A system and method for collecting, transporting, and analyzing dried bodily fluid samples using a sample collection device incorporating extraction markers, an imaging device to take images of dried samples on the collection device, and a computing device to analyze data points from the images so as to measure various properties of the collected sample such as the volume of blood initially collected, and the portion of that volume containing plasma and erythrocytes.

Clinical laboratory tests provide physicians and other healthcare workers with critical information to aid in the diagnosis and prognosis of medical conditions. The importance of clinical laboratory tests is underscored by the fact that over 70% of healthcare decisions are based upon these tests. Many, if not most, clinical laboratory tests rely on safe, quick, reliable, and repeatable collection, transportation, and analysis of blood samples.
Typically, blood samples are collected by trained phlebotomists who draw blood into a tube connected to a needle that is inserted into a donor's vein. Many individuals are fearful or uncomfortable with this method of blood collection. Also, the need for a trained phlebotomist to collect the sample limits the number of locations where samples can be collected, often resulting in much inconvenience for the donor, and adds labor costs to the overall collection process.
If the sample is intended for analysis at a distant laboratory, various protocols must be observed in preparing and sending a shipment of the sample to ensure the integrity of the sample, identity of the sample, and safety of individuals who may come into contact with the shipment. Samples are usually placed in a refrigerated shipping container and transported to laboratories through an expedited shipping method. These steps add considerable costs to the testing process. The stability of certain target analytes during the transport process is also of concern.
Given the expenses and analytical variables associated with the conventional process of collecting, transporting, and analyzing blood samples, along with the drawbacks this process imposes on sample donors, alternative approaches have been actively pursued. One such approach focuses on expanding the use of dried blood spot (DBS) methods. With DBS, small blood samples, usually obtained from a finger or heel prick, are spotted and dried onto specialized filter paper. The dried samples can then be shipped to a laboratory through the mail without the need for refrigeration.
Although DBS sampling provides certain advantages over conventional syringe blood collections, the technology also has a number of drawbacks that severely limit its utility.
Once a DBS sample has reached the laboratory, analytes must be recovered through an extraction process which involves punching out an area of sample-containing filter paper for analysis. Typically, a circular disc with a 3-6 mm diameter is punched out with an instrument that must come into direct contact with the sample-containing filter, potentially contaminating the instrument, and requiring that the instrument be decontaminated between sample punches. This procedure also requires considerably more blood to be collected than is actually used in the analysis.
Another problem with the DBS method is its inability to provide a precisely defined volume of sample to assay, due to the inherent variability of sample hematocrit values (the percentage of blood volume comprised of red blood cells). This problem, sometimes referred to as "hematocrit bias", occurs because red blood cells affect sample viscosity (viscosity increases in proportion to red blood cell concentration) and viscosity in turn affects the amount of area covered by a blood sample on a piece of collection paper (for a given volume of blood, less viscous samples will spread out over a larger area of collection paper). Standard laboratory procedures usually calculate volume based on the average hematocrit level for a given population, resulting in a considerable underestimation or overestimation for those samples that have hematocrit values considerably different from the mean. This presumptive step can proportionately bias the value of the test result, in some cases resulting in miscalculations greater than 20%.
Another problem with the DBS method is the tendency for certain analytes in a sample to become heterogeneously distributed through the paper matrix due to chromatographic effects of the paper. This can lead to inaccurate results as areas of the paper collected for sampling may have variably lower or higher concentrations of the target analyte.
Still another problem with the DBS method has to do with variability in analyte recovery during the extraction process. Conventional DBS methods provide no practical approach for monitoring the efficiency of analyte recovery which can lead to significant underestimation of analyte concentration.
While the DBS method does not require a phlebotomist to collect the sample, there are critical steps in the procedure that, if not performed properly, can lead to erroneous test results. For example, touching the filter paper or applying too small a volume can lead to variations in sample volume per unit area. While proper spotting technique may mitigate this variability, the technique itself is often difficult for donors to appropriately master. The donor must create a hanging drop that is sufficiently large, but not so large that it accidentally drips from the finger (which can cause splattering and contamination). The drop must then be applied to the filter paper in such a way that inadvertently causes the finger to obscure from view the contact point between the blood sample and paper, contributing to the possibility that the donor will accidentally touch the paper or apply an insufficient amount of sample.
Thus, there remains a compelling need to develop test systems and methods that can incorporate dried blood samples in a way that solves the problems that exist with all current approaches.
The present invention provides a simple and easy-to-use means for collecting and drying a sample of blood, transporting the dried blood to a laboratory, and analyzing the dried blood sample with a level of accuracy, consistency, and reliability not achievable with current approaches. In particular, the present invention provides a collection procedure considerably more user-friendly than the standard DBS procedure and resolves the problematic DBS issues regarding hematocrit bias, chromatographic effects, and variable extraction recoveries.

System and method for sample collection, transport and analysis


An airbag (10) for a vehicle occupant restraint system. The airbag includes an airbag body (12) defining an interior (15) of the airbag (10). A series of substantially sinusoidal seams (20) join together portions of the airbag body (12) to partition the airbag interior (15) into a plurality of fluidly communicating chambers (22). It is believed that characteristics of the airbag (10) during inflation and after inflation may be controlled by varying the characteristics of the sinusoidal seams (20).

The present invention relates generally to vehicle airbags and, more particularly, to a vehicle airbag incorporating features enabling control of airbag inflation and performance characteristics.
Many known side-impact airbags consist of an elongate airbag body that is deployable between a vehicle occupant and the side of the passenger compartment of a vehicle, typically substantially between an occupant's head and a vehicle window. Known systems also often utilize an airbag that is relatively thin as compared with its width. Various seams may be formed internally in the airbag body, connecting front and rear panels or sides of the airbag. In most cases, these seams are straight seams. The seams divide the airbag into a plurality of parallel compartments that form parallel inflated tubes upon inflation. These tubes serve to cushion the occupant in the event of a crash. However, the airbag may have a tendency to bend relatively easily along the straight seams, in some instances reducing occupant protection in the event of a crash. Particularly where an airbag is deployed during a forceful crash or sudden deceleration, a bending of the airbag body can allow for displacement of the airbag from a desired position or otherwise result in reduced occupant protection. It is also important to be able to control characteristics of the airbag during inflation (for example, the time required to inflate the airbag and the sequence in which different portions of the airbag inflate) to achieve desired airbag performance characteristics.

Airbag seam pattern for increased occupant protection


A method and related apparatus are provided for producing on a semi-continuous basis polycrystalline silicon and melt replenishment for a crystal growth crucible. The silicon is deposited in low density form on the inner walls of a multi-walled reaction chamber by delivering gaseous HSiCL.sub.3, SiH.sub.4, or the like, and reducing gas if needed, through the chamber which is heated to the reaction temperature of the feed gas. After a certain amount of silicon has been produced, the chamber temperature is raised sufficiently to melt down the silicon which is then used to replenish a crystal growth crucible. The operations are then cyclically repeated.. The apparatus includes a reaction chamber having a multi-walled configuration to maximize the interior surface area on which the silicon is deposited. A drain trap such as a U-shaped tube, or the like, is connected to the bottom of the reaction chamber and provided with heating elements. Silicon collected on the walls of the reaction chamber, when periodically melted, flows through the drain trap and a delivery tube to a crystal growth system. By selectively adjusting the temperature in the trap, either above or below the melting point of the silicon, the silicon is alternately liquified or solidified so that the liquid/solid transition of the silicon in the trap acts as a valve between the reaction chamber and the crystal growth system.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the production of high purity silicon and more particularly is directed towards a new and improved method and associated apparatus involving the reduction of HSiCL.sub.3, or the like, in a reaction chamber to obtain silicon and periodically melting the silicon for transfer through a U-shaped delivery tube to a crystal growth apparatus for replenishment of molten silicon in a crucible from which the crystal is grown.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is a growing demand for polycrystalline silicon of high purity for uses for such products as solar cells, semi-conductors, or the like. At present the techniques and equipment used in the production of silicon for these purposes are both complex and expensive. The high cost of prior techniques and equipment is the result of a number of factors which include inefficient reaction chambers, time consuming batch processes, low volume output and high energy requirements.
Because of the complexity of the purification process semi-conductor grade silicon is very expensive. Perfect crystals of silicon can be grown by the Czochralski method in which a seed crystal is rotated while being slowly withdrawn from a crucible of molten silicon. If the temperature and rates of rotation and pulling are controlled with sufficient precision, the silicon in the crucible is converted into a single perfect crystal. At this stage the crystal can be doped, if desired, with a suitable quantity of an additive, such as boron, for example.
The semiconductor grade silicon can be obtained by various means such as by reacting technical silicon with dry hydrochloric acid gas and converted to trichlorosilane SiHCL.sub.3 which is then purified and thereafter decomposed at a temperature between 800.degree. and 1000.degree. C. The process and equipment used therein are more fully disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,943,918. U.S. Pat. No. 3,012,862 also describes methods for producing elemental silicon.
Proposals which have been considered for reducing the cost of polycrystalline silicon, especially that intended for large area silicon solar cell arrays, generally fall into three major areas, the first being improved efficiency of the Siemens process, new chemical reactions which will produce a much greater yield of semi-conductor grade silicon than the Siemens process, and techniques to produce silicon which are intermediate between metallurgical grade and semi-conductor grade silicon, a solar cell grade. The improvements in the Siemens process have been mainly in process conditions, such as pressure, temperature and feed stock composition. The development of a new chemical process requires not only that the process can produce the required yield of high quality silicon, but also that the feed stocks can be produced in high volume and quality at a reasonable price. This is a long, expensive process involving high capital investment.
Other techniques have involved the deposition of silicon within a tube of silicon or fused silica. While this approach theoretically implies the possibility of low energy requirements by the use of external heaters and insulation, the need to use tubular silicon necessitates the production of such tubes which adversely affects the cost of the technique. The use of a fused silica tube has been done, but the lack of a suitable method for removing the silicon without destroying the tube has prevented this procedure from achieving major cost savings.
In both of the above systems, the deposition tubes are broken up and used to charge a crucible in a separate procedure. This, of course, results in a substantial amount of handling and limits the deposition technique to that where high density deposits are produced.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide improvements in the method and associated apparatus for producing high grade polycrystalline material for use as solar cells or the like. Another object of the invention is to provide a method and associated apparatus for producing polycrystalline silicon and melt replenishment on a low-cost, semi-continuous basis.

