This high frequency voltage generator which may be used particularly in surgery for supplying an electric bistoury, comprises a power oscillator operating an output transformer. A chopping supply is placed in the direct control chain of the power oscillator. The output voltage of the generator is controlled by a first regulation loop whose reference value is increased by means of a positive feedback proportional to the output current.

The present invention relates to a high frequency voltage generator which may be used more particularly, but not exclusively, for supplying an electric bistoury or lancet.
Presently known high frequency voltage generators of this type generally comprise a power oscillator which operates an output transformer whose secondary winding is connected between the cutting electrode of the bistoury and the neutral plate. This oscillator is most often supplied by a rectifier bridge followed by a switch whose role is to switch a capacitor either into "cutting" position in which the capacitor filters the waves from the mains, or into "coagulation" position in which the capacitor is disconnected, thus giving an output voltage modulated in amplitude by the mains of 10.0 Hz.
Known generators of this type present a certain number of drawbacks. In fact, as the impedance of a tissue is a decreasing function of the depth of cut and the output impedance of the lancets produced up to the present time is not negligible compared with the impedance of the tissues to be cut, a considerable drop in power is produced with these lancets, as soon as the electrode penetrates into the tissues, this being translated by a "sticking" of the electrode.
Inversely, if the operator displays, by means of a regulating element (potentiometer) a sufficient power to allow a deep cut, sparking is inevitably produced at the beginning and end of cut. From the clinical point of view, this is translated by necroses in the zones reached by electric arcs.
Furthermore, in the known high frequency voltage generators for supplying electric bistouries, the modulation of amplitude of the high frequency signal is not modifiable continuously, hence the impossibility of accurately determining the effect of coagulation during the different cuts.


A headlamp for a vehicle (air, land or sea) providing a planar array of infrared (IR) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and visible light LEDs, and arranged and mounted within a housing so as to provide for cooling of the LEDs without forced convection, by conducting heat from the LEDs to protruding cooling fins. A switch system is also provided, for enabling either the visible light or the infrared light, and for selecting a high-beam or low-beam pattern. The beam pattern is provided in some embodiments so as to meet US Federal Motor Vehicle standards.

The sealed beam headlamps that have been used in tactical military vehicles for many years exhibit poor performance characteristics when compared to current automotive lighting systems. A common headlamp used in tactical military vehicles is an incandescent, sealed beam headlamp. The MMPV (Medium Mine Protected Vehicle), as well as other military vehicles such as the HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle), currently use a headlamp that is interchangeable with a headlamp system specified in MIL-DTL-14465E (12 Aug. 1998), attached hereto, called a vehicular composite light assembly, including a first incandescent bulb lamp providing a high beam and a low beam, and a second incandescent bulb lamp also providing a high beam and a low beam, but covered by a filter so as to pass only infrared light. An operator switches from visible to infrared illumination, and thus engages one or the other of the bulbs, and then selects high beam or low beam, as needed. The headlamp system can be provided as a quick detachable or as a bolt-down model. (MIL-DTL-14465E indicates it is a specification for tracked vehicles, but the specification is also for headlamp systems used in non-tracked vehicles also). These headlamps produce on average up to 75,000 cd (candela), and 100 m (meter) visibility at 2 lx (lux). The color temperature for incandescent headlamps is about 3000 K, giving the light a warm yellowish appearance.
Military "blackout" operations present greater challenges: the vehicle must be operated at night at a moderately high speed without being detected by enemy forces. Traditional blackout lights deployed on tactical military vehicles provide a small amount of visible light illumination directly in front of the vehicle bumper. Many operators consider this ineffective especially when driving at higher speeds. Night vision goggles (NVGs) and infrared lighting significantly improve low-light and blackout operations, but NVGs used without providing any sort of illumination are generally considered inadequate for such operations.
The general consensus is that it is highly advantageous to provide infrared (IR) illumination in a field of view, rather than relying on infrared produced by objects in the field of view, as this dramatically increases the effectiveness of even lower-performing NVGs. IR illumination is often produced from an incandescent lamp using a blackout filter/lens that passes only IR radiation from the incandescent lamp. IR illumination produced in this fashion is inefficient, since the lamp still produces visible light, and only a small portion of the radiation produced by the lamp is passed as IR. Additionally, blocking all visible light is difficult, and the filter/lens must be mechanically moved into place, resulting in an unacceptable conversion time to switch between visible and infrared illumination mode.
What is needed is a headlamp that is economical, that provides both visible light and IR illumination, both of sufficient intensity for vehicle operation (at night) at reasonable speeds, with the ability to switch from visible to IR light in an acceptable time, and with a thermal management system and headlight aiming mechanism.

All-LED visible light and IR light headlamp


A process for the treatment of brass components to reduce leachable lead therefrom when the components are exposed to water which includes the steps of first cleaning the brass components with a cleaning agent in the form of a mineral acid, a mineral acid plus an oxidizing agent, ammonium chloride or ferric chloride and then rinsing to remove the cleaning agent. Thereafter, the brass components are contacted with a lead removal reagent after which the brass components are washed again. It is also possible, in the preferred embodiment, to remove any leachable lead remaining on the surface of the brass components by the additional step of treating the brass components with a water soluble acid and thereafter rinsing the components to leave the components substantially free of the acid. The process as disclosed reduces the leachable lead to well within the most stringent state and/or federal guidelines.

As is well known in the art, brass has been widely used for plumbing fittings and fixtures, and a host of other applications in which it comes into contact with substances intended for human consumption. Brass has found particular applicability for use in the manufacture of faucets, valves, fittings and related plumbing products designed for use in delivering potable water in commercial and residential structures.
Brass is an alloy composed principally of copper and zinc. In virtually all applications, however, relatively small amounts of lead are typically added to the alloy to facilitate metal working of the brass including promoting its machineability. Indeed, machineability is particularly desirable when the brass is to be used for plumbing components since those components generally require the cutting of threads and the like.
The lead atoms, because of their atomic size, are larger than atoms of copper or zinc. As a result, lead exhibits a relatively low solubility in solid solution in brass alloys. Those characteristics of lead thus promotes the tendency of lead to precipitate in lead-rich regions dispersed throughout the brass alloy, and particularly near the surface of the brass. The presence of lead-rich regions near the surface of the brass components provides a real advantage in terms of the machineability of the brass adjacent to the surfaces thereof. Unfortunately, however, that same effect increases the tendency of the lead present on or near the surface to leach into water when the brass is used in plumbing applications.
For many years, the quantity of lead leached into foods and liquids from lead-containing plumbing components was generally regarded as sufficiently low that it presented no substantial risk to humans ingesting foods and liquids that had come in contact with those plumbing components. Recent standards at both the state and federal levels, however, have significantly limited the amount of permissible leaching of lead and lead exposure. One example of the more demanding standards is the Safe Drinking Water Act, amended in 1988 to limit lead in solders and fluxes to 0.2% and to limit lead in public water supply pipes and fittings to 8%. As an additional example, California has promulgated regulations limiting lead exposure of humans to less than 0.5 micrograms per day. The EPA in 1991 restructured the standard of lead in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 15 parts per billion. More recently, a national standard of 11 parts per billion for lead leaching from plumbing fittings and fixtures intended for use with potable water has been implemented under the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act.
While the amount of lead that can be leached from brass plumbing components is generally low, it has been found that the amount of lead that can be leached from plumbing components may exceed either current or future planned standards. It has also been proposed that such standards be made more stringent, resulting in requirements that either lead be omitted totally from the brass alloy or that the brass be treated to ensure only minimum quantities of lead can be leached from brass components.
Similar limitations have been applied to plumbing components in metering devices to meter water to consumers. Water meters, for example, have typically employed brass components in contact with the water to be delivered for the purpose of preventing or minimizing corrosion of the components of the water meters. The corrosion problem is particularly severe when, as is increasingly the situation, such metering devices are buried within the soil and are therefore exposed to the corrosive effects of minerals in the soil.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,257, filed Jan. 7, 1997, it has been proposed that the leachable lead present in brass components, and particularly brass components employed in plumbing applications, can be reduced by a method of treatment of the brass components. In the method described in that co-pending application, new brass components are initially treated with a caustic solution at an elevated pH for the purpose of removing at least some of the leachable lead in the brass component. After rinsing to remove excess caustic, the brass component is thereafter contacted with a water soluble carboxylic acid to remove the remaining leachable lead. While the method disclosed in that co-pending application represents an advance in the art as compared to prior methods, it is nonetheless subject to limitations. One of the principal limitations of the use of an alkali caustic solution is that the rate of removal of lead is relatively slow. In addition, copper oxide also found on the surface of such brass components should likewise be removed, and caustic is not particularly effective in removing such copper oxides in that respect. The limited ability of caustic to effect removal of copper oxide likewise impacts on the removal of lead. Copper oxide needs to be removed to expose additional quantities of lead at the surface of the alloy, and thus the limitations of caustic in the copper oxide removal likewise inhibit the removal of lead as well.
In addition to those shortcomings, the method disclosed in the foregoing co-pending application suffers from the further limitation that the process, while effective, makes use of reagent solutions whose useful bath life is limited. That, in turn, adds to the cost and reduces the feasibility of operating the process in that caustic must be frequently replaced to maintain lead removal at the required high levels.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a simple, inexpensive and effective process for the treatment of brass components, and particularly brass components for use in plumbing applications, to reduce the leachable lead therefrom.
It is a more specific object of the invention to provide a method for the treatment of brass components which consistently removes leachable lead to levels far below either present or anticipated federal and state health standards.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method for the treatment of brass components to remove leachable lead therefrom which is effective both in the treatment of red brass along with yellow brass.

