A casting core for a turbine blade includes a plurality of rods extending above a shank. The rods define internal cooling channels in the airfoil of the blade, and the shank defines an inlet channel in the dovetail of the blade. A plurality of stubs are clustered together at a bulb joined to the shank and radiate outwardly to integrally join different ones of the rods for increasing strength of the core.

The present invention relates generally to gas turbine engines, and, more specifically, to casting of superalloy turbine blades therein.
In a gas turbine engine, air is pressurized in a compressor and mixed with fuel in a combustor for generating hot combustion gases. Energy is extracted from the gases in turbine stages for powering the compressor and performing external work, such as powering a fan in a turbofan aircraft gas turbine engine application.
Each turbine stage includes a stationary turbine nozzle having a row of nozzle vanes which discharge the combustion gases into a corresponding row of turbine rotor blades. Each blade includes an airfoil extending radially outwardly in span from an integral platform defining the radially inner flowpath boundary. The platform is integrally joined to a supporting dovetail having corresponding lobes mounted in a dovetail slot formed in the perimeter of a supporting rotor disk.
The first stage turbine blade first receives the hot combustion gases from the combustor through the corresponding first stage turbine nozzle. The turbine blades are typically hollow with internal cooling circuits therein specifically configured for cooling the different portions of the airfoil against the different heat loads from the combustion gases flowing thereover during operation.
The turbine airfoil includes a generally concave pressure side and circumferentially opposite, generally convex suction side which extend radially in span from a root at the platform to a radially outer tip, and extend axially in chord between opposite leading and trailing edges. The airfoil has the typical crescent radial profile or section which rapidly increases in thickness aft from the leading edge to the maximum width or hump region of the airfoil, which then gradually tapers and decreases in width to the relatively thin trailing edge of the airfoil.
The internal cooling circuits have numerous configurations, all of which share relatively long and slender radial cooling channels extending from root to tip, and separated chordally by typically imperforate and solid radial partitions bridging the opposite sidewalls of the airfoil.
The various internal cooling channels may be typically arranged in serpentine configurations over the midchord region of the airfoil. The leading and trailing edge regions of the airfoil typically include dedicated cooling channels, commonly having perforate partitions for effecting internal impingement cooling therein.
The various airfoil cooling channels have corresponding inlet channels extending upwardly through the blade platform and dovetail from the base thereof for receiving a portion of pressurized air bled from the compressor during operation. The channels have various outlets in the airfoil sidewalls, such as film cooling holes.
Since the turbine blades rotate with the supporting rotor disk during operation, they are subject to substantial centrifugal loads and corresponding stress. The centrifugal loads increase radially inwardly from the airfoil tip and are carried through the mounting dovetail into the supporting rotor disk.
Furthermore, each turbine blade is subject to the different heat loads over the radial span and axial chord thereof, and over the opposite pressure and suction sides, which correspondingly require different internal cooling for minimizing the amount of air bled from the compressor to correspondingly increase engine efficiency during operation.
In view of these exemplary mechanical and thermal operating conditions of the rotating turbine blades, they are typically manufactured by casting of superalloy metals having enhanced strength at the elevated temperatures of operation for ensuring a long useful life of the individual blades. Typical turbine blade materials include nickel or cobalt based superalloys which require corresponding casting to form the intricate interior and exterior shapes of the turbine blades, typically in state-of-the-art casting methods for achieving directional solidification of the casting grains or single crystal metallurgical configurations.
The common casting process is the lost wax method which begins with the fabrication of an intricate ceramic core that defines the various internal voids or flow channels of the turbine blade from the dovetail to the airfoil tip. The dovetail typically includes two or three relatively wide and short inlet channels, whereas the airfoil typically includes many more relatively narrow and long flow channels.
Accordingly, the ceramic core has a corresponding number of relatively long and slender ceramic legs that define the various long cooling channels in the airfoil, and a relatively few short and wide supporting stems that define the short inlet channels extending through the dovetail. The legs and stems are suitably joined together where appropriate, and are typically grouped together at the airfoil tip and grouped together at the base of the dovetail for providing an integrated and interconnected ceramic core assembly having suitable strength.
In the lost wax casting method, the core is initially positioned inside a pair of master dies which accurately define the three dimensional (3D) configuration of the turbine blade from dovetail to airfoil tip. Spaces or voids are provided between the core and the surrounding wax dies which represent the external configuration of the resulting metal in the later cast metal blade.
However, the voids between the core and the dies are initially filled with wax that is solidified into the 3D blade shape. The dies are removed, and the so cast wax version of the blade is surrounded in a ceramic slurry shell which is suitably cured hard.
The wax is melted and removed from the hardened shell again leaving the voids between the ceramic core and the so formed shell.
The voids are then filled with molten metal which is suitably solidified either directionally or in single crystal configuration as required for the superalloy metal being used to cast the individual blade.
The ceramic shell and ceramic core are then suitably removed, by chemical leaching for example, to leave behind the so cast superalloy metal blade. The solid cores are replaced by the hollow internal channels of the cooling circuits. The voids between the core legs and stems are replaced by the superalloy metal which structurally bridges together the opposite pressure and suction sides of the airfoil and corresponding opposite sides of the dovetail.
Since the resulting cast turbine blade has a 3D configuration varying significantly over its radial span, axial chord, and circumferential width, the internal cooling circuits have even more complex configurations in view of the multiple legs thereof separated by the corresponding radial partitions, with a relatively thin sidewall defining the external perimeter of the turbine blade.
The ceramic core which must be then specifically configured for the complex 3D turbine blade is yet even more complex in configuration in view of its relatively large length to width and thickness correspondingly creating long and slender ceramic legs. These slender legs are quite brittle in view of the high strength ceramic material used to withstand the high temperature of the molten metal during the casting process.
Accordingly, the ceramic core is quite fragile and is subject to inadvertent breakage during manufacture of the core itself, during handling of that core, and during the casting process. Core yield is a fundamental design parameter in the casting method.
Statistically, a small percentage of fabricated cores will break during the fabrication and use thereof and lead to a corresponding increase in cost of the manufacturing process. A core broken before the casting process is typically scrapped. A core broken during the casting process will typically lead to scrapping also of the so cast turbine blade.
Accordingly, ceramic core design includes features for strengthening thereof which are inherently limited by the final configuration of the turbine blade being cast. Thicker or stouter ceramic cores correspondingly result in thinner and weaker turbine blades in view of the loss in resulting cast metal. The external 3D configuration of a turbine blade is limited by the desired aerodynamic performance and efficiency of the engine, and simply making cores larger or blades larger decreases efficiency and performance of the turbine blade.
However, it is known to bridge together the core legs at the airfoil tip with a common block of ceramic. And, to bridge together the core stems at the base of the dovetail with another ceramic block. Furthermore, small ceramic ties may be preferentially located between the slender ceramic legs for bridging them together to increase the collective strength, but the ties necessarily result in a flow passage in the resulting turbine airfoil which may be undesirable for internal cooling performance.
It is also conventional to include individual ceramic ligaments between the relatively stout core stems and one or more of the slender core legs for typically supporting the legs of a serpentine cooling circuit which necessarily are joined together end-to-end near the airfoil tip and root in the final blade.
The individual ligaments are typically relatively long and slender with minimum sectional area to provide a temporary reinforcement in the ceramic core at the expense of the loss of supporting metal in the final turbine blade. After casting, the ligaments form a small flow channel between the dovetail inlet and the corresponding leg of the serpentine circuit, and a small metal ball is commonly brazed therein to block that undesirable flow communication in the final turbine blade.
The voids created by the core ligaments therefore interrupt the mechanical continuity and strength of the turbine blade typically in its shank region between the dovetail lobes and blade platform. This loss in supporting material in the final blade is a necessary compromise between reducing blade strength and increasing the strength of the fragile ceramic core to increase the yield thereof in the casting process for reducing manufacturing cost of the blades.
Yet further complicating the design of turbine blades is the ever increasing complexity of the internal cooling circuits, and the number of individual radial cooling channels therein, which correspondingly require even thinner and more slender ceramic legs in the ceramic core. In one advanced turbine blade undergoing study, the numerous slender ceramic legs are additionally strengthened by using slender core ligaments, but those slender ligaments are themselves subject to breakage, which also renders the ceramic core unusable.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved ceramic core for a turbine rotor blade having slender internal cooling channels therein.


A walled structure apparatus generally orientated perpendicular to a horizontal surface, the apparatus including a first panel with a major plane, a corner and a notch, a second panel with a major plane, a corner and a tab received with the notch, and a hinge structure within the notch.