Apparatus for producing semiconductor grade silicon and replenishing the melt of a crystal growth system


A reticular tubular structure formed by extruded filaments of synthetic plastic material extending in two oppositely tilted directions with respect to an axial direction of the tubular reticular structure. The filaments cross one another to form a tubular net of interconnected rhomboid meshes, vertices of the rhomboid meshes being formed by crossover points between two filaments fused together, while sides of the rhomboid meshes are formed by said filaments outside the crossover points. The tubular reticular structure is molecularly oriented in both longitudinal and transverse directions thereof, and is calendered so that the crossover points, at the vertices of the rhomboid meshes, and the filaments, at the sides thereof, have the same common thickness.

This invention relates to a method for shaping a material with a reticular structure, or a net structure, which also includes a plant for performing same and the reticular material resulting from the method.
The method in question is applied to handling a synthetic plastics material with a reticular structure, in particular one having a tubular shape, which is one of the type with a known constitution and obtained by means of an extrusion process.
The reticular material resulting from the said method is particularly applied to the packaging industry in general, and it is worth mentioning how important its use is in packaging food products and, more specifically, fruit and vegetable products.
For many years the use of net containers has been known, either of the knotted type, such as net bags, or of the type bound by plain knitting, such as the bags of a loosely woven fabric, like hemp canvas, sackcloth, matting, leno, etc. to transport onions, potatoes, etc., on a commercial level, or of the type obtained by extruding a synthetic plastics material, such as the one used to make bags for packaging various products used on a domestic level, such as oranges, potatoes, onions, nuts, chestnuts, lemons, etc.
The Spanish Utility Model No. 158.340 is known, which describes an extruded net that is mono- or biaxially oriented, without this transcending to the cross points, which has low tensile strength, good dimensional stability and reduced coverage ability.
The actual applicant is the owner of Spanish Utility Model Nos. 290.122, 290.123, 290.124, 290.125 and 290.126 that relate to different variants of tubular flattened extruded net arrangements, made up of two or three non-molecularly oriented filaments, having the characteristics of low tensile strength, good dimensional stability and high coverage ability.
Patent EP 0 788 974 is also known, which relates to a packaging made up of non-oriented extruded net which is folded with a plastic film and joined to it by welding, and Patent ES 2.014.712 which describes packaging bags made from woven net with plastic filaments which is folded with a plastic film joined to the woven net by welding.
Moreover other patents are known that are related to this application, and they are:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,140,330 relates to a system for drawing, longitudinally and transversally, a tubular net after it has been extruded controlling its drawing with a calibration ring and a hot bath, with the net being dragged by a winder, not shown, and guided by two lower submerged rollers, which do not come into contact with one another, and a top guide roller. In this patent no operation for laminating the tubular flattened net resulting from the drawing operation, is envisaged.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,002,711, relating to a method for producing a flat, continuous and smooth web of cellulosic material, in other words, it is not a reticular tubular structure, although it envisages using calendering rollers to surface the web of material. Nevertheless, the plant shown in said patent to describe the process for producing the flat, continuous and smooth web is slightly reminiscent of possible, non-claimed variants described in this invention and which correspond to FIGS. 13 and 14 in the description.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,621 relates to a method for obtaining a flat device for transporting cans of drink, which is made up of a plurality of cables which, describing irregular trajectories on a plane that determine meetings between pairs of said cables, form a flat grid with openings slightly smaller than the section of the cans to be contained. This narrow web which is flat, and therefore not tubular, and is not molecularly oriented by the corresponding longitudinal drawing and transversal widening operations, is a different starting material to that which is the object of this patent application, and it is not to be understood that this is affected by the fact that in some case said narrow support web for drink cans undergo a calendering operation, which is performed by flattening the cables and intersection points until they are reduced to a perforated lamina that is similar to the equivalent narrow webs obtained through die-cutting or punching the laminar material.
FR patent 1.566.717 relates to a plastic mesh net intended to cover boxes for transporting fruit and vegetables, which is obtained from a plastics material that is shaped by extruding a material with a reticular tubular structure that is subjected to a single longitudinal drawing operation, without being accompanied at any time by a transversal widening operation, after which the material with a reticular tubular structure opens, transformed into a laminar material such as those in FIG. 1 and A of FIG. 5, with the material in the above-mentioned shape being subjected to a calendering operation to give it a flat shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,370,116 relates to a method for widening a reticular tubular structure up to a predetermined size, this aim being achieved with a mandrel 12, the projection of a hot fluid in station A and a cooling operation in station B, feeding the material by dragging it on rollers 18 without this in any way suggesting a laminating effect, since said rollers 18 do not form a laminating calendering machine.
Patent EP 0 067 238 relates to a method and apparatus for the continuous biaxial orientation of an extruded web of plastics material that is dragged and surfaced by passing through the two rollers 16A and 16B to obtain the longitudinal drawing thereof, which is followed immediately by a widening operation performed by the widening blades 18, without this at any time producing a laminating operation of the web, which undoubtedly does not have a reticular tubular structure.
Finally, Patent ES 2.023.601 is known, which describes a method for obtaining an elastic net for carrying loads, as well as the net obtained therewith.
Moreover, this section must also consider the application field of the material that is the object of the invention, the use of which can be limited, on the one hand, to packaging food products in general and fruit and vegetables in particular and, on the other hand, to containing loads stored on pallets.
With respect to the case of the first application, it is worth highlighting, owing to their extensive use and good functional suitability, the packagings made of reticular net and auxiliary printed elements such as bands of printed film, paper labels, plastic labels, etc.
In those packagings that include net and plastic bands, the net may be of the woven, oriented extruded, or non-oriented extruded type. Each of these types of net has, for its main function as the element for containing the product inside the packaging, certain advantages and disadvantages, namely:
Woven net has a good strength-weight ratio, which makes it possible to optimise the cost of the packaging. It also has the advantage that, because of its light weight and volume, the spools can handle considerable meters of material at one time, which increases the work autonomy of automatic packaging machines. The disadvantage of woven net is that it has very low dimensional stability, and so the packagings formed using this type of net are easily deformed, which has a negative effect on the vertical structure and the ability to display the message or design printed on the packaging.
The packagings obtained with oriented extruded nets have the same advantages and disadvantages as those made from woven net, with the added fact that, generally, oriented extruded nets offer a low product coverage factor because the oriented threads have a small section.
From non-oriented extruded nets, packagings that maintain their vertical structure and provide a clear view of the design printed on the film bands are obtained. Nevertheless, these nets have a non-too favourable strength-weight ratio, and so heavyweight net has to be used, which negatively affects the cost of the packaging. On the other hand, since its threads are not oriented and they have a substantial section, these nets have a high product coverage factor, but at the same time, the spools can only handle a few meters at a time, which causes frequent stoppages in the automatic packaging machines to replace the empty spools.
With respect to the second case of application, reticular structures or flat nets are used when it is essential that air circulates inside the palletised load, so as not to produce water vapour, as is the case of pallets containing boxes of fruit, vegetables or fresh vegetables; or when hot elements are arranged which are to cool in the atmosphere, such as bricks and ceramic pieces just after they have been fired.
These contention elements can be perforated films, woven nets or extruded bi-oriented nets.
Perforated films have good elasticity and they are not very thick, and so a high number of meters can be provided on one spool, and they do not produce loose threads or a large amount of waste when the pallets are undone. As for the disadvantages, it is worth mentioning that they have limited tensile strength and that, since to maintain their cohesion the perforated surface cannot be very high, the ventilation effect inside the palletised load is very much reduced.
Extruded nets offer good tensile strength, but they suffer from the drawback that, owing to their thickness and rigidity, only a few meters fit on the spool and that the net takes up considerable space when the pallets are undone, and it has to be placed in waste containers.
Woven nets do not offer as good a shearing strength as the extruded oriented ones, particularly when the palletised load has ends with edges, but their main drawback is that when the net is cut to undo the pallets, threads come off that accumulate in the wheels and axes of the back pallet parts and stacking trucks, and that can cause breakdowns or, it at least means that the cleaning and maintenance frequency of these machines has to be increased.

