In a cutting head with exchangeable hard metal cutting blades for woodworking, wherein the cutting head includes a body with a center hub portion and arms extending radially therefrom and having support surfaces with cutting blades mounted thereon, the support surfaces and the cutting blades have cooperating stop means for axially and radially positioning the cutting blades on the support surfaces and clamping means are provided for firmly engaging the cutting blades with the support surfaces while they are held in contact with the stop means, and a cutting blade is mounted on each arm of the cutting head.

The invention relates to a cutting head with exchangeable cutting blades and means for mounting the cutting blades to the mounting blades.
Such cutting heads generally consist of a cutting blade carrier comprising a solid rotary body provided with recesses at its circumference for receiving the exchangeable hard-metal cutting blades and the corresponding clamping components. Generally, the hard-metal cutting blades are held in the recesses by a clamping plate or a clamping wedge which is biased, by means of clamping screws, against the cutting blade and engages the cutting blade with a rear support surface. The rear support surface may be provided directly in the cutting head or it may be disposed on a separate rear support plate which is also disposed in the recess and is itself supported by a support surface of the cutting head. Means for positioning the cutting blade radially and axially are disposed in the respective recess which may be in the form of ground stop surfaces or dowel pins and which may be part of the cutting head body or which may be part of the support plate if such a support plate is used. Also, the support plate itself may be axially and radially supported in the recess of the cutting head by corresponding positioning means.
If such cutting heads are used for example for profile milling of wooden profiled moldings the tool body has to be profiled and the cutting head has to be profiled correspondingly if the profile is relatively deep so that the cutting blades are firmly held and the cutting head forms no obstacle to the cutting of the profile.
Another problem of cutting heads with exchangeable hard metal cutting blades resides in the securing and the accurate positioning of all the cutting blades in the cutting head. This is a precondition for obtaining accurate work products.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a cutting head with exchangeable hard metal cutting blades for wood working which greatly facilitates the correct positioning of the cutting blades in the cutting head and the cutting or milling of profiles even with relatively large profile depths

Cutting head with exchangeable hard-metal cutting blades for wood working

Utensililea S.A.S. Di Santarossa, De Marco & Co.


An APL detection unit detects the APL for each unit field time period of an input video signal, and a light source control data production unit produces, depending on the results of the APL detection, a light source control signal at a minimum level which can stably drive a light source when the APL is 0% up to a predetermined value A1, a light source control signal at a maximum level which can stably drive the light source when the APL is a predetermined value A2 up to 100%, and a light source control signal which dynamically varies depending on the APL when the APL is between the predetermined value A1 and the predetermined value A2, to drive the light source on the basis of the light source control signal. As a result, it is possible to mitigate the lack of a contrast feeling and the occurrence of a floating blackness, as well as to improve the reliability of the light source.

In recent years, with enhancement of video equipment, such as a video tape recorder or a video disk player and video software, desires for image display apparatuses capable of enjoying powerful video have increased.
Examples of video display apparatuses for spatially modulating light emitted from a light source by a transmission type or reflection type display component having a light modulating function to display video include a direct view type liquid crystal display apparatus and a projection type display apparatus. In the direct view type liquid crystal display apparatus, a liquid crystal panel is used for the display component, video displayed on the liquid crystal panel is directly viewed. On the other hand, the direct view type display apparatus, the projection type display apparatus has a primary object: to reduce the power consumption of the apparatus rather than to improve the display quality; to carry out brightness control to set the brightness of video so that the video is easily seen with respect to a screen size and under environmental illumination conditions; and to lengthen the life of the light source. And, as in the direct view type liquid crystal display apparatus, the brightness level of the light source is controlled manually by a user and, thereafter, the brightness of the light source is in a fixed state.
As described in the foregoing, in both the conventional direct view type liquid crystal display apparatus and projection type display apparatus, there have been strong demands for the improvement in the display quality over the lack of the brightness feeling in the bright scene and the floating blackness in the dark scene, as compared with the self-light emission type display apparatus, such as the CRT. However, the method of controlling the brightness of the light source which has been employed in the conventional direct view type liquid crystal display apparatus and projection type display apparatus is static fixed control and does not cope with the dynamic change in the input video signal, as described above. Therefore, the display quality in each scene of the input video signal cannot be improved.
As one method of improving the display quality, a method of dynamically changing the brightness of a light source depending on a video scene has been proposed. The method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 5-127608 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 6-160811, for example.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 5-127608 has proposed a method of detecting the features of an input video signal from the maximum value and the minimum value of the input video signal, and an average value there between, to lower, when the level difference between the maximum value and the minimum value is large, contrast control to decrease signal amplification gain, while conversely raising, when the level difference between the maximum value and the minimum value is small, contrast control to increase signal amplification gain as well as to lower, when the average value between the maximum value and the minimum value is higher than a defined value previously set, the brightness of a light source to bring the brightness of a display apparatus nearer to a predetermined value.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 6-160811 has proposed a method of detecting the maximum value of an input video signal, to raise the brightness of a light source when the maximum value is high, while lowering the brightness of the light source when the maximum value is low, and to make the amplitude of a brightness signal in a case of a low maximum value smaller than the amplitude of the brightness signal in a case of a high maximum value, thereby increasing the relative contrast ratio in a case where the maximum value is high and a case where it is low.
A technique proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 5-127608 is to dynamically control the brightness of the light source depending on an input scene, as described above. However, an object is to make the display brightness constant. Therefore, floating blackness is not mitigated for a dark scene as in movie software. The brightness of the light source is controlled on the basis of the average value between the maximum value and the minimum value of the input video signal. Therefore, in an input scene where the maximum value is locally high or the minimum value is locally low, the features of the input scene cannot be entirely grasped, leading to an unsuitable control of the brightness of the light source. Further, the brightness of the light source is discontinuously controlled. Accordingly, the brightness of a screen is greatly changed at the time point where the brightness of the light source is changed, thereby giving an uncomfortable feeling to a viewer.
On the other hand, a technique proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 6-160811 is also to dynamically control the brightness of the light source depending on the input video signal, as described above. However, the brightness of the light source is controlled depending on the maximum value of the input video signal. In the case of such an input scene where the maximum value is locally high despite the fact that an average brightness (picture) level (hereinafter referred to as APL) is low, the brightness of the light source is high, causing floating blackness in a dark portion of video. Further, a discharging light source, such as a xenon lamp or a high-pressure mercury lamp, employed for the projection type display apparatus repeats a rapid change in driving conditions to cause instability of lighting starting characteristics, and degradation in stable lighting characteristics and degradation in life characteristics, such as flicker at the time of stationary lighting, resulting in the degraded reliability of the lamp.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to mitigate the problems of the quality of display video (lack of a contrast feeling, floating blackness) in a video display apparatus including a transmission type or reflection type display component having a light modulating function and a light source for irradiating light onto the display component. Another object of the present invention is to mitigate the degradation in the reliability of a light source, an optical aperture, or a light control element for controlling the amount of light irradiated onto the display component in a case where the amount of light is dynamically controlled.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a video display apparatus and a video display method, in which the brightness of a light source is changed depending on an input video signal, to realize the display of video having a contrast feeling, while capable of preventing an uncomfortable feeling during display caused by the rapid change in the brightness of the light source and improving the life characteristics of the light source.

Video display apparatus and video display method

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Certain embodiments of the present disclosure provide techniques for dynamically and reliably scaling a data processing pipeline in a computing environment. The method generally includes receiving a definition of a data pipeline to be instantiated on a set of resources in a computing environment. The data pipeline is converted into a plurality of steps, each step being defined as one or more workers. The one or more workers are instantiated. Each worker generally includes a user process and a processing coordinator to coordinate termination of the user process. Communications are orchestrated between one or more data sources and the one or more workers. The one or more workers are terminated by invoking a termination coordination process exposed by the user process and the processing coordinator associated with each worker of the one or more workers.

