Ready-to-eat cereal is prepared in modified sequence utilizing an apparatus to efficiently apply antioxidant or other useful minor ingredients for ready-to-eat cereal products as they are being conveyed through a conduit, preferably by gravity. The apparatus includes a conduit having an inlet and an outlet, and an external wall defining a passage between the inlet and outlet. The passage has a central zone and a radially displaced application zone adjacent the external wall. A baffle is suspended within the passage to deflect a downward flow of particulate cereal material toward the application zone. A spray applies the minor ingredient onto the particulate cereal in the application zone. Efficiencies in equipment and processing are achieved. Storage life of cereal products awaiting further processing and, thus, final product quality, is enhanced.

The invention relates to an improved cereal preparation process and apparatus. In particular, the invention provides an apparatus that can be utilized in a modified cereal process sequence and manipulation to efficiently apply antioxidant and/or other useful minor ingredient(s) for particulate materials, e.g., ready-to-eat cereal products or half products. The invention provides efficiencies in equipment and processing and improves product handling.
Breakfast cereals, as they are sometimes called, have achieved such popularity with consumers that they are no longer served just at breakfast time. Also known as ready-to-eat cereals, they are enjoyed with milk or dry as between meal or evening snacks. They are nutritious, economical and flavorful. However, like most grain-based foods, they do become stale with storage, after a time losing a toasty freshness that is associated with the freshest products. Also, with aging, oils present in the grain or added for flavor or texture are subject to oxidation. This latter effect, lipid oxidation, can affect foods containing fats and oils in a variety of ways. The development of rancid odors and off flavors are the most obvious changes. But, color changes, loss of flavor volatiles, and nutritive changes such as destruction of fat-soluble vitamins and caloric reduction can also occur.
Lipid oxidation occurs when fat molecules, activated by catalyzing agent such as heat, light or other factor, react with oxygen to form peroxides. The peroxides then break down to organic compounds such as aldehydes, ketones, acids, alcohols, etc., resulting in off odors and flavors often associated with rancidity. Once initiated, oxidation proceeds at increasingly greater rates with factors such as heat, ultraviolet light, trace metals, and pigments further catalyzing or promoting oxidation.
This oxidation typically causes the production of undesirable flavors and, in advanced cases, odors which fill the head space gas of the package and are released upon opening. This strongly detracts from the appeal of the cereal. To avoid this, the art has utilized antioxidants, applied at various processing stages.
In the preparation of a typical ready-to-eat breakfast cereal, the starting grain-based formulation is cooked, formed and toasted or otherwise finish cooked to eliminate raw flavor notes and develop fully-cooked grain flavors. Following this processing, it is typical to collect the resulting incomplete cereal, sometimes referred to as a half product or intermediate product, in a surge hopper or wheeled tote to await packaging or further processing. When the product is a simple flake, such as corn flake, no added processing would normally be necessary if antioxidant or vitamins were not to be added. However, where the addition of one of these or other minor additives is desired, there must be another processing step.
Application of various antioxidants to dry cereal products has been accomplished in a number of ways depending on the type of cereal product, production facilities available, and the type of antioxidant. The method of addition must provide complete and uniform application of the antioxidant on the cereal product to provide maximum effectiveness.
Antioxidants have been added in the past by a variety of means. For example, they have been sprayed onto cereals as they are coated with other ingredients. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,685, Lyall, et al, applies an antioxidant as part of an emulsion of an oil and sugar solution in a coating reel or drum. In other cases, the antioxidant has been applied as part of an oil coating or separately, in a similar coating device which tends to present a large surface area for coating and provides good mixing. In other prior art arrangements, minor ingredients have been sprayed onto cereal products in auger devices and on belts. However, when done as part of the final stage in cereal preparation, the cereal product can be left exposed to the air, warm and unprotected from oxidation, for periods sufficient for some oxidation of oils present to occur. And, when done as a separate processing step, additional equipment will be required and costs of equipment, maintenance and space can be increased.
In other cases antioxidants have been applied by direct addition by adding the antioxidant at an early processing stage into an ingredient or blending it with the ingredients as they are being mixed. It has also been applied to packaging such as waxed liners for cereal cartons, polyethylene, or paperboard. The antioxidant applied in this latter manner will vaporize from the package and diffuse throughout the cereal product providing protection. Certain packaging materials are also subject to oxidation and may benefit from the presence of antioxidants. While effective for some products, these latter two methods have disadvantages for others.
There remains a need for a simple and efficient manner for applying minor ingredients, like antioxidants and vitamin mixes, to cereal products at an appropriate place in the cereal preparation process. In particular, there remains a need for an improved cereal preparation process and apparatus, which enables application of antioxidants and other minor ingredients to provide efficiencies in equipment and processing and improve intermediate product handling.


A monolithic capacitor which can reduce equivalent series inductance (ESL) thereof includes a first extension of a first internal electrode which is extended onto two sides of a capacitor itself. A second extension of the first internal electrode is extended onto a first end face; and a first external terminal electrode and a second external terminal electrode are connected to the first extension and the second extension, respectively. In addition, a third extension of a second internal electrode opposing the first internal electrode is extended onto the two sides of the capacitor and a fourth extension of the second internal electrode is extended onto a second end face. The third extension and fourth extension are connected to a third external terminal electrode and a fourth external terminal electrode, respectively. Furthermore, each width of the second extension and the fourth extension is longer than each width of the first extension and the third extension, and at the same time is not shorter than 1/9, and is more preferably 1/5 of each width of the two internal electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monolithic capacitor, and more particularly, relates to a monolithic capacitor which is effectively applicable for use in a high-frequency circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional type of monolithic capacitor relating to the present invention is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-256216, etc. This type of monolithic capacitor has an arrangement in which an equivalent series inductance (ESL) is reduced for use in a high-frequency band.
In this arrangement, a plurality of first and second internal electrodes, each of which is mutually opposing through a specified dielectric layer, respectively form a plurality of extensions, which are extended onto at least one of the two opposing sides of a capacitor itself so as to form external terminal electrodes corresponding to the respective extensions; and the external terminal electrodes are disposed on the sides of the capacitor in such a manner that a plurality of first external terminal electrodes connected to a plurality of the extensions of the first internal electrode and a plurality of second external terminal electrodes connected to a plurality of the extensions of the second internal electrodes are alternately positioned.
For instance, when current flows from the first external terminal electrodes to the second external terminal electrodes, magnetic flux, the direction of which depends on the current direction, is induced; thereby, a self-inductance is produced. However, as described above, since the respective first and second external terminal electrodes are alternately positioned, the magnetic flux induced by the current is effectively offset in parts where the first and second external terminal electrodes are located adjacent to each other so that occurrence of magnetic flux can be reduced, resulting in reduction in equivalent series inductance.
On the other hand, the arrangement above has a problem: since no external terminal electrodes are positioned on two opposing end faces of the capacitor, it is expected that there is substantially no offset effect of magnetic flux near the two end faces, thus causing a hindrance to a further reduction in ESL.


