A form-fill-seal machine 100 has a pull-down belt mechanism 23, a vertical sealing mechanism 2, and a controller 29. The pull-down belt mechanism conveys a cylindrical film Fm. The vertical sealing mechanism applies pressure and ultrasonic oscillation to the cylindrical film which is conveyed by the pull-down belt mechanism, and seals the cylindrical film. The controller controls the pull-down belt mechanism, and the pressure and the amplitude of the ultrasonic oscillation applied to the cylindrical film by the vertical sealing mechanism. The controller applies pressure and ultrasonic oscillation to the cylindrical film immediately before reaching a first point in time when the cylindrical film begins to be conveyed. The controller changes at least one of the pressure and the amplitude of the ultrasonic oscillation applied to the film according to the speed of the film in a time period after reaching the first point in time.

Conventionally, a form-fill-seal machine having an ultrasonic sealing device, such as that disclosed in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-233309), is used as a form-fill-seal machine for shaping a bag from a film-shaped packaging material and filling the bag with packaged contents such as a snack food or the like. After applying fine ultrasonic oscillation to the thermoplastic packaging material and melting the material, the ultrasonic sealing device applies pressure to and seals the packaging material.


One of a plurality of areas is displayed as a display area on a display device, and based on an input from an input section, an object included in the display area is determined as a target to be moved, and when a predetermined movement is detected by a movement sensor, the currently displayed display area is switched to an area different from the currently displayed display area, and the area is displayed on the display device together with the object determined as a target to be moved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage medium, an information processing apparatus, an information processing system and an information processing method, and more particularly, to a storage medium, an information processing apparatus, an information processing system and an information processing method for performing display control of objects.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, in a situation where objects such as items are managed on a plurality of screens, in order to move an item among the plurality of screens, a method has been used in which, for example, a selected item is moved to an end of a screen and moved to another screen, or an item is moved to one screen to another by performing a button operation (for example, see Wii (registered trademark) Toriatsukai Setsumeisho Kinou-hen (Japanese User's Manual for Functions) page 7 (released on Dec. 2, 2006)).
However, according to the above conventional art, after selecting an item which is a target to be moved, in order to perform an operation to move the selected item from a screen to another, a plurality of buttons provided on a controller or button icons displayed on the screen need to be operated. That is, in order to move a desired item from a screen to another, a user is required to perform a plurality of button operations. Consequently, in the conventional art, such operations can be bothersome to the user.

Storage medium, information processing apparatus, information processing system and information processing method


A gas release apparatus for use with centrifugal pumps, and particularly for centrifugal pumps when used in conjunction with a fluid piping system such as hydrotherapy tubs, spas, and whirlpools.

Gas trapped in the pump housing of a centrifugal pump impairs the efficiency of the pump, and may cause the pump to not work at all. In some circumstances, the pump may fail prematurely. To deal with these problems, there have been many attempts to remove gas from the pump housing of a centrifugal pump, either prior to startup, or during the startup phase. One straightforward solution has been to situate the pump in such a manner that the pump housing is filled with liquid after the outlet is covered, and before the pump is started. In some instances, however, this orientation of the pump may not be possible due to space constraints. Thus, the outlet of a pump may be lower than the top of the pump impeller; in this situation air may be trapped above the inlet pipe and in the suction and discharge chambers.
It is also recognized that gas may sometimes enter the pump chamber, as for example, if the suction head is lost between pumping cycles. In general, only after continuous operation of a pump will air or gas typically be purged from the pump housing, with resultant efficient pump operation. It is important, therefore, that air be purged from centrifugal pumps and other pumps that are susceptible to losing prime.
Before pump startup, both liquid and air are typically contained in the suction and discharge chambers of a centrifugal pump. When the pump motor is energized to start rotation of the impeller, a quantity of the liquid and gas from the suction chamber may be moved into the pump discharge chamber. This action creates a partial vacuum on the suction side of the pump. Atmospheric pressure exerted on the liquid to be pumped out of the suction chamber, coupled with the internal dimension of the inlet pipe, causes the fluid to rise into the inlet pipe. If the rotation of the impeller continues to move quantities of liquid and gas from the suction chamber into the discharge chamber, the height of the liquid in the pump chamber progressively increases. The priming cycle is completed when a vacuum has been established in the suction chamber, and the pump has been primed and is operating at its rated capacity and head, because most of the gas has been removed from the suction chamber. As noted above, however, there are instances when a pump may not prime and may eventually fail. Such is frequently the case, for example, in the operation of hydrotherapy tubs.
Hydrotherapy tubs typically have one or more jets which jet water against portions of a person who is occupying the tub. Water in the tub is circulated by means of a centrifugal pump from an exit near the bottom of the tub to a discharge line which leads to exit ports in one or more jets located in the tub. Water generally fills the tub to a point above the pump. The jet exit ports are generally located below the discharge or outlet connection of the pump. It is this vertical relationship between the exit ports and the outlet connection of the pump which causes air to be trapped in the pump and makes the pump difficult to prime.
In a hydrotherapy tub, the priming cycle of its pump begins while the tub reservoir is being filled. Water passes into the pump's piping system via the suction line of the pump, and rises above the elevation of the exit ports of the hydrotherapy jets. When the exit ports are covered with water, however, gas within the fluid piping system is unable to escape. As noted above, if the centrifugal pump is located above the level of the exit ports, or even if it is level with these ports, air will be trapped inside of the centrifugal pump making it difficult to prime.
In many cases of hydrotherapy tubs and in other instances as well, it may be impossible to locate the centrifugal pump below the surface of the exit ports. Thus, as will be apparent from the foregoing description it is necessary in this case to vent the air or other gas that is trapped in the pump housing in order to prime the pump. Otherwise, the air or gas prevents water from completely filling the pump housing, and the pump impeller cannot efficiently pump water into the discharge chamber even after the priming cycle. Pressure in the discharge chamber, therefore, remains relatively low. Unless the gas is completely vented, the pump is not able to develop sufficient head or operate at rated capacity.

Apparatus for eliminating gas from a fluid piping system


A frequency synthesizer comprises a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with an output frequency f.sub.out that is dependent on a VCO-control voltage input. A divide-by-k counter is connected to receive the output frequency f.sub.out and to output a pair of in-phase and quadrature phase signals f.sub.k. A vector modulator is connected to receive the in-phase and quadrature phase signals f.sub.k and the output frequency f.sub.out, and outputs a single sideband (SSB) modulated output f.sub.n comprising only one of the sum (f.sub.out +f.sub.k) or difference (f.sub.out -f.sub.k) products. A divide-by-n counter is connected to receive the modulated output f.sub.n and to output a feedback frequency sample f.sub.f. And a phase detector is connected to receive the feedback frequency sample f.sub.f and to compare it with a reference frequency f.sub.r. A phase error output signal is provided for the VCO-control voltage input.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to electronic frequency synthesizer circuits and more specifically to single phase locked loops that use a vector modulator to synthesize a wide range of frequencies in very fine digitally controlled steps.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional phase locked loops (PLLs) are ubiquitous in all kinds of communications and navigation equipment. A single frequency reference provided by a crystal oscillator is conventionally mixed with the output of a divide-by-n digital divider connected to a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). A phase detector is used to compare the divider output frequency and phase to the reference frequency. An error signal drives the VCO in such a direction that the VCO output settles exactly on the nth multiple of the reference frequency. So the accuracy and stability of the reference frequency is imparted to the VCO output frequency. Different frequencies can be synthesized by changing the divisor n, and/or the reference frequency.
Circuit applications that require a very wide range of frequencies and a very fine step size between synthesized frequencies have traditionally meant that multiple PLLs had to be used and their outputs mixed together to generate sum and difference products. Such complex circuits are expensive to manufacture and not as robust and trouble-free as particular applications demand. For example, satellite communications transceivers need to be able to synthesize many different carrier frequencies in the 1.6 GHz band that are separated by as little as fifty hertz. Such fine granularity is necessary to track microwave radio carriers that are Doppler shifted by varying amounts by the relative velocities of the orbiting satellites and mobile transceivers.

