A process for the production of a braking band having ventilation ducts comprises the steps of a) moulding a core of metallic material, b) inserting the core in a mould, in a central position, c) filling the mould with at least two layers of material which are to form the braking band, in a manner such that the core is “sandwiched” between the at least two layers, d) performing a first heating of the mould to a temperature such as to bring about hardening of the at least two layers until the at least two layers adopt a three-dimensional structure, e) subjecting the semi-finished product produced in step d) to a second heating to a temperature such as to bring about fusion of the metallic material of the core, and f) collecting the molten core.

The present invention relates to a process for the production of a braking band of a brake disk with ventilation ducts and to a braking band produced by this process.
In particular, the present invention relates to a process for the production of a braking band having ventilation ducts and made of a ceramic material such as, for example, C/SiC.
The ventilation ducts of braking bands which are currently commercially available are generally produced by various methods.
A first method provides for the moulding of the braking band as a solid body and the subsequent formation of radial and non-radial holes lying in the central plane of the thickness of the band and constituting the ventilation ducts.
A second method for the production of braking bands of ceramic material for a brake disk with ventilation ducts provides, in a first step, for the separate moulding of two reflectively symmetrical portions of the braking band, which have channels within their respective surfaces that face one another. The two portions are then brought into contact and joined together to form the finished band in which the channels of each of the portions together define the ventilation ducts.
In a third method, the ventilation ducts are produced by means of a core of ceramic material which is inserted in the mould, between two layers of the material for forming the band, and which already has in its interior the cavities which will constitute the ventilation ducts. Since it is made of material identical or at least similar to that of the band, the core becomes closely connected to the ceramic material of the braking band, forming a ceramic "sandwich" structure therewith. The core itself is formed by two half-cores arranged facing one another and joined together in a similar manner to that described for the braking band of the above-mentioned second production method.
However, the above-mentioned methods have some problems and disadvantages connected mainly with technological difficulties.
In the first method, the formation of the holes in the thickness of the braking bands is in fact very expensive and difficult because of the hardness of the materials used. Moreover, the machining inside the braking band is much less controllable than the external machining of the band. During this machining, it is consequently not possible to exclude the formation of sharp edges or even cracks, which cannot be tolerated in the production of a braking band.
The second method, on the other hand, has the disadvantage of the need to join together two portions of a braking band which, since they are moulded separately, may not correspond and may therefore fit together unevenly. This could give rise to a product in which dangerous detachment of these two portions due to non-symmetrical forces can easily occur.
With regard to the third method, this requires the provision of two moulds for the moulding of the respective half-cores, as well as a third mould for the moulding of the braking band. Moreover, in order to achieve satisfactory results, the core produced by means of the two half-cores has to be positioned very accurately inside the mould for moulding the braking band. All of this requires quite complex techniques as well as manual intervention in every moulding cycle. The above-mentioned technological complexities, as well as the resulting costs, also reduce the competitiveness of brake disks of ceramic material with ventilation ducts, in comparison with non-ventilated disks.
There is consequently a need to provide a process for the production of braking bands with ventilation ducts which is particularly easy to implement and economical.

Process for the production of a braking band of a brake disk with ventilation ducts and a braking band produced by this process


A method of recording and processing a digital motion image sequence, includes the steps of: recording a digital motion image sequence at a capture frame rate; determining different effective image content change rates as a function of the scene content changes in different portions of the image sequence; and processing the digital motion image sequence to produce a processed digital motion image sequence having portions with the selected effective change rates.

Motion imaging systems have been in use for over one hundred years. These systems rely upon the capture and presentation of a sequential series of still images. If the sequence is presented at a sufficiently rapid rate, the human eye and brain does not perceive the images as separate, still images but rather as a smooth sequence of moving images similar to what is perceived in the real world. The minimum rate at which the images are captured or presented varies somewhat in different imaging systems. For example, traditional motion picture film is typically acquired and presented at 24 frames per second. Standard NTSC television presents 30 frames per second while PAL uses 25. Image sequences are sometimes acquired at one rate and presented at another for artistic effect, for example to create slow motion effects.
Higher presentation frame rates can provide more pleasing presentation of changes in scene content (such as, pans, object motion, or scene changes) by increasing the observable detail in the frames, reducing blur, and smoothing the motion. Thus, the frame rate necessary to maintain the illusion of smooth motion will depend on the nature and content of the scene. The situation is complicated by the viewer's behavior. For example, the amount and location of detail that is perceived in a motion sequence depends, at least in part, on whether the viewer's eyes track a moving object in the sequence. Hence, the necessary frame rate for optimal viewing of a motion image sequence depends on the nature of the imagery and the behavior of the viewer as well as the viewing environment.
Today, motion imaging can be realized with either traditional motion picture films or with electronic imaging devices, either analog or digital. Digital motion image sequences are very profligate with computing resources, requiring huge amounts of storage, high-resolution capture and presentation devices, massive computational needs, and a large bandwidth for communication. Since the amount of image data is dependent to a very great extent upon the frame rate, any digital imaging system requires a balance between the amount of image data and the perceived motion image quality.
The modification of a motion sequence frame rate for both capture and display is known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,723,644 issued Mar. 27, 1973 to Haskell et al. describes a system for analyzing the motion content of an imaging sequence and adjusting the frame capture rate to complement the motion detected. Frames are counted and the count used to specify the frame repetition rate at playback thus reducing transmission bandwidth requirements. WO 99/67590 published Dec. 29, 1999 describes varying the presentation frame rate of an image sequence to prevent piracy. Tradeoffs between frame rate and image detail are also known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,965 issued Feb. 14, 1995 to Kuzma describes an image sequence transmitted over a fixed bandwidth channel wherein the frame rate is increased when image detail is decreased.
Image sequences acquired at one fixed frame rate can be converted and displayed at another frame rate. For example, film-based image sequences acquired at 24 frames per second can be displayed at 30 frames per second for television broadcast in real-time. These conversions are achieved either by replicating (repeating) frames or by temporally interpolating new frames between existing ones.
Today, image sequences are captured at a fixed frame rate although post-processing can reduce the frame rate for compression or communication purposes. The cost of increasing the capture frame rate is prohibitive, particularly for motion picture film, since the amount of film used is increased according to the increase in frame rate. Moreover, even if the image sequences are acquired or stored digitally at a higher rate, the concomitant increase in computing resources, communication bandwidth, etc. is problematic.
There is a need, therefore, for a motion imaging system that optimizes the motion quality and minimizes the computing resources needed to store, manipulate, and communicate a digital motion image sequence.

Frame-interpolated variable-rate motion imaging system


A container includes a hollow body having a finish extending from the body. The finish has an open end, at least one external thread for securement of a closure, and a pair of spaced external circumferential flanges on a side of the thread remote from the open end of the finish. A bale handle includes a ring having resilient internal tabs captured beneath the lower of the flanges remote from the open end of the finish, and a handle extending from the ring for carrying the container. The upper flange, which preferably has a greater outside diameter than the lower flange, has an undersurface that is free of obstruction from the bale handle and therefore is adapted to perform support functions for the container after attachment of the bale handle to the container finish.

In so-called hot-fill packages, a container is filled with hot liquid product and capped while the liquid product is still hot. As the liquid cools, the reduction in liquid volume creates a vacuum within the package—i.e., an internal pressure that is less than the surrounding atmospheric pressure. When the container is of molded plastic construction, the container wall tends to distort inwardly as the liquid cools. This problem is exacerbated when the container is relatively large and/or has flat walls. It has been proposed to provide ribs or channels on the container walls to strengthen the walls against distortion, and to provide vacuum panel areas on the container walls for controlling the areas of distortion under vacuum. These measures have not been entirely effective in containers of larger size. Hot-fill containers of relatively large capacity, such as one-gallon containers, typically are of cylindrical wall construction to take advantage of the inherent strength of a cylindrical wall geometry and to avoid the use of large flat wall panel areas at which distortion can occur.
Another problem in the art, as applied particularly to containers of larger size, involves attachment of bale handles to the container finish to facilitate carrying of the filled container by a consumer. Molded plastic containers typically have a flange that extends circumferentially around the container finish. This flange, often referred to as a capping flange or a support flange, serves a variety of support functions during automated fabrication and handling of the container. Attachment of a bale handle to the container finish beneath the flange obstructs the area beneath the flange and makes these support functions more difficult during container filling and capping, for example.
The present invention involves a number of different aspects that may be implemented separately from or, more preferably, in combination with each other.
A container in accordance with a first aspect of the present invention includes a hollow body having a finish extending from the body. The finish has an open end, at least one external thread for securement of a closure, and a pair of spaced external circumferential flanges on a side of the thread remote from the open end of the finish. A bale handle includes a ring having resilient internal tabs captured beneath the lower of the flanges remote from the open end of the finish, and a handle extending from the ring for carrying the container. The upper flange, which preferably has a greater outside diameter than the lower flange, has an undersurface that is free of obstruction from the bale handle and therefore is adapted to perform support functions for the container after attachment of the bale handle to the container finish.
A one-gallon rectangular hot-fill container in accordance with a second aspect of the invention includes a rectangular body having a front wall, a back wall and opposed sidewalls, a bottom wall with a central push-up feature, an externally threaded finish and a shoulder connecting the finish to the body. The sidewalls have recessed handle areas adjacent to the back wall and flexible hot-fill panels adjacent to the front wall. The back wall has strengthening channels that extend between the handle areas. The front wall has strengthening channels that extend between and into the sidewalls. The body has a pair of spaced channels that extend entirely around the body between the sidewalls, front wall and back wall, and the bottom wall and the shoulder respectively. One of the channels on the front wall extends into the sidewalls between the hot-fill panels on the sidewalls. The rectangular container is specifically adapted for hot-fill applications with minimum wall distortion, and the rectangular geometry of the container body lends itself to close-packing on store shelves with minimum wasted shelf area.

