A communication-status notification apparatus enabling a subscriber to observe various kinds of communication status in a network easily via the subscriber's own terminal in a communication system. The apparatus includes a request analysis section for discriminating whether or not voice data received by gateway equipment from a subscriber terminal contains a request on monitoring/controlling or notifying of a communication status in the network and for analyzing the content of the request when contains, a communication-status monitor/control section for monitoring/controlling the communication status responsive to the content of the request analyzed by the request analysis section based on a processing status of the voice data in the gateway equipment, and a communication-status notification section for notifying the subscriber terminal of the communication status monitored/controlled by the communication-status monitor/control section via the gateway equipment responsive to the content of the request analyzed by the request analysis section. The apparatus is useful when applied to VoIP gateway equipment or the like used for a VoIP communication system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication-status notification apparatus used in gateway equipment of a communication system, and a communication-status display apparatus used in a subscriber terminal connected to the equipment. The invention relates also to a communication-status notification method carried out in the communication-status notification apparatus, a medium in which a communication status notification program used in the equipment is recorded, and a communication apparatus having a communication-status notification mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, data traffic on various networks (e.g., office networks including telecommunication networks and data-communication networks) has increased constantly. Although being relatively small compared with voice traffic (or audio traffic) in the past, the data traffic accounts for nearly 70 percent of the whole traffic on the present networks, and is expected to continue increasing in the years ahead.
Such a situation has formed the background to produce the concept of transmitting voice data (or audio data) via data-communication networks, thereby unify various kinds of networks into the data-communication networks so as to reduce costs. A technology that is expected to embody this concept is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
VoIP is a technology of voice-data transmission using an Internet Protocol (IP) network, which is based on IP being a protocol for data transmission. More specifically, VoIP enables to convert voice data into one or more IP packets so as to transmit the IP packets via an IP network, by means of equipment having a mechanism of converting various voice signals such as a telephone signal or a facsimile signal into IP packets, and vice versa (hereinafter called a VoIP-gateway mechanism).
FIG. 22 illustrates a conventional communication system using the VoIP (hereinafter called a VoIP communication system). In the VoIP communication system shown in FIG. 22, a VoIP gateway apparatus 1-1, a VoIP trunk 1-2, an Internet-telephony terminal 1-3 and an Internet-facsimile terminal 1-4 are connected to an IP network 9.
The VoIP gateway apparatus 1-1 is coupled to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or an integrated services digital network (ISDN) to convert an analog or digital voice signal received from the PSTN or the ISDN into one or more IP packets, and vice versa. The VoIP trunk 1-2 is coupled to an exchange such as a private branch exchange (PBX) to convert a voice signal of the exchange into one or more IP packets, and vice versa.
Receiving various kinds of voice signals (e.g., a telephone signal, which was sent by a telephone, or a facsimile signal, which was sent by a facsimile machine) from the PSTN or the ISDN or via the exchange, the VoIP gateway apparatus 1-1 or the VoIP trunk 1-2 changes the voice signal into voice data so as to create one or more IP packets containing the voice data, and then sends the created IP packets into the IP network 9. And receiving one or more IP packets containing voice data from the IP network 9, the VoIP gateway apparatus 1-1 or the VoIP trunk 1-2 analyzes the received IP packets to extract the contained voice data so as to change the voice data into a voice signal, and then sends the voice signal into the PSTN or the ISDN, or to the exchange.
In short, each of the VoIP gateway apparatus 1-1 and the VoIP trunk 1-2 is provided with the VoIP-gateway mechanism to thereby serve as an interface between a terminal, such as a conventional telephone or a conventional facsimile machine, of an individual subscriber and the IP network 9. The VoIP gateway apparatus 1-1 and the VoIP trunk 1-2 will be generically called VoIP gateway equipment in the following description.
The Internet-telephony terminal 1-3 and the Internet-facsimile terminal 1-4 are directly connected to the IP network 9 so as to serve as a subscriber terminal such as a telephone or a facsimile machine, and also have a function of converting voice signal such as a telephone signal or a facsimile signal into one or more IP packets, and vice versa.
Inputted various voice signals such as a telephone signal or a facsimile signal, the Internet-telephony terminal 1-3 or the Internet-facsimile terminal 1-4 converts the voice signal into voice data to create one or more IP packets containing the voice data, and then sends the created IP packets into the IP network 9. And receiving one or more IP packets containing voice data from the IP network 9, the Internet-telephony terminal 1-3 or the Internet-facsimile terminal 1-4 analyzes the received IP packets to extract the contained voice data, so as to change the extracted voice data into an optimum voice signal such as a telephone signal or a facsimile signal, and then outputs the resultant voice signal.
Each of the Internet-telephony terminal 1-3 and Internet-facsimile terminal 1-4 can be considered as a conventional subscriber terminal, such as a telephone or a facsimile machine, to which the above-mentioned VoIP-gateway mechanism is added. Therefore, in the following description, each of the Internet-telephony terminal 1-3 and the Internet-facsimile terminal 1-4 will be considered as a combination of a mechanism of VoIP gateway equipment and a mechanism of a subscriber terminal formed as a single apparatus, and will be generically called a VoIP gateway terminal.
In short, VoIP is a technology in which VoIP gateway equipment is disposed between a subscriber terminal, such as a telephone or a facsimile machine, and an IP network, thereby enabling to transmit voice data contained in various kinds of voice signals, such as a telephone signal or a facsimile signal, via the IP network.
By putting VoIP to practical use, it is possible to transmit voice data via data-communication networks such as IP networks, thereby unify various kinds of networks into the data-communication networks so as to reduce costs. Further, concurrent transmission of conventional communication data and voice data carries an additional advantage of realizing various new services in which the communication data and the voice data are combined together.
Compared with the conventional technologies of transmitting a voice signal via a PSTN or the like, however, VoIP technology of transmitting voice data via an IP network has also its disadvantages in voice communication on the following points:
{circle around (1)} An individual subscriber is not provided with a dedicated connection line in the IP network. Each IP packet is transmitted across the IP network according to a destination address included in a header of each IP packet. A single link in the IP network would therefore allow various IP packets, directed to different destinations, to pass through.
{circle around (2)} Traffic on the IP network is considerably affected by a kind of application program that each subscriber uses for communication and also by a number of subscribers concurrently connecting to the IP network for communication, and is therefore highly variable according to a communication condition and a period of time in which each subscriber connects to the IP network.
{circle around (3)} Voice-data transmission via the IP network involves creation/analysis process of IP packets (IP-packetization/IP-depacketization process), which increases a transmission delay of voice data.
{circle around (4)} Plural IP packets being in a single connection and having the same destination may take different routs in the IP network, owing to dynamic routing by routers in the IP network. Transmission delays of IP packets even in the same connection therefore vary for every IP packet.
Because of the above-described points, VoIP technology has some disadvantages in QoS (Quality of Service), compared with the conventional voice communication technologies.
Specifically the points {circle around (1)} and {circle around (2)} result in degradation of voice data during the voice communication. Heavy traffic tends to bring about a situation that too many IP packets exceeding the processing capacity of routers are directed to pass through the individual links at once. This situation causes congestion of IP packets, which results in disappearance of any IP packets, and overflow of buffers of the individual routers, which results in abandonment of IP packets subsequently arriving at the individual routers. Such disappearance or abandonment of IP packets can be fully recovered during the ordinal data communication simply by sending the disappeared or abandoned IP packets again, while it affects considerably the voice-data communication, in which immediate or simultaneous communication of voice data is required, because it brings about the degradation of voice data.
The points {circle around (3)} and {circle around (4)} result in delay of voice data during the voice communication. The delay of voice data is increased if the voice data undergoes audio CODEC (code/decode or compression/decompression) processing in the VoIP gateway equipment. Further, because transmission routes of IP packets are unidentifiable in the IP network, it is difficult to accurately estimate the delay of voice data. Such indefinite delay of voice data brings about considerable problem for the voice-data communication, in which immediate or simultaneous communication of voice data is required.
The communication via the IP network also brings about another problem. The Internet, being representative of various IP networks, is composed of a number of interconnected networks and terminals throughout the world. Connecting to the Internet therefore means connecting with the number of networks and terminals throughout the world via the Internet. It is therefore necessary to take adequate security measures for safe connection to the Internet. When a company's intranet is established so as to be connected to the Internet, for example, any security measures such as a firewall or a cryptographic processing would be taken ordinarily. Likewise, when voice VoIP communication system via the Internet is established, appropriate security measures are indispensable in order to prevent tapping or interception of voice data and to thereby ensure the security of voice communication.
Consequently, it is necessary to introduce various measures in respect with communication quality, such as QoS or security, in order to provide a satisfactory VoIP service. Several measures are proposed and actually adopted for ensuring communication quality. As a measure to ensure QoS, for example, it is proposed to apply UDP (user datagram protocol) or RTP (real-time transport protocol), instead of TCP (transmission control protocol) commonly used, for use in combination with IP, or to apply RSVP (resource reservation setup protocol) to a layer higher than that of TCP/IP, thereby performing priority control of voice data or securing a bandwidth dedicated to voice data.
However, VoIP is basically a service of a best effort type and, therefore, has difficulty in always providing with the best communication quality to a subscriber, even if some technologies to improve the communication quality as described above are introduced.
Specifically, sudden decline of voice quality or sudden interruption of communication would prevent a subscriber from using VoIP communication without anxiety.
Likewise, regarding security measures such as cryptographic processing on voice data, a subscriber would find difficulty in setting/resetting an appropriate security process at the subscriber's request or in confirming security-processing status, thereby being prevented from using VoIP communication without anxiety.
In order to provide a subscriber with high communication quality as possible, it is necessary to provide a service in which the subscriber can observe a communication status in an IP network as the subscriber wishes, can select an appropriate condition of voice communication according to the observed communication status of the IP network as the subscriber requests, and can confirm whether or not the IP network complies with the subscriber's request. However, such technology that enables a subscriber to observe a communication status of voice data in an IP network easily via the subscriber's terminal, such as a telephone or a facsimile machine, has not been developed.