Process for treating brass components to substantially eliminate leachabale lead


A liquid level control principally for boiling water boilers sensitive to the presence or absence of liquid at an upper and at a lower control level. The control enables the boiler to be fired when liquid is at or above the upper level. It prevents firing and enables addition of make-up liquid when the liquid level is below the upper control level, except when the system indicates there is liquid at the upper control level, and that there is no liquid at the lower control level.

The regulation of liquid water level in a boiling water boiler is a very old and highly developed art. Hundreds of thousands of these systems exist, and in every one of them the maintenance of a correct liquid water level is a critical matter. Absence of sufficient liquid water can lead to serious damage and occasionally to violent explosions. Very detailed standards are written for them, many of them being specified by insurance carriers who insure these systems.
Any adequate system willinclude means to sense a too-low level, and shut off the burners until a suitable level is restored. Also they include means to add water to restore the boiler water to a safe liquid level, and then permit the boiler system to return to operation.
In view of what would seem to be a simplistic situation amenable to little more than an off-on switch for control, it is surprising that there is a perceived need to make the safety standards more rigorous, and that it requires inventive efforts to attain these objectives, yet such is the present situation.
If it were only a matter of simply maintaining the liquid water level at or above some lower level, with the boiler in continuous operation and all systems functioning correctly, there would be no perceptible problem. But still malfunctions and explosions do occur. It is an object of this invention to provide a liquid water level control system which is sensitive not only to correct and incorrect liquid water levels, but which is also sensitive to, and reactive to, control system malfunctions.
The term "liquid level" is used herein to describe the interface between the liquid phase and the next phase above it. This next phase will usually be a gas, for example steam, but it might instead be a foam. What is important to this invention is the fact that the electrical conductivity of the liquid will be many times greater than that of the gas, vapor, or foam phase above it. The objective is, of course, to maintain an adequate supply of liquid such that the reservoir does not get dangerously low and such that there is always sufficient liquid to supply the necessary other phase or phases, such as steam for the radiators. For convenience in disclosure, water will be used as the example in the following specification, because it is the most important liquid commercially. However, any conductive liquid may be considered equivalent to it.
While this invention is useful with any type of boiler that utilizes a conductive liquid, especially water, its greatest utility is in the rather elementary boiler systems that are used for steam heating systems in residences and office buildings.
Such systems generally use a boiler which is frequently made of cast iron, that is fired on its outer surfaces by flames from coal, gas or heating oil. These boilers are typically unattended in the sense that there is no full time boiler operator. Almost universally they are operated intermittently, because heat is provided only during working and waking hours. Late at night these systems may be shut down, and are re-started the next morning, usually under time clock control. Such supervision as exists is generally exercised by a building superintendent. These persons are not often admired for their grasp of technology, and many of them can be counted on to disable safety circuitry which might require them to get up in a very cold early morning.
It is another object of this invention to provide a liquid level control system which is unlikely to give false alarms, and which will not permit a shut-down system to restart except in the course of an approved and safe series of events. It will shut down the burners and prohibit automatic restart when certain events occur in an incorrect sequence respective to a control system malfunction.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide control circuitry for boiler systems which provides optimum protection against boiler malfunctions.


Systems and methods are provided for parsimonious representation of large sets of multi-resolution value-item lists. A hierarchical data structure associated with the lists and conditioning variables is learnt while exploiting both semantics encoded in target variables and a notion of nearness among nodes at the same detail level in the hierarchical data structure. Such a level of description can be dictated by a depth in a tree data structure. A compression scheme that relies on (i) a similarity metric and (ii) recursive greedy pairing of value-item lists in order to promote elements populating a specific tree node upwards in the tree facilitates a parsimonious representation of the compressed hierarchic structure.

Technological advances in computer hardware, software and networking have provided efficient, cost effective computing systems that can communicate with each other from practically anywhere in the world. Such systems are employed to access, browse and search the Internet; compose, send and receive e-mail messages; view and edit documents; transmit and obtain text messages, instant messages, and the like.
Typically, such action can generate massive volumes of data associated with each of the applications employed in information dissemination and authoring; peer-to-peer communication or blogging; and information consumption through web-based instruments such as dedicated search engines, or catalog/product/reservation data warehouses. In addition to generation of data, the data is generally employed dynamically in various automated actions which provide interaction with the user without user intervention. Among such automated features, the following can be found: (i) targeted online advertisement, (ii) alternative product(s) or document(s) recommendation(s), (iii) log records associated with similar online action(s) taken by the user or other users, which can include query completion, or word wheeling, (iv) dynamic generation of web content originated from user queries, and so on.
Generally, the foregoing is supported by automated systems that rely on hierarchical structures of data for decision making, content retrieval, script generation, documentation, and so forth. As the volume of data employed to generate such automated features grow, it becomes necessary to efficiently manage the wealth of information that such automated features rely upon without compromising actual performance (e.g., an optimized engine to generate dynamic content and automate advertisement decisions) as well as perceived performance (e.g., in a sense of quality of service as perceived by a user of an automated feature) of producing such features.

Parsimonious multi-resolution value-item lists


A bevel gear cutting device which comprises a machine base, an upright support shaft extending upwardly from the base, a table support member rotatably supported at one end on the shaft, a gear blank rotating and rocking mechanism support member rotatably supported at one end on the shaft above the table support member, a gear blank rotating mechanism slidably supported on the second-mentioned support member, a gear blank rocking mechanism slidably supported on the second-mentioned support member adjacent to the gear blank rotating mechanism, a main shaft extending through the gear blank rotating and rocking mechanisms and drive means for the main shaft.

This invention relates to a bevel gear cutting device. In any one of bevel gears, the teeth on the gear converge towards the virtual apex of the conical shape of the gear and continuously increase their cross-section areas from the end adjacent to the virtual apex or the smaller diameter end towards and to the end opposite to the virtual apex or the larger diameter end of the gear. Therefore, hithertofore, the bevel gear cutting operation has encountered many difficulties. In prior art bevel gear cutting methods, the following three types of methods have been known, that is, the template method, the formed method and the generating method as in the case of the spur gear cutting. However, the template method has been most commonly employed and this bevel gear cutting method is generally classified into the profiling system, the Bilgram system, the Reinecker system and the Gleason system.
In the template type bevel gear cutting device utilizing the profiling system, the template is mounted on a bevel gear blank in a position spaced from the virtual apex of the conical shape of the gear blank making the best use of the shape of a straight bevel gear and the cutter is linearly and reciprocally moved along the template between the virtual apex of the bevel gear blank and the template so that the cutter is always directed towards the apex of the pitch cone of the bevel gear blank to thereby cut the teeth on the bevel gear blank one tooth at a time. However, the cutting efficiency of the profiling system of the template method is low and there is the inconvenience that the template has to be changed each time a particular bevel gear is cut.
On the other hand, the bevel gear cutting device utilizing the Bilgram or Reinecker system is designed to position a bevel gear blank so that the gear blank will roll in engagement with a virtual crown gear and the gear blank has movement imparted thereto so that the blank rolls on the virtual crown gear with respect to the cutter which represents one surface of the teeth of the virtual crown gear on the opposite side of the shaft on which the gear blank is mounted to thereby cut teeth on the gear blank. Therefore, in the bevel gear cutting device based on the Bilgram or Reinecker system, the gear tooth has to be first finished on one surface and then on the other surface by changing the orientation of the cutter and therefore, the cutting efficiency of the gear cutting device is very low and it is difficult to cut the teeth on the gear blank with precision.
In the profiling bevel gear cutting device utilizing the Gleason system, a straight cutter representing the left- and right-hand surfaces of a virtual crown gear is reciprocally moved on a rocking plate which imparts rocking movement to the crown gear and the gear blank is rotated in proper engagement with the crown gear so as to cut teeth on the gear blank one tooth at a time to thereby provide an involute profile by the generating tooth cutting method. Thus, the Gleason system is higher in operation efficiency and precision than the above-mentioned profiling system, but since the tooth cutting is effected by reciprocally moving the cutter as in the case of the profiling system, the Gleason system cannot improve the cutting efficiency substantially. Also since the Gleason system cuts teeth on a gear blank intermittently instead of continuously by a rotating hob, the Gleason system cannot obtain a smooth involute curve.


