Methods and apparatus employing inert gases injected into the lower level of sloping underground oil-bearing formations as a driving mechanism and water injected into the upper level of the formations as a gas blocking mechanism for increasing and extending the production of oil from underground formations is described. An oil production system to produce oil from a viscous reservoir is provided including at least one production well, a fluid injection well, and a heating system functionally associated with the at least one production well, the heating system having at least one electrical heating well adapted to direct power from a power supply at surface to the reservoir to heat the reservoir. Hydraulically-operated crude oil pumps are also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus employing inert gases injected into the lower level of sloping underground oil bearing formations as a driving mechanism and water injected into the upper level of the formations as a gas blocking mechanism for increasing and extending the production of oil from underground formations nearly depleted of natural gas as a driving mechanism.
The present invention also generally relates to methods and apparatus for enhanced oil production. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and apparatus employing underground heating in reservoirs for production of highly viscous crude oils in many oil formations where the dissolved gases (commonly referred to as "light ends" in the Industry) are nearly or completely depleted, and for production of viscous, e.g. paraffin-based, crude oils from reservoirs where, e.g., the entrained paraffin precipitates because of a drop in temperature or pressure and blocks the oil passageways (permeability) in the formations near production wells.
2. Description of Related Art
During geologic times marine animal and vegetable remains collected in ocean basins and were covered by the accumulation of eroded sand and sediment. Over millions of years the organic matter in those saltwater basins changed to what would become oil and gas. The weight of the layers of material that accumulated on top of the sand beds and the high density of the saltwater caused a high pressure to form in the oil and gas basins. Seawater flowing in subterranean strata and other natural forces added to this pressure and caused the oil and gas to flow upwards out of the buried basins. The oil and gas then migrated with the flowing saltwater in the permeable layers of material below the impervious layer serving as a cap rock until captured by anticlines, faults, stratigraphic traps, and other subsurface formations. Similar oil and gas reservoirs are found universally.
Along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and other areas large bodies of salt penetrated the strata from far below the surface to create domes that could even be seen above the surface in many places. The actions of the salt left porous layers of rock turned upward against the impervious salt, formed pockets in the cap of the domes, and caused faults in the strata above or surrounding the domes to trap the migrating oil and gas. The origin of the salt has yet to be fully understood. Some believe that alone the Gulf Coast of the United States the salt may have originated from the thick horizontal layer of salt that starts on-shore near the northern Texas Coast and extends out for many miles below the waters of the Gulf of Mexico just off the Louisiana Coast. A similar origin is believed in other areas. Oil production on-shore along the Gulf Coast is often around the salt domes as well as many other formations. Similar oil and gas reservoirs are found universally.
In the early part of the industry, before the technological advancements in exploration and drilling that exist today, oil production was from wells drilled into shallow formations. Methane gas above and entrained in the oil maintained the underground pressure and displaced the oil up the wells to the surface. The gas in those earlier fields has long been taken off to provide fuel for homes and industry. Soon after came the installation of the familiar pumps (called "pump jacks") towering above the ground with the cyclic movement of the giant rocking arms as they lift the oil to the surface. Water and steam pumped down into the oil-bearing formations under ground as a driving mechanism (water and steam flooding) has received a limited amount of success for extraction of additional oil from certain fields. Many of those fields are now mostly depleted of the oil considered to be recoverable. However, it is well understood by those in the industry that in most oilfields more oil remains in oil formations than the amount removed by the previous technology available, perhaps enough to greatly reduce the United States' dependency on foreign oil for some time in the future if production can be recovered. If a new method is successfully demonstrated, the production from existing fields could be almost immediate and at relatively low cost because the location of the fields are known, the formations from which the oil is produced is well understood, and many of the abandoned wells are already in place with minimum effort required for placing them back into production.
The method employed in some aspects of this invention is to use fluids such as inert gases produced by the combustion of methane or propane gases as a driving mechanism. The products of combustion are also generally referred to as "flue gases." There have been a number of attempts to extend oil production in oilfields considered to be depleted of the readily recoverable oil by injection of inert gases into the oil bearing formations as a driving mechanism that have failed. A second problem experienced in the attempts at inert gas injection was the corrosive effects of flue gases on the equipment and piping both above and below ground. The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of previous methods and apparatus by removing the corrosive contaminants in the flue gases and controlling the direction of flow of the inert gases once injected into the underground formations. The key to the success of extending oil production by inert gas injection in a formation considered depleted of recoverable oil is the addition of a method of controlling the flow path or direction the gases have a tendency to take. The general approach over an entire production zone is to inject the inert gases into the lower level of the inclined oil sand (down dip) to drive the oil up the formations and prevent the gases from escaping by pumping water into the upper part of the oil sand (up dip) to drive the oil in a downward flow to intercept the oil being driven upward by the injected inert gases. The heavier water will block most of the gases from overrunning the oil and escaping out of the production zone.
Injecting the lighter gases through selected injection wells at the lower end of a formation and the heavier compatible water from selected wells in the upper end of that formation will increase the pressure in the formation between the injection points and drive the oil to selected production wells positioned between the two levels of injection to collect the oil and bring it to the surface. The compressible inert gases will maintain a higher formation pressure between the injection wells and keep the oil flowing to the production wells for a period of time after the gas injection is temporarily discontinued. In addition, apparatus designed to reduce costs of oil recovery have been incorporated into the oil production system including small and new crude oil production pumps to replace the large and expensive pump jacks currently used and make it economically feasible to produce even one-quarter barrel of oil per day from a well and a fuel gas generator to extract natural gas from the crude oil under production for operation of the internal combustion engines used to power compressors and electrical generators in the production field.
The inert gases are produced by powering a compressor with an internal combustion engine in the production field or obtained from the combustion flue of a nearby industry. Air is added to the combustion process, and as a result for one theoretical cubic foot (ft3) of methane fuel the volume of combustion products produced include 1 ft3 of carbon dioxide (CO2), 2 ft3 of water vapor (H2O), and 7.55 ft3 of nitrogen gas (N2). For propane fuel the volume of combustion products produced include 3 ft3 of CO2, 4 ft3 of H2O, and 18.87 ft3 of N2. The carbon dioxide and nitrogen gases constitute the inert gases obtained from the flue gases. In addition, nitrogen oxides are also produced and must be removed from the inert gases before injecting them into the underground formations to prevent extensive corrosion of the equipment. The exhaust gases are cooled and washed to remove the combustion water vapors and nitrogen oxides. The clean inert gases of carbon dioxide and nitrogen are then injected into the underground oil formations through existing wells. Following an initial period of injection required for gradually increasing the pressure in the formation, substantial oil either flows or is pumped out through adjacent wells or the injection of the inert gases is discontinued, and oil is allowed to flow back to the well into which the gases were injected when the huff and puff method is applied. The injection of gases into a well and production of oil from an adjacent well is referred to as the "flow through production" method of inert gas production. The injection of gases into a well to increase the pressure in the formation then allowing that pressure in the formation to force the oil to flow back to that same well is referred to as the "huff and puff," or the "cyclic injection and production" method of inert gas production. In most instances, the specific method used is dependent on the viscosity of the oil being produced.
Saltwater brought to the surface with gas and oil from underground production wells is commonly referred to as "produced water." The present invention relates to underground production formations where the natural gas has been nearly depleted; therefore, the produced water will be brought to the surface combined with some remaining gas and the oil. The produced oil and water are typically placed into large tanks (often referred to as "gun barrels" in the industry) and allowed to separate by gravity. Although the oil is transported to refineries, the produced water becomes a waste product. However, in the methods employed by the present invention the produced water becomes a valuable commodity to be filtered and injected into the same underground formation from which it originates to act as a blocking mechanism to prevent the injected gases from escaping and direct the flow of the gases driving the oil to the production wells.