Wide-range fine-step vector modulator frequency synthesizer


A bottleneck determination method and system are disclosed. Sequential processes are defined and certain attributes for each process are quantified. These attributes may include a beginstock amount, a production amount, and a spoilage amount. Using the attributes, calculations are performed, and the results of these calculations are used to select processes that may be bottlenecks. Further calculations are performed with regard to this selected group, and the results of these further calculations are used to select a bottleneck process.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to devices of determining a bottleneck. For example, a product may be produced and brought to market via the coordination of many processes. If one of the processes limits the production or sales of the product, that process is often referred to as a "bottleneck". It may be desirable to identify a bottleneck and quantify the detrimental effect the bottleneck has on a business.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a typical business one or more processes may be involved in the production and selling of a good or service (herein collectively referred to as "product"). As an example, consider the production and selling of product X, which includes processes as follows: purchasing raw materials, cutting, casting and selling. The bottleneck is the process having the lowest output that is not a consequence of low input, which that process received from an inputting process. A bottleneck limits the amount of products that can be sold by a business during a period. If a business wants to raise its sales, it should invest in its bottlenecks. The investments in bottlenecks should enlarge the production capacity of the bottlenecks, and might include, for example, investments in machines, tools, personnel and improved working methods. Investments in processes which are not bottlenecks will not raise sales and profit, and can be a waste of money and time. In order to determine which investments are profitable and which investments are not, it is important for a business to know which processes are bottlenecks and which processes are not.
Few businesses use mathematical optimization techniques like Linear Programming or Nonlinear Programming to determine their bottlenecks. These techniques include the formulation of an objective function. The objective function is to be maximized or minimized. One or more factors which constrain the value of the objective function are determined and expressed by constrain functions. See for example, Frederick S. Hiller and Gerald J. Lieberman, "Introduction to operations research", McGraw-Hill (1995) in which there is provided a description of techniques of Linear Programming and Nonlinear Programming. If a business uses Linear Programming or Nonlinear Programming to determine bottlenecks, it must formulate an objective function and one or more constrain functions as well. The objective function expresses an object, such as total sales during a period. In order to determine which processes are bottlenecks, which constrain a higher value of the objective function because of their limited maximum production capacity, the limited maximum production capacity of each process is expressed in constrain functions. At the maximum value of the objective function, a business determines which of the limited maximum production capacities, expressed in constrain functions, constrain total sales during a period. At the maximum value of the objective function, one or more processes can be identified as bottlenecks, which constrain a higher value of sales. If a business uses Linear Programming or Nonlinear Programming only the processes, for which a certain fixed maximum production capacity can be determined, can be included. There are processes for which a certain fixed maximum production capacity can be determined easily. For instance a production process X can produce 10,000 pieces of product A or 3,000 pieces of product B during a period. There are however also processes for which it is impossible to determine a certain fixed maximum production capacity. Take for instance sales department S which spends only one hour on a sales order for 1000 products A, but also spends 2 days on a sales order for 2 products A and a week on a customer who does not buy anything. Processes for which no fixed maximum production capacity can be determined, such as sales department S, can therefore never be identified as a bottleneck using Linear Programming or Nonlinear Programming, although these processes can be very important bottlenecks.
In the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,661, a bottleneck is the process which yields the fewest quantity of products per unit of processing time or yields the lowest value of products per unit of processing time. In order to determine the quantity of products per unit of processing time and the value of products per unit of processing time, the processing time of each product in processes are calculated. In the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,694 a bottleneck is the process which yields the fewest quantity of products per unit of processing time. The processing times of each product in processes are calculated in order to determine the quantity of products per unit of processing time. In a typical business with a plurality of products, there are important processes which work on a plurality of products at the same time. An account manager for instance who works on a sales order for 100 units of product A, 230 units of product B and 12 units of product C, works on a plurality of products at the same time. Or a warehouse-clerk who moves 4000 pieces of product X and 16000 pieces of product Y, works on a plurality of products at the same time. Or a buying department which buys 1 ton of raw material for the production of 12 types of products works on a plurality of products at the same time. If a process works on a plurality of products at the same time it can be difficult or even impossible to determine the processing time of each product in this process. These processes can therefore never be identified as bottlenecks using the methods and systems described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,661 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,694, although these processes can be very important bottlenecks.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,893 a bottleneck is a subprocess which dictates the maximum speed of a process. The maximum speed is thereby measured in production units per hour. The method comprises identifying a problem in a process and determining how much processing time the process loses due to the problem. Then the financial value of the problem is calculated based on the maximum bottleneck speed and how much processing time the process loses due to the problem. In a typical business with a plurality of products, there are important processes and subprocesses for which it is very difficult or even impossible to determine its maximum speed. For instance it is very difficult to determine the maximum speed of a sales department Q, which sold 3,000,000 of products in one hour on Monday but did not sell anything on Tuesday. It is also very difficult to determine the maximum speed of a purchasing department P, which can order raw materials for the production of millions of products in just one phone call. In a typical business there are also many production processes for which it is hard to determine its maximum bottleneck speed. It is therefore very difficult to identify a bottleneck in processes like sales department Q, purchasing department P and many production processes, and it is practically impossible to determine the financial value of a problem in these processes based on the maximum speed of these processes. Thus the method and system described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,893 has the same drawback as the methods and systems described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,661 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,694, and the method of Linear Programming and Nonlinear Programming: not all (sub)processes which are involved in the production and selling of products can be included and thus not all the bottlenecks may be detected.
Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 describes a set of formulas and equations which a business can use to determine its bottlenecks. According to this patent, a process is a bottleneck if a negative variance in revenues originates in that process. The invention describes For. 1 which a business can use to determine whether a negative variance in revenues originated in a process during a period. In order to determine whether a negative variance in revenues of product i originated in process s, a business uses the data on product i and process s in For. 1. If the value of For. 1 is smaller than zero when the data on product i and process s are used in For. 1, then a negative variance in revenues originated in process s and process s was a bottleneck in the production of product i. If the value of For. 1 is equal to zero, when the data on product i and process s are used in For. 1, then no negative variance in revenues of product i originated in process s and process s was not a bottleneck in the production of product i. For. 1 states:min[osi−min(pi−bevises,oti+bevis),0]*Vi  (For. 1)                wherein:                    osi indicates the quantity of production of process s of product i during the concerned period;            pi indicates the budgeted production of product i or the market demand of product i during the concerned period;            bevises indicates the stock of products i that were already processed by process s, but were not processed by all the succeeding processes of process s at the beginning of the concerned period;            oti indicates the quantity of products i that were processed by the process which directly precedes process s during the concerned period;            bevis indicates the stock of products i that were already processed by the process which directly precedes process s but were not yet processed by process s at the beginning of the concerned period and;            Vi indicates the selling price of product i.
Using For. 1, according to Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 can lead to a false determination of bottlenecks. To illustrate this, consider the example of company Y, illustrated in FIG. 1. Company Y produces and sells only product i. Product i can be sold in the company Y's own shop, or product i can be sold and shipped to other companies by the expedition department. During period t, production department 1 produced 2000 units of product i while the total market demand was 1200 units of products i. Production department 1 delivered 1000 units of product i to shop 2 and 1000 units of product i to expedition department 3. Shop 2 sold 700 units of product i and expedition department 3 shipped 500 units of product i to other companies. At the beginning of period t there were no stocks. When company Y uses For. 1 to determine to what extend shop 2 was a bottleneck during period t, it calculates:min[700−min(1200−0,2000+0),0]*Vi=−500*Vi
Thus if company Y detects bottlenecks according to Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191, it determines that shop 2 was a bottleneck with a magnitude of 500 units of product i. This is a false determination of a bottleneck. Shop 2 was not a bottleneck because shop 2 did not have the lowest output and shop 2 did not limit the amount of units of product i that were sold during period t. Moreover, shop 2 and expedition department 3 processed 1200 units of products i, while the total market demand was 1200 units of product i. They both could not do a better job. In fact, company Y did not have any bottleneck at all during period t.
Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 also discusses the situation wherein a product consists of two or more subproducts which form one product together and which can only be sold together as one product. As an example, Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 describes company Dzeng which produces a product ("product i" for short hereinafter), which consists of two subproducts ("subproduct ia" and "subproduct ib" for short hereinafter). This example is illustrated in FIG. 2. Subproduct ia is processed by purchase plastic process 4, cast handle process 5, assemble process 6 and sales process 7. Subproduct ib is processed by purchase aluminium process 8, thump process 9, form process 10, assemble process 6 and sales process 7. According to Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 a business can use For. 2 to determine whether a negative variance in revenues originated in the production and selling of subproduct ia in process s and thus whether process s was a bottleneck in the production and selling of subproduct ia. In order to determine whether a negative variance originated in process s, a business uses the data on subproduct ia and process s in For. 2. If the value of For. 2 is smaller than zero when the data on subproduct ia and process s are used in For. 2, then a negative variance originated in process s and process s was a bottleneck in the production and selling of subproduct ia. If the value of For. 2 is equal to zero, when the data on subproduct ia and process s are used in For. 2, then no negative variance in revenues originated in process s and process s was not a bottleneck in the production of subproduct ia. For. 2 states:min[osia−min(pi−beviases,otia+bevias),0]*Via  (For. 2)                wherein:                    osia indicates the quantity of production of process s of subproduct ia during the concerned period;            pi indicates the budgeted production of product i or the market demand of product i during the concerned period;            beviases indicates the stock of subproducts ia that were already processed by process s, but were not processed by all the succeeding processes of process s at the beginning of the concerned period;            otia indicates the quantity of subproducts ia that were processed by the process which directly precedes process s during the concerned period;            bevias indicates the stock of subproducts ia that were already processed by the process which directly precedes process s but were not yet processed by process s at the beginning of the concerned period and;            Via indicates the selling price of subproduct ia.
Using For. 2, according to Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 can also, lead to a false determination of bottlenecks. To illustrate this consider an example of company Dzeng, illustrated in FIG. 2, which produced only product i during period t. During period t, purchase plastic process 4 processed 1000 units of subproduct ia. Cast handle process 5 processed 900 units of subproduct ia. Assemble process 6 and sales process 7 both processed 500 units of subproduct ia. Purchase aluminium process 8, thump process 9, form process 10, assemble process 6 and sales process 7 all processed 500 units of subproduct ib. At the beginning of period t no stocks were present. The total market demand and budgeted production for product i during period t was 1000 units. When company Dzeng uses For. 2 to determine to what extent cast handle process 5 was a bottleneck during period t, it calculates:min[900−min(1000−0,1000+0),0]*Via=−100*Via
Thus if company Dzeng detects bottlenecks according to Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191, it determines that cast handle process 5 was a bottleneck during period t with a magnitude of 100*Via. In other words, according to Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 a negative variance in revenues originated in cast handle process 5. This conclusion is however false. Cast handle process 5 was not a bottleneck because cast handle process 5 did not have the lowest output and cast handle process 5 did not limit the sales of product i during period t. Because there were only 500 units of subproduct ib available and because subproduct ia can only be sold together with subproduct ib, sales were limited to 500 units. Even if cast handle process 5 had produced an enormous amount of units of ia during period t, sales would still be limited to 500 units. The sales were not limited by the cast handle process 5 during period t. No negative variance in revenues originated in cast handle process 5.
Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 pays special attention to processes which receive input from two or more processes. In Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 a process which receives input from two or more processes is called a "combilink". In the example of company Dzeng, illustrated in FIG. 2, assemble process 6 is a combilink. The combilink combines several subproducts. Assemble process 6 for example combines subproduct ia and subproduct ib. If a subproduct can not be combined with another subproduct in the combilink because the other subproduct is missing, then the combilink has incomplete input. According to Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 a negative variance in revenues which originated because subproduct ia could not be combined with all the other subproducts in the combilink, can be calculated using For. 3. In order to determine whether a negative variance in revenues originated in the combilink because subproduct ia could not be combined with other subproducts, a business uses data on the combilink (process s) and data on all the subproducts which the combilink combines (subproduct ia, subproduct ib, etc.) in For. 3. If the value of For. 3 is smaller than zero when data on the combilink and data on all the subproducts which the combilink combines are used in For. 3, then a negative variance in revenues originated in the combilink because subproduct ia could not be combined with other subproducts in the combilink. If the value of For. 3 is equal to zero, when data on the combilink and all the subproducts which the combilink combines are used in For. 3, then no negative variance occurred because of incomplete input.min[min(bevibs+otib, . . . , bevins+otin,pi)−min(bevias+otia,pi),0]*Via  (For. 3)                wherein:                    pi indicates the budgeted production of product i or the market demand of product i;            bevibs indicates the stock of subproducts ib that were already processed by one of the processes which directly precedes process s but were not yet processed by process s at the beginning of the concerned period;            bevins indicates the stock of subproducts in that were already processed by one of the processes which directly precedes process s but were not yet processed by process s at the beginning of the concerned period;            bevias indicates the stock of subproducts ia that were already processed by one of the processes which directly precedes process s but were not yet processed by process s at the beginning of the concerned period;            otib indicates the quantity of subproducts ib that were processed during the concerned period by one of the processes which directly precedes process s;            otin indicates the quantity of subproducts in that were processed during the concerned period by one of the processes which directly precedes process s;            otia indicates the quantity of subproducts ia that were processed during the concerned period by one of the processes which directly precedes process s and;            Via indicates the selling price of subproduct ia.
Using For. 3, according to Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 can also lead to a false determination of negative variance in revenues. To illustrate this, consider another example of company Dzeng illustrated in FIG. 2. During period t, company Dzeng only produced product i, which consists of subproduct ia and subproduct ib. During period t, purchase plastic process 4, cast handle process 5 and sales process 7 processed 1000 units of subproduct ia. Assemble process 6 processed 300 units of subproduct ia during period t. Purchase aluminium process 8, thump process 9 and sales process 7 all processed 1000 units of subproduct ib. Assemble process 6 and form process 10 both processed 300 units of subproduct ib. The stock of subproducts ia that were already processed by assemble process 6 but not yet by sales process 7 at the beginning period t held 700 units of subproduct ia. The stock of subproducts ib that were already processed by assemble process 6 but not yet by sales process 7 at the beginning of period t held 700 units of subproduct ib. There were no other stocks present at the beginning of period t. The total market demand and budgeted production for product i during period t was 1000 units. When company Dzeng uses For. 3 to determine whether a negative variance occurred in the assemble process 6 because in this combilink subproduct ia could not be combined with subproduct ib it calculates:min[min(0+300,1000)−min(0+1000,1000),0]*Via=−700*Via
Thus if company Dzeng uses For. 3 to determine whether a negative variance occurred in assemble process 6 because of incomplete input, company Dzeng calculates that a negative variance in revenues of −700*Via occurred in assemble process 6. This outcome is however false. No negative variance in revenues occurred in assemble process 6. In fact no negative variance in revenues occurred in the whole production and selling of product i. Total sales were 1000 units of product i, which equals total market demand of product i. Thus the outcome of the formulas, described in Netherlands Pat. No. 1000191 can lead to a false determination of bottlenecks.
With the foregoing description of the related art in mind, it will be recognized that there are deficiencies in the prior art. For example, there is a need for a method and apparatus for determining bottlenecks properly in order to allocate investments. The prior art methods suffer from not being able to determine bottlenecks in processes without a certain fixed maximum production capacity. The prior art methods also suffer from not being able to properly determine bottlenecks when it is hard or impossible to determine how much time each bottleneck spends on each particular (type of) product. The prior art methods also suffer from not being able to properly determine bottlenecks when it is hard or impossible to determine the maximum speed of each bottleneck.


