By employing an award determining prize member incorporating a lens constructed to cooperate with printed indicia which produces a minimum of two separate and distinct visual images, depending upon the angle at which images are viewed, a unique and highly valued prize member is created, as well as prize award members which are incapable of having prize related information observed by the consumer prior to purchasing the item. In the present invention, the visual image representing the prize award information is quickly and easily mounted to the inside surface of a cap and is constructed with at least one image thereof being visible only when viewed at an angle which is substantially perpendicular to the surface of the indicia. In this way, advance determination of winning prize members by consumers prior to opening and removing the cap from the container is eliminated.

In order to entice consumers to purchase a particular product, manufacturers have often employed a wide variety of promotional contests or games. One very popular contest or game promotion involves the printing of indicia under the sealing cap employed to close and sealingly retain a liquid product within a particular container. Typically, such products are liquid or moist products, such as soda, juices, beverages, soups, detergents, mayonnaise, salad dressings, and the like.
Although such promotional contests have become very popular and are widely used by a variety of manufacturers of different liquid or moist products, one major difficulty that has been encountered in the use and distribution of products employing a promotion of this nature is the ability of consumers to determine prize winning products from non-prize winning products prior to purchasing the product. By manipulating the closed product and carefully observing the printed material placed under the cap, winning products can be found on the store shelf and selected by the consumer. As a result, the desired random distribution of prizes to all purchasers is thwarted.
In typical constructions, a liquid, wet or moist product is contained in a transparent container having either a narrow or wide portal zone which is closed by a removable cap. When a prior art promotional contest is conducted, prize-related indicia is printed under the cap of every bottle, with some indicia representing a particular prize award, while other indicia represents a loss or a no prize statement. Although attempts have been made to prevent the consumer from easily determining the particular indicia printed under the cap prior to opening and removing the cap, some consumers have become adept at carefully manipulating the product into various orientations which enable the consumer to observe the indicia printed under the cap prior to removal of the cap from the container. As a result, such consumers are able to preselect a prize bearing product from non-prize bearing products, thereby eliminating the random nature of the distribution desired by the manufacturer.
Another problem typically encountered with prior art under-the-cap promotions is the similarity between such promotions and their inability to generate interest amongst consumers to switch from one particular product to the product for which the promotional contest is being run. Although substantial effort has been expended by manufacturers in attempting to develop promotional, under-the-cap type contests which are unique and capable of generating greater interest amongst consumers, the consuming public has generally viewed under-the-cap promotions as similar contests, regardless of the manner in which awards or prizes are being won. Consequently, limited interest is generated by such under-the-cap promotions and the substantial increase of sales desired by the manufacturer is often not realized.
Therefore, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a promotional prize award member and distribution system which virtually eliminates any possibility that a prize bearing or awarding container can be pre-selected prior to opening the container.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a promotional prize award member and distribution system having the characteristic features described above which substantially increases consumer interest and distinguishes the promotional concept from all prior art promotional games.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a promotional prize award member and distribution system having the characteristic features described above which provides distribution of unique collectable items in a manner which is both inexpensive for the manufacturers to employ and exciting for consumers to receive and collect.
Other and more specific objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

Multi-image prize award and method therefor


The reset lever on a circuit breaker undervoltage relay is actuated by translating arcuate movement of a handle arm pin as the circuit breaker handle is moved to the off position into rotation of the reset lever through a complaint interface lever that is stiff enough to actuate the reset lever, but flexible enough to accommodate for overtravel of the handle arm pin when the circuit breaker is reset and for the stackup of tolerances in the operating mechanism.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to circuit breakers and, more particularly, to circuit breakers with mechanism that trip the circuit breaker when voltage in the protected circuit drops below a specified value.
2. Background Information
Circuit breakers primarily provide protection from excessive current in an electric power distribution system. Some circuit breakers additionally provide protection against low voltage that could damage equipment in the protected circuit. Typically, low voltage protection is provided by an undervoltage release (UVR) that includes a coil energized by the protected circuit. As long as the voltage remains above a dropout level, the magnetic force generated by the coil is sufficient to maintain a plunger in a retracted position. However, when the voltage drops below the specified value, a compression spring overcomes the magnetic force and extends the plunger out of the coil to actuate the trip mechanism of the circuit breaker. The magnetic force generated by the coil is not sufficient to retract the plunger against the bias of the compression spring even if it returns to full value. Consequently, a reset lever is provided to mechanically retract the plunger. It is known to actuate the reset lever when the handle of the circuit breaker is returned to the off position. A pin on the handle arm directly contacts the reset lever on the overvoltage relay as the handle reaches the off position. However, the handle needs to be moved beyond the off position to reset the circuit breaker operating mechanism. This results in overtravel of the pin on the handle arm.
In the past, this problem has been addressed by relying on the undervoltage relay to absorb any overtravel. Unfortunately, with variations in tolerances, excessive stress may occur on the undervoltage relay, and its functionality may be compromised.
There is room, therefore, for improvement in undervoltage release mechanisms for circuit breakers. There is also room for improvement in circuit breakers employing undervoltage release mechanisms.

Undervoltage release and circuit breaker incorporating same


A dynamic trip level setting apparatus is described for changing the comparison ratio with which products are optically sorted using first and second reflectance color values. The reflectance ratio for each image sorted is supplied to a RAM to update the RAM's memory. The dynamic values in the RAM are periodically employed to update a color sensitivity factor supplied to a battery-backed RAM. The battery-backed RAM value is employed in a logic device employing an algorithm and produces a variable output against which the ratio of "breaker" products (neither above a first color acceptance level nor below a second color reject level) is compared to produce a reject signal when the comparison results in an output indicating reject is appropriate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to dynamically adjusting the accept/reject level of an electronically controlled sorting machine in accordance with the actual objects being sorted.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This invention may be used with many types of sorting machines used for sorting different kinds of objects or products. A typical sorting machine of the type envisioned for this invention is a color food sorting machine comprising many different components in order to electronically discriminate unacceptable from acceptable food products and mechanically separate (i.e. sort) the bad from the good. These components are generally comprised of one or more lighting illumination sources; optical assemblies for viewing, focusing, and light wavelength filtering; photocell detectors for converting light energy into electricity; and various electronic circuits for amplifying, conditioning and classifying resultant signals into acceptable and unacceptable occurrences. For multiple channel sorting machines, multiple sets of these various components are packaged into one machine. An example of a typical system is the COLORWATCH System No. 490033 of ESM International, Inc.
In most instances, a sorting machine electrically discriminates unacceptable from acceptable products by optically detecting the color of the product and comparing it to a minimum acceptable color. If the product's color does not meet the minimum requirement, the product is rejected.
In order to remove the rejected product, such machines include an ejector mechanism located downstream from the sensor or sensors and actuated by an electrical signal originating from sensor detection. When a substandard product is detected, an electrical actuating signal is produced and the ejector is actuated just as the substandard product and the mechanism are in alignment. Therefore, there is a slight delay between detection and ejection.
Even though some sorting machines are more efficient than others, none are mechanically perfect. All machines presently in the market capture at least some objects that should have been rejected. The percentage of error due to the mechanical deficiency is consistent for a given machine. However, these mechanical limitations are amplified when there are significant variations in the products over the area of interest. For example, a growth rate of a product such as a tomato may be inconsistent throughout a field. The sorter may pass over an area where most of the tomatoes should be rejected because of the unacceptable color. Inevitably in such a situation, more unacceptable products will be classified as acceptable than should be because there are more unacceptable products present.
These limitations can have a profound impact on any given industry, and in particular the farming industry. For example, when a farmer harvests a field of tomatoes and sells them to a cannery, his paid tonnage for tomatoes is subject to dockage in relation to the quality of his fruit. One of the measures of quality is the degree of "color quality" (ripeness) of the tomatoes. A farmer can be penalized to the point of complete rejection of a load of fruit if during the sampling process it exceeds the state tolerance of green tomato content.
Tomato fields may have areas that contain a preponderance of "green" or "breaker" (immature) tomatoes. Traditionally a farmer is forced to sacrifice a portion of his deliverable fruit by setting his equipment to accept only tomatoes that are red ripe in order to insure that his overall color quality requirements are met.
Therefore, it is a feature of the present invention to provide an improved method of dynamically adjusting the accept/reject level of an electronically controlled sorter to obtain true color average in a load of sorted objects thus minimizing the amount of products rejected.
It is another feature of this invention to provide an improved method of automatically making a sorting machine more sensitive in areas that contain a high percentage of unacceptable product.
It is yet another feature of this invention to provide an improved method of optimizing the sensitivity of the sorter particularly in areas where the effects of mechanical limitations of the sorter become more prevalent.

