A method and apparatus for applying thin coatings of fluid droplets to an adjacent surface includes a pickup roll rotating in a supply of fluid and a rapidly rotating brush roll having a surface formed by bristles thereon. The two rolls rotate with an interference between them whereupon the bristles are bent as the tips thereof pick up a droplet of fluid. After passing out of inteference, the bristles snap forwardly and project the droplets in a mist form against the adjacent surface. The spray pattern is maintained with uniformity in both a cross-machine direction and a machine- direction by a windage control device which may incorporate, selectively, a spray-doctor, a knife doctor blade, windage control mechanism including end-cavity windage dams, spacers, brush windage knife, mist eliminator, brush end rings, seals and spacers.

It is well-known in the art to apply thin coatings of fluid material by sprayed techniques utilizing pneumatic sprays, roller-coating, brush-coating, and the like. Such devices can apply thin coatings of fluids, either in the liquid form, such as adhesives, paint or the like, or in the solid or semi-solid state, such as pellets, beads and the like.
The present invention relates to that kind of applicator which utilizes a plurality of bristles in a brush-like configuration which is agitated so as to flick small droplets of the material-to-be-coated from a supply source to the object to be coated.
Such devices may be in a bristle-brush form in roll or cylindrical configuration, or bristle-brush form in an upstanding array which, when agitated, flicks the pellets, droplets, beads or mist from the edge of the bristles onto the target or subject to be coated.
Devices of this nature have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,735,929 dated May 29, 1973 and titled "DEVICE FOR APPLYING A SELECTED MOISTURE CONTENT TO A WEB MADE OF A FIBROUS MATERIAL" as well as in German patent DE 2,925,026 published Jun. 21, 1979 and titled "FIBROUS WEB DAMPENER USES WATER-STEAM MIXTURE". These prior art patents fail, however, to teach how the extremely fine and uniform coating of droplets may be applied to the target material in a high-speed, efficient and economical manner.
The following comments with regard to other prior art patents are relevant:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,791 discloses only a bristle brush rotating in a container of fluid and the centrifugal force is utilized to throw the fluid off the tips of the bristles. It discloses no windage control mechanism.
Canadian Patent 627480 is used to spray plaster on the walls, and likewise uses only the centrifugal force to throw the material away from the roll. There is no windage control mechanism.
German Patent 24686 discloses a bristle brush rotating against a counter roller which, itself, rotates in a pan of fluid, but which does not include any windage control mechanism.
Similarly, French Patent 986250 shows counter-rotating bristle brush and fluid applicator roll, but with no windage control mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 629,513 discloses a spraying device for paints, but has no pickup roller.sub.-- and merely flicks the paint from the tips of the bristles as the bristle roll is rotated by hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 694,106 utilizes rotating discs in a fluid pan with a splash plate. It has a cover but no windage control mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,588,062 shows a pickup roll, a mating roll, as well as temperature control, but has no reference to brush windage control, or any other means to control windage.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,753,251 shows a rotating brush dipped into a pan which sprays in a random pattern with a portion of the spray being discharged through a nozzle. It claims to be a novel atomizer, but it shows no windage control mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,801,830 discloses a brush rotating in a trough to spray fluid as it passes an object, but does not show any windage control mechanism.
French Patent 514,478 illustrates a pickup roll rotating in the bath of oil, from which a bristle brush picks up the fluid and flicks the oil against a passing object as the bristles are interrupted by a stationary blade. It shows no windage control mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,946,516 uses rotating discs for spraying fluid. A second rotor with discs acts against the first roller but does not have any bristles, and indeed does not have any windage control mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,882,439 shows no cover over the rotating bristle brush, and no windage control mechanism whatever.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,199,093 shows a device which applies dye material to a fabric in spotted pattern. It has a flexible paddle wheel which strikes against a stationary member. It has no pickup roll, nor does it have any windage control mechanism.
Canadian Patent 360,069 discloses a pan with fluid and a pickup roll rotating against a slowly turning brush with heavy bristles. In this disclosure, the bristles flick the liquid as a result of the roughness of the rotating pickup roll, but shows no windage control mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,025 is entirely different, inasmuch as there is no brush roll whatever. It discloses a spreader roll which transfers the fluid to another roll, and it is only the centrifugal force between the two rolls which causes the fluid to be discharged. There is no windage control whatever.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,291,046 discloses a mechanism for supplying fuel oil to a furnace. Air is forced through and around the brush and into the fire through a nozzle with the fuel droplets well dispersed. However, there is no windage control device disclosed.
British Patent 1,339,916 shows a mechanism quite similar to the device of the present invention, but does not discuss, disclose, or make any claims about controlling air currents for uniformity and mist-control, and has no windage control device.

Method and apparatus for applying thin coatings of fluid droplets


A status encoder generates a checksum that encodes a status condition together with the checksum of an associated message. A receiver determines an inverse transformation that when applied to the received status-encoded checksum recovers the parity information associated with the codeword. The status condition can then be recovered based on the selection of the inverse transformation that correctly recovers the parity information from the status-encoded checksum. Beneficially, the status condition can be encoded without requiring additional signal lines or lengthening the codeword relative to conventional error correction devices.

Existing low latency, high bandwidth, high capacity Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM)-based Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) systems have been optimized for the common case of deterministic, error-free operation. However, these systems lack a particularly efficient means of returning precise exception condition or status information back to the host system. The protocol overhead of status polling, combined with the deterministic latency optimizations results in the excessive consumption of memory channel resources. Furthermore, obtaining status information using interrupt-based signals require multiple transactions with complex flow control.
As DIMM-based memory systems evolve to encompass heterogeneous memory types (i.e., DRAM and Flash hybrid DIMMs) and greater local control of per-DIMM resources are implemented, an increased amount of status information may need to be communicated back to the host. Therefore, a low-overhead means of in-band status signaling using the existing protocols and infrastructure is desirable.

In-band status encoding and decoding using error correction symbols


An electrical or electronic component (3) of a motor vehicle is mounted in an engine compartment of the motor vehicle by suspending the component (3) from a suspension cross-brace (1) and connecting the component (3) on a motor vehicle splashboard that separates the engine compartment from a passenger compartment. Such a mount permits a relatively heavy and relatively large electrical or electronic component to be accommodated in the engine compartment and securely mounted there.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the mount for an electrical or electronic component of a motor vehicle in an engine compartment of the motor vehicle, wherein the component is mounted in a suspension cross-brace.
2. Description of the Related Art
Suspension cross-braces are used in automobile construction to increase the rigidity of a vehicle body. Suspension cross-braces often are installed subsequently to increase the torsional strength of the vehicle body and are used, for example, in vehicles without a fixed roof structure (convertible or roadster). The suspension cross-brace connects the two front or rear suspension-strut domes, thereby preventing the position of the domes from changing with respect to one another and maintaining the geometry of the chassis. Twisting phenomena of the wheel toe are reduced, and driving behavior becomes better and more direct, particular when cornering.
DE 10 2009 036 495 A1 discloses a mount of the type mentioned above that relates to an electrical or electronic component in the engine compartment of the motor vehicle. The suspension cross-brace described in the document is a body component that forms a housing that is open at the top symmetrically with respect to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. A separate cover closes off the housing in a way that is sealed with respect to spray water. The housing accommodates an engine control unit that performs open-loop and closed-loop control and monitoring of engine functions. The engine control unit is accommodated in a protected fashion by virtue of the mounting of the engine control unit in the housing of the suspension cross-brace. Thus the housing functions satisfactorily under difficult operating conditions such as, for example, temperature influences, vibrations of the vehicle engine and/or shocks due to the state of the road, as well as excessive tension and insufficient tension.
The object of the invention is to provide a mount for an electrical or electronic component of a motor vehicle in the engine compartment of the motor vehicle that permits a relatively heavy and relatively large electrical or electronic component to be accommodated in the engine compartment and securely mounted there.

Mount for an electrical or electronic component in an engine compartment of a motor vehicle

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft


An ice protection system is configured for a rotor blade having a leading edge along at least a portion of a spanwise length extending between a root portion and a tip portion. The system has an electric spanwise anti-ice heater configured for placement on the leading edge of the blade and a first electric spanwise de-ice heater adjacent the anti-ice heater and having varying chordwise dimensions. The de-ice heater is configured for placement on an upper surface of the blade or a lower surface of the blade. Electrical connectors for each heater are configured for connection near the root portion of the blade to a source of electrical power.

An ice-protection system (IPS) for an aircraft is used to prevent the buildup of ice on surfaces that require proper airflow across the surface to create lift, such as the wings of fixed-wing aircraft and rotors of rotary-wing aircraft, including both helicopters and tiltrotors. These systems can include one or both of anti-ice components, which are intended to prevent ice formation, and de-ice components, which cause shedding of ice that has already formed. An IPS may have mechanical components, such as inflatable bladders, and/or electrical components, such as heaters.

