A disc conveyor for conveyor for conveying disc-like objects is disclosed. The conveyor includes a feeding device for serially feeding a plurality of disc-like objects, a forcible transporting device for forcibly transporting the objects fed from the feeding device, a drive source for selectably driving either the feeding device or the forcible transporting device and a correlating mechanism for operatively correlating the feeding device and the forcible transporting device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc conveyor, and more particularly to a conveyor including a feeder device for serially feeding a plurality of disc-like objects and a forcible transporting device for forcibly transporting the objects to a predetermined position after receiving the objects from the feeder device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical disc conveyor of the above-noted type is disclosed by a Japanese laid-open utility model gazette No. 60-133810.
This conventional conveyor includes a first electric motor for driving the feeder device for feeding coins as an example of the disc-like objects and a second electric motor for driving the forcible transporting device for receiving the coins from the feeder device and then transporting the coins to an upper position, such that the coins are transported to a desired position through operations of the two electric motors.
With the above-described convention, however, if, for example, the second electric motor for the forcible transporting device breaks down while the first electric motor is energized for serially feeding the coins, the coins successively fed by the feeder device will accumulate in the conveyor, whereby jamming problem occurs. And, elimination of these jammed coins takes a great amount of time and labor.
Further, for varying a feeding amount, per unit time period, of the coins with the above convention, a velocity of the first electric motor must be changed. With this, a velocity of the second electric motor must be changed as well in accordance with the variation in the velocity of the first electric motor. Therefore, the adjustment of the feeding amount tends to be troublesome.
Then, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a disc conveyor of the above type with an improvement which reliably prevents occurence of the inconvenience due to troubles of driving sources and which faciliates adjustment, i.e. variation of the feeding amount of the disc-like objects.


An internal bubble cooling air control system in a blown film apparatus has sensors arranged to increase response time and reduce interference, and includes a high speed valve for fast actuation of air flow from a controller in response to signals received from the sensors.

The present invention relates to an internal bubble cooling (IBC) air control for a plastic blown film apparatus.
When blown film is extruded, it typically is in the form of a continuous, vertically oriented tube. The tube, which is in a molten state as it exits a die, expands in diameter as it is pulled continuously upward. The diameter stabilizes to a more or less constant value when the tube cools sufficiently to solidify a short distance from the die at what is called the frost line. Air cooling systems such as external air rings and IBC systems within the tube are provided close to the exit of the die to ensure that the tube cools quickly enough to remain stable.
The tube usually passes through a bubble cage, which minimizes unwanted tube motion and also determines the final tube size if the cage is allowed to contact the tube while the tube is still molten. After solidifying, the tube passes through a flattening device, known as a collapsing frame, to convert the inflated tube into a flattened out film with no air inside. This film is pressed together by motorized nip rolls that continually draw the film upward and away from the extrusion process to form what is call xe2x80x9clayflat.xe2x80x9d The die and nip roll act as seals, which in steady state, form a trapped, column of air with constant volume inside the tube.
Film processors employing IBC systems realize production rate gains on the order of 20% to 50%. In known IBC systems, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,363, air passages are provided through the die to allow for significant air flow into and out of the tube. Air supply and exhaust systems act under the supervision of a control system in response to measured tube size. The control system adjusts the flow of air to be in balance so that a constant, desired tube size is maintained.
For IBC systems to remain stable, there cannot be a significant closed loop lag time between the time when an air flow change first occurs and when the new tube size actually gets sensed by the controller. Excessive total lag time causes a tube to oscillate in size. Typical oscillation periods induced by IBC systems are generally 4 to 6 seconds in duration. This implies that the closed loop lag time must remain less than about 1 second to 1.5 seconds or else the lag time will be greater than 90 degrees out of phase and oscillation will result. Present art IBC systems have a hardware sensor response time and actuation of corrective air flow lag time of about xc2xd to 1 second. Total closed loop lag time includes this hardware lag time and an additional process related sensing lag time caused by size changes taking place at a point prior to where sensing occurs.
Bubble instability prevents film processors from using IBC systems to achieve higher production rates when extruding many of the newer high performance materials. This instability is caused by a process related sensing lag time that is great enough to force the IBC system into oscillation. Sensing lag time is the time it takes for the molten region of the bubble, which reacts in size to the influence of IBC air flow changes, to move along the process until it has solidified into a final dimension that can be accurately measured at or just after the frost line. Traditionally, older resins such as Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) react in size to air flow changes very close to or at the frost line, thus providing for minimal sensing time lag time and making it easy to control bubble stability. In the early 1980""s, however, Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) became commercially viable. LLDPE reacts just prior to reaching the frost line causing a slightly longer sensing time lag of xc2xd to 1 second. Processors found LLDPE more difficult to control, but by blending in small amounts of LDPE and/or by lowering the IBC size sensors to the frost line or slightly below the frost line, bubble stability could be maintained. Lowering the sensors this far, however, has a disadvantage in that the measured size is no longer accurate. This accuracy problem has been partially addressed by control systems providing for easy re-calibration of measured tube size. More recently, new materials such as metallocenes have further lowered the reaction point, making them difficult or impossible to control with IBC systems. It would be advantageous to sense directly at a reaction point that is well below the frost line without adverse effects on measured size.
An additional problem arises due to the sensitivity of sensor positioning in that the frost line does not stay in one place over time. As material and ambient conditions vary during production, the location of the frost line can change by several inches. This movement causes the processor to constantly monitor and adjust sensor positioning to track with the frost line. Presently, sensor adjustments are made manually by the operator, usually in response to tube oscillation that suddenly appears or actual tube size changes that occur due to degraded tube size calibrations. It would be advantageous to automatically reposition IBC sensors relative to the frost line to maintain sensing lag time constant, thus preventing the onset of tube oscillations. Automatic positioning would also serve to minimize the need for tube size re-calibration although bubble shape effects that can accompany changes in the location of the frost line might still warrant re-calibration, but significantly less often.
Another problem relates to a well documented characteristic that tubes naturally vary in size over short periods of time, independent of any IBC volumetrically related instability, just as processes not using IBC systems do. Experimentation has revealed that with materials in use today, tube size naturally changes in a periodic manner with a frequency of about 1 to 2 Hertz. Tube size changes by as much as ⅓ to xc2xd inch of layflat for processes with light or no contact with the bubble cage and from {fraction (1/10)} to ⅓ inch for processes that use the bubble cage to squeeze in just below the frost line and size the bubble. It is a disadvantage to squeeze the tube since marks and scratches routinely result from contact points with the bubble cage. Without squeezing with a cage, IBC control systems must have a total system response time (sensing lag time+sensing response time+actuator response time) of about 0.1 seconds (10 hertz) or better to control these natural fluctuations. Presently, sensing lag time, response time, and actuator response time individually are each too great to allow for control of natural tube size changes so each must be addressed. It would be beneficial if total system lag time and accuracy could be brought to a level where higher frequency natural bubble instabilities could be controlled by IBC control systems without reducing film quality due to scratches.
IBC control systems employ mechanical, optical, and acoustic sensors for monitoring tube size. Mechanical sensors cause marks on the resulting film and optical sensors tend to get dirty and unreliable in the typical blown film plant environment making them unsuitable for many applications in blown film production. Acoustic sensors are preferred because they provide non-contact sensing and are very reliable in a plant environment. Such systems, however, do have slow sampling rate and problems with sensor interference when more than one acoustic sensor is placed into service around a tube. Acoustic sensors operate by sending out a conical ultrasonic sound pulse and measuring the time it takes for the pulse to bounce off a target, such as the tube, and return back to the sensor which sent the pulse. Distance is then calculated by multiplying the time of flight by the speed of sound in the ambient air that the pulse just traveled through. Blown film bubbles tend to flutter and move around, causing the sound pulses to bounce in many different directions. If the pulse passes by a sensor other than the one that sent it, interference can and usually does occur. Additionally, an originating sensor may not receive the return signal, resulting in a missed target response. Yet another problem is that intervening objects such as operating personnel servicing the system can prevent the acoustic sensor from detecting the bubble as a target, and instead such personnel become the target. These errors lead to incorrect reaction by the control system and thus cause instability in the tube size. Present art systems employ various techniques to minimize these problems at the expense of response time.
A common method and the least expensive overall acoustical approach is to use only one sensor as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,593. This approach suffers the most from inaccuracy due to tube motion. The swaying motions and the flutter of the tube common to the blown film process is perceived by the sensor to be a change in size with corresponding degradation in performance. To combat this inaccuracy and achieve good size control, single sensor systems typically require the use of a bubble cage to surround the tube and forcefully determine tube size, thereby causing scratches and marks in the finished film. Interference with other sensors is not an issue, and this approach allows for sampling rates of 25 to 30 times per second, but a dual stage software filtering system is required to prevent misidentifying noise or bubble sway as an actual change in tube size thus allowing it to track only relatively gradual changes in tube size. The first stage of the filter requires an average of 8.5 samples to effect a change in output yielding an approximate ⅓ second response time. The second stage further limits response time.
Another common method, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,540, is to use more than one acoustic sensor by alternately operating each sensor one at a time in sequence and wait long enough between samples to prevent interference. In this approach multiple sensors sample tube size preferably from diametrically opposed positions, thus canceling the effects of tube sway. Due to the time delays present and lower operating frequencies, however, these systems allow for only 10 samples to be taken per second. True diameter measurements without influences from swaying require at least 2 samples limiting this approach to ⅕ second sensing response which is then further limited by filtering elements necessary for outside noise immunity.
Yet another approach uses multiple sensors operating in a free run mode with sampling rates of 40 to 50 times per second without regard for alternating sensor operation. Here, sensors are placed so that stray signals typically bounce away from one another. Interference can still occur, however, so a special rate filter is employed to eliminate the effects of inter-sensor interference and missed targets. Experiments have determined that this approach has a typical sensor response time on the order of ⅕ to xe2x85x9 second.
None of the present systems can tolerate the accidental placement of intervening objects in front of acoustic sensors. Typically, objects placed in front of sensors lead to significant bubble instability sufficient to force the extrusion line to shut itself down.
Significant limitations also exist with actuators that adjust air flow. Most IBC air flow actuators are butterfly style valves. These valves suffer from inaccuracy due to linkage backlash and are either motorized or respond to the position of a spring loaded air cylinder. Other actuators are of the bladder valve design, which has no backlash, and operates by inflating or deflating a series of bladders contained inside the air system piping to change the resulting air flow restriction. Yet another design uses a spring loaded air cylinder to position a linear slide valve that also has no backlash, but suffers from problems with positioning errors due to drag in the valve and air cylinder. Experiments have revealed that motorized valves have reaction times of about xc2xd to 1 second, while spring loaded air cylinders and bladders use pneumatic systems that move air to pressurize or depressurize the actuator with total reaction time of ⅓ to xc2xe of a second. Unfortunately, actuators generally in use today in blown film systems do not have the reaction time or accuracy required for controlling natural high frequency bubble instability.
The present invention includes an internal bubble cooling (IBC) and control system using acoustic sensors that measure tube size resulting from the blown film extrusion apparatus. The IBC control system provides for size sensors located above the frost line where the size of the bubble is stable, to maintain tight calibration of actual tube size. Separate control sensors are adjustable in position at a vertical location below that of the size sensors. These control sensors are preferably located at or below a point just above the frost line, and may be well below the frost line, so that in production these control sensors can be positioned at the point of maximum bubble size reaction to internal air flow changes to compensate for high speed size fluctuations.
Size and control sensors initially are calibrated by having operating personnel inputting actual manually measured size into the system and applying this size data independently to each sensor to establish a separate respective calibration value. Size sensor calibrations remain fixed until a next operator calibration. These size sensors are then used in an integrating mode to constantly re-calibrate each separate control sensor, thus allowing them to be located wherever necessary just above or below the frost line to control the process.
The initial calibrations for control sensors are stored separately and are compared to the integrated re-calibration ongoing for each control sensor. As the position of the frost line naturally changes over time, the control sensor location is automatically adjusted, usually by means of positioning the sizing cage to which they are attached. Position adjustments are made until the integrated re-calibration again matches the initial calibration for the control sensors.
Signals representing a position of the bubble are then provided to control logic in a controller to cause more or less cooling air to flow onto the bubble.
The present invention also includes a sensing method that requires no time averaging of signals to eliminate bad readings and allows for full speed operation of the sensors. Preferably, more than one sensor is used for sizing and more than one is used for controlling. Use of multiple sensors provides a redundancy that allows for rapid filtering by analyzing each sensor""s response for false readings. Statistically, there will be at least one sensor that detects the bubble close to where it has been within a tolerance of preferably 1 to 2 inches from previous measurements. All sensors are compared to one another, and any sensor that falls outside a specified tolerance band are ignored. Further, if a majority of the responses from a given sensor are bad, that sensor is automatically taken out of service without shutting down the process. A warning, such as a warning light, can be turned on (or a normally xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d light turned off) separately for each sensor to inform the operator that a sensor is being automatically ignored; if a sensor is being ignored, the warning light remains on permanently until the sensor begins to again provide a majority of good responses.
The present invention further includes a control system which synchronizes and simultaneously fires all acoustic sensors, and then waits a delay time, such as 3 to 16 milliseconds (depending on sensor arrangement), that is long enough for any stray signals to bounce harmlessly away without causing inter-sensor interference before repeating the sequence. By desirably positioning size and control sensors each as pairs of diametrically opposed sensors, true bubble size measurements can be made within a single multiple-sensor cycle without the unwanted effects of bubble sway and without interference problems. Combining synchronized rapid firing with redundancy filtering allows for simultaneous, reliable and accurate measurement of the tube for control and sizing between 60 and 300, and preferably 100, times per second, with no need for further filtering.
Yet another feature of the present invention relates to a linear valve which both precisely meters the amount of air flow and actuates at a very high speed. The linear valve operates by positioning a piston inside of a double pipe arranged with longitudinal slots that, when partially uncovered, control the amount of air flowing from the innermost to the outermost pipe. According to the invention, a linear servo motor is employed (rather than an air cylinder) for piston positioning together with a vertical orientation, and the piston and wall around the piston are designed for minimal friction to yield fast and precise metering of air flow.
Other features and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description, drawings, and claims.