Plastic container which is hot-fillable and/or having neck finish adapted for receipt of handle


A system for configuration and control of a device includes a device processor includes at least two processing cores. Device firmware executes on a first processing core and a device-based engineering server executes on a second processing core. A web server running on the device-based engineering server includes a webApp providing web-based functionality for configuration and control of the device. The webApp is downloaded from the web server to the user's browser. A hypervisor manages communication between the device firmware and the device-based engineering server. A communication path established in the hypervisor for communicating a configuration or control instruction to the device firmware. The configuration or control instruction is initiated by a user via a web browser. The users web browser may run on a computer workstation that does not otherwise meet processing requirements of an engineering system for the device.

PLCs are dedicated devices used for automation and production systems as well as critical infrastructure. These devices perform several types of tasks where critical real time control tasks must not be disturbed by other non-real time and non-critical tasks. PLCs are commonly configured, programmed, and commissioned (e.g., "engineered") using specialized software known as an "Engineering System" (ES). The ES usually runs on a desktop or portable computer and communicates with the PLC via a dedicated cable or through wired (and recently, wireless) networks. Also, the ES usually stores files with configuration information for the PLC (e.g., communication connections, programs, parameters) locally in the workstation computer.
With reference to FIG. 4, a block diagram is provided showing present art solutions for engineering systems, which presents several limitations. First, the workstation computer 430 must meet the minimum processing requirements for the ES 420, including disk space and processor capability. Because these requirements are frequently high, expensive high-end computers are required for engineering tasks and the ability to use lower cost, lower end computers are restricted or eliminated. Second, the ES 431 needs to be supported via the operating system (OS) of the workstation computer 433. ES are complex software systems and are generally not portable, restricting the OS 433 that may be used on the hosting workstation computer 430. Third, the ES 420 needs to be pre-installed on the workstation computer 430. The tasks and responsibilities of properly installing and configuring the software components 423, 431 performing required software updates and managing licenses requires considerable time and effort resulting in greater costs. Finally, the ES version 423 must be compatible with the system software for the PLC 410 including the engineering service 411 and PLC operating system 413. If the two systems are not compatible, one or both software systems must be updated before engineering tasks may be carried out. This process also requires substantial time and effort resulting in greater costs.
Presently, the above limitations are attempted to be managed through increased effort and time. Typically, complex configuration management must be constantly performed, choosing computer hardware and OSs for engineering tasks such that ES requirements are met and that compatible versions of the ES are installed on these machines. Further, effort must be expended to ensure that software versions of the ES and PLC are in sync. These efforts create additional administrative overhead, which over large complex organizations becomes complicated and burdensome. Further, despite the additional effort, other challenges arise which make the present solutions ineffective. For example, an external field technician on an onsite visit to a PLC system may carry a portable workstation, in which the installed ES 420 is not compatible with the PLC 410. It would be beneficial to allow a technician to attach a low-end portable computer to a PLC to verify a control program. Moreover, an engineer may walk about a plant carrying a mobile tablet computer. It would be convenient and cost effective if the mobile tablet computer could connect to PLCs within the plant to allow the engineer to carry out simple engineering tasks. In a scenario, a new relatively simple plant is brought online, requiring only a single PLC. A solution that allows for a new PLC to be connected, configured, programmed and commissioned onsite in minutes using a conventional laptop computer is desired.

Device-based engineering system for programmable logic controllers


A battery charge/discharge monitor circuit (10) is operable to be disposed in a battery pack (12) which can be connected to a battery (13). The monitor circuit (10) is operable to be connected to an external CPU (24) or similar system through a single wire communication port (22) for transferring information back and forth. There is also provided an external signal on a line (30) for indicating charge or discharge activity in the monitor circuit (10). The monitor circuit (10) is operable to collect information regarding the amount of charge input to the battery and the length of time that the charge is input to the battery and also the amount of charge that is removed from the battery and the length of time that the charge is removed. This information is stored in a memory block (62) for later access by the external CPU (24). This system also provides offset information to provide some type of compensation for non-linearities of the part. This offset is determined during a calibration operation which operates over a long period of time during a period of inactivity. Regulation circuitry is operable to provide internal regulation to the circuitry with an external JFET (20).

Battery monitoring is achieved by a number of methods in order to provide information regarding the condition of the battery and also to assist in the charging operation of the battery. With the advent of portable computers and cellular telephones, the need for rechargeable batteries has seen a significant increase. The battery operated equipment has typically utilized NiCd technology, NiMH technology, or Lithium Ion technology. The chemistries associated with each of these technologies can vary such that different considerations must be evaluated. However, one of the fundamental pieces of information that is required in any type of monitoring operation is the amount of charge input to the battery and the amount of charge retrieved from the battery.
Typical charge/discharge circuits are configured with some type of sense resistor disposed in series with the battery which provides a voltage representing the current to or from the battery. The polarity of the voltage will determine the direction of current flow. These resistors are referred to as "sense resistors," which are relatively small resistors to reduce the power dissipation or energy loss therein. The voltage across the resistor is converted to current information and this current information utilized by the battery monitoring circuit to determine various aspects of the condition of the battery. One such application is described in U. S. Pat. No. 5,357,203, issued to Landau, et al., on Oct. 18, 1994, which is incorporated herein by reference, which discloses a battery monitoring circuit that includes a plurality of counters that are incremented or decremented, depending upon whether there is a charge operation or a discharge operation. These count values are then utilized for the purpose of determining conditions about the battery, such as the capacity of the battery, the discharge rate of the battery, etc. However, this is a multi-function part, which requires a relatively large number of pins and is fairly complicated. It is not necessary to have all of these functions included in a single chip. The reason for this is that a large amount of the processing can be done external to the chip and this processing can be altered to alter the actual monitoring operation. With a single chip monitoring circuit, the monitoring operation is relatively fixed due to the use of an internal microcontroller on the chip itself. For battery pack applications that require the display in the entire monitoring operation to be incorporated into the pack, a single chip solution is acceptable. However, when this information can be readily performed by an external CPU, then it is not necessary to incorporate all of the monitoring processing operation on the chip itself.

Battery monitoring circuit with storage of charge and discharge accumulation values accessible therefrom


An implantable defibrillator arrangement has a housing adapted for in vivo implantation in a patient, the housing containing a capacitor connectable through a controllable switch arrangement to a voltage source for charging, and two electrodes attached in vivo to the heart. An inductance is also provided for assisting in the generation of an electrical defibrillation pulse, the inductance being contained in a second, separate housing provided with terminals for electrically connecting the inductance via leads to the other housing and to one of the electrodes. The inductance can thereby be easily changed, by connecting an inductance in a second housing having an appropriate value, so as to match the defibrillation pulse to different electrode configuration. It is also possible to provide further passive components in the second, separate housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an implantable defibrillator arrangement, and in particular such an arrangement making use of a capacitor and an inductance for generating an electrical defibrillation pulse.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In implantable defibrillator arrangments, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,100, it is conventional to provide a capacitor in an implantable housing, the capacitor being connectable for charging to a voltage source in the housing via a controllable switch arrangement, and also being connectable through an inductance to electrodes arranged in the region of the heart, by means of electrode leads, for generating an electrical defibrillation pulse and supplying the pulse to the heart tissue. In the arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,100, the capacitor is connectable through a controllable switch arrangement either to a voltage source or, in series with an inductance, to two electrode terminals. Electrode leads are connectable outside of the capsule housing to the terminals, the leads terminating in electrodes which are placed at or in the heart of a patient. The capacitor is charged to a prescribed charging voltage as long as the capacitor is connected to the voltage source. For releasing an electrical defibrillation pulse to the heart, the capacitor is briefly connected, via the inductance, to the electrodes by means of switch arrangement, causing a biphase current pulse in the form of a highly attenuated oscillation to be generated. Such a pulse shape has proven particularly effective with respect to the energy required for defibrillation.
The shape of the oscillation is defined by the values of the capacitance of the capacitor, the inductance, and the electrical impedance of the heart tissue between the electrodes. This electrical impedance is substantially dependent on the particular type of electrodes employed, including their shape and their positioning relative to the heart. The defibrillation pulse supplied by this known defibrillator system can therefore significantly deviate from a waveform which is considered optimum, dependent upon which electrodes are employed and on the positions of the electrodes.