In various applications, data processing pipelines may be defined to process data from various sources. For example, data processing pipelines may be used to generate data sets that can be used to train machine learning models and generate predictions (or "inferences") for specific use cases based on the trained models, collate data that can be used for various testing and diagnostic purposes, and the like. To efficiently process data, in some cases, these data processing pipelines may ingest, process, and output data to one or more data repositories (e.g., a data lake) in real time, or in near-real-time. By ingesting, processing, and outputting data in real time or near-real-time, an amount of time needed to prepare a data set for additional use (e.g., training a machine learning model, generating predictions, performing testing or diagnostic operations on a computing system, etc.) may be minimized.
Generally, computing resources on which these data processing pipelines execute may be constrained by various resource limitations. For example, a computing resource may have a limited amount of processing capability (e.g., measured in terms of a number of operations per second that can be processed by one or more processors, such as central processing units, graphics processing units, neural processing units, digital signal processors, etc.), a limited amount of memory, limited network bandwidth, and other limitations. Thus, as the amount of data to be processed increases, additional computing resources may need to be assigned for execution of the data processing pipelines. Similarly, as the amount of data to be processed decreases, some computing resources may be idle and may be re-assigned to other purposes.
Terminating operations on computing resources that are no longer needed may create a risk of data loss if the operations are terminated improperly. For example, if a process in the data processing pipeline is terminated while the process is running, the ingested data, and the expected output of processing the ingested data, may be lost, which may degrade the quality of the data generated by the data processing pipeline. Further, until the process is terminated, the process may be considered a candidate for receiving additional requests to process data. These requests may be lost if the process is terminated before the process can respond to these requests.
Accordingly, techniques are needed to reliably scale data processing pipelines in a computing environment.

Method and system for dynamically and reliably scaling data processing pipelines in a computing environment


One embodiment is a pressure sensitive adhesive construct comprising:                (a) a backing substrate; and        (b) a pressure sensitive adhesive composition disposed on the backing substrate, wherein the pressure sensitive adhesive composition includes a product made from                    (i) at least one epoxidized vegetable oil and;            (ii) a dimer acid or anhydride thereof, a trimer acid or anhydride thereof, a polymerized fatty acid or anhydride thereof, or a mixture thereof.

A pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) (also known as "self-adhesive" or "self stick adhesive") is a non-reactive adhesive which forms a bond at room temperature with a variety of dissimilar surfaces when light pressure is applied. No solvent, heat or radiation is needed to activate the adhesive. It finds wide applications in pressure-sensitive tapes and/or foils, general purpose labels, note pads, automobile trim, packaging, medical, and a wide variety of other products.
Nowadays, most commercially available PSAs are derived from rubber, acrylic, modified acrylic, and silicone-based formulations, which are predominately made from petrochemical-based polymers. Given that petroleum and natural gas are depleting nonrenewable resources with naturally limited supply and increasing cost, it is desirable to provide PSA compositions that can be made from renewable natural materials. In addition, it is highly desirable that the manufacture and use of PSA do not generate environmental pollution.
Vegetable oils are one of the most abundant renewable materials. Approximately 20 billion pounds are produced annually in the United States. At present, less than 600 million pounds of soybean oil is used in industrial application. Therefore, there is plenty of soybean oil available for new industrial uses.
Vegetable oil is mainly a mixture of triglycerides with varying composition of long-chain saturated and unsaturated fatty acids depending on the plant, the crop, and the growing conditions. The double bonds in unsaturated fatty acids may be converted into more reactive oxirane moieties (the epoxy functional groups) by appropriate reactions. Epoxidized vegetable oils (EVOs) such as epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) are commercially available and are widely used in rubbers, plastics, resins, coatings, and various thermosetting composites.
The use of vegetable oils as starting materials for making PSAs has numerous advantages such as low cost, low toxicity, inherent biodegradability, and fairly high purity. Three general approaches for making PSAs from vegetable oils have been disclosed (see WO 2008/144703). In the first approach, free-radically polymerizable functional groups such as acrylate or methacrylate groups are first introduced onto fatty acid, fatty esters or vegetable oils and then polymerized via a free radical polymerization method such as ultraviolet radiation to form PSAs. The introduction of the functional groups is typically accomplished through the reaction between epoxidized fatty esters or epoxidized oils and acrylic acid/methacrylic acid. During the polymerization, various acrylic or methacrylic monomers may be used to co-polymerize with acrylated fatty esters/fatty acids/oils. In this approach, petrochemical-based acrylate is still used. This approach is considered as an extension of traditional free radical polymerization methods of making petrochemical-based PSAs. In the second approach, fatty ester or vegetable oils are first epoxidized. The epoxidized fatty esters or epoxidized vegetable oils are then polymerized to form PSAs through cationically catalyzed ring-opening polymerization of the epoxy rings. Some other epoxy compounds may be copolymerized with epoxidized fatty esters or epoxidized vegetable oils for improving the properties of PSAs. The third approach involves the direct polymerization of carbon-carbon double bonds on fatty acids, fatty esters or vegetable oils with other free-radically polymerizable compounds such as acrylate or methacrylate. Unlike those in drying oils such as Tung oil, most carbon-carbon double bonds in vegetable oils are not conjugated, thus having relatively low reactivity during the free radical polymerization. In this third approach, fatty acids, fatty esters or vegetable oils have to be modified to form conjugated double bonds before the free radical polymerization.

Vegetable oil-based pressure-sensitive adhesives

Abstract: A further embodiment is a pressure sensitive adhesive construct comprising:                (A) a backing substrate; and        (B) a pressure sensitive adhesive composition disposed on the backing substrate, wherein the pressure sensitive adhesive composition includes a product made from                    (i) at least one epoxidized vegetable oil and;            (ii) a prepolymer or oligomer capped with a carboxylic acid group at both prepolymer or oligomer chain ends, or a branched prepolymer or oligomer with at least two of the prepolymer or oligomer branches and chain ends capped with a carboxylic acid group, wherein the carboxylic acid-capped prepolymer or oligomer is made from (a) a dibasic acid reacted with (b) a glycidyl or an epoxidized compound having at least two epoxy groups, a diol or polyol, a diamine, or a combination thereof.


A process for increasing the activity of a zeolite-containing particulate solid containing contaminants which block the pores of the zeolite and adversely affect the activity thereof wherein the contaminated zeolitic material is slurried with a liquid containing an acid, detergent or surfactant, the slurry is agitated to liberate the pore-blocking contaminants from the zeolite pores so that they are suspended in the liquid, a portion of the liquid is withdrawn from the slurry and filtered to remove the suspended contaminants, the resulting liquid is returned to the slurry, and the treated zeolite-containing particulate solid is liquid from the solution and recovered.