A hot-melt pressure-sensitive adhesive (HMPSA) composition comprising (a) 25 to 50% of one or more styrene block copolymers SBS, SIS, SIBS, SEBS or SEPS; (b) 35 to 75% of one or more compatible tackifying resins that are liquid or have a softening temperature below 150° C.; and (c) 1 to 20% of one or more supramolecular polymers obtained by reaction between 1-(2-aminoethyl)-2-imidazolidone and a fatty acid composition comprising 51 to 100% of one or more dimers and/or trimers of fatty acids and 0 to 49% of one or more monomers of fatty acids. A multilayer system including the HMPSA, an adjacent printable support layer, made of paper or a polymer film, and a protective layer adjacent is also provided. The multilayer system may be used in a self-adhesive label.

Many labelled packages and/or containers are subjected, after removal of their contents, to cleaning (or recycling) treatments either for the purpose of reusing them or, after destruction, for the purpose of recovering their constituent material. Such treatments often require the label to be completely separated from the article to which it is fastened, without leaving adhesive residues on the surface of said article, so as to make the recycling process easier.
These recycling processes, such as the one used for cleaning spent glass bottles, generally include a step of immersing the article to be cleaned in basic aqueous compositions maintained at temperatures between 60 and 100° C. The purpose of such a step is also the debonding of the label fastened to the article and its separation therefrom.

HMPSA for debondable self-adhesive label


This invention provides a ram for use in a mixer with counter-rotating non-intermeshing rotors on which the central portion of the ram utilizes a apex, either a point or a line produced by a “V” or similar shape, that protrudes a given distance into the mixing chamber and on which the end portions of the ram are either horizontal such that they do not protrude into the mixing chamber at all or are otherwise shaped such that they protrude into the mixing chamber less than the apex of the central portion of the ram.

