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1. Field of the Invention
This application generally relates to cannon cartridges and more particularly to a cartridge assembly having multiple connected cases.
2. Brief description of the Related Art
Cannon cartridges, especially those designed for use in tank guns, are limited in the axial length which can be accommodated within the confines of the tank. This restriction limits the amount of propellant that can be utilized to propel a given projectile through the gun tube. Accordingly, there is a need for a cartridge design which extends the useful volume for containing propellant within the cartridge without lengthening the cartridge unit. One approach is to provide a portion of the propellant charge around the sabot of a penetrator projectile as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,220. This design makes use of the space between front and rear bourrelets to house a sequentially ignited booster charge However, the volume available for propellant is comparatively small. Another approach is to provide separate propellant and projectile components. In large artillery cannon designs, the propellant is loaded as separate canisters or bags behind the projectile. Thus the entire round to be fired consists of several unconnected components. This design has the advantage of being easily handled by those individuals loading the gun. This design also has the advantage that the total charge can be tailored to the target type and range on the spot. Such tailoring is not conventionally available lo lank guns.
Separate ammunition is also more time consuming to load than fixed ammunition. It has the additional disadvantage in that in order to unload an unfired round from the chamber of the gun, the operator must reach into the chamber, which may potentially be very hot, to retrieve the individual bags of propellant and the projectile.
Accordingly, there is a a continual need for a cartridge assembly for use in a large caliber tank gun which extends the propelling charge capacity. There is also a need for a cartridge assembly which permits on the spot selection of the propellant charge to be utilized depending on the target range and type. There is also a need for a cartridge assembly that is simple to load and permits retrieval of the round components easily by an individual operating the gun without reaching into the gun chamber to retrieve components.
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The present invention relates to the securement of cover plates, access plates, inserts and the like in openings in a panel or other workpiece, and more particularly to the blind securement of such cover plates and the like.
There are many instances where it is desired to secure cover plates and the like in openings in a panel or other workpiece. For example, a variety of electronic housings frequently include cover or access panels which must be secured in place, interchangeable name plates are frequently desired for many pieces of equipment, and speaker grills or recessed light covers need to be secured in position.
Various means have been suggested for securing such cover plates and the like in position. Some of such securement means have required separate fasteners such as screws and others have necessitated some portion of the cover plate or the fastener to be exposed above the surface of the panel or like with which the cover plate is to be mounted.
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The present invention is directed to an occupant sensing system and an associated method, and is particularly directed to occupant sensing using an image sensor to sense an occupant.
Occupant protection systems are well known in the art and are employed in vehicles to help protect vehicle occupants during a vehicle crash event. Most occupant protection systems include one or more actuatable components, such as an air bag, a seat belt pretensioner, a side curtain, etc. During a crash event, these components may be actuated to help protect the vehicle occupant.
Deployment or actuation of the actuatable component is usually dependent upon numerous criteria, such as crash conditions and/or occupant characteristics. A crash condition may be indicated by a crash metric, such as crash acceleration, crash velocity, crash displacement, etc. For example, if a crash metric, such as crash acceleration, is greater than a predetermined threshold crash acceleration value, then this may be regarded as an indication that the crash event is a deployment crash event (e.g. a crash event having a magnitude and/or duration great enough to warrant actuation of the actuatable protection component).
Relevant occupant characteristics may include presence, position, and weight of the occupant. With reference to an air bag, for example, deploying the air bag is wasteful if an occupant is not present. Also, depending on the size and position of an occupant that is present, deploying the airbag may not enhance protection of the occupant; thus, it may be desirable to suppress actuation. Alternatively, depending on the size and position of an occupant who is present, it may be desirable to limit the pressure of the inflation fluid in the inflated air bag.
Several different arrangements and methodologies have been developed to sense these occupant characteristics. For example, imaging technologies have been utilized to acquire an image of the interior of a vehicle to determine the presence and/or position of an occupant.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,958 shows an occupant type and position detection system that uses an infrared camera to generate image data of the front seating area of a vehicle. The data are used to track occupant type and position relative to a fixed structure such as the vehicle instrument panel, to optimize the controlling of deployment of an occupant safety device, such as an air bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,472 discloses an image sensor that is used to obtain image data which is representative of an occupant on a vehicle seat. The image data is compared to stored image data to obtain the occupant""s size and position within the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,698 discloses an image sensor that acquires a representation of the passenger seat area within a vehicle. Objects within the field of view of the sensor are discriminated to determine whether a rear facing child seat is located in the passenger seat.
In some cases, structured lighting (as opposed to diffuse lighting) is used to create a 3D visual image of an object. Structured lighting alone does not, however, provide sufficient coverage to support 2D occupant recognition techniques. In addition, the source of a structured light must be located at a position and perspective that differs sufficiently from that of the camera to allow recognition of the distortions created by overlaying the structured lighting on an object that has 3D structure. This results in the added cost of extended or dual packaging to accommodate the spaced locations of the camera and light source.
In one aspect, the present invention is an apparatus for determining the location of a vehicle occupant in a vehicle interior. The apparatus comprises a light source for projecting at least one structured light beam onto an area of interest in the vehicle interior to form a light pattern on the area of interest. A beam divergence control device alters the apparent location of the light source with respect to the area of interest. An imager detects the light reflected from the area of interest. A characteristic of the reflected light is measured, and the distance between the imager and the area of interest is measured, based on the measured characteristic of the reflected light.
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The human intestine is thought to be sterile in utero, but it is exposed to a large variety of maternal and environmental microbes immediately after birth. Thereafter, a dynamic period of microbial colonization and succession occurs, which is influenced by factors such as delivery mode, environment, diet and host genotype, all of which impact upon the composition of the gut microbiota, particularly during early life. Subsequently, the microbiota stabilizes and becomes adult-like [1]. The human gut microbiota contains more than 500-1000 different phylotypes belonging essentially to two major bacterial divisions, the Bacteroidetes and the Firmicutes [2]. The successful symbiotic relationships arising from bacterial colonization of the human gut have yielded a wide variety of metabolic, structural, protective and other beneficial functions. The enhanced metabolic activities of the colonized gut ensure that otherwise indigestible dietary components are degraded with release of by-products providing an important nutrient source for the host. Similarly, the immunological importance of the gut microbiota is well-recognized and is exemplified in germfree animals which have an impaired immune system that is functionally reconstituted following the introduction of commensal bacteria [3-5].
Dramatic changes in microbiota composition have been documented in gastrointestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). For example, the levels of Clostridium cluster XIVa bacteria are reduced in subjects with IBD whilst numbers of E. coli are increased, suggesting a shift in the balance of symbionts and pathobionts within the gut [6-9]. Interestingly, this microbial dysbiosis is also associated with imbalances in T effector cell populations.
In recognition of the potential positive effect that certain bacterial strains may have on the animal gut, various strains have been proposed for use in the treatment of various diseases (see, for example, [10-13]). Also, certain strains, including mostly Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains, have been proposed for use in treating various inflammatory and autoimmune diseases that are not directly linked to the intestines (see [14] and [15] for reviews). However, the relationship between different diseases and different bacterial strains, and the precise effects of particular bacterial strains on the gut and at a systemic level and on any particular types of diseases, are poorly characterized. For example, certain Enterococcus species have been implicated in causing cancer [16].
There is a requirement in the art for new methods of treating diseases. There is also a requirement for the potential effects of gut bacteria to be characterized so that new therapies using gut bacteria can be developed.
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This invention relates to a process for obtaining low reacted color (interchangeably referred to herein as "low color") crude trimethylolpropane (TMP).
Trimethylolpropane is produced by the condensation and cross Cannizzaro reactions of n-butyraldehyde and formaldehyde in the presence of a strong alkaline hydroxide, such as caustic solution. Removal of the TMP from the reactor solution can be carried out by the partition of the product between the aqueous solution and an organic solvent for the TMP, e.g., ethyl acetate, isobutanol, butyl acetate, and the like. The TMP is then removed from the organic layer, as for example by distillation. Another method for the removal of the TMP from the organic layer and the further removal of caustic from the TMP is to add a second solvent, one in which the TMP is insoluble, in an amount sufficient to separate the aqueous but not sufficient to separate out the TMP, remove the water layer, and then remove the first solvent by distillation. Typically the second solvent is a non-polar solvent, e.g., xylene. The TMP/second organic solvent mixture is allowed to settle and the separated TMP is removed by decantation. See Palmer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,406. These processes generally produce a product which has an acid-wash color of about 5-10 Gardner Units (GU) or phthalic anhydride color of about 100-300 APHA. Historically, the art has obtained low reacted color TMP by extracting, leaching, or further purifying color-causing impurities generated in the reaction to produce TMP.
Cheung in U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,835 discloses a process which extracts color-causing impurities generated in the reaction to produce TMP, the process comprising extracting purified final TMP with an organic solvent wherein the color bodies are soluble in, but not the TMP. This extraction is reported to result in greater than about 85% yield of TMP product having an acid-wash color of 3 or less Gardner Units. The phthalic anhydride color of the TMP product is also reported to be less than about 100 APHA.
Low color TMP is not analogous to high purity TMP. The acid wash color of TMP is determined by extracting TMP with an organic solvent, followed by washing the extract with sulfuric acid, and monitoring the reacted color, e.g., through a colorimeter, to obtain a Gardner Unit (GU) value. The purity of a TMP sample is generally increased/enhanced by (re)crystallization techniques, or the like. Recrystallization may remove salts generated by the reaction of formaldehyde and butyraldehyde, but not necessarily remove color body impurities found in the TMP product. Palmer (US '406) addressed enhanced sample purity of TMP, while Cheung (US '835) addressed enhanced color of TMP. Both US '406 and US '835 involve a type of extraction process for the TMP product desired.
Other processes have produced product having an acid-wash color of about 5-6 Gardner Units. However, for many applications it is desirable to obtain TMP product having as low an acid wash color, or other color analyses, as possible and this low color obtained in an economically efficient manner. Thus the art is continuously searching for methods to obtain low color TMP.
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As one of the means to improve soft ground, a large diameter jet grouting method for constructing a column-shaped improvement body having a large radial dimension in the ground is well-known.
In this large diameter jet grouting method, it is necessary to inject a jet stream with a long distance (a ground penetrating or cutting distance) to penetrate or cut into the ground which is to be subjected to construct a column-shaped improvement body having a large radial dimension. Therefore, the quality of a jet nozzle must be maintained equal or better than a certain level. When a poor-quality jet nozzle is used, a jet stream reachable distance, i.e., the ground penetrating distance is shortened.
In order to avoid a situation that the jet stream reachable distance is shortened, it is necessary to examine a jet stream ejected from a jet nozzle at a stage before actually injecting the jet stream in a construction site carrying out the large diameter jet grouting method, and to determine whether the jet nozzle is good or defective.
However, there is no technology to correctly determine whether a jet nozzle is good or defective at the stage before actually injecting a jet stream in a construction site.
In a prior art, for example, a jet stream is caused to impact pressure sensitive paper, a degree of discoloration of the pressure sensitive paper after impacting the jet stream is observed, and then, it is possible to determine whether a jet nozzle is good or defective (see Patent Literature 1).
However, since the pressure sensitive paper discolors when a prescribed pressure is applied thereto, it is not possible to identify a point of time at which the prescribed pressure (or a higher pressure which causes discoloration) was applied even though the pressure sensitive paper discolored. Further, since the point of time at which the predetermined pressure was applied cannot be identified, there is a problem that even a defective nozzle, by which a pressure of a jet stream cannot act always uniformly, is determined to be a non-defective product.
As another prior art, a technology to examine whether an injection hole in a cleaning device which ejects a cleaning liquid with a high pressure is clogged has been proposed (see Patent Literature 2).
However, the cleaning device according to the prior art (Patent Literature 2) cannot be applied to ground improvement construction works.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composite electronic component involving a piezoelectric element and a capacitive element, for example, such as a resonator.
2. Related Background Art
A conventionally known composite electronic component in the foregoing technical field is one having a piezoelectric element, a capacitive element, a lead terminal group electrically connected through a connection part thereto, and a coating member for coating the piezoelectric element, the capacitive element, and the connection part of the lead terminal group (e.g., reference is made to Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 6-33704).
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The present invention is directed towards a mounting shoe and adjustable brace for a pre-cast or tilt-up wall.
A common construction technique relating to the erection of buildings involves first fabricating horizontal panels and then tilting those panels to a vertical orientation for use as the walls of the building. Concrete wall panels are often fabricated in a horizontal position as they can be handled more easily in this position. Pre-cast concrete walls are also often transported to construction sites in a horizontal position.
An important aspect of this construction technique is the need to provide bracing for the tilt-up panels while other panels and connecting structure is being erected. For this purpose, temporary braces are commonly used that extend obliquely from the panel to the adjacent floor. Even if the tilt-up panel is vertical and its weight is fully supported by the floor, the temporary brace must be sturdy enough to counteract winds, loads, or the like.
Current bracing equipment lack a strong mounting footing. Due to the strength limitations of the footings of conventional support braces, multiple braces must be used in order to support the concrete wall slabs on a construction project.
It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved mounting shoe and adjustable support brace.
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This invention relates to an ultrasonic transmitter and receiver, particularly to ultrasonic transmitters and receivers adapted for use in underwater voice communication.
The high ambient noise rejection capabilities of phase or frequency modulation systems, hereinafter generically referred to as angle modulation systems, give the system to be described advantages over existing amplitude modulation systems now employed in the field of underwater communications. Primarily, to produce a signal at the output stage of the receiver of equivalent signal-to-noise ratio to a comparable amplitude modulation system requires either less transmitted power at the same range or allows for increased range at the same transmitted power. This is an inherent property of angle modulation systems and results from the fact that the carrier amplitude is maintained substantially constant.
A further advantage arises due to the "capture effect" associated with wide band angle modulation systems. With a number of divers attempting to communicate simultaneously with identical units according to the invention, a situation which would result in intolerable cross-talk in amplitude modulation systems, any one diver will essentially hear only the diver nearest to him with little or no interference from the others. A relatively distant diver, or base station, however, may transmit and be received by any number of divers when the other transmitters are not in use. In this way, selective communication is facilitated, i.e. a large number of divers may communicate amongst themselves in pairs or in groups, and to and from surface or submerged vessels, at the same carrier center frequency. This feature largely eliminates the need for variable tuning.
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Calendar-type software applications in computers and other communication devices are becoming more and more versatile and provide a wide variety of complex operational features. Operations that are available in such applications range from basic functions such as creating a reminder for an appointment or a meeting, editing information regarding the appointment etc., to more complex functions such as inviting a plurality of persons to a meeting at a specified time and place, enabling for invitees to respond to an invitation etc.
One particular feature of such calendar-type applications, which in fact is vital for justifying the application's existence, is that of notification. Calendar events, such as meetings and reminders regarding any other activity to perform, must be notified to the user of the calendar application. Generally, such notification is performed by way of presenting to the user a textual or graphic message on a display or by way of an alarm signal output through a speaker. For example, notifications can be more or less complex, ranging from simple pop-up windows on the display screen of the user device and an associated sound signal output through a speaker of the device, to more complex notifications involving automatic sending of E-mail messages to groups of persons, interactive dialogs with users where the user may postpone or re-direct the notification etc.
Nevertheless, a drawback of such type of notifications is that, although they may be very apparent to the user in audiovisual terms, they require at least some action by the user to acquire the content of the notification. For example, the user has to bring the device into view and look at the display in order to acquire graphical and textual information that is presented.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,859 discloses an apparatus and method of generating a voice message of a caller's number during an incoming call to a telephone device. Although the disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,859 provides an audible voice message of the telephone number of a caller making an incoming call, instead of a simple ringing tone, it relates basically to an improved telephone.
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1. Technical Field
The present subject matter relates to a method for localising an on-board unit to an area around a radio beacon. The present subject matter also relates to a radio beacon for such a method.
2. Background Art
In modern road toll systems, vehicles are equipped with on-board units (OBUs), with the aid of which the vehicles are located and their road use can then be evaluated and/or billed. To this end, a plurality of radio beacons are distributed over the road network, each having a limited radio coverage area, in which they can communicate with the OBUs of passing vehicles via radio, wherein a successful radio communication locates the OBU to the radio coverage area. The communication of the OBU with the radio beacon can here be based on DSRC (dedicated short range communication), WAVE (wireless access for vehicular environment), RFID (radio-frequency identification) or similar technologies, and the OBUs may accordingly be of the active or passive (transponder) type.
When a road has a number of lanes and an assignment of a passing vehicle to a lane is necessary, each lane is generally assigned a dedicated radio beacon. The radio coverage area (the communication zone) of the respective radio beacon must be limited here to the lane as best as possible by adapting the transmission strength of the radio beacon to the reception sensitivity of the OBU (and vice versa) in order to avoid the addressing or the detection of vehicle OBUs in adjacent lanes (what is known as “cross-talk”). This problem is particularly significant with roads having individual lanes (single lanes), since an addressing of a vehicle in a lane such as a lane travelling in the opposite direction would disrupt the operation, or with multi-lane roads, in which case the lane assignment is important, for example in the case of HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes.
This problem is aggravated by the fact that increasingly greater sensitivities and transmission strengths on the part of the OBUs can be achieved due to the continued technical development of the transceiver or transponder modules, whether active or passive, used in the OBUs, for example passive ISO-18000-63 chips. In addition, it is increasingly required for the described toll systems to be extendable to a number of countries and for OBUs of various national operators to be usable interoperably in these systems. A large number of models of OBUs with a wide range of different reception sensitivities and transmission strengths can thus be used in a road network, which leads to increased cross-talk.
WO 2010/105349 A1 shows a communication system between an antenna and an OBU. The OBU sends a message indicating its OBU type to the antenna, whereupon the antenna can localise the OBU by means of the received OBU type and a measured received signal strength of the message.
EP 2363826 A2 shows the localisation of RFID Tags from which an identifier is read out too. The localisation of the RFID Tags is carried out by reading out a parameter corresponding to the identifier.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,385,525 B2 shows a method for localising a vehicle on a lane by means of handshakes between an antenna and an OBU of the vehicle.
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention is based on an electromagnetically actuated valve especially suited for use in connection with slip controlled hydraulic brake systems of motor vehicles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One such valve is already known from German Patent Disclosure DE 43 37 435 A1. This valve has a sleeve for an armature and a magnet core. The sleeve extends through a bush. On the inside circumference, this bush has an encompassing widened portion, which is engaged by the sleeve with an encompassing, beadlike widened portion of its jacket wall. This axially secures the sleeve to the bush. The bush in turn is provided with a radially outward-extending flange. Together with a portion of the sleeve, this flange engages a bore of a valve block. By means of material comprising the valve block positively displaced by the circumference of the bore toward the orifice, the bush is secured by means of its flange to the valve block in a fluid-tight manner. To seal off the connection between the sleeve and the bush, a support ring that rests on the flange of the sleeve and a sealing ring that engages the sleeve on one end and the inside circumference of the bore on the other are provided in the bore.
The known valve has the disadvantage that the sleeve is secured to the valve block with the expensive intermediate part, that is, the bush, and the connection between the sleeve and the bush is not tight and therefore requires expensive sealing between the support ring and the sealing ring.
From German Patent Disclosure DE 30 24 435 A1, a valve is known that has a sleeve for an armature. The sleeve has a widened portion for engagement by a union nut, with which the sleeve is held down against a sealing ring.
A valve according to the invention has the advantage over the prior art that additional provisions for sealing off the sleeve can be dispensed with, and no components for securing the sleeve in the bore of the valve block are needed, since the sleeve has a shaping which allows it to be secured directly in the bore of the valve block. The flat wall portions of the flange embodied on the sleeve form sealing faces, one of which is braced two-dimensionally on a shoulder of the bore, and the other of which is gripped in fluid-tight fashion by material comprising the valve block. Because of the embodiment of the flange as an interstice-free crease, the wall thickness of the flange is doubled at its fastening point in the bore of the valve block, which has a favorable effect on the fastening rigidity and strength.
Another feature of the valve in comparison with the known valve, which has a valve body with a valve seat in the sleeve, a further reduction in the number of parts is attained.
A further feature is advantageous in the sense that with the filter element, not only a forced carrying of fluid through the filter openings, but also a separation on the inlet and outlet sides of the flow courses to and from the valve seat is attained.
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The present invention relates to a multipoint communication system in which a broadcast channel is established from a central station to each of a plurality of terminal stations and a multiple access channel is established from each terminal station to the central station, the central station polling the terminal stations in succession asking the polled stations to transmit.
In a multipoint communication system, the central station sends polling messages one by one to the terminal stations, asking the polled stations to transmit. If the polled station has a data signal to transmit, it goes ahead; if not, a negative reply, or absence of reply, is received by the central station, which then polls the next terminal station in sequence. However, this constant exchange of control messages between the central and terminal stations is not efficient if the round-trip propagation delay is large as in the satellite communication system.
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This application relates to a refrigerant system having a reheat function provided by hot refrigerant in a bypass line.
Refrigerant systems are utilized in applications to change the temperature and humidity or otherwise condition the environment. In a standard refrigerant system, a compressor delivers a compressed refrigerant to a heat exchanger, known as a condenser, which is typically located outside. From the condenser, the refrigerant passes through an expansion device, and then to an indoor heat exchanger, known as an evaporator. At the evaporator, moisture may be removed from the air, and the temperature of air blown over the evaporator coil is lowered. From the evaporator, the refrigerant returns to the compressor. Of course, basic refrigerant cycles are utilized in combination with many configuration variations and optional features. However, the above provides a brief understanding of the fundamental concept.
In some cases, while the system is operating in a cooling mode, the temperature level at which the air is delivered to provide a comfort environment in a conditioned space may need to be higher than the temperature that would provide the ideal humidity level. Generally, the lower the temperature of the evaporator coil is the more moisture can be removed from the air stream. These opposite trends have presented challenges to refrigerant system designers. One way to address such challenges is to utilize various schematics incorporating reheat coils. In many cases, a reheat coil placed in the way of an indoor air stream behind the evaporator is employed for the purpose of reheating the air supplied to the conditioned space after it has been cooled in the evaporator, and where the moisture has been removed from the air as well.
Known reheat systems require additional components such as flow control devices, and are susceptible to refrigerant charge migration problems that may affect system operational characteristics, functionality and reliability over a wide range of environmental and operating conditions. Of course, it is typically beneficial to reduce refrigerant system schematic and control complexity as well as to avoid potential reliability issues.
Also, an unloader or bypass function is often provided in a refrigerant system. In such a function, a portion of the refrigerant is bypassed from an intermediate compression point at the compressor back to the suction line of the compressor. This bypass or unloaded operation is utilized when the system demand for cooling capacity is lower than it might otherwise be. In such a case, by diverting a portion of the refrigerant back to the compressor suction and bypassing other system components, the load on the compressor and other components is reduced. At the same time, the temperature of the combined refrigerant flow (form the bypass and from the evaporator) at the compressor suction is increased, potentially negatively impacting compressor reliability and reducing the mass flow rate the compressor is capable of pumping through.
In some cases, when there is no an intermediate port incorporated in the compressor design, a so-called hot gas bypass is utilized for the unloading function. In such systems, hot discharge refrigerant vapor is diverted back to the compressor suction port (or sometimes to the evaporator inlet), having been passed through an expansion device first to reduce its pressure. As before, the temperature of the combined refrigerant flow at the compressor suction is increased, which may be detrimental for compressor reliability and may negatively impact compressor performance.
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Sex toys are popular with many people to enhance sexual experiences. Many sex toys are provided for use individually or with one or more partners. There exist a wide range of applications for sex toys; for example, many people utilize specialized outfits, paddles, or dildos. The present invention addresses the latter example, seeking to provide an improved dildo. Dildos are commonly used for insertion into an orifice, most commonly the vaginal cavity or anal cavity. Dildos are currently provided with a variety of features to enhance the user experience. One such feature is the ability to adjust the dimensions (e.g. “girth”) of the dildo. The present invention seeks to provide an improved means to accomplish this, utilizing a rotating system that effectively contracts or expands the dildo.
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates, generally, to devices used for material handling, and more specifically, pallets and skids. More specifically, the present invention is directed toward a folded corrugated pallet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, pallets are made from wood and molded polymers, allowing them to support heavy loads and be reused more than once or twice. While wood and molded polymer pallets have generally worked for their intended purposes, they suffer from certain disadvantages. For example, these types of pallets are relatively heavy, weighing approximately forty-five pounds. The weight of the pallets becomes significant when the number of pallets needed to accompany any given shipment of goods increases. The added weight reduces fuel economy and other efficiencies in the material handling process. In addition, and notwithstanding the relatively robust weight of the wood and molded polymer pallets of the type known in the related art, they suffer from the fact that they often end up broken after use of less than six times and are not recyclable.
In the past, there have been attempts at providing corrugated cardboard pallets as a low cost alternative to wood and molded polymer pallets. However, these attempts have been largely unsuccessful because the corrugated pallets have a much lower weight capacity than that of a wood or polymer pallet. Additionally, corrugated cardboard pallets typically do not last as long as wood or polymer pallets. Thus, there remains a need for a low cost corrugated cardboard pallet with an increased weight capacity and able to be reused several times.
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Many trailers are stolen each year by a thief who simply hooks the trailer to a vehicle and drives away. It would be a benefit, therefore, to trailer owners to have a trailer guard for covering and preventing access to the trailer ball attachment portion of the trailer to prevent a thief from driving away with the trailer. In addition, it would be a further benefit to have a trailer guard that also provided a shield for shielding the trailer ball attachment portion of the trailer from weather damage, accidental damage and/or just plain vandalism.
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1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of communications; and more specifically, to domainless service selection.
2. Background
In the field of communications, the need for high-speed transmission of data, including video and audio, has continued to increase. Moreover, there has been an increase in the selection of services by which users can connect to a network, such as the Internet. Specifically, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may allow for connectivity to the Internet through lower-speed connections at different rates, such as 56 kilobits/second, by employing a Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) line. Other choices for connection, which are at higher speeds, into a network can include Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service (both using a POTS line), and cable modem service over a Radio Frequency (RF) cable line. Further, other types of content providers may enable a subscriber to receive different types of media, such as a video stream, audio stream, etc.
Typical approaches to network connectivity for certain connection services (including cable modem service) are such that a group of subscribers are pooled together and treated as an individual entity (non-channelized media). Such an approach does not allow for individualized accounting and/or usage tracking for different subscribers connecting to the network.
In contrast, other approaches to network connectivity for certain connection services do allow for individualized treatment of subscribers (channelized media). Disadvantageously, these techniques require specialized software and/or hardware to be executing on the individual subscriber/client machines to allow for this individualized approach. In particular, DSL service can provide for this individualized treatment by using software and/or hardware that allows for the Point-to-Point Protocol over X protocol (e.g., where X can be a variety of different protocols, including Ethernet (PPPoE) and ATM (PPPoA)). Accordingly, the costs of such services are increased to account for this additional software and/or hardware. Advantageously, using PPP allows for the use of structured PPP usernames to aid the network access provider in a wholesale scenario. In such a scenario, the network access provider's network element needs to know the requested destination of a subscriber. To provide this information, a subscriber can create a structured PPP username by merging their username with a domain name. The provision of this structured PPP username to the network access provider's network element with PPP allows the network element to determine the requested destination. In other words, the subscriber performs the selection through the structured PPP user name.
In addition, typical approaches for network connectivity to a given service or content provider statically couples a customer premise equipment (CPE), such as a modem or personal computer, to the service requested (be it a type of service and/or content).
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With rapid development of various types of electronic devices, there is a tendency that these devices are increasingly produced in compact and lightweight design. In particular, the tendency toward compact and lightweight design is more remarkable in the portable type electronic devices to be used in camera-integrated video tape recorder, portable telephone set, note-book personal computer, palm-top computer, etc. The component parts for these devices are also increasingly produced in compact and lightweight design. The means for mounting the electronic components are also changing to surface mounting technology (SMT). Small components such as capacitor and resistor are called “chip components”.
Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor (MLCC) is a widely used typical chip component.
The Electronic Industry Association (EIA) prescribes a standard for temperature coefficient of capacitance (TCC) for a type of MLCC known as the X7R Capacitor. The X7R characteristic requires that with reference to the capacitance at 25° C., the change of the capacitance (i.e. TCC) be within ±15% over the temperature range from −55° C. to 125° C.
When MLCC based on BaTiO3 were sintered in air at high temperatures, it is required to use noble metals (e.g., palladium, platinum, etc.) as internal electrodes, which do not melt and do not oxidize even when being fired in an atmosphere with a high partial pressure of oxygen. However, the use of such noble metals becomes a barrier to cut down the production cost of multilayer ceramic capacitors. For example, the cost of internal electrodes occupies about 30 to 70% of the production cost of multilayer ceramic capacitors.
For the reasons mentioned above, it is preferred to use a base metal such as Ni, Fe, Co, W or Mo as the material of internal electrodes. However, if such base metals are used as a material for internal electrodes and fired in the conventional firing conditions of the dielectric ceramic materials, they oxidize easily and loose functions as the internal electrodes. Thus, in order to use such a base metal as a material for internal electrodes of multilayer ceramic capacitors, it is required to use a dielectric ceramic material which is never semiconductorized even if being fired in a neutral or reducing atmosphere with a low partial pressure of oxygen, and which has a sufficient insulation resistance and good dielectric properties.
Usually, the dielectric sheets and the internal electrodes were stacked together. The laminated bodies were then sintered at 1200° C.–1400° C. under reducing atmosphere created by N2—H2—H2O gas system and then annealed at 1000° C.–1100° C. under weak-oxidation atmosphere with a partial pressure of oxygen of 10−6 atm or higher.