Zeolites are very common materials in nature and there are many types of synthetic zeolites. It is estimated that there are 34 species of zeolite minerals and about 100 types of synthetic zeolites.
Zeolites are used in a wide range of chemical process technologies. The wide variety of applications includes separation and recovery of normal paraffin hydrocarbons, catalyst for hydrocarbon reactions, drying of refrigerants, separation of air components, carrying catalyst in the curing of plastics and rubber, recovering radioactive ions from radioactive waste solutions, removing carbon dioxide at high altitudes, solubilizing enzymes, separating hydrogen isotopes, and removal of atmospheric pollutants such as sulfur dioxide. Cracking catalysts, such as those used in fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and hydrocracking of hydrocarbon fractions, contain crystalline zeolites, often referred to as molecular sieves, and are now used in almost 100% of the FCC units, which process about 10 million barrels of oil per day.
Zeolites, or molecular sieves, have pores of uniform size, typically ranging from 3 to 10 angstroms, which are uniquely determined by the unit structure of the crystal. These pores will completely exclude molecules which are larger than the pore diameter. As formed in nature or synthesized, zeolites are crystalline, hydrated aluminosilicates of the Group I and Group II elements, in particular, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, and barium, which can be exchanged with higher polyvalent ions, such as rare earths or with hydrogen. Structurally, the zeolites are "framework" aluminosilicates which are based on an infinitely extending three-dimensional network of AlO.sub.4 and SiO.sub.4 tetrahedra linked to each other by sharing all of the oxygens. Zeolites may be represented by the empirical formula: EQU M.sub.2/n O.multidot.Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 .multidot.xSiO.sub.2 .multidot.yH.sub.2 O
In this oxide formula, x is generally equal to or greater than 2 since AlO.sub.4 tetrahedra are joined only to SiO.sub.4 tetrahedra, n is the cation valence. The framework contains channels and interconnected voids which are occupied by the cation and water molecules. The cations are quite mobile and may be exchanged, to varying degrees, by other cations. Intercrystalline "zeolitic" water in many zeolites is removed continuously and reversibly. In many other zeolites, mineral and synthetic cation exchange or dehydration may produce structural changes in the framework.
As stated above, the uses for zeolites are many, but they typically must be combined with other materials when they are used in process applications. As an example, a synthesized zeolitic material, which is usually less than 4 microns in size, is combined with a binding agent, such as kaolin clay, silica sol, or amorphous silica, alumina, and zirconia as described in Demmel's U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,793 and then spray dried or extruded to produce a finished material that has the properties desired for the intended use. These properties may include attrition resistance, crush strength, particle size distribution, surface area, matrix area, activity and stability. Another method of producing a finished zeolite containing product would be to produce the zeolite in-situ as described in Hayden's U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,718. While these patents deal mainly with FCC type catalyst, similar procedures are used in the production of zeolitic materials for other process applications. As an example, most fixed bed zeolytic catalyst, such as those used in hydrocracking, alkylation, dealkylation, transalkylation, isomerization, polymerization, and separation processes, disperse the zeolytic component in a pellet that consists mainly of alumina. Based on our discovery it is our belief that in the manufacture of these fixed bed pelleted zeolitic catalyst and zeolitic FCC type catalyst that some of the zeolitic pores are blocked or buried within the matrix material and that our process can remove this blockage and increase the available zeolite. So not only is our process applicable to spent or equilibrium catalyst, but also to fresh catalyst.
An objective in refining crude petroleum oil has always been to produce maximum quantities of the highest value added products in order to improve the profitability of the refining. Except for specialty products with limited markets, the highest value added products of oil refining with the largest market have been transportation fuels, such as gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuels. Historically, a major problem in the refining of crude oil has been to maximize the production of transportation fuels. This requires a refining process or method which can economically convert the heavy residual oil, the crude oil fraction boiling above about 1000.degree. F., into the lighter boiling range transportation fuels. A major obstacle to the processing of this heavy residual oil has been the concentration of refining catalyst poisons, such as metals, nitrogen, sulfur, and asphaltenes (coke precursors), in this portion of the crude oil.
Since most of the oil refineries in the world use the well known fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) process as the major process for the upgrading of heavy gas oils to transportation fuels, it is only natural that the FCC process should be considered for use in the processing of heavy residual oils. Indeed, this has been the case for the last ten to fifteen years. However, the amount of residual oil that a refiner has been able to economically convert in the FCC process has been limited by the cost of replacement catalyst required as a result of catalyst deactivation which results from the metals in the feedstock. The buildup of other catalyst poisons on the catalyst, such as the coke precursors, nitrogen and sulfur, can be effectively controlled by using catalyst coolers to negate the effect of coke formation from the asphaltene compounds, using regenerator flue gas treating to negate the environmental effects of feed sulfur, and using a short contact time FCC process, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,136, to negate the effects of feed nitrogen, and to some degree, the feed metals.
For the past twenty or more years the most widely used FCC catalysts have been zeolitic catalysts, which are finely divided particles formed of a relatively inert matrix, usually silica-alumina, alumina or the like, having a highly active zeolitic material dispersed in the matrix. As is well-known, the zeolites used in such catalysts are crystalline and typically have a structure of interconnecting pores having a pore size selected to permit the ingress of the hydrocarbon molecules to be converted, and the zeolite has a very high cracking activity. Therefore, the highly active zeolite is dispersed in a matrix having a lesser cracking activity in a ratio providing the desired activity for commercial use. Typically used zeolites are of the faujasitic type, e.g., X-, Y- or L-type synthetic zeolites, and from about 5 wt. % to about 70 wt. % of the zeolite is employed. Such zeolitic FCC catalysts, their manufacture and their use in the FCC process are well known by those working in the art.
It is commonly accepted in the oil refining industry that vanadium contained in the residual oil FCC feedstock will irreversibly deactivate the zeolite by attacking the structure, and that this vanadium effect is more pronounced at temperatures above about 1330.degree. F. It is also commonly accepted that catalyst deactivation by hydrothermal deactivation or by metals (e.g., sodium and vanadium) attack is irreversible.
In the operation of an FCC process unit (FCU) the process economics are highly dependant upon the replacement rate of the circulating catalyst (equilibrium catalyst) with fresh catalyst. Equilibrium catalyst is FCC catalyst which has been circulated in the FCC between the reactor and regenerator over a number of cycles. The amount of fresh catalyst addition required, or the catalyst replacement rate, is determined by the catalyst loss rate and that rate necessary to maintain the desired equilibrium catalyst activity and selectivity to produce the optimum yield structure. In the case of operations wherein a feedstock containing residual oil is employed, it is also necessary to add sufficient replacement catalyst to maintain the metals level on the circulating catalyst at a level below which the FCC yield structure is still economically viable. In many cases, low metal equilibrium catalyst with good activity is added along with fresh catalyst to maintain the proper FCC catalyst balance at the lowest cost.
In the processing applications that utilize zeolites, the material must be replaced as it looses its ability to perform the desired function. That is, the zeolitic material deactivates under the conditions employed in the process. In some cases, such as FCC and TCC type catalytic applications, fresh zeolitic material, in this case zeolitic catalyst or additives such as ZSM-5 (described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,886), are added on a daily basis. Fresh zeolitic catalyst is added daily at a typical rate of from 1% to as high as 10% of the process unit inventory to maintain the desired activity in the plant. Other zeolitic catalysts, such as those used in hydrocracking, alkylation, dealkylation, transalkylation, isomerization, polymerization, and separation processes, are usually replaced as a batch when the zeolitic material deactivates to a certain point, at which the plant is shutdown and the zeolite replaced.
As will be seen from the following discussion, it is our belief that many types of zeolitic catalyst can benefit from the present invention, because, contrary to popular belief, the major cause of zeolitic catalyst activity decline is zeolite pore blockage which can occur, even during the catalyst manufacturing process, due to free silica or alumina, or compounds of silica or alumina, or other materials which are left behind and block the zeolite pore openings.
A primary object of the present invention is to enable the removal of zeolitic catalyst deactivating materials without destroying the integrity of the catalyst and, at the same time, to significantly improve the activity and selectivity of the catalyst. Another object of the present process is to reactivate zeolite-containing equilibrium catalyst using an environmentally safe and acceptable process. Still another object of the present invention is to improve the activity of various types of zeolitic catalyst and other zeolite-containing particulate solids, especially those that deactivate during use in the processing of hydrocarbons.
A further object of the present invention is improve the FCC equilibrium catalyst activity and selectivity. Another object of this invention is to improve the activity of fresh zeolitic catalyst. Still another objective of the invention is to reduce the requirement for fresh catalyst replacement to an FCC unit, which will reduce fresh catalyst costs, transportation costs, equilibrium catalyst disposal costs, and unit catalyst losses. Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description and/or practice of the invention.

Process for increasing the activity of zeolite containing particulate solids


The disclosure provides a calibration assembly for a scan device. The calibration assembly includes a plurality of light-permeable plates and a reflection plate. The light-permeable plates are different in size, and the light-permeable plates are arranged along thicknesses directions thereof to form a step shape. The light-permeable plates define a plurality of light-permeable areas that respectively have different numbers of layers of the light-permeable plates inversely proportional to transmittances of the light-permeable areas. The light-permeable areas are configured to be permeable to a light having a predetermined frequency. The reflection plate is disposed at a side of one of the light-permeable plates in the thickness direction thereof. The reflection plate has a plurality of first holes having different sizes, and the reflection plate is configured to block the light having the predetermined frequency. The disclosure also provides a calibration system having the calibration assembly.

Terahertz (THz) radiation falls between microwave radiation and infrared radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum, and it oscillates at frequencies of between 100 billion and 30 trillion cycles per second. Terahertz radiation can penetrate some distance through materials such as paper, clothing, wood, and walls, as well as detect air pollution. Thus, terahertz radiation is useful for many particular applications. Also, terahertz radiation is not ionizing radiation so its low photon energies in general do not harm to human, thus the terahertz radiation can be applied to a full-body scanner in airports for security screening purposes.
It is known that the intensity of the terahertz radiation, the resolution of the scanner, and the speed of the objects transported by the conveyor would affect the detection precision. For example, too high or too low intensity of terahertz radiation may lead to an unclear image presented to security staff. In addition, different objects are suitable for different intensities and different resolutions of terahertz radiation. Therefore, it is desired to efficiently and immediately determine whether a terahertz radiation scanner meets requirements.

Calibration assembly for scan device and calibration system

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE


A maritime alignment and connection system allows a boat to be recovered and docked while a host vessel is underway. Components form a cradle to guide and slow an approaching boat into a desirable orientation such that the boat will be held in place in the cradle. Once captured, the boat can be locked in position to prevent it from inadvertently slipping its berth.