Internal bubble cooling control system and method


A contactless power supply system for transferring power without contact between a primary side coil and a secondary side coil is provided. In the contactless power supply system, a manipulation unit manipulates a secondary side converter so that power outputted to a load is controlled to be a command value. The manipulation unit manipulates an input voltage of a primary side resonance circuit so that a current flowing in the primary side resonance circuit equals a product of a current flowing in the secondary side resonance circuit and a current coefficient. The current coefficient is defined as a square root of a specific value and the specific value is an equivalent resistance of the secondary side resonance circuit divided by an equivalent resistance of the primary side resonance circuit.

As this type of controller, there is known a controller applied to a contactless power supply system including a primary side coil provided in a power supply station and constituting a primary side resonance circuit and a secondary side coil provided in a vehicle and constituting a secondary side resonance circuit, as seen in the following patent literature 1. This controller is provided to suppress the deviation of a charging voltage of a battery connected to the output side of the secondary side resonance circuit from a target voltage. The deviation is due to a change in the gap between the primary side coil and the secondary side coil.
More specifically, prior to the start of charging of the battery, the battery is electrically disconnected from the output side of the secondary side resonance circuit, and a resistor is connected in parallel to the output side of the secondary side resonance circuit. Then, an output voltage of a high frequency power source for applying an AC voltage to the primary side resonance circuit is set to a measuring voltage, and an output current of the high frequency power source in this case is measured. Since the resistance of the resistor is known, a proper output voltage of the high frequency power source for setting the charging voltage of the battery to the target voltage can be calculated based on the measuring voltage and the output current. Because of this, the deviation of the charging voltage of the battery and the target voltage due to a change in the gap between the primary side coil and the secondary side coil is suppressed, and a decrease in the power transmission efficiency between the coils is suppressed.

Contactless power supply controller and contactless power supply system


Biosynthetic production of 7-[1',2',6',-7',8',8a'(R)-hexahydro-2'(S),6'(R)-dimethyl-8'(S)-hydroxy-1'( S)-naphthyl]-3(R),5(R)-dihydroxyheptanoic acid, "triol acid", is accomplished by enzymatic hydrolysis of lovastatin acid or a salt thereof, by treating it with Clonostachys compactiuscula ATCC 38009 or ATCC 74178, or mutants thereof, or a cell-free extract derived therefrom, or a hydrolase derived therefrom. The triol acid and its lactone form are both inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase and thus useful as anti-hypercholesterolemic agents, and may also serve as intermediates for preparation of other HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. Also, in the synthesis of simvastatin by direct methylation of lovastatin, selective hydrolysis of residual lovastatin salt by treatment with Clonostachys compactiuscula ATCC 38009 or ATCC 74178 or mutants thereof or a cell-free extract derived therefrom, or a hydrolase derived therefrom yields the "triol" salt which can be easily separated from simvastatin.

