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The present invention is directed to an open headed medical implant and, in particular, to a closure for closing the head of an open headed bone screw, hook or the like.
Bone screws are used especially in spinal surgery to support and position various implants needed to repair a spine that has suffered injury, illness or genetic defect. Bone screws of this type are screwed into the vertebrae of the spine and have a head that projects outside the bone which receives other implants, such as rods, that extend along the spine. Bone screws are of two general types which are either open headed or closed headed. Hooks and certain other implants also sometimes have open heads. The present application is directed to open headed bone screws and related implants such as hooks and the like that have such an open head to receive another implant.
In open headed bone screws and related implants, the head includes two upright arms that form a channel therebetween. The channel is sized to receive a rod or the like and is open to make it easier to place the rod in the head. The rod must then be tightly held or locked in the head to prevent relative movement between implants after the surgery. To hold the rod in the head, plugs have been used that are screwed into threads on the interior surfaces of the arms.
The present invention is directed especially to improvements in such plugs or closures that make them easier to insert in the head, that better ensure that the plug effectively secures the rod so that the rod does not later slip, that allow the plugs to be easily removed should the overall implant system require rearrangement and which provide a comparatively low profile, so as reduce trauma and irritation to the surrounding tissues of the patient.
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The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, to a data storage device including a nonvolatile memory device and/or an operating method thereof.
A semiconductor memory device may be volatile or nonvolatile. A volatile semiconductor memory device may support fast read and write speeds, but it loses contents stored therein when powered off. A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device retains contents stored therein, although its power is cut off. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, thus, is used to store data to be retained regardless of whether a power is supplied to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
Nonvolatile memory devices may perform an erase operation before a program operation and may not support an overwrite operation. Garbage collection may be performed due to the characteristics of nonvolatile memory devices. The garbage collection may be an operation for generating a free block through the following operations: selecting a victim block, copying valid pages of the victim block into a free block, erasing the victim block, and assigning the erased block to a free block.
Upon performing the garbage collection, a memory block that includes the most number of invalid pages may be selected as a victim block. However, in a three-dimensional nonvolatile memory device, where cell strings are formed in a direction perpendicular to a substrate, various characteristics of a fabrication process makes it difficult to obtain reliability upon storing data. Thus, garbage collection may be executed differently in a three-dimensional nonvolatile memory device.
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The present invention is directed to low calorie fat substitutes. More specifically, it is directed to an emulsion containing protein, fat and carbohydrate which is useful as a low calorie fat substitute.
In today's health conscious society, there is a growing demand for low calorie foods. Excess body weight not only creates a feeling of low self-confidence in social situations but also has been shown to contribute to the impairment of the cardiovascular function of the individual. Moreover, the reduction of the physical performance capacity of the individual is another consequence of excess body weight.
Many approaches have been suggested to control excess body weight. The use of chemical appetite suppressors and appetite inhibitors is a well known approach but these chemical agents are often unsafe for long term use and/or have undesirable side effects. Moreover, they are usually available only through a physician's prescription.
Low-calorie foods have also been widely advocated as a diet regimen to control excess body weight. Such low-calorie foods include low-calorie spreads, which are typically water-in-oil (w/o) emulsions; and low calorie sauces, such as salad dressings and mayonnaise, which are typically oil-in-water emulsions.
One other approach generally undertaken in the production of low-calorie foods is to increase the protein content, thereby decreasing the fat content. This approach is referred to in a number of United States Patents.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,642,492, 3,644,326, 3,689,288, 3,708,307, 4,057,655, 3,723,407, 4,058,510, 4,079,154, 4,089,987, 4,091,116, 4,104,413, 4,113,716, 4,125,630, 4,140,808, 3,892,873, 3,899,605, 3,800,052, 3,798,339, 3,852,503, 3,853,839, 3,843,828, 3,842,062, 3,829,592, 3,865,956, 3,870,811, 3,873,751, 3,922,375, 3,930,039, 3,935,323, 3,969,534, 4,147,810, 4,307,118, 3,793,464, 3,642,490, 3,642,493, 3,914,435, 3,930,056, 4,072,610, 4,031,261, 3,757,005, 3,978,243, 3,982,039, 4,007,283, 4,018,752, 4,029,825, 4,137,329, 4,186,218, 4,194,018, 4,103,038, 4,031,267, 4,275,084, 4,271,201, 4,169,160, 4,183,970, 4,188,141, 4,194,019, 4,205,904, 4,325,977, 4,333,958, 4,143,174, 4,376,133, 4,486,345, 4,497,836, 4,560,454, 4,279,939, 4,340,612, 4,293,571, 4,362,761, 4,267,100, 4,265,924, 4,260,636, 4,259,361, 4,251,562, 4,248,895, 4,247,566, 4,218,940, and 4,230,738 all refer to the use of vegetable, animal, egg, and/or milk proteins in various compositions as well as referring to various processes for the formation of these compositions and/or improved processes for extraction and treatment of vegetable, egg, animal and/or milk proteins.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,690 refers to acidified imitation dairy foods comprising a fat, milk solids, or an edible protein, water or milk, an edible emulsifier, and a mixture of a Xanthomonas colloid and locust bean gum.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,778 refers to a low calorie spreadable food product containing the additive formed by extracting soybean protein, acidifying and then precipitating the extracted protein.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,892 refers to a method for making a low calorie cream cheese product comprising providing a mixture of water and cottage cheese curd, adding a fat source to the mixture to provide a substrate and adding non-fat milk solids to the substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,964 refers to an artificial cream-type food product having a continuous liquid aqueous phase comprising a dispersed oil phase and gelled water beads.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,503 refers to a food containing a whey colloidal precipitate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,893 refers to a acidified whole milk beverage containing locust bean gum as a stabilizer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,970 refers to a water in oil emulsion (w/o) comprising a continuous fatty phase, a dispersed liquid aqueous phase and dispersed, gelled, aqueous spherical ingredients.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,175 refers to an imitation cream cheese product containing milk, milk-fats and dry cottage cheese curd.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,825 refers to a low fat spread containing a dispersed phase consisting of a cream comprising water and oil, a thickening agent and heat denatured whey protein as an emulsion stabilizer and a continuous fat phase.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,832 refers to a stabilized dressing containing acetic acid in combination with a buffering salt.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,835 refers to a base thickener comprising a mixture of glutamic acid and acetic or citric acid.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,983 refers to a process for making a low fat imitation cream cheese by adding dry cottage cheese curd.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,370 refers to a process for the production of microencapsulated lipids in proteinaceous matter.