The current state of the art for recovering, refueling, or replenishing small boats and unmanned surface vessels (USVs) by a host vessel requires skilled deckhands or sea-sensitive systems. For example, some unmanned solutions, such as a towed refueling drogue, permit a boat or USV to be refueled without being recovered but are not capable of operating in operationally-realistic sea states, such as when the seas and swells exceed certain maximum thresholds (e.g., they may be operationally hindered above sea state zero and operationally ineffective above sea state one). Conventionally, boats are recovered by a host ship prior to personnel transfers, refueling operations, and the like so as to minimize dangerous time when a small boat is moving freely alongside a larger ship. For example, a boat may be hoisted from the water and placed "at the hip" of a host ship, in a partially recovered position that saves time by placing the small boat at the host ship's gunnel instead of hoisting it all the way to the boat cradle. Regardless of whether a host ship uses a crane, davit, hoist, or stern ramp to recover a small boat, recovering a small boat requires a skilled coxswain and skilled deckhands, working in concert, in order to properly position the small boat with respect to the recovery equipment. For example, a typical small boat recovery may involve a coxswain carefully positioning the small boat alongside and a crewmember catching a block and tackle and fastening the boat to tackle so it may be hoisted. Every small boat recovery is a potentially dangerous evolution, risking damage to the boat, the host ship, or boat crew (e.g., due to collision or a crew member being struck by a recovery component like a boat davit or block and tackle).
Unlike larger surface assets, smaller boats, including USVs generally must be recovered prior to refueling or resupplying; that is, the current state of the art does not provide operationally tolerant solutions for efficiently replenishing or refueling without recovering the boat and bringing it at least partially aboard the host ship. Systems configured primarily for the underway refueling of a small boat or USV or for transferring information stored locally on the USV to the host ship utilize various sea-state-sensitive devices, such as drogues. Because of the relative motion between the host ship, drogue, and USV, it takes very little seas or swells to make a connection between the host ship and the USV difficult or impossible.

Maritime automated alignment and connection system


An automated writing instrument storage apparatus designed to receive, sanitize and dispense a writing instrument includes a housing member with a top face having a slot to permit the writing instrument to pass through, a support assembly disposed within the housing member and having a transparent tubular member generally aligned with the housing member slot to receive the writing instrument, an ultraviolet lamp disposed within the housing member and able to direct light generated by the lamp through the transparent tubular member to sanitize the writing instrument stored therein, and a motor assembly disposed within the housing member and operably connected to the support assembly. The motor assembly activates to permit the sanitized writing instrument to slide within the transparent tubular member and through the slot of the housing member, thereby dispensing the sanitized writing instrument to a user.

The embodiments herein relate generally to writing instruments and methods and/or devices for sanitizing them.
Writing instruments such as pens and pencils are offered and used by many individuals at public locations such as doctor's offices, banks, pharmacies, restaurants, other retail establishments, and the like. With the increasing concern for contagious illnesses and diseases such as the common cold, influenza and Ebola, there exists a need to disinfect these writing instruments to remove any germs, bacteria and/or microorganisms present thereon. Currently, individuals are required to wipe these writing instruments with disinfectant wipes and/or hand sanitizer solution prior to each use. This process is burdensome and impractical.
As such, there is a need in the industry for an automated writing instrument storage apparatus that easily and effectively sanitizes multiple writing instruments at any given time.

Writing instrument storage and sanitization apparatus


Computer software is disclosed for discovering and representing a reporting model of an existing reporting environment. For each report in a plurality of reports, the software searches metadata of the report for descriptive information and dependencies on other reports. The software depicts, in a graphical representation, each report and relationships between the reports.

Business intelligence (BI) refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data (e.g., associated costs and incomes, sales revenue by products, etc.). Common functions of business intelligence technologies are reporting, analytics, data mining, process mining, complex event processing, business performance management, benchmarking, and text mining. To organize and present the business data in a human readable form (often by querying a plurality of data sources and compiling results), reports are created and run and can number into the hundreds or even thousands. This group of reports may be referred to as the reporting environment of an organization. The way in which these reports relate to and interconnect with one another may be referred to as the reporting model of the reporting environment. A plethora of reporting tools and software exist for creating and managing such reports.

Discovering a reporting model from an existing reporting environment

International Business Machines Corporation


Method and apparatus for providing authorized access to medical information concerning an individual while preserving the confidentiality of, and preventing unauthorized access to, such information. A computer database receives and stores the individual's medical information, after the individual is tested to establish this information and the date on which such information was most recently obtained. The computer database does not contain the individual's name, address or any other similar information by which the individual can be identified. The individual is given an identification card containing a photograph or holographic image of the individual and containing a confidential first identification number that is unique for the individual, where both the image and the first identification number are visually perceptible and cannot be altered on the card without detection of such alteration. The individual is also given a confidential second identification number that is not contained on the card and need not be unique for that individual. The computer database can be accessed telephonically, and the individual's medical information, or a portion thereof, can be read only by an inquiror, if the inquiror or the individual first provides the individual's first and second identification numbers. The inquiror can use the image and first identification number on the individual's card to confirm the identity of that individual but need not be told the individual's second identification number. After inquiror establishes the identity of the individual, the inquiror, with the assistance of the individual, can obtain a telephonic readout of the individual's medical information.

Medical test information for a patient is normally kept confidential, and is often available only with prior written approval by the patient. In some instances, a person other than the patient may have a need to know, or even a right to know, certain medical test information on the patient, and may need to be able to verify the accuracy of this information by consulting an unbiased source of such information. At one end of the spectrum, this medical test information could include the patient's blood type, serious allergies, and chemicals or medicines known to produce disagreeable reactions in the patient. At the other end of the spectrum, the medical test information could consist of a yes/no answer to a single question, such as whether the most recent medical test of the patient indicates that the patient tested positive, or negative, on a sero-test for the presence of the human immunodeficiency virus ("HIV") or some other sexually transmittable disease ("STD").
A confidential information system for identifying and locating persons who are compatible (a matchmaking system) is disclosed by Shapira in U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,394. Each "candidate" carries a memory device having a transceiver, with the memory device containing a list of personal characteristics, such as personal traits and interests. A local processing unit receives this information from each candidate who is available locally, compares the data received to find compatible persons of opposite gender, and automatically pages the candidates for whom one or more matches is found. An introduction of the matched candidates is then arranged by a telephone call or other communication means that matches their candidate codes. No information, other than the fact that a possible match has been found, the name and address of the other candidate and place and time for a possible meeting, is provided to each candidate.
What is needed is a system for providing controllable access to medical information on a given person where: (1) such access allows the inquiror or requestor, with the approval of the given person, to verify that the identity of the person for which such information is being sought; (2) authorized access to such medical information is controlled by the given person; and (3) unauthorized access to the system will not enable a trespasser to identify whose medical information is being accessed. Preferably, the requestor or inquiror, with the approval of the given person, should be able to obtain the test information, to certify the accuracy of this information, and to determine how current is this information, reasonably promptly, without a formal and time-consuming submission of a written request to a medical provider. Preferably, the system that provides such medical test information, in response to a pre-approved request by the requestor, should preserve the identity of the patient in confidence.


Methods and systems for providing and utilizing responsive document breakpoints are provided. An electronic canvas in a first state is displayed, and an object is displayed on the electronic canvas in a first manner according to the first state. A request to resize the electronic canvas is received, where the request indicates a second state of the electronic canvas. A second manner of displaying the object according to the second state is identified. The electronic canvas in the second state is displayed, which includes displaying the object in the second manner according to the second state.

The Internet is accessible via a wide variety of computing devices, including laptops, desktops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, and the like. Many of these computing devices allow a webpage to be viewed via a variety of display device types of varying screen sizes and via web browsers of varying window sizes.
To display a webpage on a particular display device, a web designer may design the webpage such that it is properly viewable on that particular display device. For example, a webpage layout may be customized for a laptop with a particular display size. However, that particular webpage layout may not be as easily viewable on a mobile phone. To create a webpage layout that may be more easily viewable on a mobile phone, a designer may create a file for a webpage that has a layout customized for display on a mobile phone and another file for the same webpage that has a different layout customized for display on a laptop.
Similarly, a designer may create webpage layouts for different browser window sizes. For example, a user may view a webpage on a browser window that is maximized to approximately the width and height of the user's display device, where the webpage may have a particular layout when the browser window is maximized. If the user makes the browser window smaller, a designer may create a separate webpage layout for the smaller browser window size such that the webpage is more easily viewable in the browser window.
Although designers have the ability to customize webpage layouts for different display sizes and different browser window sizes, this customization requires a separate file for each webpage layout, which can be time-consuming and inefficient to design and edit. Additionally, when a user changes a browser window size (e.g., makes the window smaller, expands the size of the window, etc.), it may be time consuming to design and edit layouts for the different possible sizes of a browser window since the size of a browser window can be changed by the user to any height and/or width.