Children enjoy activities of assembling and dismantling three-dimensional objects. Popular toys have included numerous constructions sets with attachable pieces. Some construction sets include very small pieces making assembly of walls and simulated buildings time consuming sometimes beyond the attention span of some children. Smaller pieces that may be fit into mouths allowing a child to choke are also considered hazardous for small children. In addition, some construction sets when assembled produce very rigid structures, which inhibit observation of the collapse and partial collapse of the construction. Children particularly enjoy observing the reverse of construction.
Inventors have designed many types of interconnectable toy wall panels utilizing hook and loop type fasteners. U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,269 to Murphy (1998) discloses a set of six planar wall panels utilizing hook and loop type fasteners attached to all four corners of each panel, such that the panels may be assembled into a cube. However, the construction disclosed does not resemble toy buildings and securely fastens corner edges with 3-degrees of rotational fixity which disallows collapsible rotation about the panel top edges.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,301 to Dodge (1990) discloses a set of planar construction pieces with opposing surfaces covered with hook and loop type fastening material and connector strips of hook and loop type material. The disclosed construction may be cost prohibitive and appears to impose a limitation on rotation about the connection points, prohibiting the simulation of a collapsible structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,634 to Chang (1999) discloses a kit for building objects of foam blocks covered with loop type fabric with double sided hook type fastening pieces for interconnecting blocks. The double-sided hook type fasteners allow two pieces to be adjacently connected with the double-sided hook fasteners between; however, the construction imposes limitations in rotation of the pieces of the structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,998 to McMurray (1989) discloses a building play toy kit having panels with curved edge strips attached. Each edge strip may include alternating overlays of hook and loop type fastening material along the full edge of the strip effectively creating hinged edges. U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,019 to Harvey (1977) discloses a building toy kit containing planar elements having detachable edges. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,411 to Kurzea (1987) discloses another similar construction, utilizing planar panels that are also connected at the edges by hinge type connections.
The construction identified by these patents imposes limitations on rotation about panel edges and they do not provide for panel interconnections in such a way as to allow resistive rotation about the connection point to simulate collapse through resistive joint rotation. In addition, the construction previously described by the above patents does not allow the interconnected panel edges to move independently with reference to each other, inhibiting the deformation of the structures.
It would therefore be beneficial to provide interconnected panels with a top panel connection which allows resistive rotation about the connection point, the structure exhibiting deformation with the interconnected panels providing independent movement with reference to each other.

Abstract: The hinge structure generally uniting the panels for movement to a number of selected positions and includes interengaged flexible components permitting inward and outward movement and being generally located within the notch and tab. Through this movement, the walled structure apparatus exhibits a deformed structure.


To provide a medicine-bag printing apparatus provided with a conveying mechanism that can smoothly convey medicine bags and align them. A medicine bag (2 ) is printed by any one of a plurality of printers (11, 12 ) to be collected in a collecting portion (5 ) via a conveying route (6, 13, 14). The printing apparatus is provided with medicine-bag direction converting device (6, 14 ) which convert the direction of medicine bags printed by the respective printers so the printing surface and the printing direction become same.

The present invention relates to a medicine-bag printing apparatus, in particular to a medicine-bag printing apparatus characterized by a conveying structure of medicine bags after printing information on them.
As a mechanism for conveying paper, there is one that is enabled to convey paper while changing a position of the paper (e.g., see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: JP-60-6553(A)
However, when the above construction is applied to a medicine-bag printing apparatus equipped with a plurality of printers, its construction becomes complicated and such a printing apparatus inevitably becomes expensive.
An object of the present invention is to provide a medicine-bag printing apparatus including a conveying mechanism that can smoothly convey medicine bags and align them in spite of its simple and inexpensive construction.


An electrical device includes a thermistor and at least two electrodes electrically connected to the thermistor and to which a source of electrical power is applied to cause current to flow through the thermistor. The thermistor may be a composite and includes a polymer material; and a plurality of conductive carbon nanotubes distributed in the polymer material. The electrical device employed with the thermistor performs not only PTC property, but also NTC property. Moreover, the method for fabricating the electrical device is also simple and easy to carry out because of the simple process.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to electrical devices and, in particular, to an electrical device employed with a thermistor that is self-regulating with respect to temperature.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A positive temperature coefficient (PTC) thermistor includes a pair of electrodes positioned facing each other and a thermistor element positioned between the electrodes. The thermistor element has a PTC of resistance, meaning that within a specific temperature range, its resistance rises sharply as the temperature rises. Taking advantage of these features, the positive temperature coefficient thermistor (hereunder "PTC thermistor") may be used for example as self-regulating heat generators, temperature sensors, current limiting elements, over-current protection elements and the like.
A negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor has the reverse properties with respect to the PTC thermistor, meaning that within a specific temperature range, and its resistance decreases sharply as the temperature rises. The NTC thermistor may be used for specific tasks, such as monitoring the temperature in mobile telephone, controlling the temperature, temperature compensation and the like.
However, some electronic devices, such as application circuits, need a thermistor which functions not only as PTC resistance, but also as NTC resistance. Referring to FIG. 6, a typical thermistor having PTC or NTC properties is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,784, in which a PTC composition 1 is provided on opposing surfaces with electrodes 2 and two NTC compositions 3. The NTC compositions 3 and the electrodes 2 extend across the entire top and bottom surfaces of the PTC composition 1. In this thermistor, when the thermistor is cold, the resistance of the PTC composition 1 is less than that of NTC compositions 3, and current flows from the top left electrode to the bottom right electrode. When the thermistor is hot, the resistance of the PTC composition 1 has increased and that of NTC compositions 3 has decreased. However, the thermistor described above is fabricated by integrating two compositions, i.e. the PTC composition 1 and the NTC composition 3 to allow the thermistor to perform as both NTC and PTC, and the fabrication is very complex.
What is needed, therefore, is a thermistor and an electrical device employed with the same having PTC and NTC properties, which can overcome the above-described shortcoming.

Thermistor and electrical device employed with same


Disclosed is a process for producing L-tryptophan which comprises culturing in a medium a microorganism belonging to the genus Corynebacterium or Brevibacterium having resistance to an aminoquinoline derivative or a phenothiazine derivative and an ability to produce L-tryptophan until L-tryptophan is accumulated in the culture and recovering L-tryptophan therefrom.

The present invention relates to a process for producing L-tryptophan by culturing a microorganism belonging to the genus Corynebacterium or Brevibacterium, and having resistance to an aminoquinoline derivative or a phenothiazine derivative and an ability to produce L-tryptophan. L-Tryptophan is an amino acid which is useful as a medicament or as food and an additive for animal feed.
Heretofore, various processes for producing L-tryptophan by culturing a Coryneform gultamic acid-producing bacterium are known; for example, a process by use of a microorganism belonging to the genus Corynebacterium, requiring L-tyrosine and L-phenylalanine for growth and having resistance to at least one of tyrosine analogs and phenylalanine analogs (Japanese Published Examined Patent Application No. 19037/76); a process by use of a microorganism having resistance to a tryptophan analog such as 5-methyltryptophan, etc. (Japanese Published Examined Patent Application Nos. 18828/73, 38795/76 and 39517/78); a process by use of a histidine auxotroph (Japanese Published Examined Patent Application No. 4505/72); a process by use of a microorganism belonging to the genus Brevibacterium which is decreased or lacking in pyruvate kinase activity (Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 253391/87); a process by use of a microorganism belonging to the genus Corynebacterium which is decreased or lacking in phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase activity (Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 317395/89); etc. An efficient process for producing L-tryptophan is always in demand from an industrial view point.

Process for producing L-tryptophan by culturing a Corynebacterium glutamicum mutant


The present invention provides an application method of a Cr-plated mandrel bar repeatedly used in mandrel mill rolling by the Mannesmann tube making process. A regeneration treatment is performed to use the mandrel bar again as a tool of like size when an opening width H of a surface defect generated on the mandrel bar by its use in the mandrel mill rolling is not less than 1.5 mm and a depth of the surface defect is in the range of 0.3 mm to less than 2.0 mm. Alternatively, a downsizing treatment is performed to use the mandrel bar again as a tool of a smaller size when the depth of the surface defect generated on the mandrel bar by its use in the mandrel mill rolling is not less than 2.0 mm. The regeneration treatment or downsizing treatment is performed according to conditions or a configuration of the surface defect to achieve repeated application to the mandrel mill rolling, allowing life-extension of the mandrel bar and improvement of cost performance thereof.