A drink layering potion machine reliably creates undisturbed air bubble free multiple drink layers. The potion machine includes a flat bottom hollow cylinder, a top with an integral conical pouring cup having a central aperture at its bottom tip. A thin rod passes through the aperture with a small clearance. A second aperture displaced from the first aperture supports thin rod providing wobble free movement. The bottom end of the thin rod carries a float. The drink layering potion machine is placed with a hollow cylinder encircling a glass and stabilizing it from tilting. The float rests on the liquor in the interior of the glass as liquor is poured into the conical pouring cup. The liquor runs down at a slow volumetric rate through the small clearance, down the thin rod, over the float external surface into the glass forming layered undisturbed drink free from air bubble entrapment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a potion machine system for layering drinks in discrete layers in a reliable manner without mixing layered drinks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many patents address issues related to dispensing layered drinks or beverages into a glass. Several of these patents relate to producing layered drinks of different colors, which contact the sidewalls of one or more chambers resulting in mixing of individual drink colors resulting in turbid color patterns. Turbulence during pouring also results in mixing of drink colors resulting in a murky drink layering. In addition any turbulence in drink pouring step entraps air bubbles in individual layers of layered drink presenting unsightly appearance.
U.S. Pat. No. 654,879 to Dineen discloses a device for dispensing beverages and comprises a jigger with an inner and outer casing. The inner casing carries the selected liquor, held by a bottom valve that opens by rotating the outer casing. The outer casting carries the valve and its rotation lowers the inner casing by the action of a notch opening the valve. The liquor is poured over a distribution disk and liquor runs over the top surface of the disk into the glass being filled. The liquor is on a free fall with a high velocity and does not enter the glass gently since streaming of the liquor is possible. Moreover, the disk is immersed in the liquor being filled. Consequently, removal of the disk results in changes to the layers of filled "beverage" including mixing of colors and/or entrapment of air bubbles.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,664,266 to Del Rio discloses a funnel. This funnel is a device for conveniently filling a bottle with liquid. The funnel apparatus is provided with a central opening and a valve at its lower end that is closed by a floating valve mounted on a wire that passes through the central opening. The wire that passes through the central opening is not in close intimate contact with the opening and does not assist in transporting the liquid through viscous flow, rather the liquid flows through the central opening at a rapid rate. This is not a device for filling glasses with liquid forming multiple layered 'float' liquid beverages. The liquid is merely poured through the funnel and the float closes off the funnel central opening when the bottle is filled. The velocity of flow is rapid and turbulent disturbing the liquid already in the bottle and therefore the resultant drink does not have separate layers of liquids.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,740,571 to Busto discloses a measuring and dispensing device for making varied-layer drinks of different liquids. The dispensing device basically comprises an upper receptacle with multiple compartments for carrying measured quantities of several liquors, a valve arrangement, and a lower receptacle. The upper receptacle is turned to line up the discharge hole of one of the compartments with the valve arrangement to discharge the liquor into the lower receptacle. From the lower receptacle the liquor is discharged into the glass that is being filled. Since liquors sequentially enter the same lower receptacle, residues of previously poured liquor mix with the currently poured liquor preventing clean pour of thin layers in a float liquor beverage. Since the liquor is directly poured from the second receptacle, it pours with a high velocity, disturbing previously poured layers of liquor.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,771,913 to Flasnöcker discloses a beverage mixer whereby liquid layers are formed. Basically, the apparatus of the invention is a funnel with a flared inset tube having a notched bottom tip. The funnel is placed on a glass that is being filled with layers of cordial liquor with the notched slide-able inset tip resting at the bottom of the glass. The lowest density liquor is poured first followed by next higher density liquor, causing the first layer to float over the second higher density liquor. Subsequent pouring of sequentially higher density liquor produces a layered float liquor beverage. The liquor is directed to the bottom of the glass so that the lower density liquor is forced to rise up. This movement in liquor may not produce a clean separation, especially if the poured liquor is delivered at a high velocity. The funnel has no means to adjust the pour velocity and therefore the mixing of different layers of cordial liquor may be unavoidable, especially if the pouring rate is reasonable.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,189 to Reid discloses a device for use in the preparation of layer drinks. It has a pouring device placed on the upper rim of a glass that is being filled with layered liquor drink and comprises a floatable semi ball attached to a central rod, which passes through a support. The floating semi ball has nearly the same diameter as the glass so that when the liquor is poured over the flat surface of the floating semi ball the liquor is directed to the wall of the glass providing a gentle pour to establish the layers. Since the liquor wets the walls of the glass and is at a higher level than the liquor level in the glass, the glass surface is contaminated with liquors of different color proving poor layering of the float liquor beverage. The velocity of pour is not reduced by the external surface of the semi ball and may even splash the liquor in an uncontrolled manner. Moreover, the device does not provide for any stabilization for the glass, therefore the glass with the device attachment may readily topple over and spill the liquids contained therein. The device does not have a built-in conical shaped pouring cup to facilitate convenient neat pouring of the liquid.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,484 to Danyo (discloses an apparatus for controlling the flow of liquor into a glass so as to form a drink having separate layers. The disclosed device is comprised of a funnel-like upper cup portion with a large upper end or opening to receive liquids, and a smaller lower end attached to and surrounding a shaft portion. Relatively small openings are provided between the lower end of the funnel-like cup portion and the shaft portion to allow a liquid to escape from the funnel-like cup portion at a relatively slow rate, and run down the sides of the shaft. When the lower end of the shaft portion is immersed in another liquid, the liquid flowing down the sides of the shaft will meet and spread out over the surface of the other liquid if the one liquid is less dense than the other liquid. The disclosed device has a funnel with a hole in its bottom to which a twisted shaft is welded. When the liquid is poured into the funnel, it flows down into a glass through the hole and along the length of the twisted shaft via gravity forming a separate layer. The velocity of flow is determined by the hole size in the funnel and the length of the shaft. This free running liquid may have sufficient velocity to create bubbles and eddy in the liquid contained in the glass, resulting in disturbance to already poured liquid layers. Since the funnel is unsupported and is not stabilized, any slight movement of the funnel during pouring of the drink layers disturbs the layer lay up within the glass.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,164 to Magnifico discloses a device for use in preparing varied layered drinks. The device includes a cup member for placement on the rim of the glass in such a manner that a substantially airtight seal is formed between the glass and the bottom of the cup member. Pluralities of fluid passageways are located in the bottom of the device to allow fluid to pass from within the cup member to the interior of the glass. These fluid passageways are angled downward and outward so as to direct the fluid passing there through substantially against the inner walls of the glass so that the fluid will run down the inner walls of the glass rather than merely falling or dripping onto the surface of any fluid already in the glass. In this manner, the incoming fluid will not break the surface tension of the fluid already present in the glass but, rather, will float on this fluid to create a varied layered drink. An air vent is provided in the bottom of the cup member to allow air to pass out of the glass as fluid flows through the fluid passageways. The device uses an airtight cup which fits into a glass into which a liquor drink is first poured to create a layered drink. The air vent is released, at which point, the poured liquor is directed downward and outward through passages provided in the cup. Since liquors poured are always directed to the wall of the glass, the boundary layer at the wall invariably has the color of the previous layer and when a new layer is poured colors are mixed. Therefore the layered liquor drink is not prepared with clean colored layers but is murky at the glass-layered drink interface. Also, the valve release mechanism via of an air vent has to be manually released by the pourer and the velocity of entry of the poured drink into the glass is essentially uncontrolled and may result in unexpected disturbance of the drink layer created.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,806 to Cirella discloses a liquid dispensing device, which is device for making multi-layered drinks, and more particularly to a liquid dispensing device for dispensing one liquid to float upon another liquid. It attaches to a liquid bottle using screw threads and has internal passages that are connected to a valve for controlled delivery of the liquid to a glass. The device is mounted on a stand with the dispensing tubular member. The dispensing tubular member has a cap attachment placed at a height so that it is in contact with the previously poured liquid layer. The valve is turned to activate the flow of liquid, which flows through the dispensing tubular member and exits from the top surface of the cap attachment so that the liquid is poured above the previous layer. The liquid flow has to be manually controlled by activating the valve and too much flow results in the disturbance of previously poured layers. Removal of the cap from the poured liquid by raising the stand also disturbs the poured layer. The device disclosed is large and cumbersome. The bottle of liquor is suspended from a stand and is not manually poured. Furthermore, the liquid travels into the glass being poured by way of free flow, not a viscous flow.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,151 to Wilson et al. discloses fluid layering device. This fluid layering device uses a syringe to facilitate layering a liquid from the syringe onto a denser liquid contained in an open-top centrifuge tube. This device is constructed for use with a liquid dispenser, to facilitate layering a liquid from the dispenser onto a denser liquid contained in an open-top tube. A fitting in the device is releasably attachable to the dispenser for receiving the liquid. A nozzle carried on the fitting has an outer opening and a flow-constricting bore communicating the opening with liquid received in the fitting. Positioning structure in the device is adapted to hold the nozzle at an operative position with respect to the centrifuge tube. At this position, the nozzle opening confronts, and is spaced from, the tube's inner wall by a defined clearance which is adapted to produce, with liquid being forced from the dispenser through the bore in the nozzle, a controlled-flow ribbon of liquid down the wall of the tube onto the upper surface of the denser liquid in the tube. This device delivers liquid contained in a pressurized syringe to a open top centrifuge tube. This device does not pour liquor drinks in multiple separated layers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,934 to Boissoneault discloses a device for pouring drinks having layers of different densities. This device for pouring layered drinks comprises a base portion in the form of a tray defining four recesses onto which four separate glasses can be located. The device has a support member with a support surface that can rest upon the rim of four glasses. A cup member is carried on the support member and projecting downwardly relative to the support surface projecting into an interior of the glass. The cup member has an open top into which a liquid can be poured. The poured liquid collects at the closed base of the cup and is discharged through orifices provided at the cup base. The orifices are confined to one angular location around a periphery of the cup to engage the discharged liquid to the outer surface of the glass. This device pours liquor into four different cups that fit into four different glasses and is discharged through orifices in the bottom of the cup. The liquid pour velocity aims the liquid jet towards the wall of the glass and the high jet velocity can disturb liquor layers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,488 to Basch discloses an apparatus for preparing foodstuffs and drinks having separate liquid layers. The device is for providing superposed layers of liquids of different densities. It comprises a body that is mounted on a glass, wherein the body is filled with liquids through a receptacle having a discharge channel. The liquid is delivered through the discharge channel located at the bottom of the receptacle. Particularly, the body has a spherical float that is connected to a rod. The liquid travels down the rod to the spherical float and is delivered to the glass, thereby forming superposed layers of liquids. The float is preferably provided with a specific surface treatment, which confers superficial microporosity and a roughness. This can be accomplished by applying a mixture of silica and ammoniacal detergent to the float. Such a surface treatment ensures complete laminar flow of the liquid over the entire surface of the float and thus a perfect distribution of the liquid by layers, without eddies. The apparatus disclosed sits on the top rim of the glass to which the beverage or food item is to be contained. The apparatus does not provide for any stabilization of the glass. Therefore, when the apparatus is placed over the rim of the glass a disproportionate weight distribution results, with a heavier weight localized on the top portion of the glass. As a result, the glass and apparatus may readily topple over causing spillage of the liquids and even breakage of the glass. Furthermore, the apparatus of the invention can only be utilized on a glass having the specific diameter of the apparatus, as the apparatus is size specific and cannot be adjusted to fit varying glass sizes. The apparatus comprises a conical receptacle having a channel containing a rod, which terminates on a float. Special superposed conical cross sections are used between the rod and the float to distribute the liquid uniformly. In addition the float is provided with microporosity formed by treating the float's surface with a mixture of silica and ammonical detergent to improve the wetting characteristics of the liquid. The ratio of dimensions of the channel to the rod diameter is 1.7 (col. 3 line 35) with a rod diameter of 2 mm terminating on float, which is 42 mm (col. 3 line 37). These large dimensions of the channel, the rod diameter and the size of the float, results in a large volume flow that is characterized to be laminar (col. 4 line 62). Moreover, the connection between the float and the rod is effectuated by a junction portion formed by two superposed truncated cones and an annular throat. The liquid must traverse down the rod and over this junction portion before reaching the spherical float. This device is tailored for delivering liquids not liquor since silica mixed with ammonical detergent is used. Although these additives promote wetting and distribution of liquids over the float, they are clearly unsuitable for delivery of liquors.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D 317,103 to Case discloses an ornamental design for a drink layering spoon. This ornamental spoon has a reservoir shaped similarly to a funnel. A liquid is poured into the reservoir. The reservoir is connected to a tubing which carries the liquid to a curvature spoon portion where the liquid accumulates and subsequently flows into a vessel. The funnel has a bent edge that matches the layout and contours of the spoon handle. Any liquid poured into the funnel is delivered to the spoon via a tube extending from the bottom of the funnel into the spoon basin. The spoon may be used to set drinks in separate layers. The liquid is not delivered in a convenient, uniform manner into a drinking glass since the operator's hand stability is extremely important. It is a tedious process of layering liquid drinks, and the pourer will have to hold the spoon with care while attempting to pour the liquid and keep the spoon and glass stable.
There remains a need in the art for a device that reliably pours various drink layers without mixing between layers, and which maintains smooth attractive coloration of individual layers without creating entrapped air bubbles in any of the layers. The device should be easy to use by a single person and operate to layer drinks on a variety of differently sized glasses.