First and second raceways are positioned against a needle roller and cage subassembly, having needle rollers arranged in a plane along a pitch circle and retained within a cage, such that the rollers facilitate free rotation of the second raceway relative to the first raceway when a thrust load is applied through the first and second raceways. At least one of the first and second raceways has a recessed portion such that diametrically opposite rollers are loaded when the thrust load is applied while other rollers are unloaded, thereby facilitating linear translation of the second raceway relative to the first raceway.

This invention relates generally to thrust bearings and, more particularly, to needle roller thrust bearing assemblies allowing motion other than pure rotation.
Typical needle roller thrust bearing assemblies provide axial thrust load support for static and rotational conditions, only. There is no provision in such bearing assemblies for translation of one thrust face relative to an opposed thrust face. However, in some specific applications, an additional axis of motion would enhance performance of the thrust bearing assembly.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present devices and methods. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.


In an image forming apparatus, a storage unit contains, by each of a plurality of languages that are respectively associated with each direction of slide operations, a character string. A display controller causes a display unit to display, on a screen, an instruction-receiving image to be touched through a touch panel. When a slide operation is performed on a non-operational region where the instruction-receiving image is not located, the character string of the language associated with the direction of the slide operation is retrieved from the storage unit, and a selected-language window is generated by substituting the character string displayed on the screen of the display unit with the character string that has been retrieved, and displayed only for a predetermined period of time.

Some image forming apparatuses are configured to switch the language of a character or character string, displayed on a display unit. Such image forming apparatuses are disclosed, for example, in Patent Literature (PTL) 1 and PTL 2. According to PTL 1, various languages are periodically displayed by turns, on the screen of the display unit, and when the user operates the apparatus at the time that the language familiar to the user is displayed, that language is thereafter displayed on the screen of the display unit. According to PTL 2, a plurality of language keys are displayed on the display unit, and while the user presses a desired language key, the corresponding language is displayed on the display unit.


In an electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor comprising a photoconductive layer on an electrically conductive support having a hydrophilic surface thereon which is subjected to a process which comprises formation of a toner image on said photootoconductive layer, and then removal of said photoconductive layer from nonimage portions other than said toner image portion to form a lithographic printing plate, an electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor treated with a water-soluble or water-dispersible solid material (edge face treatment) at the edge face thereof and a water-soluble or water-dispersible solid adge face treatment therefor. In a preferred embodiment, the edge face treatmetment is a water-soluble or water-dispersible solid drawing material.

Presensitized (PS) plates comprising a positive type sensitizing agent containing a diazo compound and a phenolic resin as main components or a negative type sensitizing agent containing an acrylic monomer or prepolymer as a main component have heretofore been used practically as lithographic offset printing plate precursors. However, since all of these printing plate precursors have a low sensitivity, these printing plate precursors are exposed to light with a film original, on which an image has been previously recorded, brought into close contact therewith to form printing plates. On the other hand, with the advances in computer image processing techniques and large capacity data storage and communication techniques, a continuous computer operation including original input, correction, editing, layout and paging has been enabled. With this computer operation, an electronic editing system capable of instantly outputting data to terminal plotters via a high speed communications network or a satellite communications network has been used practically. In particular, such an electronic editing system is in great demand in the field of instantaneous newspaper printing. Furthermore, in the field of printing wherein a printing plate is reproduced as required based on an original stored in the form of a film original, there is a growing tendency to store originals as digital data in very large capacity recording media such as optical discs.
However, little or no direct type printing plate precursors designed to receive data directly from the output of terminal plotters to form a printing plate have been put into practical use. Even in stations where an electronic editing system is operated, data is outputted to a silver salt system photographic film. PS plates are then exposed to light with the silver salt system photographic film brought into contact therewith to form printing plates. One of the reasons for the above described situation is that it is difficult to provide a direct type printing plate precursor having sufficient sensitivity to form a printing plate within a practical period of time using a light source in the output plotter (e.g., a He-Ne laser, a semiconductor laser).
An electrophotographic photoreceptor is a light-sensitive material with a light sensitivity high enough to provide a direct type printing plate. Many electrophotographic printing plate precursors of the type wherein a photoconductive layer in the nonimage portion is removed after the formation of toner image are already known. Examples of such electrophotographic printing plate precursors include those described in JP-B-37-17162, JP-B-38-6961, JP-B-38-7758, JP-B-41-2426 and JP-B-46-39405 (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication"), and JP-A-50-19509, JP-A-50-19510, JP-A-52-2437, JP-A-54-145538, JP-A-54-134632, JP-A-55-105254, JP-A-55-153948, JP-A-55-161250, JP-A-57-147656 and JP-A-57-161863 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application").
In order to prepare a lithographic printing plate (offset printing plate) using such an electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor, the electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor which has been imagewise exposed to light is first subjected to a toner development process to form a toner image. These toner development processes have include a known positive development process which comprises development of portions on which electrostatic latent images remain and a reversal development process which comprises development of portions on which electrostatic latent images do not remain. In general, where a light source such as a laser is used to achieve a scanning exposure, a reversal development process is often used. Thereafter, the toner image is fixed. The nonimage portions, other than the toner image portion, are then eluted with an elute so that the hydrophilic substrate is exposed to prepare a lithographic printing plate.
Printing from such a lithographic printing plate gives rise to certain difficulties. When the edge of the printing plate does not come into contact with the surface to be printed, e.g., as in ordinary sheet printers wherein paper sheets with a smaller size than the printing plate are printed, no difficulties occur. However, when a rotary press as used in printing newspapers to print on paper rolls, linear stain are produced on portions of the printed matter corresponding to the edge of the printing plate. This stain occurs markedly when a reversal toner development process is used.
Techniques for inhibiting stain due to the edge of a lithographic printing plate obtained by reversal development of an electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor include use of an insulating resin layer on the edge face (side) of the electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor (JP-A-63-178240). This approach is based on the idea that print stain due to the lithographic printing plate obtained by reversal development of an electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor occurs by toner attaching to the edge face of the electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor upon reversal development which leads to the attachment of ink thereto upon printing. Thus, this phenomenon can therefore be inhibited by coating an insulating resin on the edge face of the electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor. If such an insulating resin layer is provided on the edge face of the printing plate precursor, little or no toner is attached thereto. However, it was found that since the insulating resin remains on the edge face of the printing plate, ink attaches thereto, causing print stain. In particular, the attachment of the toner can be inhibited by providing an insulating resin layer on the edge face of the printing plate precursor. However, it was found that since the insulating resin layer thus provided has a lipophilic nature itself (i.e., ink receptivity), its presence causes the ink to attach to the edge face of the printing plate precursor, making it impossible to inhibit print stain.
JP-A-2-61654 and JP-A-2-66566 disclose providing a water-soluble high molecular weight layer or a resin layer having a higher solubility in an alkaline solution than the light-sensitive layer on the edge face of the printing plate precursor. These approaches are intended to remove the attached toner together with the resin layer by improving the solubility of the resin layer in an etching solution. However, these approaches are disadvantageous because the resin is coated on the edge face of the printing plate precursor in the form of solution, the coating solution extends to portions other than the edge face, e.g., light-sensitive layer or back surface, inhibiting the formation of images on the light-sensitive layer. It was further found that once toner is attached to and fixed on the portion of the resin layer which had extended to the light-sensitive layer, the toner cannot be removed even using an etching solution. The reason for this phenomenon is unknown. It is postulated that the components in the light-sensitive layer, the resin for edge face treatment and the toner interact in some manner, making the toner insoluble in the etching solution. Thus, the above described approach cannot solve the problem of stain on the edge portion unless it is possible to coat the resin only at the edge portion in the form of solution. Further, if the resin is coated on the edge face of a stack of sheets of printing plates, the coating solution which penetrates into the gap between is the sheets dries and glues the printing plates together, and the printing plates can not be freely used.
Further, JP-A-1-261660 discloses physical removal of a toner attached to the edge face of an electrophotographic printing plate precursor. However, this approach is disadvantageous because the toner is not completely removed and an additional apparatus which adds to the cost of the process is required.
No edge face treatments have been found for completely removing toner attached to the edge face of an electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor in an etching solution to inhibit stain on the edge face of a lithographic printing plate produced by a reversal development of an electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor. Nor has any means been found for definitely coating such an edge face treatment only on the edge face of the printing plate.