Communication-status notification apparatus for communication system, communication-status display apparatus, communication-status notification method, medium in which communication-status notification program is recorded and communication apparatus


A high activity and high selectivity fluid catalyst for use in gas phase oxidation of aromatic hydrocarbons, comprising 50 to 95% by weight (calculated by TiO.sub.2 +SiO.sub.2 +B.sub.2 O.sub.3) of component (A) which comprises titanium oxide, silicon dioxide and boron oxide and 5 to 50% by weight [calculated by V.sub.2 O.sub.5 +M.sub.2 O (M represents an alkali metal)+SO.sub.3 ] of component (B) comprising vanadium oxide, an alkali metal oxide and sulfuric anhydride, wherein weight ratios of B.sub.2 O.sub.3 to TiO.sub.2 and SiO.sub.2 to TiO.sub.2 in said component (A) are in the range of from 0.02 to 0.5 and from 0.25 to 1.0, respectively, is provided.

Carboxylic anhydrides are produced by gas phase oxidation of aromatic hydrocarbon materials, with a typical example being the production of phthalic anhydride from o-xylene or naphthalene.
For use in the production of phthalic anhydride from o-xylene by means of fixed bed gas phase oxidation, various catalysts have been reported (for example, Practical catalysts for Respective Reactions, p. 358, 1970 , edited by Kimio Tarama, published by Kagaku Kogyo-sha, Japan) including a combination of vanadium pentoxide with titanium oxide (anatase type), a combination of vanadium pentoxide with other active metal oxide such as tellurium oxide, molybdenum oxide, tungsten oxide, nickel oxide, niobium oxide, tin oxide, chromium oxide or the like, and a combination of vanadium pentoxide with an alkai metal salt such as of potassium, lithium, sodium or the like, supported on inert carriers such as Alundum, silicon carbide, quartz, pumice, .alpha.-alumina and the like.
In the case of a gas phase oxidation process in which a fixed catalyst bed is employed, excessively high heat generated by exothermic oxidation reaction is removed by employing a system in which a catalyst is uniformly packed into several thousands of reactor pipes, each having a small diameter of about 1 inch, and the exterior of the pipes is filled with a heat transfer medium for cooling use. This system, however, requires considerable labor and cost to complete uniform packing of a catalyst into each of such a massive number of reactor pipes, as well as great burdens of the cost of equipment and the operation management to maintain pressure loss and temperature of each of these reactor pipes at constant levels. This system also requires considerable labor and cost when deteriorated catalyst is replaced by fresh catalyst.
Also, a catalyst in which active components are coated on an inert carrier is apt to cause a run-away reaction triggered by ununiformity of reaction due to channeling of reaction gas, formation of hot spots, increased pressure loss and the like caused by peeling and release of the active components from the carrier during packing of the catalyst or at the time of the operation. In addition, high productivity cannot be attained by the use of the fixed bed process because concentration of a reaction gas must be maintained within its explosion limit and, therefore, the reaction gas can be supplied only at a low concentration level.
For the purpose of solving such problems, it is preferable to perform gas phase oxidation using a fluidized catalyst bed.
Compared to the aforementioned fixed bed process, such a fluidized bed process is markedly advantageous, because not only generated heat by the exothermic oxidation reaction can be removed easily but also channeling of the flow of material gas and formation of hot spots both of which are common in the case of the fixed bed process can be avoided. Another advantage of the fluidized bed process is that exchange and supplement of a catalyst can be made with less labor and cost. The fluid bed process still has a great advantage from a view point of productivity because of a possibility to increase concentration of a reaction material.
For use in the production of phthalic anhydride from o-xylene by means of gas phase oxidation, as well as the case of using naphthalene as the starting material, various fluid catalysts have been reported, for example in B.P. 941,293 (1963) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,232,955 (1966), such as a combination of vanadium pentoxide with potassium sulfate and other combinations with molybdenum oxide, tungsten oxide, phosphorus oxide, boron oxide and the like supported on silica. The use of such silica-supported catalyst, however, causes excess oxidation reaction and side reactions which results in the formation of CO and CO.sub.2, thus making it difficult to obtain phthalic anhydride in a high yield. In order to improve the phthalic anhydride yield, attempts to mix the reaction gas with a halogen gas such as Br.sub.2 have been reported for example in D.P. 1,144,709 (1963) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,455,962 (1969), but the use of such a halogen gas causes corrosion of equipment and therefore results in operational troubles.
A number of catalysts in which titanium oxide is used as a carrier and vanadium pentoxide is supported on the carrier have been proposed for example in B.P. 1,067,726 (1967) and Fr.P. 1,537,351 (1968). A catalyst having certain mechanical strength can be obtained by making a fused body of titanium oxide and vanadium pentoxide together with ammonium thiocyanate or an alkali compound. However, specific surface area and pore volume of the catalyst decrease by the formation of fused body, thus resulting in significant reduction of the catalytic activity. Because of the reduced activity, such a fused catalyst requires a high reaction temperature which causes excess oxidation and side reactions. In consequence, it is difficult to obtain phthalic anhydride with a high yield by the use of the fused catalyst.
In addition, since the formation of a fused body results in a catalyst having markedly high bulk density amplified by the high specific gravity of titanium oxide, it is difficult to perform efficient fluidized bed reaction using such a high bulk density catalyst.
Because of these reasons, production of phthalic anhydride from o-xylene by means of a fluidized bed gas phase oxidation reaction has not been put into practical use.

Fluid catalyst for use in gas phase oxidation of aromatic hydrocarbons


A light-emitting device 1 includes: a solid-state light-emitting element 10 that radiates a laser beam L; and a wavelength converter 50 including a plurality of types of phosphors which receive the laser beam L and radiate light. The phosphors 50 included in the wavelength converter are substantially composed of a Ce3+-activated phosphor. Then, output light of the light-emitting device 1 has a light component across a wavelength range of at least 420 nm or more and less than 700 nm. The light-emitting device 1 is capable of radiating light with high color rendering properties over a wide wavelength range.

Heretofore, there has been known a light-emitting device composed by combining a solid-state light-emitting element that radiates a laser beam and a wavelength converter including a plurality of types of Ce3+-activated phosphors with each other. As such a light-emitting device as described above, for example, a laser illuminator and a laser projector, which are described in Patent Literature 1, have been known.
In a light-emitting device having a light source that applies a laser beam, generally, high-density photoexcitation of the phosphor is performed. Then, the light-emitting device of Patent Literature 1 can exhibit a high output since light emission of the phosphor is hard to be saturated even under the high-density photoexcitation.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