Tailored rotor-blade ice-protection system


A transformer (202) has a bobbin (2) which has an inner portion (104) supporting an inner electrical winding (140) and having a magnetic core recess. The inner portion is located within an outer portion (4) supporting an outer electrical winding (40). The inner portion further has an end with a termination connected to the inner winding, an annular recess (126) in which the inner winding is situated, and a channel (132) communicating between the termination end of the inner portion and a remote end of the annular recess. The channel is positioned radially inwardly of the first annular recess and accommodates a portion of the inner winding. By providing the channel radially inwardly of the annular recess, winding wire can extend between the termination end of the inner portion and the remote end of the annular recess across the annular recess without significantly increasing the size of the inner portion and without increasing the gap between the inner and outer portions. This allows the size, weight and cost of a transformer built with the bobbin to be reduced, and improves the transformer's magnetic performance. The channel also allows layered windings terminating at the same end of the inner portion to be formed from an odd number of winding passes, reducing corona voltage breakdown effect and so prolonging the practical life of the windings. This also allows the inner portion to be wound uninterruptedly by machine without manual intervention.

In a typical transformer bobbin a non-conductive body supports a plurality of electrical windings, and conductive terminals are embedded in the body. The terminals are connected to respective ends of the windings, and the terminals extend from the body to form external connection terminals (e.g., for insertion in and soldering to a printed circuit board).
In a sectored bobbin, the bobbin typically has a longitudinal form with a hollow interior in which a core member is inserted, and the individual windings are typically wound circumferentially around the bobbin in annular recesses located in sectors spaced therealong. If, as is often desired, the external terminals are at only one end of the bobbin, the windings are typically wound in sequence beginning with that nearest to the terminals and ending with that farthest from the terminals, and the bobbin is typically provided with spacing formations for holding the wire of a farther winding radially outwardly from the nearer winding(s) as the wire extends between the farther winding and the terminals in order to avoid voltage breakdown.
In a layered bobbin, the bobbin typically has a longitudinal form with a hollow interior in which a core member is inserted, and the individual windings are typically wound circumferentially in an annular recess around the bobbin on top of each other at radially spaced positions therearound. If, as is often desired, the external terminals are at only one end of the bobbin and it is desired to begin a winding at one end of the bobbin and to end it at an opposite end, the bobbin is typically provided with a spacing formation for holding the winding wire radially outwardly from the winding as the wire extends between the far end of the winding and the terminals in order to avoid voltage breakdown.
If the bobbin is to support a large number of windings, it may be made of two separate longitudinal portions, one of which fits longitudinally inside the other, and each of which carry windings. The inner bobbin portion must have its terminations at only one thereof so that its other end can fit longitudinally into the outer bobbin portion. In such a bobbin, the use of the spacing arrangement described above to avoid voltage breakdown in the inner portion's windings increases the cross-sectional area of the inner portion and thus increases the size of the outer portion and so increases the size, weight and cost of the resulting transformer. Also in such a bobbin, the use of the spacing arrangement described above to separate the wires of the inner portion's windings increases the air gap between the windings of the inner and outer portions of the core, reducing the magnetic performance of the transformer.


An air moving device includes a housing member, a rotary fan assembly, and a nozzle, the housing including a plurality of air vents. The air moving device further includes at least one anti-drip structure in the form of a peripheral lip member for inhibiting water from entering the air moving device. The air moving device further includes a baffle member that acts to redirect a volume of air that enters through the plurality of air vents.

1. Field of the Inventions
The present application relates generally to systems, devices and methods for moving air that are particularly suitable for creating air temperature de-stratification within a room, building, or other structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
The rise of warm air and the sinking of cold air can create significant variation in air temperatures between the ceiling and floor of buildings with any sort of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Air temperature stratification is particularly problematic in all spaces with any ceilings such as warehouses, gymnasiums, offices, auditoriums, hangers, commercial buildings, residences, agricultural buildings, and other structures, and significantly increases heating and air conditioning costs. Structures with both low and high ceiling rooms can often have stagnant or dead air, as well, which can further lead to air temperature stratification problems and propagation of mold and mildew potentially increasing health problems of humans, animals, and plants.
One proposed solution to air temperature stratification is a ceiling fan. Ceiling fans are relatively large rotary fans, with a plurality of blades, mounted near the ceiling. The blades of a ceiling fan have a flat or airfoil shape. The blades have a lift component that pushes air upwards or downwards, depending on the direction of rotation, and a rotational component that pushes the air tangentially. The rotational component causes tangential or centrifugal flow so that the air being pushed diverges or spreads out. Conventional ceiling fans are generally ineffective as an air de-stratification device in relatively high ceiling rooms because the air pushed by conventional ceiling fans is not maintained in a columnar pattern from the ceiling to the floor, and often disperses or diffuses well above the floor of the space.
Another proposed solution to air temperature stratification is a fan connected to a vertical tube that extends substantially from the ceiling to the floor. The fan can be mounted near the ceiling, near the floor or in between. This type of device can push cooler air up from the floor to the ceiling or warmer air down from the ceiling to the floor. Such devices, when located away from the walls in an open space in a building, interfere with floor space use and are not aesthetically pleasing. When confined to locations only along the walls of an open space, such devices may not effectively circulate air near the center of the open space. Examples of fans connected to vertical tubes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,342 to Hughes, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,479 to Whiteley.
A more practical solution is a device, for example, with a rotary fan that minimizes a rotary component of an air flow while maximizing axial or columnar air flow quantity and velocity, thereby providing a column of air that flows from the high ceiling to the floor in a columnar pattern with minimal lateral dispersion without a physical transporting tube. Examples of this type of device are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/130,909, filed May 30, 2008, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/724,799, filed Mar. 16, 2010, each of which is incorporated in its entirety by reference herein.

Columnar air moving devices, systems and methods


Selective area stamping of optical elements may be performed to make multiple micro-optic components on one or two sides of a substrate may be fabricated using a batch process. The presence of molding material may be controlled on the substrate through the use of gaps.

Micro-optic components are typically used in imaging or optical interconnect applications. Conventionally, such optical components are manufactured by directly etching the desired shape into a suitable substrate using standard lithography and semiconductor processing techniques or by building a mold to allow injection molding of a thermoplastic to create the optical component. The first method creates an environmentally stable optical component but is typically slow and expensive. The second method rapidly creates parts but is limited to thermoplastics that are unstable at elevated temperatures.

Method for selective area stamping of optical elements on a substrate


A flame-retardant and fireproof cigarette which aims to contain the combustion process to the cigarette. The flame-retardant and fireproof cigarette has a filter that is aligned with a tobacco body. A flame-retardant and fireproof covering is positioned over at least a portion of the tobacco body and isolates the open fire associated with the consumption of the tobacco during the course of smoking or burning the cigarettes. Such a cigarette reduces the risk of undesired, inadvertent, and latent ignition of adjacent materials.

At present, as to fire accidents caused by various reasons, those accidents caused by burning ends of cigarettes that are abandoned at will has increased in frequency hundreds and thousands times than fire accidents caused by other reasons. At least one reason of this fact is that although the governments of various countries work hard to dissuade people from smoking, the number of people who smoke is still very large. Smokers may smoke at any places except non-smoking areas and tend to throw away cigarette ends anywhere at will. Additionally, falling asleep with a lit cigarette can also result in unintended ignition of nearby combustible materials. Such careless disposal or inattention can result in the undesired igniting of the somewhat inflammable substance such as beddings, clothing, paper, trees, and etc. by burning cigarettes ends, so as to cause fire accidents.
Therefore, it is a preferable option for reducing such fire accidents to provide a cigarette or other product that is commonly consumed by combustion/heat which can reduce the potential of unintended ignition of other combustible materials, so as to reduce the number of fire accidents caused by the use of such products.


The invention provides antibodies to a mutant form of the epidermal growth factor receptor known as EGFRvIII found only or primarily on the surface of glioblastoma cells, and on cells of breast, ovarian and non-small cell lung carcinomas. The antibodies provided by the invention have the complementarity determining regions (“CDRs”) of the scFv designated MR1, but with mutations at positions 98 and 99 in the CDR3 of the heavy chain variable region and, optionally, in other CDRs. In particular, the invention provides an antibody, designated MR1-1, which mutates MR1 in the CDR3 of the VH and VL chains. The invention provides additional antibodies in which MR1 is mutated in the CDR1 and 2 of VH or VL, or both.

