An information recording medium comprises a recording layer including a mixture of organic polysilane and oxo metallic phthalocyanine pigment. Information is recorded by adding heat or light to the recording layer. In a method for recording information onto the information recording medium, a decoloring reaction of oxo metallic phthalocyanine pigment is used which is caused by heating the recording layer to a temperature equal to or higher than a pyrolyzing point of organic polysilane.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-erasable type information recording medium (where information can be written only once) (for example, optical disks) and an information recording method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
Optical disks, where a large capacity of information can be recorded in high density, are widely used in an increasing number fields. There are two types of recording methods for optical disk: a non-erasable (write-once) type where information can be written only once; and an erasable type where information is erasable and rewritable. Of the above two types, the non-erasable type optical disks are often used as sales media for music, movies, etc., since the non-erasable type disks do not allow the re-writing of information and the costs thereof are generally restrained to be low.
Various kinds of information recording methods have been devised for non-erasable optical disks. In all of the methods, information is recorded by irradiating a narrowed laser beam on a recording layer of an optical disk to change the physical/chemical characteristics of the recording layer. The recording methods are roughly classified into two types where the following two modes are used, respectively: a heat mode where a change of the recording layer caused by a heating by laser beam is mainly used; and a photon mode where a change of the recording layer caused by the light (photon) of a laser beam is mainly used. In the heat mode recording method, which includes a punch recording method where tiny holes (pits) are made on the recording layer by a local heating by laser beam, inorganic materials such as compounds of Bi, Re and Te, chalcogenide, etc. whose melting and evaporating temperatures are low are mainly used. Moreover, in the heat mode method and the photon mode method, a refractive index/reflectance changing method is widely used where information is recorded by causing a change in the refractive index and reflectance of the recording layer. In this method, cyanic pigments are used as organic pigments, and chalcogenide, TeO.sub.2 -Te, etc., as inorganic materials.
As described above, various kinds of materials have been developed as materials for non-erasable optical disks. With respect to the inorganic materials, since the spin coating, which can be easily conducted on the organic materials, of the inorganic materials is difficult, an inefficient process such as evaporation, etc. is required in many cases to form a thin, uniform recording layer on the substrate of an optical disk. Moreover, with respect to the organic pigments such as cyanic pigments, etc., since the organic pigments tend to be decolored by light, it is required to use an optical triplet quencher and to make the organic pigments into metallic complexes to improve the stability, which complicates the manufacturing process.

Information recording medium and information recording method


A system for generating textual instructions for manufacturers from hybrid textual and image data includes a manufacturing instruction generator that may generate a language processing module from a first training set including at least a training annotated file describing at least a first product to manufacture, the at least an annotated file containing one or more textual data, and at least an instruction set containing one or more manufacturing instructions to manufacture the at least a first product. Manufacturing instruction generator may use the language processing to generate textual instructions for manufacturers from at least an annotated file and may initiate manufacture using the generated manufacturing instructions.

Designers of items to manufacture frequently submit designs in the form of files having images of the items to manufacture, plus handwritten or typed words indicating how they want manufacturing to proceed. The problem that this creates is that different designers may use terms differently, and not everybody knows what each term means. This means that the typical method of producing textual instructions for manufacturers is both laborious and inaccurate. The resulting manufacturing process can require frequent manual intervention and correction.

Systems and methods for generating textual instructions for manufacturers from hybrid textual and image data


A visible ray communication system and method that improve transmission rate and remove an influence of inter-color interference to improve the communication quality. A transmission apparatus included in the visible ray communication system allocates each carrier signal component of an OFDM signal, which is modulated into transmission information, to a plurality of LEDs of different colors. The information is added to a combination of a carrier frequency and an LED wavelength, when a carrier signal is allocated to an, in addition to each carrier signal being modulated into the information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a visible ray communication system and a method for transmitting a signal therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical communication technology using a visible light region is receiving more attention. For example, researchers are investigating an illuminating device, such as a Light Emitting Diode (LED), as a potential technology for achieving high speed data communication.
As a light emitting device for high speed optical data communication, an LED is a leading candidate in consideration of an influence on a human body or medical appliances. However, a semiconductor light emitting element with a higher speed response performance, such as a Laser Diode (LD) or a Super Luminescent Diode (SLD), is another proposed candidate. The data transmission speed in optical communication depends on a response speed of a light emitting element. Accordingly, light emitting elements with higher speed response performances are currently receiving more attention.
Also, in order to further improve the data transmission speed, a technology for stably transmitting large amounts of data in one signal emitted from a light emitting element is desired. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication HEI 2008-252444 discloses a technology for preventing spatial interference by allocating a time axis of an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal in a spatial direction.
If an OFDM scheme is used, it is possible to improve the frequency use efficiency and multi-pass resistance. Therefore, the OFDM scheme is widely used in a wireless communication system (e.g., a wireless Local Area Network (LAN)) or a wired communication system (e.g., Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)). An OFDM scheme is also expected to improve the communication quality in the visible ray communication. However, there is a problem of increasing a Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) in the OFDM scheme. That is, a large dynamic range is required in a transmitter and receiver.
Accordingly, if the OFDM scheme is applied to the visible ray communication utilizing an LED, a large amount of current is supplied to the LED. For example, current of several 100 mA to several A flows to the LED. Therefore, a drive circuit is then installed, which is capable of handling a signal having a wide dynamic range on a transmission side. However, a conventional LED is designed for emitting light of a certain light quantity. Therefore, requiring a specific device to handle the signal of the large dynamic range is inconvenient, if even possible.
If the OFDM scheme is applied to the visible ray communication, as much transmission data as the number of carriers are generated through serial-to-parallel conversion in the transmission side. Each of the transmission data is allocated to a carrier signal to be added, and light emission of an LED is controlled in a light-emitting strength according to signal amplitude, after the corresponding addition.
Further, if a plurality of LEDs of different light-emitting colors (light frequency) is used, there are concerns on influence of inter-color interference generated by a frequency property of the LEDs and Photo Diodes (PDs), but there is an orthogonal property between the carriers as described above so that the influence by the inter-color interference is prevented. Therefore, it is possible to increase the number of multiplexing operations (the number of colors) by a certain degree and improve the transmission rate. However, the frequency between the colors is adjacent according to the increase of the number of multiplexing operations and thus the influence of inter-color interference increases, such that there is a limitation in an effect of transmission rate increase through the increase of the number of multiplexing operations. For this reason, in order to more improve the transmission rate, technology for transmitting more data with the same number of multiplexing operations is required.

Visible ray communication system and method for transmitting signal


A clock distribution circuit with multiple clock drivers distributing a clock signal on multiple signal paths has active de-skewing logic circuitry for equalizing the total clock delay to the different clock recipient circuits in a system. The de-skewing logic uses a return path parallel to the outward signal path to sense the propagation delay and includes a phase comparator with inputs receiving the return signal and a reference signal for comparison of their phase. Voltage-controlled delay elements, responsive to a control voltage provided by a charge pump controlled by the phase comparator, adds or removes equal amounts of delay to the outward and return signal paths until the return signal phase matches that of the reference signal. Each clock driver may have its own de-skewing circuitry or may share a common reference signal. In one embodiment the de-skewing circuitry for each driver time-shares a common phase comparator and charge pump, using sample-and-hold circuits to store the control voltages obtained by the comparisons. Input receivers on the return paths may have selectable input buffers to take into account the different buffer delays of different logic family types of the clock recipients.