Shallow oil producing formations frequently contain oils with higher viscosities than the deeper wells where the volatile products may not generally escape. The viscosity of heavy oils can be reduced by absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2). Where it is determined from laboratory analysis that the reduction of oil viscosity of the oil in the underground formations would be economically beneficial to the production process, carbon dioxide can be separated from the nitrogen gas to nearly 100 percent of the—injection gases to reduce the viscosity of heavy oils. The nitrogen gas can be released to the atmosphere, transported to other oilfields for injection, or used for injection in another part of the oil formation under production as a driving mechanism when the carbon dioxide gas has reduced the heavy oil viscosity. Membranes may be used to separate the nitrogen from the carbon dioxide in flue gases. The membranes are typically employed for production of nitrogen gas with air as the source of nitrogen. The membrane used are assemblies of many thousands of hollow polymeric fibers each approximately the size of a human hair with the inside surface treated to produce a thin film on the inside surface that actually becomes the membrane that allows oxygen molecules to flow through the membrane and reject the larger nitrogen molecules. The porous material below the membrane surface serves as a support. The membranes also allow other gases with molecules smaller than that of nitrogen to flow through and be separated from the nitrogen gas. The result is for pure nitrogen to be separated from all other gases, including water vapors, in atmospheric air. In applications other than oil production the nitrogen is collected and stored, with the gases other than nitrogen typically discharged to the atmosphere. For injection into a heavy oil formation the flue gases can be separated for concentration of carbon dioxide where it is beneficial and economically feasible to do so. The normally discarded gases that flow through the membranes become the product to be collected for injection into the underground heavy oil formation.
The boundaries of the productive formations in existing oil fields were defined in the development and planning phases following the discovery of oil in those areas. The location and spacing of wells on a particular formation was based on the specific structure of the formation and on the number of different operators on the field attempting to achieve maximum oil production. Regardless of how well spacing was originally determined, detailed records of what was accomplished were kept and can be used as a reference to establish a general approach to additional production in specific fields. The structure of the formations, the spacing and location of the wells, and the viscosity of the oil to be produced will determine which wells are selected for inert gas and water injection and the specific method of either flow-through production or cyclic injection and production (huff and puff) from each well.
With the natural gas nearly depleted over the oil in the underground formations where the oil production is to occur methane for engine fuel may not be readily available in the oilfields. The cost of a natural gas (methane) pipeline or the trucking of propane to some of the oilfields may be substantial. In those fields the fuel gas might be economically extracted from the crude oil produced in those oilfields by a fuel gas generator. The gas extracted from the crude oil can be used as fuel for the engines that power compressors, and for other engines that power generators to supply electrical power for pumps, cooling tower fans, controllers, and area lighting where electricity is not readily or economically available, or for competitive cost advantage over other methods of producing oil from nearly depleted formations.
It is estimated that approximately 30 percent (or roughly one-third) of the recoverable oil has been removed from oil reservoirs since the beginning of the oil Industry in the United States. The rest of the oil is still in the ground from which the major oil companies have withdrawn. The formations are left with minor production by a large number of small producers expending a tremendous amount of effort to produce only a fraction of the original production without the natural mechanisms to drive the oil to the production wells where the oil can be lifted to the surface. Some of the remaining oil is highly viscous and only a few hundred feet from the surface. Water and steam have been injected (called "flooding") into the formations and used with some success to produce oil. The permeability of many reservoirs is not suitable for water or steam flooding. In very shallow reservoirs the formations above the oil reservoirs could not retain the gases (light ends) that make the oil highly fluid and might not be thick enough to retain the water or steam pressures required to drive the heavy oil to the production wells. Under the right conditions carbon dioxide is miscible with oil. Carbon dioxide flooding has been used to mix with and lighten crude oil (lower the viscosity) for production where naturally occurring carbon dioxide is readily available from underground formations. Transporting the carbon dioxide from the mines (or wells) to the oil production reservoirs requires costly cross-country pipelines and large compressors to convey the carbon dioxide. Even with large investments in carbon dioxide wells and pipelines contributing to the costs of using the carbon dioxide in the reservoirs, the technology is used extensively in the Permian Basin oilfields of West Texas and New Mexico.
Certain oil reservoirs contain paraffin-based oils that can be difficult to produce. When a highly paraffin-based oil is subjected to a pressure drop or a decrease in temperature, such as that which can occur as the oil flowing in the reservoir approaches a production well, the paraffin might precipitate (come out of solution) and block the passageways (permeability) in the reservoir sufficiently to prevent the oil from reaching the well. The problems associated with production of paraffin-based oils can prevent removal of a major part of the oil contained in that type of reservoir. What occurs in one particular formation located in East Texas and Northern Louisiana is a good example of the problems associated with paraffin-based oils. There are estimates that suggest less than 15 percent of the recoverable oil has been produced since the discovery of this oil formation, perhaps one of the largest oil deposits in the United States. A well drilled into the reservoir typically produces anywhere from 50 to 150 barrels (42 gallons per barrel) of high-grade crude oil a day when completed. Within a period of perhaps 45 days the oil production starts to decrease, and in a short period of time is reduced to between 2 to 6 barrels a day, with some declining even further. Oil pumps typically have to be pulled out of the wells as often as every 90-days to steam off the accumulated paraffin blocking the oil paths in the pumps and piping to the surface. The dissolved-gas-driven, limestone reservoir is not suitable for extensive water or steam flooding. The difficulty has caused many producers to abandon the fields. Many wells (thousands of them) have been abandoned and are still opened to the atmosphere (called "orphan wells") waiting to be plugged by the States in which they exist. A temperature increase of only a few degrees (perhaps 2 to 5 degrees) could keep the paraffin from precipitating and keep oil production to the level first encountered when the wells are placed into initial production until the natural drive mechanism within the reservoir is depleted. Many attempts have been made to heat this and other types of oil reservoirs using electrical power without success. Some have been attempted under severe safety hazards. There are stories in the Industry about the heating of some wells being attempted by applying electrical power from high-voltage electrical power lines directly to the oil production well casings (which are grounded) resulting in countywide power blackouts.
Some of those efforts were attempts to pressurize the reservoirs by heating the connate water and create steam to act as a driving mechanism instead of only maintaining the paraffin in liquid form or fluidizing the heavy oils sufficiently to flow through the formation. Formation heating was also attempted by applying the heat in the same well as the oil was to be produced. That prevented the pump from being inserted in the same well during the attempted heating process. As a result, the pressurization attempted was to build up pressure through the production well then try to have the oil flow back to that same well in what is known in the Industry as the "huff-and-puff" method of production. Without a pump, the pressure in the formation had to be high enough to drive the oil all the way to the surface by the underground pressure. This is one of the reasons electrical heating in the past resulted in less than desirable results. By using separate wells to heat around the production well as in the present invention, a "flow-through" method of production with a separate injection drive mechanism (e.g. gas) can be used to drive the oil through the formation at a much lower pressure and have the pump in the production well lift the oil to the surface. This is a significant improvement over what was attempted in the past.
When the oil is trapped in adequately closed reservoirs some of the gases remain in solution within the oil keeping the oil fluid enough to flow through the passageways in the reservoirs to production wells where it is lifted to the surface by either natural gas pressure or pumps. Where the formations above the reservoir do not adequately seal the reservoir, or where the oil reservoirs are exposed to the atmosphere, the light ends (natural gases) escape in many reservoirs, and the remaining oil may become highly viscous and cannot flow through the porous spaces to the production wells. The extremes of that process may cause the oil remaining to become tar-like, called "bitumen." Some bitumen formations (also referred to as "tar sands") are so thick (perhaps over 1,000 feet) that it seems the entire ocean basins where the oil originated may have been uplifted to the surface where the gases have escaped by being exposed to the atmosphere over many millions of years or heated during the geological movement to cause the reservoir to expel the gases. Some of the largest oil reserves known are in bitumen formations where oil extraction is extremely difficult and some attempts have been abandoned or placed on hold after investing billions of dollars in production programs when oil production was considered too costly until new technology emerges. Some of the best-known bitumen reservoirs are in Canada, Venezuela, and (a smaller reservoir) the U.S. State of Utah.
Where severe and costly problems of paraffin-based oil production are incurred, or where viscous crude oil production has been historically low with conventional pumping, the present invention can be economically used in many areas to heat the reservoirs adjacent to the production wells. The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of existing systems and methods of oil production, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure, by heating the area adjacent to the production wells and maintaining the temperature of the incoming oil and produced water high enough to keep the paraffin in solution. In highly viscous oil fields the entire oil to be produced might be heated enough to make it flow through the reservoir to production wells where, again, it can be lifted to the surface. The present invention can be used in conjunction with the reservoir drive mechanisms disclosed in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 10/317,009, filed Dec. 11, 2002, entitled "Methods and Apparatus for Increasing Oil Production from Underground Formations Nearly Depleted of Natural Gas Drive," by Johnny Arnaud and B. Franklin Beard, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Methods and apparatus for heating oil production reservoirs


