac pacemakers, implantable defibrillators) that apply stimulation therapy to the heart as well as implantable cardiac monitors that monitor heart activity.
With advances in microelectronics, many implantable medical devices are miniature computers with memory and processing capabilities. Such devices are capable of being programmed remotely by an external programming device, often called a "programmer". An implanted device and a programmer communicate using wireless telemetry technologies. Early telemetry systems were passive, meaning that communication was unidirectional from the programmer to the implanted device. Passive telemetry allowed a treating physician to download instructions to the implanted device following implantation. Due to power and size constraints, early commercial versions of implanted devices were incapable of transmitting information back to the programmer.
As power capabilities improved, active telemetry became feasible. This allowed bi-directional communication between the implanted device and the programmer. With active telemetry, the treating physician is able to both program the implanted device and retrieve information from the implanted device to evaluate heart activity and device performance.
Current telemetry systems have limited communication range between the programmer wand and device. The programmer utilizes an electromagnetic wand that is placed within a few inches of the implanted cardiac device to communicate with the implanted device. The wand contains a coil that forms a transformer coupling with the telemetry circuitry in the device and low frequency signals are transmitted via the coupling. Due to the limited range, such telemetry systems are often referred to as "short-range telemetry" or "wand telemetry".
With advancements being made in telemetry technologies, the communication range is expected to increase beyond a few inches to several feet or more. An increased telemetry range will provide many advantages, including more mobility for the patient during telemetry and more flexibility in the positioning of the telemetry antenna. For example, increasing the range would allow a programmer to monitor, for example, a patient exercising on a treadmill, or moving around at home, or a patient that walks into a waiting room.
Unfortunately, an increased telemetry range does not come free of problems. One new problem introduced by longer-range telemetry is the potential of interference between separate programmers that are being used to program multiple devices within a common telemetry range. Traditionally, telemetry systems have employed a single communication channel, which enables a single programmer to communicate with a single implantable device. This was a reasonable approach given that the communication range was limited to a few inches. But, as the range increases, there is the potential for interference on that channel. This interference may be in either or both directions of the telemetry link between the programmer and the implantable device.
Accordingly, there is a need for a more comprehensive telemetry architecture that accommodates multiple programmers communicating with multiple implantable devices within a common communication range.

Inter-programmer communication among programmers of implantable medical devices


This invention relates to a method of transporting and inhibiting the deposition of copper and copper-containing metals on metal surfaces in steam generating systems. This method utilizes a sulfono benzotriazole compound or salt thereof as the treatment agents.

The corrosion, transport and deposition of copper and copper-based metals in steam generating systems has been the subject of increasing concern in the industrial boiler marketplace. The copper corrosion in these systems is primarily caused by the presence of dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide, ammonia and uncontrolled pH. Copper oxides are released as particulate oxides, soluble Cu(I)/Cu(II) and metallic copper species. Copper oxides are relatively unstable and can dissolve, break-up and continually re-deposit within a boiler system.
The consequences of such copper corrosion are the loss of metal potentially leading to failure or requiring expensive maintenance, transport of copper corrosion products to the boiler surfaces, leading to decreased heat transfer and loss of productivity, and depositing of copper metal on less noble metal surfaces causing galvanic corrosion. Copper discharge is also a health and environmental concern due to its toxicity.
Accordingly, it is common practice to introduce corrosion inhibitors into the boiler system. These materials interact with the metal to directly produce a film which is resistant to corrosion, or to indirectly promote formation of protective films by activating the metal surface so as to form stable oxides or other insoluble salts. However, unlike ferrous metals which form insoluble, protective oxides, copper alloys form oxides that are non-protective, allowing further corrosion of the underlying metal to continue.

Transport and deposit inhibition of copper in boiler systems


Hydrolysis of cyanopyridine may be reduced by use of picoline as a predominately non-aqueous quench fluid. The picoline quench fluid may also be a reactant in the manufacture of cyanopyridine.