Responsive document breakpoints systems and methods


An antenna feed circuit includes: a first hybrid circuit having a reference phase second terminal and 90° lagging phase third terminal; second hybrid circuit having a first terminal connecting to first hybrid circuit second terminal, reference phase second terminal, and 90° lagging phase third terminal; a first polarization converter/second polarization converter pair outputting at second hybrid circuit second terminal phase; third polarization converter/fourth polarization converter pair outputting at second hybrid circuit third terminal phase; third hybrid circuit having a first terminal connecting to first hybrid circuit third terminal, reference phase second terminal, and 90° lagging phase third terminal; fifth polarization converter/sixth polarization converter pair outputting at third hybrid circuit third terminal phase; and seventh polarization converter/eighth polarization converter pair outputting at third hybrid circuit second terminal phase rotated by 180°.

In Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Kokai Publication No. 2009-27591 (see Cited Reference 1), an antenna feed circuit is described that is equipped with an OMJ 101, filters 102a to 102d connected to respective branch waveguides 101a to 101d, phase shifters 103a and 104a for imparting a phase difference of 90° with respect to one another to the electromagnetic wave passing therethrough and connected to respective filters 102a and 102b, phase shifters 103b and 104b for imparting a phase difference of 90° with respect to one another to the electromagnetic wave passing therethrough and connected to respective filters 102c and 102d, a magic tee 105 connected to the phase shifters 103a and 104a, a magic tee 106 connected to the phase shifters 103b and 104b, an H-plane T-branch circuit 107 for combining electromagnetic waves output from the magic tees 105 and 106, and an E-plane T-branch circuit 108 for combining electromagnetic waves output from the magic tees 105 and 106.


A semiconductor package includes a block having a first side, a second side opposite the first side and a recessed region extending from the second side toward the first side so that the block has a thinner part in the recessed region and a thicker part outside the recessed region. The semiconductor package further includes a first semiconductor die and a second semiconductor die each having opposing first and second sides. The first semiconductor die is disposed in the recessed region of the block and attached to the thinner part of the block at the first side of the first semiconductor die. The second semiconductor die is attached to the second side of the first semiconductor die at a first side of the second semiconductor die.

Many types of semiconductor packages include multiple semiconductor dies (chips). For example in multi-die SO-type packages, each die is attached to a different die paddle so that the number of die paddles included in the package equals the number of dies in the package. Each die paddle occupies a certain area and SO packages have a maximum size, limiting the number and size of the dies that can be included in the package. Other types of multi-die packages house a half-bridge circuit. The half-bridge circuit is an electronic circuit that enables a voltage to be applied across a load in either direction. Half-bridge circuits typically include a high-side transistor and a low-side transistor implemented in different semiconductor dies. The source terminal of the high-side transistor die is connected to the drain terminal of the low-side transistor die to form the output of the half-bridge circuit. Conventional half-bride packages connect the source terminal of the high-side transistor die to the drain terminal of the low-side transistor die by a metal clip or additional bond wires, which in each case increase package size and cost. This connection also has some non-negligible electrical resistance, increasing power loss of the half-bridge circuits. Conventional half-bride packages also typically employ a different die paddle for each transistor die included in the package, further increasing the size and cost of the package.

Semiconductor package with multi-level die block


A method of payment for multi-vendor gift cards, comprising maintaining a merchandise database comprising records for merchandise and services for a plurality of merchants, enabling a gift card giver to interactively purchase a gift card for a gift card recipient, entitling the gift card recipient to redeem the gift card for items up to a specified spending limit, electronically transferring the money used to purchase the gift card into a card funding account that is used to pay for purchases by the gift card recipient, enabling the gift card recipient to interactively select one or more items from the merchandise database, thereby generating an aggregated selection of items for each merchant issuing orders to each merchant in accordance with the aggregated selected items corresponding to each merchant and paying each merchant the amount of their respective order from the card funding account.

E-commerce technology enables shoppers to purchase items of merchandise such as autos and clothes and items of service such as travel and insurance on-line, from websites that act as virtual stores. Pioneers of e-commerce include Amazon.com, Inc. of Seattle, Wash., eBay Inc. of San Jose, Calif., Expedia.com of Bellevue, Wash. and Shop.com of Monterey, Calif. E-commerce technology combines on-line catalog ingest, browsing and search, inventory management, purchase and payment transactions, automated payment processing, and other components within a comprehensive e-commerce system.
The growth of the Internet as a medium for e-commerce has led to tremendous growth of product and service offerings. One example of this growth is the expansion from single merchant e-commerce websites that act as virtual stores, to multi-merchant e-commerce websites that act as virtual shopping malls. The multi-merchant e-commerce website provides a single integrated website where shoppers can purchase goods and services from a wide diversity of merchants. Multi-merchant e-commerce websites are able to incorporate features of single merchant websites, and have the potential of offering features beyond those offered on single merchant websites.
One increasingly popular feature of single merchant websites, which has proven to be a substantial source of revenue, is the commerce of online gift giving. One component of a gift giving system is a gift card. A gift giving system enables a gift giver to purchase a gift card for a specified amount of money at a merchant's website. The gift card is physically or electronically delivered to a recipient, referred to as a "gift card recipient," designated by the gift giver. The gift card recipient can redeem the gift card for items of merchandise and/or services at the merchant's website. Typically, if his/her purchase amount is greater than the specified amount of the gift card, the gift card recipient pays the difference. If the purchase amount is less than the specified amount of the gift card, a balance remains on the gift card that can be used in the future.
Gift cards are typically based on a "closed loop" payment system in which the gift card recipient can only use or "redeem" the gift card at a single merchant's e-commerce website or store. In contrast, a credit card payment system constitutes an "open loop" payment system because a credit card can be used with many merchants, i.e. their use is not restricted to a single merchant or to a small number of merchants.
One drawback of a closed-loop gift card payment system is that a gift card recipient is limited to making product selections from a single merchant's e-commerce website and may not find sufficient items of interest. In this case a gift card may not be redeemed, or may be only partially redeemed, and yet the gift card giver was billed in full.
Implementing closed loop gift card payment systems on multi-merchant websites presents difficulties because each merchant requires a credit card or other form of payment. Thus, prior art multi-merchant payment systems required the gift card recipient to provide their own credit card at the time of purchase in order to pay the merchant whose merchandise and/or services the gift card recipient selected. For example, SHOP.COM, a provider of a multi-merchant e-commerce website, previously provided a gift card that required the gift card recipient to present a credit card with each purchase and the amount debited would later be credited or rebated to his/her credit card. This approach proved to not be attractive to shoppers.
Therefore it would be advantageous for a multi-merchant website to provide a payment system which acts as an open-loop payment system with respect to the gift card recipient allowing him/her to redeem the gift card from a large selection of merchants. Furthermore, it would be advantageous for a plurality of merchants' websites, including both multi-merchant and single merchant websites to provide a payment system which acts as a closed-loop payment system with respect to the gift card recipient by restricting the gift card recipient to make selections only from their websites.
Reward points programs, or loyalty programs, in which a consumer earns points for making purchases from or using the services provided by the company offering the reward points program, and can redeem these point for products or services at the company, are an example of a closed-loop payment system offered by many companies, including airlines, hotels and bookstores. Reward points programs are typically closed loop since the reward points can only be redeemed with the company offering the program. In contrast, the present invention enables a gift card giver to use reward points to purchase a gift card, thereby allowing a gift card recipient to select items of merchandise and/or services from a plurality of merchants. This effectively converts reward points programs into open-loop payment systems.


A sealing system for an axial flow rotary valve internal combustion engine comprising an array of floating gas seals and an optional oil sealing system. The array of floating seals surrounding a window (15) in the bore (11) of the cylinder head (10) through which the ports (2, 3) of the valve (1) communicate with a combustion chamber (31). The array of floating seals comprising axial seals (16) and circumferential seals (17) housed in slots (18, 19) in the bore of the cylinder head wherein the circumferential seals are disposed axially between the ends of the axial seals.