The present invention provides the device and method of processing distributed files whereby the load to file servers and communication traffic on the paths is reduced by effectively utilizing duplicates. The distributed file processor of the present invention comprises a context unit that processes a raw material file based on the virtual URL configured by qualifying a raw material file name with a procedure name, etc., representing a procedure to edit and process a raw material, a result holding unit that holds a process result of the raw material file processed by the context unit, and a result control unit that judges the validity of the process result held by the result holding unit. The result control unit judges the validity of the process result based on the raw material file name and procedure name corresponding to the process result, a process execution date and time of a procedure process, and a process request identifier inherent to a request that demanded to execute the procedure process, etc.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention on relates to a distributed file processor and distributed file processing method. In detail, the present invention relates to a device and method of processing distributed files, which enables users to gain efficient access to distributed data that exists in, for example, network servers through a data communication network with plural computers connected, and also to extract processing data quickly.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in the field of the distributed file access system through a network, demands for higher speed and accuracy have been increasing. Various distributed file processing systems have been proposed and tested. The following are explanations of some of the typical systems.
Related Art 1
As one of the general conventional distributed file access systems, there is a system with which a client gains access to a file through a proxy server or relay server (hereinafter called proxy server), distributed a long a network path connecting a file server that provides files and a client server that accesses the files. The FTP mirror server is one such example.
Such a system using a proxy server has an advantage that lowers the load on the file server and reduces communication traffic on the network path by providing duplicates of the file in advance.
Also, the snapshot system has been devised which provides a duplicated file to subsequent access by dynamically creating the duplicate of a file accessed by a client, without having the duplicated file accommodated in the server beforehand. For example, Squid, the HTTP relay server program mentioned in RFC2187 executes updating and nullifying of a duplicate when it judges that they are necessary, by a calculation based on the time stamp information such as the generation time of a duplicate or the original file.
In this type of the snapshot system, the management of a file duplicate, for example, is implemented in the following procedure. First, when a client requests access to a file, and a duplicate of the requested file exists in the proxy server, the calculation based on the time stamp information mentioned above is executed, and the freshness of the duplicate, is judged. Other than when the duplicate is adequately fresh, the original time stamp of the requested file and that of the duplicate are compared, and if the duplicate is fresher, the program returns the duplicate. If the duplicate is older, it is nullified, and the original file is copied again to create and return a new duplicate. In this sort of method creating duplicates dynamically, the management of duplicates can be automated and hence the management cost can be reduced, and the expansion of proxy servers becomes easier, compared to the system which accommodates duplicates beforehand.
However, a file created in on-demand type on a file server at the time of access, represented by CGI of WWW, (for example, when including today""s weather into information of a file), the time stamp information is added when it is accessed. With a system which manages duplicates by only the time stamp information, the validity of a duplicate cannot be judged because there is not a mechanism to decide an appropriate time stamp that compares the duplicate and the original. Therefore, it is difficult to efficiently utilize duplicates as for the files that are created dynamically.
This kind of technique will be hereinafter called the Related Art 1.
Related Art 2
In the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 8-292910 are disclosed a resource management device and the method of the same that interpret a resource name qualified and configured by the resource name of a raw material, a procedure name representing a procedure to process the raw material, a parameter corresponding to the procedure, and a contextual identifier representing the device that interprets the procedure name and starts the procedure, execute access to the resource name of a raw material, start the procedure, and process the resource name of a raw material.
This resource management device and the method disclosed in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 8-292910 resolute to decentralize the procedure name and raw material resource name embedded in the resource name, and combine the procedures like a pipeline on the network. However, there is a flaw of being unable to acquire the combined resources which is the fruit of the final process, when a part of communication fails by a communication error such as a burst on a network, considering that a procedure can be combined in multiple steps or if it has multiple entries, the pipeline will be made up in like a tree configuration. When communication fails and does not generate a result, the result could be acquired by a rerun. But to acquire one combined resource, plural times of network communication are required. Accordingly, on a network with low reliability, there is a high probability of failing in any of the communication which would require repeating numbers of rerun until acquisition of the result, or even not being able to acquire the combined resource at all.
This kind of technique will hereinafter be called the Related Art 2.
To consider visualizing the reduction of load to file servers and communication traffic on the network path by effectively utilizing created duplicates in the distributed file processing, the construction of the conventional techniques mentioned-above could cause problems explained below.
First, in the Related Art 1, there is a difficulty in handling duplicates for documents generated dynamically on the server at the request of a client, though it provides some effects such as reducing the communication traffic utilizing the duplicate at times of access of WWW mentioned above.
Also, the Related Art 2 achieves the distributed file processing by means of the procedure of distributed file access, and will be able to provide a service combining various kinds of processes, but since the result of process requires the multiple combinations of pipelines, there is a high probability of failure on an unreliable network, and also the problem of low practicability.
The present invention has been made in view of these problems that the foregoing conventional techniques hold, and it is an object of the present invention to reduce the load to file servers and communication traffic on the paths by effectively utilizing duplicates of the files.
In order to accomplish the foregoing object, the distributed file processor in a distributed computer system with computers connected through a network relating to the present invention comprises: a context unit that interprets a qualified file name configured by qualifying a raw material file name identifiable of a data file raw material held in the processor connected to the network with a procedure name representing a procedure to edit and process the raw material, a parameter of the procedure, the name of a computer that interprets the procedure name and operates the procedure, and a context name that defines operational environments, fetches the raw material file name and the procedure name, inputs data of a raw material file corresponding to the fetched raw material file name, starts a procedure corresponding to the fetched procedure name, and implements a process by the procedure having started the raw material file; a process result holding unit that holds a process result of the raw material file processed by the procedure started by the context unit; a result outputting unit that outputs to fetch the process result held by the process result holding unit; and a process result control unit that judges the validity of the process result held by the process result holding unit.
Further, in the distributed file processor of the present invention, the process result control unit comprises a configuration that judges the validity of the process result on the basis of the raw material file name corresponding to the process result held by the process result holding unit and the procedure name executed in the context unit.
Further, in the distributed file processor of the present invention, the process result control unit comprises a configuration that judges the validity of the process result on the basis of either a process execution date and time of the procedure process by the context unit, or a process request identifier inherent to a request that demanded to execute the procedure process by the context unit.
Further, in the distributed file processor of the present invention, the process result control unit comprises a configuration that compares an updating date and time of the raw material file with a process execution date and time of the procedure process by the context unit, and judges the validity of the process result on the basis of the comparison result.
Further, in the distributed file processor of the present invention, when the context unit judges that a process time specifier of the requested process result is included in the interpretation of the qualified file name, the process result control unit comprises a configuration that judges the validity of the process result associated with the process date and time based on whether or not the process date and time corresponds to a rage of time indicated by the process time specifier.
Further, in the distributed file processor of the present invention, the network comprises a configuration that connects a plurality of context units, a plurality of process result holding units provided correspondingly to the plurality of context units, and a plurality of process result control units provided correspondingly to the plurality of process result holding units, in which a plurality of the context units are each capable of the procedure process individually, and a first process result control unit that judges the validity of the process result corresponding to a process request outputted on the network comprises a configuration that executes a query as for the validity of the process result to a second process result control unit that controls a second process result holding unit on the network which holds the process result corresponding to the raw material file and the procedure specified by the process request.
Further, in the distributed file processor of the present invention, the process result control unit comprises a configuration that executes a process of either invalidation or cancellation of the process result stored in the process result holding unit, on the condition of the analysis that a specific parameter indicating a designation of either invalidation or cancellation of the process result held in the process result holding unit is included in the interpretation of the qualified file name by the context unit.
Further, in the distributed file processor of the present invention, accompanied with the execution of a process by the process result control unit, which relates to either invalidation or cancellation of the process result stored in the process result holding unit, the context unit comprises a configuration that acquires the raw material file corresponding to the process result in which the invalidation or cancellation has been executed, and executes a new process to hold a process result thereof in the process result holding unit.
Further, in the distributed file processor of the present invention, a process according to the procedure to the raw material file in the context unit is executed as an asynchronous process independent from a timing of a process request, a process result identifier is generated to a process result processed by the procedure, which corresponds to the process result, and the process result identifier is held in the process result holding unit to be associated with the process result.
Further, in the distributed file processor of the present invention, the context unit comprises a configuration that executes the procedure to the raw material file as an asynchronous process independent from the timing of a process request, on the condition of the judgment that specifying data indicating the process request being asynchronous is included in the interpretation of the qualified file name.
Further, in the distributed file processor of the present invention, when the context unit judges that a process result that does not completely coincide but partially coincides with a condition of a process request is included in the process result holding unit in the interpretation of the qualified file name, the result output unit comprises a configuration that outputs the process result having the partial coincidence included in the process result holding unit.
And, the distributed file processing method in a distributed computer system with computers connected through a network relating to the present invention comprises: a procedure processing step by a context unit that interprets a qualified file name configured by qualifying a raw material file name identifiable of a data file raw material held in the processor connected to the network with a procedure name representing a procedure to edit and process the raw material, a parameter of the procedure, the name of a computer that interprets the procedure name and operates the procedure, and a context name that defines operational environments, fetches the raw material file name and the procedure name, inputs data of a raw material file corresponding to the fetched raw material file name, starts a procedure corresponding to the fetched procedure name, and implements a process by the procedure having started the raw material file; a result holding step that holds in the process result holding unit a process result of the raw material file processed by the procedure started in the procedure processing step; a process result validity judgment step that judges the validity of the process result held by the process result holding unit; and a result outputting step that outputs to fetch the process result held by the process result holding unit, which is the process result that is judged as valid in the process result validity judgment step.
Further, in the distributed file processing method of the present invention, the process result validity judgment step judges the validity of the process result on the basis of the raw material file name corresponding to the process result held by the process result holding unit and the procedure name executed in the context unit.
Further, in the distributed file processing method of the present invention, the process result validity judgment step judges the validity of the process result on the basis of either a process execution date and time of the procedure process by the context unit, or a process request identifier inherent to a request that demanded to execute the procedure process by the context unit.
Further, in the distributed file processing method of the present invention, the process result validity judgment step compares an updating date and time of the raw material file with a process execution date and time of the procedure process by the context unit, and judges the validity of the process result on the basis of the comparison result.
Further, in the distributed file processing method of the present invention, a procedure process in the context unit to the raw material file is executed as an asynchronous process independent from the timing of a process request, a process result identifier is generated to a process result processed by the procedure, which corresponds to the process result, and the process result identifier is held in the process result holding unit to be associated with the process result.