The present invention relates to the preparation of cyanopyridines. Cyanopyridines are useful as intermediates in the manufacture of useful compounds. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,907, cyanopyridine serves a catalytic role. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,045, the preparation of cyanopyridine by ammoxidation from picoline (also known as methylpyridine) is disclosed. Cyanopyridines also find application as a building block for the preparation of other compositions, including crop protection chemicals such as the systemic broadleaf herbicides picloram (4-amino-3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridine carboxylic acid) and aminopyralid (4-amino-3,6-dichloro-2-pyridine carboxylic acid).
In the production of cyanopyridine from picoline, aqueous quench fluids provide a convenient means to quench gaseous reaction mixtures containing cyanopyridine reaction product. The use of aqueous quench fluids, however, generates hydrolysis by-products. The present invention reduces hydrolysis by-products.
The preparation of substituted heterocyclic compounds is often conducted at elevated temperatures with gaseous reactants over a solid catalyst. Similarly, removal of substituents from heterocyclic compounds is also often conducted at elevated temperatures with gaseous reactants over solid catalysts. Typical of reactions that remove substituents from heterocyclic compounds is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,689,491 concerning the oxidation of 3-picoline (3-methylpyridine or β-picoline) over vanadium pentoxide/titanium dioxide catalyst to produce pyridine. The reaction is said to be operated between 300° C. and 380° C. resulting in gaseous reaction product at that temperature. Gaseous reaction product exiting the reactor is quenched with cold water in a scrubber.
UK 790,937 describes the recovery of cyanopyridines from ammoxidation reactions involving picolines with ammonia and oxygen. A recycle of water including the water soluble reaction products is used to quench the gaseous reaction product containing cyanopyridine as it exits from the reactor. The cyanopyridine is subsequently separated from the quench water by cooling the water prior to recycle to the quencher. The recycled quench liquid includes by-products nicotinamide, cyanide, and CO2.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,794 discloses absorbing gaseous reaction product including pyridine in water.
Cyanopyridines are manufactured by ammoxidation of picolines, as reactor feed. Ammoxidation reactions operate in temperature ranges from 300° C. to 450° C. Oxygen and ammonia in the presence of catalysts react with picolines to form cyanopyridines at high reaction temperatures. As may be expected, at lower temperatures reactions may be slowed to an uneconomical rate whereas as temperatures elevate the reaction generates increasing amounts of unwanted by-products. An economical operating temperature will balance reaction rate with desired reaction products.
For a typical aqueous quench in a picoline ammoxidation reaction, the gaseous reaction products are quenched from the reaction temperature to a temperature convenient for work up of reaction products, such as 50° C., in the quench operation. The aqueous quench fluid is fed to the quench operation at a sufficiently lower temperature to cool the reaction products to a temperature convenient for work up. As necessary, temperature adjustment of aqueous quench fluid is provided.
Typically, an organic extraction fluid, such as benzene, is useful to remove the cyanopyridine reaction product into the organic phase. The aqueous extraction fluid is recycled to the aqueous quench operation and added to necessary make up water. The organic phase benzene and cyanopyridine stream may be separated by distillation followed by work-up and purification of the product cyanopyridine. The organic extractant may be returned to the extraction step.
Hydrolysis of cyanopyridines can lead to pyridinecarboxamide (also known as picolinamide). It is thought that by-products such as pyridinecarboxamide result from hydrolysis of the desired cyanopyridine, a nitrile, in the presence of water and ammonia in the quench liquid. It would be desirable to recover cyanopyridine reaction products without generating hydrolysis by-products. Hydrolysis of pyridinecarboxamide, a hydrolysis product of cyanopyridine, can further lead to pyridine-2-carboxylic acid formation.


Methods for activating charcoal resulting from biomass gasification are provided. Exemplary methods include gasifying biomass in a gasification reactor of an integrated biomass gasification system to produce charcoal; and activating charcoal using heat generated from an integral heat source of the integrated biomass gasification system. The methods include activation of charcoal resulting from biomass gasification in a more efficient, economical manner, thereby increasing the value of biomass gasification with minimal investment in the process.