Existing fat substitute technologies focus on the mouthfeel of foods, substituting viscosifying agents to mimic the rheology of foods rich in oils and fats. The quality of low fat foods is generally poor, being easily distinguishable from that of full fat foods. For example, in taste panel comparison of full-fat with low fat mayonnaise, the initial flavor of both is pleasant but the rich texture and mouthfeel is virtually absent from the low-fat mayonnaise. The lack of a rich mouthfeel is viewed quite negatively in taste panel testing. The most frequent comments describing this effect are "watery, weak or flat". As a result, the low-fat mayonnaise is considered to be distinctly inferior to the full-fat mayonnaise. To reduce the fat content of their diets, consumers appear to be willing to sacrifice the richness of full fat foods for the health benefits of texturally inferior low-fat products. Development of a fat substitute that possesses a rich aftertaste is perceived as a major need in the improvement of low-fat foods.
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Typical prior art videoconferencing systems fall into one of two categories: those where the intelligence is centralized in the coder-decoder (codec) or a system control unit; and those where the intelligence is distributed so that each peripheral device controller has the intelligence necessary to directly control other peripheral devices in the system. One shortcoming of centralized intelligence systems is that such systems are not readily adaptable to accommodate new devices and new versions of existing devices. The addition of another peripheral device beyond the number originally planned for, or the addition of a new type of peripheral device, can require a substantial investment in time and money to accommodate the desired additional device or new device. Furthermore, most centralized intelligence systems have a limited capacity with respect to the number of ports available to connect to peripheral devices. Once this capacity has been reached, new devices can be added only by removing existing devices, such as lesser used devices, or by obtaining another codec or system controller which can accommodate the increased number of devices.
Distributed intelligence systems, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,627 to Corey, have the shortcoming in that each peripheral device controller must have the intelligence necessary to control every type of peripheral device connected to the network, and every additional peripheral device must have a peripheral device controller which has the intelligence necessary to control all the existing devices on the network. Therefore, the addition of a new type of peripheral device requires new programming to be provided for each of the existing peripheral device controllers, and requires programming of the controller for the new type of device to accommodate the existing peripheral devices.
Therefore, there is a need for a videoconferencing system which can readily accommodate both additional peripheral devices and new types of peripheral devices.
Positioning of video cameras is required for videoconferencing as well as for a number of other activities, such as surveillance. The terms pan, tilt, zoom and focus are industry standards which define the four major axes for which a camera may be adjusted. Traditional camera positioning provides for manual adjustment of these axes, as well as buttons which provide for automatically positioning the camera to a preset location. A preset function recalls the pan, tilt, zoom and focus settings that have been previously ascertained and stored for that preset location.
Traditional videoconferencing systems provide for rather rudimentary control of these camera functions. That is, the user has a control panel for manually controlling camera functions, such as buttons for up/down, left/right, zoom in/out, and focus. The user can also typically select one of several preset camera settings so that, by the press of a single button, the camera will automatically position and focus itself at some preselected target. Of course, the preset function requires planning because the camera must be manually adjusted for the preset, and then the settings stored. The preset button then merely recalls these settings and adjusts the camera accordingly. If a location has not been preset then the user must manually adjust the pan, tilt, zoom, and focus settings for that location.
However, these controls are not intuitively obvious or easy to use, partly because the user may think that the camera should pan in one direction to center an object whereas, because of the position of the camera with respect to the user and the object, which object may be the user, the camera should actually move in the opposite direction. For example, the user typically sits at a table and faces the camera, and beside the camera is a monitor screen which allows the user to see the picture that the camera is capturing. If the user is centered in the picture, and wishes the camera to center on his right shoulder, the user may think that he wants the camera to pan left because, on the screen as seen by the user, the user's right shoulder is to the left of the user's center. However, the camera should actually pan to the right because, from the camera's viewpoint, the user's right shoulder is to the right of the user's center.
Also, current manual camera positioning techniques typically use a fixed motor speed. This results in the panning being too rapid and the scene flying by when the camera is zoomed in on an object, or in the panning being too slow and the scene taking a prolonged time to change to the desired location when the camera is in a wide field of view setting (zoomed out).
Furthermore, in traditional videoconferencing systems, when the camera is moving from to a preset location the pan and tilt systems move at the same rate. If the required pan movement is different than the required tilt movement then the camera will have completed its movement along one axis before it has completed its movement along the other axis. This makes the camera movement appear to be jerky and unnatural.
After the user has completed the process of changing the camera position the user may have to refocus the camera. As chance would have it, the first attempt to refocus the camera usually is in the wrong direction. That is, the user inadvertently defocuses the camera. The learning process is short, but the need to focus creates delays and frustration.
When the system has multiple cameras which are subject to control by the user, typical systems require the user to use buttons on the control keyboard to manually select the camera to be controlled, and/or assigning separate keys to separate cameras. Frequently, the user will select the wrong camera, or adjust the wrong camera.
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The game of golf presents participants with a unique mixture of challenge and recreation. Overall, golf is widely embraced by the international population, and there is a continual desire to overcome the challenges inherent in the game thus increasing a golfer's enjoyment of the sport.
With an ever increasing population of golfers, professional and recreational alike, the sophistication of golf equipment has grown by leaps and bounds, all in an effort to simplify this difficult sport. Golf clubs have taken advantage of different materials, such as graphite, and shapes to increase power and accuracy. Golf balls are also now made from a multitude of materials offering a golfers improved distance and accuracy. Even golf apparel has changed to keep the golfer comfortable and allow the unrestricted movement of the golfer's body during a swing. Golf shoes too have seen an evolution over the life of the sport in material selection and design. The reason for this change in golf shoes can best be appreciated by first understanding a proper golf swing and then a review of at least partially advantageous golf shoes.
A proper golf swing requires a good foundation, stability and balance, each of which is made more difficult due to the great deal of rotational movement in the body of a golfer. Note that, the description of a golfer's swing is often described hereinafter for a right handed golfer. As will be appreciated, the principles of a golf swing operate similarly for a left handed golfer. At the beginning, a right-handed golfer's weight is evenly distributed between both sides of a golfer's body. During the backswing the golf club is swung back towards the foot furthest from the pin, the rear foot. As the golf club travels back towards the rear foot, the golfer's upper body begins to rotate and thus the club follows, sweeping up and out a generally circular path. This, in turn, causes a rotation of the hips (rear) which influences the rear leg and ultimately the rear foot. Looking down, the front portion of a golfer's rear foot is apt to rotate out, and the back portion of the rear foot is apt to rotate in, thus resulting in an overall clockwise (counter-clockwise for a left-handed golfer) rotation of the rear foot. The backswing continues until the club head reaches a desired point from which a downswing will impart a preferred force on the golf ball.
