A photoconductive imaging member comprised of an optional supporting substrate, a hole blocking layer thereover, a photogenerating layer, and a charge transport layer, and wherein the hole blocking layer is comprised of a pyrolyzed polyacrylonitrile.

This invention is generally directed to imaging members, and more specifically, the present invention is directed to single and multilayered photoconductive imaging members with a hole blocking, or undercoat layer (UCL) comprised of, for example, a pyrolyzed polyacrylonitrile, and which pyrolyzed polyacrylonitrile can in embodiments be overcoated, dispersed in a suitable binder, and the like, depending, for example, on the form of the layer, that is when applied as a continuous layer the pyrolyzed polyacrylonitrile is preferably overcoated with a silane material, such as 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APS). Moreover, in embodiments the pyrolyzed polyacrylonitrile can be dispersed in a binder of, for example, a binder comprised of a phenolic resin, reference U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,255,027; 6,177,219, and 6,156,468, and which layer can be deposited on a supporting substrate. More specifically, the hole blocking layer in contact with the supporting substrate can be situated between the supporting substrate and the photogenerating layer, which is comprised, for example, of the photogenerating pigments of U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,811, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, especially Type V hydroxygallium phthalocyanine, and generally metal free phthalocyanines, metal phthalocyanines, perylenes, titanyl phthalocyanines, selenium, selenium alloys, and the like. The imaging members of the present invention in embodiments exhibit excellent cyclic/environmental stability, and substantially no adverse changes in their performance over extended time periods, since the imaging members comprise a mechanically robust and solvent resistant hole blocking layer, enabling the coating of a subsequent photogenerating layer thereon without structural damage; excellent Vlow, that is the surface potential of the imaging member subsequent to a certain light exposure, minimal or substantially no plywood effects, excellent charge acceptance, low dark decay, rapid voltage discharge decay curves, low voltage residuals, and which blocking layer can be easily coated on the supporting substrate by various coating techniques of, for example, dip or slot-coating. The aforementioned photoresponsive, or photoconductive imaging members can be negatively charged when the photogenerating layers are situated between the hole transport layer and the hole blocking layer deposited on the substrate.
Processes of imaging, especially xerographic imaging and printing, including digital, are also encompassed by the present invention. More specifically, the layered photoconductive imaging members of the present invention can be selected for a number of different known imaging and printing processes including, for example, electrophotographic imaging processes, especially xerographic imaging and printing processes wherein charged latent images are rendered visible with toner compositions of an appropriate charge polarity. The imaging members as indicated herein are in embodiments sensitive in the wavelength region of, for example, from about 500 to about 900 nanometers, and in particular from about 650 to about 850 nanometers, thus diode lasers can be selected as the light source. Moreover, the imaging members of this invention are useful in color xerographic applications, particularly high-speed color copying and printing processes.
The imaging members illustrated herein and containing an undercoat layer of pyrolyzed polyacrylonitrite (PPAN) is substantially insensitive to (1) solvents, such as organic solvents, like methylene chloride; (2) changes in environmental conditions and heat; and is (3) substantially anti-reflective thereby suppressing plywood print pattern defects; and (4), thicker undercoat layers can be selected resulting, for example, in photoconductive members with economical substrates.

Photoconductive imaging members having pyrolyzed polyacrylonitrile hole blocking layer


A method, system and computer-usable medium for selectively monitoring transactions in a cluster computing environment are disclosed. A transaction is received by a load balancer. A transaction monitoring manager determines if the received transaction is a candidate for monitoring. If it is, then the resource thresholds defined in the transaction's corresponding TMP are determined. The load balancer is then interrogated to determine which application server instance is assigned to process the transaction. Once determined, resource usage information is collected from the target application server instance and provided to the transaction monitoring manager. The collected resource information is compared to the transaction's corresponding TMP. If resource usage exceeds resource threshold values contained in the TPM, then the transaction is monitored. Otherwise it is not.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the disclosure relate in general to the field of computers and similar technologies, and in particular to software utilized in this field. Still more particularly, it relates to selectively monitoring transactions in a cluster computing environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Monitoring the performance and availability of software applications, including those that may be spread across multiple physical systems and involve multiple physical resources, is a key task in system administration. This monitoring is typically performed by instrumenting software to include additional instructions, generally referred to as probes, to report performance information such as application response time. Performance monitoring may also be implemented by adding a software component, sometimes referred to as a plug-in, to the application. The plug-in is then invoked in-line with the application during the execution of a transaction. Regardless of how it is implemented, performance monitoring needs to take place in real-time to be useful. As a result, any such monitoring causes some degree of run-time performance overhead on the systems being monitored. Accordingly, there is a need for control mechanisms that provide an adequate degree of granularity when configuring performance monitoring activities.
Existing approaches include selectively turning performance monitoring on or off based on individual applications or logic components. For example, when a user initiates a transaction from a Web browser, the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request is sent to a Web server, which in turn may make a call to an application server and a database server. Traditionally, the entire application running respectively on the Web server, the application server, and the database server would be monitored in order to determine the root causality of a performance problem. However, there are two major drawbacks to this methodology. First, when transaction monitoring is enabled for an application, all business transactions in the application are monitored, regardless of whether they are relevant to identification of the performance problem. This incurs more overhead in terms of CPU usage, memory, etc. than necessary to solve the problem. Second, when transaction monitoring is enabled for an application, every transaction in the application will generate additional monitoring information at the same level. The volume of accumulated data can become very high within a short period of time, thus incurring additional processing overhead. The high volume of data can also obscure the root cause of the problem due to the sheer quantity of irrelevant data the user has to review.
Another approach, currently used in the IBM Tivoli Monitor for Transaction Performance, associates each transaction with a token that embeds the entire monitoring configuration that should be used for the transaction. Each instrumented application has an entry point (e.g., a uniform resource locator, or URL) for monitoring each transaction (e.g., an HTTP request from a browser). Once these entry points are defined for the application, monitoring policies are associated with those entry points. The monitoring policy is represented as a token, which embeds all information necessary to monitor the transaction. However, no other control mechanism is provided for deciding when the transaction should be monitored, other than a predefined sampling rate. This can be problematic as anomalies in the system could occur during transactions that are not being monitored. In a yet another approach, an application monitoring policy is implemented that includes a description of the server resources that are to be monitored, along with limits that each resource should not exceed. Example of server resources that might be monitored include the amount of free virtual memory on a given server, processor utilization, current thread pool size, etc. If the application monitoring policy indicates that the transaction should be monitored, then any resource thresholds defined in the policy are checked. If no resource thresholds have been exceeded at the instant that the transaction arrived at the server, then the transaction is not monitored. If a predetermined resource threshold has been exceeded, then the transaction could potentially experience a performance degradation and should be monitored. Once a decision is made to monitor the transaction, the instrumentation probes monitor the transaction from that point forward.
However, none of these solutions provide adequate granularity when the monitored systems are part of a clustered environment. A cluster of application servers typically has a load balancer in front of two or more application servers. The load balancer determines which back-end server should receive a current inbound transaction. Approaches that monitor a transaction only when a specific system resource is above or below some predefined threshold, as described above, do not work very well in clustered environments. In order to monitor only those back-end servers that are experiencing system resource issues, the transaction performance monitor needs to know in advance which of the back-end servers the current transaction is to be routed. For example, if an application server cluster has three back-end application servers and a load balancer on the front end, an incoming transaction could be routed to any of the three back-end application servers. If the goal is to monitor the transaction only when a resource threshold has been exceeded on one of these three back-end systems, the application monitoring policy needs to know which of the back-end servers the transaction will be routed to know whether or not it should be monitored. Otherwise, the transaction would have to be monitored on each back-end server regardless of the server's current resource usage.

Intelligent performance monitoring of a clustered environment

International Business Machines Corporation


A zirconium sponge regulus from a Kroll reduction process is contaminated with zirconium chlorides, unreacted magnesium and magnesium chloride. The sponge regulus is vacuum distilled at a temperature of at least 800.degree. C. and then cooled. Before opening the distillation vessel and exposing the sponge regulus to the atmosphere, the vessel is backfilled with a gas comprising 25% to 75%, by volume, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide or mixtures thereof, with the balance an inert gas and impurities associated therewith.. The sponge regulus is less susceptible to fires when exposed to the air or crushing in downstream processing, and the metal surfaces of the sponge regulus are passivated whereby the overall contamination of the sponge is significantly reduced.

The present invention relates to a method of passifying the surface of a reactive metal sponge regulus.
Reactive metals of Group IVB, including zirconium, hafnium and titanium, are industrially produced from suitable ores by carbochlorination of the ores at high temperatures to produce a tetrachloride powder. The tetrachloride powder is then reduced with magnesium, calcium, sodium or other like metal to form a metal sponge regulus. The sponge regulus is then vacuum distilled at high temperatures to remove the contaminants and subsequently crushed to small particles suitable for further processing.
Reactive metals are highly pyrophoric as are some of the contaminants in the sponge regulus. Thus, a high surface area sponge regulus is subject to fires upon exposure of the distilled sponge regulus to the atmosphere or during the crushing step after the vacuum distillation step. In addition, chemistry specifications for commercial products severely limit the maximum permitted contamination of oxygen and nitrogen, which are present in the air and readily react with these metals. If the metal contains excessive amounts of oxygen or nitrogen, the metal must be recycled. See, in this regard, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,062,887; 5,078,789; 5,080,858 and 5,100,465 which disclose processes and equipment for vacuum distilling and subsequently handling zirconium sponge.

