In a flame resistant fiber assembly obtainable by fiber forming a flame resistant polymer, a flame resistant fiber of a higher performance is obtained by improving fiber forming ability. A carbon fiber of a high performance is obtained by carbonizing the flame resistant fiber. At obtaining a flame resistant fiber by subjecting a solution containing a flame resistant polymer modified by an amine-based compound to a wet spinning or a semi-dry spinning in a coagulation bath in such a way that a degree of swelling of a coagulated yarn at the outlet of the coagulation bath is 100 to 1000 wt % and then, in a bath, subjecting to a drawing and/or water washing and to a drying under tension, the flame resistant fiber is produced by controlling temperature of the drawing bath/water washing bath, drying temperature or tension in such a way that the obtained fiber would not crystallize. A carbon fiber is produced by carbonizing the flame resistant fiber.

Since flame resistant fiber is excellent in heat resistance and flame retardancy, it has been widely used, for example, for spatter sheets for protecting human body from high-temperature iron powder and weld sparks which are scattered in welding operation, and fire-resistant heat insulators for aircrafts, and its demand in these fields are increasing.
Further, the flame resistant fiber is important also as intermediate raw materials for obtaining carbon fiber. Carbon fiber has been, due to such various mechanical, chemical properties and lightweight properties, widely employed for various applications, for example, materials for aviation and space such as aircrafts and rockets, and sporting goods such as tennis rackets, golf shafts and fishing rods, and to be used also in fields for transport machines such as ships and cars. In addition, in recent years, the carbon fiber has been, due to its high electrical conductivity and heat releasing property, strongly required for application to electronic equipment parts such as housings for cellular phones and personal computer, and to electrodes of fuel cells.
Such a carbon fiber is generally obtained by a carbonization treatment of a flame resistant fiber by heating at a high temperature in an inert gas such as nitrogen. With regard to conventional flame resistant fiber, for example, a polyacrylonitrile (hereunder, abbreviated as PAN) based flame resistant fiber is obtained by making a PAN-based precursor fiber flame resistant (cyclization reaction and oxidation reaction of PAN) at a high temperature of 200 to 300° C. in the air.
However, this reaction to make flame resistant is an exothermic reaction and a reaction in a fibrous form, namely, in a state of solid-phase. Therefore, a long-time treatment is required for its temperature control, and the fiber thickness of the PAN-based precursor fiber needs to be limited to a fine size below a specific value to finish making flame resistant within a desired time. Thus, the presently known process of making flame resistant is unlikely to be regarded as a sufficiently efficient process.
As a method for solving the above-mentioned technical problems, a method of making solution by a solvent has been studied.
For example, a technique is disclosed in which an acrylonitrile- (hereunder, abbreviated as AN) based polymer powder is heated in an inert atmosphere until its density becomes 1.20 g/cm3 or more, and thereafter dissolved in a solvent and made into a fiber, and the fibrous material is heat-treated (for example, refer to JP-S63-14093B).
However, there was a problem that, because an acrylonitrile polymer powder not well made into flame resistant is used, since viscosity change with time of the solution is big, a yarn breakage is likely to occur. Since a strongly acidic solvent such as sulfuric acid or nitric acid for easily decomposing ordinary organic polymers was used, an apparatus made of special materials having corrosion resistance needs to be used, etc., it was not practical in cost, too.
Further, a method is proposed such that a heat-treated acrylonitrile polymer powder and a not heat-treated acrylonitrile polymer powder are mixed and similarly dissolved in an acidic solvent (for example, refer to JP-S62-57723B), but the problem was still not solved as to providing corrosion resistance to the apparatus as described above and as to the instability of solution.
In addition, it is disclosed that, by heat-treating a PAN solution in dimethylformamide, the PAN is converted to a polymer having a cyclized structure (for example, refer to "Polymer Science (USSR)," (Polym. Sci. USSR), 1968, Vol. 10, page 1537), however, since it is such a dilute solution that the polymer concentration is 0.5% and so low in viscosity as to be substantially difficult in forming or molding into a fiber or the like, and a rise in concentration thereof caused the polymer to be precipitated to make incapable of being used as a solution.
On the other hand, a solution in which PAN is modified with a primary amine is disclosed (for example, refer to "Journal of Polymer Science, Part A: Polymer Chemistry," (J. Polym. Sci. Part A: Polym. Chem.), 1990, Vol. 28, page 1623), but the solution is such as that imparted with hydrophilic property to the PAN itself, which is not made into flame resistant, and totally differs in technical ideas from a solution containing flame resistant polymer.
Further, a technique in which the yield can be improved together with physical properties by converting a flame resistant fiber to a carbon fiber in a specific carbonizing condition is disclosed (for example, refer to Official Gazette of JP Patent No. 2636509), but a compatibility therebetween with an easier method has been demanded.
With regard to a flame resistant polymer soluble in an organic solvent, we made a proposal (Pamphlet of WO 05/080448 A). However, at producing the flame resistant fiber by employing the technique, a more stabilized fiber forming ability, an improvement of physical properties of the obtained flame resistant or carbon fiber, decrease of variation of physical properties between single fibers in those fiber assemblies, or the like have been desired.
Furthermore, the flame resistant fiber obtained by the method described in Pamphlet of WO 05/080448 A, compared to the flame resistant fiber produced by the conventional step of making flame resistant in the air, could not be said that its mechanical strength is necessarily sufficient. The reason is, although it is known that excellent mechanical characteristics are exhibited by arranging orientation of constituent polymer in fiber axis direction, in the case of the method described in Pamphlet of WO 05/080448 A, that the flame resistant polymer as extruded from a spinneret is in a state of no orientation, and on the other hand, it was extremely difficult to make the molecule highly oriented by a drawing in the process since the flame resistant polymer molecule has a rigid structure.
For example, it is the major trend that carbon fibers used as a primary structural material of aircrafts are those in which PAN is used as the starting material. That is because the fiber is excellent in tensile modulus and strength in fiber axis direction, further, since it is also high in compressive strength, the material exhibits a high rigidity and, simultaneously, a defect such as a yield is unlikely to occur when molded into a composite. On the other hand, compared to the PAN-based carbon fiber, pitch-based carbon fiber has characteristics that its tensile modulus is high and its thermal conductivity or electric conductivity is also high, and used as material for panels of artificial satellite, cement reinforcement, parts of printer or copying machine, or the like.
Here, the difference of characteristics of both fibers is based on a difference of aggregate structures of graphene as described above, but the most basic unit of the aggregate structure of grapheme is a crystal. A well known relation between a crystal structure and characteristics is a relation between modulus or compressive strength and a crystal size. In general, in carbon fibers, as crystal size becomes large, modulus increases. This is because the modulus is related to structural regularity and it is understood that, as the crystal size increases and the structural regularity becomes higher, molecular movement by an external stress becomes smaller and the modulus becomes higher. When a fiber is compressed in the fiber axis direction, the maximum shear stress is loaded in direction of 45° to the fiber axis. This shear stress functions to crystal surfaces to slide, but since the force present between the graphenes is the van der Waals force which is very weak, when the crystal is large, a breakage is easy and likely to occur. That is, when crystal is large, a trade-off characteristic that modulus is high but compressive strength is low appears. A solution of the trade-off is a desire for long years in carbon fiber, and a compatibility of the modulus and the compressive strength is a strongly desired problem to be solved.
Furthermore, when electric conductivity or thermal conductivity is to be improved, it is advantageous that the crystal size is large. This is because the crystal transmits electrons in carbon fiber, and it is advantageous to make the crystal, which is the path of the electrons, as large as possible to maintain its continuity. On the other hand, when the crystal size is made large to increase electric conductivity or thermal conductivity, a defect is brought about that the material strength decreases and becomes brittle. That is because, in general, when crystal size is made large, to the extent that molecules are taken into the crystal, the space where the molecules were present becomes a void to generate a structural defect.
As mentioned above, with regard to carbon fiber, there are some problems of trade-off relation which are based on its structure and theoretically difficult to be solved. In order to solve these problems, various efforts have been made for long years. For example, with regard to compatibility between the modulus and the compressive strength of the PAN-based carbon fiber, the following technique is disclosed.
For example, when an acryl-based fiber is subjected to a carbonization treatment, a technique for obtaining a carbon fiber having a high tensile modulus and a high compressive strength by raising the temperature to 2200° C. or more and positively drawing the fiber to prevent its orientation relaxation, is disclosed. However, due to the high heat treatment temperature, the crystal size of the carbon fiber becomes large and the compressive strength is not increased as expected (refer to JP-S63-211326 A).
Further, a technique for decreasing crystal size by an electron beam radiation is disclosed (refer to JP-H4-19219 A). This is a technique for lowering molecular movement by electron beam cross-linking and preventing crystal growth. According to this technique, although the crystal size of the carbon fiber in surface layer of the carbon fiber decreases, since the maximum temperature of the carbonization treatment becomes 2000° C. or more, the crystal size of the carbon fiber as a whole does not decrease, and the improvement of the compressive strength was insufficient.
As the above-mentioned, various methods have been studied to improve carbon fiber characteristics by controlling a draw ratio or the like during heat treatments such as at fiber formation or carbonization treatment. However, in spite of these efforts, a PAN-based carbon fiber of which tensile modulus and compressive strength are compatible in a high level has not been obtained.
In the case of pitch-based carbon fiber which is another representative carbon fiber, the following technique is being studied to improve its weak point which is compressive strength.
For example, a technique of improving compressive strength of carbon fiber by spinning a pitch containing 5 to 40% optically anisotropic phase at an extremely high spinning viscosity (several thousands poises), and this is carbonized (refer to JP-H2-14023 A). A method of improving compressive strength by injecting boron ion under vacuum to a pitch-based carbon fiber is disclosed (refer to JP-H3-816 A).
However, in these techniques, compared to conventional production methods of carbon fiber, an extremely specific process condition or an impractical process means is necessary, and it was difficult to employ them as an industrial pitch-based production method of carbon fiber.
The above-mentioned are techniques relating to improvement of compressive strength, but there are many other problems of long years to be solved and they are too many to be mentioned. Various efforts have been made for both of the PAN-based and the pitch-based carbon fibers and the physical properties have been tried to be improved by process conditions or by improvement of precursor/carbon fiber, but any of them has brought about a substantial improvement.
By the way, we propose a production method completely different from the above-mentioned conventional carbon fiber produced by using the flame resistant fiber obtainable by the air-oxidation, i.e., a production method of carbon fiber of which starting material is an amine-modified flame resistant polymer (refer to Pamphlet of WO 05/080448 A). In the production method of carbon fiber described in the patent reference, there are merits that the production process of the flame resistant polymer which is the starting material is, compared to the production process of the conventional flame resistant fiber, not only low in plant cost, but also excellent in safety and in working environment. However, the flame resistant polymer molecule to be the starting material has a rigid structure, and it is extremely difficult to make this molecule highly oriented, and as a result, it was also difficult to obtain a carbon fiber excellent in mechanical properties.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a flame resistant fiber obtainable by fiber forming a flame resistant polymer, to improve fiber forming ability to obtain a flame resistant fiber assembly of a higher performance.