This invention relates to the field of high intensity internal mixing machines of the batch type having a mixing chamber shaped to accommodate two counter-rotating, non-intermeshing, tangential winged rotors. The batch of ingredients to be mixed into a homogeneous mass is fed down into the mixing chamber through a vertical chute and is pushed down under pressure by a ram located in the chute. This ram is hydraulically, pneumatically or electrically driven. The lower face of the ram, when advanced down to its operating position during mixing of the batch, forms an upper portion of the mixing chamber. The homogeneous mixture produced is removed from the mixing chamber through a discharge opening at the bottom of the chamber, and a door associated with this opening is then closed in readiness for the next batch of ingredients to be introduced down through the chute. The homogenous mixture can also be removed in an alternative design by raising the hopper, tilting the mixing chamber and reversing the rotor direction. This batch mixer design is commonly referred to as a "tilt mixer." The homogenous mixture can also be removed by a mechanism where in the hinged side of the mixer is opened allowing the mixture to be removed from the mixing chamber. This design is commonly referred to as a "swing or hinged side discharge" batch mixer.
Some internal batch mixing machines are designed with non-intermeshing rotors, and others have intermeshing rotors. Intermeshing rotors must always be driven at the same rotational speed in synchronized relationship; non-intermeshing rotors may be driven at the same rotational speed or at different rotational speeds for achieving different mixing and kneading effects. The present invention relates to the non-intermeshing type. The wings of the rotors have a generally helical configuration, and they produce high intensity mixing and homogenization by the co-operative interaction of their various forceful dynamic effects, as described later. For further information about such internal batch mixers, having non-intermeshing rotors, reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,200,070 and 3,610,585, assigned to predecessors of the present assignee, and to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,744,668 and 4,834,543, assigned to the present assignee, and the disclosures of these patents are incorporated herein by reference as background information.
The wings of rotors employed in internal batch mixers have a generally helical configuration and they therefore produce high intensity mixing and homogenization by the co-operative interaction of the various forceful dynamic effects. Traditionally, the rotors in non-intermeshing type internal batch mixers have been driven at different speeds (non-synchronous rotor mixing). In more recent years, manufacturers have designed non-intermeshing type rotors that are intended to operate at equal speed (synchronous rotor mixing), such as for example, the rotors of the type disclosed in assignee U.S. Pat. No. 6,494,607, incorporated herein by reference thereto. Such rotors have produced increased distributive and dispersive mixing of materials in the internal batch mixers. Additionally, in order to decrease mixing cycle times, users of non-intermeshing type mixers have sought to increase the rotor speeds.
While the rams utilized in intermeshing rotor mixers have utilized a non-uniform shape for the portion of the ram that protrudes different distances into the mixer, the rams heretofore utilized in these latter non-intermeshing rotor type internal batch mixers have had a "flat bottom" that does not protrude at all into the mixing chamber or a "V" type shaped bottom that has a uniformly shaped bottom from end-to-end, with the apex of the "V" along the whole bottom surface of the ram and running parallel to the rotational axis of the rotors in the internal batch mixer, such that the ram protrudes into the mixing chamber of the internal batch mixer an equal amount along the entire length of the ram and thus essentially along the entire length of the rotors. It has now been discovered that due to the shape of the helix on the rotors, with each revolution of the rotors during the mixing cycle, material to be mixed in the mixing chamber of the internal batch mixer is forced against each quadrant of the ram at different times producing varying forces on the ram and causing cyclical rotational forces on the ram. While, for traditional non-synchronous driven rotor internal batch mixers operated at relatively low rotor rotation speeds these varying cyclical rotational forces have not posed significant difficulties, the inventors have found this not to be the case for synchronous driven rotor internal batch mixers operating with increased rotor speeds. In this latter case, the inventors have discovered that the combination of synchronous rotor design and increased rotor speed has produced a more aggressive flow of material in the mixing chamber and significantly increased the cyclical rotational forces on the "V" bottom of the ram. As the rotors in the mixing chamber turn, the material being mixed is moved across resulting in substantial, significant noise and vibration of the ram against the sides of mixing chamber and housing associated therewith during operation of the internal batch mixer and resulting in significant wear on the ram and throat of the mixing chamber. With these new rotors and increased rotor speed the material being mixed is moved axially to the rotor end plates causing the ram to move from side to side. Due to the rotor wing interaction (rotor to rotor) the material being mixed is also transferred from one mixing chamber cavity to the other. If the mix is high in viscosity, the ram is moved up and down in the throat opening of the mixer as the material transfer is occurring. If the mix is low in viscosity, the "V" of the ram bottom restricts rotor-to-rotor exchange of the mix and the product mix turns with the rotor in the each cavity. All this movement creates noise, wear and mechanical impact damage. With the "flat bottom" ram design, material is not pushed into the mixing chamber between the rotors and has a tendency to stagnate under the flat section of the bottom of the ram, never entering the mixing chamber. There is, therefore, a need for an improved ram for use in counter-rotating, non-intermeshing rotor internal batch mixers, and particularly an improved ram for such mixers that provides at least equivalent or better distributive and dispersive mixing as obtained with the standard "V" ram, but that significantly reduces or substantially eliminates the cyclical rotational forces on the ram that causes the aforementioned noise, wear and damage caused by motion of the ram.

Keel type ram for use in internal batch mixers with tangential rotors


A control system for an icemaker for an ice/beverage dispenser is responsive to both a sensed level of ice in an ice bin of the dispenser and to a customer ice usage profile to operate the icemaker at such times as to build ice for the ice bin just before and in sufficient time and quantity to meet an anticipated demand for ice. The control system may be programmed manually or automatically through use of adaptive algorithms, with ice usage patterns that identify the days and times of day when demands for ice will occur, and the control system then operates the icemaker in accordance with such ice usage patterns.

Combination ice/beverage dispensing machines dispense both ice and beverages. Such machines include a plurality of beverage dispensing valves connected to cooled supplies of beverages for dispensing beverages into a cup held below the valves. These dispensers also include an ice retaining bin having an ice dispensing mechanism for delivering ice on demand into the cup. A bin cover is removable from an upper opening to the ice bin to permit access to the bin. In the absence of an icemaker being associated with the ice/beverage dispenser, filling the bin with ice is accomplished by manually lifting and emptying buckets of ice into the bin.
To eliminate difficulties associated with manually filling an ice bin, an icemaker may be mounted above an ice/beverage dispenser to automatically make and introduce ice into the bin. However, the particular icemaker selected can be from one of a number of different manufacturers having various and differently dimensioned footprints that may or may not accommodate direct mounting of the icemaker on top of a given ice/beverage dispenser. In addition, because icemakers are manufactured as separate units from ice/beverage dispensers, the cost of the two units as separately manufactured and mechanically combined is greater than if an ice/beverage dispenser and an icemaker were manufactured as a single unit. Further, as cooling is required in an icemaker to form ice and in an ice/beverage dispenser to cool water for being dispensed into beverages, if a single mechanical cooling system were used for both functions, ice building and water chilling, the capabilities of a combined unit would be leveraged in a cost effective manner. One benefit would be the ability to downsize a cold plate of the ice/beverage dispenser, since water-chilling circuits could be eliminated from the cold plate, resulting in a more compact, less complicated and lower cost cold plate.
Chilling water for dispensing into beverages is typically accomplished in an ice/beverage dispenser by flowing water through a cold plate in heat exchange contact with ice produced by an icemaker. However, using an icemaker to produce ice that is then used to cool and take up heat from a cold plate is inefficient from a thermal and energy standpoint. A typical cube type icemaker evaporator has one side configured and dedicated to molding ice cubes while an opposite side contains refrigerant lines that produce the necessary cooling for removing heat from water flowing over the one side in order to freeze the water and build ice. This arrangement results in only half of the available surface area of the evaporator being used to exchange heat and produce ice. It would be desirable from an economic standpoint to combine an icemaker and an ice/beverage dispenser into a single unit and from a thermal and energy efficiency standpoint to use in such a combined unit the side of the evaporator opposite from the ice cube building side to chill water for use in dispensed beverages.
To maintain an adequate level of ice in an ice bin of an ice/beverage dispenser, according to conventional practice sensors are provided in the bin to detect the level of ice. The sensors generate signals that are indicative of the level and used to control operation of an icemaker in a manner to generally maintain the bin full of ice. So that the icemaker is not cycled excessively, two sensors are usually placed at different levels in the bin. A first sensor is located toward the top of the bin and is at a level such that when it is surrounded by ice the bin is full and a signal is developed by the sensor to turn off the icemaker. A second sensor is located below the first sensor and when it no longer is surrounded by ice it generates a signal to turn on the icemaker. The arrangement is such that when the bin is being filled, the icemaker is operated to introduce ice into the bin until the level of ice reaches the upper sensor, whereupon the upper sensor generates a signal to turn off the icemaker. As ice in the bin is depleted and the level of ice falls away from the upper sensor, the icemaker is not immediately turned on, but instead remains off until the level of ice falls below the lower sensor, whereupon the lower sensor generates a signal to turn on the icemaker. The icemaker then again builds ice and introduces it into the bin until the level of ice in the bin again reaches the upper sensor, whereupon the cycle is repeated. This arrangement works well to maintain the bin generally full of ice, but does not always yield ice of good quality, since at the end of a business day the bin will either be substantially full of ice or will be automatically fully filled with ice, which ice then deteriorates over time as it sits idle in the bin overnight. The result is a bin full of inferior quality ice that is dispensed to customers at the beginning of the next business day.
It would therefore be advantageous to fill of the bin of an ice/beverage dispenser with ice not necessarily in response to a sensed level of ice in the bin, but instead in response to and before an anticipated demand for ice. A benefit to matching the timing of ice production with the time of usage of ice is improved ice quality, since ice would be built just before it is expected to be used, not when it will simply sit idle in the bin and deteriorate over time.