Electrophotographic lithographic printing plate precursor and edge face treatment


A neutron logging tool has multiple detectors spaced about the circumference of the tool. The detectors are shielded from each other such that each detector detects gamma rays from the area of the borehole and formation to which it is closest. The log readings from each detector can be associated with the orientation of that detector. The orientation-specific log readings can then be aggregated to form an azimuthal log which can be used to analyze pre-fractured and/or post-fractured formations.

Many wells are fractured with a fracturing fluid to treat a formation and improve oil and gas production. In a standard fracturing operation, fracturing fluid is pumped down a wellbore with high pressure, causing a formation to fracture around a borehole. The fracturing fluid contains proppant (e.g. sand and/or other particles), which remains in the formation fractures and acts to "prop" open the fractures in the formation to increase hydrocarbon flow into the wellbore. Without proppant, the formation fractures may close, reducing the effectiveness of the fracturing procedure. Sometimes, other unwanted effects may occur. This may include proppant flowing back up the wellbore or an uneven distribution of proppant within the fractures in the formation. The resulting hydrocarbon production from the fractured formation may be less than optimal because of these unwanted effects. An example of a reference for hydraulic fracturing and its evaluation is described in the article "Hydraulic fracture evaluation with multiple radioactive tracers," by Pemper et al., Geophysics, Vol. 53, No. 10 (October 1998), at 1323-1333, which is incorporated herein by reference.
As a result, it would benefit an operator to know the status of the formation after fracturing. If a formation had been minimally fractured, the operator could fracture the formation again. If it could be determined that the formation was evenly fractured, and that much of the proppant was retained in the formation fractures, then the operator could continue with hydrocarbon production.
Logging tools for measuring formation properties before fracturing are known. These tools have been used in the past to log a formation to detect oil and gas formations adjacent to a wellbore. However, there has not been an ability to measure the azimuthal distribution of proppant in formation fractures.
FIG. 1A shows a deployed exemplary neutron logging system as known in the prior art as a cased hole reservoir evaluation tool. This system is similar to the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,999,220, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Other systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,374,823 and 6,376,838, which are also incorporated herein by reference.
For the system of FIG. 1A, neutron logging tool 10 is disposed within a borehole 33 penetrating earth formation 40. The borehole 33 may be cased with casing 35, and the casing-borehole annulus may be filled with a grouting material such as cement. Alternatively, the borehole 33 may be an uncased open hole.
Subsection 11 houses an array of detector assemblies 100 as well as a neutron generator 102. More specifically, there are four detector assemblies 100, each comprising a LaBr3 detector crystal and digital spectrometer for filtering and pulse inspection. These detectors are referred to as the proximal detector 104, the near detector 106, the far detector 110, and the long detector 112. The detectors are disposed at increasing longitudinal (or axial or vertical) distances from the neutron generator 102. Between the near detector 106 and far detector 110 is a fast neutron detector 108 that measures the fast neutron output flux and pulse shape of the neutron generator 102.
Subsection 11 is connected to instrument subsection 24. Instrument subsection 24 houses control circuits and power circuits to operate and control the elements of subsection 11. Additional elements of neutron logging tool 10 include telemetry subsection 26 and connector 28. Neutron logging tool 10 is connected by wireline logging cable 30 to above-surface elements such as draw works 34 and surface equipment 36.
Another multi-detector neutron logging tool 10, known in the prior art as a pulsed neutron decay tool, is shown in FIG. 1B. Additional examples of different neutron logging tools 10, in addition to the cased reservoir evaluation tool (CRE) in FIG. 1A and the pulsed neutron decay tool (PND) in FIG. 1B, are the dual neutron tool (MDN), and the compensated neutron tools (CNT-S and CNT-V), all of which are available from Weatherford International Ltd.
The prior art neutron logging tools, such as tool 10 in FIGS. 1A-1B, are not able to give azimuthal logging information. Rather, the two or more detector assemblies 100 are spaced apart longitudinally along the body of the neutron logging tool 10 a short distance from the neutron source 102, and the detector assemblies 100 are vertically in line with each other along a central axis of the tool. Yet, the detector assemblies 100 make their detections of the adjacent wall of the borehole without particular regard to direction or orientation. Instead, the intention of the multiple detector assemblies 100 is to provide different formation and statistical sensitivities during logging operations.
In particular, the effect is that the detector assemblies 100 closest to the neutron generator 102 typically are more sensitive to the borehole 33, and the detector assemblies 100 further from the neutron generator 102 typically are more sensitive to the overall formation 40. The sigma (Σ) capture cross-section of the borehole 33 and formation 40 of the readings may be computed by giving different weights to the near detectors' readings as compared to the far detectors' readings. For example, in a tool with two detectors, 70% weight may be given for the near detector reading and 30% weight for the far detector reading. The neutron logging tool 10 is usually run decentralized to the wellbore with an offset spring, or decentralizer, (not shown) such that the neutron logging tool 10 effectively runs along one wall of the wellbore.
The subject matter of the present disclosure is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.

Neutron logging tool with multiple detectors


A cabinet has a base and a first side wherein one of the base and the first side has a male portion and another of the base and the first side has a female portion for mating with the male portion. The cabinet has a second side, such that the second side may be attached to the base, wherein one of the base and the second side has a male portion and another of the base and the second side has a female portion for mating with the male portion, such that the second side may be attached to the base. The cabinet also has a back for attaching to the first side, the second side and the base.

