A support for supporting a shower pan is provided. The support comprises an expanded polypropylene tray defining a cavity, an intermediate layer made of oriented strand board and disposed with the cavity, and a top layer made of expanded polystyrene foam disposed with the cavity and having a contoured top surface substantially matching the contoured underside of the shower pan.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention patent relates to a support for a shower pan or tub. More particularly, this invention relates to a multi-layer, multi material support for a replacement shower pan or tub.
2. Background
Shower enclosures may be custom made to a specific location or prefabricated at a factory. Prefabricated shower enclosures typically include a door and shower walls that fit within a shower pan. The shower pan serves as the floor of the shower on which the user stands. The shower pan includes a drain opening and may be installed over an existing shower floor. During installation of a prefabricated shower enclosure, a support may be installed between the shower pan and the floor to support the shower pan.
Some supports are sold along with the replacement shower enclosure and others are sold separately. Different types of supports are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,132 discloses a shower pan supported by graduated shims and perimeter strips which are in turn mounted on a planar foundation. U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,169 discloses a shower pan supported by an expanded polystyrene foam (EPF) layer located between the shower pan and a wood base. U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,169 also discloses a shower pan supported by a system of stringers. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0276364 discloses a shower pan supported by a honeycomb lattice structure.
Replacement shower manufacturers sometimes provide a molded foam support made of expanded polystyrene to support the shower pan. The foam support may be placed under the shower pan on top of the floor during installation. Sometimes the foam support will be pre-glued to the underside of the shower pan at the factory. Either way, installed on site or pre-glued at the factory, shower pan failures can be caused by poor installation of the support or poor support design. For example, if the support has been installed crooked and/or not flush to the floor and/or not placed on a flat surface, the shower or tub pans can crack under pressure from the user's weight. Cracked shower pans can lead to water leaks that can cause significant water damage.
In some cases the foam support that is packaged with the prefabricated shower stalls has been discarded because the installers thought the support was part of the packaging material. In other cases, the foam support is installed correctly, but over time the shower or tub pan still cracks or otherwise fails before the expected lifetime of the shower or tub.
Also, many current supports are poorly designed with little thought given to aesthetics, and thus are eyesores. Despite the fact that the support typically is not visible after installation, the unaesthetic appearance of some current supports often leads customers to perceive the support as cheap and having subpar performance. Regardless of whether this perception is accurate, an unattractive support can lead to poor customer product reviews and lower sales.
The present invention is intended to address these problems.


A method of handling a fault in a battery pack, the method comprising: a battery module supplying a voltage to a high-voltage circuit; a battery management system transmitting a heartbeat signal to the battery module via a fault bus; the battery module preventing the heartbeat signal from being transmitted back to the battery management system in response to the battery module detecting a critical condition; and the battery management system shutting off the supply of voltage from the battery module to the high-voltage circuit in response to the battery module preventing the heartbeat signal from being transmitted back to the battery management system. The battery module transmits battery data to the battery management system via a communication bus, which is distinct from the fault bus, and the battery management system transmits one or more commands to the battery module via the communication bus.

For a multitude of reasons, it is advantageous to use electric vehicles having rechargeable batteries rather than vehicles using internal combustion engines. Electric vehicles are inherently more efficient, meaning more energy is used in locomotion than lost to heat than in conventional internal combustion engines. Also, electric vehicles do not exhaust any byproducts. However, the use of electric vehicles presents technical challenges. For example, the batteries in an electric vehicle must be monitored and managed. Electric vehicle having modular batteries can be particularly challenging, as they have multiple batteries or battery packs that must be monitored and managed. Monitoring can include measurement and reporting of an individual battery's remaining charge, rate of discharge, rate of charge, temperature, and operational state. Management of the batteries can include disconnecting the battery, connecting the battery, or the like.
Battery monitoring systems in current vehicles are generally complex computer systems. Current solutions employ microprocessors executing an operating system. Such systems are inherently complex and require dedicated software systems that must be made sufficiently robust since a failure of the battery monitoring system may cause the electric vehicle to stop functioning. Therefore, significant time and effort must be placed into software and operating system development for battery monitor systems. As a result, product cycle time and cost are greatly increased.

Battery pack fault communication and handling


A scanning device of one embodiment of the invention is disclosed that includes a scanning mechanism and a removable storage media mechanism disposed within a housing of the scanning device. The scanning mechanism is to scan image data from scannable media. The removable storage media mechanism is receptive to a removable storage medium on which the image data scanned from the scannable media is stored.

The manipulation of images has become a popular utilization of computing devices. The images may be captured by using digital cameras, or by using scanning devices, such as standalone scanners and multi-function devices (MFD's) having scanning capability. MFD's are also commonly referred to as all-in-one (AIO) devices, or AIO's. Both digital cameras and scanning devices are commonly connectable to host computing devices, to download the images that have been captured.
Further, digital cameras commonly store their images on removable storage media, such as flash memory cards, that are removably insertable into the cameras. Printing devices, such as inkjet printing devices, have increasingly been able to have such removable storage media inserted in them, too. This means that a user can capture images with a digital camera, remove the removable storage medium from the camera, and insert the medium into a printer to print hardcopies of images, without having to use a host computing device, such as a desktop or a laptop computer. Not having to use a host computing device can make printing hardcopies of images captured with a digital camera more convenient for an end user.
However, users of scanning devices usually cannot enjoy this convenience. Rather, they are typically limited to scanning images to a host computing device before, for instance, printing hardcopies of the images with a printing device. As such, scanning devices are generally not as convenient as other devices that allow users to capture images.

Scanning to storage medium using scanning device

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A method of sharing a digital recording between a group of users of digital recording devices (e.g. digital cameras) present at a common event, the method including: (a) creating a digital recording (e.g. a digital photograph) using a digital recording device; (b) subjecting the users' digital recording devices to a synchronization event associated with the common event, the synchronization event resulting in the transmission of a synchronization code between the users' digital recording devices, the synchronization code including an address code to uniquely identify a database; (c) establishing a digital communication connection between the digital recording device which created the recording and the database; (d) causing the database to receive the digital recording without input from a user; and (e) enabling a user to access the digital recording from the database. The invention also provides a digital recording device for creating digital recordings, the digital recording device being communicatively connectable to a data communication network, the the digital recording device being operable to receive a synchronization code and hence to become synchronized with other such digital recording devices, the synchronization code including the address of a database, the digital recording device being configured to make digital recordings available to the database at the address without input from a user on the establishment of a data communication connection between the digital recording device and the data communication network.

People take photographs for many different purposes. Many people enjoy taking photographs as a hobby or a pastime, commonly to keep a permanent record of places visited on holiday or days out, or in order to keep a memento of family celebrations such as birthday parties or festive occasions. Others, such as photo-journalists, take photographs during the course of their professional work.
Often a given event is attended by a number of individuals, each of whom has his own camera and takes his own photographs of the event in question. The individuals' photographs will often show the common event from different perspectives and viewpoints, and the photographs taken will inevitably be influenced by the individuals' own judgement and perception of the event.
At parties and other gatherings, friends often take photographs of each other. Additionally, it is often desirable, but often not possible, for an individual to take pictures of himself. Even if his camera has a built-in self-take timer-based mechanism, this can be difficult to operate, and requires the camera to be positioned carefully and then the individual to stand in the correct place in front of the lens before the camera's timer causes the picture to be taken. An alternative approach is for the individual in question to give his camera to another person to take his photograph. However, this involves entrusting the other person, who may be a stranger, with a potentially expensive piece of equipment. It is not unheard of for camera thieves to operate in this way, offering to take a photograph of the camera owner and then fleeing with the camera when it is handed over.
If the volunteer is known to the camera owner and is not a camera thief, there is nevertheless often another problem to be surmounted before the photograph of the camera owner can be taken: The volunteer must rapidly familiarise himself with the controls of what may well be an unfamiliar camera. Modern cameras can have complex controls which would need to be adjusted in order to take the optimum picture, and explaining these features to the volunteer may take an undesirably long period of time. In photography it is important to be able to "capture the moment": The camera owner may well wish to have his picture taken alongside a transient object such as a passing vintage car or steam train, a well-known film-star or other celebrity, or a rare fleeting animal or bird. Having to explain the mode of operation of an unfamiliar camera to someone in order for this picture to be taken may result in this opportunity having been missed, possibly for all time.
Part of the enjoyment to be derived from amateur photography is the showing, sharing and swapping, among friends and family, of photographs one has taken. It is often the case that an individual takes a number of photographs of which others would like copies. With respect to events attended by multiple photographers, it is common for attendees to wish to have copies of the pictures of the event that the others have taken, so as to be able to benefit from the individuals' respective vantage points and, often, good fortune in being able to capture an event that the others missed or did not photograph as successfully.
With cameras that utilise photographic film, the procedure for swapping such photographs is potentially extremely awkward and time consuming. The individuals in question have no definite way of knowing the appearance and composition of the pictures until the film is finished and the photographs have been developed and printed. Multiple copies of the film (or possibly of individual pictures if the printer allows) can be printed straightaway, but without knowing the appearance of the pictures beforehand this may result in the unnecessary printing of multiple copies of ultimately unwanted photographs. Alternatively, one set of prints may be obtained and then selected reprints can be commissioned, but this protracts yet further the overall timeframe for supplying the copies of the pictures to the people who required them. Printing of multiple copies of prints can also become expensive if numerous reprints are required. A further disadvantage is that reprints would often need to be posted (thereby incurring additional cost) to the intended recipients, whose addresses would first need to be known.
With digital cameras the procedure for swapping photographs is partially facilitated, since most digital cameras allow the user to preview pictures using a built-in display, and thereby decide which pictures to swap with the other photographers. However, in a group event such as a party or a concert, the various individuals would need to look at the pictures held in a number of different cameras to decide which pictures to exchange. A possible existing way of achieving this would be to pass the digital cameras around the members of the group, for each person to make a note of the pictures taken by others that he would like copied, and then for the users to go their separate ways and either to print the pictures and send them physically (e.g. by post) to the intended recipients, or to send the digital image file by electronic means such as e-mail using a computer. In the latter case there is not currently a standard exchange protocol for camera to camera image communication, so each member of the group would have to transfer their own images to a personal computer (PC) and then e-mail the pictures to everyone in the group. This would require obtaining the e-mail addresses of the intended recipients beforehand.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,469 teaches a digital camera adapted to send specific images, on explicit instruction by the user, to nominated recipients via the Internet. The uploading of pictures to a dedicated website, for viewing by others, is also taught. It will be appreciated that the use of such a system in which photographs have to be specifically uploaded may be time-consuming to use, and that this does not readily enable the sharing of pictures taken by individuals attending a common event.
Whatever existing alternative is chosen, it will be apparent that ensuring that the members of a group of photographers who attend a common event have access to each other's photographs requires considerable co-ordination between the members of the group. It is potentially costly in time, effort and expense, and each member of the group is obliged to remember to take the requisite personal action for the benefit of the others.
It is a general object of the present invention to overcome or at least mitigate the problems identified above.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P.