The present disclosure relates generally to methods for activating carbon charcoal and, more particularly, to activating carbon charcoal resulting from biomass gasification without the use of an external heat source, heat treatment, and/or heat recovery.
At least some known gasification systems are integrated with at least one power producing turbine system. Many of such systems include a gasifier that creates a combustible gas or a combustible gas precursor, that undergoes additional processing into a combustible gas, referred to as "producer gas". One common source of producer gas or precursor feedstock is biomass material, as the use of biomass material reduces the dependency on other sources of producer gas feedstock, such as fossil fuel-based feedstocks including coal, and/or coke, for example.
In use, the gasifier creates producer gas through a pyrolysis reaction, whereby air is injected into the gasifier to completely burn the biomass material to charcoal. The charcoal may then be activated and used for decolorization purposes, purification of gases, adsorption of vapors, and purification of water, for example. Conventionally, activation of charcoal is typically accomplished via chemical or physical/thermal processes. For example, in thermal activation, an external heat source (e.g., a burner, or a reactor) heats the carbon-based charcoal material, thereby burning the carbon and increasing its porosity.
This activation process can increase the marketable value of charcoal when compared to inactivated charcoal. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide alternative methods for activating the charcoal resulting from biomass gasification that are more efficient and economical. More particularly, it would be desirable to utilize heat generated internally within the biomass gasification system to activate charcoal, thereby increasing the value of biomass gasification with minimal investment in the process.