Autotrip operation of a sorting machine using color sorting


Broadly speaking, a bandwidth matching device is provided for transforming a number of incoming data streams each having a first bandwidth into an outgoing data stream having a second bandwidth. More specifically, the bandwidth matching device provides an assembler and a disassembler. The assembler incorporates a stepped arrangement of cells for transforming the number of incoming data streams having a given bandwidth into an outgoing data stream having a larger bandwidth, wherein each portion of the outgoing data stream represents a concatenation of a number of portions of each of the incoming data streams. As a complement to the assembler, the disassembler uses a stepped arrangement of cells to transform the concatenated output generated by the assembler back into the number of incoming data streams originally received by the assembler.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to digital data transmission, and more particularly, to a device for matching a bandwidth of one component to another component.
2. Description of the Related Art
When connecting a number of peripheral devices to a computer system, it is necessary to provide a device or method to match the bandwidth of the peripheral device to the bandwidth of the computer system. If the peripheral device operates at a lower bandwidth (e.g., smaller data path width and/or lower clock speed) than a memory of the computer system, data being transmitted from the peripheral device to the memory of the computer system need to be processed such that the data is transmitted at the bandwidth of the memory. Conversely, if data is being transmitted from the memory of the computer system to the peripheral device, processing need to be performed such that the data can be transmitted at the bandwidth of the peripheral device.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a device that can match the bandwidth of one component to another component and be implemented in an efficient manner.

Bandwidth matching device and method for operating the same


An electronic system for a vehicle includes a memory and a control circuitry. The memory stores a three-dimensional (3D) model associated with the vehicle. The 3D model is a trained machine learning (ML) model that is trained using a first set of two-dimensional (2D) images as training data associated with the vehicle. The control circuitry receives a user input to display user-assistive information associated with the vehicle. The control circuitry generates a visual representation that corresponds to at least one of a first view of the vehicle or a second view of a component of the vehicle, based on the stored 3D model. The generated visual representation is different from the first set of 2D images. The control circuitry controls display of the user-assistive information that includes the generated visual representation on a display screen of the vehicle.

Many new technologies for automotive vehicles are being developed to improve driving experiences. In certain scenarios, a vehicle may include an infotainment system that may display a plurality of images of the vehicle and/or vehicle components. In such cases, the infotainment system may include a memory that stores a collection of images of the vehicle and/or the vehicle components. The collection of images may only depict a limited number of views of the vehicle and/or vehicle components. A user of the vehicle may wish to see a view of the vehicle and/or vehicle components for which images may not be stored in the memory. Also, it may not be feasible to store images of all the possible views of the vehicle and/or vehicle components as the storage size may be limited for the vehicle.

System and method for display of visual representations of vehicle associated information based on three dimensional model


A method of measuring a dry gas flow from hydrocarbon wells. The hydrocarbon wells produce a stream which contains liquids and natural gas. The method comprises providing an differential flow measurement device (orifice) located at a well site containing the hydrocarbon wells. The method further includes testing the stream for gas composition and physical characteristics. Additionally, the method comprises measuring a static temperature (T) of the stream, measuring a static pressure (Ps), and measuring a pressure differential (dP) in the differential flow measurement device (orifice). The method includes computing the liquid-gas ratio (LGR) of the stream, computing the wet gas flow rate (Qw) of the stream, computing a first dry gas flow rate (Qd1) and a second dry gas flow rate and utilizing a iterative process to correct and obtain the dry gas flow rate. The data may be transmitted to another location.

This invention relates to a method of measuring a gas flow. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, this invention relates to a method of measuring a dry gas flow from hydrocarbon wells.
According to the National Energy Board (NEB), Canada has about 53 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of marketable gas supply. The Western Canada Sedimentary basin (WCSB) accounts for more than half. In addition, the magnitude of unconventional gas resources in place is estimated to be quite formidable. However, development of this natural resources require substantial capital expenditures and extensive drilling due mostly to the decline of the know reserve pool sizes and continued high demand for natural gas.
Even though the economic climate seems favourable, producers continue to face the predicament of developing these marginal pools within budgets and strict regulatory regime. According to the data found within the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) publication titled: ST98-2006, production from the WCSB is not up to expectations, especially from unconventional sources.
Many producers have started to explore emerging operational paradigms and are open to adapting new technology devices. However, due to the realities of the labour markets, and the nature of these new technologies, typical well costs are still considered relative high in relation to the rate of returns of investment. These costs can range between 2 million to 2 hundred thousand depending on location and existing infrastructure.
Flow metering costs as a proportion of total revenue becomes significant as drill densities increase and the size of gas pools being developed get smaller. Yet, regulators continue to enforce strict measurement guidelines, effective well and reservoir management is dependent on accurate well flow data in order to design the production and processing infrastructure, control of hydrates, and the determination of optimal flow rates. Finally, accurate flow metering becomes a requirement to insure fair allocation of total production volumes when more than one party is using common pipelines, and processing facilities in joint venture relationship. One of the potential solutions for this economical dilemma which can be offered to producers is wet measurement of the flow stream, stated otherwise, metering of natural gas without separation of the liquids from the production stream.
Most typical gas wells with free liquid (water, condensate, and or a combination) in the flow stream, often require a gas-liquid separator to be installed upstream of the gas measurement device to maintain measurement accuracy within the prescribed limit established by the EUB and other similar government regulatory bodies.


The invention is a collapsible portable enclosure which is provided with 3-dimensional elements around portions of its perimeter. Various patterns, including but not limited to, pattern simulating leaves of various types of foliage are cut into a strip of fabric which is secured to the perimeter of the structure. The 3-dimensional elements protrude from the perimeter of the enclosure, move with the prevailing winds, and simulate the appearance and movement of leaves or foliage in the same environment. The enclosure further includes elastic strips to facilitate attachment of actual foliage to the exterior of the enclosure to improve its camouflage characteristics.

Portable enclosures, such as tents, have been used as blinds and shelters since the beginning of recorded time. The structure and appearance of such enclosures is as varied as human culture.
More recently, easily portable, lightweight, durable and affordable enclosures have become a desirable accessory for many outdoor recreational activities, including camping and hunting. The widespread availability of modern lightweight structures and fabrics has resulted in the availability of literally hundreds of new designs for portable enclosures. Among the many popular current styles for tents and hunting blinds are the so-called "collapsible" structures which utilize a spring-like framework which can be easily collapsed and folded for transportation and storage. Such popular designs are typified in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,675,667, issued to Miller.
It is also well known to apply camouflage or background matching patterns or colors to portable enclosures. It is desirable, particularly for hunters, that a tent or hunting blind be as inconspicuous as possible in its environment, and the development of realistic camouflage patterns for such enclosures (as well as other articles) has resulted in the widespread availability of enclosures which are almost invisible in specific backgrounds. For example, such enclosures may be provided with a typical woodland's camouflage pattern, in which the enclosure's fabric bears a depiction of typical mid-summer forest greenery, including the usual mix of deciduous and coniferous foliage, underbrush and grasses which might be found in a Midwestern woodland. Enclosures bearing particular camouflage patterns may also benefit by having interchangeable coverings, such as those taught by our currently pending United States patent application entitled "Collapsible Enclosure With Interchangeable and Reversible Covering Elements", Ser. No. 10/025,279.
Use of existing enclosures in the outdoor environment has been successful However, it is apparent from such use that significant improvements could be achieved by more effectively blending such devices into the woodland's background by adding 3-dimensional elements, particularly around the perimeter of the device. The rationale for this improvement is that even when provided with otherwise effective camouflage patterns, it has been discovered that the well-defined edges of such enclosures is discernable to the eye, and particularly noticeable to certain species of wildlife.
There is a need, therefore, for a camouflage-type enclosure which is provided with means for interrupting the otherwise curvilinear or linear edges and planar sides of the enclosure, particularly in relation to an environment of varied foliage types.

Collapsible enclosure with 3-dimensional trim elements


A feed mixture containing C.sub.4 -olefins to C.sub.7 -olefins is evaporated and mixed with steam in a weight ratio of H.sub.2 O:hydrocarbons in the range from 0.5:1 to 3:1. The steam containing feed mixture with an inlet temperature in the range from 380.degree. to 500.degree. C. is introduced into a reactor, which contains a bed of granular, form-selective zeolite catalyst. The zeolite is of the pentasil type and has an atomic ratio of Si:Al of 10:1 to 200:1. From the bed a product mixture is withdrawn whose temperature is 20.degree. to 80.degree. lower than the inlet temperature, and whose total content of propylene and butene isomers is at least 60 wt-% of the olefinic constituents of the feed mixture.

A process of this type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,735. In this process, a large amount of propane (a C.sub.3 -alkane) is added to the feed mixture containing C.sub.4 -olefins to C.sub.7 -olefins before it is passed over the catalyst, and in addition to C.sub.2 -olefins to C.sub.4 -olefins a considerable amount of C.sub.6 and higher aromatics is generated.

Process of generating C.sub.3 - and C.sub.4 -olefins from a feed mixture containing C.sub.4 to C.sub.7 olefins


The semiconductor device, in which a flaking of a layer or an element is prevented, is provided. A bonding pad section 13 of a semiconductor device 1 includes a polysilicon film 131, a barrier metal film 133 provided on the polysilicon film 131 and a metallic electrode 134 provided on the barrier metal film 133. The surface roughness of the surface of the polysilicon film 131 in the side of the barrier metal film 133 is equal to or larger than 3 nm. Further, the polysilicon film 131 contains substantially no phosphorus.