A network system is constructed by: a first LAN system having first terminal equipment; a second LAN system having second terminal equipment; an intermediate network to connect the first and second LAN systems; first communication equipment to transfer a packet between the first LAN system and the intermediate network; and second communication equipment to transfer a packet between the second LAN system and the intermediate network. To transfer the packet from the first terminal equipment to the second terminal equipment, the first communication equipment converts an address showing a transmission destination of the packet transmitted from the first terminal equipment from an address defined on the first LAN system to an address defined on the intermediate network and transfers the converted address from the first LAN system to the intermediate network. The second communication equipment converts an address showing the transmission destination of the packet on the intermediate network from the address defined on the intermediate network to an address defined on the second LAN system and transfers the converted address from the intermediate network to the second LAN system.

The invention relates to a network system which mutually connects a plurality of LAN (Local Area Network) systems and relates to a connecting method among the LAN systems for such a purpose. More particularly, the invention relates to a network system which mutually connects a plurality of LAN systems having independent address schemas and relates to a connecting method among the LAN systems for such a purpose.
In a network system such as Internet, Intranet, or the like, a network protocol called TCP/IP is generally used. In the TCP/IP, by using IP addresses (Internet Protocol Addresses) in order to identify individual terminals which are connected onto the network, the mutual connection is realized. In the Internet, the addresses called global addresses which are allocated from JPNIC (Japan Network Information Center) and have uniquely set in the whole world are used as such IP addresses. In the LAN system closed in a certain organization such as a company or the like, the use of the global addresses which are allocated from the JPNIC is difficult because the problem of limitation of the number of addresses. In such an LAN system, therefore, addresses of terminals which are connected to the LAN system are set so as to be unique in the system in accordance with an address schema which was uniquely decided, a system of private addresses determined by the RFC (Request For Comment) standardized by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), or the like.
Hitherto, generally, the LAN system in an organization constructed by using a network protocol such as TCP/IP or the like has been used only for the purpose of connection among the terminals in the organization. However, the access to the WWW server in association with the internet or the LAN connection through the internet or a dedicated line has spread and not only the connection among the terminals in the LAN system but also the mutual connection from a terminal of a self-sustaining LAN system to a terminal of another LAN system is increasing. As mentioned above, in the case where a terminal in a LAN system using a self address schema or a private address schema according to the RFC for the LAN system is connected to a terminal of another LAN system, usually, data on the LAN is capsulated by a global address of the internet and is transferred to the LAN system on the partner side, thereby realizing a mutual connection. Such a mutual connecting system of the LAN systems is generally called VPN (Virtual Private Network). Although the connection over the Internet is performed by the global addresses, addresses of terminals which are connected to each of the LAN systems which are mutually connected need to be uniquely determined in accordance with the same address schema. In many case, therefore, the connection among the LAN systems as mentioned above is limited to a connection among the LAN systems which are managed by the same organization.
In the case where the LAN systems which have already been used by different organizations, for instance, by enterprises A and B are mutually connected by the dedicated line or Internet, the address schemas are revised so that the addresses which are allocated to terminals which are connected to both of the LAN systems do not overlap in consideration of the address schemas which are used in the LAN systems, and if the uniqueness of the addresses is assured, the mutual connection of those LAN systems can be realized.
For example, in JP-A-6-209323, there has been disclosed a communication system such that in the case where the LAN systems constructed by different address schemas are connected by an intermediate apparatus, all of the LANs which are connected to the intermediate apparatus are regarded as one network without changing the address schemas of the LAN systems, an address schema of the whole network in which the addresses become unique is set, a mapping among the address schemas of the individual LAN systems and the address schema of the whole network is performed, and they are mutually connected.