The present invention is in the field of inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase which are useful as antihypercholesterolemic agents. It is now well established that hypercholesterolemia is a significant risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disease, particularly atherosclerosis. Compounds which are able to inhibit the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme interfere with and limit the biosynthesis of cholesterol, and in that way function as antihypercholesterolemic agents. Such compounds, especially the natural fermentation products compactin and mevinolin, are now well known. There is a continuous search, nevertheless, for additional analogs which will give improved antihypercholesterolemic performance. The triol acid produced by enzymatic hydrolysis of lovastatin acid using an enzyme derived from Clonostachys compactiuscula in accordance with the biosynthetic process of the present invention provides quantities of a starting material for the preparation and production of such semisynthetic analogs. ##STR1##
The process of this invention may also be conducted starting with pravastatin, which differs from lovastatin in that the 6-.alpha.-methyl group on the hexahydronaphthyl ring is replaced with a 6-.beta.-hydroxyl group. Treatment of pravastatin with Clonostachys compactiuscula in accordance with the biosynthetic process of the present invention provides the corresponding pravastatin triol acid below. ##STR2##
As already described above, the triol acid and its lactone form are old compounds. The triol acid in its lactone form, for example, is described in Endo, published Japanese Pat. Appln. 86-13798 (1986), where its production by fermentation of Monascus ruber and a demonstration of its ability to reduce blood cholesterol levels is also set out. The triol acid in its lactone form, as well as the triol acid itself, are also described in Willard U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,496 (1981). However, in Willard, these compounds are prepared by chemical hydrolysis to remove the 8-(.alpha.-methylbutyryloxy) ester side chain of lovastatin, the starting material which is a fermentation product of a particular strain of Aspergillus terreus. There is no suggestion that such hydrolysis might be carried out biochemically or microbiologically.
Lovastatin and simvastatin are also compounds known in the art as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. The two compounds differ in that lovastatin has a 2-methylbutyryloxy side chain at the 8'-position and simvastatin has a 2,2-dimethylbutyryloxy side chain. ##STR3##
Although simvastatin has been formed from lovastatin, it has been difficult to separate and purify simvastatin from a mixture of simvastatin and lovastatin. The similarity in structure between the two compounds (the two compounds differ by only one methyl group) makes high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation difficult because the compounds have such similar retention times. One methodology used to isolate simvastatin from a mixture of simvastatin and lovastatin is to convert the unreacted lovastatin to the triol acid or the diol lactone using base hydrolysis with, for example, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or lithium hydroxide (LiOH). However, this base hydrolysis hydrolyzes only a percentage of the lovastatin, leaving unreacted lovastatin as a contaminant of the final simvastatin product. An additional problem with the base hydrolysis is partial hydrolysis of the simvastatin, thus reducing the yield of the desired simvastatin product. The present invention provides for a process of isolating simvastatin from mixtures of simvastatin and lovastatin in greater purity and without concomitant yield losses.
Komagata et al., J. Antibiotics, 39, 1574-77 (1986), describes enzymatic hydrolytic conversion of compactin (ML-236B) to the 8-hydroxy analog (ML-236A) in which the same side chain is removed as in the present invention. Of 1600 fungal strains investigated, 59 were found to be effective in catalyzing the hydrolytic reaction, and Emericella unguis showed the most potent activity. However, C. compactiuscula is not disclosed.
Endo, published Japanese Pat. Appln. 85-176595 (1985) describes the same conversion as Komagata et al. above, but additionally includes conversion of "monacolin K" (which is lovastatin) to "monacolin J", (which is the triol acid in the present invention). Especially useful are said to be the molds Mortierella isabellina, Emericella unguis, Diheterospora chlamydosporia, Humicola fuscoatra, Dichotomomyces cejpii, Neocosmospora africana, Xylogone sphaerospora, Torulomyces ragena, and Thielavia fimeti. However, the highest conversion rate is 78% for a starting material concentration of 0.5 mg/ml, compared to 90-100% with the present invention. And, there is an indication in the related Komagata et al. paper that at higher concentrations, such as the 2.5 mg/ml employed in the present invention, there is a significant drop-off in efficiency of the enzyme. Thus, there is no suggestion in the prior art of the improved microbiological hydrolysis which can be achieved using Clonostachys compactiuscula.
Lovastatin can be converted to a more active HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor by C-methylation of the natural 2(S)-methylbutyryloxy side chain to obtain simvastatin. C-methylation may be accomplished by any known process amenable to the functionalities of the molecule.
One process for direct C-methylation of the 2(S)-methylbutyryloxy side chain is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,915. This process is detailed in Scheme I and in the description which follows. ##STR4## wherein: M is an alkali metal salt, preferably potassium;
X is halo, such as chloro, bromo or iodo, preferably bromo or iodo; PA0 M.sub.1.sup.+ is a cation derived from lithium, sodium or potassium, preferably lithium; and PA0 R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are
1) independently C.sub.1-3 alkyl, or PA1 2) R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 joined together form a 5- or 6-membered heterocycle such as pyrrolidine or piperidine with the nitrogen to which they are attached, preferably pyrrolidine. PA1 a) H, PA1 b) an alkali metal salt such as Li, Na or K, PA1 c) an alkaline earth metal salt such as Ca or Mg, PA1 d) a salt with other metals such as Al, Fe, Zn, Cu, Ni or Co, PA1 e) an amino acid salt formed from a basic amino acid such as arginine, lysine, .alpha.,.beta.-diaminobutyric acid, or ornithine, PA1 f) an amine salt such as t-octylamine, dibenzylamine, ethylenediamine, morpholine, or tris(hydroxy-methyl) aminomethane, and PA1 g) the ammonium salt.
In the process of forming simvastatin by the direct methylation of lovastatin, the lovastatin lactone compound is first converted to an alkali metal salt, preferably a potassium salt of the dihydroxycarboxylate. Although any conceivable method preparing a dry salt would suffice, it is convenient to add a substantially stoichiometric amount of aqueous potassium hydroxide to a solution of the lactone starting material in a hydrocarbon solvent such as benzene, toluene or cyclohexane containing a small amount of a C.sub.1-3 alkanol, preferably isopropanol, ethanol or methanol, or alternatively in tetrahydrofuran (THF) with or without added alkanol, stirring for a few minutes to about an hour and finally concentrating to dryness in vacuo. The residue is subjected to rigorous drying such as by azeotropic distillation with cyclohexane, toluene or dry tetrahydrofuran, preferably extremely (less than 0.08 mg H.sub.2 O/mL) dry tetrahydrofuran.
The dry alkali metal salt is dissolved in an ethereal solvent such as tetrahydrofuran, diethyl ether, 1,2-dimethoxyethane, cooled to about -80.degree. C. to -25.degree. C., preferably -35.degree. C. to -30.degree. C. and treated with an excess of a strong base such as an alkali metal amide, wherein the alkali metal is lithium, sodium or potassium, preferably lithium, and the amide is diethylamide, pyrrolidide, dimethylamide or diisopropyl amide in an ethereal solvent in a dry, inert environment. After about 2 to 8 hours, preferably about two hours at -80.degree. to -25.degree. C., preferably -35.degree. to -30.degree. C., a methyl halide, such as methyl bromide, methyl chloride or methyl iodide, preferably methyl bromide or methyl iodide, is added to the mixture while maintaining the low temperature. Treatment with the strong base and methyl halide as described can be repeated if appreciable amounts of starting material remain. After 0.5 to about 3 hours following final addition of methyl halide, the reaction mixture is quenched by adding to it excess water.
Following this direct methylation, attempts to convert unreacted lovastatin to the triol acid or the diol lactone for final product purification purposes were made using NaOH or LiOH. However, this base hydrolysis hydrolyzed only a small percentage of the lovastatin. Thus, unreacted lovastatin remained as a contaminant of the final simvastatin product. Furthermore, the base hydrolysis also hydrolyzed simvastatin, thus reducing yields of the desired simvastatin product. Following hydrolysis, the open ring acid form of simvastatin or a salt form thereof was then converted to the lactone by either heat or acid-catalyzed lactonization, and separated and purified by crystallization.

Biosynthetic production of 7-[1',2',6',7',8',8a'(R)-hexahydro-2'(S),6'(R)-dimethyl-8'(S)-hydroxy-1' (S)-naphthyl]-3(R),5(R)-dihydroxyheptanoic acid (triol acid)