A band holder holds a clamp band for a hose. The band holder includes an arm for covering an outer peripheral portion of the hose, connecting portions provided at free ends of the arm for connecting the free ends to form a circular shape of the arm, and a holding portion projecting from the arm for holding the clamp band. A fixing device fixes at least the holding portion to the hose. A hose assembly includes the band holder, a flexible hose to be connected to a tubular member, and a clamp band covering an outer surface of the hose for connecting the hose to the tubular member. The clamp band includes a band portion, and a screw unit provided at ends of the band portion for a clamp operation so that the screw unit tightens the band portion.

The invention relates to a hose assembly with clamp and band holder.
When a flexible hose is fitted from the outside into a tube portion of the other part, a clamp band is used. For example, the clamp band disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (TOKKAI) No. 2003-314771 includes a belt-like band portion and a screw unit provided in an end portion of the band portion. The screw unit includes an endless screw and a screw bearing rotatably holding the endless screw. On the other hand, the outer peripheral surface of the band portion forms inclined screwing portions which are screwed into the endless screw. Moreover, the screw bearing forms a through-bore assuring the fitting between the endless screw and the inclined screwing portions by inserting the other end portion of the band portion. Then, by binding the band portion to the outer periphery of the hose, inserting the other end portion into the through-bore, and rotating the endless screw, a clamp operation of the hose is conducted.
Incidentally, in the hose disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (TOKKAI) No. H4-157285, in order to prevent the above-mentioned clamp band from being disengaged from the hose, circular ribs are provided on end portions of the hose as a pair of back and front ribs and the clamp band is placed between both ribs.
However, in the hose manufactured by an extrusion molding such as an air intake hose and the like which form the air intake channels of an engine, it was difficult to form the ribs, such as the ribs described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (TOKKAI) No. H4-157285, on the end portions. On the other hand, a process for tightening the clamp band which is bound to the air intake hose is conducted in the last assembly stage of the engine, so that it is difficult to see the clamp band due to a wire harness or a small hose and the like wherein the clamp band is provided in the engine. Therefore, the clamp band sometimes was defectively fixed in a state of being diagonally displaced, so that mis-assembly of the clamp band could not be checked during an operation.
This invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, and the object of the invention is to provide an inexpensive hose assembly with clamp and band holder which can reliably prevent the mis-assembly even under a less-visible operation environment when the hose manufactured by the extrusion molding is installed to the other member by the clamp band.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.

Hose assembly with clamp, and band holder


A fully 2's complement FMAC (floating-point multiply accumulate unit) produces an unrounded output. The unrounded output is associated with a single INC bit, and is provided for early delivery as an FMAC operand. The INC bit is set using rounding logic which anticipates how a 2's complement conversion will affect a number, and then sets the INC bit in response to a rounding mode, and current L, G, S and sign bits. The rounding logic is configured to implement a truth table which demonstrates that rounding and 2's complement incrementation are mutually exclusive. When a bypassed result is received as an input to an FMAC, a delayed incrementer merges the unrounded C operand with its INC bit. The C incrementer and additional 2's complement conversion logic are placed approximately parallel with the multiply unit so that no additional delay is incurred in the FMAC's critical path. An INC bit corresponding to an A or B operand is absorbed within the FMAC's multiply unit. The FMAC allows an entire adder to be eliminated since the (A*B) result and C operand may be added in a single 2's complement adder rather than two carry propagate adders coupled to an end-around carry MUX.

This invention pertains to a fully 2's complement floating-point multiply accumulate (FMAC) unit, and more particularly to a 2's complement FMAC producing an unrounded, inverted 2's complement result which is associated with a single INC bit (increment bit). A 2's complement FMAC has significant advantages over conventional signed magnitude FMAC's in that hardware components, including an entire adder, may be eliminated. Eliminating hardware not only reduces the costs to manufacture an FMAC, but also frees up space on the surface of an integrated circuit (IC). Those versed in the art appreciate the fact that use of surface area of an IC carries a premium, especially in the case of a VLSI (very large scale integrated) circuit such as a microprocessor.
In the design of microprocessor architecture, three very important considerations are speed, accuracy and cost. While it is desirable to design a microprocessor (CPU) which performs multiplication, addition and other operations with superior accuracy and at a very high rate of speed, it is also desirable to design a CPU which can be cost effectively manufactured.
Speed and accuracy have been greatly increased in recent years by fusing multiply and add operations into the accumulate operation (A*B)+C. If it is desired to merely add or multiply two numbers, the operation A*B can be performed by setting C=0, and the operation A+C can be performed by setting B=1. The component of a CPU which performs the (A*B)+C operation is commonly referred to as an FMAC (floating-point multiply accumulate unit) or MAF/FPU (multiply-add-fused floating-point unit). A conventional MAF/FPU design is disclosed by R. K. Montoye, E. Hokenek, and S. L. Runyon in "Design of the IBM RISC System/6000 Floating-Point Execution Unit," IBM J. Res. Develop. 34, 61-62 (January 1990).
The inputs to an FMAC are the operands A (multiplicand), B (multiplier) and C (addend), where A, B and C are floating-point numbers (floating-point numbers are numbers expressed in scientific notation). IEEE has issued the accepted standards for representing floating-point numbers. ANSI/IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, STD 754-1985, IEEE, New York, Aug. 12, 1985. The convention given for representing single(32-bit) and double-precision (64-bit) floating-point numbers in binary form is S,E,M!, where S is a single bit determining the sign of a number, E is an exponent, and M is a mantissa or fraction (stripped of its leading 1). Thus, the form of an IEEE floating-point number is (-1).sup.s !*2.sup.(E+Bias) !*(1.M). In a single precision system, E is represented by eight bits, and M is represented by twenty-three bits (the twenty-three bit mantissa becomes a twenty-four bit mantissa when the floating-point number is input into an FMAC--operations performed internal to the FMAC require that a mantissa's implied leading 1 be present). In a double precision system, E is represented by eleven bits, and M is represented by fifty-two bits (fifty-three bits while the number is internal to the FMAC). The exponent Bias is 127 (single precision) or 1023 (double precision).
A multiplication of A and B requires multiplication of their mantissas, and addition of their exponents. If the mantissa of A (internal to the FMAC) comprises m-bits and the mantissa of B comprises n-bits, multiplication of their mantissas requires adding A to itself n-times, each time shifting the m-bits of A to the left by one bit. The result of the multiplication is an "m+n+1"-bit mantissa. The addition of (A*B) and C requires alignment of their mantissas through a comparison of the magnitude of their exponents, followed by addition of their mantissas. Using a leading bit anticipator and/or truncation, the accumulate output of an FMAC will be an "m-1"-bit mantissa (the leading 1 is once again stripped), an exponent, and a sign bit (in the form S,E,M). Bits truncated from, or otherwise shifted out of, the "m-1"-bit mantissa output may be used in rounding calculations.
IEEE outlines four rounding modes which a microprocessor, and more specifically an FMAC, must be capable of implementing. The modes are: 1) Round to Positive Infinity (+INF), 2) Round to Negative Infinity (-INF), 3) Round to Zero (ZERO), and 4) Round to Near (NEAR). Definitions and additional details concerning these rounding modes are found in IEEE Standard 754-1985, supra.
Operations such as addition are much simpler when numbers are represented in 2's complement form (i.e., positive numbers remain in signed magnitude form while negative numbers are inverted and then incremented by one). For instance, an add of two signed magnitude numbers requires a combination of two carry propagate adders followed by an end-around carry MUX (multiplexer). An add of two numbers in 2's complement form merely requires a single 2's complement adder. Adders are costly to implement, and detract from an FMAC's speed due to their extensive routing requirements. However, 2's complement notation has yet to be adopted within conventional FMACs. The failure to adopt 2's complement notation is believed to be due to 1) performance delays in converting to and from 2's complement notation, and 2) routing penalties in making an early unrounded FMAC result available as an FMAC operand (i.e., passing two INC bits--one for rounding purposes, and one for the purpose of converting negative numbers back into signed magnitude form).
It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide a fully 2's complement FMAC.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a 2's complement FMAC in which an entire adder may be eliminated.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a 2's complement FMAC in which an unrounded result associated with a single INC bit may be passed back into the top of an FMAC.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a 2's complement FMAC in which conversion to and from 2's complement notation may be performed in parallel with, or as a part of, other required operations, such that conversion does not add additional delay to the critical path of the FMAC.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a 2's complement FMAC which results in significant cost savings through the reduction in IC surface area required to implement the FMAC.

