A system for diffusing light from an optical fiber wherein the optical fiber is coupled to a light source, comprising forming a polymer element adapted to be connected to the optical fiber and incorporating a scattering element with the polymer element wherein the scattering element diffuses the light from the polymer element. The apparatus of the present invention comprises a polymer element operatively connected to the optical fiber and a scattering element operatively connected with the shape polymer element that diffuses the light from the polymer element.

1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to a light diffusing system and more particularly to a system for diffusing light from an optical fiber or light guide.
2. State of Technology
U.S. Pat. No. 6,829,411 for a wide angle light diffusing optical fiber tip, by James C. Easley, patented Dec. 7, 2004, provides the following description: "A diffusing optical fiber tip yielding a homogenous output pattern having a total illumination angle of at least 180 degrees. The diffusing optical fiber tip has an outer diameter which is no greater than that of the optical fiber, and appears as a point source of illumination, having substantially the same output pattern when immersed in water as it does in air. The diffusing optical fiber tip is manufactured on the end of a typical acrylic optical fiber by causing longitudinal stresses in the fiber end, which are then relieved by forming axial cracks in the fiber core at the optical fiber tip. As a result, light exiting the optical fiber must traverse a scrambled pathway caused by a complex interaction of reflections and refractions, yielding wide angle diffuse illumination."
U.S. Pat. No. 6,576,163 for a durable fiber optic diffuser tip and method of making same, by Steven H. Mersch, patented Jun. 10, 2003, provides the following description: "A method of manufacturing a medical instrument for diffusing light from an optical fiber is provided. The medical instrument includes an optical fiber having a proximal portion including a cladding layer surrounding the core and a distal portion having a diffuser tip comprising a protective coating made of acrylic or methylpentene surrounding the core, an optical coupling layer, and a sleeve. The protective coating strengthens the distal end of the optical fiber so that it can withstand a higher bending moment at failure than the uncladded core. At the same time, the protective layer has an index of refraction that is between the indices of refraction of the core and the optical coupling layer to direct light out of the core through to the optical coupling layer."
U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,252 for a light-diffusing fiber optic chamber, by Duncan J. Maitland, patented Jul. 9, 2002, provides the following description: "A light diffusion system for transmitting light to a target area. The light is transmitted in a direction from a proximal end to a distal end by an optical fiber. A diffusing chamber is operatively connected to the optical fiber for transmitting the light from the proximal end to the distal end and transmitting said light to said target area. A plug is operatively connected to the diffusing chamber for increasing the light that is transmitted to the target area."
U.S. Pat. No. 6,364,874 for a device for irradiating internal cavities of the body, by Bays et al, patented Apr. 2, 2002, provides the following description: "A device for the irradiation of internal cavities of the body includes a flexible catheter, made of a transparent material, containing a fiber optic of which the section at one end is designed to radially diffuse light coming from a source arranged at the other end. An inflatable balloon fixed to one end of the catheter surrounds the diffusing section of the fiber optic. The balloon is made of an elastomeric material that diffuses the light and is prefabricated by molding based on the shape of the cavity to be treated. The balloon presses against the cavity wall and, with the thickness of its surfaces remaining constant after inflation, the pressure needed for inflation is low and cannot damage the cavity tissues."
U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,530 for a durable fiber optic diffuser tip and method of making same, by Steven H. Mersch, patented Mar. 26, 2002, provides the following description: "An medical instrument for diffusing light from an optical fiber is provided. The medical instrument includes an optical fiber having a proximal portion including a cladding layer surrounding the core and a distal portion having a diffuser tip comprising a protective coating made of acrylic or methylpentene surrounding the core, an optical coupling layer, and a sleeve. The protective coating strengthens the distal end of the optical fiber so that it can withstand a higher bending moment at failure than the uncladded core. At the same time, the protective layer has an index of refraction that is between the indices of refraction of the core and the optical coupling layer to direct light out of the core through to the optical coupling layer."
U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,180 for a light diffusing apparatus using light guide, by Keiji Iimura, patented Mar. 26, 2002, provides the following description: "A light diffusing apparatus using light guide comprises at least first light guide portion for light leakage, second light guide portion solely for light transmission; and third light guide portion for an optical communication with first and second light guide portion. The first light guide portion has first end (or side surface) and second light guide portion has second end which is optically opposed to the first end. The third light guide portion forms substantially non-linear (or curved) cross-section and the first, second and third light guide portions form substantially a single-piece construction. At least a single transparent panel-like member (or, sheet-like, plate-like or film-like member) may be used for the first, second and third light guide portions. At least a ribbon-like optical fiber cable (i.e. tape-like or film-like optical fiber cable) may be used for the first, second and third light guide portions, having a plurality of optical fibers which are aligned in parallel each other. The light diffusing apparatus can output light with a desired predetermined distribution pattern of surface brightness i.e. luminance. The distribution pattern of output light may produce uniform i.e. even surface brightness i.e. luminance. Therefore, the light diffusing apparatus may be suitably used typically in surface light sources, photographic film viewers, backlights or front lights of passive displays such as liquid crystal displays, light indicators and vehicle lights, etc."
U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,492 for a phototherapeutic apparatus with diffusive tip assembly, by Edward L. Sinofsky, patented Aug. 7, 2001, provides the following description: "An optical transmissive, light-diffusing, fiber tip assembly having a radiation-scattering particles incorporated therein and a reflective end surface is disclosed for use in phototherapy. As radiation propagates through the fiber tip, a portion of the radiation is scattered in a cylindrical (or partially cylindrical) pattern along the length of the fiber tip. Radiation which is not scattered during this initial pass through the tip is reflected by at least one surface of the assembly and returned through the tip. During this second pass, the remaining radiation (or at least a major portion of this returning radiation) again encounters the scatterers which provide further radial diffusion of the radiation. Preferably, the scattering medium and the reflective end cap interact to provide a substantially uniform axial distribution of laser radiation over the length of the tip apparatus. Methods and devices are also disclosed in which a dielectric structure is operatively coupled to phototherapeutic instrument to reflect light without substantial heating. The invention is particularly useful in light diffusive tip assemblies for phototherapy that have components which increase in temperature after prolonged exposure to light, such as mirrors and metallic structures incorporated into such diffusers to facilitate radiographic or fluoroscopic imaging during a therapeutic procedure."
U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,315 for an optical fiber diffuser and method of making, by Michael G. Dumont, patented Dec. 21, 1999, provides the following description: "An optical fiber device includes a polymeric optical fiber having a proximal end for coupling to a source of light, and a diffusing region. The polymeric optical fiber includes a core and a cladding around the core. The diffusing region includes a length of the polymeric optical fiber in which the cladding is partially removed to expose the core and in which the exposed core and the remaining cladding have a roughened surface for outwardly diffusing light carried through the polymeric optical fiber. The diffusing region is preferably formed by abrasion, for example by directing a particle jet at the optical fiber while rotating and translating the optical fiber with respect to the particle jet. The particle jet may include microscopic glass beads which roughen the optical fiber core. The density of scattering sites may be varied along the length of the diffusing region to produce a desired light output pattern. The optical fiber device is useful in medical applications, including as a component of catheter or endoscopic systems."
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,754,717 and 5,946,441 for a light-diffusing device for an optical fiber, methods of producing and using same, and apparatus for diffusing light from an optical fiber, by Victor C. Esch, patented May 19, 1998, and Aug. 31, 1999, respectively, provide the following description: "A diffusing tip is provided for diffusing light from a light-emitting end of an optical fiber in a radial distribution pattern relative to the axis of the tip and along a length of the tip. The tip has an inner core and an outer covering which define a light guide. The outer covering is modified on its interior surface adjacent to the core such that light transmitted down the light guide is removed from the core upon encountering a surface modification on the interior surface. The light so removed is transmitted to the outer surface along the length of the tip, where it can be used to irradiate a selected object or material. The diffusing tip preferably provides light in a substantially uniform intensity distribution for the substantially uniform irradiation of a selected object or material."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,415 for phototherapy methods and apparatus, by Edward L. Sinofsky, patented Jun. 1, 1999, provides the following description: "An optical transmissive fiber tip assembly having a radiation-scattering particles incorporated therein and a reflective end surface is disclosed for use in phototherapy. As radiation propagates through the fiber tip, a portion of the radiation is scattered in a cylindrical (or partially cylindrical) pattern along the length of the fiber tip. Radiation which is not scattered during this initial pass through the tip is reflected by at least one surface of the assembly and returned through the tip. During this second pass, the remaining radiation (or at least a major portion of this returning radiation) again encounters the scatterers which provide further radial diffusion of the radiation. In one embodiment, a diffusive tip assembly is disclosed for diffusing radiation from an optical fiber. The tip assembly is adapted to receive the distal end of said fiber in order to direct the radiation outward, and includes a light transmissive tube or housing aligned with the distal end of the fiber. The tube includes a reflective end cap and a light scattering medium disposed therein such that radiation propagating through said fiber enters the scattering medium and a portion of the radiation is scattered outward through said tube, and another portion passes through the scattering medium and is reflected by the end cap for retransmission through said scattering medium. Preferably, the scattering medium and the reflective end cap interact to provide a substantially uniform axial distribution of laser radiation over the length of the tip apparatus."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,521 for a laser probe for medical treatment, by Kaneda et al, patented Feb. 16, 1999, provides the following description: "A medical laser probe to be used as a laser irradiation unit in laser treatment that is performed by irradiating a living body with laser light. The laser probe irradiates laser light uniformly, utilizing laser light effectively by concentration thereof, achieving limited irradiation of laser light and taking countermeasures against stains forming on the probe. The laser probe is provided with (1) a transparent light diffuser for radiating laser light received by a light-guide fiber in the direction along the longitudinal axis of the light diffuser and in radial directions from this axis to the peripheral side surface thereof and (2) a detachable protective diffusion tube for further diffusing laser light radiated from the transparent light diffuser. A reflector may be provided between the light diffuser and the diffusion tube. Further, shielding plates may be provided on the protective diffusion tube."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,767 for loop diffusers for diffusion of optical radiation, by Edward L. Sinofsky, patented May 27, 1997, provides the following description: "Methods and apparatus are disclosed for diffusing radiation from a optical fiber to provide a larger exposure area for phototherapy and to provide a substantially uniform energy distribution to a major portion of the exposure area. The invention is especially useful in constructing and implementing circumferential and/or sideways-emitting diffusive tip assemblies, or quasi-spherical diffusive tip assemblies for optical fibers to direct laser radiation in a radially outward pattern relative to the fiber's axis. In one aspect of the invention, a plurality of optically-transmissive fiber tip assemblies are employed to act as diffusers. The two or more fiber tip assemblies are deployed as loops which create a uniform illumination pattern. By 'looping' or 'folding' the fibers, a plurality of fibers can be deployed in conjunction with one another to create geometric exposure patterns with increased energy density while still avoiding 'hot spots.'"
U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,647 for a fiberoptic cylindrical diffuser, by Purcell, Jr. et al, patented Jul. 11, 1995, provides the following description: "A fiberoptic diffuser has an optical fiber having a light transmitting core, cladding about the core, and a buffer layer about the cladding. The core at the distal end portion of the fiber is exposed and a diffusing sleeve is disposed thereabout. A transparent cylindrical cap is disposed outwardly of the diffusing sleeve and overlies the exposed core, and a reflector is provided in the cap in axial alignment with the distal end of the core to reflect light rays exiting the core. The light rays exiting the core are reflected by the reflector and are refracted by the sleeve to exit through the cap over substantially the entire length of the exposed core."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,635 for a fiberoptic spherical diffuser, by Purcell, Jr. et al, patented Jul. 4, 1995, provides the following description: "A fiberoptic diffuser for photodynamic therapy applications comprises an optical fiber having a light transmitting core, cladding about the core, and a buffer layer about the cladding. The distal end portion of the fiber core is free from the cladding and buffer layer, and the exposed distal end of the core has a conical configuration. A cap extends about the distal end portion of the fiber and has a spheroidal end portion of light diffusing material which extends about the exposed conical end of the fiber core. The cap also has a mounting portion engaged with the buffer layer of the fiber, and it provides a cavity in which the exposed core is disposed. Light rays passing through the fiber to its distal end are refracted outwardly at the conical end of the core into the spheroidal end portion of the cap and are further refracted by the cap to exit therefrom over substantially the entire surface of the spheroidal end portion."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,458 for a fiber optic light diffuser, by Pan et al, patented Nov. 8, 1994, provides the following description: "Heat and light generating, fiber optic, cylindrical diffusers are structured to operate more efficiently and with increased uniformity by the inclusion of rings of prescribed indicies of refraction about the unclad distal end portion of the diffuser. Such a diffuser also includes a conical distal tip. A sealed Teflon™ sleeve containing diffusing material in place over the entire length of the diffuser also improves the uniformity of heat distribution."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,419 for an apparatus and method for making a diffusing tip in a balloon catheter system, by James R. Spears, patented Sep. 6, 1994, provides the following description: "An apparatus and method are disclosed for making a laser balloon catheter having a diffusing tip for propagating a uniform cylindrical pattern of laser energy. Included in the catheter are an elongated flexible tube with an inflatable balloon connected to the tube and means for inflating and deflating the balloon. A central channel is disposed within the balloon and coupled to the tube. An optical fiber with the diffusing tip at its distal end delivers laser radiation through the balloon to tissue to be treated. The method comprises the steps of etching the distal end of the optical fiber to form an etched portion thereof, cladding the etched portion with a medium which secures the optical fiber to the central channel, and microballoons which diffuse the laser radiation radially from the optical fiber, thereby substantially avoiding axial propagation and heating of blood forward of the optical fiber."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,381 for a fiber optic cylindrical diffuser, by Biswas et al, patented Aug. 9, 1994, provides the following description: "A fiber optic, cylindrical, light diffuser for medical use includes an unclad distal fiber end where the exposed core end has a conical shape. The core end is enclosed by a sleeve which contacts the clad portion of the fiber only and defines a closed chamber with the distal end of the fiber. The chamber is filled with light diffusing material. The diffuser exhibits highly uniform output light distribution and is capable of carrying relatively high power densities safely."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,669 for an optical fiber diffusion tip for uniform illumination, by Baker et al, patented May 4, 1993, provides the following description: "A diffusion tip coupled to the end of an optical fiber for directing laser energy outwardly in a cylindrical or other desired radiation pattern. The diffusion tip includes a core, a cladding around the core and a jacket around the cladding. The cladding has an index of refraction that is lower than that of the core and has a thickness selected to transmit a portion of the laser radiation that is carried through the optical fiber so that laser radiation penetrates through the cladding and the jacket over the length of the diffusion tip. The thickness of the cladding is about the same as or slightly less than the penetration depth of the evanescent field in the cladding. The cladding can be tapered along the length of the diffusion tip to provide a uniform radiation pattern. The diffusion tip is particularly useful in a laser balloon catheter utilized in coronary angioplasty."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,096 for a laser catheter diffuser, by Adib I. Khoury, patented Sep. 29, 1992, provides the following description: "A light transmitting and diffusing apparatus is disclosed for activating photodynamic therapy in soft cancerous tumors. In the preferred embodiment, the apparatus is affixed to a standard medical laser that transmits light through an optical fiber to a point adjacent to or within a cancerous tumor. The apparatus includes an unclad fiber-optic core with a reflective cap at a terminal end of the core. A diffuser matrix coats the unclad fiber-optic core and a transparent tubular sleeve encases the matrix and core. The transparent tubular sleeve includes a conical tip adjacent to the terminal end of the core for easy penetration of the cancerous tumors. In use, light leaves the medical laser, travels along the optical fiber into the unclad fiber-optic core. There, some light passes directly out of the core through the diffuser matrix, and the remaining light is reflected, by this reflective cap, back into and around the core, away from its terminal end. The resulting pattern of diffuse light is roughly shaped like a 'butternut-squash,' producing a decreased risk of damage to blood vessels, nerves, etc., that may be just beyond the terminal end of the core, along its longitudinal axis."