A mutant form of the epidermal growth factor receptor, designated "EGFRvIII," is highly expressed in some 50–60% of glioblastomas and has also been shown to be present in some 70–80% of carcinomas of the breast and ovary, and about 16% of non-small cell lung carcinomas (Wikstrand et al., Cancer Res. 55:3140–3148 (1995); Moscatello et al., Cancer Res. 55:5536–5539 (1995)). The mutation consists of an in-frame deletion of exons 2–7 near the amino terminus of the extracellular domain which results in the expression of an EGFR mRNA with an 801 base deletion. The mutant protein contains a new glycine codon at the splice junction (Moscatello et al., supra). The mutant receptor is expressed on the cell surface and creates a new tumor specific cell surface epitope (sequence) at the deletion junction. The receptor has constitutive tyrosine kinase activity that enhances the tumorigenicity of glioblastomas in vivo (Nishikawa et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91:7727–7731 (1994)). Because of the tumor-specific extracellular sequence, the mutant receptor is an attractive potential target for cancer therapy, particularly via the use of immunotoxins.
Immunotoxins are made by fusing a targeting moiety, such as an antibody or a portion of an antibody, to a protein toxin such as Pseudomonas exotoxin. Immunotoxins have been demonstrated to have activity against solid tumors in humans, as demonstrated by a Phase I clinical trial in which an immunotoxin made with an antibody specific for a Lewis Y-related antigen overexpressed on many tumors showed tumor regression (Pai et al., Nat Med. 2:350–353 (1996)). Immunotoxins such as the one in the Pai et al., study, which was made with a whole mouse monoclonal antibody, however, have certain disadvantages. They are relatively large, which limits their tumor penetration. Further, there is frequently heterogeneity of the linkage between the antibody and the toxin, and it is difficult to produce the conjugates in large quantity. Similarly, the various antibodies against EGFRvIII known in the art, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,290, WO 96/16988, and Reist et al., Cancer Res. 55:4375–4382 (1995), have limitations for constructing immunotoxins. Attempts to overcome these problems by making wholly recombinant immunotoxins in which cloned Fvs are used for targeting have been hampered because most antibody variable domains function poorly as Fvs, either because of instability due to weak VH-VL association or because of poor binding affinity.
MR1 is a single chain antibody variable domain (scFv) that binds specifically to EGFRvIII. The MR1 scFV was isolated from an antibody phage display library (Lorimer et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93:14815–14820 (1996)). The scFv library containing MR1 was prepared from the splenic mRNA of a mouse which was immunized with an EGFRvIII specific peptide plus the extracellular domain of EGFRvIII purified by affinity chromatography from EGFRvIII-expressing tumor xenografts (Lorimer et al., Clin. Cancer Res. 1:859–864 (1995)). MR1 was developed as a prospect for developing a therapeutic agent which would be specifically targeted to EGFRvIII-positive cancer cells. The sequence of MR1 has been deposited in GenBank under Accession Number U76382 (the nucleic acid sequence shown under this Accession Number is set forth as SEQ ID NO:17, and the amino acid sequence is set forth as SEQ ID NO.:18).
Immunotoxin MR1(Fv)-PE38 was constructed by fusing the scFv of MR1 to a truncated form of Pseudomonas exotoxin A, PE38, in which all of domain Ia and amino acids 365–380 of domain Ib have been deleted (Lorimer et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93:14815–14820 (1996). Several other recombinant PE38 immunotoxins are now in clinical trials (Kreitman et al., Blood 94(10):3340–48 (1999); Pai-Scherf et al., Clin. Cancer Res. (in press) (1999); Pai et al., Clin. Application Immunotoxins 234:83–96 (1998)). Generally, the scFv genes are joined with the PE38 gene by a short linker and cloned into a T7-based expression vector. The recombinant immunotoxins are expressed in E. coli, where they accumulate in inclusion bodies. After the inclusion bodies are washed extensively, they are dissolved in guanidine hydrochloride and the protein renatured and purified by ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The resulting molecules are active and are directed to a cell specific antigen by the scFv. Cell death is caused by the activity of the toxin.
To be useful as therapeutic agents, immunotoxins should have a high affinity for the antigen, resulting in high cytotoxicity toward cells expressing the antigen. To ease processing and cost concerns, it is also advantageous if the immunotoxin can be produced with a high yield. MR1(scFv)-PE38 is the highest affinity, most cytotoxic immunotoxin available against cells expressing EGFRvIII, but it is far from ideal. It has a Kd of 8 nM and a yield of less than 3%. It would therefore be advantageous to develop antibodies which bind to EGFRvIII with greater affinity, and which, when coupled to PE38 or other toxins, form immunotoxins with higher cytotoxicity to EGFRvIII-expressing cells. Additionally, it would be helpful to find antibodies which form immunotoxins with higher yields.
Several attempts to solve these problems by developing additional scFv from monoclonal anti-EGFRvIII antibodies failed. MR1 remains the only scFv available in the art for targeting anti-EGFRvIII immunotoxins.

Anti-EGFRvIII scFvs with improved cytotoxicity and yield, immunotoxins based thereon, and methods of use thereof

The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services


Apparatus (10) for generating a radar waveform (W). A noise generator (20) generates a series of pulses in a pseudo-random pattern, and a frequency generator (16) generates a carrier wave having a frequency within a predetermined band of frequencies. The carrier wave is modulated with the pseudo-random pattern of pulses, and the resulting modulated carrier wave passed through both a filter (30) and an attenuator (32) to suppress any discernible feature or signal characteristics of the resulting waveform. The modulated carrier is transmitted by an antenna (42) and a received return signal is processed by a signal processor (100) to obtain pertinent information about a target. The transmitted waveform has no discernible attributes by which the waveform, if processed and analyzed by someone else's radar detector (E) would convey any intelligence as to the presence or source of the transmitted waveform.

This invention relates to communication systems including radar systems, and more particularly, to a virtual noise waveform as generated by a radar system. The waveform has no detectable attributes discernible by radar signal detection and analysis equipment. This allows a radar system utilizing the waveform to obtain desired intelligence without disclosing either the presence of the radar or whose radar it is.
A primary usage of radar systems is intelligence gathering. In a military or covert operations setting, this requires a radar platform to interrogate an area of interest using radar signals which are transmitted at a target, and to receive return signals which can be processed to obtain the desired information. Different radar systems have different signal characteristics or attributes. These include, for example, whether the radar is pulsed or continuous wave (CW), its energy, operating frequencies, frequency hop rates, chip rates, coding schemes, etc. A conventional radar system typically generates a high energy, uncoded signal which is readily detectable with the appropriate equipment. Radar systems used for military or covert purposes employ different schemes to hide or disguise their transmitted signals. For example, a covert radar signal will have less radiated energy than a conventional signal, and employ a different coding scheme. Regardless, it has been found that these signals, too, are detectable. It will be understood that while the attributes or signal characteristics of one radar system may significantly vary from those of another, the characteristics of each represent an individualized signature. Accordingly, someone detecting a radar signal above some threshold in a radar band and performing appropriate signal analysis can readily determine not only that intelligence gathering is taking place, but also who is doing it.
Detection avoidance techniques are well-known in the art. Among detection avoidance methods employed by current radar systems are the use of terrain masking, power management, adaptive scanning, pulse compression, and frequency diversity techniques. Terrain masking (which has been ostensibly used since World War II) requires an airplane, for example, to fly close to the nap of the earth. Power management involves the radar generating only the signal power necessary for a particular task. Adaptive scanning involves transmitting radar signals only on a limited basis, and then focusing the transmission only in the target direction. Pulse compression techniques are used to distribute the transmissible energy over time; while, frequency diversification involves spreading the available energy over a wide spectrum. While each of these techniques has certain advantages which to some extent may mask a radar, implementation of any of these avoidance strategies still results in a radar waveform having an identifiable set of characteristics. If the waveform is detected despite any of the avoidance strategies employed, the waveform characteristics will again provide a signature by which the source of the radar signal can be determined. It would be greatly advantageous and desirable to employ a radar system having detection avoidance capabilities in which a signal waveform would have no discernible attributes from which would aid in the detection of the source of the signal.

Virtual noise radar waveform for reduced radar detectability


An auxiliary power unit starting apparatus for a wheelchair comprises a housing, a plurality of triggers fixed in a triggering disc which is installed on an inner surface of the housing, a plurality of return springs biased between the housing and the driving disc for providing an elastic force for enabling the thick portion of the triggers to keep abutting against the deep end of the chutes, a hand wheel fixed to the driving disc, a switch is fixed to the stator for starting and stopping the motor and is to be triggered by the triggering disc. When the user rotates the hand wheel, the triggering disc will trigger the switch, and thus the motor will be started and will produce an auxiliary driving power for rotating the wheel of the wheelchair.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an auxiliary power unit starting apparatus for a wheelchair, more particularly to a starting apparatus that can start the motor to produce an auxiliary driving power at the time the user is rotating the hand wheel of the wheelchair.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For a disabled people, conventional wheelchair is more than a means of transportation, it is an optimum rehabilitation tool, because the user has to rotate the wheels by hand, and this can exercise the user's hand and is good for rehabilitation. It is to be noted that running on a flat and smooth road is not a difficult thing for the user. However, the user will probably feel hard if running up a slope, and if the slope angle is greater than 15 degrees, the user can't overcome it independently.
Therefore, a power-assisted wheelchair, such as the device of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,230,831, 5,818,189, 6,354,390 and 5,878,829, has been made to overcome this problem, wherein an electric motor is disposed in the wheel hubs, and the motor starting device is designed in such a way that the electric motor will be started when the user rotate the hand wheel.
To prevent the motor from being started when the user just touches the hand wheel, the hand wheel is generally designed to have a travel distance, that is, only when the hand wheel rotates a certain distance, the electric motor will then be started. Therefore, the travel distance can't be overly long, otherwise, the response of the electric motor will be too slow.
According to the conventional technology, the start of a power assisted wheelchair is generally controlled by precision-control electronic component or sensor. However, using such electronic precision electronic elements will not only increase the cost but also will increase the failure rate.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.