Systems and methods are provided that may be implemented to provide a power supply with automatic overcurrent protection (OCP) point calibration and/or current sense resistor (Rsense) verification. The provided systems and methods may implement auto-calibration techniques on the secondary side of a power supply to achieve a more precise OCP point than is possible with conventional adapter technology, and in one example may implement auto trimming for OCP voltage threshold value.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) 60950-1 Standard for Safety requires that all systems accepting power greater than allowed under Section 2.5 Limited Power Sources (LPS) shall have two steps of independent fault protection. These fault protection circuits add design complexity, board space, and cost. For a system to be consider LPS compliant and exempt from the overcurrent protection (OCP), output current cannot exceed 8 amperes for less than or equal to 30 volts output, and output apparent power cannot exceed 100 volt-amperes (VA). For example, maximum output power of a 90 Watt AC adapter having a 20 Volt output can potentially exceed 100 VA considering a worst case tolerance. In this example, output power needs to be under 100 VA=VO (no load). With the introduction USB Type C, maximum rated adapter power can be as high as 100 W.
In the traditional 90 Watt adapter design, it is not possible to meet the above mentioned LPS limits due to tight output tolerance requirement. FIG. 1A illustrates a diagram of primary side circuitry 190 of a conventional AC adapter that utilizes total power detection on the primary side to monitor the output power. Comparator 100 output goes high when the PWM driving signal is high, and this signal is inverted at the input to the NOR 103a causing its output to go high and turn ON the upper NPN transistor 104a of the push-pull circuit 104, which in turn turns ON MOSFET transistor Q1 105 and connects the primary coil 112 of the transformer to ground. A comparator 101 monitors the voltage drop across sense resistor Rsense 106. Comparator 101 trips if the voltage exceeds a predetermined threshold (Vth) and sets the latch 102. Latch 102 then turns ON the lower NPN transistor 104b of the push-pull circuit 104 which in turn overrides the PWM control and forces the gate voltage to transistor Q1 105 low, thus disabling the AC adapter. Although this simple circuit 190 works, its accuracy is poor due to high component tolerances.
Empirical data show tolerance of a conventional 90 Watt AC adapter exceeds 10 Watts and is therefore unable to meet the LPS safety limit of ≦100 VA. Existing 90 Watt adapters cannot meet LPS requirement due to electronic components tolerance deviation that results in a very large range on the OCP point. Thus output power of conventional AC adapters are typically undersized to cover electronic component tolerance deviation, e.g., such as downsizing a 90 Watt adapter design to be 85 Watts to gain more room to cover electronic tolerance range. However, such intentional adapter power undersizing to meet the 100 VA limit penalizes the adapter capability and impacts backward adapter compatibility.
Conventional LPS designs are also known that support single output voltage by using independent OCP circuits such as a primary side OP-Amp and current sensing resistor. However, such designs are not able to provide a very precise OCP point due to electronic components tolerance deviation and therefore cannot meet the LPS request. Type C adapters are typically design to support multiple output voltage levels (at same maximum power). Therefore, the OCP circuit must comprehend the negotiated power contract and set the corresponding trip point for that particular output voltage level.
As shown in FIG. 1B, it is known to use a secondary-side sense resistor placed in series in the ground return path from a power-consuming computer system load to a secondary-side transformer coil of an AC adapter. It is also known to provide an AC adapter with a secondary-side microcontroller (MCU) having an op amp comparator coupled to detect voltage drop the sense resistor while current is supplied from the AC adapter to the system load. In such a conventional configuration, a digital core of the MCU compares the measured voltage drop to a voltage threshold (Vth) that corresponds to the OCP point. If this measured voltage drop exceeds the Vth, then the MCU digital core shuts down the adapter by shutting down (or turning "OFF") an output protection switch placed in the output power path from the secondary side of the AC adapter. As shown, an optocoupler is also present for purposes of detecting and providing a secondary side output voltage feedback to a primary-side PWM integrated circuit (IC) of the AC adapter.

Systems and methods for diagnostic current shunt and overcurrent protection (OCP) for power supplies


Apparatus for purification of refrigerant that includes a replaceable filter/dryer unit for removing water from refrigerant passing therethrough and having a predetermined water absorption capacity, and a compressor for pumping refrigerant through the filter/dryer unit. Refrigerant vapor pressure is measured at the compressor inlet, and mass flow rate of water in the refrigerant pumped through the filter/dryer unit is determined as a function of measured pressure. The mass flow rate of water so determined is monitored over time of operation of the refrigerant pump to determine when the mass of water in refrigerant pumped through the filter/dryer unit reaches the predetermined water absorption capacity of the unit. Filter status may be indicated to an operator and/or operation of the pump may be terminated.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,024, assigned to the assignee hereof, discloses an apparatus for purification of refrigerant that includes a refrigerant pump and a filter/dryer unit for removing water from refrigerant pumped therethrough. A flow meter is coupled to the filter/dryer unit for measuring volumetric flow of refrigerant passing through the filter/dryer unit. Volumetric flow of refrigerant through the flow meter is monitored over time for indicating to an operator when the filter/dryer unit should be replaced as a function of mass of refrigerant pumped through the filter/dryer unit and independent of types of refrigerant pumped through the filter/dryer unit. Operation of the refrigerant pump may be inhibited upon indication that the filter/dryer unit should be replaced.
Although the apparatus disclosed in the noted patent addresses and overcomes problems theretofore extant in the art, further improvements remain desirable. For example, the cost of the refrigerant volumetric flow meter is significant, and can limit market acceptance of the apparatus. Moisture concentration and density is assumed to be at the highest expected operating temperature. In addition, filter capacity is wasted for refrigerants whose product of moisture concentration times density is lower than that of other refrigerants. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus of the subject character that can be manufactured at reduced cost, and that take into account both refrigerant type and refrigerant temperature/pressure effects on both moisture concentration and density so that the filter/dryer water absorption capacity can be fully utilized for all types of refrigerant and under an enhanced range of operating conditions.
Apparatus for purification of refrigerant in accordance with a presently preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a replaceable filter/dryer unit for removing water from refrigerant passing therethrough, and a refrigerant pump for pumping refrigerant through the filter/dryer unit. At least one predetermined parameter (e.g., pressure or temperature) of the refrigerant flowing through the filter/dryer unit is measured, and actual mass flow rate of refrigerant pumped through the filter/dryer unit is determined as a function of such measured parameter. The mass flow rate of refrigerant so determined is monitored as a function of time of operation of the refrigerant pump, and filter status is indicated to an operator and/or operation of the pump is terminated when need for a filter/dryer change is indicated. The invention thus improves upon the above-noted patent by obtaining an actual measure of refrigerant mass flow rate, rather than measuring volumetric flow rate and estimating mass flow rate while assuming specific refrigerant pressure and temperature conditions.
Actual mass flow rate of water in the refrigerant pumped through the filter/dryer unit preferably is determined as a function of volumetric pumping speed of the pump, which is a constant for a given pump displacement and shaft speed, and water concentration per unit mass of refrigerant which is a function of the measured refrigerant parameter. The mass flow rate of water in refrigerant pumped through the filter/dryer is determined as a function of the pumping speed multiplied by the water concentration per unit mass of refrigerant. Preferably, the relationship of water concentration per unit mass of refrigerant is stored as look-up tables in a microprocessor as a function of the measured refrigerant parameter. Preferably, the refrigerant pump comprises a compressor that pumps refrigerant through the filter/dryer unit in vapor phase, and the measured refrigerant parameter comprises compressor inlet suction pressure. Compressor inlet vapor pressure is more indicative of refrigerant density during final stages of refrigerant recovery when the compressor draws a vacuum on the equipment under service to meet EPA requirements and saturated conditions.
For purification of plural differing refrigerants having differing density and moisture solubility characteristics, the apparatus of the present invention preferably includes facility for identifying and distinguishing among differing refrigerant types. This may be determined, for example, as a function of vapor pressure and temperature of refrigerant fed to the inlet of the compressor/pump. Pumping speed in units of mass per unit time and water concentration per unit mass of refrigerant are determined as a combined function of refrigerant vapor pressure and refrigerant type, preferably by means of look-up tables in a control microprocessor.

Refrigerant filtation system with filter change indication


A system, method, and computer program product is disclosed that for debugging errors in software code. According to some approaches, techniques are provided for performing on-the-fly switching from compiled to interpretive debugging for a software program. The test starts with compiled code, and when it needs to stop for debugging, the debugging occurs in interpretive mode. Once debugging has concluded, the execution can switch back to compiled mode. In this way, the debugging activities can achieve the speed and efficiency of using compiled optimized executables, while still being able to allow debugging without performing any recompilations.

In the field of computer science, the term "software", "code", or "software code" often refers to a collection of statements and/or declarations written in a programming language to specify actions to be performed by a processing device. The processing device may be a general purpose computer or a dedicated device that is directed to a specific activity or function.
Like any other development process for a complex design, it is important to ensure that the process for developing software involves adequate testing and verification of the performance and functionality of the software. For software in particular, it is quite common during the development process to discover errors or "bugs" in the programming code. Many different types of errors may occur in a software program. For example, such errors can be syntax errors, semantic errors, or logic errors. The syntax error occurs when code is written in a manner not allowed by the rules of the language, and is the one type of error that can be easily caught by a compiler or interpreter.
A semantic error occurs when the syntax of the code is correct, but the semantics or meaning is not what was intended. A logic error occurs when the algorithmic flow of the software does not perform or produce a result that is intended, even if the semantics or syntax of the coding is correct. Because the semantic and logic errors can occur even if the coding obeys the language (syntax) rules, semantic and logic errors cannot typically be identified by the compiler or interpreter. Therefore, a software developer will often need to engage in debugging activities to address errors that are semantic or logic in nature.
The debugging activity is typically performed to allow the programmer or test engineer to observe the run-time behavior of the software program and to determine the location, cause, environment, or effect of the errors. With the debugging process or using a debugging tool, one can examine the content of variables or memory, insert stopping points, and/or step through the execution of the program. Once the cause of the error is identified, the developer can then modify the code to correct the problem.
When an error is encountered in software code, there are two common approaches that are often taken to debug the: (a) the recompilation approach and (b) the interpreter approach.
In the recompilation approach, the erroneous software program is recompiled for debugging purposes, by introducing debugging information into the compiled code. Since, in the interests of maximal time and execution efficiency, the original executable from which the error was discovered is usually formed as compiled optimized executables that do not include debug information, the debug information needs to be added to accomplish the debugging goals of the programmer. This approach, however, is associated with some significant performance problems. First, this approach requires the time and expense of performing a recompilation of the software. In addition, the recompilation in debugging mode typically precludes compilation optimizations from being used in the recompiled code. This means that the recompiled code in debugging mode will execute slower and/or less efficiently than the original compiled code that does include the optimizations.
In the interpreter approach, an interpreter is used to execute the software program. The interpreter is a program that can execute source code directly without compilation, or can use an intermediate representation of the source code for execution purposes. In many cases, the interpreter allows the software to be executed interactively. The main advantage of the interpreter approach over the recompilation approach is that the interpreter approach avoids the time and expense of having to recompile the software code. The disadvantage of this approach is that software execution using an interpreter is usually much, much slower than software execution of compiled software.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved approach for debugging software which can retain the best benefits of the recompilation and interpreter approaches, but without the corresponding drawbacks.