System for diffusing light from an optical fiber or light guide

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC


A manhole cover includes a cylindrical manhole including manhole lugs, wherein the manhole lugs extend around the upper outer periphery of the manhole; the cover includes cover lugs, the cover lugs extend around the outer periphery of the cover. The cover co-operatively mates with and closes off the manhole. A strap also extends around the cover and manhole lugs such that applying tension to the strap assembly forceably urges together the cover and manhole lugs wherein the strap for clamping together the manhole lugs to the cover lugs thereby placing cover into a sealed position.

Currently manhole covers on railway pressure vessels are large, heavy steel plate circular covers which are bolted down with six to eight large eye bolts. The eye bolts that are used are a source of maintenance in that the bolts often break, the threads wearing, the nuts seize. In addition the installation and removal of the cover with the eye bolts is labour intensive, requiring a substantial amount of time in order to open and close the existing manhole covers.
Furthermore, the eye bolts securing the man whole cover are normally standing straight up with the threads exposed to the impact from tools, loading equipment and possible contact with the ground and other obstacles in the event of derailment of the rail car should the vessel overturn. Leaking of the pressure vessel can occur when an eye bolt is damaged or missing or the cover is incorrectly tightened or when the cover is permanently deformed from over tightening.
All of the above deficiencies in the existing manhole cover designs are the leading cause of commodity leaks in the north American rail car fleet.
Therefore, there is a need for a new and improved manhole cover locking system which overcomes the deficiencies of the current manhole cover designs and in particularly eliminates the need for six to eight large eye bolts which are positioned vertically upward from the cover.