Auxiliary power unit starting apparatus for a wheelchair

Pihsiang Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A generally tubular drill string has a conductive path over a plurality of drill pipe section (10). Each drill pipe section has a first end and a second end, and a wall, and the first end has a first radial sealing surfaces (11) and the second end has a corresponding second radial surfaces (59), such that when the first or second end of one drill pipe section is engaged with the second or first end respectively of another drill pipe section, at least one seal is formed. The drill pipe includes at least one conductor (21) disposed inside it, this conductor being connected to a first contact means at the first end and a corresponding contact means at the second end of each drill pipe section. Ingress protection means (240) are provided to protect the contact means from ingress from inside or outside of the drill pipe section. The ingress protection means comprises a sealed volume surrounding the contact means.

The present invention relates to the transmission of power and data within a well bore, in particular, through a drillstring.
When drilling a borehole, or performing operations to maintain the borehole or operations associated with the production of oil or gas, it is often desirable to transmit power to various downhole devices, such as drill bits and traction tools. Various instruments can also be included on a drill string in order to gather data concerning the structure of the environment of the borehole, and the performance of the borehole operations and downhole devices. It is advantageous for this data to be transmitted back to the surface along an electrical conductor.
In one cabling system, each drill pipe section includes a contact ring at each end of the section. A passageway between each ring accommodates an armoured conductor which connects the two contact rings. When the drill pipe sections are made up in a drill string, the contact rings of adjacent drill pipe sections abut and a circuit is formed over the drill string.
Such a system is vulnerable to poor connections between the abutting contact rings. Ideally contact rings should be clean, and a specialised non-conductive "pipe dope" or joining compound (which is more expensive than standard pipe dope) must be used in order not to short the connection. Another disadvantage of this system is that the connection between the amoured cable and the contact rings are subjected to borehole pressure and are susceptible to fail.
Alternative systems (such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,544) use inductive pick-ups between the mating surfaces of adjacent drill pipe sections. Such linkage, whilst reducing the chance of bad connections, is not suitable for all types of telemetry and power transfer.


A programmable power system may be used to control the supply of power from a battery to protect the battery from accidental discharge and excessive wear. A programmable power control unit may be connected between a battery and one or more battery operated devices. Typically, the battery is installed in a vehicle (e.g., a motor vehicle, an airplane, or a watercraft) although the unit may be used with any battery powered system. The programmable power control unit may be used to control the supply of power from the battery to one or more auxiliary devices, such as, for example, a two-way CB and ham radio, an AM/FM radio, a music player, a PDA, a TV, a DVD player, a cellular phone, a radar device, a GPS device, a data terminal, a display, and a computer. The programmable power control unit automatically turns the devices on in response to a predetermined battery operating condition, and turns the devices off after a predetermined time period in response a non operating condition.

Motor vehicle batteries frequently power a variety of auxiliary devices, such as, for example, two-way radios, AM/FM radios, TV's, DVD players, cellular phones, radar devices, GPS devices, data terminals, and computers. Many of these devices are memory intensive and/or consume a lot of power. These devices often remain powered on when the vehicle is unattended without regard to drain on the vehicle's battery. While such devices may be left in a powered on state to perform various functions (e.g., downloading data), the most common reason the devices remain powered on is the inconvenience of manually turning them off each time an operator stops or leaves the vehicle. As a result, undesired wear, drain, or unintentional discharge of the battery may occur.


The present invention provides a weather strip which can be easily attached to a grille of an automobile without the need of a clip. The weather strip is a weather strip which seals a gap between a grille and a hood of an automobile and includes (i) an attachment wall to be attached to the grille, (ii) a sealing wall which comes in elastic contact with the hood, and (iii) an insertion section to be inserted into a through hole. The insertion section includes a rear locking portion and a front locking portion which are locked in the through hole.

A weather strip is commonly used in order to seal a gap between (i) an opening and closing member (e.g., a hood) which is included in an automobile so as to be openable and closable and (ii) an opening, to be sealed by the opening and closing member, of the automobile. The weather strip is attached to the automobile with use of clips. To enable securing the weather strip to the automobile reliably with use of a smaller number of clips, there has been developed a weather strip having a shape that assists attachment of the weather strip carried out with use of the clips (e.g., a shape that allows part of the weather strip to be latched onto a portion to which the weather strip is to be attached).
Patent Literature 1 discloses a structure for attaching a weather strip for a radiator grille. The structure involves a protruding part of the weather strip, and attachment of the weather strip to a radiator grille of an automobile is carried out with use of the protruding part together with clips.

Weather strip, weather strip attachment structure, and weather strip attachment method


A rotary massaging stick having rotary massaging ball assemblies rotatable in reversed directions by a motor through a transmission gear train for stimulating the G point in the vagina of a woman to cause the woman to reach the climate of sexual excitement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a rotary massaging stick and more particularly, to such a rotary massaging stick, which is practical for simulating the G point in the vagina of a woman to reach the climate of sexual excitement.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various sex toys have been disclosed for helping people to reach the climate of sexual excitement, and have appeared on the market. A conventional rotary massaging stick for this purpose has rotary massaging ball assemblies that can be rotated in one specific direction to stimulate the vagina. However, a sex toy of this design is less attractive to consumers because the rotary massaging ball assemblies can be rotated in one specific direction only.


Embodiments may provide improved techniques to assess model checkpoint stability on unseen data on-the-fly, so as to prevent unstable checkpoints from being saved, and to avoid or reduce the need for an expensive thorough evaluation. For example, a method may comprise passing a set of input sequences through a checkpoint of a sequence to sequence model in inference mode to obtain a set of generated sequences of feature vectors, determining whether each of a plurality of generated sequences of feature vectors is complete, counting a number of incomplete generated sequences of feature vectors among the plurality of generated sequences of feature vectors, generating a score indicating a stability of the model based on the count of incomplete generated sequences of feature vectors, and storing the model checkpoint when the score indicating the stability of the model is above a predetermined threshold.

The present invention relates to techniques to assess model checkpoint stability on unseen data on-the-fly, so as to prevent unstable checkpoints from being saved
Many popular sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) neural models are autoregressive. That is, they generate each token by conditioning it on previously generated tokens. As such, they are vulnerable to "exposure bias," which refers to the train-test discrepancy that seemingly arises when an autoregressive generative model uses only ground-truth contexts at training time but generated ones at test (i.e. inference) time (so called "teacher-forcing" mode).
Frequently, in such models a converged validation loss in teacher-forcing mode is not indicative of model quality at inference time. More specifically, consider seq2seq generative models with attention mechanism. They are frequently used in a wide range of tasks, such as machine translation, text summarization, image/video caption generation, textual entailment, and speech synthesis.
In the core of attention mechanisms, there is a mapping function that converts real values to probabilities. At each output time step t∈ in a range [0,T-1], corresponding to the output sequence index t, the vector of attention probabilities (also known as attention weights) is produced, determining the relative attention of the output at instant t to the input sequence at input time steps {n}n=0N-1. This process is repeated until the end-of-sequence symbol is generated. The N×T matrix of the attention probabilities (also known as the alignment matrix, having the attention weight vectors as its columns) represents the input-output sequence alignment, which is important in many applications. For example, in speech synthesis, the input-output alignment directly determines the speaking pace and strongly influences the speaking style of the synthesized audio.
Once the validation loss is converged, many model checkpoints can be saved to be used for inference. Some of them generalize better than others, and some can even become unstable (although their validation loss is as low as others'). That is, they may fail to complete sequence generation for certain input sequences (early stop). Given a certain model training procedure that produces a large set of model checkpoints, it is desirable to store only "stable" models, such as models that generalize well on unseen data in inference mode. A reduced subset of stored stable checkpoints may undergo a thorough evaluation process, that might involve not just objective, but subjective evaluations of the generated sequences. (In use cases, where no ground truth is present, there is no ultimate objective measures for output sequence quality evaluation, for example, a speech synthesis use case). Such evaluations may be costly and time/compute consuming, making it desirable to avoid or reduce the need for such evaluations.
Accordingly, a need arises for improved techniques to assess checkpoint stability on unseen data on-the-fly, so to prevent unstable checkpoints from being saved, and to avoid or reduce the need for an expensive thorough evaluation.