Assembling cabinets used in kitchens, baths and other areas of the home or office may be a difficult task. In a factory, a typical cabinet assembly operation may require attaching cleats that hold a cabinet bottom and/or top by screwing, gluing or stapling them to a pair of side portions. A back portion may then be attached to the side portions while holding the side portions erect in fixtures or the like. The bottom and top portion (if any) may then attach to the cleats. This process can be very complex, time consuming and require a plurality of specialized fixtures, jigs and tooling.
Cabinets that are sold in flat packs for assembly by end users are also sometimes difficult to assemble because of the plethora of different parts that may be provided to assemble the cabinet, hard to follow directions, varying manufacturing tolerances and ways in which mistakes might be made.


In one aspect, online iterative data verification for synchronous replication is provided for a storage system that includes a source site and a target site. An aspect includes, during an active synchronous replication process between the source site and the target site, identifying inflight inputs/outputs (IOs). The inflight IOs indicate write operations that are transmitted from the source to the target but are determined to have not yet been stored at the target. A further aspect includes performing a first data verification on the source and target sites. The first data verification is performed for IOs that are not inflight IOs. An aspect also includes performing iterative data verifications during each of one or more replication cycles. The iterative data verifications verify only data written to the target site since one of the first data verification and a previously performed data verification excluding inflight IOs at the time of verification.

Synchronous (sync) replication is a business continuity process that mirrors data updates between two systems to prevent data loss and downtime. When sync replication is turned on for a production storage object, the system mirrors the data to a target system as part of handling write requests from an initiator, and only responds to the initiator after the writes have been persisted on both the source and target systems.
As data on the source and target sites are inherently different with ever changing inflight inputs/outputs (IOs), it is challenging to perform data verification for volumes that are in active sync replication mode. One solution is to suspend host IOs followed by draining the inflight IOs to create a pair of synchronized snap sets when the sync replication process becomes enabled. However, the period of suspending and draining IOs and creating snap sets may cause major IO latency hiccups for applications, which may not be practical or desirable in real customer environments where steady/low IO latency requirements are critical.

Online iterative data verification for synchronous replication


A mailing machine for printing a postage indicia with or without an advertisement on envelopes and varying lengths of postage tape. Also, a method of feeding, printing and cutting postage tape in a mailing machine. The mailing machine includes: an elongate feed deck; a postage meter mounted in the mailing machine and having a printer downstream of the feed deck for printing a postage indicia with or without an advertisement on successive envelopes as they are fed along the feed deck or on postage tape; and a tape feeding and cutting apparatus mounted in the mailing machine for feeding postage tape to the postage meter for printing of the postage indicia with or without advertisement and for cutting the postage tape into finite lengths and ejecting the lengths of tape from the mailing machine. The cut, printed portion includes only the amount of tape necessary for the printing of the indicia with or without advertisement regardless of the length of any advertisement printed.

The instant invention relates generally to mailing machines having a postage meter which prints, postage indicia on tape, and particularly to such a mailing machine in which the postage meter also prints advertisements using ad plates having different lengths.
Prior art mailing machine have long been well known and widely accepted in all forms of commercial establishments from the largest of high volume mailers down to the smallest size businesses and professional offices. Broadly speaking, a mailing machine consists of a postage meter which prints postage indicia on an envelope or a strip of tape, and a feed base for feeding successive envelopes or a strip of tape past the postage meter, and ejecting either for further handling. Mailing machines have been available in a variety of sizes in terms of rate of operation and level of technical sophistication and automation. Thus, for example, a machine found in the mailing room of a high-volume mailer such as a credit card billing office might process several thousand envelopes per hour, with automatic feeding, flap moistening, sealing and stacking. Similarly, a machine found in a small, professional office might require manually feeding one envelope at a time into the feed base and do nothing more than print the postage indicia on the envelope and eject it.
Obviously, there are many variations between the extremes described above, and a large variety of machines have been designed and marketed to meet the mailing requirements of establishments whose mailing volume falls between these extremes. One important characteristic of machines falling in this category is that they have the capability of printing postage indicia either directly on envelopes as they are fed along a feed path through the mailing machine, or on a strip of tape, either gummed or adhesive backed, which is dispensed from the mailing machine for an operator to apply to an envelope which cannot be fed along the normal feed path to the printing device. This is a feature normally not incorporated into the smallest of mailing machines for the reason that the cost of infrequently used tape feeding mechanisms would not be attractive to such low volume mailers.
Thus, the bulk of the development of tape feed mechanisms for mailing machines has been in the mid-range size, and particularly in machines in which it is anticipated that the user not only generates a fairly large volume of regular mail which can be automatically fed through the mailing machine, but also a substantial amount of mail which is either too large or bulky to be fed through the mailing machine and therefore must have postage applied manually, either in the form of stamps or postage indicia printed on tape. Assuming that the user wishes to avoid the use of stamps, it becomes highly advantageous to incorporate a functionally efficient and cost effective tape handling mechanism into the mailing machine.
In many cases the printing die of the postage meter includes not only the die to print the postage indicia but also a die that will print an ad adjacent the postage indicia. The size, i.e. the length, of the ad will vary from ad to ad, and thus the amount of space needed on a section of postage tape will vary. Clearly, if the space required for the ad is significantly less than the length of the postage tape, there is a wasting of postage tape since a significant amount will be blank. In mailing machine tape feed mechanisms employed today, either the length of the tape sections is fixed, resulting in considerable wasting of tape, or the operator selects a length of tape before printing, which is clumsy. Moreover, in either case, the tape feed mechanism is unable to consistently monitor the presence of the lead edge of tape, so that appropriate cutting of the tape is not possible on a consistent basis.
The instant invention therefore provides a functionally efficient tape feed mechanism for a mailing machine which determines the length of the printed indicia and any accompanying ad and then cuts the appropriate length of tape consistent with the printed indicia and any accompanying ad so that no more tape than is necessary is used.