An electrical connector includes a housing and a plurality of terminal wafers. The housing is formed with a plurality of terminal slots along a traverse direction. The terminal wafers are contiguous to each other and retained in the housing. Each terminal wafer has a first terminal, a second terminal and a packaging body. The first terminal has a first contacting section, a first soldering portion and a first embedded section. The second terminal has a second contacting section, a second soldering portion and a second embedded section. The first and second contacting sections are extended along a plugging direction into one corresponding terminal slot. The packaging body wraps the first and second embedded sections. A curve contour of the first embedded section is corresponded to a curve contour of the second embedded section, so that an attachment relationship is configured with substantial identical distance therebetween.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure relates to an electrical connector, in particular, to an electrical connector having a plurality of terminals formed in pairs and assembled side by side in an insulating housing for clamping and electrically connecting terminals of an electrical plug connector.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical connectors have been widely used to transmit electricity or signals between two devices. There is one kind of electrical connector having a plurality of terminals formed in pairs and assembled side by side in an insulating housing for clamping and electrically connecting terminals of an electrical plug connector, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) connector.
Such kind of assembly process usually needs to insert the terminals one by one in the terminal grooves of the insulating housing. The terminals usually are formed with many interference portions in a hook shape, so as to retain the terminals in the insulating housing by interference force. However, the terminal is easily deformed because of resistance force during the assembly process, thus the reliability of the electronic connector is degraded. Further, the assembly speed is slow and the terminals may be damaged. Moreover, some terminals may be made of precious metal for strengthening the rigidity to avoid deforming during the assembly process, and this way adds cost.
As the electronic transmission technology is advancing, the frequency of the electrical connector's signals transmission has become higher and higher. How to solve the above-mentioned problems and avoid the problem of electromagnetic interference to enhance the complete performance of signal transmission, these are still the problems waiting to be solved.

Electrical connector having terminals embedded in a packaging body


A bearing for a driving shaft of an electrical machine is lubricated by a lubricant. Located between the bearing and rotating parts arranged on the driving shaft is a seal element for lubricant emerging from the bearing. The seal element is configured in the form of a slinger disk by which lubricant emerging from the bearing is returned to the bearing, thus resulting in a closed lubricant circulation. The slinger disk is produced entirely from an elastic material. Lubricant sent off from the slinger disk is returned directly to the bearing.

The present invention relates to a bearing for use with an electrical machine that includes a drive shaft mounted in a housing.
European Published Patent Application No. 698 956 describes a known bearing in which a spherical cap, which is made of sintered material and with which a repository for lubricant is associated in order to lubricate the bearing, is used to mount a driving shaft of an electrical machine. Located between the spherical cap and the commutator is a thrust washer or cover disk which consists of a first solid annular disk element and a second elastic disk element joined positively thereto. The solid disk element has two peripheral slinger edges facing the spherical cap. The sintered material used for the spherical cap has the property that because of the capillary effect of the interstices which are present, lubricant is stored and is delivered to the drive shaft during operation as a result of pressure differences. This results in lubrication of the driving shaft, so that it is mounted in a low-friction and low-wear manner in the spherical cap. Due to heating of the sintered bearing during operation of the electrical machine, however, an increase in the volume of the stored lubricant can occur, so that it can emerge laterally out of the sintered bearing. This lubricant emerging during operation is thrown onto the bearing housing via the slinger edges, and returns from there to the spherical cap. This arrangement allows reliable sealing of the bearing even with large assembly tolerances. The two-part configuration of the slinger disk nevertheless requires increased manufacturing and assembly outlay. Moreover, without additional sealing measures it is impossible to rule out completely the possibility that lubricant slung onto the housing wall may penetrate via the surrounding housing to the adjacent commutator.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,590 discloses a bearing device for mounting the driving shaft of an electrical machine, having a one-piece slinger disk made of a solid material. The bearing arrangement as a whole is separated by means of a housing from rotating parts arranged on the driving shaft.

Bearing assembly having a slinger disk seal element


A steerable guide wire and/or a catheter device and associated method. The device includes a guide wire having a distal end, a hollow interior, and an anchoring mechanism positioned proximate to the distal end of the guide wire. The device further includes a core wire is slidably inserted into the hollow interior of the guide wire. Upon insertion, the core wire actuates the anchoring mechanism to anchor the guide wire at an anchoring location.

Guide wires are an essential requirement for insertion of catheters, instruments, and devices by the so-called Seldinger technique in diagnostic and therapeutic medical procedures. Some of the available guide wires include straight guide wires, curved guide wires, J-tip guide wires, ball tip guide wires, etc. The Seldinger technique can be referred to as the "catheter over the wire" technique. To allow a vascular access using this technique, a vessel is typically punctured using a hollow needle, adequate blood back flow is determined, and a guide wire is inserted through the hollow needle. Once the guide wire is positioned within the vessel, the hollow needle is removed, and a diagnostic and/or therapeutic catheter is inserted over the wire. The position of the catheter is controlled by fluoroscopy, ultrasonography and/or other suitable means. Finally, the guide wire is removed and the inserted, positioned catheter is used for its designated purpose. Alternatively, a device is inserted over the wire.
The Seldinger technique has been used for vascular access as well as multitude of other medical and non-medical fields, including angiology, cardiology, thoracic, cardio-vascular surgery radiology, urology, otorhinolaryngology, gastroenterology, etc. Thus, whenever a bodily organ (in particular, a hollow organ) has to be accessed for diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures, the Seldinger technique is used. Use of a guide wire allows positioning of a number of devices, including catheters, balloons, micro-instruments, sophisticated diagnostic tools (e.g., intra-vascular ultrasound, intra-cardiac ultrasound, pressure probes etc.), therapeutic devices (e.g., intra-aortic balloons, cannulas for life support systems, stents, covered stents, stent grafts, catheter valves, pacemakers, pressure monitoring systems etc.), and/or any other devices.
However, some of the devices designed for insertion over the conventional guide wire are large compared to the dimensions of the access vessel and others are bulky making their insertion over a guide wire, positioning and unloading very difficult, even if a corresponding introducer catheter or wire has been positioned and the initial access has been mastered. To solve this problem, conventional techniques implement a larger and/or stiffer guide wire for the purposes of inserting a larger device. This technique suffers from inability to provide device insertion over a wire via tortuous access paths, e.g., contoured vessels, vessels with many narrow angles, etc. Angular paths can severely hamper control over the positioning of the guide wire tip from a remote location and decrease precision in advancing/positioning of the guide wire especially when narrower angles and/or serial angles are present in the path. One of the further problems using this approach is that a stiff or a larger device typically moves during insertion in the straightest possible direction disregarding a well-positioned guide wire that follows curvature of an access vessel. This can cause the tip of the guide wire to be pulled from the target position (i.e., the larger/stiffer device, because of its size/stiffness, advances using the largest possible radius of a curved access vessel). This can lead to vessel elongation, vessel rupture, a kinked guide wire, penetration of the vessel wall, and/or other problems. Hence, this prevents a successful completion of a planned procedure as well as can lead to adverse impacts to the patient.
To resolve the above issues, a conventional technique of a "through-and-through" guide wire, which allows for insertion of larger devices, is used. Here, a very long wire is inserted from, for example, the femoral artery into the ascending aorta, captured there with a lasso coming from the brachial or radial artery, and pulled through. During implantation of the covered stent graft, the "through-and-through" wire can be put under tension and straightened, which, in turn, helps during advancement of the device. Similar techniques have been used for a femoral venous access, puncture of the inter-atrial septum, passing through the mitral and the aortic valve in order to be captured from the femoral or the brachial artery for insertion of a catheter valve. Likewise, veno-venous, and arterio-venous paths are explored. Use of this technique can reduce the risk of wire kinks and facilitate insertion of the device. However, it is a complex procedure, and excessive wire traction as a result of this this technique can lead to complications.

Steerable guide wire and catheter with shape change in-situ


This disclosure relates to methods of growing crystalline layers on amorphous substrates by way of an ultra-thin seed layer, methods for preparing the seed layer, and compositions comprising both. In an aspect of the invention, the crystalline layers can be thin films. In a preferred embodiment, these thin films can be free-standing.

It has been well recognized that there are many benefits of producing nitride layers, such as AlGaN or GaN structures, on silicon substrates instead of substrates such as sapphire, as silicon is inexpensive, has a relatively high thermal conductivity, and is electrically conductive. In particular, Group III-V materials exhibit desirable optical and electronic properties and thus are especially suitable for semiconductor and related applications. GaN specifically exhibits a wider band gap, higher breakdown field, and higher electron mobility over traditional Si and can be used for high voltage, high power devices. When in its two-dimensional (2D) form, GaN has an ultra-wide band gap and can operate in the entire ultra-violate, visible, and infrared spectrum, apt for electro-optic devices. However, there are significant limitations on the synthesis of high-quality single-crystalline Group III-V films.
First, there are significant limitations in nitride material synthesis. A lack of native substrates and difficulty in further growing nitrides on native substrates stems largely from difficulties inherent to nitride synthesis—primarily the high nitrogen overpressure required to avoid film decomposition and to produce high-quality material as well as the low solubility of nitrogen in the respective metal. Relatedly, there remains difficulty in growing the films on native substrates due to lattice mismatch.
Additionally, there is a significant problem stemming from the uncontrolled formation of amorphous SiNx, on the silicon surface due to lattice mismatch. This occurs, for example, when a gaseous nitrogen source is used during molecular beam epitaxial growth on a silicon substrate, for once the epitaxial chamber is exposed to nitrogen, or nitrogen containing gases or compounds, a nitrogen background is then present in the growth apparatus in subsequent growth experiments. In the case of a silicon substrate, such a nitrogen background results in the formation of a thin amorphous layer of SiNx at the surface of the silicon, once the wafer is heated to the growth temperature. The layer of SiNx, which is at most a few monolayers thick, forms spontaneously and is therefore difficult to control. This layer typically is not uniform, and the surface coverage it provides is typically in the form of islands. The average thickness of this layer depends on the background pressure of nitrogen, the temperature of the substrate, the exposure time, and details of the silicon surface structure. Even in a very clean system, i.e. with a low nitrogen background, formation of the Si—N bonds cannot be prevented.
There have been attempts to solve this problem, but none have been satisfactory. For example the use of low temperature nucleation has been utilized; however, this method tends to result in uncontrolled domain structure and poor layer quality. Alternatively, others have attempted the formation of a stable Al—Si phase (i.e. the γ-phase), but this method tends to result in an AlN with at least two types of domains. Thus, closely lattice-matched epitaxial substrates are traditionally needed for the growth of high-quality single-crystal films.
Furthermore, in recent years the exponential growth of research on 2D materials (such as graphene, MoS2, h-BN, GaN, etc.) has enabled the exploration of 2D materials and devices dramatically. Much of the focus has been on 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) such as MoS2 and WSe2 as candidates for electronics. There is some exploration of 2D Group-III chalcogenide (GIIIC) materials as these materials have many desirable properties, such as high electron mobility (e.g. InSe), high photoresponsivity, and large band gaps (e.g. GaSe, GaS). However, reliable and cost-effective methods have not yet been developed to utilize GIIIC materials in forming ultra-thin GaN layers.
As a result, there is a need to develop improved methods of nitride material synthesis.
There is also a need to develop reliable and cost-effective methods of forming ultra-thin Group III-V layers on amorphous silicon substrate.
Further, there is a need to develop reliable and cost-effective methods have not yet been developed to utilize GIIIC materials in forming ultra-thin GaN layers.