Road information data is enriched and a vehicle drive train is controlled on basis of this data. Based on vehicle position, data about possible routes which may be taken is collected from at least three sources (A, B, C). Data with the highest quality is chosen for controlling the drive train. When running, information about the traveled route is recorded and saved, thus providing a continuous update.

The invention relates to method of enrichment of road information data, and using said road information data to control a drive train of a vehicle.
Methods for using maps and databases for navigating a vehicle are commonly known. These methods using systems having access to one source of road information data such as a map or a recording from vehicles which previously have been driving the same route.
The road information data is used to control the drive train, for example, such that a better performance or an environmental friendly driving or higher comfort is achieved.
The problem with these methods is that the road information data is aging and might become out of date, for example if a stretching of a road has been changed, the previously recorded road information data is not relevant any more, whereby the drive train is controlled in a manner that probably not achieves the desired objectives. A further problem is the coverage of the road information sources. No source covers all possible routes, the smaller and the more recent constructed a road is, the higher is the probability that the road information data source does not include any data about the desired road. This is a problem especially for timber trucks, which travel long distances on common roads, but also on very small and new established roads far from the common road network.
It is desirable to overcome the above mentioned problems and thereby suggest a method that enriches road information data, such that a vehicle has as high probability as possible to access relevant road information data of an upcoming route of the vehicle.
A drive train and other systems of a vehicle are controlled by an electronic control unit (ECU), and according to the inventive method the ECU uses the road information data to control at least one parameter of the vehicle, especially a parameter of the drive train. An optimised control of the vehicle depending of the topography of an upcoming route can thereby be performed.
The ECU having access to road information data from a plurality of different types of road information sources, wherein the road information sources at least comprises a digital map, a fleet database and a local vehicle database. The ECU is adapted to make a selection between road information data from the plurality of road information sources, wherein said selection is based on a data quality rating of the road information data from the different road information sources.
The digital map is any commercial or industry generated digital map, based upon topographic data. The map would thereby at least provide for the route of a road in latitude, longitude and elevation. Such digital maps are commonly known and for example used in vehicle navigation systems.
The fleet database comprises road information data recorded by a plurality of vehicles and transmitted to and saved into the fleet database. The more vehicles that records road information data into such a fleet database, the faster the database is filled, and the fleet database thereby also becomes a greater selection of routes. The ECU must not necessary have a direct connection to the fleet database, when it has access thereto it can access relevant road information data and store it in a local memory. Obviously a wireless connection over GPRS or similar is preferable to maintain a high flexibility in the system.
The local vehicle database just comprises road information data that has been recorded by the vehicle itself.
The road information data in the road information data sources is tagged with a quality rating. The quality rating reflects the relevance of the road information data and facilitates an evaluation of the road information data from the different road information data sources, such as a selection there between can be made.
The ECU further has access to a vehicle position sensor, wherein the vehicle position sensor can be any kind of positioning device, enabling a vehicle positioning, for example a satellite based navigation system or an inertial navigation system or any other suitable positioning determining device.
The position sensor can also be complemented by a navigation system, which can be any kind of navigation system enabling a planning of an upcoming route. Said navigation system can be of a black box type, just used for the control of the vehicle or it can also be used by and used to inform an operator of the vehicle.
The inventive method comprising the steps of                determining a position of the vehicle,        collecting road information data, about possible routes in surroundings of the position of vehicle, from the plurality of road information sources (A, B, C),        evaluating the data quality rating of the collected road information data,        selecting the mad information data with the highest data quality rating, and        controlling at least one parameter in the drive train dependent of the selected road information data,        registering, road information data about the route as the vehicle is moving, and during move of the vehicle, performing, the steps of;        making a selection of relevant recorded road information data, and        saving said relevant road information data to the local database (C).
The position of the vehicle is determined with the earlier described position sensor. The same sensor is used by the ECU to register the position of the vehicle when the vehicle is moving. Further, information of an inclination of the road is also registered. For this purpose, an inclination sensor in a transmission of the vehicle or any other means to detect an elevation can be used. A selection of relevant registered road information data is made, to filter out incomplete or otherwise defect registered data. The selected data is then saved into the local database, from which it can be accessed by the ECU during the next drive along the same route.
The inventive method has the advantage that the ECU can choose from a plurality of road information data sources, and use the one with the highest quality. Especially, the road information data the ECU can access is enhanced, because the traveled route of the vehicle is recorded and saved into the local database, such that always fresh road information data is accessible. If neither of the accessible road information sources comprises any relevant road information data, the drive train cannot be controlled dependent on any road information data. However, since the traveled route is recorded and saved in the local database, the ECU will have access to road information data, next time the vehicle travels the same route. The inventive method is preferably repeated continuously.
It is preferred that the position sensor, does not only decide the position of the vehicle, but also determines a direction of travel of the vehicle. By using the information about the direction of travel of the vehicle, the ECU must not collect road information data about all the routes in the surrounding, instead just the routes in the direction of travel is collected.
In the inventive method the road information data is tagged with a quality rating. The quality rating enables an evaluation of the road data from the different road information data sources, whereby a selection of the road data with the highest quality rating, can be made. The quality rating is based on different criteria, wherein these criteria at least comprises one of following                the source of the road information data and/or        the age of the road information data, and/or        the amount of records a mean value of the road information data is based upon, and/or        the spread of a mean value of the road information data and/or        the deviation between an expected outcome of the control of the at least one vehicle parameter and an actual outcome of the control of the at least one vehicle parameter.
The road information data from the different road information sources have different priority order; the priority order is decided by the quality rating. Road information data with higher quality rating has precedence before road information data with a lower quality rating.
To enable a rating based on the age of the road information data, is the road information data saved in the local database, together with its correspondent date of recording.
The different criteria can be weighted, such that one or some of the criterions has/have a higher influence of the final quality rating. This allows a selection of the road information data with the highest quality, i.e. comprises the most relevant information about the upcoming route.
Not all pans of a road involve such topographic that a planning of the driveline strategy is required to achieve optimal values for performance and/or comfort and/or environmental friendly driving. Therefore it is suggested that the road information data for a route is saved in portions. Whereby just those portions where a change in inclination and/or the direction of the road fulfil predefined conditions in change of inclination and/or direction are saved in the local database. Thereby it is not necessary to occupy physical and digital storage space with irrelevant information and the internal database can be made smaller, whereby costs are saved.
The second time the same road or portion of a road is saved into the local database, a mean value of first and second road information data is created. This procedure is repeated each time the same route or portion of a route is recorded and saved into the local database. Hence, if the local database includes several recordings of the same route, a mean value of that route is formed from said several recordings. Using a mean value instead of just one recording assures more relevant road information data, because the mean value reduces the influence of variations in the recordings, such as outer circumstances and problems with sensors during a specific recording.
When calculating a mean value it is possible to weigh the most recent recording higher than an older recording, whereby the recent recording becomes a higher relevance in the mean value.
In the data quality rating the quality of a mean value can be rated, whereby a mean value with a low spread between the individual recordings becomes a higher data quality rating than a mean value with a higher spread between
the individual recordings. This can be applied for mean values in the local database as well for mean values origin from the fleet database.
The different criteria for the road information data can be used individually or combined in any combination with one or several other criteria to create a final value of the data quality rating.
To assure that relevance of the mean value, such that it does not get contaminated with erroneous recordings, a comparison between the current mean value and newly recorded road information data is made before the newly recorded data is integrated into the mean value. Whereby, if the most recent recording of a route differs more than a predefined percentage from a mean value of the road information data for said route, said new recording is not included in the mean value, wherein said most recent recording is saved separately.
However, if the route actually has changed the mean value obviously must be updated. A change of the route is thereby certified in that, if both the most recent and the predetermined number of earlier recordings of a route differs more than a predefined percentage and about equally much from the mean value, a new mean value is calculated from the most recent and the number of earlier recordings of said route. Whereby the previous mean value can be discarded.
To enhance also the date in the fleet database, saved road information data is transferred into existing road information data about the route of interest, in the local database. This transfer of data can be made continuously or when the vehicle arrives at a transit station or during service or at an other suitable moment and location. Whereby the data transfer can be made wirelessly or by cable with suitable means therefore.
A mean value from a high number of recordings is seen as more reliable as a mean value with a lower number of recordings. Thereby, in the data quality rating, a mean value from a higher number of recordings becomes a higher data quality rating than a mean value based upon a lower number of recordings.
To eliminate erroneous recordings, the outer conditions during driving of the vehicle are taken into consideration in the recording. Such outer conditions can be wind, snow, rain and traffic conditions.
The inventive method allows the ECU to control the drive line of the vehicle such that it performs optimal according to predefined criterions. These criterions can be optimal performance regarding comfort, power, eco driving etc. Thereby can the engine control strategy and/or the gear shift strategy of an automatic transmission of the drive train be a function of the topographic of the upcoming route. Such a control of the drive train is preferably implemented during an activation of a cruise control of the vehicle, whereby the method thereby comprises the steps of changing the set speed of the cruise control dependent of the selected road information data.