Robust checkpoint selection for monotonic autoregressive seq2seq neural generative models

International Business Machines Corporation


Each of recesses in outer circumferential surfaces of rotors includes: a leading-side area extending forward from a longitudinal center of an associated one of the outer circumferential surfaces in a rotation direction of the rotor, and a trailing-side area continuous with the leading-side area, and extending rearward from the longitudinal center in the rotation direction. From the longitudinal center of the associated one of the outer circumferential surfaces in the rotation direction, forward extension of the leading-side area is longer than rearward extension of the trailing-side area. The leading-side area has a larger volume than the trailing-side area.

The present disclosure relates to a rotary piston engine.
In a rotary piston engine, a combustion chamber is defined between a rotor housing with a trochoid inner circumferential surface and a rotor. A recess for defining the combustion chamber is formed in the outer circumferential surface of the rotor. With respect to the recess of such a rotor, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2015-78664 describes a recess including a first recess and a second recess. The first recess is located on the trailing side in the rotation direction of a rotor. The second recess is located on the leading side and continuous with the first recess. The cross-sectional area of the first recess, which is orthogonal to the circumference of the rotor, is smaller than that of the second recess. This improves the combustion stability of the engine. Specifically, when air-fuel mixture flows from the trailing side to the leading side, generation of turbulence is facilitated at the connection between the first and second recesses, at which the cross-sectional area of the whole recess changes. This aims to promote mixture and diffusion of the air-fuel mixture.
A known problem in a rotary piston engine is that the combustion center of gravity retards at introduction of EGR gas, and the thermal efficiency decreases. As a solution, advancing of ignition timing and shortening of the period of ignition delay (i.e., the period from ignition to start of apparent heat generation) may be considered. However, a rotary piston engine has the following tendency due to the structure, unlike a reciprocating engine. More heat tends to be transferred from flame to the wall surface of the combustion chamber at an initial stage of combustion after ignition. It is thus difficult to exhibit robustness of ignition in advanced ignition, and to shorten the period of ignition delay.


Structural cells that are placed beneath hardscape. The cells are strong enough to structurally support the hardscape, effectively bearing its weight along with the weight of any load it carries. Furthermore, even though the cells are strong enough to offer structural support of a hardscape, the cells are also designed to be relatively lightweight, stackable, and open, allowing approximately 90% of their volume, or more, to be free volume that can contain uncompacted soil, tree roots, and the like. The cells achieve these attributes through a design that includes a flexible bottom frame, and support members. These support members have a cross-sectional shape that allows for axial rigidity while also preventing any interlocking between support members when cells are stacked. In one embodiment, this cross-sectional shape is a generally quadrifoil shape.

The design of many modern dense urban landscapes often calls for the placement of trees within paved-over areas or areas covered by other hardscapes. In particular, such designs often call for trees to be placed in close proximity to roads, sidewalks, and other load bearing pathways. However, the weight of these pathways and the loads they carry often compact the soil underneath to such an extent that it is often difficult for tree roots to sufficiently penetrate the soil. As a result, trees planted in close proximity to these hardscapes may not survive or grow to the full extent envisioned.
Various solutions to this problem have been proposed. For example, structural cell systems such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,080,480, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, have been designed to facilitate the growth of trees near hardscapes, while allowing for soil aeration, water drainage, and the like. It is, however, desirable to improve various aspects of such cells. Accordingly, continuing efforts exist to make such structural cells support hardscapes better, while improving the manufacturability and other characteristics of such cells.

Stackable structural cell having improved support characteristics


Devices and methods for an image shift template. Information defining a document and a first print job is received into a printer. The first print job comprises instructions for printing the document and document finishing instructions. The finishing instructions are analyzed and areas of the pages of the document that will be unusable after a finishing operation according to the instructions are identified. Selection is received to print an image shift template on the document. The image shift template comprises x- and y-axes associated with the document and indication of the areas of the pages of the document that will be unusable after the finishing operation. A second print job is created comprising instructions for printing the pages of the document with the image shift template superimposed on the pages. The pages of the document including the image shift template are printed, according to the second print job.

Devices and methods herein generally relate to machines such as printers and/or copier devices and, more particularly, to methods to provide an image alignment template on an output document.
Sometimes, when printing a document, it is important that the front and back sides are perfectly aligned (e.g. book publishing); it is very hard to adjust the alignment without any other tools. In some finishing operations, a portion of one or more pages of the document may be unusable due to the finishing process. There is no easy way to determine how to perform an image shift on a print output device in order to avoid unusable areas. The process is time consuming to figure out which are the x- or y-axes and the positive or negative direction, in addition to identifying what page in the job needs to be adjusted and what portions of a page, if any, are unusable. The process ends up being a trial and error procedure with many print runs of the job before correct final expected result are achieved, which is a waste of time and money.