The present invention is particularly concerned with axial flow rotary valve arrangements that have long windows (i.e. window lengths, as measured in the axial direction, greater than 50% of the cylinder bore diameter), in order to maximise the breathing capacity of the internal combustion engine to which the rotary valve assembly is fitted. Maximum breathing capacity is a dominant consideration in modern engines, where manufacturers seek to gain the greatest power output from the smallest engine size for fuel consumption and emissions reasons.
During rotation of an axial flow rotary valve, openings in the periphery of the valve are arranged to periodically communicate with a similar window in the cylinder head that opens directly into the combustion chamber. Alignment between the opening and the window allows the passage of gas from the valve to the combustion chamber or vice versa. During the compression and power strokes the periphery of the valve blocks the window in the combustion chamber. The valve is typically supported by bearings located either side of a centrally located cylindrical portion of the valve in which the opening (or openings) in the valve's periphery is located. The valve and its bearings are housed in a bore in the cylinder head in such a fashion as to ensure the cylindrical portion can rotate whilst always maintaining a small radial clearance to the bore.
Large numbers of rotary valve arrangements have been proposed but none have achieved commercial success. One of the major contributing factors to this lack of success is the failure to design a satisfactory gas and oil sealing arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) disclose rotary valve arrangements which rotate with a small predetermined clearance to the cylinder head bore in which the rotary valve is housed and gas sealing arrangements using arrays of floating seals. A system of four or more separate sealing elements forms a floating seal grid around the window. The sealing elements are loaded against the periphery of the cylindrical portion of the valve. The cylindrical portion typically extends a small distance past the axial extremities of the array of floating seals.
The function of such an array of floating seals is to trap the high pressure gases within the rectangle formed by the outer surfaces of these seals. The effectiveness of this sealing system depends on its ability to seal the zone at the point of intersection of the individual sealing elements. As the abutting seals must be free to move independently of each other (to accommodate thermal expansion and manufacturing tolerances), there will always be a small gap at each intersection point. As there are at least four such intersection points per assembly, the total leakage gap has the potential to be large. U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,780 (Wallis) introduced the concept of "total effective leakage area" (TELA) as a means of quantifying the leakage area of a particular sealing arrangement.
Both the sealing systems disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) do not work satisfactorily due to excessive leakage from the seal pack. So great is this leakage that it is unlikely that the engines using these arrangements will be able to be started using conventional starter motors. Leakage from the operating engine will be so great that the efficiency will be unacceptably low and the exhaust emissions unacceptably high.
The arrangements shown in both U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) seal the high pressure gases in a similar manner and the cause of this excessive leakage is the same for both arrangements. During compression and combustion the high pressure gases in the cylinder push the circumferential seals away from the end of the axial seals leaving an "L" shaped clearance cavity through which the high pressure gases can escape. The side of the "L" shaped clearance is formed between the axially innermost surface of the circumferential seal (end seal in the terminology of U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184) and the axially innermost surface of its slot (notch in the terminology of U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184). The bottom of the "L" shaped clearance is formed between the bottom of the circumferential seal and the bottom of its slot.
High pressure combustion gases fill the "L" shaped clearance volume and travel transverse to the axial direction towards both ends of the circumferential seal. Gas trapped in the portion of the "L" shaped clearance volume located circumferentially outside the axial seals (side seals in the terminology of U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184) can discharge into the clearance, which is at or near atmospheric pressure, between the periphery of the valve and the bore in which the valve is housed. In both U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) this gas is discharged from between the axially innermost face of the circumferential seal and the axially innermost face of the slot in which the circumferential seal is housed. In the case of U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther), the gas is additionally discharged between the ends of the circumferential seal and the adjacent end walls of the slot. As there are four corners from which this discharge can take place, the total leakage area is very large. In the absence of specific measures, of which none are disclosed, to control the discharge from the portion of the circumferential seals located outside the axial seals, leakage will be unacceptably high for any modern engine.
These sealing problems were identified and addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,780 (Wallis). It disclosed a sealing arrangement where the TELA was in the order of one thirtieth ( 1/30) that of the arrangement found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop). The typical TELA of the seal arrangement in U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,780 (Wallis) was 0.02 mm2 which is less than the leakage area of a conventional piston ring.
Although the arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,780 (Wallis) satisfactorily addressed the gas leakage issues it required two additional sealing elements and was found to have other problems. In particular this arrangement is particularly difficult to assemble and has excessive crevice volume, particularly when measured relative to the combustion chamber volume on engines with small cylinder capacity. The mounting of the ring seals in the periphery of the valve means the valve has to be larger in diameter than would have otherwise been required. In addition the ring seals at either end of the openings in the valve periphery have large sealing areas between the sealing rings and the valve. These sealing areas are subject to full combustion pressure. Consequently friction drive losses are high. Finally, the seal arrangement is very difficult to assemble as the inner partial ring seals have to be aligned during assembly such that the inner ends of these inner partial ring seals sit outside the small lugs at either end of the axial seals. As the required clearance between the lugs and the inner end of these inner partial ring seals is small, correct alignment during assembly is very difficult and not conducive to high volume production.
Although the crevice volume issues relating to the arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,780 (Wallis) were extensively considered, it was subsequently found that in engines with small cylinder capacity the crevice volume was still sufficiently large to adversely affect the engines performance. The fuel/air mixture in these crevice volumes cannot be burned during the normal combustion process and this consequently results in poor engine fuel economy and performance, and high exhaust emissions. Crevice volumes remote from the spark plug are particularly detrimental, as the expanding flame front pushes unburnt gases into these crevice volumes and the rapidly increasing cylinder pressure means the density of the unburnt gases in the crevice volume rises rapidly. Consequently the mass fraction of the unburnt gases trapped in the crevice volume is much greater than the volume fraction of the crevices.
A feature of sealing arrangements of the type disclosed in the present invention and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,780 (Wallis) is the use of the high pressure cylinder gas to actuate the sealing elements. Hence, the greater the pressure required to be sealed, the greater is the closing force applied between the seal and the valve and between the seal and its sealing face in its respective slot. This can only be achieved by allowing the high pressure gas to migrate into those areas surrounding the sealing elements in their slots. The volume occupied by this gas is crevice volume since the air/fuel mixture cannot be burned in these areas during the normal combustion process.
The excessive crevice volume in U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,780 (Wallis) is the result of two issues. Firstly, the outer ring seals extend around the entire periphery of the valve and the inner ring seals extend around approximately 75% of the periphery of the valve. As a result, there is a large crevice volume formed between these seals and the mating groove in the valve and between the ring seals themselves. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that this crevice volume was located a large distance from the spark plug, and consequently the density of the mixture filling this area was high and consisted mainly of unburnt gases. Secondly, the ring seals were located at the end of the axial seals leaving a long cavity between the axial extremity of the window and the ring seals. These two issues resulted in unacceptably large crevice volumes with resulting poor performance and high emissions.
Thus in the prior art there are at least three gas sealing arrangements proposed to seal a rotary valve of the type that operates with clearance between the rotary valve and the bore in which it is housed. Two of these solutions U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) do not seal adequately. The third solution U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,780 (Wallis) addresses the sealing issue but introduces other problems.
A successful gas sealing system should preferably satisfy six criteria. Firstly, it should seal high pressure combustion gas with a minimum of leakage. This leakage is referred to as "blow-by". Blow-by contains unburned hydrocarbons that are tightly regulated by emissions legislation around the world. Secondly, a successful gas sealing system should have minimal crevice volume. Thirdly, the arrangement must be capable of preventing the blow-by gases being discharged into the exhaust port where they appear as HC (hydro carbon) exhaust emissions. Fourthly, the gas sealing elements should produce minimal drag on the rotary valve in order to minimise frictional losses of the engine. Fifthly, the assembly should be capable of easy assembly in a mass production environment. Finally, the assembly should be capable of economic manufacture in a mass production environment. None of the prior arrangements provide solutions to all these criteria.
The present invention utilizes an array of axial seals and circumferential seals surrounding a window in the cylinder head. The closest prior art to this arrangement is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop). Both suffer from excessive leakage from the seal pack as previously described. U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) relates to a stratified charge radial flow rotary valve engine and describes an array of four sealing elements surrounding a window. U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) relates to an axial flow rotary valve engine and describes an array of four sealing elements surrounding a window.
Radial flow rotary valves of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) with a single rotary valve per cylinder require the inlet and exhaust opening in the valve's periphery to be axially offset to one another. This clearly limits the axial opening length of both the inlet and exhaust peripheral opening. This, combined with the fact that the valve rotates at one quarter (¼) of the engine speed, means the arrangement will necessarily have very limited breathing capacity.