2's complement floating-point multiply accumulate unit


A retainer includes a base member operable to be snapped onto a connector and a retaining member positioned substantially perpendicular to the base member for securely retaining the card coupled to the connector. The base member has an inner open area with dimensions substantially matching corresponding outside dimensions of the connector for a snug fit. The retaining member has a proximal section slidably coupled to a distal section. The proximal section is fixedly coupled to the base member. A length of the distal section is extensible beyond the proximal section to securely retain the card coupled to the connector.

The present disclosure relates to the field of electrical connections, and more particularly to methods and systems for improving integrity of electrical connections between various electronic components of an information handling system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to acquire, process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system ('IHS') generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, entertainment, and/or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Printed circuit boards and/or electronic cards included in an IHS typically include an edge connector placed along a side of the card for insertion into a corresponding mating connector slot to establish electrical coupling. The card includes a plurality of electronic components including integrated circuit chips operable to perform at least one predefined function. When the card is properly inserted in the slot-type connector, electrical pads mounted on the edge connector of the card establish an electrical contact with receiving elements mounted within the connector slot. The frictional engagement between the edge connector and the receiving elements in the connector slot also holds the card in place. Maintaining a proper connection between the card and the connector is desirable for a proper operation of the IHS. In some cases, for added safety, the card and/or the connector may also include an additional mechanical arm or extension for card retention. In some cases, a separate card retention device may be provided to secure the card to the connector. The additional mechanical connection may be made with a screw or other fastening device, and is intended to assist in holding the card in a properly connected position in the respective connector slot.
Cards have been traditionally secured to the connectors by using screws, latches and/or clips. However, the use of fasteners such as screws for card retention generally creates additional component costs and also adds to the overall cost of manufacture and assembly of the IHS. Some clips used for card retention may require access to an underside surface of the connector for proper mounting. Recently, some cards such as graphics/video card have an increased component count for performing advanced graphics, thereby becoming heavier and larger. The graphics cards may be available in multiple form factors and often occupy two connector slots instead of one. Thus, traditional card retention techniques may be inadequate and/or may become costly to maintain security of the electrical coupling between the card and the connector included in an IHS, especially while the IHS is being physically moved.
Therefore, a need exists to develop tools and techniques for retaining cards, some of which may be heavier than a predefined weight and which may be coupled to more than one connector slot. Additionally, it would be desirable to have an improved card retainer that is screw less and is able to accommodate cards of various form factors. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a method and system for retaining cards included in an IHS, absent the disadvantages found in the prior methods discussed above.


Dimensionally adjustable spinal prostheses are adjustable in an axial or superior to inferior dimension such that spinal prostheses may assume variations in height. The height adjustable spinal prostheses are characterized by first and second portions that are configured for adjustable coupling with one another. Spatial adjustment between the first and second portions is provided by an adjustment assembly. The adjustment mechanism preferably, but not necessarily, provides infinite adjustment over a minimum prosthesis height to a maximum prosthesis height. In one form, first and second ends of the height adjustable spinal prostheses are configured to receive an endplate. The endplates aid in attachment and/or anchoring of the spinal prosthesis within the spine. The endplates may be fashioned in various configurations such as circular or anatomical. In one form, the adjustment assembly utilizes rotational motion for varying the axial position of one prosthetic portion relative to the other prosthetic portion. Rotational movement of an adjustment mechanism of the adjustment assembly is translated into axial movement of one prosthetic portion relative to the other prosthetic portion. In another form, the adjustment mechanism is a screw and gearing assembly. In yet another form, the adjustment mechanism is a rack and pinion assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to relates to spinal prostheses and, more particularly, to dimensionally adjustable spinal prostheses.
2. Background Information
Vertebrae and/or discs of a human spine can sometimes be damaged due to disease or injury, may be malformed through a congenital defect or can simply deteriorate due to age. In other cases, vertebrae and/or discs may become fractured, compressed or otherwise damaged. In these and other situations the vertebrae and/or discs can cause an undesired and/or abnormal curvature of the spine with respect to lordosis or kyphosis.
Because of this, orthopedic surgery may be utilized to replace one or more vertebrae or discs with a spinal prosthesis or one or more vertebrae may be repaired via kyphoplasty or vertebroplasty. In the case of disc replacement, the spinal prosthesis may be used between adjacent vertebrae in order to provide proper spacing of the vertebrae. A spinal prosthesis may also be used to promote fusion between adjacent vertebrae. When so utilized, bone or bone fusion material is often placed about or in the spinal prosthesis in order to promote growth of bone between the adjacent vertebrae.
One type of spinal prosthesis may also be used in place of a vertebra or a vertebra and adjacent disc. The vertebra and disc are removed. This type of spinal prosthesis is then placed between remaining adjacent vertebrae as the middle vertebra has been removed. When this is the case, the adjacent discs may also be removed.
When such spinal prostheses are used, it is desirable for them to engage as much surface of the vertebral bone as possible in order to provide support to the bone and to thereby reduce the likelihood of subsidence of the device into the bone resulting from contact pressure of the prosthesis against vertebral bone surfaces. Subsidence can occur since part of the vertebral bone is somewhat spongy in nature, especially near the centers of the adjacent vertebrae.
Because anatomical relationships for each patient are different, it is desirable to have a spinal prosthesis that may be varied in various dimensions. One such aspect is the height or axial (superior/inferior) length of the spinal prosthesis. As such, it is desirable to provide a spinal prosthesis that is dimensionally adjustable in height. Accordingly, there presently exists a need for height adjustable spinal prostheses.


A semiconductor substrate is formed with trenches, and each of the trenches includes: a gate electrode portion in which a gate electrode is arranged; and a gate lead portion which is brought into contact with an interconnect for electrically connecting the gate electrode to the outside. In the gate lead portion for electrically connecting the gate electrode to the outside, an end of each of the trenches has a greater width than a portion of the trench other than the end.

In recent years, electronic equipment has attained lower power consumption, greater functionality, and higher speed. With this trend, semiconductor devices associated with the equipment have also been required to attain lower power consumption and higher speed. To meet this requirement, semiconductor devices generally used for load switches and DC-DC converters of electronic equipment are required to have transistors with smaller on-resistances.
One approach to decreasing the on-resistance of a transistor is that a device is miniaturized to increase the density of transistors arranged per unit area. Examples of this approach include a method for fabricating a vertical gate semiconductor device in which a trench is formed in a substrate and a gate insulating film and a gate electrode are formed inside the trench. The vertical gate semiconductor device can have an increased transistor density by arranging the trenches in a stripe pattern and making the width of each trench finer and also the pitch between the adjacent trenches smaller.
In the vertical gate semiconductor device, a gate lead portion (a gate connection portion) is provided in order to lead the gate electrode to the outside of the trench to bring the electrode into electric contact with an aluminum interconnect or the like. FIG. 12 is a plan view showing the structure of a conventional vertical gate semiconductor device. Referring to FIG. 12, in the conventional vertical gate semiconductor device, the semiconductor substrate 100 is provided with a plurality of trenches 101, and each of the trenches 101 is provided with a gate electrode portion 102 and a gate lead portion 103.
For the vertical gate semiconductor device thus constructed, thermal oxidation is typically conducted to form a gate insulating film on the inner wall of the trench. This thermal oxidation process, however, causes dislocations or defects significantly in a discontinuous portion of the trench, particularly in the gate lead portion located at the end of the trench. To solve such a problem, another approach is proposed in which a plurality of gate electrodes are connected to each other by their respective gate lead portions with gently varying curvatures (see Patent Document 1).
This approach will now be described. FIGS. 13(a) and 13(b) are a plan view and a sectional view showing the structure of a conventional vertical gate semiconductor device, respectively. Referring to FIG. 13(a), in the conventional vertical gate semiconductor device, an end 112 of a trench 111 is provided in a gate lead portion 113. The end 112 bifurcates, and the respective bifurcated portions are connected to ends 112 of adjacent trenches 111. As shown in FIG. 13(b), in the cross section of the end 112, an n−-epitaxial layer 122 and a p-type base diffusion layer 123 are formed on an n+-semiconductor substrate 121. The surface of the end of the trench 111 is formed with a gate insulating film 124 and a polysilicon film 125.
The structure as shown above is employed to eliminate the discontinuous portion of the trench. Therefore, in the thermal oxidation process, stress induced by the oxidation can be reduced.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3367857