Surface passification of a group IVB metal sponge regulus


The present invention relates to a polishing composition, and more particularly, to a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) composition used to chemically and mechanically polish a semiconductor wafer. The polishing composition of the present invention, by comprising anion-modified silica polishing particles in which the zeta potential (ζ) is ≤−10 mV, can exhibit excellent polishing performance, and more specifically, which can achieve a high polishing rate with respect to an indium-containing polishing substrate, while improving the dispersibility of the composition and reducing residual defects on the substrate.

The term integrated circuit refers to a functional device having a complete circuit function formed in a structure in which a plurality of active devices and passive devices are microminiaturized and integrated into a single semiconductor substrate so that the devices cannot be separated. The structure of such a device is generally formed of various kinds of metal layers, intermediate connection layers, insulating films, and the like. Among them, interlayer dielectric such as doped silicon dioxide (SiO2) and undoped SiO2 are used to electrically isolate a silicon substrate or various metal layers.
A wiring process, which is one of the manufacturing processes of a semiconductor element, comprises a step of embedding a metal material such as tungsten, copper, aluminum, or the like, in a groove formed on an insulating layer to deposit a metal layer on the groove portion. In addition, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is used to etch unnecessary portions of the metal layer.
In the chemical mechanical polishing process, a substrate is in contact with a polishing pad, and the polishing process is performed in a manner in which pressure is applied to the polishing pad. The pressure on the surface of the substrate which is in contact with the polishing pad is maintained while the polishing pad and a table are rotated. A polishing composition is adsorbed between the pad and the substrate during the polishing process. The composition chemically interacts with the film being polished to perform the polishing process. The polishing process is achieved through rotational movement of the pad with respect to the substrate when the slurry is fed to an interface between a wafer and the pad. The polishing is continuously performed in this manner until a desired film on the substrate is removed.
Recently, following the high integration and high performance of semiconductor elements, there is a trend in which the line width of wiring patterns is becoming finer and highly multilayered, so that the interlayer flatness in each process is becoming more important in order to achieve improvement of the precision of the polishing process. In order to improve the interlayer flatness, the chemical mechanical polishing process is considered to be becoming even more important. The interlayer flatness is known to be affected not only by the removal rate of each layer, but also by having a high selectivity with respect to the material to be removed, dishing, and loss.
In order to achieve excellent flatness and few defects, polishing particles are required to have appropriate hardness, size and shape. The types of and total number of scratches on a substrate surface may be affected by the type, size, and distribution of the particles. Further, defects on the polishing surface may also be affected by the formation of a stable dispersion of polishing particles in a composition.
In order to provide a polishing composition having excellent performance, efforts have been made to replace polishing particles obtained by conventional synthetic methods with high-purity polishing particles obtained by the Teos synthesis method. However, in this case, the unit cost of raw materials of the composition increases, which causes an increase in the cost of the entire process.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a polishing composition which is excellent in view of the polishing rate, defects, and dispersibility, even without use of a high-purity polishing agent.

Polishing composition and polishing method using the same


An implantable medical device, such as a stent, is disclosed comprising an amino acid or a polypeptide bonded to a plasma polymerized film layer formed on the device. A method of manufacturing the same is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of medical devices, such as stents. More particularly, this invention is directed to coatings which include chemically-bound polymers and/or oligomers of L-arginine.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of medical technology, there is frequently a necessity to administer drugs locally. To provide an efficacious concentration to the treatment site, systemic administration of medication often produces adverse or toxic side effect for the patient. Local delivery is a preferred method in that smaller total levels of medication are administered in comparison to systemic dosages, but are concentrated at a specific site. Thus, local delivery produces fewer side effects and achieves more effective results.
A commonly employed technique for the local delivery of a drug is through the use of a medicated stent. One method of medicating a stent is by coating the stent with a polymer having a drug incorporated therein. L-arginine, or polypeptide oligomeric derivatives thereof, for example, those containing 5 to 20 amino acid units, is one example of a substance that can be delivered via a stent.
L-arginine is known to be a precursor of endothelium derived nitric oxide (NO). NO is synthesized from L-arginine, or its polymeric and/or oligomeric derivatives, by the enzyme NO synthase oxygenase, a homodimeric flavo-hemoprotein that catalyzes the 5-electron oxidation of L-arginine to produce NO and L-citrulline. Among other therapeutic properties, NO relaxes vascular smooth muscle cells and inhibits their proliferation. References describing beneficial therapeutic properties of L-arginine include U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,168 to Cooke et al. Cooke et al. teach that administering L-arginine, as the NO precursor, restores vascular NO activity in patients with endothelial vasodilator dysfunction due to restenosis. Moreover, Uemura et al. (Circulation, vol. 102, 2629-2635 (2000)), teach that the heptamer of L-arginine (R7) exhibits biological activity in the reduction of neointimial hyperplasia.
According to traditional techniques, L-arginine or its polymers and/or oligomers can be physically incorporated into a polymeric matrix for in situ local delivery. The embodiments of the present invention provide alternative methods for local delivery of L-arginine, or its polymers and/or oligomers, by an implantable device such as a stent.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Implantable medical devices incorporating plasma polymerized film layers and charged amino acids


A window system includes a plurality of local terminals, a remote camera array, and an information processor; wherein each of the plurality of local terminals includes a local display and a local identification device, the local display is configured to display remote video information; the local identification device is configured to identify a position of a local user's face; the remote camera array is configured to capture the remote video information according to the position of the local user's face of each of the plurality of local terminals; the information processor is configured to calculate a range of the local user's visual field according to the position of the local user's face, select the corresponding remote video information according to the range of the local user's visual field, and transmit the corresponding remote video information to the local display.

With the development of the communication technology, video communication has been widely used in work places and people's lives in general, such as remote video conference of a company, video chat with friends from different places. However, users of a remote video communication system cannot look directly into each other's eyes. The reason is that the eyes displayed on the display are spaced apart from the camera. As a result, users cannot make direct eye contact with each other when using the remote video communication system, thereby undermining the communication experience. At the same time, a video player can only be used to display video and cannot display different videos or views according to users' different visual directions.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.

Window system based on video communication

Beijing FUNATE Innovation Technology Co., LTD.


An apparatus, method and system for measuring an individual's flexibility are disclosed herein. The apparatus includes a first flexible fabric strap portion, a flexible e-textile fabric portion, a monitoring device and a second flexible fabric strap portion connected to a second end of the monitoring device. The system further includes a communication device for receiving a signal from the apparatus and a computing device for processing the signal from the apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to exercise equipment. More specifically, the present invention relates to exercise equipment with strength monitoring capabilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Exercise is important to everyone, and there are many reasons that people exercise. For enjoyment, good health, to maintain an attractive physique, to be stronger, to excel at a particular sport, and many other numerous reasons. However, no matter what the reason is for exercising, there is usually a desire to track one's exercise performance. Tracking one's performance can be as simple as monitoring the time it takes to run a mile to quantify the time improvement. Or tracking one's ability to lift a larger mass when working with weights.
In our high technology society, the ability to use technology to monitor one's exercise performance is becoming an essential requirement for any physical activity. Most stationary exercise equipment now provides numerous information to the user such as calories burned, heart rate, distance achieved, and much more. Other physical activities have similar technological devices for providing performance monitoring. However, one physical activity area has been ignored, stretching and stretching-like physical activities such as yoga, pilates, and the like.
What is needed is a tool that can measure the flexibility of an individual in a particular area and predict an optimal stretch capability for that individual. The same tool could be used to increase the individual's flexibility.

