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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electronic informational and commercial transactions and interactions, specifically, to facilitating such transactions and interactions through the use of computers and the Internet.
2. Description of Related Art
A. Related Art: The Need for a Universal Electronic Transaction System
Two of the most frequently used Internet and World Wide Web services are (I) electronic commerce services, particularly, the buying and selling of goods and services wherein a portion of the transaction is conducted via the World Wide Web, and (II) information search services, particularly, providing a customized list of websites and Web-accessible documents in response to an inquiry submitted by a user to a Web search engine, whereby an index of Web pages is searched. While effective technology for each of the aforementioned services exists, its usefulness is severely limited by a number of technical factors as follows.
B. Related Art: Internet Auction Systems
Under the related art, dynamically priced e-commerce transactions are offered to Web users through the use of dynamically generated web pages that incorporate data drawn from the auctioneer's databases. Current providers of such services include eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo. This approach is not ideal in that such “deep Web” data cannot be readily indexed and catalogued by external search engine providers; thus, searching Internet auctions for a particular item requires that a user visit each individual auction site and search through that given website's search interface or have an intermediary do so.
Moreover, auction site providers typically frown upon attempts to index, analyze, or otherwise make use of information in the auctioneer's databases for purposes other than bidding, and these website providers may use their control of the information therein to prevent competition by other companies. Thus, obtaining accurate and complete market data pertaining to Internet auctions is more difficult than it would be in a transparent marketplace.
If an Internet user does not wish to list his or her auctions on a major site and pay the fees-charged by the given Internet auctioneer, a user can start his or her own auction site. This alternative is not ideal in that it involves a great deal of time and expense and offers a low chance of success: to launch a new Internet auction site, one must purchase (or write), install, run and maintain expensive auction site software on expensive computer hardware, incur all the other risks and expenses associated with starting a business, and then come up with a way to draw bidders and sellers away from the existing major companies' sites. Very few people are up to the task.
What is needed, therefore, is an Internet auction system and method that allows (I) any person with a web page (II) to host an Internet auction on that web page (III) without requiring this person to purchase any software (IV) while yet allowing the person's auction to be searchable through any Web search engine and (V) also allowing data from all such Internet auctions in the world to be easily and freely gathered, analyzed and disseminated by anyone who wishes to do so.
C. Related Art: Internet Search Systems and Methods
Web search engines under the related art allow users to input terms and operators of their own choosing. Current providers of search engines include Google, MSN, and Ask Jeeves. However, the search function itself is still conducted according to the particular algorithmic approach established by the service provider. Such a “paternalistic” approach presumes that computer engineers or business owners are better equipped to create a search algorithm than are the people doing the searching, e.g., users at large. These systems are not ideal in that such a one-size-fits-all service is unlikely to yield results that are better than—or even equal to—those that could be obtained through the use of individual algorithms that have been uniquely tailored to meet the individual needs of a particular person with a particular search inquiry at a particular point in time.
What is needed, therefore, is a mechanism that allows Internet users to select the search methodology used in a particular search term, to combine the results of a search under one methodology with another search under another methodology, to assign how much weight is allotted to each methodology, to set standards against which each indexed item (e.g., document or record) is measured, to set maximum levels or tolerances for variations from such standards, and to otherwise define the way a search is performed rather than be reliant upon an a priori definition set by someone else.
D. Related Art: Internet Classified Ad Systems
Dynamically priced transaction vehicles (e.g., auctions) are not the only type of Internet classified ad. Numerous websites devoted to a given type of classified ad—personal ads, real estate ads, job listing ads, vehicle ads, and others—have been developed to meet such demand.
Current providers of such services include Craigslist, Zip Realty, and Matchmaker.com. Again, however, in order to allow user posting and editing of such classified ads, these sites also rely upon database-driven, dynamic web page generation. Thus, most of the limitations described above in reference to Internet auctions apply to these classified ad systems as well: indexing by third parties is difficult and may cause legal battles with website providers who believe that user-provided content is their property; compilation and analysis of such data is difficult.
What is needed, therefore, is a new Internet classified ad system and method that allows all classified ads of a given type on the entire World Wide Web to be searchable through a single search engine with field-by-field precision, that allows anyone with a web page to participate in this worldwide classified ad system without requiring any special advertising or database software on the part of the participant, and for all the data in such classified ads to be accessible to anyone with Web access for the purposes of information gathering and analysis.
E. Related Art: Internet Legal Vehicles
Under the related art, legal relationships between website providers and website users are governed by individual terms of use agreements that vary from website to website such that there are literally millions of different terms of use agreements in effect with respect to the millions of different websites available at the time of this writing. This approach is not ideal in that careful reading of each individual website's terms of use agreement is prohibitively time-consuming for a user of multiple websites, and the duplicative legal work associated with the creation of each individual terms of use agreement is wasteful. Meanwhile, resolution of disputes arising under seemingly infinite varieties of terms of use agreements leads to unpredictability in the case law.
Uniform codes (e.g., Uniform Commercial Code or “UCC”) are known and have been effective in reducing interjurisdictional uncertainty. These uniform codes suggest standards for lawmaking bodies, such as state legislatures, to follow so that businesses operating in multiple states do not have to learn multiple legal systems. Unfortunately, the Internet, replete with millions of separately owned and operated private websites, has no such uniformity. Each website is essentially its own little fiefdom.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method whereby uniformity in terms of use agreements can be advanced so as to allow greater efficiency and reliability for both website providers and website users.
Moreover, numerous contracts that are paper-based under the related art are extremely duplicative as well. Many common agreements, such as purchase or rental agreements, contain large numbers of very similar terms which vary slightly from one agreement to another, which situation again requires excessive legal review by the parties themselves as well as third parties such as consumer advocacy groups and the courts, and again thwarts predictability in the law. Meanwhile, millions of pieces of paper and millions of dollars are unnecessarily spent each year in the creation, documentation, and storage of these terms in contract form.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method whereby essentially duplicative portions of contracts can be standardized and recorded more efficiently.
Even in situations where the law is well-settled, however, dispute resolution through the courts typically takes anywhere from several months to several years, as backlogs continue to grow. Alternative dispute resolution methods, such as arbitration (e.g., American Arbitration Association), mediation, and religious courts such as the Jewish Beis Din court system, are known and are preferred by many businesses, organizations, and individuals, since protracted legal battles are expensive and time-consuming, and for many litigants the adage “justice delayed is justice denied” holds true. These alternative dispute resolution methods, however, are still only employed in a fraction of cases, since arrangement for such proceedings is done on a case-by-case or contract-by-contract basis. Moreover, many unsophisticated parties have little or no knowledge of the benefits and availability of alternative dispute resolution methods.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method whereby the benefits of alternative dispute resolution may be made available to and more readily accessed by a larger portion of the population.
F. Related Art: HTML, Order Forms, and Contact Forms
Under the related art, contacting the provider of a website through the website itself relies upon a Web contact submission form (e.g., “<FORM ACTION= . . . ”>) or purchase form. This approach is not ideal in that, since each website is designed completely differently from the next, a Web visitor must learn to navigate through the peculiar layout of each individual website in order to find the given site's order form or contact submission form.
Moreover, the Web order form concept itself is less than ideal in that, every time a user begins purchasing from a vendor through its website, the user must register with this vendor, providing credit card information, e-mail account address, and other sensitive data. Each time this data is circulated to a new party, the user's exposure to the risk of identity theft, fraud, and spam increases. Ideally, Internet users would be able to purchase from website providing vendors without having to register separately with each vendor and to fill out a separate purchase order form for each individual vendor website.
What is needed therefore, is a superior communication system and method that allows users to interact with and purchase from all website providers through a single common interface, thus requiring no website navigation, no per-site registration, and no per-purchase order form submission.
Meanwhile, HTML itself is simply a language for defining the structure of a document, such as which part of the document is a title, which part is a paragraph, which part should be emphasized, and so on. HTML is silent about what the document actually says, i.e., HTML does nothing to tell us about the content or subject matter of a given paragraph, sentence, or phrase. Given this reality, under the related art, elaborate content analysis software has been developed, such as that of Applied Semantics, to “read” web pages in an attempt to ascertain the subject matter thereof without human participation. Such an approach is, at best, approximate. Thus, World Wide Web search engines, relying upon highly uncertain approximations, oftentimes return results that are highly variable in terms of relevancy. Ideally, the World Wide Web would be searchable with the field-by-field precision commonly seen in bookkeeping software applications or contact management software, in which programs users can easily search for a particular term, such as a last name, in a particular field, such as a last name field.
What is needed, therefore, is a method of constructing and parsing a web page so that the exact meaning and content thereof can be immediately and reliability ascertained and so that a group of web pages can be searched with field-by-field granularity.
G. Related Art: Internet Search Engine Methodology
Also, under the related art, one commercially successful methodology for searching and ranking the relevancy of web pages is that of citation ranking, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,999 to Page. This method ranks pages in part according to the number and nature of other Web pages that link to the given page. This method is not ideal in that it provides no means whatsoever for capturing the difference between a “positive” reference and a “negative” reference. In other words, under this method, a link from an article that ridicules the linked document counts just as much as a link from an article that praises the same document.
What is needed, therefore, is a ranking methodology based upon the actual opinions of the user community rather than upon hit-or-miss surrogates for these opinions.
H. Related Art: Internet Dictionary, Stylebook and Grammar Book Technology
Dictionaries, literary stylebooks, and grammar books have heretofore been the province of elite editors and academicians at publishing companies and universities. Language, however, evolves faster than such institutions. In order to speed up the pace at which such reference materials are updated, some attempts have been made to create limited-function, on-line dictionaries—such as dictionaries for computer terms—that allow user-submission of definitions, but these attempts are not ideal in that these dictionaries must still be edited by someone so that false or frivolous submissions do not get published. Such attempts, in the absence of a superior approach, would be even more futile in the more subtle areas of language, such as grammar and style.
One approach is that used in Wikipedia, an online “encyclopedia,” in which all the content is user-created and user-maintained. While the apparent democracy of such an approach seems attractive at first blush, the actual performance of such an approach is disappointing: a novice in a field can delete the work of an imminent scholar in the same field and replace this work with nonsense. Endless retaliatory deletions, re-writings, and political squabbles ensue. Meanwhile, someone trying to use the Wikipedia as a reference tool does so at his or her own risk, since the content thereof may or may not be accurate at and any given time and changes from day to day.
What is needed, therefore, is an effective and efficient means by which a dictionary, stylebook, grammar book or other reference material can be created, maintained, and used as an authoritative reference tool by anyone with Internet access without the need for content-editing institutions.
I. Related Art: Web Browser Toolbar Technology
Software commonly called “toolbars”, such as the NetZero, AOL, and Yahoo Companion toolbars, whereby features are included in or added to a Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, are known. These toolbars typically feature advertisements or convenient access to a certain function, such as a Web search engine, that the given toolbar provider wishes to offer users.
One noteworthy variation on this theme is a toolbar feature used by Gain.com, which displays advertisements based upon a user's browsing habits, such as the websites he or she visits. This approach to the toolbar is not ideal in that the toolbar essentially exists to generate ad revenue for the toolbar maker at the expense of website providers themselves. In fact, as alleged in a recent lawsuit, this toolbar mechanism may be used to display ads for competitors of the website provider whose website is being browsed. Ideally, instead of working against website providers, the toolbar would actively serve the purposes of both website providers and visitors—without requiring each individual website provider to build and distribute its own toolbar.
What is needed, therefore, is an effective and efficient means through which the toolbar serves to enable easy, direct interaction between the toolbar user and virtually any provider of a website being browsed.
I. Related Art: Additional Technologies
Computers—which term is meant to include for purposes of this document all manner of computer and telecommunication hardware and software, including CPUs, RAM, ROM, disk drives, removable data storage media, ports, cables, routers, switches, interface devices, keyboards, point-and-click devices, wireless transmission/reception hardware, audio and video display monitors, modems, cards, power supplies, networks, networking equipment, operating systems, etc.—are known. Software comprising instructions stored on digital media whereby information is processed and steps are performed is known. Protocols for the storage and retrieval, both locally and remotely, of information using electronic devices are known. A URL (Uniform Resource Locator), a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), a file name and a file path are known.
Markup languages (e.g., SGML, HTML, XML) and methods for accessing and manipulating markup language documents (e.g., DOM, SAX) are known, as are methods for displaying information in such documents (e.g., Web browsers, CSS, XSLT) and identifying individual vocabularies used therein (e.g., Namespaces). Database management systems (e.g., Oracle, Sybase), database query languages (e.g., SQL) and means of dynamically generating web pages which incorporate material drawn from a database (e.g., ASP, PHP) are also known. Techniques and software for mapping data from one type of database to another are known. Internet bonding and instantaneous electronic payment systems (e.g., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/848,639 by Harrison) are known.
Instant messaging services, such as AOL Instant Messenger, whereby a real-time or near real-time data connection is established between an Internet user and the service operator so that real-time delivery of text exchanges between users can be affected, are known.
Public recordation of information such that said information is assigned, indexed, and can be retrieved by a unique alphanumeric identifier, such as copyright registration, is known. Techniques for encoding data on paper for machine retrieval, such as bar codes and high-density bar codes (2D), are known. Means for hosting an image file and updating this image file each time the data in a database field is changed (e.g., Web Page hit counters) are known.
Third-party-beneficiary contracts are known. A “third-party-beneficiary contract” is “a contract between two or more parties, the performance of which is intended to benefit directly a third party [“one not a party to an agreement”], thus giving the third party a right to file suit for breach of contract by either of the original contract parties.” Black's Law Dictionary, 6th edition, page 1480 (West publishing Co., St. Paul, Minn., 1990).
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a printing system in which placing a customer order is well automated, and a region for printing is so separate from a region for customers that they can wait in a safe and comfort environment for finish of prints.
2. Description Related to the Prior Art
A commercial printing system for producing prints from photographic paper is known as printing service. Images on a developed photographic film are printed on the photographic paper. Also, electronic image data are read from a memory card or other storage medium, to print images on the photographic paper. In general, an attendant or photo finisher of a photofinishing shop accepts a customer order placed by a customer. The customer is informed by the attendant of estimated time required for finishing the prints. When or after the estimated time has elapsed, he or she visits the photofinishing shop again to receive supply of the prints by payment for the service. There are various problems, one of which lies in requirement of a sufficient number of attendants. Another problem lines in difficulties in managing numerous orders without errors.
JP-A 2000-347301 discloses a self-service type of the printing system. The customer at the printing system sets a storage medium in a card reader or other data reader, and operates an inputting panel to input information, such as designated images to be printed, and a setting of the printing number of prints to be produced. According to the input information, production of prints is effected automatically. The prints are obtained, stacked, and inserted into containing cells in a sorted manner per the customer order. When the customer comes to receive the prints, a discerning device for verifies ID of the customer, so as to allow access to the prints by unlocking one of the containing cells.
The customer is obliged to visit the photofinishing shop two times, one for placing the customer order, and the other for receiving products. This is inconsistent to easy availability of photographic prints for the customer, because of as short time for the printing as several minutes or tens of minutes. It is conceivable to set a customer waiting space inside the photofinishing shop, and to serve beverage, food or the like to the customer for the purpose of comfortably spending time for waiting. However, handling of beverage, food of the like in the photofinishing shop is legally not allowed for hygienic reasons. As the photofinishing shop inevitably uses harmful substances for photographic processes, commercial ideas for hospitality cannot be developed.
The printing system according to the prior document has another problem in that finished prints are dropped by gravity into containing cells. Damages are likely to occur on prints upon the drop, such as scratches, folds, and the like.
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The present invention relates to industrial polyamide yarns and more particularly relates to high tenacity poly(.epsilon.-caproamide) yarn having low shrinkage and a process for making such yarns.
A wide variety of high tenacity polyamide yarns are known and are used commercially for a variety of purposes. Many of such polyamide yarns are useful in cords for tires due to high tenacity, i.e., up to but generally not exceeding 10.5 g/d. Such yarns also have tolerable levels of dry heat shrinkage for conversion to tire cords, typically 5-10% at 160.degree. C.
For certain applications such as ropes, industrial fabrics, airbags, and reinforced rubber goods such as hoses and conveyer belts, yarns with shrinkage less than that found in tire yarns are desirable. While some low shrinkage yarns are known, the tenacity of such yarns generally decreases with decreasing shrinkage. The lower tenacity thus requires the usually undesirable use of heavier deniers or the increased number of yarns in the end-use application. Other low shrinkage yarns with high tenacity levels have been made using processes employing treatment steps such as steaming for relatively long periods after drawing but such processes are usually not well-suited for commercial production. In addition, the yarns made by such processes typically have greatly reduced modulus levels and undesirable growth properties.
A heat-stable polyamide yarn with very low shrinkage while at the same time providing high tenacity would be highly desirable for such applications, particularly with a balance of properties including a low shrinkage tension and good modulus. Such yarns would be even more desirable if the yarns were readily manufactured in a commercially-feasible process.
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While consuming content, a user may wish to access additional related content. This may be motivated by a desire to learn more about the subject of the content or about something mentioned therein, for example.
In the context of written articles, this can be addressed using hypertext. When reading an article on the internet, the article may contain hyperlinks that represent avenues for the access of additional content. Clicking on a word or phrase may lead to a definition of the word, or to another article about the subject for example. Another web page may be used to present this additional information.
When viewing a video, however, the mechanisms available to the user for the access of related content are generally more limited. In the context of a web page containing a video, hyperlinks may be present elsewhere on the page, such that the user may click on these to access related content. But in other cases, such as when a user is viewing video that has been streamed or downloaded, the user currently has no convenient way to get supplemental content, such as text commentary, or related video or audio.
In the drawings, the leftmost digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, to an output driver of a semiconductor memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The bit organization, i.e., the number of bits of data that are output simultaneously, of a semiconductor memory device such as an asynchronous dynamic random access memory (ASDRAM), RAMBUS DRAM, is determined by the chip design. In other words, the bit organization is selected from among various bit organizations, such as X4, X8, and X16, in designing the chip, and internal circuits are designed according to the selected bit organization
In contrast, in the case of a double data rate (DDR) synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), after several different bit organizations are installed in one chip in the chip design, and one bit organization is later set by bonding wire connection(s) in the manufacturing process. In other words, a bit organization of X4, X8, or X16 is selected according to a bonding wire connection state.
However, one of issues arising when several bit organizations are installed in one chip in a DDR SDRAM is that the slew rate of a signal output from a data output driver depends on the bit configuration. The slew rate generally indicates the amount of change in a voltage of a signal per unit time and is often referred to as a rise time or a fall time.
FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of a data output driver in a DDR SDRAM. As described above, in the case of a DDR SDRAM, several bit organizations are installed in one chip in the chip design. Therefore, all bit organizations, such as X4, X8, X16, and the like should be considered in a designing process, and thus sixteen data output drivers 1 through 16 are divided into 6 or 7 groups in which each group includes 2 or 3 data output drivers as shown in FIG. 1, and a power line, i.e. a supply voltage line VDDQ, and a ground voltage line VSSQ are connected to each group.
In this case, all of the sixteen data output drivers 1 through 16 are used in a X16 product, while only 4 data output drivers are used in a X4 product (when the data output drivers 1 through 16 are grouped into 4 groups). Thus, the X4 product has VDDQ/VSSQ power characteristics that are superior to that of the X16 product. As a result, the slew rate of a signal output from a data output driver in the X4 product is greater than in the X16 product. Namely, in general, the slew rate of a signal output from a data output driver in a X8 product is greater than in the X16 product and the slew rate in the X4 product is greater than in the X8 product.
However, during the designing process, as mentioned above, several bit organizations are optionally designed in one chip and the slew rate of a data output driver is fit into one of the bit organizations. For this reason, in the remaining bit organizations, the slew rate of a data output driver falls outside the optimum point. In other words, when several bit organizations are installed in one chip, the slew rate of a signal output from a data output driver changes with a bit organization.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a data output driver of a semiconductor memory device which minimizes a difference in slew rate of an output signal according to a selected bit organization.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a data output driver of a semiconductor memory device, which drives an output terminal, comprises: a pull-up driver, which pulls up the output terminal; and a pull-down driver, which pulls down the output terminal, wherein current driving capabilities of at least one of the pull-up driver and/or the pull-down driver are changed in response to a selected bit organization of the semiconductor memory device.
The pull-up driver may include a pull-up transistor, which is controlled by a pull-up driving signal and is connected between a supply voltage and the output terminal; and a logic gate, which inverts data and generates the pull-up driving signal, wherein a current driving capability of the logic gate is changed in response to the selected bit organization.
The pull-down driver may include a pull-down transistor, which is controlled by a pull-down driving signal and is connected between the output terminal and a ground voltage; and a logic gate, which inverts data and generates the pull-down driving signal, wherein a current driving capability of the logic gate is changed in response to the selected bit organization.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept generally relates to an image forming apparatus and a method of supplying power thereof, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus for preventing an occurrence of an inrush current by a sudden voltage fluctuation which occurs as an open circuit is changed to a short circuit when a mode of the image forming apparatus is changed from a power saving mode to an activation mode, or a state of the image forming apparatus is changed from a turned-off state to a turned-on state, and a method of supplying power thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a part of efforts for environment protection, efforts to reduce energy consumed by electronic devices are proceeding globally. In particular, regulation of electricity consumption of electronic devices in standby mode is being enforced.
For example, an electronic product to be released in a domestic market of the United States, Europe, and Korea should satisfy power the consumption standard of each country (i.e., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Energy Star Product Specification for Imaging Equipment Version 1.2 in the United States, State 2 of the European Commission Ecodesign Directive for Energy-related Products (ErP), and a level below 0.1 W as stated by the Public Procurement Service in Korea).
In order to satisfy the regulations for standby power consumption, technical development to reduce power consumption when an electronic product enters into a standby mode is proceeding. Developments include a method of improving efficiency when a switching mode power supply (SMPS) has a light load, a method of reducing a load of a controller in standby mode, a method of opening a channel connected to a unused load, and the like.
Among the aforementioned methods, a power saving mode refers to a mode where an unused load channel is opened, and minimum power to operate an electronic device is supplied.
With reference to an image forming apparatus as an example, when the image forming apparatus is not used for a predetermined time, the image forming apparatus enters into a power saving mode, and in the power saving mode, minimum power is supplied to a controller configured to determine whether a command from a user has been inputted from outside, and no power is supplied to machines configured to perform operations such as printing, scanning, copying, and the like.
Subsequently, when the mode of the image forming apparatus is changed from the power saving mode to an activation mode, an open state of a load side circuit is changed to a short state, and a large amount of inrush current occurs because of a sudden voltage fluctuation.
To be specific, current (i) may be expressed as a derivative of voltage (V) with respect to time (t) (dV/dt), and thus when a sharp voltage fluctuation occurs in a short period of time, it causes a large amount of inrush current. The inrush current lowers stability of a system by causing stress on circuit components and affecting an output voltage drop of the SMPS.
The aforementioned problems occur not only when the mode of the image forming apparatus is changed from the power saving mode to the activation mode, but also when the state of the image forming apparatus is changed from a turned-off state to a turned-on state.
Hence, there is a need for an image forming apparatus configured to reduce an inrush current of a direct current (DC) output unit and a method of supplying power thereof.
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Decorative lighting, such as seasonal holiday lighting, generally includes decorative light strings, lighted trees, lighted decorative sculptures and other such lights and lighted objects. Such decorative lighting often comprises one or more strings of lights constructed of multiple wires, lamp assemblies and an electrical connector or power plug. Wires used in decorative lighting typically include an electrical conductor surrounded by an insulating material. The electrical conductor usually comprises multiple, individual strands of copper conductors. For example, a typical 50 light string of incandescent Christmas lights may be constructed using 22 AWG wire that includes 16 individual copper strands twisted together and covered with an insulating polymer material, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
To ensure safety, such wiring as used in decorative lighting applications may be required to meet various standards and requirements relating to both electrical and mechanical performance. For example, wires may be subject to dielectric testing, tensile-strength testing, breakage testing, cold temperature bending, flammability testing, and so on. From a mechanical perspective, some important and often-tested wire characteristics include tensile strength, breakage strength, and elongation. Not only does a decorative light string need to be able to conduct electricity safely, but it also needs to withstand physical abuse with limited risk of breakage. Breakage, including breakage of any portion of the wiring, could result in shock or electrocution to persons coming into contact with the decorative lighting or structures touching the decorative lighting, such as a tree.
One simple way to increase the mechanical integrity of wiring is to rely on relatively large gauge wiring. For example, while a 22 AWG wire may be sufficient to safely conduct the expected electrical current of a light string, a 20 AWG wire may actually be used to increase mechanical strength. However, while simply increasing the wire gauge may provide mechanical strength, the material cost to use oversized wire generally outweighs the resulting benefits.
Another known and commonly-used method of increasing mechanical strength of a decorative light string is to twist pairs of wires together. While this technique does not increase the mechanical strength of an individual wire, twisting two wires together, such as a first polarity wire and a second polarity wire, mechanically strengthens the overall decorative light string along its length. Such a known arrangement is depicted in FIG. 1, which illustrates a typical “twisted-pair” light string. In the light string of FIG. 1, the wires L1, L2, and L3 of the light string are twisted along the length of the light string. As such, if opposing forces were applied to the light string, for example pulling power plug 1 and end connector 2 in opposite directions, the twisted pairs of wires are stronger than single wires, and the likelihood of a wire breaking is decreased.
Referring to FIG. 2, a portion of a prior art net light is depicted. The net light depicts a second known method for strengthening decorative light strings, namely, wrapping a non-conductive, reinforcing strand about each individual conductive wire or wire segment. For example, the prior art net light of FIG. 2 includes non-conductive reinforcing strands 211 and 212 wrapped or twisted about multiple individual wires 13 that connect the various lamp assemblies 12. Should a portion of the net light be subject to pulling, the reinforcing strands serve to diminish the possibility that any individual wire will break.
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It is well known in the vehicular art to provide releasable parking brakes for automobiles and the like. Foot operated brake pedals with latching devices to hold the brake pedals in their brake engaged position are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,840,960; 2,115,776; 2,232,790; and 3,229,792.
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Interference spectrophotometers such as Fourier transform infrared (FT IR) spectrophotometers are used to make qualitative and quantitative analyses of various substances including organic and inorganic substances as well as high-molecular materials and semiconductor materials.
An interference spectrophotometer has a main interferometer for investigating samples and a control interferometer for starting collection of data from the main interferometer and for stabilizing the speed at which the movable mirror is slid. The control interferometer provides quadrature control to detect the position of the movable mirror. For this purpose, a phase plate such as a .lambda./8 plate is installed between the beam splitter and the fixed mirror. Interference signals meeting at the beam splitter are separated into P waves and S waves by a polarizing beam splitter. The polarized components are detected by their respective detectors, and the position of the movable mirror is determined from the phase relation between the output signals from the detectors and from the wave number.
When measurements are made with an interference spectrophotometer, it is necessary to move the movable mirror at a constant speed in one direction. If external disturbance such as vibration is imparted to the instrument, the sliding movement of the movable mirror is disturbed. In an interference spectrophotometer, the movable mirror is reciprocated plural times to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of data obtained by measurements. Data obtained at the same position of the movable mirror is accumulated. This procedure is called coherent addition. If the sliding movement of the movable mirror is disturbed by external disturbance, then the coherent addition is destroyed in accumulating data. As a result, the accumulated data will be inaccurate. The technique for detecting the position of the movable mirror by providing quadrature control is essential for coherent addition.
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The invention relates to a method and a device for the production of NaDCl4, in which D is aluminium or iron, where, in a first reaction step, a melt of aluminium or iron is reacted with chlorine gas to give gaseous metal halide, and this is subsequently reacted, in a second reaction step, with solid sodium chloride to give the corresponding compound and is separated off as a melt
Melts of salts, such as, for example, NaAlCl4 have various areas of application. Salt melts can be employed as storage medium in heat storage systems, as heat transfer media, for example in heating baths, for covering and cleaning molten metals, for the electrocoating of high-melting materials or as melt electrolytes in primary batteries, as described in GB 2046506. A further potential application of these salts is in rechargeable sodium batteries. The salts are employed in batteries which have operating temperatures of between 130xc2x0 C. and 200xc2x0 C. (Abraham. J. Electrochem. Soc., Vol. 137, 1189-1190, (1990)).
DE 3419279 describes an electrochemical cell in which the cathode matrix is impregnated with a sodium aluminium halide salt melt electrolyte.
A relatively new area of application is the xe2x80x9cZEBRA batteryxe2x80x9d. This high-temperature cell consists of an electrode of liquid sodium, a beta aluminium electrolyte and an electrode of transition-metal chloride in an NaAlCl4 melt (Cleaver, J. Electrochem. Soc., Vol. 142, 3409-3413, (1995)).
DE 3718920 describes the production of salt melts by the addition of a pure metal and an alkali metal halide to the melt The reaction cell is operated at above the melting point of the salt melt. The alkali metal halide in the working example is NaCl, the molten alkali metal is sodium, and the separator is beta-aluminium oxide. Owing to the use of pure sodium, special safety precautions, such as working under a protective-gas atmosphere, have to be taken. The reactions must take place in separate cells, since poisoning of the separator by the by-product AlHal3 formed must be prevented.
All the methods known hitherto for the production of salt melts work batchwise. A batch procedure has some severe disadvantages compared with a continuous production method. In the case of a batch change, the apparatus has to be opened. The product may then be contaminated by the oxygen from the ambient air, water and dust The batch change results in down times of the plant and thus in a reduced space-time yield. For an effective discontinuous method, large apparatuses have to be used. The start-up process requires correspondingly more energy and time. It has been found that impurities are entrained into the process, in particular during start-up of plants. FR 2168912 describes a complex purification method for alkali metal aluminium halides. The two-step purification process is composed of an oxygen treatment for degradation of the organic impurities and an aluminium treatment for precipitation of iron and heavy metals. The aluminium treatment must be carried out under a nitrogen or argon atmosphere.
For the production of the alkali metal aluminium halides, the reaction of corresponding aluminium halides and alkali metal halides in a closed tube is described (Friedmann, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 72, 2236-2243, (1950)). A pressure increase to 6-7 atmospheres has been observed in this method, which results in problems (FR 2168912). The apparatuses have to be fitted with the appropriate safety precautions.
The object of the invention is to provide a continuous method for the production of pure salt melts which excludes disadvantageous ambient influences, minimises the energy demand and facilitates an optimum space-time yield.
A further object is to make large quantities of salt melts available in the shortest possible time.
The object according to the invention is achieved by a method for the production of salt melts, and mixtures thereof, of the general formula
NaDCl4 xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
in which
D is Al or Fe,
which, in a first reaction step (i), a melt of aluminium or iron is reacted with chlorine gas to give gaseous metal halide (DCl3), and this is subsequently, in a second reaction step (ii), reacted with solid sodium chloride to give the corresponding compound of the formula (I) and is separated off as a melt.
The invention furthermore relates to a device for carrying out the method, essentially consisting of a reaction vessel (1) containing the melt of the metal D, with a feed device for chlorine gas (2), a collection device for gaseous metal chloride (4) above the reaction vessel (1), and a further reactor vessel (5) which contains sodium chloride in solid form and is connected to the said collection device.
The products from the method are suitable for use as melt electrolyte in electrochemical cells, as storage medium in heat storage systems, as heat transfer medium, for example in heating baths, for covering and cleaning molten metals, for the electrocoating of high-melting materials or as melt electrolytes in rechargeable sodium batteries and primary batteries.
In the alternative methods, the solids, for example NaCl and AlCl3, are mixed and warmed to the melting point. The amount of heat necessary for this purpose has to be supplied from the outside.
Surprisingly, it has been found that the exothermicity of the reaction of aluminium or iron (D) with Cl2 to give aluminium chloride or iron chloride (DCl3) can be utilised for the further process for the production of NaDCl4.
In the process according to the invention, DCl3 (where D=Al or Fe) is formed at temperatures between 700xc2x0 C. and 1200xc2x0 C. In contrast to conventional methods, this DCl3 is fed in gaseous form to an alkali metal salt bed of NaCl.
It has been found that the accompanying heat of the gas (DCl3) is sufficient to warm the alkali metal salt (NaCl) to the melting point of the salt melt NaDCl4 (I).
An essential advantage of the method is the use of cheaper raw materials and the utilisation of the heat of reaction being liberated for controlling the temperature of the method. Method steps, such as the condensation of the metal halide (DCl3), can thereby be saved and the energy demand for carrying out the process reduced.
It has been found that the continuous performance of the method enables interfering environmental influences to be excluded. This enables a constantly high quality of the product to be established after the start-up phase.
All continuously operating reaction vessels which appear suitable to the person skilled in the art can be used for the method. For the reaction with chlorine gas, a feed device with gas inlet is necessary. The reaction vessel is provided with a refractory lining. A ceramic lining which is insensitive to the materials employed and the high temperatures is advisable.
The metal D in powder or granule form is provided for the process via a solids metering unit (3).
For collecting the reaction product (DCl3), a collection device (4), provided with a feed line to the downstream reaction vessel (5), is installed above the reaction vessel (1) for the melt
The feed of the reaction product takes place between the upper quarter and the lower quarter of the reactor vessel (5), which contains a mixture of metal D and sodium chloride in solid form. Complete conversion of the reactants into the reaction products can thus be ensured.
The salt melt formed runs off in a downward direction through the alkali metal salt bed (NaCl), which is supported by a support grille or a coarse filter plate.
A mixture of solid sodium chloride and metal D in powder or granule form is fed continuously, corresponding to the amount of end product formed and separated off, to the reaction vessel (5) via a solids metering unit (6).
Due to water entrained by the raw materials, undesired HCl gas forms. This can react away to give the metal halide (DCl3) due to amounts of the corresponding metal granules or powder (D) present in the alkali metal salt bed.
It is advisable for a further reactor vessel (7) with alkali metal salt bed to be installed downstream of the reactor vessel (5) in the flow direction for purification of the melt in order to allow the metal halide (DCl3) formed in turn to react away to give NaDCl4.
A temperature control device is merely necessary for heating up once in the start phase and, where appropriate, for cooling. The energy necessary for melting the metal granules (D) is also provided by the heat of reaction.
The method can be carried out continuously or discontinuously as required.
A general example of the invention, which is shown in the drawing, is explained in greater detail below. FIG. 1 shows a reaction vessel containing metal melt 1 having a feed device for chlorine gas 2 and solids metering device 3, collection device for gaseous metal chloride DCl3 4 and reactor vessel 5 containing metal granule or metal powder and alkali metal salt bed, and solids metering device 6, as well as a downstream reactor vessel 7.
Reaction Step i:
For the production of salts conforming to the formula (1) and mixtures thereof, the raw materials can be fed to the reaction vessel (1) in premixed form via the solids metering device (3). The filling can be carried out under inert gas.
The heatable reaction vessel (1) contains liquid metal melt. Suitable metals (D) are iron and aluminium. Chlorine gas is fed into the reaction apparatus via the feed device (2). The volume of the melt and the volume flow of the gas is determined as a function of the requisite residence time and the desired throughput. A temperature above the melting point of the metal (D) is set in the reaction vessel (1).
The gaseous metal halide (DCl3) is fed to the reaction vessel (5) via the collection device (4) for the reaction product formed.
Reaction Step ii:
The metal halide is fed to the metal granule or metal powder and alkali metal salt bed between the upper and lower quarter of the reactor vessel (5), preferably between the upper quarter and the centre. A mixture of metal granules or powder (D) and alkali metal salt (NaCl) is fed constantly to the reactor vessel via a solids metering device (6) in accordance with consumption.
The metal halide (DCl3) is reacted with the alkali metal salt in the reactor vessel (5) to give NaDCl4.
Reaction Step iii:
The melt maybe contaminated due to contact with water or atmospheric moisture. The hydrogen halide formed can react away with the metal granules (D) added to the salt bed in the reactor vessel (5) to give the metal halide (DCl3).