Method and apparatus for cutting mailing machine roll tape


A hypervisor (management) layer synchronizes use of virtualized input/output (I/O) devices that may regularly be used by multiple partitions of a logically partitioned data processing system by making them callable by any system partition to the hypervisor layer. A partition makes a call to the hypervisor to reserve an I/O resource. If the I/O resource is presently allocated to another partition when a call is made to reserve the resource, the hypervisor rejects the request to reserve the device. If the resource is available, the hypervisor issues a command to the resource to service calls made from the reserving partition. After utilizing the resource as necessary, the reserving partition releases control over the I/O device and sends a notification to hypervisor that it has released the I/O device. Upon release, the I/O device will automatically be available for use by another partition via a call to the hypervisor.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of computer architecture and, more specifically, to methods and systems for managing resources among multiple operating system images within a logically partitioned data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Logical partitions, or LPARs, provide the capability to partition a single server into two or more virtual servers, with each LPAR able to run multiple applications or workloads. Each LPAR acts as an independent virtual server, with its own memory, using shared processors and disks—all within a single symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) system. LPARs can be individually managed and customized for performance, allowing a single system to be fully optimized for interactive, e-business, business intelligence or other workloads. Each partition can be set independently, permitting different system names, languages and time zones.
A logical partition consists of CPUs, memory, and I/O slots and their attached devices that are typically a subset of a pool of available resources within a system. LPAR differs from Physical Partitioning (PPAR) in the way resources are grouped to form a partition. Logical partitions do not need to conform to the physical boundaries of the building blocks (collection of resources) used to build the server. Instead of grouping by physical building blocks, LPAR adds more flexibility and freedom to select components from the entire pool of available system resources. This allows better granularity, which maximizes the resource usage on the system and minimizes unnecessary resource reallocation.
A logical partitioning functionality within a data processing system (platform) allows multiple copies of a single operating system (OS) or multiple heterogeneous operating systems to be simultaneously run on the single data processing system platform. Each logical partition runs its own copy of the operating system and is isolated from any activity in other partitions. Software failures do not propagate through the system, and the hardware facilities and microcode provide strong isolation between resources. Many types of errors, even those within shared resources, are isolated inside the partition where they occur.
LPAR works within a single memory coherence domain so it can be used within a simple SMP with no special building block structure. All the operating system images run within the same memory map, but are protected from each other by special address access control mechanisms in the hardware, and special firmware added to support the operating system. Thus, software errors in the control of an OS's allocated resources are prevented from affecting the resources of any other image.
A logical partition, within which an operating system image runs, is assigned a non-overlapping sub-set of the platform's resources. Each image of the OS (or each different OS) directly controls a distinct set of allocable resources within the platform and ensure that the various images cannot control any resources that have not been allocated to them. These platform allocable resources include one or more architecturally distinct processors with their interrupt management area, regions of system memory, and I/O adapter bus slots. The partition's resources are represented by the platform's firmware to the OS image.
A problem with standard LPAR computer systems is that the input/output (I/O) sub-systems are designed with several I/O adapters (IOAs) sharing a single I/O bus. An OS image in a particular partition contains device drivers that issue commands that directly control its own IOA. The system user must attach the I/O resources to the partition in order for the partition to own these resources. In the case of the floppy drive, CD ROM drive and other low read/write rate devices, this methodology makes the use of these devices cumbersome. These devices are not high performance by nature so having a direct path to the device from the OS does not significantly increase performance. It would, therefore, be advantageous to devise a method, system and apparatus that reduces the complexity of attaching and re-attaching an I/O device to different partitions as its resource is needed.

Virtualization of input/output devices in a logically partitioned data processing system

International Business Machines Corporation


There is provided a method for manufacturing a group-III nitride substrate, including: (a) preparing a substrate which is made of a group III-nitride crystal and which has a high oxygen concentration domain where an oxygen concentration is higher than that of a matrix of the crystal; (b) irradiating the substrate with laser beam aiming at the high oxygen concentration domain, forming a through-hole penetrating the substrate in a thickness direction, and removing at least a part of the high oxygen concentration domain from the substrate; and (c) embedding at least a part of an inside of the through-hole by growing the group-III nitride crystal in the through-hole.

Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a method for manufacturing a group-III nitride substrate and a group-III nitride substrate.
Description of the Related Art
When manufacturing a semiconductor device such as a light-emitting element and a high-speed transistor, for example, a substrate constituted of a group-III nitride crystal such as gallium nitride (GaN) heteroepitaxially grown on a sapphire substrate (also referred to as a group-III nitride substrate, or simply referred to as a substrate hereafter) is prepared, and a processing of further epitaxially growing a crystal on a surface of this substrate is performed in some cases (see patent document 1).    Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. 2015-199663

Method for manufacturing group-III nitride substrate and group-III nitride substrate


A metal halide fill for forming an ionizable fill comprising at least one inert gas, mercury, and at least one halogen, the fill additionally comprising the following constituents: Mn halide and V halide. This fill may in particular be present in the discharge vessel of a metal halide lamp.

In order to achieve warm white and neutral white luminous colors, metal halide discharge lamps generally contain sodium. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,630 describes a lamp which contains a metal halide fill which includes the elements Na, Tl and Zr, and which has a warm white luminous color. A further example is the lamp described in EP-A 883 160. This lamp has a metal halide fill which includes the elements Na, Sc, and other constituents, such as Mn. This lamp is dimmable.
Metal halogen discharge lamps having a discharge vessel made from glass and a sodium-containing fill are known to have the drawback of sodium diffusion through the discharge vessel, which reduces the service life of the lamps. The sodium diffusion has to be reduced by means of additional measures, for example shielding of the supply conductor in the vicinity of the discharge vessel, which increases the production costs of the lamp. A further drawback of sodium-containing metal halide discharge lamps is their relatively low color rendering. An Na—Sc-containing metal halide discharge lamp with a neutral white luminous color has, for example, typical values for the general color rendering index Ra=70 and special color rendering index R9=0.
U.S. Ser. No. 09/499,099, which corresponds to DE-A 199 07 301 describes a metal halide fill which includes Mn but does not include Na for metal halide discharge lamps in order to obtain warm white and neutral white luminous colors. Substitution of sodium eliminates the additional measures for reduction of sodium diffusion in the lamps which are filled with this fill. Furthermore, the lamps with the Mn-containing fill achieve high values for the color rendering, with Ra>95. However, the light yield and lamp output are relatively low. For example, at a 250 W inductor, which is also used for Na high-pressure vapor lamps, the lamp output is typically 240 W.
Finally, DE-A 35 12 757 has disclosed a fill for metal halide lamps which contains a metal silicide, such as V5Si3. In addition, the fill contains rare earth halide or Sc halide and the corresponding rare earth oxyhalide and/or Sc oxide. The silicide in this case acts as a halogen getter.
It is known that incandescent lamps and halogen incandescent lamps, which are Planckian radiators, can be dimmed without problems. However, if metal halide discharge lamps with a reduced lamp output are operated (cf. the abovementioned EP 883 160), their color locus moves away from the Planckian locus. The lamps lose their white luminous color and the color rendering deteriorates.
FIG. 1 (prior art) shows a color locus diagram for a metal halide lamp which is capped on two sides and has an output of 250 W and a neutral white fill (HQI-TS 250W/NDL produced by OSRAM) as an example, which has an Na-containing metal halide fill. The output of the lamp was reduced to half its light flux in stages approximately from 250 W to 160 W at an electronic ballast. As the output decreases, the color locus of the lamp migrates out of the region of the isotemperature lines. As a result, the lamp becomes increasingly greenish.

Patent-Treuhand-Gesellschaft für elektrische Glühlampen mbH


A marker device for marking an underwater location is provided and comprises a heavier-than-water weight member including a reel thereon, an elongated connector line attached to the weight member and wrapped on the reel when the marker device is not in use and unwrapped from the reel when a location is to be marked, an inflatable/deflatable marker balloon on the connector line and stored on the weight member in the deflated condition when the marker device is not in use and removed from the weight member for inflation when a location is to be marked, and valve means communicated to the marker balloon for permitting introduction of gas therein to inflate the balloon and release of gas therefrom for deflating the balloon. The marker device further may comprise a cover member for releasably engaging the weight member when the connector line is wrapped on the reel and the balloon is stored in the deflated condition on the weight member so as to enclose the connector line and the balloon in a compact arrangement or package.