Methods of activating charcoal resulting from biomass gasification


The invention relates to the reduction and prevention of biofouling in facilities utilizing water, e.g. sea water, carrying biological organisms, without causing corrosion, chemical reaction or other detrimental action from the additive or environmental discharge problems. Such operations include, for example, desalination plants, power plants, oilfield water injection facilities and shipboard or ocean platform fire water systems. For example, in the desalination plant of FIG. 1, the biofouling reduction method and apparatus for this invention have a source of oxidizing agent such as chlorine ions or ozone, a source of copper ions and a dosing chamber for delivery of relatively low dosage levels of oxidizing agents and at appropriate times copper ions to form a treatment additive. Flow connectors connect the dosing chamber to various points along the piping in the desalination plant. A controller controls the operation of the dosing chamber and valves along the flow connectors to operate in a sequential target dosing mode to deliver treatment additive of predetermined composition to selected points along the piping at predetermined times and in predetermined concentrations.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to biofouling reduction, and, more particularly, to the reduction and prevention of biofouling in facilities utilizing water, such as sea water, carrying biological organisms.
2. State of the Art
Control of fouling in facilities utilizing process water has been a long-standing problem. Macroorganisms, such as species of mussels, including zebra mussels, found in sea water and fresh water sources, such as the Great Lakes, have become notorious sources of biofouling. With their ability to grow profusely and in great concentration, mussels, including zebra mussels, have been known to completely block and close large diameter water inlet pipes for the cooling systems of major seaside and lakeside power plants. While less notorious, microorganism fouling can be just as troubling. Such fouling can reduce heat transfer through the piping and reduce the flow of water through the piping of heat exchangers, thereby decreasing their ability to discharge heat into the water. In addition, such fouling can adversely change the permeability of filters (and, more particularly, the permeability of the filtration media contained within the filters). In addition, macroorganisms and microorganisms within piping systems generate chemical waste products that induce and promote chemical corrosion within the systems. This phenomenon, commonly known as microbially induced corrosion, attacks the structural integrity of piping systems.
Various techniques have been proposed to prevent, or at least reduce biofouling, but all have had their limitations. Among the early attempts was the use of heavy dosages of chlorine ions as a biocide to kill the organisms. While this approach gave the desirable result of sanitizing the water, it also produced undesirable excess hypochlorous acid which itself attacked the structural integrity of the piping system. More recently, environmental concerns have been raised about the high doses of chlorine and, in particular, the discharge of residual (or unreacted) chlorine and reaction products, such as trihalomethanes, from the piping system back into the ecology.
Similarly, high doses of copper ions have been proposed as a biocide. As with chlorine, the discharge of high levels of residual copper ions back into the ecosystem presents a significant environmental concern. In addition, it has been found that at least certain microorganisms have responded to copper ion treatment by developing a degree of resistance to this biocide. Copper ion alone is regarded as effective only against macrofouling. Moreover, typically, electrolytic cells utilizing copper electrodes are used to generate the copper ions, and these electrodes experience a high rate of sacrificial loss in generating the needed dosage level of ions.
A more recent and more promising approach was jointly developed by certain of the inventors of the instant invention in their U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,019, incorporated herewith by reference. This patent describes the synergistic effect of low dosage levels of chlorine ions used in conjunction with low dosage levels of copper ions to form a treatment additive sufficient to temporarily stress or disorient (but not "necessarily" kill) both macroorganisms and microorganisms so that they pass through the piping system of a facility without attaching themselves to the system. Being of low dosage, the chlorine and copper ions generated by this technique represent significantly less environmental concern than the previous techniques. As successful as this combined ion treatment approach may have been, it still suffered limitations as applied to large facilities. Combined ion treatment is effective for only a relatively short time duration (such as, for example, thirty (30) minutes). Thus, if combined ion treatment is used only at the water inlet to the piping system of a large facility, the treatment is effective for only part of the travel of the organisms through the piping system. Fouling can then occur in the downstream part of the piping system for which treatment effectiveness has been lost. Conversely, use of combined ion treatment at numerous points along the piping system requires a corresponding number of sources of ion generation, such as electrolytic cells for generating the treatment ions, with resultant increased capital costs and operating expenses, and can result in an environmentally unacceptable buildup of certain of the ions at discharge.
Among the facilities not adequately treated for biofouling by these prior art techniques are desalinization plants. These plants use reverse osmosis semipermeable membranes to remove inorganic ions, such as salt, from sea water or fresh water brines. However, biological organisms carried along with the sea water and brines tend to grow on the semipermeable membranes of these cells, causing them to lose permeability and thus to lose salt removal efficiency. This lost efficiency at times has exceeded 50%, thereby reducing fresh water production or requiring additional production capacity. Typically, biofouling treatment of such facilities takes the form of adding high dosage levels of chlorine ions at the inlet to the piping system. While this may sanitize the water of organisms, the high dosage level of chlorine itself can, in some instances, chemically react with the media and adversely affect its permeability. Moreover, the generation of high dosage levels of chlorine is expensive in terms of capital equipment required and operating expenses, and the disposal of such levels of chlorine can present environmental problems.
Another difficult biofouling problem is presented by marine fire water systems. These systems are found on board ships, oilfield offshore rigs and production and storage facilities, and take the form of a ring main with fire extinguishing sprinkler and deluge system utilizing sea water constantly charged under pressure in the system. Over time, the biological organisms in the water grow, stimulating the production of corrosion product and blocking the piping system, thereby preventing water discharge when needed. Prior art systems called for a constant, relatively small volume discharge of sea water from the system and the delivery of high dosage levels of chlorine at the water inlet to the system. However, chlorine at these levels causes and enhances corrosion of the piping system and presents environmental problems at discharge. Other approaches for solving this problem include the use of high alloy brass, such as Admiralty Brass, as the material of construction of the piping system. Such materials leach copper ions to retard biological growth, but are expensive and difficult to install.
Further biofouling problems arise with facilities having numerous points requiring biofouling treatment, such as, for example, power plants having a bank of heat exchangers in parallel flow arrangement, and oilfield water injection apparatus for injecting treated water into a water bearing formation of a hydrocarbon reservoir having a number of filter units in series or parallel flow arrangement. The typical prior art treatment technique for such multiple treatment point facilities is to deliver a large dose of chlorine to the piping inlet to the facility, thereby also delivering chlorine at the same time at, or above, the desired effective dosage levels to all of the numerous treatment points downstream of the piping inlet. Because of the loss of treatment effectiveness of chlorine over time, the dosage level of the chlorine at the inlet in single point treatment systems must be high enough that enough chlorine remains to be effective at the treatment point farthest removed from the inlet. However, this approach requires that large quantities of chlorine be provided at the inlet with resultant high capital cost and operating cost and exposes the piping system to high levels of highly reactive chlorine ions.