Method of growing crystalline layers on amorphous substrates using two-dimensional and atomic layer seeds


Apparatus for applying thermotherapy to a part of the human or animal body comprising an applicator having a flexible enclosure in which thermal energy transfer fluid can circulate, a connector for connecting the applicator to a control system, an interface layer for providing a thermally conductive interface between the flexible enclosure and a treatment site and, an electrically conductive supporting layer for supporting the interface layer and capable of being energized by an electrical signal from the control system to improve the thermal conductivity of the interface layer. The apparatus also includes a valve unit for connecting the applicator to a control system, a heat exchanger for cooling a thermal energy transfer fluid and a control system for controlling the application of thermotherapy. The apparatus permits manipulation and control of the molecules of the interface layer and a thermal energy transfer fluid to improve the thermal energy transfer efficiency between the applicator and a treatment site.

It is known that reducing the temperature of a part of the human or animal body by the application of Cryotherapy following injury and/or surgery reduces swelling and pain and expedites healing. Likewise, the maintenance of a constant temperature during surgery is extremely important to reduce internal bleeding, bruising and swelling. Cryotherapy is also known to be beneficial as part of a sports training program when applied before and after sporting events and periods of intense physical activity.
Studies have shown that the optimum benefit to be gained by cooling and maintaining the body temperature is achieved by reducing the temperature in the affected area as soon as possible after the injury has occurred or surgery has commenced. Studies have also shown that simply applying excessively low temperatures to the target area does not achieve the optimum cooling effect and can be harmful to the patient as it can cause the onset of cold burn or frostbite.
Known methods for effecting localized temperature reduction of various parts of the human body require the use of cumbersome cooling pads, ice packs, frozen gels and the like. A problem of such methods of quickly reducing the body temperature is that the rate at which they reduce the body temperature is slow. A further problem is that due to this slow rate of body temperature reduction, there is a tendency for excessively low temperatures to be applied to the injury site in an attempt to achieve a more rapid rate of temperature reduction and make the treatment more effective. A further problem is that when ice packs and the like are placed on an injury site, the ice begins to melt and provide a constantly changing and uncontrollable temperature.
It is known that the principle cause of the delay and ineffectiveness of the heat transfer is due to the extremely small 'real' area of contact at the microscopic level between the applicator and the treatment site. Studies have shown that the 'real' area of contact is less than around 5% of the total area over which optimum heat transfer could occur, the remainder of the area being made up of air gaps. The concentration of the flow of heat at the points of contact creates 'hot spots' which increase the localized temperature and melt the surrounding ice or gel pack.
The applicant has appreciated that the full potential benefits of Cryotherapy are not being exploited by the known apparatuses for the fast application of cooling.
The applicant has also appreciated that to improve the efficiency of heat transfer between an applicator and the treatment site, there is a need for an improved interface between the applicator and treatment site that closely conforms to the contours of the area of a patient's body undergoing treatment in order to maximize the real contact area between the applicator and treatment site. The inventor has also previously appreciated that the thermal conductivity of the interface must be high and barriers to heat transfer minimized in order to optimize the efficiency of heat transfer and thereby permit the maximum cooling effect to be applied in the shortest space of time.
United Kingdom patent application no. GB0416879.5 describes a device addressing these concerns.

Thermotherapy application and control system


By setting the linearly polarized light with normal incidence on the liquid crystal sample 3 and rotating the liquid crystal sample 3 on a rotation stage 7 within plane, the dependencies of the amplitude ratio as well as the optical retardation of the transmitted light on the azimuth of the liquid crystal sample, with respect to the polarization direction of the incident light, are measured. From these measured results, a liquid crystal pretilt angle is determined.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an estimation method for a film having the optical anisotropy due to the alignment of molecules, for example, a liquid crystal alignment layer and the like which provides the initial orientation to the liquid crystal molecules in a liquid crystal display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The crystal rotation method ( described by T. J. Scheffer and J. Nehring in Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 48, pp. 1783, 1977) has been widely employed as an optical method of measuring an angle that liquid crystal molecules in an antiparallel cell make with the reverse of a substrate. In this method, with the linearly polarized light incident on the sample, the optical retardation(phase shift) of the transmitted light which is generated through birefringence is measured as a function of the incident angle. On the other hand, instead of the direct measurement of the dependence of the polarization in the transmitted light on the incident direction, another measuring method in which an analyzer is placed behind a sample and the quantity of light transmitted through the analyzer is monitored as a function of the incident angle is also widely utilized.
However, the above-mentioned conventional techniques have the following problems as pointed out, for example, by K.-Y. Han et al. in Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 32, pp. L1242-1244, L277-279 1993.
That is, because the liquid crystal is held between a pair of glass substrates, the refraction at the substrate causes a shift in the incident position of the light on the liquid crystal section, as the incident angle is changed. As the place through which the light passes within the liquid crystal is varied, the polarization of the transmitted light directly reflects the variance in thickness of the liquid crystal layer with the place, which hinders the accurate measurements. The incident angle of the light on the sample is usually changed by rotating the sample, and thus the relative position between the incident light and the transmitted light also changes, accompanying with the sample rotation. As a result, in order to carry out an accurate polarization measurement of the transmitted light, it is necessary for the positions of an analyzer and the like to be adjusted according to the thickness, the material and the rotation angle of the sample and the measuring efficiency of this method becomes low.
In light of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of measuring a liquid crystal pretilt angle which determines a liquid crystal pretilt angle by setting the linearly polarized light incident on a liquid crystal sample and measuring the polarization of the transmitted light thereof; wherein:
said linearly polarized light is normal to the surface of the liquid crystal sample in incidence; and
by rotating said liquid crystal sample within plane, the dependencies of the amplitude ratio of said transmitted light as well as the optical retardation of said transmitted light on the azimuth of the liquid crystal sample with respect to the polarization direction of the incident light are measured and thereby the pretilt angle of said liquid crystal sample is determined.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of measuring a liquid crystal pretilt angle which determines a liquid crystal pretilt angle by setting the linearly polarized light incident on a liquid crystal sample and measuring the polarization of the transmitted light thereof; wherein:
having passed through a polarizer, said linearly polarized light is normal to the surface of the liquid crystal sample in incidence; and
by rotating said polarizer within plane, the dependencies of the amplitude ratio of said transmitted light as well as the optical retardation of said transmitted light on the azimuth of the liquid crystal sample with respect to the polarization direction of the incident light are measured and thereby the pretilt angle of said liquid crystal sample is determined.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of measuring a liquid crystal pretilt angle which determines a liquid crystal pretilt angle by setting the linearly polarized light incident on a liquid crystal sample and measuring the polarization of the transmitted light thereof; wherein:
having passed through a polarizer and a xc2xd-wave plate, said linearly polarized light is normal to the surface of the liquid crystal sample in incidence; and
by rotating said xc2xd-wave plate within plane, the dependencies of the amplitude ratio of said transmitted light as well as the optical retardation of said transmitted light on the azimuth of the liquid crystal sample with respect to the polarization direction of the incident light are measured and thereby the pretilt angle of said liquid crystal sample is determined.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an equipment of measuring a liquid crystal pretilt angle; comprising:
a light source;
a polarizer which polarizes the emitted light from said light source;
a holder which holds a liquid crystal sample as an object of the measurement;
a mechanism to rotate said holder within plane;
a means for measuring, with the light having passed through said liquid crystal sample, the amplitude ratio of said transmitted light as well as the optical retardation of said transmitted light; and
a means for determining a liquid crystal pretilt angle from said measured polarization.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an equipment of measuring a liquid crystal pretilt angle; comprising:
a light source;
a polarizer which polarizes the emitted light from said light source;
a mechanism to rotate said polarizer within plane;
a holder which is placed behind said polarizer and holds a liquid crystal sample as an object of the measurement;
a means for measuring, with the light having passed through said liquid crystal sample, the amplitude ratio of said transmitted light as well as the optical retardation of said transmitted light; and
a means for determining a liquid crystal pretilt angle from said measured polarization.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an equipment of measuring a liquid crystal pretilt angle; comprising:
a light source;
a polarizer which polarizes the emitted light from said light source;
a xc2xd-wave plate placed behind the polarizer;
a mechanism to rotate said xc2xd-wave plate within plane;
a holder which is placed behind said xc2xd-wave plate and holds a liquid crystal sample as an object of the measurement;
a means for measuring, with the light having passed through said liquid crystal sample, the amplitude ratio of said transmitted light as well as the optical retardation of said transmitted light; and
a means for determining a liquid crystal pretilt angle from said measured polarization.
In the method measuring a liquid crystal pretilt angle according to the present invention, the incident angle of the light with respect to the sample surface is constant and the optical path within the liquid crystal layer does not change during the measurement. Therefore, a deterioration in accuracy, resulting from non-uniformity of the liquid crystal layer thickness, which is a problem for the conventional methods, does not occur. Furthermore, in measuring the polarization of the transmitted light, unlike in the conventional methods, no adjustment of the detector position is required to accompany the rotation of the liquid crystal sample. The measurement can be made, while the detector is kept in a fixed position, which enables a rapid measurement. The polarization of the transmitted light may be calculated in terms of 4xc3x974 matrices with anisotropic dielectric constants xcex5e and xcex50, the pretilt angle xcex8 and the liquid crystal layer thickness d. Values of the pretilt angle xcex8 and the liquid crystal layer thickness d may be determined, then, through the optimization to fit the dependencies of the polarization of the transmitted light on either azimuthal direction of the sample or that of the polarized light which are obtained from the actual measurements.
Further, an equipment of measuring a liquid crystal pretilt angle according to the present invention has such an arrangement as described above that can carry out the above-mentioned method of measuring a liquid crystal pretilt angle favourably.
As described above, in the present invention, the incident angle of the light with respect to the sample surface is constant and the optical path within the liquid crystal layer does not change during the measurement. Therefore, a deterioration in accuracy, resulting from non-uniformity of the liquid crystal layer thickness, which is a problem for the conventional methods, does not occur. Furthermore, in measuring the polarization of the transmitted light, unlike in the conventional methods, no adjustment of the detector position is required to accompany the rotation of the liquid crystal sample. The measurement can be made, while the detector is kept in a fixed position, which enables a rapid measurement.