1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device.
2. Related Art
A type of semiconductor device 100 shown in FIG. 11 is known in the conventional technology. The semiconductor device 100 includes a silicon substrate (semiconductor substrate) 101, a field oxide film 102 provided on the silicon substrate 101 and a bonding pad section provided on the field oxide film 102 (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. S63-67,754 (1988)). The bonding pad section comprises a doped polysilicon film 103, which is provided on the field oxide film 102 and is doped with phosphorus, a silicon dioxide film 104, which is formed so as to cover the polysilicon film 103, a doped polysilicon film 105, which is provided on the silicon dioxide film 104 and is doped with phosphorus, a molybdenum silicide film (barrier metal film) 106 provided on the doped polysilicon film 105, and an aluminum film 107 provided on the molybdenum silicide film 106.
A phosphosilicate glass (PSG) film or a borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) film 108 having an opening is mounted on the molybdenum silicide film 106, and the aluminum film 107 is disposed in the opening of the film 108 of PSG or BPSG. Moreover, a type of semiconductor device described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H5-175,196 (1993) is also known in a conventional technology. This semiconductor device includes a silicon substrate and a bonding pad section provided on the silicon substrate, and the bonding pad section includes a polysilicon film, a titanium-tungsten (TiW) layer (barrier metal film) provided on the polysilicon film and an aluminum (Al) alloy layer provided on the TiW layer.
Nevertheless, in the technologies described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. S63-67,754 (1988) and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H5-175,196 (1993), a flaking may be caused in the bonding pad section, when the bonding process is conducted.

Polysilicon film with increased roughness


The multi-purpose rake includes a rake head and a detachable pole for pulling the rake across a surface. The rake head has a frame with two arced end ribs, an upper and a lower crossbar extending between the end ribs. The upper crossbar has a sleeve or other attachment means extending therefrom for receiving and retaining one end of the pole. A wire mesh cage is formed into an arc to conform to the end ribs and is attached to the ribs and the upper and lower crossbar. In the preferred embodiment, the end ribs are formed from a continuous panel so that the ends of the rake head are fully closed. The detachable pole is preferably constructed in multiple sections that can be broken down for easy transport. Optional clips or other retainers may be disposed on the rake head for retaining the pole sections for easy transport and storage. An optional handhold can be provided for facilitating transport of the disassembled rake.

Recreational outings to the beach or shoreline can be disrupted or even ruined by injuries resulting from stepping on or otherwise coming in contact with a partially buried glass shard, fish hook, nail, shell fragment or other sharp object that can puncture unprotected skin. Such objects are typically very difficult to detect visually because they may be completely covered by thin layer of sand or soil, only to be revealed when a person's weight is applied directly on top of the object, when it is too late to avoid contact. While popular public beach areas may be maintained by periodically dragging a large rake across the sand using a tractor or similar motorized vehicle, such rakes capture only the largest objects such as driftwood, large pieces of seaweed, cans, plastic bags or newspapers, leaving behind smaller, sharp objects partially concealed as the sand is raked. Further, such methods can only be used in large, sandy open areas. For beaches that have large rocks protruding through the sand, or areas with scattered plant life, vehicle-drawn rakes cannot be used.
Hand tools designed for sifting debris from sand and soil have been disclosed in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,690 describes a tapered wedge attached to a mesh cage. The wedge is pulled across the surface of the sand or soil by a handle so that wedge ramps debris into the mesh cage. Because the mesh case does not contact the ground, the wedge provides the bulk of the sifting function while the cage acts as a receptacle for holding the collected debris. The wedge tends to be rigid and is fairly bulky, making it rather inconvenient to transport the tool for use on a recreational outing that often involves the need to simultaneously transport toys, beach chairs, towels, picnic gear and other items from a vehicle to the destination.
Another hand tool is the combination sand rake and shovel described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,122. The body of the shovel is a mesh material so that, after the head of the shovel is driven into the sand, the sand above the shovel is sifted as the shovel head is lifted upward. While the sifting action may be effective in filtering small objects, a great deal of energy must be expended to clean an area of a square meter or more.
In view of the limitations of prior art devices, the need remains for a hand tool which can be easily transported for use during outings, and which can be used effectively to clean a large enough area to provide room to move about and play without requiring significant exertion by the user. The present invention is directed to such a tool.


A method and a system for current limiting using PWM control have been provided. The method includes sensing a load current to produce a control voltage. The control voltage is compared with a reference voltage to produce a detected output signal. Thereafter, the detected output signal is delayed and multiplied with a master PWM signal.

Controlled voltage power supply circuits can commonly be regulated but, regulation arrangements in variable power supply circuits are typically not able to provide adequate protection against over-current or short circuit conditions. One such circuit protection problem relates to fan start-up conditions that impact variable power supply requirements. The current drawn by fans at their start-up can be much greater than the normal current drawn for operating. Moreover, for those types of fans that are hot-swappable or are connected with cables, protection for a situation of over-current is required for both safety as well as equipment protection reasons.


An exercising apparatus. The exercise apparatus includes an outer frame having curved first and second rails and an outer handle between the rails, and an inner frame slidably coupled to the outer frame for movement of the inner frame along the first and second rails. The inner frame includes an inner handle movable toward the outer handle when the inner frame is moved in a first direction. The apparatus also includes at least one resistance device coupling the inner and outer frames together, the resistance device resisting movement of the inner frame in the first direction.

Various exercise devices are available for increasing the strength and range of motion of the muscles and tendons in the hands and forearms. One type of exercise device is typically operated with one hand by grasping a pair of spaced handles in one hand and repeatedly closing the hand to move the handles together. The operation of this type of device typically uses many of the muscles and tendons of the hand and forearm. However, in some instances emphasizing specific muscles and tendons would be useful. Placing emphasis on muscles and tendons would provide considerable variation in muscle interaction, providing beneficial results during rehabilitation from an injury or surgery, or even in the prevention of repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. An exercise device which may be used to exercise the hand and forearm while emphasizing selected muscles and tendons is desirable.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,570,849, 5,125,878 and 5,611,755 disclose exercise devices which include an outer frame with a pair of spaced rods and an inner frame which slides along the rods. With the devices shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,570,849 and 5,125,878, tensioning members couple the inner frame to the outer frame to supply the resistance for the exercise. The resistance may be easily adjusted by adding or removing tensioning members. With the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,878, the distance initially separating the spaced handles may also be adjusted. The device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,755 may be used to exercise one or both hands, with the resistance being provided by the opposite hand. One of the rods of the outer frame is longer than the other to ensure the device is operated properly during the exercise, reducing the assistance of the stronger muscles of the upper arms, chest and back during the exercise.
An exercise device which may be used to emphasize specific muscles and tendons is desirable. A device which emphasizes different muscles and tendons depending upon how the exercise device is used is also desirable. Similarly, an exercise device in which the resistance may be easily adjusted without altering the device is desirable.


A system, method and computer readable medium are disclosed for tracking motion of an object image, by receiving an input image and correlating the input image with a reference image by computing differences between the input image and the reference image. A motion vector is generated for a subimage of the input image using a subimage metric surface, and a tracking assessment of object image motion is output based on the motion vector.

Methods and systems for tracking an object image by correlating sequential image frames are known. Correlation tracking requires no a-priori model, or template, and can therefore track movement of an arbitrary object image in scenery over a succession of image frames. Correlation trackers can "walk-off" an object in situations where a human operator would have no trouble identifying an object's true location, and can lose the ability to track the object image in succeeding frames.
A typical correlation tracking operation establishes a reference image which includes, for example, an image of an object in its entirety. In succeeding frames, the correlation tracker tries to compare the previously received reference image to a currently received input image by sliding the reference image around a designated search area of the input image. A summation output, taken over the search area can be produced as a metric surface, wherein a peak (i.e., minimum difference) can be used to indicate a best match between a location of the reference image over the search area to identify the most likely matching location of the object image.
When a best match is determined for a given search area, the system can attempt to quantify the quality of the match. For example, using the detected peak of the metric surface, a motion vector can be determined. The peak can be compared against a threshold criteria and, if the peak satisfies the criteria, the correlation can be considered sufficient to allow the input image to be used in updating the reference image. Reference image update strategies are known which involve blending some percentage of an aligned input image with the reference image. If the peak does not satisfy the threshold criteria, the blending operation can be dropped so that an undesirable input image will not contaminate the reference image.
Known correlation tracking techniques are typically not gain and level invariant, and can exhibit sensitivity to variations in target size, target rotation, partial obscuration and noise. This sensitivity can lead to walk-off and/or loss of track. With walk-off, a tracker remains confident that it is properly tracking an object even through the object has been lost.
Walk-off occurs gradually due, for example, to a contamination of a reference image whereby the correlation tracker incorrectly identifies what it considers to be an accurate location of an object image within the input image. In this case, the threshold criteria does not detect the contamination, and walk-off can occur. A loss of track can occur when a tracker realizes that it is no longer able to track a desired object. This occurs when the tracker is unable to identify any acceptable match within a search area.