Flame resistant fiber, carbon fiber and production method thereof


A method of adhering a ceramic facing material to an underlying substrate is disclosed. Substrates to which the concepts apply include unsupported low modulus, porous wire pads as well as low modulus, porous wire pads backed by a solid metallic form. The ceramic application techniques employed are centered around the impregnation of the regions of the pad to be ceramic coated with an underlayment coating, such as MCrAlY material, wherein the designation "M" stands for at least one of the elements from the iron cobalt and nickel group. Deep penetration of the underlayment material into the pad is achieved with a high velocity, spraying process. Ceramic material is applied over the underlayment material by conventional spraying techniques.. Articles of manufacture which are suited to fabrication in accordance with the concepts disclosed herein include, but are not limited to, outer air seals, combustion chambers, and airfoils of gas turbine engines.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ceramic materials and more particularly to the application of a ceramic facing material to an underlying substrate in the manufacture of high temperature capability articles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ceramic materials in general are known to be effective thermal insulators in gas turbine environments and are currently utilized as coating materials for metallic substrates in high temperature environments. Such ceramics prevent unacceptable deterioration of the metallic forms to which they are adhered. Metallic and ceramic materials are not wholly compatible, however, as the large difference in coefficients of thermal expansion between the two materials makes adherence of the ceramic to the metal difficult. Moreover, subsequent thermal cycling of the finished part in the intended environment often causes cracking and spalling of the ceramic from the metal. Such problems are particularly severe where depths of coating in excess of a very few thousandths of an inch are desired.
A dominant portion of the prior art in this field is being developed in the gas turbine engine industry although the concepts have wider applicability. Representative components which hold potential for improved performance and durability through the incorporation of ceramic materials include combustion chambers, airfoils and outer air seals.
The construction of outer air seals, in particular, has received significant attention in the prior art and effective embodiments of such seals are continually sought. In an axial flow gas turbine engine, rows of rotor blades in both the compression and turbine sections of the engine extend radially outwardly on the rotor assembly across the flow path for working medium gases. An outer air seal affixed to the stator assembly circumscribes the tips of the blades of each blade row to inhibit the leakage of working medium gases over the tips of the blades. Each outer air seal is conventionally formed of a plurality of seal segments disposed in end to end relationship about the engine. The tip opposing surfaces of each segment are commonly formed of an abradable material which enables closely, toleranced initial conditions without destructive interference with the blade tips at transient conditions. Representative abradable seal lands and methods of manufacture are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,817,719 to Schilke et al entitled "High Temperature Abradable Material and Method of Preparing the Same"; 3,879,831 to Rigney et al entitled "Nickel Base High Temperature Abradable Material"; 3,918,925 to McComas entitled "Abradable Seal"; and 3,936,656 to Middleton et al entitled "Method of Affixing an Abradable Metallic Fiber Material to a Metal Substrate".
Notwithstanding the availability of the aforementioned materials and designs, manufacturers of gas turbine components continue to search for yet improved abradable material constructions having adequate durability in hostile environments. Particularly, within the turbine sections of engines where seal materials are exposed to local temperatures which may exceed twenty-five hundred degrees Fahrenheit (2500.degree. F.), material and structure selections having adequate durability are limited. Ceramic faced seals are of prime interest for turbine components.
One ceramic faced seal structure which is adapted to accommodate differences in coefficients of thermal expansion between the ceramic facing material and an underlying metallic substrate is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,031 to Marscher entitled "Stress Relief of Metal-Ceramic Gas Turbine Seals". Graded layers of material in which the relative amounts of metal and ceramic are varied from one hundred percent (100%) metal at the metal interface to one hundred percent (100%) ceramic at the ceramic interface are applied to the metal substrate.
Another type of ceramic faced seal structure is discussed in a paper delivered at the 1976 Joint Fall Meeting of the Basic Science, Electronics and Nuclear Divisions of the American Ceramic Society entitled "Bonding Ceramic Materials to Metallic Substrates for High-Temperature, Low-Weight Applications" and in NASA Technical Memorandum, NASA TM-73852, entitled "Preliminary Study of Cyclic Thermal Shock Resistance of Plasma-Sprayed Zirconium Oxide Turbine Outer Air Seal Shrouds". In accordance with the disclosed systems, a mat of sintered wires joins a ceramic layer to an underlying metallic substrate. The wires form a compliant layer which is capable of accommodating differential thermal expansion between substrate and ceramic layers. In the former structure the ceramic is applied directly to the wire mat. In the latter structure the ceramic is applied to a wire mat over a three to five thousandths of an inch 0.003-0.005 in.) bondcoat.
Although the structures discussed above are known to be highly desirable if adequate durability can be achieved, the structures have yet to achieve full potential, particularly in hostile environment applications.