Measuring method of liquid crystal pretilt angle and measuring equipment of liquid crystal pretilt angle


Oxidized white liquor is heat treated to increase the concentration of polysulphide measured at 285 or 286 nm (PSUV) or measured at 416 nm (PSVIS) and the PSUV/PSGR or PSVIS/PSGR ratio, whereby the content of active polysulphide in the total polysulphide is increased which active polysulphide can be exploited to increase pulp yield in Kraft pulping.

(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in any process which generates polysulphide by the oxidation of white liquor; the invention also relates to a method of increasing the yield of pulp in Kraft pulping with an oxidized white liquor.
(ii) Description of the Prior Art
In Kraft pulping operations, where the goal is to remove lignin while retaining carbohydrates, yield is increased by minimizing carbohydrate (i.e., cellulose and hemicellulose) degradation. This degradation occurs through the "peeling" reaction in which sugar units are sequentially removed from the reducing end group of the polysaccharide chains. One way to prevent this reaction is to convert aldehyde groups on the wood polysaccharides to a form which is relatively inert to further "peeling". This conversion is achieved by either oxidizing the aldehyde to its corresponding carboxylic acid (Alfredsson et al., 1963), (Holton, 1977) or, alternatively, reducing it to its alcohol form (Hartler, 1959), (Pettersson et al., 1961). The two methods that are applied in the pulp and paper industry involve the oxidation process and use anthraquinone (Holton, 1977), or polysulphide (Clayton et al., 1967), (Landmark et al., 1965), (Sanyer et al., 1964), (Teder, 1969), or both as oxidizing agents. Anthraquinone is a catalytic additive while polysulphide is generated from white liquor by oxidation of sodium sulfide in one of several processes (Dorris, 1992), (Smith et al., 1977).

Kraft pulp yield by heat treatment of polysulphide liquors generated by oxidation


In an EclipseLink environment, persistence units are associated with a single data source. However, in accordance with an embodiment, a user can define multiple persistence units, each with a different set of entity types (i.e., classes) stored in multiple data sources, and expose them through a single composite persistence unit which combines the entities from across the multiple data sources through a single persistence context. A plurality of different types of data sources can be used, including Java Transaction API (JTA) and non-JTA data sources as well as EclipseLink's native JDBC connection pools. Each member persistence unit continues mapping its classes to its own data source. Therefore, a composite persistence unit allows one to map different entities to different data sources. Composite persistence units can be created at runtime.

EclipseLink is an object-persistence and object-transformation framework that provides development tools and run-time capabilities which can reduce development and maintenance efforts, and increase enterprise application functionality. An implementation of the Java Persistence API (JPA) framework is provided by Eclipselink, which enables java classes and objects to be stored in data sources, allowing information to be used across sessions. Using EclipseLink, software applications can be built which store persistent object-oriented data in a relational database; and can be used to transform object-oriented data into either relational data or Extensible Markup Language (XML) elements.
In EclipseLink, application defined objects which have been made persistable are referred to as entities. Entities are managed by an entity manager, which enables various operations to be performed on the entities. Entity managers can be created and configured using a persistence unit, which can be defined in a persistence.xml file.

Systems and methods for composite persistence units


The invention pertains to methods and apparatus for high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) link adaptation in which a Wireless Transmit Receive Unit (WTRU) performs a channel quality metric measurement in synchronization with a discontinuous reception cycle (DRX) while the WTRU is configured to receive a high speed downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH) from a network and transmits channel quality data over a Measured Results on random access channel (RACH) information element (IE).