Reaction Step iv:
For further processing, the metal halide is passed through the reactor vessel (7). Row takes place from bottom to top through the purification unit charged with alkali metal salt NaCl. In the process, the metal halide DCl3 is reacted with the alkali metal salt NaCl to give the desired salt NaDCl4.
The flow from bottom to top through the reactor vessel (7) is not absolutely necessary. However, it has the advantage that the particles becoming smaller due to the reaction are not forced onto the sieve plate by the flow, blocking it. Nevertheless, homogeneous through-flow (plug flow) in the column is ensured in this way. Homogeneous through-flow is an essential prerequisite for complete reaction in the purification unit.
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A low-density parity-check (LDPC) code is a linear error correcting code with a sparse parity-check matrix and a block length that may attain performance near the Shannon limit. The LDPC code may be constructed using a sparse bipartite graph. In some implementations, the LDPC code may be decoded using an iterative algorithm, such as a message passing algorithm, that allows information to be passed between storage elements and check node elements associated with decoding the LDPC coded data.
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This invention relates to an improved, universally insertable, rotatable sleeve and cam coupling apparatus and method for the safe positive connection of one mechanical means, for instance a trailer, to another mechanical means, for instance a truck.
Trailer hitches have been known in the art for quite some time. Typically the hitching apparatus is utilized with a ball type member attached to the towing vehicle while the hitching means is attached to the item desired to be towed. The hitching apparatus generally is attached to the item to be towed on the same horizontal plane as the ball is to the towing vehicle. The towing vehicle is then backed up to the item to be towed and the free ball hitch is then covered with the hitching apparatus and secured in place with a variety of springs, handles and locks. An example of such a hitch is described in Martin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,410, which discloses a spring assisted lever that forces a restraining means beneath the ball of the ball hitch and thereby holds the device in a fixed position. Byers, U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,184, discloses yet another of these trailer hitch devices whereby a push rod is utilized to provide a "self-locking trailer hitch assembly".
A drawback to these and other hitching mechanisms is that they are mechanically complex and are comprised of many parts, some of which are under spring tension, which are subject to wear and failure. Additionally, a further drawback is that in order for these previous devices to function correctly, the ball hitch must be exposed and accessible for connection with a hitching means that approaches it on the same horizontal plane. A further disadvantage is that previous devices are primarily designed to withstand horizontal forces between the ball and the hitch assembly and are relatively weak when verticle or upward pressure is placed on the hitch assembly.
Thus, there is a need in the art for providing a universally insertable, rotatable sleeve and cam coupling having high strength, that is safe and simple to operate, and which is constructed in such a manner that a remote ball or other hitching device can be attached to a hitch even though the ball or other hitching device is in a recessed, remote, difficult to reach or normally inaccessible area. This is accomplished by extending the portion of the device located below the operating handles of the device to any desired length. It is a further object of the invention to provide a coupling that does not rely on a spring for any operation, including that needed to engage or release the ball itself, and one that does not rely on any kind of bolting mechanism to engage or release the ball. It is a further object to provide a coupling equally effective in any plane and which is not limited to horizontal coupling alone.
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Transition-metal-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis is an important area in modern organic chemistry study (Ohkuma, T; Kitamura, M.; Noyori, R. Catalytic Asymmetry Synthesis, Wiley, New York, 2000). The crux of the asymmetric catalytic synthesis is to synthesize the chiral catalyst. Since the asymmetric control emerged by chiral catalyst which depends on chiral ligands, for the core of the synthesis of chiral catalyst is the synthesis of chiral ligands. The motivation of the asymmetric synthesis development is to design and synthesize the new chiral ligands.
Chiral carboxylic acid, one of the important blocks for synthesis, is widely applied into synthesis of drugs and nature products. Wherein alpha-aryl substituted propionic acid, such as naproxen and ibuprofen, is widespread used in the world today as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. There is significant application value to develop the synthesis method of optical active alpha-substituted propionic acids with high efficiency and high selectivity. To obtain the compound, transition-metal-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of alpha-substituted acrylic acids is one of the most direct and effective method. In the past several decades, much research on transition-metal-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of alpha-substituted acrylic acids has been done and some valid chiral ligands and catalysts are developed. Among the research of asymmetric hydrogenation of alpha-substituted acrylic acids so far, axial chiral diphosphine ligands and the complex catalyst of ruthenium acquire the best results. Nevertheless, to maximize the catalytic effect for such catalyst requires hydrogen pressure greater than 6 MPa in general. If hydrogen pressure is reduced, the activity and enantioselectivity of reaction is lowered (1. Ohta, T.; Takaya, H.; Kitamura, M.; Nagai, K.; Noyori, R. J. Org. Chem. 1987, 52, 3174; 2. Chan, A. S. C.; Laneman, S. A. U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,050, 1992; 3. Benincori, T.; Brenna, E.; Sannicolò, F.; Trimarco, L.; Antognazza, P.; Cesarotti, E.; Demartin, F.; Pilati, T. J. Org. Chem. 1996, 61, 6244; 4. Pai, C.-C.; Lin, C.-W.; Lin, C.-C.; Chen, C.-C.; Chan, A. S. C. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 11513; 5. Qiu, L.; Wu, J.; Chan, S.; Au-Yeung, T. T.-L.; Ji, J.-X.; Guo, R.; Pai, C.-C.; Zhou, Z.; Li, X.; Fan, Q.-H.; Chan, A. S. C. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2004, 101, 5815). The reaction condition of high pressure has a high requirement of apparatus and causes many security problems in production. Diphosphine ligands and complex catalyst of rhodium are also used in asymmetric hydrogenation alpha-substituted acrylic acids. Although some rhodium catalysts have relatively high enantioselectivity in asymmetric hydrogenation alpha-substituted acrylic acids, the catalyst dosage is large (1 mol %) and the enantioselectivity in substrates of alpha-alkyl substituted acrylic acids is only middle class which is not adequate enough (1. Robin, F.; Mercier, F.; Ricard, L.; Mathey, F.; Spagnol, M. Chem. Eur. J. 1997, 3, 1365; 2. Hu, W.-H.; Pai, C. C.; Chen, C. C.; Xue, G.-P.; Chan, A. S. C. Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 1998, 9, 3241; 3. Zupan{hacek over (c)}i{hacek over (c)}, B.; Mohar, B.; Stephan, M. Org. Lett. 2010, 12, 3022). Recently, some phosphine-oxazoline ligand and complex of iridium are used to catalyze the asymmetric hydrogenation of alpha-substituted acrylic acids. However, since the conversion number (TON<100) and transformation frequency (TOF<13 h−1) is relative low and the highest enantioselectivity is only 88% ee, the requirement of practical application can not be fulfilled (1. Scrivanti, A.; Bovo, S.; Ciappa, A.; Matteoli, U. Tetrahedron Lett. 2006, 47, 9261; 2. Zhang, Y.; Han, Z.-B.; Li, F.-Y.; Ding, K.-L.; Zhang, A. Chem. Commun. 2010, 46, 156). In conclusion, with regard to asymmetric hydrogenation alpha-substituted acrylic acids, the existing chiral ligands and catalysts have defects of high hydrogen pressure, large catalyst dosage, long duration of reaction and limited substrates, which have negative effect on practical application. Therefore, to overcome the shortages of existing ligands and catalysts is one of the focuses of the research to develop new effective chiral ligand and corresponding catalyst.
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This invention relates to the field of rocket launched spacecraft and, in particular, to deployable spacecraft structures such as solar arrays and booms.
Most deployable solar arrays for spacecraft have used crystalline solar cells mounted to rigid panels. Certain prior art describes mechanisms to effectively package, carefully deploy, and maintain the shape of arrays of rigid panels. Flexible solar arrays have also been used, but have been limited to thin-film arrays packaged in a long roll or pleated stack that is deployed using a separate boom or booms.
Thin photovoltaic arrays have been used for the original solar arrays on the Hubble Space Telescope and for the primary solar arrays on the International Space Station (ISS). The Hubble arrays were packaged in a roll and deployed with booms mounted on either side of the roll that pull the roll out into a sheet as they extend. The ISS arrays were packaged into a stack by folding and pleating a long, thin sheet of material that is deployed with a single boom mounted underneath the array that pulls the stack into a sheet as it extends.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a two-wheel drive two-wheeled vehicle, and more particularly a two-wheel drive motorcycle having a rear wheel driven by a chain or shaft mechanism and the front wheel driven by a series of shafts and gears transferring power to the front wheel from either the motorcycle transmission or the driven rear wheel. Moreover, the two-wheel drive motorcycle disclosed herein is configured so that the front wheel drive components counterbalance all steering system torque reactions and moments of inertia through placement of numerous components located on the axis of steering and symmetrically within the motorcycle front fork. The novel configuration enable the rider to maintain control of the two-wheel drive motorcycle during the high-speed, high-power rotation of the engine-powered front wheel drive.
2. Description of Related Art
As motorcycle and off-road motocross riding has gained broader appeal, the demands that riders place on their vehicles have increased dramatically. Conventional motorcycles are powered through a chain or shaft linking the engine to the rear wheel. However, motocross and motorcycle riders are now facing riding conditions and obstacles where having only rear wheel drive can lead to vehicle damage, loss of control and an unstable front wheel during cornering and off-road riding in general. For professional riders, precious race time is lost avoiding obstacles or losing traction in loose rocks, sand, dirt, mud, or ice. Traction and climbing ability are severely limited in extreme mountain conditions by only having the rear wheel provide power. Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for a two-wheel drive motorcycle that efficiently and safely transfers power from the motor through the transmission to the front wheel, that provides the rider with increased ability to safely negotiate rough terrain, and that does not detract from the aesthetic qualities, appearance or function of the motorcycle itself.
While both two-wheel drive motorcycles and two-wheel drive bicycles have been attempted in the past, the present invention relating to the two-wheel drive motorcycle offers significant technical and functional innovations previously not disclosed or anticipated. The present invention features symmetrically positioned and counterbalanced front wheel drive components relative to the axis of steering and motorcycle centerline that eliminate or minimize the torque reactions that would otherwise adversely affect motorcycle control when the front wheel is driven. Additionally, the present invention illustrates a front wheel drive for a two-wheel drive motorcycle that is completely enclosed within the motorcycle frame, head tube, and front fork in a way that reduces danger to the rider from moving parts and ensures that the motorcycle steering is unencumbered.
By comparison, previous attempts at constructing a two-wheel drive motorcycle have utilized hydraulic, hydrostatic, and variations of belt, shaft or chain drives that have numerous exposed parts. Importantly, none of the previous attempts at constructing a two-wheel drive motorcycle would result in a functional two-wheel drive motorcycle. Primarily, none of the prior attempts have taken into account that a motorcycle drive system based upon rigid shafts can spin at several thousand revolutions per minute producing torque reactions along the front fork from the spinning front wheel drive system that would result in an uncontrollable pull on the front wheel. Furthermore, previous attempts have failed to provide a motorcycle with a full rage of steering.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,340 shows a motorcycle with a front wheel driven by a chain supported by the motorcycle fork and handlebars powering a large chain drive gear on the front wheel. The patent is assigned to Rokon International who previously produced a similar two-wheeled vehicle capable of only low-speed rough terrain maneuvering. As shown, the front wheel drive chain would severely limit the ability to manufacture a motorcycle capable or any high speed maneuvering.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,014,808, 5,050,699, 5,054,572, and 5,113,964 show variations of motorcycles with a front wheel powered by a series of belts, chains, gears, or sprockets from the motor to the front fork and then to the front wheel along one side of the fork. While a motorcycle does not need the same broad range of steering that is necessary for a bicycle, the presence of a bulky drive chain on one side of the motorcycle would cause problems with both steering as well as unwanted torque reactions that would make the motorcycle potentially uncontrollable at high speeds. The exposed front wheel drive chains also pose a potential hazard to the rider.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,873,428 and 5,894,903, JP9156570A2, EP 0 779 205 A2, and EP 0 779 205 A3 show motorcycles with a front wheel driven by hydraulic motors or hydrostatic pressure from the engine to the front wheel. A motorcycle with a front wheel driven by a hydraulic drive system would have significantly less efficient power transfer than a rigid-shaft drive system.
GB Patent Number 1,284,821 shows a motorcycle with a front wheel driven by an extremely complex shaft and gear drive system. The motorcycle includes a radically-redesigned front end without a head tube, very large gears extending well in front of the axis of steering, and a front drive system located within one fork leg. The adverse torque reactions resulting from the unbalanced front wheel drive system and high-speed rotation of the front wheel drive would likely result in a motorcycle that is uncontrollable. This configuration of the front wheel drive would also prevent a full range of steering.
WO 93/09992 (PCT/FR92/01084) discloses a front wheel drive for a two-wheel drive motorcycle that is not counterbalanced on the axis of steering and is located in a significantly enlarged front end lacking a head tube. Such a front end would interfere with the full steering range of the motorcycle during sharp turns and make the motorcycle impossible to ride on complex terrain and potentially pose a safety risk. Additionally, while the invention discloses a drive system within both fork legs, the invention fails to disclose a counter-balanced drive system as several gears are vertically offset from each other. Further, as illustrated, the dimensions of a standard motorcycle would require that the drive gears be several inches in diameter and both the shafts and gears are inadequately supported for the enormous torque that would be transferred through such a drive system design. In short, the disclosed two wheel drive vehicle fails to adequately address the problem of torque counter balancing or provide a full range of steering.
The attempts at constructing two-wheel drive two-wheeled vehicles also include several two-wheel drive bicycle designs. Generally, two-wheel drive bicycles fall into two categories: 1) permanent designs involving drive trains attached to the frame, and 2) retrofit kits which convert existing bicycles to two-wheel drive. The main drawbacks to these systems are: 1) a modification to the standard bicycle in the form of a kit is expensive when considered as an addition to a bicycle purchase, 2) the low strength flexible shaft limits the allowable loading on the system, 3) the retro-fit kit requires considerable skill to attach and cannot be designed to optimally work with every frame design, and 4) the drive mechanisms are often large and openly exposed on the outside of the frame potentially creating additional hazards for the rider and detracting from the overall appearance of the bicycle. In short, none of the two-wheel drive bicycles discussed below could be successfully modified or adapted to produce a functional two-wheel drive motorcycle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,662 shows a bicycle with a front wheel driven by a chain connected to a handlebar mounted hand pedaling system. The bicycle uses arm power to drive the front wheels and is adaptable to a conventional bicycle frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,689 shows a front wheel drive system for a bicycle which can be installed on a bicycle to drive the front wheel by rocking the handlebars back and forth. As with U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,662 mentioned previously, this bicycle attempts to harness the energy of the rider's arms as an additional power source for driving the bicycle. However, a drive mechanism requiring the use of the riders arms for more than steering, balance and control of the vehicle would likely create safety problems and interfere with the bicycle's operation for both professional and recreational mountain bikers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,705 describes a bicycle with power distribution from the rear wheel to the front wheel via a caliper and cable drive system. The drive system is activated by a caliper clamped on the rear wheel connected by a cable to a caliper on the front wheel. Inefficient power transfer to the front wheel due to slippage as well as torque loss in the cable would likely be a problem with this system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,725 describes one permanent system that has been developed utilizing a series of chains and sprockets. This design utilizes many moving parts that would make the bicycle very awkward and difficult to maintain. The exposed chain that runs along the top tube could be hazardous to the rider and the front chain also would interfere with steering.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,057 describes a bicycle driven with a chain meshed with both the front and rear sprockets through a plurality of gears, pulleys and spring systems to power the front wheel.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,332,244, 5,253,889, 5,158,314, 5,116,070, and 4,895,385 disclose two-wheel drive bicycles including a front wheel driven by flexible cables or flexible cables in combination with chains. Other systems, such as the system produced by Turner Drive Systems of Rogers, Arkansas, target the market for a drive system which can be retrofit to any standard bicycle frame with modifications primarily to the gearing and chain attachments necessary to drive the front wheel. As discussed above, a cable-driven front wheel results in inefficient power transfer to the front wheel due to cable wind.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,244 discloses chain-sprocket arrangements, along with a flexible shaft to transmit some of the power from a rear gearbox to the front wheel. The retrofit system utilizes the inner most sprocket for the drive system, however the rider can use the other sprockets to shift gears normally. Deformation of the flexible cable, and corresponding loss of efficient power transfer from the rear wheel to the front wheel is a drawback of each of these systems when compared to the rigid shaft drive of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,314 uses a complex mechanical system to power the front wheel from the powered rear wheel. A first traction chain coupled to the rear wheel and attached to the frame is connected to a series of rigid and flexible shafts which attach to a second traction chain which is mounted above and powers the front wheel. U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,332 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,660 also describe two-wheel drive bicycles with complex chain or belt drive and pulley systems.
Bicycle hubs utilizing roller clutch bearings are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,485,905 and 5,662,197. However, neither application discloses the use of the roller clutch hub to provide power transmission advantages for the front wheel drive of a two-wheel drive bicycle nor does either utilize more than a single roller clutch within the hub for added strength and durability of the hub shell.
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Over the years, since the first introduction of man-made fibers into the textile industry, there has been an almost ceaseless quest for different techniques to make such man-made synthetic fibers appear like and be similar to natural fibers (e.g. cotton and wool). As part of this, most procedures have as at least part of the objective the increasing bulk of such man-made fibers in order to provide garments made therefrom with a soft, luxuriant hand, sufficient elasticity to provide a good fitting garment, increased moisture absorption for better wearing comfort and increased yarn volume to allow for more coverage.
The process of texturing or crimping in order to impart random loops or otherwise modifying continuous filament yarns to increase their cover, resilience, abrasion resistance, warmth, insulation and moisture absorbance or to provide a different surface texture can be broken down roughly into six main groups. These include air-jet texturing, edge crimping, false-twist texturing, gear crimping, knit-de-knit texturing and stuffer box crimping.
With the advent, however, of biconstituent yarns which are in effect self-crimping, an additional method of forming man-made yarns into textured-type products has evolved. One example of such a yarn is DuPont's N-780, now referred to as type #207, a side-by-side biconstituent yarn. Another example is Monvelle produced by Monsanto. This type of yarn is extremely sensitive to the application of heat and has an extremely high shrinkage rate characteristicly approaching 76%. Products produced from this yarn, after proper finishing exhibit very good anti-snagging or picking characteristics and thus is considered to be an extremely acceptable yarn for use in the production of ladies' hosiery.
While the yarn manufacture indicates and practice shows it to be possible to produce greige products directly from this yarn, one of the major drawbacks with employing such self-crimping yarns is that garments or fabrics produced therefrom have to be made in an extremely large size proportionialized according to the shrinkage characteristics of the yarn. If done correctly when the garments or materials are subjected to heat during dyeing and finishing, the shrinkage will bring the garments or fabrics to a proper size and at the same time develop the crimp and anti-snag characteristics of the yarn.
The theory of using such yarns has not worked well in practice at all times and there are several disadvantages to working with such yarn. In some instances production equipment would have to be modified to produce the necessarily oversized fabric or garment. It is somewhat difficult to gauge how large garments should be to produce predetermined sizes with the exactness required by today's consumers and, in fact, a fair amount of guess work is required before full-scale processing of such garments can be undertaken. This is quite inconvenient, especially when there are size changes or different stitch configurations which would cause variations in the amount of yarn being used which affect the ultimate size being obtained. The pick resistance of the oversized garment is extremely fragile and because the fabric made is so loose, it is extremely easy to have yarns somehow become damaged thereby producing an inordinately large number of seconds. On many occasions, one out of every three garments is lost between production and heat treating.
In view of such problems attendant to the use of this yarn, it was desired to be able to properly develop crimp in the yarn and to reduce the size of the yarn such that garments or fabrics could be made "to sizes" with any subsequent finishing or heating finishing operations serving to only develop even additional crimp in the yarn thereby improving the anti-snag properties of the yarn rather than altering the size of those fabrics or garments.
The knit-de-knit process as it is conventionally known is exemplified in the Page patent, U.S. Pat. No. 2,601,451. This patent relates to a method of making a stocking and has as one specific object the production of yarn through a knit-de-knit procedure. The patent discusses the problem called phasing with respect to the construction of hosiery items which occurs when there is a substantial correspondence between the frequency of the reoccurrence of the crimps in the formed yarn and the frequency of reoccurrence of the final knitted loops. Where these two frequencies tend to fall into phase, undesirable lines will appear usually referred to as phasing. Thus, any process for producing crimped yarn must be accomplished at a frequency where the reoccurrence of the crimps when used to make fabrics will not create phasing problems. The Page patent indicates that a standard 400-needle circular knitting machine is used to knit a tube of material which can be stretched to a circumference of 161/2 inches or 30 inches. The knit tube is subsequently subjected to a shrinking or setting action at a temperature ranging between 225.degree. F. to 250.degree. F. Thereafter, the knit tube is unraveled and the yarn used in the production of garments. It should be pointed out, that the type of crimped yarn resulting from employing the process set forth in the Page patent would have a regular pattern of successive and uniformly spaced crimps, each of which would have the configuration of a knitted stitch loop.
A modification of the knit-de-knit process set forth in the Page patent is described in the Silver et al. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,330,018 dated July 11, 1967. The object of the Silver et al. patent was to obtain a crimped yarn which would include various portions of straight or uncrimped sections together with crimped sections so that when the yarn was knit or woven into a fabric, the fabric would have a novelty pattern with varying degrees of stretchability in various portions thereof. In accomplishing that objective, Silver et al. employed alternating knit and float sections with the number of needles used to form the alternating knit and float sections being variable in a random and preferably non-repeating manner.
It was found that when employing the hitherto conventional knit-de-knit crimping procedures together with conventional heat treating of the knit tubular sleeve, it would not serve to properly treat the bicomponent self-crimping yarn in a manner that would make it suitable for use as a conventional yarn in producing "to size" fabrics or garments.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink ejection device for forming images on a recording medium by ejecting ink droplets from nozzles according to printing commands. The invention also relates to a driving method for the ink ejection device that forms.
2. Description of the Related Art
Non-impact type printing devices have recently taken the place of conventional impact type printing devices and are holding an ever-growing share of the market. Of these non-impact type printing devices, ink-ejecting type printing devices have the simplest operation principle, but are still capable of effectively and easily performing multi-gradation and color printing. Of these devices, a drop-on-demand type for ejecting only ink droplets which are used for printing has rapidly gained popularity because of its excellent ejection efficiency and low running cost.
A shear mode type printer using a piezoelectric actuator is one of the drop-on-demand types. Such a printer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,568. One example of such type of printer is shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b) in which FIG. 1(a) is a cross-sectional view taken along line Axe2x80x94A in FIG. 1(b) an FIG. 1(b) is also a cross-sectional view taken along line Bxe2x80x94B in FIG. 1(a).
As shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), the shear mode type ink ejection device 600 includes a bottom wall 601, a ceiling wall 602, and elongated shear mode actuator walls 603 sandwiched therebetween. Each actuator wall 603 includes a lower wall 607 adhesively attached to the bottom wall 601 and an upper wall 605 adhesively attached to the ceiling wall 602. The upper and lower walls 605, 607 are polarized in the directions indicated by arrows 609, 611, respectively. Alternating pairs of actuator walls 603 form in alternation ink channels 613 therebetween or spaces 615, which are narrower than the ink channels 613.
Electrodes 619 and 621 are provided on both side surfaces of each actuator wall 603. Specifically, the electrode 619 is provided in the ink channel 613 and the electrode 621 is provided in the space 615. The electrode 621 is also provided on the outer side surface of each of the two outermost actuator walls 603. The electrode 619 is covered by an insulating layer (not shown) to insulate it from the ink. The electrodes 621 are connected to ground 623. The electrodes 619 are connected to a control unit 625 in a form of a silicon chip which applies voltages (driving signals) to the electrodes 619 as will be described later.
A nozzle plate 617 is fixedly secured to one end of the actuator walls 603. The nozzle plate 617 is formed with nozzles 618 at positions corresponding to the ink channels 613. An ink supplying source (not shown) is connected to the other end of the actuator walls 603 through a manifold 626. The manifold 626 includes a front wall 627 formed with openings in positions corresponding to the ink channels 613, and a rear wall 628 for sealing the space between the bottom wall 601 and the ceiling wall 602. Ink from the ink supplying source is supplied to the manifold 626 or common ink chamber and distributed into the respective ink channels 613. The front wall 627 prevents ink from the manifold 626 from entering the spaces 615.
To eject droplets, a voltage from the control unit 625 is applied to the electrode 619 of each ink channel 613. Pairs of the actuator walls 603 deform outward by the piezoelectric shear effect so that the volume of each ink channel 613 increases. In the example shown in FIG. 2, when a voltage E volts is applied to the electrode 619c of the ink channel 613c, an electric field is developed in the actuator wall 603e in the direction indicated by the arrow 631, and an electric field is developed in the actuator wall 603f in the direction indicated by the arrow 632. Because the electric field directions 631 and 632 are at right angles to the polarization direction 609, 611, the actuator walls 603e, 603f deform outward to increase the volume of the ink channel 613c by the piezoelectric shear effect, resulting in a decrease in the pressure in the ink chamber 613c, including near the nozzle 618c.
Application of the voltage E(V) is maintained for a duration of time T, during which time ink is supplied from the ink supplying source. A pressure wave occurring when the ink is supplied from the ink supplying source propagates in the lengthwise direction of the ink channel 613c. The duration of time T corresponds to a duration of time required for the pressure wave to propagate once in the lengthwise direction of the ink channel 613c. The duration of time T can be calculated by the following formula:
T=L/a
wherein L is the length of the ink channel 613; and
a is the speed of sound through the ink filling channel 613c.
Theories on pressure wave propagation teach that at the moment the duration of time L/a elapses after the application of the voltage, the pressure in the ink channel 613c inverts to a positive pressure. The voltage application to the electrode 619c of the ink channel 613c is stopped in timed relation with this pressure inversion so that the actuator walls 603e, 603f revert to their initial shape shown in FIG. 1(a).
The pressure generated when the actuator walls 603e, 603f return to their initial shape is added to the inverted positive pressure so that a relatively high pressure is generated in the ink channel 613c. This relatively high pressure ejects an ink droplet 26 from the nozzle 618c.
The inventor of the present invention developed a method for executing a remaining pressure wave canceling operation. In the canceling operation, pressure wave vibrations are generated in the ink of the ink channel 613 after execution of the ejection operation. The canceling operation is executed by applying the voltage E volts to the electrode 619c at a specified time, and subsequently returned to 0 volts in order to increase and then decrease the volume of the ink channel 613. With this canceling operation, not only do the pressure wave vibrations converge at an early stage, thereby preventing unintentional ejection of ink due to residual pressure wave, but also the transition to process the next print command can be performed quicker. As a result, the printing device can form a more faithful image and printing speed can be improved.
However, the speed of sound a described above changes according to the temperature of the ink, as does the actual value of the time T required for a pressure wave to propagate once across the length of the ink channel 613. Therefore, if the canceling operation is executed at a fixed timing regardless of the temperature of the ink, it is possible that the pressure wave vibrations will not be satisfactorily offset. In some cases, an ejection operation corresponding to the next print command may be executed before the pressure wave vibrations have converged, and the ejected ink may spray and scatter or the ink might not even be ejected.
Another problem exits in the remaining pressure wave canceling operation such that reliable cancellation of the pressure wave vibrations in the ink channels cannot be achieved. Because timing for executing the canceling operation has been set to an appropriate value through trial and error. In some cases, the ejection operation for the next print command is executed before the pressure wave vibrations have converged. As a result, the ejected ink can spray and scatter, or sometimes the ink does not eject at all. The canceling operation cannot always reliably cancel the pressure wave vibrations, particularly when driving the ink ejection device 600 at a rapid speed to support rapid printing, in which case the temperature of the ink rises, lowering the viscosity.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink ejection device capable of executing a canceling operation to cancel pressure wave vibrations in the ink, regardless of the temperature of the ink.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink ejection device capable of forming faithful images by canceling pressure wave vibrations that exist within the ink chamber and capable of increasing the printing speed.
These and other objects of the present invention will be attained by an ink ejection device including nozzles from which ink is ejected; ink channels provided on the back of the nozzles for being filled with ink; an actuator for applying pressure wave vibrations to ink in the ink channels; and a control unit for executing an ejection operation by driving the actuator in response to printing commands to apply pressure wave vibrations to the ink in the ink channels and cause ink to eject from the nozzles, and for subsequently executing a canceling operation by driving the actuator at timings based on the ink temperature in the ink channels to order to eliminate as much as possible the pressure wave vibrations in the ink.
With an invention of this construction, the control unit drives the actuator according to print commands in order to execute the ejection operation in the following way. First, the actuator generates pressure wave vibrations in the ink of the ink channel, which pressure wave vibrations cause ink to be ejected from the nozzle. After the ejection operation, the control unit drives the actuator to execute a canceling operation for sufficiently canceling the pressure wave vibrations in the ink. Accordingly, the pressure wave vibrations are made to converge at an early period to prevent ink from being ejected in a undesirable location as a result of residual pressure wave vibrations, and also to quickly proceed to process the next print command. Moreover, the control unit executes the canceling operation at a timing corresponding to the temperature of the ink in the ink channel. For this reason, the canceling operation can be satisfactorily executed regardless of the temperature of the ink. Therefore, the ink ejection device of the present invention can create an extremely accurate image by preventing ink from spraying and scattering and from not ejecting properly. Further, since the pressure wave vibrations in the ink are converged at an early period, the printing speed can be increased.
The cancellation described above does not need to completely eliminate the pressure wave vibrations. For example, the canceling operation can be configured to only restrain the pressure wave vibrations to a sufficient degree that ink is not ejected from the nozzle.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the actuator varies the volume of the ink channel; and after executing the ejection operation, the control unit drives the actuator to increase and decrease the volumes of the ink channel at timings based on the ink temperature in the ink channel in order to eliminate as much as possible the pressure wave vibrations in the ink.
In the present invention, the actuator described above varies the volumes of the ink channel. Through these volume variations, pressure wave vibrations are generated in the ink, causing ink to be ejected from the corresponding nozzle. The actuator executes the canceling operation by increasing and decreasing the volume of the ink channel. Accordingly, the canceling operation can be extremely proficient in canceling pressure wave vibrations in the ink. Therefore, the ink ejection device of the present invention can even more satisfactorily cancel the pressure wave vibrations in the ink to form an even more accurate image. As a result, the printing speed can be improved even further.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the control unit drives the actuator to first increase the volume of the specified ink channel and to then decrease the volume of the same to eject ink from the corresponding nozzle, and, following a time interval determined according to both the time required for the ink pressure wave vibrations to propagate one way through the ink channel and the temperature of the ink, subsequently executes a canceling operation by again driving the actuator to first increase and then decrease the volume of the ink channel.
In executing an ejection operation in the present invention, the control unit drives the actuator to first increase the volume of the ink chamber. At this time, the pressure inside the ink chamber decreases, allowing ink to flow into the chamber. Next, the control unit drives the actuator to decrease the volume of the ink chamber. Hence, the pressure inside the ink chamber becomes relatively high, causing ink to be ejected from the corresponding nozzle. After a specified time determined by both the time T required for pressure wave vibrations in the ink to propagate once across the length of the ink channel and the temperature of the ink, the control unit executes a canceling operation by again increasing the volume of the ink channel and then decreasing that volume. Accordingly, the canceling operation can be executed at an appropriate timing based on this time T and the temperature of the ink, and the pressure wave vibration in the ink can be offset very well.
Therefore, the ink ejection device of the present invention is even more proficient in canceling the pressure wave vibrations in the ink and forms an even more accurate image. Further, the printing speed can be increased even more. Since the temperature of the ink is referenced in the present invention, the time T required for pressure wave vibrations in the ink to propagate once across the length of the ink channel can be fixed according to specified temperature ranges, thereby greatly simplifying the process.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, the control unit executes an ejection operation in response to a one-dot print command and executes a canceling operation after a time interval d2, wherein d2 equals:
2.45 T, when the ink temperature in the ink chamber is between 0 and 10xc2x0 C.;
2.50 T, when the ink temperature in the ink chamber is between 10 and 20xc2x0 C.;
2.55 T, when the ink temperature in the ink chamber is between 20 and 30xc2x0 C.; and
2.60 T, when the ink temperature in the ink chamber is between 30 and 40xc2x0 C.; such that T is the time required for the ink pressure wave
vibrations to propagate one way through the ink channel at room temperature. The control unit performs these operations by driving the actuator to first increase the volume of the specified ink channel and, following an interval of about 1.0 T or an odd multiple thereof, to then decrease the volume of the same to eject ink from the corresponding nozzle. After a time interval of about 0.75 T, the control unit subsequently executes a canceling operation by again driving the actuator to first increase the volume of the ink channel and, following a time interval of about 1.0 T or an odd multiple thereof, to decrease the volume of the ink channel to again eject ink from the corresponding nozzle.
According to this configuration, the volume of the ink channel is first increased and subsequently decreased after approximately 1.0 T or an odd multiple thereof, thereby ejecting ink from the nozzle. After an interval of about 0.75 T, the volume of the ink channel is again increased and subsequently decreased after an interval of approximately 1.0 T or an odd multiple thereof, again causing ink to eject from the nozzle.
Ink ejection is very efficient when the volume of the ink channel is decreased approximately 1.0 T or an odd multiple thereof after the volume of the ink channel has been increased. Since the period of the pressure wave vibrations in the ink of the ink chamber is about 2 T, the timing in which the internal pressure of the ink channel increases after increasing the volume of the ink channel and the timing in which the internal pressure of the ink channel increases due to decreasing the volume of the ink channel coincide, thereby creating a great pressure within the ink channel. Since the control unit executes the ejection operation twice over an interval of about 0.75 T, two droplets of ink are ejected very efficiently for each one-dot print command, thereby forming a rich image.
After completing the ejection operation, the control unit executes a canceling operation after the pulse interval d2, determined according to the temperature of the ink in the ink channel, has elapsed. By executing a canceling operation a pulse interval d2 after the above ejection operation has been completed, pressure wave vibrations in the ink can be very efficiently offset.
Therefore, the ink ejection device of the present invention is even more proficient in canceling the pressure wave vibrations in the ink and forms an even more accurate and richer image. Further, the printing speed can be increased even more.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the control unit increases or decreases the volume of the ink channel by applying a voltage to the actuator, and, moreover, applies the same voltage to the actuator both during an ejection operation and during a canceling operation.
Since the same voltage is applied to the actuator during both the ejection operation and the canceling operation in order to increase or decrease the volume of the ink channel, only one power source is necessary for supplying the drive signal, and, therefore, the construction of the control unit can be simplified. Further, the process for controlling the actuator is simplified by switching the applied voltage off and on. Hence, the construction and control of the ink ejection device can be even more simplified.
According to further another aspect of the present invention, the side walls of the ink channels in the actuator are formed of piezoelectric materials.
Since piezoelectric materials are used to construct the side walls of the ink channels, the volume of the ink channels can be changed by applying voltage to the piezoelectric materials. This type of actuator has a simple construction, is extremely durable, and is inexpensive. Therefore, an invention having this construction can simplify the construction, increase the durability, and further decrease the cost of the device.
The present invention also provides an ink ejection device including nozzles from which an ink is ejected; ink channels provided on the back of the nozzles for being filled with the ink; an actuator for varying volumes of the ink channels; and a driving device for executing an ejection operation by driving the actuator to generate pressure wave vibrations in the ink channels and cause the ink to eject from the nozzles, and for subsequently executing a canceling operation by driving the actuator to first increase and then decrease the volumes of the ink channels in order to eliminate as much as possible the pressure wave vibrations in the ink. The volume increases and decreases of the canceling operation are executed when the pressure wave vibrations cross the center of their vibration or the neutral pressure level, an odd number of times, that is, when the pressure changes from positive to negative.
With the construction described above, the control unit drives the actuator to vary the volume of the ink channels provided on the back of the nozzles, generating pressure wave vibrations in the ink channels and ejecting ink from those channels.