A method for continuously washing packed red blood cells includes (1) transferring, at a first flow rate, packed red blood cells from a container to a separation device and (2) transferring, at the same time as the packed red blood cells, wash solution from a container to the separation device. The wash solution may be transferred at a second flow rate that is greater than the first flow rate. The wash solution mixes with the packed red blood cells within the inlet line of the separation device and dilutes/washes the packed red blood cells. The separation device separates the red blood cells from the wash solution and a supernatant. The method may then monitor the volume of washed red blood cells within the separation device and begin to extract the washed red blood cells into a red blood cell product container when a target volume is collected within the separation device.

Apheresis is a procedure in which individual blood components can be separated and collected from whole blood temporarily withdrawn from a subject. Typically, whole blood is withdrawn through a needle inserted into a vein of the subjects arm and into a cell separator, such as a centrifugal bowl. Once the whole blood is separated into its various components, one or more of the components can be removed from the centrifugal bowl. The remaining components can be returned to the subject along with optional compensation fluid to make up for the volume of the removed component. The process of drawing and returning continues until the quantity of the desired component has been collected, at which point the process is stopped. A central feature of apheresis systems is that the processed but unwanted components are returned to the donor. Separated blood components may include, for example, a high density component such as red blood cells, an intermediate density component such as platelets or white blood cells, and a lower density component such as plasma.
After the procedure is complete, the collected blood components may be further processed and/or stored for later use. In some instances, the collected blood components (e.g., red blood cells) may be mixed with a storage solution prior to storage. Although this storage solution may help prolong the life of the stored blood component, in some instances and for some therapeutic treatments, it may need to be removed prior to infusion/transfusion. Additionally, in some instances, the blood component may deteriorate to some degree during storage. To remove the storage solution and any deteriorated component (e.g., lysed cells), it may be beneficial to wash the blood component prior to infusion/transfusion.

System and method for continuous flow red blood cell washing


A self running type elevator system using linear motors in which a control of power supply to a plurality of elevator cars can be achieved without increasing the size of the system enormously. The system includes at least one travelling corridors, each of which is equipped with a primary coil of a linear motor; a plurality of elevator cars placed inside the travelling corridors, each of which is equipped with a secondary conductor of the linear motor; and a plurality of control device means, provided in correspondence to the elevator cars, for controlling a supply of a driving power to the primary coil at a position of the elevator car such that the elevator car is driven by a driving force produced between the primary coil and the secondary conductor of the linear motor by the driving power.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an elevator system using linear motors as driving devices in which self running type elevator cars can move in both vertical and horizontal directions and a plurality of such self running type elevator cars can be operated simultaneously within a single travelling corridor.
2. Description of the Background Art
Apart from a hydraulic type elevator system in which an elevator car is moved up and down by using a hydraulic plunger and a hoisting drum type elevator system used for a relatively small capacity purpose, a type of an elevator system most widely used conventionally is that in which an elevator car and a balance weight are suspended on opposite ends of a rope in which a single elevator car is operated to move up and down through a single travelling corridor, as shown in FIG. 1.
In this type of a conventional elevator system shown in FIG. 1, an elevator car 1 and a balance weight 2 are provided between guide rails 3 and guide rails 4, respectively, located within a travelling corridor, and they are suspended on opposite ends of a rope 8 through a sheave 6 and a bending sheave 7 of a hoisting machine 5 located in a machine chamber provided above the travelling corridor. In recent years, a three-phase induction motor is used for a driving device and an inverter device using a micro-processor is used for a control device in such a conventional elevator system.
This conventional elevator system shown in FIG. 1 has an advantage that the driving device and the control device of small size can be used so long as it is possible to provide a driving power for moving the elevator car 1 which is equivalent to the weight difference between the balance weight 2 and the elevator car 1 apart from the mechanical running loss, and moreover it is quite reliable because the techniques related to the performance and the safety of such a conventional elevator system have already been very well established through the extensive practical use in the past.
However, in recent years, there has been a number of propositions for a new type of elevator system in view of a possible future use in a super multistory building.
One type of the recently proposed new elevator systems is that in which no rope is used and a self running elevator car is used, where the elevator car can move not only in up and down directions but also in horizontal directions.
The concept of such a self running type elevator system is highly respected as a revolutionary technique which can make a breakthrough in a conventional preconception of one elevator car per one travelling corridor in an elevator system.
An exemplary overall configuration of such a self running type elevator system is shown in FIG. 2, in which a plurality of elevator cars 9 are provided in a plurality of vertical and horizontal travelling corridors, where each of a plurality of elevator cars 9 is equipped with a secondary conductor 10 of a linear motor, and each travelling corridor is equipped with a primary coil 31 of a linear motor, such that the driving force is obtained by the magnetic forces produced between the primary coil 31 and the secondary conductor 10 of the linear motor. Each elevator car 9 is further equipped with a brake 12 for stopping the motion of the elevator car 9, a shock absorber 13 for absorbing the shock due to the collision of the neighboring elevator cars 9, and a superconducting magnet 14 provided inside or below the shock absorber 13 for coupling the neighboring elevator cars 9.
In this elevator system of FIG. 2, the travelling corridor at the top floor is also equipped with a suspending machine 15 for catching and suspending the elevator car 9 reaching to the top floor, and a movable plate member 16 for enabling the horizontal running of the elevator car 9 on the top floor level, while the travelling corridor at the bottom floor is also equipped with a hydraulic jack 17 having a plate member for supporting the elevator car 9 reaching to the bottom floor and allowing the horizontal running of the elevator car 9 on the bottom floor level.
As for a control system for controlling power supply to each elevator car in such a self running type elevator system using linear motors, a system shown in FIG. 3 has been conventionally proposed.
In this control system shown in FIG. 3, the primary coil 31 provided on each travelling corridors A to Z is divided into a plurality of sections 1 to X, and a control device 32 for controlling power supply is provided for each j-th section of each i-th travelling corridor, where each control device 32 is equipped with a section selection switch 33 for each one of the elevator cars a to y. In a case the k-th elevator car is to run through the j-th section of the i-th travelling corridor, the ijk-th section selection switch 33 is activated by the ij-th control device 32 such that the current is supplied to the jk-th primary coil 31 in order to drive the k-th elevator car through the j-th section of the i-th travelling corridor.
However, in such a conventionally proposed control system for the self running type elevator system using linear motors, the control device 32 for controlling the power supply must be provided for each section of each travelling corridor, so that as a number of the travelling corridors increases and a length of each travelling corridor becomes longer, an enormous number of control devices 32 would become necessary, and when the current supply lines are connected to each of these enormous number of control devices 32, an enormous number of main circuit current supply lines are also required, such that the size of the system inevitably increases enormously.

Self running type elevator system using linear motors


A capping device fits caps onto containers by applying an axial force to the caps as they are threaded onto the containers. The capping device utilizes a drive member rotatable about an operational axis for imparting rotation to a capper body slidably coupled to the drive member. A helical spring urges the capper body away from the drive member with a biasing force. A bearing mechanism allows relative free sliding movement of the capper body relative to the drive member. The bearing mechanism includes a plurality of bearing members. In one embodiment, the bearing members are bushings. In another embodiment, the bearing members are ball bearings.

Capping machines typically utilize multiple capping devices, also known as capping heads or headsets, for fitting pre-threaded caps onto containers to secure contents disposed inside the containers. A typical capping device includes a drive member operatively coupled to a drive source such as a drive motor or turret assembly. The drive source imparts rotation to the drive member. A capper body rotates with the drive member and slides relative to the drive member. A cap-engaging portion mounts to a bottom of the capper body via a torque dependent clutch such that when the capping device moves downwardly to engage a cap to thread onto a container, the clutch limits the amount of torque transmitted to the cap.
A spring acts between the capper body and the drive member to "soften" the impact of the capping device on the cap. In other words, the spring absorbs the impact of the downward motion of the capping device as the cap-engaging portion contacts the cap to thread the cap onto the container. Otherwise, the cap may not properly fit on the container. In some systems a biasing force provided by the spring, which slidably biases the capper body away from the drive member, is adjustable to adjust an axial force that ultimately acts on the caps. To ensure proper tuning of the biasing force, and provide consistent capping results, the capper body should slide freely relative to the drive member. Typically, the capper body includes a single shaft that slides within a bore in the drive member. Examples of such capping devices are shown in: U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,320 to Willingham; U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,603 to Obrist; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,678 to Spether. However, with this configuration, there is a chance that the shaft will bind up in the drive member and prevent uniform sliding movement. This could result in difficulty with processing lines and inconsistent capping results. To ensure that the capper body freely slides relative to the drive member, and to provide consistency in processing, there is a need in the art for an improved bearing mechanism disposed between the drive member and the capper body.