Ceramic faced structures and methods for manufacture thereof


An apparatus for the treatment of metal-laminated plastics scrap and/or radio, television or computer scrap, wherein the scrap is heated in a closed container to a temperature at which the metal-plastic bond is broken and the metal and plastics parts are segregated from each other. The apparatus comprises a heatable container which is provided with a closable scrap charging opening and a closable products removal opening. An inert feed conduit and inert gas removal conduit are connected to the container which is formed as a rotary tube. An inert gas washing chamber is provided between the inert gas removal conduit and the inert gas feed conduit.

Metal-laminated plastics, in particular copperlaminated and aluminum-laminated plastics are being used to an ever increasing extent in the production processes of the electronics and electrical industry as printedcircuit boards, integrated circuits and the like and, as a consequence, correspondingly large amounts of residual and scrap material are generated in these production processes, the disposal of which causes ever greater problems.
The appliances produced in such a way also cause the same problems when they have served their useful purpose and are discarded. Dumping at refuse sites is environmentally too hazardous on account of the high metal content and is no longer allowable. Dumping at special refuse sites on the other hand is extremely expensive and, with the ever greater quantities, does not represent a solution to the problem.

Apparatus for the treatment of metal-laminated plastics scrap


A protective cover for the foot of a mattress comprises a web of preferably clear plastic that is rectangular and generally elongate. The web wraps around the foot of the mattress overlapping itself beneath the mattress where it is tightly secured to itself by hook and loop fastening material. Attached to the web along an upper edge thereof at the end of the mattress is an apron which hangs down covering the mattress end. The web serves to protect the mattress from soiling during testing by a consumer while the apron serves to provide for information indicia about the mattress brand, style and the like.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a combined mattress cover with an attached apron for covering the foot end of a mattress and, more particularly, to a combined mattress cover and apron for use in retail showrooms which not only protects a mattress from being soiled while it is tested by a customer, but also serves to clearly identify the brand name and other information relating to the demonstrated mattress.
2. Description of the Related Art
Before a customer purchases a new mattress, retailers and manufacturers recommend that the customer "test rest" the mattress. That is, the customer should fully lie on the mattress. By fully lying on the mattress, the customer can better compare the comfort of one mattress to another. However, some customers are reluctant to fully test rest a mattress because their shoes tend to soil or damage the mattress surface. Instead, such customers simply sit on anedge of the mattress or partially lie on the mattress with their feet dangling over a side of the mattress.
To encourage customers to test rest mattresses, some retailers and manufacturers have provided protective coverings placed over the foot end of the mattress. Such coverings include fitted sleeves which slide onto the end of the mattress. However, a disadvantage of these fitted sleeves is that they tend to easily fall off the end of the mattress after one or more customers test the mattress. One reason the fitted sleeves fall off is because mattresses vary in thickness. Although the width and length of mattresses have been standardized to fit available bed frames, the thicknesses of mattresses can vary between eight inches to fifteen or more inches. This makes it difficult for a sleeve cover to adequately fit various sized mattresses. As an alternative, vinyl covers have been sewn on the foot ends of mattresses for protection. However, such construction necessarily adds to manufacturing expense and consequent cost of the mattress. Also, a sewn vinyl cover can be ripped by a consumer testing the mattress. When this happens, the mattress must be sent back to the manufacturer for recovering and repair.
As a separate matter, retail showrooms for mattress sales typically contain a large number of mattresses having different characteristics and quality and also representing different manufacturing entities and brand names. As a consequence of the variety of available mattresses on display at the typical retail outlet, a consumer can easily become confused as to which product he or she has tested and finds preferable. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a means for prominently displaying the brand, logo or product destination of a mattress in a showroom in direct association with a particular mattress product. It is further desirable to display such information in not only an attractive and tasteful manner, but also in a manner which will not interfere with the consumer's testing of the mattress. Further, it is desirable to display such information in a convenient and cost-effective manner. Still further, it is desirable to provide a means for prominently displaying the brand and other source identifying information of a mattress while at the same time providing means for protecting the foot end of the mattress effectively against soiling during testing by the consumer.