The golfer is now ready to begin the downswing during which the golf club will sweep out a similar circular path traversed through the backswing until it strikes the ball. As the golfer executes the downswing, the cleats of the golfer's shoes preferably brace the golfer. Unfortunately, however, known soft spike-type cleats provide only minimal bracing, as the cleats often times “roll over” or otherwise give as the torque of the golfer's body during a swing exerts forces thereon, as described further below.
During the follow through the golf club is carried forward and up causing a rotation in the upper body opposite the rotation of the backswing. During both the downswing and follow through weight is shifted towards the front leg. This action too causes a rotation in the front leg and ultimately the front foot. Looking down, the front portion of a golfer's front foot is apt to rotate out and the back portion of the front foot is apt to rotate in, thus resulting in an overall counterclockwise (clockwise for a left-handed golfer) rotation of the front foot.
Spikes in the bottom sole of a golf shoe preferably operate to improve traction during these swing movements. If the spikes are successful then a golfer may see improved distance and accuracy. Many attempts have been made at designing spikes to serve this purpose each with inherent advantages and disadvantages.
Originally, golf shoes were made with metal spikes attached to the bottom soles. These spikes provided an adequate brace against the different forces of each foot associated with a golf swing. However, extending substantially entirely orthogonally to the sole of the shoe, such spikes do little to counter the above-described rotational movement of the golfer's feet. Moreover, these metal spikes often leave spike marks behind causing excessive damage to the golf course, especially the greens. In fact, many golf courses have taken the step of banning golfers from using metal spikes on their shoes. Therefore, though providing generally adequate bracing capabilities, a great deal of effort has gone into developing alternative material spikes that provide improved bracing capabilities while minimizing the divots left behind.
Many attempts have been made at using rubber spikes in the bottom sole of a golf shoe. These spikes have provided some bracing capabilities, and are more green friendly, but generally lack stiffness. Specifically, as noted previously, such spikes have a tendency to “roll-over” during play, and therefore do not adequately counter rotational movement of a golfer's foot. Moreover, as a result, the spikes often break or fray and thus have to be replaced all too frequently.
As a golfer walks a golf course and the surrounding areas he encounters a multitude of surfaces; grass, sand, mud, rock, and cement, to name a few. Grass and mud often get caught in the spikes, especially as they roll over, thus causing the bracing provided by the shoes to be further compromised. With respect to harder surfaces, they have a tendency to wear down rubber spikes more quickly. For example, cement is likely the most damaging surface and it is often encountered when the golfer is entering and leaving the course.
Most of these spikes have a circular base with multiple barbs extending from the base to the ground. Often these barbs are placed peripherally around the outside edge of the circular base forming a spike. However, many of these spikes have blunt, bulky barbs that are unable to penetrate the plethora of surfaces encountered on a golf course. In sum, these spikes cannot provide adequate resistance to the rotational movement of a golfer's feet associated with a golf swing.
What is missing in the field of golf shoes and spikes is an apparatus which is appropriately designed to allow a golfer's shoe to engage one or more types of surfaces encountered on a golf course, provide improved bracing (e.g., minimize “roll over”), and resist and release appropriately in response to rotational movement of a golfer's feet during a golf swing, while also being readily retrofittable to most any golf shoe. Conventional plastic cleats especially fail against metal spikes in providing grip on wet grass, withered grass or slopes. The plastic cleats are known to be far more difficult to keep clean, which is a concern of golfers playing in adverse weather conditions. Some manufacturer's recognize this problem and supply special cleaning tools for keeping the spikes clean of debris. This invention relates generally to the field of golfing accessories and more specifically to a multipurpose golf accessory tool.
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Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter and Bulk Acoustic Resonator (BAR) are gaining more popularly for their performance benefits and are being utilized in the design of today's cutting-edge mobile devices and systems. However, due to manufacturing complexities, Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter and Bulk Acoustic Resonator (BAR) are fabricated as standalone devices. That is, the Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter and Bulk Acoustic Resonator (BAR) are not provided as integrated structures with other CMOS, BiCMOS, SiGe HBT, and/or passive devices, thus leading to higher manufacturing costs, and increased fabrication processing.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.
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The present invention relates to a new and distinctive soybean cultivar, designated 22170671. All publications cited in this application are herein incorporated by reference.
There are numerous steps in the development of any novel, desirable plant germplasm. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection of germplasm that possesses the traits to meet the program goals. The goal is to combine in a single cultivar an improved combination of desirable traits from the parental germplasm. These important traits may include, but are not limited to, higher seed yield, resistance to diseases and insects, better stems and roots, tolerance to drought and heat, altered fatty acid profile, abiotic stress tolerance, improvements in compositional traits, and better agronomic quality.
These processes, which lead to the final step of marketing and distribution, can take from six to twelve years from the time the first cross is made. Therefore, development of new cultivars is a time-consuming process that requires precise forward planning, efficient use of resources, and a minimum of changes in direction.
Soybean (Glycine max), is an important and valuable field crop. Thus, a continuing goal of soybean plant breeding is to develop stable, high yielding soybean cultivars that are agronomically sound. The reasons for this goal are to maximize the amount of grain produced on the land used and to supply food for both animals and humans. To accomplish this goal, the soybean breeder must select and develop soybean plants that have the traits that result in superior varieties.
The soybean is the world's leading source of vegetable oil and protein meal. The oil extracted from soybeans is used for cooking oil, margarine, and salad dressings. Soybean oil is composed of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. It has a typical composition of 11% palmitic, 4% stearic, 25% oleic, 50% linoleic, and 9% linolenic fatty acid content (“Economic Implications of Modified Soybean Traits Summary Report,” Iowa Soybean Promotion Board and American Soybean Association Special Report 92S (May 1990)). Changes in fatty acid composition for improved oxidative stability and nutrition are constantly sought after. Industrial uses of soybean oil, which is subjected to further processing, include ingredients for paints, plastics, fibers, detergents, cosmetics, lubricants, and biodiesel fuel. Soybean oil may be split, inter-esterified, sulfurized, epoxidized, polymerized, ethoxylated, or cleaved. Designing and producing soybean oil derivatives with improved functionality and improved oliochemistry is a rapidly growing field. The typical mixture of triglycerides is usually split and separated into pure fatty acids, which are then combined with petroleum-derived alcohols or acids, nitrogen, sulfonates, chlorine, or with fatty alcohols derived from fats and oils to produce the desired type of oil or fat.
Soybeans are also used as a food source for both animals and humans. Soybeans are widely used as a source of protein for poultry, swine, and cattle feed. During processing of whole soybeans, the fibrous hull is removed and the oil is extracted. The remaining soybean meal is a combination of carbohydrates and approximately 50% protein.