Method for shaping a material with a reticular structure, plant for performing same and reticular material resulting from the method


An electronic engine controller monitors the operability of a catalytic converter upon ignition of the engine by sensing the temperature of the exhaust gas entering the converter and of the exhaust gas exiting the converter for a period of time after the engine has been started. The electronic engine controller calculates the rate of heat transfer from the exhaust gas to the catalyst material within the converter. This value is then used to calculate the temperature of the catalyst material. Subsequent rates of heat transfer and subsequent temperatures of the catalyst material are calculated and the rate of change of temperature of the catalyst material is determined for each time step. A ratio is formed from the rate of heat transfer and the rate of change of temperature of the catalyst material. The electronic engine controller determines the ratio of the rate of heat transfer and the rate of change of temperature of the catalyst material for the period of time from engine ignition to catalyst light-off. This period of time, the light-off time, is checked against a predetermined trend in the ratio and a converter inoperative condition is set if the light-off time is greater than the threshold value.

Modern automotive engines typically utilize a catalytic converter to reduce the exhaust gas emissions produced by the engine. Such converters operate to chemically alter the exhaust gas composition produced by the engine to help meet various environmental regulations governing tailpipe emissions. When operating properly, modern catalytic converters can reduce the concentration of the three major undesirable exhaust gases--hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and various nitrous oxides--by about 90%.
Several methods exist in the art for determining the operability of a catalytic converter. One method involves directly measuring the efficiency of the converter by using exhaust gas emission sensors. Another method involves determining catalytic converter efficacy based largely on measures of the oxygen storage capability of the converter. A converter with reduced oxygen storage capability may, however, function with acceptable efficiency in treating exhaust gas. That is, the treated exhaust gas may meet emission requirements notwithstanding such reduced oxygen storage capability, particularly by effective use of oxygen components present in the exhaust gas. In such cases, an accurate catalytic converter efficiency test could be less directly related to oxygen storage capability.
Another method, as proposed in SAE Paper No. 900062, Detection of Catalyst Performance Using On-Board Diagnostics, employs two exhaust gas oxygen (EGO) sensors, one upstream and one downstream of the catalytic converter, to detect oxygen content in the exhaust gas. The system employs test signals in the form of an air/fuel ratio swing on both sides of stoichiometry at predetermined rates or frequencies caused by fuel control system perturbations. A determination of catalytic converter efficacy is said to be made by comparing the difference in response patterns between the upstream and downstream EGO sensors. In such a system, the monitoring results depend on signals from two EGO sensors which may have different characteristics, due either to manufacturing tolerances or to differential aging over a period of use. Moreover, such a system requires the use of multiple EGO sensors.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of determining the operability of a catalytic converter via on-board vehicle diagnostics in a reliable and accurate manner.

Detection of catalytic converter operability by light-off time determination


A method of producing a Ni--Cu--Zn ferrite material comprises the steps of preparing a mixture of an iron compound powder having a specific surface area of about 8.5 m.sup.2 /g or more, a nickel compound powder, copper compound powder and a zinc compound powder, the mixture having a specific surface area of about 8.0 m.sup.2 /g or more; pre-calcining the mixture such that the pre-calcined mixture has a surface area of about 5.0 m.sup.2 /g or more and a spinel crystal synthesizability within a range of about 80.5% to 98%; and milling the pre-calcined mixture to obtain a powder of a Ni--Cu--Zn ferrite material having a specific surface area of about 6.0 m.sup.2 /g or more.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing a ferrite material, in particular a Ni--Cu--Zn ferrite material which is suitable for use as a chip inductor.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inductor element has been used as a noise filter in an electric circuit of an electronic device. In order to achieve a compact size and effect a high density attachment, there has been suggested and put into practical use a chip inductor involving only a small amount of a magnetic flux leakage, occupying only a small area, and having a structure in which the inner conductor is disposed within a ferrite ceramic (core).
Such chip inductors, for example, may be obtained by simultaneously calcining a plurality of ferrite material layers and electrically conductive material layers formed between the ferrite layers. In general, there has been used a Ni--Cu--Zn ferrite material as the ferrite material for forming the chip inductors, and, as an electrically conductive material, there has been used a Ag material which has a high electric conductivity.
When Ag is used as an electrically conductive material and the above chip inductor is obtained by means of a simultaneous calcining treatment, the melting point of Ag is 950.degree. C. under the oxygen equilibrium conditions in the atmosphere. If it is heated to a temperature of 900.degree. C. or higher, a plastic deformation of Ag will begin as the time of heating progresses, thereby causing it to penetrate and disperse throughout the ferrite. Because of this, there will occur some problems which can include the cross sectional area of the internal conductor will decrease, the direct current resistance value will increase, and the consumption electric power will thus increase. Moreover, if it is heated to a high temperature which is higher than 950.degree. C., a part of the internal conductor will be disconnected, losing the predetermined function as an inductor. For this reason, it is required that the calcining treatment should be conducted at a temperature of 950.degree. C. or lower, preferably 900.degree. C. or lower, in order to obtain a chip inductor using Ag as an internal conductor.
However, it is necessary to calcine a Ni--Cu--Zn ferrite material which was used as a core material (ferrite ceramic) of a chip inductor at a temperature of 1000.degree. C. or higher so as to obtain a dense calcined body. If the calcining treatment is conducted at a temperature lower than such a value, it is impossible to obtain a sufficient calcining density, hence causing a problem in that the initial magnetic permeability becomes low and pores are adversely created in the calcined body.
Further, in order to effectively remove a noise component having a low frequency of 30 MHz or lower, it is required that, as a characteristic of a noise filter for use in an electric circuit, the cross point frequency at the intersection of an R component frequency curve and the X component frequency curve should be controlled to a value of 10 MHz or lower. For this reason, it is required that the initial magnetic permeability of the Ni--Cu--Zn ferrite material, which is used as a core material of a chip inductor, be maintained at a value of 800 or higher for this purpose.
Furthermore, in order to inhibit a wave form distortion in a frequency component, it is required that, as a characteristic of a noise filter for use in an electric circuit, the cross point frequency at an intersection of an R component frequency curve and an X component frequency curve should be controlled at a value of 5 MHz or lower. For this reason, it is required that the initial magnetic permeability of the Ni--Cu--Zn ferrite material, which is for use as a core material of a chip inductor, be maintained at a value of 1200 or higher.

Method of producing Ni-Cu-Zn ferrite material


A toilet bowl plunger for use with a new narrow throat 1.6 gallon toilet that can be used equally well with older toilets. The head portion of the plunger is a pleated bellows consisting of two sections, a conically tapering section and a constant average diameter section. The conically tapering section has larger diameter at the rear end of the head and tapers down to a narrower diameter in a direction away from the rear end of the head. The bellows then continues into the constant diameter section in a direction away from the rear end and towards the front end of the head. The constant diameter section resembles an elephant-like trunk or nose. When inserted into the toilet bowl, the constant diameter section of the bellows head penetrates into the throat, while a forward end of the tapered section seats over the outer perimeter of the mouth of the throat. The constant diameter section or nose of the head curves to follow the path of the throat. The stiffer forward portion of the nose follows the throat without compressing or jamming. As pressure is applied downward on the handle, the tapered section of the bellows compresses against the mouth of the throat forming a seal. As a result, pressure is generated in the throat by the compression of the bellows and/or water/air is directed through the nose section that is curved to follow the path of the throat and thus directed in a direction towards any obstruction in the throat for effectively dislodging the obstruction.