Capping device with bearing mechanism having a plurality of bearing members between a drive member and a capper body


The invention relates to an improved system and method for relief of hot, high pressure, fouling fluid from the 1st Stage Reactor and the ISS in case of an unintended overpressure situation while allowing the quick establishing of normal fluid flow path once the overpressure situation has been corrected. This allows for rapid cooling of all subsequent reactor stages while minimizing VGO slop generation that needs reprocessing.

The advent of inter-stage separation and stripping of the up-flow reactor effluent between two reactor stages, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,454,932 and 6,270,654 has led to the need for overpressure protection of the 1st Stage Reactor and the (ISS). The fluid that is relieved from the ISS has a tendency to coke and build-up fouling in stagnant areas. The coking/fouling has the potential to impede partially or block completely the fluid flow path, especially small diameter tubing and piping, further complicating the systems that can be deployed in this service. Prior art, such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,658,100, which is incorporated herein by reference, addresses this concern with the use of a pressure chamber containing rupture disc and routing the effluent to the downstream Hot HP Separator, from which it flows in an open path to be relieved to flare after cooling. The conventional approach to overpressure protection uses a pressure safety valve (PSV) discharging to flare requires the downstream flare header design to be capable of handling the fluid conditions and resulting in a potential loss of effluents to flaring. As such, routing of the relief fluid to process is desired to minimize flaring and loss of valuable hydrocarbons and lowering of potential emissions and minimizing the size and cost of equipment associated with the flare system.
The pressure difference between the ISS and Hot HP Separator is small and hence conventional or balanced bellows PSV cannot be used. Standard industry practice, in cases where the backpressure at the outlet of PSV is greater than or equal to 75% of the PSV set pressure, is to use either an internal or external pilot operated PSV. Due to fouling tendency of the fluid, a pilot operated PSV is not ideal in this service due to small cross sections of pilot system that have the tendency to plug due to fouling, thus necessitating the use of a rupture disc as invented in the U.S. Pat. No. 8,658,100.
The shortcoming of the prior art is that the rupture disc does not reset automatically once the overpressure situation has passed. In case of overpressure relief of ISS, the reactor safety system is engaged resulting in depressurization of the unit and stoppage of hydrogen rich treat gas to the reactors in addition to stopping the heat input to the reactors. Concurrently, the reactors are filled with Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO) material to displace the hydrogen and reactor liquid while cooling the reactor contents.
As described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,658,100, the VGO overflowing from the 1st stage reactor bypasses the subsequent reactors and is routed directly to the Hot HP Separator. This results in excessive VGO flushing volume required to cool both the reactors and a longer time needed for cooling the second stage reactor, leading to an increased risk of substantial coke formation in that reactor and extended downtime for clean-out.
In light of the above, Applicants have disclosed an invention comprising an efficient and effective processing scheme for relief of hot, high pressure, fouling fluid from the first stage reactor and the ISS in case of an unintended overpressure situation while allowing the quick establishing of normal fluid flow path once the overpressure situation has been corrected. The invention allows for rapid cooling of all subsequent reactor stages while minimizing vacuum gas oil slop generation that needs reprocessing.
These and other features of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Overpressure protection in hot high pressure processing systems in multi-stage up-flow reactor systems


A system and method are disclosed for preventing concurrent access by a virtual machine and a clone of the virtual machine to a resource in a non-shareable state. In accordance with one embodiment, a hypervisor receives a command to clone a virtual machine, and determines whether any resource used by the virtual machine is in a non-shareable state (e.g., the virtual machine holds a lock on a resource, a resource comprises memory that stores secure data, etc.). When any resource used by the virtual machine is in a non-shareable state, the hypervisor delays cloning of the virtual machine until all resources used by the virtual machine are in a shareable state.

A virtual machine (VM) is a portion of software that, when executed on appropriate hardware, creates an environment allowing the virtualization of an actual physical computer system (e.g., a server, a mainframe computer, etc.). The actual physical computer system is typically referred to as a "host machine" or a "physical machine," and the operating system of the host machine is typically referred to as the "host operating system."
A virtual machine may function as a self-contained platform, executing its own "guest" operating system and software applications. Typically, software on the host machine known as a "hypervisor" (or a "virtual machine monitor") manages the execution of one or more virtual machines, providing a variety of functions such as virtualizing and allocating resources, context switching among virtual machines, etc.
A virtual machine may comprise one or more "virtual processors," each of which maps, possibly in a many-to-one fashion, to a central processing unit (CPU) of the host machine. Similarly, a virtual machine may comprise one or more "virtual devices," each of which maps, typically in a one-to-one fashion, to a device of the host machine (e.g., a network interface device, a CD-ROM drive, a hard disk, a solid-state drive, etc.). The hypervisor manages these mappings in a transparent fashion, thereby enabling the guest operating system and applications executing on the virtual machine to interact with the virtual processors and virtual devices as though they were actual physical entities.
Typically, a hypervisor enables the cloning of virtual machines via one of two techniques: via a direct-copy command, and via a copy-on-write command. In direct-copy, a source virtual machine is cloned by allocating and creating a new destination virtual machine that is an exact replica of the source virtual machine. In copy-on-write, a source virtual machine is cloned by creating a new pointer to the source virtual machine, so no new virtual machine is created. The term "live cloning" refers to a hypervisor feature where a virtual machine can be cloned while the virtual machine is executing, without requiring any downtime for the virtual machine.