Scuba divers oftentimes need to mark a particular underwater location to which the diver wishes to return or to mark the location for other divers. A common underwater marker used to this end comprises a metal (e.g., lead) weight of some type and a string attached at one end to the lead weight and to a plastic bottle at the other end. The lead weight is placed at the underwater location to be marked. The plastic bottle connected to the weight by the string floats on the surface of the water to provide a visible marker of the location.
The marker described above is quite bulky and awkward to stow on the dive boat as a result of the components used. Moreover, the marker is quite bulky and awkward for the diver to carry underwater. As a result, the marker oftentimes is thrown overboard from the dive boat at the location to be marked rather than being carried with the diver as the diver traverses the sea, lake or river bottom.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved underwater marker device that is compact in configuration and readily stowable on a boat and on a diver (or other user such as a fisherman) to facilitate marking of an underwater location.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved underwater marker device that is readily deployed for use at the underwater location to be marked and is readily returned to compact configuration after use for stowage on a boat or on a diver for reuse in marking another underwater location.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an improved inflatable marker balloon/valve assembly for use in an underwater marker device wherein the assembly permits underwater inflation of the marker balloon by a diver and deflation of the marker balloon by the diver.

Compact, stowable marker device for underwater location


An image display apparatus including: a display panel configured to display a display image based on an image signal; an illumination unit configured to output an illumination light for illuminating the display panel; and a controller configured to correct, when a illumination request for illuminating the display panel is received, at least one of brightness and chromaticity of the illumination light based on light-on time and light-off time of the illumination unit previous to a time point at which the illumination request is received.

As is well known in the art, in recent years, television broadcasting receivers employing a liquid crystal display panel for display of an image have rapidly come into wide use. A liquid crystal display panel tends to be particularly used for large screen-oriented television broadcasting receivers because it is thinner and lighter than a CRT (cathode ray tube) display.
Such a liquid crystal display panel displays an image by transmitting illumination light from a backlight represented by a cold cathode tube such as, for example, a fluorescent tube or a discharge lamp. Accordingly, if the brightness or the chromaticity of the illumination light generated by the backlight is changed, the color taste, such as hue (color itself), tint, contrast, etc. of the image to be displayed is varied, thereby causing variation of image quality.
However, it is known that a cold cathode tube which has been widely employed as the backlight at present is varied in brightness or chromaticity of the illumination light until a certain period of time is elapsed after the tube is lighted-on. In addition, the time required, until the brightness or the chromaticity of the illumination light becomes stable after the tube is lighted-on, varies depending on the maintenance temperature or the ambient temperature of the cold cathode tube when the cold cathode tube is lighted-on.
A document, JP-A-2007-108285, discloses a liquid crystal display apparatus which is capable of correcting a misalignment of chromaticity of a display image with time lapse from the power-up by varying component ratios of the color signals in a matrix circuit which multiplies factors with components of the color signals of the image signal and adds results of the multiplication based on counter values of a counter which counts a period of time from the power-up.
However, in the liquid crystal display apparatus disclosed in JP-2007-108285, since the chromaticity misalignment is uniformly corrected with the lapse of time from the power-up, if the apparatus is powered-up under conditions of sufficiently high maintenance temperature, such as, for example, if the apparatus is powered-up for a long time and then is again powered-on after a very short power-off period of time, the chromaticity correction may be excessive.

Image display apparatus and image display method


The invention provides a waterproof connector in which surplus space is removed, and the connector is reduced in size. A housing of a waterproof connector 1 comprises an inner housing 3 and an outer housing 2. A sealing ring 14 is fitted completely into an attachment groove 13 formed in an outer wall face 4A of a terminal housing member 4 of the inner housing 3. As a result, the sealing ring 14 can be provided without increasing the outer circumference of a fitting space 10, and the waterproof connector 1 can be miniaturized. Furthermore, the fitting space 10 has no surplus space corresponding to the thickness of the sealing ring 14. The two housings 2 and 3 are joined together after the sealing ring 14 has been fitted to the inner housing 3. Consequently, the sealing ring 14 can be attached easily.

The present invention relates to a waterproof electrical connector.
A conventional connector 101 is shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 of this specification. This conventional connector is a waterproof connector employing a configuration whereby a space between a terminal housing member 103 and a skirt member 111 of a corresponding connector 110 is sealed by a sealing ring 102. This sealing ring 102 is annular and is housed within a fitting space 104. When the connector 101 is to be fitted to the corresponding connector 110, the skirt member 111 is inserted into the fitting space 104, and the sealing ring 102 is gripped between inner walls of the skirt member 111 and outer walls of the terminal housing member 103, thereby waterproofing the interior of the connector.
In the above configuration, the outer circumference of the fitting space 104 must be increased to the extent of the thickness of the sealing ring 102, thereby requiring the connector 101 to be larger in size. Furthermore, a space 105 is formed within the fitting space 104. This corresponds to the space between an anterior end 102A of the sealing ring 102 and a fitting face 112 of the corresponding connector 110, and has the thickness of the sealing ring 102. This space 105 is surplus space which serves no fiction for the connector. If removed, the size of the connector could be reduced.
The present invention has taken the above problem into consideration, and aims to present a waterproof connector wherein the surplus space is removed, and the connector can thereby have a smaller size.
According to the invention there is provided a waterproof connector comprising a terminal accommodating member adapted to house a terminal fitting, a hood surrounding said accommodating member, a fitting space formed between said hood and accommodating member, a corresponding connector having a tubular mouth being insertable into said fitting space, and a waterproofing member being provided at said fitting space, one of the inner and outer circumferential faces of said waterproofing member forming a sealing face with the corresponding connector characterized in that one of an inner wall face of said hood and an outer wall face of said accommodating member is provided with a recess to house said waterproofing member. Such a connector has no dead space, and can easily be miniaturized.
In a preferred embodiment the connector is in two part form, the accommodating member and hood being moulded separately and assembled after positioning of the waterproofing member. Such an arrangement permits convenient assembly of the components.
The waterproofing member preferably fits precisely in the associated recess without clearance, and radial faces thereof may provide sealing against relatively movable parts of an assembled connector. Furthermore this arrangement provides for easy insertion and retention of the waterproofing member, and with suitable attention to tolerances, may exert an end load on the waterproofing member with a consequent bulging in the radial direction, thus improving the waterproofing ability thereof.


A first ceramic layer of a composite laminate included in a common mode choke coil is formed from a sintered body of a glass ceramic material. The glass ceramic material contains 40 to 90 percent by weight of a glass which contains 0.5 to 5 percent by weight of K2O, 0 to 5 percent by weight of Al2O3, 10 to 25 percent by weight of B2O3, and 70 to 85 percent by weight of SiO2; and 10 to 60 percent by weight of a filler containing alumina and quartz, and the content of the alumina contained in the filler is 1 to 10 percent by weight of the total amount of the glass and the filler.