Technical Field
This invention relates to an improved toilet bowl plunger for use with a new narrow throat 1.6 gallon toilet. However, the plunger of the present invention can be used equally well with conventional or standard toilets.
Background Art
There are various problems associated with plunging a clogged toilet. Some of these problems are related to the toilet configuration, while other problems are related to the design of the plunger itself.
By way of background, toilet drains are usually unclogged by using a toilet plunger comprised of a large deformable plunger cup mounted on the end of an elongated handle shaft. During the plunging operation, the plunger cup is held over the mouth of the toilet bowl drain while the plunger handle is reciprocated in an upward and downward motion that alternately contracts and enlarges the space within the cup. Preferred plunging action creates an alternating pressure and suction force in the drain passage that is often sufficient to dislodge an obstruction.
Recently toilets have been redesigned to conserve water. The newer toilets, as compared to older models, have a substantially reduced water flow (approximately 1.6 gallons per flush) and smaller waste drain passages than their older counterparts Since the waste drain passages, or throats, of the newer toilets are narrower, these toilets are more prone to clogging. As shown in FIG. 1, the new 1.6 gallon toilets 10 have a bowl 12 which drains through a relatively narrow throat 14. Conventional plungers are typically too wide to fit into the narrow throat of the new toilet. As such, they do not seal the throat opening. Consequently, conventional plungers are unable to provide the appropriate pressure or suction for the purpose of dislodging any obstruction blocking the throat. As a result, the user must have different plungers on hand for use with new and old toilets.
Another problem related to the configuration of the newer toilets, as can be determined by looking at FIG. 1, is that while the older toilets have a waste drain passage located at the bottom of the toilet bowl, the newer toilets have a waste drain passage or throat that is vertically located in relation to the toilet bowl. The fact that the drain passage or throat is vertical in relation to the bowl makes it practically impossible to use a standard plunger to plunge the toilet since the position of the throat makes it difficult to get the conventional plunger head to seal around the throat.
In addition to problems related to the newer toilet designs, there are two common problems that frequently occur during plunging operations which are related to the design of the common toilet plunger. These are "splash back" and "spillover". First of all, the pressure and suction generated during plunging often causes water to spray out from any gaps between the plunger cup and bowl surface with great force, and then splash up and outside of the toilet bowl onto the plunger operator and onto nearby walls and floors. This phenomenon is called "splash back". Additionally, many times when a toilet is clogged, the water and sewage in the toilet tend to fill the toilet to the brim. Hence, when the toilet plunger head is inserted into the toilet, the displacement of the toilet plunger head causes the toilet water and sewage to spill over the sides of the toilet. This phenomenon is called "spill over".
Therefore, in order to overcome the limitations of prior toilet plungers, what is needed is a toilet plunger that can be used with the newer 1.6 gallon toilets. This plunger should be able to effectively plunge toilets that have throat or waste drain passages that are difficult to access, including those where the throat is generally perpendicular in relation to the toilet bowl. However, this improved plunger should also be compatible with the older toilet models. Furthermore, this plunger should minimize spillage and splash back problems during plunging operations. The plunger should also be simple, capable of being easily fabricated and used, and be inexpensive and durable.


A system for producing a quotient B/A, where A and B are elements of GF(2.sup.2M), 2M+1 is prime and 2 is a primitive element of GF(2M+1), first determines A.sup.-1 and then multiplies B by A.sup.-1. The system uses a (2M+1)-bit representation for A and produces, directly from A, an element C=A.sup.2.sup..sup.M .sup.+1, where C also is an element of GF(2.sup.2M) which is a subfield of GF(2.sup.M). The system produces M+1 bits to represent C by performing bit manipulations that are equivalent to permuting the (2M+1)-bits to produce A.sup.2.sup..sup.M and multiplying the permuted bits by A. The bit manipulations are: c.sub.0 =.SIGMA.a.sub.i a.sub.i ; c.sub.1 =.SIGMA.a.sub.i a.sub.i+1 . . . c.sub.M =.SIGMA.a.sub.i a.sub.i+M where the a.sub.j 's and c.sub.j 's are the coefficients of A and C, respectively. The system retrieves C.sup.-1 from a (2.sup.M -1)-element lookup table and multiplies C.sup.-1 =A.sup.-2.sup..sup.M .sup.+1 by A.sup.2.sup..sup.M to produce A.sup.-1. This multiplication is performed as the exclusive-OR'ing of M+1 sums of cyclically shifted copies of A.sup.2.sup..sup.M , which is a permutation of the 2.sup.M +1 bits of A. The multiplication of B by A.sup.-1 is also performed as the exclusive-OR'ing of cyclically shifted copies of a (2M+1)-bit representation of B.

The importance of error correction coding of data in digital computer systems has increased greatly as the density of the data recorded on mass storage media, more particularly magnetic disks, has increased. With higher recording densities, a tiny imperfection in the recording surface of a disk can corrupt a large amount of data. In order to avoid losing that data, error correction codes ("ECC's") are employed to, as the name implies, correct the erroneous data.
Before a string of data symbols is recorded on a disk, it is mathematically encoded to form ECC symbols. The ECC symbols are then appended to the data string to form code words--data symbols plus ECC symbols--and the code words are then stored on the disk. When the stored data is to be accessed from the disk, the code words containing the data symbols are retrieved from the disk and mathematically decoded. During decoding any errors in the data are detected and, if possible, corrected through manipulation of the ECC symbols [For a detailed description of decoding see Peterson and Weldon, Error Correction Codes, 2d Edition, MIT Press, 1972].
Stored digital data can contain multiple errors. One of the most effective types of ECC used for the correction of multiple errors is a Reed-Solomon code [For a detailed description of Reed-Solomon codes, see Peterson and Weldon, Error Correction Codes]. With Reed-Solomon codes, the encoding and decoding operations are performed over a Galois Field, using Galois Field addition, multiplication and division operations.
Galois Field division is generally a time consuming operation that significantly lengthens the ECC encoding and decoding processes. The time it takes to perform error correction operations adversely affects the rate at which data can be retrieved from a storage device and supplied to a user or to a computer application that requires the data.
One way to perform a Galois Field division operation, B/A, where A and B are elements of the Galois Field GF(2.sup.Q), is to determine the multiplicative inverse of A and multiply B by the inverse. Finding the inverse of a Galois Field element is not particularly straight forward. One solution to determining the inverse is to test each element of the field, by multiplying the element by B. This is very time consuming, particularly with the larger Galois Fields that are used to protect the higher-density data.
Another solution is to use a look-up table that contains the inverses. If a Galois Field GF(2.sup.2M) is used, a (2.sup.2M -1)-element look-up table is required. With many systems, it is undesirable to have such large look-up tables, which require both large amounts of storage space and relatively complex addressing circuitry.
A better solution is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,876, which has a common inventor and is incorporated herein by reference. The system described in the '876 patent determines the multiplicative inverse of an element A of GF(2.sup.2M) by first computing a conversion factor, D=A.sup.2.sup..sup.M , and then multiplying A by D to produce an associated element C=A.sup.2.sup..sup.M .sup.+1. The element C is also an element of a smaller Galois Field, GF(2.sup.M), which is a subfield of GF(2.sup.2M). The system then determines the multiplicative inverse of C by entering a (2.sup.M -1)-element look-up table. The system next converts the inverse of C, C.sup.-1 =A.sup.-(2.sup..sup.M .sup.+1), to the multiplicative inverse of A by multiplying C.sup.-1 by the conversion factor D, to produce A.sup.-(2.sup..sup.M .sup.+1) *A.sup.2.sup..sup.M .sup.+1 =A.sup.-1, where "*" represents Galois Field multiplication.
The system described in the '876 patent works well and determines the multiplicative inverse of A relatively quickly, using a (2.sup.M -1)-entry look-up table rather than the larger (2.sup.2M -1)-entry table. The system, however, requires at least one relatively complex full Galois Field multiplier to multiply together two 2M-bit symbols. A single multiplier may be used multiple times to multiply together A and D, and then C.sup.-1 and D, or two of the multipliers may be used to perform the two multiplications. The multiplication operations, whether performed by one or two full Galois Field multipliers, involve manipulation of two 2M-bit symbols and are thus both relatively time consuming and complex. The system must also hold the 2M-bit conversion factor D that is used to produce C, until C.sup.-1 is retrieved from the look-up table.
We have devised an improved system that, for selected Galois Fields GF(2.sup.2M) where 2M+1 is prime, produces the multiplicative inverse of A in fewer clock cycles. Further, the improved system uses less complex circuitry than the system of the '876 patent. We discuss the improved system below.

Circuit for determining multiplicative inverses in certain galois fields


A mobile terminal comprises: a case having an electric mounting portion with electronic components installed therein and having an ear jack holder part on the outer surface thereof; and ear jack connected to the ear jack holder part and having a plug hole into which a connecting plug is inserted; a plurality of first terminals equipped inside the plug hole; a second terminal connected to the first terminal and exposed to the outside of the ear jack; an antenna carrier connected to the back side of the case and having an antenna pattern formed on the surface thereof; and an ear jack electrode pattern formed in the antenna carrier, one end thereof being connected to the second terminal, wherein the mobile terminal has an ear jack structure outside the case, and thereby can prevent water from flowing into the mobile terminal through the ear jack.

Terminals may be generally classified as mobile/portable terminals or stationary terminals according to their mobility. Mobile terminals may also be classified as handheld terminals or vehicle mounted terminals according to whether or not a user can directly carry the terminal.
Mobile terminals have become increasingly more functional. Examples of such functions include data and voice communications, capturing images and video via a camera, recording audio, playing music files via a speaker system, and displaying images and video on a display. Some mobile terminals include additional functionality which supports game playing, while other terminals are configured as multimedia players. More recently, mobile terminals have been configured to receive broadcast and multicast signals which permit viewing of content such as videos and television programs.
As such functions become more diversified, the mobile terminal can support more complicated functions such as capturing images or video, reproducing music or video files, playing games, receiving broadcast signals, and the like. By comprehensively and collectively implementing such functions, the mobile terminal may be embodied in the form of a multimedia player or device.
With the diversified functions of the mobile terminal, the mobile terminal has been widely used and its usage frequency has been increased in an environment where water exists, such as bathroom or swimming pool. For waterproof of the mobile terminal, a plastic bag may be used or an accessory should additionally be provided. If the mobile terminal is covered with a plastic bag, its function is limited, whereby a mobile terminal having a waterproof function has been required.


A communication network having multiple codecs communicating voice calls between an originating network and a terminating network. The communication network includes an originating codec and a terminating codec. The network provides signaling indicating the decoding algorithm to the originating network, and indicating the encoding algorithm to the terminating network. The original encoding algorithms and the original decoding algorithms are then altered from the standard as a function of this signaling to produce a best fit encoding matching to improve voice quality.