Method and system for debugging of compiled code using an interpreter


The position of a next object is estimated efficiently according to the observed value of physical quantity related to the object in an actual environment. An image processing apparatus extracts a first object image of state prediction from a first image and identifies the type of the first object. A model appropriate to the type of the object of state prediction is merged with the first object image and a feature point of the first object image is associated with the model. A plurality of motion sequences are selected from a finite state sequence corresponding to the type of the first object according to the position of the first object and the initial observed state.

Patent Literature 1 proposes a technique which estimates the physical quantity of an object from a captured image by a particle filter method and estimates the position of an object by a condensation method by taking a quantity related to the feature quantity of the object as a weight.
Patent Literature 2 proposes a technique in which a three-dimensional model comprised of a plurality of feature points with three-dimensional coordinate values and partial image data representing a partial image related to each feature point is projected into a two-dimensional observation space, the state quantity of the three-dimensional model is estimated using a feature point set selected in the two-dimensional observation space, the estimated three-dimensional model state is projected into the observation space and the adaptability is repeatedly calculated to estimate the state quantity of the three-dimensional model.
In Patent Literature 3, an area of interest for determining the presence of a target is sequentially set in a plurality of positions in an image, a reference position of a part is set according to a deformable part model (spring model) when it is assumed that a target is present in the area of interest, and a deformation cost as a value representing the degree of deviation from the reference position is calculated for each of detected parts. Then a technique is proposed in which, on the condition that a plurality of parts in the same kind whose calculated deformation costs are within a prescribed range are present, the area of interest is decided to be a target area where a target constituting a group is present.

Image processing apparatus and image processing method

Hitach Information & Telecommunication Engineering, Ltd.


A trap-type drain fitting is comprised of a base, an intermediate part, and an insert. The base has a lateral outlet connection and an outer wall having a base rim and an inner wall spaced radially inwardly from this outer wall. The intermediate part has an outer part edge complementarily interfitting with the base rim and with a part rim above and within the outer edge. This intermediate part also has a laterally extending inlet connection that can be positioned at any angle relative to the outlet connection of the base, and the inlet connection is connected to a downwardly extending inlet tube that opens at the bottom of the well formed by the inner wall of the base. Finally the insert sits on the part rim and has a downwardly extending tube that opens above the bottom of the well, so as to form a gas trap and a separate inlet for the fixture.

A floor drain such as provided in a shower must incorporate a trap to prevent sewer gas from coming back out through the drain. In addition it is standard practice for such a trap-type drain to be provided with a second inlet, as for example connected to a sink. Thus a single fitting constitutes the trap both for the drain which it itself forms and for another plumbing fixture.
German utility model No. 7,732,624 describes such a trap-type drain wherein the inlet can be set at any angle relative to a vertical axis with respect to the outlet. To this end the housing is provided internally with a downwardly extending skirt which forms a trap with an upwardly extending wall region above which the drain is provided. As a result the fitting is relatively tall. Even when a standard drain screen is directly set into the central part of the drain housing the arrangement has a height which is normally equal to at least three times the internal height of the outlet. Nowadays with a relatively small distance between a ceiling and the overlying floor this height is extremely disadvantageous. Furthermore, sealing the various parts of this structure to each other is a difficult matter. Finally, producing such an element of synthetic resin is almost entirely impossible due to the difficulties in molding the complicated shape. Thus the device is expensive to manufacture as it must be built of several pieces.


An on-board navigation apparatus in which one of a plurality of service facilities displayed on a display is designated by an operator input, the position coordinate data corresponding to the designated one service facility is registered as a user position into a memory. When the map is displayed on the display, the position coordinate data which has been user position registered is read out from the memory. The position on the map indicated by the position coordinate data is multiplexed onto the map by a predetermined pattern and displayed on the display. The positions of the service facilities such as restaurants, hotels, or the like, which are necessary for each user, consequently, can be easily confirmed on the displayed map.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an on-board navigation apparatus which displays a map necessary for the run of the vehicle by a display.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an on-board navigation apparatus in which map data including road data which is obtained by converting each point on the roads of a map into numerical values is stored in a memory medium such as a CD-ROM or the like. A group of map data of a district of a predetermined range including the present location is read out from the memory medium while recognizing the present location of the vehicle and is displayed on a display as a map around the present location of the vehicle, and the self vehicle position indicative of the present location of the vehicle is automatically displayed on the map. Such an on-board navigation apparatus has been disclosed in, for instance, Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 63-12096 and has already been well known.
Such an on-board navigation apparatus has not only the function to display the map around the present location of the vehicle but also the user registering function such that the existing positions which are necessary for each user among service amenities such as restaurants, hotels, and the like existing in the district shown in the map are displayed as patterns on the map. According to the user registering function, a desired position is designated as a user position on the map by the key operation of the user. The longitude data and latitude data of the designated user position are obtained from the map data. The display pattern of such a position is selected by the user. The longitude and latitude data and the display pattern data are stored in a memory. When the map is displayed on the display screen, the longitude and latitude data and display pattern data existing in the range of the map are read out from the memory. The display pattern indicative of the restaurant or the like is displayed at the position indicated by the longitude and latitude data.
In the conventional on-board navigation apparatus, however, in order to use the user registering function, the user activates the service mode and selects necessary one of the service facilities which are displayed on the display screen in the service mode and memorizes the position of the necessary service facility on the map. After completion of the service mode, the user can register such a position only by searching and designating the position from the navigation map. Very complicated operations, consequently, are needed for such a registration.

On-board navigation apparatus having user registering function


A head loading ramp structure, located near the inner diameter of the discs of a disc drive, for increasing the load applied to the heads by the head suspension when the heads are moved to a park location near the inner diameter of the discs. In a first embodiment, the ramp structure is stationary and a portion of the disc surface is accessed for normal read/write operations with the increased load applied. In a second embodiment, the ramp structure is moveable and engages the head suspension to increase the load applied to the heads only when the heads are parked during non-operational conditions. The ramp structure optionally includes disc snubber features to reduce disc coning and minimize the axial movement of the ramp structure in response to applied mechanical shocks.