Accurate timing for a system is provided by clocks. To fulfill the need to send multiple clock signals to the various circuit elements in a system, clock distribution chips are provided. Such chips are capable of distributing a clock signal across a printed circuit board of a system or among several printed circuit boards. Typical clock distribution chips include at least one clock input terminal for receiving an external "reference" clock signal. Alternatively, some or all of the clock signals may be generated by the chip itself. Typically, the received or generated clock signal is then split into multiple clock signals on separate signal paths for receipt by the chip's several clock drivers. The drivers distribute these multiple clock signals as outputs through multiple clock output terminals. The clock signals then propagate over wire traces across the printed circuit board to the recipient circuit elements or chips in the system.
Clock distribution chips are used especially in high speed systems, where accurate timing is essential to avoid conflicts on system busses that are used by several circuit elements of these systems, and also to minimize as much as possible various circuit elements having to wait unduly long time periods for other circuit elements to complete their operations before beginning the next operation in a sequence of successive program instructions. As systems get faster, and hence use shorter clock cycles, "relativistic" effects become important. Note that the time at any particular location in the system, such as at a circuit element or chip of the system, is observed as a phase of a clock signal received at that location. Because of different clock delays, the time observed at one location in the system may not be the same as the time observed at another location. The relative offset in the observed time or clock phase at different locations in the system due to clock delays is called "clock skew". As clock speeds become greater than 50 MHz, the corresponding clock cycle or period becomes less than 20 ns, and any clock skew becomes a significant portion of this clock period.
Clock delays are caused by several factors. First, it takes time for a clock signal to travel down a wire trace or other signal path to its destination, because the propagation speed is finite. A propagation delay of one nanosecond for every 15 to 18 centimeters of unloaded wire trace is typical. Skew can result if the wire trace lengths to the various circuit elements differ substantially from one another. To minimize this skew, system designers typically place the clock chip in a central location that minimizes as much as possible the variation in the propagation distances from the clock distribution chip to the receiving circuit elements in the system. Second, clock delays may be caused by the fanout on the clock distribution chip from a single received or generated reference clock signal to multiple clock signal outputs. Typical fanout delays are 2 nanoseconds for a fanout of four, doubling to 4 nanoseconds for a fanout of eight. If multiple clock distribution chips are needed, all should have the same fanout to avoid skew from this source of clock delay. Skew can also result if the multiple clock drivers on the clock distribution chip are not exactly matched. Due to manufacturing tolerances there is an intrinsic pin-to-pin skew among the chip's different clock outputs of about 0.5 to 1.0 nanoseconds for identical loads. Third, clock delays are caused by the loads on each of the clock signal paths. The clock drivers take different amounts of time to charge up the different RC loads on the various signal paths. The speed of propagation of a signal across a board tpd'=tpd .sqroot.1+(C.sub.d /C.sub.o), where tpd is the signal delay per unit length for an unloaded trace, C.sub.d is the distributed capacitance of the load (typically about 0.8-1.6 pF/cm), and C.sub.o is the intrinsic capacitance of the trace (typically about 0.8 pF/cm). The load will typically increase the clock delay by anywhere from 40% to 70% over the delay on an unloaded trace. Significant clock skew will result if the loads provided by the recipient circuit elements are not substantially identical. Typically, a circuit designer will use clock distribution chips with low intrinsic inter-driver skew and try to equalize the loads on the various signal paths. Skew can also result from different input threshold levels of the input buffers of the various recipient circuit elements or chips, because of the finite rise time of the clock signal. For example, the difference between a 1.5 V threshold for a TTL chip and a 2.5 V for a CMOS chip can cause a 1 ns clock skew between these two circuit types.
After taking all of these factors into account, the typical clock skew T.sub.skew in a well designed system is about 2 or 3 nanoseconds. This is dead time and forces the designer to design the system to tolerances of T.sub.period -T.sub.skew, where T.sub.period is period of the clock signal. In a 50 MHz system with a 20 ns clock period, a 3 ns skew means that 15% of the clock cycle is wasted. In faster systems, an even greater portion of the clock cycle will be wasted meeting system tolerance requirements due to the skew. Depending on the nature of the particular system, a one nanosecond clock skew may be intolerable, even at 50 MHz speeds.
It is known to use phase-locked-loop-like techniques and a reference clock to dynamically adjust the delays on other non-clock signal paths. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,071, Morales describes an active digital delay line circuit having two or more arrays of series-connected voltage-controlled delay elements. A reference clock and a delayed reference clock, formed by passing the reference clock through one of the arrays, are compared by a phase detector, which outputs a control voltage representation of the signal delay. This control voltage is applied to control inputs of the delay elements in each array. Thus, Morales uses a phase-locked loop to correlate on-silicon delays with the reference clock period, and then uses that result to generate or produce desired time delays of input signals received by the delay circuit.
It is an object of the invention to provide a clock distribution chip that results in reduced clock skew in systems using this chip.

Clock distribution circuit with active de-skewing


A method for simulating a concentration of impurities within a semiconductor device while the semiconductor device is being oxidized includes setting a transition region in a part of the semiconductor device which is oxidized for a unit time period, and then calculating the concentration of impurities within the transition region by solving a diffusion equation using an impurity diffusion coefficient peculiar to the transition region, thus obtaining a redistribution of impurities within the transition region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for simulating an impurity diffusion in a semiconductor while the semiconductor is being oxidized.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a prior art method for simulating a concentration of impurities within a silicon material while the silicon material is being oxidized, first mesh points are set in a silicon oxide (SiO.sub.2) region of the silicon material and second mesh points are set in a silicon (Si) region of the silicon material. Then, an old SiO.sub.2 /Si interface is advanced in said semiconductor material by a first distance determined by performing an oxidation operation upon the silicon material for a unit time period, so that a new SiO.sub.2 /Si interface is set in the semiconductor material. Then, the old SiO.sub.2 /Si interface is retarded by a second distance corresponding to a volume expansion of the semiconductor material determined by performing the oxidation operation upon the silicon material for the unit time period. In addition, an impurity transport flux by the motion of the SiO.sub.2 /Si interface is introduced, so that the effect of the impurity segregation at the SiO.sub.2 /Si interface can extend over a region where silicon oxide grows, thus enhancing the transport of impurities within this region. Thus, concentrations of impurities for the first mesh points are obtained by solving a first diffusion equation using a first impurity diffusion coefficient effective in SiO.sub.2 and the impurity transport flux by the motion of the SiO.sub.2 /Si interface, and concentrations of impurities for the second mesh points are obtained by solving a second diffusion equation using a second impurity diffusion coefficient effective in Si. This will be explained later in detail (see D. A. Antoniadis et al., "Impurity Redistribution in SiO.sub.2 -Si during Oxidation: A Numerical Solution Including Interfacial Fluxes", Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 126, No. 11, pp. 1939-1945).
In the above-described prior art impurity diffusion simulation method, however, since the impurity transport flux by the motion of the SiO.sub.2 /Si interface is defined only between a mesh point at the new SiO.sub.2 /Si interface and another mesh point within SiO.sub.2 adjacent to this mesh point, the distance between the old SiO.sub.2 /Si interface and the new SiO.sub.2 /Si interface determined by the time period is limited, since no additional mesh point is set between the old SiO.sub.2 /Si interface and the new SiO.sub.2 /Si interface. In addition, the above-described prior art impurity diffusion simulation method cannot be applied to a two-dimensional or three-dimensional impurity diffusion case.

Method for simulating impurity diffusion in semiconductor with oxidation


The present invention is one that heats the inside of the spinning pack in a short period of time while keeping temperature of an outer circumferential part of a spinning pack less than a maximum allowable temperature, and provided with: a magnetic path forming member that forms a magnetic path with a spinning pack arrangement space where the spinning pack is arranged to occupy the space and be positioned intermediate respective ends of the magnetic path forming member that border the space; and a magnetic flux generating winding that is provided so as to be wound to surround the spinning pack arrangement space.

A spinning pack used to discharge and mold synthetic resin is generally preheated to near operating temperature before being attached to a melt spinning apparatus. In many cases, a preheating furnace is used to heat the spinning pack to a high temperature around 300° C.; however, it takes time to reach a desired temperature.
For this reason, as described in Patent Literature 1, it is well known that an induction coil may be wound around an outer circumferential surface of a spinning pack to raise a temperature of the spinning pack in a short period of time by induction heating.
However, in the case of winding the induction coil around the outer circumferential surface of the spinning pack, there is a problem that the temperature of an outer circumferential part of the spinning pack rapidly rises, and therefore it takes time for a temperature of the inside, in which a flow path through which molten resin passes is formed, to reach a desired temperature.
Also, in many cases, inside of the spinning pack, a filter for removing foreign substance in the molten resin is provided, and in terms of material and structure of the filter, it is desired to set a maximum allowable temperature to approximately 400° C. For this reason, in the case of performing the heating until the inside temperature reaches the desired temperature, there is a problem that the temperature around the inside exceeds the maximum allowable temperature to damage the filter.

Spinning pack heating device and melt spinning apparatus


A fiber optic communication system comprising:                an optical signal source adapted to produce a binary amplitude modulated signal; and        an optical spectrum reshaper adapted to receive the amplitude modulated signal and to change the instantaneous frequency of the signal at its 0-to-1 and 1-to-0 transitions so as to change the instantaneous frequency of the signal so that it is substantially constant across the 1 pulse.

The quality and performance of a digital transmitter is determined by the distance over which the transmitted digital signal can propagate without severe distortions. This is typically characterized as the distance over which a dispersion penalty reaches a level of ˜1 dB. A standard 10 Gb/s optical digital transmitter, such as an externally modulated source, can transmit up to a distance of ˜50 km in standard single mode fiber at 1550 nm before the dispersion penalty reaches the level of ˜1 dB. This distance is typically called the dispersion limit. The dispersion limit is determined by the fundamental assumption that the digital signal is transform-limited, i.e., the signal has no time-varying phase across its bits and the signal has a bit period of 100 ps, or 1/(bit rate) for a 10 Gb/s.
In pending prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/068,032, filed Feb. 28, 2005 by Daniel Mahgerefteh et al. for OPTICAL SYSTEM COMPRISING AN FM SOURCE AND A SPECTRAL RESHAPING ELEMENT and/or pending prior U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/566,060, filed Apr. 28, 2004 by Daniel Mahgerefteh et al. for METHOD OF TRANSMISSION USING PARTIAL FM AND AM MODULATION, which patent applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference, there is disclosed a method for generation of an optical signal with increased dispersion tolerance based on FM modulation of an AM signal. A preferred embodiment of the invention is a novel transmitter comprising a directly modulated laser followed by an optical spectrum reshaper (OSR). This transmitter is sometimes referred to as a Chirp Managed Laser (CML™) by Azna LLC of Wilmington Mass. An important aspect of the CML™ is the generation of an AM signal having a flat-topped instantaneous frequency profile having fast rise times and fall times relative to the intensity profile of the signal.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Flat-topped chirp induced by optical filter edge

Abstract: A method for transmitting a signal through a fiber, comprising:                generating a second signal from the signal, wherein the second signal comprises a intensity profile and an adiabatic frequency profile;        generating a third signal from the second signal, wherein the third signal comprises a intensity profile and a flat-topped frequency profile.