Network system including a plurality of lan systems and an intermediate network having independent address schemes


A device includes a drive portion for driving a pressure generating element and controlling a state of driving the element. The drive portion includes a first drive section for causing a first current to flow to drive the element, and a second drive section for causing a second current smaller than the first current to flow to drive the element. The state of driving the element includes a first state and a second state. The second drive section causes the second current to flow in a direction in which the element is switched from the first state to the second state at a timing that is faster by a predetermined time determined in advance with respect to a timing at which the first drive section causes the first current to flow for switching the state of driving the element from the first state to the second state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drive device for driving a liquid jet head which ejects liquid from nozzle holes to record images and characters on a recording medium, and to a liquid jet head, a liquid jet recording apparatus, and a drive method for the liquid jet head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid jet head, to which ink (liquid) is supplied from an ink tank, includes a head chip. Ink is ejected from nozzle holes of the head chip onto a recording medium to perform recording. In some liquid droplet ejection type (ink jet type) liquid jet heads (ink jet heads) described above, there is one in which ejection of liquid droplets is performed by driving a piezoelectric actuator provided in the head chip by a head drive portion.
For example, FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a drive portion of a liquid jet head chip which is built into the liquid jet head.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, a liquid jet head chip 73 includes 512 nozzles NZ1 to NZ512 (collectively referred to as "nozzle NZ"). A pressure generating element PZT corresponding to each nozzle NZ in the liquid jet head chip 73 is driven by a drive portion 100 mounted on a control circuit board 80. The drive portion 100 includes four driver ICs 101 to 104 as a drive device for the liquid jet head chip 73, and each of the driver ICs (IC1 to IC4) 101 to 104 is configured to drive the pressure generating elements PZT corresponding to the respective 128 nozzles NZ. Further, each of the driver ICs (IC1 to IC4) 101 to 104 inputs, via a connector 100A, image data for printing and various clock signals (shift CLK, pixel CLK, and the like) to be used for printing operation.
Further, FIG. 10 illustrates a configuration example of the drive device for the pressure generating element PZT, and is a block diagram illustrating, for example, a configuration example of the driver IC illustrated in FIG. 9. As illustrated in FIG. 10, the drive device (driver IC) 101 includes a selector 111, a setting value storage element 112, a waveform generating circuit 113, a shift register 121, a latch circuit (latch) 122, a waveform selecting circuit (waveform selection) 123, and a level converting circuit (level conversion) 124. Note that, details of the respective components are described in the section of embodiments below.
The drive device 101 illustrated in FIG. 10 drives, based on drive signals OUT1 to OUTn output from the level converting circuit 124, the pressure generating elements PZT corresponding to the respective n nozzles NZ in the liquid jet head chip 73 (see FIG. 9).
By the way, the drive waveform from the head drive portion, for driving the pressure generating element PZT (piezoelectric actuator), influences the liquid droplet ejection characteristics. For example, the pressure generating element PZT has a very fast response speed with respect to the drive signals OUT1 to OUTn. Therefore, when the pressure generating element PZT is driven by a square wave having a crest value Vp as shown in FIG. 11A, a rapid pressure change occurs inside the nozzle. Therefore, the meniscus motion cannot be controlled with high accuracy, and satellites or mist may be generated. Further, the side wall of the pressure generating element PZT rapidly deforms, and hence cavitation may be generated.
In view of this, as illustrated in FIG. 10 described above, a fixed resistor R is inserted between the level converting circuit 124 and a drive power supply Vd (for example, DC 30 V power supply). In this case, the pressure generating element PZT becomes a capacitive load (capacitor load), and a first order delay circuit is formed between the fixed resistor R and the electrostatic capacitance of the pressure generating element PZT.
Therefore, with the first order delay circuit formed of the fixed resistor R and the electrostatic capacitance of the pressure generating element PZT, as shown in FIG. 11B, the drive voltage for the pressure generating element PZT gently rises up to the voltage Vp while drawing a curved line. Therefore, the drive voltage waveform for the pressure generating element PZT does not rapidly increase, but gently rises from a time t1 to a time t2. Therefore, the deformation of the pressure generating element PZT also becomes gentle, and hence no rapid pressure change occurs inside the nozzle NZ. Thus, generation of cavitation and mist can be prevented.
Further, as for a drive method for the piezoelectric actuator, there is disclosed a technology of controlling the rising and falling shape of the drive waveform to control the liquid droplet ejection characteristics (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2007-098795 and 2003-276188).
However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-098795 discloses a technology of providing, as the power supply for supplying power for driving the piezoelectric actuator, a plurality of power supply voltage sources having different output voltages, and selecting the power supply voltages output from the respective power supply voltage sources by a plurality of transistors. When the head drive portion is configured as described above, a plurality of power supply voltage sources need to be prepared, which complicates the circuit and increases the manufacturing cost.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-276188 discloses a technology in which a plurality of charge resistors having different resistance values are provided for limiting a current value (charge current) for driving the piezoelectric actuator and supplying power for driving the piezoelectric actuator. A plurality of transistors are provided correspondingly to those charge resistors, and a charge resistor which causes a desired current value to flow is selected by the transistors. When the head drive portion is configured as described above, not merely that the circuit configuration is complicated, but also the heat lost increases in the drive circuit forming the head drive portion, and hence the amount of heat generation increases in the head drive portion. Further, a step of trimming the charge resistors or the like is required at the time of manufacture, and hence the manufacturing cost increases.

Drive device, liquid jet head, liquid jet recording apparatus, and drive method


The invention provides a trailer coupling including a ball neck movable between an operative position and a rest position. A coupling ball and a pivot bearing unit are fixed to the vehicle. A rotation blocking arrangement has at least two rotation blocking bodies. An actuating body has a respective cam face that runs transversely to the guide direction for each of the rotation blocking bodies arranged to be rotatable about the pivot axis. As a result of the rotary movement in a direction of actuation the at least two rotation blocking bodies are movable in the guide direction. A release position latching arrangement is movable between a latch release position and a latching position that fixes the actuating body in relation to the guide body.

The invention relates to a trailer coupling including a ball neck, which is movable between an operative position and a rest position and which has a pivot bearing body arranged at a first end and a coupling ball arranged at a second end, a pivot bearing unit, which is arranged fixed to the vehicle and by means of which the pivot bearing body is received such that it is pivotal about the pivot axis between the operative position and the rest position, and a rotation blocking arrangement having at least two rotation blocking bodies, which are guided by means of a guide body to be movable in a guide direction having at least one component in the radial direction relative to the pivot axis, wherein, in the operative position, the rotation blocking bodies are movable into a rotation blocking position by a movement in the guide direction and, in this rotation blocking position, engage with a receptacle in the pivot bearing body in order to block a pivotal movement of the pivot bearing body about the pivot axis relative to the guide body, and are movable into a release position and, in this release position, are not in engagement with the respective receptacle, and having an actuating body which has a respective cam face, that runs transversely to the guide direction, for each of the rotation blocking bodies and which is arranged to be rotatable about the pivot axis and as a result of the rotary movement whereof in a direction of actuation the at least two rotation blocking bodies are movable and urgeable in the guide direction.
Trailer couplings of this kind are known for example from EP 1 741 572 A1.
However, in trailer couplings of this kind a fundamental problem is to make them as compact and as structurally simple as possible so that they can also be used in restricted spatial conditions.


A disc retriever comprising a disc capture frame, a handle, and means for attaching the two to one another provides improvements over prior disc retrievers. A disc capture frame for a disc retriever has a disc capture space bounded on top, bottom, and lateral sides with a gap on the top side that is off center and a hook for hooking, flipping, or repositioning a disc or frisbee. A kit for making a disc retriever comprises a disc capture frame, a handle, and means for connecting the two.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices that are useful for retrieving disc shaped objects and especially devices useful for retrieving disc golf discs.
Description of Related Art
Disc golf (DG) is a sport in which each player throws a disc at a target using rules similar to those used in golf and is often played on a course of 9 or 18 holes. Players complete a hole by throwing a disc from a tee area toward a target and throwing again from the landing position of the disc until the target is reached. The game is played in at least 40 countries and, in 2016, around 35,600 people were members of the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) worldwide. A golf disc typically has a rim to rim diameter in the range of from 21 cm to 24 cm, with a maximum of 30 cm allowed under PDGA rules. A disc typically weighs between 150 and 180 grams and typically has a height of between 1.6 and 2.0 cm. The rim of a golf disc has a height measured on the inside where the disc is gripped that is less than the disc height and a radial width that is typically in the range of 0.9 cm to 2.5 cm.
PDGA courses have holes that are typically around 300-800 feet long and are built in natural environments to include existing trees, bushes, elevation changes, water hazards and the like to make each hole a unique challenge. As a consequence, discs are often thrown into locations from which it is difficult, unpleasant, or impossible to retrieve them manually. For example, a disc may land in a tree at a position too high to reach by hand. Similarly, a disc may land in or on a bush or in water at a location too far to reach by hand.
The problem of retrieving unfortunately thrown discs has been addressed by a number of inventions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,654 describes a folding extension rod having tubular sections with slip-joint connectors that are pulled together by an elastic cord running through the center of the sections and tipped with a tie strap and a hook, magnet, or net for retrieving discs. A disadvantage of this design is that the disc being retrieved must be in a position where it can be hooked or netted. A disc hanging on a hook by its rimmed edge may be caused to fall or be dislodged from the hook by wind, branches, grass, or moving water. A disc in tall grass, caught in branches, or wedged between rocks, for example cannot be netted and may be difficult to hook.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,265 describes a disc retriever that can be thrown by a user to a golf disc in a difficult to access location and pulled to the user using an attached cord. The disc retriever has a rectangular wire frame with an opening large enough for a part of a golf disc to enter but not large enough for the disc to slip through the opening. Two pivoting arms can fold into the rectangle frame and pivot forward to form lead arms connected to a long cord used to pull the golf disc through a water hazard with the frame upright. A disadvantage of this design is that a user must be able to accurately throw the retriever to a position from which it can be pulled to the disc. This may be impossible for a disc located in a tree or bush or on terrain with obstacles such as rocks, stumps, and tall grass.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,320,489 describes a golf disc retriever attached to a long handle. The retriever has a spring loaded clip that can be pushed onto an edge of a disc so that the clip grasps the disc on a rimmed edge. Some force must be applied to the spring loaded clip for it to open when contacting the edge of a disc. A disadvantage of this design is that a force must prevent the disc from moving away from the retriever as the clip is opening and a disc floating in water or laying on branches of a tree or bush may be pushed away without being grasped.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,677,620 describes a rake-like disc retriever with a telescopic pole. The retriever has a plurality of tines with teeth that extend downwardly from a plane of the tines in a similar fashion to a rake for raking leaves or cut grass. A disadvantage of this design is that the tines may slip over the disc, especially when the disc is in high grass, mud, or other environment that resists movement.
US 2011/0221219 describes a pneumatic golf disc retriever with a suction cup positioned at the end of an extendable shaft and U.S. Pat. No. 8,657,351 describes a collapsible disc retriever, also with a suction cup. A disadvantage of these designs is that the suction cup requires an adequate seal to the disc so that it may be retrieved. This may be difficult or impossible when a disc is in brush or high grass, mud, or the suction cup cannot be suitably positioned for other reasons.
US 2015/0015011 describes a disc retriever with jaws for grasping a disc on its edge. A disadvantage of this design is a limited ability to move and inability to pull on the disc when it cannot be grasped on an edge from the position where the user stands. A significant disadvantage to this design is that, in order to trigger the jaws, a pushing force must be exerted on the disc. When in water the disc is lighter and it may be pushed out of reach when trying to position the jaws and the force exerted to trip the closing of the jaws may push it away.
US 2017/0087421 describes a disc retriever with an extendable, telescoping pole and a rigid hook. The hook has a flat profile that has a specialized shape to hold various types of golf discs when one of these discs is inserted into an opening of the hook. A disadvantage of this design is that the hook must be properly positioned with respect to the rim of the disc in order for the disc to be held by the hook. This may involve numerous attempts to reposition the disc, depending on the environment from which it being retrieved.
There remains a need for a disc retriever that overcomes the disadvantages of existing disc retrieving devices and that provides for easy, fast, and effective retrieval of discs from a wide variety of locations including tree and bush branches, tall grass, mud, in still and moving water, and crevices between obstructions.