A fluid bearing module has a bearing seat, a bearing, a deflecting member, and an impediment. The bearing seat has a capacity with an opening. The bearing in the capacity has a hollow space for the axis of a rotor to go through, and a lubricant medium is filled in between. The deflecting member protruding from the side near the opening of the bearing seat bends toward the capacity and clips on the rotor axis. The impediment protrudes from the side near the opening of the bearing seat for preventing the deflecting member from bending toward the opening and departing from the rotor. Moreover, the deflecting member and the impediment form a maze to keep the lubricant medium within.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a fluid bearing module for rotating devices and, in particular, to a fluid bearing module that has the functions of preventing the lubricant medium from leaking and the deflecting member from getting loose.
2. Related Art
The bearings are used in rotating devices to provide support, to reduce friction, and to withstand loads. As modern devices are getting smaller and become compact, the precision requirement on the bearing is also getting higher. The most commonly used ball bearings thus have higher cost than before. For example, for the ball bearings used in motors, the cost is above one third of the total cost of the motor. Therefore, the cost for miniaturization is too high. Moreover, if the ball bearing has any defect, there will be such problems as high noises and insufficient precision during the operation of the rotating device. In particular, when the ball bearings are used in the optical disc drive motors, the instability caused by the bearings with low precision is likely to result in errors when the optical disc drive is reading a high density storage medium. As the ball bearings cannot simultaneously satisfy the requirements of miniaturization, high precision, and low cost, people have invented fluid bearings that can reduce rotational friction, have high precision, low noises, and are resistant to vibrations.
Generally speaking, in order not to let the lubricant medium leak out of the bearings, there are two designs: dynamical anti-leaking and static anti-leaking.
The dynamical anti-leaking design of the fluid bearings is to make a human-shape micro groove (see FIGS. 1 and 2). The micro groove is filled with a lubricant medium. When the fluid bearing is rotating, the lubricant medium inside the micro groove is driven to flow along the concave part of the micro groove. Therefore, during the rotation of the fluid bearing, the lubricant medium is limited to the concave part of the micro groove, serving it lubrication function. As the pressure on the central part of the fluid bearing is larger, it does not wiggle much and the lubricant medium does not flow out of the fluid bearing, either. The lubricant medium is thus sealed inside the fluid bearing. Therefore, the fluid bearings can be used in high-precision products. Moreover, as the lubricant medium is kept in the concave part of the micro groove, it has the advantages of reducing rotational friction, noises, and vibrations. They are ideal for the motors of information appliances, hard disc drives (HDD's) and optical disc drives
The static anti-leaking design of the fluid bearing is shown in FIG. 1. A gap L between the rotating device and the fluid bearing (about 2 to 16 micrometers) is employed so that under its static state the lubricant medium is kept between the rotating device and the fluid bearing through its surface tension. The smaller the gap is, the larger surface tension the lubricant medium has. Therefore, only high-precision products (such as HDD's) can use such a static anti-leaking design. When shipping low-precision products from one place to another for assembly, the lubricant medium is likely to flow out of the fluid bearing in this case. Besides, the lubricant medium can easily flow out of the fluid bearing when the product is placed up side down.
In addition, after assembling the rotating device and the fluid bearing, one has to rely on an anti-plug design so that the rotating device will not get loose during the shipping. Most of current designs fix the relation between the rotating device and the fluid bearing using an external mechanism after the rotating device and the fluid bearing are assembled. However, such a method involves very complicated element designs.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A system capable of stabilizing a tight distribution of threshold voltages of erased flash EEPROM memory cells within a fast time period includes at least one memory cell having source, channel and drain regions on a semiconductor substrate, a floating gate over the channel region on a tunnel oxide layer and a control gate over the floating gate, and a circuit for converging the threshold voltage of an erased memory cell to within a predetermined voltage range. The circuit includes: a driving circuit for applying a first voltage to the control gate and a second voltage between the source and drain regions during the self-convergence operation; and a backbias generator for applying a backbias voltage to the substrate so as to generate hot electrons/holes in the channel region and to inject ones of the hot electrons/holes into the floating gate during the self-convergence operation.

Unlike dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and static random access memory (DRAM), a nonvolatile semiconductor memory is a type of semiconductor memory that can preserve stored data even if power has been removed. Nonvolatile semiconductor memories include read only memories (ROMs), programmable read only memories (PROMs), erasable programmable read only memories (EPROMs), and electrically erasable programmable read only memories (EEPROMs, or flash EEPROMs).
A flash EEPROM includes a plurality of memory cells arranged in a matrix of rows and columns on a semiconductor substrate. The flash EEPROM has the capability of simultaneously erasing the entire array of memory cells as well as a subset of cell blocks divided into one or more memory cell rows. The flash EEPROM further offers the capability of electrically programming or reading the contents of one or more memory cells in the array.
Memory cells in the flash EEPROM typically employ floating gate transistors arranged in rows and columns, each having a source, a drain, a floating gate and a control gate. The floating gate, typically comprising polycrystalline silicon, overlaps a channel region formed in a semiconductor substrate, and overlaps edge portions of source and drain regions at opposite sides of the channel region through a tunnel oxide layer. The control gate lies over the floating gate, separated therefrom by an intermediate insulating layer. Control gates of floating gate transistors occupying a same row are connected to a common one of multiple word lines. Drain regions of floating gate transistors occupying the same column are connected to a common one of multiple bit lines. Source regions of the floating gate transistors are connected to a common source line.
A floating gate transistor is programmed by grounding the source region, applying a positive voltage, such as 6 volts, to the drain region, and applying a high voltage, such as 12 volts, to the control gate. The electric field between the drain and source regions causes electrons to accelerate along the channel region, thereby generating hot electrons by impact ionization. The hot electrons gain energy from the high voltage applied to the control gate and are trapped in the floating gate, by jumping through the potential barrier of the tunnel oxide layer. Thus, electrons are charged into the floating gate by channel hot electron injection. As a result, the threshold voltage of the floating gate transistor is increased by the injection of electrons into the floating gate. This increased threshold voltage, for example about 7 volts, causes the floating gate transistor to be nonconductive during a normal read-out operation of the memory.
To erase a programmed floating gate transistor, the control gate is grounded, the drain region is floated, and an erase voltage, such as 12 volts, is applied to the source region. Electrons stored in the floating gate are tunnelled out to the source region by the Fowler-Nordheim tunnelling effect (hereinafter referred to as F-N tunnelling). As a result, the floating gate transistor has a decreased threshold voltage, such as about 2 volts, thereby causing the transistor to be conductive during a read-out operation.
To read data stored in a floating gate transistor, a read-out voltage, such as about 5 volts, is applied to the control gate, the source region is grounded, and a voltage of about 1 volts is applied to the drain region. An erased memory cell, i.e. an erased floating gate transistor, is conductive, and a programmed memory cell is nonconductive. Data stored in the memory cell may be read-out by a sense amplifier adapted to sense the conductive state of the memory cell.
During erasing, if an erase voltage is applied for too long of a period of time or at too high of a voltage level, some of the floating gate transistors may become overerased. A floating gate transistor is overerased when its threshold voltage becomes negative. Once a floating gate transistor has been overerased, it operates as a depletion mode device. Thus, even if the overerased transistor is not selected, it remains in a conductive state. Thus, memory cells sharing the same bit line as an overerased cell are subject to inaccurate reading and programming operations, thereby leading to malfunction of the memory device.
Flash EEPROM cells within a matrix generally do not erase at the same rate due to the deterioration of tunnel oxide layers by variations of process and erase time and programming/erasing cycles. Thus, a distribution of threshold voltages of memory cells may be dispersed. If some of the memory cells are in overerased states or if their threshold voltages are not in the range of reading margins of the erased cells, the flash EEPROM will malfunction.
Techniques have been developed to prevent overerasure of flash EEPROM cells and to converge the threshold voltage distribution of the floating gate transistors to within a predetermined voltage range. An example is disclosed in "Self-Convergence Erasing Scheme For A Simple Stacked Gate Flash EEPROM", IEEE Tech. Dig. IEDM 1991, pp 307.about.310, incorporated herein by reference. The self-convergence erasing technique has two steps. In the first step, the flash EEPROM cells are erased by F-N tunnelling from the floating gates to the source regions by applying -13 volts to the control gates, grounding the drains, and applying 5 volts to the source regions. During the second step, the threshold voltages of the cells are converged by employing avalanche hot carrier injection, in which 5 volts is applied to the source regions with the control gates and drains grounded. The avalanche hot carrier injection causes the threshold voltages of the memory cells to converge to a certain steady-state determined by a balance between the avalanche hot electron injection and the avalanche hot hole injection. However, this technique suffers from a problem in that a high amount of drain-source current flows during the self-convergence erasing step. It also takes a large amount of time to self-converge the threshold voltages. Furthermore, the avalanche hot holes produced in the self-convergence step incur the deterioration of tunnel oxide layers, thereby affecting the reliability and life span of the flash EEPROM.
In an attempt to address the above problems, an improved technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,867, incorporated herein by reference. In this technique, the self-convergence step for providing a tighter distribution of the threshold voltages following erasure employs avalanche hot carrier injection by applying 6 volts to drain regions connected to bit lines and a control gate voltage to the control gates connected to word lines. It offers the advantage of an adjustable steady-state threshold voltage by the application of the control gate voltage. However, since the avalanche hot carrier injection is similar to the programming step, increasing the control gate voltage to enhance the self-convergence speed momentarily programs the memory cells, and thereby may cause them to vary outside the reading margin range of the erased memory cells. The control gate voltage could be lowered to mitigate this problem, but reducing the control gate voltage causes a decrease in the speed of the self-convergence. Moreover, the process variation for the memory cells makes it difficult to adjust the self-convergence characteristics. Since this technique employs avalanche impact ionization, it is not able to prevent the flow of current through the channels of the memory cells and the generation of avalanche hot holes. Thus, there is a need for an improved technique capable of preventing the degradation of the tunnel oxide layers due to the hot holes and the consumption of the current flowing through the cells.
A second technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,107, incorporated herein by reference, in which the first and second steps employ F-N tunnelling. That is, in the first step, erasure is performed by applying an erase voltage of -14 volts to the control gate for 0.1 sec with the drain region grounded, and by applying a voltage of 5 volts to the source region. Following erasure, in the second step, the self-convergence of the threshold voltages for the memory cells is performed by applying a voltage of 14 volts to the control gate for 0.1 sec with the source and drain regions grounded. Since F-N tunnelling is used, which is slower than the hot carrier injection technique described above, a self-convergence time period of several hundreds of milliseconds is required. To enhance the self-convergence speed, the voltage between the control gate and the substrate may be increased. However, since this would drive the memory cells to a programmed state, such an increase must be avoided. For this reason, use of this technique results in a self-convergence speed which cannot be reduced below several tens of milliseconds.