Method of enrichment of road information data


The present invention relates to a chlorine-free multilayer film material comprising. a) a gas-barrier layer (1) comprising a non-chlorine containing organic polymer which is substantially impermeable to oxygen gas; PA1 b) two tie layers (2) each contacting one side of said barrier layer; PA1 c) an inner surface layer (3); PA1 d) an outer surface layer (4); and PA1 e) two intermediate layers (5) positioned between said surface layers (3,4) and said tie layers (2), said barrier layers (5) comprising an ethylene-propylene copolymer having a flexural modulus of less than 200 MPa and preferably less than 150 MPa. a process for the manufacture of this film material and its use for the manufacture of bags and pouches for ostomy/urostomy use.

The present invention relates to a chlorine-free multilayer film material, a process for its manufacture and its use for the manufacture of bags and pouches for ostomy/urostomy use.
Multilayer film materials having gas- and odour-barrier properties are well known and widely used in medical and food packaging industries.
These films comprise a core barrier layer which may contain chlorine or be chlorine-free. The chlorine-containing barrier resin most commonly employed is polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC), i.e. a copolymer of vinylidene chloride monomers with one or more ethylenically unsaturated comonomers copolymerizable therewith, such as vinyl chloride, alkylacrylates, alkyl methacrylates, acrylonitrile, etc. The barrier properties of PVDC are extremely high and are not deteriorated by the presence of moisture which in some applications is always present. However, PVDC presents a number of environmental disadvantages, especially relating to incineration of these materials after use.
It is well known in fact that PVDC is hazardous to the environment and to personal health. Upon incineration hydrochloric acid and potentially also polychlorinated dibenzodioxin and furan toxins are formed, which represent substantial environmental problems.
Chlorine-free barrier layers include vinyl alcohol comprising polymers, such as typically ethylene-vinyl alcohol (EVOH) copolymers and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVAL), and--with lower barrier properties--polyamides, polyesters, polystyrenes.
While the barrier properties of the vinyl alcohol comprising polymers are very high under dry conditions, they are rapidly deteriorated in the presence of moisture.
In highly demanding applications, such as in the case of pouches for drainage of human body liquids, where the film is necessarily in contact with moisture but at the same time it is extremely important that the barrier layer retains its properties for as long as possible, barrier structures comprising a PVDC layer are widely appreciated in spite of the disadvantages indicated above. In particular the applicant company is currently manufacturing a film comprising a layer of PVDC sandwiched between opposing layers of EVA for use in the manufacture of ostomy pouches. Besides possessing high barrier properties, this structure also has mechanical properties (softness, quiteness, resistance) which render it particularly suitable for this application. Chlorine-free structures have been proposed also for these highly demanding applications but their performances are however far from those obtainable with PVDC-based structures.
Therefore, there exists a great need for a chlorine-free multilayer film structure for the manufacture of bags and pouches specifically for medical use, such as for the manufacture of ostomy/urostomy pouches, which combines the advantage of being chlorine-free with barrier properties to gases and odours as well as with overall mechanical properties as close as possible to those of PVDC-based structures.
DE-A-41 00 350 discloses a seven layer chlorine-free barrier packaging material for infusion solutions. The material comprises a base material consisting of a coextruded film made of an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer and two coating polyethylene layers on both surfaces thereof, onto which a polyethylene layer and an ethyl-vinyl acetate copolymer layer are extrusion laminated.
EP-A-0 588 667 covers a multiple layer film useful in moisture barrier packaging applications, such as for the packaging of food products which require protection from the environment One preferred embodiment of said thermoplastic multi-layer film materials comprises a core layer made of an oxygen barrier material, such as an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer, two intermediate layers provided on said core layer comprising a propylene polymer or copolymer or a polymeric adhesive, such as a carboxylic acid or maleic anhydride-modified polyolefin such as polypropylene-based carboxylic acid or maleic anhydride-modified polyolefin, moisture barrier layers comprising a blend of a propylene polymer or copolymer and a hydrocarbon resin and outermost layers covering the outer surfaces comprising propylene polymer or copolymer.
International patent application WO 93/11 938 relates to multilayered barrier structures for use in the manufacture of ostomy pouches. Said multilayered barrier structure comprises a five-layer material consisting of a gas barrier layer, two moisture barrier layers and optionally one or more adhesive layers disposed therebetween. The moisture barrier layer comprises a mesophase propylene-based material which contacts at least one of the sides of the non-chlorine gas barrier layer preferably made of an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer. Said mesophase propylene-based material is stated to unexpectedly enhance the overall properties of the multilayered barrier structure.
Multilayer films comprising a gas and aroma barrier layer are disclosed as well in EP-B-0 1 18 060. The seven-layer composite film material comprises an inner barrier layer based on a saponified ethylene-vinylacetate copolymer, layers immediately adjacent to each of the two surfaces of said barrier layer comprising an adhesion promoting material of a modified polyolefin or a partially saponified ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer on which a first layer made out of polypropylene or an ethylene-propylene copolymeris attached. which carries sealable outer layers made of an olefin homo- or copolymer. All the layers of the multilayered, dimensionally stable, sealable film are biaxially oriented with identical stretching ratios and heat-set.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,239,826 and 4,254,169 disclose multi-layer barrier films having a core gas barrier layer of a vinyl alcohol polymer or copolymer between opposing layers of a polyolefin blended with a chemically-modified polyolefin such as a vinyl acetate-vinyl alcohol copolymer, a vinyl alcohol-ethylene-vinyl acetate terpolymer or high density polyethylene with an unsaturated fused-ring carboxylic acid grafted thereto. The multi-layer barrier films of these documents are stated to be useful for the manufacture of containers in which foods are packaged.
DD-A-274 386 and DD-A-274 387 disclose coextruded composite films used for bags and pockets for human medicine, such as for ostomy bags, which comprise five layers and contain as the core gas barrier layer an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer. Between the outer layers made of an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer and a blend of linear low density polyethylene and very low density polyethylene, respectively, and the core layer adhesive layers are inserted made of an ionomer resin.
5-layer chlorine-free ostomy pouches are already on the market. They share a core oxygen-barrier layer which comprises EVOH, two tie layers of modified ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers on both sides of the core layer and two surface layers consisting of or comprising EVA.
While said multilayer films are free of chlorine and therefore satisfy the requirement of environmental safety, they are not fully satisfying as to their physical properties, specifically their oxygen permeability and moisture vapor transmission rate. As a matter of fact their oxygen permeability which is very low under dry conditions (0% relative humidity) increases remarkably at 100% relative humidity and becomes strikingly different from that of a PVDC-comprising structure of the same overall thickness.
Also the odour barrier properties of these structures seem to be very different from those of the PVDC-structures.
The problem to be solved by the present invention therefore is the provision of a chlorine-free multilayer film material having mechanical and odour barrier properties comparable with that of standard polyvinylidene chloride based multilayer film materials of the same thickness.
This problem is solved by the chlorine-free multilayer film material according to claim 1. The subclaims relate to preferred embodiments thereof, a process for the manufacture of said material and the use of this material for the manufacture of bags and pouches for ostomy/urostomy use.
The present invention therefore provides a chlorine-free filmmaterial comprising
a) a gas-barrier layer comprising a non-chlorine containing organic polymer which is substantially impermeable to oxygen gas; PA1 b) two tie layers each contacting one side of said barrier layer; PA1 c) an inner surface layer; PA1 d) an outer surface layer; and PA1 e) two intermediate layers positioned between said surface layers and said tie layers, comprising an ethylene-propylene copolymer having a flexural modulus (measured according to ASTM D-882) of less than 200 MPa. preferably less than 150 MPa.
A further subject matter of the present invention is a process for the manufacture of said chlorine-free multilayer film material comprising coextruding the materials for the gas-barrier layer, the two tie layers, the intermediate layers, the inner surface layer and the outer surface layer, cooling the coextruded film material, collapsing the cooled film material and optionally laminating a non-woven film to the multilayer film material obtained to the outer surface layer.
As used herein, the terms "polymer" or "polymer resin" generally include but are not limited to homopolymers, copolymers, such as, for instance, block, graft, random, and alternating copolymers, etc. as well as blends and modifications thereof.
The term "copolymer" is intended to denote polymers of two or more comonomers.