This invention relates generally to the field of rigid disc drives, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to apparatus for improving the capability of a disc drive to withstand the application of mechanical shocks, particularly under non-operational conditions.
Disc drives of the type known as xe2x80x9cWinchesterxe2x80x9d disc drives, or hard disc drives, are well known in the industry. Such disc drives magnetically record digital data on a plurality of circular, concentric data tracks on the surfaces of one or more rigid discs. The discs are typically mounted for rotation on the hub of a brushless DC spindle motor. In disc drives of the current generation, the spindle motor rotates the discs at speeds of up to 10,000 RPM.
Data are recorded to and retrieved from the discs by an array of vertically aligned read/write head assemblies, or heads, which are controllably moved from track to track by an actuator assembly. The read/write head assemblies typically consist of an electromagnetic transducer carried on an air bearing slider. This slider acts in a cooperative hydrodynamic relationship with a thin layer of air dragged along by the spinning discs to fly the head assembly in a closely spaced relationship to the disc surface. In order to maintain the proper flying relationship between the head assemblies and the discs, the head assemblies are attached to and supported by head suspensions or flexures.
The actuator assembly used to move the heads from track to track has assumed many forms historically, with most disc drives of the current generation incorporating an actuator of the type referred to as a rotary voice coil actuator. A typical rotary voice coil actuator consists of a pivot shaft fixedly attached to the disc drive housing base member closely adjacent the outer diameter of the discs. The pivot shaft is mounted such that its central axis is normal to the plane of rotation of the discs. An actuator bearing housing is mounted to the pivot shaft by an arrangement of precision ball bearing assemblies, and supports a flat coil which is suspended in the magnetic field of an array of permanent magnets, which are fixedly mounted to the disc drive housing base member. On the side of the actuator bearing housing opposite to the coil, the actuator bearing housing also typically includes a plurality of vertically aligned, radially extending actuator head mounting arms, to which the head suspensions mentioned above are mounted. When controlled DC current is applied to the coil, a magnetic field is formed surrounding the coil which interacts with the magnetic field of the permanent magnets to rotate the actuator bearing housing, with the attached head suspensions and head assemblies, in accordance with the well-known Lorentz relationship. As the actuator bearing housing rotates, the heads are moved radially across the data tracks along an arcuate path.
Disc drives of the current generation are included in desk-top computer systems for office and home environments, as well as in laptop computers which, because of their portability, can be used wherever they can be transported. Because of this wide range of operating environments, the computer systems, as well as the disc drives incorporated in them, must be capable of reliable operation over a wide range of ambient temperatures.
Furthermore, laptop computers in particular can be expected to be subjected to large amounts of mechanical shock as they are moved about. It is common in the industry, therefore, that disc drives be specified to operate over ambient temperature ranges of from, for instance, xe2x88x925xc2x0 C. to 60xc2x0 C., and further be specified to be capable of withstanding operating mechanical shocks of 100 G or greater without becoming inoperable. Moreover, future disc drive products are being developed which must be capable of withstanding non-operating shocks of up to 1000 G without suffering fatal damage.
One of the undesirable possible consequences of mechanical shocks applied to a disc drive is the phenomenon commonly referred to in the industry as xe2x80x9chead slapxe2x80x9d. This condition occurs when the applied mechanical shock is large enough to overcome the load force applied to the head assembly by the head suspension. Under such conditions, the head assembly lifts away from the disc surface, and when the shock event terminates, the head assembly moves back into contact with the disc in an uncontrolled manner, potentially causing damage to the head assembly, disc or both.
The problems associated with head slap have been exacerbated by the introduction of disc drives including smaller slider assemblies to support the read/write heads, which, by definition, require a smaller amount of applied load force and are, therefore, proportionally more susceptible to uncontrolled unloading due to the application of lesser mechanical shocks. For instance, it is typical for the so-called xe2x80x9c30% sliderxe2x80x9d (0.049xe2x80x3 longxc3x970.039xe2x80x3 widexc3x970.012xe2x80x3 high) to be loaded into cooperative relationship with a disc by a force of only about 4.0 grams. With such a low load force applied to the slider, the amount of applied mechanical shock necessary to cause head slap is also relatively low.
One common preventive measure used in the industry to prevent head slap is to use ramps closely adjacent the outer diameter of the discs to unload the heads from engagement with the discs when a non-operating condition, such as loss of disc drive power, is detected. Since the heads are no longer resting on the disc surface, applied mechanical shocks cannot cause uncontrolled contact between the heads and discs. Once proper operational conditions are restored, the head assemblies are reloaded into engagement with the discs for normal disc drive operation.
Such ramp-loading/unloading schemes, however, typically leave the read/write heads supported only by the delicate gimbal portion of the head suspension during non-operational conditions. In this condition, mechanical shocks applied to the disc drive, if of sufficient magnitude, can result in permanent deformation of the gimbal portion of the head suspension, and potentially fatal damage to the disc drive.
Yet another potentially fatal condition related to applied mechanical shocks relates to the effect of such applied mechanical shocks on the discs themselves. Since the discs are supported only at their inner diameters, mechanical shocks applied in parallel with the spin axis of the discs tend to displace the outer diameters of the discs to positions xe2x80x9cout-of-planexe2x80x9d from the inner diameters of the discs. This phenomenon is often referred to as xe2x80x9cdisc coningxe2x80x9d. Disc coning can result in fatal damage to the disc drive in several modes: 1) if the outer diameters of the discs are axially displaced to an extent great enough to cause contact between the discs and the actuator head mounting arms, particles can be generated within the disc drive which can migrate to the interface between the heads and discs, causing loss of data or fatal damage to the heads, discs or both; 2) if contact between the discs and the actuator head mounting arms due to disc coning is severe enough, this contact can cause the heads to be lifted away from the discs, resulting in head slap, as described above.
A need clearly exists, therefore, for an apparatus for reducing or eliminating head slap in response to applied mechanical shock. It would be a further benefit if the apparatus also acted to minimize the effects of disc coning in response to applied mechanical shock.
The present invention is a head loading ramp structure, located near the inner diameter of the discs of a disc drive, for increasing the load applied to the heads by the head suspension when the heads are moved to a park location near the inner diameter of the discs. In a first embodiment, the ramp structure is stationary and a portion of the disc surface is accessed for normal read/write operations with the increased load applied. In a second embodiment, the ramp structure is moveable and engages the head suspension to increase the load applied to the heads only when the heads are parked during non-operational conditions. The ramp structure optionally includes disc snubber features to reduce disc coning and minimize the axial movement of the ramp structure in response to applied mechanical shocks.
It is an object of the invention to provide a mechanism for increasing the tolerance of a disc drive to applied mechanical shocks.
It is another object of the invention to provide a mechanism for preventing separation of the heads from the discs in a disc drive in response to applied mechanical shocks.
It is another object of the invention to minimize disc coning in a disc drive in response to the application of mechanical shocks.
It is another object of the invention to achieve the previously stated objects in a manner which is simple and economical to implement in a high volume manufacturing environment.
The manner in which these objects are achieved by the present invention, along with other features, benefits and advantages of the invention, can best be understood by a review of the following DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION, when this is read in conjunction with an examination of the accompanying drawings.

Apparatus to improve shock capability of disc drives


Malonic anhydride and substituted malonic anhydrides are prepared by ozonolysis of the enol-lactone dimers of ketenes. The resulting malonic anhydrides can be hydrolyzed with water to form the corresponding acid, reacted with an alcohol to yield the monoester, or reacted with an amine to yield the monoamide.

This invention related to the preparation of malonic anhydride and substituted malonic anhydrides, and to the preparation of useful derivatives thereof. The invention is particularly directed to novel procedure for the preparation of malonic anhydrides, particularly malonic anhydride and dimethyl malonic anhydride, and to the preparation of unsymmetrical derivatives of malonic acids, particularly the corresponding monoesters and monoamides, from such anhydrides.
Although the dibasic acids, succinic and glutaric acids, form cyclic anhydrides upon dehydration, dehydration of malonic acid does not yield the anhydride, but leads instead to a gas, carbon suboxide, C.sub.3 O.sub.2. Although substituted malonic anhydrides can be obtained under dehydrating conditions, these are polymeric and not monomeric.
Further, unsymmetrical derivatives or monoderivatives of malonic acids, such as the monoesters or monoamides, are difficult compounds to prepare and are expensive, such derivatives having utility in the preparation of drugs.
One object of the present invention is the production of malonic anhydride and substituted malonic anhydrides. Another object is the provision of novel procedure for the preparation of malonic anhydride and substituted malonic anhydrides. A further object of the invention is to provide procedure for readily converting malonic anhydrides and substituted malonic anhydrides to derivatives of such anhydrides, particularly the unsymmetrical derivatives such as the monoesters and monoamides. Yet another object is to provide procedure for preparing such derivatives of malonic anhydrides by first preparing the malonic anhydrides and without isolating such anhydrides, reacting the latter in the same solution with a derivatizing agent such as an alcohol or an amine.

Production of malonic anhydrides and derivatives thereof

The Regents of the University of California


Post-etch treatment of an etch-damaged semiconductor device includes forming a protective cover (48, 148) over an oxidizable section (18, 118) of the semiconductor device. The protective cover (48, 148) is operable to at least inhibit oxidation of the oxidizable section (18, 118). While the oxidizable section (18, 118) is covered, an oxide structure (52, 152) is formed. The oxide structure (52, 152) is operable to at least ameliorate etch damage to the semiconductor device.

Modern electronic equipment such as televisions, telephones, radios and computers are generally constructed of solid state devices. Solid state devices are preferred in electronic equipment because they are extremely small and relatively inexpensive. Additionally, solid state devices are very reliable because they have no moving parts, but are based on the movement of charge carriers.
Solid state devices may be transistors, capacitors, resistors and the like. These devices are fabricated on a substrate and interconnected to form integrated circuits. Device fabrication typically includes depositing, patterning and etching conductor, semiconductor and insulator layers that make up features of the device.
Etching of metal and poly-metal gate structures is known to damage the underlying gate oxide, degrading its integrity and leading to device failure. To restore gate oxide integrity (GOI), post-gate-etch oxidation processes have been used. These processes, however, can oxidize the metal and poly-metal gate structures, resulting in high sheet resistance. To prevent gate oxidation, a selective oxidation process that uses N.sub.2 diluted in H.sub.2 /H.sub.2 0 ambient has been proposed. Selective oxidation is unproven for use in large scale manufacturing and impractical because of the difficulty in achieving sufficient oxidation at the bottom of the gate to remove etch damage while preventing the gate from oxidizing.

Post-etch treatment of a semiconductor device


Disclosed herein is an oscillator circuit used for a PIP system which displays a child picture image without distortion even when the image method of the child picture image is different from that of a parent picture image. The oscillator circuit employed in such a system includes a programmable frequency divider for frequency dividing an output of a voltage-controlled oscillator with a frequency dividing ratio to produce a frequency-divided signal and a control circuit for controlling the oscillation frequency of the oscillator 201 according to a phase difference between the frequency-divided signal and a horizontal synchronizing signal. The frequency dividing ratio for the frequency divider is changed according to the image method of the child picture image.