A new and distinct cultivar of New Guinea Impatiens plant named xe2x80x98Balceblalixe2x80x99, characterized by its upright, rounded and uniform plant habit; light violet-colored flowers that are positioned above and beyond the leaves; and dark green-colored leaves.

Impatiens hawkeri cultivar Balceblali.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of New Guinea Impatiens plant, botanically known as Impatiens hawkeri, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Balceblalixe2x80x99.
The new Impatiens is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Arroyo Grande, Calif. The objective of the breeding program is to develop New Guinea Impatiens cultivars that have a freely branching growth habit and large flowers with attractive flower colors.
The new Impatiens originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in 1997 of the Impatiens hawkeri cultivar Moorea, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,301, as the female, or seed parent, with a proprietary selection of Impatiens hawkeri identified as code number 7510D, not patented, as the male, or pollen parent. The cultivar Balceblali was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Arroyo Grande, Calif.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken in Arroyo Grande, Calif. since September, 1997, has shown that the unique features of this new Impatiens are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Balceblalixe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Balceblalixe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Impatiens cultivar:
1. Upright, rounded and uniform plant habit.
2. Light violet-colored flowers that are positioned above and beyond the leaves.
3. Dark green-colored leaves.
Plants of the new Impatiens differ primarily from plants of the female and male parents in flower color.
Plants of the new Impatiens can be compared to plants of the cultivar Toga, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,304. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in West Chicago, Ill., plants of the new Impatiens differed from plants of the cultivar Toga in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Impatiens had slightly larger leaves than plants of the cultivar Toga.
2. Flower color of plants of the new Impatiens was lighter violet than flower color of plants of the cultivar Toga.

Ball FloraPlant, a division of Ball Horticultural Co.