A method and device to predict ovulation in a female human by measuring changes in the concentration of a number of ions in eccrine sweat is disclosed. The concentration, or changes in concentration, of one or more ions are determined throughout the day and analyzed against predetermined patterns in order to predict ovulation one to five days in advance. This permits the user to more accurately determine commencement of the fertile phase, which for female humans is generally considered to be about four days prior to ovulation to one day after ovulation. The concentration of the ions measured include sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), ammonium (NH4+), calcium (Ca2+), chloride (Clxe2x88x92) and nitrate (NO3xe2x88x92). To further increase the accuracy of the reading, a large number of readings can be obtained throughout a day and statistically analyzed to determine the change over time. In addition, the concentration of two or more ions can be obtained to increase accuracy. Ratiometric measurements between two or more ions can be determined to increase accuracy and account for ion accumulation on the skin. Ratiometric measurements between ammonium (NH4+) and calcium (Ca2+) have been found to provide more distinct patterns because the concentrations of these two ions change in opposite directions during the relevant period preceding ovulation.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining fertility status of a female. More specifically, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for predicting ovulation and thereby determining the fertile phase from the non-fertile phase in the reproductive cycle of a female mammal, and preferably a female human.
The fertile phase in a mammal can be defined as the period during which sperm present in the uterus may encounter and fertilize an egg. Generally, in female humans, the average reproductive cycle is 28 days, of which a released egg survives only about 12 to 24 hours. However, the uterus is capable of storing sperm for a period of up to four days. Thus, the fertile phase can commence up to four days prior to ovulation and last for up to one day after ovulation. But, the time period following ovulation, when an egg is released, is relatively narrow.
Many prior art devices have been proposed to determine when ovulation has occurred. However, by merely determining when ovulation has occurred, these prior art devices and methods only determine a fraction of the fertile phase in a female human. Clearly, an advantage can be obtained by predicting ovulation at least four days in advance, which will encompass the entire fertile phase of a woman. In this way, pregnancy can be planned.
Several methods for determining ovulation have been proposed in the past. In female humans, the maturation of ovarian follicles which will eventually release a fertile egg are effected by the action of Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH) secreted by the anterior lobe of the pituitary. The ovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle is preceded by a significant rise in serum total estrogens 24 to 48 hours prior to ovulation, which prepare the uterus for possible implantation. The rise in estrogens is followed by a rapid rise in serum luteinizing hormone (LH) reaching a peak 12 to 24 hours prior to ovulation. Many other physiological conditions also change around the time of ovulation. For instance, basal body temperature (BBT) reaches a nadir followed by a sharp rise around the time of ovulation. Cervical mucus undergoes viscosity changes stimulated by rising estrogen which can help direct sperm towards the egg.
Several fertility detectors have been developed which measure these various hormones or their indirect physiological effects. The BBT method, referred to above, generally requires female humans to take their vaginal temperature and chart the value every morning before rising. Besides the considerable diligence involved, the method is generally only accurate within one to two days of ovulation, and gives no prior notice. Cervical mucus measurements have been regarded as somewhat more helpful. Women can examine their cervical mucus for a thinning of the mucus just before ovulation, which allows it to be drawn intact between the fingers and is referred to as the spinbarkeit reaction. Another method involves examining the cervical mucus under a microscope and looking for a xe2x80x9cferningxe2x80x9d reaction indicative of imminent ovulation. A further method measures vaginal mucus conductivity using impedance probes which allows a somewhat more quantitative estimation of the mucus changes as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,186. U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,238 to Sundhar discloses an ovulation monitor which determines the presence of a viable egg by sensing the mucous density, basil body temperature, and pH level and LH level of secretion in the vagina.
However, these prior art methods suffer from the disadvantage that they determine ovulation, but do not provide a means for predicting ovulation, thereby missing a large portion of the fertile phase. Also, cervical mucus examination suffers from subjective errors as well as being arduous and again gives little to no prior notice of ovulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,319 to Marett discloses that a significant pH nadir in female eccrine sweat was found to occur approximately five to six days prior to ovulation. In this way, tracking the pH of eccrine sweat could assist in predicting ovulation, and thereby determining the fertility status of a female human. Furthermore, an advantage of tracking pH is that it is inherently buffered in that the hydrogen ions H+ can react with the hydroxide ion (OH) to form water. In addition, even though there is no satisfactory mechanism to explain skin acidity, previous studies have found that eccrine sweat of women is also generally buffered by either the lactic acid/lactate system, free amino acid secretion or CO2 bicarbonate. The benefit of having the pH buffered is that changes in the quantity of eccrine sweat, such as through evaporation or increased physical activity, will not greatly affect the pH, thereby avoiding spurious readings.
Several researchers have also investigated changes of other ions in eccrine sweat. For instance, Lieberman and Taylor looked at chloride (Clxe2x88x92), sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) in the eccrine sweat of female humans (Lieberman et al. JAMA Feb. 21, 1996, Vol. 195, No. 8, pages 117-123 and Taylor et al., Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Vol. 53, No. 3, pages 234-237, 1969). However, neither Lieberman nor Taylor investigated changes in the concentrations of these ions prior to ovulation and for the purpose of predicting ovulation.
One disadvantage of much of the prior art has been that it fails to predict ovulation at least three to six days in advance. Because of this, the prior art methods and devices fail to determine the entire fertile phase of a female.
Furthermore, other than for measuring pH, the prior art has failed to consider what other characteristics of eccrine sweat of female humans can be used to predict ovulation. The prior art has failed to provide a reliable and consistent method and device to obtain measurements of the characteristics of eccrine sweat, such as changes in the concentrations of ions, other than pH. In addition, the prior art has failed to provide a method and device which can measure changes in concentrations of ions in eccrine sweat which are not naturally buffered, as is pH, and which may therefore vary due to other factors, such as eccrine sweat volume due to increased physical activity, ambient temperature or evaporation.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method and device to reliably and economically predict ovulation three to six days in advance in order to determine a larger portion of the fertile phase of a female mammal, and preferably a female human. There is also a need for a method and device to predict ovulation which is easy to use, reliable and inexpensive.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to at least partially overcome some of the disadvantages of the prior art. Also, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved method and device to assist in predicting ovulation in female mammals, and preferably female humans, about one to six days in advance, which is reliable and can be economically implemented.
Accordingly, in one of its aspects, this invention resides in a device for determining a fertile phase of a female human comprising: (a) a sensor for sensing concentrations of at least two ions in the eccrine sweat of the female and generating output signals indicative of concentrations of the at least two ions in the eccrine sweat; (b) a processor for controlling the sensor to sense the concentrations of at least two ions in the eccrine sweat substantially simultaneously and at least on a daily basis; and wherein the processor monitors the output signals from the sensor to identify a distinct change in the concentration of one of the at least two ions following an inversion which indicates the female human is in the fertile phase.
In a further aspect, the present invention resides in a device for determining the fertility status of a female mammal comprising: (a) a sensing means for sensing at least one ion selected from the group consisting of potassium (K+), ammonium (NH4+), calcium (Ca2+), chloride (Clxe2x88x92), nitrate (NO3) and sodium (Na+), in the eccrine sweat of the female mammal and generating output signals indicative of the concentration of ions in the eccrine sweat; (b) processor means for controlling the sensing means to sense the at least one ion in the eccrine sweat at least on a daily basis; and wherein the processor means monitors the output signals stored in the storage means to identify a distinct change in a concentration of one of the ions following an inversion which indicates the female mammal is in the fertile phase.
One advantage of the present invention is that changes in concentrations of several different types of ions in eccrine sweat can be sensed and analyzed to predict ovulation in female mammals. These ions include sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), ammonium (NH4+), calcium (Ca2+) and nitrate (NO3xe2x88x92). In this way, different types of sensors can be selected to sense the corresponding ions, such as sodium (Na+), chloride (Clxe2x88x92), ammonium (NH4+), potassium (K+), calcium (Ca2+) and nitrate (NO3xe2x88x92). In addition, sensors to sense the conductivity of eccrine sweat, thereby indirectly measuring the total concentration of all of the ions, can be used. This permits a selection to be made as to which sensor is most reliable for a particular situation.
For instance, in colder climates where the user may excrete less eccrine sweat, a different type of ion, and a different type of sensor, could be used than in warmer climates where more eccrine sweat is excreted. Likewise, in veterinarian use, different sensors to sense different ions could be used depending on the particular situation and mammal whose fertility status is being sensed. Furthermore, this permits the sensor to be selected based on features other than reliability, such as cost and availability.
A further advantage of the present invention is that it provides for measurement of changes in concentrations of more than one ion in eccrine sweat. In this way, the changes in concentration of two or more ions can be monitored to provide confirmatory readings in order to more accurately predict ovulation and avoid false readings due to non-hormonal effects such as eccrine sweat volume, diet and stress.
A further advantage of measuring changes in concentration of more than one ion in eccrine sweat is that ratiometric measurements can be obtained. For example, it has been discovered that sodium (Na+) and chloride (Clxe2x88x92) ions in eccrine sweat are the dominant ions and can be used to reference the rate of sweating. By using sodium (Na+) or chloride (Clxe2x88x92) as a reference ion, the concentration changes in other ions in relation to sodium (Na+) and chloride (Clxe2x88x92) can be assessed. The ratio of chloride (Clxe2x88x92) to sodium (Na+) is particularly constant, which is expected because chloride (Clxe2x88x92) is the main counter ion for sodium (Na+). While the concentrations of chloride (Clxe2x88x92) and sodium (Na+) ions can each be measured individually to predict ovulation, these ions can also be used in order to account for changes in concentrations of the other ions, such as potassium (K+), ammonium (NH4+), calcium (Ca2+) and nitrate (NO3xe2x88x92), due to changes in the quantity of eccrine sweat, such as through evaporation, increased ambient temperature, increased physical activity or ion accumulation on the skin over time. This is the case because while sodium (Na+) and chloride (Clxe2x88x92) surge prior to ovulation, they do not surge as much as other ions, such as nitrate (NO3xe2x88x92), calcium (Ca2+) and ammonium (NH4+). Accordingly, by performing a ratiometric measurement between one of the ions, such as potassium (K+), ammonium (NH4+), calcium (Ca2+) or nitrate (NO3xe2x88x92), with respect to either sodium (Na+) and/or chloride (Clxe2x88x92), a more consistent measurement of the ions can be obtained, and changes in concentration due to changes in eccrine sweat volume and ion accumulation on the skin over the day can be accounted for to some extent. In this way, a more accurate measurement can be made.
A still further advantage of the present invention is that some of the ions have been found to have counteracting effects. For instance, the concentration of calcium (Ca2+) has been found to change in the opposite direction during the time period of interest preceding ovulation. In this way, performing a ratiometric measurement of calcium (Ca2+) with respect to another ion, such as ammonium (NH4+), can improve prediction because a more pronounced effect will be monitored.
In order to further improve the prediction, three ions may be measured, such as ammonium (NH4+), calcium (Ca2+) and either sodium (Na+) or chloride (Clxe2x88x92). Measurements can then be made with respect to ammonium (NH4+) and sodium (Na+), as well as sodium (Na+) and calcium (Ca2+), to account for changes in concentrations of all of the ions due to accumulation on the skin or changes in eccrine sweat volume due to temperature and/or physical activity. These two ratiometric measurements can then be compared to obtain a ratiometric measurement of ammonium (NH4+) with respect to calcium (Ca2+), but with some of the changes due to other effects accounted for because the concentrations of ammonium (NH4+) and calcium (Ca2+) were initially measured with respect to sodium (Na+).
A further advantage of the present invention relates to one embodiment where the method is implemented by means of a device that is in contact with the skin for extended periods of time, such as 12 hours on a daily basis. This facilitates taking several readings over the course of a day so that a better statistical analysis can be performed. Furthermore, by taking several readings over the course of a day, spurious readings can be identified and eliminated. Furthermore, the device can, in a preferred embodiment, sense when it is not on the skin so that a reading will not be taken at this time. This obviously decreases the number of incorrect readings, while at the same time, not adversely affecting the overall daily reading, because a large number of other readings will likely be obtained during the course of the day and can be used to obtain a reliable average. In other words, by taking a large number of readings, such as 10 to 48, over a period of time, such as 24 hours, and statistically examining these readings, changes in eccrine sweat not related to menstrual hormones can be largely removed.
A still further advantage of the present invention is that readings from previous reproductive cycles can be stored for the same female. These stored readings can be used to better predict ovulation by ignoring readings taken during the early part of the reproductive cycle. For instance, if it is known from previous reproductive cycles that a particular female human never ovulates within four days of menstruation starting, the readings at the beginning of the reproductive cycle, following menstruation will be given less weight in predicting ovulation in the future. In a preferred embodiment, the duration of the reproductive cycle is determined and then, for female humans, ovulation is estimated to occur at some time in the last 19 days of the reproductive cycle. This coincides with the Luteal period which is generally 14 days from ovulation to menstruation for humans. Accordingly, the portion of the reproductive cycle prior to 19 days from the estimated start of menstruation is given less weight or disregarded for the purposes of determining the fertile phase of the female.
Further aspects of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and drawings which illustrate the invention and the preferred embodiments of the invention.