The present invention relates to an oscillator circuit and, more particularly, to an oscillator circuit suitable to use in a picture-in-picture (PIP) system for displaying, on a common display screen, a first picture image (referred to as a "parent picture image" hereinafter) and a second picture image (referred to as a "child picture image" hereinafter).
A PIP system is for displaying, both a parent picture image and a child picture image on a common display screen and is commercially put into a practical use as a television set equipped with a PIP function. Since the child picture image is displayed on a limited portion of the display screen in lieu of the corresponding portion of the parent picture image, the child picture image to be displayed is derived by compressing an original child picture image.
In the case where the original child picture image, which is generated by the NTSC method having 262.5 horizontal scan lines per 1 field (1 screen), is compressed to, for example, one-third, it is necessary to derive image information of about 87 scan lines from image information of 262.5 lines. The child picture image thus compressed is further required to be displayed on a predetermined position on the display screen.
For these purposes, the original picture image is sampled in synchronism with a clock signal having a sampling rate corresponding to the required compressibility. The image information thus sampled is converted into digital data which are in turn temporarily stored in a memory. The reading-out operation digital data thus stored is initiated at a time point at which a scanning in a display device (CRT) proceeds to the position of the display screen on which the child screen image is to be displayed. The read-out data are then converted into an analog signal in synchronism with a clock signal having the same rate as the sampling rate. The compressed child picture image is thus produced and supplied to the display device.
When a picture image from a broadcasting station is selected as a child picture image, the image method thereof is the same as that of a parent picture image. That is, in a television set used in Japan or the United States, the parent and child picture images is generated by the NTSC method. In a television set used in European countries, on the other hand, they are of a PAL method.
A video signal from a VTR, that is, a picture image recorded on a video tape is sometimes used as the child picture image, however, in this case, the picture image may be recorded in NTSC or PAL method that is different from the parent picture image.
Since the PAL system having 312.5 horizontal scan lines per 1 field, an image obtained by compressing a PAL method image to one-third required image information of about 104 scan lines.
It is usual that the internal construction of the television set having the PIP system is primarily determined to accommodate to the NTSC method in Japan or the United States or the PAL method in Europe. That is, the sampling rate for compressing the original child picture image is determined and fixed in accordance with the image method of the television set. For this reason, when the child picture image of the PAL method is displayed on a television set of the NTSC system, the displayed child screen image is vertically reduced. This phenomenon will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.
FIG. 7 illustrates an example in which the PIP system is incorporated in a television set of the NTSC method. A parent picture image 801 is displayed on a display screen 800 according to the NTSC method. A child picture image 802 is displayed on a predetermined position on the display screen 800. Assuming that the child picture image 802 is of the NTSC method, since both of the parent and child picture images 801 and 802 are of the same image method, a circle as the child picture image 802 is displayed as it is without a substantial deformation, as shown in FIG. 7(a). On the other hand, when the child picture image is of the PAL method, the compressed picture image actually has the image information of 104 scan lines in spite of a fact that the compressed picture image has only to have the image information of 87 scan lines. As a result, the circle as the child screen image 803 is displayed with a vertically reduced ellipse, as shown in FIG. 7(b).
On the other hand, in a television of the PAL system, a circle as the child picture image 812 of the PAL method is displayed as it is, as shown in FIG. 8(a). However, when the child picture image of the NTSC method is displayed, the compressed image thereof actually has image information of 104 scan lines while it is required to have images information of 87 scan lines. As a result, a circle as the compressed child picture image 813 is actually displayed with a vertically expanded ellipse, as shown in FIG. 8(b).
Thus, if the video method of the child picture image is different from that of the parent picture image, the child picture image is actually displayed in the screen with distortion.

Oscillator circuit suitable for picture-in-picture system


A method and apparatus for photothermal detoxification of toxic organic compound is provided. The apparatus includes a thermally insulated reaction vessel maintained at a temperature greater than 200.degree. C., and a radiation source such as arc emission or a laser which irradiates the compound at a wavelength of less than 300 nm for at least 2 seconds to produce nontoxic reaction products.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for photothermal destruction of toxic organic compounds, and more particularly, to a process which utilizes high temperatures in combination with radiation exposure to induce a photochemical reaction which completely detoxifies a wide variety of toxic organic compounds.
Throughout the industrialized world, there is a growing concern over the impact of industry on the environment, specifically with regard to the increasing emission of contaminants into the atmosphere. Of additional concern is the clean-up of extensive damage already done to specific sites and of the widespread contamination of ground water. According to recent estimates, between 330 and 570 million tons of hazardous waste were generated between 1900 and 1980, and 290 million tons of waste are now produced annually in the United States. The level of concentration of such wastes pose health hazards to the general population.
One method of controlling hazardous waste disposal has been high temperature incineration. Incineration is capable of breaking down a wide variety of toxic materials into carbon dioxide, water, and simple mineral acids. However, this process is very expensive and is inappropriate for many applications such as soil and ground water cleanup. In addition, public concern over emission of undestroyed residual components, organic products of incomplete combustion, and off-gas streams laden with organic vapors, have led to regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency, which now requires that incinerators possess a destruction and removal efficiency of 99.99% for the principal organic hazardous components in a waste stream.
Another method proposed for treating large volumes of toxic organic wastes has been the use of solar radiation. Sunlight contains both infrared radiation, which can be used to heat the waste, and ultraviolet radiation, which can promote photochemical reactions. However, the unreliability of solar energy limits its use in detoxification processes.
As a result, other more reliable sources of radiation such as high intensity ultraviolet lamps have been employed. For example, Confer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,503, uses ultraviolet lamps to irradiate a gas stream containing vinyl chloride, forming less hazardous materials which are then absorbed in a scrubber. However, Confer does not utilize heat in combination with the radiation, which slows down the detoxification reaction and limits the treatment capacity of the process.
Legan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,316 discloses a process for decontaminating gaseous or vaporous streams of vinyl chloride in which the streams are exposed to heat and radiation. However, relatively low temperatures (i.e., nearly ambient) are maintained during the process, which may result in incomplete mineralization of the organic components.
Thus, while prior art processes have utilized either heat or radiation to destroy hazardous wastes, none of the processes have used a combination of intense heat and radiation. Although some processes disclose the use of slightly elevated temperatures as well as radiation, such slightly elevated temperatures are a physical requirement, e.g., for the purpose of preventing moisture condensation, and do not effectively aid in the detoxification process itself.
Further, many prior art processes, such as those described above, are limited to the detoxification of oxidizable contaminants.
Accordingly, there is still a need in the art for a process which uses concentrated radiation in combination with high temperatures to effectively destroy a large number of toxic organic wastes without producing any harmful byproducts.

Method for photothermal destruction of toxic organic compounds


In the exposure data preparation method for charged particle beam exposure in which an exposure object is exposed while dose is adjusted for each pattern, the method including the steps of: classifying a pattern in terms of a target linewidth; setting a standard characteristic showing the relationship between a standard dose and a resultant linewidth of a resist pattern for a group of patterns having the target linewidth; and preparing exposure data by correcting a shape and dose so that a characteristic showing the relationship between dose of each pattern having the target linewidth and a resultant linewidth of a resist pattern follows the standard characteristic.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exposure data preparation method and an exposure method. In particular, it relates to an exposure data preparation method for preparing exposure data to be used in a charged particle beam exposure technology using an electron beam or an ion beam in a lithography procedure and an exposure method using the exposure data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In electron beam exposure for delineating a pattern by irradiating an electron beam on a resist applied on a substrate, not only forward scattering where some incident electrons scatter in the resist but also backscattering where some electrons passing through the resist are reflected from the substrate and re-enter the resist occurs. Accordingly, even when an incident electron beam is directed onto one point on the resist, scattering of the beam produces proximity effects and energy deposited on the resist is widely distributed, which varies the size of the resultant resist pattern depending on the density of the pattern. The Exposure Intensity Distribution (EID), when the incident electron beam is directed onto one point (x, y) on the resist applied on the substrate constituted by one material, is generally approximated by a function shown as Formula (1) below, in which a forward scattering element and a backscattering element are expressed as a Gaussian distribution.
                              f                                (                          x              ,              y                        )                          =                              1                          π                                            (                                  1                  +                  η                                )                                                                    {                                                            1                                      β                    f                    2                                                                                exp                                                        (                                          -                                                                                x                            2                                                    +                                                      y                            2                                                                                β                          f                          2                                                                                )                                                              +                                                η                                      β                    b                    2                                                                                exp                                                        (                                          -                                                                                x                            2                                                    +                                                      y                            2                                                                                β                          b                          2                                                                                )                                                                        }                                              (        1        )
Wherein, βf is a forward scattering length, βb is a backscattering length and η is a backscattering intensity ratio. The values of the forward scattering length βf, the backscattering length βb and the backscattering intensity ratio η depend on electron beam energy, membrane thickness of the resist, the substrate material and so on, and are determined by experiment or simulation. For example, if the membrane thickness of the resist is 0.3 μm and the accelerating voltage of the electron beam is 50 kV, βf=28 nm, βb=11.43 μm and η=0.67. Generally, the forward scattering length βf is a value not limited to pure forward scattering, but includes components such as blurring of the electron beam due to aberration etc. (so-called beam blur) and acid diffusion.
In an existing proximity effect correction method, a pattern shape correction to reduce the linewidth for improvement of exposure margin and dose correction to correct the dose of the pattern in order to obtain a target linewidth at a threshold value Eth of the deposited energy are executed. This kind of proximity effect correction method has been proposed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-52999 or Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-26360.