Distributed file processing with context unit configured to judge the validity of the process result on the basis of the name of the raw file and the name of the executed procedure


A frozen confectionary product comprising a natural stabilizer composition is an object of the invention. The frozen confectionary product has an overrun of preferably 0%-120%. The frozen confectionary product comprises a relatively low protein content. The stabilizer composition comprises egg yolk, a gum and preferably an acidifier. Use of the stabilizer composition is described. A method for the manufacture of the frozen confectionary product is also described.

Stabiliser compositions are used in frozen confectionery products to improve and/or maintain certain characteristics of the products. These characteristics can be the texture, scoopability, melting rate, heat shock resistance and shelf life of the frozen confectionary products.
Efficient stabiliser compositions well known and widely used in any range of frozen confectionary products include ingredients, in particular emulsifiers, defined as "additives" or ingredients with so-called "E-numbers".
Examples of such additives often found in frozen confectionery formulations include mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, esters of mono- and digylcerides of fatty acids, polyglycerol esters of fatty acids, polysorbates etc. They have certain drawbacks. These emulsifiers are in fact perceived as "non-natural" ingredients, deemed to be unhealthy in the eyes of the consumer. The presence of these ingredients in frozen confection recipes leads to reduced authenticity of the frozen confectionary products. There is therefore a need to provide frozen confectionary products that are made from natural ingredients.
Natural emulsifiers are known but they are often costly and complex materials that are difficult to obtain and manufacture. They are not as efficient as any known additives to stabilize frozen confections and their use is therefore limited.
So-called "Premium" ice creams made with natural ingredients in particular natural emulsifiers such as egg yolk are known. Such "premium" range of frozen confectioneries is usually characterised by products with a rather low overrun e.g. below 50%, high levels of fat and high levels of protein. Their total solid content is also usually above 40 wt %. The low overrun in these products provides them with a low thermal conductivity and therefore these products are less affected by heat shock. On the other hand, the high protein content usually compensates for the need of any "non natural" emulsifier. However the proteins being expensive, this solution is not suitable for standard or "mainstream" frozen confectionary products.
Mainstream frozen confectionary products are usually characterised by an overrun above 80% and their content in protein is lower than that of "premium" frozen confectioneries, to make such products affordable to most consumers.
Providing mainstream frozen confectionary products using natural ingredients is a challenge. Premium ice creams are usually made with fat from a dairy source and contain little or no fat from a vegetable source. These frozen confectionary products are expensive to manufacture and thus costly to the consumer due to the high load of quality ingredients. These products can also be seen as unhealthy due to the high levels of fat and sugars.
There is a need to provide mainstream frozen confectionary products that are healthier, smoother, stable, scoopable with relatively lower total solids, which are made with natural ingredients and which are cheaper to manufacture.
There is an inherent need to provide mainstream frozen confectionary products and stabiliser compositions that address the aforementioned problems.
WO 98/09536 by the Applicant Unilever PLC is titled "Frozen aerated product ice cream free of emulsifier and preparation thereof". The WO 98/09536 publication discloses frozen aerated products with: i) 1-6% fat, ii) 0% emulsifier and iii) 0-1.0% stabilizer such as natural gums. The WO 98/09556 publication fails to disclose any overrun values.
WO 98/09534 by the Applicant Unilever PLC is titled "Frozen aerated product ice cream free of emulsifier and preparation thereof". WO 98/09354 publication discloses frozen aerated products with: i) 6-18% fat, ii) 0% emulsifier and iii) 0-1.0% stabilizer such as natural gums. WO 98/09534 publication fails to disclose any overrun values.
EP 1400176 by the Applicant Unilever PLC is titled "Frozen aerated products". EP 1400176 publication discloses frozen aerated products with a large overrun range of between 10%-250%. The frozen aerated products of EP 1400176 publication do not require any stabilisers or emulsifiers.
US 2006/0233919 by the Applicant Unilever is titled "Methods for production of frozen aerated confections". The US 2006/0233919 publication discloses a method for aerating ice cream that contains polyunsaturated fats. US 2006/0233919 publication fails to disclose a frozen confectionary product with an overrun and a stabiliser composition according to the present invention.
EP 2025240 by the Applicant Nestec SA is titled "Natural stabiliser system for a desert". EP 2025240 publication discloses a stabiliser system that can be used in the manufacture of natural frozen confectionary products. The stabiliser system of EP 2025240 comprises native rice starch and fibres from vegetables, fruits or mixtures thereof. Starch is a carbohydrate and the use of starch is a non traditional component of frozen confectionary products. EP 2025240 publication discloses frozen confectionary products which are aerated with an overrun of 20-80%. EP 2025240 publication fails to disclose a natural gum or at least mixtures of different natural gums in the stabiliser system.
There is thus a need to overcome the deficiencies as known in the prior art.

Frozen confectionery product with a natural stabiliser


A vehicle wire harness assembly is provided that, in addition to carrying electricity to and from a vehicle closure, acts as a tether that provides structural reinforcement to the vehicle closure during a crash event. The vehicle wire harness assembly includes a wire harness having electrical wires and a sheath. The electrical wires have an electrical wire tensile strength. The wire harness includes one or more reinforcing tendons configured such that the electrical wires and the reinforcing tendon(s) have a combined tensile strength that is at least 50 percent greater than the electrical wire tensile strength. Anchors retain the wire harness to a vehicle body and a body panel closure. Each anchor has a pull-out strength of at least 50 pounds.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure and is not necessarily prior art.
Vehicle wire harnesses are used to power the various electrical devices and accessories of modern vehicles. For example, wire harnesses commonly run between the vehicle body and the doors, trunk lid, and/or liftgate (i.e. closures) of the vehicle. Such wire harnesses are typically attached to the vehicle body and/or vehicle closures using plastic clips and typically include a bundle of electrical wires that are surrounded by a protective sheath. The plastic clips typically have a ridged projection that snaps into a hole in the vehicle body or vehicle closure. In the automotive industry, these plastic clips are often referred to as "Christmas tree fasteners" due to the shape of the ridged projection. The electrical wires carry electricity to electrical devices mounted to the vehicle closure such as switches, heated mirrors, powered mirror actuators, window motors, power locks/latches, courtesy lights, tail lights, brake lights, reverse lights, heated glass, rear view cameras, and window wiper motors. Traditionally, such vehicle wire harnesses have been used for no other purpose besides carrying electricity to and from the vehicle closures.


The present disclosure aims to provide an evaluation apparatus and an evaluation method capable of evaluating a walking assistance apparatus by simulating an actual person's walking motion. An evaluation apparatus 1 includes a placement part 5 on which a sole part of a walking assistance apparatus 4 to be evaluated is placed; an actuator 3 configured to apply a load to the walking assistance apparatus 4 in a direction of the placement part 5 in a state in which the sole part faces the placement part 5; and an actuator 6 configured to change a relative positional relation between the placement part 5 and the sole part.

The present disclosure relates to an evaluation apparatus and an evaluation method, and more specifically, to an evaluation of a walking assistance apparatus performed by applying a load to the walking assistance apparatus.
In recent years, various kinds of walking assistance apparatuses for assisting walking by patients who are suffering from, for example, paralysis due to a stroke in the acute phase have been developed. A walking assistance apparatus determines, for example, whether the user's leg is in a standing leg condition or in an idling leg condition from the user's weight that has been input and the posture of the user. The walking assistance apparatus generates torque in a knee straightening direction in order to keep the angle of the knee joint when the user's leg is in the standing leg condition. On the other hand, the walking assistance apparatus causes the user to bend the knee joint from the end of the standing leg condition to the idling leg condition to prevent the affected leg from stumbling at the time of walking, and assists walking by causing the user to swing the affected leg. The walking assistance apparatus needs to have a sufficiently high strength and durability in order to help the user to learn correct walking by performing these motions in the acute phase or at an early stage of rehabilitation. Various evaluation apparatuses for evaluating the strength and the durability of the aforementioned walking assistance apparatus have been known.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-147636 discloses an apparatus for evaluating the strength and the durability of a walking assistance apparatus by applying a load to the walking assistance apparatus whose sole part is placed on a surface plate placed on the floor. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-147636 further discloses that it is possible to achieve an evaluation in which a dorsiflexion moment is reproduced by placing only a toe side of the sole of the walking assistance apparatus on the surface plate and to achieve an evaluation in which a plantar flexion moment is reproduced by placing only a heel side of the sole of the walking assistance apparatus on the surface plate.

Evaluation apparatus and evaluation method


Subscriber line interface circuit for connecting a subscriber's telephone line to, for example, an automatic telephone exchange comprising a pair of amplifiers whose outputs are connected to the wires of the telephone line and which are fed by a d.c. voltage supply source. This supply source provides the telephone line with direct current via the amplifiers. In practice, the telephone line must be terminated by a symmetrical impedance of a prescribed value. To this end the interface circuit comprises means for determining the weighted sum of the current flowing through one and through the other wire of the telephone line such that the sum current is independent of the longitudinal currents in the telephone line. By means of an impedance, two antiphase feedback voltages are generated at the inputs of the amplifiers, these amplifiers then having a symmetrical impedance at their outputs.