Chlorine-free multilayer film material, process for its manufacture and its use


A lubrication system for an expendable gas turbine engine (20) having a rotatable shaft (26) is provided. Bearings (28) journal the shaft (26) for rotation about an axis. The system includes a vessel (46) for containing lubricating oil, a conduit (58) extending from the vessel (46) to the bearings (28), and a solenoid operated valve (70,76) in the conduit (58) and operable to only either fully open or fully closed. A control circuit (16) is provided for pulsing the solenoid (70) at a controlled rate to alternatingly (a) allow oil flow and (b) halt oil flow to the bearings (28) for a time insufficient to cause oil starvation of the bearings (28).

Gas turbine engines conventionally include a rotary compressor, a turbine, and a rotary shaft interconnecting the two. As is typical in equipment of all sorts having rotatable components, except when exotic bearings, such as magnetic bearings, are employed, it is necessary to provide for lubrication of the rotary components. In typical gas turbine engines, lubricating oil is provided to bearings journalling the rotary components, recovered and then recycled. These systems require pumps for recovering the lubricating oil as well as for circulating the lubricating oil. While such systems perform quite adequately, they can be heavy and/or bulky, not to mention expensive in construction. As a consequence, they are not suitable for use in all gas turbine systems.
For example, cruise missiles and target drones used by the military are frequently powered by small turbojet engines. Because these airborne vehicles are intended to be used, in the case of a cruise missile, but a single time, and in the case of target drones, no more than a couple of times, the turbojet engines employed are designed to be inexpensive to thereby provide an expendable engine. It accordingly follows that it is desirable that engine supporting systems, including the lubrication system, likewise be inexpensive as well. And because such engines are frequently used in airborne vehicles, it is highly desirable to minimize weight so that payload and/or range may be maximized.
At the same time, the lubrication system must be capable of operating reliably for the life of the engine and over a wide range of temperatures, typically from minus 40° F. to plus 180° F. Because these engines typically operate at a high rpm, a shaft or gear driven pump system is impractical as well as expensive.
Typically, the engines employed are relatively small and consequently, the lubricant flow rate is similarly small. Nonetheless, the flow must be reliable and delivered within the desired range under any and all conditions of operation. Typically, oil flows in the range of 1.5 cc per minute to 2.5 cc per minute are employed. To reliably obtain such flows when the oil experiences substantial changes in viscosity, dependent upon ambient temperature, poses substantial difficulty. Too little oil flow results in bearing failure and too great of an oil flow can result in premature exhaustion of oil and bearing failure.
Specifically, the nature of the system is that the maximum rate for the total oil flow has to be limited to assure that lubricating oil is available at or near the end of the mission cycle. Furthermore, the maximum rate has to be limited so as to enable the minimization of the size of the oil tank. Moreover, the system additionally has to be capable of being stored in the state of non-use with its compliment of lubricating oil for up to 15 years without loss and at the same time be ready for use immediately upon demand.
The present invention is directed to providing a lubricating oil system meeting these and other needs.


A virtual computer system has a plurality of virtual computers and a virtual computer monitor for monitoring the virtual computers and for providing translation information describing the relationship between a virtual identification of the input/output apparatus structure to be recognized by the virtual computers and a physical identification to be actually used by the input/output apparatus structure. A hardware dynamically creates a subchannel necessary for performing an input/output process of the virtual computers and translation information when the virtual computer monitor provides the translation information to the hardware. The hardware translates the virtual identification to the physical identification based on the translation information when the virtual computer issues the input/output instruction, and for identifying the subchannel, thereby performing the input/output process. The hardware also translates the physical identification of the control block to a virtual identification to be used by the virtual computer when an input/output interruption is generated, by using the subchannel by the input/output apparatus, thereby providing an input/output interruption to the virtual computer.