The Mannesmann-mandrel mill tube making process is widely adopted as a method for producing a seamless tube by hot working. In the mandrel mill rolling, the rolling is performed using multi-stand caliber rolls, which provide movements in an axial direction to a hollow shell while constraining/defining an outer surface of the hollow shell, and a mandrel bar, which constrains/defines an inner surface of the hollow shell. Therefore, the mandrel bar is an important tool which determines inner surface quality of the rolled hollow shell.
FIG. 1 is a view explaining a process of producing a mandrel bar used in mandrel mill rolling. Usually hot-work tool steels such as SKD6 and SKD61 (JIS standard) are used as materials for the mandrel bar. An ingot melted and prepared with a relevant chemical composition of a hot-work tool steel is bloomed and rolled, and a predetermined heat treatment is performed to obtain a bar material (a blank to be processed). Since the bar material is bent/crooked due to the heat treatment, the bends are corrected/straightened by a rotary straightener, and an outside machining device is used to machine the bar material into a predetermined outside diameter. And then, finish-polishing or surface treatment is performed to the surface of the workpiece, and plating is performed, whereby the process can repeatedly be applied to the mandrel mill rolling.
As described above, in the Mannesmann-mandrel mill tube making process, a thick hollow shell that is obtained by piercing through the heated round steel piece (billet) using a piercer is rolled into a thin hollow shell by plural roll-stands each comprising caliber rolls that are aligned as opposed to each other while the mandrel bar, which constrains the inner surface of the hollow shell, is inserted. The hollow shell to which the mandrel mill rolling is performed is re-heated if needed and rolled to a predetermined diameter to produce a final hot rolled product using a stretch reducer or a sizer.
Usually, in the mandrel bar employed in the mandrel mill rolling, a lubricating film comprising mainly solid-state lubricants is formed in advance on the surface of the mandrel bar to decrease frictional force incurred on the contact surface between the mandrel bar and the hollow shell, whereby generation of defects either on the tool surface or on the inner surface of the hollow shell is prevented.
However, the mandrel bar is repeatedly used, whereas the formed lubricating film disappears after one-time use of the mandrel bar in the mandrel mill rolling, so that the lubricating film needs to be formed again on the surface of the mandrel bar to use the mandrel bar in the next rolling. Accordingly, after the mandrel bar is once used in the rolling, the mandrel bar is cooled by water-cooling shower or the like, lubricants are coated over its surface, and the lubricants are completely dried to form the lubricating film.
As described above, the mandrel bar is made of a hot-work tool steel such as SKD6 or SKD61, and obtained by means of appropriate machining, quenching, and tempering. Since the surface of the mandrel bar bears a huge surface pressure and is exposed to a huge heat load during the rolling, the stable lubrication is hardly maintained. Therefore, the surface defects are likely to occur on the surface of the mandrel bar in association with repeated use of the mandrel bar in the mandrel mill rolling.
Conventionally, various countermeasures are studied against generation of surface defects on the surface of the mandrel bar. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-243610 discloses a life-extension method in which, after an outside surface of mandrel bar that is deteriorated in surface characteristics is polished by about 0.04 mm using a belter, rusting operation is applied on the surface of the mandrel bar at ambient temperature or by heating the mandrel bar to 100° C., and the mandrel bar is reused as the mandrel bar of like size.
However, the intended mandrel bar of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-243610 is the one which premises a scaling treatment. Since recently the mandrel bar to which a hard Cr plating treatment is performed is mainly used to improve a wear-resistant property, the life-extension method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-243610 cannot be applied to such a case. Surface roughening is concerned in the mandrel bar to which a scaling treatment is performed, while the generation of surface defects is concerned in the mandrel bar to which the Cr plating treatment is performed.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 07-214116 proposes a mandrel bar for seamless tube rolling in which, even if wear or surface defects are generated on the surface of mandrel bar, wherein the mandrel bar is not partially disposed, and is configured such that a body portion of the mandrel bar is covered with plural sleeves to thereby allow the mandrel bar to be reused by making it possible to exchange this sleeve(s) when needed upon generation of damages thereon, thus enabling to improve cost performance of the tool, or tool costs per production unit.
However, in the mandrel bar proposed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 07-214116, since the body portion of the mandrel bar is covered with the plural sleeves, the production cost of the mandrel bar is largely increased, and a serious accident such as deformation/distortion and/or coming-off of this sleeve(s) is possibly induced during the rolling.

Application method of Cr-plated mandrel bar for hot rolling


This invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for determining carbon emission reduction credits and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for generating and quantifying standardized carbon emission reduction credits. General data and site-specific data, if available, are input into a carbon sequestration model to determine the approximate change in the level of carbon compounds stored in a media, such as soil, over a specified period of time. An uncertainty analysis is conducted on the results to quantify and normalize carbon emission reduction credits. Standardized carbon emission reduction credits may be compiled for trade and other carbon emission reduction credits are placed in reserve.

An accelerating rate of change in the amounts of trace gases in the earth's atmosphere has the potential to modify the earth's energy balance, which may result in a variety of consequences. These trace gases are often referred to as greenhouse gases and include carbon dioxide. Although there is disagreement concerning the potential threats or benefits of this change, there is widespread agreement in the global community that it is prudent to enact policies to attempt to slow down the rate of change. At the same time, research is underway to predict the consequences of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations and to develop the technology to economically limit those increases. All current protocols have established emission reduction targets that define 1990 as the base year and specify reductions as a fractional percentage of emission rates during that base year.
The increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is a global issue. For example, carbon dioxide emitted from a power plant into the atmosphere has a lifetime of approximately 100 years and may be distributed globally. As a result, at lease for the issue of atmospheric greenhouse gases, the geographic location where the greenhouse gases are removed from the atmosphere is less important than the fact that they are removed.
One of the key provisions of many national strategies to limit the rate of growth in the amounts of atmospheric greenhouse gases is the concept of emissions trading. Emissions trading is a process whereby specific target emission rates of certain greenhouse gases are set for specific industries. A member of the industry who achieves measured emissions below the target rates may trade the difference on the open market to another who exceeds, or forecasts that it will exceed, its own emission targets. An entity responsible for measured emissions above its target rates may be subject to fines or other sanctions. The objective is to reduce the overall emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, even if the emissions of one particular source are not decreased, or indeed are increased.
The unit of measure of tradable carbon emissions that has been generally accepted is commonly known as the Carbon Emission Reduction Credit, or CERC, which is equivalent to one metric ton of carbon dioxide gas (or other greenhouse gas equivalent) that is not emitted into the earth's atmosphere due to a human-caused change. That is, a CERC can be generated for human activities that have occurred since 1990 that have resulted in a reduction of business-as-usual emissions of greenhouse gases.
For example, CERCs can be generated through energy efficiency gains of fossil fuel technology, substitution of biofuels for fossil fuels, or removal of greenhouse gases from industrial gas streams. CERCs also can be generated by sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide into land or water, e.g., by reforesting land or through implementation of agricultural practices that increase the storage of organic matter in the soil.
A market is emerging for trading CERCs. One type of CERC trading involves an industrial consortium, where each industrial entity determines a rough estimate of the number of CERCs generated by its activity or needed from others due to its activity. If an individual entity has generated CERCs by changing its business-as-usual activity, e.g., by reducing the amounts of greenhouse gases emitted, it can trade the CERCs to others in the consortium.
There also have been entities involved specifically in CERC trading based on increasing the storage of carbon in soil. For example, in 1999 a consortium of Canadian power companies hired an insurance company to contractually obligate a group of Iowa farmers to twenty years of no-till farming. Based on general data, a broker for the power companies assumed that this land management practice would result in sufficient sequestration of carbon into the soil to generate CERCs. The power companies also purchased an insurance policy for protection against the possibility that no CERCs, or insufficient CERCs, would be generated by this arrangement. This trade was designed by the consortium of power companies to minimize the price that the farmers were paid. The difficulty and uncertainty of predicting these CERCs, obtaining indemnification or insurance, and banding together a sufficiently large number of farmers to generate a pool of potential CERCs large enough to overcome substantial baseline transactional costs and uncertainty whether the CERCs generated would meet current, pending or future regulatory requirements operated to drive up the costs incurred by the potential CERC purchasers, drive down the price paid to the producers and generally make it difficult to establish and engage in a market for CERCs.
Existing natural resource-based methods to trade CERCs generally share a number of shortcomings. Typically, the contracts specify certain land management practices, but do not require a certain number of CERCs to be generated. The estimated CERC values are highly variable and minimized due to uncertainties caused by using general regional data to try to estimate CERCs and by high transactional costs. Without a reasonably accurate method of quantifying CERCs generated, it is difficult for all to place a fair value on the trade. Also, trades generally have been designed and instigated by a potential CERC purchaser, or an entity representing one, and not by the CERC producer, such as a farmer or landowner. Further, each trade must be individually designed by the CERC purchaser to be consistent with current and anticipated legislative requirements and to maximize the likelihood that CERCs will be generated. Competition is also limited by the requirement of projects large enough to achieve economies of scale. As a result, the price paid to CERC producers is driven down and the market for trading CERCs is limited.
In the absence of an accepted process to generate, quantify and standardize CERCs, especially CERCs generated or projected to be generated by carbon sequestration in land or plants, the market for such CERCs remains relatively primitive, inefficient and uncertain. The existing attempts to identify and trade CERCs suffer from difficulties in quantifying accrued and projected CERCs, high administrative costs in quantifying and indemnifying accrued and projected CERCs, and the lack of a market for individuals and individual entities to effectively engage in CERC trades. These problems particularly restrict the ability of an individual landowner, or groups of landowners, to efficiently generate, quantify, standardize, market and trade CERCs.
As such, a need exists for an improved method of generating, quantifying and standardizing CERCs, particularly so that a relatively smaller producer of CERCs, such as an individual landowner or groups of landowners, may be able to reliably and efficiently participate in a market for CERCs by generating and quantifying standardized CERCs by a method capable of adapting to meet a broad range of regulatory specifications.

Method and apparatus for generating standardized carbon emission reduction credits

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology


The present invention pertains to: a p-boronophenylalanine derivative that comprises a polymer to which a group represented by formula (I) is linked directly or via a linker; a composition containing same; and a kit for producing said derivative and composition.