An apparatus performs a process for partitioning a netlist. The process picks a unique color for each clock and traverses the clock tree coloring the latches in support of that clock tree with that color. The process then colors the fanout logic cones for each latch and notes any coloring collisions. In the case of a multicolored gate, the process retimes the network by moving the terminating latch backwards, towards the collision, to enable single coloring of the gate. The process then performs a depth-first search on the fanout logic of each primary input to the first latch encountered or a primary output. If a primary output is encountered, the path is colored with a color representing the free-run domain. Otherwise, the process colors the path with the color of the terminating latch. Next, the process duplicates the fanin cones for remaining multicolored gates so that a copy of the logic can be incorporated with each independent domain.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a circuit simulation and emulation and, in particular, to circuits with multiple clock domains. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method, apparatus, and program for retiming netlists to partition multiple clock domains.
2. Description of Related Art
Incubated in the verification of digital signal processing and graphics manipulation, emulation technologies are poised for high growth as more companies exploit their ability to run long test vector sequences on hardware models at speeds that allow integration with fabricated periphery devices. The emulation hardware is used in two ways: 1) accelerated simulation where the test vectors are sent and results processed from a host machine; and, 2) in-circuit emulation (ICE) where the inputs and outputs are connected to the periphery devices. The speedups over traditional simulation are significant.
Currently, two different emulator architectures dominate the market: processor array emulators and field programmable gate array (FPGA) based emulators. FPGA emulators allow for netlists to be programmed into multiple function logic cells. Netlists are high level descriptions of a hardware design which include the intended functionality. These cells are then strategically placed within the emulator so that they can be connected together by the wires running between the FPGAs. Currently, FPGA emulation is speed limited due to the technology rather than the netlist size. In fact, in FPGA systems, the gate utilization is low due to the complications involved in routing the FPGA interconnect.
Processor array based emulators map a netlist to the memory spaces associated with each processor. The netlist is evaluated by synchronously stepping through the instructions in the memory space and scheduling communication on a fixed interconnect during a communication phase. This technology has slow throughput time, but much better compile time and more than five times the capacity of FPGA based systems.
Based on the observation that the capacity demands are often driven by the desire to emulate system level hardware, the idea has been proposed in the prior art to emulate each asynchronous system component independently such that the in-circuit hardware could interact with the smaller domains, thus increasing the frequency of each domain, and the emulation model as a whole. However, given an asynchronous netlist, the task of identifying appropriate cutpoints that maintain the full range of functionality is not trivial with respect to the handling of the combination paths between the logic driven by different clocks.
In particular, when signals from domains clocked by different latches fan-in to a new latch domain, it is difficult to determine how to schedule the evaluation of the logic on the combinational path between clock domains. A combinational path is a sequence of gates that provides a new output whenever the input changes. For instance, an AND gate will change from high to low almost instantaneously when one or both of its inputs tranistions to low. These devices do not require a clock. A combinational path will not include a latch. The prior art deals with this situation by replication of the combinational paths and grouping the replicated logic with its respective input domain. Due to the logic duplication, this approach can increase the model size dramatically in logic that has large combinational paths between latch boundaries. Model size can also increase due to the lost optimization potential in grouping the input cones together.
Thus, it would be advantageous to reduce duplication in the emulation of circuits with multiple clock domains.
The present invention provides a technique for partitioning a netlist. The present invention picks a unique color for each clock and traverses the clock tree coloring the latches in support of that clock tree with that color. Thereafter, all latches should be colored. The present invention then colors the combinational fanout cones for each latch and notes any coloring collisions. In the case of a multicolored gate, the present invention retimes the network by moving the terminating latch backwards, towards the collision, to enable single coloring of the gate. The present invention then performs a depth-first search on the fanout logic of each primary input to the first latch encountered or a primary output. If a primary output is encountered, the path is colored with a color representing the free-run domain. Otherwise, the present invention colors the path with the color of the terminating latch. Next, the present invention duplicates the fanin cones for remaining multicolored gates so that a copy of the logic can be incorporated with each independent domain.

Method, apparatus, and program for multiple clock domain partitioning through retiming

International Business Machines Corporation


This invention is related to an instrument for detecting prolapse in early stages, consists of a three principal parts: an elongated cylindrical rigid plunger with an annular notch, a tubular body with a concave flange and a scale tube where measurement can be taken. This instrument is placed intra-vaginally and its measuring scale is a basis for a diagnosis.