The present invention relates to an input/output processing system of a plurality of virtual computers in a virtual computer system.
The fundamental function of an OS is to efficiently and advantageously utilize hardware resources such as CPU, main storage, secondary memory and input/output devices. Therefore, the OS multiplexes hardware resources and produces a required number of virtual resources in a virtual manner, thereby allowing respective users to use a computer as if they had their own hardware resources such as a plurality of CPUs. The multiplexing method comprises a time sharing method, namely, a method of assigning resources to divided times, and a space sharing method, namely, a method of assigning resources to divided areas. The hardware resources are multiplexed to be reformed in a usable state and to correspond to the virtual resources.
Such a virtual computer system should provide the same functions and environment as a real computer. Thus, it should prevent a user from recognizing that the computer is running under the guest environment and provide a guest environment for coupling a plurality of virtual computers (herein called guests) including a plurality of CPUs.
This is also applied to the input and output processes.
Generally speaking, in a virtual computer system, a real input and output apparatus structure recognized by a virtual computer monitor (called a host) for performing a management of resources has a different structure from that of the virtual input and output apparatus to be recognized by the guest.
To enable a plurality of guests to run concurrently on the real computer, only a portion of a physical input and output apparatus structure (guest subchannel) is shown to the guest. Furthermore, a virtual identification (B) of the input and output apparatus resources (virtual subchannel number) is different from a physical identification (C) (subchannel number) in the physical input and output apparatus structure.
To prevent the guest from recognizing this difference, all the input and output instructions it issues are obtained in the prior art virtual computer system by the host and the virtual identification (B) (guest subchannel number) of the above input and output apparatus resources constituting the input and output instruction operand is translated to a physical identification (C) (subchannel number) in a structure of a physical input and output apparatus. Then the input and output environment is ensured by the guest by enabling the host to issue the input and output instruction. Namely, even if the physical input and output apparatus is busy, it is seen by the guest as if the guest were using the input and output apparatus. This is also applied to a function of the input and output process.
An object of a virtual computer is to enable softwares of a different architecture to run on a single hardware (real computer). As the control information is co-owned by several guests, the input and output process, which includes an asynchronizing operation, cannot absorb the differences in the architecture on the hardware side. Thus, a host with control information corresponding to respective guests performs an emulation, thereby absorbing the difference.
In the prior art virtual computer system, all the input and output processes in a guest are normally obtained by a host. This naturally decreases its capability. This deterioration may exceed 20 percent. Further, in the prior art virtual computer system, the control information (subchannel information) within a hardware does not correspond with the guest. Thus, it is necessary for the host to always judge to which guest the input and output event occurring in a certain hardware source should be reported, causing the control logic for the input and output apparatus of the host to be complicated and thus increasing the host's overhead.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide an input and output control system which can increase the capability of a virtual computer system by minimizing host overhead.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show an input and output processing system in a conventional virtual computer system. FIG. 1A shows a model of the functional assignment in the conventional virtual computer system and FIG. 1B shows an example of the structure. In FIG. 1A, guests 101 and 102 are provided to host 103.
In the conventional virtual computer system, all the input and output processes are conducted through host 103 and the guest input and output instruction for virtual subchannels (VSCH) 041 and 042 corresponding to the processing object viewed from guests 101 and 102 can be replaced by the input and output instruction having physical subchannel (SCH) 020 as its object through an operand translation.
What is reported by using the above physical subchannel (SCH) 020 upon issuing the guest input/output interruption is reflected on the virtual subchannels (VSCH) 041 and 042 by host 103 and reported to individual guests 101 and 102.
Virtual subchannels (VSCH) 041 and 042 within host 103 provide control information for achieving an input and output environment from the viewpoint of respective guests 101 and 102. In the conventional system, this control information exists within host 103 and the content reported by the hardware 1041 (for example, provided within memory control apparatus (MCU) 202) through physical subchannel (SCH) 020 is interpreted by host 103 to be reflected on guest 101 or 102.
The physical subchannel (SCH) 020 is an actual subchannel which hardware 1041 has inside thereof. Even if the physical input/output apparatus (IOD) 105 has a plurality of physical input/output addresses, only one physical subchannel (SCH) 020 is obtained in correspondence with one physical input/output apparatus (IOD) 105 in the prior art.
The above explains the functional assignment in an input/output process in the prior art virtual computer system. This process will be explained in detail by referring to FIG. 1B.
At first, the structure of the conventional virtual computer system is explained.
Guest A 101, guest B 102 and the host are arranged in main storage unit (MSU) 203 on the real computer, as shown in FIG. 1B. The virtual subchannels (called VSCH hereinafter) 041 and 042 in host 103 is a virtual subchannel corresponding to the above individual guests A and B 101 and 102. It does not recite a state of the actual input/output apparatus but the input/output apparatus viewed from guests 101 and 102. Upon an interruption of an input/output operation to the guest, the guest subchannel number (virtual identification (B)) for reporting the interruption to individual guests 101 and 102 is also recited therein.
The guest subchannel translation tables (hereinafter called GST) 214 and 215 are for performing a translation between said guest subchannel number (a virtual identification (B)) and the physical subchannel number (physical identification (C)). The host uses the table when the guest input and output instruction is issued, enabling the guest subchannel number to be translated to a physical subchannel number.
Virtual address translation table 216 (hereinafter called VATT) within host 103 is for obtaining VSCH 212 or 213 based on the subchannel number of physical subchannel 020 transmitted from hardware 1041 and the information designating which path is used among paths connected to the device when an input/output interruption is initiated for input/output apparatus (IOD) 105.
Address translation table (ATT) 207 is provided in input/output processor (IOP) 206. It is an indexing structure for translating the physical input/output address, namely, the input/output apparatus address including the data transmission (communication) path to the subchannel number, and is usually formed by a high speed memory provided within input/output processor (IOP) 206. In the example shown in FIG. 1B, the translation structure operates to point to the same value, namely, subchannel (SCH) 020, regardless of whether or not input/output apparatus (IOD) 105 communicates with the body apparatus side by using either of channels (CHE) 208 or 209.
In a virtual computer system constructed as above, the operation of an input/output process event is explained as follows.
(a) Upon the guest input and ouput instruction execution:
(1) Guest input/output instructions are obtained by host 103 by a program corresponding to the guest executed by central processing unit (CPU) 201.
Host 103 converts an operand of the guest input/output instruction to the GST (for example 214) corresponding to guest 101 or 102, to obtain the corresponding physical subchannel number (physical identification (C)).
(2) Host 103 checks whether or not subchannel (SCH) 020 corresponding to the physical subchannel number obtained in the above is used by an input/output process by other guests. Namely, it is necessary for host 103 to manage the state of all the subchannels (SCH) 020.
(3) Where the in-use condition does not exist as a result of the check, host 103 issues an input/output instruction to subchannel (SCH) 020.
Then, instruction data is added, which designates that only the input/output path assigned to corresponding guest 101 or 102 can be used. For example, the path which can presently be used for the input/output process comprises only a path of channel (CHE) 208, input/output control appartus (IOC) 210, input/output apparatus (IOD) 105.
(b) Upon a guest input and output interruption:
(1) Hardware 1041 obtains subchannel (SCH) 020 corresponding to input/output apparatus (IOD) 105 and reports the condition of the input/output interruption by using ATT 207. By using this subchannel (SCH) 020, it interrupts host 103 together with the data representing a path in which the input/output interruption condition is produced, for example, the data designating channel (CHE) 208, input/output control apparatus (IOC) 210, and input/output apparatus (IOD) 105.
(2) Host 103 selects a virtual subchannel (VSCH) 041 based on the physical subchannel number of subchannels (SCH) 020 and which path is used, by using VATT 216. The interruption report is performed for guests 101 and 102 after the input and output interruption condition is recited in VSCH 041.
As recited above, in the conventional system, it is necessary for all the guest input/output processes to be performed by host 103 regardless of whether they are input/output instructions or input and output interruptions. Therefore, there is a problem that the overhead of host 103 is increased.
In the existing virtual computer system, the host provides a virtual interruption mask and an interruption queue for every logical CPU and a hardware interruption mask is made to correspond in a time divisional manner to the virtual interruption mask. Therefore, the interruption condition from the input/output apparatus is distributed to respective logical CPUs.
The above prior art system will be further explained by referring to the drawings.
FIG. 2 shows the general structure of the input/ output interruption of the prior art virtual computer system. It comprises a host 301, guests 302 and 303, hardware 304, logical CPUs 321, 322, 331 and 332, virtual interruption mask 421, 422, 431 and 432, hardware interruption masks 340 and subchannel 305.
Respective virtual interruption masks 421, 422, 431 and 432 are provided for logical CPUs 321, 322, 331 and 332 of guests 302 and 303. The content of the hardware interruption mask 340 is made to correspond to these respective virtual interruption masks in a time divisional manner, thereby enabling the interruption condition from the input/output apparatus to be recognized by respective logical CPUs.
These controls are conducted by the host. Namely, the conventional virtual computer system requires that all the input/output interruptions be distributed by the host. A host makes hardware interruption mask 340 is made to correspond, in a time divisional manner, to virtual interruption masks 421 to 432, which are viewed from the respective logical CPUs of the guest and distributes the input/output interruption for respective logical CPUs.
FIG. 3 shows the interruption control of the virtual computer system. The same portions as in FIG. 2 are designated by the same reference numbers. Virtual interruption masks 411, 421 and 422 are provided to respective logical CPUs and respective bits are made to correspond to the interruption request from different input/output apparatuses. Therefore, the interruption from the input/output apparatus is received only when the value of a bit is "1".
Respective mask bits of hardware interruption mask 340 correspond to interruption requests from different input/output apparatuses and the bit position is made to correspond to the respective virtual interruption masks on a one-to-one basis. The bit pattern of the mask is the same as the bit pattern of the virtual interruption mask corresponding to the logical CPU which is running on the current physical CPUs, and input/output interruption is received only when the bit value is "1".
The interruption report destination 350 describes the report destination CPU of the input/output interruption. The logical CPU which initiates the subchannel is selected as the destination report logical CPU.
The operations upon setting of the virtual interruption mask and/or upon the generation of the guest input/output interruption will be explained.
(a) Upon setting of the virtual interruption mask:
(1) The guest logical CPU-c designated by the reference number 321 determines the virtual interruption mask 421 as necessary. By making the value of the bit (for example i01) corresponding to the input/output apparatus "1", the interruption request from the subchannel 305 corresponding to the input/output apparatus can be received. The interruption report destination C in the subchannel is described.
(2) The host 301 reflects the most recent virtual interruption masks 411 to 422 on hardware interruption mask 340 in a time divisional manner to prepare for the input/output interruption.
(3) When a certain guest logic CPU (for example 322) is dispatched to a different physical CPU, the virtual interruption mask 422 corresponding to the guest logical CPU is reflected on the hardware interruption mask by a host which runs on a different physical CPU.
(b) Upon the issuance of the guest input/output interruption:
(1) When the interruption condition is produced by the input/output apparatus and the corresponding bit (for example i01) of the hardware interruption mask 340 is "1", the input/output interruption condition is reported to the host.
(2) The bit value alone (content of the respective i01) of the virtual interruption masks of 411 to 422 cannot determine which logical CPU should receive the report of the input/output interruption. The host determines the report destination C based on the interruption report destination 350 in the subchannel 305 corresponding to the input/output apparatus, which produces the input/output interruption, and reports the input/output interruption condition to the logical CPU-c.
In the prior art virtual computer system, all the correspondence between the virtual interruption mask and the hardware interruption mask is managed by the host and the input/output interruption is distributed in accordance with the report destination.
Therefore, the overhead increases and the host's load also increases, affecting the processing capability of the system.
In order to decrease the host's, the hardware interruption mask is made to correspond to respective logical CPUs. However, this results in an increase in the hardware amount, making the system less economical.

Input and output processing system for a virtual computer


Systems, methods, and computer readable media for location-sensitive identifier translation in a telecommunications network are disclosed. According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes a method for providing location-sensitive called-party identifier translation in a telecommunications network. The method includes, at a signaling node that includes at least one processor: receiving a first signaling message that includes a called party identifier; determining proximity information associated with the calling party; performing a location-sensitive called party identifier translation based on the proximity information associated with the calling party; and sending the first signaling message or a second signaling message, the sent message including the translated called party identifier.