Robust non-shareable resource access under live virtual machine cloning


A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure provide the ability to determine an input operating point and an output operating point on a non-linear traveling wave tube amplifier (TWTA). The non-linearity of the TWTA is measured. An input roots mean-square (RMS) value of an input signal used to measure the non-linearity of the TWTA is computed. The RMS value identifies an input operating point of the measured non-linearity of the TWTA. Lastly, an output operating point is obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for transmitting data, and in particular to a system and method for estimating a traveling wave tube amplifier operating point to accurately reproduce transmitted signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital signal communication systems have been used in various fields, including digital TV signal transmission, either terrestrial or satellite. As the various digital signal communication systems and services evolve, there is a burgeoning demand for increased data throughput and added services. However, it is more difficult to implement either improvement in old systems or new services when it is necessary to replace existing legacy hardware, such as transmitters and receivers. New systems and services are advantaged when they can utilize existing legacy hardware. In the realm of wireless communications, this principle is further highlighted by the limited availability of electromagnetic spectrum. Thus, it is not possible (or at least not practical) to merely transmit enhanced or additional data at a new frequency.
The conventional method of increasing spectral capacity is to move to a higher-order modulation, such as from quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) to eight phase shift keying (8PSK) or sixteen quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM). Unfortunately, QPSK receivers cannot demodulate conventional 8PSK or 16QAM signals. As a result, legacy customers with QPSK receivers must upgrade their receivers in order to continue to receive any signals transmitted with an 8PSK or 16QAM modulation.
It is advantageous for systems and methods of transmitting signals to accommodate enhanced and increased data throughput without requiring additional frequency. In addition, it is advantageous for enhanced and increased throughput signals for new receivers to be backwards compatible with legacy receivers. There is further an advantage for systems and methods which allow transmission signals to be upgraded from a source separate from the legacy transmitter.
It has been proposed that a layered modulation signal, transmitting non-coherently both upper and lower layer signals, can be employed to meet these needs. Such layered modulation systems allow higher information throughput with backwards compatibility. However, even when backward compatibility is not required (such as with an entirely new system), layered modulation can still be advantageous because it requires a traveling wave tube amplifier (TWTA) peak power significantly lower than that for a conventional 8PSK or 16QAM modulation format for a given throughput.
To provide a layered modulation scheme (as described in detail below), a reconstructed upper layer signal is subtracted from a received composite signal to reveal a lower layer signal. As such, the lower-layer signal performance is impacted by how closely the upper-layer signal can be reconstructed relative to the original signal. In other words, the lower layer signal performance is impacted by the fidelity of the reconstructed signal. Thus, layered modulation requires clean cancellation of the upper-layer signal to expose the lower-layer signal for further processing. Clean cancellation requires TWTA non-linearity/distortion to be accurately reproduced in the reconstruction of the upper-layer signal. Accurate reproduction of TWTA non-linearity in turn requires knowledge about the TWTA operating point. However, such an accurate reproduction and knowledge of the operating point presents a significant roadblock.
With a TWTA, there is a region of approximate linearity, in which the output power is nearly proportional to the input power, followed by a curved transition to a point where the output power levels off and reaches a maximum. At this point (i.e., when the TWTA curve becomes non-linear), the amplifier is said to have reached saturation. Due to this non-linearity and to avoid intermodulation, the input power is often "backed off" by a particular amount (e.g., 6 dB). The resulting point on the curve after the input power is "backed off" is referred to as the operating point of the TWTA. When subsequently reconstructing the upper layer signal, the amount of distortion/non-linearity used to create the original signal serves to increase the fidelity of the reconstructed signal. Thus, to produce a high fidelity reconstructed upper layer signal, knowledge of the non-linearity as well as the operating point is useful. Accordingly, the inclusion of (or taking into account) TWTA non-linearity (and operating point) may improve upper-layer signal cancellation ratio by 10 dB or more (i.e., the ratio between non-linearity-induced noise before and after cancellation is improved).
Errors in the estimation of the operating point can have a significant impact when reconstructing the upper layer-signal. The impact of amplitude (AM-AM [amplitude modulation to amplitude modulation]) and phase (AM-PM [amplitude modulation to phase modulation]) operating point errors may be individually analyzed based on shift analysis. Individual impacts may then be combined for total impact. To evaluate performance impacts, the synthesis of a layer-modulated signal with known TWTA non-linearity and system/representative operating CNR (carrier to noise ratio) may be used. The upper-layer cancellation error may then be calculated for each amount of simulated operating point error in the signal reconstruction process. Thus, the upper layer cancellation ratio may be plotted against the operating point displacement. The cancellation error can then be converted into an amount of lower-layer CNR degradation, which increases the CNR required for signals of both upper and lower layers. Such an increased CNR illustrates the significance of operating point estimation errors.
FIGS. 16A and 16B illustrate the impact of operating point errors in signal reconstruction. In FIGS. 16A and 16B, the sensitivity of signal reconstruction error is plotted against the TWTA input operating point error. The effective noise is calculated as a measure of signal reconstruction error.
In FIG. 16A, a set of generic TWTA non-linearity curves are used. The signal reconstruction process is assumed to have full knowledge about the non-linearity curves but is otherwise uncertain about the operating point. The performance plots of FIG. 16A indicate that cancellation errors are below −25 dB for an input operating point error up to about +/−1 dB.
In FIG. 16B, the performance plots are based on the same TWTA non-linearity but with an input backoff of 8 dB. With such an input backoff, there is improved linearity, that is less susceptible to TWTA operating point error. As a result, reconstruction and cancellation errors are greatly reduced as indicated in FIG. 16B. The effective noise is below −33 dB with an input operating error up to about +/−1 dB.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for implementing layered modulation systems that accurately determine TWTA non-linearity and the operating point.
In the prior art, the TWTA operating point is obtained from telemetry tracking and control (TT&C) commands that set the operating point of the TWTA (assuming that TWTA characteristics have little changed since the satellite was launched). In other words, the operating point set by TT&C commands during pre-launch measurements is used post-launch after receiving the signals from the satellite. However, TWTA characteristics including the non-linearity and operating point may change over time (including after satellite launch).
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for accurately determining the non-linearity and operating point of a TWTA as it changes over time. The present invention meets this need and provides further advantages as detailed hereafter.

Estimating the operating point on a non-linear traveling wave tube amplifier


A hand operated device for controlling characteristics of a magnetic resonance (“MR”) image is disclosed. One characteristic that the hand operated device is particularly suited to control is the oblique angle the MR image slice. In one embodiment, the device comprises a planar member, such a plate, rotatably coupled to a supporting member. The supporting member may be a longitudinal member supported by a base. Rotation of the plate is detected by detectors coupled to an MRI system. The oblique angle of an MRI image is changed based on the rotation of the plate, as detected by the detectors. The supporting member may be telescoping and the depression and retraction of to the plate towards and away from the base may be used to vary the depth of the image slice. The telescoping feature can also be used vary other image characteristics, such as slice thickness, field of view and resolution, for example, in addition to or instead of slice depth. Buttons may also be provided on the plate to select a coronal, saggital or axial alignment of the slice image. Methods of conducting MRI scans, and MRI systems including the hand operated device are also disclosed. The device, methods and systems of the invention are particularly suitable for use by a surgeon during a surgical procedure, to obtain magnetic resonance images of a site of interest in a desired orientation.

Magnetic resonance imaging ("MRI") is a well known, highly useful, non-invasive technique for diagnosing abnormalities in biological tissue. MRI can detect abnormalities which are difficult or impossible to detect by other techniques, without the use of x-rays or invasive surgical procedures.
Magnetic resonance imaging uses changes in the angular momentum or spin of the atomic nuclei of certain elements within body tissue in a static magnetic field after excitation by radio frequency energy, to derive images containing useful information concerning the condition of the tissue. During a magnetic resonance imaging procedure, the patient is inserted into an imaging volume of a magnet that generates a static magnetic field. Gradient coils are provided within the imaging volume to generate time-varying magnetic fields along the x, y, z axis within the imaging volume, as well. Within the imaging volume, the net vector of the angular momentum or spin of nuclei of elements containing an odd number of protons or neutrons tends to align with the direction of the magnetic field. The spins of the nuclei then turn or "precess" around the direction of the applied primary magnetic field.
Exciting the nuclei of the tissue within the imaging volume by radio frequency energy at the resonant or Larmor frequency shifts the spins out of alignment with the applied magnetic field and into phase with each other. After application of the radio frequency energy has ended, the spins of the nuclei relax and return to their original spin states. As the spins relax, the nuclei emit small radio frequency signals, referred to as magnetic resonance ("MR") signals, at the resonant or Larmor frequency, which are detected by a radio frequency antenna tuned to that frequency. The gradient magnetic fields applied during the pulse sequence spatially encode the MR signals emitted by the nuclei. After the cessation of the application of radio frequency waves, the precessing spins gradually drift out of phase with one another and back into alignment with the direction of the applied magnetic field. This causes the MR signals emitted by the nuclei to decay. The MR signals are detected by a radio frequency receiving antenna positioned within the imaging volume proximate the patient and are amplified, digitized and processed by the MRI system. Hydrogen is the most commonly detected element because it is the most abundant nuclei in the human body and emits the strongest MR signal.
The relaxation rate of the MR signals varies for different types of tissue, including injured or diseased tissue, such as cancerous tissue. The MR signals are analyzed by known mathematical techniques to provide information about the environment, as well as the concentrations, of nuclei of interest at various locations within the patient's body may be determined. This information is typically displayed as an image with varying intensities that are a function of the concentration and environment of the nuclei of interest.
A magnetic resonance imaging procedure typically comprises one or more image scanning sequences, each of which comprises a precisely timed and orchestrated series of pulses of radio-frequency energy, and variation of the three orthogonal magnetic field gradients and the data sampling window. Each scanning sequence is defined by a pulse sequence, which is a series of values for parameters corresponding to particular characteristics of the scanning sequence and the resulting MR images. An image is derived from many repetitions of the pulse sequence, where small changes are typically introduced in the phase encoding gradient of the pulse sequence parameters between repetitions to provide additional spatial encoding. Other changes to the pulse sequences may be introduced, as well. Typical parameters defined by the pulse sequence include TR time, TE time, alignment of the slice axis, slice thickness, slice location, field of view, oblique angle and resolution.
Typically, the operation of the MRI system is controlled by an MR technologist outside the scanning room. The technologist sits at a console with a monitor and uses a mouse or keyboard to click on or type in a limited set of options in a menu driven program. The technologist may select a particular predetermined pulse sequence or may select values for particular parameter of the pulse sequence from a list, based on the portion of the body to be scanned and the instructions of a doctor. When one scanning sequence or series of scanning sequences is completed, the technologist can enter a pulse sequence for another scanning sequence that can then be initiated.
However, it can take many minutes for a technologist to set up a scanning sequence. If used during surgery, the surgeon must communicate with the technician in a separate room to request a particular scanning sequence. The surgeon must then wait for the scanning sequence to be set up by the technologist, conducted and processed to yield an image. This can be a time-consuming, inefficient process. Many minutes may elapse before the surgeon has the needed image.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,157 B1, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein, a hand operated input device, such as a mouse, is used to change the value of parameters of a pulse sequence of an MRI scanning procedure to change characteristics of the resulting image. The control buttons on the mouse may be used to select one of several modes of operation of the mouse. Different imaging parameters may be changed in each mode. The use of multiple modes enables a large number of parameters to be varied with a few input portions of the mouse. For example, the values of parameters corresponding to TR time, TE time, slice axis, slice thickness, slice location, field of view, oblique angle and resolution may all be controlled through a mouse with three control buttons and a roller ball, through selection of particular buttons and movement of the mouse. The mouse may be operated by a surgeon, or other medical personnel to conduct MRI with the desired parameters during a medical procedure. The oblique angle of the image slice may be changed after entering an oblique angle mode by moving the mouse to the right or left to cause a corresponding rotation of the oblique angle of the image slice about an axis, to the right or left. A slice cursor can also be dragged by the mouse to a desired oblique angle.
MRI can be of great benefit during a surgical procedure to locate diseased tissue and to provide current images of the site of the procedure to the surgeon. Presently, however, MRI has been used predominantly for pre-operative and post-operative imaging. MRI has had limited surgical use including MRI-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology and MRI-guided stereotactic, neurosurgery. MRI can also be used to follow and guide the advance of instruments, such as catheters, to a site of interest, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,361, assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
MRI systems are available with imaging volumes large enough to conduct surgery. The magnet of the MRI system may be large enough to contain an entire surgical team. U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,394 B1, which issued on Mar. 31, 2001 from U.S. Ser. No. 08/975,913, which was filed on Nov. 21, 1997, discloses an MRI system wherein a surgical procedure may be performed within the imaging volume of the system. The system disclosed can encompass part of or an entire room. U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,165, which issued on Feb. 8, 2001 from U.S. Ser. No. 07/993,072, filed on Dec. 18, 1992, also discloses open MRI systems appropriate for conducting surgical procedures. U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,394 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,165 are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and are incorporated by reference herein. The Quad 7000 and Quad 12000 Open MRI systems available from the FONAR Corporation, Melville, N.Y., are suitable for performing surgery and other medical procedures, as well.
When an abnormal region of biological tissue, such as a tumor, is discovered by non-invasive means, a diagnosis of the condition of the tissue is typically required in order to determine the appropriate treatment. This requires that an adequate sample of tissue be removed from the patient for histopathological analysis. Common methods for obtaining tissue samples include fine needle aspiration biopsy and large needle core biopsy.
To accurately advance the needle to the site of interest through body tissue, it would be advantageous for the surgeon to be able to see the entire length of the needle within the tissue, through an imaging modality. It has been proposed to guide surgical procedures by magnetic resource imaging ("MRI"). See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,361 assigned to the assignee of the present invention. For MRI to assist a surgeon in guiding the needle to the site of interest through body tissue, it would be advantageous to be able to align the orientation of the image slice with the orientation of the needle so that the axis of the needle lies in the plane of the MRI image.
It has been proposed to map the coordinates of the needle by optical feedback, feed the coordinates to an MRI system and cause the slice to be aligned with the axis of the needle based on those coordinates. Such a procedure is complex.