Circuit and method of erasing a nonvolatile semiconductor memory


This invention relates to systems and methods for catalytic steam cracking of non-asphaltene containing heavy hydrocarbon fractions. The method enables upgrading heavy hydrocarbons to hydrocarbons capable of being transported through pipelines and/or a pretreated step before further treatment in an upgrading refinery, including the steps of separating the heavy hydrocarbon mixture into a light fraction, a full gasoil fraction and a vacuum residue fraction with or without at least partial reduction or asphaltenes; adding a catalyst to the full gasoil and/or to the blend of this with a reduced asphaltenes fraction and subjecting the catalyst-full gasoil and/or deasphalted oil fraction to catalytic steam cracking to form an effluent stream; separating the effluent stream into a gas stream and a liquid stream; and mixing the liquid stream with the light fraction and the vacuum residue fraction to form an upgraded oil. The system includes hardware capable of performing the method.

Commonly, heavy oils and bitumen are difficult to transport from their production areas due to their high viscosities at typical handling temperatures. Regardless of the recovery method used for their extraction including costly thermal enhanced oil recovery methods, heavy oils and bitumen generally need to be diluted by blending the oil with low density and low viscosity solvents, typically gas condensate, naphtha and/or lighter oil to make the heavy oils and bitumen transportable over long distances.
As a result, various methods are typically used to make heavy hydrocarbon mixtures transportable. Importantly, as viscosity is the key fluid property to make a heavy hydrocarbon mixture transportable increasing temperature causes significant reductions in the viscosity of heavy hydrocarbons as shown in FIG. 1b. As is well known, light oils generally have much lower viscosity values and therefore flow easier through pipelines. As an example, the variation of viscosity of a heavy hydrocarbon mixture with the content of a naphtha diluent is shown in FIG. 1a.
Consequentially, there are typically two physical methods that may be used for reducing viscosity to assist in the transportation of heavy hydrocarbons. The first is the application of heat to the hydrocarbons, which reduces their viscosity to such an extent that the mixture can flow through pipelines. As the oil flows in the pipelines, the oil loses heat, and thus, it needs to be constantly warmed. This method is unpractical and very expensive if the heavy hydrocarbon mixture is to travel long distances. The second physical method is dilution, which is the preferred physical method for transporting heavy hydrocarbons over long distances. The disadvantages of dilution are, first, that remoteness makes the construction of pipelines for sending or returning the diluents to the heavy hydrocarbon production zone considerably expensive. The second disadvantage is that the availability of diluents, typically light hydrocarbons, is steadily decreasing since these diluents are fuels by themselves and the reserves of light hydrocarbons are generally being reduced worldwide.
Chemical processing has become more an attractive alternative for making heavy hydrocarbons transportable, and in some cases chemical processing is the only viable alternative to carry heavy hydrocarbon mixtures to refineries and market places. Most chemical processes for making heavy hydrocarbon mixtures transportable are thermal cracking systems. Either moderate cracking such as visbreaking or more severe processes such as coking systems have being proposed. These processes are generally applied to the heaviest hydrocarbons in the heavy hydrocarbon mixture, namely the fraction called the vacuum residue. Both processes reduce the stability of the hydrocarbon mixture due to the increase of the heaviest hydrocarbons called asphaltenes during processing and their tendency to precipitate.
For example, visbreaking is a moderate thermal cracking setup that works at low pressure (−60-120 psi) and relatively moderate temperature (430-480° C.) and reduces the viscosity of heavy hydrocarbon mixtures. The extent or severity of visbreaking is limited by the stability of the asphaltenes.
Other thermal processes generally pose disposal problems due to the relative severity of processing which results in the production of solid hydrocarbons as a byproduct. These thermal processes are generally called coking processes. The fact that these processes produce coke out of about 20-30% weight of the oil produced in the fields limits their applicability due to increased costs and most noticeably, to the environmental impact such quantities of a solid by-product rich in metals and sulfur would cause in remote areas where many of the heavy hydrocarbon reservoirs are located.
Other known chemical processes use catalysts and are also applied to the residual hydrocarbons. For example hydro-processing requires using hydrogen and typically high pressures. Steam catalytic processing of the heaviest hydrocarbons, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,688,395, 5,688,741, 5,885,441 and Canadian Patent No.'s 2204836 and 2233699, that improve the performance of thermal cracking or visbreaking may make the processed heavy hydrocarbon mixture transportable in terms of viscosity. Nevertheless, steam cracking processes are still limited by the stability of cracked asphaltenes which make the processed heavy hydrocarbon mixtures unstable, jeopardizing the mixtures compatibility with other hydrocarbon streams if sent through pipelines. Similarly to visbreaking, the transportable heavy hydrocarbon mixture from steam cracking of residual hydrocarbons yields poor quality light fractions in refineries and can cause significant fouling in pipelines and vessels during refining, precisely because the heaviest molecules remaining have already been processed.
Dilution is a transportation practice generally unsustainable in the mid/short term due to several reasons, the most noticeable being:                a. Naphtha deficiency is increasing in the zones where many heavy oil production fields are located and in remote zones where new discoveries of these oils are occurring.        b. Availability of light oils for use as diluents is decreasing, paralleling the worldwide trend of conventional oils reserves. Only the high prices of oil provide incentive to transport light oils by blending them with lower quality heavy oils, which helps the latter to get to the markets.        c. The construction and maintenance of long distance diluent pipelines for transporting gas condensate, naphtha or light crude oils is expensive, and is an environmental risk given the flammability of these light hydrocarbons. Any minor leak may lead to explosion and fires with the potential of destroying wildlife and resources. The remoteness of the Heavy oils reservoirs leads to difficult immediate responses to prevent major damages to the environment due to oil ducts leaking. For these and other reasons, high socio-political resistance from remote communities is nowadays generally found wherever oil pipelines are proposed for construction.        d. Heavy oils typically present a high acidity level, which is one of their undesired features along with their poor virgin yields of light fractions in the range of transportation fuels. Acidity is caused by the presence in these oils of naphthenic acids, which are hydrocarbons containing chemical functionalities that involve carboxyl and sulfide compounds able to release extremely labile protons at moderate temperatures. This ability promotes corrosion once in contact with metallic walls such as those of pipelines and at processing, upgrading and/or refinery units. Acidity in heavy oils is not destroyed by dilution. At present, no effective low temperature chemistry to neutralize heavy oils acidity has been found that doesn't generate additional or insurmountable difficulties. Acidity is relatively easy to destroy under conventional upgrading processing, where hydrotreating or hydrocracking of vacuum gas oils takes place and/or hydro or thermal processing of the residues occurs.        e. In heavy oils-diluent blends, stability may be an issue in some cases, specifically for heavy oils that contain a significant proportion of asphaltenes, which is the fraction of heavy hydrocarbons that precipitates in the presence of light paraffins. If the diluent (gas condensates, naphtha or light oil) is rich in light paraffins and the heavy oil is rich in asphaltenes or is predominantly constituted of highly aromatic asphaltenes, the heavy oil-diluent blend will be prone to precipitate whenever a slight variation in solubility occurs, either in pipelines or storage tanks or both. Remarkably, light crude oil asphaltenes are typically less stable than the ones in heavy oils, thus they may tend to first precipitate over those in heavy oils when blends of light and heavy crude oils are produced for transporting the latter.
In remote zones where scarcity of diluents for large heavy oil reservoir developments already exists, the construction of upgraders in the nearby area has generally been found to be a good solution both technically and economically. The upgraders in Northern Alberta, Canada are one example of extended heavy oils reserves where there is a lack of light oils available in the vicinity. Enormous costs have been incurred to produce upgrading in the Northern Alberta area to date and there is still a need for different technological solutions to reduce the costs of new upgraders to develop the vast majority of the still unexploited reserves of bitumen located in this remote area. Similar constraints exist for the extra heavy oil present in the Orinoco basin in Venezuela, and other heavy oil reservoirs throughout the world
In many other locations worldwide where medium/small heavy oil reservoirs are being exploited, generally no viable technological and economical solution has been developed to overcome the problems of dilution. The up-scaling benefits of conventional upgraders cannot be captured since many reservoirs are not rich enough to justify investments in upgraders, even though the reservoirs may be very economically attractive for exploitation. Additionally, many of these reservoirs are placed in difficult, far away geographies, and at times are located within environmentally protected areas where large developments beyond certain limits and/or release/accumulation of significant quantities of waste are intolerable.
Field Upgrading: Transcending Dilution Limitations
Most upgrading technologies commercially offered or installed are adaptations from refinery environments with a few modifications to fit them into facilities and service restrictive environments. These upgraders, very much like in the current most efficient deep conversion refineries, transform the vacuum residual fraction, the one that remains undistilled under a vacuum at atmospheric equivalent temperatures typically higher than 560° C. or even lower. Residue constitutes usually higher than 30 wt % of the heavy oil, typically higher than 50% in extra heavy oil and bitumen such as the ones in Northern Alberta, Canada, or in Northern Orinoco area in Venezuela. But unlike upgraders, refineries for which the current residue upgrading processes were developed are mostly placed in industrialized areas with abundant utilities and services. Refineries have a wide variety of transporting options and access to disposition alternatives; upgraders usually do not have all these advantages.
Typically, transportable oil requires a minimum API gravity and viscosity. For example, in Canada, commercial pipelines require a minimum 19° API and 350 centistokes at the pipeline reference temperature. Other regions will have other requirements which take into account location as well as climate/seasonal conditions
The situation of most of the newest and undeveloped heavy oil fields imposes rethinking heavy oils upgrading in such a way that transportable oil can be reached with energetic and environmental efficiency and relative low complexity yet low investment costs.
Thus, solutions are needed for all cases mentioned above in which there is no (or there is limited) economic viability for conventional scale upgrading, and/or in which a minimization of the environmental impact of the upgrading activity is required, and for cases where limited or no availability of diluent exist, which are becoming more and more common.
A review of the prior art reveals that U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,688,395, 5,688,741 and 5,885,441 published a residual processing that uses a chemistry valuable for moderated heavy oils upgrading (Thermo-Catalytic Steam Cracking). These processes use low-pressure steam dissociation applicable to alkyl aromatics present in the residual fraction. This technology reduces the residual fraction, while producing light hydrocarbon fractions to result in a moderate upgrading in the range of 14-15° API from the typical 8-10° API originally in the bitumen or extra heavy oil of the examples shown in these patents. The same chemistry is applicable to distillable gasoil fractions existing in heavy oils, as established in U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,522. In this technology, the process claimed is inserted upstream of a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, in a configuration typical of a conversion refinery.
In the technologies of the prior art discussed above, with residual processing, the improvement obtained is achieved at the expense of deteriorating the stability of the post-processed oil. In fact it is generally the stability of asphaltenes in the converted residual that limit the performance of the process. As the conversion of the residual arrives at levels higher than 35 wt % for some residuals, or higher than 40 wt % in other crude oils, the stability of asphaltenes approaches tolerance limits established for transportation of heavy fuels and residual fuels. P-value is one of many stability scales used as indicative of the stability of the residual fuel or heavy oil. It establishes that when processed oil reaches a P-value of 1, it is unstable; a safe P-value limit is usually set between 1.15 and 1.25. For virgin heavy oils, P-values are usually around 2.5-2.8 or even higher. For virgin light oils P-values are lower, below 2 in many cases, with virgin Arabian light crude oils presenting values around 1.7. A low P-value in an unprocessed oil means that the residue can only be moderately thermally cracked to produce a low conversion of the residual before the instability onset is reached (P-value lower than 1.15).
Asphaltene stability loss during cracking of residuals considerably affects the options of many technologies for field upgrading of heavy oils exploited from remote reservoirs of heavy oils. For instance, thermo-catalytic steam cracking (CSC) of residuals requires the process to be used at its highest severity limits to meet transporting requirements. Even if a heavy oil were recessed by catalytic steam cracking to reach 14-15° API under the scheme of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,441 and the required transporting viscosity (typically lower than 350 cP), these oils would have been processed at the stability limit. Crude oil close to instability is affected in pipeline transportability due to the high potential of sediment formation within the pipelines and to blending limitations since any contact with paraffinic oil could induce precipitation of asphaltenes. Furthermore, as the field-upgraded oil produced would need to go to refineries, additional problems of stability would result in these facilities that could limit the uptake of such oil at the refinery site, as for example excessive fouling in heat exchangers and furnace coils and solid deposits inside distillation columns.