As an interesting technique relating to the present disclosure, for example, a technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-56784 may be mentioned. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2013-56784 has disclosed a glass ceramic dielectric material used for a semiconductor wiring board, a circuit board, and the like. In more particular, this glass ceramic dielectric material contains 49.9 to 89.9 percent by mass of a borosilicate glass powder, 10 to 50 percent by mass of an alumina powder and/or a quartz powder, and a 0.1 to 4 percent by mass of an aluminum borate powder and/or a silica borate-based compound powder.
Since the glass ceramic dielectric material described above can be sintered at a relatively low temperature, such as 1,000° C. or less, simultaneous sintering (co-sintering) can be advantageously performed together with an electrically conductive material, such as silver or copper, which has a low melting point and a low conductor loss and which is to be used as a material of an electrode layer.
In addition, as a composite electronic component, there may be mentioned a multilayer ceramic electronic component which includes a composite laminate formed by laminating a plurality of types of ceramics layers formed of ceramic materials having compositions different from each other. In manufacturing of the multilayer ceramic electronic component as described above, in order to shorten a manufacturing time therefor, it has been desired that not only a ceramic material and an electrically conductive material but also a plurality of types of ceramics materials having compositions different from each other can be co-sintered and that, furthermore, desired characteristics can be satisfied.

Glass ceramic material and multilayer ceramic electronic component


In order to provide a novel spinel type lithium transition metal oxide (LMO) having excellent power performance characteristics, in which preferably both the power performance characteristics and the cycle performance at high temperature life characteristics may be balanced, a novel spinel type lithium transition metal oxide with excellent power performance characteristics is proposed by defining the inter-atomic distance Li—O to be 1.978 Å to 2.006 Å as measured by the Rietveld method using the fundamental method in a lithium transition metal oxide represented by the general formula Li1+xM2−xO4 (where M is a transition metal consisting of three elements Mn, Al and Mg and x is 0.01 to 0.08).

Lithium batteries, in particular lithium secondary batteries, having such characteristics as a large energy density and a long life span, are used widely as power sources for home appliances such as video cameras and portable electronic devices such as notebook personal computers and cellular phones; recently, applications into large batteries that equip an electric vehicle (EV), a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and the like, are anticipated.
A lithium secondary battery is a secondary battery having a structure in which, during charging, lithium melts out from the positive electrode as an ion and moves towards the negative electrode to be stored and conversely, during discharging, the lithium ion returns from the negative electrode to the positive electrode, and it is known that the high energy density of the battery has its source in the electric potential of the positive electrode material.
In addition to lithium transition metal oxides such as LiCoO2, LiNiO2 and LiMnO2 having a layer structure, spinel type lithium transition metal oxide (LMO) of the manganese series such as LiMnO4 and LiNi0.5Mn0.5O4 are known as positive electrode active materials for lithium secondary batteries.
Owing to low raw material costs and the absence of toxicity, which renders it safe, there is a focus on the spinel type lithium transition metal oxide (LMO) of the manganese series as a positive electrode active material for a large battery for an electric vehicle (EV), a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and the like. In addition, while excellent power performance characteristics are particularly demanded of a battery for an EV or HEV, on this point, compared to a lithium transition metal oxide such as LiCoO2, which has a layer structure, a spinel type lithium transition metal oxide (LMO), which allows for insertion and desorption of Li ions three-dimensionally, has excellent power performance characteristics. However, with higher efficiency of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), currently, further improvement of the power performance characteristics are demanded of the positive electrode active material for HEV batteries.
As a spinel type lithium transition metal oxide (LMO) with improved power performance characteristics, in conventional art, a lithium manganese composite oxide represented by the composition formula Li1+x, Mn2−xOu−yFy (where 0.02≦x, 0.1≦y≦u, 3≦(2u−y−1−x)/(2−x)≦4 and 3.9≦u≦4.1) having a mean particle diameter in the range of 1 to 20 μm is described in Patent Reference 1.
In addition, an Li—Mn series spinel compound represented by the composition formula Li1+xMn2−x−yMgyO4 (x=0.03 to 0.15, y=0.005 to 0.05) having a specific surface area of 0.5 to 0.8 m2/g and a sodium content of 1000 ppm or less is described in Patent Reference 2.
Meanwhile, when cycles are repeated in a high temperature region (for instance, 45 to 60° C.) with a conventional spinel type lithium transition metal oxide (LMO), Mn2+ becomes more prone to elution and the eluted Mn2+ deposits on the negative electrode, which becomes a resistance and causes deterioration of the capacity; thus, it has been told that when putting a spinel type lithium transition metal oxide (LMO) into practical application, the issue lies in the cycle life characteristics in the high temperature region (for instance 45 to 60° C.).
Consequently, in conventional art, as means to increase the cycle life characteristics of spinel type lithium transition metal oxides (LMOs), a method has been proposed, for instance in Patent Reference 3 or the like, whereby a portion of Mn within an LMO is substituted with another element such as Al, thereby stabilizing the spinel structure, suppressing the elution of Mn and suppressing the deterioration of the LMO.    [Patent Reference 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-045710    [Patent Reference 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-033101    [Patent Reference 3] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-186149

Spinel type lithium transition metal oxide


A device or system is provided for calculating and visualising the risk for developing coronary heart disease which is in the form of a cardiovascular risk diagram which includes a series of cardiovascular risk scales projected on cardiovascular risk areas (for example, delineated by different colours) each scale representing a different cardiovascular risk factor. Data for each cardiovascular risk is recorded on its appropriate risk scale, and data points-on adjacent risk scales are connected to form enclosed area superimposed over the risk areas. The resulting enclosed area is visually or otherwise compared to the total area of all cardiovascular risk areas, to determine a score of cardiovascular risk.

The major risk factors for coronary artery diseases are widely recognised. Age and gender have a powerful effect, but are immutable. Hypertension, cigarette smoking, total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol double or more the risk.
Other important recognised risk factors are overweight, left ventricular hypertrophy, glucose intolerance, hyperinsulinaemia and physical inactivity (Brach, Cholesterol and coronary heart disease prevention. A transatlantic consensus. European Heart Journal, 1989, 10:702-711; Grundy, Cholesterol and coronary heart disease. Jama, November 1986, Vol. 256:2849-2858; The prospective cardiovascular Munster study: Prevalence and prognostic significance of hyperlipidemia in men with systemic hypertension. Am. J. Card., 1987, 59:9G-17G; Egan et al., Comparative effect of overweight on cardiovascular risk in younger versus older men. Am. J. Card., February 1991, Vol. 67:248-252).
Further epidemiological studies have shown that for some cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, assessment requires consideration of a multivariate risk profile (W. Kannel et al., Office assessment of coronary candidates and risk factor insights from the Framingham study. J. of Hypertension, 1991, 9 (Suppl. 7):S13-S19; K. Anderson et al., An updated coronary risk profile. Circulation, Vol. 83, n.degree. 1, January 1991: 356-362; Prediction of coronary heart disease in Europe. WHO-Erica Project, Erica Research Group, The 2nd European Heart Journal (1991) 12:291-297).
Before starting any therapy for treating coronary artery disease, a complete assessment of overall cardiovascular risk factors is essential. Unfortunately, even where all such cardiovascular risk factors are recorded, there is no existing system for correlating these risk factors with probability of developing coronary heart disease.
The American Heart Association (AHA) (K. Anderson et al., supra) and the WHO-Erica Project (Erica Research Group, supra) give different cardiac heart disease equations to predict the risk for developing coronary heart diseases. However, these mathematical formulas do not provide visualisation of the cardiovascular risks.
It is therefore apparent that there is a need for a device and method to visualise the most important risk factors for each patient for the benefit of the physician and the patient. An object of the present invention is to create a "Cardiovascular Risk Manager (CVRM)". Such a system could be used to evaluate the cardiovascular patient, to estimate his risk profile, to decide the therapeutic approach, and/or to increase the therapeutic compliance of the patient.