Disc capture frame and retrieving device


A method is provided for precooling a cryostat having a hollow cold head turret into which a neck tube protrudes and connects an object to be cooled to the exterior of the cryostat, wherein a cold head having a cold head stage for cooling a cryogenic working medium may be introduced into the neck tube. During a condensation operation the cryogenic working medium flows through a heat pipe into an evaporator chamber which is thermally conductively connected to the object to be cooled. During a precooling phase a precisely fitting, thermally conductive short circuit block is inserted through the neck tube into the heat pipe to provide thermal conduction between the object to be cooled and a cooling device The short circuit block is removed from the heat pipe after the target temperature is reached, and heat is subsequently transmitted through the heat pipe during a condensation operation.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for operating a cryostat which houses a chamber containing at least one object to be cooled.
Description of the Related Art
A cryostat is described in patent application DE 10 2014 218 773, unpublished at the time of filing of the present invention, that comprises a vacuum container having at least one hollow cold head turret which contains a neck tube connecting a chamber containing at least one object to be cooled through the outer shell of the vacuum container to the area outside of the cryostat, the neck tube being geometrically configured in such a way that a cold head may be inserted, the cold head having a cold head stage via which a cryogenic working medium, which flows or drips through a heat pipe into an evaporator chamber during a condensation operation, may be cooled, and which is thermally conductively connected to the object to be cooled via a thermal contact surface, so that the cooled cryogenic working medium is able to absorb heat from the object to be cooled and transport it to the cold head stage via the heat pipe.
In most cases, cryotechnology utilizes cooling machines for cooling objects, for example superconducting magnet coils. The cooling machines discharge heat from the apparatus containing the object to be cooled by means of a cold head.
These cooling machines are typically operated with helium gas as the coolant, which is compressed in a compressor and expanded in the cold head of the cryostat (for example, so-called pulse tube coolers). The cold head and the compressor are generally connected to one another via two pressure lines. The cold head is connected to the components to be cooled, either directly mechanically or via a contact medium (for example, cryo gas or cryo liquid), or in both ways in order to ensure good heat transfer.
However, if the compressor completely or partially fails, for example due to a technical defect or power outage, the previously cooled components heat up. In this situation, the cold head of the cryostat then represents a significant thermal bridge between the components to be cooled and the external surroundings. In the persistent operating mode of a superconducting magnet, the superconducting current can flow practically without resistance for extremely long time periods. However, heating of the magnet causes a so-called quench of the persistent operating mode after a certain time. At some point, the magnet reaches the critical transition temperature, which is predetermined by the superconducting material, and becomes normally conducting and thereby loses its high magnetic field, generally abruptly.
A reduction of the thermal load after failure of the cooling machine would at least considerably extend the time period until a quench occurs. This is true in particular for cryostat configurations that can be operated completely without or with only minimum amounts of liquid coolant; superconducting magnets currently are normally operated in a liquid helium bath. Since helium is becoming increasingly expensive, cryostats that can be operated completely without or at least with minimum amounts of helium (low-loss or even cryo-free systems) are becoming more and more attractive, both technically and economically.
However, the thermal capacity of solids significantly decreases at very low temperatures. For this reason, it would be particularly important for systems of this type, using small amounts of liquid helium or no liquid helium at all, to minimize the heat input into the object to be cooled in case of failure of the cooling unit.
DE 195 33 555 A1 describes a cooling device for indirectly cooling a unit, in particular a superconducting unit, situated in a vacuum housing, and which contains at least one refrigerator portion. This refrigerator portion is composed of a section on the room temperature side and a section on the low-temperature side, protrudes into the vacuum housing, and is fastened thereto via spring elements, and at its end on the low-temperature side is thermally conductively connected to the unit to be cooled. To avoid vibrations being transmitted to the unit, it is provided that the section of the cooling machine portion on the room temperature side is situated in an evacuable space of a housing unit which is fixedly connected to the vacuum housing. This cooling device is thermally conductively connected to the unit to be cooled, so that in the event of failure of the cooling machine, the object to be cooled heats up quickly. When an LTS magnet is used, this means that a quench occurs immediately.
LTS coils are conventionally kept directly in liquid helium, which is very costly due to the fact that helium bath cryostats are very complex and therefore expensive.
DE 10 2011 078 608 A1 discloses a cryostat system comprising a vacuum container and a cryo container installed therein, and a sleeve in which a cryocooler is installed, the upper, warm end of the sleeve being connected to the outer shell, and the lower, cold end facing the cryo container being sealed gas-tight by a sleeve base, and the cryo container containing a superconducting magnet system. The known system is characterized in that the cryo container is hermetically sealed except for a gas capillary, and is filled with gaseous fluid at a pressure below the vapor pressure of the liquid phase of the fluid at the corresponding operating temperature, and the coldest stage of the cryocooler is in good thermally conductive connection with a heat exchanger situated inside the cryo container. In this way, the superconducting magnet system within the cryo container can be cooled without cryogenic liquid, and at the same time, without a direct mechanical coupling to the cryocooler; during the operating period, handling of cryogenic liquids may be dispensed with, and the discharge of cold fluid in the event of a quench of the superconducting magnet system may be avoided.
DE 10 2011 078 608 A1 describes a cryostat without cryogen and without a heat pipe. One disadvantage, however, is that if the cooling unit fails, the user has very little time ("time to quench") until the magnet heats up and loses its superconducting property. In contrast, a heat pipe can better bridge over a fairly long failure in the cooling, since the cryogen in the heat pipe evaporates first before the cryostat begins to heat up.
The advantages of a cryostat with a heat pipe with regard to the time to quench are described in the patent application DE 10 2014 218 773 cited above. This document describes a cryostat which includes a vacuum container and a chamber containing the object to be cooled, and includes a neck tube which houses a cooling arm of a cold head which is connected to a refrigeration device, and which can be brought into thermal contact with a second thermal contact surface on the object via a first thermal contact surface on the cooling arm. The described system is characterized in that the hollow volume between the inner side of the neck tube, the cooling arm, and the object is filled with gas, wherein the internal pressure of the gas pressurizes part of the cooling arm, whereas another part of the cooling arm is pressurized by atmospheric pressure, that the cooling arm can be moved with its first thermal contact surface toward or away from the second thermal contact surface, and that a contact device establishes thermal contact of the first thermal contact surface with the second thermal contact surface when the gas pressure is below a threshold pressure, and the contact device moves the first thermal contact surface away from the second thermal contact surface when the threshold pressure is exceeded, so that the contact surfaces are thermally separated by a gap filled with gas. In this way, in the event of failure of the cooling machine, the thermal load on the object to be cooled is significantly reduced automatically in an operationally reliable manner without intervention by an operator.
However, this type of cryostat requires a relatively long precooling period before it is actually started up. Heat pipes, despite their other advantages, basically are not powerful enough to quickly cool cryostats down to their working temperature, in particular in the event of failure of the cooling unit, described above. For fairly large cryostats containing, for example, an LTS coil weighing several hundred kilograms, a standard heat pipe with 40 W cooling power, with use of a single cryogen, would require several weeks to precool the coil to a working temperature of 4 K.
Even with successive use of different cryogens having different condensation temperatures in the various subareas, within the fairly large temperature difference from the original room temperature down to the very low operating temperature, a precooling time in the range of week is still required; however, this procedure is naturally extremely complicated, in particular material- and labor-intensive.