Subsequently, the control unit executes a canceling operation to cancel the pressure wave vibrations in the ink channels. In this canceling operation, the control unit drives the actuator to first increase the volume of the ink channels and subsequently decrease that volume. As a result, the pressure wave vibrations in the ink channels are quickly converged, thereby preventing ink from being ejected in an undesirable location by remaining pressure wave vibrations and quickly proceeding to the ejection operation corresponding to the next print command. Moreover, the control unit increases and decreases the volumes of the ink channels during the canceling operation at points when the frequency wave crosses the center of the vibration an odd number of times, that is, when the pressure changes from positive to negative.
Here, the inventors of the invention studied the relationship between the waveform of the pressure wave vibrations in the ink channels and the time for executing a cancel operation capable of most effectively canceling those pressure wave vibrations. As a result, the inventors discovered that the cancel operation is most effectively executed after the ejection operation when the pressure wave vibrations cross the center of the vibrations an odd number of times, particularly, three times. In this case, the pressure waves in the ink channels are converged at an extremely early period, thereby effectively preventing ink from ejected at an undesirable location and allowing the ink ejection device to proceed very quickly to the ejection process in response to the next print command. Moreover, the canceling operation demonstrates an ability to stabilize the pressure wave vibrations, regardless of various conditions.
Since the waveform shape of the pressure wave vibrations when crossing the center of the vibration a third times is similar to the waveform shape when crossing the center of the vibration in the other odd number of times, it is possible to assume that the effects of executing the cancel operation at these times are approximately the same. In other words, the pressure within the ink channel immediately after completion of the ejection operation has risen near the peak of the pressure wave. Afterward, the pressure wave vibrates periodically and, when crossing the center of the vibration an odd number of times, the pressure wave crosses the center in a declining direction at approximately the same slope.
In the present invention, the canceling operation is executed after the ejection operation and when the pressure wave vibration crosses the center of the vibration an odd number of times. Accordingly, the pressure wave vibrations in the ink channels are converged at an extremely early time, thereby effectively preventing ink from being ejected at an undesirable location and allowing the ink ejection device to proceed quickly to the ejection process corresponding to the next print command. Moreover, the effects of this invention demonstrate reliability. Therefore, the ink ejection device of the present invention forms an accurate image by reliably canceling pressure wave vibrations remaining in the ink channels and improving printing speed.
In the canceling operation described above it is not necessary to completely eliminate the pressure wave vibrations. For example, it is possible to restrain the pressure wave vibrations to the degree that ink is not ejected from the nozzles.
Preferably, the odd number of times is set to three. With this configuration, the invention can reliably cancel pressure wave vibrations. Moreover, it is possible to converge the pressure wave vibrations at an earlier time than when the above-described odd number of times is set to five, seven, or more. Accordingly, an even more accurate image is created by reliably canceling pressure wave vibrations at an even earlier time, thereby improving the print speed even further.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the control unit repeatedly executes the ejection operation a plurality of times in response to a one-dot print command and executes the canceling operation after all ejection operations are completed for the one-dot print command.
With the configuration described above, a plurality of ink droplets is ejected in response to a one-dot print command, thereby forming a richer image. By repeatedly executing the ejection process a plurality of times, the pressure wave vibrations in the ink channels become more complex, making it more difficult to set an appropriate timing for executing the cancel operation. In the present invention, this problem is overcome by executing the canceling operation at a time when the pressure wave vibrations have crossed the center of the vibration an odd number times, as described above. As a result, a timing for executing the cancel operation can be easily set. Moreover, it is possible to reliably cancel the pressure wave vibrations. Therefore, an even richer image can be formed, and costs for developing the ink ejection device can be further decreased by simplifying the settings for the device.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the time that elapses during the canceling operation after the volume of the ink channel is increased and until the volume is decreased is about 0.3 to 0.7 or about 1.3 to 1.7 times the length of time required for a pressure wave to propagate once across the length of the ink channel.
The inventor of the present invention conducted an experiment in which the time interval (hereinafter referred to as the xe2x80x9cpulse width Wcxe2x80x9d) in the cancel operation after the volume of the ink channel is increased until the volume of the ink channel is decreased was changed to various lengths, and studied the values of the pulse width Wc capable of most effectively canceling pressure wave vibrations in the ink channel. As a result, the inventor discovered that the pulse width Wc should be set to 0.3 to 0.7 or 1.3 to 1.7 times the time required for a pressure wave in the ink to propagate one direction along the ink channel (hereinafter referred to as the xe2x80x9ctime Txe2x80x9d).
It is presumed that Wc is best set to these values for the following reason. When Wc=1.0 T, the peak of the pressure wave vibrations generated by increasing the volume of the ink channel and the increase in pressure generated by the decrease in the volume of the ink channel combine to eject ink from the nozzles. When Wc=2.0 T, the pressure wave vibrations caused by increasing the volume and the pressure wave vibrations generated by decreasing the volume cancel each other out, inviting the same effect as when not executing a canceling operation. Accordingly, by setting the pulse width Wc to a value between these values, such as 0.3 to 0.7 T or 1.3 to 1.7 T, it is thought that the canceling operation can be effectively executed.
Since in the present invention Wc is set at approximately 0.3 to 0.7 T or approximately 1.3 to 1.7 T, the canceling operation can be very effectively executed. Therefore, an even more accurate image can be formed by more effectively canceling the pressure wave vibrations, and the printing speed can be improved even further.
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1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a touch panel. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical sensor-type touch panel.
2. Description of Related Art
As the competition in the market of consumer electronics is getting more and more intense, the electronic devices equipped with touch panel are also getting popular. Currently, mainstream techniques in manufacturing touch panels include, among the others, resistor-type and capacitor-type touch panels; nowadays, however, optical-type touch panels also appear to be promising.
Optical-type touch panels utilize an optical detector to detect a touch on the touch panel. Generally, an optical-type touch panel has a pair of camera modules respectively disposed at two corners thereof. The camera modules can detect the shadow caused by a hand, a finger, or a stylus, and therefore determine the touch position on the panel.
In view of the foregoing, the accuracy and sensitivity of the optical-type touch panels would be severely jeopardized if the position and focal point of the camera module were not carefully calibrated. However, the calibration process for the complicated camera module is quite burdensome, and the results of the calibration are often unsatisfactory.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for recovering protein from an animal muscle source with improved functional properties and to the protein product so-obtained. More particularly, this invention relates to a process for recovering muscle proteins with improved functional properties from an animal source and the protein product so-obtained.
2. Description of Prior Art
Presently, there is an interest in expanding the use of muscle proteins as food because of their functional and nutritional properties. Better use of these materials would be particularly important with aged or frozen raw materials which are less valuable because they have lost protein functionality. It is presently believed that the muscle tissue utilized as the feed in present processes must be fresh rather than frozen or aged. It is common commercial practice to process freshly caught fish at sea on board ship rather than subject the fish to the time of transportation or the freezing necessary to effect processing on land. Ageing or freezing of fish lowers the functional qualities of the tissue proteins. Protein functionalities of most concern to food scientists are solubility, water holding capacity, gelation, fat binding ability, foam stabilization and emulsification properties.
Protein concentrates from muscle tissue, especially fish, have been made by hydrolysis. This approach has improved some functional properties, particularly solubility, which has allowed its use in prepared soups. However, this approach also destroys other functional properties such as gelling ability.
One process that has had some success in stabilizing protein foods has been the process for producing “surimi”. This conventional process has been used primarily for fish, although there have been some attempts to produce a surimi-like product from other raw materials such as mechanically deboned poultry mince. In producing surimi, the fresh muscle is ground and washed with a variable amount of water a variable number of times. This is determined by the location of the plant and the product that is desired from the particular species. Water may be used in a ratio as low as about 2 parts water to one part fish up to about 5 parts water per 1 part fish; typically about 3 parts water are used per 1 part fish. The number of washes can vary, generally, from 2 to 5, again depending on the raw material, the product desired; and water availability. Twenty to thirty per cent of the fish muscle proteins are solubilized when the ground muscle is washed with water. These soluble proteins, known as sarcoplasmic proteins, are generally not recovered from the wash water of the process. This loss is undesirable since sarcoplasmic proteins are useful as food. The washed minced product containing the protein in solid form then is used to make protein gels. Originally, this was used to produce “kamaboko” in Japan. Kamaboko is a popular fish sausage in which the washed minced fish is heated until it gels. It is presently believed that it is necessary to add cryprotectants to the washed, minced fish before freezing to prevent protein denaturation. A typical cryoprotectant mixture comprises about 4% sucrose, about 4% sorbitol and about 0.2% sodium tripolyphosphate. These components retard the denaturation of the protein during freezing, frozen storage and thawing. It has been proposed by Cuq et al, Journal of Food Science, pgs. 1369-1374 (1995) to provide edible packaging film based upon fish myofibrillar proteins. In the process for making the films, the protein of water-washed fish mince is solubilized in an aqueous acetic acid solution at pH 3.0 to a final concentration of 2% protein. No attempt was made in this work to re-adjust the pH values of the acidified proteins to re-establish the functional properties attained at pH values above about 5.5. In addition, the use of acetic acid imparts a strong odor to the material which would severely limit its use in a food product.
It also has been proposed by Shahidi and Onodenalore, Food Chemistry, 53 (1995) 51-54 to subject deboned, whole capelin to washing in water followed by washing in 0.5% sodium chloride, followed by washing-in sodium bicarbonate. The series of washes, including that using sodium bicarbonate, would remove greater than 50% of the muscle proteins. Essentially all of the sarcoplasmic proteins would be removed. Final residue was further washed to remove residual bicarbonate. The washed meat was then suspended in cold water and heated at 70° C. for 15 min. This heat treatment is sufficient to “cook” the fish proteins, thus denaturing them and reducing or eliminating their functional properties. No attempt was made to restore proteins to improve the functional properties of the capelin proteins.
Shahidi and Venugopal, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 42 (1994) 1440-1448 disclose a process for subjecting Atlantic herring to washing in water followed by washing with aqueous sodium bicarbonate. Again, this process will remove greater than 50% of the muscle proteins, including the sarcoplasmic proteins. The washed meat was homogenized and the pH varied between 3.5 and 4.0 with acetic acid. In addition, there is an unacceptable odor problem with the volatile acetic acid.
Venugopal and Shahidi, Journal of Food Science, 59, 2 (1994) 265-268, 276 also disclose a similar process for treating minced Atlantic mackerel. The material is washed sequentially with water, bicarbonate solution and again water. The pH is brought to pH 3.5 with acetic acid after homogenization. The proteins were precipitated at pH values greater than 4 on heating the material to 100° C. for 15 min. It is disclosed that “dissolution of structural proteins of fish muscle requires extractants with an ionic strength >0.3”.
Shahidi and Venugopal, Meat Focus International, October 1993, pgs 443-445 disclose a process for forming homogenized herring, mackerel dispersions or capelin dispersions in aqueous liquids having a pH as low as about 3.0. It is reported that acetic acid reduces the viscosity of herring dispersions, increases viscosity of mackerel to form a gel and precipitates capelin. All of these preparations were initially washed with water and sodium bicarbonate, which would remove a substantial proportion of the protein, including the sarcoplasmic proteins.
Chawla et al, Journal of Food science, Vol. 61, No. 2, pgs 362-366, 1996 discloses a process for treating minced threadfin bream muscle after it has been washed twice with water and recovered by filtration. The minced fish product is mixed with tartaric, lactic, acetic or citric acid, is allowed to set and then is heated in a boiling water bath for twenty minutes and then cooled to form a gel. This heat treatment is sufficient to denature the proteins. The washing steps undesirably remove soluble sarcoplasmic proteins from the mince. It is also disclosed that unwashed mince failed to provide the desired gel forming property of surimi.
Onodenalore et al, Journal of Aquatic Food Products Technology, Vol. 5(4), pages 43-59 discloses that minced shark muscle is a source of acidified protein compositions. The minced product is washed sequentially with aqueous sodium chloride, aqueous sodium bicarbonate and then water to remove metabolic substances. This washing effects undesirable removal of sarcoplasmic proteins. The minced product is recovered by filtration. The minced product then is acidified to pH 3.5 with acetic acid, heated in a boiling water bath, cooled and centrifuged to recover a supernatant. The supernatant pH was adjusted to a pH 4-10 using NaOH, heated in a boiling water bath, cooked and centrifuged to recover a second supernatant. Heating the protein dispersion comprising the minced product resulted in 87-94% of the protein remaining in solution while heating of the unacidified protein dispersion resulted in protein coagulation. However, the heating causes protein denaturation. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a process for recovering a high proportion of available muscle protein from an animal source including a frozen or aged animal source, rather than requiring a fresh muscle tissue source. It would also be desirable to provide such a process, which permits the use of muscle protein sources which are presently under-utilized as a food source such as frozen-or aged fish. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide such a process which recovers substantially all of the protein content of the process feed material. In addition, it would be desirable to provide such a process which produces a stable, functional, protein product which is particularly useful for human consumption. Such a process would permit its operation at will rather than require initiation of the process very shortly after the animal source is killed so that processing can be extended over a desired time schedule.
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Oxidants are produced as part of the normal metabolism of all cells but also are an important component of the pathogenesis of many disease processes. Reactive oxygen species, for example, are critical elements of the pathogenesis of diseases of the lung, the cardiovascular system, the gastrointestinal system, the central nervous system and skeletal muscle. Oxygen free radicals also play a role in modulating the effects of nitric oxide (NO.). In this context, they contribute to the pathogenesis of vascular disorders, inflammatory diseases and the aging process.
A critical balance of defensive enzymes against oxidants is required to maintain normal cell and organ function. Superoxide dismutases (SODs) are a family of metalloenzymes that catalyze the intra- and extracellular conversion of O2− into H2O2 plus O2, and represent the first line of defense against the detrimental effects of superoxide radicals. Mammals produce three distinct SODs. One is a dimeric copper- and zinc-containing enzyme (CuZn SOD) found in the cytosol of all cells. A second is a tetrameric manganese-containing SOD (Mn SOD) found within mitochondria, and the third is a tetrameric, glycosylated, copper- and zinc-containing enzyme (EC-SOD) found in the extracellular fluids and bound to the extracellular matrix. Several other important antioxidant enzymes are known to exist within cells, including catalase and glutathione peroxidase. While extracellular fluids and the extracellular matrix contain only small amounts of these enzymes, other extracellular antioxidants are also known to be present, including radical scavengers and inhibitors of lipid peroxidation, such as ascorbic acid, uric acid, and α-tocopherol (Halliwell et al, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 280:1 (1990)).
The present invention provides methods of cancer prevention and therapy that involve the use of low molecular weight mimetics of SOD.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit for operating recording nozzles in ink mosaic recorders, and in particular to such a circuit wherein the nozzles have an ink channel which is surrounded by a cylindrical piezoelectric transducer which has a diameter which expands upon the application of a voltage having a polarity opposite to the polarization direction of the transducer and which contracts or narrows upon the application of a voltage having a polarity which is opposite to the direction of the polarization.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A circuit for operating tubular piezoelectric transducers in recording nozzles of an ink mosaic recorder is known from German AS No. 25 48 691, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,670. As disclosed therein, the ejection of a droplet of ink is initiated by expansion of the piezoelectric transducers by the application of a voltage having a polarity which is opposite to the direction of the polarization of the transducers, followed by contraction of the transducers as a result of a reversal of the polarity of the operating voltage. The transducers normally are in the expanded condition which is thus referred to as the rest state. The expansion of the transducers lead to a small quantity of ink being drawn into the nozzle, whereas the narrowing of the transducer results in the ejection of a droplet of ink. In this known circuit, each piezoelectric transducer is assigned a voltage transformer having a primary side which contains a pulse evaluating stage and an amplifier stage. The secondary side inductance of the transformer forms an oscillating circuit in combination with the capacitance of the piezoelectric transducer. Pulsed operation on the primary side of the transformer results in the rising slope of the operating pulse on the secondary side inducing a surge of voltage having a polarity such that the transducer expands. Following the disconnection of the operating pulse, producing a declining slope, a voltage is induced in the opposite direction and triggers a contraction of the transducer. Suitable circuit means insure that the oscillation which occurs on the secondary side is attenuated such that it rapidly decays to substantially zero after a short length of time. An advantage of this circuit is that the voltage range available for the change in diameter of the transducer can be selected over a large number of values. This circuit has the disadvantage, however, that voltages occur, even though only temporarily, having a polarity which is opposite to the direction of polarity of the ceramic material comprising the piezoelectric transducer. Particularly at high voltages this can lead to a depolarization of the piezoelectric material over the course of time.
In order to avoid depolarization of the piezoelectric ceramic material, a circuit disclosed in U.S. patent 3,683,212 maintains the piezoelectric operating element in the rest state free of voltage. In this known circuit, a droplet of ink is ejected by means of a triggering by an operating pulse having a voltage with a polarity in the direction of polarization which is applied to the operating element. The resulting charging leads to a reduction in diameter of the element. At the end of the operating pulse a relatively slow discharge of the element takes place during which the element re-expands to its original diameter, corresponding to the rest state, and draws ink from a reservoir in readiness for the next actuation. Although this known circuit avoids the occurrence of voltages having a polarity which is opposite to the direction of polarization of the transducer element, the circuit requires a voltage source located directly in the control circuit which is assigned to each transducer and which must meet certain requirements such as, for example, a low internal impedence. Moreover, the voltage range of operation is limited because the charging of the transducer is restricted by the ratio of the charging resistor and the discharging resistor values. This circuit also permits ejection of a droplet of ink only in the sequence of a transducer contraction followed by a transducer expansion.
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It has heretofore been proposed to provide a smoke raiser in the form of lamps wherein there is an ashtray at the bottom and some type of tubular chimney extending thereabove which supports an electric bulb and lamp shade, as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 2,265,903 to Hartje of Dec. 9, 1941. A similar ashtray with chimney using a candle as the heat source is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,466 to Warnock of Jan. 20, 1970. A liquid fuel type flame, ashtray, and chimney tube is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,168 to Marsh, et al of May 15, 1973.
The concept of combining ashtrays with candle holders as decorative household novelties is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,428,116 to Jensen of Sept. 30, 1947 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,160,162 to Nunez of Dec. 8, 1964.
However, these prior art devices all include an ashtray for a smoker, with the resulting smoke generated by the tobacco therein. They are far removed from the object of this invention which is to avoid smoke and prevent its contact with the device or with the user.
In addition, while some of the above patents use the word portable, in the sense that the device can be bodily transported around a room from table to table, none of the devices are so constructed and arranged that they can be fitted into the pocket, or bag, carried to a meeting, or restaurant, and placed on a table to raise the objectionable smoke of a neighbor's cigarette up toward the ceiling.
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It is sometimes necessary to attach a hydraulic breaker as an attachment, instead of a bucket which is usually incorporated as a working unit, to a hydraulic excavator in order to crush a building, a block of rock or the like. In this breaker work, a smaller volume of hydraulic oil, which is approximately one-half of that in the excavating work, is sufficient. Accordingly, the rotational speed of the engine is controlled to N1, N2 or N3 (rev/min) at a predetermined torque T0 by decreasing the volume of fuel injection along engine torque curves shown in FIG. 7, in order to aim at reducing fuel consumption of the engine, thereby controlling the hydraulic oil volume necessary for the breaker work while setting the volume of the hydraulic oil to V (cc/rev), so as to obtain a hydraulic volume of V*N1, V*N2 or V*N3 (cc/min). It is noted that the suction torque T of the hydraulic pump is exhibited by T=kP.times.V where K is a proportional constant, and P is a load pressure of the hydraulic pump, and accordingly, if the volume V (cc/rev) of the hydraulic oil is set to be constant, the load pressure P0 of the hydraulic pump using the torque T0 shown in FIG. 7 as the above-mentioned suction torque is proportional to the above-mentioned suction torque T0. Further, as shown in FIG. 8, a merging change-over circuit for two hydraulic pumps is provided, in which one of two service valves is changed over so as to change the flow rates of first and second pumps in order to control the volumes of hydraulic oil required respectively for an excavation work and a breaker work. That is, referring to FIG. 8, a variable displacement hydraulic pump (which will be simply denoted "main pump") 51, has connected in parallel thereto five control valves for driving actuators for turning, boom Hi, service, arm Lo and leftward running, and a main pump 52 has connected in parallel thereto five selector valves for driving actuators for rightward running, bucket, boom Lo, arm Hi and service. Further, pipe lines 54, 55 connected to outlet ports of a service valve 53 are connected respectively to hydraulic circuits extending from a left side service valve 56 to an actuator 57 for a breaker or the like, and are merged together. A pedal 58 for manipulating an attachment such as the breaker or the like abuts against a pilot pressure control valve 39 (which will be denoted "PPC valve"), using a control pump 40 as a hydraulic pressure source. One of two pilot circuits 41, 42 extending from the PPC valve 39, is connected to a left pilot cylinder belonging to the service valve 56, and the other one of them is connected to a right pilot cylinder of the service valve 56. Further, the pilot circuits 41, 42 are provided respectively with branch circuits 43, 44 which are connected to left and right pilot cylinders belonging to the service valve 53, by way of solenoid type pilot circuit selector valves 45, 46. Solenoids of these pilot circuit selector valves 45, 46 are connected to a change-over switch 50. During normal excavation work or the like, if the actuator 57 requires a flow rate corresponding to two pumps, the change-over switch 50 is manipulated to the turn-on side so that the solenoids of the pilot circuit selector valves 45, 46 are energized, and accordingly, the branch circuits 43, 44 of the pilot circuits 41, 42 are communicated so that the pilot pressure in accordance with a manipulation value to the pedal 58 acts upon the right or left pilot cylinders belonging to the service valve 53 and the service valve 56. Thus, the total flow rates from the main pumps 51, 52 act upon the actuator 57 for driving the attachment. Further, in such a case that a breaker work is carried out by the actuator 57, a flow rate corresponding to one pump is sufficient, and accordingly, the change-over switch 50 is manipulated onto the turn-off side. Accordingly, the solenoids of the pilot circuit selector valves 45, 46 are deenergized so that the branch circuits 43, 44 of the pilot circuits 41, 42 are blocked, and therefore a pilot pressure in accordance with a manipulation degree of the pedal 58 acts upon only the left or right pilot cylinder belonging to the service valve 56. Thus, a flow rate from the main pump 51 alone acts upon the actuator 57 for driving the hydraulic breaker. It is noted that a relief valve 47 and an orifice 48 are provided in the main circuit in order to control the discharge rate of the main pump in accordance with a movement of a spool in each of the control valves 56, and in particular to control the discharge rate of the main pump to a minimum value which can fill up a leakage volume of hydraulic oil so as to reduce the useless flow volume when all control valves are held at their neutral positions, and a flow rate regulating mechanism 49 for the main pump 52 is controlled by a pressure upstream of the orifice 48, thereby the discharge rate of the main pump 52 is controlled. As the control for the discharge rate of the main pump 51 is similar to that for the main pump 52, the explanation thereof is omitted. However, in a method in which the rotational speed of the engine is controlled as shown in FIG. 7 so as to obtain a volume of hydraulic oil required for the breaker work and to aim at reducing the fuel consumption of the engine, the engine rotational speed is lowered so as to set the predetermined load pressure P0 or the absorbing torque T0 of the hydraulic pump to points A1, A2, A3, and accordingly, the discharge rate of the hydraulic pump is decreased to a volume required for the work in order to aim at reducing the fuel consumption of the engine. However, since the above-mentioned points A1, A2, A3 are shifted outwardly from the center of equi-fuel consumption curves as denoted by B (the center gives 100%), the fuel consumption of the engine is deteriorated, and accordingly, it has been difficult to aim at reducing the fuel consumption of the engine. Further, the flow rate changing circuit as shown in FIG. 8 incurs the following problems: (1) Two pilot circuit selector valves 45, 46 have to be provided in the pilot circuit, and further, two pipe lines 54, 55 which are merged to the main circuit extending from the service valve 53 to the actuator 57 for the attachment, are required. Accordingly, the hydraulic circuit is complicated so as to lower the reliability of the hydraulic excavator and to incur an increase in manhours for inspection and maintenance and an increase in the manufacturing cost. (2) Since the flow rate of hydraulic oil fed to the actuator 57 for the attachment is given through the two stage change-over control for one or two pumps, a fine adjustment for the flow rate can not be made.
The present invention is devised in view of the above-mentioned problems inherent to the conventional arrangement, and accordingly, one object of the present invention is to set the volume of hydraulic oil to an optimum value by setting a low load mode so as to subject a hydraulic pump to load sensing control during a breaker work or the like where a smaller volume of hydraulic fluid is sufficient in comparison with a normal excavation work, and to drive an engine for driving the hydraulic pump at a rotational speed at which the fuel consumption is lowered.
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X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging, in its simplest expression, is an X-ray beam traversing an object and a detector relating the overall attenuation per ray. The attenuation is derived from a comparison of the same ray with and without the presence of the object. From this conceptual definition, several steps are required to properly construct an image. For instance, the finite size of the X-ray generator, the nature and shape of the filter blocking the very low energy X-ray from the generator, the details of the geometry and characteristics of the detector, and the capacity of the acquisition system are all elements that affect how the actual reconstruction is performed.
For a combined 3rd-generation and 4th-generation CT scanner, the system matrix requires knowledge of the offset of the 4th-generation sparse photon-counting detectors relative to the 3rd-generation CT system coordinates. If the offset between the 3rd-generation isocenter and the 4th-generation detectors is not know precisely, the system matrix will be incorrect, which will cause artifacts in the reconstructed image. Moreover, the offset could change over time due to temperature-induced expansion of materials and gantry rotation.
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Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-244104 discloses processes performed in the following order, namely, a covering process for covering the first main surface of a metal plate used as a support substrate for reinforcement in manufacture with a metal thin-film layer having selective etching properties to the metal plate; a lamination process for forming a conductive pattern for forming a metal terminal pad on the first main surface of the metal thin-film layer, and forming a wiring laminated section, by alternately laminating the dielectric layer made of a polymer material and the metal conductive layer, after the covering process; and an etching process for removing the metal plate by selective etching, removing the metal thin-film layer by selective etching, and exposing a conductive pattern 11 formed at the side of the first main surface of the metal thin-film layer, after the lamination process.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-059863 discloses a package substrate having no land on the surface layer of a part mounting pad, wherein a circuit surface and an interlayer connection via surface are formed on the same plane as an insulating layer surface in the part mounting pad. Its manufacturing method includes a process where a nickel plating is used as a supporting body and an insulating layer and an interlayer connection via are formed thereon, and a process where the nickel supporting body is peeled off to form the part mounting pad having the interlayer connection via as the surface layer.
According to these methods, a pitch of electrode pads may not be further narrowed.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spool support structure for a spinning reel. More particularly, the present invention relates to a spool support structure for a spinning reel for rotatably mounting a spool on a spool shaft that is movable forward and backward with respect to a reel unit.
2. Background Information
A conventional spinning reel generally includes a reel unit that rotatably supports a handle, a rotor, and a spool that is rotatably mounted to a spool shaft. The spool of the spinning reel is movable forward and backward with respect to the reel unit. The spool includes a bobbin portion around the outer periphery of which fishing line is wound and in the inner periphery of which the spool shaft is mounted. The spool also has a large diameter tubular skirt portion that is arranged on the rear end of the bobbin portion. The spool shaft is non-movably mounted on a rear end portion of the bobbin portion. An annular member that limits the rearward movement of the spool is disposed on the rear end portion of the bobbin portion. In addition, a front drag type of spinning reel also includes a drag mechanism inside the bobbin portion. The drag mechanism includes a plurality of drag plates.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-204640 discloses a spool that is mounted on a spool shaft by bearings. This type of spool is rotatably mounted on the spool shaft by two bearings, e.g., ball bearings. These bearings are disposed on the inner periphery of the bobbin portion, and are retained therein by a tubular retaining member that is non-rotatably mounted on the outer periphery of the spool shaft. A rear end portion of the retaining member contacts the annular member, and the retaining member is pushed or has a force exerted on it in a rearward direction by the bobbin portion. In addition, a through hole is formed in the retaining member, and a threaded portion is formed in the spool shaft that connects with the through hole. The retaining member is non-rotatably coupled to the spool shaft by inserting and screwing a pin member such as an Allen set-screw into the through hole and the threaded portion. Here, by contacting the rear end portion of the retaining member with the annular member, the drag mechanism can move and the drag plates can be pushed rearward because movement of the spool rearward is restricted.
There are times, while using the aforementioned conventional spinning reel, when one wants to weaken the drag mechanism to enhance the pleasure of catching a fish. Thus, when the drag mechanism is weakened, the pushing force that pushes the drag plates rearward will be reduced. When the pushing force of the drag plates is reduced, the force of the bobbin portion that pushes the retaining member rearward will be reduced. When this occurs, since the Allen set-screw passes through the through hole formed in the retaining member, wobbling may result due to the presence of a gap between the retaining member and the Allen set-screw. When the retaining member is wobbly, it may prevent the spool from smoothly moving forward and backward.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved spool support structure for a spinning reel. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.
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U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,742 entitled "Circuit Breaker Having Improved Operating Mechanism" describes a circuit breaker capable of interrupting several thousand amperes of circuit current at several hundred volts potential. As described therein, the operating mechanism is in the form of a pair of powerful operating springs that are restrained from separating the circuit breaker contacts by means of a latching system. Once the operating mechanism has responded to separate the contacts, the operating springs must be recharged to supply sufficient motive force to the movable contact arms that carry the contacts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,701 entitled "Operating Mechanism for High Ampere-Related Circuit Breaker describes an operating mechanism capable of immediately resetting the circuit breaker operating mechanism to reclose the contacts without having to recharge the circuit breaker operating springs immediately after opening the circuit breaker contacts.
When such circuit breakers are exposed to short circuit overcurrent conditions, the powerful magnetic forces of repulsion generated between the moveable and fixed contacts within any one of the circuit breaker poles, overcomes the holding forces of the contact springs and "blows" the moveable contact to the contact OPEN condition.
The circuit breaker operating mechanism, that controls the ON and OFF states of the circuit breaker contacts is designed for a particular circuit breaker ampere rating. If one such operating mechanism is used within higher than rated circuit breaker applications, it has been determined that the contacts may "blow open" upon overcurrent occurrence that is lower than short circuit.
It would be economically advantageous to be able to use a common circuit breaker operating mechanism over a wide range of circuit breaker ratings without having to adjust the circuit breaker holding springs to compensate for higher ampere ratings.
The purpose of this invention is to provide a mechanical linkage arrangement between the circuit breaker operating mechanism and the movable contact arms. The linkage being capable of retaining the circuit breaker movable contact arms from separating the circuit breaker contacts during quiescent current conditions while insuring rapid contact separation upon the occurrence of a short circuit overcurrent condition.
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Soybean (Glycine max) is an important crop in many areas of the world, and biotechnology methods have been applied to this crop in order to produce soybean varieties with desirable traits. One such desirable trait is insect resistance. The expression of an insect resistance transgene in a plant can confer the desirable trait of insect resistance on the plant, but expression of the transgene may be influenced by many different factors including the orientation and composition of the cassettes driving expression of the individual genes transferred to the plant chromosome, the chromosomal location, and the genomic result of the transgene insertion. For example, it has been observed in plants that there is variation in the level and pattern of transgene expression among individual events that differ in the chromosomal insertion site of the transgene but are otherwise identical. There are also undesirable and/or desirable phenotypic or agronomic differences between events. Therefore, it is often necessary to produce and analyze a large number of individual plant cell transformation events in order to select an event having both the desirable trait and the optimal phenotypic and agricultural characteristics suitable for commercial success. Selecting the preferred transgenic event requires extensive molecular characterization, as well as greenhouse and field trials with many events over multiple years, in multiple locations, and under a variety of conditions. A significant amount of efficacy, phenotypic, and molecular data is collected, and the resulting data and observations are then analyzed by teams of scientists and agronomists with the goal of selecting one or more commercially suitable events. Such an event, once selected, is then used for introgression of the desirable transgenic trait into other genetic backgrounds using plant breeding methods, thus producing a number of different crop varieties that contain the desirable trait and are suitably adapted to specific local agronomic conditions.
Transgenic soybeans which rely upon expression of a single toxin for insecticidal control of insect infestation may be at risk of limited durability because of the increased likelihood of development of resistance to the toxin by the insect pests. Similarly, transgenic soybeans containing toxic agents that do not provide multiple unique modes of action could also be at risk of limited durability. The first available soybean that produces a protein toxic to lepidopterans contains a single toxin protein, Cry1Ac. A recent soybean transgenic event has been disclosed that contains Cry1Ac and Cry1F toxin proteins. If resistance to Cry1Ac occurs, the Cry1Ac and Cry1F transgenic event would be left with only the Cry1F toxin as its source of efficacy. It is therefore necessary to provide for a soybean plant that has two or more toxic agents that control the pests controlled by Cry1Ac in which none of the toxic agents bind the same or substantially the same receptors in the target insect midgut that are bound by Cry1Ac. The invention described herein provides for a transgenic soybean event MON87751 that overcomes the durability problem described above for the soybean transgenic events described in the prior art, by providing two or more agents toxic to lepidopteran pest species, in which neither toxic agent has previously been included in any soybean plant for the purpose of targeting for control the lepidopteran pests of soybean.
To make a transgenic plant containing a single transformation event, a portion of a recombinant DNA construct is transferred into the genome of a soybean cell, and the soybean cell is subsequently grown into a plant. A soybean cell into which the event is initially transferred is regenerated to produce the R0 generation. The R0 plant and progeny plants from the R0 plant can be tested for any desired trait(s), but the effectiveness of the event can be impacted by cis and/or trans factors relative to the integration site in the transformation event. The phenotype conferred by the event can also be impacted by the size and design of the DNA construct, which can vary by the combination of genetic elements in an expression cassette, number of transgenes, number of expression cassettes, and configuration of such elements and such cassettes. Identifying an event with desirable traits can be further complicated by factors such as plant developmental, diurnal, temporal, or spatial patterns of transgene expression; or by extrinsic factors, e.g., environmental plant growth conditions, water availability, nitrogen availability, heat, or stress. Thus, the ability to obtain an event conferring a desirable set of phenotypic traits is not readily predictable.
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The present invention relates to a magnetic tape transport apparatus and more particularly, to a magnetic tape transport apparatus of the type equipped with an impedance roller adapted to absorb oscillation, vibration and other undesired irregular movement of a magnetic tape and disposed at a position along a magnetic tape transportation path.
Within the magnetic tape transportation path in a video tape recorder (VTR), some oscillation and vibration suppression means are disposed in order to absorb oscillations and vibrations of the tape produced by a magnetic head drum driving motor and a motor driving other moving components of the recorder mechanism and by the frictional forces resulting from the contact of the magnetic tape being transported via guide poles and the like. In conventional VTRs, an impedance roller has been used as means for suppressing such oscillations and vibrations to prevent them from being transmitted to be picked up by the magnetic heads, whereby jitter in a recorded video signal can be reduced.
In conventional VTRs, the impedance roller is interposed between a tension pole for exerting tension to a magnetic tape unrolled from the hub of a supply reel in a magnetic cassette and a full-width erasing head disposed further along the tape path from the tension pole. However, both the tension pole and the erasing head are placed remote from a head drum by a relatively long distance. Therefore, even when oscillation and vibration are absorbed in the vicinity of the impedance roller, there is the possibility that new oscillation and vibration develop where the magnetic tape is transported between the impedance roller and the drum.
The present invention was made to substantially solve the above and other problems encountered in the conventional magnetic tape transport apparatuses and has as its object the provision of a magnetic tape transport apparatus which can effectively prevent the pickup by the magnetic heads of various oscillations and vibrations exerted to the magnetic tape being transported, thereby substantially eliminating jitter or the like.