Systems and methods for catalytic steam cracking of non-asphaltene containing heavy hydrocarbons


A method of operating a relay includes shifting, by a predetermined time increment each time the relay coil is energized, the time in the sine wave of the applied AC power source at which the relay coil is energized. The method further provides for similarly shifting the time in the sine wave at which the relay coil is de-energized. When applied to a system having two relays, the method includes providing such shifting to both relays and further includes providing a predetermined time delay between the time one relay is de-energized and the other relay is energized.

This invention relates to electrical circuits and methods used therein for controlling operation of electromechanical relays whose contacts control application of alternating current to an electrical load.
It is known in the art to embody microcomputers in various control systems such as in control systems for controlling heating and cooling apparatus. Typically, the microcomputer in such systems is synchronized with the applied AC (alternating current) power source for determining when, in the applied AC sine wave, the microcomputer will provide a particular output signal. For example, the structure of the microcomputer chip may be such that the microcomputer will provide a particular output signal when the applied AC sine wave is at its zero crossover point and increasing. Regardless of whether the determined time is at zero crossover or at some other specific time in the applied AC sine wave, the microcomputer will provide such signal repeatedly at the same determined time. While this manner of operation may be satisfactory for some functions, it creates a potential problem when used to control operation of electromechanical relays whose contacts control application of the AC source to an electrical load, and more particularly, to an electrical load which is highly inductive.
Specifically, when relay contacts initially close or make a circuit to an electrical load, they generally bounce to some degree. Such bouncing, wherein the contacts rapidly make and break the circuit, causes an electrical arc to be generated between the contacts. The relative strength of the arc is dependent upon the values of the voltage between and current through the contacts at the time the contacts break the circuit. It is noted that when the electrical load is an inductive device such as a motor, the starting current, which appears across the relay contacts when the contacts initially make, can typically be approximately two and one-half times greater than the running current. Thus, when the relay contacts control such a device, the resulting arc due to contact bounce can be appreciable. Furthermore, when relay contacts open or break a circuit to an electrical load to terminate energizing of the load, an electrical arc is also generated. Again, the relative strength of the arc is dependent upon the values of the voltage between and current through the contacts at the time the contacts break the circuit.
If the relay coil is energized in such a manner that the contacts make and break the electrical circuit at the times in the applied AC sine wave when the voltage and current are at their values for maximum power generation, a maximum strength arc is produced. If the relay contacts repeatedly make and break at such times when the arc is at maximum strength, the contacts can eventually weld together. In many relay applications, the relay is but one component of a multi-component control device and cannot be readily replaced. When the relay in such a device fails, the entire multi-component control device must be replaced, thus resulting in considerable cost to the user.
Thus, it is desirable to provide an electrical circuit and/or a method of operation which will minimize the tendency of the relay contacts to weld together. One approach in this regard has been to provide for energizing of the relay coil at a particular time in the AC sine wave which, as empirically determined, will result in the contacts making at the most favorable time in the AC sine wave, namely, when the values of the voltage across and current through the contacts are at their values for minimum power generation. Such an approach allows for the inherent time delay between the time the relay coil is energized and the time the contacts actually make. Such an approach also allows for a change in the time delay. Such time delay can change due to, for example, a change in the mechanical spring forces associated with the relay armature which actuates and/or carries the contacts. While such an approach appears satisfactory, it has a disadvantage of requiring a large number of circuit components to effect this function, thus resulting in a relatively expensive arrangement.
Another approach has been the use of a protective snubber circuit which is connected across the relay contacts. Such a snubber circuit, generally consisting of a resistor and a capacitor, adds considerable cost to the product, especially when there are more than one set of relay contacts to be so protected.
Another approach has been the use of a random cycling routine incorporated in the program of a microcomputer. In such a routine, the time in the applied AC sine wave at which the relay coil is energized and/or de-energized is randomly determined. Due to the inherent nature of random cycling, the effect thereof is unpredictable. Also, a random cycling routine requires a large amount of software code, thus possibly requiring the use of a more expensive microcomputer chip than would otherwise be required.