To meet the requirements of X7R, there have been proposed some non-reducible dielectric ceramic materials. For example, JP-A-63-103861 discloses a composition of BaTiO3—MnO—MgO-Rareearth element system. However, this dielectric ceramic composition is of no practical use since its insulation resistance and temperature coefficient of capacitor are affected by the grain size of the main component BaTiO3, thus making it difficult to control the composition to obtain stable dielectric properties.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,797A, a composition of BaTiO3—Y2O3—MgO—V2O5 is disclosed. Although its dielectric constant at room temperature is greater than 2500, its sintering temperature is higher than 1350° C. and the TCC at −55° C. is near −15% with dielectric loss higher than 2%. So this composition is not suitable for industrial production.
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This invention relates generally to single-mode fiber couplers, and more particularly to single-mode fiber couplers wherein the coupling ratio is determined by the taper length and the diameter of the coupler structure in the fused coupling region.
A fused fiber optic coupler consists of two or more adjacent optical fibers, that are joined by heating to form a common region. Optical coupling is the phenomenon which transfers transmitted light from one fiber to another fiber in this common region. The amount of light transferred is determined by the length of the coupling region and the distance separating the cores of two fibers in this region. Light transfer is increased by increasing the coupling length and reducing the core separation distance. Low loss access biconical tapered couplers are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,291,940 entitled "LOW-LOSS ACCESS COUPLER FOR MULTI-MODE OPTICAL FIBER DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS" wherein biconical taper sections of the fibers are fused together to provide optical coupling between the fibers. Also in U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,712 entitled "LIGHT DISTRIBUTOR" an optical coupler is provided with a plurality of optical fibers each having a tapered portion, and the tapered portion of the fibers are thermally fused together to form a light mixing section where the cores of the fibers are packed together in a single cladding.
These biconical type couplers are usually formed by fusing and stretching the fibers simultaneously.
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Adequate maintenance of rotating equipment, particularly electric motors, is difficult to obtain because of extreme equipment duty cycles, the lessening of service factors, design, and the lack of spare rotating equipment in most processing plants. This is especially true of electric motors, machine tool spindles, wet end paper machine rolls, aluminum rolling mills, steam quench pumps, and other equipment utilizing extreme contamination affecting lubrication.
Various forms of shaft sealing devices have been utilized to try to protect the integrity of the bearing environment. These devices include rubber lip seals, clearance labyrinth seals, and attraction magnetic seals. Lip seals or other contacting shaft seals often quickly wear to a state of failure and are also known to permit excessive amounts of moisture and other contaminants to immigrate into the oil reservoir of the operating equipment even before failure has exposed the interface between the rotor and the stator to the contaminants or lubricants at the radial extremity of the seal. The problems of bearing failure and damage as applied to electrical motors using variable frequency drives (VFDs) is compounded because of the very nature of the control of electricity connected to VFD controlled motors. Often the use of VFDs causes
VFDs regulate the speed of a motor by converting sinusoidal line alternating current (AC) voltage to direct current (DC) voltage, then back to a pulse width modulated (PWM) AC voltage of variable frequency. The switching frequency of these pulses ranges from 1 kHz up to 20 kHz and is referred to as the “carrier frequency.” The ratio of change in voltage to the change in time (ΔV/ΔT) creates what has been described as a parasitic capacitance between the motor stator and the rotor, which induces a voltage on the rotor shaft. If the voltage induced on the shaft, which is referred to as “common mode voltage” or “shaft voltage,” builds up to a sufficient level, it can discharge to ground through the bearings. Current that finds its way to ground through the motor bearings in this manner is often referred to as “bearing current.”
There are many causes of bearing current including voltage pulse overshoot in the VFD, non-symmetry of the motor's magnetic circuit, supply imbalances, and transient conditions, among other causes. Any of these conditions may occur independently or simultaneously to create bearing currents from the motor shaft.
Shaft voltage accumulates on the rotor until it exceeds the dielectric capacity of the motor bearing lubricant, at which point the voltage discharges in a short pulse to ground through the bearing. After discharge, voltage again accumulates on the shaft and the cycle repeats itself. This random and frequent discharging has an electric discharge machining (EDM) effect, which causes pitting of the bearing's rolling elements and raceways. Initially, these discharges create a “frosted” or “sandblasted” effect on surfaces. Over time, this deterioration causes a groove pattern in the bearing race called “fluting,” which is an indication that the bearing has sustained severe damage. Eventually, the deterioration will lead to complete bearing failure.
Most external applications add to costs, complexity, and exposure to external environmental factors. Insulated bearings provide an internal solution by eliminating the path to ground through the bearing for current to flow. However, installing insulated bearings does not eliminate the shaft voltage, which will continue to find the lowest impedance path to ground. Thus, insulated bearings are not effective if the impedance path is through the driven load. Therefore, the prior art does not teach an internal, low-wearing method or apparatus to efficaciously ground shaft voltage and avoid electric discharge machining of bearings leading to premature bearing failure.
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The present invention relates generally to concrete products, and more particularly, to a method of producing simulated quarried stone by utilizing surface-seeded exposed aggregate concrete.
As is well known in the building and construction trade, concrete is extensively utilized as a building material for industrial, commercial and residential applications. Due to its durability, water resistance, and cost economy, concrete has gained wide spread use in flooring applications. With this wide spread use, the public is currently demanding variations in color, surface texture and overall appearance of concrete so that the concrete possesses improved aesthetics similar to more conventional and costly flooring surfaces such as marble, stone and granite.
In order to meet this demand, the concrete trade has developed various coloring and surface finishing techniques to enhance the aesthetics of concrete. Examples of such finishing techniques include salt finish, multiple broom finish, form press finish (e.g. stamped concrete), and exposed aggregate finish.
With particular regard to exposed aggregate finishes, one of two different production methods or techniques are typically utilized to form the same. The first is the “integrally exposed aggregate” method, which is the more conventional of the two techniques. The integrally exposed aggregate method entails washing or removing surface cement and fines from the concrete while the concrete surface is still plastic (i.e., prior to full curing) such that the aggregate (which is normally rock or gravel) is left exposed on the surface of the concrete. Due to the fact that the concrete aggregate is relatively large in size (i.e., approximately one-half inch to one inch in mean diameter), as well as the fact that the washing process is not uniform in nature, the resultant concrete surface produced via the integrally exposed aggregate method is often extremely rough and jagged. This characteristic limits wide spread use of the integrally exposed aggregate method in flooring applications. Further, the rough and jagged appearance also fails to create the aesthetic appearance of stone or marble that is desired.
The second method is the “surface seeded exposed” method, which has recently been introduced into the trade. In this particular method, subsequent to pouring the concrete, rock or gravel aggregate is scattered (i.e. broadcasted or seeded) over the top surface of the concrete and subsequently troweled into the same. As the concrete cures, the aggregate becomes adhered to the top surface of the concrete and is thus exposed. Although various sizes of aggregate can be broadcast over the top surface of the concrete in this method, such aggregate is normally of about three-eighths inch diameter or greater in size, and has sheared or jagged edges. The size and shape of the aggregate allows it to be worked into the top surface of the concrete and adequately adhered thereto. However, although the resultant concrete surface produced through the surface seeded exposed aggregate method is flatter than the surface produced through. the integrally exposed aggregate method, neither surface is free of irregularities, and both surfaces still posses an extremely rough surface finishes which limit their wide spread use in flooring applications. In particular, neither method produces a surface finish comparable to that of marble, stone, or granite.
In order to overcome the above-mentioned deficiencies of the prior art, methods have been developed to enhance the surface finish of concrete by reducing the size of the aggregate exposed on the surface of the concrete. However, as the aggregate decreases in size, other challenges develop due to the alkali-silica reaction (ASR). ASR is a chemical process through which alkalis from cement and silica from aggregate, combine to form a gel that expands in the presence of moisture and causes cracking in concrete and disrupts the adhesion of aggregate to the top surface of the concrete.
In response to the challenges that ASR presents, other methods have been developed to obtain sufficient surface flatness while substantially eliminating the effects of ASR. In particular, several of these methods are described in Applicant's U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,748,788, 6,016,635, and 6,033,146, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Applicant's techniques as described in the above-mentioned patents overcame many of the deficiencies of the prior art and produced improved surface finishes on surface seeded exposed aggregate concrete. In particular, the concrete resultant from practice of the above-mentioned patents exhibits an extremely flat exposed aggregate surface suitable for extremely high traffic flooring applications. However, although the surface seeded exposed aggregate method has hitherto been refined to produce surfaces that assimilate more costly surfaces such as stone, marble, or granite, no process has been developed to model the fine, medium, and coarse grain textures of natural quarried stone.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a surface seeded exposed aggregate method that produces surfaces which model the fine, medium, and coarse grain textures of natural quarried stone. Further, there is a need in the art for a surface seeded exposed aggregate method that incorporates flecks, speckles, and inclusions of natural quarried stone.
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The repair of outsized deficiencies, typically defined as gaps of at least about 2.4 mm in size, in the diaphyseal, craniomaxillofacial and other skeletal bones is a considerable problem in orthopedic surgery.
In 1998, about 300,000 bone-graft procedures were performed in the United States alone. This number increased to approximately 450,000 by the year of 2000, when the number of bone grafting procedures performed worldwide exceeded 2.2 million (Lewandrowski et al, 2000). Of the 300,000 procedures performed in 1998, 90% involved the use of either autologous grafts (i.e. using tissue from another part of the body of the patient), or of allografts (i.e. using tissue from a live human donor or cadaver). Therefore, a phase of tissue harvest from the patient or from a donor is required.
The tissue harvesting is executed by a surgical procedure usually involved collecting tissue from the iliac crest, the distal femur, the proximal tibia, the fibula, or from other small bones. The harvested tissue is restructured and transplanted at the damaged site.
However, the graft-harvesting procedures are associated with considerable morbidity and substantial pain. Tissue harvesting for an autologous grafts or from live donors for an allograft may also result in complications such as inflammation, infection, or even death. Allografts taken from live donors or cadavers also carry risks of disease transmission and although grafts are subjected to protective and sterilization treatments such as tissue freezing, freeze-drying, gamma irradiation, electron beam radiation, and ethylene oxide, this risk is not completely removed. Furthermore, substantial supply problems exist, as the bone tissues harvested are limited.
The limited supply and inherited harvesting complications have inspired the development of alternative strategies for the repair of significant bone defects.
The use of 3-dimensional (3-D) bone substitutes such as bone extract, polymer or mineral scaffolds as implants has been investigated and porous biocompatible scaffolds have been used for the repair and regeneration of bone tissue.
Early attempts at tissue repair have focused mainly on the use of amorphous, biocompatible foam as porous plugs to fill large voids in bone. U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,448 described the use of porous mesh plugs composed of polyhydroxy acid polymers, such as polylactide, for healing bone voids. Several different methods for making other scaffolds were also described (i.e. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,133,755; 5,514,378; 5,522,895; 5,607,474; 5,677,355; 5,686,091; 5,716,413; 5,755,792; 5,769,899; 5,770,193; 6,333,029; 6,365,149 and 6,534,084).
Bone marrow (BM) has been shown to contain population of cells that possess osteogenic potential. As such, an alternative to the scaffold-osteoinductive approach is to transplant into patients living cells that possess this capacity.
Cytokine-manipulated, naïve autologous and allogeneic BM cells have successfully healed diffracted or resorbed bones in experimental models (Werntz et al, 1996; Lane et al, 1999; Nilsson et al, 1999; Kawaguchi et al, 2004) and human patients (Horwitz et al, 1999; Horwitz et al 2001, 2004).
These techniques were further developed by using enriched mesenchymal cells for transplantation, and were demonstrated to be successful in animal models and human patients (Pereira et al, 1995; Shang et al, 2001; Horwitz et al, 2002). Accordingly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,716,616 and 6,200,606 describe experimental therapies for treating bone loss syndromes that are based on the implantation of fresh stromal cells isolated from autologous or syngeneic individuals to recipients (i.e. U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,616). Although this approach is promising in theory, it is difficult in practice to obtain the sufficient quantities of BM having the requisite number of osteoprogenitor cells.
Tissue Induction methods (TI) have been developed, wherein tissue regeneration occurs through in-growth of surrounding cells into 3-D scaffolds. The limitations of the TI procedure include the requirement for scaffolding material that possesses both TI capability and mechanical properties similar to those of autologous bone tissues.
Another approach to bone tissue generation is referred to as “complex cell transplantation”, which combines scaffold technology with cell cultivation techniques. In its simplest form, autologous BM aspirate is passed through a biocompatible, implantable substrate placed intra-peritoneally to provide a composite bone graft (Nade et al, 1983 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,824,084; 6,049,026).
Alternatively, progenitor cells of the osteogenic lineage are seeded onto biocompatible (biodegradable or non-biodegradable) scaffolds in the presence or absence of growth promoting factors (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,541,024; 6,544,290; 6,852,330). Transplantation into affected patients is performed following an ex-vivo expansion phase of the cells on the given scaffold. Using this approach, either primary osteogenic cells or expanded Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSC) layered upon ceramic scaffolds was able to regenerate bone tissue (Kadiyala et al, 1997; Bruder et al, 1998a,b; Cinotti et al, 2004).
However, experimental results revealed a number of disadvantages of those complex cell transplantations. Firstly, bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in human patients is associated with a general decrease in the skeletal mineral density (Valimaki et al, 1999). Secondly, it was demonstrated that after BMT, although peripheral mononuclear cells (MNC) in the recipients are of donor origin, the BM stroma cells and MSCs are basically of the recipient origin (Koc et al, 1999; Lee et al, 2002). Finally, during the first year follow-up of bone marrow transplanted patients, a gradual decrease in bone repair was evident and significant loss of donor MSC was observed (Lee et al, 2002).
Living bone is a continuously evolving organ and in the normal course of bone maintenance, a constant remodeling process is being employed. In those procedures, Old bone is being replaced by new bone and the organ responds to its environment changing requirements for strength and elasticity. Therefore, normal remodeling progression requires that the mechanical loading processes of bone resorption and bone formation procedures are tightly coordinated.
In cellular terms, this depends on sequential functioning of osteoclasts (bone resorbing cells) and osteoblasts (bone forming cells). In addition, endothelial cell and endothelial cell precursors (angioblasts) are required to form the new blood vessels in the developed bone tissue. Yet, the various cell types participating in bone formation are of different lineages. It is now known that osteoblasts stalk from mesenchymal stem cells, while osteoclasts (directly originating from Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSC)) and endothelial cells are descendents of a common blast colony-forming cell (Choi et al, 1998; Hamaguchi et al, 1999). As such, methodologies for ex-vivo production of bone-like material that rely on osteoblasts as the exclusive cellular component suffer from an inherited fault.
It would be highly advantageous to have a material for use in repairing bone lesions that is devoid of at least some of the limitations of the prior art.
External fixation devices for keeping fractured bones stabilized and aligned, and ensuring that the bones remain at an optimal position during the healing process are known and commonly used. Such devices typically comprise a plurality of pins placed proximal and distal to the fracture, fixed in a surrounding external mechanical assembly.
External fixation devices are also used for reconstructive orthopedics, such as treatment of bone losses and defects. In such cases the device can either remain in place until healing occurs and then to be removed, leaving no foreign material inside the bone, or it can totally or partially remain inside the bone.
External fixation devices are further useful in experimental models of bone repair which have been developed for a variety of purposes, including the investigation of factors influencing fracture repair, and development of improved methods of managing fractures in human and animals. Such models make use of long bones of large experimental animals, whose weight is more than 40 gr, such as dogs, sheep, rabbits and rats. The term long bone refers to bones in which the length is greater than the width, such as a femur, a tibia, a humerus and a radius.
US application No. 20030149437 to the same inventors as the present application discloses a method of repairing a long bone having a defect. The method comprising mechanically fixating the long bone or portions thereof and filling the defect with a biodegradable scaffold impregnated with growth factors and/or cells to cause a regeneration of the bone.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to cookware and, more particularly, is concerned with an overflow pan assembly with a splashguard cap and cap positioning means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pans with lids or covers are typically employed on stoves to cook food and boil water for any number of uses. Liquid contained in pans frequently overflows due to inattention as the temperature of the liquid rises and as vapor pressure increases under the lids on the pans. Various pans with lids have been developed over the years toward resolving this and other problems. Representative examples of prior art pans with lids are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 504,243 to Philippot, U.S. Pat. No. 1,461,366 to Mulford et al., U.S. Pat. No. 1,676,146 to Krafft, U.S. Pat. No. 1,810,860 to Tremblay, U.S. Pat. No. 2,127,988 to Tarrant, U.S. Pat. No. 2,385,594 to Witte, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,453 to Loyd et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,524 to Loyd et al., Danish Pat. No. 26,919 to Holm and German Pat. No. 696,673 to Boecker. While these prior art pans with lids appear to be satisfactory in use for the specific purposes for which they were designed, none of them seem to provide a comprehensive and effective solution to prevent liquid overflow.
Consequently, a need still exists for an assembly which provides an optimum solution to the aforementioned problem in the prior art without introducing any new problems in place thereof.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to metering valves for pressurized dispensing containers. More particularly, the invention relates to valves for aerosol containers the contents of which are to be dispensed in a metered fashion so that only a limited amount of product is dispensed at one actuation of the valve.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art, of course, is replete with illustrations of metering dispensing valves for pressurized aerosol containers. A large number of such valves involve the use of a plunger, the lower end of which is adapted to block the inlet to the valve housing when the plunger is depressed so that no further product is permitted to enter the housing and only the product already in the housing at the commencement of the actuation is dispensed.
Other prior art discloses the concept of using an object such as a metal ball, as in the case of Howell U.S. Pat. No. 2,693,983, granted Nov. 6, 1954, to close off the housing inlet during dispensing. An additional disclosure in which a resilient ball is used is in the Beard U.S. Pat. No. 2,932,432 which issued Apr. 12, 1960.
In the latter patent, embodiments are disclosed which utilize a resilient ball, and dispose the housing inlet at a position offset from the centerline of the housing. This was done presumably to assure that when the actuation was concluded and the plunger permitted to rise, the ball would not remain seated, blocking the housing inlet.
The earlier patent contemplates the closing of the inlet by having the plunger squash out the resilient ball so that its circumference engages the walls of the housing above the actual housing inlet. Apparently, the concept of seating the resilient ball on an annular seat immediately surrounding the housing inlet was not hit upon in the prior art because of the supposed difficulty in assuring that the ball would unseat once the plunger was released and permitted to travel up.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a steam turbine for use in nuclear power plants, geothermal power plants and so forth, and more particularly to steam turbine designed so as to prevent stress corrosion cracking of shrink-fit type turbine rotors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, the rotors of steam turbines for use in nuclear power plants, geothermal power plants and the like may be manufactured by processes as follows: machining after monobloc forging from material such as alloy steel, machining after monobloc welding of disc-shaped materials to the rotor shaft, and fitting wheel discs which have previously been machined and provided with implanted blades, to the rotor shaft so as to form a monobloc in shrink-fit manner. Of these types, the shrink-fit type turbine rotor has been used for many years because larger-size turbine rotors can be manufactured from relatively small forging materials, since the rotor shaft and respective disc plates are initially separate.
FIG. 1 shows one example of the conventional shrink-fit type rotor. In FIG. 1, the inner diameters of respective wheel discs 2 are manufactured to be smaller in size than corresponding outer diameters of a rotor shaft 1 by an amount known as a shrinkage allowance at room temperatures. In order to shrink fit the wheel discs 2 onto the shaft 1, the wheel discs 2 are first heated, while not raising the temperature of the rotor shaft 1, so that the wheel disks 2 thermally expand. After the inner diameters of the wheel discs 2 are expanded to such an extent as to be larger than the corresponding outer diameters of the shaft 1, they are positioned on the shaft 1 and are disposed thereon at specified positions. Thereafter the wheel discs 2 are cooled down and shrink fitted onto the shaft 1 by virtue of thermal shrinkage so that a turbine rotor results. On the outer circumferences of the respective wheel discs 2 which are thus rigidly fixed, there are implanted plural blades 3 so as to constitute turbine blades.
The respective connecting faces between the rotor shaft 1 and the wheel discs 2 are respectively provided with key ways 4 and 5 within which bore keys 6 are disposed. The bore keys 6 serve to prevent the respective wheel discs 2 from relatively rotating with respect to the shaft 1, even when the shrink-fit is unintentionally loosened under abnormal operating conditions.
However, in a steam turbine plant using such a shrink-fit type turbine rotor, the turbine rotor is in danger of developing so-called stress corrosion cracks with the result that the turbine rotor deteriorates in reliability and the life span thereof is shortened. One aspect of the development mechanism of stress corrosion cracking is a phenomenon such that in the environment of water or steam containing oxygen, metal surface oxide films are locally destroyed and selectively restructured due to the tensile stress effected on the material thereof, resulting in development of the cracks. Accordingly, the stress corrosion cracks develop upon concurrent occurrence of three factors as follows: that the material has sensitivity with respect to cracking, that high stress of a value more than a specified limit value is effected, and that the material is situated in an environment in which the material undergoes both development and destruction of local oxide films.
The sensitivity of the material to stress corrosion cracking is also related to material strength and, in general, the higher the tensile strength of the material the higher its sensitivity to the cracking. The wheel discs 2 of the shrink-fit type turbine rotor inevitably require, due to the higher stress effected thereupon, the use of higher tensile-strength alloy steels, and it is not forseeable that materials with no sensitivity to such cracking could be developed in the future.
When considering the stress effected upon the wheel discs 2 of the shrink-fit type turbine rotor, it is recognized that there are developed both the shrink-fit stress derived from the intial stage shrink-fit and the centrifugal stress derived from the fact that centrifugal force acts on both the wheel discs 2 and the blades 3 during rotation. The values of such stress become higher at the radially inner portions of the wheel discs 2. In particular, on the key ways 5 around the disc bore keys 6, there are developed stress concentrations derived as a function of the configurations thereof, and the values of such stresses frequently exceed the limit value beyond which stress corrosion cracks are initiated.
Moreover, in terms of environment, the qualitative characteristiscs of steam in power plant facilities are determined on the basis of the overall specifications of such facilities as a steam generator (boiler, nuclear reactor and the like), a condenser and a feed water facility, so that it is difficult to carry out a sophisticated water quality control program concentrated only upon concern for the stress corrosion cracking of the wheel discs 2. Particularly in a BWR (Boiling Water Reactor) type nuclear power plant or a geothermal power plant, it is impossible to prevent oxygen (impurities) generated within the nuclear reactor from penetrating into the steam turbine together with steam.
In the vicinity of the key ways 5 of the wheel discs 2 of the above-described conventional shrink-fit type rotor, there is a danger of development of stress corrosion cracks because the three factors mentioned above are present. If the stress corrosion cracks develop on the wheel discs 2 and are not discovered early enough to be nipped in the bud by means of test procedures such as NDI (Non-Destructive Investigation), this can lead to the destruction of the wheel discs 2, resulting in the danger of serious accidents.
As a countermeasure with respect to the environment, which is one of the factors affecting development of such stress corrosion cracking, attempts have been made to maintain the environment such that clean steam with less impurities is supplied from outside the steam turbine to the wheel discs 2 which are in danger of developing the stress corrosion cracks so as to cause the wheel discs and the vicinity thereof to be less susceptible to such stress corrosion cracking. However, to achieve this it is necessary to independently install a steam supply source that generates clean dry steam.
A nuclear power plant which incorporates a steam turbine that uses the conventional shrink-fit type turbine rotor is constituted as shown in FIG. 3, wherein steam from a nuclear reactor 8 is led through a high pressure steam turbine 9 via a main steam line into a low pressure steam turbine 10 so as to become spent. The spent steam is then led to a condenser (not shown).
Condensate from the condenser is, in turn, boosted in pressure by means of a feed water pump (not shown) and fed through a filter into a feed-water heater 11. Within the feedwater heater, the condensate is heated by turbine extraction steam supplied from the low pressure turbine 10 or the high pressure turbine 9 through an extraction steam pipe 12. The thus heated condensate is returned by means of a feed-water pump (not shown) into the nuclear reactor 8.
In the conventional nuclear power plant, there is provided a gland seal steam supply apparatus 13 that supplies gland seal steam into the high pressure turbine 9 and the low pressure turbine 10. The gland seal steam supply apparatus 13 includes an evaporator 14 into which clean condensate with low impurities from a condensate storage tank 15 is supplied through a feed-water pump 16. The condensate supplied into the evaporator 14 is heated either by main steam which is obtained from the nuclear reactor 8 and reduced in pressure through a main steam control valve 17 or by turbine extraction steam from the low pressure turbine 10.
The steam pressure required for gland sealing of the turbines 9 and 10 is relatively low, for instance, as low as 0.28 kg/cm.sup.2 so that the pressure of the steam generated within the evaporator 14 can be as low as approximately 3 to 4 kg/cm.sup.2 at most, and the steam can be saturated steam with a wetness of approximately 1%. The pressure of the steam generated within the evaporator 14 is so low that the pressure of the condensate heating steam (medium) can also be low. Thus, the condensate heating steam can be extraction steam which is extracted from an intermediate stage of the low pressure turbine 10.
Hitherto, however, the gland seal steam supply apparatus 13 has served only to supply the low pressure steam generated within the evaporator 14 into the gland seal portions of the high pressure turbine 9 and the low pressure turbine 10 for gland sealing, and any other use of such steam has never been considered.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compound solar battery and manufacturing method thereof and, more specifically, to a multi-junction type compound solar battery and manufacturing method thereof
2. Description of the Background Art
A multi-junction type III-V group compound solar battery has been known as a solar battery having highest efficiency and most suitable for aerospace applications among solar batteries. An exemplary method of manufacturing such a multi-junction type III-V group compound solar battery will be described in the following.
First, referring to FIG. 34, a Ge substrate (or a GaAs substrate) 101 is used as a substrate. On a surface of the substrate 101 of Ge or the like, Ge is epitaxially grown and AsH3 or PH3 is added to cause thermal diffusion of As or P, so that a bottom cell BB including a pn-junction of Ge is formed.
On the bottom cell BB, GaAs is epitaxially grown, so that a middle cell MM including a pn-junction of GaAs is formed. On the middle cell MM, InGaP is epitaxially grown, so that a top cell TT including a pn-junction of InGaP is formed.
In this manner, a 3-junction type III-V group compound solar battery 110 having a cell body CC is formed, in which three pn-junctions of Ge/GaAs/InGaP are connected in series in this order from the lower side on Ge substrate 101.
A forbidden band width (band gap) of InGaP forming the top cell TT is about 1.7 to about 2.1 eV, a forbidden band width (band gap) of GaAs as the middle cell is about 1.3 to about 1.6 eV, and a forbidden band width (band gap) of Ge as the bottom cell is about 0.7 eV or lower.
Sunlight enters from the side of top cell TT (InGaP) and proceeds toward the bottom cell BB (Ge), while light of prescribed wavelength is absorbed in accordance with the band gap of each of the top cell TT, middle cell MM and bottom cell BB, to be converted to electric energy.
The value of the band gap (about 0.7 eV or lower) of Ge as the bottom cell is relatively small considering the function of converting optical energy to electric energy. Therefore, use of a material having band gap of about 0.9 to about 1.1 eV has been proposed, as a material having higher conversion efficiency.
Reference 1 (M. Tamura et al., “Threading dislocations in InxGa1-xAs/GaAs heterostructures”, J. Appl. Phys. 72(8), Oct. 15, 1992, p. 3398) proposes InGaAs as one such material. In a multi-junction type solar battery 110 using InGaAs in place of Ge (see FIG. 35), on Ge substrate (or GaAs substrate) 101, a bottom cell NN including a pn-junction of InGaAs is formed by epitaxial growth
On the bottom cell NN, the middle cell MM including the pn-junction of GaAs and the top cell TT including the pn-junction of InGaP would be formed by epitaxial growth, respectively.
Reference 2 (J. F. Geisz et al., “Photocurrent of 1 eV GaInNAs lattice-matched to GaAs”, J. Crystal Growth 195 (1998), p. 401) proposes, in addition to InGaAs, InGaAsN as a material to replace Ge.
Multi-junction type solar battery 110 having the bottom cell NN employing InGaAs or InGaAsN in place of Ge, however, has the following problems.
First, in a multi-junction type solar battery employing InGaAs (0.9 to 1.1 eV) as the bottom cell NN, lattice constant of Ge substrate (or GaAs substrate) 101 is different from that of InGaAs. Therefore, epitaxially grown InGaAs comes to have a dislocation derived from the difference in lattice constant from the underlying layer (GaAs substrate or the like) (hereinafter referred to as a “misfit dislocation”).
In the multi-junction type solar battery employing InGaAsN as the bottom cell, a composition of N atoms will be controlled such that the lattice constant of InGaAsN matches the lattice constant of the underlying layer. Therefore, generation of misfit dislocation can be prevented in the epitaxially grown InGaAsN.
It is noted, however, that there would be holes and the like of added N atoms themselves. As a result, the epitaxially grown InGaAsN comes to have defects derived from N atoms.
As described above, the bottom cell formed of InGaAs or InGaAsN suffers from generation of misfit dislocation or defects, and therefore it does not have satisfactory cell quality. Accordingly, desired electricity production cannot be attained.
Further, the misfit dislocation or defects in the bottom cell NN has undesirable influence on GaAs as the middle cell MM epitaxially formed on the bottom cell NN and on InGaP as the top cell TT further formed thereon.
Consequently, cell quality of GaAs and InGaP is also degraded, preventing improvement in efficiency of electric energy conversion.
As described above, sunlight enters from the top cell TT and proceeds to bottom cell BB while light of a prescribed wavelength is absorbed and converted to electric energy.