Hand operated device for controlling characteristics of an MRI image, and the like


A light-emitting device includes a light-emitting element and a light-guiding member for causing light from the light-emitting element entering into it through one surface thereof. The light-emitting element includes a lead member with a light-emitting element chip mounted thereon and a molded member to which the lead member is secured. The lead member has a metallic part extending from the molded member, and the metallic part is bent. The thus arranged light-emitting device has an excellent heat release capability. An image reading apparatus using the light-emitting device is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light-emitting device and an image reading apparatus.
2. Related Art
Hitherto, an image reading apparatus (a contact image sensor) is used as an apparatus for reading a document image or the like in a facsimile machine, a copy machine, an image scanner, etc. The image reading apparatus includes a light-emitting device that irradiates light linearly along the main-scanning direction onto a surface of a document, and this light-emitting device in turn includes a transparent light-guiding member having a bar- or plate-like shape with a longitudinal axis. Light incident onto an end surface of the transparent light-guiding member is reflected and transmitted therethrough, and emitted to the outside from an emission surface located along the longitudinal axis. A light-emitting device for use in such an image reading apparatus is illustrated in FIG. 20 (cf. for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1999-330557, page 6, FIG. 10), in which a light-emitting element 3000 is made up of a first lead member 3210, a second lead member 3221, a third lead member 3222, a fourth lead member 3223, and a molded member 3300 on which these lead members are fixedly mounted. A first semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3110, a second semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3120 and a third semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3130 (hereinafter referred to "semiconductor light-emitting element chips 3110, 3120, 3130") are mounted on the first lead member 3210. The first lead member 3210 has a lead terminal part 3210a for electrical connection to an outside electrode and a mounting part 3210b formed integrally with the lead terminal part 3210a, in which the semiconductor light-emitting element chips 3110, 3120, 3130 are mounted on the mounting part 3210b. The first semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3110 has a first electrode 3111 and a second electrode 3112. The first electrode 3111 and the second electrode 3112 are electrically connected to the first lead member 3210 and the second lead member 3221 by wire, respectively. The second semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3120 also has a first electrode 3121 and a second electrode 3122 that are electrically connected to the first lead member 3210 and the third lead member 3222 by wire, respectively. The third semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3130 also has a first electrode 3131 and a second electrode 3132, in which the second electrode 3132 is electrically connected to the fourth lead member 3223 by wire and the first electrode 3131 is electrically connected to the first lead member 3210 by a bonding material.
The above described conventional light-emitting element 3000 poses a problem in that heat generated from one of the three semiconductor light-emitting element chips, which all are mounted on the first lead member 3210, may break or damage the residual chips. This problem may be caused for example in a case in which an RGB light-emitting element is produced by using a GaN semiconductor light-emitting element chip that emits blue light for the first semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3110, a GaN semiconductor light-emitting element chip that emits green light for the second semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3120, and a semiconductor light-emitting element chip that emits red light for the third semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3130. The current flowing through the light-emitting element causes the first semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3110 and the second semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3120 to have a higher heat output than the third semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3130, which heat from these chips is transmitted to the third semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3130 via the first lead member 3210 and hence breaks or causes damages to the third semiconductor light-emitting element chip 3130. Especially, heat generated from the semiconductor light-emitting element chips must be taken into account, especially in a case where the light-emitting element is used as a light source for an image reading apparatus, for which a high powered light-emitting element is required.
Hence, it is an object of the present invention to provide a light-emitting device that has an excellent heat release capability and an image reading apparatus using the light-emitting device.

Light-emitting device and image reading apparatus


An awning assembly adapted to automatically lower an edge of a canopy under a predetermined weight collected on the canopy to remove some of the collected weight from the canopy and thereafter return the canopy to its original position. The awning assembly includes an arm assemblies comprising a vertically extending base arm secured at the wall, a bottom arm having a first end pivotally connected to the base arm, an extended arm having a first end pivotally connected to the bottom arm and a second end supporting the awning arm, and a top arm having a first end pivotally connected to the extended arm. Another arrangement for the arm assemblies includes a rafter arm having an inner end pivotally connected to the wall and an outer end pivotally connected to the a support arm, the support arm has an outer end connected to and supporting the awning arm and an inner end removably connected to the wall. The above arms can automatically change effective lengths under loaded conditions by utilizing an elastic assembly. Each arm assembly can also include a strut with an inner end connected to the wall and an outer end connected to the top arm or the rafter arm to work in concert with said elastic assembly. Alternatively, the awning configuration can include a support arm, canopy rod or canopy made of a resilient flexible material which deflects when the predetermined load has collected on the canopy.