System and method for measuring flexibility


A method of making a fusion-spliced optical fiber includes holding a ferrule in one end of a holding element, said holding element having a stem extending from the other end thereof, said ferrule disposed around an optical fiber segment, said optical fiber segment having an exposed end that extends from said ferrule; receiving said holding element in a ferrule holding element of a fusion-splicing device; fusion-splicing said exposed end of said optical fiber segment to an end of another optical fiber to form a spliced portion; and transferring said spliced portion by supporting at least said stem.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ferrule transfer method of transferring a ferrule with a built-in optical fiber that is fusion-spliced with an optical fiber to a fusion-spliced-portion reinforcing device and a ferrule holder for holding the ferrule.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the prevalence of FTTH (Fiber To The Home) and the like, an optical communication network is widely used at general households. Along with this condition, various splicing methods of assembling an optical connector without performing a polishing step and splicing optical fibers are employed at a splicing site.
As the optical connector, there is known a mechanical optical connector in which one end of a built-in optical fiber matches a splicing end of the ferrule and the other end of the built-in optical fiber is protruded from the other end of the ferrule where a mechanical holding unit is provided (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-206688, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-142686, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-142687, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-160563, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-347068). In the mechanical optical connector, the other end of the built-in optical fiber and one end of another optical fiber are mechanically held to splice them in such a manner that their axis centers match each other so that an optical connector can be provided on the one end of another optical fiber.
In these days, an optical connector is provided in which a built-in optical fiber and another optical fiber are fusion-spliced to enhance a long-time reliability (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-82257).
FIG. 19 is a schematic partial section view of a conventional optical connector 10 disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-82257. The optical connector 10 includes a ferrule 11, a built-in optical fiber 12, a housing 15, and a coil spring 20, and is fusion-spliced with an optical fiber core 14, with a fusion-spliced portion reinforced with a reinforcing body 13.
The housing 15 includes a plug housing 16, a stopper ring 17, and a boot 18. The plug housing 16 and the stopper ring 17 are coupled by engaging an engagement hole 16a and an engagement protrusion 17a. The boot 18 is attached to the stopper ring 17 that constitutes a rear portion of the housing 15. The boot 18 includes an attaching portion 18a and a bending portion 18b. The coil spring 20 is placed between the ferrule 11 and the stopper ring 17, holding the ferrule 11 in a movable manner in an axis direction.
The built-in optical fiber 12 is formed by cutting in advance an appropriate optical fiber by a predetermined length at a manufacturing factory, and inserting and fixing it in the ferrule 11. One end of the built-in optical fiber 12 and a splicing end of the ferrule 11 are polishing-processed in advance, and are processed not to cause splicing loss with another optical connector spliced. On the other hand, removal of a coating and end processing for fusion splicing are required for the other end of the built-in optical fiber 12 that protrudes backward of the ferrule 11, which are generally performed in advance at a manufacturing factory and the like.
Removal of a coating and end processing with regard to the optical fiber core 14 to be spliced to the optical connector 10 are performed at the splicing site. Machine tools for the processing are provided at the splicing site.
FIGS. 20 to 22 depict an operation of fusion splicing between the built-in optical fiber attached by insertion into the ferrule 11 and the optical fiber core 14. The operation of fusion splicing is performed at the splicing site. Prior to the fusion splicing, as shown in FIG. 20, at the end of the built-in optical fiber 12 that is to be fusion-spliced, a coating 12a is removed so that a bare optical fiber portion 12b is exposed in advance at a factory as described above. In addition, at an end of the optical fiber core 14, a coating 14a is removed so that a bare optical fiber portion 14b is exposed. Then, the bare optical fiber portions 12b and 14b are placed at a fusion-splicing device by a holder that holds them, their centers are aligned on a V-shaped groove of the holder, and the bare optical fiber portions 12b and 14b are clamped. Then, as shown in FIG. 21, an electric discharge is applied to them through an arc discharge A from discharge electrodes 22a to heat them for fusion splicing, thereby forming a fusion-spliced portion 19. Mechanical strength of the fusion-spliced portion 19 is degraded because of removed coating so that the fusion-spliced portion 19 is transferred to a later-described fusion-spliced-portion reinforcing device. Then, as shown in FIG. 22, the fusion-spliced portion 19 is covered by the reinforcing body 13.
The reinforcing body 13 is a heat-shrinkable tube that includes a reinforcing member such as metal and thermoplastic resin. The fusion-spliced portion 19 is covered by the reinforcing body 13 and is transferred to the fusion-spliced-portion reinforcing device. The reinforcing body 13 is heated and contracted so that it covers the fusion-spliced portion 19. Besides using the reinforcing body 13 as a means of protecting the fusion-spliced portion, a recoating method of coating the fusion-spliced portion with a UV-curing resin and hardening the UV-curing resin to form a coating layer is also used.
FIG. 23 is a view of an example of a main unit of a conventional fusion-splicing device 21 that fusion-splices optical fibers. It is indicated that a fusion-splicing operation unit 22 is arranged at the center and a fusion-spliced-portion reinforcing device 23 is arranged above the fusion-splicing operation unit 22. Optical fiber holders H that causes optical fibers F to face each other on their ends to arrange and fix them are arranged both sides of the fusion-splicing operation unit 22, and the discharge electrodes 22a to cause the arc discharge are arranged at its center. The fusion-spliced-portion reinforcing device 23 includes a long heating chamber 23a that extends laterally in a straight line and holders 23b that are arranged at both ends of the heating chamber 23a and that give tension to fusion-spliced optical fibers and hold optical fibers F. A reference sign 22b is a lid that covers the fusion-splicing operation unit 22 and a reference sign 23c is a lid that covers the fusion-spliced-portion reinforcing device 23.
When the built-in optical fiber 12 fitted into the ferrule 11 and the optical fiber core 14 are fusion-spliced by the fusion-splicing device 21, one of optical fiber holders is replaced with a ferrule holder.
To attach a reinforcing body to the fusion-spliced portion of the ferrule in which the optical fiber and the built-in optical fiber are fusion-spliced and to give a mechanical protection as described above, it is necessary to transfer the ferrule from the fusion-splicing operation unit of the fusion-splicing device to the fusion-spliced-portion reinforcing device. However, because an optical fiber is not attached at the splicing end of the ferrule, it is impossible to hold and transfer each of optical fibers as in a case of a conventional fusion-splicing of optical fibers. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 24, it is considered that the ferrule 11 and the optical fiber core 14 are pinched by a pinching device 25 that includes pinching units 25a, 25a having a shape like a clothespin and are transferred from the fusion-splicing operation unit 22 to the heating chamber 23a of the fusion-spliced-portion reinforcing device 23. The pinching device 25 in which the pinching units 25a, 25a are coupled by a rod-shaped coupling member 25b having a predetermined length to maintain a predetermined distance therebetween is arranged and is constituted not to give a tension to the fusion-spliced portion when transferring the ferrule and the optical fiber.
However, to accommodate the fusion-spliced portion 19 and the reinforcing body 13 in the heating chamber 23a using the method of pinching the ferrule 11 and the like by the pinching device 25 and transferring them, because the heating chamber 23a has a narrow insertion slot, the pinching device 25 should be reduced in size to be accommodated in the heating chamber 23a while the pinching device 25 pinches the ferrule 11 and the like, or the reinforcing body 13 and the ferrule 11 have to be fallen in the heating chamber 23a by stopping pinching the ferrule 11 above the heating chamber 23a. However, when accommodating the ferrule 11 by use of the small pinching device 25 in the heating chamber 23a, it is impossible to close the lid 23c of the fusion-spliced-portion reinforcing device 23. This makes it impossible to stably contract the reinforcing body 13 like a heat-shrinkable tube. Alternatively, a method can be considered that an equivalent for a lid is arranged around the pinching device 25 and the equivalent covers the heating chamber 23a. However, the method causes problems of a poor workability, a higher price because of a higher component count, and the like. Furthermore, the method of falling the reinforcing body 13 and the ferrule 11 from above the fusion-spliced-portion reinforcing device 23 has problems of a possibility of cutting the fusion-spliced portion 19 due to an impulse of falling, being unable to contract the heat-shrinkable tube in a good shape because fusion-spliced optical fibers cannot be straightly held, and the like.

Ferrule transfer method and ferrule holder


An automatic gear shifting control device of a vehicle can execute an automatic gear shifting control in response to a larger rotational speed. The automatic gear shifting control device includes a gear shifting control instruction part that executes an automatic gear shifting operation of an AMT in response to at least vehicle-speed information. First and second sensors detect rotational speed of front and rear wheels. A rotational-speed-difference detector detects the difference in rotational speed between the front and rear wheels based on information from the first and second sensors. The control part is configured to execute an automatic gear shifting control in response to the vehicle-speed information calculated based on the larger rotational speed out of the rotational speed of the front wheel and the rotational speed of the rear wheel when the difference in rotational speed is detected by the rotational-speed-difference detector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic gear shifting control device of a vehicle. In particular, the present invention relates to an automatic gear shifting control device of a vehicle that is configured to execute, when the difference in rotational speed between a front wheel and a rear wheel is generated at the time of deceleration, an automatic gear shifting control in response to the larger rotational speed out of the rotational speed of the front wheel and the rotational speed of the rear wheel.
2. Background of the Invention
Conventionally, there has been known a constitution which mounts a rotational speed detector on a drive wheel and a driven wheel of a vehicle respectively and executes a specific control when the difference in rotational speed is generated between both wheels.
JP-A-4-100739 discloses an acceleration slip prevention device, which is configured to detect a slip state based on the difference in rotational speed between a drive wheel and a driven wheel and to execute a traction control for reducing a driving force of the drive wheel when the slip state is detected. The acceleration slip prevention device is configured to execute a low-μ-use gear shifting control in which a shift-up operation is executed earlier than a normal gear shifting control when the traction control is generated at high frequency.
In a vehicle which executes an automatic gear shifting operation of a transmission based on vehicle-speed information obtained from a rotational speed of a predetermined vehicle wheel, for example, even when only the predetermined vehicle wheel is temporarily locked, it is determined that a vehicle speed is lowered, and an automatic gear shifting operation toward a low gear side is executed. Particularly, such a phenomenon is liable to easily occur in a motorcycle or a three-wheeled vehicle which operates brake devices respectively mounted on a driven wheel and a drive wheel independently. For example, when the predetermined wheel is locked at the time of operating braking, gear shifting is automatically changed to assume a low change gear ratio compared to an actual vehicle speed, thus giving rise to a drawback in that an engine brake is applied to the drive wheel more than required.
A technique disclosed in JP-A-4-100739 is provided for changing a control of the automatic gear shifting device by detecting a slip state of a vehicle during traveling. Accordingly, in this technique, changing of a method of detecting the difference in rotational speed between a driven wheel and a drive wheel at the time of deceleration and controlling an automatic gear shifting device based on the detected difference in rotational speed has not been sufficiently studied.