In accordance with one embodiment, a system and method are provided for translation services to facilitate interoperation between mobility schemes. In other embodiments, the system and method may provide transport and network services for legacy applications, and adaptive coding for message, packet, link and physical layers.

Networking architectures have grown increasingly complex and have been designed for use in a wide variety of communications environments. Demand continues to rise among the subscriber base of end users for network access across diverse network environments. In particular, configuring suitable network architecture for vehicular environments (e.g., automobiles, airplanes, trains, boats, etc.) presents unique difficulties. For example, many legacy applications may not support mobility or multi-homing and thus may be of limited value in a vehicular network. Another obstacle is the lack of interoperability between various mobility schemes, which can create isolated pockets of mobile networks having nodes that cannot communicate with nodes belonging to a different type of mobile network. Moreover, the high variability and availability of wireless links due to vehicle mobility can adversely affect quality of service in a vehicular environment. High packet losses due to the varying wireless channel characteristics can cause significant degradation in the quality and quantity of services that can be provided to subscribers. Thus, providing a comprehensive architecture that can provide a quality user experience by integrating legacy applications, enabling interoperability between disparate mobility schemes, and mitigating temporary network disconnections continues to present significant challenges to system designers, automobile manufacturers, service providers, and the like.

System and method for transport, network, translation, and adaptive coding in a vehicular network environment


The reciprocating saw has a main body, a support member, a guide shoe, a locking member and an engaging member. The support member can be slid relative to the main body. The guide shoe is attached to an anterior end of the support member. The locking member can be switched between a state allowing the support member to be slid relative to the main body and a state not allowing the sliding. The engaging member is energized towards the support member. The engaging member and the support member engage or release their engagement, while the support member is being slid relative to the main body across a location allowing locking and a location not allowing locking.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reciprocating saws. Specifically, it relates to reciprocating saws improved in an operation for adjusting location of a guide shoe.
2. Description of the Related Art
Reciprocating saws are one type of power tools. A reciprocating saw comprises a guide shoe attached to the reciprocating saw's main body (hereafter referred to simply as main body). When an operator utilizes a reciprocating saw for cutting a work, the operator keeps the guide shoe in contact with the work in order to stabilize the main body.
A reciprocating saw is constructed to be able to adjust the location of the guide shoe in a direction of reciprocating motion of a saw blade. By means of adjusting the location of the guide shoe, the length by which the saw blade protrudes from the guide shoe can be adjusted. Known techniques enabling adjustment of the guide shoe are, for example, the following.
A reciprocating saw disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,091 has a support bar having a guide shoe attached thereto. The support bar can be slid, relative to a main body, in a direction of reciprocating motion of a saw blade. A plurality of location fixing grooves (termed 'cam faces' in that specification) is aligned in the support bar along its direction of sliding. The main body has a locking member (termed 'plunger' in that specification) capable of entering and exiting one of the location fixing grooves in the support bar. The locking member is energized in a direction for entering the location fixing grooves, and the locking member is provided with an operating button. This button is operated to resist the energizing force and press the locking member out of the location fixing groove. When an operator presses the operating button, the locking member is pressed out of the location fixing groove, and the support bar can be slid. When the operator removes his finger from the operating button, the locking member enters the location fixing groove, and the support bar cannot be slid.
When the location of the guide shoe is to be adjusted, the operator presses the operating button, slides the support bar until the guide shoe has been moved to a desired location, then releases his finger from the operating button. The operator must press the operating button continually throughout this series of operations.
A reciprocating saw disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,172 has a support post that supports a guide shoe, and a plurality of location fixing grooves is formed in this support post. A locking member (termed 'pin' in that specification) that is D-shaped in cross-section is attached, in a manner allowing rotation, to a main body. An operating lever for rotating the locking member is also provided. When a cylindrical portion of the locking member is located at a location fixing groove side, the support post is locked to the main body and cannot be slid. When a flat part of the locking member is located at the location fixing groove side, the support post is unlocked and can be slid.
When the location of the guide shoe is to be adjusted, the operator operates the operating lever, causing the support post to be in an unlocked state. In this state, the support post is slid until the guide shoe has been moved to a desired location. The operating lever is then operated again to lock the support post.
In these reciprocating saws, the location of the guide shoe can be adjusted by choosing, as desired, any one of the plurality of location fixing grooves. Moreover, they have the advantage that the location fixing grooves fix the location of the guide shoe reliably.


As electronic programmable valve positioning linkage for a burner used in a hot mix asphalt plant is associated with fuel, air and optionally flue gas recirculation valve motors. To avoid an undesired rich condition which might result in an explosive condition, the linkage employs a program logic which changes a valve position, depending on increase or decrease of the burner output, in response to a temperature controller and thereby maintain an acceptable lean condition. The air valve motor is controlled by the temperature controller when burner output is to be increased with the fuel valve motor following the air valve motor, and the fuel valve motor is controlled when the burner output is to be decreased with the air valve motor following the fuel valve motor. In conjunction with the linkage, a mass flow system can be provided to calculate fuel/air and/or flue gas recirculation ratios based upon measurement of air flow, fuel flow and flue gas flow. In such a mass flow system, the linkage acts as a backup for maintenance purposes and the like.

The present invention relates to a system and method for burners, and more particularly, to a system and method for mass flow control and for characterizing the fuel/air ratio for a burner used on dryers for hot mix asphalt plants and the like such that explosive and very lean conditions are avoided and continued operation of the dryer takes place in the event of malfunction of the mass flow measuring equipment.
A hot mix asphalt plant is typically used to produce asphalt pavement and includes a feed bin system for proportioning and conveying aggregate mixes into the plant, a rotating dryer drum to heat and dry the aggregate, a burner/combustion heating system to provide heat to aggregate in the rotating dryer drum, a flue gas exhaust system for conveying and filtering the exhaust gas from the dryer/heating drum, a mixing device to mix the hot aggregate with the asphalt cement, and a conveyor to move the hot mix asphalt to the user's trucks.
Generally speaking, the burner has separate air and fuel valves and associated control motors such as found in the "EcoStars" system made by Hauck Manufacturing Co., the assignee of the present application. These fuel valves can be of the butterfly type for natural gas control or, in the case of liquid fuel, an oil control valve such as the Hauck "Microvalvel". The combustion air control valve in the Hauck "EcoStar" can be a rotating multi-vane inlet fan damper or a multiple blade fan outlet damper. These different valve have different "percentage of opening versus percentage of flow" curves, and may also have different speed control valve drive motors such as Models EA-57, EA-71 or EA-73 made by Barber-Colman.
Dryers or aggregate dryers for use on hot mix asphalt plants frequently used either a mechanically or electronically linked fuel and air valves to maintain correct fuel/air ratios. These known fuel/air rationing systems typically did not, however, have the capability of varying the fuel/air ratio at in-between points in the travel of the valves without affecting the fuel/air ratios at the other points.
More recent electronic systems which have programmable relationships between the fuel and air valves and thereby solve the problem of in-between point adjustable fuel/air ratios without affecting the other point relationships. The ability to characterize the fuel to the air is necessary because different types of valves frequently have different flow-versus-position relationships which substantially affect the fuel and air ratios. For example, if the fuel valve has 50% of its flow at 40% opening and the air valve has 50% of its flow at 60% opening, then the proper fuel/air positioning setting is 60% opening on the air with 40% opening on the fuel valve. such electronic control device for use in the dryer burner combustion industry is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,454. That known system uses a programmable logic controller or PLC for setting the characterizing relationships based on flue gas analysis.
Another electronic control is offered by North American Mfg. Co. as Models 8080/8081 controller. However, the known mechanical or electronic control approaches have not recognized the need to limit the danger of rich operation which is a matter of particular concern on a dryer or aggregate dryer.
In particular, previous electronic controls used either the fuel valve or the air valve as the temperature-controller valve and the other of the valves as the follower. In the case of the fuel valve always being controlled during a temperature increase the fuel will first increase first and then the air valve will follow. This can lead to a rich condition, particularly, as is often the case, if the fuel drive motor drive is faster than the air valve drive motor. This momentary rich condition creates a dangerous situation in a dryer because the dryer operates below typical auto-ignition temperatures for most fuels and additional air for completing the combustion is frequently available downstream of the combustion section. A combustible mixture would be created downstream of the combustion zone in the exhaust ductwork and could explode if an ignition source were present. This momentary rich condition also creates unwanted emissions of unburned hydrocarbons or carbon monoxide.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to prevent as much as possible the occurrence of undesirable rich and lean operating conditions.
It is another object of the present invention to provide flue gas recirculation for further NO.sub.x emission reduction.
It is yet another object of the present invention to measure and maintain proper fuel/air ratios even with malfunctioning of flow measuring components.
The foregoing objects have been achieved in accordance with the present invention by providing and electronic programmable linkage system using, for example, an integrated or stand along PLC which assures that the air and fuel valves do not move in such a way to create a momentary but dangerous rich condition as the system moves from one firing rate to another.
In particular, the present invention reduces the risk of this rich condition by incorporating logic to change the valve being driven by the temperature controller to maintain a leaner condition during modulation. In order to maintain a lean condition, the air valve is controlled by the temperature controller when a burner output increase is desired, and the fuel valve is controlled by the temperature controller when a decrease of burner output is desired. Consequently, the air "leads" the fuel on increasing demand, and the fuel "leads" the air for a decrease in burner output.
One advantage of the present invention is that an unwanted rich condition is prevented to the extent possible. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, if one control valve drive motor is faster than the other control valve drive motor, the present invention prevents the valve driven by the slower motor from lagging too far behind the other valve when moving to a new position. This valve-lagging condition could momentarily create undesirable flue gas emissions of lean combustion products of combustion. To reduce this lean condition as much as possible, the present invention uses logic which stops the valve being driven by the temperature controller if the follower valve lags too far behind.
The amount of acceptable lag is adjustable within the skill in this art and is set in the PLC. For example, the amount of acceptable lag might be 5% of the range of valve motor travel. That is, if the air valve drive motor was being driven due to a desire for an increase in burner output and it had travelled to 50% of its travel and the fuel valve motor was at 44% of its travel, then the air valve would be interrupted from going to 51% until the fuel valve had arrived at 45% of its travel. Of course, this example is merely illustrative and is not intended to limit the principles of the present invention.
Another, more sophisticated embodiment of the present invention is describable as a mass flow system with electronic programmable valve positioning of the foregoing type as a back-up. The mass flow system also includes a system for controlling fuel and air ratio of burners by measuring the fuel flow, the air flow, and, where appropriate, flue gas flow. With measurement of each of the flows, the system can calculate the correct fuel/air ratio and, if appropriate, the flue gas recirculation ratio. The mass flow system according to this embodiment also includes the same apparatus and method described above for preventing rich operation when a change in firing rate is required. The only difference is that instead of comparing the valve motor positions as the electronic programmable linkage does, the PLC compares the measured fuel an air flows to the calculated desired fuel air ratio.
The above-described electronic programmable linkage used mass flow system of this second embodiment can be used in the event of a problem or required maintenance with the flow measuring equipment to allow for continued operation of the dyer without a serious interruption. This switch over to the programmable electronic positioning can occur automatically whenever the mass flow logic detects a problem with the flow sensing transmitters (such as zero output during operation) or it can be enabled below at any demand rate such as, for example, 10% of flow demand. For example, at 9% of flow demand, the system would automatically use programmable electronic valve positioning. This can be particularly advantageous because many flow transmitters, such as differential pressure-to-current transmitters, are limited in accurate flow sensing to a 6:1 turndown range or 16.7% of flow demand.

Mass flow control system and method for asphalt plant


A web browsing purpose classification apparatus, including a display unit which displays a webpage and a document retrieval unit which retrieves document data from the displayed webpage. A keyword extraction knowledge unit stores knowledge necessary for keyword extraction. This knowledge is used by a keyword extraction unit to extract keywords from the document data. A webpage format determination knowledge unit stores knowledge necessary for the determination of webpage formats which is used by a webpage format determination unit to determine webpage formats. A web browsing history storage unit stores the keywords and webpage formats as web browsing history. A browsing purpose classification knowledge unit stores knowledge necessary for the classification of browsing purposes which is used by a browsing purpose classification unit to classify browsing purposes.

At present, there many related information recommendation systems on the market to present information related to the webpage currently being viewed by a user. As currently used by Google® AdSense, users are able to access related information or make purchases by clicking on the links or advertisements placed within the webpage. However, such systems are not able to take the user's browsing purpose into consideration when information is to be offered. As such, systems currently available do not fully utilise information related to the users. Instances may arise where the user is unnecessarily inconvenienced with links and information totally unrelated to the current browsing purposes and needs.
An information recommendation system in which the users' preferences and habits are taken into consideration is disclosed in JP-A 2001-142907 (KOKAI). In this system, individual web visitors and their browsing time changes are tracked and identified with individual group members of certain user groups to create a user profile detailing internet usage. This profile is then used as the basis for the sending of related marketing and product information as well as for the customization of web contents. It can also be used for other promotional purposes, thereby creating an internet profiling system that supplies information more relevant to the users' browsing habits.
However, one significant drawback of this system is evident when the user is only surfing the internet with no specific purpose or objective. The system is unable to discern the users' purpose or objective. Instead, the system keeps track of a pointless surfing pattern which results in unrelated information being supplied in the future.

Apparatus, method and program product for classifying web browsing purposes


A deformable mirror changes configuration in response to a change of the configuration of a shape memory material. In some examples, the deformable mirror is formed of the shape memory material. In other examples, the deformable mirror changes configuration under the control of actuators comprising shape memory materials.

Optical scanning and imaging applications often use mirrors to control the focus, trajectory, and shape of reflected light. For instance, bar code scanners commonly use mirrors to focus a laser beam on a bar code and to move (i.e., scan) the laser beam back and forth across the bar code. Similarly, imagers such as optical scanners and photocopiers commonly use mirrors to focus light on objects being imaged and to control a scanning path of the focused light along these objects.
In many optical scanning and imaging applications, light is generated by a collimated light source such as a laser. A collimated light source generates a column of light (also called a "collimated beam") where each ray of light has a trajectory that substantially parallels the trajectories of other rays of light in the column. In practice, light diffraction makes it difficult to create a perfectly collimated beam, i.e., a beam where each ray of light exactly parallels every other ray of light. Accordingly, the light diffraction in a collimated beam creates a need for mirrors to shape, focus, and steer collimated beams in various optical scanning and imaging applications.
As an example, when a bar code scanner directs a laser beam at a bar code, diffraction may cause the laser beam to appear on the bar code as a larger or smaller laser spot depending on the distance between the bar code scanner and the bar code. If the laser spot on the bar code is larger than the bars of the bar code, the bar code reader may be unable to properly read the bar code. Accordingly, the bar code scanners may be designed to focus light at a small point within a fixed distance of the scanner for a given sized bar code; however, outside the range, the scanner may be unreliable.
Different types of mirrors can be used to manipulate light in different ways. As examples, a parabolic mirror can be used to focus light into a small spot, or cylindrical mirror can be used to create an elongated light beam from a reflected beam. These and other types of mirrors can manipulate light in the form of beams and other forms. Similarly, various techniques can be used to steer light in different directions. For instance, bar code scanners often use oscillating mirrors to move light back and forth and telescopes and microscopes commonly use movable mirrors to vary the magnification of objects being viewed.
Most conventional mirrors for manipulating light have only one configuration, and therefore they generally are only able to focus, steer, or shape light in one particular way. For instance, most parabolic mirrors only provide one level of focus and most cylindrical mirrors provide a single type of reshaping. However, in some applications, it may be advantageous to use mirrors capable of performing different types of manipulations. Among these applications, there are size-limited or cost limited components that need to perform multiple light manipulations, but would be too large or expensive if implemented with multiple mirror components.
In order to vary the way in which light is manipulated by a single mirror, researchers have developed techniques whereby a single deformable mirror performs multiple different types of light manipulations based on its configuration. For the most part, these conventional deformable mirrors change configuration under the control of mechanical components. For instance, some applications have used micro-electro-mechanical systems (MeMs) to control mirror deformations.
Unfortunately, these mechanical components tend to be somewhat unreliable and costly. Additionally, the operation of these components typically consumes a significant amount of power, requires complex control mechanisms, and provides inaccurate movements. Accordingly, their utility can be limited by these and other factors.
In view of the above shortcomings, a need exists for improved techniques and technologies for performing mirror deformations in a variety of different applications. The above examples of prior systems and their associated limitations are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior systems will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the following.

Optical scanning and imaging applications using deformable mirrors


A mounting arrangement includes a first bracket, a second bracket including a slot, and a series of washers, with two resilient washers. First and second bolts extend through the first bracket, a first and second of the washers, the slot of the second bracket, a third and fourth of the washers, the resilient washers, and a fifth and sixth of the washers. The second bracket frictionally engages the first and second washers, and frictionally engages the third and fourth washers. The resilient washers are each located between the respective first, second, third and fourth washers, and the fifth and sixth washers. The bolts are engaged by nuts compressing the first and second resilient washers with a compressive force between the washers, supporting the first bracket and the second bracket relative to each other and permitting the first bracket and the second bracket to slide relative to each other.

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of sliding joints. The present disclosure relates specifically to a mounting arrangement for slidably mounting a display unit, with the mounting arrangement providing a constant compressive force to support the display unit.
Traditional sliding joints lack a constant compression to facilitate sliding one body relative to another. Such sliding joints are at risk of wearing out over time, thus yielding a poor mounting system for crucial machine components. A need exists for a sliding joint with a constant compression provided by an appropriate durometer or stiffness of the materials used in the sliding joint, which would allow for a wide range of frictional characteristics of the sliding joint.


The present invention offers processes for CVD (chemical vapor deposition) that enables one to use a new metallic organic compound as a raw material resource. The present invention involves the steps of: adding a metallic organic compound having a group capable of becoming free to a liquid of a compound having the same group as the group capable of becoming free of the metallic organic compound to prepare a solution; vaporizing the solution; decomposing the metallic organic compound; and depositing a metallic film on a substrate.

The present invention relates to processes for Chemical Vapor Deposition (referred to as CVD, hereinafter).
CVD is a method enabling one to mass produce a metallic film of high quality, so it is practically used widely. A raw material used for the conventional CVD, however, is a gas at room temperature, such as silane, arsine, phosphine, diborane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfate, hydrogen selenide. Even in case of using a liquid, it is limited to a raw material which is very easy to vaporize, such as tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) or trimethyl gallium (TMG).
Recently, by the way, CVD is highly appreciated due to its high performance, so the method is used in a variety of technical fields. Especially, the development of usage of the method in the semiconductor industry is remarkable. In this industry, research is going on to use the following compounds that have never been considered to be used as a raw material for CVD: transition-metal compounds, alkali earth metal compounds or unstable metallic hydrogen compounds and compounds mixed with a metallic compound.
However, there are some problems to practically use these new raw materials.
The first problem is that such raw materials are unstable, have low can-stability, are extremely easy to decompose at vaporizing temperature and an addition product thereof is easy to remove.
The second problem is that most of the new raw materials that have not been practically used are solid at vaporizing temperature, so it is difficult to obtain a constant vaporizing amount because of effects of its grain shape and residues of the raw material in a reaction vessel.
The third problem is that each component of the reaction equipment cannot withstand the vaporizing temperature because the temperature is too high.
Here, it can be considered to solve the first problem by adding other substances to these new raw materials for stability.
For CVD, however, it has been never considered to add other substances whose boiling temperatures are different from the raw material, because it is necessary in the conduct of the CVD method to heat the vessel for raw materials, reduce gas pressure or bubble the carrier gas. Especially in the field of semiconductor production, ultra-high purity is needed, so the raw material is limited to a single substance or diluent gas with hydrogen and so on.
In recent some years, a flash vaporing method as a method to solve the above-mentioned second and third problems has been being proposed and studied. The flash vaporing method comprises steps of solving a solid raw material compound in an organic solvent to prepare a solution and continuously and simultaneously vaporing the solved solid compound and the organic solvent in the solution by sending the solution little by little to a heated vaporizer.
However, the organic solvent used for the flash vaporing method is not considered in relation to the raw materials, so the method can not solve the instability of the raw material compounds if the raw material compounds are unstable at the aimed vaporizing temperature. Also it has additional problems such as an effect to produce film by an organic solvent as an additional component and the necessity of addition of evacuation facilities.

Processes for the chemical vapor deposition and solvent used for the processes


Disclosed is an acoustic practice mute for brass musical wind instruments having a bell end which is of simple construction, light weight, acoustically transmits muted or dampened sound to the ears of the player without any electrical or membrane amplification, in which the sound transmitted is not distorted or changed from a natural sound, in which the volume of sound to the player's ears can be regulated, and which can be used by the player as a normal mute.

Due to the high intensity sound produced by brass musical wind instruments, in many instances, difficulties are encountered when practicing with such instruments. The instrument player must find a practice room or area so that other persons are not disturbed by the sounds caused by practicing. A number of devices have been proposed to attenuate or dampen the sound of these instruments.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,619 illustrates a sound attenuator device for a wind instrument formed of soft plastic material providing a closed end chamber with sound attenuating material therewithin.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,555,956 illustrates an acoustical-electrical transducer for brass wind instruments which has a double wall mute having a long, narrow, highly acoustically attenuating path leading to the surrounding atmosphere for transmitting air flow of the instrument to the surrounding atmosphere.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,809 discloses a stringed instrument for training purposes, the sounds of the strings being transmitted to the ears of the user by a listening device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,162 discloses an attachment for a musical wind instrument, such as a trumpet or the like which has a bell type end, having a hollow body and a stethoscope with a membrane and two earpieces, and in which the internal volume of the body is filled with air permeable acoustically damping material the transmitted sound being produced by the membrane.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,318,535 discloses a mute having an inner chamber and an outer chamber, a conduit disposed in the inner chamber communicating with the outer chamber through sound absorbing means associated with the outlet means.
The foregoing mutes are heavy, bulky, cumbersome, expensive, and do not produce a true and unchanged sound of the wind instrument. Also, none of these attachments or mutes can be used as a regular mute rather than as a practice mute.


Method and tooling apparatus for forming a composite charge into a contoured composite blade stringer including an elongate punch and an elongate die flexible along their lengths. The charge is press formed by using the punch to drive the charge into the die. The punch and the die are mounted between a pair of flexible plates. A press coupled with the plates contours the charge by bending the plates into a desired contour. The stringer is allowed to cool down to room temperature while being constrained, before withdrawing the stringer from the tooling apparatus in order to reduce wrinkling.

1. Field
This disclosure generally relates to the fabrication of composite structures, and deals more particularly with a method and apparatus for forming flat composite charges into contoured, reinforcing substructures, such as variable gauge blade stiffeners.
2. Background
Composite reinforcing substructures such as blade stiffeners, sometimes referred to as blade stringers, are frequently used in the marine and aircraft industries. These stringers may be fabricated by combining two or more stiffening members. For example, blade-type stringers can be fabricated by combining two members having L or C cross sectional shapes, back-to-back. These members may be formed by manually hot drape forming multiple composite charges over a mandrel or other tool. After forming, the members are placed back-to-back and co-cured in an autoclave. Fabricating blade stringers using multiple separate charges requires multiple tools, is relatively labor intensive and may add to manufacturing flow times.
In some applications, stiffeners such as the blade stringers mentioned above, may need to be contoured along their lengths in order to conform them to a structure such as a contoured aircraft skin, to which they are to be attached. Difficulty may be encountered, however, when attempting to form highly contoured stringers using conventional tooling because of the tendency of the plies in the charge to wrinkle as the charge is being compressed. Accordingly, fabrication of highly contoured stringers using composites is generally limited to hand layup techniques in which each ply is laid up by hand over a die or other tool in order to reduce the possibility of ply wrinkling. The hand layup technique is labor intensive, and thus costly as well as relatively slow. An added challenge is presented where one or more areas of the stringer include ply drop-offs and/or pad-ups in order to conform the stringer to local contouring of the skin.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for fabricating composite stiffeners such as blade stringers using a single composite charge formed with relatively simple tooling. There is also a need for a method and apparatus of the type mentioned above that allows contouring of the stringer along its length, including localized contouring using ply drop-offs or pad-ups.

Method and apparatus for fabricating variable gauge, contoured composite stiffeners


A power-allocation method for scalable video transmission over MIMO system includes: encoding a video sequence into L layers; performing MCSs to the layers and estimating bit error rate or symbol error rate respectively for each of the layers after MCSs procedure based on channel quality feedbacks from the receiver side; performing power allocations of L sub-problems and obtaining candidate power allocation solution of each of the sub-problems respectively based on bit error rate or symbol error rate of each of the layers and derivative of bit error rate or symbol error rate of each of the layers; and choosing one of the candidate power allocation solution with the largest quality of experiences as the power allocation of the scalable video transmission over MIMO system. This invention considers transmission-error-rate of PHY layer and video coding structure of APP layer and optimizes quality of experiences at user end with cross-layer design.

Due to rapid increasing demands of wireless multimedia applications, plenty of videos are transmitted through wireless channels. However, error-prone and band-limited nature of wireless communication usually lead to high packet loss/error rate, delay or jitter, which influence the quality of experiences at the user ends.
Accordingly, a scalable video coding technique takes emphasis in recent years. The scalable video coding encodes video into multiple layers in accordance with spatial, temporal and quality scalabilities. The feature of the scalable video coding is that parts of the stream can be removed in a way that the resulting sub-stream forms another valid bit stream for some target decoder. Besides, the scalability nature of the scalable video coding provides hierarchical decoding qualities based on user demands, hardware specifications and network qualities. When the scalable coding is applied to MIMO (multi-input multi-output) system, through selection of channels and power allocation, the decoding quality of transmitted video can be effectively increased. In power allocation, equal power allocation and water-filling algorithm are common algorithms. However, equal power is not able to raise the decoding quality of transmitted video effectively. Water-filling algorithm is optimal in terms of system capacity but not user experience when video transmissions are considered.

Power allocation method for transmitting scalable video over MIMO system


The present invention provides a high-pressure discharge lamp that uses substantially no mercury and reduces discharge flicker. The high-pressure discharge lamp is kept on with a lamp power of 50 W or lower in a stable state, and the temperature T (° C.) of the electrode at a point at a distance of 0.3 mm from the tip end to the base end in the stable state and the amount A (mol/cc) of free iodine produced when the lamp is turned off after 100 hours of on-time satisfy the formula (1):T2/A>1011.

High-pressure discharge lamps which have an arc tube having a pair of opposing electrodes and containing an inert gas, a halide of a light-emitting metal and mercury, that is, metal halide lamps are used widely because of their relatively high efficiency and good color rendering. Such high-pressure discharge lamps have become widely used also as automotive headlamps. Including those used as the automotive headlamps, the high-pressure discharge lamps currently in practical use essentially uses mercury (conveniently referred to as a mercury-containing lamp, hereinafter). In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-7347, there is described an exemplary specification of a high-pressure discharge lamp used as an automotive headlamp, which specifies that about 2–15 mg of mercury has to be sealed. Besides, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-111244, there is described a discharge lamp, that is, a high-pressure discharge lamp, suitable for the automotive headlamp which contains mercury in a predetermined amount prescribed. According to the description, when this high-pressure discharge lamp operates in a horizontal position, the discharge arc shrinks to be at least substantially linear, and the high-pressure discharge lamp is efficient.
However, nowadays environmental issues are becoming serious, and in the illuminating industry, it is considered highly important to reduce or even eliminate mercury in lamps, which applies a significant load to the environment.
To address this problem, several approaches to eliminate mercury in the high-pressure discharge lamp have been already proposed. For example, the inventors have made the inventions described in Japanese Patent No. 2982198 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 6-84496 and 11-238488. The first invention is an arrangement which has a halide of scandium Sc or a rare earth metal and an inert gas sealed therein and is controllably turned on and off by a pulse current. The second invention is an arrangement which contains a discharge medium constituted by a metal halide and an inert gas and thus has a less variable color characteristic over a wide input range, thereby being capable of dimming illumination. The third invention is an arrangement which is improved in electrical characteristic by containing, in addition to a first metal halide, which is a primary light-emitting material, a second metal halide, which has a high vapor pressure and is hard to emit light.
Furthermore, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-307048, there is described a high-pressure discharge lamp which avoids blackening due to scattering of the electrodes by containing, in addition to the halides of scandium Sc and sodium Na, the halides of yttrium Y and indium In as third metal halides which have a vapor pressure of 1×10−5 atmospheres in operation and whose metals themselves are ionized at 5–10 eV. The high-pressure discharge lamp according to the invention disclosed in this document is described as having any luminous flux and chromaticity range required for the automotive headlamp.
However, when a high-pressure discharge lamp containing no mercury (conveniently, referred to as a "mercury-free lamp" hereinafter) is used as a light source of an automotive headlamp, there is a problem that the amount of light immediately after the lamp is turned on is insufficient. To address the problem, the lamp current applied immediately after the turn-on is made several times higher than that in a stable state, thereby increasing the amount of light and bringing the high-pressure discharge lamp abruptly and rapidly into the stable state.
However, in this case, another problem of discharge flicker arises. In the following, some of reasons for the discharge flicker will be described.    1. If the high-pressure discharge lamp is turned on in the manner described above, the electrodes reach the highest temperature immediately after the turn-on. Therefore, the electrodes have to be designed to withstand the temperature even if the on/off operation occurs with a relatively high frequency. As a result, in the stable state, the lamp current is relatively low, and thus, the temperature of the electrodes tends to be lower than an optimum temperature. Since the temperature of the electrodes is low in the stable state, the electrodes emit less thermoelectrons, and discharge flicker tends to occur.
If the mercury-free lamp is used as an automotive headlamp, a lamp current higher than a rated lamp current, a lamp current of 3 A, for example, has to be flown continuously for several seconds, 6 seconds, for example, immediately after the turn-on. Therefore, the electrodes have to be designed to have a further low temperature in the stable state, so that the discharge flicker becomes more noticeable. In the case of a mercury-containing lamp, the duration of application of the lamp current higher than the rated lamp current is about 1 second.    2. In the mercury-free lamp, the arc remains thin because of lack of mercury, which would make the arc thicker due to the self-absorption of the emission spectrum. Thus, the discharge flicker tends to occur.    3. If the mercury-free lamp contains a halide which has a relatively high vapor pressure and less contributes to light emission, the halide replacing mercury as a medium for providing a lamp voltage, the high vapor pressure makes the arc shrink, and thus, the discharge flicker tends to occur.    4. If the mercury-free lamp contains xenon at about 10 atmospheres to provide lamp characteristics comparable to those of a high-pressure discharge lamp containing mercury and xenon at 5–6 atmospheres, the higher xenon pressure makes the arc shrink, and thus, the discharge flicker tends to occur.    5. The mercury-free lamp produces no HgI or the like, so that a free halogen is easy to occur. However, a halide gas highly adsorbs electrons, and thus, tends to cause discharge extinction. Therefore, as the concentration of the halide gas increases, the arc becomes less stable.
As can be understood from the reasons described above, the mercury-free lamp is highly likely to suffer discharge flicker, compared with the mercury-containing lamp. In addition, such an electrode temperature that is not disadvantageous to the mercury-containing high-pressure discharge lamp may cause discharge flicker.
The discharge flicker may result in a luminance flicker, or, in an extreme case, extinction of the arc.
As a result of studies on the problems described above, the inventors have found that the arc of the mercury-free lamp can be stabilized by appropriately determining the electrode temperature and the free halogen concentration in the stable state. And based on this finding, the inventors have made the present invention.
In addition, the inventors have found that the discharge flicker in the mercury-free lamp can be effectively reduced by control the electrode temperature in such a manner that the electrode temperature in the stable state is kept within a quite narrow predetermined range.
An object of the present invention is to provide a high-pressure discharge lamp suitable for use as an automotive headlamp which substantially contains no mercury out of consideration to the environment and produces reduced discharge flicker, a high-pressure discharge lamp lighting device using the same and an automotive headlamp apparatus using the same.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a high-pressure discharge lamp suitable for use as an automotive headlamp in which discharge flicker is reduced by keeping a predetermined relationship between the electrode temperature in a stable state and the amount of free iodine produced when the lamp is off, a high-pressure discharge lamp lighting device using the same and an automotive headlamp apparatus using the same.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a high-pressure discharge lamp suitable for use as an automotive headlamp in which the electrode temperature in a stable state is kept within a predetermined narrow range to reduce discharge flicker and improve the electrode life, a high-pressure discharge lamp lighting device using the same and an automotive headlamp apparatus using the same.

High-pressure discharge lamp, high-pressure discharge lamp lighting device and automotive headlamp apparatus

Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corporation


The T-slot milling cutter disclosed employs an indexable insert having two alternative edge surfaces which serve alternatively as the rake face and rear abutting face of the insert which transfers the cutting force to the rear wall of the insert pocket of the cutter. The alternative edge surfaces comprise three facets, once central to the surface and the other two receding from the central facet at equal angles thereto. They serve primarily to wedge the insert into mating angular surfaces in the rear wall of the insert pocket to secure the insert against dislodgement when held in the pocket by the customary attaching screw and, by their obliquity to the cutting direction, improve the cutting action when serving as the rake face.

This invention relates to milling cutters, and particularly to cutters for milling T-slots, and to indexable replaceable cutting inserts therefor.
T-Slot milling cutters having replaceable hard metal cutting inserts of the tangentially-mounted or xe2x80x9con edgexe2x80x9d type, i.e., in which the rake face is an edge surface of the insert, as distinguished from radially-mounted or blade type inserts which present a major surface to the workpiece as a rake face, are subject to both axial and rotational dislodgement by the cutting force reaction.
It is the object of this invention to avoid that problem by so designing the locating edge surface of an insert for such application, and the mating surfaces of the insert pocket of the cutter, to prevent dislodgement of the insert while enhancing the cutting geometry of the mirror-image opposite edge surface of the indexable insert presented as the rake face thereof.
The opposite and alternative rake and positioning edge surfaces of the insert of the invention present a generally convex configuration as a result of being divided into three facets, a central facet which lies in a plane parallel to the rotational axis of the cutter body when mounted in rake position, and two flanking facets which recede diagonally and symmetrically from the central facet.
When serving as the rear locating surface of the insert, transferring the cutting force reaction to the body of the cutter, the flanking facets of the rearwardly facing edge of the insert are received as a wedge by mating angularly disposed facets of the rear wall of the insert pocket, the central facet of the insert edge surface being received within a depression in the rear wall of the pocket without engaging the boundaries thereof. The rotative position of the insert is thus determined entirely by the wedging engagement of the respective angularly-disposed flanking facets of the insert and the pocket.
When serving as the forwardly-facing rake face, the generally convex configuration of the three facets of the edge surface enhances the cutting action by introducing a further slashing element to that action.

T-slot milling cutter and insert therefor


A technique for deploying an intraluminal device, such as a bariatric device, in a mammalian lumen, such as the gastrointestinal tract, includes positioning a visualization device through an orifice, such as a natural orifice, into the mammalian lumen. A deployment device having the intraluminal device mounted thereto is guided to the mammalian lumen. The intraluminal device, which has a lumen wall that is configured to the size and shape of a portion of the mammalian lumen, is at least partially deployed from the deployment device in the mammalian lumen. The at least partially deployed intraluminal device is positioned with the deployment device while a position of said intraluminal device is visualized with the visualization device.

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for deploying a medical device and, in particular, to an intraluminal device. While the invention is illustrated with deployment of a bariatric device, it has application for other types of intraluminal devices.
Intraluminal devices are often deployed with a radiopaque marker that is impenetrable to x-rays or other forms of radiation used to ensure that the device is properly positioned. Such device is deployed to the lumen, such as over a guide wire that is first positioned in the lumen. Positioning of the device is effected by the use of fluoroscopy or other form of radiography that detects the radiopaque marker or other portion of the intraluminal device.


An arrangement for controlling solar heating of passenger cars comprises a covering material which is glued onto parts which are subjected directly to the radiation of the sun in the vehicle interior, and a switching device. The covering layer is composed of a foil with a controllable capacity to transmit light, a reflecting layer and a carrier material. When the engine is switched off during parking, the foil will transmit light, whereby the incident light is reflected on the reflecting layer. In the driving operation of the passenger car, the foil will be dull, impervious to light and absorbs the incident light.

This invention relates to an arrangement for controlling solar heating of the interior of parked passenger cars by means of a foil layer with a controllable light transmission capacity.
A foil with a controllable light transmission capacity of this generic type is known from the German Patent Document DE 36 43 690 C2, in which use of such foil is suggested on vehicle windows and windows of buildings, for components for the purpose of passive solar energy utilization, and as display or picture elements or for optical glass.
The air-conditioning of parked passengers cars is a problem which so far has not been solved satisfactorily. Interior heating caused by incident rays of the sun can result in temperatures of +60.degree. C. and more in a parked vehicle, so that the comfort and well being of the passengers is impaired considerably after they have entered the vehicle. Since not only the air but also the interior fittings, particularly the dashboard and the rear window shelf, are heated, the interior of the vehicle cools down only slowly even with cross-ventilation. Moreover, because of the high energy requirement, air-conditioning systems cannot be used in parked cars, and heat absorbing window glass does not satisfactorily prevent the heating of the vehicle interior.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a solar heating control arrangement of the initially mentioned type, by means of which heating of the vehicle due to solar radiation is reduced effectively during parking.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by a covering, consisting of a foil layer with a controllable light transmission capacity, a reflecting layer and a carrier material, which is applied to the parts in the vehicle interior that are particularly exposed to the radiation of the sun. Switching of the foil layer between light transmitting and light absorbing states is accomplished in a simple manner as a function of the position of the ignition lock by means of a relay, with the foil being transparent when the relay is not energized, so that radiant energy is reflected by the reflecting layer. The control of the foil is virtually without losses and thus stresses the vehicle battery only insignificantly.
The principal advantage of the invention is that the interior trim parts of the vehicle which are directly exposed to the radiation of the sun, such as the dashboard, the consoles and the rear window shelf, reflect the sunlight when the vehicle is parked in order to prevent the heating of the vehicle interior, and have a dull and dark color during the driving operation in order to avoid reflections on the windows.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Air-conditioning arrangement for parked passenger cars


Nanoelectromechanical (NEM) memory cells are provided by anchoring a conductive nanometer-scale beam (e.g., a nanotube) to a base and allowing a portion of the beam to move. A charge containment layer is provided in the vicinity of this free-moving portion. To read if a charge is stored in the charge containment layer, a charge is formed on the beam. If a charge is stored then forces between the charged beam and the charge containment layer will displace the free-moving portion of the beam. This movement may be sensed by a sense contact.

This invention relates to memory cells. More particularly, the present invention relates to nanometer-scale memory cells that utilize nanotubes, or other nanometer-scale filaments, as a charge sensing mechanism.
Writing and erasing a charge into a charge containment layer is well known in the art. Moreover, multiple distinct charges can now be stored in separate portions of a single containment layer. Examples of such memory cells can be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,768,192 and 6,011,725. However, current systems utilize transistors to determine if a charge is stored in a containment layer.
More particularly, current systems position a charge containment layer between the channel and gate of a transistor such as a metal oxide field-effect transistor (MOSFET). If a charge is stored in this charge containment layer then the turn-ON voltage of the transistor increases. In this manner, a charge is determined as being stored by applying different turn-ON voltages and determining for which turn-ON voltage the transistor turns ON. Correlating (mapping) the turn-ON voltage to a bit (e.g., a 1 if a charge is stored or a 0 if a charge is not stored) provides the functionality of a base-two memory cell; the functionality of being able to store two information states (ON and OFF) in a memory cell.
MOSFETs are deficient because they have minimum sizing limitations that generally reside in the micrometer scale. It is therefore desirable to provide a memory cell that is sized on the nanometer-scale. It is also desirable to provide nanometer-scale memory cells that can be utilized to store several bits of information, several states of information, or store a bit of information having several states (e.g., can provide a base-three or base-four information bit). It is also desirable to provide memory cells that consume low amounts of power and can store very small levels of charge.

Nanoelectromechanical memory cells and data storage devices

Abstract: Alternatively, the beam may contact a sense contact at an ambient frequency when no charge is stored. Changing the amount of charge stored may change this contact rate. The contract rate may be sensed to determine the amount of stored charge.


An electrical connector is disclosed with a contact housing for receiving terminal mating sections of a plurality of terminals and a tail housing, separate from the contact housing, for receiving solder tail sections of the terminals. A flexible connecting section is formed between the terminal mating and solder tail sections of each terminal. A protective bar extends from the terminal mating section toward the tail housing. An arm extends from the protective bar which is inserted into a mounting recess formed in the tail housing without contacting any surfaces of the mounting recess under normal conditions.

As is well known, electrical connectors are commonly used for connecting the conductors on one printed circuit board to those on another printed circuit board. Due to the fact that there is the possibility of the printed circuit boards being offset in position to each other relative to their predetermined positions (such state is hereinafter referred to as "pitch-shift"), the prior electrical connectors have been constructed to include any means for accommodating such pitch-shift.
The electrical connectors in the prior art include terminals each having a contact and a tail connected to each other by means of a flexible joint. This flexible joint usually has less rigidity for reducing the load thereto required for flexing to accommodate the pitch-shift. To avoid damage to the flexible joint when it is flexed and to make sure of the proper positioning of the tail when the connector is mounted to the printed circuit boards.
A first type of the prior art connector, discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,235, is constructed in such a manner that the contact and the tail of the terminal are connected together by means of a flexible joint. The terminal contact is mounted in the contact housing. The tail is fixed to a tail housing part. The contact housing part is provided with the peg. The flexible joint accommodates for the pitch-shift and the peg protects the flexible joint. The tail housing part makes sure of the proper positioning of the tail of the terminal. After assembly of this electrical connector, the connection between the contact housing and the tail housing parts is broken.
A second type of prior art connector disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 991,792 filed Dec. 17 1992, comprises an inner and outer housing which receive the terminal contact and the terminal tail, respectively. Fitting nails are used to prevent the contact housing from lifting up. The position of the terminal is achieved by the tail housing. After assembly, a connection between both housings is broken.
Finally, a third type of prior art connector disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 73,813 filed Jun. 8, 1993, comprises an inner and outer housing which receives the terminal contact and the terminal tail, respectively. Both housings are connected to each other with a flexible joint to accommodate the pitch-shift and to prevent the upward lift of the contact housing. The proper position of the tail is assured by the tail housing.
Although the prior art connectors as stated above provide excellent results, they still have some disadvantages. In the event that two printed circuit boards to be electrically connected are considerably offset in position from one another, a relatively higher load may be placed on the flexible joint to accommodate for this greater pitch-shift. This is especially true for the third prior art connector types.
A large amount of unused space on the printed circuit boards is needed to use the first and second type of prior art connectors. Also in some connectors additional parts may be required or may have to be disposed of as is the case with the third type of prior art connector, thereby increasing the number of process steps and/or assembly steps.