The present invention generally relates to awning assemblies of the type to be mounted to a substantially vertical support surface and, more specifically, to such awning assemblies which drain water from a canopy.
There are a number of known awning assemblies that support an awning or canopy to create a sheltered area. An inner end of the canopy is typically secured to a wall and an outer end of the canopy is typically secured to a roller assembly. The roller assembly is supported at its ends by support arms for movement between a retracted position, wherein the roller assembly is disposed adjacent the wall, and an extended position, wherein the roller assembly is extended out away from the wall. When the roller assembly is in the retracted position, the canopy is rolled-up on the roller assembly. When the canopy is in the extended position, the canopy is unrolled from the roller assembly and extends between the wall and the roller assembly. These awning assemblies are often designed for use with movable support structures such as, for example, recreation vehicles, travel trailers, mobile homes, and the like, but are also usable with fixed structures.
Water typically collects on the extended canopy during rainfall. The water pools on the canopy and the natural deflection of the canopy and the roller tube caused by the weight of the canopy, roller tube and collected water. The weight of the pooled water may cause damage to the awning assembly and also should be drained prior to retracting the awning assembly. To remove the water from the canopy, operators often push the canopy upwards, with a pole or stick, to raise the deflected portion to a height that allows the water to drain over a side of the canopy. This method of removing water often damages the canopy, is time consuming, and may cause discomfort by splashing water onto the operator. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved awning assembly which automatically drains collected rain water from a canopy.
The present invention provides an awning assembly which automatically lowers an edge of a canopy under a predetermined weight so to remove some of the collected weight. According to the present invention, the awning assembly includes a canopy having an inner edge for connection at a wall and an outer edge. The outer edge of the canopy is supported by an arm assembly. The awning assembly is adapted to lower an edge of the canopy under a predetermined weight collected on the canopy such that some of the collected weight is removed from the canopy.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the awning assembly further comprises an elastic assembly connected to the arm assembly. The elastic assembly cooperates with the arm assembly to automatically change the effective length of the arm assembly when the predetermined weight has collected on the canopy so to cause an edge of the canopy to lower to remove some of the collected weight from the canopy.
According to another aspect of the invention the predetermined weight is in a range of 8 pounds to 50 pounds.
According to a further aspect of the invention the effective length of the arm assembly changes by at least three inches when the predetermined weight has collected on the canopy.
According to a still further aspect of the invention the arm assembly can be a pair of arm assemblies and the awning assembly can further comprises a canopy rod. The canopy rod is connected to the canopy and has opposite ends each supported by one of the arm assemblies. Additionally, the arm assemblies can include a vertically extending base arm connected to the wall, a bottom arm having an inner end pivotally connected to the base arm, an extended arm having an inner end pivotally connected to the bottom arm and an outer end connected to and supporting the canopy rod. The top arm has an inner end pivotally connected to the base arm above the bottom arm and an outer end pivotally connected to the extended arm. Further, the top and/or bottom arm can include a second member slidably connected to a first member wherein the elastic assembly is connected to the first and/or the second member. Still further, the second member can be slidably movable with respect to the first member in a telescoping manner.
According to another aspect of the present invention the elastic assembly includes a rack attached to the second member, a pinion attached to the first member and engaging the rack, and a spring attached to the pinion. The spring can be a torsion spring.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention the extended arm includes a first member and a second member pivotally connected, and the spring assembly is connected to at least one of the members.
According to a further aspect of the present invention at least one of the arm assemblies includes a strut having an inner end connected to the wall and an outer end connected to the top arm. Alternatively, the inner end of the strut can be connected to the arm assembly.
According to a still further aspect of the present invention the canopy rod includes two bars pivotally connected at their inner ends and have outer ends supported by the arm assemblies and the spring assembly is connected to at least one of the bars.
According to another aspect of the present invention each of the arm assemblies includes a rafter arm having an inner end pivotally connected at the wall and an outer end pivotally connected to a support arm. The support arm has an outer end connected to and supporting the canopy rod and an inner end connectable at the wall. Additionally, at least one of the support arm can include a lock assembly operable to keep at least one of the support arm from changing effective length when the awning assembly is loaded. Further, the second member can be slidably moveable with respect to the first member in a telescoping manner.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the canopy has an inner edge for connection at the wall. The outer edge of the canopy is connected to the canopy rod. The canopy rod has opposite ends supported by a pair of air assemblies. Each arm assembly includes a rafter arm and a support arm. Each rafter arm has an inner end pivotally connected to the wall and an outer end pivotally connected to the support arm. The support arm has an outer end connected to and supporting the canopy rod and an inner end connectable to the wall. One of the support arms is made of a resilient flexible material such that the support arm deflects to reduce the effective length when a predetermined weight has collected on the canopy.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention the awning assembly comprises a canopy having an inner edge for connection at a wall. An outer edge of the canopy is supported by a pair of arm assemblies and is connected to a canopy rod. The canopy rod has opposite ends each supported by one of arm assemblies. The canopy rod includes a bar having a section made of a resilient flexible material such that the canopy rod automatically deflects when a predetermined weight has collected on the canopy. The deflection causes an edge of the canopy to lower so to remove some of the collected weight from the canopy.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention the awning assembly comprises a canopy having an inner edge for connection at a wall. At least one arm assembly supports an outer edge of the canopy. The canopy has a section made of a material of higher elasticity than a remaining portion of the canopy. The higher elastic section of the canopy stretches more than the remaining portion to form a valley in the canopy when a predetermined weight has collected on the canopy.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention the awning assembly comprises a canopy having an inner edge for connection at a wall and an outer edge connected a canopy rod. The canopy rod has angularly extending grooves in which the outer edge of the canopy is connected. The canopy rod has opposite ends which are supported by a pair of arm assemblies. The grooves can twist between about 90 degrees and 180 degrees about the canopy rod.


A hotel reservation system receives hotel reservations from a travel agent or other authorized user and enters information relating to the traveler and the reservation into a hotel reservation terminal. The reservation information is transferred to transaction processor via a communications link, where the processor automatically generates transaction documents related to the traveler, the travel agent and the hotel accommodations. These transaction documents are then sequentially transmitted by the processor using a facsimile to various parties having an interest in the reservation transaction. A confirmation document is sent to the hotel for which the accommodations have been reserved. The banking institution through which the transaction has been financed is notified to pay the hotel and others, and the travel agent is also sent a confirming transaction document.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to automated transaction processing and more particularly to a computerized system and method for reserving hotel rooms using a computer to receive and process the hotel reservations from travel agents and users, and to sequentially generate and send different text facsimile confirmation letters and payment orders to the hotels, travel agents, banks, and other third parties, via their respective fax devices in an uninterrupted consolidated fashion.
2. Description of the Background Art
Despite the tremendous volume of travel related business which is conducted on a daily basis in the U.S. and throughout the world, the process of booking and administering hotel and travel reservations remains highly labor intensive for tour operators, wholesalers, and hotel reservation services. These companies are called "travel resellers", and make their profit by buying hotel rooms at a discount and marking up the price. On average, approximately 25 minutes is required to receive, book, and confirm each hotel reservation. Prior to the present invention, the travel reseller received the hotel reservation request from the traveler or his travel agent and subsequently prepared a confirmation document showing the reservation and retail price of the hotel room, a confirmation number, the name and address of the hotel, and various other information pertinent to the traveler's transaction. Separately, a document was prepared for transmittal to the hotel, confirming the reservation and usually stating the agreed upon retail price, as well as the price to be paid (or the commission to be received) by the travel agent. If a group stay was involved, a consolidated statement might be prepared, whereby a single document listed all of the travelers and their reservations.
As a separate manual step, the travel reseller prepared a bank deposit slip, either in the form of a credit card debit slip or a deposit record attached to the customer's check. This bank deposit was then mailed or delivered to the banking institution for payment. In the case of a franchise operation, a franchisee might then prepare a separate document to send to the franchiser along with franchise payments, if applicable. In cases where the travel reseller was offering a "package" including, for example, a shuttle transfer from the airport, the shuttle company might be separately notified of the reservation plans, using an additional manually generated document.
Presently, in the typical hotel reservation transaction for travel resellers, at least several different transaction forms must be prepared and transmitted to various parties. Conventional Personal Computer (PC) technology provides document facsimile capability directly from a user's computer. Utilizing PC technology, the present invention allows a user to enter hotel reservation information into a database and have a number of different documents sequentially generated and automatically transmitted to the various parties in the reservation transaction.

Automated hotel reservation processing method and system


A method for computational analysis includes collecting an application dataset and extracting one or more features from the application dataset in order to generate a utilization workload model. The features correspond to an intrinsic dimensionality of the dataset. An apparatus and a computer-usable medium storing instructions executable by a processor for providing the computational analysis is also described.

A concern for many business enterprises is proper utilization of computational resources. In a fast changing business environment, an enterprise can go from having too much computational capacity to having too little in a short period of time. Having too much computational capacity causes a business enterprise to waste resources, while having too little capacity can cause a business enterprise to lose potential business opportunities.

Method and apparatus for computational analysis

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Techniques for providing automated media commentary are provided. A user agent requests audio commentary for media. In response, a service searches data sources to identify the specified media, finds information related to those entities, generates text that represents those information, combines the text into a textual monologue, and synthesizes speech audio from that textual monologue. The service selects relevant information to be likely unknown to the user while also being desired by the user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to presenting information about a sequence of media. More specifically, the invention relates to finding information relating to media and presenting that information to a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Large collections of online music allow listeners to explore unfamiliar music easily, and several services ranging from simple shuffles to sophisticated recommendation engines can select music for listeners. To learn the title or other information about an unfamiliar track, a listener typically consults some textual presentation for that track. Additionally, a user might manually search for information about that track. Many sources of information about the track are available for the user to consult.