Automatic gear shifting control device of vehicle


A suction device for catching, for example, insects includes a piston arranged for axial movement in the axial direction inside a housing having a suction tube, and a spring attached between the piston and the suction tube. A locking member releasably locks with a latching member when the suction tube is moved in the axial direction against the piston. A trigger is actuated from outside the housing to release the latching member of the piston from the locking member of the suction tube. A spring force from the spring then causes the piston to move away from the suction tube toward the rear wall of the housing, producing a vacuum inside the housing which draws in the insects, spiders and other small animals.

The invention relates to a device for catching insects, spiders and other such small animals.
Known methods for removing insects and spiders from the environment of human beings are, e.g., the fly flap and the lime twig. These are, however, questionable instruments for removing insects from a hygienic standpoint. Spray cans and powders with, e.g., insecticides especially for flying and creeping insects are commercially available. This is an environmentally harmful but common killing method. When improperly and frequently applied in inhabited spaces, insecticides present even for human beings a health risk which is not to be neglected. According to another current method, lured-in flying insects are killed with special devices by means of electric current. Also known are small electrically operated table vacuum cleaners that can also be used for sucking in insects and spiders. A regular vacuum cleaner can also be used, but this is time-consuming, cumbersome and often times questionable, since vacuuming off of, e.g., food, with a vacuum cleaner is very unhygienic.
Another solution are devices with a pulsating suction unit and a suction nozzle connected thereto. This is based on the knowledge that one can almost always approach, e.g., a fly with the finger up to about 1 cm before it flies away. A suction nozzle that is required for sucking-in a fly has approximately the cross sectional dimensions of a finger or thumb, and only a short pulse-like suction burst needs to be applied in order to suck in the object from short distance.
A device of this kind is known from DE 3225330A1. In this known device, a catch piece that can be unscrewed is arranged anteriorly of a hollow cylinder in which a piston and a tension element are arranged. The catch space for the insects is located inside the catch piece. On the inlet-side, the catch space is completed by a one-way valve that acts as a blocking element. On the outlet side, the catch space is completed by a perforated basket. The helical spring that forms the tension element is arranged between the front side of the piston and the front end of the hollow cylinder and stores its energy by axial squeezing. A pressure stamp that acts on the rear side of the piston and is provided as tension member is attached at the bottom of the pot-shaped tension chuck and guided outside on the hollow cylinder. In this known device, a catch space is required upstream of the hollow cylinder and sealed against the hollow cylinder by a perforated basket. The piston, which is operated by the helical spring and guided in the hollow cylinder merely at the cylindrical piston surface, can tilt relatively easily and thereby interfere the suction process.
G 91 16 394.3 discloses a further developed pulsating suction unit, in which the spring-elastic tension elements are arranged between the rear side of the piston and the bottom part of the hollow cylinder. On its rear side, the piston is connected to a guide rod for guiding the piston and for loading the spring-elastic tension elements. As a result, the guide rod that is connected with the piston ensures safe guiding of the piston. As the same time, the guide rod serves as the tension member for the tension springs by providing it with a tension lever. The complex structure and constructive length of the pulsating suction unit, which includes the length of the suction tube, the length of the cylinder, and the length of the handle with the tension lever, are disadvantages of this arrangement.

Device for catching insects, spiders and other such small animals


The present invention provides a heat exchange reactor comprising a reaction tube for obtaining a product (B) by exothermic reaction while passing a starting compound (A) therethrough and a reactor shell covering the surrounding of the reaction tube and having its interior divided into a plurality of regions along the passing direction of the starting compound (A), each of which regions is filled with a heat medium for carrying out heat exchange between the inside of the reaction tube and the heat medium independently for the respective separate regions; wherein the reactor is provided with a heater for heating the heat medium charged in the most upstream region among the separate regions independently from the heat media charged in other regions.

In general, exothermal reaction for obtaining a product (B) from a starting compound (A) is easy to abruptly generate heat if the reaction is carried out at a temperature exceeding a prescribed reaction temperature and therefore, it is required to carry out the reaction while efficiently removing heat. As a reactor for carrying out such reaction, a heat exchange reactor (1′) which is provided with a reaction tube (2) and a reactor shell (3) covering the surrounding of the reaction tube (2) as shown in FIG. 3 has been widely used. With the reactor (1′), the product (B) is obtained by exothermal reaction while passing the starting compound (A) in the reaction tube (2). The reactor shell (3) is divided into a plurality of regions (31 to 34) along the passing direction of the starting compound (A) and each of the separate regions (31 to 34) is filled with a heat medium (C1 to C4) to carry out heat exchange between the inside of the reaction tube (2) and the respective heat media (C1 to C4) [reference to JP-A-2001-129384]. The heat exchange reactor (1′) is capable of efficiently removing heat and keeping the temperature in the reaction tube (2) at a prescribed reaction temperature by changing the temperature of the respective heat media (C1 to C4) in accordance with the heat generation quantities of the respective regions (31 to 34).


Apparatus and an associated method for nondestructively determining the thickness of a coating on a metal surface, such as the interior of a can. An object securing device holds the object being inspected. The inspection device includes a probe. Positioning apparatus is employed to permit insertion of the probe into inspecting relationship which in the case of a can would involve partial insertion of the probe into the can. A first section is inspected and sequentially through relative rotational and/or translational movement of the object being inspected additional portions of the object such as can ends may be inspected. A light beam is caused to impinge upon the section of the object being inspected and returned fluorescent light received by a detector positioned within the probe cooperates with processing means to determine the coating thickness. The system permits accurate determinations of coating thickness even when the metal surface has irregularities. The system may be employed on metal sheet including moving metal sheet. The probe may include mirrors and fiberoptic components. A suitable lens for focusing the returned light and a filter for excluding extraneous returned light from the detector preferably are employed. A container holder is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus and an associated method for nondestructively determining the coating thickness on a metal surface, such as the interior of a metal can or a metal sheet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been known to coat curved metal surfaces such as the interiors of cans in order to resist potentially damaging contact between the metal surface and materials which will be contained within or come into contact with the metal object. For example, in connection with aluminum cans used for food products, in order to resist undesired corrosive attack by the food products on the metal, or undesired chemical reactions which could alter the taste of the food products, the can interior is generally coated with an organic coating. It is important that the coating have the desired thickness in order to avoid providing an inadequate barrier due to an unduly thin coating, or interference with can forming techniques due to a coating which is of an excessive thickness. On metal sheet lubricating oil coatings may be present.
A number of means of coating such can interiors have been known, including various electrocoating processes. See generally U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,922,213, 4,094,760, 4,210,507, 4,400,251, 4,544,475 and 4,676,881.
It is has also been known to inspect coating thickness on can interiors by employing destructive testing techniques. These techniques involve periodically removing a sample can from the line and cutting it into pieces with coating thicknesses being measured on the sections. In connection with such destructive testing, various known means such as carbon analysis may be employed to ascertain coating thickness as a function of location within the can. Among the problems with destructive testing are the fact that destructive testing of this type is very time-consuming. By the time the results are available, a great number of containers may have been made with coated portions that are not within specifications. Also, even if the can passes the test, the destructive testing involved destruction of a good quality product.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,643 discloses the use of an spectrophotometer in measuring dielectric film thickness. This nondestructive-method involves monitoring variations in the interference effect caused by the difference in light reflected from the film and from the substrate are monitored. Computer means are employed to assist with computations.
It has been known to employ laser energy in measuring the thickness of a coating by monitoring radiant energy as compared with standard thickness specimens. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,291.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,358 discloses the use of ultraviolet laser beams in the nondestructive, noncontacting measurement of dimensions of sample wafers. It discloses the use of returning light solely from the spot on which the ultraviolet light impinges and the use of fluorescence created within the material being examined.
It has also been know to add materials to a coating in order to enhance fluorescence responsive to imposing a laser beam thereon. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,437,010, 4,460,274, 4,651,010 and German Patent 29 07 620.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,841,156 discloses the measurement of thickness of films employing the concept that the fluorescent light is proportional to a film thickness. The fluorescent light is filtered before being received by a photodetector which converts the light into an electrical signal. The system employees two signals and the use of a divider to compare the signals.
In spite of the foregoing known systems, there remains a very real and substantial need for a non-destructive, non-contacting system for accurately measuring the thickness of a relatively thin coating on a curved metal object, such as a metal can.