The present invention is generally related to communication networks including wireless telephony communication networks, communicating voice calls between an originating network and a terminating network, and more particularly to a communication network having dissimilar compression and decompression equipment, such as codecs, in the speech path.
Communications networks, including wireless communication networks, typically include an originating network, a terminating network, and a communication link exchanging voice and data between these networks. In the case of telephony networks, analog speech signals are typically digitized through digital sampling prior to transmission over the communication link and then converted back to analog at the terminating network. To increase the capacity of the communication network, these digitized voice calls routed over the communication link are typically compressed through the use of compression and decompression equipment, commonly referred to as a codec or as a vocoder. Typically, a codec resides at both the originating end and at the terminating end of a call, whereby the digitized voice is compressed by an encoding algorithm in a forward direction, and decompressed by a decoding algorithm at the receiving end. The decompressed voice signal is ultimately converted back to voice through the use of a digital to analog (D/A) converter. The compressed digitized voice signals are typically routed over a communication link, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN) in a pulse code modulated (PCM) format, typically at 64 kbps.
The repeated use of compression and decompression equipment (codecs) in a speech path yields poor speech quality. In particular, the use of different voice codecs in different networks exacerbates the problem. As, the speech compression becomes more widespread in communication networks e.g., through the expanding use of cellular networks and xe2x80x9cvoice over the Internet,xe2x80x9d this voice degradation problem becomes more troublesome.
Current codecs are based on conversion from the 64 kbps PCM encoding used in the PSTN and back again, and do not consider the previous or subsequent use of other codecs in the network handling a voice call. However, in many instances, information about the originating network, and the codec used at the originating network, is available at the transit network and at the terminating end. In addition, information about the terminating network, and the terminating network codec, is available to the originating end.
There is desired an improved communication network and method of transmitting voice calls across the network having multiple codecs which improves the quality of voice calls over the communication network.
The present invention achieves technical advantages as a communication network having multiple codecs whereby the originating network and the terminating network provide information of the resident codec to each other, and codec encoding and decoding algorithms are responsively altered to improve voice quality. In one embodiment, the originating network provides codec information indicating the encoding algorithm to the terminating network, and the terminating network alters the codec decoding algorithm to better match the encoding algorithm and improve voice quality. In a second embodiment of the invention, the terminating network provides information about the decoding algorithm to the originating network, whereby the originating network alters the codec encoding algorithm to better match the decoding algorithm and improve voice quality. In both embodiments, information about one network codec algorithm is provided to the other network to allow one network to adjust and match its codec algorithm to the other to improve voice quality.
The first embodiment of the present invention comprises a communication system comprising an originating network. The originating network comprises a transmitter generating an electrical signal representative of speech. The originating network further comprises an originating voice codec coupled to the transmitter encoding the electrical signal according to an encoding algorithm. A signal device is coupled to the transmitter and generates a codec signal link indicative of the encoding algorithm utilized by the originating voice codec.
The communication system further comprises a communication link coupled to the originating network, and a terminating network comprising a receiver and a terminating voice codec coupled between the communication link and the receiver decoding the received encoded electrical signal. The terminating voice codec has a decoding algorithm. The terminating network further comprises a processing device coupled to the communications link identifying the encoding algorithm as a function of the received codec signal, and responsively alters the decoding algorithm as a function of the codec signal. The terminating voice codec has a decoding algorithm. The terminating network further comprises a processing device coupled to the communications link identifying the encoding algorithm as function of the received codec signal, and responsively alters the decoding algorithm as a function of the codec signal. The terminating voice codec recreates the original encoded electrical signal as a function of the identified encoding algorithm. The processing device analyzes the encoded electrical signal as a function of the identified encoding algorithm. The processing device examines the digital speech stream and looks for encoding artifacts including values present that are useful in the enhanced decoding process to identify encoding parameters to recreate the original encoded electrical signal. The signal device sends a start/sync flag to the terminating voice codec to indicate the start of an encoding period, which is typically 20 milliseconds in GSM networks. Preferably, the originating voice codec encodes the electrical signal in PCM format such as 64 Kbps PCM. The communication link preferably comprises a public switched telephone network (PSTN).
According to the second embodiment to the present invention, a communication system communicates an encoded electrical signal representative of speech and comprises a terminating network. The terminating network comprises a receiver, and a terminating voice codec coupled to the receiver. The terminating voice codec decodes the encoded electrical signal according to a decoding algorithm. The terminating network further includes a signaling device coupled to the terminating voice codec and generates a codec signal indicative of the decoding algorithm. The communication system further comprises a communications link and an originating network including a transmitter generating the electrical signal. An originating voice codec is coupled between the transmitter and the communications link and generates the encoded electrical signal according to an encoding algorithm. The originating network further includes a processing device coupled to the communications link and identifies the decoding algorithm as a function of the codec signal, and responsively alters the encoding algorithm as a function of the codec signal. The processing device may send a start/sync flag to the terminating voice codec to indicate the start of an encoding period. The communication link preferably comprises a PSTN.
According to a method of a third embodiment of the present invention, the method comprises communicating an encoded signal representative of speech across a communication link between an originating network including an encoder having an encoder algorithm, and a terminating network including a decoder having a decoder algorithm. The method comprises the steps of the originating network sending a codec signal to the terminating network indicative of the encoding algorithm. The terminating network receives the codec signal and identifies the encoding algorithm of the function of the received codec signal. The terminating network then modifies the decoding algorithm as a function of the identified encoding algorithm. The codec signal may further include a start/sync flag, wherein the start/sync flag is utilized by the terminating network to ascertain the start of an encoding period. The decoding algorithm recreates the original encoded electrical signal as a function of the identified encoding algorithm. The terminating network analyzes and examines the encoded signal as a function of the identified encoding algorithm to find encoding artifacts that are useful to determine encoding parameters to recreate the original encoded signal.
According to a method of a fourth embodiment of the present invention, the method comprises the step of the terminating network generating a codec signal indicative of the decoder decoding algorithm. The originating network receives the codec signal and identifies the decoder algorithm as a function of the received codec signal. The originating network modifies the encoder encoding algorithm as a function of the identified decoding algorithm. In both methods, the communication link comprises a PSTN, but could also comprise an optical network or other link if desired.

Voice quality optimization on multi-codec calls


A signal processor and an OLED display including the same are disclosed. In one aspect, the display includes a plurality of pixels and a luminance deterioration calculator configured to receive input image data and calculate luminance deterioration values of the pixels. A data compensator is configured to calculate compensation coefficients for each of the pixels based at least in part on the luminance deterioration values, adjust a compensation margin based at least in part on the maximum value of the compensation coefficients, and generate compensation image data for each of the pixels based at least in part on the compensation coefficients and the compensation margin. A panel driver is configured to generate data signals based at least in part on the compensation image data and transmit the data signal to the pixels and a timing controller configured to control the panel driver.

1. Field
The described technology generally relates to a signal processor and an organic light emitting diode display including the signal processor.
2. Description of the Related Technology
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display includes a plurality of pixels that display an image based on light emitted by the pixels.

Signal processor and organic light-emitting diode display having reduced luminance deviation including the same


A hub bearing assembly includes a hub made of lightweight metallic material and forming a cylindrical portion, on which a tubular inner ring providing a raceway is mounted; a second inner ring is fixed on the first tubular inner ring and provides a second raceway; a cylindrical interstice is formed between the cylindrical portion of the hub and the tubular inner ring and contains a structural adhesive which integrally joins the hub to the first tubular inner ring.

In the motor vehicle industry, there is an increasing demand for the reduction of the weight of motor vehicle components, with the aim of reducing fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. In order to reduce the overall weight of the wheel, and in particular of the rotating part of the wheel, hub bearing assemblies having a rotatable flanged ring composed of two different materials, joined together in a single piece, have been proposed in recent years. In these rings, a tubular core made of a first material having a high toughness, such as bearing grade steel, forms the raceways; a second, lightweight material, such as a lightweight metal, forms the remaining part of the ring, including an outer flange for mounting the wheel.
In some cases, the connection between the steel core and the lighter flange is provided by a positive connection. These connections do not always prove to be durable over time, above all after prolonged use. In fact, the different coefficients of thermal expansion of the steel and of the aluminum tend to cause separation of the two materials. In other cases, the connection is made by overmolding or casting the lightweight material, for example an aluminum alloy, on the tubular steel core. To avoid or limit relative movements between the two materials, in the rings of this type the two materials are joined by interface surfaces having a complex shape, in order to realize undercuts which act like joints between the two materials. See, for example, patent publication WO 2008/147284 A1. The production costs for the rings realized by this technique are rather high.

Lightweight hub bearing assembly and methods of assembling it


A jet for the carburetor of a gasoline internal combustion engine, including means for automatically correcting the composition (dosing) of the mixture which is delivered in the different operation conditions of the engine, comprises a delivery spout connected to a first vertical tube which plunges in a constant level fuel bowl and is provided with a fuel nozzle, and a second vertical tube which plunges into the constant level fuel bowl, surrounds the first vertical tube and forms a gap with respect to the same; this second vertical tube is closed at its lower end by a bottom traversed by a calibrated hole, and is provided with through apertures located at a level higher than the constant level of the gasoline in the fuel bowl. Preferably the first vertical tube has an air intake provided with a primary air nozzle and another air intake provided with a secondary air nozzle, and it is internally provided with a dividing wall which delimits a section communicating with the secondary air nozzle and extending downwards within the first vertical tube.