For human consumption, soybean meal is made into soybean flour, which is processed to protein concentrates used for meat extenders or specialty pet foods. Production of edible protein ingredients from soybean offers a healthy, less expensive replacement for animal protein in meats, as well as dairy type products.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification.
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This invention relates to a screen-like photo ablum, particular to one linking the edges of each page in sequence, and placing its first and last pages between a hard front cover and hard back cover, to form a file-like or screen-like photo album to satisfy different purposes.
Heretofore, many photo albums have been produced and sold on the market. They are traditionally formed as a file, that is, only for collecting photographs. However, collecting photographs systematically is often necessary for different topics, such as marriage or travelling. Traditional photo albums cannot emphasize the series of each topic and do not let a number of people look at the photographs at the same time. If each page of a traditional album is framed and shown individually, it would be very complicated and expensive.
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I. Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates generally to standard cell circuits, and particularly to reducing area of standard cell circuits.
II. Background
Processor-based computer systems can include a vast array of integrated circuits (ICs). Each IC has a complex layout design comprised of multiple IC devices. Standard cell circuits are often employed to assist in making the design of ICs less complex and more manageable. In particular, standard cell circuits provide a designer with pre-designed cells corresponding to commonly used IC devices that conform to specific design rules of a chosen technology. As non-limiting examples, standard cell circuits may include gates, inverters, multiplexers, and adders. Using standard cell circuits enables a designer to create ICs having consistent layout designs, thereby creating a more uniform and less complex layout design across multiple ICs, as compared to custom designing each circuit.
Conventional standard cell circuits are fabricated using process technologies that form device elements with a pre-defined technology node size. For example, a process technology may be employed to fabricate a conventional standard cell circuit with device elements approximately fourteen (14) nanometers or ten (10) nm wide. Process technologies continue to enable decreased technology node size, which allows a higher number of device elements, such as transistors, to be disposed in less area within a circuit. As technology node size scales down, metal lines within a conventional standard cell circuit also scale down to reduce the overall area of a conventional standard cell circuit. For example, as the technology node size is reduced, metal lines disposed in both an x-coordinate and y-coordinate direction may be scaled down by approximately thirty percent (30%) such that the conventional standard cell circuit has a scaling factor of approximately 0.7 in each direction. The total scaling factor of the conventional standard cell circuit is approximately equal to fifty percent (50%) (i.e., 0.7 in the x-coordinate direction×0.7 in the y-coordinate direction=49%, approximately 50%). Therefore, a conventional standard cell circuit can achieve an area reduction of approximately 50% in response to a scaled down technology node size.
However, as the technology node size scales down to ten (10) nm and below, metal lines within a conventional standard cell circuit cannot continue to scale by 30% percent due to gate pitch and metal pitch limitations. Thus, conventional standard cell circuits cannot achieve a desired area reduction of approximately 50% at technology node sizes of 10 nm or less.
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Upon printing (copying) a plurality of pages, a trial print (trial copy) function which trial-prints some pages prior to main print processing and starts print processing after it is confirmed if the user wants to start, cancel, change, or the like the main print processing is known (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-208298). In terms of the nature of the trial print function, the printing operation of a job to be processed by this function is paused when the user confirms the trial print result or changes the job after confirmation.
Upon printing a secure document, a secure print function which requires authentication to output and allows to output at an arbitrary timing so as to prevent information from leaking to a third party when print processing starts at a position beyond eyeshot is known (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-341361).
The two functions, i.e., the trial print and secure print functions are independent functions, and have no relevance to each other. A job (secure job) which requires authentication to output, and a job (non-secure job) which does not require any authentication to output have a feature in that although they require different control processes before the beginning of execution, their control processes have no difference after their print processes start in practice. For this reason, upon executing the trial print processing of a secure job, when the owner of that secure job leaves from an image forming apparatus main body for the purpose of replenishing paper sheets for the main print processing, toner, or the like after the job is interrupted, a third party may manipulate the secure job which has undergone the trial print processing and waits for post-processing. Hence, the main print operation of the secure job may be executed, and the document security may not be protected.
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Presently, the video terminal is a standard piece of equipment in the office enviroment. However, most video terminals are ergonomically unsatisfactory for video terminal operators. One reason is that there is usually not enough vertical work surface available to the operator to display materials that the operator needs to use or refer to. Such materials may include copy paper containing information to be transcribed into the computer, information regarding use of the computer, schedules, etc.
As a result, a variety of devices have been proposed to increase the vertical work surface associated with a video terminal. However, for a variety of reasons these prior art devices have proven unsatisfactory. U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,565 (Bachman) discloses one example of an adjustable display apparatus which fits about and is affixed to the housing of a computer monitor screen. The display apparatus disclosed therein has an adjustable top which allows it to be fitted onto different sized monitor screens. The display apparatus also includes two display boards to which a user can affix notes or other materials. The display boards are mounted along the sides of the monitor screen. The positions of these display boards are not adjustable and they are at all times parallel to the face of the monitor screen. Thus, no provision is made to reduce glare or maximize the comfort of the user by adjusting the positions of the display boards. Furthermore, the accessory of this patent does not include any special lighting fixtures for illuminating the materials held on the display boards at a desired predetermined illumination level.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,429 (Mazza) discloses an accessory which attaches to a computer monitor and includes display boards which are adjustable relative to the face of the monitor screen. This accessory includes a harness assembly by means of which the accessory is strapped to the monitor. The adjustment mechanism for the display boards of this accessory is a rather complicated structure. Although this accessory permits some swivelling adjustment of the display boards, the overall structure of this accessory is quite cumbersome and it is difficult to use. Clearly, such an accessory would not find practical use in most offices. Furthermore, this accessory also does not include any special lighting fixtures for illuminating the materials mounted on the display board at a desired predetermined illumination level.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,471 (Visnapuu) discloses a computer accessory comprising a display framing panel and at least one display board which extends from a side of the display framing panel. The display framing panel fits over the front surface of the monitor screen and includes a window through which the screen may be viewed. The display board may be made integral with the display framing panel, or may be attached by means of hinges which allow pivotal angular adjustment of the display board relative to the display framing panel. While this accessory does provide for limited pivoting action, it too is a cumbersome piece of equipment, not especially well-suited for most offices. It too does not include any special lighting fixtures for illuminating materials mounted on the display board.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,078 (Judd) discloses an accessory which is mounted by means of Velcro strips onto the corner of a monitor screen. This accessory includes a swingable display board. However, the accessory of this patent does not permit any out-of-plane rotation of the display board. Furthermore, this accessory also does not include any special lighting fixture attached to the display board for illuminating the materials thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,705 (Henneberg et al) discloses yet another accessory for a computer monitor. The document holder of this patent is attached by a ribbon-like easel bracket which fits in an annular groove of the display terminal cover. The document holder of this accessory is not adjustable relative to the easel bracket and no lighting fixtures are attached to the display board.