Exposure data preparation method and exposure method


An apparatus and method for sorting items using a longest increasing subsequence are disclosed. Item sorting may be performed by selecting excluded items, which correspond to a longest increasing subsequence, from among items in an item list, selecting update items by excluding the excluded items from the items, and performing update for the update items. It is possible to more efficiently use a system by selecting items to be updated from among various items in an item list and updating them to reduce the system workload for updating the items.

With the rapid growth in the fields of smartphones and tablet PCs, mobile app stores, which provide various mobile contents and service, are rapidly growing. These mobile stores provide numerous and diverse items for use on mobile terminals. Accordingly, in order to more conveniently provide items to users, the items are classified according to the content of the item, the type of user terminal, and whether an additional fee must be paid in order to use the mobile item. In addition, for item classification, exposure rankings of the items in an item list are determined and frequently updated according to the popularity or recency thereof.
According, an app store server, which provides many mobile items, is required to update the exposure rankings of items, which are frequently changed, and to store and manage them in a database. Since this task may impose a large load on systems, it is disadvantageous to such systems. Nevertheless, it is very burdensome for a service provider to reduce the number of mobile items in consideration of system load or to incur enormous expenses for system expansion in order to improve performance.
As a related art, Korean Patent Laid-open Application Publication No. 10-2001-0025387, filed Apr. 6, 2001, discloses "System and method for measuring ranking using internet".

Apparatus and method for sorting items using longest increasing subsequence


Disclosed are a method, information processing system, and computer readable medium for managing table scan processes. The method includes monitoring a plurality of storage medium table scan processes. Each storage medium table scan process in the plurality of storage medium table scan processes is placed into a plurality of scan groups based on storage medium pages to be scanned by each of the storage medium table scan processes. Each storage medium table scan process in a scan group can share data within a storage medium page.

Different techniques have been proposed for increasing cache locality for various workloads. One of the oldest and most basic algorithms is the least recently used ("LRU") algorithm. The LRU algorithm evicts the page from the cache that was not accessed the longest. LRU is currently the policy of choice in many database systems due to its small overhead and tuning-free operation. Many variants of LRU have been proposed since. One example is LRU-K, as described in "The LRU-K page replacement algorithm for database disk buffering" E. J. O'Neil, P. E. O'Neil, and G. Weikum, In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Int. Conf. on Management of Data, pages 297-306, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. LRU-K evicts the page whose Kth most recent access is the longest in the past.
Another example, is 2Q as described in "2Q: A low overhead high performance buffer management replacement algorithm", T. Johnson and D. Shasha, In Proc. Int. Conf. on Very Large Data Bases, pages 439-450, 1994, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 2Q reduces LRU-K's logarithmic overhead to a constant overhead LFU is another example and is discussed in "Data cache management using frequency-based replacement", J. Robinson and M. Devarakonda, In Proc. ACM SIGMETRICS Conf., pages 134-142, 1990, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. LFU evicts the page that was accessed least frequently. Hybrids have also been introduced such as LRFU, which combines LRU and LFU and ARC, which can adaptively switch between different eviction policies. LRU is further discussed in "LRFU: A spectrum of policies that subsumes the least recently used and least frequently used policies", Lee, J. Choi, J.-H. Kim, S. H. Noh, S. L. Min, Y. Cho, and C. S. Kim. IEEE Trans. Computers, 50(12):1352-1360, 2001 and ARC is further discussed in "Outperforming LRU with an adaptive replacement cache", N. Megiddo and D. Modha, 2004, which are bother hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
L. Belady in "A study of replacement algorithms for virtual storage computers", IBM Systems Journal, 5(2):78-101, 1966, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, gives an optimal offline algorithm, MIN, for the cache replacement problem which evicts the page that is accessed the farthest in the future. All these techniques given above are for general access patterns. In other words, they are not directed towards sequential or ordered access patterns. Therefore, they do not provide an improved buffer utilization for this specific type of access.
Commercial database vendors such as Red Brick and Teradata employ proprietary algorithms to let the database synchronize multiple table scan operations in order to maximize buffer locality. See for example, "Red brick warehouse: a read-mostly RDBMS for open SMP platforms", P. M. Fernandez, In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Int. Conf. on Management of Data, page 492, 1994; "Explaining cache—NCR CTO Todd Walter answers your trickiest questions on Teradata's caching functionality", T. Walter, http://www.teradata.com/t/page/116344/; and, "TPC-D—The Challenges, Issues and Results", R. Bhashyam, NCR Corporation, SIGMOD Record 25(4) 1996: 89-93, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
This idea was taken even further in "A simultaneously pipelined relational query engine", S. Harizopoulos, V. Shkapenyuk, and A. Ailamaki. QPipe, In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Int. Conf. on Management of Data, pages 383-394, 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Harizopoulos et al. proposes ideas for a new database architecture that tries to maximize reuse of partial query results from the query down to the page access level. This is achieved by detecting overlaps in active query plan operators at query execution time and then exploiting it by pipelining one operator's results to all dependent operators where possible. Two of the operators discussed in that paper are the table and index scan operators. For these, Harizopoulos et al. proposes to use one scan thread that keeps scanning all pages while table scan operators can attach to and detach from this thread in order to share the scanned pages. While this approach works well for scans with similar speeds, in practice scan speeds can vary by large margins and even single scans' speeds are usually far from constant due to changes in predicate evaluation overhead. Therefore, the benefit can be lower as scans may start drifting apart.
In addition to cache or page buffer algorithm improvements, other methods to reduce disk access costs for multiple concurrent queries with overlapping data accesses have been investigated. These methods include multi-query optimization that requires all queries to be known in advance. See for example, "Efficient and extensible algorithms for multi query optimization", P. Roy, S. Seshadri, S. Sudarshan, and S. Bhobe, In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Int. Conf. on Management of Data, pages 249-260, 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. These methods also include query result caching "Dynamic caching of query results for decision support systems", J. Shim, P. Scheuermann, and R. Vingralek, In Proc. Int. Conf. on Scientific and Statistical Database Management, pages 254-263, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Due to being at a high level of the query execution hierarchy, the latter may miss out on sharing potential for queries that have very different predicates but still end up performing table scans on the same table, for example.
"Cooperative Scans", M. Zukowski, P. A. Boncz, M. L. Kersten, CWI Report 2004, INS-E0411, ISSN 1386-368, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety introduces a smart buffer manager that is used to optimize page replacement under multiple running queries in order to maximize buffer locality. However, this approach requires significant modifications of the caching system. This invention, on the other hand, views the caching system as a "black box" and limits modifications to a few extra function calls in the scan code.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.

Increasing buffer locality during multiple table access operations

International Business Machines Corporation


A liner for a vehicle is provided between the vehicle's floor and frame and protects the underside of the floor from moisture coming from underneath the vehicle. The liner also has a drainage feature which allows for liquids trapped between it and the floor to drain therethrough. The vehicle liner is made up of a pair of strips of a waterproof material disposed adjacent to each other with a gap provided between them and a third strip of a waterproof material covering the gap. The three strips effectively remove liquids from underneath the vehicle floor and yet form a moisture barrier for preventing moisture arising from underneath the vehicle from contacting with the vehicle floor.

In today's commerce, vehicles, such as truck trailers, are used in great part to ferry goods to a desired destination. These vehicles typically have an enclosed cargo area in which the transported goods are contained. The floors of these cargo areas may be made of wooden planks having spaces provided therebetween or some material which allows liquid accumulating in the cargo area to drain therefrom. However, problems exist during the hauling of the cargo in that when the vehicle is moving greater than a certain speed, a pressure differential may develop between the outside ambient atmosphere and the inside of the truck so that the pressure inside the truck is lower than atmospheric pressure. When this pressure differential reaches a certain level, the liquid outside the vehicle can be siphoned into the vehicle through the porous floor structure. If left unattended, this liquid can cause problems such as warping and/or rotting of the wooden floor and corrosion of a metallic floor.
In order to prevent the problems discussed above, it has been proposed to insert a waterproof liner between the vehicle floor and the vehicle frame which effectively blocks the entry of ambient moisture into the cargo bed. Although this waterproof liner solves the problem with respect to ambient moisture entering into the cargo area, it presents a new problem in that moisture that may be contained in the cargo area could drain through the floor and be trapped between the floor and the waterproof liner where it can damage the floor as discussed above.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a waterproof liner which is provided between a vehicle's floor and frame which effectively prevents ambient moisture from entering into a vehicle's cargo area through its floor and yet allows moisture to drain from between the vehicle's floor and the waterproof liner.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle cargo area having a waterproof liner disposed between the cargo area's floor and frame which effectively prevents the entry of ambient moisture into the vehicle cargo area yet allows moisture collected between the cargo area floor and the waterproof liner to drain therefrom.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a vehicle having a cargo area with a floor and a frame and a waterproof liner disposed between the floor and the frame which effectively prevents the entry of ambient moisture into the vehicle cargo area and yet allows moisture accumulated between the cargo area's floor and the waterproof liner to drain therefrom.