At this time, component of the sunlight that is not absorbed by the top cell TT to bottom cell BB is eventually absorbed by Ge substrate (or GaAs substrate) 101 and hence that component cannot effectively contribute to generation of power.
As a result, improvement in efficiency of electric energy conversion is prevented.
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The present invention relates to the field of fencing blades, and in particular to improvements in blades used in the sport of fencing.
Prior art fencing blades are forged down from a single piece large diameter billet and are manufactured to ensure a degree of stiffness along their length between predetermined minimum and maximum limits.
A typical prior art fencing blade used in the sport of fencing has a handle end (the tang) formed into a 6 mm diameter round section followed by a short square section approximately 6.25 mm.times.6.25 mm. The tang is machined to take a hand guard, a handle and a nut or pommel that holds these parts onto the tang. The square part of the tang is formed to become a shoulder against which the guard is locked. The shoulder region is approximately 100 mm.sup.2 in square cross-section nearest the tang and, over a distance of generally between 30 and 100 mm, tapers down to a cross-sectional area of approximately 36 mm.sup.2. Then begins the working part of the blade, which tapers down to the tip to a cross-sectional area of between 7 mm.sup.2 and 12 mm.sup.2. This basic layout is common to all three types of blades presently used for fencing, namely epees, foils and sabres. Terms commonly used to identify areas of the blade are, starting from the handle end, Tang (soie), Shoulder (talon), Strong (forte) , Middle (moyenne) , Weak (foible) and Tip (point) .
As mentioned above, prior art fencing blades are made from single piece billets which are machined or worked to provide tang, shoulder and working part. However, even starting from a tapered billet, considerable wastage may occur in shaping the blade such that the cross-sectional area along the length of the blade reduces from shoulder to tip at the required rate and is of the required form. The different types of prior art blade each have a different cross-sectional form. The prior art method of manufacture is both time-consuming and requiring of skilled workmanship. Thus, prior art blades are relatively expensive to produce.
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to isolated polynucleotides from plants that include a complete coding sequence, or a fragment thereof, that is expressed. In addition, the present invention relates to polypeptides or proteins encoded by the coding sequence of these polynucleotides. The present invention also relates to isolated polynucleotides that represent regulatory regions of genes. The present invention also relates to isolated polynucleotides that represent untranslated regions of genes. The present invention further relates to the use of these isolated polynucleotides and polypeptides and proteins.
2. Background Information
There are more than 300,000 species of plants. They show a wide diversity of forms, ranging from delicate liverworts, adapted for life in a damp habitat, to cacti, capable of surviving in the desert. The plant kingdom includes herbaceous plants, such as corn, whose life cycle is measured in months, to the giant redwood tree, which can live for thousands of years. This diversity reflects the adaptations of plants to survive in a wide range of habitats. This is seen most clearly in the flowering plants (phylum Angiospermophyta), which are the most numerous, with over 250,000 species. They are also the most widespread, being found from the tropics to the arctic.
When the molecular and genetic basis for different plant characteristics are understood, a wide variety of polynucleotides, both endogenous polynucleotides and created variants, polypeptides, cells, and whole organisms, can be exploited to engineer old and new plant traits in a vast range of organisms including plants. These traits can range from the observable morphological characteristics, through adaptation to specific environments to biochemical composition and to molecules that the plants (organisms) exude. Such engineering can involve tailoring existing traits, such as increasing the production of taxol in yew trees, to combining traits from two different plants into a single organism, such as inserting the drought tolerance of a cactus into a corn plant. Molecular and genetic knowledge also allows the creation of new traits. For example, the production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals that are not native to particular species or the plant kingdom as a whole.
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A two-stroke engine is an internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with a single complete rotation of a crankshaft and two strokes of a piston connected to the crankshaft. The strokes are typically denoted as compression and power strokes. One example of a two-stroke cycle engine is an opposed-piston engine in which two pistons are disposed in a bore of a cylinder for reciprocating movement in opposing directions along a central axis of the cylinder.
In operation, internal combustion engines, such as opposed-piston engines, discharge heat energy into the external environment through exhaust gas, engine cooling systems, charge air cooling systems, etc. The discharged heat energy that is not used to perform useful work is typically known as “waste heat.” Waste heat recovery (“WHR”) systems capture a portion of the waste heat to perform useful work, such as generating electrical energy via an expander (e.g., a turbine). Some WHR systems utilize a Rankine cycle (“RC”). The RC is a thermodynamic process in which heat is transferred to a working fluid in an RC circuit. The working fluid is pumped to a boiler where it is vaporized. The vapor is passed through an expander and then through a condenser, where the vapor is condensed back to a fluid. The expander may drive a generator to generate electrical energy. An Organic Rankine cycle (“ORC”) is an RC in which the working fluid is an organic, high molecular mass fluid with a liquid-vapor phase change at a lower temperature than that of water. Such a fluid enables heat recovery from relatively lower temperature sources relative to other RC systems.
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1. Field of the Invention
A lower limb orthotic brace to control the movement of the lower limb of a patient comprising a contoured otrhotic contact shell and an integral load-bearing frame.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous efforts have been made to design and manufacture a light weight, durable orthotic brace. New materials now provide an opportunity to create new, more useful braces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,041 shows a lower limb orthotic comprising a foot orthotic, a pair of lateral supporting members, a detached or removable anterior support member, a posterior support member, and strips of composite materials to resist plantar flexion, dorsiflexion and various of movements of the foot and ankle. The lateral supporting members further having strips of composite materials having fibers orientation substantially parallel to the length wise axis of the lateral supporting members. The foot orthotic and posterior supporting member further have composite strips extending across the bottom portion of the foot orthotic and rear side of the posterior supporting member respectively.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,693,007 teaches a method and apparatus for forming a custom fit knee orthosis including forming a flat preassembled knee orthosis of rigid carbon fiber and plastic resin composite material connected in a flat, rigid state by joint mechanisms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,386 relates to an orthopedic brace using the shaped composite bars as integral components, and a method of thermoshaping the composite bars for use as filled components in the orthopedic brace are provided. The composite bars contain multiple fiber layers oriented in at least two directions with respect to the bar length to provide high flexural and torsional strength. The novel method of thermoshaping yields improved results over prior thermoshaping methods by providing an uncomplicated shaping capability while maintaining the structural and mechanical properties of the composite bar.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,501 shows a laminated, plastic orthotic device custom fitted to a wearer's extremity, typically a leg, wherein the orthotic includes a indicia bearing layer viewable on the outer surface of the orthotic. In one preferred embodiment, the device is fabricated from multiple layers of woven, reinforced and non-reinforced fabrics, adhesives, curable plastic resins and an image bearing layer. In other preferred embodiments, the device is fabricated of thermosetting plastic materials and an image bearing layer. The image layer may be comprised of woven fabric or non-woven materials which include drawings, insignias, photographs, textures or combinations thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,690 discloses a supporter for mounting on a limb in position to cover an affected body portion to constrain and limit movement thereof comprising a tubular stretchable elastic material forming a main body and reinforcing member comprising an interlining laminated to a surface member which acts to restrict the elongation of said interlining.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,090 shows a hybrid composite material constructed from woven reinforced fabrics of Kevlar 49 and biaxially reinforced fibers of graphite and E-Glass bonded together with a thermosetting adhesive, for the application of custom orthotics. The material interlocks different fibers at different locations of the orthotic in order to take advantage of the unique properties of each reinforcing fibers. The resulting material creates a hybrid composite that exhibits a balance of properties, in both the longitudinal and transverse directions, unavailable with any single reinforcing fibers. A method of orthotic manufacturing involves a hand lat-up and forming procedure. The constructed composite material is formed and pressed on a prescribed cast, then allowed to cure under pressure. The post-cured material is stripped from the cast, then cut and ground and finally finished to the required orthotic. The produced orthotic combines the desired feature of a thin section with excellent combination of properties relevant to custom orthotics. Such properties include light weight, high strength and modulus, excellent resistance to impact, fatigue, and creep, and outstanding ability to damp vibrations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,672,955 teaches the thigh and calf bands of a knee orthosis formed of a layer (or layers or curable composite material. The sidebars are integral with the thigh and calf bands in that they are simply extensions of the layers forming the thigh and calf bands. The sidebars are cured prior to fitting the thigh and calf bands about the leg, but the thigh and calf bands are left incured so that they may be formable about the leg and cured in place thereon.
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It is known for a digital television (DTV) signal to include meta data representing information about the contents of the events, e.g., programs, movies, sports games, etc. contained in the DTV signal. For a terrestrially broadcast DTV signal, the Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) has promulgated the A/65 Standard that defines such meta data. The A/65 standard refers to such meta data as program and system information protocol (PSIP) data.
The PSIP type of meta data is issued periodically. Data of greater importance in the meta data hierarchy is inserted into the DTV signal more frequently than data of lower importance.
In general, in this art it is desired to maximize the amount of available bandwidth that can be allocated to the transmission of the DTV program content. Unfortunately, meta data consumes bandwidth that otherwise could be used to transmit the corresponding DTV program content. But such meta data is a prerequisite to an A/65 compliant DTV signal, hence it cannot be eliminated to receiver bandwidth.
It is a problem to reconcile the contradictory design criteria of maximizing bandwidth allocated to DTV program content and providing sufficient meta data to ensure compliance with the A/65 standard.
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Practitioners of meditation may meditate in a variety of environments, including indoors or outdoors, in group settings or individual settings, and in their homes or outside their homes, and they often transport their mediation seats between different environments to do so. The practitioner should maintain an ideal posture that is repeatable, stable, straight and comfortable regardless of the environment. As a result, there is a need for mediation seats that are lightweight, compact, easy to transport, and suitable for indoor or outdoor use.
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The present invention relates to a control device of a flash type movable decorating lamp, and especially to a movable decorating lamp control circuit for replacing a movable decorating lamp sequential control circuit in which part of the storage electric energy and high voltage generating circuit of each flash lamp are used in commom.
If a conventional flash lamp circuit to be designed as a movable decorating lamp having sequentially variations, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, other than a circuit unit formed by a high voltage converting circuit 60, high voltage storing capacitance 65, a trigger circuit 70, a flash lamp tube 75, and a high voltage triggering coil 80, a further sequential control circuit of a movable decorating lamp is necessary (including a N loops movable decorating lamp control circuit and a flash lamp 1xe2x88x92N). As shown in FIG. 3, after integrating the aforesaid two units, the whole structure is bulky and heavy, the economic efficiency in manufacturing is low.
Therefore, there is an eager demand for a novel designed movable decorating lamp sequential control circuit, in which part of the storage electric energy and high voltage generating circuit of each flash lamp are used in common.
Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a control device of a flash type movable decorating lamp comprising a high voltage converting circuit, an actuating circuit, a high voltage storage capacitor, a flash displaying circuit and other units. The time difference between charging and discharging of the high voltage converting circuit to the high voltage storage capacitor and the voltage difference for the triggering of the flash lamp tubes are used to replaced a movable decorating lamp sequential control circuit. Part of the storage capacitor and each the flash lamp high voltage generating circuit are commonly used so as to achieve the object of simplifying part of the circuit and the manufacturing process becomes more economic.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a control device of a flash type movable decorating lamp, wherein all the flash lamp high voltage converting circuits are commonly used, as different power system is used, only the high voltage converting circuit is necessary to be updated.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a control device of a flash type movable decorating lamp. Thereby, it can be used in advertisement, indication, light effect in platform, etc.
The various objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description when reading in conjunction with the appended drawing.
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The present invention relates to a signal transmission system having particular, but not exclusive application to the transmission of digitised analogue signals over a channel. The invention also relates to a transmitter and receiver for use in the system and to encoding and decoding arrangements embodied in that transmitter and receiver.
When analogue signals are to be transmitted or stored in a digital format they can be converted by an analysis means to a digital data stream comprising a number of digital values representative of parameters of the analogue signal. Examples of such analysis means are well known and include vocoders, the Group Speciale Mobile (GSM) speech coder and code excited linear prediction (CELP) systems. At least some of the parameters provided by these systems can be regarded as digital representations of time varying analogue signals, for example the spectral coefficients of a vocoder or the gain parameter of a CELP system.
For simplicity of expression, the word "parameters" and the phrase "digitized parameters" will each be used in the following description and in the claims to refer not only to the parameters of the analogue signal which are or have been measured or sampled, but also to the digital values of these parameters after measuring or sampling and conversion to digital form. Parameters of this type generally comprise a number of binary bits of which the most significant bit (MSB) carries the largest weighting and the least significant bit (LSB) carries the smallest weighting. Consequently when the analogue signals are resynthesised from their digital representations an error for example, in the MSB of a parameter has a much greater subjective effect upon the perceived signal quality than an error in the LSB of that parameter. For example the least important or significant bits may only slightly reduce the quality of the signals, for example speech, as reproduced when subject to an error rate of say 5% while the most sensitive or significant bits will introduce serious distortion when subject to an error rate of say 1%.
In circumstances where errors are likely to be introduced in the transmission or storage of digitised analogue signals, some means of error protection, such as redundancy, is added to the digital representations of the parameters. This protection usually enables the correction of up to a given number of transmission errors at the receiver. By protecting a number of parameters together, unrelated binary sequences are represented by a stream of output bits from a coder and this can mean that potential flexibility in the decoding process is lost. Additionally, simple block codes have traditionally been used for this purpose but these provide an equal amount of protection for all of the binary bits which they are used to protect and, in view of the widely differing subjective effects of errors in different bits of the parameters this approach is not regarded as being the most cost effective. United Kingdom Patent Application GB 2 182 529 A describes a method of encoding speech whereby block codes, which are designed to provide greater protection for the MSBs than the LSBs of the parameters, are used to encode one parameter at a time. This Patent Application also discloses a method of recreating the analogue signals from digital representations which contain errors by the use of a number of different techniques, including the use of known characteristics of each parameter, the previously received values of each parameter and soft decision information. Block codes which are suitable for use with this method are, however, difficult to derive and separate block encoding means must be provided for every different length of binary bit sequence to be protected.
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Hydrocarbon combustion in diesel engines, stationary gas turbines, and other systems generates exhaust gas that must be treated to remove nitrogen oxides (NOx), which comprises NO (nitric oxide) and NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), with NO being the majority of the NOx formed. NOx is known to cause a number of health issues in people as well as causing a number of detrimental environmental effects including the formation of smog and acid rain. To mitigate both the human and environmental impact from NOx in exhaust gas, it is desirable to eliminate these undesirable components, preferably by a process that does not generate other noxious or toxic substances.
The present invention relates to a method of converting nitrogen oxides in a gas, such as an exhaust gas of a vehicular lean-burn internal combustion engine, to nitrogen by contacting the nitrogen oxides with a nitrogenous reducing agent in the presence of a catalyst comprising a blend of platinum on a support with low ammonia storage with a first SCR catalyst.
Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOx by nitrogenous compounds, such as ammonia or urea, was first developed for treating industrial stationary applications. SCR technology was first used in thermal power plants in Japan in the late 1970s, and has seen widespread application in Europe since the mid-1980s. In the USA, SCR systems were introduced for gas turbines in the 1990s and have been used more recently in coal-fired power plants. In addition to coal-fired cogeneration plants and gas turbines, SCR applications include plant and refinery heaters and boilers in the chemical processing industry, furnaces, coke ovens, municipal waste plants and incinerators. More recently, NOx reduction systems based on SCR technology are being developed for a number of vehicular (mobile) applications in Europe, Japan, and the USA, e.g. for treating diesel exhaust gas.
Several chemical reactions occur in an NH.sub.3 SCR system, all of which represent desirable reactions that reduce NOx to nitrogen. The dominant reaction is represented by reaction (1).4NO+4NH3+O2.→4N2+6H2O (1)
Competing, non-selective reactions with oxygen can produce secondary emissions or may unproductively consume ammonia. One such non-selective reaction is the complete oxidation of ammonia, shown in reaction (2).4NH3+5O2→4NO+6H2O (2)
Also, side reactions may lead to undesirable products such as N2O, as represented by reaction (3).4NH3+5NO+3O2→4N2O+6H2O (3)
It would be desirable to have a catalyst that provides for an increase in yield of nitrogen (N2) and a decrease in N2O formation.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to medical devices and, more particularly, to sensors used for sensing physiological parameters of a patient.
2. Description of the Related Art
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the field of medicine, doctors often desire to monitor certain physiological characteristics of their patients. Accordingly, a wide variety of devices have been developed for monitoring many such characteristics of a patient. Such devices provide doctors and other healthcare personnel with the information they need to provide the best possible healthcare for their patients. As a result, such monitoring devices have become an indispensable part of modern medicine.
One technique for monitoring certain physiological characteristics of a patient is commonly referred to as pulse oximetry, and the devices built based upon pulse oximetry techniques are commonly referred to as pulse oximeters. Pulse oximetry may be used to measure various blood flow characteristics, such as the blood-oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in arterial blood, the volume of individual blood pulsations supplying the tissue, and/or the rate of blood pulsations corresponding to each heartbeat of a patient. In fact, the “pulse” in pulse oximetry refers to the time varying amount of arterial blood in the tissue during each cardiac cycle.
Pulse oximeters typically utilize a non-invasive sensor that transmits electromagnetic radiation, such as light, through a patient's tissue and that photoelectrically detects the absorption and scattering of the transmitted light in such tissue. One or more of the above physiological characteristics may then be calculated based upon the amount of light absorbed and scattered. More specifically, the light passed through the tissue is typically selected to be of one or more wavelengths that may be absorbed and scattered by the blood in an amount correlative to the amount of the blood constituent present in the tissue. The measured amount of light absorbed and scattered may then be used to estimate the amount of blood constituent in the tissue using various algorithms.
Pulse oximetry readings measure the pulsatile, dynamic changes in amount and type of blood constituents in tissue. Other events besides the pulsing of arterial blood may lead to modulation of the light path, direction, and the amount of light detected by the sensor, creating error in these measurements. Pulse oximetry is sensitive to movement, and various types of motion may cause artifacts that may obscure the blood constituent signal. For example, motion artifacts may be caused by moving a sensor in relation to the tissue, by increasing or decreasing the physical distance between emitters and detectors in a sensor, by changing the direction of emitters or detectors with respect to tissue or each other, by changing the angles of incidence and interfaces probed by the light, by directing the optical path through different amounts or types of tissue, or by expanding, compressing or otherwise altering tissue near a sensor. In the emergency room, critical care, intensive care, and trauma center settings, where pulse oximetry is commonly used for patient monitoring, the wide variety of sources of motion artifacts includes moving of a patient or the sensor by healthcare workers, physical motion of an unanaesthetised or ambulatory patient, shivering, seizures, agitation, response to pain and loss of neural control. These motions oftentimes have similar frequency content to the pulse, and may lead to similar or even larger optical modulations than the pulse.
Two categories of pulse oximetry sensors in common use may be classified by their pattern of use: the disposable and the reusable sensor. Disposable sensors are typically flexible bandage-type structures that may be attached to the patient with adhesive materials, providing a contact between the patient's skin and the sensor components. Disposable sensors have multiple advantages, including ease of conformation to the patient. The flexible nature of disposable sensors further renders them susceptible to motion artifacts caused by mechanical deformation of the sensor, which changes the amount of light detected. Reusable sensors, often semi-rigid or rigid clip-type devices, are also vulnerable to motion artifacts, such as artifacts caused by partial opening of the clip in response to patient motion. Both categories of sensors may have modulations of detected light induced by the physical motion of the sensor components with respect to each other and the tissue.
Motion artifacts may sometimes be addressed by signal processing and filtering to mitigate the effects of motion after the motion has occurred. However, it would be desirable to provide a sensor that reduces the occurrence of movement that may lead to motion artifacts.
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Electric utilities using coal-fired power plants are often faced with the problem of disposing of increasingly large volumes of coal combustion by-products (CCBP). These CCBP include fly ash, bottom ash and flue-gas desulfurization sludge, which is a mixture of calcium sulfite/calcium sulphate.
Fly ash is a finely divided non-combustible residue which results from the burning of coal or lignite. Fly ash comprises silicon oxide, alumina, ferric oxides and calcium oxide. Fly ash is known to be a natural pozzolan, and sets up rapidly when combined with water. Bottom ash is a non-combustible granular material which falls to the bottom a furnace during coal or lignite combustion. Bottom ash is coarser than fly ash and ranges in size from a size approximating that of fine sand to coarse gravel. Hydrated fly ash and bottom ash mixtures have concrete-like properties which include high compressive strength and excellent weathering characteristics.
Given the large volumes of CCBP produced and the increasingly limited scope for disposing of this by-product in conventional land fills, there is an increasing need for utilities to find imaginative alternative to CCBP disposal. Consequently, the electric utilities have sought ways and means to use CCBP in, for example, the construction industry as an additive to concrete to produce light weight concrete.
At the same time that the utilities are faced with the problem of disposing of large quantities of CCBP, coastal development projects require a large amount of material for reef enhancement projects For example, the U.S. Corps of Engineers is currently, in 1991, involved in diverting the Colorado River near its mouth at Matagorda, Tex., back to its original course. This will allow the river to empty into Matagorda Bay. This project will require replacement of sufficient substrate to create 54 oyster reefs in Matagorda Bay. These reefs will use approximately one hundred thousand cubic yards of material. As a further example, the proposed deepening and widening of the Houston Ship Channel in Galveston Bay, Tex., if approved, would probably require the establishment of several hundred acres of oyster reef. It is also significant that increased fishing pressure off-shore has caused a decline in populations of important sport and commercial fish species. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has formed an Artificial Reef Advisory Committee in an effort to create new off-shore habitats for these declining fish populations.
Currently, oyster and clam shells are the most commonly used substrate for the creation and enhancement of reefs. These materials have historically been obtained by dredging buried shell deposits. However, this source of supply is rapidly declining and therefore becoming more costly. Furthermore, the dredging of shell deposits is currently strictly forbidden in Texas waters. Coastal states are now seeking alternative reef substrate materials.
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This invention relates to a precision automatic assembly apparatus, and to an assembly method using the apparatus, for performing a basic task such as pin erection automatically and in an accurate manner.
The insertion of pins into holes formed in parts can be performed without difficulty providing that the insertion operation is carried out under a condition where the pins are positioned to be vertical with respect to the corresponding holes and in such a manner that the pin centers coincide with the hole centers. However, automating an actual operation of this kind is accomplished by using a robot or automatic assembly machine in which highly precise positioning and inclination control are difficult to achieve. The smaller the clearance between the pin and hole, the greater the difficulty becomes. Briefly stated, the problems are as follows: (1) It is difficult to bring the centers of the pin and hole into alignment. (2) A mechanism for grasping the pins is required and involves difficulty in eliminating pin inclination error. (3) It is required that each pin be lowered into the corresponding hole along the central axis of the hole, but it is difficult to lower the pin exactly along the vertical. These problems are a source of error in the pin erecting operation.
Unless the foregoing problems are solved, the pins cannot be inserted into the holes and can cause scoring of the holes along their length.
To this end, a robot hand has been developed for the purpose of bringing a pin and hole into relative registration and correcting the error in pin attitude (inclination).
One example of such a technique is to provide the hand with flexibility so that a pin can be registered with a hole automatically (passively). A typical example of such an arrangement is an RCC (remote center compliance) system in which mechanisms and springs are specially designed to readily move in a direction which will automatically reduce a positional offset between a pin and hole and error in inclination during the process of inserting the pin.
The construction of an RCC hand of this kind will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the RCC hand mechanism includes a portion 1 joined to a hand, a transverse compliance link 2, a rotational compliance link 3, a compliance center 4, a translational portion 5, a rotational portion 6, a table 7 and a hole 8 provided in the table 7.
This arrangement is suitable for an operation in which a pin is inserted into a chamfered hole with a small clearance and comprises, in combination, the translational portion 5 composed of links forming a parallelogram and the rotational portion 6 composed of links forming a trapezoid FIG. 2 illustrates the links as they would appear if shown in series. The pin to be inserted into the hole is attached to the lower end of the combined links. Accordingly, if a vertically directed force acts upon the pin, the pin will move in the direction of the applied force while its attitude is maintained, owing to the motion of the links forming the parallelogram. When a rotational force is applied, the links forming the trapezoid act about the compliance center 4, whereby the pin undergoes rotational motion. Thus, if the hole 8 is chamfered and the lower end of the pin abuts against the chamfered portion, the pin is acted upon by a transversely directed force and is moved in the direction of the hole center at the same time that it is urged into the hole. If the pin is inserted at an incline rotational motion is produced about the compliance center 4 so that the pin is moved in a direction that will bring its center line into coincidence with the center line of the hole.
Examples of an RCC mechanism of the abov-edescribed type are disclosed in e.g. the specifications of U.S. Pat Nos. 4,098,001, 4,439,926 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,975 (U.S. Cl. 33).
In accordance with the aforementioned prior art, the dimensions of the mechanism and the distribution of the spring constants are so designed that the center position of the RCC hand will agree with the tip of the pin. If the length of the pin to be inserted is changed, therefore, the RCC hand will no longer be effective. In other words, it is necessary to use an RCC hand specially designed for the particular activity, so that the hand lacks versatility. In addition, since the springs used have considerable flexibility, vibrations occur when the pin is moved to approach the hole. As a result, the speed of the overall assembly operation declines and the efficiency of the operation suffers.
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Often when a customer or member is visiting a company's application or website, a need arises for the customer or member to complete a transaction or task, or for online customer support from a customer services representative or member services representative (MSR). In some instances the customer may simply need to perform a simple service-related transaction, or have a single question answered. However, the customer may also need to have several related questions answered and would like to have a dialog with a customer support representative without having to pick up the phone and call the representative.
One prior user interface system which has been developed for exchanging information between a customer and an MSR is a chat box which can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate icon on the webpage. Once that is done, a chat dialog is opened, which can be modal or modalless and may be displayed with the dialog or outside of the client application. However, conducting the interaction between the two parties in a chat box format requires cumbersome, natural-language-based, free-form inputs from both parties and does not afford the customer the ability to go back and change prior responses.
Moreover, in prior art user (e.g. member/MSR) interface systems, each customer/member and MSR channel looks and functions differently and these systems are not capable of utilizing background intelligence that may have been obtained from prior chats, interactions or communications exchanged between the parties.
There is a need therefore, for a seamless and consistent user experience across all channels and input/output methods. Moreover, there is a need for an open conversation user interface which can utilize automated background intelligence to simplify the exchange between the software system or an MSR and a member and avoids the need for web-based free form inputs.
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Various roofing systems have been proposed for metal frame buildings. Generally, these systems include metal beams such as rafters, struts, and purlins arranged to cover the desired building interior space. The roof may also include metal support bands and sheeting along the rafters, struts, and/or purlins. The bands and sheeting provide support for additional materials such as insulation layers that may be placed atop the sheeting. An outer roof layer is placed atop the rafters, struts, and purlins to complete the roof.
In the mid 1990's, OSHA instituted fall prevention regulations. Those regulations may in some cases impact the construction of metal frame buildings. Accordingly, protective netting, harnesses, and edge protection have been employed during such construction. Also, metal support bands underlying the sheeting and insulation have been designed so as to be able to support a person who might fall into the sheeting during construction.
In particular, title 29 C.F.R. §1926.502 requires that a roof's insulation support and fall protection system restrain and support 400 pounds dropped from at least 42 inches above the system. This standard is intended to represent potential impact of a person falling onto the structure. Energy Saver FP™ roofing systems available from Guardian Building Products incorporate structures such as bands and sheeting designed to meet such requirements. Metal roofing systems available from other sources also claim to meet such requirements. One such system requires multiple fasteners be driven through both ends of longitudinal and transverse metal support bands where attached to rafters or struts, with the fasteners being spaced at least two inches from the ends of the bands.
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In conventional stacked chip packaging systems and methods, a great deal of effort and cost is expended in connecting one layer to another and to an outside connection.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional approach to configuring die and packages with wire bond in both same size packages and different size packages. FIGS. 1A and 1C illustrate different size die (FIG. 1A) and packages (FIG. 1C), where the stacking is on a stair case shape. In each package, connections must be made on the outside of the die edges, or otherwise made through the die substrates. FIGS. 1B and 1D illustrate equal size die (FIG. 1B) and packages (FIG. 1D), where the stacking is on a rectangular configuration. Like the other package configurations illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1C, in each package, connections must be made on the outside of the die edges, or otherwise made through the die substrates. In an assembly of the same size packages, a thick adhesive is used to clear the wire bond loop.
Referring to FIG. 2, a stacked chip package is illustrated having solder balls in between same sized stacked layers of the package. In processing such a package, wide variations in temperature greatly affect the ability to stack and connect the different layers. Also, the connections are difficult to make from layer to layer, and are done upon processing and assembly of the package.
Table 1 compares and contrasts the features and benefits of three exemplary ways of stacking, i.e., solder ball stacking of equal sized packages, wire bond stacking of equal size packages, and wire bond stacking of different size packages. The configurations are compared in terms of adhesive thickness, individual chip select, inventory management, package width, JEDEC ball out, and whether or not the die is exposed.
TABLE 1Reported package stackingSolder ball stackingWire bond stackingPackage sizeSameSameDifferentAdhesiveTHINTHICKTHIN(total packagethickness)Chip select requiredYESNONOin individual packageInventory issueYESNOYESPackage widthWIDENARROWNARROWJEDEC ball outNOYESYESExposed dieYESNONOThe comparison shows the need for a multi-level packaging strategy that optimizes the trade-off between package size, adhesive thickness, chip access, inventory management, package width, JEDEC ball out, and dies exposure. As will be seen, the invention optimizes these features in an elegant manner.
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Recently, a new technology has emerged known as spintronics. Instead of conventional charge-based electronic devices, this technology uses electron spin to carry information, and thus offers opportunities for a new generation of spin devices. These devices will have the potential advantages of non-volatility, increased data processing speed, decreased electric power consumption, and increased integration densities compared with conventional semiconductor devices.