Other accessories which include display boards designed to be attached to a computer monitor screen include those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,693,443 (Drain); 4,747,572 (Weber); 4,767,093 (Jones); 4,836,489 (Chu); and 4,934,648 (Yueh). The accessories of these latter patents consist primarily of clips for holding copy paper, which clips are attached by one means or other to a computer monitor. None of these accessories includes a display board or a separate illuminating mechanism for illuminating the materials held on a display board.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple video terminal accessory for increasing the available vertical work surface and comprising at least one display board which is adjustable in a number of different directions to reduce glare and maximize comfort, and which also has a lighting fixture attached to it for illuminating any materials held on the display board to a predetermined desired level of illumination.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a sharps waste management system and specifically to apparatus for receiving, storing and disposing of sharps medical waste. The medical waste may include sharp objects, such as hypodermic needles or disposable hypodermic syringes. The medical waste may include infectious or hazardous material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The reception, storage and disposal of sharps medical waste is a problem which exists in hospitals and other medical facilities. This waste may take a number of different forms. For example, the types of waste may range from glass vials and microscope slides to scalpels and syringes which are considered both hazardous and infectious. Small amounts of hazardous chemicals may also be contained.
In the prior art, containers have been provided to receive and store the various types of medical waste prior to collection and disposal. For example, semi-rigid containers have been used to receive and store sharp implements such as hypodermic syringes and chemical waste and with these semi-rigid containers being periodically collected for disposal. In general, the reception, storage and disposal of this hazardous/infectious medical waste has been somewhat haphazard since no complete sharps waste management system has been used to organize the reception, storage and disposal of the waste and to thereby maintain a safe orderly handling of the waste.
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An inverse problem is a general framework that is used to convert observed measurements into information about a physical object or system. Inverse problems arise in many fields including computer vision, natural language processing, machine learning, statistics, statistical inference, geophysics, medical imaging, remote sensing, ocean acoustic tomography, nondestructive testing, astronomy, physics, etc. In many cases, the observed measurements are obtained with noise, which should be considered during signal reconstruction.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of soybean breeding. In particular, the invention relates to the novel soybean variety XB40U13.
2. Description of Related Art
There are numerous steps in the development of any novel, desirable plant germplasm. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection of germplasm that possess the traits to meet the program goals. The goal is to combine in a single variety an improved combination of desirable traits from the parental germplasm. These important traits may include higher seed yield, resistance to diseases and insects, better stems and roots, tolerance to drought and heat, better agronomic quality, resistance to herbicides, and improvements in compositional traits.
Soybean, Glycine max (L.), is a valuable field crop. Thus, a continuing goal of plant breeders is to develop stable, high yielding soybean varieties that are agronomically sound. The reasons for this goal are to maximize the amount of grain produced on the land used and to supply food for both animals and humans. To accomplish this goal, the soybean breeder must select and develop soybean plants that have the traits that result in superior varieties.
The oil extracted from soybeans is widely used in food products, such as margarine, cooking oil, and salad dressings. Soybean oil is composed of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, with a typical composition of 11% palmitic, 4% stearic, 25% oleic, 50% linoleic, and 9% linolenic fatty acid content (“Economic Implications of Modified Soybean Traits Summary Report,” Iowa Soybean Promotion Board & American Soybean Association Special Report 92S, May 1990).
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1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to the field of radar systems for motor vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicle safety systems can generally be categorized as either crash protection systems or accident avoidance systems. Crash protection safety systems can minimize the effects of an accident, but an effective accident avoidance system can allow a driver to avoid an accident altogether. This is the basic philosophy that makes automotive radar so attractive as a potential accident avoidance system. Radar systems are particularly suited to backup warning systems that warn the driver that the vehicle is about to back into an object such as a child or another vehicle. Radar systems are also particularly suited to side-object warning systems (also known as blind-spot warning systems) that warn the driver not to change lanes because another vehicle is in the region known as the driver""s xe2x80x9cblind-spotxe2x80x9d or side-object region. The left side-object region is typically slightly behind and to the left of the driver""s vehicle. The right side-object region is typically slightly behind and to the right of the driver""s vehicle. Many lane-change collisions occur because a driver of a first vehicle desiring to change lanes does not see a second vehicle in an adjacent lane, especially when the front bumper of the second vehicle is beside the rear portion of the first vehicle.
Yet, in spite of the obvious desirability, and decades of research, automotive warning radars have not been widely used. To date, automotive radar warning systems have been either too primitive to provide useful information to the driver, or too expensive. Many vehicle radar warning systems in the prior art merely detect the presence of a target, any target, without providing the driver with any information as to the nature or location of the target. One target characteristic of great importance is the distance from the radar to the target (the downrange distance). Many of the simple, inexpensive, radars proposed for automotive use provided no downrange, information. Those radars that do provide downrange information typically do not provide accurate downrange information for multiple targets because the radars cannot discriminate between multiple targets. Radars that do attempt to discriminate between multiple targets are generally too costly for most drivers to afford.
The simplest automotive radar systems use a Continuous Wave (CW) radar in which a transmitter continuously transmits energy at a single frequency. The transmitted energy is reflected by a target object and received by the radar receiver. The received signal is Doppler shifted by movement of the target object relative to the radar. The CW receiver filters out any returns without a Doppler shift (i.e., targets which are not moving with respect to the radar), When the receiver detects the presence of a Doppler shifted signal, the receiver sends a signal to a warning device that warns the driver. Unfortunately, this type of radar provides no downrange information, and so the driver does not know how close the object is to the vehicle.
Another type of radar found in prior art radar warning systems is a two-frequency CW radar. The two-frequency CW radar transmits energy at a first frequency and a second frequency. The transmitted energy is reflected by a target object and received by a two-frequency CW receiver. The receiver measures the difference between the phase of the signal received at the first frequency and the phase of the signal received at the second frequency. The distance to the target object can be calculated from the measured phase difference. Unfortunately, the two-frequency CW radar performs poorly when there are multiple targets within the field of view of the radar. The simple two frequency system cannot discriminate between two targets at different ranges and thus, the range measurements obtained from a two frequency CW system in the presence of multiple targets is unreliable.
Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radars have also been used in automotive applications, especially for forward looking systems such as automatic braking and automated cruise control. In an FMCW radar, the frequency of the transmitted signal is swept over time from a starting frequency to an ending frequency. The transmitted signal is reflected by a target and received by the FMCW receiver. The signal received by the receiver is delayed in time according to the travel time of an electromagnetic wave from the transmitter, to the target, and back to the receiver. Since the frequency of the transmitted signal is being varied over time, at any instant in time the frequency of the received signal will be slightly different than the frequency of the transmitted signal. In the absence of Doppler shifting, the distance to the target can be calculated by comparing the frequency of the received signal to the frequency of the transmitted signal. The presence of Doppler shifting will shift the frequency of the received signal and make the target appear to be closer or further away than it actually is.
UltraWideband (UWB) impulse radars have also been proposed for use in vehicle warning systems. However, UWB radars are undesirable because these radars transmit energy over very wide bandwidths and create electromagnetic interference which can interfere with other radio frequency systems such as broadcast radio, television, cellular phones, etc. UWB radars must operate at very low power in order to avoid violating rules promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In addition, UWB radars require antennas that can be used with the very broadband signals transmitted and received by the radar. These very broad band antennas can be difficult to design and build.
Additional problems arise when mounting backup warning radars to large trucks, delivery vans, construction vehicles, and semi-trailers, etc. (collectively xe2x80x9ctrucksxe2x80x9d). Existing backup warning systems and lane-change aids for trucks are expensive and difficult to retrofit into existing truck fleets. Installation of the radar units requires skilled personnel and several hours to install. Existing systems have sensors that must be carefully oriented in order to have the correct field of view. Moreover, signal wires must be run from the radar sensors on the back of the truck to the driver interface in the cab of the truck. For trailers and semi-trailers, these signal wires require the installation of a connector between the tractor and the trailer. This may be especially problematic when the owner of a large fleet of trucks desires to upgrade some or all of the fleet with backup warning radars.
The present invention solves these and other problems by providing a radar system that can track and discriminate multiple Doppler shifted targets while using a transmitted signal which can be adapted to fit within the radar bands allocated by the FCC. The radar can provide crossrange and downrange information on multiple targets and is not confused by the presence of Doppler shifting. The radar is simple to build, low in cost, and is well suited to vehicular applications. The radar system is particularly suited to backup warning systems and side-object warning systems in which the driver of a vehicle needs to be warned of an impending collision with an object which is out of the driver""s immediate field of view. The present radar minimizes many of the problems found in the prior art by transmitting a pulsed carrier frequency and using a receiver with programmable delays and programmable gain.
The receiver uses a range search algorithm to detect and sort targets at various ranges within the field of view of the radar. Each target range corresponds to a particular delay and gain setting. For each target range, the search algorithm sets the proper time delay and gain setting. Targets within the selected range are detected and catalogued. A display is used to warn the operator of the vehicle of the presence of targets at the various ranges. The warning may be visual and/or audible. Crossrange information is obtained by using multiple radar sensors. Each radar sensor detects targets in a different region around the vehicle. In some embodiments, these regions overlap such that a target may be detected by more than one radar sensor. In one embodiment, the radar is designed to ignore objects, which are stationary with respect to the radar (i.e., targets without Doppler shift). Stationary targets, such as reflections from other parts of the vehicle on which the radar is mounted, usually represent little risk of collision and thus are desirably ignored.
The present radar system may be used inside the passenger compartment of a vehicle to detect the presence, size, position, velocity, and/or acceleration of passengers or other objects within the vehicle. Such information can be used, for example, in an intelligent airbag deployment system. The radar may also be used inside the passenger compartment to as part of a throttle position sensing system, which detects the throttle position by detecting the location of a portion of the mechanical throttle linkage, such as, for example, the location of the xe2x80x9cgas pedal.xe2x80x9d In a similar fashion, the radar may also be used to detect the position of the brake pedal, seats, etc.
The radar may be used outside the passenger compartment to detect objects behind the vehicle, beside the vehicle, in front of the vehicle, etc. The radar may be used as part of an active suspension system. In one embodiment, the radar may be used to measure the height of the vehicle above the road surface. The radar may also be used to detect the position, velocity, and acceleration of portions of the vehicle suspension system. The radar may also be used to detect anomalies or changes in the road surface. Such anomalies include changes in surface texture, holes (e.g., xe2x80x9cpot-holesxe2x80x9d), etc. Information on road surface anomalies may be supplied to the driver, to an active suspension system, etc.
In one embodiment, several intelligent radar sensors are placed in and around the vehicle and each radar sensor is connected to a vehicle information bus. Each radar sensor measures targets within its field of view and broadcasts the radar target information to the vehicle information bus. Other vehicle systems, such as, for example, display units, suspension units, airbag units, etc. are also connected to the information bus. These other vehicle systems receive the radar target information and use the information to improve the operation, safety, and/or convenience of the vehicle.
The radar sensor may further compute a time to impact based on a downrange distance to a target and a relative velocity between the target and the radar sensor. The radar may provide a field of view that corresponds approximately to the side-object region can be used as both a collision avoidance system and a lane-change aid.
In yet another embodiment, the radar may include an audible warning device configured to project an audible warning signal which varies according to the downrange distance of the closest target, or the relative velocity between the radar and a target, or the time to impact between the radar and a target.
Yet another embodiment of the present invention is an intelligent display for providing information to a driver of a vehicle. The intelligent display includes a sensory display, such as an audible or visual display, and a control processor. The control processor is configured to receive sensor information from a vehicle information bus. The sensor information includes data measured by one or more sensors, such as radar sensors, connected to the information bus. The control processor prioritizes the sensor information and formats the sensory display based on the sensor information.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the radar sensor may be integrated into a standard taillight housing assembly for a truck or trailer. Integrating the radar into the taillight housing greatly simplifies the mounting and maintenance problems associated with adding a backup warning system to trucks. The radar sensors for a backup warning system, and/or radar sensors for a lane-change aid may be integrated into one or more of the taillights. In some embodiments, a backup warning radar sensor in the integrated radar-taillight assembly draws power from the power supplied to the reverse light. In another embodiment, the radar sensor in a lane-change aid draws power from the power supplied to a signal light.
In some embodiments, the radar sensor in the integrated radar-taillight assembly communicates with a central control unit by using current-carrier networking. In current carrier networking, the data is modulated onto an alternating current carrier, which is then coupled onto the standard 12 volt or 24 volt direct current (DC) wiring found in the truck. In this manner, the integrated radar-taillight assembly can easily be installed on a trailer or semi-trailer in only a few moments time, by a relatively unskilled worker. Moreover, since the current-carrier network uses the existing wiring, a communication link between the radar sensor and a central control unit is easily provided without extensive modifications or additional wiring in the truck or trailer. A control unit in the cab (or tractor) couples to the taillight wiring in order to communicate with the radar sensor in the remote radar-taillight assembly. The control unit can coordinate the operation of several radar-taillight assemblies and operate an audio-visual display for the driver.