Method and device for precooling a cryostat


A device for use with a patient on a medical procedure table or the like for locating a surgical drape, comprising a mobile head cushion and a drape stand. The head cushion is formed from a foam material. The cushion has a first surface for placement of the cushion on the table and an opposite surface having positioning for locating a patient's head in a predetermined location on the table. The cushion further is adapted to locate a drape stand with respect to the predetermined location. The drape stand for receiving the surgical drape is being formed from a plastic, hollow tube having two ends for cooperative engagement with the cushion and a length equal to about twice the desired height plus the width of the stand. The tube has two hinges formed by radially cutting partially through the periphery of the tube, each of the hinges being spaced from an end of the tube by the desired height and spaced from each other by the width.

Oftentimes during surgery, it is necessary to cover a portion of the patient while procedures are carried out on a specific region of the patient. For example, open heart surgery may require an area of the torso to be exposed with the majority of the body and certainly all of the patient's head being protected by surgical drapes. Of course, it is not possible to merely cover the patient, without maintaining clear access to the patient's head, either for comfort or for the administration of medicines and the like.
Currently the positioning of a sterile drape proximate a patient's head during surgical or medical procedures is accomplished in one of three ways. One method is to use a Mayo stand that rests on the floor while the tray area is positioned over the patient's head. Alternatively, two IV poles can be placed on the floor behind the patent's head, with a sterile drape clipped to each pole to form a tent. The most secure and at the same time most expensive method is to attach a metal bar to the operating table with an involved metal clamp which crosses over the patient's head.
Early efforts to employ a surgical drape are shown in Erlandson U.S. Pat. No. 1,257,332, in which a basic frame structure used in surgery is disclosed. The frame is formed of metal and is mounted to a substrate such as an operating table. Krewson U.S. Pat. No. 2,628,803 describes another version of prior art drape stands, again without providing comfort to the patient and again being fabricated from metal and employing a plurality of parts.
Hyman U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,713 and Crook et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,131 both relate to specific devices useful for eye surgery, particularly for positioning additional equipment on the operating table (Hyman) and randomly associated with the table but aligned with the patient (Crook et al). Winner U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,748 and Slagle U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,644 disclose devices for restraining or immobilizing a patient.
None of these methods is inexpensive, none offers particular comfort to the patient and none cooperatively locates the patient's head on the table to insure positioning of the sterile surgical drape in a particular relationship with the patient. None of the prior art provides a simple, easy to manufacture device for locating a surgery drape with respect to both the patient and the procedure table, using inexpensive materials that can be discarded or recycled if desired.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple, effective device for positioning a surgical drape proximate a patient.
Another object of this invention is to provide a device which is able to cooperatively locate the patient and the drape with respect to a medical procedure.
Other objects will appear hereinafter.


A rear derailleur for a bicycle having a bracket connected to a bicycle frame, a guide wheel for shifting a chain, a support member for supporting the guide wheel, a base member pivotably attached to the bracket, a tension spring for biasing the base member in a predetermined pivoting direction, and a parallelogram link mechanism for linking the support member and the base member. The bracket has a mounting section formed in a region thereof adjacent the bicycle frame and opposed to the bicycle frame. The tension spring is attached to the mounting section so as to lie between the bicycle frame and the mounting section. The tension spring is a coil spring having one end thereof fixed to the mounting section, and the other end fixed to the base member. An axis extends through a middle tubular space of the coil spring for pivotally connecting the base member to the bracket. The link mechanism includes an inner pivotal link, and an outer pivotal link disposed farther from the bicycle frame than the inner pivotal link is. The inner pivotal link is connected at one end thereof to the base member by a first pivot pin. The first pivot pin is disposed closer to the bicycle frame than the mounting section is.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rear derailleur for a bicycle having a bracket connected to a bicycle frame, a guide wheel for shifting a chain, a support member for supporting the guide wheel, a base member pivotably attached to the bracket, a tension spring for biasing the base member in a predetermined pivoting direction, and a linkage device for linking the support member and base member.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a rear derailleur for a bicycle of the type noted above, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 47-27656, for example, the tension spring is disposed outwardly of the bracket, that is to say the tension spring is attached, in a posture extending transversely of the bicycle, to a mounting section formed on a side of the bracket facing away from the bicycle frame. Consequently, the bracket lies between the tension spring and bicycle frame.
In the construction noted above in which the tension spring is disposed outside the bracket with respect to the bicycle frame, the end of the tension spring disposed inwardly is engaged with the bracket, while the end of the tension spring disposed outwardly is engaged with the base member. It is necessary for the base member to include a section opposed to the bracket across the tension spring for engaging the tension spring. Conventionally, therefore, where the base member and bracket are connected, the base member projects to a relatively large extent outwardly from the bracket in the transverse direction of the bicycle.


A decoding method includes: predicting a current block in an image using a reference block, to generate a prediction block; and generating a reconstructed block using the prediction block, wherein the generating includes: filtering for a boundary between the reconstructed block and a decoded neighboring block, using a first filter strength set using first prediction information for prediction of the current block and second prediction information for prediction of the decoded neighboring block; filtering for the boundary using a second filter strength set without using the second prediction information of the current block and the decoded neighboring block; and switching whether to execute the second filtering, based on the boundary, wherein the first filtering is in-loop filtering in which a filtered reconstructed block is used as a reference block for another block, and the second filtering is post filtering outside the loop.

In the conventional image encoding methods (for example, see Non-patent Literature 1) represented by the ITU-T standards denoted as H.26x and the ISO/IEC standards denoted as MPEG-x, it is possible to divide a picture corresponding to an image signal into units called slices and encode the whole picture on a slice-by-slice basis according to a raster scan order on the whole picture.
The HEVC standard (for example, see Non-patent Literature 2) that has been standardized as a new standard introduces a tile format which makes it possible to divide a picture corresponding to an image signal into tiles having a rectangular shape, and perform a raster scan within each of the tiles resulting from the division. This tile format allows division of the picture in the vertical direction, and thus can reduce the capacity of a memory for pixel lines.
For example, FIG. 1 shows an example where a picture is divided also in the vertical direction into tiles enclosed by solid lines. The areas enclosed by broken lines are sub-areas further divided as slices from the tiles in the middle of a raster scan. FIG. 1 shows a pattern in which each of the tile boundaries is not across any slice boundary, and FIG. 2 shows a pattern in which each of the slice boundaries is not across any tile boundary.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Image encoding method, image decoding method, image encoding device, image decoding device, and image encoding/decoding device


An method for improved transaction reservation in an Integrated Satellite Business Network. The method includes generating a transaction request message indicating the number of slots needed to transmit a data message. Then, the method includes transmitting the transaction request message to a host terminal, and assigning one or more slots within an inroute to the remote terminal. The method then includes transmitting a transaction assignment message containing the number of slots assigned and which slots were assigned. In response to this assignment, the method includes transmitting at least a portion of the data message during the slots assigned.