The giant magnetoresistance effect (GMR) was discovered in 1988, and is considered to be a very promising technology for spintronics devices. GMR is a quantum mechanical effect observed in layered magnetic thin-film structures composed of alternating layers of ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic layers. When the magnetizations of the ferromagnetic layers are parallel, the spin dependant scattering of carriers is minimized and the material has its lowest resistance; in contrast, when the magnetizations are anti-parallel, the spin dependant scattering of carriers is maximized and the material displays its highest resistance. The simplest GMR structure is the spin valve, which consists of two ferromagnetic layers sandwiching a thin nonmagnetic conductive layer. The flow of electrons in the spin valve is controlled by changing the direction of the magnetization of a part of the device. In previous spin valve structures, one of the two ferromagnetic layers was “pinned” by placing an anti-ferromagnetic layer in intimate contact with the pinned layer. The other ferromagnetic layer was “free” layer whose magnetization could be changed by applying an external magnetic field.
The basic principle GMR effect may be explained using a simple quantum mechanics picture, as illustrated in FIG. 1. In the ferromagnetic layers 10, 11A, the electron energy bands of spin up and spin down are split, which results in an unbalanced density of states for spin up and down at Fermi level EF. In the middle nonmagnetic layer 12, the density of states for spin up and spin down are even. The conductivity of the GMR structure may be expressed as follows:σ∝n1↑n2n2↑+n1↓n2n2↓ (1)where n is the density of states of spin up or down in the nonmagnetic layer 12 at the Fermi level, n1↑, n1↓ is the density of states of spin up, spin down respectively in the left ferromagnetic electrode (10), and n2↑, n2↓ is that corresponding to the right ferromagnetic electrode (11A). In FIG. 1A, the magnetizations of the two electrodes (the two ferromagnetic layers 10, 11A) are all in the up direction (parallel); the spin up electrons are the majority carriers, and the spin down electrons are the minority carriers. The magnetization of electrode 11A is reversed to the state shown as electrode 11B in FIG. 1B, however, and the spin up, down electrons become the minority, majority carriers, respectively. Assuming n+, n− as the density of states of for the majority, minority cases, respectively, the conductivity of parallel and anti-parallel structures may be written as:σp∝n2(n1+n2++n1−n2−)σap∝n2(n1+n2−+n1−n2+) (2)
The spin polarization is defined as P=(n+−n−)/(n++n−), and giant magnetoresistance is defined as GMR=(σp−σap)/σap. From equation (2), one may derive:
GMR = 2 P 1 P 2 1 - P 1 P 2 ( 3 ) This is same as the Julliere formula for tunneling magneto-resistance.
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Under conventional approaches, routes between different locations may be provided with expected travel durations. Such conventional approaches may not take non-traditional modes of travel and/or user preference for traveling into consideration.
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The invention is directed to the use of an existing class of calcium blocking drugs, or calcium antagonists for the correction of an underlying metabolic abnormality responsible for calcium pyrophosphate crystal formation and the resulting development of one of the most recently recognized forms of crystal-induced arthritis from deposition of these crystals in the cartilage of major joints.
The first two decades of the past half-century marked the first successful treatment in a preventive mode of the most anciently recognized form of crystal-induced arthritisxe2x80x94gouty arthritis, by simply reducing the supersaturated concentrations of serum urate to the normal range by use of new drugs that became available. (Seegmiller, J E., xe2x80x9cConquest of Gouty Arthritisxe2x80x9d in Landmark Advances in Rheumatology, ed. McCarty, D J (Amer. Rheum. Assn., Atlanta, Ga.) pp. 89-101 (1985)). It may well serve as a model for similar success with the above new and as yet unpublished finding. An important difference is that the elevated pyrophosphate was first found inside, instead of outside, the cells (Lust, G., et al. Arthritis Rheum (1976) 19:479-487).
Inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi) serves a number of different biological functions. In bone and growth plate cartilage, extracellular inorganic PPi provides a critical source of phosphate (Pi) for the physiologic deposition of calcium phosphate crystals during bone mineralization (Ali, Y., xe2x80x9cCalcification of Cartilagexe2x80x9d in Cartilage: Structure, Function, Biochemistry, ed. Hall, B K (Academic, New York), pp. 343-378 (1983); Oyajobi, B O, et al., J Bone Miner Res (:1259-1266 (1944); Anderson, H C, Rhem Dis Clin North Am 14:303-319 (1988), and Rosen et al., Arthritis and Rheumatism, 40:7 (July 1997)).
Although PPi is required for the induction of calcification (Russell, R G, et al., Calcif Tissue Res. (1970) 6:183-196; Siegel, S A et al., (1983) J Biol Chem 258:8601-8607), an excess of free PPi in relation to Pi suppresses mineralization by inhibiting hydroxyapatite crystal nucleation from amorphous calcium phosphate (Ali, Y., xe2x80x9cCalcification of Cartilagexe2x80x9d in Cartilage: Structure, Function, Biochemistry, ed. Hall, B K (Academic, New York), pp. 343-378 (1983); Oyajobi, B O, et al., J Bone Miner Res (:1259-1266 (1944); Anderson, H C, Rhem Dis Clin North Am 14:303-319 (1988), and Rosen et al., Arthritis and Rheumatism, 40:7 (July 1997)). Chondrocytes in articular cartilage have the unique ability to constitutively elaborate extracellular PPi in large amounts (Rosenthal, A K et al. (1993) Arthitis Rheum. 36:539-542; Derfus, B A et al., Arthritis Rheum 35:231-240 (1992)), which helps to suppress mineralization of the avascular cartilage matrix (Poole, A R (1992) in Arthritis and Allied Conditions, eds., McCarty, D J and Koopman, W J (Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia), pp.335-345).
PPi elaboration is governed by the balance between PPi formation and degradation (Rachow, J W and Ryan, L M (1988) Rheum Dis Clin North Am 14:289-302). PPi generation is a byproduct of many synthetic reactions in the cell (Rachow, J W and Ryan, L M (1988) Rheum Dis Clin North Am 14:289-302) and is a direct product of enzymes that have nucleoside triphosphate pyrophosphohydrolase (NTPPPH) activity. PPi degradation is affected by several inorganic pyrophosphatases, including alkaline phosphatase. (Rachow, J W and Ryan, L M (1988) Rheum Dis Clin North Am 14:289-302, Rasmussen, H. (1983) in The Metabolic Basis of Inherited Disease, eds. Stanbury, H., et al., (McGraw-Hill, New York ), pp. 1497-1507).
Regulation of NTPPPH activity, and of other factors that modulate elaboration of extracellular PPi in cartilage and bone, appears critical not only to physiologic mineralization, but also to the development of certain disorders of pathologic mineralization (Anderson, H C, Rhem Dis Clin North Am 14:303-319 (1988). One example is a prevalent disease of the elderly known as idiopathic chondrocalcinosis. In this disease, the deposition of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) crystals in articular cartilage is strongly linked to substantial increases in NTPPPH activity and PPi concentration (Tenenbaum, J. et al., (1981) Arthritis Rheum 24:492-500; Ryan, L M and McCarty, D J (1992) in Arthritis and Allied Conditions, eds., McCarty, D J and Koopman, W J (Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia), pp. 1835-1856; Jones, A C, et al., (1992) Semin Arthritis Rheum 22:188-202).
In addition, a 2-3-fold increase in intracellular PPi has been found in cartilage cells, fibroblasts, and lymphoblasts cultured from chondrocalcinosis patients (Lust, G. et al., (1976) Arthritis Rheum 19:479-487; Lust, G., et al., (1981) Science 214:809-810; Ryan, L M, et al. (1986) J Clin Invest 77:1689-1693). The capacity of CPPD crystals to activate an inflammatory response can promote acute and chronic inflammatory synovitis and cartilage degeneration (Ryan, L M and McCarty, D J (1992) in Arthritis and Allied Conditions, eds., McCarty, D J and Koopman, W J (Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia), pp. 1835-1856; Terkeltaub, R. (1992) in Arthritis and Allied Conditions, eds. McCarty, D J and Koopman, W J (Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia), pp. 1819-1833). Moreover, the presence of CPPD crystal deposition commonly complicates prior articular injury and is an adverse prognostic factor in osteoarthritis (Ryan, L M and McCarty, D J (1992) in Arthritis and Allied Conditions, eds., McCarty, D J and Koopman, W J (Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia), pp. 1835-1856; Sokoloff, L. and Varma, A A (1988) Arthritis Rheum 31:750-756).
xe2x80x9cPseudogoutxe2x80x9d was the term first used to describe the clinical syndrome of acute gout-like arthritis associated with the presence of crystals of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate in synovial fluid (McCarty, D J et al., I. Clinical aspects. Ann Intern Med 56:711 (1962). Also, see Seegmiller, J E, xe2x80x9cGout and Pyrophosphate Gout (Chondrocalcinosis,xe2x80x9d) in Principles of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Third Edition, 1994, Hazzard, W., et al., eds., McGraw-Hill, Inc., pp. 987-994). Subsequent studies showed this gout-like presentation to be just one aspect of the far larger range of clinical presentations of patients showing radiologic evidence of a characteristic pattern of calcification within the joints, which is called xe2x80x9cchondrocalcinosisxe2x80x9d (Zitnan, D., and Sitaj, D., Cesk Radiol 14:27 (1960)) and more precisely designated as xe2x80x9ccalcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal deposition diseasexe2x80x9d (CPDD) (Ryan, L M, and McCarty, D J, xe2x80x9cCalcium Pyrophosphate Crystal Deposition Disease: Pseudogout: Articular Chondrocalcinosis,xe2x80x9d in McCarty, D J (ed): Arthritis and Allied Conditions: A Textbook of Rheumatology, 10th ed., Philadelphia, Lea and Febiger, 1985, p. 1515). Since these multiple names for the same basic pathological process are confusing to both students and professionals, a subcommittee of the American College of Rheumatology has recommended the name xe2x80x9cpyrophosphate goutxe2x80x9d as being a more specific and simple designation for naming this disorder in a whole family of pathological states that would include apatite gout, cholesterol gout, and oxalate gout, with the prototype, urate gout, being referred to simply as xe2x80x9cgout.xe2x80x9d (Simkin, P A, JAMA 260:1285 (1988)).
Pyrophosphate gout shows similarities to gouty arthritis in that it is a crystal-induced arthritis with intermittent acute attacks associated with appearance of crystals within phagocytes in the joint fluid and a consequent acute inflammatory reaction (Ryan, L M, and McCarty, D J, xe2x80x9cCalcium Pyrophosphate Crystal Deposition Disease: Pseudogout: Articular Chondrocalcinosis,xe2x80x9d in McCarty, D J (ed): Arthritis and Allied Conditions: A Textbook of Rheumatology, 10th ed., Philadelphia, Lea and Febiger, 1985, p. 1515; McCarty, D J, et al, (1962), Ann Intern Med 56:711). The overall incidence of pyrophosphate gout increases markedly in later years of life. It is seldom seen in patients below age 50 except in familial forms of the disease. However, X-ray evidence of the disease has been found in some 44 percent of patients over age 84 and in 50 percent of patients in a nursing home over age 90 (Wilkins, E et al. Ann Rheum Dis (1983) 42:280-284).
Instead of needle-shaped crystals of monosodium urate monohydrate deposited in and about the joint as seen in gouty arthritis, the deposits of crystals in pyrophosphate gout consist of rhombic or broad-shaped crystals of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate that are typically found as a punctate or lamellar layer in the midzone of the cartilage. This is most often seen on x-ray films of the knee in meniscal fibrocartilage, as well as in the articular cartilage of the knee, in the articular disk of the distal radioulnar joint of the wrists, and, less frequently, in and about other major joints (Resnick, D., JAMA (1979) 242:2440).
Several large pedigrees of hereditary pyrophosphate gout have been reported, most of which show evidence of a dominant pattern of inheritance (Seegmiller, J E, in Emery A., Rimoin, D (eds): The Principles and Practices of Medical Genetics, 2d ed. New York, Churchill Livingstone (1990), p. 1697; Van der Korst, J K and Gerard, J. Arthritis Rheum (1976) 19:405; Reginato, A J, Arthritis Rheum (1976) 19:395; McKusick, V.: Mendelian Inheritance in Man, 7th ed. (1986) The Johns Hopkins University Press). The close association of osteoarthritis and pyrophosphate gout (Wilkins, E et al. Ann Rheum Dis (1983) 42:280) has been recently confirmed by autopsy studies showing a frequency of concurrence of these diseases sixfold greater than would be expected from the chance association represented by the respective frequencies of both individual diseases in the population (Sokoloff, L, and Varma, A A, Arthritis Rheum (1988) 31:750). The discovery of modest elevations of pyrophosphate levels in synovial fluid of patients with more severe osteoarthritis suggests a possible metabolic link between the two diseases (Howell, D S, et al. Arthritis Rheum (1976) 19:488-494). Further evidence of such a link was found in chondrocytes cultured from normal, osteoarthritic and pyrophosphate gout (chondrocalcinosis) patients. The intracellular PPi was 2-fold over normal in the pyrophosphate gout patients and the osteoarthritis patients showed values intermediate between the two (Lust, G. et al. Arthritis Rheum (1976) 19:479-487). In unpublished work from the inventor""s laboratory mononuclear cells isolated from peripheral blood also showed a significantly higher than normal concentration of intracellular PPi presented in Table 3 of this document.
Until the present invention, no rational approach was known for correction of the underlying metabolic abnormality responsible for calcium pyrophosphate crystal formation and the resulting development of disease (Seegmiller, J E, xe2x80x9cGout and Pyrophosphate Gout (Chondrocalcinosis,xe2x80x9d in Principles of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Third Edition, 1994, Hazzard, W., et al., eds., McGraw-Hill, Inc., pp. 987-994).
This invention provides an unexpected use for an existing class of calcium blocking drugs, or calcium antagonists. During early clinical application of a new assay for pyrophosphate developed in the inventor""s laboratory (Barshop, B A et al. Analyt Biochem (1991) 197:266-272), the inventors unexpectedly found that the calcium channel antagonists, nifedipine or diltiazem, widely used for management of hypertension, also lowers the intracellular concentration of pyrophosphate (PPi), and therefore should be useful for treatment of illnesses caused by the near 2-fold increase above normal of the intracellular PPi first found earlier by the inventor""s laboratory in chondrocytes cultures from a patient with pyrophosphate gout (then called chondrocalcinosis) while the corresponding fibroblasts cultured from the same patient showed PPi values some 2.6 fold greater than the normals with less marked elevations found in patients with osteoarthritis (Lust, G. et al. Arthritis Rheum (1976) 19:479-487) calcium pyrophosphate crystal deposition, of pyrophosphate gout or less marked elevations of intracellular PPi we had found in patients with osteoarthritis.
Calcium antagonists are heterogeneous and fall into 3 major classes: the phenylalkylamines (verapamil), the dihydropyridines (nifedipine), and the benzothiazepines (diltiazem). Although Palmieri, et al, (Arth. and Rhem. 38:1646-1654 (1995) report dissolution of calcinosis in the cervical spine in a patient by long-term administration of diltiazem, this illness was designated as CREST syndrome, a more indolent and less severe sub-type of progressive systemic sclerosis (scleroderma). With its limited cutaneous involvement, skin thickening and scarring of the skin is most often limited to the face and/or hands. This variant has been designated CREST, an abbreviation for its components (calcinosis, Raynaud""s phenomenon, esophageal hypomotility, sclerodactyly, and telangectasia) (Medsger, T A, xe2x80x9cSystemic Sclerosis (Scleroderma)xe2x80x9d in Internal Medicine, ed. Stein, J H (Mosby-Year Book, Inc., Baltimore), pp. 2443-24 (1949)). Since specific autoantibodies are also found in most cases and the calcinosis involves the extracellular deposition of calcium phosphate nodules, CREST syndrome is quite unrelated to pyrophosphate gout in either clinical or biochemical features. Therefore, this invention provides the first rational use of calcium antagonists for rational treatment of illnesses caused by calcium pyrophosphate crystal deposition.
The present invention provides a rational method for treatment of an animal with pyrophosphate gout comprising administering an effective amount of a calcium antagonist, thereby reducing calcium pyrophosphate crystal deposition in the animal.
The present invention also provides a reasonable approach for the correction of the less marked elevation of intracellular PPi which we have also found in patients with osteoarthritis (see Table 3 enclosed) which should also prevent the 6-fold greater than expected tendency they have for also developing pyrophosphate gout. By analogy with the human, this method of treating an animal with osteoarthritis comprising administering an effective amount of a calcium channel antagonist and thereby reduce, thereby calcium pyrophosphate crystal deposition in the animal.
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As portable electronic devices become more compact, and the number of functions performed by a given device increase, it has become a significant challenge to design a user interface that allows users to easily interact with a multifunction device. This challenge is particular significant for handheld portable devices, which have much smaller screens than desktop or laptop computers. This situation is unfortunate because the user interface is the gateway through which users receive not only content but also responses to user actions or behaviors, including user attempts to access a device's features, tools, and functions. Some portable communication devices (e.g., mobile telephones, sometimes called mobile phones, cell phones, cellular telephones, and the like) have resorted to adding more pushbuttons, increasing the density of push buttons, overloading the functions of pushbuttons, or using complex menu systems to allow a user to access, store and manipulate data. These conventional user interfaces often result in complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies that must be memorized by the user.
Many conventional user interfaces, such as those that include physical pushbuttons, are also inflexible. This is unfortunate because it may prevent a user interface from being configured and/or adapted by either an application running on the portable device or by users. When coupled with the time consuming requirement to memorize multiple key sequences and menu hierarchies, and the difficulty in activating a desired pushbutton, such inflexibility is frustrating to most users.
Although a portable device with a touch screen including virtual icons such as keys and buttons may be configuration-flexible and user-friendly, it is often unable to correctly identify a virtual icon associated with a finger gesture and act accordingly if the finger gesture occurs in the vicinity of multiple virtual icons in a small area on the touch screen display. This is especially true if two or more of the virtual icons have overlapping hit regions (which may extend outward from, or surround, the displayed icons) and the finger gesture at least partially falls into the overlapping region.
Accordingly, there is a need for portable multifunction devices for uniquely determining an icon associated with a finger gesture if the finger gesture falls into an overlapping hit region shared by two or more virtual icons on a touch screen display.
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The provisioning and control of machine-to-machine communicating remote devices, often referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT), is an increasing challenge. The genesis of this challenge is multifaceted. First is the variety of communication protocols utilized by such devices, such as, but not limited to, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, 802.11, USB, Ethernet, and many others. Each of these protocols have their own strengths and weaknesses, all of which must be considered both when designing the remote device and when designing software to interact with the remote device.
Another source is the inherent differences that arise when attempting to communicate among remote devices from different product designers. Each remote device may have a unique interface that may enable third-party developers to interact with the remote device. While remote devices (for example, light bulbs) from different product designers may have similar functionality (e.g. brightness, color, color temperature), the amount and difficulty of programming involved to interact with remote devices from each product developer can be substantial.
Because of the diversity of machine-to-machine communicating remote devices product developers currently available on the market, across multiple technology industries, the permutations involved in enabling intercommunication and control of all, or even a critical mass, of these products results in enormous challenges for newcomers to the market to facilitate interoperability between their new product and the universe of previously-existing products. Moreover, there are similar barriers for consumers to provision, control, and tailor usage of these devices. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for systems and methods that simplifies the provisioning and control of IoT devices across multifarious platforms and communication protocols.
Additionally, as a result of the ever-increasing number of IoT devices, the amount of network traffic has similarly increased. Centralized architectures that require all status checks and commands to be issued from a single cloud server to IoT devices serves to increase the overall amount of network traffic. A decentralized architecture, particularly one that is operable to automatically analyze and distribute monitoring and command issuing processing to the lowest-level computerized device within the network of IoT devices, would serve to reduce the amount of network traffic. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for systems and methods that accomplish this.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.
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Database sizes supported by commercially available database management systems (DBMS) continue to grow as the availability and cost per unit storage of disk-based storage and system memory increases. In general, a database can feature on-disk storage of data, in which data records are stored in one or more tables or other database structures on storage media (e.g. hard disks, optical storage, solid state storage, or the like) and read into main system memory as needed to respond to queries or other database operations. Alternatively, a database can feature in-memory storage of data, in which data records are stored in main system memory. As costs of main system memory continue to decrease, the feasibility of significant use of in-memory features increases. However, data capacity requirements of database systems also continue to increase. As such, hybrid approaches that involve features of both in-memory and on-disk systems are also advantageous.
In some examples of in-memory databases, a columnar table is composed of a delta part and a main part. The delta part receives changes to the table and stores these changes in a persistent log. Upon recovery, the delta part is rebuilt from the log. A merge process occasionally (e.g. periodically, upon the delta reaching a certain size, etc.) occasionally updates the main part. The merge process typically copies a current main state and committed rows in the delta part into a new temporary state, sorts the data for optimal compression, and overwrites the original main part. Committed rows are removed from the delta part at the time of overwriting the original main part. To prevent blocking situations during the merge process, a new delta part is typically opened as soon as the merge process starts. Uncommitted rows can be copied from the old delta part to the new delta part. Query processing can use a single delta in combination with the current main part (when a merge process is not currently in progress) or both of an old delta part and a new delta part in combination with the old main part (when a merge process is currently in progress) to execute queries.
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This invention relates to an electonic musical instrument, and more particularly a musical tone synthesizing apparatus for synthesizing a musical tone by utilizing amplitude modulation.
The art of synthesizing a musical tone rich in harmonics by utilizing an amplitude modulation is disclosed in Japanese Prelimary Publication of Pat. No. 48720/1978. According to this method, an input signal F(.omega.t) is multiplied with a predetermined modulation function and the resulting side band is used as harmonic components. With this method, however, it is necessary to provide a function generator which generates the predetermined modulation function. In addition, when used is a complicated modulation system which employs a polynomical or multiplexing modulation technique to produce much more harmonic components, thus increasing the number of modulators and enlarging the size of the musical tone synthesizing apparatus.
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The present invention relates generally to universal testing machines and more specifically to methods for applying a multiaxial load to a planar test specimen. Actually, there is no equipment capable to evaluate some behaviour parameters, like tensile, compression or fatigue, in different directions simultaneously. As alternative, the evaluation of these characteristics has been done resorting to the unidirectional dynamometer, doing the assays only in one direction or successively in each direction. In this case the results don't give any indication about the interaction of the multiaxial forces.
In known testing machines of that kind, we observe a frame with an upper transverse member and a base transverse member as well as two interconnecting guide pillars in way to tensile compression and beading testing operations. A central transverse member is displaceable along the guide pillars, while testing devices can be connected between upper and base members and/or between central and base members. The central member is connected to cylinder bodies enclosing the guide pillars (UK Patent Application GB 2276949 A). Because the machine only has one axis, we only can perform uniaxial testing operations, which is the great disadvantage of this machine. Furthermore, only one member can be moved, while the others are static.
Others devices actually can perform biaxial testing operations. The Biaxial Testing Apparatus (U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,205) concerns a rhombus-shaped four-bar linkage that is attached at one vertex to a fixed attachment point and a uniaxial tensile force is applied to the opposite vertex. The test specimen is placed inside the four-bar linkage and is attached to the four-bar linkage by load transfer members connected at one end to the links of the four-bar linkage and at their other end to the gripping jaws holding the testing specimen. The application of the uniaxial tensile force then produces a biaxial tensile force in the test specimen. The particular disadvantage of this approach is the restriction imposed by the physical structure of the device, hindering others testing configurations for beyond the biaxial testing.
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The present invention relates generally to the field of computing, and more specifically, to hierarchical data.
Generally, data may be presented on hierarchical data structures, such as hierarchical data trees and tree tables. Specifically, hierarchical data structures are organized and structured to represent data using different levels. For example, hierarchical data trees may include nodes, such as parent nodes, child nodes and sibling nodes, to present the data and the relationship of the data on the hierarchical data trees. Specifically, for a hierarchical data tree based on dates, the hierarchical data structure may include the nodes “years”>“months”>“days”. Specifically, the “years” may be the parent nodes to the child nodes that include the “months”, and the “months” may be the parent nodes to the child nodes that may include the “days”. Furthermore, the “year” nodes may be sibling nodes, the “month” nodes may be sibling nodes, and the “day” nodes may be sibling nodes. Additionally, users may be enabled to collapse and expand the nodes associated with hierarchical data trees.
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Liquid crystal display (LCD) devices are light weighted and low in power consumption. Nowadays, LCD devices are widely used in various electronic products. Gate-driver on Array (GOA) technology contributes to an important technical part of the rapid development of the LCD devices. According to GOA technology, shift registers are integrated on the pixel array substrate. The scanning and driving of the LCD panel are implemented through the controlling of thin-film transistors (TFTs). Also, GOA and pixel array substrate can be formed through one fabrication step, reducing the fabrication cost. Compared to conventional chip on film (COF) technology and chip on glass (COG) technology, GOA technology requires lower power consumption and improves the integration level of the LCD panel. Thus, less packaging area is needed for the LCD panel, and narrow bezel design can be obtained.
However, some issues exist in conventional GOA technology. For example, shift registers are highly dependent on TFTs. Especially, the threshold voltages of the TFTs can have significant impact on the stability of the shift registers. The instability of the threshold voltages of the TFTs can cause instability of the shift registers. As a result, in operation, the shift registers may not function properly or may even fail.
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{
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A micro-LED has a very small chip size. For example, a linear dimension of the chip may be less than 50 μm or less than 10 μm. The linear dimension may be as small as 2 μm or 4 μm.
Lateral diffusion of electrons may reduce the efficiency of micro-LEDs. When current is injected into an LED, electrons diffuse in many directions. Because of the small size of micro-LEDs, most of the electrons are lost at an interface of the micro-LED in a process known as surface recombination. These lost electrons cannot contribute to the generation of light by the micro-LED. This effect becomes especially pronounced when the diffusion length of the electrons approaches the linear dimension of the chip of the micro-LED.
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{
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The present invention relates generally to laser radiation detectors and more particularly to laser-induced plasma generated electromotive force used for detector and monitoring of the temporal characteristics of pulsed laser output.
When a high-power laser is focused onto a target some portion of the target surface material is vaporized and ionized forming a plasma. Electrons appearing in the ionization process move much more rapidly than the simultaneously formed ions because of their smaller mass, and a certain fraction have sufficient energy to move away from the surface on which they originated leaving the ions behind. This effect can produce large voltages if the target is electrically insulated from any surrounding conducting surfaces. That is, the electrons striking the outlying walls can produce a voltage relative to the target material which is enveloped by ions which have not had time enough to leave its environs. A return circuit including a resistive element allows useful power to be generated as these electrons return to the target and recombine with the ions still there. It turns out that a significant number of electrons are traveling at superthermal velocities. That is, some of the electrons are moving much faster than would be predicted from the plasma temperature. There are many explanations for this phenomenon, none of which concerns us here. It will be seen, below, that these "hot" electrons give rise to the unique characteristics of our invention.
The device and method of the instant invention is a room temperature, fast, and robust laser radiation detector useful for the investigation of laser pulses. Electron emission from plasmas produced by focused, pulsed laser radiation gives rise to electrical signals which can be utilized for beam diagnostics or synchronization. The invention has a risetime, voltage output and response duration which can be adjusted by varying gas pressure and type. Under suitable conditions the detector can be made to have a faster risetime and longer accurate response duration than existing detectors using thermal electron characteristics. It can also be made more difficult to saturate. Pulses of 250 V amplitude into 50.OMEGA. can be generated without further amplification under conditions where the risetime is less than 0.2 ns using a 10.6 .mu.m laser source. At higher pressures, an approximately 1 V signal with even faster temporal characteristics reproduces a laser pulse train lasting 100 ns. The invention is therefore a good qualitative laser beam monitor as well as a detector. The absence of measurable delay time between the rise in detector signal and the incident laser pulse enable the device and method of the instant invention to be useful as a fast trigger source.
The generation of high voltage transients by focused CO.sub.2 laser radiation for energy conversion has been reported by W. T. Silfvast and L. H. Szeto in Appl. Phys. Letters 31, 726 (1977). The authors discuss therein the use of a device similar to that of the instant invention as a laser detector. However, this article teaches away from the method and device of the instant invention in several critical ways. First, the method proposed and executed by Silfvast and Szeto describes the evacuation of their detector cell to 10.sup.-2 torr or lower. We have found that by adding various gases to pressures as high as one atmosphere, the temporal resolution of the device can be significantly improved. The desired decrease in detector response time is accompanied by a reduction in the voltage generated for a particular laser energy, but even at atmospheric pressure, the signals are of the order of one volt. FIG. 3 of the Silfvast and Szeto article shows no fine structure on the detector output signal, while the laser pulse has significant structure. Our invention is capable of following such short-term laser fluctuations accurately because of the laser driven, non-thermal characteristics of the signals produced by the "hot" electron phenomenon. In fact, it should be noted that it provides subnanosecond response time and high voltage output even when evacuated, whereas Silfvast and Szeto report about 8 ns response for their detector. We have further discovered that by varying the gas pressure and its composition the duration of the detector response can be adjusted. It is seen from FIG. 3 of Silfvast and Szeto that their detector signal drops off in less than one-half the time of the laser pulse decay. The explanation tendered by the authors is that the space-charge effect prevents the high-energy electrons from reaching the detector walls at longer times. Since the instant invention relies on "hot" electron emissions, i.e., those electrons which have sufficient energy to pass through the gas present to the conducting walls, the space-charge effect becomes less important and the response duration increases. At still longer times, our invention can be made to cut off additional laser signals since the gas becomes conducting and effectively shorts the device. The detector is there acting as a plasma switch and terminates the 10.6 .mu.m radiation reaching the detector cathode. Control of detector response time and duration coupled with an approximately factor of 100 improvement in fastest response time, then, are the critical features which distinguish the method and device of the instant invention from existing technology. Finally, the dimensions of our device are such that the saturation effect graphically described by FIG. 5 of Silfvast and Szeto is not observed at the maximum intensity attainable by us during our experiments; namely, about 10.sup.13 W/cm.sup.2. In their FIG. 5, it is seen that saturation has already set in at this intensity level. That is, the change in detector signal per change in laser intensity becomes small. This advantage further distinguishes the device of the instant invention from that of Silfvast and Szeto.