The integrated radar-taillight assembly does not require special purpose mounting, but rather, can use the existing taillight mounting locations. The existing mounting locations are usually provided in relatively protected locations and are available on virtually all trucks. Moreover, the mounting locations are desirably wired for power to service the existing taillights. Hiding the radar sensor in the taillight assembly also helps to prevent theft and vandalism.
Tractors are often used with multiple trailers. Thus, in some embodiments, the driver interface in the cab provides different types of data depending upon the type of sensor installed in the trailer. For example, the maximum downrange distance or the boundaries of the range gates may desirably be different in a trailer that is typically backed up to a dock as compared to a trailer that typically is unloaded at a ramp.
The current-carrier network provides a single control unit interface to one or more radar sensors. Many types of sensors may transmit display commands to the driver interface. For example, a tractor may be connected to a trailer having only a backup warning system, a tractor having only a lane-change aid system, or a trailer having both. In each case, the central control unit and the user display in the cab will adapt to, and show data based on, the available sensors.
An optical sensor or a current sensor may be provided in the integrated radar-taillight assembly to warn the driver that one or more of the taillights have failed (e.g., burned out).
In yet another embodiment, the radar-taillight assembly uses an array of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in lieu of the more traditional incandescent bulb for the taillights. The LEDs are more reliable, longer lived, provide lower operating temperature, and are more compact than incandescent lamps. An array of LEDs provides considerable fault tolerance, since the failure of a few LEDs in an array will not seriously affect the amount of light produced by the array.
In one embodiment, manufacturability and stability of the radar system are improved by replacing analog processing with digital processing The amount of digital data is reduced by controlling the number of analog-to-digital conversions. Digital samples are produced during desired time periods corresponding to desired target ranges, and digital samples are not produced during other periods corresponding to other target ranges.
In one embodiment, the digital samples are produced in by using fast analog sampling followed by lowpass filtering and slow digital sampling. In another embodiment, the digital samples are produced by fast digital sampling and a digital detector in a Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The DSP processes the digital samples (corresponding to a desired target range) in response to a trigger pulse from a time delay. This reduces the amount of data that the DSP will have to process, thereby reducing the complexity and cost of the radar system. In yet another embodiment, an analog-to-digital converter produces digital samples from an intermediate frequency signal in response to a programmable time delay. The programmable time delay selects samples corresponding to a desired target range (e.g., a desired downrange). Yet another aspect of the invention is a lane-change aid system that detect objects (targets) in a driver""s blindspot to help the driver make lane-change maneuvers safer for all and less stressful for the driver. One or more lane-change radars detect targets in side-object regions of the vehicle. The radar sensor allows the lane-change system to distinguish between objects that are relatively close and objects that are relatively far away.
To further reduce false alarms, one embodiment of the lane change aid system uses the speed of the vehicle to determine a maximum target distance for audible alarms. For a given vehicle speed, if a target is detected outside the maximum distance for that given speed, then no audible alarm is issued. Conversely, if a target is detected inside the maximum distance for a given speed, then an audible alarm is issued. In one embodiment, an alarm is issued when an object is detected on the left side of the vehicle and the left turn signal is activated. Similarly, an alarm is issued when an object is detected on the right side of the vehicle and the right turn signal is activated
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This invention relates to material mixing or blender devices for use in various industries, and more particularly to such apparatus as intended for use in solid-solids or liquid-solids blending operations.
In the prior art, various type mixers or blenders have been developed for use in blending solid-solids or liquids-solids to achieve dry or wet blends of materials. These prior art mixers and blenders have comprised variously shaped tumbler devices with or without internal baffles, agitators, intensifiers or the like and as liquid dispersion or attrition bars.
One such prior art blender is known as a cone or double cone blender. This blender derives its name from its shape and comprises a vertical cylinder with conical ends which rotate about a horizontal axis. The double cone blender suffers from the disadvantage of symmetrical flow pattern with maximum flow at the center. This tends to fill the space mostly from the middle, leaving the material near the trunnion relatively unmixed. Consequently, excessively long mixing periods are required for blending because of poor axial flow of materials.
Another form of solid-solids blender known in the art is a ribbon blender. Such blender comprises a stationary trough-type shell fitted with longitudinal shaft on which are mounted arms supporting slender spiral ribbons. It is one of the oldest mechanical mixing devices used for solid-solids mixing. This blender is effectively used for low-density solids, materials that aerate readily and light pastes. It is not recommended for precision blending, abrasive materials, material that packs, or when frequent cleaning is required. It is also not suitable for dense materials because of excessive power requirements. Unmixed material tends to accumulate at ends and at shell wall because of blade clearance. Ribbon blenders also suffer from the disadvantage of poor axial flow of materials.
Still another form of blender is my twin shell blender developed in the late 1940's and patented July 4, 1950, under U.S. Pat. No. 2,514,126. This blender comprises two opposed simple cylinders formed into a "V". An outgrowth of the simple cylinder, the Twin-Shell overcomes discharge problems and creates additional mixing action at the center. This extra action is responsible for faster, more efficient blending action than produced by a single cylinder and relies for its primary mixing action due to intermeshing of solids at the center line.
These and various other forms of blenders are illustrated and described in Patterson-Kelley Company, Division of Taylor Wharton Co.-Harsco Corporation Bulletin PED-2, "Patterns of Precision in Processing Equipment", Copyright 1975.
The devices of the prior art have been efficient only to limited degrees for the purposes intended, especially when operating upon differently sized materials or materials of substantially different specific gravities. The ideal blender for handling solid particles would have a number of desirable qualities in perfect balance. Most important are efficient mixing action, gentle mixing action, optional intensive mixing, dust-tight operation, complete discharge, cleanability, low maintenance and installed costs.
I have unexpectedly found that these desirable qualities can be obtained in a modified twin shell blender which has been modified such that the blender is formed of two shells having unequal axial dimensions. This construction forces a cross flow pattern of materials during rotation of the shell about a horizontal axis which provides an unexpected synergistic mixing action and which dramatically reduces the mixing time over that normally experienced in conventional twin shell blenders.