Apparatus for nondestructively determining coating thickness on a metal object and associated method


A system and method for establishing communication with a target mobile station (312) initiated in part by establishment of a traffic communication channel with a target mobile station (312). Responsive to establishing the traffic communication channel, a message is sent by the target mobile station (312) substantially immediately to a dispatch server (304) via the traffic communication channel. The message comprises information indicating acceptance of a push-to-talk (PTT) request.

In many push-to-talk (PTT) systems, an originating mobile station typically sends a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) INVITE message over a communication channel to initiate the establishment of voice communications with a target mobile station. This SIP INVITE message causes a dispatch server in the network to page the target mobile station. The target mobile station then responds to the page and obtains a dedicated data traffic channel to communicate with the originating mobile station.
In these previous systems, after the data traffic channel is established, the target mobile station typically waits until it receives the SIP INVITE message from the server before returning a 200 OK message to the dispatch server. Then, a talk permit tone (TPT) is sent to the originating mobile station from the dispatch server to initiate the actual voice transmission over a voice communication channel. Once the TPT has been received at the originating mobile station the speaker begins speaking, the voice communication channel can be established between the originating mobile station and the target mobile station and voice communications can occur.
The approaches used in previous systems result in significant delays in establishing voice communications between mobile stations in a network. For instance, delays occur because of the transmission of the SIP INVITE message to the target mobile station. Processing time is also required at the target mobile station to process the SIP INVITE message. An Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) such as that incurred by Radio Link Protocol (RLP), Radio Lick Control (RLC), or Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) round-trip-delay also exists. Additional delays occur since the target is required to generate the 200 OK message and to transmit this message to the originating mobile station. If SIP compression is used, the delays can be still longer as time is required to perform compression and/or decompression on the various messages. All of these factors lead to a degradation of system performance and a potentially unpleasant user experience due to the delays.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions with respect to their corresponding respective areas of inquiry and study except where specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.

System and method for delay reduction via automatic target packet transmission


A new cultivar of Chamelaucium, ‘Strawberry Surprise’ that is characterized by its flowers that are a rich pink in color, its flower buds that are hot pink in color, its flower clusters that bloom from axels up to 12 cm the length of the stems (longer than typical), and its late blooming period.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Chamelaucium of hybrid origin, 'Strawberry Surprise'. The new cultivar will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, 'Strawberry Surprise'. 'Strawberry Surprise' is a new cultivar of waxflower, an evergreen shrub grown for use as a landscape plant and is particularly suited for cut flower use.
The Inventor discovered the new cultivar of Chamelaucium in September of 2005 as a naturally occurring whole plant mutation in a production field at a nursery in Coorow, Australia. The parent plants are unknown, however, the parents are thought to be Chamelaucium uncinatum 'Purple Pride' (not patented) and Chamelaucium 'Sweet Georgia' (not patented, hybrid origin) based on the characteristics of the new cultivar and their proximity in the field to 'Strawberry Surprise'.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by the Inventor by stem cuttings in Coorow, Australia in September of 2005. Asexual propagation by stem cuttings has determined that the characteristics of this cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.


Methods and systems for determining that a medical delivery device has been activated may be provided. According to certain aspects, a user captures a first image to determine if a medical delivery device is ready to be activated. The first image is transmitted to a health care provider which verifies that the medical delivery device should be activated. If the medical delivery device is to be activated, an electronic device instructs the user to activate the medical delivery device. Subsequently, the user transmits details about the activation of the medical delivery device to the health care provider to update a medical record.

A medication regimen often requires that a patient is administered a medication on a regular schedule. Many medication regimens allow for a patient to administer the medication himself or herself without requiring a visit to a health care provider (HCP). Some patients may either forget or become temporarily unable to self-administer a medication according to the regimen, potentially resulting significant health consequences. Other health consequences may result from the operation of a wrong delivery device usable for delivering the medication. Adverse consequences for the patient may be avoided if an HCP or the patient is alerted that a scheduled injection was missed. Improving medication compliance can assist in improving health care outcomes.
Thus, a need exists for a system, an electronic device and a method that enable an HCP or a patient to verify that the delivery device has been properly operated (for example, activated).

System and method for detecting activation of a medical delivery device


A method is disclosed for receiving a plurality of play events associated with a sporting event, wherein each play event of the plurality of play events comprises a timestamp; for each of the play events, associating the play event with a sports team of a plurality of sports teams; for each of the play events, associating with the play event a particular icon from among a plurality of different icons based, at least in part, on the sports team that is associated with the play event; causing to display a bar in a graphical user interface of a mobile computing device, wherein the bar represents at least a portion of a time duration of the sporting event; for each of the play events, causing to display the particular icon at a position in the bar, wherein the position is based, at least in part, on the timestamp of the event.

The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Certain games, or sporting events, are comprised of plays. A play may be a series of movements by at least one player, frequently in concert with a team of players, to score points, achieve a goal, or advance the position of a team, ball, puck, or other object(s). Examples include plays in the American game of football. Frequently, another player, or team of players, acts in opposition to prevent advancement.
Fans frequently review game plays for the purpose of experiencing the play again, viewing details of the play, or analysis of the play or the game. For example, fans will review one or more plays in which a score was made. Accordingly, plays may be made available to fans to review. One method of presenting reviewable plays is to list plays in chronological order. However, merely listing plays consecutively in chronological order may be overwhelming and difficult for a fan to find a particular play that the fan wants to review. Furthermore, fans may not remember at which point during a game a particular play occurred. Therefore, there is a need for improved techniques of displaying information about game plays.

Game event display with scroll bar and play event icons


A magnetic knob is provided for use with a series of plates attached to threaded mounts which may be substituted for kitchen or bathroom cabinet door or drawer knobs. The user simply unscrews existing kitchen and/or bathroom cabinet knobs and replaces them with flat metal plates attached to threaded shafts. The metal plates are a direct replacement for the existing knobs and may not require any drilling or screwing or even use of tools. Once installed, the metal plates provide no means of gripping. Thus, the cabinet cannot be opened by a child or other unauthorized user (e.g., mentally handicapped individual). A knob provided with a strong magnet is provided so that an authorized user may attach the knob to one of the metal plates and thus open the cabinet.