System and method for tracking motion of an object image


A first user of a presentation machine may be a recruiter that initiates an action in reference to a first user profile. The first user profile may describe a first candidate for a job. The presentation machine may identify the first user profile and determine a similarity score that indicates a degree of similarity between the first user profile and a second user profile that describes a second candidate for the job. The presentation machine may also access a volatility score that indicates a likelihood that the second candidate is receptive to a proposal that the second candidate be employed by an employer. Based on the similarity score and on the volatility score, the presentation machine may determine a rank of the second user profile. Based on the determined rank, the presentation machine may present the second user profile to the first user.

A machine (e.g., a server machine) may form all or part of a network-based system that provides one or more network-based services to one or more users. To offer personalized or otherwise customized features of the network-based service, the machine may maintain a profile of some or all of the users of the service. In some cases, the machine creates and stores a data structure (e.g., data record within a database) that describes a user, in whole or in part. Such a data structure may be referred to as a "user profile" of the user. For example, the user profile may describe the user by specifying (e.g., by inclusion or by reference) one or more characteristics of the user. Examples of such characteristics include the user's name (e.g., full name or username), address e.g., home address or email address), age (e.g., birth date), gender (e.g., sex), previous item purchased, previous item viewed, employer, job title, number of years at job, marital status (e.g., single or married), availability for online dating, favorite color, favorite movie, favorite sport, preference for smoking, preference for drinking (e.g., alcoholic beverages), or any suitable combination thereof. In some situations, any user profile may be presented (e.g., displayed), in whole or in part, by the machine (e.g., in response to a request by the user to view or update his profile).


A cooling method of a hydrotreating plant having a desulfurization section (1) including a furnace (12) for heating liquid to be processed, reactors (14, 15) for hydrotreating sulfur to generate hydrogen sulfide, a hydrogen sulfide absorber (19) for absorbing the hydrogen sulfide generated in the reactors (14, 15), and a compressor (21) for compressing and transferring fluid from the hydrogen sulfide absorber (19) toward the reactors (14, 15), the cooling method comprising the steps of gradually depressurizing the hydrotreating plant at the desulfurization section (1) to a pressure level at which reactor material does not embrittle and gas does not leak due to difference of mechanical thermal expansion in the plant after stopping supply of the liquid to be processed, operating the compressor (21) approximately at the maximum rotation number, and completely extinguishing burners (12A, 12B) in the furnace (12) during plant shutdown operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling method of hydrotreating plant and a cooling unit therefor.
2. Description of Related Art
A general hydrotreating plant includes a desulfurization section having a reactor for generating hydrogen sulfide by hydrotreating sulfur and a hydrogen sulfide absorber for absorbing the hydrogen sulfide generated in the reactor, and a hydrogen sulfide absorbing section for circulating liquid for absorbing the hydrogen sulfide in the hydrogen sulfide absorber.
In the hydrotreating plant, the reactor should be rapidly cooled approximately from 400 to 40 degrees centigrade during plant shut down operation for the maintenance work such as catalyst replacement.
An air-cooling heat exchanger has been used as a cooling unit for cooling the hydrotreating plant. The air-cooling heat exchanger is provided on the downstream side of the reactor, and removes heat of a recycled gas circulated in a line of the air-cooling heat exchanger.
However, it takes five to seven days for the conventional method to cool the reactor of the hydrotreating plant from 400 to 40 degrees centigrade. Further, the term for cooling is influenced by an atmospheric temperature.
To solve the problem, some solutions have been developed such as a method in which the whole air-cooling heat exchanger is cooled by spraying water on the exchanger (improvement 1), a method in which a bypass is installed on the heat exchanger in the desulfurization section and a cooled recycled gas passing the bypass is directly introduced into the reactor (improvement 2), a method in which liquid nitrogen is supplied from the top of the reactor to lower the temperature of the recycled gas (improvement 3), a method in which liquid propane is supplied from the top of the reactor to lower the temperature of the recycled gas (improvement 4), a method in which a whole furnace is cooled by watering the top thereof (improvement 5), and a method in which circulating liquid is cooled by a special cooling unit provided on the hydrogen sulfide absorber and a circulating gas is cooled by the cooled circulating liquid passing through the hydrogen sulfide absorber, so that the whole reactor is cooled by the cooled circulating gas (improvement 6).
In the improvement 1, since the water spray damages a motor and a bearing of the air-cooling heat exchanger, a damage-preventing shield and a water-drop-preventing tub for the motor etc. are necessary. Further, a lot of water is necessary for adequately cooling the air-cooling heat exchanger.
In the improvement 2, high quality and thick pipes are required for the line, since the bypass is installed in the high-temperature and high-pressure desulfurization section, so that bypass installation cost is very expensive. Further, the bypass in itself doesn't bring enough cooling acceleration effect.
In the improvement 3, huge amount of liquid nitrogen is necessary for adequately cooling the plant, so that excessive running cost is needed.
In the improvement 4, it is necessary to purge out the evaporated propane gas to a flare by nitrogen gas after cooling.
In the improvement 5, since the inside of the furnace is heavily wetted with the water, it takes additional time for start up operation. Further, it is necessary to prevent the water from penetrating into a burner of the furnace. Furthermore, since the whole furnace is cooled by water, cooling efficiency is low and a lot of water is necessary for adequate cooling.
In the improvement 6, though more efficient cooling than the improvements 1 to 5 is possible, since special cooling unit is necessary, cost for preparing the unit and additional set-up work are necessary therefor.

Cooling method of hydrotreating plant and cooling unit therefor


An OSGi-based home gateway apparatus and a device register method includes a device detecting unit which detects at least one legacy device which does not load a controllable middleware from a plurality of home devices connected to the home network; an outside network interface which receives drive information of the detected legacy device through the outside network; a bundle creating unit which creates a legacy bundle by combining the input drive information and a predetermined network protocol which can be used in the home network; and a device registering unit which registers the created legacy bundle to the OSGi framework.

1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to an open service gateway initiative (OSGi)-based home gateway and a device registration. More particularly, apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to an OSGi-based home gateway and a device registration adapted to control home electric appliances without recourse to any controllable middleware bundle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A home network system is a scheme serving as a liaison between a home network and an exterior network and enables an intelligent communication therebetween. Through this network system, home information resources can be shared, and individual home appliances can be maximally utilized.
In order to control the home devices of the home network, an OSGi is used. The OSGi is a standard using a platform independence of Java and a network mobility of the execution code in order to give a dynamic service for a small capacity memory device.
The OSGi is a standard so made as to be operated under a Java Virtual Machine (VM), and the OSGi service is available in a physical package called a "bundle". A plurality of OSGi services are included in one bundle. The bundle forms a basic unit for distribution and management.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a transfer process of a bundle in a home network system.
Referring to FIG. 1, the home network system includes a remote server 20 communicating through a home gateway 40 and an external network 30, and a plurality of service providers 10a, 10b, . . . 10n.
If the plurality of service providers 10a, 10b, . . . 10n transmit services to a remote server 20, the remote server 20 creates bundles, which enables an install process and an upgrade, with the services from the service providers 10a, 10b, . . . 10n, and provides the bundles to a home gateway 40.
Conventionally, the service providers 10a, 10b, . . . 10n provide services to users through the remote server 20. However, a service provider 10n out of a plurality of service providers may directly provide services to the users by creating bundles by itself and bypassing the remote server 20.
The bundles transmitted by the above process are managed by an OSGi Framework. The OSGi Framework is equipped with a service register to perform a registration, an inquiry, an execution and a deletion with regard to the services.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating remote control in a home network system.
Home devices can be controlled by an outside remote controller 50. A control signal output by the remote controller 50 is transmitted to relevant devices through the home gateway 40.
As shown in the drawing, the home devices can be classified into a device with a middleware 60, such as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) which can be provided as a bundle form to the OSGi, and a device without middleware 70.
Since the OSGi service is structured to control devices on a home network from the outside by loading middleware bundles on the OSGi framework, the device with middleware 60 can be controlled by the remote controller 50. However, the device without middleware 70 cannot be controlled by the remote controller 50.
For that reason, both the device with the middleware 60 and the device without middleware 70, cannot be connected and controlled in a network. Thus, in case the device with the middleware 60 and the device without the middleware 70 are connected in a network, a controllable middleware should be added to the device without middleware 70, resulting in excessive cost.