Control system for icemaker for ice and beverage dispenser


In a scroll fluid machine, an orbiting scroll is revolved with respect to a fixed scroll in a housing. A self-rotation-preventing device is provided to prevent the orbiting scroll from rotating on its own axis. The device comprises a pair of holders, one of which is disposed in an orbiting side and the other is disposed in the housing. The holder in the orbiting side comprises a bearing, a holding plate for holding the bearing and a plurality of ears. At least one of the ears is disposed within a circle passing through the centers of the holders around the center of the orbiting scroll.

The present invention relates to a scroll fluid machine such as a scroll vacuum pump or a scroll compressor.
A scroll fluid machine comprises a housing; a driving shaft having an eccentric axial portion and connected to a driving source, a fixed scroll fixed to the housing and an orbiting scroll which engages with the fixed scroll to form a compression chamber between the fixed and orbiting scrolls. The orbiting scroll is revolved to allow the compression chamber to be reduced in volume toward the center and to enable a gas therein to be compressed.
In JP2006-46078A, between the fixed and orbiting scrolls, a self-rotation preventing device is interposed to allow the orbiting scroll to revolve while it prevents the orbiting scroll from rotating on its own axis. The self-rotation driving device comprises a holder on the outer circumference of the orbiting scroll; a bearing in the holder; a holding plate for holding the bearing in the holder; and a pin crank in which one shaft is rotatably mounted on the bearing while the other shaft is rotatably mounted in the housing.
In the scroll fluid machine, when the orbiting scroll is revolved, excessive load acts to the pin crank in a centrifugal direction when the orbiting scroll is revolved to cause the holding plate to be deformed to make the bearing held unstably. Unstable holding of the bearing makes revolution of the orbiting scroll unstable, so that operation is likely to be inactive. Thus, the holding plate needs to be fixed to the orbiting scroll firmly.

Scroll fluid machine with a self-rotation-preventing device having ears for an orbiting scroll


A technique in accordance with the invention includes in response to an asynchronous interrupt occurring during a run time of an operating system, executing instructions. These instructions are associated with firmware that is used to initialize a computer system before launching of the operating system.

The invention generally relates to a technique for reconstituting a pre-boot firmware environment after launch of an operating system.
A conventional computer system typically enters a boot services mode when the system is powered up. In this boot services mode, the system executes firmware instructions that are stored in a non-volatile, firmware memory of the system. The execution of this firmware permits the computer system to perform basic input and output firmware services that allow the system to initialize system memory, detect system devices, perform a self-test, display a status update to a user, etc. At the conclusion of the boot services mode, the computer system launches an operating system.
After the launch of the operating system, only a limited subset of the firmware services are available though the use of software interrupts (associated with an "INT" instruction) or a callable interface (such as extensible firmware interface (EFI) runtime services). These services may include, for example, services to read and write to a hard disk drive, a service to display information on a monitor, etc. These software interrupts are synchronized to the system clock of the computer system and thus, are "synchronous interrupts".
In a typical computer system, none of the firmware services mentioned above are available to service asynchronous interrupts. Instead, these interrupts may be serviced by a system management mode (SMM) of the computer system. The purpose of the SMM is to handles certain functions (power management functions, for example) that are hidden from the operating system and applications of the computer system. SMM program code typically is stored in a region of system memory called a system management random access memory (SMRAM). The size of the SMRAM typically is limited. Therefore, due to this size constraint, the SMM typically is a lightweight handler that does some basic state initialization and exits back to the operating system with no other work.
Thus, there is a continuing need for better ways to service interrupts in a computer system.

Technique for reconstituting a pre-boot firmware environment after launch of an operating system


A method for designing shielding in integrated circuits, the method comprising, receiving a first input designating a first net segment profile on a first level in an integrated circuit for shielding, determining whether the designated first net segment profile is in electrical communication with other net segment profiles, determining whether the net segment profiles are located in a different level than the first net segment profile, defining a first shielding profile corresponding to the net segment profiles on the first level, defining a second shielding profile corresponding to the net segment profiles on the second level, determining and removing segments of the first shielding profile and the second shielding profile contact features of the integrated circuit, determining and removing segments of the first shielding profile and the second shielding profile are non-continuous, defining vias at the intersections of first shielding profile and the second shielding profile.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to systems and methods for designing integrated circuits and, more particularly, to a system and method for providing interactive shield wire generation in a chip layout design tool.
2. Description of Background
When designing integrated circuits (IC's), it may be desirable to add shielding lines around certain net segments to reduce noise in the net segments. Adding shielding to specific lines may be time consuming in large circuits. Therefore, it is desirable that a system for designing IC's allows a user to designate specific line segments that should be shielded. The system then adds the shielding lines to the circuit design responsive to the designation of the user.

Systems and methods involving designing shielding profiles for integrated circuits

International Business Machines Corporation


The disclosure relates to a method, an optical receiver and an optical system for compensating, at an optical receiver, signal distortions induced in an optical carrier signal by a periodic copropagating optical signal, wherein the optical carrier signal and the copropagating signal copropagate at least in part of an optical system or network, by: receiving, at the optical receiver, the optical carrier signal, wherein the optical carrier signal is distorted by the copropagating signal; determining, at the optical receiver, a period of a periodic component of the distorted optical carrier signal; determining, at the optical receiver, a periodic distortion of the distorted optical carrier signal; and generating a compensation signal to correct the distorted optical carrier signal according to the determined periodic distortion.