A number of child-safety devices are known in the art to protect children and others (e.g., mentally handicapped) from unauthorized access to cabinets, cupboards, and the like.
One such product is marketed under the name SAFETY1ST TOT LOK FOR CABINETS AND DOORS and is illustrated on www.drugstore.com and www.safety1st.com websites. The TOT LOK uses magnetically activated latch that is attached to the inside of a door. Applying a magnetic "key" to the other side of the door releases the latch.
A number of Patents are related to the TOT LOK device. Richards, U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,464, issued Apr. 23, 1990, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a magnetically operated latch. This latch is located on the INSIDE of the cabinet and requires some drilling to install. A magnetic "knob" is placed on the outside of the cabinet to unlatch the latch, but it does not appear that this knob is used to actually pull open the cabinet door. Richards explicitly states that a conventional handle (not shown) is used to open the door (Col. 2, lines 65-68) although the magnetic knob may remain attached to the door. This type of device would probably tend to scar the finish of the cabinet by sliding the knob against the outside. In addition, it requires some extensive machining to the cabinet to install the rod and latch hardware.
Note that the rod installation is particularly troublesome, as it requires the user to drill a substantially sized hole, partially through the cabinet door. Careless drilling could result in the user putting a hole through the cabinet face, ruining the cabinet. From casual inspection of the TOT LOK latches at the local LOWES™ home improvement center, it appears that the rod portion may have been deleted from the final design. Nevertheless, the TOT LOK requires that holes be drilled into the inside of the cabinet door to install. Moreover, the TOT LOK apparatus is not cheap.
Richards, U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,273, issued Nov. 13, 1990, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method of marking a cabinet or door for drilling using a sticker template. This Patent is not really relevant to the present invention, but illustrates the amount of careful machining necessary in order to install the TOT LOK magnetic catch on a door. The template is really needed, as accurate drilling may be necessary in order to insure the magnetic catch is properly installed.
Richards, U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,623, issued Dec. 31, 1991, and incorporated herein by reference, is a Continuation-In-Part of the Richards '464 Patent and appears to disclose minor variations on the original TOT LOK design.
Maccaferri, U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,405, issued Feb. 23, 1993, and incorporated herein by reference appears to disclose the identical TOT LOK invention as Richards '464 filed nearly a year earlier. However, the two applications do not claim priority from one another and although the drawings are identical in every aspect, it is clear they were drawn by different draftsmen. Maccaferri appears to be claiming only an improvement in the Richards design, namely a locking means to hold the latch open when it is not desired to lock the cabinet.
The TOT LOK Patents teach a device which uses a magnet to release a CATCH, not to open the door. Moreover, Richards explicitly states that his device cannot open the door, but the user must rely upon the existing handle. The TOT LOK device is not easy to install, as it requires drilling into the cabinet as illustrated by Richards drilling template Patent. In addition, the catch release of Maccaferri defeats the whole point of TOT LOK. A user must manually test each cabinet to insure that the latch is not defeated. Yet, the catch release of Maccaferri is necessary, as it would be cumbersome for a user to have to release a catch every time they wanted to use a cabinet.
While TOT LOK represents an effort in improving the safety of cabinetry, its cost, complexity, difficult installation, modification of cabinetry, and lack of easy use, leave it lacking. For example, a parent renting a home would be hesitant to use TOT LOK as it would modify or alter the cabinetry, and the landlord might not approve of such alterations. In addition, the installation requires a number of hand tools as well as a drill, and thus takes considerable time and skill to install. What is needed is a simple device which can be installed by any parent or consumer, even those without hand tools skills.
Other Patents are known in the art, which show various types of child safety devices. JULIAN, U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,616, issued Aug. 13, 2002, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a child safety latch assembly. This complex apparatus requires that the user hold the drawer face while pulling the knob in order to release the drawer. It is not clear why merely pulling the knob will not release the drawer. The device is complex and requires a fairly complicated installation procedure. Moreover, this apparatus does not appear to be safety oriented, but rather provides only a positive latching mechanism to prevent a drawer from opening accidentally. While Julian mentions that child safety is one motivation behind his latch, it is unclear to applicant how this device provides any child safety. To hold one hand on the drawer face while pulling the knob may be intuitive to a child. Thus, there is no positive mechanism that prevents a child from opening such a drawer or cupboard.
CHRONES, U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,351, issued Apr. 4, 1978, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a safety cover for a doorknob. This safety cover is typical of the various sliding covers sold at safety stores and on-line to parents. While useful for doorknobs, they are not applicable to cabinets and the like. Since the device rotates over the doorknob, it may prevent a child from opening a door. When the child tries to turn the cover, it rotates freely, and the doorknob does not turn. However, if this device were applied to a cupboard or drawer knob, it would provide no safety. If the child pulled on the cover, the cupboard or drawer would open.
HOLLANDER, U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,690, issued Mar. 3, 1981, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a safety knob using a ratchet mechanism. Again, this knob does not appear to be readily adaptable to kitchen cabinets with friction or magnetic catches, as it is designed for rotating door knobs. The ratchet mechanism prevents a child from rotating the doorknob in one direction. The device does not prevent anyone from pulling on the knob, however.
The idea of providing removable knobs for child safety appears to be known in the art. DUEFRENE, U.S. Pat. No. 2,440,170, issued Apr. 20, 1948, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a removable knob, which he teaches may be used for furniture and the like. The knob snaps off by using an interference fit between two pliable materials. DUEFRENE explicitly discloses that his removable knob may be used as a child-safety device (Col. 1, lines 50-55), but does not disclose any magnetic feature.
One problem with DUEFRENE is that his knob snaps onto a screw or base. Thus, even when the knob is removed, the base or screw is still present and can be used to pull open a cabinet. See, for example, FIGS. 4, 5, 6, and 10 of DUEFRENE. In order to be really effective as a child safety knob, a removable knob should leave no base or screw that a child could grasp and open the cabinet with. In addition, the mechanical snap fastener of DUEFRENE would appear to wear over time, and thus the apparatus could lose its effectiveness (grip) after repeated use.
The idea of magnetically removable knobs or handles is known in other arts, but it does not appear that any of these types of knobs or handles have been applied to the child safety problem. The TOK LOK described above uses magnets, but only to release a catch.
ENDOU, Published Japanese Patent Application Ser. No. JP 4-10151074A, published Jun. 9, 1998, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a magnetic knob, which may be applied to pot lids. By removing the knob, the lids may be nested for better storage. Note that his "magnet board" 3 (See FIG. 2) is attached to the pot lid by a flange. It appears that this knob is designed to be built-in to the pot lid at the factory, and is not an add-on device for installation by a consumer. ENDOU does not teach or suggest applying his magnetic knob to other applications.
ADINOLFI, U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,739, issued Nov. 3, 1992, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a sanitary equipment handler using magnetically held, detachable handle. ADINOLFI discloses that a surgeon or the like can hold the handle to open drawers or move equipment without having to touch the equipment with his hands.
ADINOLFI uses magnetic plates mounted on the devices to be moved (drawers, lights, etc.) and provides a knob-like sterilize-able handle (FIG. 1) made of a ferrous material to attach to such magnetic plates. The ADINOLFI design requires a number of expensive magnets, one for each cabinet door or drawer. ADINOLFI probably uses the magnets on the drawers, as constantly autoclaving magnets on handles (to sterilize them) would probably demagnetize them. For an application like surgical devices, such an expense is probably acceptable. But for a consumer application, providing a number of expensive and powerful magnets would not be cost-effective.
In addition, the device of ADINOLFI requires that these magnets be installed to each device to be manipulated by the sterilized handle. The devices to be manipulated must have the magnets built-in to them or have them attached using hardware attached through holes 8. Thus, drilling or machining of the device to be manipulated is required, which necessitates the alteration of the device to be manipulated, as well as the use of power tools to install the device.
There are other disadvantages of ADINOLFI as well. The presence of so many magnets could create problems, as watches, jewelry, forks, knives, and other cutlery, could attach themselves to the magnets of ADINOLFI if it could be adapted for kitchen use (Note that ADINOLFI makes no such teaching or suggestion). As ADINOLFI is directed toward surgical applications, this may not be a problem in that environment, as many if not most surgical tools are made from stainless steels, which are non-magnetic. However, in households, magnetic materials abound. Watches in particular can be damaged by large magnets. The large magnetic plates are also unsightly and would be difficult to mount, as drilling and screwing would be required.
BLANCHET, U.S. Pat. No. 3,302,566, issued Feb. 7, 1967, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a magnetic handle for a series of rubber stamps. BLANCHET uses two magnets having their poles in opposite relationship (N-S) so as to attract to one another. One magnet is mounted to the stamp handle, and the other to the rubber stamp body. BLANCHET probably used this two-magnet technique as it allowed him to use less powerful magnets. Note that the size of the handle shaft precludes the use of a magnet of any appreciable size. The use of two magnets increases the overall cost of the design. BLANCHET does not teach or suggest the use of his invention outside of the rubber stamp art.
Thus, a requirement remains in the art for an inexpensive, easy to install, and easy to use system that can provide "child-proofing" of cabinets without having to drill holes in the cabinets. Such a system should have an easy visual way of determining whether the cabinets are secured without having to manually latch each cabinet. Moreover, such a system should be easy enough for the average homeowner to install without the use of screws, drills, or even tools.


A method of decarbonating fermented liquids in-line may include directing a carbonated malt-based liquid through a nozzle, and directing the carbonated malt-based liquid from the nozzle into a space maintained at a partial vacuum pressure. The method may further include maintaining the carbonated malt-based beverage in the space until substantially all of the carbon dioxide dissolved within the carbonated malt-based beverage has been removed to provide a non-carbonated liquid, and removing the non-carbonated liquid from the space at substantially the same rate that the carbonated malt-based liquid is directed into the space.

In recent years, malt-based beverages, and especially beers, are a fast growing market in many countries such as China and India. In many commercial establishments, these malt-based beverages are dispensed from large commercial dispensing taps. However, such systems are not logical for adaptation for wide personal use. Rather, personal servings of malt-based beverages are independently packaged for transport and sale. However, the preparation and transportation of personal malt or cereal based beverages has come at great expense. Due to their nature, malt or cereal based beverages have traditionally been carbonated at their source and then transported to their end destination in amber or otherwise dark colored glass bottles or aluminum cans. Dark colored glass bottles and aluminum cans have been the traditional containers for the storage and transportation of malt or cereal based beverages because they provide secure containment of the carbonated liquid without the release of unacceptable levels of carbon dioxide during storage. Additionally, dark colored bottles and aluminum cans are configured to prevent the exposure of the malt or cereal based beverage to the degrading effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun or other light sources.
Traditional bottles and aluminum cans have also been designed to have generally cylindrical shapes due to the ease of manufacturing such shapes. However, the generally cylindrical shape of glass bottles and aluminum cans are inefficient for storage and transport. Cylindrical shapes are unable to be efficiently stacked for transport or storage without a large amount of wasted space between the cylindrical shapes. Furthermore, cylindrical shapes can typically only be stacked in a single vertical layer without becoming unstable for transportation. Consequently, square or rectangular structural containers and large amounts of packaging material are typically used for the transportation and stabilization of multiple cylindrical containers.
A need exists for a container that can be used for the efficient storage and transport of cereal or malt based personal beverages.