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(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device for adjusting the transmission rate of a transport stream, and more particularly to a method and device for adjusting the transmission rate of a transport stream (MPEG-TS) that has been compression encoded in accordance with the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standard.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, devices have come into popular use for playing back MPEG files stored on a recording medium, such as a memory card. In this type of playback device, an MPEG decoder is used to serve as an interface for MPEG files in MPEG2-TS. Typically, data of various transmission rates are stored as MPEG files on a recording medium, and the MPEG2-TS that is read from the MPEG file has various transmission rates. As a result, the transmission rate of MPEG2-TS that is read from MPEG files sometimes differs from the transmission rate that is appropriate for the MPEG decoder. In such cases, the MPEG2-TS read from MPEG files must be converted to the transmission rate appropriate to the MPEG decoder.
Methods for supplying MPEG2-TS that has been read from an MPEG file at the transmission rate appropriate to an MPEG decoder include a method in which a PCR (Program Clock Reference), which is a program time standard reference value inscribed in TS packets, is used to reproduce a clock by a PLL circuit, and then transmits MPEG2-TS matched to the reproduced clock to a MPEG decoder.
In addition to the above-described method, JP-A-2001-339688 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a playback device, the configuration and operation of which are described in greater detail below.
MPEG-TS enables the multiplexing of a plurality of programs such as video signals, audio signals, and data in a single stream. FIG. 1 shows the packet configuration of MPEG-TS.
MPEG-TS is made up from an assemblage of a plurality of transport packets (hereinbelow referred to as simply “TS packets”) having a packet length of 188 bytes as shown in (A) of FIG. 1. Each TS packet is composed of header 51 and payload 52, as shown in (B) of FIG. 1. Header 51 is composed of a transport header of 32 bits and adaptation field 54, as shown in (C) of FIG. 1. The transport header includes PID (Packet Identification) 53 of 13 bits, which is packet identification information. As shown in (D) of FIG. 1, adaptation field 54 includes PCR 55 of 48 bits, which is the program time standard reference value. PCR 55 is a time stamp of 27 MHz. This PCR 55 is consulted to reproduce the standard time during encoding by the STC (System Time Clock) of the MPEG decoder.
As shown in (E) of FIG. 1, PCR 55 is described by a total of 48 bits: extension portion 60 of 9 bits that repeats 300 counts, base portion 58 of 33 bits that counts one for the 300 counts of extension portion 60, and reserved region 59 of 6 bits. FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the transport stream playback device described in patent document 1. Referring to FIG. 2, the transport stream playback device is composed of: playback processor 102, memory 103, PCR detector 104, timing controller 105, PCR operation unit 106, NULL packet generation unit 107, and selector 108.
MPEG-TS is recorded on recording medium 100 at a recording rate different from the transmission rate of 27 Mbps. Playback processor 102 plays back the MPEG-TS from recording medium 100 and transfers this reproduced MPEG-TS to memory 103 and PCR detector 104. PCR detector 104 detects the PCR in the reproduced MPEG-TS and transmits the PCR detection signal to timing controller 105 for each detection of this PCR.
NULL packet generation unit 107 generates NULL packets, which are dummy TS packets. The packet length of these NULL packets is also 188 bytes, identical to that of the TS packets. MPEG-TS that has been read from memory 103 is supplied to one of the inputs of selector 108, and NULL packets generated in NULL packet generation unit 107 are supplied to the other input of selector 108. Selector 108 selects and supplies as output one of these inputs. PCR operation unit 106 calculates the value of the next PCR such that the proper PCR spacing is realized when the spacing of the current PCR and the next PCR exceeds the proper PCR spacing due to the insertion of NULL packets.
Timing controller 105 both monitors the detected PCR value of input PCR detection signals and supplies from selector 108 the playback MPEG-TS that has been read from memory 103 matched to 27 MHz clock. Timing controller 105 calculates the difference value between the current PCR and the next PCR, and based on the result of this calculation, determines how many bits of data can be transmitted at 27 MHz clock in the interval between the current PCR and the next PCR when supplying, at a transmission rate of 27 Mbps, MPEG-TS that has been read from memory 103. When a contradiction occurs in the PCR spacing during supply of the MPEG-TS packet that contains the next PCR, timing controller 105 does not read the MPEG-TS packet that contains the next PCR from memory 103, but rather, inserts a NULL packet generated in NULL packet generation unit 107 in its place. If the spacing between the current PCR and the next PCR exceeds the proper PCR spacing when timing controller 105 is to insert yet another NULL packet and then supply the MPEG-TS packet that contains the next PCR, timing controller 105 reads the TS packet that contains the next PCR from memory 103 without inserting the NULL packet. At this time, timing controller 105 rewrites the value of the next PCR that has been inscribed in the TS packet that has been read to a PCR value that has been calculated in PCR operation unit 106 to match the output timing. In this way, output MPEG-TS can be obtained that lacks mismatching between PCR.
However, the above-described playback method and playback device have the problems described below.
In the method in which PCR is used to reproduce a clock in a PLL circuit and MPEG2-TS is transmitted to an MPEG decoder matched to the reproduced clock, a clock reproduction circuit is required that uses a PLL circuit, and this method therefore has the drawbacks of increased circuit scale and high costs. In addition, when reproducing, in an MPEG decoder, data that have undergone software conversion from MPEG2-PS (Program Stream) to MPEG2-TS, the transmission rate that is calculated based on the number of bytes between the PCR of MPEG2-TS is sometimes not uniform, and as a result, clock reproduction that uses the above-described PLL circuit is problematic.
The reproduction device described in Patent Document 1 is a device that reproduces and supplies recording data (MPEG files) in which the transmission rate is 25 Mbps as MPEG-TS in which the transmission rate is 27 Mbps, and that uses a clock in which the frequency is 27 MHz to supply this reproduction MPEG-TS. The clock of 27 MHz for this output must match with the clock that is calculated from the PCR. As a result, the reproduction device described in Patent Document 1 also necessitates a clock reproduction circuit that uses a PLL circuit and thus entails the same drawbacks as described above.
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In applied chemistry, there are used electrolytic cells of different designs for the processing of water and aqueous solutions and production of different chemical products; in particular, flow-through cells comprising flat electrodes [e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,658, C25B 9/00; C25B 15/08, 1995] or electrolytic cells comprising coaxially arranged tubular electrodes and a diaphragm arranged between the electrodes [e.g., JP 02274889 A, C25B 9/00, 1989].
The closest prior art technical solution and attainable result involve an electrochemical modular cell comprising coaxially arranged tubular outer and inner electrodes made in the form of tube lengths and a permeable ceramic diaphragm arranged coaxially therewith [WO 98/58880, C02F 1/461, 1998].
That technical solution has been chosen as a prototype.
The known solution permits making modular electrolytic cells to attain the required efficiency by way of coupling a number of electrochemical modular cells so that to reduce the costs of designing and manufacturing the electrolytic cells of a constant output, to unify the parts and units, and to reduce the time of mounting and maintaining the cells.
The known electrochemical modular cell ensures the effective processing of water or aqueous solutions at a low rate of energy consumption. The device is simple enough in operating and easy in mounting into units such as the diaphragm flow-through electrochemical reactors of a prescribed productive capacity (output).
However, the known device evince a number of drawbacks.
The known device is intended for the processing of metal chloride solutions and can not be effective in the processing of other types of solutions. Moreover, cylindrical electrolytic cells comprising a diaphragm evince a relatively low output characteristics and are significantly inferior in this regard to electrolytic cells comprising bulk or fluidized-bed electrodes [e.g., Fioshin M. Ya., Smirnova M. G. Elektrokhimicheskie sistemy v sinteze khimicheskikh produktov (Electrochemical systems in the synthesis of chemical products), M.: Khimiya, 1985, p. 216-223, Table VII. 6, Fig. VII.34].
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The use of data collecting portable computing terminals such as the PPT 4100 and the PPT 4600 manufactured by Symbol Technologies, Inc., the assignee of the present invention, has been adopted in many commercial applications. These terminal systems may include integrated bar code readers which permit the collection, storage and distribution of a high volume of data without the need for extensive keypad data entry. These terminal systems also provide full computing capabilities using standard PC architectures. These terminal systems may also be provided with wireless communication radio systems such as Symbol Technologies, Inc. local area network radio system “SPECTRUM24™”. The SPECTRUM24™ radio network system permits hand-held terminals to share and retrieve data in the proximity of local area networks with a central host.
Hand-held computing terminals offering various computing functions have been previously used in consumer applications. Examples of such systems are described in Dutch Patent Application No. 9002296 (“the '296 application”) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,942 to Oosterveen et al. (“the Oosterveen Patent”). The '296 application and the Oosterveen Patent describe systems in which an authorized customer is issued a terminal having an integrated bar code scanner to record merchandise purchases. The scanners maintain a list of merchandise selected for purchase by the customer within internal memory means. Prior to exiting the store, the information stored in the memory of a scanner is downloaded through a communication port attached to a terminal dispenser, and a printed ticket of the customer's purchases is printed on a printer. The customer then proceeds to a checkout register where the customer tenders payment for the purchased merchandise. The systems may provide for the occasional audit of customers using the system to ensure integrity of the self-service system.
Commercially available prior art self-checkout systems have employed relatively simple and unsophisticated consumer systems which have generally been limited to providing simple pricing and product identification information.
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1. Field of the Invention
One disclosed aspect of the embodiments relates to image capturing devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image capturing device, such as a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor, includes a pixel circuit region in which pixel circuits are arranged and a peripheral circuit region in which peripheral circuits are arranged. Different circuit layouts are employed for the pixel circuit region and the peripheral circuit region. Therefore, with regard to an insulation layer located at the same height as or higher than electrodes and conductive lines, a difference in height may occur between the pixel circuit region and the peripheral circuit region in accordance with the density of the electrodes and the conductive lines. Furthermore, when a planarization process is performed on the insulation layer, there is a problem in that a difference in height may occur between a central part and a peripheral part of the pixel circuit region. A difference in height between the central part and the peripheral part of the pixel circuit region may lead to a difference in signal outputs from the central part and the peripheral part of the pixel circuit region, causing reduction in image quality.
As a countermeasure against this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-94299 discusses providing a pixel region with a first layer composed of a transparent material at the same level as at least one of an electrode layer and a wiring layer.
When the first layer is formed in the pixel region as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-94299, damages may occur during the forming process of the first layer or an optical loss may occur due to the existence of the first layer, possibly causing reduction in image quality. Therefore, one disclosed aspect of the embodiments provides an image capturing device that can obtain a higher-quality image.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to means for dynamically altering the threshold voltage of Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) transistors, and more particularly to the application of SOI transistor unit cells in large scale integrated logic circuits to provide high performance, low power integrated circuits incorporating SOI transistor devices with adjustable threshold voltages.
2. Background Art
It is known that threshold voltages of SOI devices can be altered by changing the body-source bias potential. References that relate generally to adjusting the bias voltage of CMOS devices or to SOI devices and their application are as follows.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,533 issued to Arimoto et al. discloses a semiconductor circuit that converts body bias potential between first and second values for MOS-FET logic circuits.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,344 issued to Marlow discloses an analog double-throw switch that connects the body of a FET to either a first voltage or a second voltage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,231 issued to Yamaguchi et al. discloses a semiconductor device in combination with a first bias voltage generating circuit for generating a first substrate bias voltage value for reducing power consumption in the standby state and a second bias voltage generating circuit for generating a second substrate bias voltage value for increasing operating speed in the active state.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,723 to Shigehara et al. discloses a body bias switch for MOSFET devices with two N channel FETs, one with a common gate with the FET being controlled, the other FET with a gate controlled by the complement of the signal at the gate of the FET being controlled.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,461.338 issued to Hirayama et al. discloses a circuit with a plurality of transistors on a substrate and a bias voltage generating circuit for providing a low threshold bias voltage in the active state for high speed operation and a high threshold bias voltage for power consumption the standby state.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,056 to Shirato et al. discloses a technique for fabricating an improved contact region of a SOI structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,535 to Farb et el. discloses separately controllable and independent back bias for adjacent CMOS transistors fabricated on SOI substrates.
Other background references include U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,371 to Douseki, U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,790 to Mullarkey, U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,020 to Lee et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,181 to Tyson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,583 to Blake et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,612,461 to Sood, U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,316 to Winnerl et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5.045,716 to Takacs et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,277 to Caviglia et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,034 to Matthews.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of magnetic recording media such as magnetic tapes or disks and provides an improved binder composition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the field of modern magnetic recording, the tendency is towards increasing the recording density and using shorter wavelength recording signals. For use therewith, a coated type magnetic recording medium has been provided in which the magnetic layer is produced by applying a coating of a magnetic paint on a non-magnetic base with small sized magnetic particles dispersed in the magnetic layer. The small size is desired to achieve a higher packing density and a resulting improved smoothness or lubricity of the magnetic layer.
With improved smoothness or lubricity of the magnetic layer, the spacing loss is advantageously lowered. However, certain inconveniences arise in the tape running and durability characteristics. When the magnetic layer is too smooth, the recording medium tends to be affixed to, for example, the magnetic head, guide posts, or to the cylinder for a rotating head. In addition, the effective contact area is increased, thereby increasing the frictional coefficient so that tape running is affected adversely or inhibited. The increase in frictional coefficient results in increased tape tension causing powder to flake off, a deteriorated profile, or head clogging as well as an adverse effect on the tape durability.
With a magnetic recording medium used for high density recording, it is necessary to procure to some extent a proper volumetric density of the magnetic powders of the magnetic layer from the viewpoint of electromagnetic conversion characteristics. In this case, an increase in the specific surface area caused by comminution of the magnetic powders deteriorates the coating properties of the magnetic layer in an undesirable way. Thus, comminution of the magnetic powders deteriorates the running of the magnetic tape or the physical properties of the magnetic layer.
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of noise reduction processing for RAW image data acquired by using an image capturing apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, at the photographing (filming) location of the cinema or the like, it is made possible to check an image after development in which the intention of a photographing director is reflected by giving parameters (hereinafter, color adjustment parameters) for various kinds of color adjustment to an output image signal of an image capturing apparatus. Further, it is made possible to transfer the parameters used at the photographing location to an editing apparatus used in the post-production as metadata along with RAW image data of a captured image and to reflect the parameters in development in the post-production. Due to this, it is possible to reproduce the color adjustment checked at the photographing location both quickly and exactly in the post-production, and therefore, the work efficiency of the post-production is improved.
There exist a variety of parameters for conveniently transferring information on the appearance of an image after the color adjustment as described above between work flows. For example, ASC-CDL (The American Society of Cinematographers Color Decision List, hereinafter, CDL) is information for color modification defined by the American Society of Cinematographers. In CDL, three parameters, i.e., offset, slope, and power (gamma), are defined for each of RGB, and thereby, it is made possible to change the gradation characteristics of RGB. It is possible for a photographer and a photographing director at a photographing location to check an image in which CDL is reflected by appropriately applying these parameters to an output image signal of the image capturing apparatus and by observing the image through a monitor.
There are photographing gamma, 3D-LUT, RRT (used in color adjustment processing in conformity with the ACES standard) as the above-described parameters other than CDL. As a technique to check a color at a photographing location, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-231459 has disclosed the technique to perform color adjustment and color check at a photographing location by performing color conversion with parameters (IDT, RRT, ODT) used in the ACES color conversion processing for a video signal and producing a display on a monitor.
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This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Fire protection sprinklers are designed and widely used for commercial and residential applications to control or suppress a fire. In commercial applications there are environmental conditions that can dictate which types of sprinklers are utilized in the commercial environment. The commercial application can include a hazard type or commodity that is being stored in the commercial environment, the ceiling height, the height of storage that can be stacked on racks, the presence of obstructions, the coverage area needed to be protected, the spacing between the sprinkler heads and the available water supply. For residential applications, the coverage area, spacing, water supply, ceiling type, as well as other aesthetic concerns may apply. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) provides standards that define the minimum requirements for the designing and installation of automatic fire sprinkler systems. One type of fire protection system is a fire suppression system in which the sprinkler system is designed to sharply reduce the heat release rate of a fire and prevent its re-growth by means of direct and sufficient application of water or other fire suppressant through the fire plume to the burning fuel source. A fire control system is designed to limit the size of a fire by distribution of water so as to decrease the heat release rate and pre-wet adjacent combustibles while controlling ceiling gas temperatures to avoid structural damage. The NFPA provides different standards for fire suppression and fire control.
Both Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and Factory Mutual Approvals (FM) provide fire testing of sprinkler designs for meeting their intended design purpose. For successful fire suppression or control tests performed at UL or FM, the tests provide baseline data for water distribution and response time requirements for future designs intended to meet the same design requirements. The baselines are used to establish water distribution requirements for testing of the future sprinklers and these baseline water distribution requirements are determined based upon water distribution tests of the sprinkler heads that were tested to successfully control or suppress a fire as required. The sprinkler characteristics that are important for meeting design requirements typically include the required delivered density (RDD), the actual delivered density (ADD), the thermal sensitivity of the sprinkler, and the operating time of the sprinkler. In general, if a subsequently designed sprinkler has the same or improved water distribution in order to meet the required delivered density and actual delivered density requirements, and the sprinkler's thermal sensitivity and operating time are within the required limits, the sprinkler design can be approved without the necessity for conducting further actual fire tests which can be very expensive and time consuming.
Each different sprinkler type demands a different type of water spray pattern to achieve either fire control or suppression. Standard coverage ordinary hazard sprinklers generally protect a maximum coverage area of 130 square feet. According to the guidelines of the NFPA, extended coverage ordinary hazard sprinklers must protect from 225 to 400 square feet. Several factors can influence the water distribution patterns of a sprinkler. The different spray patterns achieved by different sprinkler types are provided by varying such factors as the shape of the sprinkler frame, the K-factor, and the geometry of the deflector position below the frame for creating a spray pattern. For applications where more water is required for control or suppression, the K factor is increased to meet the demand for additional water. In addition, the water supply pressure may also be increased or decreased to meet the demands.
The deflector geometry is particularly significant since the deflector is the main component of the sprinkler assembly and to a great extent, defines the size, shape, uniformity, and water droplet size of the pattern. Often times, a new sprinkler design can be achieved by utilizing an existing deflector geometry and/or by making minor modifications to the lengths or widths of the slots provided in the deflector. However, with some sprinkler designs, a simple modification of an existing deflector geometry does not adequately provide the water distribution pattern necessary for a desired application.
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Angiogenesis is the process whereby new blood vessels are formed. Angiogenesis, also called neovascularization, occurs normally during embryogenesis and development, and occurs in fully developed organisms during wound healing and placental development. In addition, angiogenesis occurs in various pathological conditions including: ocular diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration due to neovascularization; conditions associated with tissue inflammation such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease; and cancer, where blood vessel formation in the growing tumor provides oxygen and nutrients to the tumor cells, as well as providing a route via which tumor cells metastasize throughout the body. Since millions of people around the world are afflicted by these diseases, a considerable effort has been made to understand the mechanisms involved in angiogenesis in order to develop methods for detecting and inhibiting such undesirable angiogenesis.
Angiogenesis occurs in response to stimulation by one or more known growth factors, and also may involve other as yet unidentified factors. Endothelial cells, which are the cells that line mature blood vessels, normally do not proliferate. However, in response to an appropriate stimulus, the endothelial cells become activated and begin to proliferate and migrate into unvascularized tissue to form new blood vessels. In some cases, precursor cells are activated to differentiate into endothelial cells, which form new blood vessels.
Blood vessels are surrounded by an extracellular matrix. In addition to stimulation by growth factors, angiogenesis depends on interaction of the endothelial cells with the extracellular matrix, as well as with each other. The activation of endothelial cells by growth factors and the migration into and interaction with the extracellular matrix and with each other is dependent on cell surface receptors expressed by the endothelial cells. These cell surface receptors, which include growth factor receptors and integrins, interact specifically with particular molecules.
In pathological conditions such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, decreased availability of oxygen to the retina results in a hypoxic condition that stimulates the secretion of angiogenic growth factors such as vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF). This secretion induces abnormal migration and proliferation of endothelial cells into tissues of the eye. This results in vascularization of ocular tissues and can induce corneal scarring, retinal detachment and fluid accumulation in the choroid, each of which can adversely affect vision and lead to blindness.
Angiogenesis also is associated with the progression and exacerbation of inflammatory diseases, including psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. In inflammatory arthritic disease, for example, influx of lymphocytes into the region surrounding the joints stimulates angiogenesis in the synovial lining. This increased vasculature provides a means for greater influx of leukocytes, which facilitates the destruction of cartilage and bone in the joint. Angiogenic vascularization that occurs in inflammatory bowel disease results in similar effects in the bowel.
The growth of capillaries into atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary arteries represents another pathological condition associated with growth factor induced angiogenesis. Excessive blood flow into neovascularized plaques can result in rupture and hemorrhage of the blood-filled plaques, releasing blood clots that can result in coronary thrombosis.
The involvement of angiogenesis in such diverse diseases as cancer, ocular disease and inflammatory diseases has led to an effort to identify methods for specifically inhibiting angiogenesis as a means to treat these diseases. For cancer patients, such methods of treatment can provide a substantial advantage over currently used methods such as chemotherapy, which kill or impair not only the target tumor cells but also normal proliferating cells in the patient, such as blood cells, epithelial cells, and cells lining the intestinal lumen. Such non-specific killing by chemotherapeutic agents results in side effects that are, at best, unpleasant, and can often result in unacceptable patient morbidity, or mortality. In fact, the undesirable side effects associated with cancer therapies often limit the treatment a patient can receive.
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Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer networks and more particularly to dispersed storage of data and distributed task processing of data.
Description of Related Art
Computing devices are known to communicate data, process data, and/or store data. Such computing devices range from wireless smart phones, laptops, tablets, personal computers (PC), work stations, and video game devices, to data centers that support millions of web searches, stock trades, or on-line purchases every day. In general, a computing device includes a central processing unit (CPU), a memory system, user input/output interfaces, peripheral device interfaces, and an interconnecting bus structure.
As is further known, a computer may effectively extend its CPU by using “cloud computing” to perform one or more computing functions (e.g., a service, an application, an algorithm, an arithmetic logic function, etc.) on behalf of the computer. Further, for large services, applications, and/or functions, cloud computing may be performed by multiple cloud computing resources in a distributed manner to improve the response time for completion of the service, application, and/or function. For example, Hadoop is an open source software framework that supports distributed applications enabling application execution by thousands of computers.
In addition to cloud computing, a computer may use “cloud storage” as part of its memory system. As is known, cloud storage enables a user, via its computer, to store files, applications, etc., on an Internet storage system. The Internet storage system may include a RAID (redundant array of independent disks) system and/or a dispersed storage system that uses an error correction scheme to encode data for storage.
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Conventional control devices use heatsinks or spacers to dissipate heat of a high-heat-generation element, such as a power element. Patent Literature 1, for example, discloses a configuration in which spacers are disposed under elements to which a heatsink is attached. In Patent Literature 1, the configuration is such that the spacers are used in order to align the height of the heat dissipation surfaces of the elements and heat is dissipated only from the heatsink disposed on the top surface side of the elements.
Moreover, Patent Literature 2 discloses a device in which heat generation elements are secured to the printed board such that they are sandwiched between a base unit for cooling the heat generation elements and a holder from which the heatsink is configured.
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The present invention provides a nylon composition incorporating an additive that is not soluble in the nylon, which has improved toughness over the compositions of the prior art.
It has become common in the art to provide a nylon polymer with improved properties by incorporating therein certain additives that are insoluble in the polymer. (The term "insoluble" as used herein indicates that the insoluble additive is present in the polymer in the form of discrete agglomerates visible in a photomicrograph of the composition and is capable of separation from the polymer by solution of the polymer in a suitable solvent and filtration of the additive from the resulting solution.) Thus, flame retardance is commonly obtained by addition of a halogen-containing compound and a metal or metal compound, strength is conferred by blending in a mineral filler. Pigments and talc are also frequently intimately dispersed in the polymer to improve appearance.
However, the incorporation of such additives commonly leads to embrittlement of the composition and this imposes severe use limitations on them. In such a situation the commonly used plasticizers for nylon are found to be ineffective as regards increasing toughness. In his book on "Industrial Plasticizers" (MacMillan, 1963) at p. 2, I, Mellan, states that the more highly polar a resin is, the more highly polar must be the plasticizer used in conjunction with the resin. Polyamides are known to be very highly polar and in the 1974-5 edition of Modern Plastics Encyclopedia (MPE) p.248, Millan's teaching is repeated in the statement that the polarity of the polymer and the plasticizer chosen should be roughly matched for good compatibility. On the same page of MPE aliphatic glycols and aromatic sulfonamides (both highly polar) are specified as being suitable plasticizers for nylon.
We have now discovered a class of plasticizers for nylon polymer compositions incorporating additives insoluble in the nylon, that not only increase the toughness of the composition in an unexpected and unpredictable fashion but in some cases actually inprove the nylon properties in this respect on ageing.
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The present invention relates to a scroll-type refrigerator compressor.
In a known way, a scroll type refrigerator compressor comprises first and second volutes describing an orbital relative movement, each volute including a plate from which a spiral extends, the two spirals being engaged one inside the other and delimiting pairs of compression chambers of variable volume, the compression chambers having a volume which gradually decreases from the outside, where admission of refrigerant gas is accomplished inwards.
Thus, during the orbital relative movement of the first and second volutes, the refrigerant gas is compressed because of the reduction in the volume of the compression chambers and conveyed to the centre of the first and second volutes. The compressed refrigerant gas in the central portion flows out towards a recovery chamber via a discharge orifice made in one of the first and second volutes.
In order to improve the performances of such a compressor according to the seasons, and more particularly according to the demand for cold it is known how to make compressors with variable capacity and with variable compression level.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,386 describes a scroll-type refrigerator compressor with variable capacity comprising an orifice for letting through a refrigerant gas, made in the plate of one of the volutes and opening into one of the compression chambers.
This compressor further comprises a bypass circuit communicating with the passage orifice and a bypass valve arranged for diverting a portion of the refrigerant gas contained in the compression chambers towards the low pressure side of the compressor. With these arrangements it is possible to reduce the capacity or cylinder volume of the compressor.
This compressor also comprises a circuit for injecting refrigerant gas, communicating with the passage orifice and an injection valve arranged for injecting refrigerant gas into the compression chambers towards the low pressure side of the compressor. With these arrangements it is possible to increase the capacity of the compressor.
Thus, by suitably controlling the opening and closing of the injection and bypass valves, it is possible to adapt the capacity of the compressor according to the demand for cold.
According to a first embodiment described in document U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,386, the injection and bypass valves are both arranged outside the compressor. According to a second embodiment described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,386, the injection valve is arranged outside the compressor and the bypass valve is arranged in the suction stage.
Consequently, the distances between the passage orifice and the injection and bypass valves are significant, which generates a significant dead space.
Thus, when one of the valves or when both valves are in the closed position, a significant amount of refrigerant gas may flow through the passage orifice of the compression chambers towards the dead spaces of the injection and/or bypass circuits.
Now, since the pressure in each compression chamber varies from a minimum value to a maximum value during the orbital relative movement of the first and second volutes, the result of this is the occurrence of pressure pulsations in the injection and/or bypass circuits. These pressure pulsations cause overpressures and depressions in the compression chambers which may be detrimental to the performances of the compressor.
In order to overcome these drawbacks, positioning an anti-return device in proximity to the orifice for letting through refrigerant gas, made in the plate of the fixed volute, is known from document U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,360.
For this purpose, the surface of the plate of the fixed volute turned towards the side opposite to the spirals comprises a housing in which an anti-return device is mounted. The anti-return device is mobile between an open position allowing refrigerant gas to be injected into the compression chamber into which the passage orifice opens out, and a closed position preventing backflow of refrigerant gas from said compression chamber towards the refrigerant gas injection means.
With these arrangements it is possible to avoid the generation of significant dead space and therefore the occurrence of pressure fluctuations which may reduce the performances of the compressor.
However, installing an anti-return device on the upper surface of the fixed volute of a compressor may prove to be difficult, or even impossible notably when the access to the upper portion of the fixed volute is hindered by the existence of a bell covering the fixed volute or by the presence of seal elements at the discharge orifice.
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Hot-melt adhesives which are useful in such applications as the bonding of labels, tapes and decals to various substrates are well known in the art. Such adhesives are normally specially adapted for use on certain kinds of substrates. At the present time, however, I am unaware of amorphous olefin-based hot-melt adhesives which have the versatility of being useful in bonding to a variety of substrates such as glass, metal and polymers. Also, the hot-melt adhesives according to the present invention have a good balance of high and low temperature bond quality, and the combination of good tack and low viscosity for ease of application. Furthermore, the hot-melt adhesives according to the present inventin have low color, low odor when molten, good thermal stability and less tendency of bleed-through when compared to known conventional hot-melt adhesives.
The adhesives according to this invention are generally applied by a hot-melt applicator which includes a reservoir for the adhesive, heating means for melting the adhesive and maintaining it in a molten state, and means for applying the adhesive for a particular end use.
To be suitable for use on typical hot-melt labeling equipment, the adhesive should have several key characteristics. Among these are low viscosity at typical application temperatures of 150.degree.-180.degree. C., resistance to stringing, aggressive tack, long open time, and good specific adhesion to typical container and label substrates. Other desirable properties are low color and odor, low tendency to bleed through label stock, and good thermal stability. In the past, hot-melt adhesives useful for labeling have been commonly based on ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers or synthetic block copolymer rubbers which are diluted with rosins, waxes, and plasticizers to yield the desired machining characteristics. Such formulations are generally high in color and odor, and exhibit significant changes in viscosity on exposure to heat for extended periods. While polyolefin-based adhesives exhibit low color and odor, and good thermal stability, those available to date generally lack the tack and adhesion necessary to bond a variety of label stocks to various substrates, and have not been available with the low viscosity necessary for machining on hot-melt labeling lines. Therefore, it would be an advance in the state of the art to provide a polyolefin-based adhesive having the necessary low-melt viscosity, good tack and specific adhesion, and low color and odor to be desirable in bonding or sealing labels, tapes, decals, etc., to provide bonds having good strengths at both low and high temperatures.
One patent of interest is U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,223. This patent discloses a hot-melt adhesive comprising a blend of at least one modified (such as by reaction with an unsaturated polycarboxylic acid) propylene/C.sub.4 to C.sub.10 higher 1-olefin copolymer having an acid number of at least 5, a tackifying resin, and a high density, low viscosity polyethylene wax having a molecular weight of at least about 1000. The present inventin differs from the hot-melt adhesive of U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,223 in that the adhesive of the present invention uses an unmodified olefin polymer or copolymer. It further differs from this patent in that both a hydrocarbon tackifier and a rosin tackifier are required. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,223 discloses in Example 8 that low density (i.e., 0.925) polyethylene wax is not satisfactory in that invention.
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Zeolitic materials, both natural and synthetic, are known to have the capability for catalyzing various types of hydrocarbon conversion reactions which take place in the presence of catalytic sites with acidic functionality. These zeolite materials generally have ordered, porous crystalline structures within which there are a number of small cavities that are interconnected by a number of still smaller channels. These cavities and channels are precisely uniform in size within a specific zeolitic material. Since the dimension of these pores are such as to accept for adsorption purposes molecules of certain dimensions, while rejecting those of larger dimension, these materials have commonly been known to be "molecular sieves" and are utilized in a variety of ways to take advantage of the adsorptive propertis of these compositions. The structures may be determined by X-ray diffraction techniques.
These molecular sieves include a wide variety of positive ion-containing crystalline aluminosilicates and other siliceous materials such as borosilicates, ferrosilicates and gallosilicates in which the presence of the trivalent metal at sites within the silicate structure provides the desired acidic functionality in an environment which permits access to the site only by molecules of appropriate size so that the acid catalyzed reactions are carried out in a "shape selective" manner. Metal cations such as sodium which are usually present in these materials when they are synthesized may be converted to the hydrogen form by exchange with ammonium ions followed by heating to drive off ammonia or by direct exchange with an acid such as hydrochloric acid, if the zeolite is not degraded by the acid. Useful catalysts are also produced by a combination of ion-exchange treatments in which the crystalline silicate may be converted to the acid form and then may be ion exchanged with a solution of various metal salts to produce the metal exchanged zeolite.
The acid activity of aluminosilicate zeolites may be so high that conventional hydrocarbon conversion processes and apparatus cannot take full advantage of this high activity. For example, in catalytic cracking, high activity may yield excessive coke formation and the production of large anions of light gases. The acid activity of zeolite catalysts may, however, be lowered to a level at which the use of such catalysts in catalytic conversions is satisfactory and, in fact, results in a considerable increase in the efficiency of such processes. Reactions which have been performed successfully over low acidity zeolites include the conversion of oxygenates such as methanol and dimethyl ether to olefin and other hydrocarbon products, xylene isomerization, aromatic alkylation, and olefin oligomerization, as well as catalytic dewaxing and hydrodewaxing and hydroisomerization. Oxygenate conversion is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,907,915, 3,894,103, 3,894,104, 3,894,105, 3,894,106, 3,894,107 and 4,560,537. The conversion of oxygenates to hydrocarbons using a fixed bed of catalyst is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,560,536, 4,058,576, 4,044,061 and 3,998,899. The use of a fluidized catalyst bed for this purpose is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,138,440, 4,071,573, 4,406,825 and 3,969,426 to which reference is made for a description of typical examples of these processes.
One method of reducing the activity of aluminosilicate zeolite catalyst is by compositing the zeolite with a matrix material which is relatively inactive. Suitable matrix materials include inorganic oxides, such as those of silica, zirconia, alumina, magnesia and combinations of such materials with one another, as well as clays and other refractory materials.
Other methods to reduce the activity of acid zeolites include cation exchange with sodium or other alkali metal cations or by forming the zeolites with high silica:alumina mole ratios in the structure or framework. An important method in reducing the activity of zeolite catalysts is by a process of steam treating. By controlled steaming, it is possible to produce zeolite catalysts having any desired degree of activity. The degree of steaming of a specified catalyst to achieve a desired activity level is largely dependent upon the nature of the zeolite. Steam treatment, however, often requires long periods of time to treat the catalyst effectively for activity reduction.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,058 discloses methods of modifying the catalytic properties of zeolites. One such method is calcination which is defined as heating at high temperatures but below the sintering temperature of the zeolite for varying periods of time. Other methods are also disclosed, including compositing the zeolite in a matrix and steam treatment. The patent further discloses that the crystallinity retention of catalysts may be improved by precalcination of the crystalline aluminosilicate. For example, the patent states that it has been found possible to preserve the crystallinity of aluminosilicates such as the rare earth exchange synthetic faujasites, by calcining the zeolite to drive off water, thus forming a more suitable structure and minimzing loss in crystallinity during subsequent rapid drying, as in spray drying, wet processing, steaming and aging. The calcining may be accomplished by heating the crystalline aluminosilicate sieve after ion exchange to a temperature below the sintering temperature of the sieve and generally in the range of from 500.degree. to 1600.degree. F. (about 260.degree. to 870.degree. C.).
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,859 discloses a method of controlling the relative acid activity of zeolite catalysts, by treating the zeolitic component with air or steam at elevated temperatures, e.g., up to 1700.degree. F. (about 925.degree. C.) in air or at temperatures from about 800.degree. F. to about 1700.degree. F. (about 425.degree. C. to 925.degree. C.).
Calcination of the freshly synthesized zeolite to remove adsorbed water and organic materials that have been used to form the zeolite crystals is necessary to activate the zeolite and accordingly has generally been employed. Also, as stated above, precalcination of the zeolite has been found to stabilize the crystallinity of the zeolite. However, heat treatment may remove hydroxyl groups from the framework of the zeolite. Thus, dehydroxylation of a decationized Y zeolite is discussed in Zeolite Chemistry and Catalysts, ACS Monograph 171, pages 142 and 143, in which dehydroxylation of Y zeolite is stated to result from prolonged calcination at relatively high temperatures, resulting finally in the structural collapse of the zeolite and the formation of an amorphous silica or silica-alumina structure. For these reasons, the use of high temperatures has generally been avoided in zeolite synthesis. When organic materials are to be removed from the freshly synthesized zeolite, temperatures of about 1000.degree. F. (about 540.degree. C.) are typical and generally not exceeded in order to avoid damage to the crystal structure.