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a method that involves accumulating boron (10B) in a diseased part and performing neutron irradiation thereon to cause a nuclear reaction which locally generates α-rays that kill target cells. Accumulation of boron in the diseased part is performed by administering a boron drug. Drugs that have been applied to humans to date include a boron cluster of mercaptoundecahydrododecaborate (BSH), which is a first generation boron drug, and p-boronophenylalanine (BPA), which is a second generation boron drug. Further, third generation boron drugs in which a boron cluster is loaded on a carrier such as a liposome, polymer, polymer micelle, etc. have been reported (NPL1).
BSH has excellent solubility in water but has poor tumor selectivity. Third generation boron drugs containing BSH can selectively deliver boron to tumors due to the enhanced permeability and retention effect (EPR effect) by using carriers such as liposomes, polymers, and polymer micelles. However, since the EPR effect is generally realized by a carrier exhibiting long term retention in the blood, it is difficult to increase the tumor/blood boron concentration ratio when third generation boron drugs are used.
It is known that the phenylalanine structure of BPA is recognized by, for example, the amino acid transporter (LAT1), which is overexpressed in tumor cells, and BPA is selectively taken up by tumor cells (NPL2). However, BPA has poor solubility in water.
It has been reported that the issue of the poor solubility of BPA can be improved by forming complexes with sugars such as fructose or sorbitol as solubilizers (PTL 1).

P-boronophenylalanine derivative and composition containing same, and kit for producing said derivative and composition


A magnetorheological (MR) fluid including magnetically soft particles suspended in a carrier solvent is disclosed. The MR fluid also includes additive particles of smaller size than the magnetically soft particles and a bridging polymer. The additive particles and polymer form a gel-like material which provides a blanket or coating around the magnetically soft particles. The MR fluids possess improved stability and redispersibility, as well as favorable mechanical properties.

Magnetorheological (MR) fluids consist of dispersions of magnetically soft particles in a liquid. Particles of the magnetically dispersed phase are magnetically soft in order to allow for reversibility of the magnetic effect. At zero magnetic field, the viscosity of the base MR fluid may be on the order of 0.1-0.7 Pa.cndot.sec and the fluid exhibits ideal Newtonian behavior, i.e. shear stress is directly proportional to shear rate. However, under a magnetic field, a substantial increase in yield stress can occur. The applied field induces a dipole moment in each particle causing the formation of pearl-like chains which form in the direction of the magnetic field. The substantial increase in yield stress is both rapid (within milliseconds) and nearly reversible. This fibril formation is responsible for the observable shear stresses which allow MR fluids to be used for applications such as vibrational dampers, clutches, brake systems, shock absorbers and variable resistance apparatuses.
Magnetorheological (MR) fluids and electrorheological (ER) fluids were originally discovered in the late 1940's. However, research on MR fluids ceased while development of their electric analog continued. This was probably because the large particle sizes of the magnetically active phase of MR fluids led to a strong tendency for the particles to settle out of the liquid phase. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in MR fluids, probably due to the fact that MR fluids can obtain yield stresses approximately two magnitudes larger than ER fluids (.about.100 kPa for MR fluids compared to .about.3 kPa for ER fluids). MR fluids hold many other advantages over ER fluids advantages as well. MR fluids have a high tolerance of common impurities such as water, stability over a wide temperature range (-40 to 150.degree. C.), and the ability to use low voltage power supplies (12 volts). ER fluids, on the other hand, are relatively less tolerant of impurities, which means strict control of processing is required. Furthermore, the need for bulky, high voltage power supplies (5,000 volts) associated with ER fluids can pose a number of design and safety problems. The ER fluids also often lose their strength as their temperature increases.
There are some significant problems associated with conventional MR fluids. One disadvantage is that dispersed particles in MR fluids settle down as a result of gravitational or centrifugal sedimentation. Another related problem is that the settled particles form a tightly knit sediment or a "cake" which, once formed, makes it extremely difficult to redisperse the MR fluid. These problems arise since iron powders (density of approximately 7.8 g/cm.sup.3) and ceramic ferrite powders (density of approximately 5.24 g/cm.sup.3) are denser in comparison with the carrier liquids (densities approximately 0.8-1.0 g/cm.sup.3).
MR fluids originally based on relatively large coarse iron particles (e.g., greater than 50-100 microns) were unsuitable for practical application since the particles would settle out of the liquid phase. Recently, there has been renewed interest in the applications of MR fluids. One of the possible reasons for this is the lack of success in development of the electrical counterpart ER fluids. Also, certain specific applications such as high torque rotary couplings could only be possible with MR fluids.
Researchers have reported magnetic or ferrofluids based on nano-sized magnetic particles having diameters of less than 30 nm. When particle sizes reach 5 to 10 nm, the dispersion acts as a ferrofluid where there is no observable yield stress but rather the entire sample undergoes a body force proportional to the magnetic field gradient. Ferrofluids, behave like liquid magnets and are distinguishable from MR fluids. Ferrofluids are currently being utilized as hermetic seals.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,880 to Kormann et al. discloses the use of sodium salt of polyacrylic acid of molecular weight 4,000 and water, along with ethylene glycol or other liquids as a carrier, to prepare MR fluids based on manganese zinc ferrite and other magnetic particles of size less than 1 micron. These types of fluids, although relatively stable against settling, have two undesired characteristics. The first is the yield stress of these fluids is relatively low (approximately maximum 6 kPa). The lack of adequate yield stress will mean that these MR fluids will not be useful for several applications. Furthermore, since the magnetic particles used are ultrafine, the temperature dependence of the yield stress for these fluids is very significant, which poses challenges in designing devices. Furthermore, these fluids contain water and a complicated process is needed to remove the water if anhydrous MR fluids are desired. The presence of water is often a disadvantage because of corrosion problems. Although stable suspensions may be obtained using these fluids, there is an overall decrease in yield stress (maximum yield stress of about 6 kPa).
Another approach disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,488 to Shtarkman et al. uses a non-magnetic carbon dispersant, not greater than 10 nm in size, added to MR fluids to enhance their stability. Shtarkman et al. have referred to these materials as electrorheological magnetic (ERM) fluids. Other dispersants such as boron, aluminum, non-magnetic iron, silicon, germanium, and carbides, nitrides, oxides of aluminum, boron, germanium, hafnium, iron, silicon, tantalum, tungsten, yttrium and zirconium, as well as silicon and siloxane organic polymers, non-silicon containing organic polymers, silica-siloxane polymers and mixtures thereof are also disclosed. The MR fluids prepared using such dispersants are stated to be useful in avoiding the so-called "stick-slip" behavior demonstrated by other MR fluids in which the magnetic phase and the carrier fluids separate out, once the magnetic field is applied. In the process disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,488, magnetic particles are first mixed with those of the dispersant, and then the carrier fluid is added to prepare the MR fluid. The dispersant particles are stated to be reversibly bound to the magnetic particles by van der Waals forces. The preferred volume of the dispersant was 1 to 7 volume percent based on the volume of magnetic particles. The overall volume of the carrier fluid was about 45 percent. The use of carbon black as a dispersant for MR fluids is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,596 to Borduz et al.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,850 to Shtarkman, the difference between a dispersant, as discussed above, and a surfactant is disclosed. Surfactants such as ferrous oleates, ferrous napthalates, aluminum tristearates, lithium stearates, sodium stearates, oleic acid, petroleum sulfonates and phosphate esters, almost all of which have been described in the prior art concerning the so-called ferrofluids, could be used in combination with a carbon dispersant for preparing MR fluids.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,917 to Carlson et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,752 to Weiss et al. disclose surfactants and dispersants similar to those discussed above, although no specific examples of dispersants are included. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,917 also mentions that particle settling in MR fluids can be minimized by the addition of silica, and that the silica will form a thixotropic network that helps reduce settling of particles. U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,917 also notes that other low molecular weight hydrogen bonding molecules such as water, and other molecules containing hydroxyl, carbonyl, or amine functionality can be used to assist the formation of a thixotropic network. Thus, the low molecular weight agents could consist of water, methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, and hexyl alcohols, ethylene glycols, diethylene glycol, propylene glycol, glycerols, amino alcohols and amino esters from 1-16 carbon atoms in the molecule, several types of silicone oligomers, and mixtures thereof. In the examples of U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,917, stearic acid is used as a surfactant and no mention is made of the use of any dispersant. The use of silica as a dispersant for magnetic recording materials as gamma iron oxide has also been previously described.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,238 to Weiss et al. discloses the cleaning of surfaces of magnetic particles using chemical or physical processes. This patent also discusses the use of plastics, metals or ceramics to protect the surfaces from corrosion. Examples of metallic materials used to modify the particles surface include titanium, zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, copper, silver, gold, lead, tin, zinc, cadmium, cobalt-based intermetallic alloys and nickel-based intermetallic alloys. Examples of plastics used to protect the magnetic materials surface include acrylics, cellulosics, polyphenylene sulfides, polyquinoxilines and polybenzimidazoles. The goal of deposition of such coatings is to protect the magnetic particles from corrosion. This, for example, may be important in magnetorheological fluids containing water.
Each of the above-referenced patents is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention has been developed in view of the foregoing and to address other deficiencies of the prior art.