The woman uterus in normal anteversoflexion position is supported by round ligaments to the fundus and its abdominal wall, and by the utero-sacral ligaments to the sacrum. Utero-sacral ligaments determine the position of the cervix. Parametrium ligaments form two fan shape structures which are laterally positioned and fix the uterine cervix and the vaginal vault to the pelvis. Paravaginal ligaments are also laterally positioned and passively hold upper third part of the vagina and actively hold the lower two thirds. Any lesion to this system causes a drop of the uterus and the vagina, which is called prolapse.
The prolapse of the uterus and in its absence of the vaginal vault, what is called utero-vaginal prolapse, have three clinical phases: TYPE I, in which the drop is slight without reaching the vaginal introitus; TYPE II, in which the drop is pronounced and the uterus enters the vaginal introitus; and TYPE III, in which the drop is total and the uterus is out of the external genitals. TYPE II and III prolapses are easily diagnosed, however TYPE I, is difficult to discover and usually goes undetected.
There are no prior art intra-vaginal instruments for measuring a utero-vaginal prolapse. The only prior art instruments pertinent to this area are the instruments adapted for dimensional measurement of uterine and pelvimetrical cavity. The following U.S. patents disclose developments in this field: U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,572 Krzeminski and U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,474 Kurz et al. Both instruments are created to be introduced inside the uterus, through the cervix to obtain one (Krzeminski) or two (Kurz et al.) internal measurements of the uterus cavity. The Krzeminski's and the present invention are both gynecological measuring instruments, so both have measuring scales, although located in different parts. The principal difference is a functional construction adapted to the specific purpose for which they served. Krzeminski's invention consists of two principal parts: a probe with measuring indicia and a horseshoe-shaped body. According to Krzeminski's invention an uterine sound is introduced into the uterus for a measurement of its depth. The distal end of this sound is no more than 2-3 mm, to be able to pass through the cervical os. The measurement is taken by moving the sound only in one direction into the uterus. The most important parts of Krzeminski's invention are the internal stop elements which allow to avoid any displacement and to maintain the precise measurement, once the sound is taken out of the uterus. No measurement different than the depth of the uterine cavity can be taken with this instrument. It cannot be simply placed into the uterus without additional help of other gynecological instruments. First the vagina must be opened by a speculum and than a clamp must be used to enter a spherically-shaped nub of the sound's probe into the cervical os. Such operation needs antiseptic means, is invasive and painful and can even require anaesthesia. The measurement is taken by the examiner without the woman's active participation. The Kurz et al., invention's objective is similar to the Krzeminski's but it is more complex, because two measurements of the uterus can be taken, depth and width.
The present invention is an intra-vaginal prolapse diagnostic instrument only, which cannot be introduced into the uterus, because the plunger which is placed into the vagina is too wide, as it has minimum diameter of 1.5 cm. The measurement is taken in a totally different way, from Krzeminski and Kurz. The present invention consists of three principal parts all of which must be set on a common point, before the measurement can be performed. In the case of the Krzeminski invention a probe is simply pressed ahead into the uterus by the examiner and the resistance of the uterus wall determines the measurement. The present invention however, is to be placed into the vagina first, set in the common point and afterwards the woman is asked to strain. Such action expels the plunger indicating on the outer scale a precise measurement. The plunger moves outside the woman's body, exactly in the opposite direction to the Krzemnski's uterine sound. The present invention does not have any stop elements, and all its parts are concentric and are slidable without any friction in both directions. It can be placed into the vagina without use of any gynecological instruments, without antiseptic measures and without anaesthesia, as this instrument is not an invasive one, and does not cause any pain during the examination. The examiner needs however an active participation of the woman on whom the examination is performed.
Other pertinent prior art patents are U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,167 Nicolai, for measurement of the pelvimetrical cavity, which measures the internal traverse interischial spinous diameter of pelvis of pregnant women as an indication of whether vaginal or cesarean delivery should be performed and the U.S. Pat. No. 3,478,435 Cook, for measuring the thickness of animal tissues, which is an invasive and traumatic instrument adapted to be introduced through skin, fat and muscle implying a blind penetration through different tissues of the animal's body with probable lesions of blood vessels and nerves in any anatomic region excluding natural cavities such as vagina and uterus and its objective is to define an animal's corporal weight.
There are as well methods to detect utero-vaginal prolapse, however they imply x-ray cystograms, x-ray vaginograms and x-ray rectograms which are expensive, time consuming and can have side effects by exposing a woman's body to different x-ray radiations.
The present invention is inspired by the anatomical experiment performed in 1935 by William Mengert, who applied cuts and cross-sections of the different ligamental pairs of support of the uterus in several cadavers of women without prolapse, using a clamp adapted to the cervix of the uterus, a pulley and a ruler, and obtained measurements in centimeters of the displacements that occured when each supporting ligament was cut. These experiments laid the anatomical basis for the significance of measuring and quantifying in centimeters each support ligament of the uterus and the vagina. There is a direct and proportional relation between utero-vaginal ligamentary sufficiency. The objective of this invention is to provide an instrument for easy and rapid diagnosis of prolapse. The principal objective is to detect prolapse in its early stage of TYPE I, which generally is not detected with present techniques. The instrument is also useful for post-operatory follow up to determine the success of surgical techniques in cases where the surgery was performed.

Intra-vaginal prolapse diagnostic instrument

Qta. mary, 4ta transversal, Urbanizacion Horizonte