Calcination or high temperature treatment has been employed in various catalyst treatments to achieve particular results, for example, to convert impregnated metal or other compounds to different forms as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,276,438 and 4,060,568 or to destroy ion exchange capacity as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,097,115. However, even in such cases the use of higher temperatures, e.g. above 500.degree. C., has not been preferred because of the undesirable effect on the structure of the zeolite.
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a mechanism for releasing a wireline cable from a cable head.
2. Background Art
In oil and gas wireline operations, downhole tools, e.g., logging tools, are conveyed downhole within a wellbore using a wireline cable. The downhole tools are typically tubular members that are threaded together to form a xe2x80x9ctool string.xe2x80x9d A cable head couples the wireline cable to the tool string. Occasionally, during operation, the tool string may become stuck in the wellbore. When the tool string gets stuck, a high tension is usually applied to the tool string to try to free the tool string from its stuck position. This high tension is applied to the wireline cable at the surface, and the wireline cable transmits the applied tension to the cable head. The cable head in turn transmits the tension to the tool string. The amount of tension available to free the tool string from its stuck position depends on the breaking strength of the wireline cable, the profile and coefficient of friction of the wellbore, the position of the tool string inside the wellbore, and various other parameters, in particular the weight of the cable in the wellbore.
The connection between the cable head and the wireline cable typically includes a xe2x80x9cweak point.xe2x80x9d A weak point is a link designed to break when a predetermined amount of tension is applied to it. Normally, the weak point has the lowest breaking strength in the tensile string. The weak point allows the wireline cable to be separated from the cable head in the event that enough tension cannot be applied to free the tool string. The operator first latches onto the cable head or tool string using a fishing tool coupled to one end of a drill pipe and then applies tension to the wireline cable to break the weak point and release the wireline cable from the cable head. The wireline cable is first removed from the wellbore, and hen the cable head and the tool string are pulled out of the wellbore by removing the drill pipe.
The weak point is usually designed for the worst case scenario. In other words, the breaking strength of the weak point must be lower than the minimum tension that the wireline cable can transmit to the desired maximum depth of descent into the wellbore. Otherwise, if the tool string gets stuck at a depth where the amount of tension that can be transmitted safely through the wireline cable is less than the breaking strength of the weak point, it will be impossible to break the weak point. The strength of the weak point must also be greater than the weight of the tool string plus a safety factor. These requirements sometimes limit the depth to which the tool string can safely descend inside the wellbore.
However, the tool string will not always get stuck at the maximum depth of descent into the wellbore. If the tool string gets stuck at a point above the maximum depth of descent into the wellbore, the maximum tension that can be transmitted to the cable head without breaking the wireline cable will be much greater than what is needed to break the weak point. If this maximum tension is transmitted to the cable head, the weak point will break before the fully available tension can be used to try to free the tool string.
The different tool sticking conditions give rise to the need for a weak point having two distinct breaking strengths. In one mode, the breaking strength of the weak point is greater than the breaking strength of the wireline cable so that all the tension capable of being transmitted to the cable head can be applied to freeing the tool string from its stuck position. In another mode, the weak point can be broken without exceeding the breaking strength of the wireline cable at any depth of descent.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,733 issued to Ludwig et al. discloses a latch assembly for releasably connecting a wireline cable to a cable head which operates in two modes. The latch assembly includes an anchor sub keyed within an inner housing. The anchor sub has a tensile strength greater than the safe pull of the wireline, where xe2x80x9csafe pullxe2x80x9d of the wireline is defined as a tension that does not exceed one-half the breaking strength of the wireline. The anchor sub has a neck portion and a bore extending from the neck portion to the body of the anchor sub. A latch housing is threaded to the neck portion of the anchor sub, and a chamber is defined within the latch housing. A latch shaft extends through the chamber. One end of the latch shaft is coupled to the wireline. The latch shaft has an enlarged portion which divides the chamber into two sub chambers. In the latched position, there is an interference fit between the latch shaft and the latch housing, the upper sub chamber contains a fusible material, and the volume of the lower sub chamber is substantially zero. The latch assembly also includes heaters for heating the fusible material.
During normal operation, the latch assembly couples the wireline to the cable head housing. When it is desired to release the wireline from the cable head, the operator sends a command to a switching circuit which then directs current to the heaters. The heaters, which are in contact with the latch housing, heat the metal of the latch housing, causing the latch housing and the enlarged portion of the latch shaft to expand. The latch housing has a higher coefficient of expansion than the enlarged portion of the latch shaft. Thus, a gap is formed between the latch housing and the enlarged portion of the latch shaft as the latch housing is heated. The heated latch housing also causes the fusible material in the upper chamber to melt. The melted fusible material flows into the lower sub chamber through the gap formed between the latch housing and the enlarged portion of the latch shaft. As the fusible material flows into the lower sub chamber, the tension applied to the latch shaft by the wireline cable causes the latch shaft to move upwardly. This causes the latch shaft to move to the unlatched position.
In one aspect, the invention relates to a cable release apparatus which comprises a housing and a latch mounted at one end of the housing. The latch has a central opening and a plurality of projecting members extending into the housing. A releasable connector is mounted inside the housing. An actuator has one end disposed in the central opening in the latch and another end in contact with the releasable connector. The actuator is movable between a first position prior to activation of the releasable connector and a second position wherein the releasable connector is activated. Prior to activation of the releasable connector, the latch is held in place by an interference fit between the projecting members and the housing. When the releasable connector is activated, the projecting members are deflected by applying tension to the latch, thereby releasing the latch from the housing.
In some embodiments, the projecting members comprise outer wedged surfaces for engagement with an inner wedged surface on the housing. In some embodiments, the projecting members comprise inner wedged surfaces for engagement with an outer wedged surface on the actuator. In some embodiments, the releasable connector comprises a plurality of connector segments held together by a spring and a heater for heating a solder joint in the spring so as to enable expansion of the spring. In some embodiments, a spring is provided to apply a force on the actuator such that the actuator moves in the direction of the releasable connector when the releasable connector is activated.
In another aspect, the invention relates to a cable head which comprises a head housing and a cable release housing mounted inside the head housing. The cable head further comprises a latch mounted at one end of the cable release housing. The latch has a central opening and a plurality of projecting members extending into the cable release housing. The cable head further comprises a cable connector coupled to the latch. A releasable connector is mounted inside the cable release housing and an actuator has one end disposed in the central opening in the latch and another end in contact with the releasable connector. The actuator is movable between a first position prior to activation of the releasable connector and a second position wherein the releasable connector is activated. Prior to activation of the releasable connector, the latch is held in place by an interference fit between the projecting members and the housing. When the releasable connector is activated, the projecting members are deflected by applying tension to the latch, thereby releasing the latch from the housing.
In another aspect, the invention relates to a logging tool which comprises a head housing and a cable release housing disposed inside the head housing. The cable head further comprises a latch mounted at one end of the cable release housing. The latch has a central opening and a plurality of projecting members extending into the cable release housing. The cable head further comprises a cable connector coupled to the latch. A releasable connector is mounted inside the cable release housing and an actuator has one end disposed in the central opening in the latch and another end in contact with the releasable connector. The actuator is movable between a first position prior to activation of the releasable connector and a second position wherein the releasable connector is activated. A downhole tool is coupled to the head housing and the cable release housing. Prior to activation of the releasable connector, the latch is held in place by an interference fit between the projecting members and the cable release housing. When the releasable connector is activated, the projecting members are deflected by applying tension to the latch.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.
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Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to encryption and decryption methods systems. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and systems for encrypting a plain text message by performing one or more encryption operations on the plain text message, wherein at least one of the encryption operations uses a one off random key.
Encryption systems utilizing one-off random keys are well known in the art. If used correctly, messages encrypted with a truly random key are impossible to crack. One implementation of an encryption system utilizing one off random keys is the one-time pad system. One-time pads are matching pairs of pads, with each pad having multiple pages of random sequences of characters printed or written thereon. Matching pads have matching random sequences of characters so that when an encrypting party uses a random sequence of characters on a pad to encrypt the message, the receiving party has to use the matching random sequence of characters in their pad to decrypt the message.
This type of encryption system suffers from several drawbacks. First, use of one-time pads must be synchronized so that both the sending and receiving party use a matching page of a matching pad set. If either the pad or the page of the pad does not match, the receiving party will not be able to decrypt the message or may decrypt a message that is different from the original message. Second, use of such one time pads suffers from the possibility of the pads being intercepted or copied since they have to be transmitted separately from the encrypted message itself.
Accordingly, it is desirable to improve the functionality of encryption systems utilizing a one off random key by transmitting the one off random key together with the encrypted message.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the generation, transfer, and posting of media data in a computer network environment. More particularly, the invention relates to a client computer based system for creating, processing, encoding, and transferring media files for server based storage, posting, distribution, and retrieval.
2. Background Art
The development of computer technology, computer networks and the Internet has brought about a need for better ways to create, manage and disseminate files. The advancement of the Internet market has only increased this need and allowed providers of such services to maintain a viable business.
However, using current technology, the creation, preparation, management and dissemination of files (e.g., audio, visual media and/or presentation files) over the Internet is a tedious and inefficient process for the typical user. For instance, in order to disseminate an audio or visual presentation over the Internet, a number of steps are required. In addition, many parts of the process require specialized knowledge that many computer users do not have.
Using current systems, a user must first create or record an audio or video file live using a microphone and/or as a compilation of material that may include recordings made live as well as prerecorded offerings, including offerings from various potential inputs. All of these sources must be mixed together into a single recording with the volume and recording level controlled appropriately for each of the components. While programs exist for accomplishing this task, they require a degree of expertise on the part of the user.
In addition, recorded audio files can be digitally signal processed to optimize the quality of the sound using digital signal processing. However, such processing can require many steps including multi-band voice-optimized compression where compression reduces selected signal input (e.g. audio analog compression, not to be confused with data compression or encoding). Current systems also provide a way to optimize other types of files (e.g., video, audio, etc. . . . ) using digital or analog optimization techniques. For example, in order to create professional quality media files, these steps are generally not optional and thus failure to perform them put a web broadcaster at a competitive disadvantage as compared to one who does perform them.
Also, in order to use a file with certain software applications, the file is usually converted into a file format, such as Real Audio™, that can be replayed by that application. File conversion may also be required when the target application is a web browser. For instance, if the intended recipient is a web browser, the file is encoded into a format (e.g., WAV) that the web browser or a help application associated with the web browser is capable of playing. The programs that exist to accomplish this encoding require a degree of expertise on the part of the user.
Furthermore, media files uploaded to a server have little in the way of the capability to incorporate links to other web sites as part of the media file or presentation. Current systems, for example, lack a way for users to post parts of a presentation on different servers in order to utilize servers with various capabilities (e.g., RealServer™). If parts of the presentation are posted on different servers, the server must typically be provided with the capability to download all of the files associated with the presentation to the audience upon request. Once again, the steps require user intervention to accomplish tasks that require expertise. Furthermore, these tasks are time consuming and the process of editing or modifying a media file or presentation includes repeating the same steps as above.
Another limitation inherent in current systems is that once the user generates a media file, there is no simple mechanism for depositing the media files into a dynamic environment (e.g., a list that changes according to a set of criteria or behaviors established by the user). For example, users may send files they create to a server, but the prior art doe not have a way for the posting user to sequence the files according to a series of dynamic attributes. Users cannot, for example, define the type of files that are to be placed on the server where the files that are on the server are associated with a list that changes according to criteria established by the user. Thus, there is a need for a system that accomplished these objectives by providing the user with a dynamic environment in which to upload files.
It is apparent that the current procedures to create, prepare, manage and disseminate a media files and presentations over the Internet are lengthy and tedious, requiring a high level of knowledge of a number of computer programs for processing each step. The process is so tedious because each step typically requires the use of a different computer program and the user must take the output of one program and feed it into the next program.
Moreover, these tasks are currently performed as individual steps in separate programs on servers rather than on the user's computer. It would be more efficient for users to perform as many of these steps as possible on their own computers or clients, rather than attempt to perform the processing using software provided for them on a server.
For example, a user may have to upload a .WAV file to one server for signal processing and know how to operate the signal processing for that server. The user will then have to load the file to another server for encoding and know how to operate that program as well. After that, the user will have to load the completed file to a third server for distribution and must know how to use the system on that third server as well.
Therefore, there is a need for a simple, inexpensive way to create, process, encode, upload, post and distribute seamless media files and presentations while requiring minimal creator input, expertise, and time. Hence, a system is needed that runs on a user's local PC and is suitable for users who are not experts in various media recording, processing, encoding, transmitting, and server based software packages.
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In order to reduce the energy consumption of vehicles and to improve convenience for a driver, a system in which an alternate route having no traffic congestion is calculated based on road traffic information so as to be presented to a driver has been proposed. However, when multiple drivers travel the route having no traffic congestion in accordance with the presented route, there is a possibility of concentration of vehicles in the route, thereby causing an occurrence of traffic congestion again in the other route which is presented in order to ease the traffic congestion, and thus, the system is not a fundamental solution to the optimization of traffic flow and minimization of the energy consumption of the vehicles.
PTL 1 discloses that an optimal route for the vehicle is determined by using information on a current traffic flow received from each of the vehicles. In order to achieve the optimization of traffic flow, after the route is determined, if an unpredicted change in the traffic flow is detected, the system functions to designate a new optimal route for the vehicle again replacing the old route.
PTL 2 discloses a function of selecting the optimal route performed by using altitude information of a road map in order to minimize the energy consumption of vehicles.
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Formation properties while drilling or in a freshly drilled hole are measured to predict the presence of oil, gas and water in the formation. These formation properties may be logged with wireline tools, logging while drilling (LWD) tools, or measurement while drilling (MWD) tools. Measurements are usually performed open hole, with the wellbore containing fluid at a hydrostatic pressure in excess of the reservoir pressure, so the formation is not producing any fluid into the wellbore. Therefore in this case wellbore fluid measurements generally do not contain information about fluids in the formation.
These openhole measurements of the formation properties, which may be considered static, because there is no formation fluid movement, may be used to infer the dynamic properties of the formation when the well is produced. When the well is produced, the pressure in the wellbore is less than the reservoir pressure. This condition may be achieved while drilling by way of a new technique called Under Balanced Drilling, or UBD. In this case the well is being drilled and produced simultaneously, so in this measurements of the fluid in the wellbore may contain information about the fluids which are being produced from the formation.
When drilling underbalanced, large quantities of drilling fluids are pumped through the drill string into the wellbore while the wellbore is being drilled. The drilling fluids help cool the cutting surfaces of the drill bits and help carry out the earth cuttings from the bottom of the wellbore when they flow up the annulus to the surface. To ensure that formation fluids flow into the wellbore during this underbalanced drilling process, the drilling fluids are pumped under a pressure that is slightly lower than the expected formation pressure. The lower hydraulic pressure of the drilling fluids may result in a substantial gain of fluid into the wellbore from the formation when a permeable and high pressure zone of the earth formation is encountered. Detection of such fluid production may be used to evaluate the inflow potential of the well, and to modify this inflow by making corresponding changes to the completion of the well. Cumulative fluid flow production from the formation may be detected on the surface. However, for determining the precise depth of each individual contribution to this fluid production, a means of detecting volumetric flows in the wellbore annulus near the drill bit as the well is being drilled is desirable.
Time-of-flight measurement of activated slugs of fluid have been used in the prior art in connection with the Water Flow Log (WFL). In the WFL service, a slim tool is lowered into a producing well, a slug of wellbore fluid is activated and then timed over a relatively long duration to determine the flow rate. In this process, an activation source such as a Pulse Neutron Genrator (PNG) is normally off, and is activated only very briefly to periodically tag a slug of fluid with a neutron burst.
It would be desirable to have methods and apparatus in connection to underbalanced drilling for determining various parameters at a given depth in the wellbore. It is particularly desirable to determine the depth of water producing fractures which are not discernable from resistivity logs. By determining these depths, one may design adequate completion in order to block the flow of undesirable water, for example by altering the producing pipe that is later installed in the well.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to heterocyclic polymers. In particular it relates to polybenzimidazoles where chain extension occurs through an arylene substituent on the substituted nitrogen of the benzimidazole ring.
2. Description of the Related Art
Polybenzimidazoles (PBI) are heterocyclic polymers commonly prepared by the condensation reaction of an aromatic bis(o-diamine) with an aromatic diacid or derivative thereof and having a repeat unit of the general structure ##STR1## where Ar is a tetravalent aromatic radical such as 1,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted benzene. Ar may also be a bis(o-diphenylene) having the general structure ##STR2## where Z=nil, O, S, SO.sub.2, C.dbd.O, CH.sub.2, or any other appropriate divalent radical. Ar' is a divalent aromatic radical which may be 1,3-phenylene, 1,4-phenylene, 4,4'-biphenylene, 4,4'-oxydiphenylene, 4,4'-sulfonyldiphenylene, or any other appropriate divalent radical.
The synthesis and characterization of PBI has been extensively studied and documented. Reviews on PBI are available. (A. Buckley, D. E. Stuez, and G. A. Serad, Encyl. Poly. Sci. Tech., Vol. 11., 2nd ed., 1988, p. 572; P. E. Cassidy, "Thermally Stable Polymers", Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1980, p. 163.) The first reported synthesis of PBI involved the reaction of aliphatic dicarboxylic acids with aromatic bis(o-diamine)s [K. C. Brinker and I. M. Robinson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,895,948 (Jul. 21, 1959)]. Since then several methods have been utilized in their preparation. Each method will be briefly mentioned with an accompanying reference. The most common synthetic method of PBI involves the melt condensation of aromatic bis(o-diamine(s)) with aromatic diacids or derivatives thereof [H. Vogel and C. S. Marvel, J. Polym. Sci., 50, 511 (1961)]. PBI has also been prepared in polyphosphoric acid [Y. Iwakura, K. Uno, and Y. Imai, J. Polym. Sci., Part A, 2, 2605 (1964)] and in sulfane or diphenylsulfone [F. L. Hedberg and C.S. Marvel, J. Polym. Sci., Poly. Chem., 12, 1823 (1974)]from aromatic bis(o-diamine)s and aromatic diacids or derivatives thereof.
Another preparative route involves the reaction of aromatic bis(o-diamine)s with the bis(bisulfite adduct)s of dihaldehydes [J. Higgins and C. S. Marvel, J. Polym. Sci., Part A-1, 8, 171 (1970)]. The alkoxide catalyzed reaction of aromatic bis(o-diamine)s with dinitriles is another synthetic route [D. I. Packham, J. D. Davies, and H. M. Paisley, Polymer, 10, (12), 923 (1969)].
PBIs where the hydrogen atom on the nitrogen atoms of the benzimidazole ring are replaced by phenyl groups have been prepared from the reaction of bis(o-anilinoamino) arylenes with aromatic dicarboxylic acids or derivatives thereof. [H. Vogel and C. S. Marvel, J. Polym. Sci., A1, 1531 (1963)]. The resultant polymers exhibited slightly better thermal oxidative stability than unsubstituted PBIs; however, they were too thermoplastic to be useful.
PBIs where chain extension occurs through the arylene substituent on the substituted nitrogen of the benzimidazole ring are a variation of the phenyl substituted PBIs called poly(N-arylenebenzimidazole)s (PNABls). They were prepared in high molecular weight from the melt reaction of the diphenyl esters of aromatic dicarboxylic acids with bis(o-aminoanilino) arylenes. [A. A. R. Sayigh, B. W. Tucker, and H. Ulrich (Upjohn Co.), U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,439, Jan. 2, 1973)].
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hydrocarbon processing in general and, more particularly, to catalytic cracking of hydrocarbonaceous feedstocks. Specifically, the present invention relates to a process for catalytically cracking a hydrocarbonaceous feedstock with a dual component catalyst composition comprising an essentially alumina-free crystalline chromia silicate and a large pore size crystalline aluminosilicate cracking component. In a preferred embodiment, the essentially alumina-free crystalline chromia silicate is the crystalline chromia silicate more fully described in my copending application, Ser. No. 160,618, filed June 25, 1980.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Catalytic cracking systems typically employ a fluidized bed or a moving bed of a finely divided particulate catalyst. This cracking catalyst is subjected to continuous cycling between a cracking reaction and a catalyst regeneration system. In a fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) system, a stream of a hydrocarbonaceous feedstock is generally contacted with fluidized catalyst particles in a reaction zone, usually at a temperature of from about 425.degree.-600.degree. C., or higher. The cracking of the hydrocarbons in the feed generally results in deposition of carbonaceous coke on the catalyst particles and, of course, in the production of lower-molecular-weight hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons are separated from the catalyst which is stripped of volatiles and passed to the catalyst regenerator where it is contacted with an oxygen-containing gas to burn off the coke. The heat evolved during this coke burnoff heats the catalyst particles and supplies the sensible heat for the cracking reaction. The thus regenerated catalyst is returned to the reaction zone for contacting additional feedstock.
Zeolitic materials, both natural and synthetic, are known to have catalytic activity in various types of hydrocarbon conversion reactions including catalytic cracking. Molecular sieve crystalline zeolites are aluminosilicates comprised of a rigid 3-dimensional framework of SiO.sub.4 and AlO.sub.4 tetrahedra joined by common oxygen atoms. The inclusion of aluminum atoms in the framework produces a deficiency in electrical charge which must be locally neutralized by the presence of additional positive ions within the structural framework. In natural zeolites, and many of the synthetic zeolites, these ions are normally alkali metal or alkaline earth metal cations which are quite mobile and readily exchanged. The cations occupy channels and interconnected voids provided by the framework geometry. U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,403, to Rosinski et at., the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, describes the ZSM-5-type zeolitic aluminosilicate catalysts and their preparation in detail.
The present invention is related in part to crystalline silicate catalysts which are essentially alumina free. In addition to the chromia silicates which are the subject of my copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 160,618, filed June 25, 1980, other essentially alumina-free crystalline silicates have been prepared and reported in the literature. U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,865 to Flanigen et al., incorporated by reference herein, discloses various crystalline silica polymorphs and methods for their preparation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,724 to Grose et al., incorporated by reference herein, discloses a crystalline silica polymorph called "silicalite" and a method for its preparation. U.S. Pat. No. Re. 29,948 to Dwyer et al., incorporated by reference herein, discloses a crystalline silicate essentially free of Group IIIA metals, a method for its preparation and processes employing the same.
Flanigen et al, Nature, 271, 512-516 (Feb. 9, 1978) discuss the physical and adsorption characteristics of silicalite. Bibby et al., Nature, 280, 664-665 (Aug. 23, 1979) report the preparation of a crystalline silicate denominated "silicalite-2". Finally, Anderson et al., J. Catalysis, 58 114-130 (1979) discuss catalytic reactions and sorption measurements carried out on ZSM-5 and silicalite.
In addition to an essentially alumina-free catalyst component, the catalyst of the present invention also employs a large pore size crystalline aluminosilicate cracking component. Such components are well known. Briefly, a crystalline aluminosilicate cracking component has a uniform pore dimension and a pore size from about 7 to 15 Angstroms. These large pore size cracking components admit both normal and iso-aliphatics and have the capability of acting with respect to substantially all the components of a gas oil feed. Zeolites, including the synthetic faujasites, known as zeolite X and zeolite Y, are particularly desirable. Of course, other large pore size zeolites can be employed.
Combination catalysts have been employed to treat hydrocarbon feedstocks. U.S. Pat. No. 3,686,121 to Kimberlin, Jr. et al discloses a hydrocarbon conversion catalyst comprising at least two crystalline aluminosilicate zeolites having essentially the same crystal structure but having different silica-alumina molar ratios, e.g., mixtures of zeolites X and Y. U.S. Pat. No. 3,748,251 to Demmel et al., discloses a catalyst composition comprising two cracking components, one of which is a ZSM-5-type zeolite. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,793 to Schwartz et al., discloses a two-stage combination cracking operation which relies upon a combination of catalyst functions and a dual cracking component catalyst comprising a ZSM-5-type of crystalline aluminosilicate composition.
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The invention generally pertains to light modulators, and specifically to piezoelectric flexures for light modulation of such displays as micro-displays and projectors. Certain conventional optical micro-displays, such as those that include Fabry-Perot interference devices, use two reflector plates that are spaced within a micro-display window to form an interference pattern there between. At least one reflector plate within the micro-display window is adjustable using one or more piezoelectric flexures to alter the interference pattern, and thereby alter the color of light that is projected. Recent micro-display modulator designs require considerable displacement of one or more of the flexures, often for a distance that is greater than that provided by many designs of piezoelectric flexures. As the length of the pixel plate decreases, it is challenging to design and construct flexures that are configured to allow for the deflection.
It would therefore be desirable to increase the distance over which the flexures can be deflected, especially in flexures that operate to displace small pixel plates as found in micro-display modulators.
The same numbers are used throughout the document to reference like components and/or features.
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The subject matter disclosed herein relates to couplings for rotating components, more specifically, to couplings for turbomachinery.
Mechanical energy may be transferred in many ways, including by way of rotating parts, such as a shaft or rotor. Rotating parts transfer torque through contact forces with other parts. For friction drive arrangements, torque transmission may be limited by the surface friction between the two parts and the compression force between the parts. Bolts may be used to compress the parts for rotating parts. However, for rotor structures carrying the mass of bolts, utilizing large bolts to create sufficient compression force can be a challenge.
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The present disclosure generally relates to optical computing, and, more specifically, to optical analysis tools having an operational profile that is smaller than that conventionally attainable.
Spectroscopic analyses are well known for their versatility for detecting a wide variety of substances. Most spectroscopic instruments are general purpose and are not configured to detect any one particular substance or class of substance. Accordingly, involved and time-consuming spectral processing and/or sample preparation operations may be needed to analyze for a particular substance within a given sample. Although spectroscopic analyses can often be routinely carried out under regulated laboratory conditions, they can be considerably more difficult to transition into less controlled environments, such as the oilfield and other process settings, where operational conditions may damage and/or limit the accuracy of conventional spectroscopic equipment and techniques.
Optical computing devices represent an alternative to conventional spectroscopic equipment and techniques. As used herein, the term “optical computing device” will refer to an optical device configured to receive an input of electromagnetic radiation from a sample and produce an output of electromagnetic radiation from a processing element that is diagnostic of a characteristic of the sample. Optical computing devices utilize an integrated computational element (ICE), also referred to as an “ICE core,” which is a processing element that is specifically designed to analyze for a given component or characteristic of interest in a sample upon optical interaction of electromagnetic radiation therewith. As used herein, the term “integrated computational element” will refer to an optical processing element containing a plurality of optical thin film layers formed from various materials whose indices of refraction and thicknesses may vary between each layer. The layer compositions, thicknesses, and ordering may be chosen, based upon calculations, to selectively transmit or reflect predetermined fractions of electromagnetic radiation at different wavelengths such that the integrated computational element is configured to substantially mimic the regression vector corresponding to a particular component or characteristic of interest in a sample.
As used herein, the term “characteristic” will refer to a substance's concentration in a sample or a derived physical property for the sample. The transmission or reflection function of the integrated computational element may represent the regression vector for a characteristic of interest, and the transmission or reflection function may be weighted with respect to wavelength. Accordingly, upon optically interacting electromagnetic radiation with a sample and with an integrated computational element, the electromagnetic radiation may change in a known and specific way that may be representative of the characteristic's magnitude in the sample. Following receipt of the electromagnetic radiation by a detector, an output from the detector can be correlated to the characteristic of interest, optionally after additional computational processing takes place. Even though a complex mixture of substances may be present in a given sample, the integrated computational element may be able to distinguish and analyze for a particular substance or characteristic based on the unique regression vector represented by the integrated computational element.
Optical computing devices may be advantageous compared to conventional spectroscopic techniques, since optical computing analyses may be conducted rapidly, often in real-time, with limited to no sample preparation involved. Rather than obtaining an optical spectrum as in conventional spectroscopic techniques, which may require further interpretation and deconvolution to take place, the output of optical computing devices is a real number that is correlatable to a characteristic of interest. Optical computing devices are also much more rugged than conventional spectroscopic equipment and can be deployed in locales where spectroscopic analyses may otherwise be problematic. Accordingly, optical computing devices may often be desirable for analyzing complex mixtures in various process environments, such as those encountered in the oilfield industry.
Optical computing analyses may utilize a single integrated computational element or, more commonly, a plurality of integrated computational elements. A plurality of integrated computational elements may be used to analyze for multiple characteristics of a sample or a single sample characteristic. Using multiple integrated computational elements to analyze for a single sample characteristic may involve optically interacting electromagnetic radiation with the sample and with multiple integrated computational elements in sequence or by computationally combining the outputs of two or more integrated computational elements with one another. Benefits that may be realized when utilizing multiple integrated computational elements in the analysis of a single characteristic of interest include, but are not limited to, increased analytical sensitivity, signal normalization and combinations thereof.
Conventional optical computing device configurations containing multiple integrated computational elements include, for example, disposing the integrated computational elements along an extended optical train or housing the integrated computational elements on a movable assembly that allows different integrated computational elements to be exposed to electromagnetic radiation at various points in time (e.g., through lateral or rotational motion of the movable assembly). Either device configuration, however, can result in an operational profile that is too bulky to fit effectively within confined locales. In addition to the space occupied by a movable assembly itself, the operating mechanisms needed to produce lateral or rotational motion can sometimes exceed the available space in confined locales, such the space within or in proximity to a tubular string within a subterranean wellbore. Furthermore, extreme downhole operating conditions can also be taxing to such operating mechanisms and the necessity to supply power downhole thereto can be problematic in many aspects.
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The present invention relates generally to an implantable prosthesis used to repair or replace a body lumen. More particularly, the present invention relates to an endoluminal prosthesis including a stent and ePTFE graft composite device offering increased compliance and flexibility.
An endoluminal prosthesis is a medical device commonly known to be used in the treatment of diseased blood vessels. An endoluminal prosthesis is typically used to repair, replace, or otherwise correct a damaged blood vessel. An artery or vein may be diseased in a variety of different ways. The prosthesis may therefore be used to prevent or treat a wide variety of defects such as stenosis of the vessel, thrombosis, occlusion, or an aneurysm.
One type of endoluminal prosthesis used in the repair of diseases in various body vessels is a stent. A stent is a generally longitudinal tubular device formed of biocompatible material which is useful to open and support various lumens in the body. For example, stents may be used in the vascular system, urogenital tract and bile duct, as well as in a variety of other applications in the body. Endovascular stents have become widely used for the treatment of stenosis, strictures, and aneurysms in various blood vessels. These devices are implanted within the vessel to open and/or reinforce collapsing or partially occluded sections of the vessel.
Stents are generally open ended and are radially expandable between a generally unexpanded insertion diameter and an expanded implantation diameter which is greater than the unexpanded insertion diameter. Stents are often flexible in configuration, which allows them to be inserted through and conform to tortuous pathways in the blood vessel. The stent is generally inserted in a radially compressed state and expanded either through a self-expanding mechanism, or through the use of balloon catheters.
A graft is another type of endoluminal prosthesis which is used to repair and replace various body vessels. Whereas a stent provides structural support to hold a damaged vessel open, a graft provides an artificial lumen through which blood may flow. Grafts are tubular devices which may be formed of a variety of material, including textiles, and non-textile materials. One type of non-textile material particularly suitable for use as an implantable prosthesis is polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). PTFE exhibits superior biocompatibility and low thrombogenicity, which makes it particularly useful as vascular graft material in the repair or replacement of blood vessels. In vascular applications, the grafts are manufactured from expanded PTFE (ePTFE) tubes. These tubes have a microporous structure which allows natural tissue ingrowth and cell endothelization once implanted in the vascular system. This contributes to long term healing and patency of the graft.
It is also known to combine a stent and a graft to form a composite medical device. Such a composite medical device provides additional support for blood flow through weakened sections of a blood vessel. In endovascular applications the use of a stent/graft combination is becoming increasingly important because the combination not only effectively allows the passage of blood therethrough, but also ensures the implant will remain open.
Several types of stent/graft inventions are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,105 issued to Kwan-Gett discloses a collapsible textile vessel sleeve with stent members positioned at opposite ends of the sleeve. The device is specifically designed to provide a vessel sleeve that is collapsible to a very small diameter in order that it may be placed in position within the abdominal or thoracic aorta by a catheter via the lumen of the femoral artery. Such a procedure obviates the need for a major surgical intervention, and reduces the risks associated with such a procedure.
Other stent/graft composite devices using a textile fabric are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,788, to Pinchuck.
As mentioned above, ePTFE may also be used as graft material in stent/graft endoprosthesis. One example of an ePTFE stent/graft composite device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,700,285 issued to Myers, et al. Myers discloses a tubular intraluminal graft in the form of a tubular diametrically adjustable stent having an interior and exterior tubular covering of porous expanded polytetrafluoroethylene. The tubular covering surrounds the stent so that the stent is contained during contraction and expansion in the delivery process.
Stents are effectively used in combination with grafts as the composite endoluminal prosthesis allows blood flow through the vessel created by the graft, while the stent maintains its patency. However, as the graft covers the stent, it has a tendency to reduce the longitudinal flexibility of the composite device. Longitudinal compliance is of particular importance to such stent/graft endoluminal prosthesis as the device must be intraluminally delivered through tortuous pathways of a blood vessel to the implantation site where the stent is expanded. A reduction in longitudinal flexibility makes intraluminal delivery more difficult. Reduction in longitudinal flexibility is particularly evident with stents covered by ePTFE, which is not as compliant or flexible as textile materials.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an endoluminal prosthesis including a stent covered with a graft providing increased longitudinal flexibility.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a composite stent/graft providing increased compliance and longitudinal flexibility.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a composite stent/graft having the fluid retention features of an ePTFE graft without losing the longitudinal flexibility and compliance of a stent.
In the efficient attainment of these and other objectives, the present invention provides a composite stent-graft tubular prosthesis including an inner PTFE tubular structure, and an outer PTFE tubular structure positioned about the inner PTFE tubular structure. A diametrically deformable stent is interposed between the inner and outer PTFE tubular structure. The interposed stent is formed from an elongate wire helically wound with a plurality of longitudinally spaced turns into an open tubular configuration. Each of the turns include successive upper and lower wave-like peaks wherein selective ones of said upper and lower peaks are exposed exteriorly of the outer PTFE structure.
The present invention may further embody a composite stent-graft tubular prosthesis comprising a first PTFE tubular structure with a diametrically deformable stent positioned over said first PTFE tubular structure. The stent being formed of an elongate helically wound wire formed into an open tubular configuration by a plurality of turns. The helically wound wire includes a plurality of transverse generally wave-like undulations there along defining successive upper and lower peaks. The tubular prosthesis further includes a second PTFE tubular structure positioned over said stent. The second PTFE tubular structure includes a plurality of apertures therethrough, the apertures being aligned with selective ones of said upper and lower peaks of the stent to expose said upper and lower peaks to thereby enhance longitudinal flexibility of said prosthesis.
A method of making a stent-graft luminal prosthesis of the present invention is also disclosed. The method provides for the formation of a first PTFE tubular structure. A stent is positioned over said first PTFE tubular structure, the stent having a tubular configuration formed of a plurality of turns of a helically wound wire, with each of said turns including successive upper and lower wave-like peaks. A second PTFE tubular structure is then formed over said stent, with said second PTFE tubular structure exposing selective ones of said upper and lower wave-like peaks through said second PTFE tubular structure.
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Stain resistant nylon carpets enjoy significant market acceptance. Stain resistance is typically imparted to nylon by treating the fiber as a solid filament or in a carpet form by the application of a chemical finish as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,501,591; 4,592,940; and 4,839,212 to Monsanto.