A humidifier device for use in fuel cells comprising a mist humidifier unit for adding mists to process gas supplied to an electrolyte equipped in a fuel cell and a humidifier unit control device for intermittently operating the mist humidifier unit in accordance with operating condition of the fuel cell.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a humidifier device for use in fuel cells and an operating system thereof in entire fuel cell systems. In particular, the present invention relates to a humidifier device for use in fuel cells and a water control device for use in fuel cell systems, which are suitable as a humidifier device and a water control device for humidifying process gases supplied to fuel cells used as onboard power sources or fixed-type small sized electric generators.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Fuel cells are adapted to supply fuels and discharge reaction products continuously and convert chemical energy possessed in fuels directly into electric energy, and have various advantages features such as high energy conversion efficiency, less emission of atmospheric contaminants, low noises and optional choice of scales. The fuel cells are classified in accordance with the kind of electrolytes used into solid polymeric type, phosphate type, alkali type, molten carbonate type and solid oxide type.
Among the fuel cells, solid polymer fuel cells, phosphoric acid fuel cells and alkaline fuel cells generate electromotive force by proton-conducting from an anode to a cathode and it is in common with them that control of a wet state of electrolytes is essential for normal operation of electrolytes.
For example, in a solid polymer fuel cell, a solid polymer electrolyte membrane having a proton conductivity is used as the electrolyte. Specifically, fluoro polymer electrolyte membrane typically represented by a perfluoro sulfonic acid membrane is used generally which is known under the trade name of Nafion (registered trade mark for products manufactured by Du Pont Co.).
The fluoro polymer electrolyte membrane is excellent in oxidation resistance and show good proton conductivity in a wet state but the electric resistance is increased as the water content lowers and can no longer function as the electrolyte membrane. Accordingly, the fluoro polymer electrolyte membrane is usually used in a saturated wet state.
However, since the operation temperature of a solid polymer fuel cell is about 80xc2x0 C., water evaporates from the electrolyte membrane during operation of the fuel cell, and water content in the electrolyte membrane lowers gradually. Further, when proton-conducting from the anode to the cathode, since molecules of water transfer simultaneously, the area for the anode tends to be drying-out particularly. If the situation is left as it is, the electric resistance of the electrolyte membrane increases to generate heat, which lowers the electric power or causes failure.
In view of the above, in the solid polymer fuel cell, process gases supplied to a gas diffusion electrode is generally humidified for properly controlling the wet state of the electrolyte membrane for operating the electrolyte normally.
Further, a phosphoric acid fuel cell uses as an electrolyte, a concentrated aqueous solution of phosphoric acid impregnated in an SiC matrix and the operation temperature is about 200xc2x0 C. Further, an alkaline fuel cell includes a matrix type and a free electrolyte type, in which the matrix type is a fuel cell using, as an electrolyte, an aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide at a concentration of 30 to 45% impregnated into asbestos and operated at a temperature of about 100xc2x0 C.
Also in the phosphoric acid fuel cell and the alkaline fuel cell, it is necessary to properly control the wet state of the electrolyte membrane in order to operate the electrolyte normally and process gases are humidified if the output voltage is lowered or temperature elevation occurs in the fuel cell.
As a humidifier device for humidifying process gases supplied to fuel cells, a humidifier device using steams for humidification and a humidifier device using mists for humidification are known. In the humidifier device using steams, process gases are passed in a humidifying tank (so-called bubbling tank) kept at a high temperature for humidification corresponding to saturated steam pressure, which has a merit capable of stable humidification.
In the humidifier device using mists, finely atomized mists are added to process gases. For example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application Hei 5-54900 discloses a solid polymer fuel cell having a humidifier device for process gases of adding mists finely atomized to 300 xcexcm or less to at least one of fuels or oxidants by using a mist atomizer having a spray nozzle or an ultrasound atomizer apparatus.
In the humidifier device using mists, since sprayed mists are transferred as they are to the electrode on the process gases as a carrier, it provides a merit capable of quantitatively controlling the amount of humidifying water. Further, since the process gases are deprived of latent heat of evaporation when the mists atomize into steams, it has a merit capable of expecting a cooling effect for the process gases.
However, since the humidifier device of humidifying process gases by steams consumes a great amount of energy for generating steams, which causes lowering of energy conversion efficiency of the fuel cell. In addition, since it is necessary to keep the water source at a high temperature to always generate steams during operation of a fuel cell, heating is necessary also for unconsumed water content to further increase the energy loss.
Further, for always generating steams a bubbling bath of a large capacity is required and since a bubbling bath of a large capacity has a large heat capacity, a time constant regarding the change of temperature is increased. Therefore, it requires a long time for elevating the temperature of the bubbling bath and water to a predetermined level to bring about a problem in view of the starting property.
Further, since the time constant relative to the change in temperature is large, the response characteristic is poor, which leads to difficulty in transient control. That is, if a load changes abruptly to require a large amount of process gases and, correspondingly, a great amount of steams, since the amount of humidification cannot be increased abruptly, the water content in the electrolyte membrane becomes insufficient to lower the output.
On the other hand, if an excessive amount of steams is sent to the electrode, so-called flooding in which a gas flow channel is closed by liquid water is caused to lower the output and make the operation state of the fuel cell instable. Particularly, since water is produced by electrode reactions on the cathode, flooding is liable to be caused.
On the contrary, the humidifier device for humidifying process gases by mists as disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application Hei 5-54900 consumes less electric power for the spray nozzle or ultrasound atomizer apparatus and, accordingly, it is efficient. Further, since it is not necessary to wait for the elevation of water temperature for atomizing water, there is no problem for the starting property. Further, since the increase/decrease for the amount of humidification can be controlled irrespective of the water temperature, it is highly responsive.
However, even in a case of a mist humidifier using a spray nozzle or ultrasound atomizer apparatus, it is necessary to change the addition amount of the mists to the process gases continuously corresponding to the change of load for stable operation of the fuel cell. However, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application Hei 5-54900 describes only for the control corresponding to the output power but discloses nothing at all for concrete means of continuously changing the addition amount of mists in accordance with change of load.
Further, the spray nozzle or the ultrasound atomizer apparatus has only a small control range for the performance of supplying mists and cannot change the addition amount of mists greatly. For example, in a case of atomizing mists by using a spray nozzle, the addition amount of mists to the process gases can be controlled by a primary air flow rate.
However, a minimum flow rate is present in the primary air flow rate and, if the primary air flow rate is excessively low, the diameter of the mists is excessively large to wet the electrode or drip water from the outlet of the nozzle making it difficult to atomize water.
Further, in a method of obtaining mists by using an ultrasound atomizer apparatus, since the minimum voltage for releasing mists is nearly about 80% of the full voltage, a limit is imposed on great change for the mist supplying amount corresponding to the continuously changing load by merely controlling the input voltage to the ultrasound atomizer apparatus.
Further, when methanol reformate gas is used for the fuel gas, reforming reaction is usually conducted at a high S/C ratio condition (mol number of steams charged/mol number of carbons in charged fuel) in order to reduce carbon monoxide as a catalyst poisoning for the electrode catalyst and, as a result, a great amount of steams are contained in the reformate gases.
However, the S/C ratio is sometimes lowered intentionally, for example, in a case of abruptly increasing the amount of fuel supplied in order to increase the power and, in this case, the amount of steams contained in the reformate gases is decreased. Accordingly, mere determination for the amount of humidification on the side of the anode in proportion with the output power may cause insufficiency or excess for the amount of humidification on the side of the anode, failing to conduct effective water control for the electrolyte.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and has an object to overcome the above problems and to provide a humidifier device for use in fuel cells which is used for fuel cells requiring control for the wet state of an electrolyte membrane, capable of humidifying process gases with no excess or insufficiency corresponding to load-change, without lowering the energy conversion efficiency, response performance and starting performance to thereby capable of outstandingly improving the operation stability of the fuel cell.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a water control device for use in fuel cell systems which is used for a fuel cell using reformate gases as a fuel and capable of humidifying fuel gases with no excess or insufficiency even if S/C ratio in reforming reaction changes, thereby capable of outstandingly improving the operation stability of the fuel cell.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the objects and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a humidifier device for use in fuel cells according to the present invention has a feature in comprising a mist humidifier unit for atomizing water into process gases supplied to an electrolyte membrane equipped in a fuel cell and a control device for the humidifier unit for intermittently operating the mist humidifier unit in accordance with the operating condition of the fuel cell.
In the humidifier device for use in fuel cells having the constitutions described above according to the present invention, since the mist humidifier unit is intermittently controlled by the control device for the humidifier unit, the amount of the mists added to the process gases can be changed continuously and greatly even when a mist humidifier unit of a performance with narrow control range for the supply of the mists is used.
Accordingly, even if the operating condition of a fuel cell changes depending on the load-change or the like, process gases can be humidified appropriately with no excess or insufficiency and the operation stability of the fuel cell can be improved outstandingly.
Furthermore, since humidification to the process gases are conducted by using mists atomized from the mist humidifier unit, the energy loss is reduced and starting performance and response performance can be improved compared with the steam humidification by using bubbling bath. Further, the consumption power of the mist humidifier unit can be lowered by intermittently operating the mist humidifier unit.
Further, the water control device for use in fuel cell system according to the present invention has a feature in the provision of a mist humidifier unit for adding mists to process gases supplied to an electrolyte membrane equipped in a fuel cell, a water supply unit for supplying water as a reforming material to a fuel reforming device for forming process gases, and the water control device for making a balance between the amount of water added to the process gases by way of the mist humidifier unit and the amount of water supplied by way of the water supply unit to the fuel reforming device in accordance with the operating condition and the control characteristics of the fuel cell.
In the water control device for use in fuel cell systems having the foregoing constitutions according to the present invention, water as the reforming material is at first supplied by way of the water supply unit to the fuel reforming device, and fuel gases incorporated with steams according to the S/C ratio of reforming material are formed in the fuel reforming device. Further, mists from the mist humidifier unit are added to the fuel gases supplied from the fuel reforming device and supplied to the electrolyte membrane equipped in the fuel cell.
In this case, depending on the operating condition of the fuel cell such as load-change and operating condition of the fuel cell system such as change of the S/C ratio in the reforming material, the amount of water supplied to the water supply unit and the amount of water added from the mist humidifier unit to fuel gases are controlled by the water control device such that the total amount of humidification to the process gases takes a predetermined value.
This can humidify the process gases with no excess or insufficiency even if the operating condition of the fuel cell such as load are changed, as well as control characteristics of the fuel cell system such as change of the S/C ratio in reforming material are changed, so that operation stability of the fuel cell system can be improved outstandingly.
According to the present invention, since the mist humidifier unit for atomizing water into process gases supplied to the electrolyte membrane equipped in the fuel cell and the water control device for the humidifier unit for intermittently operating the mist humidifier unit based on the operating condition of the fuel cell are provided, it can provide advantageous effects of reduced energy loss, excellent response performance and improved starting performance.
Further, since the mist humidifier unit is intermittently controlled in accordance with the operating condition of the fuel cell, it can provide an advantageous effect capable of humidifying process gases with no excess or insufficiency even if the load changes greatly.
Further, since the water control device for use in fuel cell system according to the present invention comprises a control device for making a balance between the amount of water supplied from the water supply unit to a reformer system and the amount of water added to process gases from the mist humidifier unit is controlled in accordance with the change of the S/C ratio, when the present invention is applied to a fuel cell of using a steam reforming system for methanol as a fuel supply system, it can provide an advantageous effect capable of humidifying the fuel gases with no excess or insufficiency even if the S/C ratio in the reforming reaction changes abruptly.
Still further, the fuel cell operating system according to the present invention has a feature in the provision of fuel gas supply means for supplying fuel gases to an anode of a fuel cell, oxidizing gas supply means for supplying oxidizing gases (for example, air) to a cathode of the fuel cell, first mist adding means for adding mists to the fuel gases supplied to the anode by the fuel gas supply means, second mist adding means for adding mists to the oxidizing gas supplied to the cathode by the oxidizing gas supply means, first control means for variably controlling an amount of the mists added to the fuel gases by the first mist adding means in accordance with operating condition of the anode and a second control means for variably controlling an amount of the water added to the oxidizing gases by the second mist adding means in accordance with the operating condition of the fuel cell.
As described above, in the humidifier device for use in fuel cells, the water control device for use in fuel cell system and the fuel cell operating system according to the present invention, since the operation stability of the fuel cell system can be improved outstandingly without deteriorating the energy conversion efficiency, starting performance and response performance, for example, if it is applied to a fuel cell system for use in onboard power source, it contributes to the improvement of the drivability and the fuel consumption in automobiles and eventually it serves to great industrial progress.

Humidifer device for fuel cells and operating system thereof


A display device is provided. The display device includes a display panel comprising a display surface configured to display an image thereon, the display surface having an edge; a light source spaced apart from the display panel to form a space therebetween and configured to emit light to the display panel, wherein the display panel is configured to generate image on the display surface using the light from the light source; and a reflective surface arranged so as to reflect light emitted from the light source and to direct the reflected light to the edge.