Relay control circuit and method of operating same


A fuel control system for controlling the purging of alternate fuel in an internal combustion engine at shutdown includes: at least one valve device configured to deliver a fuel supply to the engine; a first fuel source configured to provide a primary fuel to the valve device; a second fuel source configured to provide an alternate fuel to the valve device; and a controller connected to the valve device and adapted to be connected to an ignition system. The controller is configured to control the valve device responsive to a status of one of the engine and the ignition system.

For a variety of reasons, most of which relate to environmental and alternative energy pursuits, certain primary fuel engines, such as diesel engines, can be made to accommodate alternate fuels, such as straight vegetable oil (SVO), "biodiesel," and other fuel oils (hereinafter "alternate fuels"). However, practical applications have demonstrated that full-time use of these alternate fuels is not desirable. For instance, at low temperatures the viscosity of some of these alternate fuels is not optimal for use in an engine designed to run on primary fuel. The alternate fuel should be heated up to a temperature that will allow it to easily pass through the fuel delivery system. If left in an idle engine to cool, the alternate fuel also has a tendency to increase in viscosity and thus congeal or solidify inside the fuel delivery components. Thus, the alternate fuel should not be used until it has reached an appropriate temperature and it should be purged from the engine before shutting down. As a result, some of these systems typically run on diesel fuel during start-up and before shut-down, and rely on the consumer to manually switch to the alternate fuel source in between, i.e., when the alternate fuel is at a usable viscosity. For example, in an automobile that has been modified to include diesel and alternate fuel tanks, a driver can selectively toggle between the two fuels during operation of the vehicle using a switch that controls the flow of the two fuels.
Recently, some aftermarket automated control systems have been designed. These systems control the switching between a diesel fuel source and an alternative fuel source based on the temperature of the alternate fuel. Typically, when the engine is cold, such as during engine start, the engine operates using primary fuel, and once a predetermined alternate fuel temperature or a certain vehicle speed is achieved, the engine is then switched to the alternate fuel. If low temperature operation reoccurs, the engine is then switched back to primary fuel, and so on.
To automate this fuel selection process, various conventional aftermarket control systems have been designed that acquire and monitor alternate fuel temperature by using various measurement devices, such as temperature sensors. However, these aftermarket systems do not address the condition whereby the engine is prematurely shut down during or a short time after alternate fuel operation. Various concentrations of alternate fuel will remain in fuel delivery components. If these fuel delivery components are subsequently allowed to cool, the alternate fuel will congeal or solidify. Fuel flow therefore cannot be reestablished for start-up.
Therefore, an improved system and method of automatically purging an internal combustion engine of alternate fuel are desired.

Fuel control system and associated method


A method and a system for checking permissions compatibility between a configuration management system and an orchestration system of a computing cluster are disclosed. The method comprises: identifying a request to approve a change in at least one file of the computing cluster. Retrieving from a repository of the configuration management system an identity of a user for performing the change. Acquiring a denial response or an approval response received in response to a query provisioned to the orchestration system, the query is for rights to change the at least one file using the identity of the user. In response to the approval response, entering the approval response, into the configuration management system for confirming the checking permissions compatibility is approved. In response to the denial received, sending a message to the configuration management system, the message is indicative that the checking permissions compatibility is not approved.

Containers technology is based on packaging applications to run with isolated dependencies. Containers have fundamentally altered the development of software today due to their compartmentalization of a computer system.
Containers offer a logical packaging mechanism in which applications may be abstracted from a target environment in which they actually run. This decoupling allows container-based applications to be deployed easily and consistently, regardless of whether the target environment is a private data center, a public cloud, or even a personal laptop of a developer. Containerization provides a clean separation of concerns, as developers focus on their application logic and dependencies, while information technology (IT) operations teams may focus on application deployment and management without bothering with application details such as specific software versions and configurations specific to the application (app).
Containers allow to package an application and its dependencies together into one unit that may be version controlled, allowing for easy replication of the application across developers on a team and machines in a cluster.
Combined with a service-based architecture, the entire unit that developers are asked to reason about becomes much smaller, leading to greater agility and productivity. All this eases development, testing, deployment, and overall management of applications.
Container orchestration is a management system, which manages the lifecycles of containers, especially in large, dynamic environments (such as complex cloud environments). Versioning management system (also related to as version control systems) are a category of software tools that help a software team manage changes to-source code over time. Version control software keeps track of every modification to the code in a special kind of database. If a development inaccuracy is made, developers may turn back and compare earlier versions of the code to help fix the inaccuracy while minimizing disruption to all team members.

Method and system for checking permissions compatibility between a configuration management system and an orchestration system of a computing cluster

International Business Machines Corporation


The present disclosure provides a secure, user-transparent, and highly efficient content provider-specific identifier (“CPSID”), sometimes referred to as a “read-only cookie” (“ROC”). These content provider-specific identifiers may be generated by the client device and encrypted with a public key of the content provider, preventing third parties from indirectly identifying matches, and obviating the need for provider-side cookie matching tables and resource-intensive tracking communications. The generation of content provider-specific identifiers may be controlled by user policies, such that identifiers are only created for content providers with compliant terms of service (ToS), e.g. retrievable from a predetermined address within the domain; content providers that are on a whitelist (e.g. for which the user has explicitly provided consent); and/or content providers that are not on a blacklist (e.g. for which the user has explicitly refused consent).

Browser cookies, or short device-, user-, or session-specific identifiers, are used for uniquely (or semi-uniquely) identifying a device, user, or session to a content provider, such as a web page publisher, advertiser, or other such entity. These cookies are typically generated by the content provider, e.g. during a first session or login process, and provided in subsequent requests from the browser or other application of the client device. The publisher may then associate each request with the same identifier (and implicitly, the same device, user, or session), allowing customization of content selection.
However, typical browser cookies have some critical drawbacks. Third party content providers that provide embedded content within a website may provide cookies to track a browser, without the user necessarily being aware that they are being identified or tracked by these third parties (e.g. because the address shown in the browser address bar may only identify the source of the main page and not necessarily the embedded content). Thus, it may be difficult for users to identify potential privacy issues and control privacy of their personal information.
Additionally, typical browser cookies are domain specific. In an attempt to provide some measure of security, browser and other application manufacturers prevent a content provider from reading or receiving cookies generated by other content providers at other domains. To work around this, both for legitimate and illegitimate reasons, content providers utilize cookie matching to generate associations between a cookie from one content provider and a cookie of another content provider. One implementation of cookie matching utilizes small embedded content items within a page (e.g. 1 pixel by 1 pixel "invisible" images that cause the browser to request the image, along with transmission of a corresponding cookie, referred to as "tracking pixels"), with the request received by one entity and redirected to another entity. This results in two round trip communication exchanges to "render" the pixel: a request to the first entity and response with the redirection address, and a request to the second entity and response. For a typical page with ten or more embedded tracking pixels, performing these communications may take significant time. If the user navigates away from the page before the communications are complete, the match may not be identified. As a result, cookie matching is slow, frequently incomplete, slows down rendering of the web page, and consumes bandwidth and reduces battery life. Furthermore, cookie matching allows third party entities to track online behavior in a non-transparent way and without the user providing explicit consent, which is a threat to user privacy.

Domain specific browser identifiers as replacement of browser cookies


To suppress the reflection of an electromagnetic wave from a load in a plasma generation device 30 that generates electromagnetic wave plasma by emitting the electromagnetic wave to a combustion chamber 10 of an engine 20. The plasma generation device 30 includes an electromagnetic wave oscillator 33 that oscillates the electromagnetic wave, an antenna 15a for emitting the electromagnetic wave oscillated by the electromagnetic wave oscillator to the combustion chamber 10 of the engine 20, and a stub adjustment unit 52, 53. The stub 51 is provided on a transmission line 60 for electromagnetic wave from the electromagnetic wave oscillator 33 to the antenna 15a. While the engine 20 is operating, the stub adjustment unit 52, 53 adjusts a short circuit location on the stub 51 based on the intensity of a reflected wave of the electromagnetic wave reflected from the antenna 15a.

Conventionally, there is known a plasma generation device that generates electromagnetic wave plasma by emitting an electromagnetic wave to a combustion chamber of an engine. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2009-221948 discloses a technique of generating microwave plasma by emitting a microwave from an antenna, while causing a discharge at electrodes of a discharger in a combustion chamber of an engine.
Furthermore, as a method of impedance matching for frequency of microwave band, an open circuit or short circuit stub is employed. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2004-7248 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 1995-153599 disclose methods of mechanically adjusting insert amount of a stub as a method of stub adjustment in accordance with load variation. Furthermore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2007-174064 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2009-268004 disclose an adjustment unit of the open circuit stub.