Methods for decarbonating fermented liquids


The disclosed embodiments provide a battery cell. The battery cell includes a set of layers which are wound together to form a jelly roll, including a cathode with an active coating, a separator, and an anode with an active coating. The battery cell also includes a pouch enclosing the layers, wherein the pouch is flexible. To increase a current flow in the battery cell, a first set of conductive tabs is coupled to a cathode substrate of the cathode, and a second set of conductive tabs is coupled to an anode substrate of the anode.

Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to batteries for portable electronic devices. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to the coupling of multiple conductive tabs to each electrode of a battery cell to facilitate current flow in the battery cell.
Related Art
Rechargeable batteries are presently used to provide power to a wide variety of portable electronic devices, including laptop computers, tablet computers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital music players and cordless power tools. The most commonly used type of rechargeable battery is a lithium battery, which can include a lithium-ion or a lithium-polymer battery.
Lithium-polymer batteries often include cells that are packaged in flexible pouches. Such pouches are typically lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture. Moreover, these pouches may be tailored to various cell dimensions, allowing lithium-polymer batteries to be used in space-constrained portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptop computers, and/or digital cameras. For example, a lithium-polymer battery cell may achieve a packaging efficiency of 90-95% by enclosing jelly rolls of wound electrodes and electrolyte in an aluminized laminated pouch. Multiple pouches may then be placed side-by-side within a portable electronic device and electrically coupled in series and/or in parallel to form a battery for the portable electronic device.
However, wound battery cell structures such as jelly rolls may have high internal resistances that preclude efficient current distribution and/or flow during high transient discharge currents. For example, a pulse discharge of a lithium-polymer battery cell containing a jelly roll may cause a significant voltage drop in the battery cell and/or an imbalance in the internal current distribution of the battery cell. In turn, the full discharge capacity of the battery cell may not be utilized. For example, a −4 C pulse discharge of a lithium-polymer battery cell may cause the voltage of the battery cell to drop below a 2.8V discharge-termination voltage for the battery after only 67% of the battery cell's capacity is used.
Consequently, use of wound battery cell structures may be facilitated by mechanisms for improving the transient voltage responses of the battery cell structures to high transient discharge currents.

Multiple conductive tabs for facilitating current flow in batteries


A fiber optic measurement device including an optical frequency domain reflectometer (OFDR) performs polarization diversity detection without using a polarizing beam splitter.

Mixing between a reference signal and a data signal is often necessary to extract information about an optical device. A probe signal and a reference signal originating from the same source are typically mixed, resulting in fringes that can be detected and used to assess information about the device being probed. In interferometric sensing, a reference signal is mixed with a signal whose phase and/or amplitude is modified by a parameter to be measured.
The mixing produces an interference signal, and the amplitude of the interference signal depends on how efficiently the two optical signals mix. When the two signals have the same polarization state, the mixing efficiency is 100%. When the two signals have orthogonal polarization states, no mixing occurs—0% efficiency. Between these two limits, only the portion of the signals whose polarization states resolve onto a single polarization axis actually mix. The reduced, mixed-signal amplitude results from an unmixed component in an orthogonal polarization state. This inefficiency is usually referred to as polarization induced fringe fading.
Polarization diversity detection overcomes polarization induced fading. One commonly known interferometric scheme that can suffer from polarization fading is Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry (OFDR). OFDR injects a highly monochromatic beam of light into the optical system or device to be tested. The frequency of that light is varied slowly with a time-linear sweep, and the optical signal back-scattered from the optical system is detected by coherently mixing the back-scattered signal with the reference input signal. The beat frequency component of the mixed signal, (corresponding to an interference signal), is measured to determine a position of the back-scattering (reflection) point in the optical system/fiber. The interference signal amplitude also determines a back-scattering factor and an attenuation factor for the reflected light.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,376,830 and 5,789,521 provide further details regarding OFDR measurement and are incorporated herein by reference. Reference may also be made to commonly-assigned, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/005,819, entitled "Apparatus and Method for the Complete Characterization of Optical Devices Including Loss, Birefringence, and Dispersion Effects," filed on Dec. 14, 2001.
A single mode optical fiber supports two degenerate polarization modes. This degeneracy causes field energy to be transferred between the modes as they propagate down the fiber. This phenomenon causes the polarization fading in fiber-optic interferometers. FIG. 1 shows schematically a Mach-Zender interferometer. The arrows denote electric field (E) vector components. Polarization fading occurs whenever E1 and E2 are not co-linear, i.e., Ē1·Ē2=|Ē1∥Ē2|cos θ, θ≠0. The power measured at the detector is proportional to the square of the absolute value of (E1+E2). The interference terms of this relationship are proportional to E1·E2*+E2·E1*, where * denotes a complex conjugate. When a first coupler C1 splits the input field Ein, there is a chance that the split fields E1 and E2 in the respective interferometer arms evolve into orthogonal polarizations. As described above, in that situation, no interference fringes will be detected, and there is complete polarization fading or 0% mixing efficiency.
A worst case scenario in which the fields interfering on the detector, E1 and E2, are orthogonal is shown in FIG. 2. More formally, in some orthogonal basis, the fields can be written E1=(a, 0)exp(iωτ) and E2=(0, d), where τ is the propagation time difference between the two interferometer arms (τ=neL/c, where ne is the effective (modal) index of the fiber. The basis of a vector set includes two vectors in two dimensions or three vectors in three dimensions that are used to represent all other possible vectors. Knowing the basis of a vector set is essentially the same as knowing the coordinate system for a point in space. For example, a location may be described as being at 32 degrees North and 25 degrees West. The coordinate system is the set of latitude and longitude lines on the Earth, and the particular location is understood. The basis set is a pair of vectors, each one degree (60 nautical miles) long, with one vector pointed to the North and one vector pointed to the West.
Now in the S-P basis set, shown in FIG. 2 as orthogonal, the fields can be written as E1=(a′, b′)exp(iωτ) and E2=(c′, d′) so E1·E2=0, but E1+E2=(a′ exp (iωτ)+c′, b′ exp (iωτ)+d′). Polarization diversity detection detects the s and p components (or projections onto the s and p axes) of E1+E2 separately using two S and P detectors. The power at each detector is proportional to the modulus squared of the components of the total field:Ps∝|a′exp(iωτ)+c′|2  (1)Pp∝|b′exp(iωτ)+d′|2  (2)These diversity power signals exhibit fringes even though the total field, i.e., the sum of two orthogonal fields, does not.
Polarization diversity detection may be implemented using a polarizing beam splitter (PBS) as show in FIG. 3. If the field at the PBS is Ebs and is given by Ebs=(A, B) in the basis set of the polarizing beam splitter, then the measured powers at the S and P detectors are Ps∝|A|2 and Pp∝|B|2. When the PBS splits the field into different components, the crystalline structure of the PBS imposes an orthonormal basis onto which the incident field is projected. That orthonormal basis is needed to extract information contained in the E1 and E2 amplitudes.
But there are drawbacks with using polarizing beam splitters. First, they are bulky and expensive. Second, polarizing beam splitters add stray reflections to the detected signals. Third, if the polarizing beam splitter is designed to operate in a particular wavelength, e.g., 1500 nm, it cannot be easily and inexpensively altered to operate at a non-standard wavelength, such as 800 nm, at least as compared to a standard optical coupler. For these and other reasons, it is an object of the present invention to perform polarization diversity detection without a polarizing beam splitter.
The present invention performs polarization diversity detection without using a polarizing beam splitter. Field vectors from one interferometer arm are used as the basis upon which to project a field vector from the other interferometer arm. Polarization diversity detection is performed using only standard optical couplers, e.g., 50-50 couplers. A polarization beam splitter is not needed.
A first coupler receives a first optical signal from a device or system under test and generates first and second coupler outputs. A second coupler receives a second optical signal from a reference source and generates third and fourth coupler outputs. A first polarization controller (PC) changes the polarization state of the third coupler output and generates a PC output. A third coupler generates a first combined output from the first coupler output and the PC output. A fourth coupler generates a second combined output from the second coupler output and the fourth coupler output. A first detector detects a first power of the first combined output in a first projection plane, and a second detector detects a second power of the second combined output in a second projection plane. A processor processes interference terms in the first and second powers in the first and second projection planes to determine one or more characteristics of the first optical signal.
A second polarization controller changes the polarization of the first optical signal before it is received in the first optical coupler. The first and second polarization controllers are adjusted to calibrate the fiber optic measurement device. Different second polarization controller settings result in multiple corresponding vector measurements at the first and second detectors. The processor calculates a vector calibration matrix using these vector measurements. The processor corrects subsequent detected vector measurements using the vector calibration matrix. The corrected vector measurements ensure that the vector representation of the first optical signal are in an ortho-normal basis set.
The OFDR components can be constructed simply using optical fiber, and if desired, from the same type of standard low-loss fiber. Matching the type of fiber throughout the optical network results in very low losses with essentially zero scattering events in the network. As a result, the OFDR produces very clean time domain measurements (only reflection events from the device under test appear).
Another advantage of fiber-based OFDR construction is significant cost reduction and increased reliability and flexibility. A polarization controller can be implemented simply as a single loop of fiber that is moved to achieve a certain polarization state at the output. Once the loop is positioned, it need not be moved again. Couplers are constructed by melting two optical fibers together. In order to manufacture couplers for operation at widely different wavelengths, (e.g., 615 nm and 1550 nm), coupler manufacturers need only purchase fiber (an inexpensive commodity) designed for that wavelength and melt two sections together using the same process for all wavelengths. No re-tooling or significant changes to the process are required. As a result, couplers are readily available at all wavelengths at a reasonable price in contrast to polarization beam splitters and other bulk-optic based optical components.
Other features, aspects, and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrated by way of example. Like reference symbols refer to like elements throughout.