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Generally, the present invention relates to a vehicle door connector structure for providing a variety of electric signals into a vehicle door. More particularly, the present invention relates to a connecting structure capable of conveniently connecting and disconnecting a plurality of wires between a vehicle body and door.
Connectors for easily connecting and disconnecting electrical devices have been long known and used. These connectors increase the efficiency of assemblage and handling of electrical units by dividing functions into performing modules. Furthermore, upon the failure of a particular unit, one only need replace the defective module, which is quick and cost-effective. A variety of these types of connectors are utilized in vehicles. For instance, a connector is used to transfer electric signals between the door and body of a vehicle.
Typically, the vehicle door connector structure includes a male connector extracted out of a connector mounting hole in the vehicle""s body and a female connector connected through a grommet in the door. The male connector is typically coupled to the female connector to transmit various electric signals from the vehicle body to the vehicle door. After the female connector and the male connector are coupled together there are typically four protruders formed at the external surface of the female connector for insertion into a connector mounting hole in the vehicle body.
The grommet connected to the female connector is tightly attached to the connector mounting hole thereby tightly sealing the hole to prevent water leakage into either the door or the vehicle. However, often the female connector fails to provide a force sufficient to fasten the connectors and perform the sealing function. Thereby, vibration and noise is created. Furthermore, after the four protruders are inserted into the vehicle body, it is difficult to detach them from the vehicle body without damaging them. Therefore, repair time efficiency is negatively effected and costs are increased because the connector must be replaced. Another drawback in the conventional vehicle door connector structure in that wires are often damaged by the connector mounting hole, bringing about an electric shortage.
The present invention provides a vehicle door connector structure that can be conveniently and firmly fastened to a vehicle body, thereby securing a tight seal between the vehicle body and the door connector preventing noise and vibration and reducing repair time and costs.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a vehicle door connector structure comprises a female connector unit and a male connector unit. The male connector unit protrudes from and is fixed to the body of the vehicle and a slide holder is rotatably mounted to the female connector unit. The slide holder couples with the male connector unit and closely attaches to a vehicle body panel. Thus producing an electrical connection between the terminals of the female connector unit and those of the male connector unit.
In an alternative embodiment an electrical connector for a vehicle door comprises a male connector configured for insertion and mounting in a hole through a vehicle panel wherein the male connector defines a peripheral screw thread groove adjacent one end. Furthermore, a female connector is configured for receiving the male connector wherein the female connector contains terminals for engaging wires of the vehicle door and defines a peripherial connection groove adjacent an end. Also included is a slide holder rotatably receiving the female connector through engagement of a latching jaw into the connection groove and having internally protruding pins configured to rotatably engage the screw thread grooves in the male connector.
Preferably, the male connector comprises a connector portion with a body part configured to extend through an opening in a body panel and a panel bracket defining an opening configured to receive and lock onto the body part.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for mounting a magnetic head, and particularly to a device for mounting a magnetic head as used in a magnetic recorder or reproducer in an electronic camera or the like.
2. Recently, there has been developed an electronic still camera system wherein an image pickup device such as a charge coupled device (CCD) or an image pickup tube is combined with a recording device using a magnetic disc. This is inexpensive as a recording medium and yet has a comparatively high memory capacity. A subject is still-photographed electronically and recorded onto a rotating magnetic disc, and the reproduction of an image is carried out by a television, a printer or the like.
Now, the magnetic disc of this type used in the electronic camera or the like, differing from the magnetic disc used in the ordinary magnetic recorder or reproducer, has recorded therein still image or moving image information and the like in a high density, and rotates at a high speed. In consequence, it is necessary for the magnetic head for performing recording or reproducing in contact with the magnetic disc to be accurately adjusted in positional relationship with the magnetic disc. Such being the case, for the magnetic head used in recording or reproducing of still image information and the like in an electronic camera or the like, adjustments of the following five types with respect to the magnetic disc are required, which include (1) a projection value, (2) an inclination angle, (3) a shift in the center-alignment, (4) a shift in azimuth, and (5) a tilt. Out of these adjustments, (2) the inclination angle and (5) tilt may be corrected, but not with adjustment, and only if they are very small. Description will successively given of these adjustments of the five types with reference to FIG. 1 to 3.
In FIG. 1, designated at 10 is a magnetic disc, 12 a magnetic head for performing recording into or reproducing from this magnetic disc 10, and 14 a regulating plate provided at a position opposed to the magnetic head 12 through the magnetic disc 10, for placing the magnetic disc 10 along the magnetic head 12. It is necessary for the magnetic head 12 to have a projection value Ea within a predetermined range with respect to the magnetic disc 10. In order to perform better recording and reproducing and prevent the magnetic head and a recording medium from being worn, it is necessary to perform fine adjustments.
Furthermore, in order to obtain a satisfactory reproduced image even when one and the same recording medium is loaded into reproducers different from each other, and further, when the recorder and the reproducer are separately constructed, namely, a recording head and a reprocuding head, which are separately formed, are used, it is necessary that the inclination angle .theta.a, a shift value Eb of the magnetic head relative to the center of the magnetic disc 10 and the azimuth shift .theta.b as shown in FIG. 2, and further, the tilt angle .theta.c of the magnetic head relative to the magnetic disc 10 as shown in FIG. 3 remain within predetermined ranges having interchangeabilities, respectively.
Now, normally, the magnetic head is solidly secured to a head block after the projection value, inclination, shift in center alignment and swing are adjusted, and this head block is secured to a head carriage. However, it is necessary to remove the head block from the head carriage due to wear, etc. of the magnetic head. In this case, if the head block is secured to the head carriage by screwing, etc., then, it is troublesome to do the works of removing and mounting the head block and it takes several labor hours in positioning adjustment of the head block after the head block is mounted onto the head carriage.
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{
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A variety of technologies for the capture of particulate emissions from diesel engines are presently available. Diesel engines have long been the engines of choice for powering heavy duty equipment such as trucks, trains, tractors and construction vehicles, since diesel engines generally utilize lesser amounts of fuel to generate power comparable to those of gasoline engines of equivalent size and weight. Particulate (e.g. soot) emissions from diesel engines can be relatively heavy, however, and accordingly devices such as soot traps and soot combustors have been designed to help capture and eliminate soot particulates.
In comparison with diesel engines and fuels, gasoline is typically more completely combusted during ordinary gasoline engine operation, with the primary polluting constituents of gasoline engine exhaust streams including volatile unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides. However, fuel combustion is somewhat different in the case of gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines, as evidenced by the fact that the direct injection of the fuel into the combustion chambers of such engines can result in somewhat larger concentrations of unburned particulates in the engine exhaust stream.
Particulate emissions from sources such as gasoline-direct-injection engines can present a somewhat more difficult pollution control problem than diesel engine emissions. That is because the particulates generated during the operation of such engines predominantly fall in the sub-micrometer (e.g., nanometer) size range. Conventional diesel traps may not be well adapted for the capture and elimination of such particulates. For example, ceramic filters similar in configuration to current wall-flow diesel particulate filters (DPFs) may be made fine enough in porosity to capture nanometer-sized particles, but in that case may be so high in gas flow resistance as to raise engine exhaust back-pressures and reduce engine fuel efficiencies to objectionable levels. Other soot-handling systems, such as soot combustors and electrostatic precipitators designed to trap and/or combust soot particles of conventional size, are too inefficient or too costly and complex for widespread use in motor vehicles.
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{
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1. Field
The present invention relates to communications systems, and more particularly, to systems and techniques for recovering modulated signals in a wireless communications system.
2. Background
In recent years, transmission of data via satellite has increased considerably. Recently, the number of personal satellite receivers have also been increasing. As large satellite receiving antennas and expensive receivers are replaced by smaller and less expensive equipment, the demand for such systems continues to rise. As the demand for satellite communication systems rises, systems which have increased performance have a distinct market advantage. Improving designs and increasing the level of system integration within satellite receivers can offer the dual benefits of decreasing system costs and increasing performance. Accordingly, there is a need for improved satellite receivers within the art.
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{
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming processing program to generate image data of a selection area.
2. Background Art
A related art discloses a technology of designating (clipping) a user-intended range from a webpage displayed on a monitor of a personal computer and printing an image of the designated range.
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{
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In order to ensure the functionality of electronic devices and systems, for example private computer networks, even in the event of mains failure, so-called UPS (uninterruptible power supply) systems are used. UPS systems ensure that, in the event of the mains voltage failing, the electronic devices or systems are supplied with emergency power via the UPS system. In other words, a UPS system ensures that, in the event of a fault in the mains supply, the system changes over from mains operation to emergency power operation. As soon as the mains supply starts operating again, the UPS system changes over from emergency power operation to mains operation.
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{
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The Streptococci make up a medically important genera of microbes known to cause several types of disease in humans, including, for example, otitis media, conjunctivitis, pneumonia, bacteremia, meningitis, sinusitis, pleural empyema and endocarditis, and most particularly meningitis, such as for example infection of cerebrospinal fluid. Since its isolation more than 100 years ago, Streptococcus pneumoniae has been one of the more intensively studied microbes. For example, much of our early understanding that DNA is, in fact, the genetic material was predicated on the work of Griffith and of Avery, Macleod and McCarty using this microbe. Despite the vast amount of research with S. pneumoniae, many questions concerning the virulence of this microbe remain. It is particularly preferred to employ Streptococcal genes and gene products as targets for the development of antibiotics.
The frequency of Streptococcus pneumoniae infections has risen dramatically in the past few decades. This has been attributed to the emergence of multiply antibiotic resistant strains and an increasing population of people with weakened immune systems. It is no longer uncommon to isolate Streptococcus pneumoniae strains that are resistant to some or all of the standard antibiotics. This phenomenon has created an unmet medical need and demand for new anti-microbial agents, vaccines, drug screening methods, and diagnostic tests for this organism.
Moreover, the drug discovery process is currently undergoing a fundamental revolution as it embraces "functional genomics," that is, high throughput genome- or gene-based biology. This approach is rapidly superseding earlier approaches based on "positional cloning" and other methods. Functional genomics relies heavily on the various tools of bioinformatics to identify gene sequences of potential interest from the many molecular biology databases now available as well as from other sources. There is a continuing and significant need to identify and characterize further genes and other polynucleotides sequences and their related polypeptides, as targets for drug discovery.
Clearly, there exists a need for polynucleotides and polypeptides, such as the yfjO embodiments of the invention, that have a present benefit of, among other things, being useful to screen compounds for antimicrobial activity. Such factors are also useful to determine their role in pathogenesis of infection, dysfunction and disease. There is also a need for identification and characterization of such factors and their antagonists and agonists to find ways to prevent, ameliorate or correct such infection, dysfunction and disease.
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{
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This invention relates to a composite structure adapted to provide thermal insulation for windows.
Window heat loss accounts for about 20-40% of building space heating costs. With continuing increases in fuel costs, existing structures require an inexpensive and practical means for converting single pane glass windows to thermal insulators. Presently employed means include double paned windows constructed to form a sealed air space between the panes. Alternatively, an equivalent second (storm) window is added to function in conjunction with the window to form an insulating air space. The present insulating means are undesirable since they are expensive to make and to install. Furthermore, even though these double pane arrangements reduce heat loss due to conduction through the outside glass pane, there is still substantial heat loss caused by convection of the air within the air space which promotes conduction heat loss through the outside pane.
It would be desirable to promote a means for thermally insulating glass windows with little or no structural modification. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide a glass thermal insulation means which requires little or no labor costs and which can be produced without the need for special installation tools. In addition, it would be desirable to provide a thermal insulation means for glass windows which can be modified easily to change its light transmission or reflectance characteristics thereby to permit its preferential use at different exposures of a building. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide such a thermal insulation means which minimizes convection heat loss.
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{
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for preparing a cultured food product, such as but not limited to tempeh, from a plant material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tempeh has been a valuable and important food product which is traditionally prepared by fermenting and culturing whole dehulled soybeans or soybean grits or meal with cultures of beneficial fungi or microorganisms. Although tempeh is made from soy, it has a unique taste and is mildly flavorful on its own, unlike tofu, and also has different nutritional characteristics and textual qualities. Tempeh's fermentation process and its retention of the whole bean give it a higher content of protein, dietary fiber, and vitamins. It has a firm texture and an earthy flavor which becomes more pronounced as the tempeh ages. Because of its nutritional value, tempeh is used worldwide in vegetarian cuisine; some consider it to be a meat analogue.
Tempeh has traditionally been prepared by first soaking whole soybeans in water. The soaked, wet soybeans are then dehulled and boiled in water to soften the beans and destroy any contaminating microorganisms. The cooked soybeans are then spread out in thin layers to allow the water to drain and evaporate from the surface of the soybeans. The air dried soybeans are then mixed with a starter comprising portions of old tempeh containing a mixture of molds, bacterial and other microorganisms. The moist inoculated soybeans are then wrapped tightly and the material is allowed to culture at room temperature until the soybeans are completely molded. This product is known as tempeh, which can be eaten as is or sliced into thin slices, dipped into a salt solution and fried in a vegetable oil. Currently, tempeh can be made by soaking the beans or legumes and then boiling them until soft and anti-nutritional components have been eliminated or diminished. They are then dried off and sliced in a vegetable slicer (with skins). Then the tempeh starter culture is added and mixed into the substrate, after which it is ready for incubation. Commonly, tempeh is pasteurized after incubation.
The culturing of soybeans destroys the bad odor and bad flavor of soybeans by causing the microorganisms to produce enzymes that act on the proteins, carbohydrates and the oil in the soybeans to make the tempeh palatable and nutritious and to give a desirable flavor. Examples of microorganisms used in tempeh culturing are Rhizopus oryzae and Aspergillus oryzae; most often: Rhizopus Oligosporus. These microorganisms require aeration for growth and the formation of enzymes. During the culturing process, the soybeans must be spread out in layers that are relatively shallow in depth, due to the microorganisms used in making tempeh being aerobic. Resultantly, this means that the area of the soybean layers must be large.
The use of large area trays is common for commercial production of tempeh. Martinelli and Hesseltine (1964) Food Technology, Vol. 18, No. 5 found that large metal trays were excellent for commercial tempeh production because they were more sanitary and allowed for easier removal of the tempeh from the container in comparison to wooden trays (unless the wooden trays were lined with perforated plastic sheeting). The metal trays were reported to be preferably large aluminum trays instead of large stainless steel trays. However, the use of aluminum in prolonged contact with food is being questioned in relation to its possible implication in causing diseases, such as Alzheimers. Stainless steel is not a very good heat conductor and has less than 10 percent of the thermal conductivity of aluminum. In some instances, using stainless steel can result in a build-up of heat at the center of the tray which can cause spoilage of the tempeh in the area around the center of the tray.
A common practice in the preparation of tempeh is to cover the soybean layer with a film. The use of banana leaves in place of the film is a traditional method but can cause contamination, and the banana leaves are not reusable. Other films that can be used are polyethylene film or wax paper.
A common method of making tempeh consists of incubating a layer of soybeans covered with a flexible plastic sheet modified with aeration perforations. The incubation process takes place in an incubation room having an agitated airflow that is uniformly heated or cooled and with a consistent humidity. A disadvantage with the common method is that agitation of the airflow often leads to blackened areas on the tempeh where the airflow meets the microorganisms at the perforated holes. This contact with the fast moving airflow causes the microorganisms to sporulate prematurely and produces undesirable black spores. The greater the agitation of the airflow to ensure that the air in the incubation room does not stratify, the greater the occurrences of premature sporulation. Furthermore, it can be difficult to accurately control the humidity in the incubation rooms. If the airflow is slightly drier than optimum, the black spore problem is increased.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,773 to Hesseltine et al describes a method of preparing tempeh by fermenting soybeans with certain phycomycetous fungi of the order Mucorales, genus Rhizopus. The soybeans are soaked overnight, the seed coats are removed and the whole soybeans may be cracked into large grits. The soybeans are then softened and moistened by soaking in water and then boiled to sterilize and further soften the soybeans. Excess water is drained and the soybeans are cooled below 104° F. (40° C.) and then inoculated with a spore suspension of Rhizopus spores. The soybeans are cultured in conventional non-toxic plastic bags modified by the presence of 0.02 inch diameter perforations located not over 0.5 inches apart. The soybeans are also described as being cultured in perforated flexible, plastic tubing having a diameter of 3.5 inches (9 cm). In either example, the resulting tempeh must be removed from the plastic container and then cooked to prepare the tempeh as a consumable food.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,396 to Pfaff describes an apparatus for culturing plant materials as food, such as tempeh, wherein the apparatus comprises at least a container, such as a stainless steel tray, holding a plant material partially immersed in a water bath, and a cover covering the container. A heater heats the water bath such that the water bath evenly distributes the heat to the container, thereby allowing the plant material to be uniformly cultured. Regulation of the temperature of the water bath is done by increasing the heat of the heater or by adding cold water to the water bath.
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{
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Technical Field
Aspects of this disclosure relate to methods and systems for predicting hours of operation or “business hours” for various establishment types, and in particular, for determining operating hours information based on various types of business information, such as resource usage information.
Introduction
Many types of service providers and vendors could benefit from knowing operating hours for individual businesses. For example, accurate open hours information could help utility providers make customer-specific recommendations for participation in eco-conscious conservation programs, such as energy efficiency programs.
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High data rate wireless communication systems such as high speed packet access (HSPA) or long-term evolution (LTE) may suffer from severe inter-symbol interference due to multipath propagation in physical transmission channels. A conventional mitigation of this kind of problem in a code division multiple access (CDMA) system such as high speed downlink packet access HSDPA is to use a linear (fractionally) spaced chip-level equalizer in the base-band which is designed according to an optimization criterion of choice like minimum mean square error (MMSE) or maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the equalizer output. The equalization stage is then followed by a despreading stage, a symbol-detection stage and a demodulation stage before channel decoding can take place. The quality of the equalization and symbol detection stage is determining the amount of redundancy which is necessary to decode the transmitted code-word without errors in the channel decoder and, therefore, the achievable throughput in bits per second (bps) on the physical layer.
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Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. These networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks.
In a UMTS network, the UTRAN may control a user equipment (UE) to perform different measurements and report the results back to the UTRAN. One type of these measurements is UE internal measurements such as UE transmission power and UE received signal level measurements. For example, the UE can monitor its transmission (Tx) power and trigger an Event 6D report when its Tx power reaches a maximum value. More detail on the Event 6D report can be found in a document 3GPP TS 12.533 section 14.6.2.4 version 11.9.0 (Release 11), the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference. The Event 6D report allows the network to recognize which UEs are operating at their maximum Tx power such that the network may plan the uplink (UL) traffic of the UEs in a more efficient manner.
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{
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The instruments to which the claimed invention is addressed offer many novel features that improve a surgeon's ability to place multiple suture bites for running sutures during minimally invasive surgery. This new enhancement addresses an infrequent, but significant problem of suture jamming between a ferrule and the ferrule holder, which was noted after introduction of this product for actual use in the operating room.
During device rearming (i.e., re-insertion of the ferrule into its compartment after passing through a section of tissue), on occasion surgeons were not always properly orienting the suture relative to the device tip. This improper suture orientation can cause the suture to be positioned in the ferrule compartment in a way that causes irreversible jamming of the suture and ferrule within the ferrule compartment. To overcome the problem of suture jamming in the ferrule compartment in the distal tip during rearming, this novel enhancement provides adequate clearance spaces around the ferrule to receive an improperly oriented suture, while still precisely holding the ferrule in its targeted location.
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}
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A number of activities involve maintaining a record of personal scores which are subsequently significant. For example, several recent scores turned in by a golfer are processed to provide his current handicap. In that regard, common practice involves rather elaborate systems for computing and preserving records for individual players at their associated golf clubs. Traditionally, after each round of golf, each player's score is supposed to be accurately recorded for entry into the records and computation of his handicap. Periodically, a number of such scores are used to compute each player's handicap, the figures usually being posted.
Pursuing the above example, it is noteworthy that player handicaps are quite significant in golf not only in arranging play but additionally in determining the outcome of such play. In view of the importance of a player's individual handicap, economic or egotistical reasons may well tempt a player to engage in practices that will modify his true handicap. Such practices might be selective failures to turn in scores or the reporting of modified scores. Also, among certain players, a jesting attitude often prevails in many games, providing an incentive for players to modify the score records or handicaps of a fellow player. In view of these considerations, a need exists for an effective, economical, and convenient system for reliably providing fresh score or handicap information.
As suggested, situations similar to that described above also exist in other sports, as for example in bowling. The volume and complexity of calculations involved in these sports often result in the use of a computing service to develop the desired data. It is to be appreciated that normally, the practice involves some inconvenience, expense and delay. As a consequence, a need exists for an expeditious and economical system for maintaining player scoring data, as handicaps, that are current, accurate, and readily available.
In general, the present invention may be embodied for use with devices in the form of plastic identification cards, for example, bearing a recording medium as in the form of a magnetic stripe. The magnetic stripe may be of high energy material with the consequence that the record is durable and reliable. In the use of the system hereof in a golfing application, for example, the stripe records a player's handicap which is maintained current in accordance with his games of play. Additionally, the system incorporates secure facilities for improving the reliability of his indicated handicap.
Structurally, the system of the present invention incorporates apparatus for processing the record device or identification card bearing a recording medium, e.g. magnetic stripe. Specifically, information indicating score data, identification data, and reliability data is sensed from the card to accommodate any of a variety of operations. For example, in a golf application, the system may simply manifest the current handicap of the cardholder. Alternatively, the system may receive the score resulting from recent play, then process such score along with other data from the card to provide a fresh handicap. Embodiments of the system may also reveal a history of several recent scores. In the disclosed embodiment of the present invention, the system incorporates further structure for imprinting scorecards with current handicaps and further incorporates security structure for minimizing efforts to tamper with handicap data.
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The present invention relates to a method of confirming that a pattern to be printed is a high-density pattern and divisionally printing the pattern, and a dot printer which can print a series of high-quality, high-density patterns in accordance therewith.
As computers develop, printers have been widely used as one of the terminal devices in computer systems. As the application of printers increases, printer power sources have been reduced in size and weight, with subsequent decreases in costs.
When a high-density pattern such as an all dot (100% duty) pattern is to be printed by a conventional printer (e.g., a 24-pin serial impact dot printer), all the pins are driven at all printing positions in accordance with the pattern. When such high-density patterns are sequentially printed, power consumption increases, resulting in a decrease in the power source voltage. When pin drive voltages are decreased, changes in printing density tend to occur in the printed characters, thereby degrading printing quality. In order to prevent this problem, serial printing of high-density patterns is generally limited. In order to solve the problem of this limitation, power source capacity of the printer is increased, or the decrease in the power source voltage is detected and printing is temporarily stopped.
However, in the former case, the printer itself tends to be large in size, resulting in high costs In the latter case, printer operation is temporarily stopped after detecting the decrease in the power source voltage, or the printer is temporarily switched to divisional printing. As a result, high-duty dot printing is again enabled, without increasing the power source capacity. However, in this latter case, a detector for detecting the decrease in power source voltage is required, resulting in a complicated structure and leading to increased costs. In addition, since printing is temporarily stopped or divisional printing is performed after a decrease in the power source voltage, printing quality immediately before the voltage decrease is degraded.
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This invention relates to a plural-compartment ovenable food container particularly adaptable for storing food items in a refrigerated or frozen condition until ready for heating and consumption by the user.
Food containing trays, typically of plastic, for a complete dinner are often packaged in refrigerated or frozen form in paperboard cartons. Consumers conventionally need only to remove the food containing tray from an outer paperboard carton, peel off a sealed membrane, and then heat the tray and food therein prior to consumption. Constructions of this type employ a relatively thick plastic tray since the tray must support itself in the oven, and must be of sufficient strength to prevent its collapse when carried into and removed from the oven and otherwise handled after removal from the carton. The plastic tray typically has a plurality of compartments for holding different foods, such as an entree, vegetables, and a dessert.
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Hydroxynitrile lyase is an enzyme that catalyzes a reaction for producing cyanohydrins. Briefly, hydroxynitrile lyase is an enzyme catalyst used in the synthesis of cyanohydrins (α-hydroxynitriles) from carbonyl compounds in the presence of a cyanide donor. Cyanohydrins can be converted into various compounds and are useful as intermediates in organic synthesis. Further, optically active cyanohydrins may be used in the synthesis of α-hydroxyacids, α-hydroxyketones, β-aminoalcohols and the like, and are extremely useful in the synthesis of various important optical intermediates which are used for producing, for example, pharmaceuticals and chemicals. Therefore, development of a method for producing a large quantity of hydroxynitrile lyase is desired.
The hydroxynitrile lyase that catalyzes cyanohydrin synthesis is classified into the two groups of (S) selective group and (R) selective group. Of these groups, (S)-hydroxynitrile lyase catalyzes a reaction to produce (S)-cyanohydrin from either ketone or aldehyde and a cyanide compound under acidic conditions. As a representative reaction of this type, a reaction may be given in which (S)-mandelonitrile is produced from benzaldehyde and a cyanide compound, prussic acid. (S)-Hydroxynitrile lyase is also used as a biocatalyst capable of producing from inexpensive substrates optically active substances highly useful as intermediates for pharmaceuticals and chemicals. Thus, (S)-hydroxynitrile lyase is extremely useful in many fields. In order to utilize hydroxynitrile lyase in industrial production of optically active cyanohydrins, development of a method for producing a large quantity of a hydroxynitrile lyase which has high activity per cell or protein and high stereo-selectivity is desired.
It is known that hydroxynitrile lyase exists only in those plants that have cyanogenic glucosides. For example, as (R)-hydroxynitrile lyases, those derived from plants of the family Rosaceae, such as almond (Prunus amygdalus), are known. Further, as (S)-hydroxynitrile lyases, those derived from plants of the family Gramineae, such as sorghum (Sorghum bicolor); plants of the family Euphorbiaceae, such as cassava (Manihot esculenta) and Para rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis); and plants of the family Olacaceae, such as tallow wood (Ximenia americana); are known. However, it has only been possible to extract extremely small quantities of hydroxynitrile lyases from these plants.
In order to obtain a large quantity of a hydroxynitrile lyase which is useful in pharmaceutical and chemical fields, attempts to obtain such a hydroxynitrile lyase with genetic engineering methods have been made(1-9). However, when a heterologous protein is expressed using a transformant, results obtained from researches on a corresponding homologous protein (such as yield, biochemical activities, etc.) are not always applicable. In other words, when a heterologous proteins is expressed using a transformant, it is not easy to predict the behavior and expression level of the transformant, the biochemical activities of the protein of interest, and so forth.
Further, depending on the type of the protein to be expressed, normal folding of the protein may not occur in the transformed host, resulting in the formation of an inclusion body. It is known that, in many cases, the protein within this inclusion body becomes an inactive protein without its inherent activity. In hydroxynitrile lyase, it is reported, for example, that 99% of hydroxynitrile lyase which has been expressed by culturing an Escherichia coli transformant at 37° C. is found in the insoluble fraction in the form of an inactive inclusion body(1). It is also reported that the enzyme activity of crude enzyme solution produced using E. coli is 0.545 units/mg protein(2-4); that the liquid activity of crude enzyme solution produced using E. coli (host: M15[pREP4]) is 0.5 U/ml(14); and that the specific activities of crude enzyme solutions are 0.20 U/mg protein (host: Top10′, 28° C.) and 0.61 U/mg protein (host: XL1-blue, 22° C.), respectively(15, 16). However, none of the above-mentioned enzyme activities is satisfactory.
As means to solve these problems, for example, an attempt has been made in which a hydroxynitrile lyase-expressing E. coli transformant is cultured at a low temperature to thereby inhibit the formation of inclusion bodies and improve the yield of a hydroxynitrile lyase having activity(8). However, this technology requires a long time for cultivation and needs to use large quantities of utility such as electricity and cooling water for maintaining the low temperature. Considering industrial production of hydroxynitrile lyase, these drawbacks will increase production cost greatly.
On the other hand, due to recent advancement in recombinant DNA techniques, it has become rather easy to prepare a mutant protein in which one or more amino acids constituting the original protein are deleted, added, inserted or substituted with other amino acids. In particular, when the protein of interest is an enzyme, it is known that mutants thereof acquire improvement in properties such as stability, resistance to organic solvents, thermal resistance, acid resistance, alkali resistance, substrate specificity or substrate affinity compared to the original enzyme, depending on the sites of the amino acid residues deleted, added, inserted or substituted and the types of the amino acids which replace those amino acids. These improvements in properties may bring about large reduction of production cost in industrial production utilizing enzyme reactions, through stabilization of enzymes as catalysts, simplification of reaction steps, improvement of reaction yield and so forth. Therefore, a large number of improved enzymes with various improved properties are now being developed.