The present invention is particularly directed at axial flow rotary valves which rotate at one half (½) of the engine speed. In these arrangements the openings in the valve periphery overlap axially and are offset circumferentially. Consequently the openings may be very long (typically greater than 80% of the cylinder bore diameter). These larger openings, combined with the fact that the valve rotates at half engine speed, means the breathing capacity of such an arrangement is far in excess than anything that may be obtained with a single radial flow valve per cylinder.
The ability to form long openings in the valve periphery introduces design constraints on axial flow rotary valves that are not present on arrangements employing a single radial flow rotary valve per cylinder. Unlike radial flow valves of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther), the only place an axial flow arrangement can support the axial seals is outboard of the axial extremities of the openings in the valve periphery. In arrangements employing a single radial flow valve per cylinder there is minimal requirement for axial seal support outside the axial extremities of the opening in the valve periphery, as there are "bridges" of complete valve diameter between adjacent openings to support the axial seal. Consequently in radial flow rotary valves of the type disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther), the circumferential seals may be placed close to the adjacent window without adversely affecting the crevice volume.
In axial flow rotary valve arrangements of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,780 (Wallis) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) the axial seals spanning a single long opening must extend some distance axially past the end of the window, in order that they have sufficient bearing area on the periphery of the valve. Placing the circumferential seal axially outboard of the axial seal results in a large crevice volume between the axial extremities of the window and the circumferential seal. As this crevice volume is remote from the spark plugs, it will be filled predominately with unburned gases further exacerbating the problem caused by this crevice volume.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) the axial seals are shown as being radially small and hence relatively flexible compared to the circumferential seals that are shown to be radially large and hence relatively stiff. The relative size and stiffness of these elements is presumably linked to the sealing function although there is no explanation in the patent. This is, however, an arrangement that cannot work.
The circumferential seal of the type depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) is unsatisfactory as it is too stiff to conform to the surface of the rotary valve. Thermal and mechanical loads distort the surface of the valve during operation. Even a statically perfectly matched seal will not seal against the valve's periphery during operation unless it is flexible enough to conform to the changing shape of the valve surface. This will inevitably result in leakage across the top of the seal and destabilisation of the sealing mechanism. The presence of high pressure gas between the valve and the mating surface of the circumferential seal will result in the seal being pushed away from the valve surface rather than being pushed into contact with the valve surface. The result will be massive leakage across the sealing surface of the circumferential seal.
The flexible axial seals are pressed against the periphery of the valve by means of a continuous wave spring. This spring arrangement would act to deflect the axial seals into the opening in the valve's periphery, hence potentially causing them to have a collision with the closing edge of the opening and destroying the seals. Axial seals must therefore have adequate stiffness and the spring arrangement appropriately designed to ensure this does not occur. In this prior art arrangement it is paradoxical that the circumferential seals (that must conform to the peripheral surface of the valve in order to seal) are radially deeper in section compared to the axial seals, which are required to be stiff.
In the case of an arrangement employing a single radial flow rotary valve per cylinder as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) with three separate openings spaced axially along the rotary valve, each separated axially from one another, there is clearly less requirement for axial seal stiffness. However this arrangement would have very little breathing capability. U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) states that a twin valve arrangement is preferable because it allows central location of the pre-combustion chamber. A radial flow arrangement with two rotary valves per cylinder (ie. separate valves for inlet and exhaust) would in part address this breathing issue by allowing the use of long openings in the valve but would not work with the axial seal arrangement as depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther). It is assumed that the twin valve arrangement would (although it is not shown) maximise the available opening (and window) length to improve breathing capability. This arrangement could only be made to work by substantially increasing the stiffness of the axial seals by increasing their depth. A twin valve arrangement would create additional crevice volume and leakage problems as there are now two seal arrays, which doubles both the TELA and crevice volume. In the absence of deep axial seals the wave spring will merely push the axial seal into the opening in the valve's periphery with resulting impact against the closing edge of the opening. A similar situation exits in axial flow rotary valve arrangements of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,780 (Wallis) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop).
In any workable arrangement using long windows the radial depth and the stiffness of the axial sealing elements must be considerably greater than the radial depth and stiffness of the circumferential seals. Such an arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop).
In addition to excessive stiffness problems the circumferential seals depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) have an additional problem. The large size of the seal means there will be an excessive crevice volume around the circumferential seal. In the case of U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop), the long length of the circumferential seal results in excessive crevice volume around the seal despite the fact it is radially small.
Neither U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) nor U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) has a satisfactorily means of preventing the leakage from the seal pack entering the exhaust system and becoming an emissions problem. Today, the exhaust emissions from most engines are tightly regulated. In both U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) leakage past the sealing element will be delivered to the inlet and exhaust ports. Leakage circumferentially outboard of the trailing axial seal will end up in the inlet port (see FIG. 7 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,532) where it will be recycled harmlessly back into the engine. Leakage circumferentially outboard of the leading axial seal will end up in the exhaust port where it will be discharged from the exhaust as unburnt hydrocarbons. As leakage occurs from both ends of the circumferential seal outside the circumferential extremities of the axial seals approximately half of the total leakage will end up in the exhaust port and half in the inlet port. Such an engine will be unacceptable from an emissions perspective.
In the case of U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) the circumferential seals must be housed in blind ended slots (notches in the terminology of U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184) in the cylinder head. There is no known mass production method of forming these blind ended slots. They could be manufactured by electro discharge machining but this is a slow process and the high depth of these slots would make the process even slower. In the case of U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) the circumferential seals are housed in circumferential slots that extend around the entire housing and are therefore easy to manufacture. However, this feature is the cause of the crevice volume problems.
Finally these prior art arrangements are difficult to assemble in a mass production situation. Each of the individual sealing elements has to be individually held in their retracted position whilst the rotary valve is assembled or the head assembly (including the fitted seals) is transported. In a multicylinder head assembly every seal will have to be fitted and retained individually before this subassembly is sent to have the valve assembled into the head.
In addition to requiring a gas sealing system, axial flow rotary valves usually also require an oil sealing system. The bearings supporting the rotary valve are typically lubricated with oil. In most instances the valve is also cooled with oil that is pumped through the valve. A successful oil sealing system must satisfy two criteria. Firstly, it must prevent the axial inward leakage of this oil into the central cylindrical portion of the valve and prevent the axial outward movement of blow-by gases into the oil system. Secondly, it must act in combination with the gas sealing elements to manage the passage of blow-by gases into an area where it can be disposed of without creating emissions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,184 (Guenther) is silent on this aspect.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,532 (Bishop) uses the circumferential seal as both a gas sealing and an oil sealing element. Such an arrangement has been demonstrated to not work as a satisfactory oil seal. During the induction stroke negative pressure in the cylinder pulls the circumferential sealing element axially inward against the axially inner wall of its seal slot. This opens up a gap between the axially outer face of the circumferential seal and the axially outermost wall of its seal slot. Oil driven by the oil pressure and the negative cylinder pressure can now enter this gap and deposit oil into the volume under the circumferential seal. During the compression stroke the circumferential seal is pushed axially outward against the axially outer wall of its seal slot thus opening up a gap between the axially inner face of the circumferential seal and the axially inner wall of the seal slot. High pressure gas from the cylinder enters the cavity under the circumferential seal and blows this oil out with the leakage into the inlet and exhaust ports.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,386 (Wallis et al) discloses a gas and oil sealing arrangement using an array of floating seals to affect the gas sealing and face seals to affect the oil sealing. The floating array of seals consists of two axial seals and four ring seals. The axial seals are located in slots in the cylinder head bore and the ring seals are located in grooves in the valve. Oil sealing is affected by non-rotating annular members located axially outboard of the ring seals. In this arrangement, blow-by gases leaking past the ring seal are trapped in the annular cavity formed radially between the outer diameter of the valve and the cylinder head bore, and axially between the ring seal and the non-rotating annular member. The non-rotating annular member is designed to 'blow-off' as a result of pressure build up in the annular cavity, and discharge the blow-by gases into the oil system. In practice, these blow-by gases contain unburnt fuel which when discharged into the oil system over time, heavily contaminates the oil degrading its lubricating properties. The continuous discharge of unburnt fuel into the lubricating oil system causes the volume of oil in the system to increase over time.
Although methods of ameliorating this problem are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,386 (Wallis), none are totally effective as they merely reduce the frequency that the non-rotating annular member is blown off the radially disposed face. The only effective solution is to eliminate the discharge of blow-by across the non-rotating annular member. One solution is disclosed that may overcome this problem but has the additional complication of two pressure relief valves per rotary valve assembly and additional plumbing.
The present invention seeks to provide a sealing system for a rotary valve assembly that ameliorates at least some of the problems of the prior art.