The invention relates to a subscriber line interface circuit for connecting a telephone line to a telephone exchange, the interface circuit comprising a pair of amplifiers which are fed by a d.c. supply source, the outputs of which are connected to the wires of the subscriber's line.
To the telephone line the interface circuit must show an impedance of a certain value, for example, equal to 600 Ohm, it being necessary for the impedance to be balanced relative to ground.
On the other hand, with respect to the direct current supplied to the telephone, in particular subscriber's line, by the supply source, the interface circuit must have a predetermined resistance which, generally, differs from the impedance for the speech signals and which is uniformly distributed over the two terminals of the supply source.
French Patent Application No. 7,731,145 describes a subscriber line interface circuit comprising a pair of amplifiers for feeding the subscriber's line with direct current and control means for these amplifiers for feeding the subscriber's line with an a.c. ringing voltage, without the use of a transformer. In this interface circuit a transformer is used for the transmission of the speech signals.

Subscriber line interface circuit for a telephone line


Method and apparatus for determining concentration of blood analytes non-invasively. Blood carrying tissue is illuminated with incident light at a selected frequency or frequencies. Light diffusely reflected from or transmitted through the tissue is collected, a portion of the reflected or transmitted light being frequency shifted with respect to the incident light by interaction with blood moving within the tissue. The frequency shifted portion of the light is analyzed to determine the concentration of blood analytes. Preferred embodiments are used to determine glucose concentration or measure the oxygenation of blood.

The invention disclosed here consists of a technique and apparatus for non-invasively measuring the concentration of blood analytes. Specifically, the technique enhances the accuracy of non-invasive optical spectroscopic blood analysis by rejecting the component of the diffusely reflected or transmitted optical signal which has not interacted with the blood. The invention is particularly suitable for home blood glucose testing but is applicable to other blood analytes and measurement setting (e.g. GP's office, hospital bedside or other hospital ward).
Blood is routinely analyzed during a wide range of medical diagnostic procedures. The concentration of certain biomolecules, such as glucose, urea, lactate and cholesterol provide important indicators of health. Blood samples are usually taken either using a venous puncture, if the sample is taken by a doctor or nurse, or using a spring loaded finger prick, if the sample is taken by the donor.
Physical withdrawal of a blood sample has a number of drawbacks:
risk of infection to the donor and others who are in contract with the donor, blood sample or disposables (e.g. swabs) used during the withdrawal; PA1 inconvenience and embarrassment, particularly in the case where the donor draws their own blood; PA1 pain associated with skin puncture on a sensitive body site; PA1 risk of permanent tissue damage, such as the formation of callouses on fingers used repeatedly for withdrawals. PA1 (1) weak absorption of glucose at these wavelengths, compared to the absorption of water and other tissue constituents; PA1 (2) low concentrations of glucose in the blood (typically 3 mM to 7 mM); PA1 (3) low volume fraction of blood in tissue (typically less than 10%).
A non-invasive technique--one which does not require a blood sample to be withdrawn--for determining the concentration of blood analytes would overcome most if not all of the drawbacks listed above.
Previous approaches to non-invasive blood analysis have largely used optical spectroscopic techniques to penetrate the blood just below the tissue surface. The most successful and widespread of these techniques is pulse oximetry, which is used to determine blood oxygenation. However, more recently, effort has been focused on determining the concentration of blood glucose. This analyte is of particular interest because of the large home blood glucose testing market.
Non-invasive blood glucose determination has frequently used near infra-red radiation (wavelengths from 700 nm to 2500 nm) because of its ability to penetrate several millimeters into body tissues. However, diffuse reflectance or transmission measurement are complicated by the:
Previous work in this area has used multi-variate spectral analysis techniques (e.g. partial least squares and principal components regression) in an attempt to overcome the complicating factors listed above. However, the accuracy which can be achieved by multi-variate analysis is hardly sufficient for glucose determination and it is desirable that the accuracy of this approach is increased.
The invention disclosed here allows the accuracy of non-invasive optical spectroscopic blood analysis to be increased by analyzing only the component of the diffusely reflected or transmitted optical signal which has interacted with the blood. The approach is fully compatible with near infra-red spectroscopy and multi-variate analysis.

Method and apparatus for non-invasively determining blood analytes


An electronic scheduler includes a comparator for comparing schedule information to be newly stored with schedule information already stored in the memory. Circuitry is provided for determining whether the output of comparison from the comparator falls within a predetermined range, and an alarming circuit for giving an alarm in response to the output present within said range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic scheduler, and more particularly to a scheduler capable of avoiding overlapped storage of same or similar schedules.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally the scheduling is achieved most simply with a notebook, a schedule chart or a blackboard. These media are relatively convenient in finding eventually overlapping schedules at the writing of schedule information such as a date or a time, but are inconvenient for writing or changing a lot of schedule information. For this reason there is already proposed an electronic scheduler for storing schedule information by electronic circuitry, but such a scheduler is defective in the difficulty in finding the overlapping schedules since all the schedule information cannot simultaneously be displayed on a small display unit.


An axle driving apparatus is provided an includes a main casing, a cap plate coupled to the main casing along a first split line where the first split line is substantially disposed in a horizontal plane, and an axle cap coupled to the main casing along a second split line where the second split line is substantially disposed in a vertical plane. A center section is supported solely by the main casing and has connected thereto a hydraulic pump and a hydraulic motor where the center section is disposed offset from both the first split line and the second split line. A pump shaft is linked to the hydraulic pump and is supported by the main casing where the pump shaft has an axis disposed perpendicular to the horizontal plane and parallel to and offset from the vertical plane. A motor shaft is linked to the hydraulic motor and has an axis parallel to and offset from the horizontal plane and perpendicular to the vertical plane. An axle is linked to the motor shaft and includes a first shaft section and a second shaft section wherein the first shaft section is supported solely by the main casing and the second shaft section is supported solely by the axle cap and further wherein the axle has an axis parallel to and offset from the horizontal plane and perpendicular to the vertical plane.

This invention relates generally to an axle driving apparatus and, more particularly, relates to an integrated hydrostatic transaxle having an improved casing design.
Conventional hydrostatic transaxles are well known in the art. Examples of such transaxles and their operation may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,394 to Hauser et al. The '394 patent is directed to a "Rider Transaxle Having Improved Hydrostatic Transmission" which patent is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. These axle driving apparatuses are mainly used in small-sized vehicles, such as a mower tractor or the like. In their construction, the casing of the axle driving apparatus is typically formed by joining two main casing halves with each other, the junction surface therebetween commonly being referred to as the "split line".
Prior art casing designs are known to have several disadvantages. An example of one such disadvantage is fluid leakage. In particular, it has been noticed that when a shaft associated with the hydrostatic transmission or axle driving mechanism extends from the casing while being disposed on a spit line there is a tendency for hydraulic fluid and/or lubricating fluid to leak from the casing. This problem is typically caused as the half-rounds which support the shaft seals have a tendency to be misaligned when the casing halves are joined. Furthermore, as the known prior art designs require multiple casing sections to hold and maintain both the hydrostatic transmission and the axle driving mechanism, it is seen that there exists an increased cost in construction and increased weight owing to the required strength of the materials which are used therefor. In addition, it has also been seen that the use of multiple casing sections diminishes the structural integrity of the overall device.
As a result of these disadvantages, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved axle driving apparatus casing which eliminates the problem associated with leakage caused by half-round misalignment. It is also an object of the present invention to provide an improved casing in which assembly of the component parts thereinto is simplified. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a casing having improved structural integrity. It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an improved casing with reduced manufacturing cost and weight.

Axle driving apparatus having improved casing design


A system and method for cutting a workpiece utilizing a plasma cutting tool of fixed cut width into at least two parts having prescribed shapes from a metal plate comprising the steps of: identifying each of the parts by one or more contour lines; cutting a workpiece along one of the identifying contour lines into one of the parts using a tool of fixed cutting width; utilizing this cut contour of fixed width as part of the contour on an adjacent part fully overlapping the cut width. The process is repeated until all the required parts are cut.

Conventional metal plate cutting technologies are well known in the art. Oxy acetylene plate cutting was the universal method used in the first half of the 20th century. Electronic optically guided sheet and plate steel cutting machines appeared in the 1960s, machines which copied a drawn template by using a 'magic eye.'
Computer guided machines appeared in the 1970s, machines which followed coordinates given in a plain English language known as Numeric Control programs or NC programs. Plasma cutting itself appeared in the 1940s as an extension of electric arc welding, carrying the very high currents in a plasma gas which melted, rather than burned, the metal.
Plasma cutting was a much faster method but gave a poor cut quality, although adequate if the edge was going to be ground for welding. For materials up to 20 mm thick a plasma torch cuts up to 10 times faster than an oxy acetylene torch. An inert plasma gas could even be used for cutting highly combustible materials such as aluminum. Another advantage of plasma cutting is that the high speed combined with the ejection of hot molten material rather than combustion of the material reduced heat input into the plate and this in turn reduced potentially large thermally induced part movement during cutting.
In the 1970s, the high speed of plasma cutting had to be balanced with the relatively poor cut with high degrees of cut edge chamfer, as high as 45 degrees. Plasma torches could also generate unbearable noise levels and large amounts of ozone. In the 1990s High Definition Plasma cutting technology was a dramatic improvement with torches and gas and power supplies developed to cut with much less chamfer, higher edge quality and narrower cut width or kerf. Modern torches claim a cut edge chamfer as low as 2 degrees from vertical. As a consequence of straighter and narrower cuts, the penetration of plasma has increased from around 50 mm to 160 mm and beyond, challenging the dominance of oxy acetylene cutting of thick steel plate. Most recently the use of air alone as the plasma gas has reduced operating costs and the noise during operation has dropped to acceptable levels in a factory environment. The rapid drop in the price of computers after 2000 meant that computer controlled shape cutting has become affordable and standard in even the smallest workshops.
Such Numeric Control machines are used to cut flat plates or sheets into single parts or a collection of such parts on a plate, which is known as a nest. The parts within the nest are positioned by an NC programmer or by automatic nesting software to waste less metal.