Nylon carpet fiber is generally classified as to type, depending upon its receptivity to acid dyes and basic or cationic dyes. Cationic dyeable nylons contain within the polymer structure sufficient SO.sub.3 H groups or COOH groups (which groups are receptive to cationic or basic dyes) to render the nylon fiber dyeable with cationic dyes. Acid dyeable nylons are essentially conventional nylons, such as polyhexamethylene adipamide and polycaprolactam. Acid dyeable nylons vary as to type and are characterized as being weakly dyed with acid dyes, average dyed with acid dyes, or deeply dyed with acid dyes.
Cationic dyeable nylons generally exhibit inherent stain resistant properties, especially to acid-type stains, as compared to other nylon types used for carpet. Cationic dyeable nylons are dyeable with selected cationic dyes, but suffer from poorer lightfastness, especially in light shades, than do comparable shades dyed on acid dyeable nylon using monosulfonated or premetallized acid dyes. This has resulted in the under-utilization of cationic dyeable nylon as a carpet fiber. The fiber's inherently useful properties which otherwise make it attractive as a carpet fiber previously have not been fully realized.
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Computing technologies have changed the way people and businesses accomplish various tasks. For example, rather than visiting a bank to withdraw funds, people now frequently go to automated teller machines (ATMs) to withdraw cash, particularly during evening or nighttime hours.
Hardware and software supporting ATMs (or computing platforms, more generally) tend to become inoperative over time. This inoperability may be the result of breakage/wear-and-tear, functional design limitations that only demonstrate themselves once a computing application has been implemented in the field, advances in technology that render the computing application (or product components thereof) obsolete, reduction or loss of vendor support and maintenance.
Classifications of “declining” and “not-permitted” (DNP) risk assessments are commonly used for purposes of forecasting risk of aging hardware and software products. Current methods and techniques for assessing DNP risk: (1) fail to account for applications that have multiple aging products, (2) take merely not-permitted classifications into account, and (3) fail to incorporate aging hardware risks.
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This invention relates to a dielectric material useful in plasma display panels (PDPs) and, in particular, to a dielectric composition used for forming a light transparent dielectric layer on a front glass plate of a high strain point in PDPs.
A plasma display panel is known as a self-luminescent type flat display having excellent properties of such as a small weight, a thin type etc. and draws considerable attention because of its possibility of a large screen face.
Generally speaking, a PDP has a front glass plate on which a plurality of electrodes are disposed for generating plasma discharge by cooperation with electrodes deposited on a rear glass plate confronting the front glass plate with a gap therebetween. A light transparent dielectric layer is formed with a thickness of about 30–40 micrometers on the glass plate to cover the electrodes so as to maintain the plasma discharge generated.
Usually, the front glass plate is made of soda-lime glass or other high strain point glass and Ag is used for the electrodes, while the light transparent dielectric layer is formed from dielectric material comprising low fusion point glass powder, for example, high Pb-content glass powder.
When forming the light transparent dielectric layer, the dielectric material is fired or baked at the softening point of the low-fusion point glass powder so as to avoid the reaction with metal of the electrodes.
However, the conventional dielectric material has a problem that the glass powder and the Ag electrodes react with each other to make the dielectric layer color (change to yellow).
Further, it is important as known in the art that the dielectric material has various properties such as (1) thermal expansion coefficient compatible with glass plate, (2) firing temperature at 500–600° C., (3) excellent defoamability in firing to produce the dielectric layer of high light transmittance and high withstand voltage with a reduced amount of bubbles.
JP-A 11-21148 discloses a dielectric material using a glass powder of PbO—B2O3—SiO2—BaO glass which has the thermal expansion coefficient compatible with that of the high strain point glass plate. The PbO—B2O3—SiO2—BaO glass is rapid in viscosity change across the softening point and is, therefore, readily defoamed.
Although the dielectric material using PbO—B2O3—SiO2—BaO glass powder can provide a dielectric layer having a high light transmittance because of its excellent defoamability, it has a problem that the produced dielectric layer has residual large bubbles having diameters of 30 μm (micrometers) or more.
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In the projector for projecting an image, there are proposed various types of projectors provided with a function (an automatic adjustment function) of detecting installation conditions (e.g., a distance from a screen, the tilt of the projector), and performing a focus adjustment and an adjustment of projection conditions such as keystone distortion correction in accordance with the result of the detection. In such a projector as described above it is arranged that the automatic adjustment function starts when the user performs a predetermined operation.
In contrast, the projector described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-133118 is provided with a motion detection sensor for detecting whether the projector is in a moving state or in a resting state, and is arranged so that the autofocus function automatically starts when the operation of adjusting the position of the projector, for example, is completed and the projector becomes in a resting state. In other words, according to the projector described in the document mentioned above, since it is not required to perform the operation for activating the autofocus function, convenience of the users is enhanced.
However, projectors contain elements generating vibrations such as cooling fans or speakers inside, and the vibration varies in accordance with, for example, the rotational speed of the fan or the volume of a sound produced by the speaker. Therefore, depending on the operation state of the fan or the speaker, the vibration thus generated might have influence on the determination between the moving state and the resting state, and might incur false detection.
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While human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, which results in AIDS, is a relatively new infection in the human population, it has quickly risen to the foremost health problem in the world. HIV/AIDS is now the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa, and is the fourth biggest killer worldwide. At the end of 2001, it was estimated that 40 million people were living with HIV infection world wide. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that nearly 800,000 people are living with AIDS in the US, and 40,000 new cases diagnosed each year. While better treatment methods are now known to prolong the life of patients with HIV infection, there is still no cure.
Modern anti-HIV drugs target several different stages of the HIV life cycle, and several of the enzymes that HIV requires to replicate and survive. Some of the commonly used anti-HIV drugs include nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors such as AZT, ddI, ddC, d4T, 3TC, and abacavir; nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors such as tenofovir; non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors such as nevirapine, efavirenz and delavirdine; protease inhibitors such as saquinavir, ritonavir, indinavir, nelfinavir, amprinavir, lopinavir and atazanavir; and fusion inhibitors such as enfuvirtide. However, in many HIV infected patients, none of these antiviral drugs, alone or in combination, is effective to prevent the progression of chronic infection or treat acute AIDS. The high mutation rate of the HIV virus and associated emergence of HIV strains resistant to drugs is one large factor that results in the inability to effectively treat HIV infection. New and better treatments are required for HIV infection.
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The sport of golf has grown dramatically over the years in popularity, public interest, and commercial interest. Also, various golf training aids and practice systems have been developed for improving various golfer skills associated with playing golf. Some of these training aids include golf shot alignment systems which emit a laser beam from the face of the club for aligning a golf clubface with a target and for assisting with the direction of the swing toward the target. Examples of such systems can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,283 by Wall titled "Golf Club," U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,812 by Hendricksen titled "Golf Club With Laser Alignment System," and U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,034 by Nelson titled "Laser Beam Golf Swing Training Device." These systems, however, are embedded in special club which can be expensive and difficult to manufacture. These systems also focus on aligning a club with a target and fail to assist or train a golfer in developing an effective and proper putting stroke.
Golf club aiming systems have also been developed which attach to golfer selected golf clubs. Examples of such systems can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,429 by Walmsley et al. titled "Club Aiming Unit," U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,034 by Nelson titled "Laser Beam Golf Swing Training Device," and U.S. Pat. No. 3,070,373 by Mathews et al. titled "Visual Type Swing Indicator Attachment For Golf Clubs." These golf club aiming systems, however, fail to assist a putter in accomplishing various training exercises which enable a putter to be more effective. Instead, these prior systems focus on only one or two exercises in assisting golfer with aligning shots.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power divider gearbox including a planetary differential gear drive, comprising dual planetary gears which mesh with two sun gears having different diameters and with an internal ring gear, wherein the planetary differential gear drive divides the incoming power input transmitted to the power divider gearbox through an input shaft into a mechanical branch and into a hydraulic branch (displacement machine) and in which the last-mentioned branch is connected to the internal ring gear of the planetary differential gear drive.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
A power divider gearbox of the type discussed has already been disclosed in the eariler German Patent Application No. P 29 04 572.5-12. The foregoing solves the task of eliminating the last power circulating within the gearbox and of holding the hydrostatic power component to a minimum relative to the total power transmitted. In order to attain this task, in the gearbox or drive as previously mentioned there is employed a switching or clutch coupling, by means of which through mechanical shifting there can be set a first and a second shift operating mode of the gearbox or drive.
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This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application P2002-100,130, filed on Apr. 2, 2002, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for generating blue laser beam having a wavelength of 457 nm with a high efficiency.
2. Related Art Statement
In the field of optical information processing, it has been demanded a blue laser oscillator capable of oscillating blue laser beam having a wavelength of about 400 to 430 nm at a power of not lower than 80 mW for realizing high density optical recording. Suppliers have been competed for supplying such device in a market. As such a light source for generating blue laser beam, it has been expected an optical waveguide-type device for converting wavelength having a laser beam source oscillating red light as fundamental wave and a second order harmonic wave generator of quasi-phase matching system.
In particular, blue laser beam having a wavelength of about 457 nm has been strongly demanded for various applications including blue light source of RGB (three primary colors) system, print laboratory, projector or the like. An output of not lower than 200 mW has been demanded depending on the application.
Japanese patent publication 293,268A discloses a system for oscillating blue laser beam having a wavelength of 460 nm. In the system, Nd-YAG laser beam with a wavelength of 1064 nm is used for oscillating second harmonic wave with a wavelength of 532 nm. Infrared light of 3.3 micrometer is oscillated by means of parametric oscillation of the light with a wavelength of 1064 nm. The light of 460 nm is oscillated as sum frequency of the light of 532 nm and infrared light of 3.3 micrometer. This system needs three devices each for converting wavelength The total conversion rate is low and unpractical.
Japanese patent number 3,260,457 discloses a system for oscillating blue laser beam. In the system, excitation light having a wavelength of 809 nm is irradiated onto Nd-doped YAG crystal to oscillate laser beam having a wavelength of 946 nm. The laser beam of 946 nm is then irradiated to a second harmonic wave generator provided in an MgOxe2x80x94LN substrate installed in a resonator so that the wavelength of the laser beam is converted to 473 nm. 10 mW of the laser beam with a wavelength of 473 nm is obtained when an output of the laser beam of 946 nm is 200 mW so that a total efficiency of light-light conversion is 5 percent.
According to Japanese patent publication 6-194,706A, a semiconductor laser device outputs laser beam having a wavelength of 880 nm. The laser beam is irradiated onto a second harmonic wave generator of proton exchange optical waveguide type formed in an MgOxe2x80x94LN substrate to obtain laser beam of a wavelength of 440 nm. A power of 12 mW is attained when the power of the semiconductor laser is 100 mW.
In Japanese patent publications 5-11289A and 5-90687A, it is briefly described that a laser device may be fabricated using Nd:YVO4 and KNbO3 for oscillating laser having a wavelength of 457 nm. No experimental evidence is presented.
Similar description is found in Japanese patent publication 5-248659A. Moreover, it is briefly described that sum frequency of semiconductor laser beam having a wavelength of 809 nm and Nd:YVO4 laser beam having a wavelength of 1064 nm is generated using KTP crystal. No numerical description is found.
Japanese patent publication 9-502054A disclosed laser device generating laser having a wavelength of 457 nm or 456 nm. This device utilizes Nd:YVO4 or Nd:GdVO4 crystal and KNbO3 or BBO crystal for generating second harmonic wave. This device is a kind of internal resonator type having a wavelength converting device installed in a resonator for laser oscillation, and its structure is thus substantially different from that of the present invention. The output and efficiency are not described.
As described above, it has not been presented an example successfully oscillating blue laser beam having a wavelength of about 457 nm at a high efficiency and power.
Laser oscillation based on 4F3/2-4I9/2 transition of Nd doped YVO4 crystal is described in (OPTICS LETTERS) Vol. 25, No. 01, (2000) January, pages 34 to 36. That is, excitation light having a wavelength of 808 nm is irradiated onto Nd-doped YVO4 crystal to oscillate laser beam having a wavelength of about 914 nm.
The inventors have studied to utilize such laser beam having a wavelength of about 914 nm to oscillate second harmonic wave, that is, blue light having a wavelength of 457 nm. The threshold for oscillation of laser beam having a wavelength of 914 nm is as high as about 3.5 W according to the publication. The slope efficiency is low and heat generation is considerable. It is thus difficult to obtain a device for oscillating blue light beam with a low driving voltage due to the high threshold of laser oscillation. It is also difficult to obtain a practical device for oscillating blue light due to the low slope efficiency and generation of a large heat.
An object of the present invention is to provide a practical device for oscillating blue laser beam having a wavelength of about 457 nm.
The present invention provides a device for oscillating blue laser beam having a solid laser oscillator composed of Nd-doped YVO4 crystal and having a length of not smaller than 0.1 mm and not larger than 1.0 mm, a reflecting means provided in the solid laser oscillator, an illuminating means for illuminating excitation light beam to the solid laser oscillator, and a waveguide-type device for generating harmonic wave. The solid laser oscillator and reflecting means constitute a resonator. The waveguide-type device is provided outside of the resonator. The solid laser oscillator oscillates laser beam having a wavelength of 914xc2x11 nm and the waveguide-type device oscillates blue laser having a wavelength of 457xc2x11 nm.
The present invention further provides a method of oscillating blue laser beam, using a solid laser oscillator composed of Nd-doped YVO4 crystal and having a length of not smaller than 0.1 mm and not larger than 1.0 mm, a reflecting means provided in the solid laser oscillator, and a waveguide-type device for generating harmonic wave. The solid laser oscillator and the reflecting means constitute a resonator. The waveguide-type device is provided outside of the resonator. The excitation light beam is irradiated to the solid laser oscillator so that the oscillator oscillates laser beam having a wavelength of 914xc2x11 nm and the waveguide type device oscillates blue laser having a wavelength of 457xc2x11 nm.
The inventors have successfully provided a device for oscillating blue laser beam having a wavelength of 457xc2x11 nm by means of the structure described above and thus successfully provided a practical device for oscillating blue laser beam.
The blue laser beam having a wavelength of 457 nm is suitable for a blue light source for use in RGB (three primary colors) system. A blue light source having a low oscillation threshold and heat generation has been strongly demanded. The present invention provides a substantial progress in this field.
The present invention will be further described below. FIG. 1 is a view schematically showing major states in Nd-doped YVO4 crystal. When excitation light beam of 808 nm is irradiated onto and absorbed into Nd-doped YVO4 crystal, electrons in the crystal are excited from ground state to 4F5/2 state. After the excited electrons are then relaxed from 4F5/2 state shown as xe2x80x9cPxe2x80x9d, transition of the electrons occur from 4F3/2 state to 4I11/2 or 4I9/2 state. Photons are generated during the transition. Light having a wavelength of 914 nm is oscillated based on the transition of 4F3/2 to 4I9/2 states, and light having a wavelength of 1064 am is oscillated based on the transition from 4F3/2 to 4I11/2 states.
According to ┌OPTICS LETTERS┘ Vol. 25, No. 01, (2000) January, pages 34 to 36, excitation light with a wavelength of 808 nm is irradiated onto Nd-doped YVO4 crystal to oscillate light with a wavelength of 914 nm.
The inventors have tried to illuminate excitation light with a wavelength of 880xc2x12 nm onto a laser oscillator composed of Nd-doped YVO4 crystal to excite electrons directly to 4F3/2 state. The subsequent transition of the excited electrons to 4I9/2 state results in oscillation of light with a wavelength of 914 nm. It is thus possible to reduce a threshold value of the oscillation of light with a wavelength of 914 nm and to improve the slope efficiency.
According to ┌APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS┘ Vol. 79, No. 5, (2001) July, pages 590 to 592, light with a wavelength of 885 nm is irradiated onto Nd-doped YAG ceramics to excite electrons. The transition of the excited electrons from 4F3/2 state to 4I11/2 state results in oscillation of laser beam with a wavelength of 1064 nm. It is not, however, described oscillation of laser beam resulting from the transition of electrons from 4F3/2 state to 4I9/2 state.
The effects, features and advantages of the invention will be appreciated upon reading the following description of the invention when taken in conjunction with the attached drawings, with the understanding that some modifications, variations and changes of the same could be made by the skilled person in the art.
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The present invention relates to an image recording unit which can pivot an image recording unit main body formed into, e.g., a spherical shape, in the direction of a photographing object like the behavior of an eyeball, and a camera having the image recording unit.
As a conventional mechanism for changing the photographing direction of a camera, a system in which a camera main body is attached onto a rotary base (panhead), and the rotary base is motor-driven has been proposed.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional mechanism for changing the photographing direction of the camera, a driving device for rotation is arranged outside the camera main body, resulting in a large structure. In this case, attainable size reduction of a device for fetching an image is limited. In particular, in order to assemble this device in a robot's eye (image input device), the conventional structure has a considerable limitation in size.
Noise upon driving is not small in the conventional mechanism since a device for rotation is arranged outside the camera main body in the conventional mechanism.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to semiconductor integrated circuit processes and the devices formed thereby. In particular, it relates to the capability of forming active devices e.g. transistors, in a suitable layer constituted of annealed polysilicon that has been formed on a silicon dioxide insulator.
2. Background Information
Although the development of integrated circuitry has proceeded chiefly on the basis of the availability of monocrystalline substrates, particularly of silicon, it has been recognized that a limitation exists with conventional techniques; namely, that only two-dimensional integrated circuits can be formed in such substrates or, as is mostly usually done, in epitaxial layers grown on such substrates.
Great interest has focused on polysilicon as providing an answer to the aforenoted limitation. Thus, because polysilicon supports further growth of silicon dioxide thereon, if the polysilicon can be suitably treated, such as by annealing to make the treated areas suitable for device construction, then entire circuits fabricated in such annealed polysilicon may be covered with oxide and successive layers of polysilicon can be built up to achieve further levels of circuitry.
The reason unannealed polysilicon is not suitable for device formation is that it is constituted of randomly oriented crystal grains on the order of 500 angstroms across and hence, carrier flow is impeded at each grain boundary with resulting low mobility which yields poor device characteristics.
In order that the present invention may be fully understood, reference may be made to certain background material, particularly to an article in Electronics for Nov. 22, 1979 in which at page 39 it is reported that devices have been formed which are said to have performance capabilities comparable to devices produced in silicon on sapphire (SOS), such devices being formed on easily grown silicon oxide. It is indicated in that article that isolation produced by the silicon oxide might be comparable with the excellent isolation already achieved by the use of sapphire substrates.
Whatever the merits and the possible advantages of the devices and of the technique described in the referenced articles, the building or fabrication of those reported devices begins with a single crystal P type silicon substrate. Accordingly, the starting point is with an expensive substrate.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to capitalize on the already known capability for forming active devices in polysilicon that has been formed on an insulator, but to do so utilizing a much less expensive substrate, namely silicon ribbons which are constituted of semicrystalline material grown according to already developed techniques. The techniques of their fabrication can be appreciated by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,075,055 and 4,116,641, assigned to the assignee of the present application.
Not only is a substantial cost reduction provided by the unique fabrication process of the present invention, involving the utilization of silicon ribbon as a substrate. Continuous processing capability is afforded because of the availability of extended ribbons. Moreover, such ribbons inherently have a unique defect structure which favors strain-induced recrystallization of the polysilicon layer deposited on the silicon oxide grown on the ribbon surfaces. As a result, larger grains are obtained than those realized prior to recrystallization. The same fundamental result is also achieved when single crystal substrates are employed--but of course at much greater cost and requiring techniques such as plasma etching for developing the needed uniform recrystallization.
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Synthetic antimicrobial agents such as nalidixic acid, piromidic acid, and the like are known as drugs for curing infectious diseases caused by Gram negative microorganisms. They exhibit, however, only deficient effects on intractable diseases such as pseudomoniasis and the like. On the other hand, antimicrobial agents with a stronger antimicrobial activity, such as norfloxacin, ofloxacin, and the like, have been developed and clinically used.
In order for an antimicrobial agent to effectively exhibit its action, the agent must have a strong antimicrobial activity and must be efficiently utilized. The above-mentioned conventional synthetic antimicrobial agents had a defect in that they are insufficiently absorbed, thus achieving only low utilization by living bodies.
In view of such a situation, the present inventors have synthesized a number of quinolone carboxylic acid derivatives and studied their antimicrobial activity and absorption efficiency by living bodies, and found that quinolone carboxylic acid derivatives of the following formula (I) and their salts exhibited excellent antimicrobial activities and superior absorptivity. Such a finding has led to the completion of the present invention.
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Firearms, including rifles, shot guns and handguns, are often stored and displayed on a rack. In some cases, the rack is included as part of a gun storage cabinet. In other cases, the rack is attached directly to a wall or other vertical support surface. Guns are expensive and, of course, can be dangerous when used improperly. Therefore, it is advisable that guns be secured, when not in use, against theft and removal by unauthorized persons, such as children.
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This invention is in the field of architecture of portable computers, and pertains in particular to apparatus and methods of interfacing removable physical displays to portable computers.
The marketplace for portable computers, such as notebook and laptop computers, is one of the faster growing sectors of the computer industry. There are many challenges in developing and designing computers of this sort, many of which are a result of need for light weight, strength, and longevity of portable power sources.
Another area of innovation in the development of portable computers is driven by the facts of use of portable computers as compared to stationary models. Portable computers have to operate under a variety of conditions. For example, while a stationary model, such as a desktop computer, is typically used at a single location under relatively constant lighting conditions, a portable computer must be usable under a variety of lighting conditions in both indoor and outdoor situations. In some situations it is even preferable to have a display that is usable in bright sunlight.
There are several different types of computer displays, and many new types being developed, all of which are what are called in the art xe2x80x9cflat panelxe2x80x9d displays. Flat panel displays are necessary, because the well-known CRT displays are much too bulky and vulnerable to be used extensively for portable applications.
Among the many different types are Transflective displays, which have low back light and low power consumption; standard monochrome paper-white displays, which are back-lit and exhibit moderate power consumption; and passive color displays, also known as super-twist nematic (STN), which have very good visibility and color, but exhibit higher power consumption.
There are seen to be, then, many issues one must consider when choosing a display, such as visibility under different ambient conditions, color availability and range, power consumption, and more. And in the current state-of-the-art, choosing the display is akin to choosing the computer, because most computers are not provided with a range of choices in display.
What is clearly needed is a portable computer with a physical interface for attaching and detaching a display panel, and a means of recognizing on power-up the specific display attached.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention a computer system is provided having a body structure that houses and supports computing elements, memory elements and input elements. The display for the system is provided as a removable flat panel display module which has physical and electrical joining elements for attaching to the body structure of the computer. The attachment is made to a mounting structure that is hinged to the body structure along a pivot axis, and the mounting structure has corresponding physical and electrical joining elements to engage those provided on the display module. The physical and electrical joining elements are aligned to join and disjoin by motion in the direction of the pivot axis, which provides for secure attachment in the event a user lifts the computer by the display module.
In a preferred embodiment the physical mating elements comprise engaging rails with an engaging direction parallel to the pivot axis of the mounting structure, and a snap-in structure having a matching slot and a disengagement pushbutton comprising a releasable detent mechanism. The electrical connection is made in this preferred embodiment by a multi-pin connector engaging and disengaging in the same direction as the engagement rails.
Also in a preferred embodiment, modular displays for use with a computer configured to accept them have a code stored in a memory device, such as an EEPROM, for identifying the type of display, which is accessed by the computer memory and matched with a compatible display driver routine for operating the display, which the computer then uses. Newly developed displays may then be used with computers previously manufactured and sold, by updating the computer BIOS and providing suitable drive routines for such newly developed displays.
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This invention concerns grinding machines and in particular a mechanism for controlling wheel infeed in dependence on angular orientation between work spindle and wheel spindle axes.
The angular relationship between two such spindles can be affected by forces produced by grinding, particularly during face grinding, and this can introduce inaccuracies in the grinding process.
In JP-A-63191559 there is disclosed a grinding machine in which a grinding wheel is mounted on a spindle which is also pivotally mounted perpendicular to its axis. A detector measures any deflection of the spindle and emits a control signal for correcting such deflection via a piezoelectric element.
U.S. Pat. No. 5573443 discloses a tool spindle arrangement for a grinding process in which the inclination of a ground workpiece is measured by a device, and the angle of the spindle axis is adjusted in response to a signal from the device.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a means to control precisely the angular orientation between two such spindle axes, so as to set and maintain the desired angular relationship between the two spindles and thereby increase the accuracy of the subsequent grinding process.
According to the present invention there is provided a grinding machine comprising a workpiece spindle, a grinding wheel spindle, first mounting means for mounting one of the spindles for pivotal movement about a first axis which is perpendicular to the rotational axis of said one spindle, a first servo motor operable to position said one spindle about the first axis, characterised by sensors capable measuring distance which enable the position of said one spindle to be accurately determined relative to the other spindle by generating control signals for controlling the first servo motor.
Advantageously the machine may further comprise second mounting means for mounting either one of the spindles for pivotal movement about a second axis which is orthogonal to the first axis, and a second servo motor operable to position said either one of the spindles about the second axis, said sensors likewise controlling the second servo motor.
The second mounting means and the second servo motor may then be provided on the other spindle.
Preferably displacement sensors are employed.
Preferably the information obtained from the sensors is such as to allow the angle between the two spindles to be accurately determined.
The sensors may be positioned at three discrete points with respect to the spindles.
The measurements at the three discrete points are preferably made continuously; alternatively they may be made on a repetitive basis.
Measurements may be made at more than three positions.
It is possible to use relative changes in the measurements to calculate a change in angle between the two spindles and thereby allow the control signals to be computed for adjusting one or both of the servo motors to compensate for the movement which has been detected and reposition the spindle axis so as to maintain the desired relationship between the two spindle axes.
Angular movement of either spindle about its axis can be used to derive the change in linear distance between the two spindles resulting from the angular movement, and wheel feed control signals can be adjusted or corrected to compensate for any noted linear movement between the two spindles so as thereby to control precisely the infeed position between wheel spindle and work spindle.
In one arrangement each spindle assembly is supported in trunnion bearings mounted within a support so as to be pivotable about one of the said two orthogonal axes.
In an alternative arrangement each spindle assembly is supported by flexures which respectively define one of the two orthogonal axes about which the spindles pivot.
One of the orthogonal pivoting axes may be vertical and the other horizontal.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a face grinding machine in which a grinding spindle and a workpiece spindle are carried by respective housings, the workpiece and wheel spindle axes being parallel, characterised in that three probes are mounted for determining the distance between the two housings, each probe having associated therewith a sensor for generating a signal indicative of the distance between the two housings at the positions of the probes, and further comprising a servo motor responsive to the signals generated by the sensors for positioning one spindle relative to the other spindle.
Distance proportional signals may be digitised and the resulting digital signals are supplied to digital computing means programmed to compute from the digital signals the relative angular movement if any, between the two spindles as indicated by the signals from the probes, and to generate control signals for adjusting the servo motor associated with one or both of the two spindles to correct for any angular displacement detected, and further programmed to compute from the digital information from the sensors and/or from the control signals derived there from for controlling the servo motor or motors, correcting signals for adjustment of the wheelfeed control signals for adjusting the indeed position between wheel spindle and work spindle to compensate for any shift in the relative position of the two spindles.
The signals from the sensors need not necessarily be digital, and could instead be analogue signals, with appropriate gain modifiers.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for producing single wall carbon nanotubes, also known as linear fullerenes, employing unsupported metal containing catalysts, for decomposition of a C1 to C6 carbon feedstock such as carbon monoxide.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes, or fibrils, are well-known. Typically, carbon fibrils have a core region comprising a series of graphitic layers of carbon.
Since the 1970""s, carbon nanotubes and fibrils have been identified as materials of interest for a variety of applications. Submicron graphitic fibrils belong to a class of materials sometimes called vapor grown carbon fibers. Carbon fibrils are vermicular carbon deposits having diameters less than approximately 1.0 xcexc. They exist in a variety of forms and have been prepared through the catalytic decomposition of various carbon-containing gases at metal surfaces. Such vermicular carbon deposits have been observed almost since the advent of electron microscopy. A good early survey and reference is found in Baker and Harris, Chemistry and Physics of Carbon, Walker and Thrower ed., Vol. 14, 1978, p. 83, and in Rodriguez, N., J. Mater. Research, Vol. 8, p. 3233 (1993).
Carbon fibrils were seen to originate from a metal catalyst particle which, in the presence of a hydrocarbon containing gas, became supersaturated in carbon. A cylindrical ordered graphitic core is extruded which immediately became coated with an outer layer of pyrolytically deposited graphite. These fibrils with a pyrolytic overcoat typically have diameters in excess of 0.1 xcexc. (Oberlin, A. and Endo, M., J. Crystal Growth, 32:335-349 (1976)).
Tibbetts has described the formation of straight carbon fibers through pyrolysis of natural gas at temperatures of 950xc2x0-1075xc2x0 C., Appl. Phys. Lett. 42(8):666(18 983). The fibers are if reported to grow in two stages where the fibers first lengthen catalytically and then thicken by pyrolytic deposition of carbon. Tibbetts reports that these stages are xe2x80x9coverlappingxe2x80x9d, and is unable to grow filaments free of pyrolytically deposited carbon. In addition, Tibbett""s approach is commercially impracticable for at least two reasons. First, initiation of fiber growth occurs only after slow carbonization of the steel tube (typically about ten hours), leading to a low overall rate of fiber production. Second, the reaction tube is consumed in the fiber forming process, making commercial scale-up difficult and expensive.
In 1983, Tennent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,230 succeeded in growing cylindrical ordered graphite cores, uncontaminated with pyrolytic carbon, resulting in smaller diameter fibrils, typically 35 to 700 xc3x85 (0.0035 to 0.070 xcexc), and an ordered xe2x80x9cas grownxe2x80x9d graphitic surface. Tennent ""230 describes carbon fibrils free of a continuous thermal carbon overcoat and having multiple graphitic outer layers that are substantially parallel to the fibril axis. They may be characterized as having their c-axes, (the axes which are perpendicular to the tangents of the curved layers of graphite) substantially perpendicular to their cylindrical axes, and having diameters no greater than 0.1 xcexc and length to diameter ratios of at least 5.
Tennent, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,560 describes carbon fibrils free of thermal overcoat and having graphitic layers substantially parallel to the fibril axes such that the projection of said layers on said fibril axes extends for a distance of at least two fibril diameters. Typically, such fibrils are substantially cylindrical, graphitic nanotubes of substantially constant diameter and comprise cylindrical graphitic sheets whose c-axes are substantially perpendicular to their cylindrical axis. They are substantially free of pyrolytically deposited carbon, have a diameter less than 0.1 xcexc and a length to diameter ratio of greater than 5.
Moy et al., U.S. Ser. No. 07/887,307 filed May 22, 1992, describes fibrils prepared as aggregates having various macroscopic morphologies (as determined by scanning electron microscopy) including morphologies resembling bird nests (xe2x80x9cBNxe2x80x9d), combed yarn (xe2x80x9cCYxe2x80x9d) or xe2x80x9copen netxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cONxe2x80x9d) structures.
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes of a morphology similar to the catalytic grown fibrils described above have been grown in a high temperature carbon arc (Iijima, Nature 354:56 1991). (Iijima also describes in a later publication arc-grown single-walled nanotubes having only a single layer of carbon arranged in the form of linear Fullerene.) It is now generally accepted (Weaver, Science 265: 1994) that these arc-grown nanofibers have the same morphology as the earlier catalytically grown fibrils of Tennet.
As mentioned above, the Iijima method partially results in single-walled nanotubes, i.e., nanotubes having only a single layer of carbon arranged in the form of a linear Fullerene.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,054 to Bethune et al. describes a process for producing single-walled carbon nanotubes by contacting carbon vapor with cobalt catalyst. The carbon vapor is produced by electric arc heating of solid carbon, which can be amorphous carbon, graphite, activated or decolorizing carbon or mixtures thereof. Other techniques of carbon heating are discussed, for instance laser heating, electron beam heating and RF induction heating.
Smalley (Guo, T., Nikoleev, P., Thess, A., Colbert, D. T., and Smally, R. E., Chem. Phys. Lett. 243: 1-12 (1995)) describes a method of producing single-walled carbon nanotubes wherein graphite rods and a transition metal are simultaneously vaporized by a high-temperature laser.
Smalley (Thess, A., Lee, R., Nikolaev, P. Dai, H, Petit, P., Robert, J., Xu, C., Lee, Y. H., Kim, S. G. Rinzler, A. G., Colbert, D. T., Scuseria, G. E., Tonàrek, D., Fischer, J. E., and Smalley, R. E., Science 273: 483-487 (1996)) also describes a process for production of single-waved carbon nanotubes in which a graphite rod containing a small amount of transition metal is laser vaporized in an oven at about 1200xc2x0 C. Single-wall nanotubes were reported to be produced in yields of more than 70%.
Each of the techniques described above employs solid carbon as the carbon feedstock. These techniques are inherently disadvantages. Specifically, solid carbon vaporization via electric arc or laser apparatus is costly and difficult to operate on the commercial or industrial scale.
Supported metal catalysts for formation of SWNT are also known. Smalley (Dai., H., Rinzler, A. G., Nikolaev, P., Thess, A., Colbert, D. T., and Smalley, R. E., Chem. Phys. Lett. 260: 471-475 (1996)) describes supported Co, Ni and Mo catalysts for growth of both multi-walled nanotubes and single-walled nanotubes from CO, and a proposed mechanism for their formation.
However, supported metal catalysts are inherently disadvantageous, as the support is necessarily incorporated into the single-walled carbon nanotube formed therefrom. Single-walled nanotubes contaminated with the support material are obviously less desirable compared to single-walled nanotubes not having such contamination.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a method of producing single-walled carbon nanotubes which employs a gaseous carbon feedstock.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method of producing single-walled carbon nanotubes which employs a gas phase, metal containing compound which forms a metal containing catalyst.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a method of producing single-walled carbon nanotubes which employs an unsupported catalyst.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a method of producing single-walled carbon nanotubes which employs a gaseous carbon feedstock and an unsupported gas phase metal containing compound which forms a metal containing catalyst.
The invention relates to a gas phase reaction in which a gas phase metal containing compound is introduced into a reaction mixture also containing a gaseous carbon source. The carbon source is typically a C1 through C6 compound having as hetero atoms H, O, N, S or Cl, optionally mixed with hydrogen. Carbon monoxide or carbon monoxide and hydrogen is a preferred carbon feedstock.
Increased reaction zone temperatures of approximately 400xc2x0 C. to 1300xc2x0 C. and pressures of between xe2x88x920 and xe2x88x92100 p.s.i.g., are believed to cause decomposition of the gas phase metal containing compound to a metal containing catalyst. Decomposition may be to the atomic metal or to a partially decomposed intermediate species. The metal containing catalysts (1) catalyze CO decomposition and (2) catalyze SWNT formation. Thus, the invention also relates to forming SWNT via catalytic decomposition of a carbon compound.
The invention may in some embodiments employ an aerosol technique in which aerosols of metal containing catalysts are introduced into the reaction mixture. An advantage of an aerosol method for producing SWNT is that it will be possible to produce catalyst particles of uniform size and scale such a method for efficient and continuous commercial or industrial production. The previously discussed electric arc discharge and laser deposition methods cannot economically be scaled up for such commercial or industrial production.
Examples of metal containing compounds useful in the invention include metal carbonyls, metal acetyl acetonates, and other materials which under decomposition conditions can be introduced as a vapor which decomposes to form an unsupported metal catalyst.