High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a feature that was introduced in Release 5 of the third generation partnership project (3GPP) specifications to operate in a cell dedicated channel (Cell_DCH) state. A key operating principle of HSDPA is to share a very fast downlink (DL) pipe, the high-speed downlink physical shared channel (HS-DPSCH). A universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) can configure up to 15 HS-DPSCHs, and each of these can by shared by all wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) on a per transmission time interval (TTI) basis, (i.e., every 2 msec). As a result, the information on the downlink channels can be destined to different WTRUs at an interval of every 2 msec. In order to allow WTRUs to determine ownership of the information on these shared channels, a Node-B also sends a set of parallel high speed shared control channels (HS-SCCHs). Among other things, these channels provide details allowing the WTRUs to determine if the information on the HS-DPSCH is for them, and if so, to recover the transmitted information.
In HSDPA, the Node-B tries to make a better use of the downlink capacity by using several concepts, such as adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), retransmissions using a hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) scheme, and Node-B scheduling. All of these operate at a very fast rate, directed toward taking advantage of the changing channel conditions perceived by the WTRUs. In order to accomplish this, the Node-B schedules transmissions in order to maximize downlink throughput, (e.g., using 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) for a WTRU very close to the Node-B and using quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) for a WTRU at cell edge). This fast scheduling is complemented with H-ARQ at a physical layer, allowing retransmission of transport blocks that are received in error. Furthermore, multiple simultaneous H-ARQ processes are permitted in order to maximize utilization.
Every 2 msec, the Node-B schedules transmissions on the HS-DPSCH based on WTRU channel conditions, the status of its own downlink buffers, and status of the parallel H-ARQ processes. In addition, the Node-B tailors the transmission bit rates to the specific WTRUs by adapting the modulation, coding, and transport block size. To achieve this, the Node-B requires the following information from the WTRUs:                Channel Quality Indication (CQI): an index into a table which provides the maximum MCS and transport block the WTRU can support, based on the received DL signal power, the interference from other cells, and the WTRU receiver capability; and        Positive acknowledgement (ACK)/negative acknowledgement (NACK) feedback for the H-ARQ processes.
This feedback information is provided on a high speed dedicated physical control channel (HS-DPCCH). The CQI information is provided periodically, with periodicity determined by the UTRAN. The ACK/NACK information is only provided in response to a packet being received on the downlink. Some of the main attributes of the HS-DPCCH include:                Every WTRU having an access to the HSPDA has its own dedicated control channel and as a result the WTRU can easily provide the feedback information;        The channel is power controlled; this is accomplished through a closed loop mechanism using the downlink dedicated physical control channel (DPCCH), which always accompanies HSDPA transmission;        The information on the HS-DPCCH is heavily coded to aid in detection; and        The information on the HS-DPCCH is time aligned (but delayed) with respect to the UL DPCCH.
As part of Release 7 of 3GPP, using the high speed shared channel for WTRUs in a Cell_FACH state has been considered. The properties of a WTRU in a Cell_FACH state are quite different from those for a WTRU in a Cell_DCH state including the following:                The only uplink mechanism for Release 7 WTRUs in a Cell_FACH state is through a random access mechanism, over the random access channel (RACH);        The WTRUs autonomously update the UTRAN as to their cell location through CELL UPDATE and URA UPDATE procedures;        The WTRU can be configured for forward access channel (FACH) measurement occasions—these are periods during which the WTRU takes measurements on inter-radio access technology (RAT) and/or inter-frequency cells;        The WTRUs make the following physical layer measurements:                    common pilot channel (CPICH) received signal code power (RSCP): The received signal code power measured on the primary CPICH; and            CPICH Ec/No: The received energy per chip divided by the power density in the band. The CPICH Ec/No is defined as CPICH RSCP/UTRA Carrier received signal strength indicator (RSSI). The UTRA Carrier RSSI is not measured in Cell_FACH, but only in Cell_DCH. It is the received wide band power, including thermal noise and noise generated in the receiver, within the bandwidth defined by the receiver pulse shaping filter; and                        Physical layer measurements are reported to the UTRAN via layer 3 signalling through the Measured Results on RACH mechanism.
The measured results on RACH mechanism are designed to provide some feedback information to the UTRAN regarding the current state of the downlink. The mechanism may be controlled by the network, which broadcasts, as part of its system information in system information block 11 (SIB11) and SIB12, the information element (IE) "Intra-frequency reporting quantity for RACH Reporting". This IE tells all WTRUs in the cell the quantity to measure. The choices are highlighted in Table 1 below, along with the granularity of the reported quantity and the length of the coded information sent to the UTRAN.
TABLE 1Size of CodedQuantityDetermined by/fromGranularityInformationCPICHas measured by PHY layer−120 to −25 dBm 7RSCP(in steps 1 dBm)CPICHas measured by PHY layer−24 dB to 0 dB6Ec/No(in steps of 0.5 dB)PathlossPathloss in dB = Primary 46 to 158 dB7CPICH(in steps of 1 dB)Tx power - CPICH RSCP.Where Primary CPICH Tx power is found in the IE ″Primary CPICH Tx power″, and CPICH RSCP is asmeasured in PHY layerNo0report
Referring to Table 1 above, a WTRU takes the appropriate measurements and reports these to the higher layers, (e.g., radio resource control (RRC)). In a Cell_FACH state, the base measurement period is 200 msec, but this can be higher if a FACH Measurement Occasion is configured for monitoring inter-frequency and inter-RAT cells. The accuracy of the measurement is defined to be ±6 dB for the current cell.
The information is sent to higher layers to be included in the IE "Measured results on RACH", in a number of RRC messages including: CELL UPDATE, RRC CONNECTION REQUEST, INITIAL DIRECT TRANSFER, UPLINK DIRECT TRANSFER, and MEASUREMENT REPORT messages. Unlike the majority of other measurements and quantities available at the RRC, those carried in the IE "Measured results on RACH" can not be filtered by the RRC prior to transmission.
The IE contains the configured measured quantity for the current cell and all other intra-frequency cells in the monitored set (the monitored set includes a list of cells that the UTRAN has told the WTRU to monitor). The IE may also contain the configured measured quantity for inter-frequency cells.
For RRC messages transmitted on a common control channel (CCCH), the maximum allowed message size should not be exceeded when forming the IE "Measured results on RACH". To achieve this, the WTRU may limit the number of included neighbor cells included in the report, or omit the IE "Measured results on RACH" altogether.
If HSDPA is to be used in a Cell_FACH state, the main problem is the lack of a dedicated uplink channel and the resulting absence of feedback. Without this information, the advantages of HSDPA are significantly reduced.
Several proposals addressed to solve the feedback issue have already been made. In one proposal, it has been proposed to transmit CQI information over:                The RACH transport channel either in preamble or message;        A new shared common uplink channels; and        Shared uplink code space.
However, the techniques described above require changes to the WTRU physical layer. As there is a strong push to limit these changes, it has been proposed to use the "Measured Results on RACH" mechanism to transmit channel quality information to the UTRAN. As the information is embedded in an RRC message IE, the UTRAN radio network controller (RNC) would need to forward the channel quality information to the Node-B so that it may perform its adaptive modulation and coding.
Using the "Measured Results on RACH" mechanism to provide channel quality feedback has a number of problems, however. For example:
1. The measured quantity (metric) that is fedback and subsequently used by the Node-B is either CPICH RSCP or CPICH Ec/No. Problems that may be associated with both these measures include:                1) RSCP only measures received power on a single code and does not provide any indication about the neighbour cell interference experienced by the WTRU.        2) Ec/No provides a ratio of the power received on the CPICH to the total received downlink power (CPICH Ec/No=CPICH RSCP/UTRA Carrier RSSI). As the denominator is the total received DL power, the range of the metric is somewhat reduced compared to a pure carrier/interference ratio. Additionally, the downlink received power (i.e., RSSI) is not necessarily measured in the Cell_FACH state. If it is not, then when making a CPICH Ec/No calculation, the physical layer uses the last calculated RSSI value while in Cell_DCH state. If a UE stays in Cell_FACH for an extended period of time, this value will be outdated, and the measure will be no better than the CPICH RSCP.        3) These measures fail to take into account the WTRU receiver capability. It is possible that for the same CPICH RSCP, WTRUs with different receiver architectures could support very different modulation, coding, and transport block sizes.        4) There is poor correlation between the RSCP and Ec/No and the actual CQI.        2. As WTRUs in Cell_PCH move across cell boundaries, the UTRAN refreshes their channel quality information based on information received in the CELL UPDATE message. If these WTRUs transition to Cell_FACH, the UTRAN will have up-to-date channel quality information which it can relay to the Node-B. On the other hand, as WTRUs in URA_PCH cross UTRAN routing area (URA) boundaries, they inform the network with a URA UPDATE message. As this message does not carry the IE "Measured Results on RACH", the network will typically have out-of-date channel quality information.
3. The quantities reported in the IE: "Measured Results on RACH" cannot be filtered at the WTRU RRC. As there is a latency between the instant the measurement is made and the time the Node-B is privy to this information, using non-averaged results may result in sub-optimum performance.
4. The Measured Results on RACH mechanism is currently controlled on a per-cell basis through information broadcast in the system information. As a result, all WTRUs in a cell are required to report the same information. This limits the flexibility of the reporting mechanism as the UTRAN may favor one measure over the other depending on the eventual use. For instance, the pathloss may be a better measure for cell reselection, but the CPICH Ec/No may be better for channel quality reporting.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for high speed downlink packet access link adaptation


A bowling alley pit assembly for transferring bowling pins and balls to a pin elevator and ball return includes a base member having a forward and rear portion and a pair of laterally-spaced walls. The base member is disposed in a pit area of the bowling alley with the forward portion adjacent to the pin deck and the rear portion adjacent a pin elevating mechanism. A pair of rollers are disposed between the spaced walls and a motor is operatively connected to one of the rollers. A pit-wide endless belt passes around the rollers for moving fallen pins rearwardly away from the pin deck. The pit assembly also includes a one-piece or unitary, generally hollow, plastic bounce board disposed between the upper and lower portions of the endless belt and between the pair of rollers. The bounce board is transverse to the alley and defines two side-by-side, relatively flat portions which slope downwardly to form a shallow trough with a recessed area at one end thereof. The bounce board also includes a plurality of reinforcing members therein which support the upper panel or surface thereof.

Bowling pins and balls typically arrive in a pit area under considerable force and must be separated with the pins being fed to a pin distributer and spotter while the bowling balls are delivered to a ball return. For this reason, it is customary to provide a conveyor or travelling pit wide apron as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,526,401 to Zuercher et al. In such systems, a pit assembly includes a pit-wide belt or endless carpet which travels on a pair of parallel rollers. These rollers are transverse of the pit and mounted in a lower position thereof so that the top portion of the belt moves rearwardly and carries the fallen pins to the pin elevating mechanism. The mechanism, which is at the back of the pit, carries or lifts the pins upwardly to a pin distribution system for delivery to a pin spotter.
The apparatus normally found in a bowling alley pit includes a pair of wood bounce boards which are disposed immediately below the top portion of the belt and between the pair of rollers. The bounce boards support the top portion of the belt and are designed to withstand considerable forces. Bowling balls and pins frequently strike the belt in the area which is supported by the bounce boards which then absorb the impact. Nevertheless, these bounce boards are prone to breakage and are relatively difficult to replace. Also, in typical installations, the replacement of the bounce boards takes considerable time and may result in an alley being shut down during peak times.
In most of the modern bowling centers, the alleys are disposed in a side-by-side arrangement with each pair of alleys separated by a ball return mechanism such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,582 of Edwards, entitled "Bowling Ball Lifting Apparatus," which is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. Such centers also typically incorporate pin elevating mechanisms at the rear of the pit assembly as well as a pin distribution system above the pit and an accompanying pin spotter above the pin deck. Consequently, there is very little room for making adjustments or repairs to the pit assembly. As a result, a pair of alleys may be taken out of service for a considerable time because of a broken bounce board.
In a typical alley, the bounce boards are of different size and are designed for a left or right side alley. For example, it is necessary to stock a forward and rear bounce board for the alley on the left and the same for the alley on the right. For this reason, it is necessary to have four spare bounce boards for the possible breakage of a single board.
It has now been found that a pit assembly and bounce board in accordance with the present invention facilitates repairs and replacement of pit assemblies and bounce boards, reduces the number of spare parts in inventory as well as the number of parts in a pit assembly. In addition, the pit assemblies and bounce boards disclosed herein offer a cost advantage since fewer parts are involved, have improved durability, minimal weight, are easy to install, universal and retrofittable to many if not most alleys.