In hydroxynitrile lyase, mutants in which one or more constituent amino acids are deleted, added, inserted or substituted have also been reported. For example, it is reported that a mutant hydroxynitrile lyase has an improved affinity to aromatic aldehydes, in particular, 3-phenoxybenzaldehyde(9, 10). However, a great increase in the production yield of hydroxynitrile lyase has not been achieved yet. It is also reported that a mutant in which tryptophan at position 128 is substituted with another amino acid and a mutant in which cysteine at position 81 is substituted with alanine were prepared and transformed into E. coli M15. When these E. coli M15 transformants were cultured in TB medium containing 100 μM IPTG under conditions cooled from 37° C. to 20° C., some of the mutant-expressing M15 transformants exhibited a hydroxynitrile lyase activity per cell higher than that exhibited by the wild-type hydroxynitrile lyase-expressing M15 transformants(6). However, according to this document, the hydroxynitrile lyase activity of the wild-type hydroxynitrile lyase-expressing M15 transformants is about ½ of that of the wild-type hydroxynitrile lyase-expressing JM109 transformants obtained under the same culture conditions. Thus, the effects of mutants are not necessarily demonstrated in hosts with high expression ability. It is also reported that substitution of glycine at position 113 with serine in a hydroxynitrile lyase derived from a subspecies of cassava (Manihot esculenta) grown in China increased the specific activity of the resultant mutant hydroxynitrile lyase(11). However, the amino acid at position 113 of the hydroxynitrile lyase derived from common cassava (Manihot esculenta) is serine. Thus, this report merely shows that this amino acid is important for hydroxynitrile lyase activity.
On the other hand, it is reported that the N-terminal methionine present at the time of translation undergoes processing in 40% of the proteins in E. coli cell extract(17). This processing is catalyzed by an enzyme called methionine aminopeptidase(18). It is reported that whether or not an endogenous protein in E. coli cells is ready to undergo processing by aminopeptidase is decided by the type of the amino acid at position 2 of the protein; and that the larger the side chains of the amino acid at position 2 is, it is more difficult for the protein to undergo the processing(12). There is also reported an N-end rule that “the stability of a protein in E. coli cells is decided by the type of the N-terminus amino acid of the protein”(13). According to this N-end rule, when the N-terminus of a protein is arginine, lysine, leucine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan or the like, the stability of the protein in cells is low and the protein is readily degraded. Based on these findings, it may be possible to improve the stability of a protein of interest in a host transformant by selecting at position 2 of the protein an amino acid which has large side chains (i.e., hard to undergo the processing by methionine aminopeptidase) and which is not arginine, lysine, leucine, phenylalanine, tyrosine or tryptophan. However, the above-described results(12, 13) were obtained from analysis of endogenous proteins in hosts or some model proteins. Therefore, hydroxynitrile lyase which is a heterologous protein to a host will not necessarily follow the above-described rule because, as mentioned earlier, when a heterologous protein is expressed using a transformant, it is very difficult to predict the behavior and expression level of the transformant, the biochemical activities of the protein of interest, etc.
As described so far, attempts to obtain a hydroxynitrile lyase with remarkably improved properties can not be said successful. Creation of still more useful hydroxynitrile lyase mutants has been strongly desired.
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Many vehicles are used over a wide range of vehicle speeds, including both forward and reverse movement. Internal combustion engines, however, are capable of operating efficiently only within a narrow range of speeds. Consequently, transmissions capable of efficiently transmitting power at a variety of speed ratios are frequently employed. When the vehicle is at low speed, the transmission is usually operated at a high speed ratio such that it multiplies the engine torque for improved acceleration. At high vehicle speed, operating the transmission at a low speed ratio permits an engine speed associated with quiet, fuel efficient cruising.
Hybrid vehicle transmissions improve fuel economy by providing energy storage. In a hybrid electric vehicle, for example, energy may be stored in a battery. The battery may be charged by operating the engine to produce more power than instantaneously required for propulsion. Additionally, energy that would otherwise be dissipated during braking can be captured and stored in the battery. The stored energy may be used later, allowing the engine to produce less power than instantaneously required for propulsion and thereby consuming less fuel.
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Treatment of skin with lasers have been the subject of study since the early 1960s. A variety of lasers have been used in dermatologic practice. Different lasers are primarily distinguished by a wavelength of the light produced, measured in nanometers, such as the XeF excimer (351 nm), argon (488 nm, 514 nm), ruby (694 nm), Nd:YAG (1060 nm), and CO.sub.2 (10,600 nm) lasers.
Photothermolysis of skin has been demonstrated using dye laser pulses and Q-switched ruby laser pulses. It has been found that radiation from Q-switched ruby lasers deeply penetrates the epidermis and dermis. It has also been found that application of ruby red laser energy can cause depigmentation of the skin as well as significant follicular damage to the extent that the hair will fall out.
The Q-switched ruby laser has been used for the treatment of tattoos, pigmented lesions, and conventional ruby lasers have been used to treat epidermal and dermal pigmented lesions. Studies based on experimentation with Q-switched ruby lasers, as well as other lasers, have reported skin depigmentation and temporary hair loss.
The use of lasers for non-invasive hair removal has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,192, issued Oct. 22, 1991 to Nardo Zaias, entitled METHOD OF HAIR DEPILATION. This patent teaches the use of a pulsed ruby laser as the preferred embodiment. The ruby laser radiation (694 nm wavelength) penetrates deep into tissue and is relatively well absorbed by melanin to cause thermal damage to dark, melanin rich hair shafts and follicles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,907, issued Jul. 13, 1993 to Nikoli Tankovich, entitled HAIR REMOVAL DEVICE AND METHOD and U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,728, issued Jun. 20, 1995 to Nikoli Tankovich, entitled HAIR REMOVAL AND METHOD teach the use of a CO.sub.2 pulse laser and a Nd:YAG laser, among other types of lasers, to effect hair removal in conjunction with light absorbing oil used to stain hair.
The Nd:YAG laser is limited to relatively low energy levels at affordable commercial production costs. It is effective only for highly absorptive hairs, usually stained for this purpose. Energy levels adequate for hair removal with bare hairs makes it impractical to use an Nd:YAG laser.
Large pulsed ruby lasers are capable of delivering very high energy levels--as high as 40 J. As a result, they can attain the energy fluences of 15-70 J/cm.sup.2 necessary for hair removal. However, ruby lasers can be fired only at a very low repetition rate--approximately 1 pulse per second (pps). This limits the benefit of using a scanner such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,502 to Eliezer Zair and the computerized pulsed generator (CPG) scanner, commercially available from Coherent Inc. of California, USA. This low repetition rate is too low to cover large treated areas as legs and hands in a reasonable time. A 10.times.30 cm.sup.2 area (one leg) would require some 1200 pulses, each pulse covering an area of 0.25 cm.sup.2 (typical for hair removal with a 5 Joules laser). Assuming a repetition rate of 1 pps, this leads to 20 minutes for a single leg, or over 1 hour for two legs and two hands. This considerably limits the number of patients treatable for hair removal with the expensive laser.
Another drawback of pulsed ruby lasers is their limited pulse time duration. Ruby lasers operated in their free running modes can usually attain a maximum time duration of 300-1000 microseconds. Extending the pulse duration to 1-10 milliseconds is almost impractical. On the other hand, it would be desirable to operate ruby lasers at pulse durations of 1-10 milliseconds in most cases of hair removal because of hair follicle diameters being of over 100 microns.
A third drawback of ruby lasers is their size due to their low efficacy. A 5 Joules, 1 pps ruby laser may typically be of 150 cm.times.70 cm.times.70 cm size. A 25 Joule laser may weigh over 400 kilograms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,273, issued Mar. 1, 1994 to Oon Tan, entitled LASER TREATMENT METHOD FOR REMOVING PIGMENT CONTAINING LESIONS FROM THE SKIN OF A LIVING HUMAN and U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,455, issued Jun. 9, 1993 to Oon Tan, entitled LASER TREATMENT METHOD FOR REMOVING PIGMENTATIONS, LESIONS, AND ABNORMALITIES FROM THE SKIN OF A LIVING PERSON, teach the use of an Alexandrite laser instead of a ruby laser to treat pigmentation, lesions and skin abnormalities. Both teach that before and after irradiation, the area irradiated should be checked for the presence or absence of adhexac (skin appendages) such as hairs. If a hair loss condition is observed, then the energy density from the laser radiation should be decreased for subsequent treatments. The pulse duration is 10-300 nanoseconds.
Skin treatment employing laser based systems, usually pulsed laser based systems is well known in the art. Such laser based systems are used inter alia for cutaneous vascular lesions treatment and for hair removal, the latter application being described for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,059,192 to Zais and 5,226,907 to Tankovich.
As is also well known in the art, the operation of laser based systems for cutaneous treatment is more effective when the tissue is cooled. Examples for prior art devices for cooling the skin during laser treatment are U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,104, U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,797 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,172 to Chess specifically designed for cutaneous vascular lesions treatments and U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,418 to Ghaffari.
A major disadvantage of prior art laser based systems for cutaneous treatment is that the operation of the laser is not visible to the physician carrying the treatment, thus he can not be sure that the laser covered the entire area to be treated. This results in an inhomogeneous treatment of the skin, such as an inhomogeneous removal of hair from the patient skin in the case of hair removal treatment.
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Blenders are commonly used to process a plurality of different food products, including liquids, solids, semi-solids, gels, and the like. It well-known that blenders are useful devices for blending, cutting, and dicing food products in a wide variety of commercial settings, including home kitchen use, professional restaurant or food services use, and large-scale industrial use. They offer a convenient alternative to chopping or dicing by hand, and often come with a range of operational settings and modes adapted to provide specific types or amounts of food processing, e.g., as catered to particular food products.
Conventional blenders include one or more blades disposed in a bottom portion of a container. Rotational motion of the blades is driven by a motor housed in a base of the blender. In most conventional blenders, a user is enabled to actuate the motor by turning a knob disposed on an exterior face of base or pressing a button disposed on an exterior face of the base. This design, however, can require a user to repeatedly press one or more buttons or turn the knob multiple times to achieve pulsed operation of the motor. These types of actions tend to be less convenient and intuitive for users. Moreover, the placement of such knobs or buttons solely on an exterior face of the base can be inconvenient for users and can result in a user repeatedly moving back and forth between the base and the lid to repeatedly check the contents of the blender to determine if additional processing of the food is necessary.
Furthermore, typical blenders utilize cutting blades that are insufficient for performing as diverse a range of food processing operations as may be desired by users. In particular, cutting blades tend to chop food very finely without providing a mechanism for adequately crushing other food items, such as for example, ice. Those of skill in the art will appreciate that many conventional blenders fail at crushing ice at a suitably fast rate (e.g., at a rate that is the same as or comparable to the rate at which non-ice ingredients being processed are cut).
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Transportation vehicles, such as aircraft, have traditionally made use of propellers or jet engine propulsion systems to generate thrust and wings to generate lift to support the weight of the aircraft. Generally, the propulsion and lift-generating systems have been addressed as separate systems. Some airfoil systems have been developed that combine these systems by utilizing a conduit that is in communication with outlet and inlet openings defined on the wing of the aircraft. However, these systems do not provide alternatives for altering the fluid flow through the conduit to achieve greater propulsion and/or lift.
Therefore, a need exists for new and useful fluid systems.
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Recently, an infrared camera that detects infrared rays radiated from an object to perform object recognition has been widely used for the purpose of security in darkness. In this connection, when using the infrared camera for the purpose of security, it is necessary to obtain a clear image, and for that purpose, it is necessary to accurately form infrared light transmitted through a lens group in a lens unit into an image on a detection surface of an infrared sensor. To achieve cost reduction, however, so-called “bolometer type” is often used. Bolometer-type infrared sensor is not easily influenced by thermal convection and the like that causes degradation of detection accuracy and is vacuum-locked in a container composed of metal or the like. Therefore, a position of the detection surface can easily deviate during the manufacturing process, and it is not possible to check an internal state of the container from the outside. Even a slight deviation of the detection surface of the infrared sensor results in error where the position of the rear-side focus of the lens unit does not match the detection surface. That makes it becomes difficult to automatically control the position of the focus adjustment lens, and it becomes impossible to obtain a clear image.
To cope with the above problem, for example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a rear-side focus adjustment system of infrared camera and the method to adjust the rear-side focus, in which focusing is possible even if there are individual differences in the position of the detection surface of the infrared sensor due to vacuum processing. More specifically, the rear-side focus adjustment system for infrared cameras disclosed in Patent Literature 1 adjusts a reference position of a lens group in an optical axis direction, with the position of the detection surface position of the infrared sensor as a rear-side focus, based on detection surface position information from the outside received by means of a lens unit (see claim 1 and the like in Patent Literature 1).
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Tissue repair requires the surgeon to pass suture material through selected tissue, form a plurality of surgical knots extracorporeally and then move the knots into position adjacent the desired tissue to be sutured. In such procedures, the surgeon must manually tie the knots on the suture strands after the suture is threaded through the selected tissues to be sutured. Knot tying during surgery, particularly arthroscopic surgery, is tedious and time-consuming. There is also a tendency for the knots to deform or collapse as the surgeon manually forces the knots down into the proper position.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved method of repairing tears in soft tissue (such as the meniscus) which does not require multiple suture knots.
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There are known conventional snow chains for passenger cars the construction of which is such as to require shifting or displacement of the vehicle when said chain is to be mounted on the respective tire. This shifting or displacement of the vehicle is done at least once and is time consuming and inconvenient, especially when there is a deep snow to be removed around the wheel or tire on which the snow chain is to be mounted.
In order to overcome the previously cited inconveniences of conventional snow chains various solutions have been proposed. Among other expedients for driving and starting in snow there are known those which have the form of laths arranged frontally on the wheel and generally screwed on the felly. These devices make impossible fast and quiet driving on a snow covered road. A further inconvenience is that the profile of the tire is not provided with engaging elements on its entire circumference, which causes nonuniform engagement of the wheel with the snow covered surface. A further snow chain for quick mounting without the need of vehicle shifting is composed of two frames of rectangular form which are bent accordingly to the profile of the tire. The frames are mutually connected by means of lateral chains and a net of transverse chain is arranged between said lateral chains. The known snow chain is tightened on the tire of the vehicle by means of a special straining device, only on the outer side of the vehicle wheel, while on the inner side of the wheel the frames are not connected between them and hence these frames can fall off the respective tire or wheel of the vehicle.
Furthermore, the frames are very massive and cause strong vibration during driving and the profile of the tire is equipped with chain only on two-thirds of its circumference. This kind of snow chain does not allow high driving speeds.
Another known snow chain for quick mounting comprises three J-shaped laths on which straight portions are pivotally connected by means of a rivetted bolt, while the bent portions rest on the profile of the tire. Between the laths there are arranged the lateral chains fastened to said laths by means of rivets and equipped between each other by a net of transverse chain extending approximately on two thirds of the tire's profile. During driving with this kind of snow chain one can feel strong jolts due to said laths are spaced apart by an angle of 120.degree..
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The present invention relates to a rotor for pulping and straining machines for food products.
Machines for extracting juices and purées from plant or even animal products essentially consist of a filter or sieve, usually a perforated metal plate, which is cylindrical or conical in shape, and a rotary element (rotor) which turns within the sieve in such a way as to separate the particles that pass through the holes in the sieve from those that do not, the latter being discharged from the sieve as waste.
The rotor is a very important part of the system because the part of the product that has to be extracted usually adheres very strongly to the waste (for example, the flesh and peel of a fruit) and the main function of the rotor is to separate them.
The rotor usually comprises a central hub attached to a power driven shaft and is equipped with a certain number of blades that act on the product in the machine, causing it to rotate within the sieve.
Rotor components vary greatly in shape and size but all rotors known in prior art, whatever their shape, are designed to transmit to the product particles a combined circular and axial motion that causes them to follow a cylindrical or conical spiral path.
The useful part of the product is propelled through the holes in the sieve mainly by centrifugal force. All operating conditions being equal, a low viscosity product will be separated out more easily than one with a high viscosity.
Indeed, highly viscous products tend to form a layer that adheres to the walls of the sieve and makes it more difficult for the useful part of the product to pass through the holes.
This behaviour means that machines of this kind cannot be used on high-viscosity products (for example, banana purée) and, even in the case of medium-viscosity products, reduces machine efficiency.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to testing of LSI circuits, and particularly relates to a method of generating optimum test data.
2. Description of the Related Art
As circuit density of LSI circuits increases, system LSI circuits are used in increasing numbers where the system LSI circuits include a microprocessor unit (MPU), an internal circuit, and a RAM, and has a micro-program stored in the RAM, which allows the microprocessor to operate in accordance with instruction codes of the micro-program, thereby controlling the internal circuit.
A system LSI circuit is a highly integrated circuit implemented as a single chip, on which the MPU, the memory, and various circuits are mounted. The greater the circuit density, the greater the size of test data necessary for conducting tests. It is necessary, therefore, to conduct an efficient test by preparing an efficient set of data no more than necessary for conducting the test.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a related-art process of LSI development.
At a step ST_a, a circuit design of an LSI circuit is determined by a design engineer using a workstation. In order to check proper operation of the designed circuit in terms of operation logic, a logic simulation is carried out on the workstation (at a step ST_b). At a step ST_c, after appropriate corrections are made in response to the logic simulation, a layout of the circuit is designed by using the workstation in order to arrange various circuit elements within the circuit space. At a step ST_d, simulation of gate operations is carried out by taking into account line capacitance of the signal lines of the circuit layout. At a step ST_e, test data is generated on the workstation. Here, the test data is to be fed into a LSI tester device at a subsequent stage when the LSI tester device is used to test an actually manufactured LSI circuit. The test data indicates timings of signals, including data of input signals that are supplied to input terminals of the tested LSI circuit, and including data of output signals that are expected to be output from the output terminals of the tested LSI circuit.
When the design of the LSI circuit is completed after the process described above, data of the circuit design is released to the process of LSI-chip manufacture (e.g., released to an LSI-chip manufacturer) at a step ST_f. Here, the released data of the circuit design include circuit data, physical LSI data (e.g., regarding pins and test terminals), and the test data of an LSI tester device.
At a step STE_g, the circuit data and the LSI physical data are used in the process of manufacturing LSI chips to actually manufacture an LSI chip. At a step ST_h, the test data is fed into an LSI tester device that is commercially available. At a step ST_i, the manufactured LSI chip is set in the LSI tester device, and tests are conducted by use of the test data.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an example of an LSI circuit. FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a process of generating test data for testing the LSI circuit shown in FIG. 10. A method of generating the test data for testing the LSI circuit of FIG. 10 will be described below.
In the example of the LSI circuit shown in FIG. 10, a micro-program to be executed by a microprocessor is loaded to a RAM (e.g., SRAM) of the LSI circuit when the micro-program is supplied from a ROM provided outside the LSI circuit at the time of power-on.
In FIG. 10, an LSI 80 is connected to a ROM 81 that stores a micro-program therein, and has a terminal that is used for micro loading. A power-on-reset circuit 83 supplies a power-on-reset signal. The LSI 80 is also connected to a 2nd cache 84 and an I/O (input/output) device 85. The LSI 80 includes a micro loading circuit 80a, a set of various internal circuits 80b, a processing circuit 80c having an MPU (microprocessor unit) and an SRAM for loading a micro-program, and a set of various circuits 80d including a 1st cache, a 1st-cache control, a 2nd-cache control, and an I/O control.
The process shown in FIG. 11 is carried out to generate test data by simulating the circuit of FIG. 10 on the workstation, and the generated test data is used for testing an actually manufactured LSI circuit.
After starting the simulation, at a step S1, a micro-program to be transferred to the LSI circuit 80 is prepared in the ROM 81. At a step S2, a power-on-reset signal is supplied to the LSI circuit 80. In response, at a step S3, the data (i.e., the micro-program) is transferred from the ROM 81 to the SRAM of the processing circuit 80c of the LSI 80. This transfer is carried out by the micro loading circuit 80a, and the micro-program is loaded to all the area of the SRAM. This micro-program is a set of instructions that are used by the MPU to operate. At a step S4, the MPU starts operation thereof by following the instructions of the micro-program stored in the SRAM. At a step S5, a check is made by using a minimum necessary set of instructions of the micro-program as to whether various circuits operate properly. At a step S6, a check is made as to whether debugging of the micro-program is completed. If there is a bug, correction is made, and, then, the procedure goes back to the step S1 followed by the series of steps S2 through S5 of the simulation. Namely, the data (i.e., the micro-program) is transferred again from the ROM 81 to the SRAM of the processing circuit 80c of the LSI 80, and a check is made with regard to the proper operation of the circuits.
The method of generating test data for a system LSI circuit as described above has drawbacks as follows.
FIGS. 12A and 12B are illustrative drawings for explaining the drawbacks of the related art.
In the related art method of generating test data, data transfer from the ROM to the RAM needs to be carried out each time the micro-program is debugged. Namely, as shown in FIG. 12A, the total time length of the simulation on the workstation is represented as (time length of data transfer from ROM to RAM+time length required for checking operation of circuits by use of instructions stored in RAM)xc3x97(the number of debugging operations).
In this case, the time length of data transfer from the external ROM to the internal RAM (SRAM) accounts for most of the simulation time. Since a series of steps of the simulation need to be repeated as many times as there are debugging operations, the total time of the simulation tends to be lengthy.
Further, the time length of data transfer itself is quite lengthy in the related-art method. Not all of the instructions of the micro-program are necessary for the purpose of conducting tests using the tester device. However, since the related-art method sequentially transfers all the micro-program contents from the ROM to the RAM, the size of data to be transferred is quite large.
FIG. 12B shows the way the data of the external ROM is transferred to and stored in the RAM area for storing a micro-program. In this example, data of four addresses in the ROM are stored at one address in the RAM. Data at each address in the ROM is comprised of 8 bits, and data at each address in the RAM is comprised of 32 bits. Not all of the data stored in the RAM are used as the test data. In this example, data (i.e., the micro-program) stored at the addresses 00001 and 00003 are not used for the test purposes.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of generating test data for testing an LSI circuit that can generate test data efficiently, thereby shortening the simulation time and improving debugging efficiency.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide a method of generating test data that substantially obviates one or more of the problems caused by the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
Features and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent from the description and the accompanying drawings, or may be learned by practice of the invention according to the teachings provided in the description. Objects as well as other features and advantages of the present invention will be realized and attained by the method of generating test data particularly pointed out in the specification in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the invention provides a method of generating test data for conducting a test of an LSI circuit based on a model of the LSI circuit that has a processor therein operating based on a micro-program, the method including the steps of ROM-modeling the micro-program which is already debugged during logic simulation that determines logic design of the LSI circuit, and debugging the micro-program and the LSI circuit by carrying out the test of an LSI circuit on the model of the LSI circuit.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of generating test data for conducting a test of an LSI circuit, based on a model of the LSI circuit that has a processor therein operating based on a micro-program stored in a RAM, includes the steps of carrying out the test of an LSI circuit on the model of the LSI circuit, tracing addresses of the micro-program that are accessed during the test, and generating a control file from the traced addresses, the control file controlling data transfer of the micro-program from an external ROM to the RAM so as to transfer only a portion of the micro-program that is no more than necessary for conducting the test.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of generating test data for conducting a test of an LSI circuit, based on a model of the LSI circuit that has a processor therein operating based on a micro-program stored in a RAM, includes the steps of ROM-modeling the micro-program which is already debugged during logic simulation that determines logic design of the LSI circuit, carrying out the test of an LSI circuit on the model of the LSI circuit, debugging the micro-program and the LSI circuit during the test, tracing addresses of the micro-program that are accessed during the test, and generating a control file from the traced addresses, the control file controlling data transfer of the micro-program from an external ROM to the RAM so as to transfer only a portion of the micro-program that is no more than necessary for conducting the test.
In the present invention, as described above, the ROM modeling of a micro-program is performed. That is, the micro-program is treated as being stored in a ROM inside a system LSI circuit where this ROM is embodied by treating a RAM as a read-only memory during the simulation of generating test data. By doing so, the present invention eliminates a need to transfer the micro-program from an external ROM to the internal RAM each time a debugging operation is carried out.
Moreover, since the micro-program of the present invention has been already debugged during the logic simulation prior to the simulation of generating test data, the ROM model of the micro-program does not have to be debugged as extensively as otherwise. Furthermore, during the simulation of generating test data, debugging for removing remaining bugs is carried out with respect to the micro-program implemented as the ROM model.
Furthermore, the control file for controlling the transfer of micro-program from the external ROM to the internal ROM is generated from addresses traced during simulation of LSI testing. Use of this control file makes it possible to transfer only the data of the micro-program that is no more than necessary for the LSI testing.
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1. This invention relates to a personal flotation device such as one which may be used for walking on water.
2. Description of the Art Practices
The first apparent use of personal flotation devices mounted to the feet is shown in Soule, U.S. Pat. No. 216,234 issued Jun. 3, 1879.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,494 issued Sep. 17, 1974, to Dougherty describes water walking pontoons which are useful for personal amusement. Dougherty's pontoons require that the user have the pontoon surround the legs up to and near the knee.
Webster, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,808,622 issued May 7, 1974, describes shoes for walking in water. In Webster, the shoes also require that the foot be placed within the elongated buoyant body member.
Joyce, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,430, issued Sep. 17, 1974 describes a pair of personal flotation devices which are held together by connecting means. The Joyce device also shows the insertion of the foot of the user into the flotation device.
Meredith, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,533,023, issued Apr. 7, 1925, describes a rudderless flotation device having foot means mounted such that the foot is above the surface of the flotation device, but completely encases the foot. Meredith also shows a hinged means for propelling the ski through the water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,562, issued Nov. 24, 1981, discloses a further usage of the device wherein the foot is inserted within the pontoon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,562 issued Oct. 3, 1978 to Schaumann discloses a pair of buoyant flotation devices locked together by cords or other latching mechanism. The purpose of the latching mechanisms are to control the spread of the user's legs. A similar device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,069, issued Apr. 14, 1981 to Schaumann. The water walker described in the later Schaumann patent employs an elongated indentation and an elongated protuberance to replace the locking mechanism, thereby controlling spread as in the earlier Schaumann patent.
The use of flotation devices is shown in an undated article, page 65, featuring David Kiner.
The present invention provides a flotation device which does not require the feet to be placed within the flotation device. A further feature of the present invention has two rudder members and disposed between the rudder members a means for trapping fluid when the device is directed by the user's foot in the aft direction.
A further feature of the present invention is to construct the personal flotation device such that an over-hang, preferably a non-planar device is utilized to control the spread of the feet while the device is in use. Yet a further aspect of the present invention is a pole for enhanced propulsion of the personal flotation device.
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This invention relates to the field of computer systems. More particularly, a system and methods are provided for intelligently shifting or sharing the load of proxy duties in a networked computing environment.
In today's electronic society, organizations often separate their internal computer networks (e.g., Local Area Networks or LANs) from outside computing systems and networks (e.g., the Internet) by positioning a firewall between their internal network and the external systems and networks. Firewalls typically incorporate hardware and software elements to prevent an outside user from gaining unfettered access to internal assets and may also be configured to limit the activities of internal users when communicating with an external entity through the firewall. For example, a firewall may mask or alter outgoing communications to prevent an outsider from learning details of the internal computing environment. Further, a firewall may be configured to apply a set of rules (e.g., established by the organization's system or network administrator) to allow or disallow particular communications from passing through the firewall from one side to the other. Thus, firewalls are positioned astride what may be the only connection (or only full-time connection) between the internal network and external systems.
A firewall may incorporate one or more proxies or proxy modules to handle particular functions or particular types of traffic received by the firewall. In particular, proxies are often employed on a firewall to accept connections from internal users and establish connections with external entities on behalf of the users without revealing details or information concerning the users or the internal network and computer nodes.
In addition to representing a user to the outside world, a proxy may be configured to perform various other functions to enhance the security of the internal network and/or prevent unwanted or undesirable communications from being received. The more functionality or duties assigned to a proxy, however, the more overhead that is added to its operation. As a result the performance of a proxy and, by extension, the firewall, may be degraded.
A firewall may have several proxies installed and enabled for a variety of purposes. A first proxy, for example, may be enabled for FTP (File Transfer Protocol) traffic passing through the firewall to scan transferred files for viruses.
Another proxy may be configured to examine all HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) traffic through the firewall in order to allow certain actions or commands (e.g., web surfing) and disallow others (e.g., disallow downloading of ActiveX controls).
When a message, communication or packet reflecting one of these protocols is received by the firewall, it is forwarded to the appropriate proxy. The proxy must then parse and examine the communication to determine if it is allowed to continue. The proxy thus applies a set of rules, criteria or parameters for each communication it receives. This may have a significant effect on the firewall's throughput. If, for example, a proxy scans every communication (e.g., for viruses or unwanted data such as pornography), communications may be slowed considerably.
Thus, what is needed is a system and method of applying the security features offered by a proxy but with little or no degradation to the operation of an organization's firewall and internal network. In particular, a firewall's overall performance may be enhanced by off-loading some of a proxy's duties (e.g., scanning for viruses or other content) for certain communications destined for trusted network nodes.
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The present invention relates generally to a vehicle navigation system that has the capability to determine in real time the position of the vehicle relative to data contained in a database that represents the road network on which the vehicle is traveling. The present invention more particularly relates to programs and methods that improve vehicle positioning accuracy when using differential wheel sensors with a vehicle navigation system.
In-vehicle navigation systems provide a variety of useful features to end users (i.e., the drivers and/or passengers of the vehicles in which the navigation systems are installed). Included among the features that are provided by some in-vehicle navigation systems are route calculation, route guidance, emergency roadside services, electronic yellow pages, and so on. In order to provide these kinds of features, in-vehicle navigation systems use geographic data. The geographic data include information about features in a covered geographic region. The geographic data include information about the location of roads, the speed limits along roads, turn restrictions at intersections, the names of roads, the address ranges along roads, the locations of points of interest, and so on.