University of Pittsburgh of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education


Retroreflective glass or plastic beads have fluorescent properties when irradiated with ultraviolet light and are emplaced in signs in patterns indicative of alphanumeric characters, or embedded in a hot melt comprising road stripes or embedded in the road asphalt or aggregate during construction of the road, to provide effectively bright and clear indications of signs or the extent and direction of the road. The glass beads comprise spherodized soda lime, borosilicate, phosphosilicate or aluminosilicate glasses with low levels of rare-earth dopants mixed therein, such as compounds containing one of the rare earths, or lanthanides. The plastic beads may have fluorescent materials mixed therein, typically organic pigments or dyes based on coumarin and rhodamine or the like.

One of the problems faced by an automobile driver at night is the poor visibility of road signs, and also of road stripes, variously called road delineators, delineating stripes, pavement markings and roadway markings. It has long been a goal of governmental and municipal authorities responsible for road safety to make figures and letters on road signs, and road stripes brighter or clearer in the headlights of oncoming traffic. Initially, this has called for using bright paints or reflective surfaces capable of reflecting the light of the headlights of oncoming cars. Paints have been developed which are highly reflective. Such paints usually comprise a titanium dioxide constituent. Unfortunately, the major drawback of such reflective surfaces is, unless the reflective surface is substantially normal to the beams from the headlights of the oncoming car, the vast majority of the impinging light from the headlight beam is deflected or reflected in a direction or directions other than back at the oncoming car.
A further problem occurs when poor night visibility is aggravated by rain, snow or fog. Visible light from headlights backscatters under these conditions, creating glare, so that sign or marker visibility cannot be improved by using brighter headlights.
Other paints have been developed which additionally fluoresce at optical wavelengths when irradiated with optical wavelength light, such as that produced by conventional headlights, and these paints have been used in road signs and road markers. While such signs and markers provide more light for the night driver to see by than a conventional sign or marker, these paints suffer from the drawback that in order to provide a substantial amount of light by fluorescence, it is desirable to increase the light output of impinging auto headlights, which then creates an additional glare hazard for traffic traveling in the opposite direction. As a consequence, such fluorescent paints are preferably used only in situations where oppositely-directed traffic is not in the headlight beam path.
In an effort to circumvent some of these difficulties, sign and marker designers and makers began in the early 1980's to incorporate retroreflective devices in signs and road markers. A retroreflector has the property of reflecting a substantial portion of impinging light back generally in the direction it came from. A typical retroreflector comprises a sphere or bead, typically made of glass or clear plastic. Retroreflection occurs by the tandem action of refraction of the light through the upper surface of the sphere or bead, reflection from the lower inside surface of the sphere or bead, and subsequent refraction of the light as it exits from the upper surface of the sphere or bead, back in the direction from which the impinging light came. A substantial portion of the light is retroreflected, with possibly only nominal losses for some reflection at the upper surface and refraction at the lower surface.
A retroreflector may also comprise a cube corner reflector. In such a retroreflector, the arrangement of three orthogonal, reflective surfaces to form a cubical corner guarantees that light impinging on the concavity is reflected back substantially along a path parallel to the path of the impinging light.
Minute glass particulates have been incorporated into paints to make road lines and road lane delineators brighter at night under headlights. Such particulates, especially in the form of small beads, act in a retroreflective fashion. One such product comprising glass beads having diameters of about 1.5 millimeters is called Visibead, sold by Potters Industries, New Jersey.
Signs have been constructed by stamping large, flat aluminum sheets with a pattern of tiny tetrahedral indentations which form prismatic or cube corner retroreflectors. A thin sheet of colored plastic is adhesively attached over the aluminum sheet to provide a colored sign surface capable of at least some degree of retroreflection.
A drawback of these retroreflective devices is that they still do not adequately overcome the problems created by rain, snow or fog. Backscattering reduces the overall amount of light from headlights before the light even gets to the retroreflector, which is capable of reflecting at best only as much light as impinges thereon. Furthermore, a water layer may form on the surface of retroreflectors during these adverse weather conditions, reflecting a substantial portion of the impinging light in a scattering fashion, thereby diminishing the amount of light which reaches the retroreflector for retroreflection.
Most recently, steps have been taken in Sweden to install road markers which comprise posts having fluorescent properties responsive to ultraviolet wavelengths. These posts are placed at intervals along the side of the road to indicate the curvature of the road. This requires the utilization in Sweden of headlights in cars which emit ultraviolet light. This has the advantage of providing substantial activating energy for fluorescence, while not blinding oppositely-directed traffic, since humans cannot see ultraviolet wavelengths. However, since the posts are emplaced at intervals, they necessarily leave gaps between, and furthermore are subject to obstruction by plants or debris at the roadside. Furthermore, the posts do not provide retroreflection.
There is a need in the industry for a road sign or road marker which provides sufficient light to be safely visible and clear to oncoming traffic during the night, regardless of weather conditions. More particularly, there is a need to utilize as much as possible of impinging headlight energy to provide an adequately bright and clear display or marker, without requiring impractically bright headlights. Such road signs and road markers are preferably able to remain bright and clear even under adverse weather conditions, and furthermore, should be constructed to remain as bright and clear as possible for extended periods of time, so that they do not require frequent replacement or revitalization.

Spherodized fluorescent beads for improved roadway pavement marker visibility


Provided is a liquid crystal display capable of reducing a texture by increasing a liquid crystal control ability. The liquid crystal display includes a first electrode and a second electrode facing each other with a liquid crystal layer therebetween. The first electrode includes a horizontal extension forming a boundary between adjacent subregions and a vertical extension connected to the horizontal extension, and the horizontal extension includes a portion which has a largest width at a position proximate to the vertical extension, and which has a smaller width at a position farther from the vertical extension.

(a) Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to a liquid crystal display. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a liquid crystal display capable of producing images with reduced texture.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display is one of the most common types of flat panel displays currently in use, and typically includes two sheets of panels with field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode, a common electrode, and the like, with a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween. The liquid crystal display generates an electric field in the liquid crystal layer by applying voltage to the field generating electrodes, and determines the direction of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer by the generated electric field, thus controlling polarization of incident light so as to display images.
Among the various types of liquid crystal displays, a vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display, in which liquid crystal molecules are aligned so that long or major axes thereof are oriented vertical to upper and lower panels without applying the electric field, has been viewed favorably for its relatively large contrast ratio and relatively easily implemented wide reference viewing angle.
In order to implement a wide viewing angle in such a vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display, a plurality of domains having different alignment directions of the liquid crystal may be formed in one pixel.
One example of a means of forming the plurality of domains involves forming a pattern on the field generating electrode. According to this method, the plurality of domains may be formed by controlling the alignment direction of the liquid crystal by an edge of the pattern of the field generating electrode and a fringe field formed between the field generating electrodes.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information not in the prior art.


The disclosed system may include may include (1) a power socket receptacle that (A) fits within a via of a circuit board and (B) is inserted into the circuit board through one side of the via and (2) a power socket plug that (A) fits within the power socket receptacle and (B) is screwed into the power socket receptacle through another side of the via such that the power socket receptacle and the power socket plug collectively provide electrical continuity across the via. Various other apparatuses, systems, and methods are also disclosed.

In high-technology devices, Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) often include numerous conductive layers that are separated by dielectric material. Such PCBs may also include vias that provide electrical continuity across certain layers despite being separated by the dielectric material. For example, a PCB may include a via that serves as a conductive path between traces etched into different layers. As a result of the via, these traces may carry that same electrical signal throughout different layers of the PCB.
In some cases, vias may be plated with conductive material that electrically bridges the different layers of the PCBs during the etching phase of production. In other cases, vias may remain unplated after the etching phase of production such that additional conductive material is needed to electrically bridge the different layers of the PCB. Either way, some PCBs may be designed to incorporate power sockets that fit within vias and enable the PCBs to interface with and/or attach to a power bus.
Unfortunately, traditional power sockets may have certain shortcomings and/or deficiencies that effectively limit their usage in and/or compatibility with PCBs. For example, installation of a traditional power socket may necessitate enough force to damage and/or harm the structural and/or electrical integrity of the corresponding PCB, thereby potentially leading to a failure and/or an electrical short. Additionally or alternatively, a traditional power socket may necessitate very tight and/or restrictive tolerances that are costly, difficult, and/or impossible to achieve during fabrication of the PCB.
The instant disclosure, therefore, identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved apparatuses, systems, and methods for achieving PCB-compatible power sockets.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus, system, and method for achieving PCB-compatible power sockets


A computing device compresses a gradient boosting tree predictive model. A gradient boosting tree predictive model is trained using a plurality of observation vectors. Each observation vector includes an explanatory variable value of an explanatory variable and a response variable value for a response variable. The gradient boosting tree predictive type model is trained to predict the response variable value of each observation vector based on a respective explanatory variable value of each observation vector. The trained gradient boosting tree predictive model is compressed using a compression model with a predefined penalty constant value and with a predefined array of coefficients to reduce a number of trees of the trained gradient boosting tree predictive model. The compression model minimizes a sparsity norm loss function. The compressed, trained gradient boosting tree predictive model is output for predicting a new response variable value from a new observation vector.