Open service gateway initiative-based home gateway apparatus and device registration method thereof


A high-frequency module comprising a high-frequency device-mounting package and an external circuit board, wherein said high-frequency device-mounting package includes a dielectric substrate having a first grounding layer contained therein, said dielectric substrate mounting a high-frequency device on one surface thereof and having, formed on one surface thereof, first high-frequency signal transmission lines connected to said high-frequency device, and having, formed on the other surface thereof, second high-frequency signal transmission lines coupled to said first high-frequency signal transmission lines; said external circuit board is constituted by a dielectric board having third high-frequency signal transmission lines and a second grounding layer, said third high-frequency signal transmission lines being formed on one surface of said dielectric board, and said second grounding layer being formed on the other surface of said dielectric board or inside thereof; and said high-frequency device-mounting package and said external circuit board are arranged side by side, and the second high-frequency signal transmission lines of the high-frequency package are electrically connected to the third high-frequency signal transmission lines of the external circuit board through linear electrically conducting members. The patterns of the second high-frequency signal transmission lines on the side of the high-frequency device-mounting package can be easily aligned with the patterns of the third high-frequency signal transmission lines on the side of the external circuit board, effectively reducing the transmission loss at the junction portions of the lines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-frequency module in which a high-frequency device-mounting package mounting a high-frequency device operating on high-frequency signals of from a microwave band to a millimeter-wave band, is mounted on an external circuit board. More particularly, the invention relates to a high-frequency module in which a high-frequency device-mounting package (hereinafter often referred to simply as high-frequency package) is connected to an external circuit board without deteriorating characteristics of the high-frequency signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional representative high-frequency modules equipped with a high-frequency package mounting a high-frequency device that operates on high-frequency signals of microwaves and millimeter waves, have structures as shown in FIGS. 11a and 11b.
Referring, for example, to FIG. 11a, a high-frequency package 80 comprises a dielectric substrate 82 mounting a high-frequency device 81 which is air-tightly sealed in a cavity 85 formed by a frame 83 and a closure 84. On the surface of the dielectric substrate 82 are formed high-frequency signal transmission lines (hereinafter often referred to simply as high-frequency lines) 86 such as microstrip lines connected to the high-frequency device 81. The high-frequency lines 86 are drawn out of the cavity 85 through the frame 83 and extend to the back surface of the dielectric substrate 82 passing over the side surfaces of the dielectric substrate 82. That is, the high-frequency lines 86 on the back surface of the dielectric substrate 82 are connected to high-frequency lines 88 formed on an external circuit board 87 such as mother board through an electrically conducting material 89 such as solder. High-frequency signals are input to the high-frequency device 81 through the high-frequency lines 86, or high-frequency signals are output to the high-frequency lines 86 from the high-frequency device 81. In the high-frequency module equipped with a plurality of high-frequency packages 80 as shown in FIG. 11a, furthermore, the high-frequency lines 86 on the back surface of the dielectric substrate 82 of each package 80 are connected to the high-frequency lines 88 of the external circuit board 87, so that the high-frequency packages 80 are electrically connected to each other.
A high-frequency module shown in FIG. 11b has the same structure as the high-frequency module of FIG. 11a except that the high-frequency lines 86 formed on the front and back surfaces of the dielectric substrate 82. of the high-frequency package 80 are connected together using the through-hole conductors 90 penetrating through the dielectric substrate 82. In the high-frequency module of FIG. 11a, the high-frequency lines 86 are drawn to the external side through the frame 83, involving such defects that the high-frequency signals produce reflection loss and radiation loss at portions where the high-frequency lines 86 pass through the frame 83 and that characteristics of the high-frequency signals are deteriorated. Besides, since the high-frequency lines 86 are folded, high-frequency signals of the millimeter band produce a large reflection loss at the folded portions of the high-frequency lines 86, making it difficult to transmit or receive signals. In the high-frequency module of FIG. 11b, on the other hand, the high-frequency lines 86 formed on the front and back surfaces of the dielectric substrate 82 are connected together using the through-hole conductors 90, offering an advantage in that the above-mentioned reflection loss and radiation loss are decreased.
In the above-mentioned high-frequency modules of FIGS. 11a and 11b, however, the high-frequency lines 86 of the high-frequency package are connected to the high-frequency lines 88 of the external circuit board through the electrically conducting adhesive material 89 such as solder, making it very difficult to accomplish the alignment of the patterns of the high-frequency lines 86 and the patterns of the high-frequency lines 88. Depending on the frequency of signals, therefore, there occurs reflection loss due to mismatching of the impedance at the connection portions using the electrically conducting adhesive material 89, whereby the transmission loss so increases that it often becomes difficult to transmit signals of high frequencies.
The object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a high-frequency module which enables the patterns of high-frequency lines of a high-frequency package to be easily aligned with the patterns of high-frequency lines of an external circuit board, enabling the transmission loss of high-frequency signals to be effectively decreased at the junction portions of these lines.
According to the present invention, there is provided a high-frequency module comprising a high-frequency device-mounting package and an external circuit board; wherein
the high-frequency device-mounting package includes a dielectric substrate having a first grounding layer contained therein, the dielectric substrate mounting a high-frequency device on one surface thereof and having, formed on one surface thereof, first high-frequency signal transmission lines connected to the high-frequency device, and having, formed on the other surface thereof, second high-frequency signal transmission lines coupled to the first high-frequency signal transmission lines;
the external circuit board is constituted by a dielectric board having third high-frequency signal transmission lines and a second grounding layer, the third high-frequency signal transmission lines being formed on one surface of the dielectric board, and the second grounding layer being formed on the other surface of the dielectric board or inside thereof; and
the high-frequency device-mounting package and the external circuit board are arranged side by side, and the second high-frequency signal transmission lines of the high-frequency device-mounting package are electrically connected to the third high-frequency signal transmission
lines of the external circuit board through linear electrically conducting members.
The invention further provides a high-frequency device-mounting package equipped with a dielectric substrate having a grounding layer contained therein; wherein
the dielectric substrate mounts a high-frequency device on one surface thereof and has, formed on one surface thereof, first high-frequency signal transmission lines connected to the high-frequency device, and has, formed on the other surface thereof, second high-frequency signal transmission lines coupled to the first high-frequency signal transmission lines; and
a connection portion is formed at the ends of the second high-frequency signal transmission lines for connecting linear electrically conducting members connected to an external circuit board.
In the high-frequency module of the present invention if briefly described, the high-frequency device-mounting package (high-frequency package) and the external circuit board are arranged side by side, and the second high-frequency signal transmission lines on the package and the third high-frequency signal transmission lines of the external circuit board are connected together through linear electrically conducting members such as wires, ribbons or electrically conducting tapes, making very important features. The module of the present invention having the above-mentioned structure offers an advantage in that when the high-frequency package is mounted on the external circuit board, the patterns of the second high-frequency signal transmission lines of the package can be (easily aligned with the patterns of the third high-frequency signal transmission lines of the external circuit board, producing a small high-frequency signal transmission loss between the lines.
In the present invention, the first high-frequency signal transmission lines formed on one surface of the dielectric substrate in the high-frequency package and connected to the high-frequency device, can be directly connected to the second high-frequency signal transmission lines formed on the other surface of the dielectric substrate by using, for example, through-hole conductors. Desirably, however, they should be electromagnetically coupled together. When they are connected together by using through-hole conductors, the high-frequency signal transmission characteristics may often be deteriorated in the connected portions due to signal transmission loss. When they are electromagnetically coupled together, however, no such loss takes place. These lines can be easily electromagnetically coupled together by forming slots in the grounding layer in the dielectric substrate.
According to the present invention, furthermore, the grounding layer formed in the dielectric substrate in the high-frequency package is partly exposed. By utilizing the exposed surface of the grounding layer, the grounding layer of the package is connected to the grounding layer formed on the external circuit board or to the grounding layer of other package, in order to easily maintain constant at all times the gap between the grounding layer and the high-frequency signal transmission lines formed on the package or on the external circuit board thereby to decrease the transmission loss of high-frequency signals.

High-frequency module using slot coupling


A hockey puck for street hockey or roller hockey has a cylindrical body with a hollow interior having liquid in the interior. Another embodiment provides a baffle in the interior of the hollow body to control the flow of the liquid within the cylindrical body. A further embodiment provides low friction slider members on the end faces of the puck. The slider members are arcuate shaped and are arranged around the periphery of the top and bottom surfaces of the puck. In a further embodiment, the slider members wrap around the edges of the puck onto the cylindrical side. The slider members can be used with or without the liquid containing interior space. Another embodiment provides a shock absorbing center portion in the form of a central core with flexible spokes extending between the core and an outer ring.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a hockey puck, and in particular to a puck for playing hockey on, for example, a non-ice surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ice hockey is played on ice in an ice rink or on the frozen surface of a pond, lake or river using a puck. The puck is flat cylinder of hard rubber, and due to the slipperiness of the ice it slides easily across the surface of the ice. The puck tends to stay flat, resting on one of its flat surfaces, as it is moved across the ice by the players using hockey sticks, again due to the slipperiness of the ice.
An increasingly popular sport is floor hockey or street hockey, which is played much the same as ice hockey except that is its played on a floor, street, parking lot, tennis court, or other dry surface. The players thus do not wear ice skates during play but may wear athletic shoes, roller skates or in-line skates, and the play is not limited to cold weather when played outdoors or on an expensive ice rink when played indoors.
Floor hockey or street hockey uses either a puck or a ball as the puck in a way comparable to ice hockey. A variety of pucks have been proposed to simulate the playing characteristics of the hard rubber ice hockey puck on ice. For instance, soft rubber pucks are known. These are either solid or hollow and are best suited for children and less experienced players, since the soft rubber tends to grip the playing surface rather than slide across it. Hard rubber pucks are also known. A type of hard rubber puck on the market has round pegs projecting in an arrangement on the flat surfaces to enhance sliding of the puck on the playing surface.
All of the known pucks for non-ice surface play have disadvantages in simulating the action of a puck on ice. The pucks do not slide well, which causes them to move slower and for less distance. This is particularly true when the puck is used on a type of playing surface referred to as sport court, which has a 15 to 20 percent rubber content. The pucks have a greater tendency to bounce and to tip up on edge and roll across the floor out of control than when played on ice. This is very disruptive for the players since the rolling puck travels much farther and faster than a sliding puck so that it may have to be chased. Further, the rolling puck often veers off in different directions, usually on a curved path, as it rolls instead of sliding along a generally straight line. Accurate passing and shooting of the puck is thereby difficult to accomplish.