Method and system for enhanced numerical control plasma cutting of parts from a workpiece


A case for a battery pack includes a case member configured to accommodate a plurality of battery cells therein and a heat exchange member on any one surface of the case member, the heat exchange member being integrally formed with the case member.

1. Field
Embodiments relate to a case for a battery pack.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, battery cells are used as energy sources for mobile devices, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and the like. The shape of the battery cell may be variously changed depending on the kind of external device to which the battery cell is applied.
In an electric vehicle or hybrid vehicle that consumes a large amount of power in long-time driving and high-power driving, a large-capacity battery module may be configured by electrically connecting a plurality of battery cells in order to increase power and capacity. The output voltage or output current of the battery module may be increased according to the number of battery cells built in the battery module. In addition, a battery pack may be configured by electrically connecting such battery modules.


Conductive adhesive films can include a binding material having a first set of conductive particles therewithin. The binding material can be electrically non-conductive and can flow between and bond external electronic components during a bonding process. The first set of conductive particles can each have cores formed of a first material, such as polymer, and coatings surrounding the cores, the coatings formed of a second material that is electrically conductive, such as nickel. The binding material can also include a second set of smaller conductive particles formed of a third material that is electrically conductive, such as copper, which can have coatings formed of a fourth material that is electrically conductive, such as silver. The first set of conductive particles can each be sphere shaped, and the second set of conductive particles can each be flake shaped. The conductive particles can form electrical paths between the external electronic components.

It is often desirable to couple electronic device components in a manner that also provides electrical contacts. This can sometimes involve the use of an adhesive that facilitates electrical contacts. An anisotropic conductive film ("ACF") is one example of a conductive adhesive film having electrically conductive particles dispersed within a binder material. ACFs are commonly used, for example, in the manufacture of liquid crystal displays to bond and create electrical connections between display components and integrated circuit ("IC") components. In some applications, an ACF is placed between electrodes of a display component and electrodes of another electronic or IC component. The components are then pressed together such that both a mechanical bonding and electrical connections are made. The resulting structure is anisotropic with unidirectional electrical connections between the display component and the IC component (e.g., z direction) but no electrical connections between adjacent electrodes of the display component or IC component (e.g., x or y directions).
Various ACF and other conductive adhesive film applications can include providing a foil shield for electronic components, such as touch screen sensors or other items where signal shielding is preferable. In some applications, it is also desirable for there to be flexibility in and around the foil shield region. Due to this desire for flexibility, as well as the bonding nature of ACFs and other similar films, this has traditionally required that the foil shield have multiple stacked layers. This results in relatively high costs and a significant thickness to the foil shield.
While existing conductive adhesive films have worked well in the past, there can be room for improvement. Accordingly, there is a need for improved conductive adhesive film structures that bond and provide electrical connections for electronic device components.


A thin-film resistor comprising a mixture of rhodium (Rh) oxide as a resistive material, and at least one element M selected from the group consisting of silicon (Si), lead (Pb), bismuth (Bi), zirconium (Zr), barium (Ba), aluminium (Al), boron (B), tin (Sn), and titanium (Ti), wherein M/Rh, or the ratio of the number of element M atoms to that of rhodium (Rh) atoms is in the range of 0.3 to 3.0. Thin-film resistor is formed from the process of preparing a solution of an organometallic material, coating the material on a substrate, drying and then firing the material at a peak temperature not less than 500.degree. C.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resistor for use in hydrid ICs and various other electronic devices and a process for producing the resistor. Specifically, the invention relates to a thin-film uniform resistor and a process for producing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been two basic approaches for fabricating resistors useful in electronic devices such as hybrid ICs and thermal heads. One method is a thick-film process in which a coating of thick-film resistor paste is formed on a substrate which is then fired to make a resistor, and the other method is a thin-film process employing sputtering or other thin-film depositing techniques.
In a thick-film process, a powder mixture of ruthenium oxide and glass frit is dispersed in an organic vehicle made of a solvent and a resin, and the resulting thick-film resistor paste is screen-printed on a substrate, which is then fired to make a resistor.
In a thin-film process, which employs vacuum deposition technology, a thin film of a refractory metal such as tantalum, is deposited on a substrate by sputtering, and a patterned, thin-film resistor is fabricated by photolithographic techniques. This method is used to fabricate some of the thermal heads in current use.
The conventional thick-film process which uses thick-film resistor paste has the advantage of achieving high production rate with inexpensive facilities. However, on account of their large thickness (.gtoreq.10 .mu.m) and because of the lack of homogeneity of the thick-film paste which is made of glass frit and ruthenium oxide powder, the resistors produced by this process have the problem of low stability to an electic field, i.e. their resistance changes sharply when they are subjected to voltage variations.
Furthermore, the thick-film process has the following additional disadvantages; the resistance value of the final product cannot be effectively controlled by adjusting the proportions of glass frit and ruthenium oxide alone, also great variations in resistance will occur, not only because of the difference in the particle sizes of glass frit and ruthenium oxide powder, but also, upon the firing temperature used. Even if the same compositional range and average particle size are used, the value of resistance will differ from one lot to another.
The thin-film process is capable of producing uniform thin-film resistors but, on the other hand, this method requires expensive facilities, and achieves only a low production rate.

Thin-film resistor and process for producing the same


A granule-type magnetoresistive material is used to form a MR component, which is equipped in a magnetic head, or the like. When placing the magnetoresistive material in the external magnetic field, the electric resistance is altered responsive to a variation of the external magnetic field. In order to increase a magnetic-field sensitivity, the magnetoresistive material is composed of an alloy whose atomic composition is expressed by a chemical formula of (Co.sub.1-x Fe.sub.x).sub.y Ag.sub.1-y, where 0.45.ltoreq.x.ltoreq.0.55 and 0.24.ltoreq.y.ltoreq.0.35; or another chemical formula of (Co.sub.1-x Fe.sub.x).sub.y (Ag.sub.1-z Cu.sub.z).sub.1-y, where 0.45.ltoreq.x.ltoreq.0.55, 0.24.ltoreq.y.ltoreq.0.35 and z.ltoreq.0.14.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetoresistive material whose electric resistance is altered responsive to a variation of a magnetic field externally produced.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, there are provided magnetoresistive materials whose electric resistance is altered responsive to the variation of the magnetic field externally produced. Such effect of the magnetoresistive materials is called "magnetoresistive effect" (or simply called as "MR effect"). The above-mentioned magnetoresistive materials are widely used, in the magnetic recording/reproducing apparatuses, for the magnetic heads, sensors which sense the magnetic field, and the like. The known alloyed-magnetoresistive materials such as the Ni--Fe alloy (i.e., Permalloy) are used as the magnetoresistive materials. In addition, the granular-type magnetoresistive materials, which have fine magnetic granules embedded in the conductive non-magnetic metals, are also known. According to the known granular-type magnetoresistive materials, cobalt (Co) is embedded in copper (Cu); cobalt (Co) is embedded in silver (Ag); or Fe--Co alloy is embedded in silver (Ag), for example.
However, the known magnetoresistive materials described above suffer from the following drawbacks.
In the alloyed-magnetoresistive materials such as the Permalloy, the saturation magnetization is relatively large. Thus, when being applied to the magnetic head or sensor, the width of the magnetoresistive member (i.e., width of the magnetoresistive wire) should be reduced in order to improve the resolution. In that case, the effect of the demagnetizing field becomes large, which results in the reduction of the sensitivity for the detection of the magnetic filed. This phenomenon can be explained in detail by referring to FIGS. 7A and 7B. In those drawings, there is provided a magnetoresistive member 10 to which the magnetic anisotropy is imparted in its longitudinal direction. Under the condition where electric currents are applied to the magnetoresistive member 10 along longitudinal direction, an external magnetic field `Hex`, which is crossing the magnetoresistive member 10 in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, can be detected. In this case, as shown in FIG. 7B, magnetization M, which is caused due to the external magnetic field Hex in the magnetoresistive member 10, acts as demagnetizing field lid which is produced in a direction inverse to the direction of the external magnetic field Hex. Thus, the external magnetic field Hex is weakened by the demagnetizing field Hd. As a result, the sensitivity of the magnetoresistive member 10 for the detection of the magnetic field is reduced. On the other hand, the granular-type magnetoresistive materials are advantageous in that the saturation magnetization is relatively small. In other words, the granular-type magnetoresistive materials are hardly affected by the demagnetizing field. Thus, even if a width of a strip of the magnetoresistive member is narrowed, the sensitivity may not be substantially reduced. Actually, however, the granular-type magnetoresistive materials is not suitable for the practical usage, because the absolute sensitivity for the detection of the magnetic field is low.