Polarization diversity detection without a polarizing beam splitter


An innovative wing structure provides fibs to support skin panels without an attachment between the rib and the stringer free flange or the web. The support is provided by rib shear ties installed directly to the stringer skin flange. The rib incorporates a cut away to allow the stringer to pass through the rib. The composite stringer is an ‘I’ section and is stable under compression, not requiring mechanical methods to prevent rolling over.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of aircraft structural systems and more particularly to a rib structure and attachment system for composite wing panels.
2. Description of the Related Art
In aircraft structures, wing panels, which consist of skins and stringers, react wing bending loads. These loads and the resulting deflections produce upper wing compression buckling and a crushing load on ribs supporting the wing panels. The compression buckling capability for the panel is driven by geometry, rib spacing and stringer spacing. The boundary conditions for the panel are determined by the method of support the rib gives the skin/stringer.
Traditional aluminum panel design as shown in FIG. 1 provided panel support by attaching the rib 10 to the stringer 12 by means of a series of rib bolts 14 between the free flange 16 of the stringers and the associated rib chord flange 18. Skins 20 are attached to the stringer outer flanges 22 using fasteners. An alternative method is to attach a butterfly clip between the stringer web and the rib chord. These attachments provide column stability for the panel and do not let the stringer roll over. These designs are undesirable because they require installation while the wing box is being built. Drilling holes inside an enclosed wing box presents many challenges and provides a source for costly rework.
Further, if this rib bolt design is applied to a composite wing structure, it creates interlaminar tension problems in the stringer radius. This is a poor load path for the composite structure which may require reinforcement methods for the stringer radius adding more cost. The composite wing also needs disbond affestment fasteners common to the stringer and skin in addition to the rib to stringer attachment.
It is therefore desirable to provide structural elements that provide an improved load path for rib support of wing panels. It is further desirable that the structure not require drilling of holes inside an enclosed wing box.


A bearing arrangement (1) for pivotable mounting of a shift lever (2) by a casing (10) in a housing (3) that provides a tilt axis (9a) and a pivot axis (8a) for the shift lever (2). The tilt axis (9a) and the pivot axis (8a) are mutually spaced apart.

DE 43 09 861 C1 describes a shift arrangement for shifting gears by means of a shift lever. One or two selectively shiftable gears situated on a gearshaft are respectively allocated to a shift plane. Several gears can be shifted by means of the shifting device. At least a gear, or at most two drive wheels, are allocated to a shift plane. Each gear can be shifted only in its predetermined shift plane.
The shift lever is pivotably arranged by means of a support arrangement with respect to a housing. The support arrangement makes possible pivoting movements of the shift lever in a selection plane and in a shift plane aligned transversely of the selection plane. During the selection and shifting processes, the shift lever is guided by a slide.
The shift lever is in a neutral position in the selection plane and is selectively pivotable out of the neutral position into one of at least two inoperative positions in the selection plane by the selection of shift planes. If the shift lever is in one of the inoperative positions, a shift plane is selected. The shift lever is pivotable into a shift position out of the inoperative position in the shift plane for shifting one of the gears. The neutral position of the shift lever is for the most part also one of the inoperative positions, from which one of two gears is selectively shiftable.
In the inoperative positions or in the neutral position of the shift lever, selector shafts are in a middle, neutral position, in which the gears shiftable by means of the selector shafts are not shifted. The shift lever is provided with a shift finger at a free end. Each of the selector shafts has an engagement groove or a shift opening for the engagement of the shift finger. A selective engagement in one of at least two axially parallel selector shafts is effected by selection movements of the shift lever. The shift lever in these positions is movably coupled to one of the selector shafts.
A pivoting of the shift lever in the shift plane from the inoperative position in one or other direction results in a displacement of the selector shaft coupled to the shift lever, since the shift finger acts on a side bounding the engagement groove. One of the gears allocated to the selector shafts is engaged by the displacement of the selector shaft.
The shift lever described in DE 31 25 632 is pivotably received by means of a universal joint with respect to a housing fixed to the vehicle. This joint or this support arrangement provides a box-shaped casing. The casing receives the shift lever and is supported, for pivoting by means of the shift lever, around a tilt axis directed transversely of the pivot axis. The tilt axis is aligned with the middle axis of selectively one or two pivot studs. The pivot studs support the casing, pivotably on the housing in the selection plane, however not in the shift plane. The shift lever is pivotable in the selection plane, immovable in the casing, and pivotable with the casing around the tilt axis. In a selection movement on the shift finger, the shift lever pivoting around the tilt axis takes the casing with it. The shift finger is arranged on the shift lever on the opposite side of the tilt axis from the shift grip (shift knob), and with the shift lever, pivots around the tilt axis in the selection plane.
The support arrangement furthermore provides for a pivotable support of the shift lever in the shift plane around a pivot axis in the casing. The pivot axis runs transversely of the tilt axis. The pivot axis is at the same time the middle axis of a pivot stud arranged in the casing. The shift lever is supported on the casing around the pivot stud in the shift plane, however not in the selection plane. The shift finger is arranged at the opposite end of the shift lever to the pivot axis, also supported pivotably in the shift plane, but not in the selection plane, around the pivot axis. The pivot axis and the tilt axis are situated so that they intersect in a common plane.
This solution, while generally satisfactory, has the disadvantage that because the pivot axis and tilt axis of the shift lever are situated in one plane, limits are set on the adjustment of shift forces and shift paths. "Shift forces" are to be understood as the forces which can be perceptible by the operator on applying force (on shift knob) when the operator selects and shifts gears. The shift lever travels over a path defined on its point of force application when selecting and shifting. Thus each further point on the lever between the point of force application and the pivot or tilt axis travels a path defined by its distance from the axes. The path, for the most part in radian measure, is dependent on the distance of the shift knob to the axes. With the same pivot angle of the shift lever around the tilt axis or pivot axis, each of the points, independently of whether it is swiveled around the tilt axis or pivot axis, travels the same path. The shift lever is frequently guided by a shift slide located between the point of force application and the axes. The design of slides which save material and space is often limited because of the same path of the shift lever in the slide for selection and shift movements. The shift forces on the shift knob can be affected by the lever ratio of the shift lever. The lever ratio results from the distance of the knob from the axes and the distance of the axes from the engagement of the shift finger in the engagement groove of the selector shaft. Limits are as a rule set on the length of the shift lever projecting into the passenger space, conditioned by constructional space. The length of the shift finger, starting from the crossed axes, is dependent on the position of the elements of the internal shift setup adjoining the shift lever.
On selecting the shift plane and on shifting the gears, the pivoting shift lever is guided by means of guide tracks, e.g., a slide. The pivoting movements of the shift lever in the selection and shift directions are limited by stops. The stops ensure that the shift finger after the conclusion of selection engages a shift plane exactly in one of the engagement grooves of one of the selector shafts. The stops which limit the shift path of the shift finger ensure that the selector shaft is displaced exactly into its predetermined position and not beyond it.
Only one gear can be shifted during a shift process. If two gears are allocated to a shift plane, one of the gears in the shift plane cannot be shifted from the outset or is locked in the shift plane by means of a locking device, while the other is shifted. According to the design of the shift device, the further shift planes adjacent to the selected shift plane are locked against inadvertent or automatic selection. A false selection or shift is to be excluded. The gears in the shift planes adjacent to the selected shift plane are locked against inadvertent or automatic shifting during the shift of a gear and when the gear is engaged. The reverse gear is as a rule locked against inadvertent selection or shift from one of the shift positions or selection positions for shift or selection of the forward gears.
Other devices provide for a device for a perceptible increase of the shift force on the shift lever. The device is allocated to the shift plane of the reverse gear. The operator is informed, by means of the markedly rising shift force on selection of the shift plane for the reverse gear, that he is about to engage the reverse gear. The operator's perception of the position of the shift lever relative to the gears is thereby facilitated. The signal given to the operator with increasing selection force is in particular used to warn the operator of inadvertent changing out of a shift plane for the forward gears into the shift plane for the reverse gear. This so-called "crash stop" is effective on inadvertent selection and also on intentional selection of the shift plane for the reverse gear. A brief jump in selection force on the lever signals the change. The selection force is for a moment substantially higher than the forces which occur at the shift knob on selection of the shift planes for the forward gears. After the increased selection force is overcome, the actuating force falls again to a normal level.

Support arrangement for pivotable support of a shift lever