Method and device for predicting the fertile phase of women


A corrective trenchless pipeline installation method basically includes the operational steps of, first, forming a substantially irregular initial pilot hole underground in earthen matter between a pair of spaced entry and exit pits formed in the earthen matter, second, reforming the substantially irregular initial pilot hole into a substantially straight corrected pilot hole, third, reaming the corrected pilot hole to provide an expanded straight pilot hole, and, fourth, pulling a pipeline through the expanded corrected pilot hole. In reforming the irregular initial pilot hole to the straight corrected pilot hole a cutter blade is concurrently reciprocated back and forth through the irregular pilot hole and rotated relative to the irregular pilot hole to form the corrected straight pilot hole therefrom.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to pipeline installation and, more particularly, is concerned with a trenchless method and for accurate installation of a pipeline in which corrective alignment of an initial inaccurate pilot hole is carried out before pipeline installation take place.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the traditional way of laying a new underground pipeline system, a deep trench is normally first dug along the route planned for the pipeline system. Next, the pipeline is laid in the trench. Then, after the pipeline is so laid, the trench is filled in and the original surface restored. Significant disruption to neighborhoods, traffic flow, business operations and public convenience is experienced by this traditional trenching method of laying a new underground pipeline.
In the replacement of old underground pipelines with new pipelines, a trenchless method has been developed which substantially avoids having to dig up and then restore the surface. The trenchless pipeline replacement method utilizes the old pipeline to be replaced as a pilot hole for guiding an installation tool for either bursting or extracting the old pipeline and installing the new pipeline in its place. At most, the only excavation necessary is the digging of spaced pits for insertion (and, in some instances, extraction) of pipeline, disconnection and reconnection of adjacent service lines and placement of boring drive machines. As an example, when replacing an existing watermain on a typical residential block about 150 meters in length, the total length of the pipeline route which has to be excavated for the machine, insertion/extraction and service pits is around 20 to 25 meters. This leaves about 85% of the pavement along the pipeline route undisturbed.
These two principal trenchless methods are suited primarily for pipeline replacement in which the old pipeline laid by the trenching method is used as the pilot or guide hole. Various approaches have been devised to apply the trenchless method to the laying of a new, original (as opposed to replacement) pipeline system. These approaches, commonly known as directional drilling, rod pushing, air piercing and microtunneling, involve placing a pilot hole insertion machine either on the surface or in an entry pit to drive an insertion tool to produce a pilot hole from the entry pit to the exit pit. After reaching the exit pit, the pilot hole insertion tool is retracted from the pilot hole while a string of drive rods from a drive unit are advanced along the pilot hole to the entry pit. Once the drive rod string reaches the entry pit, an enlargement tool is attached to the drive rod string and the tool is pulled back to the exit pit, opening up the pilot hole and installing the new pipeline behind it, as in the pipe bursting or pipe extraction method of trenchless pipeline replacement.
However, a serious drawback of the aforementioned approaches is that the conventional machines typically used are unable to produce the pilot hole with the accuracy needed for the centerline of the pilot hole to meet grade requirement for gravity flow distribution systems, such as sewerlines. Thus, in new construction projects, the more costly, traditional trenching method typically must be used.
Consequently, a need exists for improvement of the aforementioned conventional approaches so as to overcome the drawback described above with respect to the lack of accuracy in producing the pilot hole.

Trenchless pipeline installation method and apparatus employing corrective alignment of pilot hole


A media player monitors a media feed (e.g., a web feed) for availability of newly published content available over a network. Via the feed, the media player can receive notification that certain retrievable content (e.g., the same content or substantially similar content) is available from multiple different locations over the network. The notification can include multiple pointers for use by the media player to retrieve the content. For example, a first pointer of the multiple pointers can identify a first remote location over the network in which to retrieve the content, a second pointer can identify a second remote location over the network in which to retrieve the content, and so on. The media player can have an associated download manager that selects an appropriate one of the pointers to retrieve the content depending on which of one or more download by applications resides on a computer system.