Systems and methods for automated media commentary


A method and apparatus determines an uncoded bit error rate pb based on a target symbol error rate εs. The uncoded bit error rate pb is determined based on a weighted series expansion of the target symbol error rate εs, comprising weights W that are a function of a maximum number of symbol errors that can be corrected t and a number of symbols in an information field K. The maximum number of symbol errors t and the number of symbols in the information field K is selected such that the uncoded bit error rate pb that produces a symbol error rate that is less than or equal to the target symbol error rate εs is largest.

Demand for digital subscriber line (DSL) service across existing twisted pair copper wires between a central office and a remote location is increasing. Typically, DSL services operate in accordance with DSL standards recommended by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). A family of DSL Recommendations from the ITU includes: G.992.1, G.992.2, G.991.1, G.996.1, G.994.1, G.997.1 and G.995.1. Recommendation G.995.1 provides an overview of these standards. Recommendations G.991.1, G.992.1, G.992.2 have developed techniques for transmitting a range of bit rates over the copper wires of the local network including high bit rates at relatively short distances, and lower bit rates at longer distances. In particular, the G.992.1 and G.992.2 recommendations are based on asymmetric digital subscriber line technology that has different data rates in each direction of transmission. The G.992.1 recommendation is referred to as G.dmt and requires a splitter, which filters the voicegrade signals at the remote location. The G.992.2 recommendation is referred to as G.lite and does not require a splitter. Recommendations G.994.1, G.996.1 and G.997.1 support the G.992.1 and G.992.2 recommendations by providing common handshake, management and testing procedures. These standards allow substantial flexibility in implementation.
Reed-Solomon encoding is a method of forward error correction used in DSL communications to detect and correct transmission errors, effectively increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the communications channel. By encoding information, errors may be reduced without decreasing the data rate. In Reed-Solomon encoding, redundant symbols are added to information symbols to allow errors to be detected and corrected. As the number of redundant symbols increases, a greater level of noise may be tolerated. Among the transmission parameters to be selected in DSL communications are FEC parameters for Reed-Solomon encoding. The FEC parameters determine the amount of information data in an information field, and a number of redundancy symbols that are associated with the information field of an information frame.
To initiate a DSL communication session, Reed-Solomon encoding parameters for forward error correction (FEC) are selected. During initialization, the channel is analyzed and FEC parameters are determined and exchanged. While the ITU recommendations proscribe protocols for initialization, the ITU recommendations do not describe how the ATU equipment at the central office (ATU-C) or the remote user location (ATU-R) should act on data produced by the channel analysis or how the ATUs should select FEC parameters. The recommendations set a bit error rate standard (BER) of 10−7, but provide no guidance on selection of FEC parameters to most effectively achieve that bit error rate. Therefore, a method and apparatus of selecting FEC parameters based on available channel analysis data is needed. The FEC parameters should also yield a target bit error rate.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Performance evaluation of multicarrier channels


An imaging lens with a wide image angle, that is compact and bright, is composed of a first lens group of negative refracting power which has three lens elements which are of positive, negative, and positive refracting power, respectively, and a second lens group of positive refracting power. By providing the first lens element on the object side of the first lens group with an aspherical surface, and by fixing the range of the spacing between the first lens element and the second lens element to satisfy a first condition, as well as fixing the spacing between the second lens element and the third lens element to satisfy a second condition, the distortion of the imaging lens is reduced and its resolution is increased.

In recent years, solid-state image sensors have been widely used at the imaging surface of video cameras, still cameras, and the like. These solid-state image sensors have been miniaturized as technology has advanced. Accompanying this trend, there has been an increased demand for a more compact photographic lens having a wider viewing angle than previously available.
Recently, there has been a large increase in demand for digital still cameras, and various data types are now frequently put into a photographic record. Distortion resulting from the photographic lens is quite conspicuous in this sort of photographic recording of data where the photographic subject data comprises, for example, the wording of a business card or a table format. This is because these subjects generally include an image that is rectangular in shape and is located near the periphery of the image, as results from photographing the outer dimensions of a business card, the framework of a table, or the like. Accordingly, it is strongly desired that the distortion of a photographic lens used in this type of camera be kept small. In order to realize a wide image angle, it is advantageous to use an imaging lens of the retro focus type. However, in an imaging lens of the retro focus type, it is necessary to correct the various aberrations that are generated by the negative lens element having a large aperture that is arranged on the object side.
In order to accomplish this, it is thought that, by arranging a convex lens element with low refracting power on the extreme object side in an imaging lens of the retro focus type, the distortion will be corrected. An example of this approach, which uses a biconvex lens element arranged on the extreme object side, is Japanese laid open Patent Publication No. H09-80302. However, the imaging lens is insufficient in that its f-number is too large (2.8) to yield a bright image and, in addition, the width of the image angle (i.e., the field of view) and distortion certainly could not be said to be desirable.


This disclosure describes techniques that include determining the health of one or more routing engines included within a router. In one example, this disclosure describes a method that includes performing, by a first routing engine included within a router, routing operations, wherein the router includes a plurality of routing engines, including the first routing engine and a second routing engine; receiving, by a computing system, data including health indicators associated with the first routing engine; applying, by the computing system, a machine learning model to the data to determine, from the health indicators, a health status of the first routing engine, wherein the machine learning model has been trained to identify the health status from the health indicators; and determining, by the computing system and based on the health status of the first routing engine, whether to switch routing operations to the second routing engine from the first routing engine.

A computer network is a collection of interconnected computing devices that exchange data and share resources. In a packet-based network, such as the Internet, the computing devices communicate data by dividing the data into small blocks called packets, which are individually routed across the network from a source device to a destination device. The destination device extracts the data from the packets and assembles the data into its original form. Dividing the data into packets enables the source device to resend only those individual packets that may be lost during transmission.
Certain devices within the network, such as routers, maintain routing information that describes routes through the network. Each route defines a path between two locations on the network. From the routing information, the routers may generate forwarding information, which is used by the routers to relay packet flows through the network and, more particularly to relay the packet flows to a next hop. In reference to forwarding a packet, the "next hop" from a network router typically refers to a neighboring device along a given route. Upon receiving an incoming packet, the router examines information within the packet to identify the destination for the packet. Based on the destination, the router forwards the packet in accordance with the forwarding information.
Large computer networks, such as the Internet, often include many routers that exchange routing information according to a defined routing protocol, such as the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). When two routers initially connect, the routers exchange routing information and generate forwarding information from the exchanged routing information. Particularly, the two routers initiate a routing communication "session" via which they exchange routing information according to the defined routing protocol. The routers continue to communicate via the routing protocol to incrementally update the routing information and, in turn, update their forwarding information in accordance with changes to a topology of the network indicated in the updated routing information. For example, the routers may send update messages to advertise newly available routes or routes that are no longer available.
In the event one of the routers of a routing communication session detects a failure of the session, i.e., the session "goes down," the surviving router may select one or more alternative routes through the network to avoid the failed router and continue forwarding packet flows. In particular, the surviving router may update internal routing information to reflect the failure, perform route resolution based on the updated routing information to select one or more alternative routes, update its forwarding information based on the selected routes, and send one or more update messages to inform peer routers of the routes that are no longer available. In turn, the receiving routers update their routing and forwarding information, and send update messages to their peers. This process continues and the update information propagates outward until it reaches all of the routers within the network. Routing information in large networks may take a long period of time to converge to a stable state after a network fault due to temporary oscillations, i.e., changes that occur within the routing information until it converges to reflect the current network topology. These oscillations within the routing information are often referred to as "flaps," and can cause significant problems, including intermittent loss of network connectivity and increased packet loss and latency.
To reduce the impact of failures, some routers include a primary routing control unit and one or more secondary routing control units. In the event the primary routing control unit fails, one of the secondary routing control units assumes routing responsibilities. In some situations, the failed router may support "non-stop forwarding," which refers to the ability to continue forwarding packets while the routing session is reestablished. Redundant components in the failed router maintain forwarding state information during control module failure, enabling the failed router to continue forwarding packets over routes that were available in the network's last-known state. As a result, impact on current packet flows through the network may be reduced.

Routing engine switchover based on health determined by support vector machine