Method for predicting coronary heart disease


An internal gear pump (100) comprises: a rotor/torque ring comprising an internally lobed (140) rotor (130) and a torque ring (120) extending beyond at least a first end (134) of the rotor; an externally lobed (160) idler (150) encircled by the rotor; a hollow shaft (190) supporting the idler; a pressure relief element (200) positioned to shift between a first condition and a second condition; and a spring (210) biasing the pressure relief element toward the first condition from the second condition. The torque ring has at least one pressure relief port (240A, 240B) positioned so that: in the first condition, the pressure relief element blocks a path from an interior volume (235) of the pump to the pressure relief port; and in the second condition, relative to the first condition the pressure relief element does not block the path.

The disclosure relates to pumps. More particularly, the disclosure relates to gear pumps used in compressor lubrication.
Compressors such as reciprocating compressors require lubrication. An exemplary reciprocating compressor can require lubrication at one or more of several locations. These locations include main bearings supporting a shaft relative to the case. For reciprocating compressors, the shaft is a crankshaft and the locations further include: bearings between the crankshaft and rods; wrist bearings of the rods/pistons; and the piston/cylinder interfaces. Oil may be delivered through passageways in the shaft. An oil pump may be mounted to be driven by the shaft to draw oil from a compressor sump and drive it through the passageways.
An exemplary pump is sold as the "TR Series Pump" by Tuthill Pump Group of Alsip, Ill., US. Such pump has an externally lobed idler (inner gerotor gear) mounted within an internally-lobed rotor (outer gerotor gear). The rotor is a portion of a rotor/torque ring assembly. The torque ring comprises a sleeve within which the rotor is secured (e.g., by welding, interference fit, or the like). As is discussed below, the torque ring drives rotation of the rotor and, via the rotor rotation of the idler.
Respective first and second end portions of the torque ring protrude beyond opposite first and second ends of the rotor. The first end portion is a proximal end portion and mounts to the crankshaft to be rotated about the crank axis. The first end portion also floating plate or washer that serves as a pressure relief valve element. The washer is biased by a spring into sealing engagement with the first ends of the rotor and idler. A forward portion of the spring may be in a sealing sleeve slidingly mounted in the spring compartment of the crankshaft.
The second end portion contains a carrier assembly that comprises a hollow axle on which the idler rides. The axle has an axis parallel to and slightly offset from the crank axis. The carrier assembly has an end plate from which the axle protrudes. The end plate is mounted to the second end portion of the rotor/torque ring.
The exemplary pump is an automatic reversing pump that provides flow in on flow direction regardless of the direction of shaft rotation. This is achieved by providing the end plate with a pair of ports that interact with a pair of ports of a pump cover. The pump cover ports are a respective inlet port and outlet port. The cover inlet port is in communication with an oil pickup line extending to an inlet (e.g., at a strainer in the compressor sump). The cover outlet port is in communication with a bore of the axle to pass flow through passageways in the crankshaft to bearings.
As rotation of the ring drives rotation of the idler pockets formed between their lobes will sequentially be open to the two cover ports via the two carrier ports. The pockets will open to the cover inlet port, expand to draw liquid in from the cover inlet port, close to the cover inlet port and open to the cover outlet port, contract so as to discharge liquid through the cover outlet port, and then close to the cover outlet port and open to the cover inlet port to complete the cycle,
If pressure in the pocket becomes sufficient to overcome the spring bias, the pressure will shift the washer out of sealing contact with the ends of the idler and rotor and open up a pathway for fluid to pass back through the cover inlet to relieve pressure.


A seat assembly for task-oriented seating comprises a seat support and a seat coupled to the seat support. The seat is movable under load, such as from the user's weight and movements, relative to the seat support. The seat has a cushion molded over a supporting armature with multiple bias elements. The seat and seat support are configured to deflect by predetermined amounts at defined locations over an extent of the seat assembly. In this way, the seat assembly provides for a range of comfortable and effective positions for users engaged in different active motions and having different preferences and sizes.

Task-oriented seating is particularly geared for users who actively move while they are seated. Some users adopt an active position where they are leaned forward so they are closer to their activities, such as their work. As one example, dental practitioners seek task-oriented seating that allows them to practice more effectively with greater comfort as they lean forward to access a patient's oral cavity. Similar considerations also apply in contexts outside of dentistry. Current seating options, however, do not provide sufficient support and comfort over long periods, especially considering users who need to ingress and egress from such seating repeatedly. Further, users range in shapes, sizes and their ways of using such seating, so organizations need task-oriented seating solutions that address these ranges without introducing undue expense and complexity into the work environment.


A surface treating composition for excluding water penetration which is a solution obtained by combining water; an alkyltrialkoxysilane selected from the group consisting of C.sub.1 to C.sub.6 alkyl groups on silicon and blends of alkyltrialkoxysilanes with C.sub.1 to C.sub.6 alkyl groups on silicon; a silane coupling agent; and an aqueous silicone emulsion of an anionically stabilized hydroxyl endblocked polydiorganosiloxane, amorphous silica and an organic tin salt.

This invention relates to compositions for rendering surfaces water repellent, and more particularly is directed to aqueous compositions containing certain organosilicon compounds.
The treatment of surfaces such as masonry with compositions containing organosilicon compounds is old in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,129 issued Sep. 24, 1991 for example teaches that a wide variety of masonry products can be protected from the damaging effects of water penetration by the application of an aqueous solution containing the product obtained by combining water with an alkyltrialkoxysilane such as methyltrimethoxysilane and a water soluble silane coupling agent such as N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,813 issued Jun. 16, 1981 masonry surfaces are treated by the application of a silicone emulsion that cures to an elastomeric film on drying. The silicone emulsion contains an anionically stabilized hydroxyl endblocked polydiorganosiloxane, amorphous silica and an organic tin salt.
The present invention is an improvement over both of the '129 patent and the '813 patent, and provides a surface treating composition in the form of an aqueous solution formed by combining the treating materials taught in each of these patents. Thus, it has been discovered that a synergy exists in employing the combination of the two treatments, and that the combination exhibits improved water exclusion results than is obtainable when either treatment is used individually.

Water repellents containing organosilicon compounds