Conventional computer systems enable production and distribution of multimedia data, including video, audio and image data. Such production is increasing at a phenomenal rate due to the growing popularity of the Internet, the growing affordability of personal computers capable of efficiently processing multimedia data to provide a pleasing experience for users, and the enhanced viewing experience that multimedia provides over "text-only" type images.
People now access and use multimedia data in numerous ways. One way that people access multimedia data is over a network such as the Internet. For example, people using web browsers on personal computers now routinely access multimedia data by surfing the World Wide Web via the Internet.
Countless numbers of content providers link multimedia data to web pages accessible by people using web browsers. Accordingly, via use of today's web pages, persons using media player applications (e.g., web browsers) can access a web server operated by a content provider to playback content such as view video clips, listen to audio clips, or view images made available by the content provider.
To request media content such as digital video, audio, or some other sampled content from a server, a corresponding client typically provides the global address of the content in the form of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). After receiving a request for content, a respective server receiving the request then accesses the content and sends or "streams" it to the client as a continuous data stream that is played back by the client as the stream is received. Alternatively, the client can play the content for viewing by the user (e.g., via a media player application) upon completion of receiving all of the content data from the server.

Media players and download manager functionality


A computer system in which the system software (while running as an overhead process which is not directly under control of the user) queries a disk drive to determine its model. The system software checks the corresponding response string with reference to a table of recognized model strings (in encrypted format). If the drive's response string is recognized in this table, then the drive parameters can be set appropriately. If not, then this portion of the system software will not set the drive parameters; instead, the normal manual setup procedure can be used.

The present invention relates to small personal computers, and to methods for using them.
The innovations disclosed in the present application provide computer systems (especially very small portable personal computers) which have advantageous new capabilities for disk drive management. To better explain the significance and advantages of these innovations, the following paragraphs (down to page 5) will review some technological context. This technological context is not necessarily prior art, but is intended to help in pointing out the disclosed inventions.
Laptop and Smaller Computers
Portable personal computers were introduced in the early 1980s, and proved to be very useful and popular. As this market has developed, it has become increasingly dear that users strongly desire systems to have small volume, small weight, physical durability, and long battery-powered lifetime. Thus, small portable computers ("laptop" computers) have proven extremely popular during the late 1980s. Users continue to demand more features, longer time between recharges, and lower weight and volume. This combination of demands is difficult to meet. Moreover, as of 1990, another smaller generation of portable computers has begun to appear, referred to as "notebook" computers. This smaller form factor will only exacerbate the difficulty of the above tradeoffs.
Note that the hard drive in a notebook computer is normally bolted in, and is not intended to be readily changed by the user. Thus, since the choice of hard drives is controlled by the manufacturer, the system does not have as difficult a recognition problem as it would if users could freely introduce new hard drive modules.
Basic System Software
Whatever hardware is used will have its own procedures to return to a known state when a reset occurs. However, at some point these procedures end, and the CPU is ready to begin execution of instructions.
At this point the system performs various overhead tasks under software control. These may include surveying the system configuration, sanity checks, etc.
"Basic Input/Output System" Software (BIOS)
In modern personal computers, the initial target address is normally used as the entry point to a "basic input/output system" (BIOS) program. The BIOS program contains frequently-used routines for interfacing to key peripherals, for interrupt handling, and so forth..sup.1 In addition to these basic input/output routines, the "BIOS" software also includes some key pieces of overhead software, such as configuration update and the power-on-self-test (POST) routines..sup.2 The BIOS software will also launch the machine into the operating system software..sup.3 (Thus, the term "BIOS" has become somewhat broader nowadays, and normally refers to this whole collection of basic system routines.) FNT .sup.1 Thus, the BIOS software provides some degree of machine-independence. However, in PC-class computers, this independence is not fully exploited by the available commercial software. Many programs bypass the BIOS software, and directly access the underlying hardware addresses or devices. See generally Glass, "The IBM PC BIOS," Byte, April 1989, pp. 303ff. FNT .sup.2 The POST routines provide an extensive check for hardware integrity. FNT .sup.3 Depending on how the system has been set up, the BIOS software may direct program execution into DOS, Unix, PS/2, a DOS variant, or another operating system. However, the choice of operating system is not particularly relevant to the inventions described in the present application.
Disk Drive Management in Personal Computers
In standard personal computers, the operating system must be aware of a significant number of disk parameters, including the heads, cylinders, sectors, and interleave. See generally Rosch, "Sectors, tracks, and heads," PC SOURCES vol. 2 no. 1 (Jan. 1991), at 378, which is hereby incorporated by reference; and Roberts, "Finding disk parameters," PC TECH JOURNAL, vol. 4 no. 5 (May 1986), at 112ff, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Normally, the user advises the system software of disk parameters, as follows:
When the computer is booted, it always offers the user the opportunity to branch into a SETUP utility. Also, if the computer detects corruption of the configuration memory data, or if the computer detects a mismatch between the configuration memory data and the installed equipment, or (sometimes) if a hardware error is encountered during the POST routines, the POST software will invite the user to enter the SETUP routine. PA0 When the user runs the SETUP routine, it displays a table of numbered drive types, with parameters for each. The user is asked to select one of these drive types. (Recent SETUP routines will query the drive to ascertain its parameters, and will suggest a choice to the user.) After the user selects a drive type, the relevant information is stored in the configuration memories in nonvolatile memory (battery-backed CMOS), and the user is prompted to reboot the computer.
Selecting a drive type is confusing to new users, and presents some possibility for error. Consequences of such errors can easily include inoperability or loss of data, ff an inexperienced user gets into manual SETUP without realizing what he is doing.
The Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) Disk Interface
In recent years, interfacing to hard disk drives has been greatly simplified by the rapid introduction of Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) disk drives. An IDE drive includes the drive controller electronics integrated with the drive, so the interface to it can be a high-level digital interface. As drives have evolved, the interface is becoming standardized; this evolving interface is referred to as the AT Attachment interface, hereinafter "ATA" and has been proposed for adoption as an American National Standards Institute, hereinafter ANSI standard. See generally Alford, "The IDE Hard Disk Drive Interface," BYTE magazine, March 1991 (vol. 16 No.3), at 317ff, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
An IDE drive controller does handle many low-level tasks (such as soft error detect and retry), and some can even remap the drive sectors invisibly to the operating system; but (at least with current IDE interface definitions, and with current operating systems such as DOS, OS/2, and UNIX) the IDE controller does not fully mask the drive specifics from the operating system. Thus, the CPU, under control of the system software, still needs to be able to ascertain the drive parameters.
Under the evolving ATA standard, one of the commands which an IDE drive controller will recognize is an identity query. In response to such a query, the controller will output a block of data which includes the drive's model number and serial number, as well as parameters for the drive.
Computer System with Automatic Drive: Model ID Recognition and Adaptation
The present application discloses a computer system in which the system software (while running as an overhead process which is not directly under control of the user) queries a disk drive to determine its model. The disk drive returns a data field which includes an ID string, and the system software compares this string against a table of recognized model strings. If the drive's response string is recognized in this table, then the drive parameters can be set appropriately. If not, then this portion of the system software will not set the drive parameters. (However, the normal manual setup procedure can still be used.)
The presently preferred embodiment implements this idea in an ISA architecture. In this case the POST process (stored in the BIOS ROM) queries the hard disk to determine what kind it is and automatically sets the CMOS hard disk drive type to its corresponding value. Previously, this required knowing the CMOS drive type number of the hard disk, or knowing the correct drive parameters and searching through all available CMOS drive types to find the one that corresponds.
Limited Use of Drive's Self-Description Capability
When the CPU is running the innovative software, it issues an identification query to the drive: for example, with an IDE drive, the CPU issues an "IDE.sub.-- identify" command. In response to this command, an IDE drive will return a block of data (in a format substantially defined by the ATA standard) which includes a model-unique identification string. That is, this string will specify the manufacturer's model number (e.g. "Conner Peripherals 42MB--CP2044") at byte 36.sub.H of the block of 512 bytes.
The block of data returned by an IDE drive also includes drive parameters. However, the present invention does not use these drive parameters (except, optionally, as additional bits of input to the string match, as detailed below.
The disclosed innovative architecture also provides additional options for exploitation. Thus, for example, an IDE controller might be running an emulation, which could be bypassed by software according to the present inventions, if the IDE's emulation would not produce optimal efficiency for a particular application.
Encryption
Preferably the table of permissible model strings is stored in encrypted format. This prevents competitors from simply reading out the list of permissible drive models (which would disclose supplier information). In this case the comparison operation must be adapted accordingly.
In the presently preferred embodiment, the table of permissible model strings is encrypted using a very simple algorithm: the values are simply XORed with a constant. This provides some minimal impediment to competitors' inspection.
The string returned by the disk drive is tested with reference to the encrypted entries. (The comparison operation itself includes translation steps which permit the unencrypted returned string to be compared, without a separate transformation operation, to the encrypted entries in the table.)
Launch from POST
The innovative routine is called out of POST. It recognizes the drive. It looks up the optimal type number for that drive, and writes the nonvolatile configuration memory accordingly. However, if this routine does not recognize the drive model string, it changes nothing.
As part of the POST routines, the innovative procedures will run every time the computer is booted. However, these procedures do not add any significant delay to the boot process.
Sequence of POST Steps
The innovative drive-recognition steps are preferably performed before any disk-access operations are needed. Thus, in the presently preferred embodiment, these drive-recognition steps are performed just after the reset and self-test of the drive is initiated.
Updating
To obtain the maximum benefit, the table of hard drive models in the system software should be updated to recognize new drive models, before systems with the new drive model are released. Thus, in practice, the engineering team which evaluates a new drive for possible inclusion will add the additional recognition entry into the BIOS. By the time the new drive model is cleared for shipping, the corresponding recognition capability is already in the BIOS.
Currently there are ten different drive models in the recognition table, but of course this is expected to change.
Forward Compatibility.
The disclosed system and method provides improved forward compatibility. New drive models continue to be introduced, and there remains at least a theoretical possibility that a new drive model might match an existing model in some parameters, but not in all. Thus, recognition by parameter comparisons raises a risk of misrecognition.
Of course, as new drive models are introduced, the BIOS software can be updated accordingly.