Embodiments of the invention provide a hollow cable for conveying radiofrequency and/or microwave frequency energy to an electrosurgical instrument that can fit within, e.g. slide relative to, the hollow cable. The hollow cable provides a bipolar electrical connection to the electrosurgical instrument that is maintained when the electrosurgical instrument is rotated relative to the hollow cable. The cable may comprise a hollow coaxial transmission line having a rotatable component mounted at its distal end. The rotatable component comprises a longitudinal passageway continuous with the hollow coaxial transmission line. The rotatable component is rotatable relative to the transmission line and comprises a first and second conductive portions that are respectively electrically connected to first and second terminals on the coaxial transmission line and which are configured to maintain an electrical connection with their respective terminal when rotated relative to the coaxial transmission line.

Electrosurgical instruments are instruments that are used to deliver radiofrequency and/or microwave frequency energy to biological tissue, for purposes such as cutting biological tissue or coagulating blood. Radiofrequency and/or microwave frequency energy is supplied to the electrosurgical instrument using a cable. Conventional cables used for this purpose have a coaxial transmission line structure comprising a solid cylindrical inner conductor, a tubular layer of dielectric material around the inner conductor, and a tubular outer conductor around the dielectric material.
When operating many electrosurgical instruments it is common to need to provide additional supplies or components (e.g. control means) to the electrosurgical instrument, such as a liquid or gas feed, liquids or gasses, or guide- or pull-wires for manipulating (for example opening/closing, rotating or extending/retracting) part(s) of the electrosurgical instrument.
In order to provide these additional supplies or components to the electrosurgical instrument, additional structures have been provided together with the conventional cable, such as additional tubes adjacent to the conventional cable. For example, it is known to provide an additional tube housing a pull-wire for the electrosurgical instrument alongside the conventional cable, and to house the conventional cable and the tube housing the pull-wire within a single protective jacket/casing.

Cable for conveying radiofrequency and/or microwave frequency energy to an electrosurgical instrument


A thread cutting device for a sewing machine includes a stationary blade which is disposed downwardly of a needle plate and a movable blade. The stationary blade is provided at its one end with a cutting edge. The movable blade which is formed with a cutout in the surface opposite to the stationary blade, is adapted to rotate about a shaft and pass over the needle plate and the stationary blade. The cutout is adapted to catch and guide a thread along a path for the thread and provided with a cutting edge to cooperate with the cutting edge of the stationary blade to cut the thread. A through hole is formed between the cutout and the cutting edge of the movable blade to meander the thread through the hole.

Thread cutting devices for sewing machines are known in the art. A conventional thread cutting device for the sewing machine which is mounted downwardly of a throat or a needle plate is shown in FIG. 1.
A stationary blade 1 is firmly held in position downwardly of the throat plate and includes at its tip end a knife or cutting edge 2. The cutting edge 2 extends to the vicinity of a needle guide 3 with an opening through which a needle (not shown) passes. A movable blade 4 is connected to a certain drive means or mechanism (not shown) and is so driven about a shaft 5 in the direction of an arrow as to extend across the stationary blade 1. A cutout 7 is formed in the movable blade 4 on the back side thereof as viewed from FIG. 1 to face the stationary blade 1. The cutout 7 is provided at its corner with a circular hole 6 and serves to guide threads (not shown) extending from needle guide 3 along a path. The circular hole 6 is ground and faced to obtain a cutting edge 8.
The conventional thread cutter is structured as aforementioned and reference will be made to the operation thereof shown in FIGS. 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B.
FIG. 2A shows the thread cutting device in the stand-by position. In this position, the threads 20 (needle and bobbin threads in this instance) are extended from the needle guide 3 to a workpiece.
FIG. 2B shows the thread cutting device in an operative position where the movable blade 4 starts rotating about shaft 5. The movable blade 4 passes over the needle guide 3 to catch the threads 20 and continues to move with the threads 20 in the direction of the stationary blade 1.
FIG. 3A shows the moving blade positioned to extend over the needle guide 3 and the stationary blade 1. The threads 20 are guided along a path for the movable blade 4 by the cutout 7 formed therein.
FIG. 3B shows the threads when cut. The threads 20 run in the cutout 7 are cut in the optimum direction and at the optimum angle by the cutting edges 2, 8 of the stationary and moving blades 1, 4.
The prior art thread cutting device has, however, disadvantages which are described hereinafter with reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B. Threads which are of a diameter larger than the depth of the cutout 7 may occasionally fail to run into the circular ground hole in the cutting edge 8. This occurrence will inadvertently move up the movable blade 4 to thus separate from the stationary blade. FIG. 4A shows the moving blade 4 located to extend over the needle guide 3 and the stationary blade 1. At this moment, the thicker threads 20 are held or clamped between the needle guide 3 and the movable blade 4 or between the stationary blade 1 and the movable blade 4. The larger diameter of the thicker threads 20 raises the movable blade 4 relative to the stationary blade 1. As a result, the cutting edges 2, 8 of the two blades 1, 4 are unable to cross each other in a suitable fashion, resulting in failure in cutting the thicker threads 20. (See FIG. 4B).

Thread cutter with through hole and cutout for sewing machine


A method for investment casting includes the steps of positioning a base plate relative to a die; molding a first material between the die and at least a first surface portion of the base plate; securing one or more patterns to the base plate, the one or more patterns comprising a second material; applying one or more coating layers over at least portions of the one or more patterns and at least a portion of the first material; substantially removing the first material through an interior receptacle of a manifold body and the second material through an exterior receptacle of the manifold body to leave one or more shells formed by the coating layers; removing said base plate; introducing molten metal to the one or more shells through the interior receptacle of the manifold body; permitting the molten metal to solidify; and destructively removing one or more investment casting molds.

Investment casting is a commonly used technique for forming metallic components having complex geometries, especially hollow components, and is used in the fabrication of superalloy gas turbine engine components.
A well developed field exists regarding the investment casting of turbine engine parts such as blades and vanes. In an exemplary process, a mold is prepared having one or more mold cavities, each having a shape generally corresponding to the part to be cast. An exemplary process for preparing the mold involves the use of one or more wax patterns of the part. The patterns are formed by molding wax over ceramic cores generally corresponding to positives of the cooling passages within the parts. The patterns are mounted to a shelling fixture. Prior to mounting, the fixture may be prepared to receive the patterns. For example, the fixture may be dipped in wax to at least coat a base plate of the fixture. The wax patterns may be placed atop the wax coating on the base plate and wax welded thereto.
In a shelling process, a ceramic shell is formed around one or more such patterns such as by spraying and/or dipping a ceramic coating material over the fixtured patterns. The wax may be removed such as by melting in an autoclave. The shell may be further processed such as by trimming and sanding of a base surface to flatten the base surface. The shell may be fired to harden the shell. This leaves a mold comprising the shell having one or more part-defining compartments which, in turn, contain the ceramic core(s) defining the cooling passages. The shell may be seeded to define the crystal orientation of the ultimate part and placed with its base surface atop a chill plate in a casting furnace. Molten alloy may then be introduced to the mold to cast the part(s). Upon cooling and solidifying of the alloy, the shell and core may be mechanically and/or chemically removed from the molded part(s). The part(s) can then be machined and treated in one or more stages.
Typically, there are two prevailing investment casting mold design philosophies in the prior art. The first design has a mold dipped in a cage, with a top and bottom plate. The cage is completely immersed in the shell build process. The ceramic top plate is then trimmed with a diamond wheel prior to casting in order to maintain a tight baffle fit necessary in the DS casting process. This mold design has its advantages. For instance, the mold permits bottom feeding with ease and facilitates proper venting. The bottom feeding practice limits the erosion experienced by the ceramic shell and also washes away any debris through the part cavity while filling takes place. However, the trimming process liberates a large amount of ceramic dust. This ceramic dust poses a hazard as the dust could become lodged within the molds and trapped in the thin features being produced in the molded part, thus causing part variations.
The second design utilizes a prefabricated pour cup and only a bottom plate. The mold is only dipped until the ceramic slurry overlaps the existing pour cup. This mold design also exhibits advantages. For instance, the design does not employ a top ceramic plate so the trimming step, mentioned above, is eliminated which in turn generates less ceramic debris. In addition, the absence of the top ceramic plate also creates a repeatable top profile of the mold for a consistent baffle fit. However, the mold design does not permit bottom feeding the part cavity and also fails to leave a passage for wax to evacuate during the venting or dewax process.
Consequently, there exists a need for an investment casting mold design that eliminates the trimming step and limits the amount of debris generated.
There also exists a need for an investment casting mold design that provides a route for the wax to exit during the dewax process.