Machine learning and data driven analytics play an increasingly important role in real life application areas such as self-driving cars, face recognition, spam filters, fraud detection, machine monitoring, etc. Among the various classes of machine learning algorithms, the gradient boosting tree is outstanding for many practical new data set applications.

Analytic system for gradient boosting tree compression


A method and a system for controlling acceleration torque of a hybrid vehicle that can give sufficient acceleration without imposing burden on a battery by changing a maximum torque of a vehicle according to environmental variables are disclosed. The method sets a creep torque as a minimum torque; calculates a maximum torque that can be output from an engine considering of engine environmental variables; calculates a maximum torque that can be output from a motor considering of motor environmental variables; calculating maximum torque of the vehicle by adding up the maximum torque that can be output from the engine and the maximum torque that can be output from the motor; and calculates acceleration torque by using a position of an accelerator pedal, the minimum torque, and the maximum torque of the vehicle.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a system for controlling acceleration torque of a hybrid vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and a system for controlling acceleration torque of a hybrid vehicle that can pbe sufficient acceleration without imposing burden on a battery by changing a maximum torque of a vehicle according to environmental variables.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Recently, electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles have been developed and have attracted attention because of their enhanced fuel economy capabilities. While the electric vehicle generates driving torque of the vehicle only by a motor, the hybrid vehicle generates driving torque for the vehicle by an engine and a motor.
Typically, hybrid vehicles run in various modes (e.g., electric vehicle mode, hybrid mode, engine mode, and so on) according to a driving condition thereof. While in the electric vehicle mode, the driving torque is generated only by the motor. While in the hybrid mode, the driving torque is generated by the motor and the engine. And while in the engine mode, the driving torque is generated only by the engine.
Because the motor and the engine are operated together in the hybrid mode, torque division is very important for enhancing fuel economy and achieving a sufficient acceleration. Generally, when an acceleration torque is determined, the acceleration torque is divided between the engine and the motor according to a predetermined ratio.
For example FIG. 4 shows a conventional method for calculating the acceleration torque. FIG. 4 is a graph for explaining a conventional method for calculating an acceleration torque. As shown in FIG. 4, a minimum torque line and a maximum torque line are stored in a control portion. The minimum torque line is set by a creep torque according to a vehicle speed for achieving creep driving of a vehicle (driving at a D range without pushing an accelerator pedal). The maximum torque line is set by adding up a maximum torque of the engine and a maximum torque of the motor according to the vehicle speed. The minimum torque line and the maximum torque line do not change.
For instance, if the vehicle speed is 60 km/h, the maximum torque is 200 Nm and the minimum torque is −60 Nm. If a driver pushes the accelerator pedal and the position of the accelerator pedal is detected to be 50% at this state, the acceleration torque is calculated as follow.
                              acceleration                                                              torque                =                                              (                                          maximum                                                                                torque                            +                              minimum                                                                                torque                                      )                    *                                                                  position                                                              of                                                              accelerator                                                              pedal                                        =                                                            (                              200                -                60                            )                        *            0.5                    =                      70                                                                          Nm
However, the maximum torques over a driving period that can be output from the engine and the motor are changed according to environmental variables. According to a conventional method for calculating the acceleration torque, effects of the environmental variables are not considered for calculating the acceleration torque. For example, when the vehicle runs at the hilly or mountainous sections, the maximum torque that can be output from the engine may be 50% of the predetermined maximum torque of the engine. Therefore, when the acceleration torque calculated by the conventional method is divided between the engine and the motor, it is difficult to maintain state of charge (SOC) of a battery.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Method and system for controlling acceleration torque of hybrid vehicle


A process for producing low-cost furnace atmospheres suitable for annealing and heat treating ferrous and nonferrous metals and alloys, brazing metals and ceramics, sealing glass to metal, and sintering metal and ceramic powders in a continuous furnace equipped with an ammonia dissociator from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing from 0.05 to 5.0% residual oxygen is presented. The disclosed process involves mixing non-cryogenically produced nitrogen with a pre-determined amount of a reducing gas such as hydrogen, ammonia, a C, H, and O containing hydrocarbon such as an alcohol, an ether, etc., or a mixture thereof, passing the mixture through an ammonia dissociator and converting the residual oxygen to an acceptable form such as moisture, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, or mixture thereof, and using the resultant gaseous mixture for annealing and heat treating ferrous and nonferrous metals and alloys, brazing metals and ceramics, sealing glass to metal, and sintering metal and ceramic powders.

Nitrogen-based atmospheres have been routinely used by the heat treating industry both in batch and continuous furnaces since the mid-nineteen seventies. Because of the low dew point and virtual absence of oxygen, nitrogen-based atmospheres do not exhibit oxidizing and decarburizing properties and are therefore suitable for a variety of heat treating operations. More specifically, a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen has been extensively used for annealing of low to high carbon and alloy steels, annealing of non-ferrous metals and alloys such as copper, copper alloys, gold alloys, and sintering metal and ceramic powders. Mixtures of nitrogen and a hydrocarbon gas such as methane and propane have gained wide acceptance for neutral hardening and decarburized-free annealing of medium to high carbon steels. Nitrogen and methanol mixtures have been developed and used for carburizing low to medium carbon steels. Finally, a mixture of nitrogen, hydrogen, and/or moisture has been used for brazing metals and sealing glass to metals.
A portion of nitrogen used by the heat treating industry is produced by distillation of air in large cryogenic plants. Likewise, a portion of hydrogen used by the heat treating industry is produced by either partial oxidation or steam reforming of natural gas. Both nitrogen and hydrogen produced by these techniques are generally very expensive. Furthermore, the nitrogen-hydrogen atmospheres required for a variety of annealing, heat treating, brazing, sealing, and sintering operations and prepared by blending these gases are also very expensive. To reduce cost, a large number of heat treaters have been producing nitrogen-hydrogen atmospheres by decomposing (or cracking) ammonia in ammonia dissociators. Ammonia dissociators located remotely have been employed in some cases to generate nitrogen-hydrogen atmospheres for a variety of heat treating operations. In other cases, ammonia dissociators have been integrated with furnaces to save floor space and to improve overall thermal efficiency.
Ammonia dissociators generally decompose ammonia into a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen over a bed of nickel, iron, or nickel/iron catalyst supported on a ceramic material. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,598,538, 3,379,507, 4,179,407 disclose details of ammonia dissociators. The catalyst normally promotes the following ammonia dissociation reaction: EQU 2NH.sub.3 =N.sub.2 +3H.sub.2
This reaction is endothermic and requires heating of the catalyst bed from an outside source generally to temperatures ranging from 600.degree. C. to 950.degree. C. Operating pressure in the unit generally ranges from 2 psig to 100 psig, and the space velocity used for the dissociation reaction generally varies from 500 to 5,000 Nm.sup.3 /h product gas per m.sup.3 of the catalyst. The product gas generally contains a mixture of 25% nitrogen and 75% hydrogen with small quantities of residual ammonia measured in PPM. Since the dissociation reaction is correlated to the thermodynamic equilibrium, the content of unconverted ammonia in the product gas can vary from 30 ppm to 500 ppm depending on the operating temperature, pressure, and space velocity.
The concentration of hydrogen in nitrogen-hydrogen atmospheres required for the majority of heat treating operations generally varies from about 0.5 to about 25%. Since cryogenically produced nitrogen is cheaper than nitrogen-hydrogen atmosphere produced by dissociating ammonia, heat treaters blend nitrogen with dissociated ammonia product gas to reduce overall atmosphere cost and to produce nitrogen-hydrogen atmosphere with the desired composition. However, these heat treaters are still experiencing the dilemma of high nitrogen-hydrogen atmosphere cost. Furthermore, it is increasingly becoming difficult for them to compete effectively in the open world market.
Since the concentration of nitrogen in nitrogen-hydrogen atmospheres varies from about 75% to 99.5%, it is conceivable to reduce the overall cost of nitrogen-hydrogen atmospheres by using low-cost nitrogen produced by non-cryogenic air separation techniques such as pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and selective permeation (membrane separation). The non-cryogenically produced nitrogen costs less to produce, however it contains from 0.05 to 5.0% residual oxygen, making a direct substitution of cryogenically produced nitrogen with non-cryogenically produced nitrogen very difficult.
Furnace atmospheres suitable for heat treating applications have been generated from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen by removing residual oxygen or converting it to an acceptable form in external units prior to feeding the atmospheres into the furnaces. Such atmosphere generation methods have been described in detail in French publication numbers 2,639,249 and 2,639,251 dated 24 November 1988 and Australian patent application numbers AU45561/89 and AU45562/89 dated 24 Nov. 1988. These methods require use of external units packed with expensive precious metal catalysts such as palladium and platinum. The use of an external unit considerably increases the cost of noncryogenically produced nitrogen and that of nitrogen-hydrogen atmosphere. Thus, heat treaters with continuous furnaces equipped with ammonia dissociators have not converted to non-cryogenically produced nitrogen.
It is clear that there is a need to switch from cryogenically produced nitrogen to non-cryogenically produced nitrogen for reducing the overall cost of nitrogen-hydrogen atmospheres for heat treating in continuous furnaces equipped with ammonia dissociators.