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) has become a preferred solution for transmitting large amounts of data over long distances. Using this technology, several optical signals emitted by optical transmitters may be joint by optical multiplexers on a single optical fiber to form a WDM signal. In order to receive the individual signals, the optical signals may be separated by optical demultiplexers. During propagation in an optical network, some channels may be added or dropped by means of reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexers (ROADMs) or photonic crossconnects (PXCs), or parts of the WDM signal may be directed to different directions by PXCs. The section of an optical network within which the spectral composition of the transmitted WDM signal does not change is denoted optical multiplex section (OMS). Thus, in some examples of optical networks without wavelength conversion, optical multiplex sections may span from a multiplexer to a demultiplexer, from a multiplexer to a PXC or ROADM, or from a PXC or ROADM to a demulitplexer. The terms "multiplexer" and "demultiplexer", as used herein, may refer to network elements providing the corresponding functionality or to an optical component used for implementing such functionality.
Optical networks allow exchanging information between various nodes that may be typically located several kilometers apart from each other and that may be mutually connected by optical fiber spans. An "optical node", as used herein, may refer to a location in an optical network where traffic starts, is directed to different directions, or is terminated. The information exchange is enabled by transmitting optical signals on which the information has been encoded. These optical signals are propagating in optical fibers serving as transmission fibers and connecting different nodes of an optical network. In order to protect the fibers against mechanical stress, the fibers may be arranged in optical cables. The term "optical path", as used herein, may refer to an entire route followed by an optical signal through an optical system or network from a transmitter to an optical receiver without intermediate optical-to-electrical conversion.
Communication between two nodes of a network may be enabled by physical devices located at the two involved network nodes. Furthermore, some physical devices such as optical amplifiers might be located between the network nodes. These physical devices may be generally referred to herein as "network devices" or as "network elements". "Network elements" or "network devices" may be managed by a so-called Network Element Manager (NEM). The different functionalities a network element can provide may comprise emitting, amplifying, redirecting, and receiving optical signals. For example, a set of transmitters and receivers connected to the same end of a fiber connection, optical amplifiers and photonic crossconnects (PXCs) may correspond to individual network elements. The entire equipment making up a network element may be located within one building. An optical fiber or optical cable mutually connecting different network elements may be referred to as an "optical span" or a "span", and may include devices that add, subtract, or attenuate optical signals.
Some of the technical terms introduced above are illustrated in FIG. 20 showing part of an optical network 160 comprising three network nodes 280, 282 and 284 at which traffic starts, is routed to different directions or is terminated. Optical signals are transmitted via optical fibers 12a-e, each forming part of one of the optical fiber spans 40a-e. The different optical fiber spans are connected to optical amplifiers 14a-d and to a photonic crossconnect 20, which may comprise further optical amplifiers. Each of the amplifiers and the photonic crossconnect is again embedded in one of the optical network elements 254-262.
Network node 280 comprises two network elements 252 and 254. In network element 252, optical signals emitted by several transmitters 8, 8a are joined into a WDM signal by means of an optical multiplexer 24. Finally, the power of the generated WDM signal is increased by means of an optical amplifier 14a forming part of the second network element 254 in network node 280. Optical network node 284 also comprises two network elements, namely network element 262 for amplifying the incoming WDM signal and network element 264 for splitting and receiving the optical signals transported via the WDM signal received by optical network node 284.
In the intermediate network node 282, which may correspond to a photonic crossconnect, a part of the optical signals or channels is directed towards network node 284, whereas other channels are routed in a different direction via the optical fiber 12e. Furthermore, some channels may be added in this network node. Since the spectral composition of the WDM signal is not altered in the section from network node 280 to network node 282, this part of the network may correspond to an OMS 42a. The section from network node 282 to network node 284 may correspond to a second OMS 42b. The optical channels transported via OMS 42b to network node 284 are separated there and each of them is directed to a dedicated optical receiver ma, 10. The optical route from the transmitter 8a to the optical receiver ma may serve for transmitting an optical signal without intermediate optical-to-electrical conversion and corresponds to an optical path 90.
While technological advances have traditionally been focused on increasing transmission capacity, other aspects, in particular network monitoring, are becoming increasingly relevant. When managing fiber optic communication networks, data performance across the network is a key factor, and obtaining information about it is of crucial importance. Therefore, there is an increasing demand in the markets for monitoring capabilities for fiber optic systems. Detailed information about a fiber optic system may be obtained by means of monitoring techniques like optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR). Information about a complete fiber optic span is obtained in some cases by means of bidirectional measurements from both ends of the fiber optic span, for instance, by means of bidirectional OTDR measurements, which include both codirectional and counterdirectional OTDR signals, that is, measurements with codirectional or copropagating OTDR signals that propagate in the same direction as an optical carrier signal for transmitting information and with counterdirectional or counterpropagating OTDR signals that propagate in the opposite direction as the carrier signal.
An optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) is an optoelectronic measurement device used to characterize an optical fiber by injecting series of pulses into one end of an optical fiber and by analyzing light corresponding to light of said pulses reflected within the optical fiber. Part of the light of the pulses injected into an optical fiber may be reflected back to the location at which the pulses were originally injected due to Rayleigh scattering and to light reflection in the fiber. Detecting the reflected light may hence allows retrieving information about the characteristics of the optical fiber. OTDR measurements technique are hence based on detecting reflected light. Therefore, OTDR measurements may be impaired in the presence of an optical isolator in the optical path followed by light transmitted over the optical fiber being measured, unless the OTDR pulses can be bypassed around the optical isolator. Since optical amplifiers currently used in terrestrial systems and networks typically contain optical isolators but no bypassing means, the measurement range of OTDR devices mab be strongly limited, for example restricted to single optical spans. Consequently, network-wide OTDR measuring may require launching separate series of OTDR pulses into each span.
Further, forward-directed monitoring signals, like codirectional OTDR signals, may cause severe signal distortions due, at least in part, to non-linear fiber effects. OTDR signals typically have a periodic structure and comprise pulses, OTDR pulses, which have a given period. A copropagating periodic monitoring signal can cause periodic distortions on the carrier signals being transmitted that may lead to deteriorated transmission performance, for example due to self-phase modulation (SPM) or cross-phase modulation (XPM). While such non-linear effects can be compensated in some situations, this is only fully viable if the signal inducing the distortions is known at a receiving end. Nevertheless, the precise form and magnitude of these distortions usually remains unknown, which makes it difficult to compensate such distortions such as to remove them from the transmitted signals at a receiver end.
For example, an optical signal received at a receiving end may have been previously distorted by a copropagating monitoring signal in one or more segments of an optical transmission path of origin. In cases in which the copropagating monitoring signal is not received at the receiving end, the copropagating optical signal is not available for compensation purposes at the receiver. In cases in which the copropagating optical signal is received at the receiving end, the receiving end lacks information about the original characteristics of the copropagating optical signal corresponding to the segments in which the distortion took place. Directly providing information about these characteristics to the receiving end requires a large transmission capacity within a network element located at the receiving end. In case several signals are travelling along the same optical path, signals received by the individual receivers could theoretically be provided to the other receivers in the same optical network node for compensation purposes. However, this solution is quite impractical since it causes huge amount of traffic within the network node. Therefore, signal compensation techniques, such as digital back propagation (DBP) are typically limited to compensate for distortions induced by the optical signal itself, in particular by SPM, and do not fully account for distortions caused by copropagating optical signals.
Alternatively, distortions caused by a monitoring signal can be reduced by lowering the power of the monitoring signal. However, this is not satisfactory, inasmuch as it leads to a reduced monitoring range.
Thus, there is room for technical improvement for detecting the signal distortions caused by copropagating monitoring signals in fiber-optic communication systems.

Compensation of signal distoration induced by a periodic optical copropagating optical signal


An apparatus is disclosed for forming an insulated rotor conductor by bonding an insulating material onto a single side of a flat electrical conductor under controlled heat and mechanical pressure. The rotor conductor is suitable for assembly into the rotor assembly of a rotating electrical machine such as an alternating current generator. The apparatus includes modules to facilitate easy relocation within a manufacturing environment and to make efficient use of available manufacturing space. A corresponding method is also disclosed.

Alternating current generators for use in electrical power generating facilities comprise one or more stator coils surrounding a generally cylindrical-shaped rotor assembly attached to a rotating shaft. The rotor assembly comprises a plurality of electrical conductors arranged into a coil about the shaft. Excitation of the rotor coil by an electrical current creates a magnetic field about the rotor assembly. A prime mover such as a steam or gas turbine engine connected to the rotor shaft causes the rotor assembly and the surrounding magnetic field to rotate within the stator assembly, inducing an alternating current to flow in the stationary stator coils. The power thus generated is distributed to consumers connected to a corresponding transmission and distribution network.
Manufacturers of large rotating electrical machines such as alternating current generators for production of electrical power produce such equipment in various capacities and physical sizes. The rotor assemblies of these machines conventionally comprise a plurality of electrical conductors made of substantially straight and flat copper straps that are insulated on at least one side. Because rotor assemblies are produced in a plurality of physical sizes for use in the various capacity machines, rotor conductors having various predetermined lengths, widths and thicknesses are utilized. For example, rotor conductors for use in alternating current generators for utility applications may be fabricated from copper straps having thicknesses within a range of from about 0.1 inch to about 0.5 inch, widths within a range of from about 0.8 inch to about 2.0 inches and lengths within a range of from about 10 feet to about 30 feet.
Because the rotating machines are themselves produced in low volume, often one at a time, the rotor conductors are typically produced in small lot sizes. These small lots are often fabricated largely by hand in labor intensive batch processing operations resulting in inefficient use of labor and facilities. For example, application of the insulation to the copper straps by hand often results in costly repeated handling of work pieces and makes inefficient use of the limited space in the manufacturing facility due to the length of the conductors.

Method and apparatus for forming insulated rotor conductors


A transistor array panel comprises a substrate, a transparent electrode disposed on the substrate, a gate line disposed on the substrate, a gate insulating layer disposed on the transparent electrode and the gate line, a semiconductor layer disposed on the gate insulating layer, a data line and a drain electrode disposed on the semiconductor layer, a first insulating layer having an uneven surface, the first insulating layer disposed on the data line and the drain electrode, and a reflective electrode disposed on the first insulating layer, the reflective electrode connected to the transparent electrode and the drain electrode, wherein at least a portion of the transparent electrode is exposed.

(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a transflective liquid crystal display, and more particularly, to a transflective liquid crystal display including a transistor array panel and a manufacturing method thereof.
(b) Discussion of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) includes a panel assembly including, for example, a transistor array panel, a color filter panel, and a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween. Since the LCD is a non-emissive device, a backlight unit for supplying light is provided behind the panel assembly. The transmittance of light emitted from the backlight unit is determined according to an alignment state of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer.
Types of LCDs include a transmissive LCD for displaying an image by using an internal light source such as, for example, a backlight unit, a reflective LCD for displaying an image by using external light such as, for example, natural light, and a transflective LCD. The transflective LCD includes a transmissive display mode and a reflective display mode. The transmissive display mode, where an image is displayed by using an internal light source, can be used where external light is limited such as, for example, indoors or in a dark place. The reflective display mode, where an image is displayed by reflecting external light, can be used where the external light is sufficiently provided such as, for example, outdoors or in a bright place.
The transmissive LCD includes a backlight unit provided behind the panel assembly, and light emitted from the backlight unit passes through the panel assembly. The transmissive LCD consumes more power and is heavier and thicker compared to the reflective LCD.
The reflective LCD consumes less power compared to the transmissive LCD because the backlight unit is not used. However, the reflective LCD using external light may not display an image properly when external light is not sufficiently provided.
The transflective LCD can have sufficient luminance irrespective of ambient brightness because internal and/or external light can be used.
A conventional transistor array panel of the transflective LCD is usually manufactured by using about seven or eight masks. Masks are used for, for example, forming a gate electrode, a semiconductor layer, a source/drain electrode, a contact hole on a protective film, a contact hole in an organic insulating layer, a transparent electrode, and a reflective electrode.
The transflective LCD may employ a dual cell gap structure between a reflective region and a transmissive region of a pixel portion to reduce non-uniform luminance caused by, for example, a path difference of light. However, due to a step difference of an organic film for forming the dual cell gap structure, a transparent electrode and a reflective electrode can be disconnected in the transmissive region. Further, an etching process for forming the reflective electrode can damage the transparent electrode. In addition, when the transparent electrode is formed at a step difference, an etchant for the reflective electrode can flow along the step difference to the transparent electrode. In such a case, the transparent electrode may be eroded.