Investment casting mold design and method for investment casting using the same


An electric oven includes a microwave energy source (2), a waveguide (3) with an output section that terminates in a cooking enclosure defined by a base wall (4), a top wall (5), a sole wall (6) and two side walls (7, 8), and a rotary device (R) inside the cooking enclosure, for receiving food products to be cooked, and rotated by control elements (23) external to the cooking enclosure. The rotary device (R) has two or more rotary plates (9, 10), an upper (9) and a lower (10) plate, removably mounted in the cooking enclosure, one above the other and spaced from each other by a distance d, and the output section of the waveguide (3) is adapted to allow a suitable distribution of the waves on the two plates (9, 10).

Such an electric cooking oven permits generally placing, in the cooking chamber, a single dish of a foodstuff. Thus, given the construction of the rotatable device, when a user desires to treat several dishes, either different or the same for several persons, he must successively position the dish within the cooking chamber, program said electric cooking oven and, finally, start the operation of said electric oven. This operation is hence repeated as many times as there are dishes to be treated and requires, because of this, numerous manipulations by the user. On the other hand, in such cooking apparatus, when the foodstuffs to be cooked are disposed in receptacles or packages that are superposed and of dimensions adjacent that of the cooking chamber, these latter prevent good distribution of the microwaves, thereby leading to different treatments of the foodstuffs.
The object of the invention is to overcome these mentioned drawbacks by providing an electric cooking oven permitting treating simultaneously several foodstuffs.

Electric microwave oven with improved energy distribution


A pallet handling platten system of the invention includes an auxiliary platten unit. The auxiliary platten unit comprises a pair of auxiliary plattens 30 normally stowable beneath the level of the load bearing surfaces of primary plattens 5 of the system. Devices 74,72 are provided for lifting the auxiliary plattens 30 to a first elevated level, for moving the auxiliary plattens 30 laterally of the system while not under load, and for lifting them when so extended to a second elevated level to take the load of the pallet. The primary plattens 5 of the system are then withdrawn while the load is supported on the auxiliary plattens, but the auxiliary plattens do not themselves move laterally under load.

Palletized loads are conventionally stored on rack systems in warehouses, with each pallet being placed spanning a pair of horizontal support beams which run adjacent to and parallel to an aisle. The pallet handling equipment moves along the aisle and can be raised and lowered to deliver palletized loads to empty positions in the rack and to retrieve palletized loads from filled positions.
The handling equipment may be a platten unit which has one or two horizontally and telescopically extending lifting arms or plattens designed to fit beneath a pallet and lift the pallet and its load. The plattens may be extensible to either side of the platten unit body so that collection of pallets from and delivery of pallets to both sides of the aisle is possible. Such a platten unit is said to be a double reach telescopic unit.
Continental European pallets conventionally comprise top boarding which provides a top surface or goods supporting platform, and three rows of legs or runners on which the top boarding is supported. The plattens of a platten unit for pallet handling contact the bottom surface of the top boarding to lift the loaded pallet.
One problem encountered by pallet handling equipment is that not all pallets conform to the above standard. Most British pallets, as well as those of many other countries such as the USA, generally comprise additional bottom boarding which gives the pallets additional stability and strength. The platten or plattens of a platten unit for pallet handling contact the underside of the bottom boarding, which extends across some or all of the underside of the pallet. Therefore a pallet with top and bottom boarding cannot be set down on a level surface or on a pair of horizontal beams of conventional warehouse racking without providing some means for removing the plattens while the level surface or horizontal beams takes the weight of the loaded pallet. This problem has in the past been met by providing packing pieces for the warehouse racking. Each bay of the racking system is provided with two horizontal beams, and each beam is provided with two packing pieces being load-bearing members which straddle the beam on which they are mounted and present a load-bearing surface for supporting a pallet a spaced distance above the beam. A pallet with top and bottom boarding can then be placed on the array of four packing pieces in the racking bay, and the plattens can be withdrawn through the spaced distance separating the bottom of the pallet and the beams This solution does however carry its own drawbacks since four packing pieces are required per bay: packing pieces are costly to secure in place; and additional storage height is required to accommodate the packing pieces.
The invention provides a pallet handling platten unit for use with pallets with top and bottom boarding, which avoids the above disadvantages.


Methods and structure for Digital Rights Management (DRM) are provided. An exemplary system includes a Digital Rights Management (DRM) licensing server. The DRM licensing server is able to receive authentication information generated by a DRM module of a client device, and to receive a device identifier that uniquely distinguishes the client device from other client devices, wherein the device identifier has been generated by the DRM module. The DRM licensing server is further able to authenticate the DRM module based on the authentication information, to create a signed identifier based on the device identifier responsive to authenticating the DRM module, and to transmit the signed identifier to the client device. The system also includes an application server able to register the client device with an account at the application server, based on the signed identifier.

Providers of audiovisual content may control how that content is accessed by end users in order to enhance value and security. Ideally, providers wish to grant access to content by authorized users, while preventing access to content by unauthorized users. However, unauthorized users sometimes steal the credentials of authorized users in order to gain access to the content of a provider. For example, an authorized user's credentials may be stolen by a third party. This third party may then enter the stolen credentials on their own device without the user's knowledge in order to gain access to the content.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Registration of devices in a digital rights management environment


An apparatus 10 for removing the skin of poultry pieces includes a frame 12 for supporting an infeed conveyor 14 for transporting and feeding poultry pieces to be skinned to a skinning station 16 located closely adjacent the downstream end of the conveyor. An outfeed conveyor 18 is also supported by the frame to carry the skinned poultry pieces away from the skinning station 16 for further processing. The infeed and outfeed conveyors are carried by a lift mounting systems 40 and 42 to mount the conveyors to the underlying frame 12. The lift mounting systems 40/42 function to shift the infeed and outfeed conveyors between an in-use lowered position closely adjacent the skinning station 16 and a retracted position raised above and shifted longitudinally away from the skinning station to provide access to the conveyors 14/18, as well as access to the skinning station 16.

The skin of poultry pieces is often removed prior to retail sales due to consumer demands. Automated skin removal apparatuses have been developed for removing the skin from poultry pieces without the need to perform this task manually. In the apparatus, the skin is gripped and pull away from or off of the underlying flesh at a skinning station while the poultry pieces are being transported to the skinning station on an infeed conveyor, and then the poultry pieces with the skin removed are transported away from the skinning station on an outfeed conveyor. As can be appreciated, it is necessary to periodically clean the skinning apparatus, including the infeed conveyor, the skinning station, and the outfeed conveyor to remove skin, flesh, and other matter lodged on apparatus. Such cleaning is difficult due in part to the inaccessibility of the skinning station, which is located in close proximity between the adjacent ends of the infeed and outfeed conveyors.
Also, the close proximity of the components of the skinning apparatus makes it cumbersome to make repairs and/or to replace worn or damaged components of the apparatus, for example, the belts of the infeed and outfeed conveyors. Typically it is necessary to disassemble a significant part of the apparatus to gain the necessary access for repair and component replacement. The present disclosure seeks to provide a poultry skinning apparatus that addresses the foregoing shortcomings.


A method of preoperative planning comprises creating a virtual model of a native patient tissue; placing a virtual device into a desired device orientation relative to the virtual model of the native patient tissue; specifying at least one structural change to the native patient tissue to facilitate placement of the virtual device in the desired device orientation; creating a virtual model of an altered patient tissue responsive to the specifying at least one structural change to the native patient tissue; and fabricating a tangible representation of a bone using the virtual model of the altered patient tissue.