Computer system with automatic drive model ID recognition and drive type adaptation


Systems and methods for bone cement removal using real-time acoustic feedback, such as during a drilling process in a revision arthroplasty, are discussed. A system for bone cement removal may include a processor to perform operation comprising receiving digital frequency data from the microphone, comparing at least a portion of the digital frequency data to a plurality of frequency signatures, and determining, based at least in part on the comparing, whether the portion of the digital frequency data is representative of a cut bone frequency or a cut bone cement frequency.

Replacement of prosthetic joints often becomes necessary, even in the best of situations. Sometimes an infection develops or a prosthetic fails, but other times, the prosthetic is simply worn out. Regardless of the reason, replacement (or "revision" as it is sometimes called) poses a difficult problem for a surgeon in that more bone will need to be removed to enable the new prosthetic to fit tightly, but it is best to remove as little additional bone as possible.
In hip arthroplasty, for example, a prosthesis stem portion is placed in the intramedullary canal of the femur and stabilized with a cement mantle. When a revision joint arthroplasty surgery is performed, the stem from the previous prosthesis needs to be removed and consequently so does the cement mantle used for the implant. To remove the cement mantle a surgical drill or bur is used. All previous techniques that use drills and burs to remove the cement mantle, however, also run a high risk of removing additional bone unnecessarily.
To combat this problem, some previous technologies focused on guiding the drill so that it is aligned to not do any damage. U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,035 to Mikhail et al. discloses a system for performing hip prosthesis revision surgery that includes a trial femoral component having a passageway which, upon insertion into the cavity remaining after removal of the original prosthesis, provides guide means for drilling a channel to receive a guide wire which, upon removal of the trial femoral component, serves as guide means for progressively larger reamers. Alternatively, stopping a surgical drill once it breaks through a workpiece so that no unintended damage is done is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,463,421 to Brett et al. In Brett, a control breakthrough method is described wherein the speed of the drill bit is controlled by continually measuring the force and torque on the drill bit during the procedure and calculating the rate of change in the force and torque so that soft tissues are not damaged. Neither of these technologies, however, has been brought to bear on the problem of removing cement while maintaining bone during revision surgery.

Bone cement removal using real-time acoustic feedback


An apparatus for mounting a rolling door curtain on a barrel assembly, which will be attached in position about an opening that the rolling door curtain will close, is disclosed comprising a movable carrier having drive means attached thereto in one position with rolling door curtain support braces attached to the movable carrier below the drive means wherein the barrel assembly is removably attached to the drive means and rotatably attached to the movable carrier.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to rolling doors, and more particularly to apparatus for mounting a rolling door curtain on a barrel assembly.
2. Prior Art
Presently rolling door curtains are constructed principally from metal strips hingedly connected together, although they can also be constructed from wood or other materials. Typically, the rolling door curtains are shipped from the manufacturer to the installer in a rolled up bundle. In most instances, there will be cardboard or other protective material between each roll in the bundle to protect the rolling door curtain from being bent or damaged in shippage. The size of the bundle can vary depending upon the size of the rolling door curtain, but, generally, the rolling door curtain is between eight (8) to fifteen (15) feet wide and eight (8) to twenty (20) feet long.
The present practice to install the rolling door curtain is first to unroll the bundle out over a flat surface on the ground, such as a concrete driveway, then attach the rolling door cutain to a barrel assembly, wind the rolling door curtain on the barrel assembly while it is on the ground, and finally to lift the barrel assembly with wound rolling door curtain in position to be permanently attached.
An alternate present practice is to first attach the barrel assembly in position, then unwind and lift the rolling door curtain to the barrel assembly for attachment, and finally wind the rolling door curtain about the barrel assembly.
In either of the present techniques, multiple problems occur, some of which include: damage to the rolling door curtain when it is laid out on the ground, requirement of a large area to wind the rolling door curtain, difficulty in attaching the rolling door curtain to the pre-hung barrel assembly and the time required to attach and position the rolling door curtain.
Some of the disadvantages were overcome by the apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,221, entitled "Rolling Door Curtain Mounting Apparatus" issued to the inventor herein on May 8, 1979. While this apparatus works well for smaller rolling door curtains, difficulty in rolling the curtain onto the barrel still occurs when utilizing the larger curtains.


A pressure sensitive member comprises a base sheet and an opaque pressure clarifiable layer overlying the substrate and the color of the substrate being different from that of the opaque clarifiable layer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pressure sensitive recording sheet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been heretofore known inscribable labels. The simplest ones are those made of paper, but are of very poor water resistance and can not be used outdoors or in water. Another type of inscribable label is composed of a colored plastic base sheet, a crystalline wax coated thereon and a transparent film overlying the crystalline wax coat and the inscription can be effected from the transparent film side. However, this label has poor heat and light resistances and is not suitable for a long time use outdoors. A further conventional inscribable label is a so-called "embossing tape" composed of a colored backing sheet and a transparent film overlying the backing sheet which becomes whitened when subjected to deformation by a punch-die. The embossing tape has an excellent circumstance resistance. However, the inscription can not be made by a usual stylus or ball-point pen, but only by a special tool such as a punch-die.