This invention refers to a jet for the carburetor of a gasoline internal combustion engine, including means for the automatically correcting the composition (dosing) of the mixture which is delivered in the different operation conditions of the engine.
As known, an elementary carburetor, comprising a choke in the form of a venturi tube where the air sucked by the engine flows, a gasoline jet located in the restricted cross section of the choke, a constant level fuel bowl which feeds the gasoline to the jet, and a calibrated nozzle (fuel nozzle) located between the fuel bowl and the jet, supplies to the engine an air and gasoline mixture whose composition is not constant but changes with the increase of the air flow sucked by the engine. Different devices have been proposed in order to automatically correct this change in the composition of the delivered mixture. Among them it is often used a so called air brake device, which includes a sump located between the fuel nozzle and the jet. A blind tube having an apertured wall plunges within the sump and at top it communicates with the ambient air through another calibrated nozzle (air nozzle). Thanks to this device the jet sucks, along with the gasoline which flows through the fuel nozzle, some air which is sucked through the air nozzle and comes out through the apertures in the tube wall. This air opposes some resistance to the gasoline flow within the sump, and this resistance increases when the flow increases, whereby the desired correction may be obtained within certain limits during a constant speed operation. However such device has some drawbacks. It considerably complicates the carburetor structure; its manufacture is somewhat expensive; the setup thereof is difficult and does not allow to obtain a complete correction; and the access to its component parts is difficult even for the simple cleaning. This device has a favorable action during the operation with varying speed too, namely during the acceleration, because the tube which plunges within the sump contains a gasoline reserve, which may be rather easily sucked since it is not hindered by the fuel nozzle but only by the apertures in the tube wall. This action, however, is not practically sufficient, whereby in most cases it is needed that an accelerator pump is provided for.


A position signaling apparatus for indicating desired positioning of vehicle components. The signaling device, including a switch, is mounted to a first vehicle component, such as a tandem axel frame assembly or a portion of the vehicle frame adjacent to the fifth wheel assembly. A trigger mechanism is attached to a second vehicle component. The second vehicle component is adjacent and moves relative to the first vehicle component. The trigger mechanism actuates the switch upon achieving proper alignment of the respect vehicle components. The switch closes a circuit which sends a signal to the vehicle operator upon achieving the desired positioning of the vehicle components.

In the trucking and heavy equipment industry, particularly in the tractor-trailer vehicle industry, loads of various sizes and weights must be handled. Accordingly, various types of trailers and specialized trailing implements have been utilized to handle such loads. Furthermore, vehicle operators must comply with specific laws governing the permissible weight of vehicles that travel on freeways and highways. Typically such laws specify the maximum allowable weight per axel of the vehicle. To facilitate compliance with these laws, the trucking industry has long since developed various adjustable frame components to change the weight distribution on the vehicle axels and bring the vehicle into compliance with weight laws.
Many traditional trailers utilize a tandem axel frame assembly which nests inside the main frame assembly of the trailer. The tandem axel frame assembly is moveable relative to the main frame assembly to change the position of the tandem axels relative to the main trailer frame. Changing the position of the tandem axels varies the distribution of weight on all of the vehicle axels.
Traditional tractor-trailer vehicles also include a carriage assembly on which the fifth wheel of the vehicle is mounted. This carriage assembly allows the fifth wheel to be moved in fore and aft directions relative to the cab portion of the vehicle. Moving the fifth wheel relative to the cab portion also changes the distribution of weight on the various axels of the tractor-trailer vehicle.
Operators of tractor-trailer vehicles must frequently change the position of the trailer tandem axels relative to the trailer frame as well as the position of the fifth wheel relative to the cab to comply with the particular vehicle weight laws. Several changes may be required during a single trip where the load is sequentially reduced. The weight distribution will change for a given amount of movement of the tandem axel or the fifth wheel relative to the other portions of the vehicle. To change the position of the tandem axels of the trailer, a mechanical locking pin which holds the tandem axel frame in place relative to the main trailer frame must be released. The vehicle operator must then enter the cab portion of the vehicle and inch the vehicle forward or backward while maintaining the tandem axels in the same place. The operator while in the cab is required to guess as to how much movement of the vehicle will result in the desired amount of relative frame movement. After making an initial guess, the operator is required to climb out of the vehicle cab to observe the actual amount of frame movement, and then reenter the vehicle cab to make further adjustments. Typically, three to five adjustment attempts are required to achieve the desired positioning.
A similar method is used to adjust the position of the fifth wheel relative to the cab portion of the vehicle. A hand-operated control located inside the cab releases a lock mechanism which secures the fifth wheel in a particular position on a carriage supporting the fifth wheel. The fifth wheel can thereby be moved in a conventional manner in fore and aft directions on the carriage assembly relative to the cab while the lock mechanism is released. Here again, the vehicle operator must guess as to how much the fifth wheel has moved for a given amount of actuation of the hand-operated controls. The operator must climb out of the cab, observe the actual amount of movement, and then return to the cab to make further adjustments. This method also requires typically between three to five adjustment efforts to achieve the desired positioning.
Similar difficulties have likewise persisted with respect to attaching trailers and trailing implements (e.g., boat trailers, campers, house trailers, and the like) to trucks and other vehicles. The aforementioned problems are also encountered when attempts are made to properly position a trailer ball attached to a vehicle under the trailer hitch socket. The driver is required to guess how far the vehicle must be moved to align the ball and socket. Achieving proper alignment typically requires several attempts by the driver, with a need to leave the driver's seat of the vehicle each time an adjustment is made to determine the position of the ball relative to the socket. This process is tedious and time consuming.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device to assist vehicle operators, including but not limited to tractor-trailer vehicle operators, in adjusting the relative position of vehicle components. Specifically, with respect to movement of a fifth wheel assembly relative to the cab portion of the vehicle to change the distribution of weight on the vehicle axels. In addition, there is a need to provide a device to assist tractor-trailer operators in changing the position of the trailer tandem axel frame assembly relative to the main trailer frame to change the distribution of weight on the vehicle axels. Still further, there is a need to develop a device that assists vehicle operators in positioning a ball attached to a vehicle underneath a socket portion of a trailer hitch for attaching the trailer to the vehicle.


A crop gathering attachment for a crop harvesting machine having a crop receiving mechanism operable, in use, to receive crop from the ground, a first crop feeder, and a second crop feeder disposed between the crop receiving mechanism and the first feeder, is disclosed wherein the second feeder includes a plurality of closely spaced rotary members fitted with retractable crop conveying elements. The rotary members are rotated in use so that crop material is conveyed thereover by the extended crop conveying elements to the first feeder. -

This invention relates generally to crop gathering attachments for crop harvesting machines and, more specifically, to a crop conveying mechanism utilized in a crop harvesting header.
It is usual in crop harvesting machines for standing crop to be harvested by first cutting it and then feeding the cut crop to crop processing components such as a threshing and separating mechanism in the case of a combine harvester, or a chopper in the case of a forage harvester, for example. The feeding of the cut crop to the crop processing components needs to be fluent and consistent so as to load those components uniformly and hence maximize the capacity of the machine. In some known machines, a conveying and consolidating mechanism, such as an auger, for feeding the cut crop to the crop processing components are located a relatively short distance behind the cutterbar, which is desirable from the standpoint of positively moving the crop to the processing means immediately after it has been cut, but which gives rise to the problem, in some instances, of crop being acted upon by the feeder means before it is cut and thus being pulled. This particular problem tends to happen when harvesting crop having long stalks (such as rye and rape for example) which is not standing upright due to adverse weather conditions.
Another problem experienced with known machines arises when the crop is wet and/or infested with weeds. With crop in either of these conditions, the problem of achieving a fluent flow continues to exist as there is a tendency for crop to accumulate in a dead spot which inevitably exists between the cutter means and feeder means even if a reel is used to help sweep the crop first to the cutter means and thence to the feeder means.
One solution to this problem is to employ a conveying device between the cutter means and the feeder means. One such device is a draper such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,809. Since the draper separates the cutter and the normal feeder means and is itself not as aggressive as the latter, the aforementioned problem of pulling long-stalked crops before they are cut, is avoided. Also, the problem associated with the dead spot in which wet or weed-infested crop tends to accumulate is relieved.
However, the draper is in effect a continuous belt conveyor, usually made of canvas, and it is difficult to provide adequate tracking means without using complicated, and hence expensive, components for the belts. Furthermore, crop material tends to wrap around the ends of the shafts carrying the canvas belt and eventually gets between the belt and the shafts. This, together with inadequate tracking, results in excessive wear taking place relatively quickly, resulting in frequent belt replacement. Accordingly, the draper has not become a universally accepted device.
British Patent Specification No. 2,094,606A discloses a crop gathering attachment for a crop harvesting machine which incorporates some of the advantages of a draper and avoids many of the disadvantages thereof. The disclosed attachment utilizes an additional feeder mechanism disposed between the normal cutterbar and the normal feeder. The additional feeder mechanism includes a plurality of rotary members, each in the form of shaft on which are mounted a plurality of crop conveying elements extending from the shaft in relatively close proximity, each shaft extending transversely of the attachment and being spaced relative to each other so that the crop conveying elements of adjacent rotary members interleave. In use, the rotary members are rotated in the same direction so that they constitue in effect a moving floor operable to transfer crop from the cutterbar generally longitudinally of the attachment to the normal feeder. These crop conveying elements may be in the form of fingers spaced axially of and equiangularly around the associated shaft or in the form of a plurality of disc members or flanges spaced along the shaft.
While this arrangement has been found very satisfactory for most crops and crop conditions, it does not always handle rice and rape seed, for example, in the best possible manner. In the case of rape seed, a comparatively large amount of grain can fall loose as soon as the crop has been cut and the crop conveying disc members or fingers of the arrangement of British Specification No. 2,094,606A do not always convey that grain to the normal feeder means for subsequent processing. In the case of rice, sticky debris and straw may fill up the spaces between the disc members and cause plugging.