Some of the features provided by in-vehicle navigation systems require that the position of the vehicle be determined. There are several considerations related to determining the position of the vehicle. For example, a GPS (Global Positioning System) may be used to obtain the geographic coordinates of the vehicle. However, the geographic coordinates only indicate the position of the vehicle relative to the surface of the earth. For some of the features provided by in-vehicle navigation systems, a means is required to determine the vehicle position relative to the road network on which the vehicle is traveling and the direction of the vehicle along the road segment. In order to determine the position and heading of a vehicle along a road segment, a vehicle navigation system uses a geographic database and one or more sensors in addition to the GPS system.
One type of sensor that can be used in a vehicle navigation system to determine the vehicle position or heading is a differential wheel speed sensor. A differential wheel speed sensor can be used to determine changes in vehicle heading by comparing the distances traveled by a left and right wheel of the vehicle. Once the vehicle position is determined relative to the road segment represented by the geographic database, programming in the in-vehicle navigation system can be used to provide various features, such as determining a route to a desired destination, providing maneuvering instructions for reaching the destination, identifying the closest restaurant or gas station relative to the vehicle position, displaying a map of the area around the vehicle, and so on.
An advantage associated with using differential wheel speed sensors in navigation systems is that they are relatively inexpensive. Although differential wheel speed sensors are relatively accurate, there is room for improvement. Accordingly, it is an objective to improve the accuracy of vehicle heading determinations when using differential wheel speed sensors.
To provide improvements over the prior art, a vehicle positioning application is disclosed that includes a means for a differential wheel speed (DWS) heading change determination (hereinafter sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cDWS headingxe2x80x9d) and means for correcting the DWS heading determination to account for changes in wheel radii. The DWS heading may then be used to correct the vehicle heading determination in certain embodiments.
Each of the various corrective aspects according to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention may be instituted as various software, firmware, or other processing routines in any desirable processor of the vehicle or its navigation system components utilizing the data gathered from a DWS sensor system as set forth herein or otherwise modified according to accepted techniques in the art.
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I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to adhesive rollers of the type used for detritus removal.
II. Description of Related Art
There are many previously known adhesive rollers used for detritus removal. These previously known rollers typically comprise an elongated strip having a backing layer. The strip includes two ends and two spaced apart and parallel sides.
An adhesive layer is provided along a first side of the backing layer. Thereafter, the strip is wound into a tubular and cylindrical roller with the adhesive layer facing outwardly. Oftentimes the strip is wound around a tubular core and the tubular core is then rotatably mounted on a handle to facilitate rolling of the adhesive roller along the surface desired to be cleaned.
After prolonged use of the adhesive roller for cleaning surfaces, the adhesive on the outermost adhesive layer or sheet of the adhesive roller becomes covered with detritus and other matter and loses its adhesiveness. When this happens, it is necessary to remove the outermost sheet of the adhesive roller to expose fresh adhesive on the next underlying sheet on the roller.
However, because of the adhesion of the backing strip with the adhesive on the next underlying layer on the roller, the actual removal of single sheets, each constituting one circumference of the roller, is oftentimes difficult. Frequently, the outermost sheet of the adhesive roller becomes torn during its removal. Even though a uniform release coating covers the side of the backing strip opposite from the adhesive side, these previously known uniform release coatings, however, are of a relatively weak strength in order to ensure the integrity of the roll in use.
There have, however, been a number of previously known adhesive roller constructions designed to facilitate the removal of an individual sheet corresponding to one revolution around the cylindrical roller when desired to expose fresh adhesive on the next underlying sheet. In one previously known adhesive roller, perforations are provided at spaced intervals along the roller so that the space in between the perforations corresponds substantially to one revolution of the adhesive roller. In still a further previously known adhesive roller, a single cut terminates at a position spaced inwardly from the sides of the adhesive roller to facilitate removal of individual sheets or layers of the adhesive roller.
Even with these previously known adhesive rollers having both spaced perforations and/or a cut formed through the roller to facilitate separation of individual sheets from the roller, it is still oftentimes difficult to initiate the removal of one sheet from the roller due to the adhesion of the backing layer of the outermost sheet with the adhesive on the next innermost layer of the roller. Consequently, in order to facilitate the initiation of the removal of an individual sheet from the roller, there have been previously known adhesive rollers which provide at least one and oftentimes two “dry” edges along the backing strip. These dry edges are uncovered with adhesive so that the edge of the outermost sheet can be easily grasped along the dry edge in order to initiate the removal of the outermost sheet from the roller.
These previously known adhesive rollers with dry edges, however, have not proven wholly satisfactory in use. One disadvantage of the dry edge is that it reduces the amount of area of the exposed adhesive on the outermost surface of the roller since the dry edges are not covered with an adhesive. As such, the efficiency of the adhesive roller is less than an adhesive roller in which the entire outwardly facing surface of the backing strip is covered with an adhesive.
A still further disadvantage of the previously known adhesive rollers is that it is difficult during the manufacturing process to maintain an accurate width of the dry edge along one or both of the edges of the strip. The inability to maintain an accurate and predetermined dimension for the width of the dry edges along the adhesive roller provides an aesthetically displeasing appearance for the consumer. Furthermore, zone coating of the adhesive on the backing layer to form the dry edge(s) significantly increases the manufacturing costs for the adhesive roller.
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Decorative elements contained in jars are popular ornamental motifs. Typical decorative jars include Mason jars, apothecary jars, jelly jars and the like. Candles may be positioned in, or adjacent to, the jars to illuminate their contents in an aesthetically-pleasing manner. However, covers to these jars must be removed when the candle is lit, which presents several safety concerns and further exposes jar contents to environmental elements, as well as introduces similar presentation concerns. Therefore, one common problem associated with highlighting decorative jars in dark environments, especially jars with ornamental internal features, is maintaining an appropriate, sustaining lighting source.
Decoration lights are often used to highlight homes, landscapes, public buildings, retail locations and the like, especially during holidays. Conventional decorative lights comprise low energy incandescent light bulbs, and more recently, light emitting diodes have been displayed to produce various energy-efficient lighting effects. There are several types of currently known decorative lights that are typically plugged into a wall outlet. As these lights are usually plugged in, they constantly draw from the power grid and expose the area to an unwanted electrical safety concerns, particularly in outdoor settings. Thus, solar power is an inexpensive, sustainable alternative to convert solar energy into electric power. However, many solar light arrangements use plastics and petrochemicals which are not very versatile for the consumer. Further, conventional methods fail to adequately highlight and illuminate decorative jar features in dark environments.
Therefore, Applicants desire systems and methods for automatically illuminating contents in a transparent jar to produce various lighting effects, without the drawbacks presented by the traditional systems and methods.
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Semiconductor devices are used in many electronic and other applications. Semiconductor devices comprise integrated circuits that are formed on semiconductor wafers by depositing many types of thin films of material over the semiconductor wafers, and patterning the thin films of material to form the integrated circuits.
Metallization layers are usually the top-most layers of semiconductor devices. The manufacturing of semiconductor devices is typically classified into two phases, the front end of line (FEOL) and the back end of line (BEOL). The BEOL is typically considered to be the point of the manufacturing process where metallization layers are formed, and the FEOL is considered to include the manufacturing processes prior to the formation of metallization layers.
While some integrated circuits have a single top layer of metallization, other integrated circuits comprise multi-level interconnects, wherein two or more metallization layers are formed over a semiconductor wafer or workpiece. Each conductive line layer typically comprises a plurality of conductive lines separated from one another by an insulating material, also referred to as an inter-level dielectric (ILD). The conductive lines in adjacent horizontal metallization layers may be connected vertically in predetermined places by vias formed between the conductive lines.
One of the challenges in semiconductor technology requires developing technologies that minimize process variations. Hence, a given technology is optimized in view of the process limitations. For example, metal lines are normally patterned wider near and above vias to minimize misalignment errors. However, such adjustments in the process are usually at some other expense. For example, wider metal lines result in a reduction in spacing between the metal lines, and can result in unwanted effects such as yield or performance loss.
Thus, what are needed in the art are cost effective ways of forming BEOL metallization without significant increase in costs or yield, performance and reliability loss.
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The invention relates to methods of plant regeneration. Specifically, methods utilizing media containing apical dominance inhibitors to induce multiple bud and shoot formation are disclosed. More specifically, methods for improving the efficiency of production of transgenic cotton and soybean plants are disclosed.
The expanding field of biotechnology provides the tools for scientists to introduce important traits into a variety of plant species. New technologies promote the production of commercially viable transgenic crops and have a significant economic impact on the agricultural industry. These advancements enable creation of new crop germplasm containing desirable novel traits. Such traits include improvements in the nutritional quality, insect resistance, disease resistance, and yield of many crops. Cotton is the leading fiber crop worldwide and holds significant agronomic influence in a number of markets. Accordingly, much effort is continually directed toward the genetic engineering of this agronomically important crop species.
Crop improvement is achieved with greater ease and rapidity when breeders are able to grow plant tissues in culture in such a way that whole plants, or portions thereof, can be rapidly produced from relatively high proportion of explants and from the most genotypically significant germplasm. The breeding and genetic engineering of cotton, however, has taken place at a relatively slow rate because of the absence of tissue culture methods capable of regenerating organized tissues, such as whole plants or shoots from cotton explants at a sufficiently high frequency and in a commercially timely manner from high-quality or commercial-quality germplasm.
Genetic engineering of plants is essentially a two-step process: transformation and regeneration. First, plant cells are transformed, thereby introducing a nucleic add sequence that is typically integrated into the genome of the host cell. Second, a sexually competent plant is regenerated from the transformed cells or tissues. In the most common method, nonembryogenic tissue is genetically transformed, then induced under suitable culture conditions to form somatic embryogenic calli. The embryos resulting therefrom may then be germinated to form plants. The transformation and regeneration processes preferably are complementary such that the successfully transformed tissues are capable of developing into competent whole plants.
Current systems are very time-consuming and laborious and a high frequency of plants that are recovered are not fertile. Meristem-based transformation systems are advantageous in that they are faster, but the plants are chimeras and it is difficult to identify germline transformants. If multiple shoots could be produced from the transformed meristem cells, then improved selection schemes could be utilized and nonchimeric transformed plants could be produced. Typically, cytokinins are used to produce a multiple shoot response in plants. However, in cotton, cytokinins only produce a few shoots in many cultivars or kill the explants entirely.
The present invention provides a method of culturing cotton and soybean that produces multiple shoots in culture and allows for the recovery of fertile plants. This allows for more efficient transformation and regeneration of cotton and soybean.
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The present invention relates to nickel powder and a conductive paste for use in making a multilayer ceramic capacitor and more particularly to nickel powder, which has a narrow particle size distribution and an excellent packing ability in a conductive paste and which is, in particular, suitably used for forming a thin and uniform inner electrode for a multilayer ceramic capacitor without being accompanied by the formation of any crack and the generation of any delamination as well as a conductive paste for use in making a multilayer ceramic capacitor, which comprises the foregoing nickel powder.
A multilayer ceramic capacitor comprises a plurality of layers of a ceramic dielectric substance and a plurality of inner electrode layers, which are alternately multilayer and united and such a multilayer ceramic capacitor is in general produced by preparing a conductive paste by converting metal fine powder as an inner electrode material into a paste, printing a green sheet of a ceramic dielectric substance with the resulting conductive paste, laminating a plurality of the printed green sheets in such a manner that the ceramic dielectric green sheet and the conductive paste are arranged alternately, pressing the laminated printed green sheet with heating to thus unite them, and then firing the resulting assembly at a high temperature in a reducing atmosphere to thus unify the ceramic dielectric layers and the inner electrode layers.
As the inner electrode material, there has conventionally been used, for instance, a precious metal such as platinum, palladium or silver-palladium, but there have recently been developed techniques, which make use of base metals such as nickel in place of precious metals such as platinum, palladium and silver-palladium in order to save the production cost and these techniques have been advanced. However, if a nickel powder-containing paste is used for forming an inner electrode, problems such as the formation of cracks and/or the generation of delamination arise.
Moreover, electronic parts produced by using conductive pastes such as multilayer ceramic capacitors have recently been more and more miniaturized and the ceramic dielectric layer and the inner electrode layer have correspondingly been more and more thinner and the number of these layers multilayer has been increased. Accordingly, there have presently been produced a multilayer part such as a multilayer ceramic capacitor in which the thickness of the dielectric layer is not more than 2 xcexcm, the thickness of the inner electrode layer is not more than 1.5 xcexcm and the number of layers multilayer is not less than 100. To produce such a part, however, it is necessary to form a thin and uniform inner electrode without being accompanied by the formation of any crack and/or the generation of any delamination.
To obtain a thinner inner electrode layer, it may be satisfactory to use metal fine powder having a small average particle size balanced with the thickness of the inner electrode layer. However, coarse particles may be present in such metal fine powder even if the average particle size of the powder falls within the desired range. Accordingly, if an inner electrode layer is formed by using a conductive paste containing such metal fine powder, the coarse particles present therein may form projections on the resulting inner electrode layer, the projections may in turn break through the thin ceramic dielectric layer to thus form a short-circuit between the neighboring inner electrode layers. Accordingly, to prevent the formation of any short-circuit between inner electrode layers, it is necessary to use metal fine powder having an average particle size substantially smaller than that balanced with the thickness of such a thin inner electrode layer.
For instance, Japanese Un-Examined Patent Publication No. Hei 11-189801 discloses nickel ultra-fine powder whose average particle size ranges from 0.2 to 0.6 xcexcm and in which the rate of coarse particles having a particle size of not less than 2.5 times the average particle size is not more than 0.1% based on the number of particles and further discloses in the fourth column, lines 21 to 24 that xe2x80x9cIf the particle size of coarse particles is limited to, for instance, about 1.5 xcexcm, the average particle size of the ultra-fine nickel powder according to the present invention should accordingly be limited to 0.6 xcexcmxe2x80x9d. Thus, it is necessary to use metal fine powder having a considerably small average particle size in order to produce a thin inner electrode layer.
In addition, to ensure stable conductivity of the resulting electrodes, such nickel fine powder should not only be finer, but also should have a high packing ability in a vehicle used in the production of a conductive paste. However, it may be more and more difficult to improve the packing ability of such fine particle-containing nickel powder in the conductive paste and the viscosity of the resulting conductive paste increases, as the particle size of the fine particles is reduced. In addition, a problem arises such that the heat shrinkage of the conductive paste layer and the oxidation of the nickel powder included therein are accelerated upon firing the printed green sheet.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide nickel powder, which has a narrow particle size distribution, which has an excellent packing ability in a conductive paste and which can particularly suitably be used for forming a thin and uniform inner electrode for use in making a multilayer ceramic capacitor without being accompanied by the formation of any crack and/or the generation of any delamination, as well as a conductive paste, which is used for the manufacture of a multilayer ceramic capacitor.
The inventors of this invention have conducted various studies to accomplish the foregoing objects, have found that if the rates of coarse particles and fine particles present in nickel powder are reduced to relatively low levels and the tap density of the nickel powder is higher than a predetermined value, an inner electrode layer free of any projection can be formed without unnecessarily reducing the particle size of the nickel powder and the formation of any short circuit between the neighboring inner electrodes of the resulting ceramic capacitor can certainly be inhibited, that the oxidation of nickel particles and the heat shrinkage of the electrode layer can be inhibited because of the low content of fine particles and that the nickel powder has a high packing ability in a conductive paste due to a high tap density of the powder and also permits the formation of a beautiful sintered film and thus have completed the present invention.
Moreover, the inventors have also found that if the particle size of crystallites present in each nickel particle is small in addition to the foregoing characteristics, the sintering of nickel particles gently proceeds, the sintering speed is uniform and as a result, a thin and uniform inner electrode can be formed without being accompanied by the formation of any crack and/or the generation of any delamination.
Accordingly, the nickel powder of the present invention is characterized in that the rate of the nickel particles whose particle size is not less than 1.2 time the average particle size as determined by the observation with an SEM is not more than 5% of the total number of nickel particles, that the rate of nickel particles whose particle size is not more than 0.8 time the average particle size is not more than 5% of the total number of nickel particles and that the tap density of the nickel powder is not less than 2.5 g/cm3.
The present invention also relates to a conductive paste for use in making a multilayer ceramic capacitor, which is characterized by comprising nickel powder having the foregoing characteristic properties.
It is important in the nickel powder of the present invention that has a rate of the nickel particles whose particle size is not less than 1.2 time the average particle size as conveniently determined by the observation by an SEM with a magnification of xc3x9710000 is not more than 5%, preferably not more than 4% and most preferably not more than 3% of the total number of nickel particles and that a rate of nickel particles whose particle size is not more than 0.8 time the average particle size is not more than 5%, preferably not more than 4% and most preferably not more than 3% of the total number of nickel particles. In other words, the rate of coarse particles present in the nickel powder is relatively low and thus the particle sizes of individual nickel particles present in the nickel powder are considerably uniform. Therefore, each inner electrode layer used in, for instance, a multilayer ceramic capacitor produced by using a conductive paste, which contains such nickel powder, may have a considerably thin thickness as compared with the average particle size of the nickel powder and may have a surface almost free of any projection. Accordingly, the resulting multilayer ceramic capacitor never causes any short circuit between the neighboring inner electrodes. In addition, the nickel powder of the present invention has a relatively low rate of fine particles and therefore, the paste containing such nickel powder never suffers from such problems that the paste has a high viscosity and that the heat shrinkage of the paste layer and the oxidation of the nickel particles included therein are accelerated during firing the printed green sheet.
It is also important in the nickel powder of the present invention that it has a tap density of not less than 2.5 g/cm3, preferably not less than 2.7 g/cm3 and more preferably not less than 3.0 g/cm3. In other words, the nickel powder has a high packing ability in a conductive paste prepared by using the same because of its high tap density and beautiful sintered films can be obtained in, for instance, a multilayer ceramic capacitor prepared by using such a nickel powder-containing conductive paste.
Moreover, in the nickel powder according to the present invention, the average particle size of crystallites present in each nickel particle is preferably less than 400 xc3x85 and more preferably not more than 300 xc3x85. Beautiful sintered films can be obtained in, for instance, a multilayer ceramic capacitor prepared by using a conductive paste containing such nickel powder. In addition, the particle size of crystallites present in each nickel particle is small and therefore, the sintering of nickel particles gently proceeds. More specifically, the sintering may proceed at a breath if the particle size of crystallites present in each nickel particle is large, while if the particle size of crystallites present in each nickel particle is small, the sintering is first taken place between crystallites within every particles, then particles gradually undergo sintering and therefore, the sintering speed is uniform. This accordingly results in the formation of beautiful films and the resulting product hardly undergoes any crack-formation and/or any delamination.
As has been discussed above, if the nickel powder according to the present invention is one in which the rate of the nickel particles whose particle size is not less than 1.2 time the average particle size as determined by the observation with an SEM is not more than 5% of the total number of nickel particles, the rate of nickel particles whose particle size is not more than 0.8 time the average particle size is not more than 5% of the total number of nickel particles, the tap density of the nickel powder is not less than 2.5 g/cm3 and the average particle size of crystallites present in each nickel particle is less than 400 xc3x85, a quite uniform, compact and thin inner electrode film can be formed without forming any crack and/or generating any delamination, while the formation of projections on the surface of the inner electrode layer is more completely inhibited, in a multilayer ceramic capacitor or the like prepared by using a conductive paste containing such nickel powder.
Regarding the nickel powder of the present invention, a multilayer ceramic capacitor is produced by using a conductive paste containing the foregoing nickel powder, the average particle size of the powder as determined by the observation by an SEM preferably ranges from 0.1 to 1 xcexcm and more preferably 0.2 to 0.6 xcexcm.
As has been described above, the nickel powder according to the present invention has a narrow particle size distribution and an excellent packing ability in a conductive paste and therefore, the conductive paste containing the nickel powder can be used in a variety of applications. In particular, when the nickel powder is used for forming the inner electrode of a multilayer ceramic capacitor, a quite uniform, compact and thin inner electrode film can be produced by using the nickel fine powder without unnecessarily reducing the particle size thereof, without causing any crack formation and/or generating any delamination, while the formation of projections on the surface of the inner electrode layer is more completely inhibited.
In addition, the conductive paste for use in making a multilayer ceramic capacitor according to the present invention is characterized by comprising the foregoing nickel powder according to the present invention and the conductive paste for use in making a multilayer ceramic capacitor of the present invention is particularly suitably used for forming a thin, uniform inner electrode, since the paste comprises the nickel powder having the foregoing excellent characteristic properties.
Then a preferred method for the production of the nickel powder of the present invention will be described below.
The nickel powder of the present invention can be produced by adding an aqueous nickel salt solution containing a nickel complex to an aqueous alkali metal hydroxide solution to thus prepare a nickel hydroxide-containing slurry, bringing the resulting slurry into contact with a hydrazine reducing agent under the temperature condition of not less than 55xc2x0 C. to reduce the nickel hydroxide into nickel, subjecting the resulting nickel powder to a disaggregation treatment and then subjected to pneumatic classification to remove coarse particles and fine particles.
Such a nickel complex-containing aqueous nickel salt solution can be prepared by dissolving a nickel salt and a nickel complex-forming compound preferably a water-soluble compound carrying a carboxyl group and/or an amino group in water in any order; dissolving a water-soluble compound carrying a carboxyl group and/or an amino group in an aqueous nickel salt solution; or dissolving a nickel salt in an aqueous solution of a water-soluble compound carrying a carboxyl group and/or an amino group. In short, it is necessary in the present invention to prepare an aqueous solution containing a nickel salt and a water-soluble compound carrying a carboxyl group and/or an amino group. In this respect, however, it is preferred to prepare the nickel complex-containing aqueous nickel salt solution by dissolving a water-soluble compound carrying a carboxyl group and/or an amino group in an aqueous nickel salt solution. This is because, this method permits the easy formation of the desired nickel complex. Moreover, if using a nickel complex-containing aqueous nickel salt solution thus prepared, the resulting nickel particles have a uniform particle size and an improved packing ability in a conductive paste.
Specific examples of the foregoing water-soluble compound carrying a carboxyl group and/or an amino group include ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, acetic acid, oxalic acid, malonic acid, salicylic acid, thioglycolic acid, glycine, ethylenediamine, alanine, citric acid, glutamic acid, lactic acid, malic acid, tartaric acid and triethanolamine.
When the nickel complex is formed in the aqueous nickel salt solution, the amount of the water-soluble compound carrying a carboxyl group and/or an amino group to be added to the aqueous solution ranges from 0.005 to 0.5 and more preferably 0.01 to 0.1 as expressed in terms of the molar ratio with respect to the nickel salt present in the aqueous nickel salt solution. The use of the water-soluble compound in such an amount permits the production of nickel powder having a narrower particle size distribution and simultaneously permits the achievement of well-balanced cost performance.
As nickel salts usable in the foregoing preferred production method, there can be listed, for instance, nickel sulfate, nickel nitrate and nickel halide such as nickel chloride; examples of alkali metal hydroxides include sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide; and examples of hydrazine reducing agents usable herein are hydrazine, hydrazine hydrate, hydrazine sulfate, hydrazine carbonate and hydrazine hydrochloride.
The concentration of the aqueous nickel salt solution used in the preparation of the foregoing nickel hydroxide-containing slurry preferably ranges from 10 to 150 g/L and more preferably 50 to 150 g/L as expressed in terms of the nickel ion concentration. The use of an aqueous nickel salt solution having such a concentration permits the achievement of such a narrow particle size distribution peculiar to the nickel powder of the present invention and simultaneously leads to the achievement of preferred results such as good production efficiency.
The concentration of the aqueous alkali metal hydroxide solution used in the preparation of the foregoing nickel hydroxide-containing slurry preferably ranges from 20 to 300 g/L and more preferably 60 to 250 g/L. In addition, the amount of the aqueous nickel salt solution relative to that of the aqueous alkali metal hydroxide solution is such that the amount of the alkali metal hydroxide present in the aqueous alkali metal hydroxide solution is preferably 1.1 to 2 eq. and more preferably 1.3 to 1.8 eq. per one eq. of the nickel salt present in the aqueous nickel salt solution. It is thus preferred to use these ingredients in such relative amounts to ensure the stable formation of nickel hydroxide and to simultaneously achieve well-balanced cost performance.
In the foregoing preferred production method, it is very important that the nickel hydroxide-containing slurry is brought into contact with a hydrazine reducing agent at a temperature of not less than 55xc2x0 C. to thus reduce the nickel hydroxide into elemental nickel. If the reduction is carried out at a temperature of less than 55xc2x0 C., it is difficult to obtain nickel powder having a uniform particle size and the resulting powder comprises a large amount of coarse nickel particles. Moreover, alkali metals as impurities are mixed in the resulting nickel powder in a high rate. Therefore, the reaction temperature during the reduction of the nickel hydroxide is set at a level of not less than 55xc2x0 C. and preferably not less than 60xc2x0 C. in the foregoing preferred production method.
Moreover, the nickel powder produced by bringing the foregoing nickel hydroxide into contact with an aqueous hydrazine solution maintained at a temperature of not less than 55xc2x0 C., preferably not less than 60xc2x0 C. to thus reduce the nickel hydroxide has a uniform particle size as determined by the observation with an SEM and the total content of impurities derived from the raw materials for the reaction in the resulting nickel powder is reduced to an extremely low level.
When preparing the nickel powder according to the present invention, it is important to subject the nickel powder obtained after the reducing reaction to a disaggregation or disintegration treatment. This is because the nickel powder per se obtained through a wet reaction is strongly agglomerate and therefore, the nickel powder suffers from the same disadvantages as those described in the foregoing section entitled xe2x80x9cBackground Artxe2x80x9d observed when the powder contains coarse particles. In addition, the nickel powder also has a low tap density and therefore, the powder has an insufficient packing ability in a conductive paste. For this reason, the disadvantages such as those observed when such nickel powder is used in, for instance, a conductive paste cannot effectively be eliminated.
This disaggregation treatment is not restricted to any particular one, but may, for instance, be a high speed rotary impaction-pulverization treatment wherein nickel powder is pulverized by leading the powder to collide with a rotatable part rotating at a high speed; a media-stirring pulverization treatment in which nickel powder is stirred together with, for instance, beads to thus pulverize the same; and a high hydraulic disaggregation treatment and a jet impaction treatment in which two jets of nickel particle-containing slurry are led to collide with each other from different two directions at a high hydraulic pressure to thus pulverize the same.
Examples of devices for carrying out such disaggregation treatments are a high speed moving body-impaction type gas flow pulverizer, an impaction type pulverizer, a cage mill, a medium-stirring type mill, an axial flow mill, and a jet-impaction device. More specifically, there may be listed, for instance, Super Hybrid Mill (available from Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.), Jet Mill (available from Ebara Corporation), Super Mass Colloider (available from Masuko Sangyo Co., Ltd.), Beads Mill (available from Irie Shokai Co., Ltd.), Altimizer (available from Sugino Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.), NC Mill (available from Ishii Pulverizer Mfg. Co., Ltd.), Disintegrator (available from Otsuka Tekko Co., Ltd.), ACM Pulverizer (available from Hosokawa Micron Co., Ltd.), Turbo Mill (available from Matsubo Co., Ltd.), Super Micron (available from Hosokawa Micron Co., Ltd.), Micross (available from Nara Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.), New Cosmomyzer (available from Nara Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.), Fine Victor Mill (available from Hosokawa Micron Co., Ltd.), Ecoprex (available from Hosokawa Micron Co., Ltd.), CF Mill (available from Ube Industries, Ltd.), Hybridizer (available from Nara Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.), Pin Mill (available from Alpinae Co., Ltd.), Pressure Homogenizer (available from Nippon Precision Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.), Harrel Homogenizer (available from Kokusan Seiko Co., Ltd.), Mechano Fusion System (available from Hosokawa Micron Co., Ltd.) and Sand Mill (available from Yodo Casting Co., Ltd.).
Moreover, it is also important to subject the nickel powder to a pneumatic classification before and/or the disaggregation treatment to thus remove coarse particles and fine particles when preparing the nickel powder according to the present invention. This is because if the nickel powder is subjected to a pneumatic classification prior to the disaggregation treatment, highly agglomerate particles and huge particles can be removed in advance, while if the nickel powder is subjected to a pneumatic classification after the disaggregation treatment, fine particles may likewise be removed in addition to highly agglomerate particles and huge coarse particles, which have still remained in the nickel powder even after the disaggregation treatment. This treatment for removing the foregoing particles may be carried out at any appropriate stage depending on the quality of the nickel powder to be prepared and it is a matter of course that this classification treatment may be carried out both before and after the disaggregation treatment.
Regarding this treatment for removal, the use of, for instance, a sieve classifier is not suitable, while taking into consideration the prevention of any oxidation of the nickel powder surface and workability. For this reason, most preferred means is a pneumatic classifier and more specifically, preferably used are, for instance, an air separator as a centrifugal classifier, Spedick Classifier, Aquecut, Turbo Classifier.
Then a preferred method for the preparation of the conductive paste for use in making a multilayer ceramic capacitor will be described below.
The conductive paste of the present invention for use in making a multilayer ceramic capacitor is composed of, for instance, the aforementioned nickel powder of the present invention, a resin and a solvent. More specifically, resins usable herein are, for instance, cellulose derivatives such as ethyl cellulose, vinyl non-curing resins such as acrylic resins, polyvinyl butyral resins and polyvinyl alcohols, and thermosetting resins preferably used in combination with peroxides such as epoxy and acryl. In addition, solvents usable herein are, for instance, terpineol, tetralin, butyl carbitol and carbitol acetate, which may be used alone or in any combination. The paste may, if necessary, comprise glass frits. The conductive paste of the present invention used in the production of a multilayer ceramic capacitor may be prepared by mixing and stirring the foregoing ingredients by using a mixing device such as a ball mill or a three-roll mill.