A portable computer includes a main body inside of which a main board and various peripherals are mounted, a handle mounted to the main body, a display portion rotatably mounted to the main body for outputting information on a screen for a user to view, and an indented portion concavely formed on a position of the main body corresponding to a location of the handle, the indented portion being formed such that the handle does not protrude outward when the same is not in use.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a portable computer having a handle and, more particularly, to a portable computer having a retractable handle disposed on a main body of the portable computer, the handle maintaining a retracted state when not in use and able to be projected by the user for convenient portability of the computer.
2. Related Art
Portable computers generally come with a carrying case at the time of purchase. The portable computer is placed inside the carrying case so that it can be transported from one place to another. Although users utilize such a carrying case when transporting their portable computers long distances, it is common for users to carry their portable computers as is (without the use of a carrying case) when moving their computers only a short distance.
Prior carrying cases for portable computers have several drawbacks. For example, such carrying cases add extra weight and bulk to the portable computer, and cause an increase in the overall cost of the portable computer. Furthermore, most users avoid the complicated process of locating the carrying case, placing the portable computer therein, and fastening the carrying case when carrying the portable computer over short distances. Instead, such users simply transport the portable computer by carrying the same as is. In such cases, the computer can be easily dropped by the user, and this can result in significant damage to the computer.
To remedy these problems, portable computers have been designed with a handle attached directly to the computer. However, such structures obstruct the use of the computer as the handle protrudes from the main body, and can detract from the overall attractiveness of the portable computer.
The following patents are considered to be representative of the prior art, and are burdened by the disadvantages set forth herein: U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,668 to Barrus et al., entitled Portable Computer Having A Pivotally Mounted Combined Handle And Power Source, U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,258 to Barrus et al., entitled Computer Accessory Including A Pivotably Mounted Combined Handle And Power Source And Associated Method Of Manufacturing, U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,373 to Kumar et al, entitled Protective Case For Portable Computer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,922 to Butcher, entitled Portable Computer Carry Case Assembly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,300 to Leung, entitled Portable Computer With A Detachable Handle Including A Battery, U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,926 to Jeong, entitled Handle For Electronic Equipment, U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,198 to Gruenberg et al., entitled Handle Latch Assembly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,365 to Hsieh, entitled Portable Computer System, U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,261 to Fuhs, entitled Retractable Handle And Latch For Portable Computers, U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,231 to Yamaguchi et al., entitled Carrying Case, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,294,496 to Murez, entitled Portable Computer Enclosure.

Portable computer having a rectractable handle


Disclosed is a method of preparing an extruded cellulosic film which contains a uniform dispersion of hemp fibers by first adding the fibers to an amine oxide cellulose solvent to form a slurry, mixing the slurry with a molten aqueous solution of cellulose and amine oxide cellulose solvent extruding the mixture end then regenerating the dissolved cellulose.

Cellulose is a natural polymer that has been used for centuries to make various forms of paper. More recently, it has been chemically regenerated to make fibers, transparent paper, cellophane, films, and casings for industrial and food related uses. These cellulose-based casings are well known for use in food products, such as sausages. Cellulose fibers have also been treated and reformed as webbed paper products where the individual cellulose fibers are physically brought together, for example, by needle punching, and form products such as non-woven sheets and towels.
The regenerated cellulose polymer used for making both casings and films is most commonly produced by the well known viscose process. A natural cellulose, such as wood pulp or cotton linters, is treated with a caustic solution to activate the cellulose to permit derivatization and extract certain alkali soluble fractions from the natural cellulose. The resulting alkali cellulose is shredded, aged, and treated with carbon disulfide to form cellulose xanthate, a cellulose derivative. The cellulose xanthate is then dissolved in a weak caustic solution. The resulting solution, or viscose, is ripened, filtered, deaerated and extruded as a film or tube into coagulation and regenerating baths containing salts and sulfuric acid. In these acidic baths, the cellulose xanthate, e.g., viscose, is decomposed and hydrolyzed back to a pure form of cellulose. A drawback of this method is that undesirable side products, including sulfur, carbon disulfide and hydrogen sulfide, are produced.
Although the viscose process is the most commonly used process for the production of cellulose casing for the food processing industry, alternate methods have been described, in particular that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,857. This alternate cellulose production method involves forming a polymeric solution by means of a simple dissolution of cellulose, rather than derivatization, to form a soluble substance. The cellulose dissolution process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,179,181. This patent describes the dissolution of natural cellulose by a tertiary amine oxide to produce solutions of relatively low solids content, for example, 7 to 10% by weight cellulose dissolved in 93 to 90% by weight of the tertiary amine. The cellulose in the resulting solution is nonderivatized prior to dissolution. U.S. Pat. No. 3,447,939 discloses use of N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide ("NMMO") as the amine oxide solvent of choice.
More recent patents, such as, U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,532 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,288, improve upon the teachings of the '939 patent. U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,532 discloses a process for making a solution of cellulose in a tertiary amine oxide, such as NMMO, that contains 10-35% by weight of cellulose. This higher solids content, achieved in part by including an amount of water (from 1.4% to about 29% by weight) in the tertiary amine oxide solvent, provides a solution adapted for shaping into a cellulosic article by extrusion into fibers, films, or casings. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,288, the NMMO-cellulose polymeric solution contains an additive that reduces decomposition of the cellulose polymer chain so that molding or spinning substances are obtained with only slight discoloration and that will yield molded shapes distinguished by improved strengths upon regeneration in a nonsolvent such as water.
Using NMMO as a solvent for cellulose eliminates the disadvantages attendant to the viscose process including the generation of toxic and noxious gases and sulfur compounds.
Cellulose food casings generally are made in a nonreinforced or a reinforced form. Nonreinforced casing consists of a tubular film of regenerated cellulose polymer having a wall thickness ranging from about 0.025 mm to about 0.076 mm and made in diameters of about 14.5 mm to about 203 mm.
Reinforced casings are commonly called "fibrous" casings to distinguish them from the nonreinforced cellulose casings. Here, a lighter viscosity viscose than is used for nonfibrous casing is extruded onto a sheet or tube of paper prior to entering the coagulation and regenerating baths. The result is that the regenerated cellulose impregnates and bonds to the paper substrate. Fibrous casings have a wall thickness in the range of 0.050 mm to 0.102 mm and are made in diameters of about 40.6 mm to 193 mm or greater. Fibrous casings have a dimensional stability that is greater than that found in nonreinforced casing. These casings are known for having enhanced wet strength and resistance to puncture and propagation of tears. As fibrous casings are stiffer and are less extensible than nonreinforced casings, they assure that once the casing is stuffed with meat each linear inch of casing will contain a specific weight of meat. This enables the sausage manufacturer to easily prepackage weights of sausage meat by number of slices instead of by weight. To the best of applicants knowledge, the method of making casing using the amine oxide solution as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,857 has not been extended to making fibrous casings.
Another type of casing using "filled" systems that are well known in the art are collagen-based casings. Filled systems can be described as being composed of a basic material, such as collagen, that has another material added to it that never chemically bonds or becomes part of the first basic material. Often this system is used in order to improve the economics of the product by using a cheaper "filler" material with the more expensive basic material. The added material, up to a critical amount, may be able to add its properties to those of the basic material. However, when too much of the added material is present, it interferes with the properties of the basic material.
An example of such a system is polyvinylchloride ("PVC") polymer containing an additive to render pipe made from the PVC polymer resistant to degradation by sunlight. A small amount of the additive neither adds nor takes away from the strength of PVC pipe and additionally protects the pipe from degradation by sunlight. However, a large amount causes the PVC pipe to degrade as the continuity of the polymer is interrupted by the sheer amount of the protective additive.
In order to impart certain strength and handling characteristics to collagen casings, other non-collagen materials, such as, cellulose, acids, bases, salts, and rayon fibers have been added to the collagen prior to forming it into a casing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,017 describes and teaches a composite material of de-N-acetylated chitin and fibrous collagen that has excellent mechanical strength and heat-resistance, and which can be used as casing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,787 describes a collagen casing with improved strength characteristics containing a crosslinking agent that is a fatty acid or oil and the collagen.
An earlier U.S. Pat. No. 3,551,535, describes a method for making a homogeneous mixture of collagen, reactive materials and shrink control agents. Reactive materials are those that show chemical or physical action when brought together, such as, the swelling of collagen when in contact with an acid, base, or salt. Shrink control agents include cellulose fibers, rayon fibers, cotton fibers, alginates and starches. The compounds formed can be used for articles, such as, casings, shoes, gloves, medical sutures, and bandages.
Although use of a filled system can produce a collagen casing having attractive properties of strength, it has not been used with cellulosic casings.
By contrast, composite technology can be used to create composites where successive incremental additions of an added material to a high percentage of the overall composite do not cause the degradation of any salient property of these compositions. A "composite" is formed when a second material is added to a first material, such as a polymer, and not only does the added material not disrupt the integrity of the original polymer and the article formed from it, but can add its own characteristics to the polymer.
However, up until the present time, the only way to achieve improved properties of casings made from viscose has been by coating or bonding the viscose to a paper web. Although fibrous casing is generally satisfactory for the casing user, there are disadvantages for both the user and the manufacturer. Disadvantages for the casing manufacturer include the need to maintain a supply of paper web or sheet in addition to the viscose used for nonreinforced casing, supplier problems, running problems on the coating machines, and the need to make a uniform seam when the paper web is seamed. This seam must be uniform and cannot break apart when the casing is manufactured and stuffed with food under high pressure. The paper is generally a specialty item, hemp paper, and obtainable only from a limited number of suppliers. Differential tensions between the paper and the regenerated cellulose coating can cause tension lines, wrinkles, and other discontinuities in the casing.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to have a casing with the properties of fibrous casing but manufactured without a paper tube, especially if such casing could be made without any noxious side products, and preferably by use of a non-viscose process.