A toll-free number is a telephone number in which the cost of the call is charged to the called party rather than to the calling party. In countries that follow the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), telephone numbers are of the form NPA-NXX-YYYY, where NPA is the numbering plan area code, roughly corresponding to a particular geographical area, and NXX is the exchange, which identifies a physical switching facility, called a central office (CO). The remaining digits, YYYY, identify a line card within the CO. When a CO detects that a subscriber whom that CO serves is attempting to place a call to called party telephone number, the values of NPA and NXX of the called party number are used by a switch to determine how to route a call.
A toll-free number, however, may have an "8XX" area code (e.g., 800, 877, 866, etc.), that does not correspond to any geographical location of the called party, and thus cannot be used by itself to determine the destination of the call or how it should be routed. For this reason, switches in conventional telecommunications networks that provide toll free service must send a query to a toll-free database to determine the true destination of the toll-free called party. A query to a toll-free database is herein referred to as a "toll-free query."A toll-free query typically includes the toll-free number, and the response to the toll-free query typically includes the directory number to which the toll-free number is mapped. For example, Tekelec, Incorporated provides a toll-free number "1-800-TEKELEC" (1-800-835-3532) for sales inquiries. This toll-free number may be mapped to a local directory number for Tekelec corporate world headquarters in Morrisville, N.C., which is 919-460-5500. Thus, a toll-free query for 800-835-3532 would return the directory number 919-460-5500.
Businesses often use a toll-free number as the primary telephone number for callers to use, because the same toll-free number may be used by a caller regardless of the geographical location of the caller. The savings to the business from using the same toll-free number in advertisements around the country, continent, or world, on company business cards and letterhead, and so on, may outweigh the additional expense incurred by the business of paying for the calls. A toll-free number that is very easy for customers or potential customers to remember, as in the 1-800-TEKELEC example, above, may even increase that business organization's sales, help it achieve high name recognition, or provide some other tangible or intangible benefit.
However, business entities or organizations that have a large or dispersed physical presence in the form of branch offices, service centers, or restaurants in different geographic locations, for example, may desire that a call made to the organization be directed to whichever branch office is geographically closest to the calling party. A fictional take-out pizza restaurant chain having stores in multiple geographic locations, for example, may desire that calls to its toll-free number, e.g., 1-800-GO-PIZZA (1-800-467-4992), be routed to the pizza restaurant closest to the geographic location of the calling party. In order to do this, the toll-free query must provide location information for the calling party, and the toll-free database must be able to use this calling party location information to select the appropriate directory number.
The ability to consider the location of the calling party as part of the process of performing a number translation is herein referred to as calling-party-location-sensitive called party number translation, which may be abbreviated to "location-sensitive called party number translation", or simply "location-sensitive number translation", for short.
In conventional systems, however, calling party location information may be unavailable or indeterminate. For example, the toll-free query issued by a switch may include the toll-free called party number, but no calling party information. Even if the toll-free query includes calling party information, that calling party information may not indicate the geographic location of the calling party, such as where the calling party number is a mobile subscriber number, in which case the mobile subscriber may be calling from anywhere within the cellular network. Even if the toll-free query includes information that does give some indication of the location of the calling party, conventional toll-free databases may not support calling party information as an input parameter to a toll-free query. The same problems apply to other number translation services that are not location-sensitive.
Accordingly, in light of these disadvantages associated with conventional approaches to providing called-party number translation in a telecommunications network, there exists a need for improved systems and methods for providing location-sensitive called-party number translation in a telecommunications network.

Systems, methods, and computer readable media for location-sensitive called-party number translation in a telecommunications network


A steel bar for a steering rack that contains 0.50 to 0.60% by mass of C, 0.05 to 0.5% by mass of Si, 0.2 to 1.5% by mass of Mn, 0.0005 to 0.003% by mass of B, 0.005 to 0.05% by mass of Ti, 0.0005 to 0.1% by mass of Al, and 0.002 to 0.02% by mass of N is provided. Given D as a diameter of the steel bar, then the steel bar is adjusted in such a manner that quenched and tempered structures in a portion of the steel bar at a depth of D/4 from a surface satisfy conditions I), II), and III) as follows: I) a sum of a tempered bainitic structure and a tempered martensitic structure accounts for 30 to 100% in area percentage; II) a regenerated perlite structure accounts for 0 to 50% in area percentage; and III) a sum of the tempered bainitic structure, the tempered martensitic structure, and the regenerated perlite structure accounts for 50 to 100% in area percentage.

Steering of a vehicle includes a type with a hydraulic power assist (hydraulic power steering) and a type with an electric power assist (electric power steering).
The hydraulic power steering is the mainstream in the related art, and it is to assist a steering force with pressure oil ejected from an oil pump that operates using an engine output. The hydraulic power steering, however, has a problem that the vehicle has lower fuel economy, because part of an engine output is used as its power source.
On the contrary, the electric power steering is to assist a steering force with an electric motor that operates using electric energy from the battery. Because the electric power steering system is able to enhance fuel economy of a vehicle in comparison with the hydraulic power steering, the use of the electric power steering has been spreading in recent years.
For the steering rack of a vehicle that extends in the crosswise direction, the following are required:
(1) excellent impact resistant to the extent that no breaking occurs upon application of an impact when the vehicle runs upon the curbstone or the like;
(2) a property (breaking resistance) of not causing a breaking when bending stress is applied; and
(3) abrasion resistance of rack teeth.
For such a steering rack, S45C steel (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) Nos. 62-178472 and 62-180018), and medium carbon steel (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) Nos. 2000-153336 and 2001-79639) have been used in the related art. In addition, not only the abrasion resistance, but also the strength against bending stress (breaking resistance) is increased by forming a surface hardening layer through induction quenching.
For example, even when bending strength of the steering rack is increased through induction quenching, once cracking occurs in an induction quenched layer upon application of an excessively large load, the cracking develops to an inner portion and may possibly give rise to a breaking.
Further, the electronic power steering, the use of which has been spreading in recent years, tends to increase a contact surface pressure between the steering rack and the pinion gear in comparison with the hydraulic power steering, and abrasion resistance becomes insufficient when S45C steel is used. When medium carbon steel is used, the impact resistance is deteriorated even when abrasion resistance is increased by using a generous amount of C.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 10-8189 discloses that in a case where induction quenching is performed with the addition of B, the resultant steel for a steering rack undergoes bending deformation without causing brittle fracture even when an excessively large load is applied. This steel for a steering rack is steel obtained by omitting quenching and tempering, and is substantially ferrite-perlite in terms of structure.
An object of the invention is to provide a steel bar for a steering rack that has excellent impact resistance while abrasion resistance is improved and is capable of preventing development of cracking, a manufacturing method of the same, and a steering rack using the same.

Steering rack comprising steel bar with rack teeth


An automatic gain control circuit able to perform high speed and correct level acquisition, able to prevent occurrence of error, and able to prevent a crash of the system. An amplification gain controller outputs a gain control signal to an automatic gain control amplifier to amplify the received signal with maximum value when receiving a burst detection trigger signal. A second gain control signal based on the detected reception signal power is calculated when receiving a first burst synchronization detection signal; and this second gain control signal is output to the automatic gain control amplifier. A received digital signal is amplified with the second gain and integrated to find the reception signal power, from which a third gain control signal is calculated and outputted to the automatic gain control amplifier to amplify the received signal with this third gain.

In a digital demodulation apparatus, there is a limit to the dynamic range of an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter for converting an analog signal to a digital signal.
For this reason, a digital signal converted exceeding the dynamic range of the A/D converter will be output in a form including signal distortion.
Further, in a system where a large number of apparatuses communicate as in a wireless LAN system or other wireless communication system, the reception signal levels will differ largely according to transmission outputs of the individual apparatuses and the distance between apparatuses.
Accordingly, in the wireless communication system, it is necessary to adjust the reception signal level within the dynamic range of the A/D converter. For this reason, a synchronization demodulation apparatus of a wireless communication system mounts an automatic gain control (AGC) circuit as a circuit for adjusting the reception signal level to within the dynamic range of the A/D converter.
Further, in the wireless communication system, a burst signal referred to as a preamble signal is transmitted inserted at the header of the modulated signal.
Further, the AGC circuit mounted in the synchronization demodulation apparatus synchronizes the timing to within the period of this burst signal, while controls the amplification gain based on the received level of the burst signal.
In this way, various circuits have been proposed as the AGC circuit able to be applied to a wireless communication system using so-called burst synchronization.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example of the configuration of a demodulation apparatus mounting a conventional AGC circuit able to be applied to a wireless communication system using burst synchronization.
The apparatus of FIG. 1 is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-205278.
This demodulation apparatus 10, as shown in FIG. 1, is comprised of an automatic gain control amplifier (AGCAMP) 101, A/D converter (ADC) 102, OFDM demodulator (DEMOD) 103, delay unit (DLY) 104, burst detector (BDT) 105, packet detector (PDT) 106, and amplification gain controller (AGCTL) 107.
In a demodulation apparatus 10 having such a configuration, an OFDM reception signal RS received by a not illustrated antenna is input to the automatic gain control amplifier 101.
In the automatic gain control amplifier 101, the reception signal RS is automatically controlled in gain and output as the optimum signal level to the A/D converter 102. Note that, the automatic gain control amplifier 101 controls the case of automatic gain control by a control signal S107 by the amplification gain controller 107 and the case where the control gain is fixed.
The A/D converter 102 converts the input reception signal from an analog signal to digital signal and outputs a digital reception signal S102 to the OFDM demodulator 103, delay unit 104, and burst detector 105.
The OFDM demodulator 103 applies a discrete Fourier transform to the digital reception signal S102 based on the output of the burst detector 105 to demodulate the OFDM signal and outputs this demodulated signal S103 to the packet detector 106 and following processing circuit.
The delay unit 104 delays the digital reception signal S102 by the amount of the burst period and outputs the result as the signal S104 to the burst detector 105.
The burst detector 105 establishes correlation between the digital reception signal S102 and the delay signal S104, detects the burst signal of the period determined by the communication system, and outputs the detected result as the signal S105 to the OFDM demodulator 103 and the amplification gain controller 107.
Further, the packet detector 106 detects a unique word of the packet header from the demodulation signal S103 by the OFDM demodulator 103, detects whether or not the packets were correctly demodulated, detects the end time of the packets, and outputs the detected result as the signal S106 to the amplification gain controller 107.
The amplification gain controller 107 judges whether or not to fix the automatic gain control of the automatic gain control amplifier 101 based on the output signal S105 by the burst detector 105 and the output signal S106 of the packet detector 106 and outputs the judged result as the control signal S107 to the automatic gain control amplifier 101.
In this way, the demodulation apparatus of FIG. 1 fixes or changes the control gain in the automatic gain control amplifier 101 according to whether or not the burst synchronization was established in the burst synchronization system, so it is suitable for a burst synchronization communication system for communication dividing the timing of the burst synchronization and the timing of the data and/or packets.
The OFDM modulation method is a modulation method applies an inverse Fourier transform to 2n primary modulated (QPSK, 16ASAM, etc.) transmitted signal symbols to form 2n number of sub carriers orthogonal to each other on the frequency axis.
The OFDM modulation signal of the OFDM modulation method is a combined signal of a plurality of modulation waves, so the ratio of the peak amplitude to the mean amplitude is large and the fluctuation in amplitude is large.
Accordingly, when applying the conventional automatic gain control circuit explained above to a communication system with abrupt changes in data such as an OFDM reception signal, in order to suppress an occurrence of the circuit distortion due to the pull-in operation of gain following individual data changes, a time constant of the automatic gain control circuit is prolonged.
For this reason, in the conventional automatic gain control circuit, if the period of the burst synchronization is short, the optimum gain can no longer be pulled into.
As a result of this, there is the disadvantage that the optimum gain is gradually pulled into over several packets, error occurs in the header packet, and deterioration of communication efficiency due to resending of data or the like is induced.
Further, in a system wherein a large number of apparatuses communicate such as in a wireless LAN system, the reception signal levels differ largely according to the transmitted outputs of the individual apparatuses and the distance between apparatuses. Therefore, in an automatic gain control circuit having a long time constant, the optimum gain is not pulled into for the individual packets, but the mean gain of the optimum gains of all packets is pulled into and therefore there is the possibility that the system will end up crashing.