The scapula, commonly known as the "shoulder blade", is a flat, triangular bone that lies over the back of the upper ribs. A right scapula 100 is depicted in posterior, anterior, and right side views in FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C, respectively. The posterior surface of the scapula 100 can be readily felt through a patient's skin. The scapula 100 serves as an attachment point for some of the muscles and tendons of the arm, neck, chest, and back, and aids in the movements of the arm and shoulder. The scapula 100 is also well padded with muscle, so that it may be difficult to palpate boney landmarks. The rear surface of each scapula 100 is divided into unequal portions by a spine 102. This spine 102 leads to a head 104, which ends in the acromion process 106. A coracoid process 108 forms a prominence of the shoulder that curves forward and down below the clavicle (collarbone, not shown). The acromion process 106 joins the clavicle and provides attachments for muscles of the arm and chest muscles. The acromion process 106 is a bony prominence at the top of the scapula 100. On the head 104 of the scapula 100, between the acromion and coracoid processes 106 and 108, is a depression or cavity called the glenoid vault 110, shown partially in dashed line in the Figures. The glenoid vault 110 joins with the head of the upper arm bone (humerus, not shown) in a ball-and-socket manner to enable articulation of the shoulder joint thereby formed. Similarly, though not shown, an acetabulum of the hip joint mates with a head of an upper leg bone (femur) to form an analogous ball-and-socket manner for hip joint articulation.
For treatment of various problems with the shoulder, hip, or other body joint or bone (such as degenerative arthritis and/or traumatic injury), one method of providing relief to a patient is to replace the articulating surfaces with an artificial or prosthetic joint. In the case of a shoulder, the humerus and glenoid vault 110 articulating surfaces are replaced. In the case of a hip, the femur and acetabulum articulating surfaces can be replaced. Both of these examples are of ball-and-socket type joints. Hinge-type joints, such as the knee or elbow, and static/fixed skeletal components, such as the long bones of the arm or leg, as well as interfaces such as those between spinal vertebrae and intervertebral discs, could also be subject to replacement and/or repair by the implantation of artificial or prosthetic components or other fixation devices related to the treatment of fractures, the sequelae of trauma, congenital pathology, or other issues causing a lack of ideal function. For clarity of description, the subject application will be hereafter described as the rehabilitation and/or replacement of a patient's shoulder joint.
In such surgical procedures, pain relief, increased motion, and/or anatomic reconstruction of the joint are goals of the orthopedic surgeon. With multiple variations in human anatomy, prosthetic systems must be carefully designed, chosen, and implanted to accurately replicate the joints that they replace or the bone structures that they aim to change (in any manner).
A shoulder replacement procedure may involve a partial shoulder replacement (not shown) or the total shoulder replacement shown in FIG. 2. In a total shoulder replacement procedure, a humeral component 212 having a head portion is utilized to replace the natural head portion of the upper arm bone, or humerus 214. The humeral component 212 typically has an elongated stem which is utilized to secure the humeral component to the patient's humerus 214, as depicted. In such a total shoulder replacement procedure, the natural bearing surface of the glenoid vault 110 is resurfaced, lined, or otherwise supplemented with a cup-shaped glenoid component 216 that provides a bearing surface for the head portion of the humeral component 212. The depicted total shoulder replacement of FIG. 2 is an "anatomical" shoulder replacement. A "reverse" shoulder replacement is also known in the art.
Standard prosthetic glenoid components 216 are available in a number of different sizes and configurations. However, most are designed for use in an scapula having minimal bone loss or deformity. When the scapula has bone loss and/or significant pathology due to disease or trauma, the standard glenoid component 216 may be difficult to implant and/or may not enable desired shoulder function, if it cannot be implanted in a preferred manner. The surgeon may thus need to substantially modify the patient's glenoid vault 110 during surgery in an attempt to make the standard glenoid component 216 fit into the glenoid vault. Pre-surgical planning tools are available to help the surgeon anticipate the changes which will be needed to reform the patient's pathological anatomy. However, the surgeon cannot always readily determine whether even a remodeled glenoid vault 110 will fit as desired with a standard prosthesis because the surgeon does not know how a "normal" glenoid vault 110 (for which the standard prosthesis is designed) should be shaped for that patient.
It is known to use computer aided design ("CAD") software to design custom prostheses based upon imported data obtained from a computerized tomography ("CT") scan of a patient's body. For example, mirror-imaged CT data of a patient's contralateral "normal" joint could be used, if the contralateral joint does not also display a pathological anatomy. However, using a unique prosthesis design for each patient can result in future biomechanical problems resulting from a non-proven design and takes away the familiarity that the surgeon will likely have with standardized prosthesis designs. Thus, prosthesis designs that are entirely customized are considered sub-optimal solutions.
Further, detailed preoperative planning, using two- or three-dimensional images of the shoulder joint, often assists the surgeon in compensating for the patient's anatomical limitations. During the surgery, for example, an elongated pin may be inserted into the surface of the patient's bone, at a predetermined trajectory and location, to act as a passive landmark or active guiding structure in carrying out the preoperatively planned implantation. This "guide pin" may remain as a portion of the implanted prosthetic joint or may be removed before the surgery is concluded. This type of pin-guided installation is common in any joint replacement procedure—indeed, in any type of surgical procedure in which a surgeon-placed fixed landmark is desirable.
In addition, and again in any type of surgical procedure, modern minimally invasive surgical techniques may dictate that only a small portion of the bone or other tissue surface being operated upon is visible to the surgeon. Depending upon the patient's particular anatomy, the surgeon may not be able to precisely determine the location of the exposed area relative to the remaining, obscured portions of the bone through mere visual observation. For example, in a shoulder surgery, the scapula 100 is mobile along the chest wall and it therefore may be difficult to define the fixed relationship of the glenoid vault 110 to the body of the scapula 100 (i.e., using the plane of the scapula as a reference to the glenoid vault) and/or the body of the scapula to an external coordinate system in the operating room. These factors, particularly in a minimally invasive surgical procedure, may make it difficult for the surgeon to orient the glenoid vault during surgery. Again, a guide pin may be temporarily or permanently placed into the exposed bone surface to help orient the surgeon and thereby enhance the accuracy and efficiency of the surgical procedure.
One goal of shoulder surgery may be to modify the pathologic bone to correct pathologic version to be within the normal range or the normal version of the patient's native anatomy before the bone loss occurred. During surgery, and particularly minimally invasive procedures, the plane of the scapula may be difficult or impossible to determine by direct visual inspection, resulting in the need for assistive devices or methods to define both the pathologic version present at the time of surgery and the intended correction angle.
It is generally believed that there is a preferred orientation for the glenoid component 216 to provide a full range of motion and to minimize the risk of dislocation. Some example orientations of the glenoid component 216 relative to the glenoid face are about 5.degree. of anteversion to about 15.degree. of retroversion; average version is about 1-2.degree. of retroversion. This broadly replicates the natural angle of the glenoid. However, the specific angular orientation of the glenoid portion varies from patient to patient.
With a view to overcoming these and other disadvantages, some arrangements have been recently suggested in which a three-dimensional intraoperative surgical navigation system is used to render a model of the patient's bone structure. This model is displayed on a computer screen and the user is provided with intraoperative three-dimensional information as to the desired positioning of the instruments and the glenoid component 216 of the prosthetic implant. However, surgical navigation arrangements of this type are not wholly satisfactory since they generally use only a low number of measured landmark points to register the patient's anatomy and to specify the angle of the prosthetic implant component (e.g., a glenoid component 216), which may not provide the desired level of accuracy. Further, the information provided by such systems may be difficult to interpret and may even provide the user with a false sense of security. Moreover, these systems are generally expensive to install and operate and also have high user training costs.
Various proposals for trial prosthetic joint components have been made in an attempt to overcome the problems associated with accurately locating the glenoid component 216 of the prosthetic implant. While these trial systems may help with checking whether the selected position is correct, they are not well-suited to specify the correct position initially, and thus there still is user desire for a system which may assist a user in placement of prosthetic implant component in a prepared native tissue site.
Finally, due to factors such as the high cost of operating room time and the patient detriment sometimes posed by lengthy surgeries, the surgeon or other user may wish to simulate a surgical procedure during preoperative planning, in order to become familiar with the tasks that will be required and possibly reduce the time and/or actions needed to perform the surgery.
In summary, preoperative planning and/or simulation, regardless of the planning tasks undertaken or the nature of the changes to be made to the patient's native tissue, will generally reduce the need for intraoperative imaging in most surgical procedures and should result in decreased operative time and increased positional accuracy, all of which are desirable in striving toward a positive patient outcome.

System of preoperative planning and provision of patient-specific surgical aids


A single-phase voltage source inverter including a first stage configured to be connectable to a DC source, and a second stage configured to be connectable to an AC load, the first stage including a bridge leg including first and second decoupling switches, the bridge leg connected through an inductor to a decoupling capacitor, where the decoupling capacitor is in series with the DC source when the inverter is connected to the DC source, and the second stage including a bi-directional H-bridge inverter including first, second, third and fourth switches. The decoupling capacitor can be a small film capacitor. The first and second decoupling switches are the only decoupling switches in the bridge leg. The first controller can use pulse width modulation and the second controller uses sinusoidal pulse width modulation. The first controller can use pulse width modulation and the second controller uses pulse energy modulation.

In single-phase inverter systems, particularly photovoltaic (PV) single-phase inverters, constant input power to the inverter is desired, whereas pulsating instantaneous power is required by a single-phase AC load as produced by the sinusoidal voltage and current. In this case, the pulsating power creates a second-order ripple on the DC voltage or current, which reduces the PV conversion efficiency if not decoupled from the PV panels [1].
In a passive power decoupling method, an electrolytic capacitor which has a large size and short lifespan compared with PV panels is used at the DC side of the inverter, and is the limiting factor for the lifetime of PV systems. To replace the bulky electrolytic capacitor with a small film capacitor, a few current-reference active power decoupling methods have recently been proposed in the literature [2]-[4], which are commonly applied in flyback inverters. Since flyback inverters are not suitable for power higher than several hundred watts due to the difficulty of designing the flyback transformers, bridge inverters have been widely used in the distribution systems such as PV systems. However, the DC voltage must be constantly high to guarantee the operation of bridge inverters, which is difficult to achieve by unpredictable renewable energy and thus necessitates a voltage-boosting mechanism. In an attempt to integrate voltage-boosting capability and power decoupling capability, the prior art bridge inverter illustrated in FIG. 1 was proposed with a flying capacitor DC converter as the first stage to boost the voltage and decouple the pulsating power [5]. The voltage across the decoupling capacitor CD is controlled as DC-biased sine wave fluctuating at twice grid frequency to cancel out the second-order pulsating power. However, four switches are needed to achieve both voltage-boosting and power decoupling capabilities. In addition, the input inductance is high because the inductor current is a control variable for the inverter.

Single-phase voltage source inverter circuit with power decoupling, and control methods