A circuit arrangement and method for improving load regulation in an amplifier (e.g., LDO amplifier) uses a feedback circuit including a parallely connected feedback resistance Rf and a noise reduction feedback capacitance Cf, wherein an external capacitance has equivalent series resistance (ESR). The circuit arrangement includes a resistance Resr in the amplifier output, a junction point of the feedback resistance Rf and the feedback capacitor Cf being connected to a negative input of the LDO amplifier. Additionally, the circuit arrangement might include a resistance Rintentional in between Cf and Rf. The circuit arrangement provides good load regulation and better stability without increase in power/area. The arrangement supports external feedback mode providing design flexibility without compromising amplifier-stability, which provides high output current drive capability or enables driving heavy output capacitance. In a preferred form the invention includes split feedback including AC feedback and DC feedback.

It is common to use a feedback circuit with amplifiers, from the point of view of performance and design considerations. Amplifiers feed loads that could include an external capacitor, and it is known that these external capacitors generally have equivalent series resistance (ESR) values. The capacitor ESR impacts the performance of the associated circuitry or impacts the associated design considerations.
The ESR of an external capacitor which interacts with an amplifier or regulator might introduce a zero in the loop transfer function. Even though the zero in the loop transfer function might result in improved phase margin, there may be stability-problems because of the wide variation of the ESR. The ESR of external capacitors of the type referred to, especially if they are ceramic capacitors together with other parasitic resistances, might vary from 1 milliohm to 300 milliohms. Such variation of ESR makes compensation very difficult. Typically to reduce the impact of the ESR variation, one can add an intentional internal resistance of about 50 milliohms. Such addition of intentional internal resistance helps to reduce the order of ESR variation by about 50 times (to 50-350 milliohms only), thus making the design easier. The addition of the intentional resistance however causes the load regulation to degrade. Since the added intentional resistance is usually a metallic resistor, it is usually temperature-sensitive and exhibits a +−20% variation owing to process and 4300 ppm with temperature, making the 50 milliohms look like a much larger resistance at higher temperatures and a lower one at lower temperatures. To compensate for the low temperature value, if the nominal value of the resistance is increased, load regulation will have to be sacrificed even more, especially at high temperatures. It is not easy to optimize performance with such constraints for high bandwidth/high current amplifiers.
Proposed herein is a topological design modification which would not hamper stability for capacitor ESR variations and not degrade load regulation in an amplifier.

Split-feedback technique for improving load regulation in amplifiers


Meat emulsion products and methods for producing meat emulsion products are presented. Meat emulsion products are produced that have realistic fiber definition. In an embodiment, the meat emulsion products comprise a protein, a fat and a plurality of colors and/or textures. The meat emulsion products further comprise a plurality of linear strands of fiber-like material affording the meat emulsion product a realistic meat-like appearance.

The present disclosure relates generally to food products. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to meat emulsion products having a meat-like appearance and texture and methods of making the meat emulsion products.
It is known to produce meat emulsions in the food industry. Meat emulsions are widely used in the production of products such as bologna, frankfurters, and other sausage products. Additionally, such meat emulsion products are used to produce pet foods.
Typically, meat emulsion products are prepared by mixing, chopping, and emulsifying a mixture of raw meat materials such as lean skeletal beef and pork, and meat by-products, with ice, salt, spices, and curing salts in such a manner as to produce an emulsion that contains fine fat particles coated with protein dissolved from meat ingredients. In the case of a sausage product, the resultant meat emulsion is then stuffed into a suitable casing, that serves as a processing mold. The casing is then heated at increasing temperatures, for example 55° C. to 77° C., for extended periods of time, which may vary between 1 to 8 hours or more, depending on the volume of meat emulsion being processed.
The heating of the meat emulsion, causes the protein contained therein to coagulate or to set solid. This thereby entraps the fat particles in the protein matrix thereby forming a firm meat emulsion product. The resultant meat emulsion products are a uniform homogeneous mass which contains no discrete particles of meat and retains the shape of the casing when set.
In order to reduce the cost of certain food products to consumers, in recent years, there has been a demand for meat emulsion products that resemble chunks or pieces of natural meat in appearance, texture, and physical structure. Such products are used as a partial or complete replacement for more expensive natural meat chunks in food products such as stews, pot pies, casseroles, canned foods, and pet food products. Chunky meat products are highly desirable in human foods and pet foods, both for aesthetic quality and consumer appeal. These chunky products provide a more economical product which attempts to simulate natural meat chunks in shape, appearance, and texture. It is highly desirable that these products retain their shape, appearance, and texture when subjected to commercial canning and retorting procedures.
Efforts directed to providing such simulated natural meat chunks have included producing such products from vegetable protein sources using extrusion-expansion techniques. Such products have met with some acceptance in the food industry, but they have been limited primarily to use as meat extenders; products produced using vegetable protein sources in an extrusion-expansion procedure lack the appearance and texture of natural meat and therefore are generally not suitable as fill substitutes for meat.
Similarly, meat extrusion products, based on meat protein, produced by conventional procedures have not been entirely satisfactory. These products are in the form of a uniform, homogeneous mass, and lack the structure, texture, and appearance of natural meat chunks. Therefore, these products are not suitable for use in applications in which the use of simulated meat chunks is desired.
One attempt to improve such meat emulsion products is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,939. This patent discloses processing a meat emulsion under conditions which result in the production of a layered, non-expanded product in the form of chunks or pieces which simulate natural meat chunks in texture, appearance, and consistency. The meat emulsion product is in the form of distinct chunks or pieces having a plurality of juxtaposed, manually separable meat-like layers resembling a chunk of natural meat in appearance, texture, and consistency. The meat emulsion chunks are suitable for use as a partial or complete replacement for more expensive natural meat chunks in both human foods and animal foods. They retain their integrity and shape when subjected to commercial canning and sterilization procedures such as those required in the production of canned, high moisture food products.
Although, the products produced by the methods set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,939 provide meat emulsion chunks that can be used as a replacement for more expensive natural meat chunks in both human foods and animal foods, such products still do not entirely simulate a meat-like product, and may not have as strong of bite/mouth feel as a real meat chunk. In this regard, such products do not entirely simulate muscle meat which includes a plurality of linear fiber bundles or strands.

Meat emulsion products and methods of making same


In one embodiment, a disk drive has a solenoid and spring for turning a ramp mechanism about a rotating shaft. When the drive operates, since the ramp mechanism moves out from the magnetic disk by the force of the solenoid, the outer peripheral edge of a magnetic head that has formerly been unusable can be used as a data read/write region, without the magnetic head interfering with the fins of the ramp mechanism. During a non-operating state of the drive and in case of a power interruption, the force of the spring returns the ramp mechanism to a position at which the magnetic head can be unloaded. This construction allows the storage capacity of the drive to be easily increased without sacrificing the shock resistance of the ramp mechanism.

The present invention relates to magnetic disk drives, and more particularly to a magnetic disk drive having a load/unload mechanism for a magnetic head.
In recent years, the proliferation of personal computers bestowed with portability has been increasing and smaller-size and larger-capacity magnetic disk drives mounted in these computers have come to be most commonly used. In addition to these tendencies, the enhancement of recording capacity and the improvement of shock resistance are being demanded each year. During non-operating time, conventional drives have moved their magnetic heads to specially surface-treated areas at the inner circumferential portion of associated disks to prevent the heads from adhering to the disks. The application of a shock, however, has resulted in a collision between the disk and the head, thus damaging both the disk and the head, and adversely affecting the reliability of the drive.
The prevailing drives in recent years, therefore, incorporate a ramp mechanism for moving out the head from the disk. When the drive is not to be operated, the ramp mechanism moves out the head from the disk in order to avoid a disk-to-head collision and improve the life and reliability of the drive as a result.
Such a compact magnetic disk drive has come to encounter the problem of a failure due to the application of a shock. Accordingly, magnetic disk drives have increasingly adopted, as one means of enhancing anti-shock performance, a load/unload mechanism by which a slider with a magnetic head mounted thereon is unloaded from a magnetic disk when data is not to be read therefrom or written thereto. Among these magnetic disk drives, the ones employing a ramp load scheme are prevailing, and this scheme has the advantages that it can be realized without introducing significant modifications into a conventional magnetic disk drive, and that costs can be minimized. An example of such a magnetic disk drive of the ramp load scheme is described in Patent Reference 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 11-96707). Also, Patent Reference 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-76811) describes a ramp load mechanism that includes a ramp provided outside a magnetic disk, and a tab extending from the front end of a loading member which applies a load to a head, wherein the tab can be engaged with the ramp. This tab is disposed in offset form with respect to the central axis of a head support member and at the outer peripheral edge of the magnetic disk, over the head support member. Thus, since the ramp is miniaturized and since a suspension is structurally divided into the head support member and the loading member, the magnetic head can be loaded/unloaded without rolling the head support member or the magnetic head, even if a rolling moment occurs to the loading member.

Magnetic disk drive with load/unload mechanism having first and second protrusions

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.