Automatic gain control circuit and method thereof and demodulation apparatus using the same


Presented is an underground cable laying apparatus that leaves virtually no visible scar in the turf under which cable, wire, line, hose, etc. is laid. The apparatus utilizes a pair of angularly displaced turf slicing wheels to slice and separate the turf forming a slit into which cable may be laid. A cable guide tube and roller properly place the cable within the slit. A pair of turf closure wheels close the slit in close proximity to the release point of the cable to ensure proper placement of the cable. The slit in the turf is gently and completely closed over the cable, leaving virtually no visible scar within the turf to upset the aesthetic beauty of a lawn. Further, the configuration and rolling action of the turf slicing wheels ensures that other underground cables will not be damaged if inadvertently encountered.

Aesthetics have always played an important role in home design and landscaping. Indeed, most homeowners take pride in the appearance of their yards and landscaping, often devoting many hours each weekend to ensuring that their lawn and garden look attractive and uncluttered.
Unfortunately, the necessities of day-to-day living often result in the use and installation of unsightly equipment. For example, the use of a garden hose and sprinkler to water the lawn and garden, the use of a fence to contain a pet, the running of cables and wires for lighting, cable TV, internet services, etc. all are visibly unappealing to many homeowners. The solution of choice for many homeowners is to run such cables, wires, pet containment systems, sprinkler systems, etc., underground so as to be hidden from view while still allowing the homeowner to reap the benefits provided thereby.
To run each of these varied systems underground, trenchers are used to dig a small trench in the yard into which is laid the cable, wire, pipe, etc., for the particular system being installed. The soil removed from the trench is then put back in over the wire, cable, pipe, etc. In this way, each of these systems, wires, cable, etc., are hidden from view.
Unfortunately, this solution to the aesthetic problem has resulted in an underground maze of wires, cable, pipes, etc., for which no coordinated mapping is typically provided. Further, utility marking services such as JULIE do not provide marking of such consumer-installed underground cables, wires, pipes, etc., instead only marking the main utilities of gas, electric, water, etc. As a result, the attempted installation of subsequent underground systems using a trencher often results in damage or breakage of the underground lines, cables, wires, pipes, etc., of previously installed underground systems. This not only results in frustration of the homeowner as the affected system may no longer be used until it is repaired, but also additional expense for the installers of the subsequent underground systems who have caused the damage and now must bear the expense of repair. Additionally, the type of damage resulting from the use of current methods for underground cable laying often results in multiple breaks in the underground system. That is, oftentimes the underground line, cable, wire, pipe, etc., is snagged by these trenching apparatus and pulled along until a failure occurs in the affected system. Such failures may be at locations other than the point at which the system was snagged by the trencher, often requiring a large portion of the damaged underground system to be dug up to effectuate the repair at the locations of the break.
A further disadvantage with current methods for laying underground cable, wire, flexible tubing, etc., is that the current methods leave a visible scar in the yard. This scar typically requires the planting of additional grass or other ground cover seed, which further increases the expense, detracts from the aesthetics which it was meant to protect, and requires additional lawn care to properly water the newly planted seed to ensure germination and full growth to fully hide the trenched scar.
There exists, therefore, a need in the art for a new and improved underground cable, wire, line, tubing, etc., laying apparatus and method that substantially reduces or eliminates the risk of breaking other underground systems, and which does not leave a visible scar in the yard that requires additional care and expense to correct.


The present disclosure discloses an optical imaging lens group including, sequentially from an object side to an image side along an optical axis, a first lens having positive refractive power with a convex object-side surface; a second lens having refractive power; a third lens having refractive power; a fourth lens having refractive power; a fifth lens having refractive power; and a sixth lens having negative refractive power with a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface. A total effective focal length f of the optical imaging lens group, an entrance pupil diameter EPD of the optical imaging lens group and half of a maximal field-of-view Semi-FOV of the optical imaging lens group satisfy: f/EPD<2, and f*tan(Semi-FOV)>4.5 mm.

On the one hand, with the rapid development of portable electronic products, such as smart phones and tablet computers, people have put forward higher and higher demands on the image quality of portable electronic products. On the other hand, with the development of portable electronic products tending to be thinner and lighter, more and more stringent demands have been put forward for the miniaturization of the imaging lens assembly applicable to the portable electronic products.
In order to meet the miniaturization, it is necessary to reduce the number of lenses in the imaging lens group as much as possible. However, the reduction in design freedom caused by the reduction in the number of lenses makes it difficult for the imaging lens group to meet the market's demand for high imaging performance. Moreover, with the improvement of the performance and size reduction of the photosensitive Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) and the Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, higher demands are placed on the imaging lens group accordingly.
One of the problems to be solved urgently in the field of lens design is how to achieve an imaging lens group with large-aperture, high-pixel and miniaturization so as to clearly image the object.


Domestic steam iron including an ironing element or plate, a vaporization element or vaporizer which is fed with water coming from a reservoir incorporated within the iron, and comprising a vaporization chamber where the steam is generated which passes through the plate via a front opening of the vaporizer, to emerge into the exterior through holes formed in the plate, and also comprising heat element for each of the plate and vaporizer assigned to the plate and the vaporizer, and thermostatic temperature regulators for each of the plate and vaporizer, and thermal fuses of each of the plate and vaporizer, associated with the plate and the vaporizer, wherein the vaporization chamber is provided with a rear outlet communicating with the front opening of the vaporizer by way of a pair of deep channels that are integrated in the vaporizer and extend co-laterally to the vaporization chamber itself.