Transflective liquid crystal display panel and manufacturing method thereof


In a Levenson photomask design method of partially forming a plurality of opening patterns for passing incident light in a light-shielding film for shielding the incident light, and arranging, on some patterns, phase shifters, line segment pairs of different patterns which are adjacent to each other within a predetermined distance R are extracted in units of line segments obtained by dividing the patterns. A pattern within a predetermined distance S from the central point of the opposite region of a line segment pair of interest in a direction perpendicular to the line segments is obtained. The obtained pattern is subjected to a process simulation to obtain resolution easiness representing the easiness in resolving the adjacent patterns. On the basis of the resolution easiness obtained for the adjacent pattern pair within the distance R, a phase shifter is arranged in ascending order of resolution easiness to give a phase difference. Resolution suitable for the exposure condition used can be obtained by a simple method. When the shifter arrangement is determined in consideration of the resolution easiness, a high-resolution shifter arrangement can be realized for a Levenson phase shift mask.

The present invention relates to a photomask design method for the manufacture of a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to a method of designing a photomask such as a Levenson phase shift mask in which a phase shifter is formed of one of adjacent patterns. The present invention also relates to a photomask design apparatus and a recording medium storing a program for realizing photomask design with a computer.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 9-71929, filed Mar. 25, 1997 and Japanese Patent Application No. 9-267346, filed Sep. 30, 1997, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The following techniques are known as conventional Levenson phase shift mask design methods.
First prior art: "Automatic Pattern Generation System for Phase Shifting Mask", Symposium on VLSI Technology, JSAPCAT, No. AP911210 (1991), pp. 95-96.
This paper examines an automatic shifter arranging method. In automatically assigning the phases of light passing through patterns, an arbitrary pattern is selected first, and a phase of 0.degree. is assigned for the selected pattern. For the next arbitrary pattern, a phase opposite to that of a pattern near the next selected pattern, whose phase is already assigned and which has a longest side opposing the next pattern, is assigned. If there are a plurality of patterns whose longest sides oppose the next pattern, and they have different phases, a warning is issued, and processing is stopped.
Second prior art: Andrew. R. Neureuther et al., "Investigating Phase-shifting Mask Layout Issues Using a CAD Toolkit", IEDM Tech. Digest, 1991, pp. 705-708.
This paper explains an apparatus which automatically arranges a shifter for a given design layout which is reduced based on the reduction magnification determined by the designer, and if the automatic shifter arrangement has an inconsistent portion, displays that portion.
Third prior art: Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 5-341498.
This prior art discloses a method in which if the distance between transparent regions is smaller than a threshold value, a shifter is arranged on one of the transparent regions, and if the shifter arrangement has a conflict, the designer is notified of it. This prior art also discloses an apparatus having an automatic shifter arrangement function, a shifter verification function and a shifter arrangement/verification function for a layout with some shifters already arranged.
Fourth prior art: Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 7-13326.
This prior art describes a technique of weighting sides under various conditions where each nodes represents an aperture and each sides represents adjacent relationship of two apertures, and assigning the same phases to nodes at the two ends of at least one side of each closed loop in descending order of weight of sides.
Fifth prior art: "Algorithm for Phase Shift Mask Design with Priority on Shifter Placement", Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 32 (1993), PP. 5874-5879, and Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 6-308714.
This prior art discloses a method and apparatus for extracting, from an input layout, combinations of two patterns which are adjacent within a designated value, assigning priority in phase shifter arrangement in descending order of length of a side adjacent to the other pattern of the combination, and alternately placing phase shifters in descending order of the priority in shifter arrangement.
Sixth prior art: Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 8-328237.
This prior art discloses a method in which, in design data formed from patterns as transparent regions, the adjacent relationship of patterns which are close to each other within a threshold value, all combinations of adjacent patterns are extracted from each adjacent group based on the adjacent relationship, the combinations are sorted in descending order of correction difficulty, the reverse relationship of phase is prepared based on the sorting result, and the phase is assigned based on the prepared reverse relationship.
Seventh prior art: "Computer Aided Design Software for Design Phase-shifting Masks", JPN. J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 32 (1993), pp. 5887-5891.
This paper examines a method of assigning the phase based on the adjacent relationships of patterns, starting from the patterns whose phases has been assigned by designer in advance.
However, these prior arts have the following problems.
The first to third prior arts merely describe the phase assigning method based on a specific pattern as an initial pattern regardless of the presence/absence of phase inconsistency, and no effective shifter arrangement cannot be found even when the phase assignment result is obtained. Therefore, these prior arts cannot realize a shifter arrangement with high resolution.
In the fourth to sixth prior arts, the phase is assigned by weighting in consideration of the length of adjacent sides or the distance between adjacent patterns, so a conflict which is easy to correct can be obtained. However, the resolution is not taken into consideration. For this reason, if there are pattern pairs having almost the same correction easiness but an obvious difference in resolution, phase assignment for salvaging a pattern pair with lower resolution cannot be made. In these prior arts, therefore, no shifter arrangement capable of obtaining high-resolution patterns cannot be realized.
For, e.g., a DRAM, the phase for the memory cell portion is sometimes manually assigned. In this case, the phase of a pattern in the sense amplifier portion or row decoder portion which have not been subjected to phase assignment yet must be assigned without changing the already assigned phase information. From the viewpoint of determining the phase based on a pattern already having a certain phase (fixed phase), each of the first to third prior arts merely describes phase assignment using a specific pattern as an initial pattern, so phase assignment while considering the fixed phase cannot be performed.
The fourth prior art describes a method of minimizing conflicts although this method does not allow phase assignment while considering the fixed phases. In the fifth or sixth prior art, the phase can be assigned in accordance with priority based on the correction easiness although a phase assignment cannot be made in consideration of fixed phases. The seventh prior art takes fixed phases into consideration. However, since this phase assigning method is based on adjacent relationships, phase assignment cannot be made in consideration of resolution easiness or correction easiness at the phase conflict portions.


A film treating apparatus has an apparatus body for executing the treatment of untreated film at a predetermined position, the apparatus body being capable of inserting thereinto and removing therefrom untreated film container containing untreated film therein. A film separating mechanism is provided in the apparatus body, the film separating mechanism taking out sheets of untreated film to be conveyed to the predetermined position one by one from the untreated film container. The film separating mechanism is insertable into and removable from the apparatus body in the same directions as the directions of insertion and removal of the untreated film container with respect to the apparatus body.

1 .Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a film treating apparatus for effecting a predetermined treatment on sheet film. This invention can be applied particularly well to a laser imager for recording medical treatment images on sheet film by a laser beam.
2. Related Background Art
In a laser imager for recording on film an image signal obtained in a hospital by the use of a diagnosing apparatus such as CT or MRI, use is often made of an apparatus to which an automatic developing machine is connected and into which recorded film can be automatically fed to thereby carry out a developing process. An example of such an apparatus is shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. In FIG. 1, a reference numeral 401 designates a laser imager, a reference numeral 402 denotes an automatic developing machine for developing film recorded by the laser imager 401, a reference numeral 403 designates a conveying portion disposed between the laser imager 401 and the automatic developing machine 402 for conveying the film recorded by the laser imager 401 to a automatic developing machine 402, the reference numeral 404 denotes an optical unit for applying a laser beam to the film in a main scanning direction to thereby effect recording, a reference numeral 405 designates a supply magazine containing a number of sheets of unused film therein, a reference numeral 406 denotes a separating unit for taking out the sheets of film piled in a supply magazine one by one, the reference numeral 407 designates a receive magazine for temporarily containing the recorded film therein, and a reference numeral 408 denotes sub-scanning means for sub-scanning the film taken out of the supply magazine 405 in a direction intersecting the main scanning direction. The supply magazine 405 and the receive magazine 407 are removable in a direction toward this side in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, the sheets of film taken out one by one by the separating unit 406 are conveyed to the sub-scanning means 408 by conveying means, not shown, and are subjected to sub-scanning there and are subjected to main scanning with a beam of light for recording by the optical unit 404, whereby a two-dimensional image is recorded on the film.
The film on which recording has been effected is conveyed to the automatic developing machine 402 via the conveying portion 403 by conveying means, not shown, and is developed. Alternatively, the film is conveyed to the receive magazine 407 by conveying means, not shown, and recording is effected on a predetermined number of sheets of film, whereafter the sheets of film are taken out and are developed by other automatic developing machine.
The apparatus of FIG. 1, however, suffers from the problem that its installation space becomes large because the laser imager 401 and the automatic developing machine 402 are disposed in parallel with each other.
To avoid this, an arrangement as shown, for example, in FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings would come to mind wherein the laser imager 401 and the automatic developing machine 402 are vertically stacked. In FIG. 2, the same members as those in the apparatus of FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals. By adopting such an arrangement, the installation space is reduced. In such an apparatus, however, when the optical unit 404 and the separating unit 406 are to be interchanged or when it becomes necessary to gain access to the interior parts, the automatic developing machine 402 must be removed. The automatic developing machine 402, which contains developing liquid therein, is very heavy and for example, it is difficult for a serviceman to move it. Also, the automatic developing machine 402 has water supply and drain valves connected thereto, and to move it, these valves must be disconnected, which is cumbersome work.