Process for producing furnace atmospheres using noncryogenically generated nitrogen


This invention provides a simple integrated system that uses roof-spray, water collection, and water storage components to cool a building, collect and store rainwater, and clean a rooftop solar array.

In dry climates with clear skies and moderate night temperatures, night-roof-spray (NRS) cooling systems (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,128 (Bourne) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,260 (Bourne)) provide a less-energy intensive alternative to vapor-compression technology for cooling thermal storage water, but this opportunity is relatively unknown in the industry, due to inadequate marketing and general fear of water on the roof. In dry conditions, NRS cooling offers an attractive combination of higher efficiency compared to evaporative and vapor-compression cooling systems, and lower water use compared to evaporative systems, since approximately 50% of NRS heat rejection is by radiation to the night sky; this heat transfer mode uses no water. Ice-making thermal storage systems need less storage volume but cannot take advantage of the NRS opportunity, and they lose efficiency due to low refrigerant evaporating temperatures. Cool water is a near-ideal thermal storage medium, since it doubles as a heat transfer fluid and is inexpensive to contain if space is available. Phase-change thermal storage materials that "freeze" at 55-60 F could use NRS cooling and are therefore attractive for the future, but so far they have high first costs and poor reliability.
NRS systems that collect spray-cooled water on the roof surface and store it to cool the building can also collect rainwater. NRS systems do use water, but if the storage reservoir is sufficiently large, they can operate through a typical cooling season just on collected rainwater. Evaporative cooling systems use at least twice as much water over a cooling season, so it is less practical to cool evaporatively without using piped-in "makeup" water. Also, in many dry-climate regions, water used in buildings comes from ground wells. Groundwater is usually laden with hardness minerals that cause maintenance problems in both water service systems and evaporative cooling systems. Since NRS systems typically use only 2″ to 4″ of rooftop water per year and most populated dry climate areas experience 8-30″ of annual rainfall, it can be practical to implement water storage systems that satisfy full season cooling requirements without adding or purchasing water from a refill source. This strategy has the added advantage that rainwater contains no hardness minerals, minimizing maintenance issues in well-designed NRS systems.
For washing solar arrays, the prior art shows several "once-through" designs such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,863 (Kelly), with nozzles for washing a solar array, and in a more recent European patent EU 4,119,863 (Magri), an invention that ambitiously advances a windshield-wiper-style array-washing mechanism. Aside from patents, several solar array-washing systems are commercially available. But none uses an "every night" recirculating water system. One advertised product includes soap dispensing (http://www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com/). This and the wiper-design strategy apparently assume that washing every night will use too much water, and so they wash infrequently, thus requiring soap and even a wiping mechanism to remove the baked-on dirt. By comparison, the integrated approach of this invention uses the NRS feature justified for its cooling function and extends it to array cleaning as well. There is no added water use for this extension; and the wash frequency prevents dirt layers from "baking on," eliminating the need for wipers and soap. Also, the use of filtered rainwater assures effective cleaning without residue.

Integrated system for cooling a building, collecting rainwater, and cleaning a rooftop solar array


Disclosed herein is a method of improving tumor diagnostic efficiency of multivalent ligands by regulating the stoichiometric ratio between inner surface functionalities and ligand moieties for tumor targeting, and the multivalent ligands for tumor diagnosis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a method of improving tumor diagnostic efficiency of multivalent ligands by regulating the stoichiometric ratio between inner surface functionalities and ligand moieties for tumor targeting, and the multivalent ligands for tumor diagnosis.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid development of modern diagnostic medical imaging equipments, it has become essential to develop contrast media with excellent sensitivity, accuracy, and safety to treat cancer which is the most common intractable disease for the modern people. Examples of imaging techniques that are used for the diagnosis of tumor include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), ultrasound, and positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT which use radioisotopes. Among them, CT and MRI provide anatomical images of human bodies, whereas nuclear medicine imaging methods such as PET and SPECT provide functional images of human bodies (information on physiological and biochemical reactions in vivo) by administering the radiolabeled ligand into a living body which binds strongly to a specific region.
PET and SPECT are one of the most frequently used techniques in nuclear medicine molecular imaging. Nuclear medicine imaging is a method in which a reconstructed image is obtained by measuring the emitted radiation from the radiolabeled imaging agent that was administered in vivo. A gamma ray is used as the radiation in nuclear medicine imaging which has high penetration efficiency against the tissue layer to afford images of superior sensitivity ex vivo; however the image resolution is poor. PET and SPECT are classified according to the principle of generating gamma rays from the radioisotope. PET detects two gamma rays generated when the positron and electron undergo pair annihilation, while SPECT detects a photon released when a nuclide in the excited state is destroyed by using a gamma camera, where a three dimensional image can be obtained by rotating the camera for detection. PET and SPECT are often used to examine or monitor thyroid diseases, cerebral diseases, heart diseases, blood circulation, etc., and are the molecular imaging techniques which have been frequently used to date despite the danger of radiation exposure because of their advantages of possibly detecting early-stage tumors. Additionally, the radiolabeled compounds for in vivo injection to obtain nuclear medicine images can be used as radiotherapeutic agents as well as imaging probes. As such, it is very important to develop such compounds with improved safety and efficiency.
Generally, multivalent ligands contain two or more ligand moieties within a molecule that bind noncovalently to a specific receptor or substrate, and they have high avidity through the multivalent effect which is not present in the molecule that can only bind monovalently to a receptor. Accordingly, such multivalent ligands have been widely used in the development of therapeutic agents for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases where stronger binding of these agents through avidity to the receptors expressed on the cell surface becomes more advantageous. Recently, the research on multivalent ligands for tumor diagnosis based on various organic or inorganic macromolecules and nanoparticles has been actively pursued (non-patent documents 1 to 8).
Tumor cells are generally known to overexpress various receptors as compared to normal cells, and numerous studies have been conducted on the development of targeted nanocarriers for the diagnosis of diseases or drug delivery, which can bind specifically to such receptors. However, these receptors can be partially expressed in normal cells as well as the tumor cells, and thus the nanocarriers may be deposited near the normal cells to exhibit unwanted toxicity. In an effort to overcome these problems, recently the nanocarriers with two or more ligand moieties attached on their surface which can bind to the same type of individual receptors on the surface of the same tumor cell have been reported to improve the selectivity and binding affinity toward the tumor cell.
However, the above reports are limited in that it may be difficult to control the number of maximally attached ligands consistently due to the steric hindrance during the preparation, or not all of the ligand moieties on a multivalent ligand could participate in binding to the receptors even if the multivalent ligand has been made to contain maximally achievable number of ligand moieties because of the limiting factors such as the size of the core and the distance between receptors expressed on the same cell.
In this regard, in order to resolve the above-mentioned problems, instead of substituting the surface of the scaffold or the core with a maximum number of ligand moieties, which has been considered as the most efficient method, the inventors of the present invention completed the present invention by discovering the effect that the avidity has been significantly improved by regulating the stoichiometric ratio between inner surface functionalities and ligand moieties for tumor targeting by the following: Once a ligand moiety of the multivalent ligand binds to a specific receptor expressed on the surface of a tumor cell, the phenomenon of receptor clustering is initiated whereby the same type of receptors migrate toward the receptor bound to the ligand moiety, making it more favorable for the unassociated ligand moieties to engage in multivalent binding. Furthermore, the appropriately selected inner surface functionality which has been then positioned in closer proximity to the cell surface by the bound ligand moieties can interact attractively with the surface of a tumor cell to promote the additional binding of unassociated ligand moieties to the clustered receptors.

Method to improve the tumor diagnostic efficiency of multivalent ligands by regulating the stoichiometric ratio between inner surface functionalities and ligand moieties for tumor targeting

Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology


A support structure carrying a thrust load of a compressor has a swash plate which contributes to a compressing operation by rotating according to rotation of a rotating shaft which is rotatably supported by a housing. The swash plate is rotatably supported with respect to the housing, and the support structure includes a thrust needle roller bearing having double-row needle rollers. The support structure carrying a thrust load of a compressor and the thrust needle roller bearing are thus obtained, with an improvement in inflow and outflow of a lubricating oil, a reduction of the differential slip of the needle rollers, and an improvement in strength durability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a support structure which carries a thrust load of a compressor as well as a thrust needle roller bearing.
2. Description of the Background Art
A thrust needle roller bearing is constituted of needle rollers, a cage and a race, and is structured to allow the needle rollers to be in line contact with the race. Therefore, despite of a small bearing area, this type of bearing is advantageous because of its high load capacity and high stiffness. The thrust needle roller bearing is thus suitable for use under hostile conditions, for example, during a drive under conditions like scarce lubrication and high-velocity rotation, and is accordingly used as a support structure carrying a thrust load of a compressor for an air conditioner of an automobile.
A conventional thrust needle roller bearing is known from Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-70872 according to which at least one of the inflow and the outflow of a lubricating oil is improved or promoted so as to increase the amount of the lubricating oil which passes through the bearing per unit time. This thrust needle roller bearing is described below in connection with FIGS. 13A-13C.
As shown in FIGS. 13A-13C, this thrust needle roller bearing 50 has a plurality of needle rollers 80 and two annular cages 60 and 70. These two cages 60 and 70 respectively have a plurality of windows 61 and 71 having a length in the radial direction longer than that of the rollers. Roller holder portions 64 and 74 formed at these windows 61 and 71 hold needle rollers 80 therebetween from above and below. The radial length 1a of roller holder portions 64 and 74 of two cages 60 and 70 is made smaller than the length 1 of the rollers. At least one of two cages 60 and 70 is bent so that at least one of the thicknesses t1 and t2 is smaller than the thickness t0 in the direction perpendicular to the radial direction as seen in FIG. 13B (hereinafter referred to as perpendicular direction). Here, thicknesses t1 and t2 refer to respective thicknesses of portions of cages 60 and 70 that are located respectively outside and inside in the radial direction with respect to roller holder portions 64 and 74, and the thickness t0 refers to the thickness of roller holder portions 64 and 74 in the perpendicular direction.
Outer plate-like portions 62 and 72 of two cages 60 and 70 are laid on each other in the perpendicular direction while the innermost parts 67 and 77 respectively of inner plate-like portions 63 and 73 are bent in the perpendicular direction to be laid on each other. The innermost part 67 of inner plate-like portion 63 is caulked and thereby fixed.
In this way, on at least one of radially outer portions 62 and 72 and radially inner portions 63 and 73 that are smaller in thickness than roller holder portions 64 and 74, the inflow or outflow of the lubricating oil can be improved or promoted to increase the amount of the lubricating oil passing through the bearing per unit time. Moreover, since the passage of the lubricating oil is less prone to be blocked by cages 60 and 70, the lubricating oil does not stay in the bearing. Thus, any increase of the oil temperature can be avoided and the durability of the bearing can be improved.
The compressor for a car air-conditioner uses an oil having a low viscosity and the amount of the oil is small for enhancing the ability of the compressor as well as the cooling ability. Under hostile conditions like such scarce lubrication, the conventional single-row thrust roller bearing shown for example in FIGS. 13A-13C causes the following problems when used for the compressor for the car air-conditioner.
The conventional thrust needle roller bearing 50 shown in FIGS. 13A-13C is structured to allow needle rollers 80 to be in line contact with the race and thus the raceway surface is in rolling line contact with needle rollers 80. Accordingly, the circumferential velocity is higher at a radially outer part of the raceway surface relative to the circumferential velocity at the center of rotation of the bearing. Then, there is a difference in circumferential velocity between the raceway surface and the roller. A maximum difference in circumferential velocity arises, between the difference in circumferential velocity between the raceway surface and the roller at the inner end of the roller and the difference in circumferential velocity therebetween at the outer end of the roller. This difference is greater as the roller is longer with respect to the outer diameter of the roller, resulting in a greater differential slip (skew of the roller). The occurrence of the differential slip causes breakage of an oil film and consequently metal-to-metal contact. Then, the metal-to-metal contact portion generates heat and thereby surface damage (smearing) as well as surface-originated peeling are likely to occur, particularly when the rotational speed is higher. In addition, it is often seen that the lifetime becomes shorter due to the above factors.
Some thrust needle roller bearings are structured so that the cage and the race are in sliding contact with each other. In such a case, the cage blocks flow of a lubricating oil to resist the flow thereof to an area where needle rollers and the race are in rolling contact with each other. Under scarce lubrication, it is especially necessary that the oil flows to the rolling surface of the needle rollers. If the amount of the oil is scarce, metal-to-metal contact between the needle rollers and the race occurs, possibly resulting in surface damage at an earlier stage.
Box-shaped cages 60 and 70 of the conventional thrust needle roller bearing 50 block flow of the lubricant to needle rollers 80 and thus the surface damage at an earlier stage mentioned above is likely to occur. Further, although two cages 60 and 70 are attached to each other and the periphery thereof is caulked, this manner of caulking could cause two cages 60 and 70 to separate from each other.

Support structure carrying thrust load of compressor and thrust needle roller bearing


Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture related to composite materials are discussed herein. These materials can be based on a mixture of diamond particles with a matrix and fibers or fabrics. The matrix can be formed into the composite material through optional pressurization and via heat treatment. These materials display exceptionally low friction coefficient and superior wear resistance in extreme environments.

Fiber reinforced composites include a class of composite materials that are specifically designed to exhibit superior properties such as resistance to fracture and reliability. Examples of such composites are 1-D, 2-D, 3-D and multidirectional carbon fiber/carbon matrix (C/C) composites and also carbon fiber reinforced, organic fiber reinforced, glassy (or silica, or alumina) fiber reinforced, silicon carbide fiber reinforced composites with carbon, or organic, or metallic matrix. These composites are soft and cannot resist wear in sliding bearing applications, particularly if hard particles like sand or dust are present. Diamond exhibits high hardness and wear resistance suitable for broad applications such as cutting tools, mining tools for coals, ores and rocks, and drilling tools for oil, but fracture toughness of diamond is low and the cost of large diamonds is high, which makes its application not always economical. These factors greatly affect the overall cost and complexity in making large area diamond sliding bearings.

Diamond-dispersed fiber-reinforced composite for superior friction and wear properties in extreme environments and method for fabricating the same

The United States of America as Represented by the Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration


This invention provides a technique of switching the display screen from a standby screen to a function selection screen in a short period of time in an information processing apparatus which displays screens on a display unit based on the screen data obtained from a server apparatus. To achieve this, an information processing apparatus (MFP) of the invention obtains screen data of a function selection screen (initial screen) from a server apparatus (Web server) while displaying, on a display unit, a standby screen based on screen data obtained from the Web server in a standby state. The MFP switches the display of the display unit from the standby screen to the function selection screen based on the obtained screen data upon receiving a close instruction for the standby screen during the display of the standby screen.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a method of controlling the same, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is generally known a technique of making an information processing apparatus such as a PC obtain a content from a server apparatus such as a Web server connected via a network and making a Web browser installed in the information processing apparatus display the obtained content on a screen display unit. The content provided from the Web server includes a file and image data created by a structured language such as HTML. Upon accepting an input from the user with respect to the screen displayed on the screen display unit by the Web browser via an operation unit (input device), the information processing apparatus transmits the input information to the Web server. With this operation, the information processing apparatus transmits an instruction from the user as an instruction to the Web server. That is, using a Web browser allows the use of the operation unit of the information processing apparatus as an input device for instructions to the Web server.
Recently, some of MFPs (Multi Functional Peripherals) including a scanner and a printer have a Web browser like that described above. Such an MFP makes the Web browser display an operation screen based on the content provided from a Web server on a screen display unit. Upon accepting an instruction input from the user via the displayed operation screen, the MFP transmits the input information as an instruction from the user to the Web server. The Web server transmits, to the MFP, an instruction to execute processing (for example, scanning processing and printing processing) corresponding to the instruction received from the MFP. In this manner, the Web server transmits, to the MFP via a network, an instruction to execute processing corresponding to the instruction input from the user via the MFP, thereby implementing image processing and a user management function which are difficult to implement by the MFP alone.
If an MFP is designed to implement a plurality of functions via a Web server, the Web server can provide the MFP with a function selection screen, as a Web content, to allow the user to select a function to be used. When the MFP displays an operation screen on the image display unit by using the Web browser in the above manner, it is possible to register such a function selection screen as a homepage of the Web browser. When the user starts up such an MFP or stops input for a predetermined period of time, the MFP may display, on the screen display unit, an advertising screen for providing an advertisement or propaganda to the user, an alarm screen for alarming or notifying the user of information associated with the use of the apparatus, or the like as a standby screen.
As in the case of a content on the function selection screen, it is possible to provide a content on the above standby screen, as a content for the Web browser, from the Web server to the MFP. It is likely that the information of such a standby screen is frequently changed. Therefore, holding a content in the Web server makes it easier to maintain and manage the screen than holding the content in the MFP. In this case, the MFP causes the Web browser to display the content provided from the Web server, associated with the standby screen as well as the function selection screen, on the screen display unit.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-131864 discloses a technique of displaying a screen saver as a standby screen on a user terminal (information processing apparatus) by using a Web browser based on the content data of the screen saver provided from a Web site (Web server). According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-131864, it is possible for a Web site provider to make the information processing apparatus perform advertisement display by using the content data of the screen saver provided to the information processing apparatus. In addition, it is possible to make the information processing apparatus display advertising information held by a Web server without interfering with user operation by displaying the screen saver when an input device is not operated for a predetermined time.
The MFP (information processing apparatus) can switch the display of the screen display unit from the standby screen to the function selection screen when the user performs some kind of operation while the standby screen is displayed in a standby state. In this case, when the MFP is to display both the standby screen and the function selection screen based on the Web content provided from an external Web server, the MFP cannot switch from the standby screen to the function selection screen in a short period of time. More specifically, when the MFP switches the display of the screen display unit from the standby screen to the function selection screen, it takes some time for the MFP to obtain the Web content of the function selection screen from the Web server. It takes further time for the MFP to analyze the obtained Web content and render the content into the function selection screen. As a consequence, when using the MFP, the user cannot quickly select a function by using the function selection screen. This may lead to a deterioration in operability for the user.

Information processing apparatus, method of controlling the same, and storage medium