1. Field
The present invention relates to a display device.
2. Description of the Related Technology
The field emitter array (FEA) is known as an electron emission device. The FEA-type electron emission device typically includes an electron emission element, and cathode and gate electrodes to function as driving electrodes for controlling the electron emission of the electron emission device. The electron emission elements can be formed by a material having a relatively lower work function or a relatively large aspect ratio such as, for example, a carbon-based material including carbon nanotubes, graphite, and diamond-like carbon. The material is selected to effectively emit electrons when an electric field is formed around the electron emission elements under a vacuum atmosphere.
The electron emission elements are typically arrayed on a substrate to constitute an electron emission device. The electron emission device may be combined with another substrate, on which a light emission unit having phosphor layers and an anode electrode may be formed to constitute a light emission unit. A display device is manufactured by combining a display panel with the light emission unit.

Display device with reflective surface for reflecting light to edges of display area


A silver halide light-sensitive color photographic material is disclosed. A coupler represented by the formula is used.

At present, the subtractive color process is utilized in the silver halide light-sensitive color photographic materials (hereinafter, simply referred to as light-sensitive materials), and color images are formed by combining three prepared dyes employing a yellow coupler, a magenta coupler, and a cyan coupler.
Conventionally, as the magenta couplers employed in the silver halide light-sensitive color photographic materials, there have been known the pyrazolone series, the pyrazolotriazole series, the pyrazolinobenzimidazole series or the indanone series couplers. Of these, various types of 5-pyrazolone derivatives have been widely employed.
As the substituents at the 3-position of the 5-pyrazolone ring of the above-mentioned 5-pyrazolone derivatives, there are employed, for example, an alkyl group, an aryl group, or an alkoxy group described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,439,099, or an acylamino group described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,369,489 and 2,600,788, or an ureido group described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,558,319. However, the above-mentioned couplers have resulted in shortcomings such that the coupling reactivity with an oxidized developing agent is low to unable the formation of a magenta dye image with high density; the magenta dye image formed by color development exhibits a large secondary absorption in the blue light region, and the main absorption exhibits no sharp decrease at the long wavelength edge.
The 3-anilino-5-pyrazolone series couplers disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,311,081, 3,677,764, 3,684,514, and U.K. Patent Nos. 956,261, 1,173,513, etc. exhibit advantages such as high coupling activity, high dye-forming efficiency, small secondary absorption in the blue region and the like. However, the maximum spectral absorption wavelength of dyes formed employing these 3-anilino-5-pyrazolone series couplers conventionally known in the art positions in the relatively shorter wavelength region. Their use in the silver halide light-sensitive color photographic materials for making color negatives deteriorates the color reproduction on resulting prints. Furthermore, there has been the so-called bleach fog problem, in that after finishing the development process, the oxidized developing agent reacts with the coupler in the bleach bath to cause an increase in fog.
In order to minimize the disadvantage in that the maximum spectral absorption wavelength of the formed dye occupies a position in the short wavelength region, various investigations have been made. As a result, 1-pentahalogenophenyl-3-anilino-5-pyrazolone series couplers are proposed in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 52-80027. Dyes prepared employing the above-mentioned couplers exhibit the maximum spectral absorption wavelength more preferably as compared to conventional couplers. However, these couplers have exhibited disadvantages such that the dye-forming efficiency is not sufficient enough, and the maximum spectral absorption wavelength of the formed dye depends on the density (so-called dichroism).
Furthermore, German Patent 19,525,666 discloses 4-(2-N-alkylsulfonamide)phenylthio-5-pyrazolones. However, these compounds have been found to be unsatisfactory, because image dyes formed employing these compounds exhibit disadvantages such that the maximum spectral absorption wavelength varies in accordance with the density, that is, dichroism is caused; the color reproduction is degraded because the maximum spectral absorption wavelength occupies a position in the shorter wavelength region and is not adapted to that of the conventional couplers for color negative film and that low sensitivity and low dye formation efficiency result.
The feature of the present invention is that a 3-anilino-4-arylthio-5-pyrazilone coupler comprises both a specified ballast (substituent of 3-anilino part) part (hereinafter referred to as a ballast) and a 4-arylthio group (hereinafter referred to as a coupling point substituent). The ballasts of the present invention are described in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection Nos. 8-171186 and 7-82626. However, in those specifications, there is not described any of the coupling point substituent of the present invention, and based on the description, it is difficult to hit on the coupling point substituent. Further the couplers described in the above-mentioned patent have the disadvantage of high bleach fog, and the couplers of the present invention are clearly superior to those couplers.
Furthermore, German Patent No. 19,525,666 discloses couplers having a ballast (exemplified compound M-4=comparative compound of the present invention M-9) having a structure similar to the coupler of the present invention. However there is described no photographic performance. The inventors of the present invention traced the coupler and found the disadvantages such as low dye forming efficiency, large dichroism, and the like. In the specification of the above-mentioned patent, a ballast similar to the structure of the ballast of the present invention is only employed in compound M-4 and it is impossible to get technical concept to employ the ballast of the present invention. There is no description on the superiority obtained by employing the ballast of the present invention. Based on the description in Examples of the present invention, it will definitely be seen that the couplers of the present invention based on a technical concept not suggested in the above-mentioned German Patent exhibit surprisingly higher performance than those described in the above-mentioned German Patent.

Silver halide light-sensitive color photographic material


Enabling developers to access software components of a software development set while the set is loading on to the computer. A user interface may provide a visual representation of the software set being loaded on to a computer, including displaying the contents of the software set. Contents of the software set may be displayed before the contents have been loaded on to the computer. A user may be enabled to select, from the visual representation, a software component of the loading set that has not yet been loaded on to the computer. In response, the selected component may be loaded on to the computer, for example, using a separate, higher-priority process or thread from the one loading the software set. The selected component may be loaded asynchronously, irrespective of the particular synchronous order in which the software components of the software set are being loaded.

Developing software applications and products often requires the coordinated efforts of many developers (e.g., software programmers). This development often involves the creation and modification of several software components (e.g., files), the collective body of which is often stored in a centralized, common repository shared by the developers. There are several Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) available today to assist developers in collaboratively developing software, such as, for example, Microsoft® Visual Studio® (MVS) available from Microsoft Corporation. IDEs enable developers to organize a set of software components (e.g., as a directory or some other form of hierarchy) as a single entity referred to herein as a "development set." For example, MVS packages a plurality of software components as a "solution," where each solution may include one or more software components (e.g., "projects" and/or files), and where each package may include one or more components (e.g., files).
As used herein, a "software component" is a component of a larger software entity, for example, an application (program), a development package, a project, a software product, another software component, another type of software entity, or any combination thereof. A software component may be, for example, a project, a program, a file, a directory, an object, a record, a table, another type of software abstraction, or any combination thereof.
During the course of collaborative software development, a developer often loads a local copy of a development set (e.g., a solution) from a repository to the developer's computer. Loading a development set onto a computer can be a time-consuming task, especially if the application is being loaded remotely over a communications network (i.e., a network). As used herein, a "network" is a group of two or more components interconnected by one or more segments of transmission media on which communications may be exchanged between the components. Each segment may be any of a plurality of types of transmission media, including one or more electrical or optical wires or cables made of metal and/or optical fiber, air (e.g., using wireless transmission over carrier waves) or any combination of these transmission media. As used herein, "plurality" means two or more. It should be appreciated that a network may be as simple as two components connected by a single wire, bus, wireless connection, or other type of segments. Further, it should be appreciated that when a network is illustrated in a drawing of this application as being connected to an element in the drawing, the connected element itself is considered part of the network.
During the loading of at least a portion of a development set (e.g., one or more files and/or packages or the entire set), a typical IDE does not allow a developer to access any of the software components of the portion until the entire portion has been loaded onto the developer's computer. Although a developer may only need to work on a small subset of the software components of the portion (e.g., a single project or one or more files thereof), the developer must wait until the entire portion is loaded, which may take tens of seconds, minutes or even hours, depending on the size of the set. Such delays are often unacceptable in today's fast-paced business world, and result in frustrated developers and inefficient uses of developers' time.

Accessing and loading software components of a development package on a computer while other software components of the package are loading


The present invention includes a method of modulating the phagocytic activity of at least one phagocyte in a subject. The present invention also includes a method of providing a composition resistant to phagocytosis to a subject. The present invention further includes a method of treating, ameliorating or preventing an inflammatory disease in a subject.