Catalytically active metals include Fe, Co, Mn, Ni and Mo. Molybdenum carbonyls and Iron carbonyls are the preferred metal containing compounds which can be decomposed under reaction conditions to form vapor phase catalyst. Solid forms of these metal carbonyls may be delivered to a pretreatment zone where they are vaporized, thereby becoming the vapor phase precursor of the catalyst.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to zoom lens systems, imaging devices, and cameras. In particular, the present invention relates to: compact zoom lens systems each having a wide view angle at a wide-angle limit and a high zooming ratio, being capable of rapid focusing, and realizing high optical performance particularly in a close-object in-focus condition; imaging devices employing the zoom lens systems; and thin and compact cameras employing the imaging devices.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there has been great demand for size reduction and high performance of cameras each including an image sensor that performs light-to-electricity conversion, such as digital still cameras and digital video cameras (referred to simply as “digital cameras”, hereinafter).
As zoom lens systems to be used in the above-mentioned compact digital cameras, various zoom lenses each having a three-unit construction of negative, positive, and positive have been proposed, in which a first lens unit having negative optical power, a second lens unit having positive optical power, and a third lens unit having positive optical power are arranged in order from an object side to an image side.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-258067 discloses a zoom lens having the above-mentioned three-unit construction of negative, positive, and positive, in which each air space between the first to third lens units is varied to vary magnification, the interval between the first and second lens units is varied in zooming from a wide-angle limit to a telephoto limit to vary magnification, the first lens unit is composed of two lenses, the second lens unit is composed of three lenses, i.e., a positive lens, a negative lens, and a positive lens in order from the object side, and the third lens unit is composed of one lens.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publications Nos. 2009-251568 and 2009-092740 each disclose a zoom lens having the above-mentioned three-unit construction of negative, positive, and positive, in which each air space between the first to third lens units is varied to vary magnification, the interval between the first and second lens units is varied in zooming from a wide-angle limit to a telephoto limit to vary magnification, the first lens unit is composed of two lenses, the second lens unit is composed of one positive lens and two negative lenses, and the third lens unit is composed of one lens.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-128194 discloses a zoom lens having the above-mentioned three-unit construction of negative, positive, and positive, in which each air space between the first to third lens units is varied to vary magnification, the first lens unit is composed of two lenses, the second lens unit is composed of three lenses, i.e., a positive lens, a positive lens, and a negative lens in order from the object side, and the third lens unit is composed of one lens.
Each of the zoom lenses disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publications Nos. 2005-258067, 2009-251568, and 2005-128194 has a short overall length of lens system, and therefore, realizes a further reduction in the thickness of a compact type digital camera. However, each of the zoom lenses has a variable magnification ratio as small as approximately 3, and a view angle as small as approximately 66° at a wide-angle limit, and therefore, does not satisfy the requirements for digital cameras in recent years.
On the other hand, the zoom lens disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-092740 has a variable magnification ratio as great as approximately 4. However, the zoom lens has a long overall length of lens system, and a view angle as small as approximately 60° at a wide-angle limit, and therefore, does not satisfy the requirements for digital cameras in recent years.
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Health care professionals routinely perform various types of microbial tests on patients using parenterally-obtained patient bodily fluids. Contamination of parenterally-obtained bodily fluids by microbes may result in spurious microbial test results. Spurious microbial test results may be a concern, when attempting to diagnose or treat a suspected illness or condition. False positive results from microbial tests can cause a patient to be unnecessarily subjected to one or more anti-microbial therapies, such as anti-bacterial or anti-fungal therapies, which may cause anguish and inconvenience to the patient, as well as produce an unnecessary burden and expense to the health care system.
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Fiber reinforced materials, where the material is commonly a metal, provide a level of strength to a structure that otherwise cannot be attained with just the material itself. The fibers in the material increase the stiffness of the material such that for a given applied load, the material deflects less than an unreinforced material. In order to produce fiber reinforced materials, the fibers are typically bundled together in some fashion and form corresponding to the ultimate devised shape of the fiber reinforced material. Then the material must somehow be forced into the fiber bundle so it completely fills the interstices of the fiber bundle. This is normally accomplished by liquifying the material and then forcing it into the fiber bundle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,517 to Booth, et al. discloses an apparatus and method for forcing melted metal into a fiber bundle. It requires the apparatus wherein this method is performed to first be evacuated through a furnace thereof. Then melted metal is forced into a fiber bundle under pressure of gas pumped into the vessel. However, this technique requires, as do all other techniques heretofore known, that the chamber within which the production of the fiber reinforced material occurs be strong enough to withstand the necessary pressures so it does not explode apart either from the inside or the outside. Additionally, in the patent to Booth, the level of melted metal within the structure must be carefully controlled or cooling thereto causes it to solidify making the process useless.
An apparatus is disclosed by Masur, L. J., Mortensen, A., Cornie, J. A. and Flemings, M. C.; "Pressure Casting of Fiber-Reinforced Metals" Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Composite Materials ICCM-VI, F.L. Matthews, N.L.R. Bushell, and J. M. Hodginson, Eds. London, 1987, Elsevier Applied Science, pp. 2.320-2.329 wherein a furnace is disposed inside a pressure vessel and pressure alone is used to fill a fiber preform with melted material. However, since this apparatus is for the purpose of determining the pressure necessary to penetrate a fiber preform, usable products therefrom are questionable.
The present invention requires only that a pressure vessel be strong enough to withstand the necessary pressures inside the vessel. As a result, a mold chamber holding a fiber array mold inside the vessel is subject only to small pressure differences, thus allowing much thinner or low strength mold chamber structures. This enables the present invention to be easier to use and quicker to use and enables a more uniform heating of the mold chamber with a single furnace design. Moreover, the level of melted material is not of great concern as long as it fills the mold chamber since cooling of the melted material is actually used for the benefit of the process as opposed to a detriment of the process.
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Prostate cancer is a common public health problem. In 2010, this disease was diagnosed in an estimated 217,730 men (28% of all male cancers) and resulted in 32,050 deaths (11% of male cancer deaths) (Jemal et al., CA Cancer J Clin 59(4):225-49 (2009)). If left untreated, the majority of prostate cancers remain asymptomatic and indolent for decades (Klotz et al., Journal of Clinical Oncology (2010) 28:126-31). If treated with radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy, the risk of metastasis is reduced, but erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence and rectal bleeding may occur, affecting the patient's quality of life. Because it is currently difficult to determine accurately which patients will develop metastatic disease, physicians treat patients with mid-to-late stage local disease aggressively, even when such treatment may not be required. Clinical parameters, such as serum concentration of prostate specific antigen (PSA), extension beyond surgical margins, invasion of seminal vesicles, extension beyond the capsule, Gleason score, prostate weight, race and year of surgery, are employed in existing nomograms for prediction of local recurrences (Ohori et al., Mod Pathol 17(3): 349-359 (2004)), but local recurrence and, therefore, these parameters have limited utility for predicting progression of the disease to distant sites (Nakagawa et al., PLoS One 3(5):e2318 (2008)). Development of a robust risk model that accurately predicts the potential of a local prostate cancer to metastasize would justify aggressive treatment in high-risk cases and improve the quality of life for men with indolent disease.
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In order to achieve improved efficiency, a high turbine inlet temperature is used in standard gas turbines. As a result, there can arise relatively high NOx emission levels and relatively high life cycle costs. These can be mitigated with a sequential combustion cycle, wherein the compressor can deliver a relatively higher pressure ratio one. The main flow passes the first combustion chamber (for example, using a burner of the general type as disclosed in EP 1 257 809 or as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,861, also called an EV combustor, where the EV stands for environmental), wherein a part of the fuel is combusted. After expanding at the high-pressure turbine stage, the remaining fuel is added and combusted (for example, using a burner of the type as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,018 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,017 or in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0187448, also called SEV combustor, where the S stands for sequential). Both combustors contain premixing burners, as relatively low NOx emissions can require high mixing quality of the fuel and the oxidizer.
Because the second combustor is fed by expanded exhaust gas of the first combustor, the operating conditions can allow self ignition (spontaneous ignition) of the fuel air mixture without additional energy being supplied to the mixture. To prevent ignition of the fuel air mixture in the mixing region, the residence time therein should not exceed the auto ignition delay time. This can ensure flame-free zones inside the burner but poses challenges in obtaining appropriate distribution of the fuel across the burner exit area.
SEV-burners can be designed for operation on natural gas and oil only. Therefore, the momentum flux of the fuel can be adjusted relative to the momentum flux of the main flow so as to penetrate into the vortices. The subsequent mixing of the fuel and the oxidizer at the exit of the mixing zone can be just sufficient to allow relatively low NOx emissions (mixing quality) and avoid flashback (residence time), which can be caused by auto ignition of the fuel air mixture in the mixing zone. The cross flow injection used in the known SEV-fuel injection devices (SEV fuel lances) can necessitate high-pressure carrier air supply, which can reduce the overall efficiency of the power plant.
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As a method for image a spatial distribution of a gamma ray source, there is proposed a method of using a Compton camera (see, for example, Patent Document 1 below). The Compton camera has a wider imaging field of view and a wider detected energy band than positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), which are existing nuclear medicine technology. The Compton camera enables not only an improvement of the existing technology but also multiple molecular simultaneous imaging for imaging various types of radionuclides at the same time, which was conventionally difficult. This is a technology that enables non-invasive visualization of behaviors of a plurality of radioactive diagnostic pharmaceuticals and biofunctional molecules, so that biological functional information can be obtained at higher level than conventional techniques. Therefore, the Compton camera is expected to contribute to life science research, early diagnosis in clinical medicine, and the like.
A typical Compton camera includes two radiation detectors as a first-stage detector and a second-stage detector, which can measure interaction position and energy. An imaging device using the Compton camera focuses on a gamma ray detection phenomenon in which gamma rays from a gamma ray source are Compton scattered by the first-stage detector and then photoelectrically absorbed by the second-stage detector, and the imaging device images a spatial distribution of the gamma ray source based on interaction information of each detector and gamma rays (namely a detected position and detected energy of gamma rays in each detector).
As a method for imaging the spatial distribution of the gamma ray source, there is proposed an image reconstruction method based on a list-mode maximum-likelihood expectation-maximization (LM-ML-EM) method. This is a method that enables to determine the gamma ray source distribution so that an expected value of likelihood is maximized by iterative calculation even if it is difficult to determine the gamma ray source distribution in the space from measurement data of observed gamma rays by maximum likelihood estimation.
A three-dimensional image indicating the spatial distribution of the gamma ray source is referred to as a distribution image. In a typical image reconstruction method using the LM-ML-EM method, a pixel value λj of a pixel j in the distribution image is determined in accordance with the following equation (1) (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1 below). In the LM-ML-EM method, the pixel value is updated by the iterative calculation, so that the estimated distribution of the gamma ray source becomes close to a real distribution. Symbols λj(l) and λj(l+1) represent pixel values of the pixel j obtained by the iterative calculation at l-th time and (l+1)th time, respectively. Symbol sj represents a detection sensitivity parameter for a pixel j and is constituted of a geometrical efficiency of the first-stage detector viewed from the pixel j, and the like. Division by the detection sensitivity parameter sj means correction of the pixel value by taking the detection sensitivity into consideration. Meanings of other parameters in the equation (1) will be described later in detail.
[ Mathematical 1 ] λ j ( l + 1 ) = λ j ( l ) s j ∑ i Y i t ij ∑ k t ik λ k ( l ) ( 1 )
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The invention is in the field of electronic surveillance with particular applicability to sonar-radar installations.
In the prior art various schemes have been employed in sonar and radar apparatus for target tracking. In most sonar systems electro-mechanical apparatus has been employed for beam forming. For example one prior art target tracking arragement uses a servo-actuated beamformer to form two half-beams in identical directions. The outputs of the two half-beams are compared to determine if the target signals they contain coincide in time or if one signal is retarded in time with respect to the other. Usually the comparison of the half-beam outputs is accomplished by phase shift and cross-correlation techniques to develop a tracker error signal. The error signal indicates the magnitude and direction the two parallel half-beams must be moved in order to continually track the moving sonar target. Integrating circuits smooth the error signal to reduce random fluctuations in the indicated target direction. The random tracker error can be made arbitrarily small by making the smoothing time arbitrarily large, but this limits the rate at which the tracker can follow a moving target.
A disadvantage of prior art target tracking designs is that a separate electro-mechanical servo-actuated beamformer must be provided for every target that is tracked. The systems are not compatible with modern digital beamformers which form a large number of digital beams essentially simultaneously using time shared digial circuits.
Our invention overcomes these problems of the prior art by providing a target tracking system having means for digital generation of the tracker error signal and improved means for switching between half-beam pairs when the target moves in direction from one half-beam pair to an adjacent half-beam pair. Another object of our invention is to provide a hysteresis-like characteristic to prevent random switching between half-beam pairs when the target switches over. Another object of the invention is to obtain a better solution to the time quantization problem involved in target tracking by providing digital filter means for changing the time registration of one half-beam with respect to the other in very small increments.
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1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a coil component and more particularly to a miniature coil component formed by stacking of multiple coil layers.
2. Related Art
In today's electronics industry, electronic devices are getting more compact in size and delicate, while the functions of them are getting more powerful. Therefore, the electronic components inside an electronic device are also designed to be more delicate and compact. In various electronic components, the dimensions of a coil component are difficult to be reduced.
Take mini-sized motor as an example, a coil component is used as the motor stator. In the early stages of manufacturing, it is usually made by winding with enamel-insulated wires. The number of windings of the coil has to be increased in order for the coil to generate sufficient electromagnetic induction, as a result, the dimensions of the electronic components have to be increased as well.
In order to manufacture motors with smaller size, a stator coil composed of multilayered circuit boards is employed. In the application of a stator coil composed of multilayered circuit boards, the electrical connection among the circuit boards in multiple layers has to be taken into consideration, and therefore routing layers are included for connecting the circuit board to form circuit loops. However, the routing layers will result in an increased thickness for the mini-sized motor. If specific requirements of dimensions, such as requirement for miniaturization, have to be met, the number of circuit board layers has to be compromised and the density of the coil is therefore reduced. As a result, there will not be sufficient torque generated to drive the motor.
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Bottles, such as prescription or pill bottles, may have contents that are dangerous to children if ingested. Accordingly, bottles have been developed with child resistant features to prevent unintended access by a child to the dangerous contents. Known child-resistant cap or lid features include push-down-and-rotate lids, hard press-off lids, and squeezable tabs on a lid that must be squeezed to release the lid from the bottle. However, such child-resistant features may cause problems in some cases for adults accessing the contents of the bottle, particularly for elderly persons. For example, push-down-and-rotate features may be difficult for an elderly person to operate if they have arthritis or the lack of digital strength or dexterity. Hard press-off features may hurt or cause discomfort for someone's fingertips, or may cause the lid to fly off and fall to the floor. Squeezable tabs may be difficult to operate if the person does not have the digital strength or dexterity. For an example of a known child resistant cap assembly for a bottle, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 8,316,622 B2 to Jajoo et al., entitled “Child-Resistant Cap,” which is incorporated herein by reference.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a bottle that offers child-resistant safety features and yet also facilitates easy access to the bottle by adults to mitigate the problems noted above.
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The present invention relates to a foamable biocidal composition.
The chemical control of bacteria and viruses is assuming increasing importance in the hospital and medical environment. Outbreaks of infections such as Methyicylin resistant Staph Aureus are causing illness, death and even temporary closure of wards in some hospitals.
This situation has been exacerbated by the failure of many bacteria to respond to conventional antibiotics. Accordingly, the need for effective control of bacterial and virus organisms is assuming greatly increased significance.
In the case of hand and skin disinfection a biocidal agent needs to kill the widest possible range of microorganisms in the least possible time without toxicity, irritation or other hazard and having a long shelf life.
Typical of these biocides are chlorine, idophors and organic chemicals such as chlorhexidine which are commonly employed in hospitals and surgeries. The most widely accepted form of safe, effective biocide is a solution of chlorhexidine gluconate in aqueous ethanol. A full discussion of this product appears in the paper entitled "Detergents compared with each other and with antiseptics as skin `degerminating agents`" by H.A. Lily et al in Journal of Hygiene (U.K). Further technical disclosure of the product appears in Australian Patent Nos. 157,758 and 222,033. Conventionally, this chlorhexidine solution is commercially supplied in a pump pack or manufactured by the hospital pharmacist as required.
Unfortunately, however, in use known alcohol and chlorhexidine solutions have inherent difficulties including the following:
(1) Openable bottles of alcoholic chlorhexidine are subject to contamination both at the time of fitting the pump head and when the pump is being operated.
(2) The 6-70% aqueous ethanol system is highly flammable. Spillage from the plastic bottle or dispenser at any time could result in a fire.
(3) The mist as applied from pump dispensers is a highly flammable mist. This could be highly dangerous since it is being sprayed directly onto the skin.
(4) The spray mist does not confine itself to the target area, wastage occurs due to overspray.
(5) The alcoholic lotion as sprayed on the skin is difficult to control due to its low viscosity. It tends to run off the skin and evaporate rapidly before being evenly distributed.
(6) The shelf life of pump packs of a volatile fluid such as alcohol is restricted by the fact that the pack is not sealed perfectly and evaporation can occur over a period of time.
(7) The spray or lotion product is messy to use since once one hand has been sprayed it must become contaminated as the pack is held to spray the other hand.
Accordingly, chlorhexidine alcohol solutions must be formulated very carefully to optimize its biocidal performance.
A foamable composition using aqueous chlorhexidine solutions is disclosed in US Defensive publication T943,010. The composition generally utilizes chlorhexidene with more than 50% water at least 10% of ethoxylated alcohols surfactants with thickeners and propellants to form an aerosol foam similar to shaving cream foams.
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More specifically, the invention concerns a method in which plutonium is separated from uranium and fission products by using an organic solvent including at least one crown compound.
For several years, the most widely used technique for carrying out the reprocessing of irradiated nuclear fuels consists of dissolving the fuel in a nitric solution, of then placing the aqueous nitric solution obtained in contact with an organic solvent so as to extract from the latter uranium and plutonium and separate them from most of the fission products, of re-extracting the uranium and the plutonium in an aqueous phase and of separating the uranium and the plutonium present in this aqueous phase by using an organic solvent. The organic solvent used most frequently is tributyl phosphate.
Although this solvent provides extremely satisfactory results, it does have the drawback of having insufficient resistance to radiations as it deteriorates via radiolysis in certain products, such as dibutylphosphoric acid, which adversely affect extraction. Moreover, when uranium is separated from plutonium by using this solvent, it is necessary to firstly carry out a stage for reducing the plutonium so as to keep the latter in an aqueous solution and extract the uranium (VI) from the tributyl phosphate. This requires additional stages and the introduction of reducing agents and stabilizers which adversely affect the subsequent processing.
Also, a large number of tests has been conducted on other solvents able to be used so as to overcome these drawbacks.
From those solvents able to be used, crown compounds have been selected as being most suitable as they have an improved affinity for plutonium than tributyl phosphate, they make it possible to separate uranium from plutonium without it being necessary to reduce the plutonium, and also they are more resistant when subjected to irradiation than tributyl phosphate, this crown compound remaining unchanged after irradiation for 140 hrs at a dose rate of 120 krad/hr.
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The present invention generally relates to high-speed data communications. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method for combining a plurality of co-located physical layer transport links to form a virtual transport link that reuses standard asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) to physical layer interfaces (at both sides) while maintaining data sequence order.
With the advancement of technology, and the need for instantaneous information, the ability to transfer digital information from one computing device to another has become more and more important. Various line bonding techniques have been applied to provide bandwidth on demand, e.g., by applying multiple integrated services digital network (ISDN) connections in parallel and controlling the number of connections as a function of the expected load, to provide a better granularity between the T1 and T3 (or E1 and E3) standard telecommunication rates, and to provide more robust data transport systems by introducing redundancy.
Various line bonding techniques sometimes referred to as inverse multiplexing have been implemented. In bit level multiplexing, incoming data is stripped into individual bit streams. Each stripped bit stream is communicated individually across a physical transport link. At the receiving end of the link, framing is performed to realign the various stripped bit streams received on the various physical transport links into the original data stream. Bit level multiplexing is frequently performed through hardware implementations at the physical layer. As such, bit level multiplexing offers a great deal of flexibility in designing a multi-transport link. In addition, bit level multiplexing at the physical layer has the advantage of reducing data transfer latency when compared to multiplexing methods that operate at a protocol data unit (PDU) level. However, the flexibility of bit level multiplexing solutions requires the integration of hardware to identify, coordinate in time, and possibly error correct the various transmitted bit streams stripped from the original data stream. Bit level multiplexing solutions are difficult to implement when the various physical transport links operate at different bit rates. Still another drawback related to bit level multiplexing solutions is that they do not take advantage of the redundancy provided in the multiple physical transport links, if one link fails, every PDU is lost until an operable line bonding solution is configured. Because bit level multiplexing solutions are hardware solutions both the source and the destination devices must be configured with suitable hardware to strip and transmit a plurality of bit streams near a source computing device and receive and reassemble the transmitted bit streams near the destination computing device. The hardware intensive nature of bit level multiplexing solutions restricts such solutions to bandwidth on demand requests in proprietary intranets or between computing devices that use designated communication links that follow a particular bit sequencing standard to transfer information. As a result, bit level multiplexing solutions are not easily adaptable at the interface between an ATM layer device and a physical layer device.
Multi-link point to point protocol (PPP) is an Internet engineering task force (IETF) request for comments (RFC) communication standard that functions at a data packet level. Multi-link PPP inserts a sequence number to ensure that the virtual link preserves the original data packet sequence order at a destination-computing device. Multi-link PPP is a software solution that provides for the use of multiple simultaneous channels between systems, giving users bandwidth on demand. Multi-link PPP uses a combination of a four byte sequencing header with synchronization rules to split packets among parallel communication paths between systems such that the data packets do not become reordered at the destination device. Because multi-link PPP is a software solution both the source and the destination devices must be configured with a suitable processor and memory to store the necessary program code. This requirement limits multi-link PPP to the application of intersystem communication links as the additional hardware and firmware required to perform a multi-link PPP data transfer at an interface between an ATM layer device and a physical layer device makes such a transfer impractical as multi-link PPP is not directly suitable for ATM transport, even if ATM encapsulation in PPP could be envisaged.
Inverse multiplexing for ATM is an ATM forum standard defined for communication systems carrying ATM cells. The standard is quite complex and only applicable when the various transport links used in a transport bundle have nominally the same bit rate (e.g., all transport links are T1 links). Inverse multiplexing for ATM (IMA) is typically implemented by a mixture of hardware and software. IMA is complex both in defining the corresponding framing, typically performed in hardware, and in defining the control mechanism to establish and control bundles, usually performed in software.
In an IMA communication system, cell traffic is transported using a time division multiplexing technique over several channels (typically T1 or E1 data links). In a cell based IMA system, these ATM cells or payload cells are sent on each channel in a round-robin fashion using an identical period for each of the transport links. The IMA communication system relies on synchronized system clocks to inverse multiplex and reassembles data packets in the correct order.
For transmission of data beyond a local area, communication is typically achieved by transmitting data from source to destination computing devices through a network of intermediate switching nodes. These nodes are not concerned with the content of the data. Rather, their purpose is to provide a switching facility that will transport the data from node to node until the data reaches its target destination (e.g., a computing device). FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art communication system 1 that uses a plurality of ATM switching nodes to transfer data to and from a plurality of computing devices. More specifically, the communication system 1 comprises computing devices 15a-15d, herein labeled, xe2x80x9cA, B, C, Dxe2x80x9d in communication with each other via communication links 11 and an ATM switching network 10. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the ATM switching network 10 comprises a first ATM node 13a in communication with a second ATM node 13b via a plurality of links 16. As indicated above, these links 16 may comprise a plurality of standard T1, T3, E1, E3, or other data communication links with the same bit rate. The first ATM node 13a may comprise a first ATM switch 12a and a first ATM inverse multiplexer (AIM) 14a. The second ATM node 13b may comprise a second AIM 14b coupled to a second ATM switch 12b. As also illustrated in FIG. 1, the second ATM switch 12b of the second ATM node 13b may be in communication with computing devices 15c, 15d, xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d, via designated data communication links 11.
In a well known manner, a cell stream originating at computing device 15b (B) and having cell headers that designate computing device 15d (D) as their destination, may be transmitted along communication link 11 to the first ATM switch 12a within the first ATM node 13a of the ATM switching network 10. The first ATM switch 12a uses information in the cell header of each of the cells comprising the cell stream to identify an appropriate destination ATM switch 12b. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that an ATM switch 12a may be in communication with a plurality of remotely located ATM switches 12 via a plurality of designated AIM devices 14 and links 16. For simplicity of illustration and description, only two ATM switches 12a, 12b are illustrated in the ATM switching network 10 of FIG. 1. In the exemplary communication system illustrated in FIG. 1, the source ATM node 13a is communicatively coupled with the destination ATM node 13b via a plurality of links 16. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that ATM cells may traverse a plurality of interconnected ATM nodes 13 via links 16 on their way from a source computing device 15b to a destination computing device 15d. It will be further appreciated that individual ATM cells within the ATM cell stream may travel over significantly different physical paths within the ATM switching network 10.
Having identified the appropriate destination ATM node 13b in order to distribute the cells of the cell stream to computing device 15d (D), the first ATM switch 12a makes the various individual cells available to the first AIM 14a. The first AIM 14a applies each of the cells in a round-robin fashion to each of the available links 16 that connect the first ATM node 13a to the second ATM node 13b. The second AIM 14b within the second ATM node 13b receives each of the individual cells from each of the various links 16, reassembles the cell stream such that cell sequence integrity is preserved (i.e., the cell stream is reconstructed at the receiving end using the same round-robin sequence that was used to strip and transmit the various separate cells streams over the various links 16) and forwards the reassembled ATM cell stream to the second ATM switch 12b. Having been properly transferred and reassembled from a first or source ATM node 13a to a second or destination ATM node 13b within the ATM switching network 10, the individual cells within the cell stream are then transmitted from the second ATM switch 12b via the communication link 11 to the computing device 15d (D). It will be appreciated that the communication system 1 may be used to transmit video, voice, and text data between each of the interconnected computing devices 15. It will be further appreciated that the communication system 1 may comprise bi-directional communication links 11 and bi-directional ATM nodes 13 to permit simultaneous video, voice, and text data transfers to and from each of the computing devices coupled to the ATM switching network 10.
A digital subscriber line (DSL) communication system is but one example of a number of communication systems that may simultaneously transmit and receive digital data between two locations. Since a DSL communication system is capable of both transmitting and receiving digital data, a DSL communication system may serve as the communication link 11 between an ATM node 13 in an ATM switching network 10 and a computing device 15. In addition, a DSL communication system may serve as a portion of multi-channel communication link 16. In a DSL communication system, data is transmitted from a central office (CO) of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to a customer premise (CP) via a transmission line, such as a two-wire twisted pair, and is transmitted from the CP to the CO as well, either simultaneously or in different communication sessions. The same transmission line might be utilized for data transfers by both sites or the transmission to and from the CO might occur on two separate lines.
Asymmetric DSL (ADSL) is an important variation of the basic DSL. ADSL gets its name from its inherent asymmetry between the various data rates. The upstream data rate (i.e., the data from the CP to the CO) is a factor of 10 smaller than the associated downstream data rate (i.e., the data from the CO to the CP). The asymmetry of ADSL suits transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) data traffic quite well as it matches the expected upstream and downstream data rates associated with Internet technologies, such as server/client applications like web browsing and access in general. This is less true for LAN-LAN interconnection cases where IP is also used but where the data transmissions between the various computing devices are more uniform.
ADSL permits simultaneous plain old telephone system (POTS) operation along the same twisted-pair telephone line, thereby allowing DSL service providers easy access to potential customers already connected to the PSTN. In addition to the asymmetry of the upstream and downstream data paths, ADSL uses rate adaptation techniques to select an optimum rate based on individual twisted-pair telephone line conditions.
With ADSL transceivers, the maximum usable data rate may be determined by a number of factors. A first factor, the transceiver technology, may comprise the digital encoding and modulation scheme of the underlying ADSL communications standard, as well as, amplifier efficiency, and noise immunity associated with the hardware used to realize the DSL transceiver. A second factor may comprise the quality and distance of the twisted-pair telephone line comprising a local telephone service subscriber loop used to provide a data transmission medium between an ADSL transceiver in a CO and an associated CP-ADSL transceiver. A third factor may comprise the relative strength of local radio-frequency transmissions that may interfere with the ADSL frequency range. With rate adaptive DSL communications systems, such as ADSL, slower data rates can be traded in exchange for increased distances between COs and remotely located CPs.
In order to achieve higher data rates with a fixed distance or with a given non-rate adaptive DSL transceiver technology, two or more DSL lines may be combined. By way of example, high-speed DSL (HDSL) technology uses two pairs of twisted copper wire, HDSL transceivers, multiplexers and demultiplexers at each end of a communication link to provide T1 capacity service over two pairs of twisted copper conductors commonly used in local subscriber loops within the PSTN. The European version of HDSL binds three pairs of twisted copper conductors and their related transceivers, multiplexers, and demultiplexers to provide E1 capacity service.
In general, DSL implementations are configured such that each DSL transceiver at a CP has its own dedicated interface with associated customer premise equipment (CPE). In order to combine two or more DSLs at a CP an additional multiplexing unit is required. The additional multiplexing unit can be realized in a programmable microprocessor or with a dedicated application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In either case, the number of components and the footprint of the system increase without a corresponding flexibility. HDSL bit multiplexing is strictly limited to predefined values and all links are synchronized using the same clock.
The prior art HDSL link illustrated in FIG. 2 is offered by way of example to highlight the additional interface equipment required as additional transmission media are added to increase the performance of a communications link. In this regard, FIG. 2 illustrates a basic HDSL network link architecture. As illustrated in FIG. 2, a HDSL network link 11 may comprise equipment located within a CO 20, equipment located within a CP 40, and HDSL interface equipment 30 as required within each location to transfer data to and from an ATM switch 13 (FIG. 1). More specifically, the central office 20 may comprise a plurality of trunk line interfaces 21, 23, and 25, herein labeled analog trunk card, digital trunk card, and optical trunk card respectively; a PSTN digital switch 22; and a plurality of HDSL termination unitsxe2x80x94central office (HTU-C) 24a, 24b, 24c, . . . , and 24x. As illustrated in FIG. 2, each HTU-C 24a, 24b, 24c, . . . , and 24x may be coupled via two twisted pair telephone transmission lines 31a, 31b to a dedicated HDSL termination unitxe2x80x94remote (HTU-R) 44c (one shown for simplicity of illustration). As also illustrated in FIG. 2, the combination of the HTU-C 24c, the two twisted pair telephone transmission lines 31a, 31b, and the HTU-R 44c may comprise the HDSL interface equipment 30. As further illustrated in FIG. 2, the CP 40 may comprise a customer interface 46 and customer premise equipment 48 which may contain one or more computing devices 15 (FIG. 1).
It is significant to note that downstream and upstream data transmissions that are transmitted across the HDSL network link 11 of FIG. 2 must be processed at the HTU-Rs 44 and the HTU-Cs 24 in order to ensure that data transmissions are inverse multiplexed and reconstructed into their original configuration. Each of the HTU-Rs 44 and the HTU-Cs 24 may further comprise a transceiver and a mapper (both not shown). At one end of the HDSL communications network 11, a first mapper may be used to inverse multiplex or distribute a data transmission across multiple transmit media (i.e., the twisted pair telephone transmission lines 31a, 31b). At the opposite or receiving end of the HDSL communications network 11, a second mapper may be used to multiplex or reconstruct the original data transmission. By way of example, a downstream data transmission may be inverse multiplexed such that a portion of the data is transmitted via the HTU-C 24c across a first twisted pair telephone transmission line 31a with the remaining portion of the data transmission sent via a second twisted pair telephone transmission line 31b. After the first and second portions of the data transmission are received and reconstructed by the HTU-R 44c, the first and second portions of the original data stream may be multiplexed before being forwarded to the customer interface 46 and the CPE 48. Often the customer interface 46 is implemented with a router having a port coupled with one or more HTU-Rs 44 and or other network interface devices.
It will be appreciated that the complexity and associated increase in the hardware and or software required to implement a prior art line bonding technique at the interface between ATM layer and physical transport layer devices may be significant factors that may prevent the success of a multi-channel communication link at this level. In light of the expected implementation and operational cost erosion for all data interface technologies, it is highly desirable to identify and implement communication links that exhibit increased performance with minimal added cost and complexity.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method that can increase the bandwidth of a communication link between two computing devices at the interface between ATM layer devices and various available physical layer transport links while minimizing installation and operational complexity, space requirements, and cost.
To provide an improved system that overcomes shortcomings noted above, the invention is a system and a method for combining multiple communication links at both sides of an ATM communications network. An improved ATM communications network in accordance with the present invention may achieve an overall higher data transfer rate by combining available communication transport links at the interface between an ATM layer device and a plurality of physical transport layer devices. The multi-channel communication link of the present invention achieves increased performance with a minimal hardware investment at the source and destination ATM network nodes. A multi-channel communication link in accordance with the present invention may comprise a source first-in first-out (FIFO) buffer, a source line multiplexer/demultiplexer, a plurality of communication links, a destination line multiplexer/demultiplexer, and a destination FIFO buffer.
The present invention can also be viewed as a method for transferring data between computing devices on a virtual transport link. In its broadest terms, the method can be described by the following steps: applying a sequence number to each packet to be transported in a time ordered fashion to create a corresponding transport protocol data unit; identifying the next available communication link; transmitting the next available transport protocol data unit on the identified communication link; receiving each transport protocol data unit; identifying the corresponding sequence number for each transport protocol data unit received; resequencing each received transport data unit as required; and releasing each packet to the destination device once all previous packets have been received and resequenced in the correct sequence order. In a variation of the method, a timeout process may be included for transport protocol data unit loss recovery. Using the timeout process, each packet may be sorted as in the broadest method then all cells up to the one generating the timeout may be released in sequence number order once the timeout period has been exceeded.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to one skilled in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional features and advantages be included herein within the scope of the present invention, as defined by the claims.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a removable press printing module and is especially adapted for increasing the color capabilities of an existing, multi-color press.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Multi-color web printing presses, and particularly multi-color flexographic presses, rotary letter presses, and gravure presses have a large, central impression cylinder with a number of printing units positioned around the periphery of the impression cylinder. As the web is guided for movement around the impression cylinder, areas of the web sequentially come into contact with the plate cylinders associated with each printing unit. Each plate cylinder is supplied with ink of a color different than the color of ink supplied to the remaining plate cylinders so that the desired, multi-colored composite image is formed as the web continues its path of travel around the impression cylinder.
Other types of multi-color web printing presses are constructed with an inline format wherein a number of printing units or stations along with a number of impression cylinders are arranged along a straight line. Each printing station cooperates with a corresponding impression cylinder to form the multi-color image on the web. Typically, the web travels over each impression cylinder and then downwardly along a path around idler rollers before returning in an upwardly direction to the next impression cylinder in order to provide room for drying of each image before the latter reaches the next printing station.
The flexographic, rotary letter press and gravure processes are well suited for printing large areas of solid, brillant colors, and as such are used extensively in the printing of labels as well as many types of packaging materials. In conventional presses of this type, die cutting units removably mounted in slots of the press frame are positioned downstream of the impression cylinder for cutting or forming the web as needed before delivery to the end user.
In general, most common small flexographic presses have three printing units so that a three color image can be produced on the web. However, it is often desired, especially for labels, that images of four or more colors be provided in order to increase the attractiveness of the labels and enhance consumer appeal.
Those printers with inline presses, whether flexographic, rotary letter press or gravure utilizing up to six or more color stations are often faced with the need to add even more colors or a varnish coat to meet customer requirements. In some cases, it may be desirable to mix processes on a particular job for reasons of quality or ease of production. For example, it is generally accepted that varnish is easier to apply flexographically than by rotary letter press. It might, therefore, be advantageous to add a flexographic print station after all the letter press stations have printed.