Methods and apparatus are disclosed for detecting whether a gear-driven fuel pump has been installed correctly in a fuel injected IC engine, the pump gear being driven by an engine gear to provide fuel to injectors via a fuel rail. The method may include providing a pump element pumping event. The method may also include disabling overlapping fuel injectors and overlapping pumping events during the test period surrounding the selected pumping event, and measuring the pressure in the rail during the pumping event with the overlapping injectors disabled, the at least two different engine crank angles surrounding the pumping event. The method also may further include determining from the measured rail pressures whether the pumping event occurred at a desired engine crank angle. Apparatus to carry out the methods may include a computer programmed for controlling the sequence of the providing, disabling, measuring, and determining functions, as well as software for carrying out the respective functions.

Incorrectly installed gear-driven fuel pumps can result in incorrect pump timing relative to the timing of fuel injectors on fuel injected IC engines. For example, if the pump is installed with the pump gear angularly displaced by even one gear tooth relative to design conditions, the control of the pump is compromised. In particular, incorrect pump timing relative to engine timing (i.e. as measured by engine crank angle) can result in unstable fuel rail pressure, and/or limit the maximum flow rate of the pump. Hence, there is a need for apparatus and methods for confirming and/or gear installation. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to provide apparatus and methods for testing for correct pump gear installation in-situ, that is, with the fuel supply system already mounted to the IC engine, such as part of a new engine check out procedure, or during an engine maintenance program. Methods for testing installed fuel supply systems are known, but not for pump gear installation testing. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,202 to Augustine et al. discloses a method for testing for unacceptable leakage in fuel injection systems installed in IC engines. The method includes measuring pressure in the common fuel rail at two points in time between a fuel injection event and an immediately prior or subsequent pump delivery event. Any difference in measured pressure such as due to system fuel leakage is compared with a predetermined acceptable threshold leakage value. If the pressure difference exceeds the threshold, an "operating error" is indicated. The method also contemplates switching off momentarily at least one of successive fuel injection events and pump delivery events to extend the time period between pressure measurements, to detect small leakage volumes.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for determining correct installation for gear-driven fuel pump on a fuel injected IC engine


A MIMO communication system implements an interleaver design with multiple encoders for more than two transmit antennas for high throughput WLAN communication systems. Multiple encoders are utilized in the transmitter and multiple decoders are utilized in the receiver, wherein each encoder operates at lower clock speed than would be necessary with a single encoder. In conjunction with using multiple encoders, a modified interleaving function for each spatial stream processing allows fully exploring the diversity gains. The provided interleaving function is suitable for transmitter architectures with multiple encoders. Similarly, a modified de-interleaving function is provided that is suitable for receiver architectures with multiple decoders.

In wireless communication systems, antenna diversity plays an important role in increasing the system link robustness. OFDM is used as a modulation technique for transmitting digital data using radio frequency signals (RF). In OFDM, a radio signal is divided into multiple sub-signals that are transmitted simultaneously at different frequencies to a receiver. Each sub-signal travels within its own unique frequency range (sub-channel), which is modulated by the data. OFDM distributes the data over multiple channels, spaced apart at different frequencies.
OFDM modulation is typically performed using a transform such as Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) process wherein bits of data are encoded by an encoder in the frequency-domain onto sub-channels. As such, in the transmitter, an Inverse FFT (IFFT) is performed on the set of frequency channels to generate a time-domain OFDM symbol for transmission over a communication channel. The IFFT process converts the frequency-domain phase and amplitude data for each sub-channel into a block of time-domain samples which are converted to an analogue modulating signal for an RF modulator. In the receiver, the OFDM signals are processed by performing an FFT process on each symbol to convert the time-domain data into frequency-domain data, and the data is then decoded by a decoder by examining the phase and amplitude of the sub-channels. Therefore, at the receiver the reverse process of the transmitter is implemented. Further, transmit antenna diversity schemes are used to improve the OFDM system reliability. Such transmit diversity schemes in OFDM systems are encoded in the frequency-domain as described.
With the increase in transmission rates, higher operational speeds in the encoder and decoder are resulting in difficulties in implementing such channel encoders/decoders. The transmitter architecture with only one encoder is adopted in current IEEE 802.11n (high throughput WLAN) proposals. FIG. 1 shows one of the examples for such designs implemented in a transmitter 100. The transmitter 100 includes an FEC encoder 102, a puncture unit 104, a spatial stream parser 106, and multiple stream processing paths. Each stream processing path performs the functions of: frequency interleaving 108, QAM mapping 110, antenna mapping 112, IFFT operation 114, inserting guard interval (GI) 116, analog RF modulation 118 and antenna 120. In the transmitter 100, a data stream is first encoded using the FEC encoder before it is split into multiple spatial streams by the spatial stream parser. Multiple interleaving functions with different frequency rotation values are applied after the spatial parsing. As there is only one encoder in the coding chain, there is only one decoder in the decoding chain at a receiver (not shown).
The interleaver design in the high throughput wireless local area network (WLAN) systems is an important issue for MIMO-OFDM transmission. In the current approaches in IEEE 802.11n standards (S. A. Mujtaba, "TGn Sync Proposal Technical Specification," a contribution to IEEE 802.11, 11-04/0889r4, March 2005, and C. Kose and B. Edwards, "WWiSE Proposal: High throughput extension to the 802.11 Standard," a contribution to IEEE 802.11, 11-05-0149r2, March 2005, incorporated herein by reference), the transmitter architecture with single channel encoder is considered regardless of the number of the transmit antennas. When the data rate or the number of the data streams increases, the encoder/decoder must operate with very high speed, causing circuit design and timing implementation difficulties.

Interleaver design with multiple encoders for more than two transmit antennas in high throughput WLAN communication systems


A method for performing positron emission tomography (PET) image denoising using a dilated convolutional neural network system includes: obtaining, as an input to the dilated convolutional neural network system, a noisy image; performing image normalization to generate normalized image data corresponding to the noisy image; encoding the normalized image data using one or more convolutions in the dilated convolutional neural network, whereby a dilation rate is increased for each encoding convolution performed to generate encoded image data; decoding the encoded image data using one or more convolutions in the dilated convolutional neural network, whereby dilation rate is decreased for each decoding convolution performed to generate decoded image data; synthesizing the decoded image data to construct a denoised output image corresponding to the noisy image; and displaying the denoised output image on an image display device, the denoised output image having enhanced image quality compared to the noisy image.

The present invention relates generally to the electrical, electronic and computer arts, and, more particularly, relates to enhanced positron emission tomography (PET).
Positron emission tomography (PET), also called PET imaging or a PET scan, is a type of nuclear medicine imaging that uses small amounts of radioactive material called radiotracers or radiopharmaceuticals to diagnose, evaluate or treat a variety of diseases. By identifying changes at the cellular level, PET may detect the early onset of disease before other imaging tests can. PET may also show whether a patient is responding to treatment.
PET provides clinicians with a highly sensitive functional imaging tool to investigate a range of pathologies, such as cancer, heart disease and brain disorders, and is an integral part of contemporary cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, various physical degradation factors limit the number of detected photons, resulting in poor image resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). High SNR in PET images is advantageous for applications such as detection of small lesions and early diagnosis of neurological disease. In order to obtain images with high SNR for diagnostic or research use, the scanner must register a large number of radioactive decay events. As such, attaining high SNR generally comes at the cost of either relatively high radiation dose and/or long scan time. Higher radiation dose can lead to greater risk of stochastic effects, such as greater lifetime risk of cancer. Similarly, longer acquisition times require subjects to remain still for an extended period of time, which increases the likelihood of subject motion that can degrade image quality. Although lowering radiation dose or decreasing scan time would reduce negative impacts on the patient, current reconstruction methods would result in images with unacceptable quality for diagnostic purposes.

Dilated convolutional neural network system and method for positron emission tomography (PET) image denoising

THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK