An insulation material having insulative properties of a synthetic down, while have a fir-tree structure more similar to natural down, and being in a blown form. The blowable insulation material is composed of plural units each having a number of filaments that are fused at one end of the unit and are open at an opposite end.

There have been many attempts to achieve an insulating material having a down-like structure and qualities for use in insulating articles such as clothing, sleeping bags, comforters, and the like. Prior efforts to develop a feasible material have often yielded those with a structure dissimilar from real down, are too heavy and dense to be considered down-like, and/or are difficult to blow through conventional equipment.
These include the following by way of example:
U.S. Pat. No. 988,010 is a labor intensive means of producing a material described as simulating a feather. While twisting is used to achieve the divergence or "fanning" of the individual filaments, this patent teaches two separate components to make a "feather".
U.S. Pat. No. 2,713,547 uses chicken feathers or biers glued to a monofilament to produce a simulated down.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,541,653 is a means of producing high bulk yarns by sewing and slitting matts comprised of bulkable synthetic continuous filaments.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,919 describes a filling material using larger cylindrical or spherical formed fiber bodies along with feathery formed bodies which are mixed together with the latter relied upon to fill the voids.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,371 describes a polyester fiber filling material comprising a blend of polyester staple fibers with organic staple fibers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,604 describes an improved thermal insulation material that is a blend of down and synthetic fiber staple formed from hollow polyester filaments which may be treated with silicone and formed into a carded web.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,927 describes an insulating material comprising a combination of natural feathers and downs, and synthetic polyesters formed into a web.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,259,400 provides a padding material that imitates natural feathers and consists of a flexible filiform textile rod on either side of which textiles fibers are bonded.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,336 describes loose fill insulation that is blown into spaces. The insulation material comprises a mixture of loose fill cellulosic insulation mixed with a staple fiber.
An exception to the aforementioned drawbacks is U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,635 which discloses a superior synthetic down and has particular reference to light-weight thermal insulation systems which can be achieved by the use of fine fibers in low density assemblies and describes a range of fiber mixtures, that, when used to fabricate an insulating batt, provides advantageous, down-like qualities such as a high warmth-to-weight ratio, a soft hand, and good compressional recovery. This material approaches, and in some cases might even exceed the thermal insulating properties of natural down. From a mechanical standpoint, the use of extremely fine fibers may result in concerns for rigidity and strength that make them difficult to produce, manipulate and use. Recovery properties of such a synthetic insulator material are enhanced at larger fiber diameters, but an increase in the large fiber component will seriously reduce the thermal insulating properties overall. The problems associated with mechanical stability of fine fiber assemblies are more of a concern in the wet condition since surface tension forces associated with the presence of capillary water are considerably greater than those due to gravitational forces or other normal use loading and they have a much more deleterious effect on the structure. However, unlike waterfowl down, the disclosed fiber combination does provide excellent resistance to wetting.
Another exception is U.S. Pat. No. 4,992,327 discloses the use of binder fiber components to improve insulator integrity without compromising desired attributes. More specifically the invention disclosed therein relates to synthetic fiber thermal insulator material in the form of a cohesive fiber structure, which structure comprises an assemblage of: (a) from 70 to 95 weight percent of synthetic polymeric microfibers having a diameter of from 3 to 12 microns; and (b) from 5 to 30 weight percent of synthetic polymeric macrofibers having a diameter of 12 to 50 microns, with at least some of the fibers are bonded at their contact points, the bonding being such that the density of the resultant structure is within the range 3 to 16 kg/m3. The thermal insulating properties of the bonded assemblage are equal to or not substantially less than the thermal insulating properties of a comparable unbonded assemblage. The reference also describes a down-like cluster form of the preferred fiber blends. The distinct performance advantages of the cluster form over the batt form are also disclosed in the patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,116 describes insulation formed by blending binder fibers with insulative fibers. The insulative fibers are selected from the group consisting of synthetic and natural fibers formed into a batt which may be cut into any desired shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,971 describes a fiber blend useful as a fiberfill in garments. The fiberfill blend comprises crimped hollow polyester fiber and crimped binder fibers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,580 describes a material formed by blending a mix of first thermoplastic, thermoset, inorganic, or organic fibers with second thermoplastic fibers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,742 describes a blowing insulation that comprises a blend of first and second insulating (glass) fiber materials. One of the groups of fibers is smaller in size for filling the voids between the fibers of the larger group.
However, prior art clusters often are generally hand fabricated in a slow, tedious, batch process. Furthermore, some of the prior art materials are not easily blowable materials which can be used with conventional manufacturing equipment.
It should also be noted that prior art insulation material may take various forms such as staple fibers of various sizes, hollow and solid fibers, and crimped fibers, among others. Various shapes have also been suggested such as spheres (U.S. Pat. No. 4,065,599), spheres with projecting fibers to allow for interlocking (U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,574), crimped bundles of fibers (U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,103), assemblies of looped fibers (U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,421), rolls of fibers, bails, bundles and pin cushion configurations (U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,909), just to mention a few.
In addition, clusters of fibers formed from shredded batt, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,329,051 entitled "Blowable Insulation Clusters", and such clusters in an admixture with natural fibers such as down, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,329,052 entitled "Blowable Insulation", have been found particularly suitable as insulation/fill material.
Various ways of creating an alternative but related form of insulation include fiber fill or fiber balls. Other forms of synthetic alternatives to natural insulation include that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,851,665 which describes point bonding of tows of fibers. Another way, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,740 is to feed a uniform layer of staple fiber into a rotating cylinder covered with card clothing and rolling the fiber into rounded clusters which are removed by a special doffer screen. Others suggest blowing or air tumbling the fiber into a ball. (See e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,618,531; 4,783,364; and 4,164,534.)
While some or all of the foregoing references have certain attendant advantages, further improvements and/or alternative forms, is always desirable.


A rotation angle sensor detects the rotation speed of a crankshaft of an engine. An ECU extracts a first frequency component synchronized with combustion cycles of the engine that is contained in a rotation speed signal obtained by the detection of the rotation angle sensor, and a second frequency component having a higher frequency than the first frequency component. It detects a combustion state by using the rotation variation amount of the first frequency component in a lower rotation range than a specified engine speed, and by using the rotation variation amount of the second frequency component in a higher rotation range.

It is known that, during the operation of an internal combustion engine, the rotation speed of the internal combustion engine fluctuates according to combustion cycles. Some conventional technologies detect a combustion state such as misfire on the basis of combustion cycle fluctuation of the rotation speed.
For example, according to U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,527, a combustion state is detected by comparing a rotation variation amount in the former half of one combustion cycle and a rotation variation amount in the latter half.
According to JP-2000-240500A, in the normal operation state, angular speed fluctuation difference amounts of a crankshaft within a predetermined stroke are detected plural times to obtain a probability distribution of the angular speed fluctuation difference amounts so that misfire is detected by setting a reference value for determining an abnormal combustion area on the basis of the probability distribution. In such a case, since a difference occurs in the variation amount of rotation speed of each combustion cycle between during the normal combustion and during the abnormal combustion such as misfire, a combustion state can be detected.
However, according to the conventional detection method, as an engine speed increases, the detection accuracy of combustion states decreases. Specifically, it is confirmed that the rotation speed fluctuation of each combustion cycle reduces in a high rotation range, and the reduced rotation speed fluctuation makes the differentiation between the normal combustion state and the abnormal combustion state difficult, causing reduction in the detection accuracy of combustion states.

Engine combustion state detection device


A soft X-ray detection apparatus includes a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate has a plurality of detection units disposed thereon, each including a conversion unit and a circuit unit. The conversion unit is formed from, for example, a photodiode. The conversion unit collects electric charge generated upon incidence of soft X-ray radiation. A first conductive type (e.g., N-channel type) amplifier transistor is disposed in the circuit unit. The amplifier transistor serves as an amplifier unit that amplifies and outputs a signal supplied from the conversion unit. A first conductive type transistor is not disposed between the conversion units that are immediately adjacent to each other. Alternatively, transistors included in the detection units that are immediately adjacent to each other are disposed so as to be in close proximity to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an X-ray detection apparatus configured to detect soft X-ray radiation.
2. Description of the Related Art
A solid-state image pickup device including an amplifier unit for each pixel is known to the present inventors. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-024907 describes a solid-state image pickup device having a plurality of pixels. Each of the pixels includes a photodiode and a source follower metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor serving as part of an amplifier circuit. In the solid-state image pickup device described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-024907, a photodiode and a source follower MOS transistor are disposed on a single semiconductor substrate.
The solid-state image pickup device disclosed by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-024907 operates exclusively in the visible light range of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-024907 does not discuss detection of soft X-ray radiation.

Apparatus for detecting soft X-ray radiation and X-ray detection system including such apparatus


A floor cleaner can include a housing adapted for movement over a surface to be cleaned and at least one edge cleaning brush provided on the housing. The edge cleaning brush includes multiple cleaning implements which rotate at different velocities. A gear system, such as a planetary gear system, can drive one cleaning implement at a lower speed than another cleaning implement.

Autonomous or robotic floor cleaners can move without the assistance of a user or operator to clean a floor surface. For example, the floor cleaner can be configured to vacuum or sweep dirt (including dust, hair, and other debris) into a collection bin carried on the floor cleaner. The floor cleaner can move randomly about a surface while cleaning the floor surface or use a mapping/navigation system for guided navigation about the surface. Some floor cleaners are further configured to apply and extract liquid for wet cleaning of bare floors, carpets, rugs, and other floor surfaces.
Floor cleaners include one or more cleaning implements for removing debris from the floor surface. For example, robot and other types of floor cleaners use brushes to propel debris toward a suction nozzle or debris inlet. A side or edge cleaning brush may rotate about a substantially vertical axis and sweep debris under the robot for collection, and clean hard-to reach spaces such as along edges and in corners of a room, including edges or corners created by walls, baseboards, cabinetry, furniture, etc. Such edge cleaning brushes often have bristles that can fling debris outside the cleaning path of the robot 10, rather than collecting debris.


The invention relates to a method and device for filling a tank with pressurized gas, comprising transfer of a predefined amount of a gas into the tank from at least one pressurized gas source via a filling duct, the gas being selectively cooled by a cooling component before it enters into the tank in order to prevent a defined temperature limit from being reached in the tank, characterized in that the method comprises a step of defining the maximum amount of energy that can be added to the tank without exceeding the temperature limit, this maximum amount of energy being expressed in the form of the maximum enthalpy that can be added to the tank, a step of defining the effective amount of energy that will be added to the tank during the transfer of gas into the tank without cooling, expressed in the form of an added enthalpy, cooling of the gas by the cooling component being controlled in order to remove selectively an amount of heat from the gas transferred into the tank corresponding at least to the fraction of the added enthalpy that exceeds the maximum enthalpy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a filling method and device.
The invention more particularly relates to a method for filling a tank with pressurized gas, comprising transfer of a predefined amount of a gas into the tank from at least one pressurized gas source via a filling duct, the gas being selectively cooled by a cooling component before it enters into the tank in order to prevent a defined temperature limit from being reached in the tank.
2. Related Art
Rapidly filling a tank with pressurized hydrogen gas produces an accumulation of heat in the tank (mainly due to compression of the gas during filling). This accumulation of heat leads to heating of the tank, which may cause the tank to reach or exceed its temperature limit (Tc), above which limit (85° C., for example, for a composite tank) the tank loses its ability to withstand pressure. In order to prevent this, it is known to pre-cool the gas before it enters into the tank. The higher the initial temperature of the gas added, the greater this pre-cooling must be.
One problem with this solution is that it is relatively difficult:                to evaluate with precision the cooling required;        to apply the required cooling continuously; and        to check whether the required cooling has been correctly carried out.
One known solution consists in defining a temperature at which the gas must be cooled before it enters the tank throughout the filling process.
For example the standard SAE TIR J2601 specifies that, for rapid filling operations (no more than five minutes in length) and for final pressures of 35 MPa to 70 MPa, the hydrogen gas must be pre-cooled to a temperature between −40° C. and −33° C., throughout the filling operation.
These pre-cooling temperatures were selected using temperature prediction models, in order to stop the temperature of the gas in the tank exceeding 85° C. at the end of the filling operation.
However, this solution has the following drawbacks:                the amount of cooling required is generally overestimated in order to accommodate every type of tank liable to need filling, this overestimation is further increased when the temperature limit is applied to the gas in the tank and not to the walls of the tank itself;        the refrigeration that must be applied to the gas in order to achieve a constant pre-cooling temperature throughout the filling process varies significantly, hence the required refrigerating power is inefficiently used;        reliably maintaining the hydrogen temperature between −40° C. and −33° C. throughout the filling operation is relatively complex and costly because these temperatures are near the lowest that can be produced industrially on a large scale;        there is a risk that elastomer seals in the filling installation will deteriorate at these low temperature levels, moreover other components must not be exposed to temperatures below −40° C.; and        such low temperatures cause frost to form on the equipment, which may impair proper operation of the installation.

Device and method for filling a container with a gas under pressure

L'Air Liquide Société Anonyme Pour L'Étude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude


A logic module and flip-flop includes input multiplexers having data inputs coupled to routing resources. A clock multiplexer has inputs coupled to clock resources, and an output. An input-select multiplexer has a first input coupled to the output of an input multiplexer. A flip-flop has a clock input coupled to the output of the clock multiplexer, and a data output coupled to an input of the input-select multiplexer. A logic module has data inputs coupled to the output of the input select multiplexers. A flip-flop multiplexer is coupled to the data input of the flip-flop, and has inputs input coupled to the output of the first input multiplexer, the data output of the logic module, and a third input coupled to routing resources.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to user-programmable circuits. More particularly, the present invention relates to field programmable gate array (FPGA) integrated circuits and to arrangements for flip-flop and logic circuits in FPGA architectures.
2. The Prior Art
Modern FPGA functionality is provided by logic modules and flip-flops. Logic modules can be n-input look-up-tables (n-LUTs) or any other kind of function generators with n inputs, where (n>1). The flip-flops can be simple D type flip-flops, or they can have additional functionality such as CLEAR, RESET, LOAD, and ENABLE. These additional functions (with the exception of ENABLE) can be synchronous with the clock (CLK) or asynchronous (or both.)
Logic modules and flip-flops are often grouped into clusters that may typically vary in size from four to more than twenty. The clustering provides no additional functionality; it is done for routing convenience. In addition to the functionality provided by the logic modules and flip-flops, the FPGAs may include other types of functional blocks such as multipliers, RAMs, FIFOs, etc.
The most common arrangement of logic modules and flip-flops is shown in FIG. 1. In this kind of arrangement, the Y output of a logic module 10 directly drives the D input of the flip-flop 12. The A, B, C, and D data inputs of the logic module 12 are each driven by a multiplexer; multiplexer 14 drives data input A, multiplexer 16 drives data input B, multiplexer 18 drives data input C, multiplexer 20 drives data input D. Each of multiplexers 14, 16, 18, and 20 have a plurality of data inputs that are driven from routing tracks as is known in the art. Multiplexer 22 allows the Q output of flip-flop 12 to be used as an additional input to the D data input of logic module 10. The CLK input of flip-flop 12 is driven by the output of multiplexer 24, which allows selection between the various clock resources at its data inputs.
The arrangement shown in FIG. 1 has been used in earlier anti-fuse based FPGA products designed and marketed by Actel Corporation of Mountain View Calif. This is an economical in arrangement in terms of routing fabric usage, but it is also the most limited in terms of flexibly packing logic functions and flip-flops together. Unless the flip-flop is packed with the logic that drives it, the logic block functionality must be used as a feed through buffer and is thus wasted. In typical FPGA designs, this limitation causes a large number of isolated flip-flops to be present that are not packed together with logic modules.
The packing limitations of the arrangement shown in FIG. 1 can be improved significantly by allowing configurable connections between logic modules and the flip-flops, as shown in FIG. 2. An additional multiplexer 26 permits selection of the source of the D input to the flip-flop 12 between the Y output of the logic module 10 and the output of multiplexer 20 that drives the D input to the logic module 10.
The arrangement shown in FIG. 2 is very commonly used in various products by FPGA vendors. As will be appreciated by persons of ordinary skill in the art, the logic module 10 in the arrangement of FIG. 2 is no longer wasted if the D-input of the flip-flop 12 is not driven from within that module. On average, this improves the packing efficiency by packing 20% more flip-flops with logic modules. However, even this arrangement has limitations when the logic module 10 does not drive the flip-flop 12. The total number of combined data inputs to the logic module 10 and to the flip-flop 12 must be "n", the same as the maximum number of inputs to the logic module. This either means that the logic module is used in a limited role by computing a logic function of (n−1) inputs, or that one of the inputs of the logic module must be driven from the Q-output of the flip-flop.
Even though the arrangement shown in FIG. 2 improves the packing density, the improvement comes with a small performance penalty due to the delay through the flip-flop multiplexer 26 between the logic module 10 and the flip-flop 12. This is typically a small delay that is well worth the increase in packing density, as long as the multiplexer 26 remains a single-level multiplexer.

(N+1) input flip-flop packing with logic in FPGA architectures


A magnetic control wheel having a flywheel and a magnetic ring. The magnetic ring is a plate with magnetic permeability that is mounted around the periphery of the flywheel. The connection line at the front and rear joint of the magnetic ring meets an end face of the flywheel at a non-right angle. The reaction of this connection line to the magnetic field of the magnets is focused at only one point rather than at a line at the same time. In this way, the vibration and noise of the magnetic control wheel can be considerably minimized to achieve a longer service life.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a magnetic control wheel with a magnetic ring, and more particularly to a magnetic ring whose joint is changed in such a way that the line at the joint meets the end face 211 of the flywheel 21 at a non-right angle. In this way, the magnetic gap and the magnetic field being cut can be protected from direct face-to-face collision that causes vibration.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plurality of fitness apparatuses are fitted with a flywheel for providing an inertia force by rotation that can be utilized either as exercise loading or even as means for adjusting the loading. Accordingly, a magnetic control wheel was developed. As shown in FIG. 1, a magnetic control wheel was developed. As shown in FIG. 1, a magnetic control wheel 11 is fitted to an exercise bike. A magnetic control element 14 with a plurality of magnets 13 is installed to create a magnetic field for applying a certain magnetic resistance to the flywheel.
As shown in FIG. 2, the magnetic control wheel 11 serves as a resistance system for a fitness apparatus. Normally, a so-called magnetic ring 12 having excellent electric or magnetic conductivity is interposed between the flywheel 11 and the magnets 13 for improving the property of the electric or magnetic conductivity.
According to different requirements on material quality and cost, the magnetic ring 12 can be divided into different types. One of them is the permanent magnet type by use of aluminum and copper to be primary material for the magnetic ring. Due to the excellent electric conductivity, eddy current can be created on the surface of the magnetic ring, thereby creating a greater resistance.
Another type is applied to the electromagnetic system brake and hybrid generator that primarily employs silicon steel or steel material with low carbon content to be primary material for the magnetic ring. Due to the excellent magnetic conductivity, the resistance caused by cutting the magnetic field lines can be increased.
In taking easy fabrication and low cost into account, the magnetic ring 12 is formed into a ring shape by stamping a plate. Thereafter, the magnetic ring 12 is mounted on the flywheel 11. According to FIG. 2, the magnetic ring 12 is mounted on the external side of the flywheel 11. As shown in FIG. 3, the magnetic ring 12 is mounted on the internal side of the flywheel 11 in adjustment to the magnets 13 of the internal type magnetic control element 15. As shown in FIG. 4, a magnetic control apparatus 16 for the electromagnetic system brake and the hybrid generator includes an electromagnetic coil 17 applying magnetic resistance to the flywheel 11 and the external type magnetic ring 12.
The above-mentioned configuration of the magnetic rings 12 cannot be completely sealed at the joints as if no joints were present. Meanwhile, the welding material does not correspond to the material of the magnetic ring. Thus, magnetic gaps or areas with different permeability will be created in interaction with the magnetic field. Vibrations will arise when the magnetic gaps or areas with different permeability interact with the magnetic field in operation of the flywheel 11, thereby affecting the performance and the service life of the magnetic control wheel in a negative manner.
At present, most of the lines 121 at the joint of the magnetic ring 12 are designed to be perpendicular to the end face of the flywheel 11. This just corresponds to the distribution of the magnetic field of the magnetic control wheel. In this way, the magnetic gap and the magnetic field to be cut collide to each other in a face-to-face way. In other words, the magnetic gaps are opened to a maximal extent and lie opposite to the magnetic field. The magnetic gaps and the different magnetic permeability will cause a loosening and tightening action on the rotation of the flywheel (because of difference in permeability). Thus, vibration of the flywheel arises. If the magnets are fixed in a loose way, vibration will arise in the areas of the magnets, thereby giving out sound. If the magnets are fixed in a tight way, the flywheel creates vibration. Normally, bearing (not shown) is mounted on the flywheel 11. Therefore, the bearing on the flywheel will be affected by a heavier magnetic force to make noise due to vibration. Accordingly, the service life will be reduced.
Therefore, the magnetic resistance mechanism of the conventional magnetic control wheel still leaves much to be desired and is required for improvement.

Magnetic control wheel with a magnetic ring


A gas sensor element having a chamfered portion. The chamfered portion has a leading end chamfered portion formed in a leading end portion of the gas sensor element, a rear end chamfered portion formed in a rear end portion of the gas sensor element, and an intermediate chamfered portion linking the leading end chamfered portion and rear end chamfered portion. The chamfer angle of the rear end chamfered portion is formed so as to be larger than the chamfer angle of the leading end chamfered portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gas sensor including a plate-like gas sensor element.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a gas sensor that carries out detection and measurement of the concentration of a specified gas component contained in an exhaust gas of an internal-combustion engine or the like, one including a plate-type gas sensor wherein a plurality of substrates are stacked one on another has heretofore been known. The gas sensor element has a sensing portion provided in a leading end portion thereof, and carries out a detection and measurement of the concentration of a specified gas component by exposing the sensing portion to an exhaust gas. Also, in this kind of gas sensor, electrode pads for outputting a detection signal from the sensing portion to an external circuit are disposed on a surface in a rear end portion of the gas sensor element. Furthermore, a technology is known wherein a ridge line (between a surface of the gas sensor element on which the electrode pads are provided and a side surface perpendicular to the surface) is chamfered and ground, thereby eliminating a surface defect, such as a burr formed at the ridge line when manufacturing the element. This measure can suppress damage such as a crack or chipping caused by a shock from outside the gas sensor element. For example, in JP-A-2004-251654, a chamfered portion is provided by chamfering a ridge line, provided in a longitudinal direction of a gas sensor element, uniformly at a chamfer angle of 45°.
A chamfer angle and chamfer amount are specified for the chamfered portion from the standpoint of imparting thermal shock resistance to a leading end portion of the gas sensor element exposed to an exhaust gas. Further, a chamfered portion uniform in the longitudinal direction of the gas sensor element, also including a rear end portion of the gas sensor element, is provided.
However, when this kind of chamfered portion is provided in a gas sensor element on a surface of which a plurality of electrode pads are disposed, the area of the surface (the width of the surface) in the rear end portion on which the electrode pads are disposed is reduced. This makes it necessary to further shorten the distances between the electrode pads. Because of this, there is a danger of bringing about a decrease in the insulating performance between the electrode pads. On the other hand, when the distances between the electrode pads are secured by reducing the area of the electrode pads in order to secure the insulating performance between the electrode pads, there is a danger that the contactability between the electrode pads and connection terminals decreases.


A method for displaying the relative positions of two players playing a game on a user device. The set of levels within an episode that a first player is playing are displayed on the graphical user interface of his computer device. These levels are set out in a predetermined order, wherein access to the next level is granted once the player has completed the preceding levels. Inputs from the player are received as the player plays each level. This enables the game to determine when the level has been completed, and to generate player data indicating the level the player is playing. In an episode race, the relative positions of the two players can then be displayed based on the time taken for the first and second players to complete one or more levels in their respective sets of levels. A player may compete against bots, created from historic user data, or against live opponents. In another feature, the user can select a specific theme from a group of themes to play an episode of the game in. In another feature, the user can invite another user to play in the same theme as him, even if the two players are playing different levels with different difficulties.

In the field of computer-implemented games, there are many technical challenges facing the designer of such games when considering how the user interface is to be controlled in the context of computer devices available to play the game.
One technical challenge can involve allowing a game to be fun and compelling even when there is limited display resource available, such as when a game is being played on a smartphone, tablet or other minicomputer. Another significant challenge is that of user engagement. Engagement involves designing gameplay to be engaging and rewarding to players. This typically requires games to be easily understood at their simplest or introductory levels, providing rewarding gameplay with quite simple game mechanics, but becoming progressively more challenging so that players are not bored, but remain engaged and develop rewarding skills. Effective engagement requires various forms of feedback to reinforce player sense of success and accomplishment.
An existing type of match-three game is a so-called "switcher" game. A match-three game is a type of casual puzzle game where the player is required to find patterns on a seemingly chaotic board. The player then has to match three or more of the same type of game element on the game board and those matched elements will then disappear. In a switcher game, the player switches place onto adjacent game elements on the game board so that one or both of them create a chain of at least three adjacent game elements of the same type. Those matched game elements will then disappear. The game board is then repopulated with game objects.
One such known match three-type game is known by the trade name Candy Crush.
Another known match three-type game is known by the trade name Pet Rescue. Both of these can be played in Saga format. The Saga format is a format in which a plurality of levels of a game are arranged on a level a map. The level map may be divided into a plurality of episodes, each episode comprising a set of levels. A level selection screen may be displayed on the display of a user device, the level selection screen showing a set of levels for a user to play.
FIG. 1 illustrates a level selection screen 100 which is rendered on the display of a user terminal to a first player. The level selection screen 100 shows a set of levels, each of which is represented by a node, for example node 110. The level selection screen 100 is displayed with a particular theme. As can been seen from FIG. 1, in this case, the theme is New York. The player marker indicators 120 provide a count of star-shaped markers. Each star-shaped marker denotes the fact that the user has achieved a particular game objective in a particular game mode at that location. On the level selection screen 100, a player icon 130 is shown, indicating the game progress of the first user. When the first user starts the game, this icon 130 is shown at the node that is the furthest level along the game path that the user has not yet completed. Beyond this node 110 are a series of other nodes, e.g. node 150, which represent levels, which the first user has not yet unlocked, and hence cannot be played yet by the first user. On other hand, before the node 110 are a series of nodes, e.g. node 160, which represent levels, which the first user has played and completed. The first user may select one of these levels to play again. In response to user input associated with a node, the level associated with that node may be loaded for play by the first user. The user input associated with the first node may comprise a mouse click or touch screen input at the location of the relevant node.
Also shown on the level selection screen, are a series of identifiers or icons of other users, for example identifier 140. The position of this identifier 140 indicates the progress of the relevant user in the game. For example, the position of the identifier 140 may indicate the furthest level along in the progression path, which the relevant user has unlocked but not completed. Each of the identifiers displayed on the level selection screen 100 may be an identifier of a friend/social network contact of the first user. The terminal of the first user may be configured to receive the progress information of one or more of their friends who are participants in the game, and to display this information on the level selection screen 100, wherein the progress is indicated by the position of the identifier 140 along the level path.

Controlling a user interface of a computer device


Transferring data elements from a source to a destination includes providing a transmission queue at the source, where data elements in the transmission queue are transferred from the source to the destination, determining an optimal length for the transmission queue, where the optimal queue length is inversely proportional data latency time at the destination, and, if the optimal length is greater than an instantaneous length of the transmission queue, adding data elements to the transmission queue. Adding data elements may include adding a number of elements corresponding to a difference between the optimal length and the instantaneous length of the transmission queue. Determining optimal length may include dividing a constant by the data latency time at the destination. Transferring data elements may also include providing a network between the source and the destination.

1. Technical Field
This application relates to computer storage devices, and more particularly to the field of transferring data between storage devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Host processor systems may store and retrieve data using a storage device containing a plurality of host interface units (host adapters), disk drives, and disk interface units (disk adapters). Such storage devices are provided, for example, by EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass. and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,939 to Yanai et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,394 to Galtzur et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,147 to Vishlitzky et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,208 to Ofek. The host systems access the storage device through a plurality of channels provided therewith. Host systems provide data and access control information through the channels to the storage device and the storage device provides data to the host systems also through the channels. The host systems do not address the disk drives of the storage device directly, but rather, access what appears to the host systems as a plurality of logical disk units. The logical disk units may or may not correspond to the actual disk drives. Allowing multiple host systems to access the single storage device unit allows the host systems to share data stored therein.
In some instances, it may be desirable to copy data from one storage device to another. For example, if a host writes data to a first storage device, it may be desirable to copy that data to a second storage device provided in a different location so that if a disaster occurs that renders the first storage device inoperable, the host (or another host) may resume operation using the data of the second storage device. Such a capability is provided, for example, by the Remote Data Facility (RDF) product provided by EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass. With RDF, a first storage device, denoted the "primary storage device" (or "R1") is coupled to the host. One or more other storage devices, called "secondary storage devices" (or "R2") receive copies of the data that is written to the primary storage device by the host. The host interacts directly with the primary storage device, but any data changes made to the primary storage device are automatically provided to the one or more secondary storage devices using RDF. The primary and secondary storage devices may be connected by a data link, such as an ESCON link, a Fibre Channel link, and/or a Gigabit Ethernet link. The RDF functionality may be facilitated with an RDF adapter (RA) provided at each of the storage devices.
One difficulty with RDF (and many systems that make use of data communication) is that they can exhibit "bursts" of data so that the maximum rate at which data is provided for transmission exceeds the capacity of the system. One way to address this is to design the system to be able to handle the expected worst case (i.e., to be able to handle the highest burst of data). However, this solution could result in an over-design of the system and, in instances where extra communication bandwidth costs money, could result in extra unnecessary cost.
Queues may be used to handle bursty data traffic where the queues absorb data for later processing. However, if queues are used, then it is necessary to provide flow control to keep the secondary storage device queue from overflowing while still properly utilizing the network's data capacity. One type of flow control, deemed "XON/XOFF", requires that the secondary storage device provide flow control information to the primary storage device to cause the primary storage device to stop sending data when the queue of the secondary storage device gets close to being full. However, in situations where there is significant communication latency, it is necessary for the secondary storage device to send a signal to stop the flow long before the queue of the secondary storage device is close to full. Thus, in many instances, XON/XOFF flow control will cause the system to be underutilized.
Another type of flow control, called "Windowing", has the primary storage device send data at a fixed rate to the secondary storage device. The fixed rate is based on the capacity of the system. However, one drawback to this is that it assumes that the ability of the secondary storage device to process received data is fixed and it assumes that the bandwidth of the communication link is also fixed. In instances where this is not the case, Windowing may not be appropriate.
Thus, it is desirable to have a system with flow control that addresses some of the shortcomings of the techniques described above.


A service providing system includes an operation terminal that includes a service information acquiring unit of acquiring service information indicative of at least one service and information of an apparatus to be used related to an electronic apparatus used for the at least one service, a receiving unit that receives a selection of one service, an apparatus information acquiring unit that acquires apparatus information determining at least one electronic apparatus, an apparatus information sending unit that sends the apparatus information through a previously defined interface; and an information processing apparatus that includes a service information sending unit that sends the service information and the information of the apparatus, and a service providing unit that provides the one service by controlling the at least one electronic apparatus by a cooperation method corresponding to the one service determined by the apparatus information sent from the operation terminal through the previously defined interface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a service providing system and a method of providing service.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a data input and output processing system in which identification information corresponding to portions of a data input and output apparatus or identification information displayed on a display portion of the data input and output apparatus are optically read by using an operation device and the data input and output apparatus is controlled based on the read identification information as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2007-108947.
Recently, a user uses various operation terminals such as various electronic apparatuses including a printer for outputting electronic data, a multifunction peripheral, and a projector, a mobile phone, a smartphone, and a tablet terminal. In a mode (system) of using the electronic apparatus or the operation terminal, an improvement in a utility value is expected by cooperation between various electronic apparatuses and operation terminals.
However, in an exemplary system using the electronic apparatus or the operation terminal, there is no structure of providing multiple services using one or more electronic apparatuses included in multiple electronic apparatuses connected to the system.

Service providing system and a method of providing service


The disclosure provides a novel system and method of storing multi-bit information, including providing a nano-channel-based polymer memory device, the device having at least one memory cell comprising at least two addition nano-channels, each of the addition nano-channels arranged to add a unique chemical construct (or codes) to the polymer when the polymer enters the respective addition nano-channel, the polymer having a bead or origami on a non-writing end of the polymer; each nano-channel having a nano-port constriction having a port width which allows the polymer to pass through the nano-port, and does not allow the bead or origami to pass through and does not allow addition or deblocking enzymes (or beads attached thereto) to pass through the nano-port; successively steering the polymer through the nanopore into the addition nano-channels to add the codes to the polymer based on a predetermined digital data pattern to create the digital data pattern on the polymer.

There is a continuing demand to store ever more data on or in physical media, with storage devices getting ever smaller as their capacity gets bigger. The amount of data stored is reportedly doubling in size every two years, and according to one study, by 2020 the amount of data we create and copy annually will reach 44 zetabytes, or 44 trillion gigabytes. Moreover, existing data storage media such as hard drives, optical media, and magnetic tapes, are relatively unstable and become corrupted after prolonged storage.
There is an urgent need for alternative approaches to storing large volumes of data for extended periods, e.g., decades or centuries.

Systems and methods for writing and reading data stored in a polymer using nano-channels


Bypass tubes connected to intake ports of each throttle body are connected to joint pipes of a starting control valve assembly. The starting control valve assembly includes valve bodies having communication paths formed therein. The communication paths communicate with an air cleaner. First and second flow paths connect the communication paths and the joint pipes. Tuning screws are provided for adjusting the opening amount of each of the first flow paths and a shaft valve is rotatably mounted in through holes which are orthogonal to the second flow paths for collectively adjusting the opening amount of the second flow paths. Furthermore, a plurality of idle connection holes are provided in the shaft valve which all face in the same direction.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a starting control valve assembly in a multiple throttle of a multiple cylinder engine for a vehicle such as a motorcycle.
2. Description of Related Art
In a multiple throttle valve body of a multiple cylinder engine for a motorcycle, etc., as shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, a starter valve 3 is provided for each throttle body 1, and the inside of an air cleaner 4 is connected through these starter valves 3 to intake ports 5 of throttle bodies 1.
The starter valve 3 is formed in the throttle body 1, and has tuning screws 3a, 3b provided midway along a flow path connected to the intake port 5. Valves provided on the tips of the tuning screws 3a are moved by rotating the tuning screws 3a. One of the tuning screws 3b constitutes a reference among the tuning screws 3a, 3b. Adjustment of the degree of idle opening between each cylinder is carried out by adjusting the degree of opening of the flow paths, and adjusting the amount of intake from the air cleaner 4.
Furthermore, the starter valves 3 are provided with lever plates 6 respectively engaged with the tuning screws 3a, 3b. The lever plates 6 are attached to a support shaft 7 which is supported rotatably and urged by a spring 8. A wire drawn from a choke is connected to one of the lever plates 6. When the engine is started, the lever plate 6 is rotated backwards against the force of the spring 8. The axis of the support shaft 7 acts as a center, by pulling the wire. In this way, each of the tuning screws 3a, 3b of each of the starter valves 3 are collectively rotated towards the rear, and the intake amount of the intake ports 5 is increased.
When the intake amount is increased at start up, the above described starter valves 3 are simultaneously rotated towards the rear. Therefore, there is a need for a connecting structure so that the tuning screws of each of the starter valves 3 can slide together. This increases the number of components and brings about an increase in the cost.
Also, there is a simple structure for distributing air from one valve to the intake ports of each throttle body at the time of idling and start up. However, in this case, competition for air supply occurs between the cylinders which causes a usage limitation and a uniform amount of air can not be supplied.

Starting control valve assembly for multiple throttle


A control valve comprises a housing having an inlet for connecting to a source of water and an outlet, a pressure responsive diaphragm valve assembly including a valve disc having a front face and a back face mounted in the passage for engagement with the valve seat, and a pilot passage between the front face and the back face, a friction plate on the back face, and a screen plate on the front face of the valve member, the screen plate having a cup shape and screen openings at a corner edge of the disc communicating with the pilot passage from the front face of the valve to a back of the diaphragm for controlling the rate of opening of the valve for controlling flow of fluid through the valve to the sprinkler unit.

The present invention relates to irrigation systems and pertains particularly to an improved irrigation control diaphragm valve and screen.
The artificial distribution of water through irrigation systems is in wide use throughout the world today. One of the most widely used systems, particularly for lawn areas and playing or athletic fields, is the sprinkler system wherein a plurality of sprinkler units are positioned about a land area for distributing water over the surface of the land area. One or more control valves control the distribution of water to the sprinkler units within the system.
Commercial, industrial, municipal and golf course irrigation systems increasingly rely on alternative water sources including reclaimed water as an irrigation water source. This trend has been prompted by an often critical need to conserve water in most regions of the country. Other alternative water sources include lakes, reservoirs, wells, and the like. However, since water from these sources is often relatively dirty, its use has brought with it an increase in the incidence of clogging of various components of irrigation systems. While the obvious solution is simply to filter the water entering the irrigation system, the cost of such filters, and their maintenance, limits the degree of filtering that is economically feasible.
The problem of clogging in irrigation systems is most acute in areas in the system where water must pass through small openings. Such systems having small openings occur, for example, in irrigation systems having pressure responsive control valves, pressure regulating valves, in drip systems, and in other low flow irrigation configurations.
For example, in irrigation systems having pressure responsive and pressure regulating valves, have a main diaphragm valve that is normally pilot operated with upstream or inlet water pressure which passes via a small passage to the back of the main diaphragm valve to apply valve closing pressure. In pressure regulating valves the down stream water pressure, which is directed to the sprinklers, is regulated by a feedback mechanism. The main diaphragm valve normally pilot operated with upstream or inlet water pressure fed via a small passage to the back of the diaphragm to maintain it closed. The passage is normally from the face or front of the valve to the back thereof. A grit screen is placed at the inlet of the passage to screen out small particles that may clog the passage.
One widely used prior art screen is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 and comprises a retaining washer on the end of the diaphragm shaft having ribs which standoff against a stainless steel washer on the face of the valve. Water passes through grooves formed between the ribs and washer to a restricted spiral passage in a friction plate to a control chamber behind the valve. This construction is complicated and expensive to make because of the many parts required.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated an exemplary prior art pressure regulating valve of a type commonly used in irrigation systems. This pressure regulating valve is a diaphragm-type valve which includes an inlet port 12 for receiving irrigation water and an outlet port 14 for conveying water to one or more sprinkler stations. The pressure regulating valve 10 controls the flow of water from the inlet port 12 to the outlet port 14 by means of a diaphragm valve assembly 16 which is raised or lowered from a valve seat 18 to turn the valve on and off. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the valve is in the OFF position, since a diaphragm seal 20 is in contact with the valve seat 18.
The diaphragm assembly 16 includes a diaphragm 44 in the form of an annular resilient member which permits reciprocal up and down motion of the diaphragm assembly 16. The pressure regulating valve 10 also includes a solenoid 24 which is operable by means of an electrical signal to actuate a solenoid valve 26 to move between raised and lowered positions. Above diaphragm 22, there is a diaphragm pressure chamber 28 into which water from the inlet port 12 flows through a metered pathway to be described. A diaphragm chamber outlet pathway 30 permits water to flow from the diaphragm chamber past the solenoid piston 26 and, when the solenoid is in the upward, or open, position, to a crossover pathway 32. Crossover pathway 32 is also connected to an outlet pathway 34 which permits water to flow to the outlet port 14.
In operation, when the solenoid piston 26 is in the down position, no water is allowed to flow out of the diaphragm chamber 28 through the diaphragm outlet pathway 30. As a result, pressure in the diaphragm chamber 28 builds up to equal the pressure in the inlet port 12. However, the area above the diaphragm, which is affected by the pressure in the diaphragm chamber, is greater than the area below the diaphragm seal 20, which is affected by the pressure in the inlet port. As a consequence, there is a resultant downward force on the diaphragm valve assembly 16 which causes it to close the diaphragm seal 20 on the valve seat 18. The valve 10 is then in the OFF position and no water can flow from the inlet port 12 to the outlet port 14.
When the solenoid 24 is energized by a signal from an irrigation controller (not shown) carried on an electrical wire 36, the solenoid operated valve 26 moves up. This permits water to flow out of the diaphragm chamber 28 and then to the outlet port 14 by way of the diaphragm outlet pathway 30, crossover pathway 32 and outlet pathway 34. As a result, pressure in the diaphragm chamber 28 will decrease enough so that the pressure at the inlet port 12 is higher by an amount sufficient to raise the diaphragm valve assembly off the valve seat 18. This allows water to flow from the inlet port past valve seat 18 and directly into the outlet port 14.
The diaphragm valve assembly 16, as seen in FIG. 1, comprises an annular diaphragm 44 having a peripheral rim 46 which is secured in post-annular grooves between the upper and lower housings of the valve assembly. The diaphragm has an inner peripheral rim 48 which is clamped between a friction plate 50 having upstanding walls which are engaged by a retaining insert 52 for clamping the inner peripheral rim 48 of the diaphragm. A diaphragm seal member 20 is clamped in a recess in the friction plate 50 by means of a retaining plate or screen 56. The retaining plate or screen 56 is held in position by a diaphragm shaft 58 which extends upward into a bore in an adjusting assembly in the center of the valve body. A retaining washer 60 on the inside phase of the friction plate 50 retains the shaft 58 in place. The retaining plate or screen 56 is formed with radially extending ribs or grooves that form radially extending water passages between the ribs or within the grooves as it engages against a stainless steel washer 62, engaging the front or upstream face of the diaphragm seal member 20.
Water for pressurized operation of the diaphragm valve is metered or screened through the passages formed by the grooves at the engagement of the screen 56 and stainless steel washer 62 and passes into an annular radially spiraling groove 64 in the phase of friction plate 50 forming a restricted passage way which exits at 66 into the diaphragm chamber 28 behind the diaphragm 44. The pressure exerted by the water in diaphragm 28 controls the pressurized sealing of the diaphragm seal 20. As shown in FIG. 1, a screen and retaining washer have a throughbore for receiving a diaphragm shaft, a stainless steel washer, a valve seal, a friction plate, a retainer washer and a retainer insert to secure the assembly to an annular diaphragm.
Accordingly, there is a need for simpler more effective and inexpensive diaphragm valve with a simpler more effective screen.


The remote configuration of a telephony device is managed by transmitting configuration data to the device. The data is transmitted via a data communication network. One of more service credentials are received. The credentials are authenticated. A configuration time period is activated in response to authentication of the credentials. A request for configuration data is received via the network, which includes identification data indicative that the request is from a telephony device associated with the credentials. It is determined how to proceed with processing of the request dependent on whether the request is received during the time period. If so, configuration data is transmitted via the network in response to the request. If the request is received after the time period, transmission of configuration data via the network in response to the request is inhibited.

Telephony devices such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) telephones need significant configuration in order to operate. Various systems exist, such as the SIP Provisioning Server available from Metaswitch Networks Ltd of 100 Church Street, Enfield, EN2 6BQ, UK, to allow a service provider to remotely manage the configuration of a SIP telephone on behalf of a user. Typically, this involves a SIP client running on the telephone retrieving one or more files containing its configuration from a central system such as the SIP Provisioning Server. Usually, one of the retrieved configuration files contains the SIP credentials for the client to use. For hard telephones, the file is usually identified using the Media Access Control (MAC) address of the telephone that is to be configured. For example, the file may be named 001122334455.cfg.
In an insecure provisioning solution design, an attacker that correctly determines, or even guesses, the filename of the configuration for a particular user can obtain the configuration file and thereby make fraudulent calls using the SIP credentials. This is particularly easy if the attacker can discover the MAC address of the user's telephone. The attacker may be able to do this by, for example, physically accessing the telephone, the Local Area Network (LAN) in which the telephone is connected, or on discarded packaging. It is, in any case, not difficult for an attacker to determine candidate MAC addresses because blocks of MAC addresses are assigned to particular phone vendors, and so the search space is relatively small.
Various mechanisms are available that can provide secure provisioning, each with their own merits and limitations.
One existing mechanism relies on the use of a manufacturer firmware secret in which configuration files are encrypted and can be decrypted using a key stored in the telephone. Although configuration files may be encrypted, the configuration files may be protected by a master key in the telephone's firmware. One security concern with this approach is that any publication of the details of the encryption algorithm including the master key would compromise all deployments of such telephones. A more practical limitation with this approach is that it is very specific to the particular vendor and would require custom development work on a provisioning server to integrate the vendor-specific encryption tools.
Another existing mechanism relies on the use of a pre-configured secret. Telephones are configured with the secret (for example a decryption key) prior to shipping to the customer premises. This mechanism requires the service provider (or their agent) to perform a secure "staging" step which typically involves unboxing the phones supplied from the vendor. This significantly increases the cost of deploying these phones in a secure manner. The staging step provides an opportunity for unauthorized disclosure of the secret, potentially compromising the overall security of the deployment. Furthermore, if a deployed phone ever loses its secret (for example if the user returns it to factory default), the phone needs to be returned to the service provided to be re-staged. Although phone vendors tend to use "standard" encryption algorithms, they tend to choose different algorithms (for example 3DES, AES etc.), increasing the vendor-specific work required on the provisioning server.
Another mechanism, is to collect user credentials. This solution is currently used with CommPortal Communicator, available from Metaswitch Network Ltd, and requires that the SIP client locally implement a mechanism to collect credentials from the user. However, many hard phones do not offer this capability in a form in which it is easy for a user to enter this information. For example, the user may be required to connect the phone to a network, identify the IP address assigned to the phone, enter this IP address into a web browser running on a computer connected to the same network, log into a configuration application running on the phone using a default password and navigate to the relevant fields before the user credentials can be entered.
Another way to provide secure provisioning relies on the use of client-side certificates. Some vendors program a unique certificate into the phone during manufacture which the server can use to verify that the request has actually originated from the device with the relevant MAC address. This potentially offers good levels of security, however there are some practical limitations. Few phone vendors support this in practice as it requires hardware support in the phone to store the certificate and complicates the manufacturing process. Typically, the client certificate is verified using mechanisms provided by HTTPS. In some deployment scenarios, a reverse proxy may be deployed between the phone and the provisioning server. Since the reverse proxy terminates the HTTPS flow, additional integration is needed between the reverse proxy and the provisioning server, which tends to be specific to the reverse proxy.
Another mechanism is to supply the user with credentials in a physical module such as a SIM card. Whilst this mechanism is widely used in mobile networks, it is not supported by typical "wireline" hard phones.
US-A1-2011/0067096 describes a system and method for providing secure configuration file exchange A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) device receives an encrypted first configuration file from a server using a default Uniform Resource Locator (URL), which is decrypted using a default key stored in the VoIP device. The default URL and the default key are updated with a new URL and a new key stored in the first configuration file. The VoIP device receives an encrypted second configuration file from the server using the new URL, decrypts the second configuration file using the new key and applies a set of profile parameters stored in the second configuration file to provide network service from the server to a customer premise equipment (CPE) communicatively coupled to the VoIP device. Thus, this system relies upon the VoIP device already having the default key stored in it in advance to be able to decrypt the first configuration file.
The existing systems described above typically rely upon the telephone that is being provisioned supporting certain functions and also no single security mechanism is widely supported across phone vendors. This means that a provisioning server needs to implement different security strategies for each different phone vendor.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improvements in remotely managing the remote configuration of a telephony device. In particular, it would be desirable to provide improvements in remotely managing the configuration of a telephony device in a secure manner, which places minimal requirements on the telephony device being configured.

Managing remote telephony device configuration


A closed loop recycling process of manufacturing a foam part includes dispersing a filler material recycled from an additive manufacturing (AM) process in at least one foam reactant and pouring or injecting the at least one foam reactant with the filler material into a mold and forming the foam part. The foam part has a foam matrix with between 2.5 wt. % and 30 wt. % of the filler material. The filler material can be a recycled powder from a selective laser sintering process that is not graded (i.e., sized) before being dispersed in the at least one foam reactant. For example, the recycled powder can be a recycled polyamide 12 (rPA12) powder with an average particle diameter of less than 100 micrometers. Also, the least one foam reactant can be a polyol reactant and an isocyanate reactant such that a polyurethane foam matrix with recycled rPA12 filler material is formed.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Polyurethanes (PU) have been utilized in the automotive industry due to the flexibility and ease of chemistry manipulation. Foams made from PU, i.e., PU foam, can be a rigid foam or a flexible foam depending on the characteristics of the PU reactants. Accordingly, PU foams have many different applications. The flexible PU foams have an open-cell, flexible matrix, and are comprised of open-cavities contained in a supporting structure made from poly-urea and poly-urethane linkages.
Polyurethanes (PUs) are traditionally synthesized from oil-refined precursor chemicals and the current industrial practice of using petroleum-sourced reactants for the mass production of PU's is not a renewable sustainable approach. Also, PUs are the sixth most globally produced plastic polymer and using petroleum-sourced reactants for the mass production of PUs has an effect on a worldwide scale due to the size of the global market. As a result, the production of PU reactants, namely polyols and isocyanates, is of a non-trivial volume, and their manufacturing processes carry a large environmental effect. For example, the greenhouse gas impact for the production of conventional polyether polyols is 3.57 kg CO2-eq per 1 kg polyol, plus an additional 0.36 kWh that contributes to further pollution, because that energy in most cases is still sourced from the burning of coal or natural gas.

Polyurethane foams containing additive manufacturing waste as filler for automotive applications and processes for manufacturing the same


A system including a catheter and an expandable member. The catheter includes an independent inflation lumen and an separate independent deflation lumen capable of sequential inflation and deflation of an expandable member in rapid succession, such as less than five seconds.

When a patient suffers from an ischemic event in the coronary, peripheral or cerebral vasculature the blood supply to tissues and organs distal to the blockage or occlusion is significantly diminished. The resulting deprivation of oxygen increases the risk of necrosis of the tissues and organs. Generally, a patient suffering an ischemic event is treated by minimally invasive catheterization, such as for example percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PCTA) if the blockage occurs in the coronary vasculature. PCTA is employed to dilate the ischemic blockage and to restore the blood supply to the tissues and organs. Rapid restoration of blood flow after an ischemic event minimizes the duration of insufficient oxygenation to the tissue and organs, and therefore optimizes tissue and organ survival. However, it has now been found that restoring blood supply in a rapid and consistent manner results in reperfusion injury. A shock to the tissues and organs from rapid oxygen re-saturation and abrupt changes to pH level in the tissue can result in an overall increase in the infarct size.
Reperfusion injury results from the rapid opening of a blood vessel of the coronary, peripheral, and/or cerebral vasculature after a period of ischemia also known as reduced blood flow. For example, the rapid opening of an artery of the heart during a ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction ("STEMI"), or an artery to the brain (ischemic stroke), or an artery to the other vital organs such as the kidney, liver or other tissues of the body sometimes causes ischemic injury in myocardial, cerebral, peripheral and spinal infarction, for example. One method to reduce or prevent the occurrence of reperfusion injury is a technique known as post-conditioning. Post-conditioning is a method during which the blood flow in the infarcted artery is stopped and started for multiple cycles immediately after re-opening of initial flow from the STEMI or other blockage. This re-opening of blood flow can be either before or after angioplasty, with or without placement of a stent.
Currently, physicians typically use a conventional angioplasty catheter to perform post-conditioning techniques. However, the use of an angioplasty catheter is not optimal for post-conditioning. For example, the angioplasty balloon is not configured to quickly occlude flow, nor is it configured to withstand multiple and sequential inflation and deflation cycles. Instead, the angioplasty balloon is designed to carefully create a new, circular lumen. Additionally, the typical angioplasty balloon is non-compliant, meaning it is designed and/or made of a material that is meant to be inflated with a range of pressures, while not significantly changing its outer diameter size. A typical non-compliant angioplasty balloon becomes circular at approximately 4 atmospheres of pressure. As the balloon pressure is increased, the outer diameter grows very little even as pressure is increased to 14-18 atmospheres. Such balloon characteristics can be drawbacks for post-conditioning. Further, an angioplasty balloon is typically designed to open a stenosis or blood vessel along a lesion, rather than just occlude flow. Thus, the length of an angioplasty balloon is generally between 8 mm to 40 mm, while an occlusion balloon could have a smaller length.
Another major drawback to using a conventional angioplasty catheter for post conditioning is efficiency. Prior to use the physician must measure the blood vessel, for example, by fluoroscopy, then size the balloon both for length and diameter, and then go through various steps to prepare the balloon such as removing the air trapped within the balloon before filling the balloon with saline/contrast mixture. Thus, using the angioplasty catheter with the angioplasty balloon suffers from inefficiencies. Further, the angioplasty catheter typically must be manually actuated to both inflate and deflate the balloon. For example, the use of an angioplasty catheter for post-conditioning usually requires rapid rotation of a screw piston in order to deliver the fluid in a controlled manner, while watching the pressure gage of an Indeflator. Inflation of the balloon to a circular size can require 10-20 twists of the Indeflator in order to expand the balloon. During deflation, the Indeflator is normally directly unlocked and rapidly deflated. If a controlled deflation is required, then the Indeflator can be manually screwed down to a lower pressure. Due to the extent of manual manipulation required to inflate and deflate the balloon, physician-to-physician variability is unavoidable. Thus, over the course of multiple inflations and deflations of the balloon, there will be a great variability in the rise and fall of blood flow in the blood vessel. Normalizing the blood flow, i.e. the rate of inflation, pressure of inflation, and rate of deflation across physicians can be critical to the efficacy of post-conditioning. In addition to the cumbersome nature of actuating inflation and deflation of the angioplasty catheter, the speed of inflation is limited by the physical capability or limitations of the treating physician to rapidly rotate the screw piston. Given that many sequential inflations and deflations are needed during a post-conditioning, use of an angioplasty catheter has many drawbacks. As a result much time is lost in the process of using a conventional angioplasty catheter for post-conditioning.
Use of a conventional angioplasty catheter can also result in significant operator-to-operator variability in inflation time, pressure of balloon, size of balloon, and deflation time. A system which normalizes the inflation time, pressure, size and deflation time is required, while still allowing operator control of the duration of inflation. Lastly, angioplasty balloons, especially rapid exchange balloons, do not have any means to deliver drug distal to the balloon without the added steps of removing the guidewire and later replacing the guidewire.
Additionally, coronary retroperfusion also may be used as to preserve ischemic myocardium. Retrograde blood flow through the coronary venous system may be augmented by coronary ostial occlusion.
A need exists for a catheter system that is capable of reperfusion and retroperfusion to restore blood flow after an ischemic event in an intermittent and gradual fashion with ease and efficiency, while allowing the option of drug delivery distal to the balloon over a standard length guidewire.

Catheter having inflation and deflation lumen useful for preventing or reducing reperfusion injury


Embodiments of the invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to memory fault tolerance, and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and apparatus for single channel memory mirroring. In one embodiment of the invention, a single channel memory mirroring system can be provided. The single channel memory mirroring system can include a memory controller, a single communications channel, and an operational data portion of memory, and a duplicate data portion of memory, both portions being communicatively coupled to the memory controller over the single communications channel. Finally, the system can include single channel memory mirror logic. The logic can include program code enabled to mirror data in the operational data portion of memory in the duplicate data portion of memory.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of memory fault tolerance in high performance computing and more particular to memory redundancy through memory mirroring.
2. Description of the Related Art
Memory refers to an electronic device configured to store information—generally in binary form. Memory often refers to dynamic memory including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) in which charges within small capacitors are continually refreshed selectively to store high and low signals representative of binary values. In as much as the ultimate representation of a binary value is physical in nature, errors can occur. In that the integrity of values in memory reflect the most critical aspect of any computing system, it is imperative that errors in memory are identified immediately and handled accordingly.
Memory can be susceptible to two basic types of errors: hard and soft. Hard errors refer to structural imperfections in the memory module itself in which the memory stores a particular value irrespective of the value written to memory. In the case of a hard error, the symptoms are repeatable and persistent. Soft errors, by comparison, often are transient and result from logical imperfections in controlling reading to and writing from memory. In that soft errors generally are transient in nature, soft error can be very difficult to diagnose and correct.
Memory fault tolerance refers to mechanisms established to cope with hard errors and soft errors in memory in order to remediate and recover where possible. Memory fault tolerance often begins with the detection of a memory error. Early forms of detection utilize parity bit checking. The parity bit, as it is well-known, indicates either an even or odd parity for stored information. The parity of retrieved information can be compared to the parity bit value to readily detect an obvious failure where no match occurs. Error correction code (ECC) processing, by comparison, involves the generation of a single sum for all bits (checksum) that can be compared to the sum of all bits for retrieved information. Again, the failure to match will indicate a memory failure.
It is well-known that ECC utilization can be effective for small, isolated soft errors in memory. For very large systems, however, multiple, soft errors are more common and ECC utilization cannot correct so many soft errors. Accordingly, more advanced forms of fault tolerance have become prevalent in larger computing systems. The most common form of fault tolerance in the latter circumstance is memory redundancy. Memory redundancy refers to the deployment of more memory than utilized to provide for failover in the event of a faulty bank of memory. One such form of memory redundancy includes spare-bank memory, while another form includes memory redundant array of independent dual inline memory modules (RAID).
A third form of memory redundancy includes memory mirroring. Memory mirroring refers to the use of redundant copies of system memory. In memory mirroring, when a multi-bit error is detected when memory is accessed, the system instead of performing a hard stop, can immediately fail over to a read from a mirror image of the failed memory. Consequently, memory mirroring can provide a high level of fault tolerance. Notwithstanding, memory mirroring can consume substantial resources in that two or more channels of memory are required to achieve mirroring with one channel including memory allocated for operational data and one channel including memory allocated for duplicate data. Even in the instance where half of all memory across both channels is allocated for mirroring, half of the available memory bandwidth is consumed with writing duplicate data leaving only half of the available memory bandwidth for use in writing operational data.

LENOVO ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.


An oil pump assembly for use with an internal combustion engine having an engine block, a crankshaft that is rotatable with respect to the engine block on a crankshaft axis, and a sump that is connected to the engine block for receiving and storing oil therein. The oil pump assembly includes a housing and a drive assembly that is arranged on the housing. The drive assembly is connected to the crankshaft for rotation in unison therewith. An oil pump is connected to the housing for pumping oil between an inlet and an outlet of the oil pump in response to rotation of a drive shaft. The drive shaft is connected to the drive assembly for rotation in unison therewith.

In internal combustion engines, an oil pump is provided to circulate oil and maintain an acceptable level of oil pressure within the engine. It is well known to drive oil pumps using the rotational force generated by the crankshaft of the engine.
Most oil pumps that are driven by the crankshaft follow one of two well-known designs. The first places the pump directly on the crankshaft, such that the crankshaft passes through the rotor of the pump. Thus, the pump is arranged around the crankshaft itself. For example, in a pump that uses rotating vanes that move fluid between an inlet and an outlet, the crankshaft itself is the axis around which the vanes rotate.
The second well known arrangement is to locate the pump external to the internal combustion engine, such as by bolting the pump to an external portion of the internal combustion engine, or by otherwise supporting the oil pump with respect to the internal combustion engine. In such systems, the oil pump includes a pulley that is driven by a belt or a chain that is connected to a crankshaft pulley on the exterior of the internal combustion engine.
Both designs have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, locating the pump on the crankshaft simplifies assembly, but at the same time requires that the dimensions of the pump be increased, such that the crankshaft may pass through the pump. This results in an unnecessarily large size for the oil pump and places constraints on the design of the pump that tend to reduce its efficiency. Belt or chain driven oil pumps may be produced compactly, but require additional assembly steps in mounting the pump to the internal combustion engine.
It would be desirable to have an oil pump that simplifies assembly, operates efficiently, and is of relatively small size.

Melling do Brasil Componentes Automotivos Ltds.


An abrasive article mounting assembly with an integral dust collection system. The abrasive attachment interface is configured to releasably engage and support an abrasive article, such as, for example, a porous abrasive sheet or disc.

Abrasive articles are used in industry for abrading, grinding, and polishing applications. They can be obtained in a variety of converted forms, such as belts, discs, sheets, and the like, in many different sizes.
Generally, when using abrasives articles in the form of "sheet goods" (i.e., discs and sheets), a back-up pad is used to mount or attach the abrasive article to the abrading tool. One type of back-up pad has dust collection holes connected by a series of grooves. The dust collection holes are typically connected to a vacuum source to help control swarf build-up on the abrading surface of the abrasive article. Removing the swarf, dust, and debris from the abrading surface is known to improve the performance of the abrasive article.
Some abrasive tools have integral vacuum systems with dust collection means. The extracting and holding capabilities of these abrasive tools have been limited, in part, due to the suction requirements current abrasive disks and their related back-up pads require.
In some abrasive tool configurations, swarf is collected in a complex dust collection system through a hose connected to the abrasive tools. Dust collection systems, however, are not always available for the abrasive tool operator. Further, the use of a dust collection system requires hoses that can be cumbersome and may interfere with the operator's manipulation of the abrasive tool.
There is a continuing need for alternative ways to provide an abrasive system with dust extraction capabilities. It would be particularly desirable to provide an abrasive system that can be used with or without a central vacuum system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Abrasive article mounting assembly and methods of making same


A low application temperature rubber-based hot melt adhesive having properties particularly well suited for use in the construction of disposable articles has been invented. The adhesive comprises a styrene block copolymer and a type of wax in an amount effective to produce a viscosity at 120° C. of below about 10,000 centipoises, a cube flow at 130° F. (54° C.) of less than about 300%, a DSC crystallization temperature of less than about 75° C. and a storage modulus of less than about 1.0×107 dynes/cm2 at 10 rads/sec (25° C.).

Adhesives based on block copolymer rubbers have found wide-spread use in nonwoven construction applications, e.g., disposable absorbent articles such as diapers, feminine hygiene articles, and adult incontinence devices. These products are typically applied at temperatures above 130° C. and often above 150° C. Lowering the application temperature of adhesives used in the manufacture of such products below 120° C. would improve the thermal aging in application equipment and reduce issues with heat sensitive or lighter basis weight substrates. However, in order to apply the adhesive below 120° C. using current application technology the viscosity must be low enough to spray and extrude cleanly. To lower viscosity, lower molecular weight polymers and higher levels of diluent have been used at the expense of performance. These approaches result in lower mechanical strength and more importantly less resistance to flow at high temperature. While the use of waxes to act as diluents as well as crystalline reinforcing agents is known, this approach suffers from a reduction in the effective open time the adhesive is capable of forming adequate bonds in the laminating processes used to make disposable articles.
There is thus a need for a hot melt adhesive that can be applied at low temperature, i.e., below about 120° C., which has adequate open time for bonding and has a high resistance to flow at elevated temperatures. Such attributes would make the adhesives particularly well-suited for use in the manufacture of disposable articles. The invention fulfills this need.

Low application temperature hot melt adhesive


A digital data reproducer, such as a VCR, reproduces digital data from a plurality of types of recording media. An equalizer includes a plurality of all-pass filters, for equalizing the reproduced digital data. A controller controls the equalization characteristics of the equalizer in accordance with the type of recording media, and controls the group delay characteristics of at least one of the plurality of all-pass filters. Thus, a single equalizer may be used for the plurality of types of recording media.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to an apparatus for reproducing digital data from different types of recording media.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is conventionally known an apparatus for reproducing digital data from different types of recording media, such as a digital VCR for recording data on magnetic tape by compressing the amount of the information of a digital video signal.
In such a digital VCR, high-density recording is demanded due to the large amount of recording-information. The head and tape of the VCR are suitably designed for such high-density recording.
Many media having magnetic anisotropy in the longitudinal direction, such as a metal-particle tape (hereinafter called MP tape), have been used in a digital VCR. Due to demagnetization in recording, there is a limit to increasing the density of the MP tape.
In contrast, a metal-evaporated tape (hereinafter called ME tape) has a small amount of demagnetization since it has magnetic anisotropy at a constant angle perpendicularly, providing superior high-density recording. In terms of reliability and costs, however, the MP tape is superior.
As described above, since these two types of tape have advantages and disadvantages respectively, it is best to use them based on the anticipated recording density.
In addition to the above-described features of the MP tape and the ME tape, they have different waveform responses in reproduction according to the differences in magnetic anisotropy. FIGS. 1A and 1B show the respective reproduction waveform response.
As shown in FIG. 1A, the MP tape generates a single-peak, symmetrical waveform, and as shown in FIG. 1B the ME tape produces a dipulse waveform including an undershoot at the trailing edge in the reproduction waveform.
In the above-described digital VCR, waveform equalizing processing is applied to a reproduction signal to detect the reproduction data. The equalization characteristics used in the equalizing processing are designed according to the reproduction waveform.
Since the waveform of the reproduction signal in the MP tape differs from that of a reproduction signal in the ME tape, an equalizer circuit having single equalization characteristics cannot appropriately equalize signals reproduced from both types of tape.
Therefore, the type of tape which can be used is automatically determined in the above-described digital VCR. Different types of tape cannot be used according to different recording densities, restricting flexibility.

Reproducing apparatus capable of controlling equalization characteristics


A method for manufacturing a tread strip with shoulder cover strips for a pneumatic vehicle tire includes the step of continuously extruding a shoulder cover strip and calendering the shoulder cover strip to a desired thickness. The thus thickness-reduced cover strip is then applied to the tread strip. The shoulder cover strip is then cut to length in order to match a circumferential length of the tread strip for building a tire.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a tire tread strip for a pneumatic vehicle tire with additional shoulder cover strips of rubber material in the shoulder area.
Such methods are, for example, known from European Patent Application 0 131 122 and from German Patent 33 25 017. In both known methods a shoulder cover strip is embodied as a connecting strip between the sidewall and the tread strip. This cover strip is supposed to improve the bonding of the sidewall to the tread strip which are made of different rubber materials. The shoulder cover strip are extruded together with a tread strip on a multiple die extruder and are then connected to the tread strip. Since for improving the bonding of the sidewall to the tread strip material the shoulder cover strips require a relatively large contacting surface for producing a sufficient adhesive contact between the shoulder cover strip and the sidewall as well as between the shoulder cover strip and the tread strip, such shoulder cover strips are of a relatively large thickness and the shoulder cover strips and their bonding to the tread strip can be produced relatively reliably by joint extrusion.
Such thick shoulder cover strips, however, affect the driving properties of the tire. This must be taken into consideration for the construction and manufacture of the tire and must be continuously monitored.
The joint extrusion method for tread strips and shoulder cover strips provides for a good mixing of the shoulder cover strip material and also a heating within similar temperature ranges as for the commonly extruded tread strip. Due to the temperatures of the shoulder cover strip and the tread strip being matched to one another the well mixed material can be applied directly at the extruder in an automated fashion onto the tread strip.
For applications in which such thick shoulder cover strips are not required, it is desirable to use shoulder cover strips of a much reduced thickness in order to minimize the effect onto the performance of the tire, for example, rolling resistance and handling. Uniformly thin shoulder cover strips cannot be produced or produced only with considerable expenditures by the methods known from European Patent Application 0 131 122 or German Patent 33 25 017.
Die heads of an extruder for producing thin extrudates (die strips) are subject to increased soiling which may lead to increased production down time due to the increased cleaning requirements. The reliability of the quality of the thinly extruded strips is constantly at risk due to undiscovered remains within the thin gap of the die head. These remains can result in being intermixed during subseuently performed production processes and can also result in clogging of the die head so that only a partial formation of the shoulder cover strip will result.
Such thin shoulder strips are, for example, suitable for use in connection with tire tread strips of rubber mixtures containing silica in which for lowering the conductance resistance of the tread strip shoulder cover strips are used within the shoulder area which contain mainly carbon black as a filler. Despite the reduced electrical conductance of the silica tread strip, the shoulder cover strip that reduces the conductance resistance ensures conductance of electrostatic charge. For this purpose a very thin shoulder cover strip is sufficient. The thickness of the shoulder cover strip is only of minimal importance in regard to conductance. In order to not affect the performance and trueness properties of the tire, the shoulder cover strip must be embodied as thin as possible. Such a vehicle tire with silica contained in the tread strip and attached shoulder cover strips is, for example, known from European Patent Application 0 658 452.
It is also known to apply premanufactured cut-to-length shoulder cover strips by hand. A uniform thickness can, however, not be produced by manual application. An adaptation of the temperature and tackiness of the shoulder cover strip to the tread strip is possible only to a limited extent.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a tread strip of a pneumatic vehicle tire with shoulder cover strips with which method even thin shoulder cover strips can be applied reliably with substantially uniform thickness in an automated process.

Method of manufacturing a tire tread strip for a pneumatic vehicle tire


An object detection system (24) is disclosed having a transducer (40, 40′) for detecting buried objects (26). The transducer is encapsulated within a robust, electromagnetically transparent construction (42).

Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a system and method for communicating with ground penetrating radar. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a system and method for ground penetrating radar communication utilizing antenna crosstalk in the detection of buried objects.
Description of the Related Art
Many excavations are performed in well-developed, utility-congested areas. The congestion of underground space in many urban areas, combined with poor record keeping and difficulties in accurately locating buried utilities from the surface, has led to many inadvertent utility strikes during mechanical excavations. Utility strikes may lead to work-stop orders and delays, mechanical damage to buried utilities, and numerous costs associated with litigation, insurance, downtime, and repair.

System and method for ground penetrating radar communication using antenna crosstalk

Louisiana Tech University Research Foundation, A Division Of Louisiana Tech University Foundation, Inc.


An electrical circuit containing novel piezoresistive sensor is disclosed. The sensor is connected to a source of direct current, and a manometric pressure of at least about 15 p.s.i.g. is applied to the sensor.

Many pressure, torque, vibration, and acceleration sensors which utilize the piezoresistive effect (i.e., the specific change of electrical resistivity with stress) are known. See, e.g., an article by Ahmed Amin entitled "Piezoresistivity Semiconducting Ferroelectrics," appearing in "Disorder and Order in the Solid State", edited by Roger W. Pryor et al. (Plenum Publishing Company, 1988).
Some of the prior art piezoresistive sensors vary their resistivity with the application of stress. Thus, for example, some such sensors are fabricated on a precisely micromachined and etched n-type silicon wafer (diaphragm) whose optimum design is achieved by finite element techniques. See, for example, an article by A. Yasukawa et al. appearing in the Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Volume 21, page 1049 (1982).
However, the prior art piezoresistive sensors whose resistivities vary with the application of stress do not show an appreciable response. Thus, the range of applications for these relatively crude sensors is limited.
It is an object of this invention to provide a piezoresistive sensor which exhibits a substantially greater change in its resistivity for a given change in applied stress than do prior art piezoresistive sensors.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a process for fabricating the piezoresistive sensor of this invention.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide novel transducers comprised of the sensor of this invention.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a novel process for the use of the piezoelectric sensor of this invention.