Bowling alley pit assembly and bounce board


In a method and system for evaluating interest of a tested animal, first and second dispensers for dispensing respectively a vital first liquid and a second liquid are provided in a closed space confined by a housing for containing the tested animal. The first dispenser dispenses the first liquid at a first position that is easily accessible to the tested animal. The second dispenser dispenses the second liquid at a second position higher than the first position so as to be less easily accessible to the tested animal. Amounts of the first and second liquids consumed by the tested animal within a predetermined time period are measured. The consumed amounts of the first and second liquids are subsequently compared to evaluate interest of the tested animal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the evaluation of animals, more particularly to a method and apparatus for evaluating interest of a tested animal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional sucrose preference test, which was proposed by Willner P et al in 1987, is a method for measuring interest, depression degree or anti-depression therapy reaction of a tested animal, such as a mouse.
In the conventional sucrose preference test shown in FIG. 1, a tested mouse 91, which has not been fed with water for 24 hours, is contained in a housing 92 that is provided with a first dispenser 93 for dispensing non-flavored drinking water, and a second dispenser 94 for dispensing a liquid containing 2–3% of sucrose. The first dispenser 93 dispenses the drinking water at a first position that is easily accessible to the tested mouse 91 and that is at the same level as a second position at which the second dispenser 94 dispenses the liquid containing sucrose. The positions of the first and second dispensers 93, 94 are then interchanged after 30 minutes. Thereafter, amounts of the drinking water and the liquid containing sucrose consumed by the tested mouse 91 within one hour is measured, as shown in FIG. 2.
It is known in the art that the tested mouse 91 has a natural preference toward a liquid having a sweet taste. Therefore, under normal conditions, the consumed amount of the liquid containing sucrose is greater than that of the drinking water. In view of Willner's research, it is assumed that preference to sucrose is a measure of interest of the tested mouse 91, i.e., the tested mouse 91 loses interest for the liquid containing sucrose when depressed or stressed, thereby resulting in a reduced consumed amount of the liquid containing sucrose. The interest of the tested animal 91 for the liquid containing sucrose will not recover until depression or stress disappears.
However, the consumed amount of the liquid containing sucrose obtained from the conventional sucrose preference test divided by the weight of the tested mouse 91 has no distinct variation for the depressed or stressed condition, as pointed out in "Chronic Mild Stress and Sucrose Consumption: Validity as a Model of Depression", Naida F. Forbes et al, Physiology & behavior, Vol. 60, No. 6, pp. 1481–1484, 1996. Since the first and second dispensers 93, 94 dispense respectively drinking water and the liquid containing sucrose at the first and second positions that are at the same level, the conventional sucrose preference test actually measures the preference or need of the tested mouse 91 with respect to the liquid containing sucrose. For instance, the tested mouse 91 is likely to drink more of the liquid containing sucrose when hungry, and more of the drinking water when thirsty such that the correlation between the consumed amount of the liquid containing sucrose and depression or stress cannot be verified.

Method and system for evaluating interest of a tested animal


Method for characterizing subterranean formation is described. One method includes inducing one or more fractures in a portion of the subterranean formation. Determining a poroelastic pressure response due to the inducing of the one or more fractures. The poroelastic pressure response is measured by a sensor that is in at least partial hydraulic isolation with the portion of the subterranean formation. Monitoring closure of the one or more fractures via the poroelastic pressure response.

Hydraulic fracturing is an economically important stimulation technique applied to reservoirs to increase oil and gas production. During hydraulic fracturing stimulation process, highly pressurized fluids are injected into a reservoir rock. Fractures are created when the pressurized fluids overcome the breaking strength of the rock (i.e., fluid pressure exceeds in-situ stress). These induced fractures and fracture systems (network of fractures) can act as pathways through which oil and natural gas migrate en route to a borehole and eventually brought up to surface. Efficiently and accurately characterizing created fracture systems is important to more fully realize the economic benefits of hydraulic fracturing. Determination and evaluation of hydraulic fracture geometry can influence field development practices in a number of important ways such as, but not limited to, well spacing/placement design, infill well drilling and timing, and completion design.
More recently, fracturing of shale from horizontal wells to produce gas has become increasingly important. Horizontal wellbore may be formed to reach desired regions of a formation not readily accessible. When hydraulically fracturing horizontal wells, multiple stages (in some cases dozens of stages) of fracturing can occur in a single well. These fracture stages are implemented in a single well bore to increase production levels and provide effective drainage. In many cases, there can also be multiple wells per location.
There are several conventional techniques (e.g., microseismic imaging) for characterizing geometry, location, and complexity of hydraulic fractures out in the field. As an indirect method, microseismic imaging technique can suffer from a number of issues which limit its effectiveness. While microseismic imaging can capture shear failure of natural fractures activated during well stimulation, it is typically less effective at capturing tensile opening of hydraulic fractures itself. Moreover, there is considerable debate on interpretations of microseismic events and how they relate to hydraulic fractures. Other conventional techniques include solving geometry of fractures as an inverse problem. This approach utilizes defined geometrical patterns and varies certain parameters until numerically-simulated production values matches field data. In practice, the multiplicity of parameters involved combined with idealized geometries can result in non-unique solutions.