The present invention relates to improvements in transaction reservation in an integrated satellite business network.
Transaction reservation is one of the methods used in an Integrated Satellite Business Network (ISBN) to transfer data from a remote network interface (or remote port card) to a host network interface (or hub) over a space link via an inroute. The spacelink employs an air communications channel from the remote network interface to an earth orbit satellite, the earth orbit satellite, and another air communications channel from the earth orbit satellite to the host network interface. An inroute is divided into 45 ms intervals called frames, which are divided into slots. The number of slots per frame and the size of each slot depends upon the frequency used to transmit through the inroute. A 128 Kbps inroute has 90 slots, with each slot having 8 bytes. A Demand Assignment Processor (DAP) within the host network interface allocates inroute frame bandwidth to the remote network interface in a continuous group of slots called a burst.
The remote network interface is coupled to a user device, such as a personal computer, a mini computer, or a dumb terminal, which together with the remote network interface is referred to herein as a remote terminal. The host network interface is coupled to a host device such as a mainframe computer, which together with the host network interface is referred to herein as a host terminal.
Transaction reservation operates as follows. The remote terminal, having one or more data packets to transmit to the host terminal, sends a request to the Demand Assignment Processor. This request indicates the amount of bandwidth, i.e., the number of bytes or packet sizes, required by the remote terminal to transmit each of the queued data packets. The transaction request may include up to twelve packet lengths. If additional data packets are queued, bandwidth for them must be separately requested. The Demand Assignment Processor receives the request and allocates the requested bandwidth in a future inroute frame assuming the requested bandwidth is available during the next thirteen frames, which is the number of frames the Demand Assignment Processor looks ahead. If the requested bandwidth is not available within the next thirteen frames, the request is satisfied to the extend possible, and the remainder of the request is disregarded. The remote terminal must re-request bandwidth for which no assignment is made. The Demand Assignment Processor sends a point-to-point message to the remote terminal indicating the inroute frame number and location within the frame that has been assigned to the remote terminal for transmission of the queued data packets. A separate point-to-point message is sent to each remote terminal receiving a transaction reservation assignment.
As mentioned above, typically, the Demand Assignment Processor looks ahead over the next 13 frames, and allocates frames within the 13 frames on a first come first serve basis according to the requests received from the remote terminals. AS also mentioned above, if a remote terminal requests, e.g., ten data packets, which are subsequently assigned to the remote terminal by the Demand Assignment Processor, and another remote terminal also requests ten data packets, only three of the data packets requested by the other remote terminal can be accommodated within the 13 frames of the Demand Assignment Processor's look-ahead. As a result, the Demand Assignment Processor disregards the seven unsatisfied transaction requests and the other remote terminal is forced to re-request bandwidth to transmit the seven of the ten requested packets.
In a mature (fully utilized) Integrated Satellite Business Network environment, the first ten or so frames of the 13 frames within the Demand Assignment Processor's look-ahead will be full. This is because as the 13-frame look-ahead shifts frame-by-frame in time, empty frames are looked at one at a time, and full frames are transmitted one at a time. By the time two or three empty frames have shifted into view, a request for data packets is received, and the Demand Assignment Processor will allocate these two or three available frames. The requesting remote terminal must then re-request any additional bandwidth needed. As a result, groups of packets larger than two or three frames are accommodated in a piece-meal fashion, which increases the control message overhead otherwise needed to send all of the requested packets.
Control messages in an Integrated Satellite Business Network are transmitted during a portion of the inroute frame referred to as the control aloha component. Individual remote terminals on the Integrated Satellite Business Network randomly select a burst within the control aloha component in which to transmit their request when it becomes necessary for them to transmit a control message to the host terminal. As the control message overhead needed to transmit a group of data packets increases, control message traffic increases on the control aloha component.
When two or more remote terminals randomly select the same burst within the control aloha component in which to transmit a control message, neither of these control messages are received by the host terminal, instead resulting in what is referred to herein as a collision. After sending a control message over the control aloha component, remote terminals initiate a timeout period. In the event an acknowledgment of the control message is not received by the remote terminal within the timeout period, the remote terminal assumes that there has been a collision and resends the control message after randomly reselecting a burst within the control aloha component. As can be seen, as the number of control messages to be sent from the remote terminals increases, the likelihood of two or more of the remote terminals randomly selecting the same control aloha burst in which to transmit a control message increases, thus increasing collisions and further increasing traffic in the control aloha component with resent control messages.
Problematically, because in a mature Integrated Satellite Business Network, only two or three packets can be allocated by the Demand Assignment Processor, as described above, the likelihood of a collision on the control aloha portion of the frame becomes increasingly great.
As mentioned above, transaction request messages sent from the remote network interface to the host network interface consist of a string of bytes indicating lengths of the various packets to be sent from a remote network interface to a host network interface. Up to twelve packet lengths can be sent per transaction request sent via control aloha. Slots within the transaction reservation component are assigned to carry the packets, based on the number of slots available within the transaction reservation component, and the packet sizes requested. If the packets to be sent are either too numerous to be assigned, because, e.g., not enough slots remain unassigned to satisfy the request, or because the packets sizes requested will not fit into any remaining slots, the remote network interface must rerequest transaction reservation slots for those packets that cannot be accommodated. Unfortunately, wasted slots may remain unused within the transaction reservation component if none of the packets for which transaction reservations are requested will fit within the unassigned slots remaining within a transaction reservation component.
One limitation on the initial request for transaction reservation slots is that a transaction request message transmitted via control aloha can carry only twelve packet lengths. Thus, only twelve packets can be requested by a remote network interface in a single control aloha transaction request message. When more than twelve packets need to be sent, the remote network interface must either request reservations for the additional packets using an additional control aloha transaction request message, or the remote network interface may signal the host network interface in the control aloha transaction request message that it has additional packets to send. This is done by setting a piggyback request bit within the control aloha transaction request message. In response to this piggyback request bit, the host network interface assigns fifty six bytes (e.g., 7 slots) within the transaction reservation component, in addition to any slots assigned in response to the control aloha transaction request message, for a piggyback transaction request message. The piggyback transaction request message is capable of holding a string of forty-four packet lengths, as opposed to the twelve packet lengths that can be transmitted in the original transaction request message sent via the control aloha. In the event there are still packets to send after those for which slots are requested in the piggyback transaction request message, a piggyback request bit within the piggyback transaction request message signals the host network interface to allocate another fifty-six bytes for another piggyback transaction request message. Slots for such piggyback transaction request messages are always the first slots assigned by the host network, interface before the slots requested, for data packets, so that the piggyback transaction request message can, hopefully, be processed before the packets that follow are all transmitted. Unfortunately, by repeatedly sending piggyback transaction request messages and setting the piggyback request bit, a single remote network interface can effectively "lock up" the entire inroute until all of the packets it has to transmit are sent. If the packets to be sent make up a large, but non-urgent, message, such as a non-urgent data file, more important messages may be delayed due to lock up of the inroute during the transmission of this file.
One parameter that is configured by a network operator in an integrated satellite business network is the Maximum Transaction Size. This parameter defines the largest packet that can be transmitted over the inroute through the transaction reservation component. Typically is desirable that the transaction reservation component be of a size that is evenly divisible by this Maximum Transaction Size, in hopes that many of the packets sent will be of this size. When, for example, sixty slots are allocated to the transaction reservation component, i.e., when there are 480 bytes in the transaction reservation component, the Maximum Transaction Size can be set to 240 bytes. If there are two packets of this size to be transmitted, these packets will fill the entire transaction reservation component, making efficient use of bandwidth. Unfortunately, many of the packets to be sent, including the above-mentioned piggyback transaction request messages, will be smaller than the Maximum Transaction Size, and therefore optimum use of transaction reservation bandwidth will frequently not be achieved.
In heretofore known Integrated Satellite Business Networks, when fast inroutes are utilized, such as 256 Kbps inroutes, the rate with which large multi-packet messages can be transmitted is limited, not only by the availability of slots within the transaction reservation component, but also by the time it takes to request and be assigned slots. For example, when forty-four packets are to be sent on an otherwise unused inroute (having 143 slots in its transaction reservation component), assuming the Maximum Transaction Size is set to 256 bytes and each of the forty-four packets is 256 bytes in length, the transaction reservation components in nine frames will be utilized. However, it takes a period of time equivalent of sixteen frames to request and be assigned these frames. This is because each transaction request takes about seven frames to reach the host terminal, in about one or two frames to be processed by the host terminal and for a transaction assignment to be made, and about seven frames for the transaction assignment to reach the remote terminal. Thus, about sixteen frames for the needed slots to be requested and assigned. Because the initial transaction request made by the remote terminal is limited to requesting twelve packet lengths, even if these twelve packets are immediately allocated slots, there will still be a sixteen frame delay before the next transaction assignment (which will be made in response to a piggyback transaction request) can be made. Thus, if a large amount of data needs to be sent over this fast and otherwise unused inroute, seven out of every sixteen frames will be unused, thus making use of only about fifty-six percent of the inroute's potential maximum transmission rate.


The present disclosure discloses a fixed connection of an operating space frame of a machine, comprising: a machine frame; an operating space frame mounted on the machine frame and having a plurality of posts, wherein a first connecting plate is fixedly connected respectively at a lower portion of at least two adjacent posts, the first mounting plate is fixedly connected to the machine frame via a connecting member, and a stopper is provided between the first mounting plate and the machine frame. The fixed connection improves the connection strength between the operating space frame and the machine so as to suppress deformation of the operating space frame subjected to an impact of an external force and thus provide protection for the operator and equipments therein. The present disclosure further relates to a machine having the above fixed connection.

Machines such as engineering machines are extensively applied in industries such as mining, architecture and agriculture, and these machines may include various machines such as road rollers, loaders, excavators, backhoes, bulldozers and graders. These machines are usually provided with an operating space for receiving a work station and an operator of the machine. The operating space is protected by a frame, for example, an open-type operating space having an operating space frame, or a closed operating space formed by covering the operating space with covering articles such as a cover panel and glass so as to form a closed cab. The operating space frame is usually fixedly connected to a machine, e.g., connected to a machine frame of the machine.
Machines generate vibration during operation and sometimes are subjected to an impact of various external forces. This requires the operating space frame of the open-type operating space or the frame structure of a cab to have a high strength. For example, machines might roll over upon travelling or operation because of terrible terrain conditions or might be subjected to an impact of a falling object such as a rock. In order to prevent the operating space frame from deformation when being subjected to the impact of an external force, there is a requirement to further improve the strength of the operating space frame, particularly, the strength at a position where the operating space frame is connected to the machine to keep an operator in the operating space safe and avoid damages to equipments in the operating space.
Accordingly, the present disclosure aims to address one or more of the above problems.

Machine and fixed connection of operating space frame for the same