While add-on printing stations for multi-color presses have been utilized in the past, as a general rule such add-on units are somewhat difficult to install and remove as needed. In this regard, it is sometimes necessary to frequently change the travel of the web and particularly the die cutting units to produce, for a limited time, labels and other printed objects of a particular configuration.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a differential gear which is applicable to a transaxle apparatus equipped on a vehicle such as a riding lawn tractor.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, there is a well-known differential gear for differentially connecting left and right axles with each other, comprising a pair of side bevel gears fixed on the respective axles, at least one bevel pinion engaging with both side bevel gears, and a differential gear casing which rotatably supports the bevel pinion.
The differential gear designed as mentioned above is provided on a vehicle so that its differential gear casing is rotated by driving power of an engine for driving the axles. The differential gear, during the turning of the vehicle, automatically adjusts the difference of rotary speed between an inside drive wheel and an outside drive wheel, thereby ensuring a smooth turning of the vehicle and preventing the drive wheels from abrasion.
However, this type of differential gear has the problem that when one of the drive wheels runs idle over a muddy or snow-covered place, the driving power is not transmitted to the other drive wheel.
In consideration of the problem, it is proposed and well-known as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,452, for example, that the conventional differential gear is further provided therein with a kind of brake which applies a braking force onto one of the drive wheels being about to run idle so as to give driving power to the other drive wheel. This is what is called a limited-slip differential.
For traveling on a bad road which is muddy, snow-covered or such, it is also well-known that the conventional differential gear is further alternatively with a differential locking system for locking both the axles together. This differential gear system is applicable to an agricultural vehicle which is desired to travel properly straight on a field.
However, lightening, cost-saving and compacting of the conventional differential gear system, including the limited-slip differential or the differential locking system, is disturbed by the structure thereof such that the bevel pinion is supported by the differential gear casing through pinion shafts.
An object of the present invention is to provide a limited-slip differential gear with a differential locking mechanism, preferably being minimized and reducing cost.
To achieve the object, according to the present invention, a pair of side bevel gears are fixed onto respective axles. A bevel pinion engages with both the side bevel gears. Preferably an input gear is provided with a through hole in which the bevel pinion is disposed so that a differential gear casing becomes unnecessary, thereby enabling a light, compact and cost-saving differential gear to be provided.
A lock member selectively bringing one of the side bevel gears into non-relatively rotatable connection with the input gear is provided for convenience in steadily travelling on unstable ground such as mud, snowcovered or the like. A certain friction force is applied onto the side bevel gears through the bevel pinion, thereby constituting a limitedslip differential gear. The resulting limited-slip differential gear provided with a locking system is light, compact and cost-saving.
Preferably, a pinion shaft is provided for rotatably supporting the bevel pinion therearound while the pinion shaft applies a certain brake force onto the bevel pinion. In this case, the pinion shaft is disposed in the through hole of the input gear.
The present limited-slip differential gear provided with a locking system may be disposed in a transaxle apparatus. Preferably, the transaxle apparatus is constructed so that the present differential gear and a hydrostatic transmission are disposed in a common housing, wherein the input gear of the differential gear receives the output of the hydrostatic transmission. Consequently, the transaxle apparatus is light, compact and cost-saving.
Other and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description.
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Concretes and mortars are cement compositions additionally containing aggregate (e.g., sand and rock) and water. When water is added to the cement, this forms a paste which hardens to a solid structure. Various additives have been used in these cement compositions to modify their properties for specialized applications. For example, long fibers such as asbestos reduce the sagging of these pastes and thus is beneficial when applying tiles to a vertical surface. Freezing point depressants are used when cements are to be poured in subfreezing temperatures. Cellulosic based polymers have been used in cements to control water retention, working time, and in certain cases, the sedimentation of particles in the pastes. Bentonite clay has also been used for this purpose. Other polymers, such as the polyvinyl alcohols and methyl methacrylates, have been used to reduce friction when pumping these pastes and to otherwise modify their workability. Fumed silica is used as an additive to make stronger concrete with reduced permeability.
The term "cement compositions" refers to hydraulic cements such as finely ground and calcined calcium silicates and calcium aluminates which when mixed with water react to form a hard, rock-like mass. There are many well known cement compositions such as: portland cement, portland pozzolan cement (containing about 15-40% pozzolan), blast furnace slag cement, slag cement (containing blast furnace slag and hydrated lime), masonry cement (e.g., adhesive mortars), construction concrete (containing sand and aggregate, oil-well cement (i.e., cements with retarders to prevent rapid setting so that they may be used at the high temperature and pressure environments of deep wells), aluminous cement (containing high amounts of calcium aluminates, expansive cements (containing high sulfate and alumina concentrations and which expand on hardening), air entrained cement (containing compounds which retain air bubbles and thus yield frost- and chemical-resistant concretes), lightweight concrete (containing low density materials such as furnace clinker, pumice, foamed slag, fly ash, gas, wood, etc.) heavy concrete (containing dense material such as barite, iron ore (i.e., ilmenite or hematite), steel, etc.), and low heat concrete (with modified compositions that minimize heat generation during the setting process).
With respect to oilfield cements, it is desirable, while drilling a subterranean well, to line the surface of the hole with hollow pipe known as casing. The casing is held in place by attaching the casing to the borehole wall with a cement slurry. The cement slurry is put in place by pumping the slurry down the inside of the casing to the bottom of the hole and up the annulus between the casing and borehole wall. The cement is then allowed to set for several hours to gain strength before any other operation is commenced.
The main purposes of primary cementing are:
1. Most importantly, to allow the segregation of individual formations behind the pipe so that fluids from one formation cannot flow into another, i.e., the cementation of an oil/gas well. This allows for the production from a specific zone. PA1 2. To add support for the casing by physically bracing or preventing the formation of pressure imposed on the casing. PA1 3. To retard corrosion by minimizing contact between the casing and corrosion formation waters. PA1 1. Reducing or increasing density; PA1 2. Increasing volume at reduced unit cost; PA1 3. Accelerating or retarding slurry thickening time; PA1 4. Increasing strength; PA1 5. Preventing loss of whole cement slurry; PA1 6. Increasing or improving the cement's durability; PA1 7. Decreasing water loss from the slurry; PA1 8. Increasing or decreasing the viscosity of the cement slurry; and PA1 9. Preventing gas migration.
Oilfield cements are similar to those used in construction (i.e., portland cement). The American Petroleum Institute has set specifications for oilfield cements. These as classified as "A" through "H", "J" and "N", all of which the present invention is useful in.
Cement additives in oilfield cements are materials mixed in the slurry for one or more of the following purposes:
The water loss of a "neat" cement slurry (cement and water only) is very high and rapid. When a slurry contacts a porous formation rock (such as an oil bearing sandstone) it may become quickly dehydrated by the water filtering into the formation. This causes the cement to "flash set." This may cause the casing to stick to the borehole before all the slurry is pumped in the annulus or before the casing is in the proper position.
Bentonite in concentrations of 0-14% (wt./wt. of dry cement) has been used in the past to control the water loss from the slurry. Cellulosic polymers such as carboxymethylhydroxyethyl cellulose (CMHEC) and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) have also been used as water loss control agents and control the set of the cement at levels from about 0.2% to 0.9%.
Welan gum is an industrial grade of a bacterial polysaccharide produced by the growth of the Alcaligenes strain ATCC 31555 in a pure culture fermentation using carbohydrates as a carbon source. The product is recovered from the fermentation broth by precipitation with alcohol. Welan gum is a polysaccharide gum which comprises principally a heteropolysaccharide containing the neutral sugars D-glucose, D-glucuronic acid, L-rhamnose and L-mannose and glycosidically linked acetyl ester groups. The structure of this polysaccharide is described in Jansson P E, Linberg B, and Wildmalm G (1985) Carbohydrate Research 139, 217-223.
The rapidly hydrating welan gum composition used in the present invention is a novel combination of welan gum and a superplasticizer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,342,866, to Kang et al., describes a procedure for making welan gum and this is hereby incorporated by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,520 to Hoskin et al., discloses a welan gum composition comprising welan gum, a phenolic resin such as resorcinal and an aldehyde. The compositions form stable gels in low salinity brines and are useful in selectively plugging highly permeable zones in a subterranean formation such as oil wells. This improves sweep efficiency during fluid flood oil recovery processes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,668 to Allen et al., teaches the use of a low viscosity welan gum in cement compositions that allegedly exhibit improved workability, suspension of aggregates flow characteristics and resistance to water loss. Preferably, the range of amounts of welan gum used is from 0.1-0.5%.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,506 also to Allen et al., teaches welan gum in cement compositions as before, wherein a dispersant such as sodium citrate, sodium naphthalene sulfonates and the like, is added to reduce the viscosity of cement slurries and to serve as an aid in fluid loss control by dispersing the particles in the slurry.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,277 to Rakitsky et al., teaches and claims a rapidly hydratable welan gum which can be mixed with a carrier that is usually a superplasticizer, i.e., a dispersant. This is added to a dry cement/water premix and improves the cements workability, its fluid retention and prevents settling.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,768 teaches and claims a welan gum composition comprising welan gum and ethylene glycol. The composition displays unique viscosity and thermal properties which makes it an excellent insulation material.
None of the cited prior art however, discloses a stabilized suspension comprised of a hydrocolloid such as welan gum and a superplasticizer selected from the group consisting of sulfonated napthalene, sulfonated melamine, modified lignosulfate, their derivatives and mixtures thereof. Moreover, none of the prior art discloses welan gum/superplasticizer compositions that are ground to an extremely fine particle size so as to afford its suspension superior viscosity and flow characteristics when used in cement, grout and oil field applications.
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A computer network typically includes a collection of interconnected computing devices that exchange data and share resources. The devices may include, for example, web servers, database servers, file servers, routers, printers, end-user computers and other devices. The variety of devices may execute a myriad of different services and communication protocols. Each of the different services and communication protocols exposes the network to different security vulnerabilities.
Conventional techniques for detecting network attacks use pattern matching. In particular, an intrusion detection system (IDS) device applies regular expressions or sub-string matches to detect defined patterns within a data stream. Multiple patterns may be used in an attempt to improve the accuracy of the attack detection. In order to improve the probability of detecting an attack, the IDS may attempt to identify the type of software application and protocol associated with the data stream. Based on the identification, the IDS selects the appropriate patterns to apply in order to detect a network attack, which is used herein to include viruses or other malicious activity.
Conventionally, many IDSs associate applications with a static port assignment and use these static port assignments to determine the type of application and protocol associated with a given data stream. Likewise, conventionally a single application operates at the application layer, or layer seven (L7), of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) networking model. However, certain software applications now employ dynamic or randomized port assignments rather than conforming to the static port assignments; for example, hacker toolkits may use dynamic port assignments in order to evade detection and containment. Moreover, certain L7 software applications, such as Kazaa™ and Yahoo!® Messenger, utilize other L7 protocols, such as the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), as transport applications; that is, multiple software applications may concurrently operate within L7 as a “stack” of software applications.
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The present invention relates in general to a solenoid-operated control valve, and more particularly to a multiple-positioned solenoid-operated control valve wherein a valving member such as a valve spool is located at a plurality of operated positions thereof at least on one side of its normal or neutral position.
As solenoid control valves, there have been used directional control valves, flow control or throttling valves or restrictors, shutoff valves, and so on, wherein a valving member as in the form of a spool or piston axially slidably fitted in a valve body having a plurality of ports is normally held in its normal, neutral or original position by a spring, and moved to its operated position or positions against a biasing or resilient force of the spring by means of a solenoid-operated actuator including a movable iron core and a solenoid coil, thereby changing communicating conditions between the ports and associated flow passages, i.e., changing a flow direction of a working fluid, and its flow rate, i.e., cross sectional area of the passage opening at each port. For example, a directional control valve the valve spool of which is selectively located at two or three positions is referred to as a two- or three-position control valve. In the three-position control valve, the valve spool is normally spring-centered at its neutral position and displaced to the right or left of the neutral position, upon energization of one of two solenoids disposed on both sides of the valve spool, to control communicating conditions of the appropriate ports. In the two-position control valve, on the other hand, the valve spool which is biased in one axial direction thereof by a spring and therefore normally held in its normal or original position, is displaced in the other axial direction upon energization of a solenoid to control the communicating conditions of the ports. A flow control or shutoff valve has a valving or orifice control member which is normally held in its normal position by a spring and which is displaced upon actuation of a solenoid for progressively varying or controlling in steps the volume of fluid that passes through a passage or passages or for closing and opening the passage of the fluid.
In the solenoid-operated control valve known in the art, a valving member has on one or each side thereof only one operated position to which it is displaced when the appropriate solenoid is energized. Although there has been known a manually-operated directional control valve which has five positions, i.e, two operated positions on each side of the neutral or center positon of a valve spool, no known solenoid-operated control valves have a valve spool or other valving member which has plural operated positions on one side of its normal position. In this connection, a solenoid-operated proportioning valve is known wherein a valve spool or piston is controlled to be located at a selected position within a predetermined range of its operating stroke. However, this proportioning type of solenoid-operated control valve requires a complicated operation control circuit, which consequently results in pushing up the cost of a hydraulic or pneumatic circuit in which the control valve is incorporated.
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Technical textiles are a specialized textile product used primarily for their function rather than for their aesthetic purposes. Some of the functions of the technical textiles are EMI shielding, water-proofing, fire and flame resistance, antistatic function, antimicrobial function, fire-resistance, and anti-odor function. The clothing made from the technical textiles is commonly referred to as protective clothing, which is used for various applications. For example, the protective clothing with an antistatic property or characteristic is used by the operators of a gas station, firefighters, and the like, as such clothing prevents the accumulation of electric charges on the surface thereof. Protective clothing with antimicrobial function is another product of technical textiles which helps in preventing the cross-transmission of infectious diseases, and is therefore used in hospitals, medical laboratories, and so on. Yet another example would be fire-resistant clothing typically worn by firefighters while performing firefighting operations.
In spite of various types of protective clothing known in the prior art, there's still a need for technical textiles that exhibit more than one function. For example, a protective clothing used in medical facilities might need to be water-proof while being anti-microbial. Similarly, another example would be a sportswear which needs to have an anti-odor function while exhibiting an anti-UV property. Several attempts have been made in the art to address the need for multifunctional technical textiles, however, the multifunctional textiles made out of these attempts comprises more than one layer of cloth and is therefore bulky and heavy causing inconvenience to the wearer. Therefore, there exists a need for a multifunctional technical textile which is light and single or uni-layered.
Further, the technical textiles are typically manufactured by a multi-stage wet process which consumes a lot of time. And on top of that, these wet processes are not eco-friendly as they produce a lot of wastewater which is hazardous to the environment. Hence, it is desirable to manufacture light, single-layered, multifunctional technical textiles from a dry, quick, eco-friendly method.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operational amplifier circuit offering a fixed slew rate (SR).
2. Description of Related Art
Operational amplifiers are broadly used. FIG. 1 is an equivalent block diagram of a conventional operational amplifier and a load capacitor.
Referring to FIG. 1, the circuit structure includes an operational amplifier 50 and an output switch 52. An external load circuit is connected to the switch 52. In a load equivalent mode, the load circuit has an equivalent load capacitor 54. When the switch 52 receives a control signal and accordingly is turned on, the operational amplifier 50 starts to charge/discharge the output terminal AOUT. If the operational amplifier 50 charges the output terminal AOUT for a long time, a large peak current will be generated at the instant when the switch 52 is turned on, which will result in the problem of electromagnetic interference (EMI).
The output terminal of an operational amplifier circuit is usually connected to a compensation capacitor, and the capacitance of the compensation capacitor is Cc. When the switch 52 of the operational amplifier is turned on and accordingly enters an output state, the charging time of the compensation capacitor has a slew rate (SR). The SR and the charging time T satisfy the relationship of SR=I/C=ΔV/T. Different charging time will result in different SR. When the operational amplifier 50 charges/discharges the load circuit, an instantaneous large peak current will be generated, and the SR will be changed. As a result, the EMI problem will be produced.
The issue of SR should be taken into consideration when the operational amplifier 50 is designed.
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Recently, aircraft propulsion turbines have been developed having a pair of counter rotating external unshrouded fans. Pitch adjustment in turbines with unshrouded fans is necessary for the safe and efficient operation of the aircraft throughout the flight envelope.
Aircraft turbine propulsion engines with external unshrouded fans in the 20-30,000 horsepower class require 20 or more net horsepower per blade section to achieve the required pitch adjustment change rates at the operating loads. Current designs of unshrouded fan turbines change pitch of the blades by a hydraulic pump-power drive unit combination. The hydraulic pump is driven by power taken by direct mechanical connection to the turbine main shaft to produce pressurized hydraulic fluid which is applied to the remotely located power drive unit by means of hydraulic lines. The pitch adjusting mechanism has an outer shaft which is driven by a free turbine powered by pressurized gas after passage through the turbine section powering the main shaft. The free turbine directly supplies the rotary power for the unshrouded fans and therefore the rotational velocity of the free turbine is directly proportional to the rotational velocity of the blades. The pitch adjusting mechanism also has an inner control shaft concentric with the outer shaft which rotates at a rotational velocity proportional to a charge in pitch specified by a pitch control signal source which produces a signal under pilot or automatic control. A transmission provides the reference and control shafts to the pitch adjusting mechanism. The transmission receives power directly from the rotating blades of the unshrouded fans and also receives an input from the power drive unit which has a rotary velocity proportional to the change in pitch control signal.
The magnitude of the hydraulic horsepower required to vary the pitch of the unshrouded fans is several times that required to power conventional hydraulic loads on aircraft. Because of the intermittent requirements for changing pitch of external unshrouded fans in jet aircraft, the prior art approach of taking hydraulic power from the main hydraulic power supply system to drive the pitch adjusting mechanisms results in extra hydraulic lines and could result in an overall weight penalty. It is necessary with the prior art to size the main hydraulic power system to handle the intermittent hydraulic power demands of the pitch adjusting mechanism and the other conventional loads.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,660,437; 4,261,226; 3,994,128; 3,893,789 and 3,395,763 disclose mechanisms for adjusting the pitch of a propeller.
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Most of men and women wear Y-shirts or blouses matching with suits, that is, dress shirt-type tops.
The Y-shirts or blouses are neat and has an atmosphere of refinement when being worn with suits, and therefore white-collar workers often wear the Y-shirts or blouses.
However, when a user repeatedly stands up and sits down after wearing the dress shirt or blouse, the left and right waist parts of the Y-shirt naturally come loose out of the user's bottoms to the outside of a belt line. In order to solve this, there is provided a prior art in which the inside of user's bottoms or skirt is treated with silicon tapes, however, the left and right waist parts of the Y-shirts eventually come loose out of the user's bottoms or skirts while the user moves, which causes the user to often tuck the tops into the user's bottoms or skirts.
To solve the above-mentioned defect, a preventing hole for preventing tops from being untucked is disclosed in Publication NO. 1020080039365 in which a dress shirt or a T-shirt is fixed using gravity of the preventing hole, so that an end of the dress shirt or T-shirt is prevented from coming loose out of user's bottom to the outside of a belt line.
However, according to the above-mentioned prior art, the user has substantially-limited movements because a number of weight bodies are fixed on the user's tops, and the weight bodies have to be heavy because gravity is used.
Accordingly, there is still a problem that the tops may come loose out of the user's bottoms when light weight bodies are fixed.
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Stretchable, flexible material has been used for many years to form containers. For example, in the 1940's oleomargarine was packaged in bags made of polyethylene. In some cases, the user squeezed and manipulated the bag to rupture a color capsule and kneaded the bag to disperse the color throughout the margarine content. To disperse the contents, the user would cut or tear off a corner of the bag.
More recently, milk and other liquids have been packaged in polyethylene bags for the household commercial market. Again, the user cut or tore a corner off of the bag when the user wished to dispense the contents. There was no provision for reclosure of the cut or torn corner of the bag.
Large polyethylene bags up to five gallons have been used for the commercial institutional market, such as hospitals, luncheonettes, etc. In these larger bags, a flexible hose was sealed into the bag with the outer end of the hose sealed closed. The whole bag was loaded into a dispenser with the hose extending through a pinch valve. The sealed outer end of the hose protruded from the dispenser valve so that the user could cut off the sealed end of the hose. Thus, the bag was reclosed by pinching the hose flat using the mechanical valve mechanism of the dispenser. There was no way to reclose such a large bag by itself after the sealed end of the hose was cut off.
For some years, intravenous liquids for hospital use have been packaged in polyvinyl chloride bags using tubes sealed into the bags with the outer ends of the tubes being sealed off. The sealed ends of these tubes are cut off to dispense the intravenous liquids and also to provide access for adding medicinal substances to the liquid content. More recently, such intravenous bags have been made with additive ports and with administrative ports which are sealed into the side wall of the bag.
For many years there has been a long felt need for a practical inexpensive nozzle outlet in stretchable, flexible container walls. It has been proposed to provide a nozzle outlet in the plastic film wall of the container by using an elongated rigid inner sleeve having a ridge extending around the exterior of the sleeve approximately midway between the ends of this elongated sleeve. A rigid outer member providing an inwardly projecting rounded shoulder having a smaller internal diameter (I.D.) than the external diameter (O.D.) of the ridge is forced over the peak of this ridge for clamping a very narrow portion, essentially a line contact portion, of the plastic film between the inner sleeve and the outer member at a position located beyond the peak of the ridge. This outer member may take the shape of a rigid O-ring, and thus the inwardly projecting rounded shoulder is provided by the inner surface of the O-ring. Thus, it is seen that only a very narrow localized portion, essentially a line contact portion, of the plastic film is clamped beneath the O-ring, which causes a stress concentration in the plastic film with a resultant weakening of the plastic film wall at the nozzle outlet. In addition, there is a severe stress concentration and shearing cutting action which occurs as the rounded shoulder of the outer member is forced over the peak of the ridge on the inner sleeve. Tearing of the plastic film wall sometimes occurs as this rounded shoulder is forced over the peak of the ridge. Sometimes induced stresses in the plasic film wall are so great that it spontaneously tears itself subsequent to installation.
The present invention advantageously overcomes all of these problems of the prior art and advantageously provides an inexpensive, practical nozzle outlet in a stretchable, flexible wall for a container.
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1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention pertains to the field of anti-theft devices for motor vehicles and more particularly to anti-theft devices which render the steering wheel of a motor vehicle inoperable.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
The theft of motor vehicles in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. As a result, there have been proposed many different devices to prevent such theft. These devices include electronic lock-out devices requiring secret codes before the motor vehicle may be started, devices that interrupt gas flow or the electrical circuitry of the engine, and devices that are affixed to some part of the motor vehicle which prevents operation thereof, even if the vehicle is started. In the latter class of devices, one popular method is affixing a device to the steering wheel of the motor vehicle, which device prevents the steering wheel and therefore the car from being operated in a manner useful to the would be thief.
A device illustrative of this class, known popularly as THE CLUB (TM), is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,308 to Johnson. This device is comprised of an elongated shaft which may be lockably affixed to a steering wheel and extends beyond the periphery thereof, such that full rotation of the wheel is limited by the engagement of the elongated tube with an interior surface of the motor vehicle.
While the Johnson device is functional, it and others like it, include several undesirable features. For example, since the Johnson device does not protect the outer perimeter of the steering wheel, the Johnson device is easily removed by cutting through the outer perimeter of the steering wheel and sliding the device off of the steering wheel through the cut. In addition, the there are no features in the Johnson type devices to prevent access to the steering wheel mounting mechanism. Therefore, a would be thief could remove the steering mechanism in its entirety and replace it allowing full operation of the motor vehicle steering. Furthermore, due to the material thinness of the elongated shaft which forms the basis of this type of device, a portion of the shaft may be frozen by exposure to liquid nitrogen or some similar freezing agent. Thereafter, due to the brittle nature of the material after freezing, the shaft can be snapped in half. Finally, there are various "pinch points" on this type of device which can cause injury to a user.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device that prevents or reduces the likelihood of theft of a motor vehicle.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a device which engages the steering wheel of a motor vehicle such that said steering wheel is inoperable.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a device that may be easily installed and removed.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a device that, when installed, will prevent access to the steering wheel such that same may not be removed, altered or otherwise damaged.
These and other objects of the present invention shall become apparent from the following specification, read in conjunction with the appended claims and attached drawings.
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The field of the invention relates to computer systems and computer networks, and more particularly, to systems and methods for detecting and preventing flooding attacks in a network environment.
Flooding attack is a type of computer/network intrusion in which the attacker causes a high volume of sessions/connections to be created against a receiver, thereby “flooding” the computer/network of the receiver. Examples of flooding attacks include TCP flooding attacks (such as SYN flooding attacks), UDP flooding attacks, and ICMP flooding attacks. A SYN flooding attack is a connection based attack that uses TCP packets to attack a network (or a part of a network, such as a firewall), thereby overflowing session tables and/or exhausting available bandwidth. UDP flooding attack and ICMP flooding attack are non-connection based attacks, which are carried out by overflowing virtual session tables and/or exhausting available bandwidth.
For TCP connection, the traditional SYN proxy prevention technique involves tracking each received SYN packet, regardless of whether it belongs to flooding traffic or legitimate traffic, thereby requiring a tremendous amount of system resources, such as memory, CPU cycles, storage space, and processing time. Some conventional flooding prevention devices are configured to transmit a SYN-ACK packet in response to a received SYN packet, acknowledging to a sender of the SYN packet that the SYN packet has been received. Such is performed for every SYN packet, regardless of whether the sender is a legitimate user or an attacker. These flooding prevention devices require a lot of memory and system resources in order to keep track with the received SYN packets and the SYN-ACK packets. If a flooding attack is relatively heavy, the system resources of the prevention device could be exhausted by the flooding attack. In some cases, the additional SYN-ACK packet from the prevention device may double the flooding traffic, thereby causing legitimate traffic to be dropped even at link layer.
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The present invention generally relates to computer peripheral devices coupled to a host computer, and more particularly to an image data processing terminal equipment, such as a printer, an image scanner, a modem (modulator and demodulator) or the like.
There are previously known, as peripheral devices of a host computer, a printer, an image scanner, or a modem. The printer is supplied with information which is processed and output by the host computer, and prints out characters and/or graphics based on the supplied information. The image scanner optically reads a document and outputs a corresponding electrical signal to the host computer. The facsimile machine is supplied with information related to an original which is to be sent to a destination terminal, and outputs the same to a communication line.
Some peripheral devices have a large-capacity storage device and/or a plurality of different data processing functions. For example, a page printer such as a liquid printer or a laser beam printer is presently widely used. Such a page printer is equipped with a large-capacity RAM (random access memory) since an image amounting to one page must be formed in a storage area. A page printer which has a storage capacity enabling images equal to a plural number of pages to be stored simultaneously is also available. Such a page printer can operate at higher speeds and realize a duplex print. Some available printers can be connected to not only an extended RAM but also an extended hard disk drive unit, such as a magnetic disk unit. Conventional hard disk units have the ability to store fonts and initial commands which are used when the power supply to the printers is started.
It will be noted that the host computer cannot use the storage area provided by the extended RAM or extended hard disk unit. The storage capacity available in the printer tends to be increased. However, the storage area in the printer is used by the printer only when a print request command, which is, in general, temporarily generated, occurs. In addition, it is impossible for the host computer to use the storage area provided in the printer. Thus, the storage area in the printer is not used economically. Of course, extended RAMs or hard disk units themselves are expensive.
Further, conventional systems having a host computer and a printer are not designed to read out predetermined data from the storage area in the printer after the predetermined data is written therein. For example, it is impossible to read out down load font (font data), forms overlay data (print format data) and micro commands from the printer after the data are written therein.
Page printers are required to perform an image processing at high speeds and thus have high performance hardware and software which is often equivalent or superior to that of a personal computer, which serves as the host computer. However, the high-performace hardware and software work only when the printer is performing the image processing, and is thus idling when the printer is not carrying out the image processing.
As has been described previously, image scanners function as the peripheral devices of the host computer. Some image scanners have hardware which implements an image processing such as a data compression process. However, it is possible for peripheral devices other than the image scanner to utilize such an image processing implemented by the image scanner.
Some facsimile machines or modems have a data compression/decompression procedure and/or a data scrambling/descrambling procedure. However, it is impossible for other peripheral devices to use such procedures.
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An LED module is a product formed by the light emitting diodes arranged according to certain rules, then packaged, and added with some waterproof treatment.
An LED module is a widely used product in LED products, and is also very different in terms of structure and electronics. A simple LED module is formed by a wiring board mounted with an LED and a housing, while a complex LED module is configured with some control, a constant current source and a related heat dissipation treatment to achieve longer LED life and better luminous intensity.
However, as the use environment of an LED module is increasingly diversified, for example an LED module is often used for exterior walls of high-rise buildings in terms of outdoor use, thus requirements for fireproofing performance of the LED module and a lighting device is relatively higher. Therefore, a higher requirement for flame retardant performance of an LED module has been put forward in real life.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing free-flowing metal foam with monomodal distribution of the dimension of the cavities in said foam. More precisely, the invention deals with the preparation of metal foams each with essentially the same pore volumes for use in molded articles with a specific profile of properties. The invention also relates to a device for producing a metal foam. Finally, the invention relates to the use of components which contain a largely homogeneous foam formation.
2. Discussion of Background Information
Metal foam, particularly lightweight metal foam, is being used to an increasing degree in molded articles with a special spectrum of properties, whereby the various requirements must be met with a high degree of certainty. In other words, the molded articles with low weight are supposed to feature high stability with precisely specified mechanical stress and/or be deformable with maximum energy absorption in the case of overload.
Fabricating objects of metal foam is known. For example, a process for manufacturing a foamed article is described in WO 01/62416 A1, according to which an ingot mold is filled with foam by collecting individual bubbles rising in the melt. However, this process, in which the gas bubbles are introduced and isolated for the most part by way of a so-called rotor impeller, has the disadvantages that, on the one hand, filling the ingot mold is slow and, therefore, with a cooled ingot mold wall, the part of the article that was formed last has a frequently disadvantageously thick wall layer, and, on the other hand, the bubble size is embodied variably in an uncontrolled manner. As a result, the mechanical characteristic values of a part or article created in this manner often feature a great dispersion that is unfavorable for the most part.
Another process has become known from EP 0666784 B1, in which a molded casting of the stabilized, fluid foam metal takes place by pressing the stabilized foam into a mold with pressure. However, the cells of the formed foam cannot be produced in a uniform size with this process.
Austrian patent application 936/2001 discloses a device and process for introducing gas into molten metal, whereby a uniformity of the diameter of the respective individual bubbles and the size of the gas bubbles are controlled.
A monomodal distribution of the dimension of the cavities of a molded article made of metal foam as well as a process for manufacturing the same is disclosed by Austrian patent application 935/2001.
However, all the manufacturing methods that can be attributed to the state of the art for free-flowing metal foam share the disadvantage that individual bubbles do not usually connect until they are brought together and often form thickened wedge areas. In addition, it is possible that a desired filling speed of a mold for the purpose of obtaining a uniformly thick surface layer of the article or a preferred metal flow cannot be achieved.
For the most part, the known devices do not permit coherent metal foam bubbles of the same size to be manufactured in such a way that the interstructures between the cavities can be embodied to be thin and perform favorable support functions with regard to a low specific weight with high mechanical characteristic values of the part.
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Conventionally, a navigation system that can display POI information of a POI, which is a specific place or facility considered to be of use or interest to someone, on a monitor is known.
A navigation system that acquires POI data on a POI having a high popularity level within a predetermined range from a current position of a vehicle and displays an icon as POI information at a corresponding position on a map on a monitor so that the icon can be selected as a transit point candidate on the basis of the POI data is known such as, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2015-034767 (JP 2015-034767 A).
A navigation system that can accurately display a position of an icon of a POI to show on which side of a road in a width direction the position is located is also known such as, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-058960 (JP 2011-058960 A).
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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1. Domain Of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for treatment of a flow of liquid metal, particularly aluminium, an aluminium alloy, magnesium or a magnesium alloy.
2. State of the Art
Methods of treatment of a liquid metal flow or batch before it is cast in the form of a metallurgical product, such a shaped part, a billet or a plate, are known. Treatment of liquid metal is usually intended to eliminate dissolved gases (particularly hydrogen), dissolved impurities (particularly alkaline metals) and solid or liquid inclusions that could reduce the quality of cast products. This treatment typically includes a treatment operation by insufflation of a gas into the liquid metal, this operation being performed in a first ladle. The treatment gas may be inert and insoluble in the liquid metal (such as argon) or reactive (such as chlorine), or a mix of inert and insoluble gas. The inert and insoluble gas absorbs dissolved gas by the dilution effect and carries it with it. The reactive gas reacts with some dissolved impurities and thus generates liquid or solid inclusions which, like those already present in the liquid metal, can be eliminated by a filtration operation in a second ladle provided with a filter, such a deep bed filter.
Known treatment systems for liquid metals always have several disadvantages. In particular, known systems are voluminous installations, for which maintenance is usually complicated. Such systems require a high initial investment and introduce large operating costs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,479 describes a system for inline treatment comprising a closed treatment compartment and a series of treatment gas injection nozzles arranged in line along the sides of the compartment. This system is incapable of eliminating solid inclusions.
The inventors have searched for a compact device for the treatment of liquid metals that provides an industrial and economic solution to disadvantages of devices according to prior art.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
One very common task in construction, welding, woodworking, plastic fabrication, ship building, and in general any material fabrication process is joining different elements together. Sometimes, such as when gluing wood elements together, long term pressure is required. At other times large, complex, and expensive fabrication facilities are required to properly align elements before joining. In certain cases various elements must be spread apart before elements can be properly fabricated. In almost all cases whenever discrete elements are being joined some type of spatial fixing is required.
Because of the wide variety of elements that must be joined or separated, a variety of devices are available to assist those processes. For example, the common “C” clamp is readily available in a wide range of sizes, from sub-inch maximum openings to well over 12″. “C” clamps are available and suitable for wood-working, welding, and general assembly use and they can be used in a remarkable number of ways. While “C” clamps are very useful, they have practical limitations on their throat size maximum openings, depth of clamp, weight in larger sizes, and cost. Furthermore, “C” clamps can be difficult and time-consuming for one person to use, and cannot be used for spreading elements. However, their most common drawback is that they take two hands to use. Properly spatially locating and holding multiple elements while requiring two hands to clamp the multiple elements together can be a major challenge.
Because of the limitations of the “C” clamp other clamps are available. For example, bar clamps. A bar clamp is a clamping device consisting of a long rod, tube, bar, or other elongated member (generically referred to hereinafter for convenience and reading clarity simply as a rod), a fixed jaw on the rod, and a moving adjustable clamping jaw. In different configurations the moving jaw can be moved toward or away from the fixed jaw or the rod can be moved relative to the moving jaw. Some bar clamps can be used with only one hand, which greatly facilities their use. Bar clamps are available in configurations in which a jaw is reversible. This facilities their use as spreaders.
Examples of bar clamps include those taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,382,608 to Mitchell, entitled, “Adjustable Clamping and Spreading Bar Clamp or Bench Vice,” issued on May 7, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,338,475 to Ping, entitled, “Bar Clamp,” issued on Feb. 12, 2001; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,159,858, to Ben-Gigi, entitled “Bar Clamp,” issued on Jan. 9, 2007. Examples of currently available bar clamps in different lengths are from Larin™, Craftsman™, Sears™, Pro-Grade™ and many others. Thus bar clamps and their ratcheting mechanisms are well known and commonly used.
While bar-clamps are widely used and have proven to be very useful, in some cases the maximum distance between the materials being joined is simply greater than the bar clamp can reach. Furthermore, as the distance between materials being joined increases the torques and other mechanical forces required to hold the materials rigid increase. Another major problem is that to span a wide range of distances either different bar clamps are required or a very long bar clamp that may be unwieldy for shorter applications is required.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a rigid, strong extended bar clamp/spreader that is suitable for one hand use over a wide span without being unwieldy. Beneficially such a bar clamp/spreader is suitable for low cost fabrication using efficient fabrication techniques.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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