Phagocytosis is a form of endocytosis wherein solid particles such as bacteria are engulfed by the cell membrane to form an internal phagosome. Phagocytosis is distinct from other forms of endocytosis, such as the vesicular internalization of liquids. Phagocytosis is a key mechanism used by the immune system to remove pathogens, cell debris, dead tissue cells and small mineral particles from circulation in the body.
Phagocytes are white blood cells that protect the body by phagocytosing harmful foreign particles, bacteria, and dead or dying cells, and thus are essential for fighting infections and developing subsequent immunity. Phagocytes of humans and other animals are called "professional" or "non-professional" depending on how effective they are at phagocytosis (Ernst & Stendahl, 2006, "Phagocytosis of Bacteria and Bacterial Pathogenicity", Cambridge University Press: NY, p. 186). The distinguishing factor between professional and non-professional phagocytes is that professional phagocytes (such as neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, and mast cells) have surface receptors that can detect harmful objects, such as bacteria, that are not normally found in the body. The immune system recognizes invading cells (such as microbes and viruses) as foreign because these invading cells either express determinants that are absent on host cells or do not express "markers of self" that are normally present on host cells. Injected or implanted materials are also perceived as foreign as these invariably activate macrophages and other phagocytes, and this foreign body response occurs in spite of synthetic coatings such as those with polyethylene glycol (PEG) that are intended to maximize compatibility.
During an infection by a pathogen, chemical signals attract phagocytes to places where the pathogen has invaded the body. These chemical signals may come from bacteria or from other phagocytes already present. When phagocytes come into contact with bacteria, the receptors on the phagocyte's surface bind to them, leading to the engulfing of the bacteria by the phagocyte. Some phagocytes kill the ingested pathogen with oxidants and nitric oxide. After phagocytosis, macrophages and dendritic cells can also participate in antigen presentation, a process in which a phagocyte moves parts of the ingested material back to its surface. The antigen is then displayed to other cells of the immune system. Some phagocytes then travel to the body's lymph nodes and display the material to white blood cells called lymphocytes, a key event in the development of immunity.
Phagocytes are thus professional eating cells of the innate immune system and are responsible for protecting humans and other animals from attacks by foreign pathogens. However, phagocytes may also attack elements that have been intentionally introduced into the body, such as implants, artificial tissue, artificial organs and vesicles bearing therapeutic agents, and this may reduce their lifetime in the body. Furthermore, pathogens have evolved methods to evade attacks by phagocytes, such as covering themselves with molecules that deflect recognition and/or attachment of phagocytes.
A phagocyte may display many types of receptors on its surface, including opsonin receptors, scavenger receptors, and Toll-like receptors. Opsonin receptors increase the phagocytosis of bacteria that have been coated with immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies or with complement (a complex series of blood proteins that destroy cells or mark them for destruction). While scavenger receptors bind to a large range of molecules on the surface of bacterial cells, Toll-like receptors bind to more specific molecules, increasing phagocytosis and causing the phagocyte to release inflammatory hormones.
The protein signal regulatory protein-alpha (SIRP-alpha), also known as tyrosine-protein phosphatase non-receptor type substrate 1 or CD172A (cluster of differentiation 172A), is a member of the signal-regulatory-protein (SIRP) family and belongs to the immunoglobulin superfamily. SIRP family members are receptor-type transmembrane glycoproteins known to be involved in the negative regulation of receptor tyrosine kinase-coupled signaling processes.
SIRP-alpha has been shown to be an inhibitory phagocyte receptor. Once it is activated, SIRP-alpha inhibits pro-phagocytic signals from Fc and complement receptors, resulting in inhibition of phagocytosis (de Almeida et al., 2009, Immunopharmacol. Immunotoxicol. 31(4):636-40).
Nanoparticles similar in size to viruses are frequently decorated with antibodies for targeted therapeutics or imaging. Although such particles are sufficiently small to avoid passive entrapment by capillaries in vivo, macrophages in the spleen and liver are well known to clear liposomes and nanoparticles (even when coated with PEG) within hours or days of injection into the circulation. This limits delivery to sites of disease. Whether phagocytosis of antibody-opsonized small particles (<500 nm) involves the same set of signals as larger particles remains a broad research question. A particle that activates SIRP-alpha could in principle limit phagocytic clearance in vivo as well as in vitro and also through help clarify lower size limits for its signaling in phagocytic pathways.
SIRP-alpha is highly polymorphic within both human and mouse (Strowing, et al., 2011, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 108(32):13218-23), with the likely consequence that this minimizes pathogen interactions with SIRP-alpha (Hatherley et al., 2008, Mol Cell 31(2):266-77). Among natural mouse variants, only NOD/SCID mice (and derived strains) express a mouse polymorph of SIRP-alpha that cross-reacts with human cells. This fact may explain why human blood cells engraft and circulate in these mice better than other strains of mice (Strowing, et al., 2011, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 108(32):13218-23; Legrand et al., 2011, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 108(32):13224-9). NSG mice thus provide an ideal platform for in vivo assessment of SIRP-alpha binding and activating ligands on synthetic particles.
There remains a need in the art to identify a novel method for controlling the activity of phagocytes and their interactions with foreign bodies. Such method should allow the labeling of foreign bodies with one or more molecules that would preclude or delay their recognition as foreign by phagocytes. This method would thus ensure that the labeled foreign body is not subjected to immediate phagocytosis and degradation once introduced in the body. The present invention fulfills these needs.

The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania


Subject matter includes a fuel cell with a catalytic combustor seal and related methods. The catalytic converter is positioned to come in contact with a fuel after the fuel has traversed a path over an intended electrode and the fuel is catalytically converted before the fuel can come in contact with an unintended electrode.

Fuel cells, like batteries, have benefited from improvements in their design and in the materials from which they are made. Ceramic compounds of metal oxides have made portability and miniaturization of fuel cells more possible than ever before. However, several hurdles remain before the cost per kilowatt-hour of manufacturing a fuel cell will be competitive with the cost per kilowatt-hour of manufacturing conventional power generating devices, such as steam turbines for power plants; alternators and batteries for automobiles, etc.
Advances in the ceramic engineering and chemistry of solid electrolytes along with similar advances in the chemical and physical properties of electrodes have resulted in more efficient fuel cell power production and miserly use of fuel. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are truly solid state since they require no liquid phase to transport charged anions from one electrode-electrolyte interface to the other. SOFCs can reduce production costs by simplifying design since corrosion is not a concern and the electrolyte has no parts or phases that need replacing: solid electrolytes can crack, but they cannot leak as there are no liquid species present.
One aspect of SOFCs that make them costly is the need for seals. In a dual chamber SOFC, for example, the fuel flow chamber of the anode has to be strictly sealed from the oxidizer flow chamber of the cathode, or else the fuel gases migrate to the cathode chamber, poisoning the cathode and diluting the oxidizer flow, thereby decreasing the efficiency of the cell. Both the anode and cathode can be poisoned via chemisorption of an unintended gas from the opposing chamber. The seals, which are often vulnerably rigid, must be able to withstand nominal 700° C. (400° C.-1000° C.) temperatures and still provide longevity without leaking or cracking. Single chamber SOFCs can produce power without the need for seals, but the electrode materials necessary to make a single chamber SOFC must be highly selective in order to produce significant power, which is not easily realized. Hence, there is a need to improve or eliminate seals in dual chamber SOFCs.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A composition for film formation includes a compound represented by formula (1) and a solvent. In the formula (1), R1, R2 and R3 each independently represent a group represented by the formula (a). In the formula (a), RA represents a hydrogen atom, an aryl group, or an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with at least one of a hydroxy group and an aryl group. RB represents a single bond or an arylene group. A part or all of hydrogen atoms on an aromatic ring of the aryl group and the arylene group may be substituted with a halogen atom, a hydroxy group, an amino group, a sulfanyl group, or a monovalent organic group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms and not including an aromatic ring.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composition for film formation, a resist underlayer film and a forming method thereof, a pattern-forming method, and a compound.
Discussion of the Background
In producing semiconductor devices and the like, a multilayer resist process has been utilized to increase the degree of integration of the semiconductor devices. In this process, in general, a composition for resist underlayer film formation is applied first on the upper face side of a substrate to provide a resist underlayer film. Next, a resist pattern is formed on the upper face side of this resist underlayer film. Subsequently, the resist pattern is transferred to the resist underlayer film through etching, and further, the resist underlayer film pattern is transferred to the substrate, whereby a desired pattern can be obtained. The resist underlayer film for use in such a multilayer resist process is required to have general characteristics such as optical characteristics, e.g. an appropriate refractive index and an appropriate extinction coefficient, and favorable etching resistance.
In recent years, in order to further increase the degree of integration, further microfabrication of a pattern has been in progress. In order to address this microfabrication, various investigations have been made on the structure of a compound contained in the composition for resist underlayer film formation, etc., and a functional group and the like which may be included in the compound, etc. (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2004-177668).
Recently, in the multilayer resist process described above, a method involving forming a hard mask on the resist underlayer film by way of a CVD technique has been investigated. Specifically, in this process, an inorganic hard mask as an intermediate layer is made on the resist underlayer film by way of a CVD technique. In such a case where the inorganic hard mask is made by way of the CVD technique, in particular, when a nitride-based film is to be made, the substrate needs to be heated to a temperature of at least 300° C., and typically 400° C.
Moreover, recently, a pattern has been more frequently formed on/in a substrate having a plurality of kinds of trenches, in particular, trenches differing from one another in terms of an aspect ratio. Even in the case of such a substrate, the resist underlayer film is required to be formed such that these trenches are sufficiently filled with the resist underlayer film and the resist underlayer film exhibits superior flatness.

Composition for film formation, resist underlayer film and forming method thereof, pattern-forming method and compound