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The present invention relates to a structure for preventing a leak at a synthetic resin tube joint.
Various types of liquid chemicals and water are frequently used in a process of manufacturing semiconductor devices, displays, etc. The various types of liquid chemicals include, for example, an acidic solution, such as hydrofluoric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, etc., an alkaline solution which contains potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, ammonium, etc., chemicals used in cleaning solutions, etc. Of the liquid chemicals, ozonized dilute hydrofluoric acid is used in a process of cleaning and etching semiconductor substrates, etc.
Such liquid chemicals are transferred through a transfer system including a tube or pipe for which a synthetic resin tube made of a fluoro-based resin is generally used. Since the chemicals flowing through a synthetic resin tube employed in transfer systems of semiconductor manufacturing facilities are high-purity and deadly poisonous chemicals, a leak of the chemicals may be fatal not only to a production yield rate of semiconductor products but also to humans. Accordingly, stricter and tighter sealability is required for a plurality of synthetic resin tubes that form a transfer system and unions, nuts, connectors, valves, and the like for connecting, opening and closing the synthetic resin tubes.
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Many existing portable electronic devices typically include only one display screen, or include one display screen and one keyboard. With the development of electronic equipment technology, a new type of electronic product having a secondary screen has been on the market. The secondary screen can be integrated with a touchpad, a handwritten electromagnetic screen, a pen write switch, or other functional modules for facilitating user input operations. When the secondary screen is in a non-working state, it can also be used as a plate or a decoration component.
One or more keys can be configured on the secondary screen. Alternatively, when the electronic device is powered on, one or more keys can be displayed on the secondary screen. In other words, when a backlight of the secondary screen is on, the one or more keys can be visible, and when backlight of the secondary screen is off, the one or more keys can be invisible.
However, according to the present disclosure, in order to save the power composition of the electronic equipment, the backlight brightness of the secondary screen may need to be adjusted based on various working states of the secondary screen. Therefore, it is desired to provide a strategy for automatically controlling the backlight brightness for the secondary screen.
The disclosed backlight control method and electronic device are directed to solve one or more problems in the art.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display apparatus, a driving method of the image display apparatus, an image display apparatus assembly employing the image display apparatus and a driving method of the image display apparatus assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in the case of an image display apparatus such as a color liquid-crystal display apparatus for example, the increased performance raises a problem of the increased power consumption. In particular, with the improved fineness, the widened color reproduction range and the increased luminance, in the case of the color liquid-crystal display apparatus for example, the power consumption of the backlight undesirably rises. In order to solve these problems, attention is paid to a technology for improving the luminance of the display by making use of a white-color display sub-pixel for displaying a white color. In accordance with the technology, a display pixel is configured to include four sub-pixels which are typically the white-color display sub-pixel in addition to three other sub-pixels. i.e., a red-color display sub-pixel for displaying a red color, a green-color display sub-pixel for displaying a green color and a blue-color display sub-pixel for displaying a blue color. In addition, with the same power consumption as the existing image display apparatus, the configuration based on the four sub-pixels gives a high luminance and, therefore, the power consumption of the backlight can be reduced to provide the same luminance as the existing image display apparatus.
In this case, as an example, a color-image display apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3167026 employs:
means for generating color signals of three different types in an additive color three elementary color process from an input signal; and
means for generating an auxiliary signal by carrying out an additive color process on the color signals having different hues at equal rates and for providing a display section with four different type display signals, i.e., the auxiliary signal and three different-type color signals which are each obtained by subtracting the auxiliary signal from one of the three different color signals having three different hues.
It is to be noted that the color signals of three different types are used for driving the red-color display sub pixel, the green-color display sub pixel and the blue-color display sub pixel respectively. On the other hand, the auxiliary signal is used for driving the white-color display sub pixel.
In addition, Japanese Patent No. 3805150 discloses a liquid-crystal display apparatus capable of color displaying. The liquid-crystal display apparatus is provided with a liquid-crystal panel employing main pixel units which each has a red-color output sub-pixel, a green-color output sub-pixel, a blue-color output sub-pixel, and an intensity sub-pixel. The liquid-crystal display apparatus has operating means for making use of digital values Ri, Gi and Bi, which are obtained for the red-color input sub-pixel, the green-color input sub-pixel and the blue-color input sub-pixel respectively from an input image signal, for finding a digital value W for an intensity sub-pixel as well as a digital value Ro for driving the red-color output sub-pixel, a digital value Go for driving the green-color output sub-pixel and a digital value Bo for the blue-color output sub-pixel. The operating means is characterized in that the operating means finds a digital value Ro, a digital value Go, a digital value Bo and a digital value W which satisfy the following conditions:Ri:Gi:Bi=(Ro+W):(Go+W):(Bo+W),and
the values Ro, Go, Bo and W improve the luminance by virtue of the addition of the luminance sub-pixel in a comparison with the configuration including only the red-color input sub-pixel, the green-color input sub-pixel and the blue-color input sub-pixel.
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This invention relates to a blood oxygenator, particularly of the membrane type.
Blood oxygenators are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,095 to Hasegawa, U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,489 to Diettrich, Jr. et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,965 to Fukusawa et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,053 to Taheri, U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,353 to Takemura et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,645 to Martinez et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,829 to Giter.
Two types of blood oxygenators are the inside perfusion type, in which blood is passed through the bores of tubules, while gas is passed on the outside of the tubules, and the outside perfusion type, in which gas is passed through the bores while blood is passed on the outside of the tubules. Blood oxygenators of the outside perfusion type advantageously provide for more uniform gas distribution than inside perfusion oxygenators, and for turbulent blood flow. Turbulence retards flow, thereby increasing gas exchange.
Fukusawa et al and Takemura et al illustrate hollow fiber membrane, blood oxygenators of the outside perfusion type.
In many conventional blood oxygenators, a cylindrical housing is packed with a bundle of hollow fibers in such a way that the hollow fibers are parallel to the longitudinal axis of the housing. However, as explained at column 1, line 68 through column 2, line 2 of Takemura et al, blood oxygenators of such construction have a low gas exchange rate per unit area of the hollow fiber membrane.
By comparison, as exemplified by Takemura et al, blood oxygenators in which the hollow fibers are disposed within a blood chamber so as to be non-parallel to the direction of blood flow, can produce more turbulent blood flow and thus improved oxygenation. By "direction of blood flow" is meant for purposes of this description, the general direction of blood flow within a blood chamber between the blood inlets and outlets.
In many conventional blood oxygenation systems, a pump is disadvantageously located on the blood inlet side of the oxygenator, between the patient and the blood oxygenator. However, as exemplified by Fukusawa et al, a pump may be avoided by utilizing the head developed between the patient and the oxygenator.
A further problem with conventional blood oxygenation systems is the large priming volume required. The greater the priming volume, the greater the dilution of a patient's blood. A lowered hematocrit results from dilution. In the case of an infant or child, the amount of blood available for filling a blood oxygenation system, is particularly small and the dilution problem is as a result exacerbated.
Martinez et al provide an oxygenator with reduced priming volume in the heat exchanger section. Diettrich, Jr. et al and Giter describe a reduced oxygenator priming volume. Fukusawa et al disclose a reduced priming volume as an inventive object, and show, for instance, in FIG. 17 thereof, a heat exchanger in a blood reservoir.
However, there continues to be a need for an improved blood oxygenator, in particular an oxygenator having reduced priming volume. Beneficially, such an improved oxygenator would be characterized by improved oxygenation, and would better utilize the head developed between a patient and the oxygenator.
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A motor-vehicle engine system may include a series of exhaust-aftertreatment devices that suppress feed gas emissions from an engine. These may include a nitrogen-oxide (NOX) trap, a diesel-type oxidation catalyst (DOC), a diesel-type particulate filter (DPF), and/or a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) device for reducing NOX.
Such devices may be arranged differently in different motor-vehicle exhaust systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,229,597 describes a diesel-engine exhaust system in which a DOC is arranged upstream of an SCR device. In U.S. 2007/0125072, a DOC is arranged downstream of an SCR device. Neither configuration may be suitable, however, for meeting increasingly strict emissions-control requirements with regard to NOX and non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC). For example, the partial-zero-emission vehicle (PZEV) standard for light-duty diesel trucks tolerates no more than 0.02 grams NOX per mile and 0.01 grams NMHC per mile at 150,000 miles. A single DOC arranged in a diesel-engine exhaust system may have difficulty keeping NMHC below these levels, due mainly to excessive transmission of NMHC during cold-start conditions.
The inventors herein have recognized this issue and now disclose a series of approaches to address it. One embodiment provides a motor-vehicle engine system comprising a first DOC configured to receive exhaust from an engine, and an SCR device coupled downstream of the first DOC in a flow direction of the exhaust. The SCR device is configured to sorb a hydrocarbon at a lower temperature and release the hydrocarbon at a higher temperature. The system further comprises a second DOC coupled downstream of the SCR device. The second DOC is configured to oxidize the hydrocarbon. This novel configuration provides multiple distinct synergies. For example, much of the NMHC that slips past the first DOC may be temporarily stored in the SCR device until the second DOC has reached its light off temperature. By the time the NMHC is released from the SCR device, the second DOC will be sufficiently heated to provide effective NMHC control.
It will be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description, which follows. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined by the claims that follow the detailed description. Further, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted herein.
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In handling a hypodermic needle, there is always a chance that the user, or persons in the proximity of the needle, may be exposed to accidental pricking thereby. And in view of the current crop of infectious diseases, particularly the as yet incurable Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), an urgent need exists to provide a safety device for preventing accidental pricking by a needle, especially one that has been used and is therefore contaminated.
There are in the prior art a number of safety devices for guarding a needle, or more precisely its cannula, so that its sharp end will not be exposed. For example, Sponsel U.S. Pat. No. 1,779,451 discloses a syringe that has a needle guide pivotable at a point about the syringe casing for guarding the needle. Scislowicz U.S. Pat. No. 3,323,523 discloses a sheath formed of two portions that can pivot about respective hinges to cover a cannula. Moreover, the sheath may be locked by having a sleeve slid thereover. Hall U.S. Pat. No. 3,658,061 discloses a catheter needle guard unit that may be pivoted to snap over the needle. The sheath, once snapped, may be unsnapped since it is not locked onto the needle. Smith, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,722 discloses a hypodermic needle assembly that has a closure having an elongated slot which enables the closure to be either removed from or inserted toward the hypodermic needle. The Smith device requires two-handed operation. Furthermore, no locking means is disclosed. Nelson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,330, on the other hand, discloses a needle protective cap which is slidable, by means of a clip, along the body of the syringe. The needle cover, however, may be completely removed from the needle.
Additional slidable needle protectors are disclosed in Spencer U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,702,738 and 4,723,943 wherein a protective sheath is shown to be slidable along a syringe body. Yet other needle covers that are slidable along a syringe body are disclosed in Choksi U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,144 and Schneider U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,233. Some other example devices having protective sheaths for needles include Laico et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,372; Poncy U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,022; Schramm U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,491; Poncy U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,587; Carrell et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,796; Romano U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,968; Bayless U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,977; Zerbst et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,994; Cree U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,996; Jordan et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,607; Bayless U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,434 and Haber U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,107. As is readily apparent, all of these devices having covers that are slidable along the length of the syringe body require two-handed operation.
Another type of prior art needle protective device involves the pivoting of a needle sheath to cover the cannula of the needle assembly. Some prior art examples of this type of device include Norelli U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,277 wherein a pair of jaws is disclosed as pivotable and lockable over a needle. As is readily apparent, however, the Norelli cover also requires two-handed operation. Glazier U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,469 discloses a guard assembly that is coupled to a sheath by a fastener and is rotatable about a hinge to snap onto the needle. The sheath, along with the pivotable guard, has to be preassembled with the needle for a specific type of syringe. Schoenberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,001 discloses a longitudinal shank having two flat wings which are pivotable to enclose the sharp distal end of the needle. None of these prior art devices appears to disclose the permanent retention of the needle by the protective sheath once the protective sheath has been pivoted to enclose the needle.
There are a couple of prior art safety devices that do teach the permanent retention of a needle within the housing once it has been enclosed thereby. Landis U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,259 is one such which discloses a needle assembly that includes a pivotable housing having therein a hook to retain the needle within the housing after the housing has been pivoted to enclose the needle. The Landis device, however, comes in a unitary package, inasmuch as the needle is integrated into the base, which in turn has connected thereto the pivotable housing. Unger U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,552 also discloses a pivotable housing integrated into a needle. In one of the embodiments, the Unger housing is threaded to a specific type of needle housing hub. To lock the housing permanently to the needle, a plug has to be pushed from the top of the housing longitudinally (along the length of needle) into the housing until the tip of the needle rests within the plug. To operate the Unger device, a user has to first pivot the housing into alignment with the needle, hold the housing to maintain alignment of the needle therewith and then push the plug flush with the end of the housing in order to lock the needle within the housing. Needless to say, there is always a chance that if the user is not careful in maintaining the needle within the housing before pushing the plug flush to the end of the housing, the tip of the needle may remain exposed; and, therefore, the user may actually be moving his hand/finger directly into contact with the needle.
Inasmuch as there is available in the market a number of different types of needles and syringes, there is a need to have a universal safety device that is adaptable to be used with the different types of needles and syringes. And it is imperative that such safety device be amendable to single-handed operation, as for example during emergency room situations where a user may have only one hand free. Furthermore, to provide extra protection to ensure that the tip of the needle, especially after use, is not exposed, some means must be used to seal the same.
Finally, it has been found that oftentimes there is a large unused and therefore wasteful volume of space at the junction where the syringe and needle are joined which has to be filled with blood to be drawn from or fluid to be injected into a patient.
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Windows Vista from Microsoft. Corp. supports a new XML document format known as XPS (XML Paper Specification) (see “XML Paper Specification”, Oct. 25, 2006, Microsoft Corp., <http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/xpsspecdwn.mspx(XPS—1—0.exe)> [search performed on Jan. 31, 2007]), hereinafter referred to as non-patent document 1). An XPS document has a format which includes three layers which are a FixedDocumentSequence layer, a FixedDocument layer, and FixedPage layer as shown in FIG. 13. The nodes of each layer can be associated with an XML document for storing print attributes (i.e. print settings) called a print ticket (see “Print Ticket and Print Capabilities Support in Windows Print Drivers”, Feb. 15, 2006, Microsoft Corp., <http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/print/XPSDrv_PrintTicket.mspx(XPSDrv_PrintTicket.doc)> [search performed on Jan. 31, 2007], hereinafter referred to as a non-patent document 2). As shown in the example of FIG. 13, a job level print ticket 1304 is associated with the FixedDocumentSequence. A document level print ticket 1305 is associated with the FixedDocument1. A page level print ticket 1306 is associated with the FixedPage1. Since a print ticket can be specified for each node of each layer, XPS documents allow operations such as changing an output paper size for each FixedPage. In an XPS document, by specifying print settings associated with each page (FixedPage) or set of pages (Fixed Document), it is possible exceptional settings can be expressed within a single document.
Some conventional print drivers have a page exceptional setting function which allows print settings differing from the print settings for the overall print job generated by the print driver, to be specified for particular pages. For instance, the PostScript printer driver from Xerox Corp. has a section-specific setting function unit. The section-specific setting function unit provides a function for storing different print settings for each section of a document as a section setting information file. This function may also be employed by hot folders which make use of the printer driver. A hot folder is a folder that has been associated with predefined functions, whereby data put into the folder is subjected to processing according to the sequence of functions associated with the folder.
The PostScript printer driver from Heidelberg Corp. has a function for predetermining exceptional print parameters with respect to basic setting parameters. Consider, for instance, a case in which the exceptional print parameters have been set to give a paper size of A3 and a page layout of 1-up, and the basic setting parameters have been set to give a paper size of A4 and a page layout of 2-up. When the document to be printed has five pages of sizes A4, A4, A3, A4 and A4, the first and second pages of the manuscript are of A4 size and so the layout will be 2-up in accordance with the basic settings. Since the third page of the manuscript is of A3 size, corresponding to an exceptional print parameter, the layout will be 1-up. The fourth and fifth pages are printed in 2-up form in accordance with the basic print settings.
When printing is performed using either of the above-described printer drivers, a method is used in which a user first specifies a page or range of pages on which to perform the exceptional settings, thereby forming partitions. Exceptional settings are then set for the specified partitions using another print setting sheet or dialogue box.
As described in the non-patent document 1, the XPS document has both a spool format, used when printing, and a digital document format used in document distribution and the like. In other words, the XPS document can be used, in a similar way to PDF documents from Adobe Corp., for the publication and distribution of various types of document. For instance, it is possible to create an XPS document having a print ticket (i.e. print settings) associated with the node or nodes of the desired layer, and distribute the XPS document together with the print settings. As the use of XPS documents in digital documents spreads, technologies such direct print which allows documents to be printed without going through a computer, and hot folder which makes use of a computer will become necessary as means to print the digital documents in a simple manner. The hot folder is a folder that is associated with predetermined print settings. When document data is put into the hot folder, functions associated with the folder are executed. Direct print is a function for printing documents using a stand-alone printing device without going through a computer.
When an XPS document is to be printed using a hot folder, the print settings included in the XPS document do not necessarily match the print settings associated with the hot folder. In particular in the XPS document, when exceptional settings exist for a page or set of pages, either the overall print settings or the exceptional print settings will no longer match the hot folder print settings (also referred to as “folder settings”). Note that the “page” corresponds to the “FixedPage”, the “set of pages” corresponds to the “FixedDocument”, and the “overall” corresponds to the “FixedDocumentSequence”.
For instance, the XPS document may be applied in form documents which have a fixed output paper size. For this application, because the form size is fixed, the output paper size must be specified in advance within the XPS document. However, when printer device-dependent settings such as the paper feeder setting are specified using the print tickets, there will be occasions when the paper feeder specified by the destination hot folder print settings and the paper feeder specified using the XPS document fail to match. On such occasions, the paper size setting must follow the print settings in the XPS document, but the paper feeder setting must change flexibly according to the print device.
As a way of solving this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-293554 discloses a hot folder capable of setting a different print ticket for each set of print data to be printed by specifying print settings in a plurality of subfolders.
However, according to the technology of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-293554, in the case that the document includes print settings in the manner of an XPS document, it is not possible to use these print settings. Hence, when output based on the specific settings included in the XPS document is desired as in the example of the form data, it is not possible to achieve the original output results unless the user knows the print settings specified in the XPS document and switches the hot folder settings accordingly.
Also, when the exceptional settings are specified in the hot folder which outputs in the XPS document format, it is necessary to edit the print ticket of each page. Hence, when the number of pages in the document or the number of exceptional settings becomes large, more work is required to carry out the editing. This leads not only to a decrease in productivity but also to an increase in the risk of mistakes due to human error.
The present invention was conceived looking carefully at the conventional examples with the object of solving the above-described problems. More specifically, the present invention provides a print control device and method capable of handing over, to hot folder settings, a specified level (including or not including exceptions) and specified items from among print settings included in document data of the XPS format or the like.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to a method of physical chip identification and, more particularly, to a method of physical chip identification for chip-to-chip communications.
2. Description of the Related Art
The industry of information and communication technology has leaped forward after entered the 21st century, and has created even larger market in recent years. Not only informational terminal devices, all things such as household appliances, houses, automobiles, are connected to “Internet of Things (IoT)”. IoT does not belong to any existing market. The even wider “Internet of Everything (IoE)” may even have the hidden possibility of changing the basis of the society lying inside.
Technically, it can be viewed as a chip-to-chip communicating technology within a smallest unit (node) connected to the network. It is different from the current network technology that the amount of the nodes may be up to trillions to tens of trillions (Trillion Nodes). For example, if the world population is seven billion, each person is surrounded by nodes at the amount of thousands. Those chips contain not only personal information, but also those systems controlling machines surrounding each person. Practically, it is impossible that everyone carefully and frequently manages those chips. Even under central control by well-trained experts, it is also impossible that there exists a computing resource which can handle trillions of nodes simultaneously. Even has it been developed, who should be in charge of the management system? It is inappropriate to have a single private enterprise to implement. Based on current situation, it is also inappropriate and impractical to have an artificial intelligence which is superior to a human being to handle that.
What may happen if we are unable to handle that? Imagine an auto-driving vehicle having high-volume Lithium-ion batteries being hacked, and it would be easy to understand. There could be a lot of auto-driving vehicles being remote controlled to move to targets (The White House, The U.S. Capitol, etc.) then being overcharged to cause big explosion. Similarly, imagine how dangerous it would be if someday an explosion happens in the garage of shopping center by remote-controlling those vehicles, two high-speed trains or bullet trains collide by manipulating the train control system, or a nuclear facility having atomic reactor or an air traffic control system is hacked.
It is too hasty to say that we will have no problem because the networks of such important facilities are insulated with strong firewall from the common internet, or are physically isolated. In fact, a nuclear facility in Iran have been severely attacked by a malware called “Stuxnet.” (For example, Non-Patent Literature 1: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/01/AR2010100106981.html).
There were several different versions of the attacking method of Stuxnet, the most believable one is attacking via mobile devices or USB storage devices. Once Stuxnet has been placed in the internet, it spends several months waiting for the opportunity to invade the targeted system. Even it is protected by a strong firewall, Stuxnet still can invade the USB storage devices or the mobile devices and wait until those devices are carried into inside the firewall and then the devices are connected to a terminal inside the firewall. Once connected, Stuxnet opens the backdoor and manipulates the PLC (programmable logic controller) of the centrifuge to start remote control it. By doing so, those one thousand centrifuges in the nuclear facilities in Iran are repeatedly accelerated and decelerated rapidly; and thus become damaged. While inside the physically isolated systems, Stuxnet attacks them by itself.
The damaged centrifuges in the nuclear facilities in Iran were insulated from the common network, but they had to be connected with the mobile devices of the manufacturer of those centrifuges at the periodical maintenance. If the centrifuges were connected with the common network, the centrifuges were not necessary to be connected with the mobile devices of the manufacturer. However, these connections were needed because the centrifuges were insulated. Furthermore, even if Stuxnet infects non-target hosts, it does nothing and hides. Thus, it is very difficult for any anti-virus software to detect it.
The Stuxnet attack is deemed to defer the nuclear research in Iran, and to prevent Israel from launching air strikes against Iran. However, what is dangerous is that the source code of Stuxnet has been stolen and leaked. There has been new malwares very similar to Stuxnet appeared since in 2014. (For example, Non-Patent Literature 2: http://www.wired.com/2014/07/usb-security/).
The virus which is called BadUSB manipulates the firmware of a USB device, instead of hacking into the PLC of an industrial equipment. A USB device is usually connected to another device, thus it usually has an identification mechanism for such a connection. The identification mechanism is built in the firmware. The firmware is stored in the controlling chip of the USB device and is used to control the program of the chip. BadUSB steals the identification from the firmware and does nothing to the equipment which the USB device is connected to. For example, BadUSB does not infect the personal computer, but it steals the IDs of the mouse and the keyboard used to control the computer. By doing so, the hacker who is on the other side of the earth can remote control other's computer. Because the virus does not infect the computer, it is then impossible for the anti-virus software to detect BadUSB.
The smallest communication unit (node) in IoT/IoE is the controlling chip of a machine. The controlling chip has controlling program (firmware) stored inside. The firmware has identification code for identifying each chip. The above mentioned new attacking method of remote controlling auto-driving vehicles can be done by stealing the identification code to remote control.
It may become possible for some hacker groups to conduct the synchronized terrorist attacks like the 9/11 in the future. This kind of new threats may not be eliminated by adopting the conventional counter-terrorism policy or conventional cyber security technologies.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a hydraulic shock absorber, suitable for use in an automotive suspension system. More specifically, the invention relates to a valve construction in a hydraulic shock absorber.
2. Field of the Invention
Japanese Utility Model First (unexamined) Publication (Jikkai) Showa 62-107131 discloses one of typical construction of a conventional shock absorber. The disclosed shock absorber has a piston body separating the internal space of a shock absorber cylinder into upper and lower fluid chambers, and a base body which separates the lower fluid chamber from a reservoir chamber defined between inner and outer cylinders. The piston body and the base body are formed with orifices. An annular projection with plane tip end surface is formed at an orientation radially outward of the orifices. A constant orifice is formed through the annular projection. A valve plate is biased and seated onto the plane tip end surface.
Accordingly, in the relatively low piston stroke, valve plate is maintained in contact with the contacting surface of the annular projection. Therefore, the working fluid only through the constant orifice to generate absorption in a characteristics proportional to square of the piston stroke speed. On the other hand, in the intermediate and high piston stroke speed, the valve plate is deformed to generate absorption in a characteristics proportional to two over three power of the piston stroke speed. With such construction, when the piston stroke speed is lower then a relief speed at which the valve plate is deformed to open, all of the working fluid flows through constant orifice of constant path area. Therefore, the absorption characteristics becomes proportional to two power of the piston stroke speed. Accordingly, leakage through gaps between the piston and cylinder and between the piston rod and guide will cause substantial influence for the shock absorbing characteristics. In order words, the such leakage causes equivalent effect to variation of the path area in the constant orifice. Therefore, fluctuation of shock absorbing characteristics particularly at the low piston stroke range becomes significant.
In addition, when the absorption is set at the piston stroke speed of 0.1 m/s, the absorption characteristics can be uniformly determined in a piston stroke speed range lower than the set speed. Therefore, freedom of setting of the absorption characteristics is unacceptably narrow.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of transmission filters and the manufacture thereof. In particular, the invention is concerned with a preferred transmission filter having a first flange transparent to a laser beam and a second flange opaque to the laser beam and meltable upon exposure thereto. The flanges are in registered, abutting relationship with a laser weld bead at the juncture between the flanges to provide a fluid seal circumscribing the filter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior art fluid filter, such as an oil or transmission filter for a vehicle, includes first and second housing sections each presenting a circumscribing flange composed of synthetic resin material with the housing sections defining a chamber containing filter media. One of the flanges presents an upstanding weld rib that engages the surface of the other flange at a juncture. To join the flanges during manufacture, the flanges are vibration welded by vibrating one of the flanges at a high frequency. This creates heat at the juncture to create a weld bead circumscribing the filter and providing a fluid seal. The edges of the filter media are crimped between the flanges inboard of the weld bead to provide an additional fluid seal.
One of the problems with the prior art is that the edges of the filter media cannot be crimped as tightly as desired because to do so might result in damage to the edges during the vibration welding process. Another problem is that vibration welding process may not allow production rates as high as desired.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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Pattern matching may be used in many big-data applications such as network security, machine learning, and genomics. One leading methodology for pattern matching is to use regular expressions or equivalent finite state machines to identify a pattern in a large dataset. A regular expression can be represented by a deterministic finite automata (DFA) or non-deterministic finite automata (NFA), which can be equivalent in computational power.
On CPUs, NFAs and DFAs may be represented by tables where each state's successor state(s) can be indicated in response to a rule match. DFAs may be the basis for implementing automata on CPUs, because they may have more predictable memory bandwidth requirements. An NFA may have many active states and may use many state lookups to process a single input symbol (which may require significant memory bandwidth), whereas a DFA may utilize a single state. On the other hand, because DFAs may exhibit an exponential increase in the number of states relative to NFAs, DFA tables may be too large to store in a processor cache.
Graphics processing units (GPUs) may provide more parallel resources, which may reduce DRAM access latency. However, highly-random access patterns in automata processing may exhibit poor memory locality, which may increase branch divergence and the need for synchronization. Therefore, off-the-shelf von Neumann architectures have struggled to meet the processing requirements of many of the big-data applications described above.
“Spatial” hardware accelerators have been employed in this area as the performance growth in conventional processors has slowed. Spatial hardware accelerators for automata processing, such as automata processors and Field Programmable Gate Arrays, can be used to layout reconfigurable hardware resources on a substrate based on rules or instructions provided to the FPGA, which may allow more patterns to searched in parallel.
The Micron Automata Processor developed by Micron Technologies (AP) and Cache Automata (CA) provide spatial automata acceleration using DRAM and SRAM arrays, respectively. Both of these spatial processors can allow native execution of non-deterministic finite automata (NFAs), an efficient computational model for regular expressions, and may process a new input symbol every cycle. In particular, the AP repurposes DRAM arrays for the state-matching and has a deeply hierarchical routing matrix whereas the CA re-purposes the last-level cache for the state-matching with 8T SRAM cells used for the interconnect. CA uses a full-crossbar topology for the interconnect to support full connectivity in an automaton.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hole plug which is used to close, for example, an opening formed in a plate-shaped member provided in a vehicle such as a car.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, in a plate-shaped member such as a body panel provided in a car, there are formed two or more openings which are used in an assembling step or the like. As a hole plug for closing these openings, in JP-A-2-293278, there is disclosed a hole plug which includes: a main body including a base portion having a diameter larger than the opening of the plate-shaped member and an insertion portion to be inserted into the opening; and, a ring-shaped thermo-softening resin member (a meltable member) for fixing the main body to the edge portions of the openings.
In the above hole plug, on the entire areas of the outer periphery of the insertion portion, there is provided an enlarged head portion which is engageable with the back side peripheral edges of the openings. The enlarged head portion is has such a shape that the base end side thereof has a diameter slightly larger than the above-mentioned opening and the diameter of the enlarged head portion reduces toward the leading end side thereof. And, in operation, the insertion portion is inserted into the openings of the plate-shaped member, the enlarged head portion is engaged with the back side peripheral edges of the openings to thereby fix the hole plug provisionally, and, after then, the thermo-softening resin member is heated and melted, whereby the hole plug can be mounted onto the plate-shaped member.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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