Method for determining hydraulic fracture orientation and dimension


A magnetic-tape library system for accurately mounting a magnetic tape on a magnetic-tape drive by using a hand assembly mounted on an accessor and a method for controlling the positioning of an accessor to the magnetic-tape drive. The magnetic-tape library system includes a magnetic-tape drive for at least reading data from a magnetic tape, an accessor mechanism for transferring a magnetic tape to and from the magnetic-tape drive, and a controller for controlling operations of the accessor mechanism.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic-tape library system for accurately mounting a magnetic tape on a magnetic-tape drive by using a hand assembly mounted on an accessor and a method for controlling the positioning of an accessor to the magnetic-tape drive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A cartridge tape must be accurately transferred from a cartridge-tape storing rack (or cell in a drum unit) to a magnetic-tape drive. By improving the mechanical accuracy of each component unit of a magnetic-tape library system, the possibility of accurate transfer is improved. However, a problem occurs that the cost of the library system is increased.
Therefore, development of a library system capable of accurately transferring a cartridge and making it possible to reduce the manufacturing cost has been attempted so far. For example, the official gazette of Japanese Patent Publication No. 10-69689 discloses a system for accurately transferring a cartridge considering the error between the optical axis of a photosensor for measuring the position of an accessor and the operating axis of a hand assembly provided for the accessor for holing a cartridge in order to correct the error between driving signal of the accessor and the actual driving position.
An accessor is positioned by a photosensor when a laser beam is applied to a marking for positioning from a laser-beam source and the photosensor receives the reflected light of the laser beam. Simple and accurate positioning has been performed so far in accordance with the above configuration. However, the positioning by the photosensor still has a problem.
The problem is described below by referring to FIG. 9. FIG. 9 shows a marking 100 for positioning provided for the front of the above-described magnetic-tape drive. The above-described laser beam is scanned along a read range 114. The marking 100 is located in the read range 114 and constituted of a black area 111 in black and white area 112 in white adjacent along the scanning direction L of the laser beam.
Thus, the boundary line 113 between the black area 111 and the white area 112 is identified when the reflected light of the laser beam changes from black to white through the above scanning. Because the position of the boundary line 113 is recognized, the position of the hand assembly is corrected in accordance with the position of the boundary line 113 and thereby, more precise positioning is performed.
However, the following problems occur in the above case.
First, because the marking 100 shown in FIG. 9 is put on the surface of the frame of the magnetic-tape drive, the circumference of the marking 100 is enclosed by the color of the ground of the frame. When the color of the frame is a color between white and black (e.g. gray), the laser beam reflected before the marking 100 may be recognized as black or white. Therefore, it may be seen as the change from black to white before the marking 100 and a position different from the original boundary line 113 may be erroneously recognized as a boundary.
However, by narrowing the read range 114 of a laser beam (the width of the laser beam in its scanning direction is assumed as X) into the range of the sum of the scanning-directional width A of the black area 111 and the scanning-directional width B of the white area 112 (X less than A+B), it is possible to eliminate the influence of the circumference of the marking. To narrow the read range 114, however, it is necessary to improve the mechanical accuracy of an accessor mechanism and a problem occurs that the cost is resultantly increased.
The invention according to claim 1 comprises a magnetic-tape drive for at least reading data from a magnetic tape, an accessor mechanism for transferring a magnetic tape to and from the magnetic-tape drive, and a controller for controlling operations of the accessor mechanism.
Moreover, the accessor mechanism has a hand assembly for holding a magnetic tape and a predetermined-position detecting section provided for the hand assembly for detecting the predetermined position of the hand assembly to the magnetic-tape drive in accordance with the luminance of the reflected light due to scanning by a laser beam.
Furthermore, the magnetic-tape drive has a marking for positioning to be scanned by the laser beam. The marking is configured by two adjacent areas in black and white each other and these areas are arranged along the scanning direction of the laser beam.
Furthermore, the controller has a start position setting function for setting the scanning start position of the laser beam in a range closer to the marking than the sum of already-known widths of the two areas in their scanning directions before the marking and a positioning function for specifying the boundary between a black area and a white area in accordance with the change of luminances detected by the predetermined-position detecting section and already-known widths of the black area and white area in their scanning directions and positioning the hand assembly in accordance with the boundary position.
Operations will be described below. To position the hand assembly, scanning is performed by a laser beam from this side of the marking. Because the marking has black and white areas adjacent along the scanning direction, a state in which the luminance of the reflected light of the laser beam is low over the width of the black area and a state in which it is high over the width of the white area are continuously detected. Therefore, when the low luminance state is detected for the length equal to the already-known width of the black area and the high-luminance state following the low-luminance state is detected for the length equal to the already-known width of the white area, it is possible to specify the detection of the marking. Moreover, it is possible to specify that a position where luminances are greatly changed is present on the boundary line between the black area and the white area while the detection is performed.
On the other hand, because the area from a scanning start position up to this side of a marking which has been a problem so far is set to a value smaller than the width of the marking in its scanning direction, erroneous recognition of the marking in the this-side area cannot occur by specifying the marking by the above method.
In case of the invention according to claim 2, a controller comprises a memory for storing the already-known width of a black area in its scanning direction and that of a white area in its scanning direction, an area extracting section for extracting a white area and a black area in accordance with a detected luminance, and an area specifying section for specifying a white area and a black area in accordance with the already-known widths of areas stored in the memory.
In case of the invention according to claim 3, an accessor mechanism is characterized by being provided with a position detecting sensor for detecting the relative position relation between a hand assembly and a magnetic-tape drive and moreover, a controller has a roughly positioning section for positioning a hand assembly to a scanning start position in accordance with a relative positional relation for detecting a position detecting sensor.
In case of the invention according to claim 4, a position detecting sensor uses a photosensor.
In case of the invention according to claim 5, a black area is formed of a paint having a low light reflectance.
In case of the invention according to claim 6, at least the range from a scanning start position up to a marking in the area around the marking is made gray.
In case of the invention according to claim 7, areas of a marking are characterized by being arranged in order of a black area and a white area from a scanning start position toward the downstream side of a scanning direction.
In case of the invention according to claim 8, areas of a marking are characterized by being arranged in order of a white area and a black area from a scanning start position toward the downstream side of a scanning direction.
The invention according to claim 9 is provided with a magnetic-tape drive for at least reading data from a magnetic tape, an accessor mechanism for transferring a magnetic tape to and from the magnetic-tape drive, and a controller for controlling operations of the accessor mechanism.
Moreover, the accessor mechanism has a hand assembly for holding a magnetic tape and a predetermined-position detecting section provided for the hand assembly for detecting the predetermined position of the hand assembly to the magnetic-tape drive in accordance with the luminance of reflected light due to scanning by a laser beam.
Furthermore, the magnetic-tape drive has a marking for positioning to be scanned by a laser beam, in which the marking is configured by two adjacent areas in black and white, a black thin area and a white thin area whose scanning-directional widths are set to values smaller than the two adjacent areas, and the white thin area, black thin area, black area, and white area are arranged in order from the upstream side of the scanning directions. Moreover, the distance from the white thin area up to the black thin area is set to a value smaller than the sum of the already-known width of the white area and that of the black area and the distance from the black thin area up to the upstream side of the black area is set to a value smaller than the already-known width of the white area.
Moreover, the controller is provided with a start-position setting function for setting the scanning start position of the laser beam in a range from a position closer to the white thin area than the already-known width of the black area in its scanning direction before the white thin area up to this side of the black area and a positioning function for specifying the boundary between the black area and the white area in accordance with the change of luminances detected by the predetermined-position detecting section and the already-known widths of the black and white areas in their scanning directions and positioning the hand assembly in accordance with the position of the boundary.
To position the hand assembly, scanning by a laser beam is first performed from this side of the white thin area of the marking. The marking has a black area and a white area adjacent along the scanning direction and the black area is located at the upstream side. Therefore, a state in which the luminance of reflected light of the laser beam is low is detected over the width of the black area and then, a state in which that of reflected light of the laser beam is high is detected over the width of the white area. Therefore, when the low luminance state is detected for the length equal to the already-known width of the black area and then, the high luminance state is detected for the length equal to the already-known width of the white area, it is possible to specify the detection of the marking. Moreover, it is possible to specify that a position where luminances are greatly change while detection is performed is present on the boundary line between the black area and the white area.
On the other hand, as for the conventional problem of the area from a scanning start position up to this side of the black area of a marking, the interval from the scanning start position of a laser beam up to a white thin area is set to a value smaller than the already-known width of the black area, the distance from the white thin area up to the black thin area is set to a value smaller than the sum of widths of the already-known width of the white area and that of the black area, and the distance from the black thin area up to the upstream side of the black area is set to a value smaller than the already-known width of the white area.
Therefore, even when the mechanical accuracy of the accessor mechanism is lowered, the distance from the scanning start position up to this side of the black area is set to a large value (the distance is set to a value larger than the sum of widths of the black and white areas), and a luminance change equal to already-known widths of the black and white areas is detected in the above range, each thin area interferes with the luminance change to prevent a luminance change recognized as a marking from occurring. Therefore, erroneous recognition of a marking in this-side area does not occur.
In case of the invention according to claim 10, a controller is characterized by being provided with a memory for storing the already-known width of a black area in its scanning direction and that of a white area in its scanning direction, an area extracting section for extracting a white area and a black area in accordance with a detected luminance, and an area specifying section for specifying a white area and a black area in accordance with the already-known width of each area stored in the memory.
In case of the invention according to claim 11, an accessor mechanism is characterized by being provided with a position detecting sensor for detecting the relative positional relation between a hand assembly and a magnetic-tape drive and a controller has a roughly positioning section for positioning the hand assembly to a scanning start position in accordance with a relative positional relation for detecting the position detecting sensor.
In case of the invention according to claim 12, a range from a scanning start position up to the upstream-side end of a black area is characterized by being made gray except each thin area.
The inventions according to claims 13 to 16 show a case in which the sequence of a white area and a black area for their scanning directions and the sequence of a white thin area and a black thin area are replaced each other.
The invention according to claim 17 is a method for controlling the positioning of an accessor to the magnetic-tape drive of the magnetic-tape library system same as the invention of claim 1 except a controller, comprising:
a before-scanning positioning step of roughly positioning a hand assembly so that the scanning start position of a laser beam is positioned in a range closer to a marking than the sum of already-known widths of areas before a marking;
a scanning step of scanning an object with a laser beam by operating a predetermined-position detecting section and passing through a marking from a scanning start position;
an extracting step of extracting the then scanning range as a black area or a white area in accordance with the level of a luminance detected in accordance with the reflected light of a laser beam;
a specifying step of specifying the extracted black area and white area as a formal black area and a formal white area when the extracted black area and white area are continued and the width of the scanning range of the extracted black area becomes equal to or larger than the already-known width of the black area and that of the scanning range of the extracted white area becomes equal to or larger than the already-known width of the white area; and
a finally positioning step of adjusting the position of the hand assembly in accordance with the boundary line between the specified formal black area and white area.
The invention according to claim 18 is a method for controlling the positioning of an accessor to the magnetic-tape drive of the magnetic-tape library system same as the invention of the above-described claim 9 except a controller, comprising:
a before-scanning positioning step of roughly positioning a hand assembly so that the scanning start position of a laser beam is set in a range from a position closer to a white thin area than the already-known width of a black area in its scanning direction before the white thin area up to this side of the black area;
a scanning step of scanning an object with a laser beam by operating predetermined-position detecting means and passing through a marking from the scanning start position;
an extracting step of extracting the then scanning range as a black area or a white area in accordance with the level of a luminance detected from the reflected light of the laser beam;
a specifying step of specifying the extracted black area and white area as a formal black area and a formal white area when the extracted black and white areas are continued and the width of the scanning range of the extracted black area becomes equal to or larger than the already-known width of the black area and the width of the scanning range of the extracted white area becomes equal to or larger than the already-known width of the white area; and
a finally positioning step of adjusting the position of the hand assembly in accordance with the boundary line between the specified formal black and white areas.
The invention according to claim 19 is a method for controlling the positioning of an accessor to the magnetic-tape drive of the magnetic-tape library system same as the invention of the above-described claim 13 except a controller, characterized by comprising:
a before-scanning positioning step of roughly positioning a hand assembly so that the scanning start position of a laser beam is set in a range from a position closer to a black thin area than the already-known width of a white area in its scanning direction before the black thin area up to this side of the white area;
a scanning step of scanning an object with a laser beam by operating predetermined-position detecting means and passing through a marking from a scanning start position;
an extracting step of extracting the then scanning range as a white area or a black area in accordance with the level of the luminance detected from the reflected light of the laser beam;
a specifying step of specifying the extracted white area and black area as a formal white area and a formal black area when the extracted white and black areas are continued and the width of the scanning range of the extracted white area becomes equal to or larger than the already-known width of the white area and the width of the scanning range of the extracted black area becomes equal to or larger than the already-known width of the black area; and
a finally positioning step of adjusting the position of the hand assembly in accordance with the boundary line between the specified formal white and black areas.
It is an object of the present invention to accurately detect the original boundary between a black area and a white area without being disturbed by an unstable-reflection color other than black or white in the scanning range of a laser beam when detecting the boundary between the black area and the white area of a marking used for positioning.

Magnetic-tape library system and method for controlling positioning of accessor to magnetic-tape drive