Crop gathering attachment for crop harvesting machine


Original CMYK printing colors of an original image are corrected, and then the corrected printing colors are converted by color computer to RGB video signals for display on a color video display. The desired corrections are defined in terms of HSL (hue, saturation, luminance) changes. The original CMY printing colors are transformed to the corrected or new CMY printing colors by use of the HSL changes without a color space translation. The HSL changes are directly applied to the original CMY printing colors to arrive at the new CMY printing colors. The transformation comprises using a gray line representing an absence of color and changing luminance within the original CMYK printing color space and executing the HSL changes with respect to the gray line. The HSL changes are clamped within the color space so that no new CMYK printing colors result which are unprintable outside the color space.

The present invention relates to color manipulation for digital image processing in the prepress industry.
Human perception of color changes described in terms of a CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow) color space is not intuitive. Traditional color manipulation requires the color changes to be specified in abstract CMY percentages. Some fundamental color manipulations, e.g. brightening, saturating and turning a "color wheel", cannot be defined in these terms.
Stated differently, when you change one or more of the colors, C, M, Y, and K, the resultant color change is not normally humanly predictable, since colors result which are unexpected, based on human experience.
As a result, it has required highly trained operators involved in the pre-press industry to know what color will result when various changes are effected in C, M, Y, and K.
In a first prior art system and method as shown in FIG. 1, an image scanner 1 outputs C.sub.orig, M.sub.orig, Y.sub.orig, and K.sub.orig color signal values, derived by scanning an original image, to a computer or hardware circuit 2 which performs a CMYK transformation to create new color values C.sub.new, M.sub.new, Y.sub.new, and K.sub.new. Here an operator inputs desired corrections to the image by inputting individual C, M, Y, and K changes. In other words, a specific change for C.sub.orig to C.sub.new is input independently of changes for the other three colors. The new color values C.sub.new, M.sub.new, Y.sub.new, and K.sub.new are then input to a color computer which takes into account the paper type on which the image is to be eventually printed. This is necessary since various paper types have various effects on the resulting color of inks when the inks are applied to the paper. The color computer also converts the C.sub.new, M.sub.new, Y.sub.new, and K.sub.new values to R, G, B, video signals and then inputs the color video signals to a well known color video display 4. As a result, the operator can see on the color video display 4 a true rendition of the colors as they will be printed on the paper, but after the corrections have been input. Thus, the operator can see precisely how the image will appear later in print.
A problem with this approach shown in FIG. 1 is that it requires a highly trained operator to know how the change input for one of the colors C, M, Y, and K will affect the overall result in terms of hue, saturation, and luminance. Thus, the prior art technique in FIG. 1 is laborious and time consuming and requires highly trained operators.
A second prior art approach is shown in FIG. 2.
As a result of attempts to introduce more intuitive color manipulation, HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) changes are executed in three steps. In a first step, the original image from scanner 1 is translated by translation 5 from the printable CMY color space to the HSL (or equivalent) color space, which is unprintable but convenient for calculation. In a second step, the HSL changes are applied in an HSL transformation 6 according to a binary mask and are executed in a new color space. In a third step, the new image is translated by translation 8 back to the printable color space. EQU (CMY).sub.original .fwdarw.color space translation.fwdarw.[HSL(or equivalent)].sub.original EQU [HSL(or equivalent)].sub.original .fwdarw.HSL change.fwdarw.[HSL(or equivalent)].sub.new EQU [HSL(or equivalent)].sub.new .fwdarw.color space translation.fwdarw.(CMY).sub.new
In this approach shown in FIG. 2, it is difficult to: 1) accomplish quality translations between color spaces; 2) meet precision requirements; 3) decide how to treat unprintable colors; 4) achieve interactive performance; 5) avoid the undesirable effects of binary weighting; and 6) the new color values resulting from corrections, namely C.sub.new, M.sub.new, Y.sub.new, and K.sub.new may lie outside the color space and be impossible to print, even though the colors have been properly rendered on the video display.


The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving data in a multi-carrier communications system. The data transmission/receiving method uses multiple carriers including a primary carrier that is capable of transmitting and receiving data traffic and PHY/MAC control information between a terminal and a base station and at least one secondary carrier that transmits and receives down-link data traffic between the terminal and the base station. The method comprises: generating an MPDU (MAC Protocol Data Unit) to be sent to a PHY (Physical) layer in an MAC (Medium Access Control) layer; performing channel-coding and modulation on the MPDU to generate a modulated symbol sequence in the PHY layer; segmenting the modulated symbol sequence into multiple symbol sequences; and allocating the multiple segmented symbol sequences to multiple carriers, respectively, to perform IFFT (Inverse Fast Fourier Transform) and transmit to a terminal, wherein control information on the multiple carriers is allocated to a control channel region of the primary carrier and transmitted via the primary carrier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving control channel in a multi-carrier communication system, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for transmitting duplicated control information in a plurality of carriers to the control channel of one carrier, thereby allowing more effective control channel transmission and reception.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of communication technologies, services provided by a mobile communication system are being gradually developed in various fields such as packet data transmission and reception services sending high-capacity data, multimedia broadcast services as well as voice communication services.
In the third generation services such as WCDMA currently being serviced, high capacity video and data as well as voice can be transmitted and received at a high transmission rate, and moreover, the standardization work is being actively carried out, such as long-term evolution network (LTE), IEEE 802.16m, and the like, to make an evolved network having a wider bandwidth, considering a rapid increase of data traffic in the future.
In particular, IEEE 802.16m for which its standardization work is being actively carried out has set a goal to develop a standard specification satisfying the requirement of an IMT-Advanced system while maintaining compatibility with existing 802.16 standard-based terminals and base station equipment. In the IMT-Advanced system, above all, it is required to support more than 40 MHz of broadband communication service, and in IEEE 802.16m, broadband communication support is also essential to satisfy the requirement of the IMT-Advanced system. However, it is in fact difficult to define a standard for all bandwidths, and as a result, a communication system using a multi-carrier approach that supports broadband using a plurality of carriers is under discussion. In the multi-carrier system discussed under IEEE 802.16m, it is possible to transmit and receive data between the terminal and the base station by simultaneously accessing over at least two and more frequency assignments (FAs), and therefore, it has an advantage of achieving high-capacity, high-speed data transmission and reception compared to the existing single-carrier scheme. Furthermore, it has a feature in which communication is possible while using a broader bandwidth depending on circumstances from the standpoint of a mobile station (MS), and more users can be accommodated from the standpoint of a base station (BS).
In case of transmitting data using a multi-carrier as described above, resource allocation information associated with data transmission should be delivered for each carrier. However, in case of transmitting data using a plurality of carriers, transmitting control information independently for every carrier leads to the consumption of resources, thereby causing serious overhead when performing decoding in a mobile station.

Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving control channel in a multi-carrier communications system


An exhaust gas-driven turbine drives a compressor to charge an internal combustion engine. An integral motor is positioned on the connecting shaft to add power to the turbocharging shaft, especially at low exhaust gas volume. Cooling for this motor includes circulation of engine oil therearound and may include insulation to limit heat inflow from the turbine and may include air flow through the motor to carry away heat inflow from the turbine.

In order to increase the power output of an internal combustion engine of a particular displacement volume, additional air can be supplied by compressing the air by means of a turbocharger. Additional air permits the burning of more fuel to produce increased power output.
At very low engine speed such as, for example, at low idle, there is insufficient exhaust gas energy to drive the turbocharger fast enough to produce significant levels of boost. Consequently, there is an appreciable lag time between opening of the engine throttle and when the turbocharger is running fast enough to produce enough boost pressure to eliminate smoke on acceleration. Fuel control devices, such as rack limiters or aneroid controls, are employed to limit the amount of fuel delivered to the engine cylinders until the turbocharger is capable of delivering sufficient air to produce smoke-free combustion. These fuel limiting devices cause slower response to throttle opening and a sluggishness in engine and vehicle response.
There is need for boosting the output of an exhaust gas-driven turbocharger during those times when an increase in engine output power is required.