A guard for protecting a boat transom from being marred by a marine motor mounted on the transom, comprising a generally U-shaped marine motor mounting protector, adapted to be mounted on the transom, including a base and a pair of legs mounted on the base for extending along the sides of the transom to provide a barrier between the transom and any motor to be mounted on the transom.

This invention relates to a motor boat transom protector, and more particularly to a yieldable guard which can be configured to conform to the outline of the sternboard of a motor boat to isolate the sternboard from a motor mounted thereon.
Outboard marine motors are conventionally mounted on the transom of a boat via clamps including hand operated, threaded screws mounting relatively hard metal pads which bear against the inside surface of the transom. When the motor is to be mounted, the screws are unturned to retract the pads to positions removed from the sternboard permitting free movement of the pads relative to the sternboard. When the motor is properly positioned on the sternboard, the screws are turned to force the pads to bear against the transom surface and mar the finish. During use of the boat and motor, vibration will sometimes cause the threaded screws to partially unturn and thus move the pads out of snug engagement with the transom. The thus loosened, vibrating pads will sometimes scratch the transom surface.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and novel guard which will protect the transom from being marred by a motor mounted on the transom.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a motor boat transom guard including a pliable sheet of material having opposite end sections, and an intermediate sheet section, joined to the end section, urging the end sections to inoperative positions in which they lie in the same plane, but permitting movement thereof to the confronting positions in which they bear against the inner and outer surfaces of the transom.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a transom protector which will conform to the outline of transoms having differing thicknesses.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a guard of the type described including bend facilitating slits at the junction of the legs and the base to enhance bending movement of the legs relative to the base, to conform the guard to the shape of the transom.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a transom protector of the type described including mechanism for retaining the legs along opposite sides of the transom when the motor is being installed or removed.
If the motor and boat are subjected to substantial shock and vibration, as sometimes occurs, when the motor and boat are trailer-transported over long distances, for example, the screws unturn and the pads become loose from the transom. If the trailer which mounts the boat and motor negotiates a substantial bump in the road, the motor will sometimes be propelled off the transom. Likewisely, if the pads are not sufficiently secured to the transom when the boat is in the water and the submerged motor propeller strikes a submerged article, the motor will sometimes be forced upwardly off the transom and into the water. Accordingly, a further object of the present invention is to provide a transom protector of the type described which will inhibit inadvertent removal of the motor from the boat.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a motor boat transom protector of the type described which includes downwardly inwardly coverging surfaces against which the pads will bear.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a transom guard of the type described including internally projecting ribs which bear against the transom to inhibit sliding movement of the guard on the transom.
Other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art as the description thereof proceeds.


A removable protector for protecting a side of a vehicle from dents and scratches caused by objects coming toward the side of the vehicle. The protector comprises a first strap with a first securement means, a second strap with a second securement means, an elongated member with a hollow passage, and a magnet attached to the elongated member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle protector. Specifically, the present invention relates to a removable protector adapted to protect a side of a vehicle from objects coming toward the side of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, some motored vehicles have no protection against paint smears, scratches and dents caused by objects impacting the side of a vehicle while a vehicle is parked. These objects include, for example, an opening door of an adjacent vehicle, shopping carts, bicycles, garbage cans, children's toys, etc. Scratches and dents are often difficult and expensive to repair.
Some vehicles have side bumper strips which are permanently affixed to the sides of the vehicle. These permanently-affixed bumper strips only provide limited protection to a narrow section of the vehicle. For example, these permanently-affixed bumper strips often do not protect a vehicle's side from the outermost tip of another vehicle's opening door because the bumper strip is located either above or below the outermost tip of the other vehicle's opening door. Moreover, these permanently-affixed bumper strips are often designed to be very narrow because they are not aesthetically pleasing. Increasing the size of these bumper strips decreases the aesthetic appearance of the vehicle.
Some vehicle protectors are removable. Some of these removable protectors are adapted to be used with vehicles of different sizes or shapes, but the protectors require adjustments or permanent modifications to make the protector fit vehicles with different sizes or shapes. For those protectors that require adjustments, the time it takes to adjust the protector may be burdensome. For those protectors that require permanent modifications, such as cutting the protector down to size, a user may have to purchase a new protector to fit a vehicle with a different size or shape.


A hinge device opening and closing a display unit of an electrical or electronic apparatus, including a display coupler having a display bracket coupled to one side of the display unit, and a rotational shaft extending from the display bracket; a slider supporting the rotational shaft; a body coupler having a body bracket coupled to the main body, and a guide rail extending from the body bracket and supporting the slider between a locked position and an unlocked position; and a rotation controller having a stopper formed on the rotational shaft and a boss formed on the guide rail, the stopper allowing rotation of the rotational shaft relative to the slider when the slider is in the unlocked position, and the stopper engaging the boss and restraining the rotation of the rotational shaft when the slider is in the locked position to maintain the display unit at a desired angle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a hinge device and electric and electronic apparatuses employing the hinge device, and, more particularly, to a hinge device used in opening and closing a display unit relative to a main body of folding-type electric and electronic apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
The hinge device according to the present invention can be applied to a variety of folding-type electric and electronic apparatuses such as portable computers (e.g., notebook computers), cellular phones, and PDAs (personal digital assistants), etc.
Herein, the term "folding-type" refers to electric and electronic apparatuses having a display unit as one component and a main body as another component, and the display unit opens and closes relative to the main body.
A conventional device for opening and closing a display unit relative to a main body of a notebook computer is described with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view a conventional notebook computer. As shown in FIG. 1, a main body 1 and a display unit 2 are joined using a hinge device 3. The display unit 2 is rotatably coupled to the main body 1 via the hinge device 3.
The display unit 2 has a latch 4 on one side thereof. The latch 4 includes a clasp 5 used to open and close the display unit 2 and a latch slide 6 controlling motion of the clasp 5. The main body 1 is formed with a hole 7 through which the clasp 5 of the latch 4 is inserted.
Processes of opening and closing the display unit 2 of the conventional notebook computer are described below.
When the display unit 2 is closed relative to the main body 1, the clasp 5 of the latch 4 on the display unit 2 is inserted into the hole 7 of the main body 1. A spring (not shown) pushes against the latch slide 6, thereby holding the clasp 5 in place within the hole 7 to keep the display unit 2 closed.
To open the display unit 2 relative to the main body 1, the latch slide 6 of the latch 4 is pushed horizontally, releasing the clasp 5 that has been inserted into the hole 7. Thereafter, the display unit 2 is opened by rotating the display unit 2 relative to the main body 1.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the conventional hinge device 3. As illustrated therein, the hinge device 3 includes a display coupler 11 and a body coupler 21.
The display coupler 11 includes a display bracket 12 and a rotational shaft 13. The body coupler 21 includes a body bracket 22, an engaging hole 23, an engaging projection 24, a coupler body 25, and an inserting hole 26. The rotational shaft 13 of the display coupler 11 is rotatably inserted into the inserting hole 26 of the body coupler 21. The body bracket 22 of the body coupler 21 is integrally combined with the coupler body 25.
However, the conventional assembly for opening and closing the display unit 2 has the following problems.
First, the latch 4 needs to be mounted on the display unit 2, the hole 7 is formed on the main body 1, and the hinge device 3 is required to connect the display unit 2 to the main body 1. The latch 4 has several components including the clasp 5, the latch slide 6, and the spring, and the hinge device 3 also includes several components. Thus, the assembling process is complicated, reducing productivity and increasing cost.
Second, the clasp 5 projecting from the display unit 2 is likely to be damaged, and an external appearance of the display unit 2 may not be graceful due to the clasp 5, the hole 7, etc.
Third, when the display unit 2 receives external impacts, the display unit 2 may become damaged and no longer open as desired or remain at a desired angle when tilted back and away from the main body 1, making use of the notebook computer inconvenient.

Hinge device and electric and electronic apparatuses employing the same