Electrical connector for connecting printed circuit boards


An apparatus includes a mirror. The mirror has a transmissivity, a reflectivity, a front side, and a back side. The apparatus further includes a substantially transparent layer, the substantially transparent layer is located on the back side; and a dark layer, the dark layer contains an aperture and is applied to the substantially transparent layer wherein a combination of the mirror, the substantially transparent layer, and the dark layer have a combined reflectivity and a combined color when viewed from the front side which causes a media display device to vanish when the media display device is off and is mounted over the aperture on the back side of the mirror.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to mirrors and media display devices, such as a computer monitor or a television, and more specifically to adjusting the visibility of a media display device when the media display device is mounted behind a mirror.
2. Art Background
Currently available mirror and media display devices typically include a media display device, such as a television, mounted to the back of a mirror. This arrangement is a convenient space saving device as it embeds a media display device in the existing space occupied by a mirror and provides the dual functionality of a mirror and media display device within a given planar area. Although available, these devices typically suffer from the ability to see the location of the television or the perimeter of the television when the television is in the off state. The transmissivity and reflectivity of a mirror are roughly inversely related. Thus, a mirror with a high transmissivity generally has a low reflectivity, and a mirror with a high reflectivity generally has a low transmissivity. As a result, a mirror with a high transmissivity will allow more light from a media display device, such as a television, located behind the mirror to pass through the mirror, resulting in a brighter image that is more easily viewed. However, such a combination of mirror and media display device will have a relatively low reflectivity, which allows a user to "see through" the mirror due to the lower reflectivity of the mirror. In such a case, when a media display device is off, instead of the media display device vanishing into the mirror an observer is able to distinguish the television from the rest of the mirror. Thus, the media display device does not "vanish" and the appearance and functionality of the mirror is degraded. This may present a problem.
Previous efforts to make the media display device "vanish" into the mirror when the media display device is in the off state have been directed to applying a black paint directly to the back side of the mirror. Other techniques have included placing a sheet of black material such as steel, plywood, medium density fiberboard, cloth to the back side of the mirror everywhere except where the media display device is located. While these techniques vary in their effectiveness, they do not make the media display device vanish with high transmissivity glass. This may present a problem.
Other previous techniques for trying to make the media display device "vanish" when in the off state have included locating a sheet of black material behind the mirror, as described above, with a gap maintained between the backside of the mirror and sheet of material placed on the backside of the mirror. This method increases the manufacturing cost by requiring clips, alignment of the gap over a large surface, etc. all of which are difficult to do and do not produce a mirror that permits the media display device to "vanish," when in the off state with high transmissivity glass used for the mirror. Thereby creating a distraction to the user who views one's self in the mirror. This may present a problem.

Apparatuses and methods for changing the appearance of an object mounted behind a mirror


A method for setting the cut register in a web-fed rotary press includes assigning a cut register function to a predetermined speed function, wherein the predetermined speed function describes a time curve of an operating speed of the rotary press starting from a predetermined initial value and the cut register function describes a time curve of the set value of the cut register, and changing the set value of the cut register continuously and synchronously in accordance with the associated cut register function during a variation in the operating speed of the rotary press according to the predetermined speed function, the cut register function being chosen empirically such that it counteracts a change in the actual value of the cut position as a result of the change in the operating speed.

The invention relates to a method for setting the cut register in a web-fed rotary press and to an apparatus for implementing the method.
DE 199 36 291 A1 describes a method for determining the cut positions of part webs of a longitudinally cut printing material web in a web-fed rotary press, in which the part webs are combined into strands, folded in a former and finally cross-cut by a knife cylinder. In this case, the cut individual webs are designated part webs and the combined part webs after the former are designated strands. The cut positions determined are used to regulate the cut register, a dedicated control loop being provided for each part web and, in addition, an outer control loop being provided for the strand already folded. In this way, it is intended to make it possible to keep the cut positions of all the part webs of the folded strand at a desired value in each case.
Such regulation with a cascade structure is complicated and, in particular, requires the use of a large number of sensors for registering the actual values of the cut position on the individual part webs and on the folded strand. This is not only costly but, as the number of sensors used rises, the probability of failure of the cut register regulation also increases, since failures of automated systems are generally caused to a predominant extent by sensor failures.

Method for setting the cut register in a web-fed rotary press


In a method for increasing the efficiency of bitumen recovery from oil sands, bitumen asphaltenes naturally present in the oil sands ore are treated with selected chemical agents to produce surfactants which reduce surface and interfacial tensions and promote the production of bitumen-water emulsions, thus facilitating the extraction and recovery of bitumen for use in producing synthetic crude oil. The agents react with the asphaltenes by oxidation, sulfonation, sulfoxidation, or sulfomethylation reactions, or by a combination of such reactions. These reactions may be initiated by adding selected agents into water-based oil sand slurries in process vessels or in pipelines. Alternatively, the agents may be injected directly into subsurface oil sand formations for in situ production of surfactants to enhance the efficiency of in situ thermal bitumen recovery processes. The methods of the invention may also be used to improve the stability of bitumen-water emulsions to facilitate transportation of the emulsions by pipeline, and to enhance the recoverability of bitumen from oil sands tailings.

The oil sands deposits of northern Alberta, Canada are estimated to contain about 142 billion cubic meters (or 890 billion barrels) of bitumen, constituting the largest oil sands deposit in the world. Since the 1960s, bitumen recovered these deposits has been upgraded to make synthetic crude oil at production rates as high as one million barrels per day.
Bitumen is commonly recovered from the surface-mined oil sands ore using water-slurry-based extraction processes. Asphaltic acids, which are fractions of the bitumen asphaltenes present in bitumen and contain partly aromatic, oxygen-functional groups such as phenolic, carboxylic, and sulfonic types, become water-soluble, especially when the ore-water slurry's pH (i.e., acidity expressed as the minus logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration: pH=−log [H+]) is slightly over 7, and act as surfactants reducing the surface and interfacial tensions. The reduction of surface and interfacial tensions in an oil sands ore-water slurry system causes disintegration of the ore structure and the resultant liberation of bitumen from the ore. Therefore, the water-soluble fractions of bitumen asphaltenes in oil sands play an important role in the recovery of bitumen from the surface-mined oil sands ore.
Recovery of bitumen from deep oil sands formations may be accomplished by thermal methods such as underground bitumen combustion (i.e., in situ combustion, or ISC), or steam injection methods such as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and cyclic steam simulation (CSS). In these methods, the thermal energy injected into deep oil sands formations reduces the bitumen's viscosity and increases its mobility within the reservoir. Steam produced as an ISC by-product, or steam injected into a subsurface oil sands seam, condenses due to thermal energy losses and forms bitumen-water emulsions, which may be recovered by means of production wells. Water-soluble asphaltic acids also help the formation of the bitumen-water emulsions under in situ recovery conditions, since they act as surfactants reducing surface and interfacial tensions, thereby helping to break down the oil sands ore structure and promoting the release of bitumen from the ore.
If an emulsion is not sufficiently stable, the emulsified material (such as bitumen particles or droplets) will tend to flocculate or coalesce, leading to breakdown of the emulsion, which could hamper or preclude pipeline transportation of the emulsion. The production of surfactant species from bitumen asphaltenes would promote the formation of stable bitumen-water emulsions, thereby facilitating pipeline transportation of bitumen in the form of a bitumen-water emulsion.
For the reasons discussed above, there is a need for new methods for producing surfactants from bitumen asphaltenes to promote and enhance the formation of stable bitumen-water emulsions during both water-slurry-based and in situ processes for recovering bitumen from oil sands deposits, and thereby to improve bitumen recovery efficiency. There is a particular need for such methods which will result in reduced the amount of water required for water-slurry-based bitumen recovery processes. There is also a need for such methods which can make effective use of process waste products such as petroleum coke utilization flue gas. As well, there is a need for such methods which may be used in deep oil sands ore seams with the secondary beneficial effect of thermally insulating the ore seams, thus enhancing the efficiency of in situ thermal methods of bitumen recovery. There is a further need for new methods for producing surfactants which are also adaptable for use in association with bitumen-hydrocarbon mixtures and heavy crude oils. Further yet, there is a need for such methods which can be used over a wide range of temperatures and pH values. The present invention is directed to the foregoing needs.

Method for improving bitumen recovery from oil sands by production of surfactants from bitumen asphaltenes


Adhesive material is directed by two gumming applicators onto selected portions of a wrapping material as it advances in a given feed direction at a predetermined velocity, with no interruption in the movement of the wrapping material. The two applicators make a forward pass and a return pass, each composed of two constituent passes, during the course of which the adhesive material is deposited simultaneously along respective first and second segments of a first trail in the forward direction and in like manner along respective first and second segments of a second trail in the reverse direction; each complete trail extends transversely and substantially across the full width of the wrapping material.

The present invention relates to a method for the application of an adhesive material to a wrapping material.
The invention is employed advantageously in the art field of wrapping machines for cigarettes, an area of use to which reference is made explicitly throughout the following specification, albeit with no limitation in general scope implied.
It is usual in machines of the aforementioned type for the wrapping material to be decoiled from a roll and directed toward a wrapping station, passing through a cutting station and a gumming station; at this latter station, a layer of glue is applied to predetermined areas of the wrapping material in such a manner that the corresponding edges of the cut sheet can be joined subsequently during the step of wrapping the product.
The gumming operation will be effected generally by bringing the material to a standstill at the gumming station long enough for the adhesive to be applied by respective gumming means. The pause made by the wrapping material at the gumming station gives rise to certain drawbacks, chief among which being a reduction in the operating speed of the machine overall, also a jerky movement of the wrapping material that tends to result in an erratic restart after successive applications of the adhesive material, and ultimately in the risk of breakage.

Method for the application of adhesive material to a wrapping material