A method of recovering a frequency modulated signal wherein the frequency modulated information signal is sampled at a rate less than the Nyquist sampling rate, following which the under sampled signal can be demodulated to extract the original information signal.

Radio communications based upon frequency modulation of an information signal of interest are well known in the art. To date, most such radios have been analog based. Nevertheless some progress has been made in digitizing at least a portion of the reception, demodulation and/or audio processing functions of such a radio.
In order to facilitate such digital processing, the received FM signal must, at some point, be digitized through an appropriate sampling process. This signal may then be further processed to provide a digital signal suitable for demodulation and subsequent processing.
Well accepted sampling theory teaches that the signal to be sampled (see FIG. 1) should be sampled at frequency at least twice the bandwidth (+/-fFM in FIG. 1) of the original signal. Therefore, if we presume reception by the FM radio of an FM signal consigned to a plus/minus 12.5 kHz channel, an acceptable sampling rate of the FM signal (presuming zero IF) (f.sub.S in FIG. 2) must be 25 kHz or higher. If this criterion is not met, the frequency images can overlap one another (as depicted in FIG. 3), thereby giving rise to aliasing. According to traditional sampling theory, once a signal has been subjected to aliasing, it is theoretically impossible to reconstruct the original analog signal.
Because of this limitation, an FM radio that makes use of a digital signal processing platform must devote a significant amount of its resources towards processing of a significant number of samples that are representative of the original analog information signal.

Digital FM demodulator with a reduced sampling rate


A system, method and apparatus for protecting privacy when a mobile device is located in a defined privacy zone are described herein. The available features that a user of a mobile device may use are controlled while the mobile device is located in a define privacy zone. Once a mobile device is detected in the define privacy zone, a database is accessed to determine if the mobile device has the features available that are to be disabled. If the features are available, a disable signal is sent via the communications network to the mobile device and the feature is disabled. Once the mobile device is detected to be outside of the defined privacy zone, the previously disabled mobile device feature is enabled.

Mobile devices today typically have expanded communication functions and capabilities. In the case of cell phones, for example, a user is capable of having access to voice calling, incoming call alert, incoming message alert, text messaging, instant messaging, picture messaging, and video messaging. These and future applications and capabilities are becoming widely available due to the rapid advancement of digital, wireless technology and the hardware and software integration on the mobile devices, and particularly, mobile phones. Mobile phones have further become highly affordable as a result of the volume of production and rapid cost reduction, and thus, their use has become essentially ubiquitous.
Users typically move freely from location to location with mobile phones and use mobile phone functionality just as freely. Additionally, this use may occur without drawing the attention of others. Further, because of the expansion of wireless telecommunication network coverage, users can increasingly communicate or transfer information from any source location to any other destination location, including through the internet or to another user's mobile phone.
This ability to transmit data from almost anywhere to almost anywhere has become increasingly problematic with respect to security or privacy. As an example, a user having a mobile phone with camera capabilities may enter an unauthorized area in a company having confidential information or a sensitive location such as a nightclub, court room or military facility and take photos and/or video clips of documents, events, or people at the location. As has become evident in numerous examples that find their way onto popular video and photograph sharing websites, this activity can often be performed and achieved without alerting anyone around the user.
Today, usually the only counter-measure a company or individual takes to attempt to control this surreptitious activity is to post a physical sign with a warning message to remind people that certain activities are forbidden. The only other alternatives may be to request the user to turn their mobile phone off or not to allow mobile phones entering into the area at all. Both of these alternatives are rarely well received and ineffective, especially considering the small miniature size of cell phones.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System, method and apparatus for protecting privacy when a mobile device is located in a defined privacy zone


A planar array antenna for use with an earth-based subscriber unit generates receive or transmit communications beams through the use of digital beamforming networks (210, 211) which provide beam steering in a first dimension. In another dimension, the communications beams are synthesized by way of a waveguide structure (300, FIG. 3) which is repeated for each row of the antenna array. The waveguide outputs are weighted due to the positioning of coupling slots (350) or coupling probes (450) which transfer carrier signals to and from each waveguide. The slots or coupling probes from the waveguides are coupled to a group of barium strontium titanate (BST) (360, FIG. 3) or micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) switch (460, FIG. 4) phase shift elements which are under the control of a control network (221, 222, FIG. 2). The resulting signals are radiated by the antenna elements of the planar antenna array (310, FIG. 3) to form a communications beam.

In a high bandwidth communications system where the communications nodes are in motion relative to earth-based subscriber units, a subscriber unit typically maintains a link with the moving communications node using a narrow communications beam. A narrow communications beam allows the earth-based subscriber unit to transmit information to and receive information from the moving communications node at high data rates. Typically, a more narrow receive or transmit beam allows a higher data rate to be used between the communications node and the earth-based subscriber.
Previous earth-based systems used for tracking moving communications nodes, such as low earth orbit satellites, involve the use of mechanically steered reflector antennas. However, when the communications node is a low earth orbit satellite, the satellite may travel from one horizon to another and be in view of the subscriber unit for only a few short minutes. Therefore, since the mechanically steered reflector antenna must constantly be moved in order to maintain the communications link between the satellite and the subscriber unit, the mechanical components begin to wear and must periodically be replaced. This periodic replacement increases the life cycle cost which an earth-based subscriber must pay in order to receive and transmit high-bandwidth information to and from a moving satellite communications node.
Some other techniques for maintaining a communications link with a moving communications node involve the use of two-dimensional electronically scanned antenna arrays through the use of a digital beamformer. In a two-dimensional array which uses a digital beamformer, each transmit antenna element incorporates an individual power amplifier. Additionally, each receive element incorporates an individual low noise amplifier. The need for individual amplification of both receive and transmit antenna elements, as well as the need to perform a large number of digital operations in the beamformer itself, as well as the need for interconnections between the beamformer and the array of antenna elements involves substantial complexity in the required electronics and is therefore cost prohibitive for use by individual earth-based subscribers.
Therefore, what is desirable, is a low-cost system with minimal moving parts to provide beam steering in the communications antenna of the subscriber unit. A low-cost beam steering communications antenna using fewer moving parts also increases the reliability of the antenna over complex mechanically steered systems. These features make communications with a moving satellite accessible to a greater number of users with increased reliability.

Low cost beam steering planar array antenna


An apparatus includes a tube having an inlet and an outlet. A plurality of apertures are spaced along a wall of the tube. Flow inducers are applied to the inlet for distributing the flow between the plurality of apertures. The flow inducers may include at least one venturi portion located within the tube. The tube is typically used to remove material contained within a hopper wherein the angle of a collection face, of the hopper, may be reduced and still effectively remove all the material applied to the collection face.

This invention relates generally to hoppers and more particularly to flow induced feed collectors and transporters for hoppers.
Present hoppers are configured wherein material contained within the hopper drop through the feed outlet under the force of gravity. Under this configuration, the hopper walls must be angled sufficiently to permit this gravity induced flow. This configuration requires considerable hopper height, which adds to the necessary material to produce the hopper.
In hoppers feeding into a discharge tube of a considerable length, difficulty is found designing a suction system which provides even suction along the entire length of the tube. Typically, the portion of the tube which is closest to the suction outlet portion of the tube has the greatest suction compared to those portions removed from the suction outlet.
If the tube is extremely long, there may not even be any suction of those portions of the walls very far distant from the suction outlet. The situation arises where either too much pressure exists at the suction inlet, under which circumstances energy is wasted, or insufficient energy exists at portions of the tube distant from the suction inlet.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present hopper feed systems. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.

Flow induced feed collector and transporter apparatus