Turbocharging system with integral assisting electric motor and cooling system therefor


A computerized method and system of facilitating state-based participation in calling plays in a football game thereby allowing fans to proactively participate in real-time in the game. A computing device receives a user profile corresponding to a user registered to vote in a real-time football game. A sequence of states is initiated in response to start of a play during the real-time football game. The sequence of states includes receiving a set of plays from a coach, sending the set of plays to a user, and receiving a vote from the user. A result of a real-time play based on the winning play is received and the coach is score updated. The computerized method and system is not limited to football, and may also be applied to other live events such as soccer, baseball, golf, hockey, basketball, movie screenings, game shows, award shows, sales meetings, political events, and business conferences.

The present application relates generally to live events and, more particularly, methods and systems for enabling fans or audience members to participate in calling plays at football games and other events.
While traditional applications of technology for user participation in live events exist, they are generally passive forms of user participation. For example, some traditional entertainment shows allow fans to vote for a winner, but results are not shown until the end of a show, or days or weeks later. Fans can help decide which entertainer 'wins', but fans do not decide what activity occurs from minute-to-minute. Fans have minimal real-time impact on the real-time action.
In the context of sporting events, traditional applications allow users to participate in a fantasy game, where they can choose players and teams, and compete based on statistics corresponding to real time events in the sporting events. While real time events can affect a user's score or standing in traditional applications, the user has no ability to participate or influence real time events.

Computer-implemented methods and systems enabling fan participation in calling plays at sporting and other events


A sleeping bag liner (10) is disclosed. A hood panel (20) extends across the head portion of the top and bottom panels (26, 28) of liner (10). Buttons (40, 42) are fastened to the foot portions of the bottom panel of a sleeping bag (12) to correspond with buttonholes (36, 38) in the foot portion of liner (10). The attachment of liner (10) to the foot portion of sleeping bag (12) with buttons (40, 42) prevents liner (10) from entangling about a user's feet. Engagement of hood panel (20) about the head portion of sleeping bag (12) prevents liner (10) from undesirably sliding too far into sleeping bag (12) and additionally protects the head portion edges of sleeping bag (12) from becoming soiled.

There are generally two varieties of sleeping bags. One type is a rectangular, zippered bag having top and bottom panels. A second type is a so-called mummy bag having a substantially single-piece casing that can be opened at least along the upper head portion of the bag. Both types of bags are filled with an insulating thermal material such as down. A problem associated with both types of sleeping bags is that when they become soiled, they are very difficult to wash. Furthermore, repeated washing of sleeping bags usually produces an uneven mat of the thermal material, leading to a loss of insulation value of the bag.
Sleeping bag liners have been used in the past to prevent sleeping bags from becoming soiled. The liners were removable and could be washed. One such liner was completely nonattachable to a sleeping bag. Another such liner was attachable by tying strings on the sleeping bag to loops on the liner. Problems which have occurred with these previous liners include the foot portion of the liner becoming entangled with the feet of the user, and the head portion of the liner sliding downward into the bag, leaving the upper edge opening of the sleeping bag, the part which wraps around a user's neck or head, unprotected.


The present invention relates to a multi-band radiating element comprising: a first high frequency radiating element formed on the upper surface of a substrate; one or more first low frequency parasitic elements formed on the upper surface of the substrate and formed at a predetermined distance from the first high frequency radiating element in the direction of the outer edge of the substrate; one or more second low frequency parasitic elements formed on the upper surface of the substrate and formed at a predetermined distance from the first high frequency radiating element in the direction of the outer edge of the substrate; a second high frequency radiating element formed on the bottom surface of the substrate; and a reflector formed at a predetermined distance from the bottom surface of the substrate.

Recently, due to development of mobile communication services, there is increasing need for a multi-band antenna that can be used in two or more frequency bands instead of only one frequency band. The same is true for repeater antennas and base station antennas as well as embedded antennas.
However, since conventional antennas are designed to be used only in a single frequency band, it is inevitable to use different antennas according to individual frequency bands in order to use the antenna in two or more frequency bands. Accordingly, to secure the length value of an antenna used in a low frequency band. In this case, however, manufacturing costs increase due to increase in size of the entire antenna resulting from the long length of the radiating element, and installers of the repeater antenna and the base station antenna should install antennas for respective frequency bands. As a result, an issue is raised in terms of installation space and installation cost increases. In addition, since the frequency band in which the antenna operates is also narrow, it is difficult to obtain satisfactory characteristics.
Accordingly, the present invention proposes a multi-band radiation device which can be used both in a high-frequency band and a low-frequency band, has a wide-band characteristic and can reduce manufacturing costs and installation costs by reducing the size of the entire antenna.


A pump for dispensing fluid from a dispenser includes a base in fluid communication with a source of fluid carried by the dispenser and with the atmosphere. The pump includes a base attachable to the source of fluid, a flexible transparent dome attachable to the base in overlying relationship therewith and in fluid-tight relationship, and a retainer attachable to the base in partial overlying relationship with the dome to retain the dome on the base. The pump also includes valves for selectively opening and closing the pump to fluid communication with the source of fluid and the ambient atmosphere.

Wall-mounted dispensers for soap, lotion and hand care products in general are well known in the art. These generally consist of a wall-mounted cabinet or dispenser per se with a chamber for receipt of refills or cartridges containing the soap or other product. For purposes of simplicity throughout, "soap" will be used to describe the product being dispensed with it being understood that other skin care products can be and are dispensed in this fashion and, also, that the present invention is not limited to apparatus for dispensing skin care products per se inasmuch as other flowable products may also be dispensed with the present pump.
The dispensers of the prior art, as noted, generally include the dispenser which includes a base mountable on a wall or counter top and a cover, usually hinged to the base to provide access to the interior. The base includes various types of receptacles or shelves designed to support and position a cartridge, bag or box which itself contains the soap and which is replaceable so that the dispenser can be refilled when the supply is exhausted.
These cartridges or refills take various shapes and forms in the prior art. Perhaps the most common currently used are the so-called "bag-in-box" arrangements which include a collapsible bag, which actually contains the soap, and a box for storage and transportation of the bag. The box has a tearaway portion on one face and is simply placed inside the dispenser when needed, following which the tearaway portion is removed and the soap is dispensed from the bag through an elongate tube or pump which extends downwardly from the bag and terminates in a nozzle which, when properly positioned, projects from the bottom of the dispenser. In this way, soap may be dispensed onto the hand of the user, generally by utilization of a hand-operated lever which compresses the tube pump. The most common forms of the prior art involve a lever which is engaged by either the heel of the hand to depress and activate the pump or tube to dispense the fluid onto the palm and fingers of the hand, or by the fingers of the hand to pull the lever toward the user to similarly depress and activate the pump and dispense the soap.
All of these arrangements involve some sort of nozzle and pump arrangement which generally include various types of valving to control flow of the soap by opening the tube to the reservoir or cartridge to fill it and then closing off the reservoir or cartridge and opening a valve to the nozzle to permit the soap to actually be dispensed. It is desirable in most instances to dispense a measured charge of the soap with each actuation of the handle and, therefore, the tube/pump is generally elongate so as to accommodate a "charge" of the product. Examples of this prior art can be readily seen in many U.S. patents, such as, for example, Bartasevich U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,772; Bell U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,236; Bell U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,877; and Kanfer U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,749. The prior art contains many other variations on this general theme.
In general, the prior art of this general nature has in common the fact that the elongate tube extends from the bag or other reservoir and terminates in a nozzle which projects from the bottom of the dispenser. The soap is dispensed by engaging a pressure member, as above described, which presses against the tube with the tube serving as the actual pump to expel a measured charge of the material through the nozzle.
As can be seen in the prior art just referred to and other prior art well known to those versed in this art, the dispensers themselves are of a relatively standard overall size because they must fit in a fairly confined space in a washroom or restroom. This size, of course, has a bearing on the size of the refill or cartridge, and thus on the amount of soap, which can be stored within the dispenser. A review of the references referred to above and the other prior art well known in this field will show that the elongate tube occupies a fairly significant portion of the overall interior height dimension of the dispenser. To some extent, at least from the standpoint of how much soap can be stored at a given time, this space is wasted because the major portion of the soap is stored in the bag.
Furthermore, the various valving arrangements and the tube and its associated fitments are relatively expensive to manufacture and are also somewhat labor-intensive to assemble.
Additionally, the bags are generally transparent and many of the prior art dispensers are provided with a sight window in the cover, thus enabling one to view the bag and, theoretically, to ascertain when the bag is empty. However, in practice, the sight window must be located fairly high up on the cover, and thus, one can only ascertain when the supply is low and not when the bag is empty. That requires opening the cover to view the bag which, unless the bag is truly empty, is a wasted operation.
Accordingly then, it is believed that an improvement can be made by reducing the size of the actual "pump" structure to replace the tubes of the prior art, thereby enabling a dispenser of a standard size to provide more interior space so that a greater quantity of soap can be stored, thereby reducing the number of refill replacement operations required over the life of the dispenser.
Furthermore, by utilizing a clear, collapsible dome to perform the pumping operation, one can ascertain when the bag is empty without unnecessarily opening the cover.