The present invention relates to the plate of a domestic steam iron of standard construction that comprises an ironing element or plate that, by means of a laminated stainless steel covering or other appropriate material, is the component that comes into contact with the garment that is to be ironed; a vaporiser or steam-generating component that is provided with water from a container that is situated in the iron and comprises a vaporisation chamber where the steam is generated and from which the steam passes through a front opening on the vaporiser to the plate and then passes out to the exterior via holes provided on the plate; the heat element components on the plate and the vaporiser, as their names imply, being allocated to the plate and the vaporiser; and the thermostatically controlled regulators of the temperature of the plate and the vaporiser; and the thermal fuses of the plate and the vaporiser being respectively associated with the plate and the vaporiser.
The present subsidiary patent relates to the plate of a domestic steam iron of standard construction that comprises an ironing element or plate that, by means of a laminated stainless steel covering or other appropriate material, is the component that comes into contact with the garment that is to be ironed; a vaporiser or steam-generating component that is provided with water from a container that is situated in the iron and comprises a vaporisation chamber where the steam is generated and from which the steam passes through a front opening on the vaporiser to the plate and then passes out to the exterior via holes provided on the plate; the heat element components on the plate and the vaporiser, as their names imply, being allocated to the plate and the vaporiser; and the thermostatically controlled regulators of the temperature of the plate and the vaporiser; and the thermal fuses of the plate and the vaporiser being respectively associated with the plate and the vaporiser.
In first generation domestic steam irons, the required heating necessary for vaporising the water was generated by the same heating element responsible for heating the plate.
Domestic steam irons of this kind operate at temperatures within the range of 100° C. to 200° C. Within this temperature range and close to 100° C. the steam is not saturated and is designated as 'wet steam' since it is close to the limit between the liquid state and steam state, but still comprises a considerable proportion of the liquid phase, and in which a portion of the steam phase passes readily into the liquid phase as soon as there is a relatively small drop in the temperature. Conversely, as the temperature rises a more highly saturated water vapour is obtained which is designated as 'dry steam' (approximately, above 120° C.), and the liquid phase becomes increasingly less significant, and in such a manner that at the higher levels of the temperature range indicated, the steam phase becomes increasingly more stable, and, in order to revert to the liquid phase, a significant lowering of the temperature is necessary.
Because of what has been indicated above, when it comes to the actual practice of ironing, there are no real problems when working at a temperature within the higher levels of the said range, where a good supply of 'dry steam' is provided, and the high temperature of the iron itself is suitable for the fabric being ironed, and, as a result, the garment does not suffer any damage.
However, when fabrics and delicate garments have to be ironed, it is necessary for the temperature of the ironing element to be at the lower limit of the said working range. As this ironing element and the vaporiser compartment are heated by the one and only heating element, the result is that the steam produced that is available for the ironing procedure is 'wet steam'. A consequence of this is that, while ironing, a dripping is produced that wets the garment and becomes a nuisance and diminishes the quality of the ironing. This phenomenon is aggravated by the cooling of the ironing implement around its steam outlet holes, which cooling is very significant since it comes very close to the temperature of the steam being expelled and of the ironing element.
At present, a new generation of domestic steam irons is known in which, independently of the assembly comprising the ironing element, the heating element and the thermostatic element which conventional domestic steam irons have, the plate itself incorporates an autonomous vaporiser unit which is integrated with a vaporisation chamber that has a water supply channel connected to the water reservoir of the domestic iron, and the vaporisation chamber of which is fitted with its own heating element which has its own thermostat for regulating the temperature in this vaporisation chamber; the autonomous vaporiser unit has a steam outlet connected to a complementary inlet for steam into the ironing element, and for providing the correct pathway for steam to pass towards the outlet holes. In this way, the production of steam becomes thermally independent of the ironing element, and the iron is provided with dry steam at any temperature, improving the dripping effect and allowing the ironing element to operate at a lower temperature (but still above 100° C.) and improving the quality of the ironing.
However, in these domestic steam irons, there remain certain problems requiring correction or improvement.
One of these problems is the tendency to produce an accumulation of lime-scale which progressively obstructs the passage of the steam to the expellation holes in the plate, due to the lack of a duct available for the passage of steam and/or the lack or insufficiency of filtering means for the lime residues carried by the steam.
Another problem lies in the manner of resolving the passage of the steam between the vaporiser and the plate, being independent units connected to one another. In this respect, the use of a brass cap is known which is simultaneously attached by its ends to such vaporiser and the plate, incorporating at each point of attachment an annular, peripheral, silicone gasket. It is supposed that with this assembly concept the brass cap as well as the silicone gaskets work disadvantageously and in an uneven manner.
Another problem consists in the fact that temperature control of the plate and the vaporiser rely on the presence of thermostats which are insufficiently sensitive and have a slow response time, which results in the continuation of dripping, albeit less, and in the reliability of ironing remaining unsatisfactory.
Another frequent problem is that the steam outlet holes in the plate are distributed over the whole length of the plate, even though they are only close to the side edges of the plate. This means that during ironing with steam the garment retains humidity after the ironing stroke, which is undesirable when ironing delicates.
The present invention relates to a domestic steam iron that corresponds to the general form described above in that it comprises a vaporisation chamber and a plate which, as illustrated in FIG. 1, are proportional in a manner such that, on the one hand, the width of the first is around half that of the second, and on the other hand, the sides of the vaporisation chamber are approximately in a straight line and converge with respect to one other in such a manner that they progressively diverge away from the edge of the plate. Another embodiment of the present invention provides a different relative geometry between the vaporisation chamber and the plate.
Another embodiment of the present invention provides a passage for the steam from the said vaporisation chamber to the plate via a horizontal pipe.
Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a distinctive internal structure of the vaporisation chamber.

Domestic steam irons having a vaporization chamber and fitted with independent heat element

Celaya, Emparanza Y Galdos, Internacional, S.A.


A preparation method and use of an artificial exosome complex are provided. Raw materials for preparing the artificial exosome complex include linear polyethyleneimine (PEI) and hyaluronic acid (HA). The linear PEI can be obtained through the HA-PEI preparation process of the present disclosure, and most PEI is branched currently. According to the HA-PEI preparation method, HA-PEI with a specific molecular weight can be quantitatively prepared. The preparation process involves controllable operation steps, and thus can be used for large-scale industrial production. The prepared HA-PEI can promote the absorption of an encapsulated active substance by deep skin cells through the ligand activity of HA and the membrane permeability of linear PEI.

The effectiveness of a skin care product mainly depends on the absorption efficiency of an active substance, but there are few effective media for delivering active substances on the present market. Linear polyethyleneimine (PEI) has both hydrophilic and lipophilic groups, such that the linear PEI can form a bilayer with the hydrophilic groups inside and the lipophilic groups outside, and can encapsulate a substance to form a microcapsule. The microcapsule can fuse with a cell membrane due to its own membrane fusion property and then deliver an inclusion into a cell. However, due to the utilization of the membrane fusion property, the microcapsule has no cell selectivity. Hyaluronic acid (HA), also known as hyaluronan, is a natural moisturizing lubricant having a large molecular weight, and HA cannot be effectively absorbed by deep skin cells, which exhibits limited skin care persistence.
There is no combination of linear PEI and HA on the present market. A technical difficulty for the combination of linear PEI and HA is that linear PEI and HA are not simply mixed together, but are truly linked together through an amidation reaction to form a microcapsule similar to an exosome. Linear PEI and HA are both high polymers, rather than small-molecule compounds, so there is an extremely high technical difficulty in the control of such a reaction and a product quality.

Preparation method and use of artificial exosome complex

SHANGHAI CHEERMORE BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A method and system for customizing form elements in a form building application. According to one embodiment, a form builder receives an identification of a user of the form building application, the form building application providing a graphical user interface for the manipulation of a set of form elements, and enables access to a subset of the form elements according to authorization rules, and an access manager determines the authorization rules associated with the user.

Electronic forms serve an integral role in organizing information flow for today's business applications. Such forms are widely used to manage and present business data for such enterprise business applications as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales and Distribution (SD), Financial Accounting (FI) and Human Resources (HR). To reduce the amount of programming skills necessary for creating and maintaining these forms, development tools have been created to enable users to design the look-and-feel of business forms in a graphical environment without coding. One such tool is the Smart Forms Form Builder application provided by SAP AG, Walldorf, Germany.
The graphical user interface (GUI) of the currently available Smart Forms Form Builder tool is depicted in FIG. 1. The GUI comprises three sections: navigation tree 100, maintenance screen 110 and form painter 120. Navigation tree 100 provides a tree structure of nodes that represent the output elements of the form such as pages, windows, graphics, tables, text areas, etc. Based on the selected node, maintenance screen 110 provides the area for inserting texts, establishing paragraph and character formats, setting up different attributes (fonts, borders, shading, etc.), or drawing tables and templates. Form painter 120 enables users to design the layout of the form.
The root nodes in navigation tree 100 are "Global Settings" and "Pages and windows". "Global Settings" has three directly inferior nodes: "Form attributes", "Form interface" and "Global definitions". Upon selection of the "Form attributes" node, maintenance screen 110 enables the user to set attributes for the entire form, such as language attributes for the translation process, page format, style and default output settings. Upon selection of the "Form interface" node, maintenance screen 110 enables the user to define the parameter interface through which the form retrieves relevant application data from an application program. And upon selection of the "Global definitions" node, maintenance screen 110 enables the user to define variables and/or constants for use throughout the form.
"Pages and windows" has two directly inferior page nodes: "FIRST" and "NEXT". Form painter 120 displays the directly inferior nodes of the "FIRST" page node, which include one graphic node ("MYSAPCOM") and four window nodes ("MAIN", "ADDRESS", "INFO" and "FOOTER"). "MAIN" includes two text nodes ("INTRODUCTION" AND "GREETINGS") and a table node ("TABLE").
Currently, users of form building applications have unrestricted access to create or edit any node in a form. However, companies may desire to restrict a user's access to particular nodes within a form for which the user is responsible. For example, one division of a company may be solely responsible for the design of the corporate logo for the form, while a second division may be responsible for defining the form interface, and a third division is assigned to process the form content.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a system and method that controls access to particular form elements within a form building application.

System and method for customizing form elements in a form building application