It is believed that this synergistic mixing action is attributable to a substantial decrease in the static charge build-up that is normally developed from cross flow of particles and the ability to achieve full blend conditions with a minimum of work input. It is known, for example, that when mixing certain materials such as polymers and/or cosmetic powders, the surface properties of the particles effect spreading or cross flow and that these surface properties are affected by the work input or blend time. Too much work input can cause an uneven charge build-up on the particles. The net result is that a polarity condition develops which retards cross-flow. Cross flow of materials enhances the break down of this static charge condition and also minimizes its buildup. Thus, the forced effect of cross flow which minimizes mixing time also results in a lesser charge build-up which in turn further enhances cross-flow.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved rotating or "tumbler" type blending mill, comprising a casing structure of novel shape which when rotated produces an axial flow which is essential for attaining a precise blend.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved blending mill for the purposes aforesaid which is of structurally simple and rugged form, and which may be fabricated in accord with a novel and economical manufacturing procedure.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved blending mill for the purposes aforesaid which operates to provide improved efficiency and economy in material blending operations.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved tumbler type blending mill having a gentle mixing action and which enables precise blending of materials.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent from the specification which provides a detailed description of the invention, particularly when taken in connection with parts throughout the several views.
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Pinata breaking celebrations are quite popular in Mexico and in the Mexican communities of the southwestern United States. Pinatas are traditionally a pot or container ornamented with colorful paper and filled with candy, nuts, confetti and/or token gifts such as small toys and the like. The pinata is suspended above a party area and at the appropriate time, and with celebration, it is broken so that the treats are scattered among the guests who in turn can keep whatever they collect. The usual method of breaking the pinata is by beating it with a club or cane and this is either done by a blindfolded child who is the subject of the celebration or by several chidren in succession, each given a certain number of turns in which to break the pinata. Unfortunately, as a result of the enthusiasm of the guests in gathering close to the pinata so as to obtain a larger number of candies or gifts, it occasionally happens that a child is hit by the club or cane. Additionally, the traditional pinata is made of clay pottery and large falling fragments can cause injury to a young child. Modern pinatas are often made of papier mache, avoiding the dangers of cracked clay fragments, but such pinatas are generally more difficult to break requiring greater swings with the resultant danger from that aspect to the children.
The present invention provides a pinata which avoids the foregoing dangers. The pinata includes a bottom wall having an extended surface and side and top walls which cooperate with the bottom wall to define a substantially enclosed chamber whereby a plurality of small items such as candy, toys and the like may be carried in the chamber on the bottom wall. At least one line of weakness is formed through the extended surface of the bottom wall to enable at least a substantial portion of the bottom wall to break-away upon application thereto of a moderate force, a force which in the absence of the line of weakness would be insufficient to cause the bottom wall to break-away. Means are provided for suspending the pinata which, in one embodiment, comprises a suspension line through openings therefor in the top and bottom walls of the pinata and a retention member, larger than the bottom wall opening, secured to the suspension line exteriorly of the bottom wall. The suspension line and retention member hold the bottom wall in assembled relation with, but free of direct attachment to, said side and top walls, i.e., permitting the bottom wall to fall away when it breaks away. Upon successive pulls or jerks on the line, the candy and other treats in the pinata bounce down against the bottom wall until the bottom wall breaks along the line of weakness and spills the treats. In another embodiment, a pull line is connected to, and dependant from, the bottom wall whereby pulling of the line enables the bottom wall to directly break-away. With this embodiment, a plurality of decoy lines of like construction can be provided extending a like distance from the bottom wall whereby to disguise the identity of the pull line.
With respect to the first embodiment, the guest can be blindfolded and seek to find the suspension line to jerk the same and break-away the bottom wall. In the second embodiment, the guests can try to guess which of the many lines are decoy lines and which is the true pull line. In either case, a safe yet enjoyable and stimulating pinata is provided. It will also be appreciated that the only component which is broken from the pinata is the bottom wall. Therefore, one can utilize the pinata on many occasions with replacement required only for the bottom wall.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and, specifically to a structure for reducing current consumption in a semiconductor device including a logic gate consisting of CMOS transistors (complementary insulated gate type field effect transistors) without affecting operating characteristics thereof. More specifically, the present invention relates to a structure for reducing subthreshold current of a semiconductor memory device such as a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory).
2. Description of the Background Art
A CMOS circuit has been well known as a semiconductor circuit of which power consumption is extremely small.
FIG. 60 shows a structure of a general CMOS inverter. Referring to FIG. 60, the CMOS inverter includes a p channel MOS transistor (insulated gate type field effect transistor) PT provided between a power supply node 1900 receiving one operating power supply voltage Vcc and an output node 1901 and receiving at its gate an input signal IN; and an n channel MOS transistor NT provided between the other power supply node 1902 receiving the other operating power supply voltage Vss (generally, ground potential) and output node 1901 and receiving at its gate the input signal IN. There is a load capacitance C at output node 1901. When input signal IN is at a low level, p channel MOS transistor PT turns on, n channel MOS transistor NT turns off, load capacitance C is charged through p channel MOS transistor PT, and an output signal OUT attains to the power supply voltage level Vcc. When charging of the load capacitance C is completed, source and drain of p channel MOS transistor PT come to have the same potential, and thus the transistor PT turns off. Therefore, at this time, current does not flow, and power consumption is negligible.
When input signal IN is at a high level, p channel MOS transistor PT turns off, n channel MOS transistor NT turns on, and load capacitance C is discharged to the level of the other power supply potential Vss through n channel MOS transistor NT. When the discharge is completed, the source and drain of n channel MOS transistor NT come to have the same potential, and thus the transistor NT turns off. Therefore, in this state also, power consumption is negligible.
A drain current IL flowing through a MOS transistor can be represented by a function of a gate-source voltage of the MOS transistor. When the absolute value of the gate-source voltage becomes larger than the absolute value of the threshold voltage of an MOS transistor, a large drain current flows. Even when the absolute value of the gate-source voltage becomes not higher than that of absolute value of the threshold voltage, the drain current is not completely reduced to 0. This drain current flowing under such a voltage is referred to as subthreshold current which is exponentially proportional to the gate-source voltage.
FIG. 61 shows subthreshold current characteristic of an n channel MOS transistor. Referring to FIG. 61, the abscissa represents gate-source voltage VGS, and the ordinate represents logarithmic value of drain current IL. In FIG. 61, linear regions of lines I and II each represent the subthreshold current. The threshold voltage is defined as the gate-source voltage providing a prescribed current in this subthreshold current region. For example, in MOS transistor having the gate width (channel width) of 10 .mu.m, the gate-source voltage causing a drain current flow of 10 mA is defined as the threshold voltage. FIG. 61 represents the prescribed current I0 and the threshold voltages VT0 and VT1.
As the MOS transistor has been made smaller and smaller, the power supply voltage Vcc decreases in accordance with the scaling rule. Therefore, the absolute value Vth of the threshold voltage of the MOS transistor must be decreased similarly in accordance with the scaling rule in order to improve performance of the MOS transistor. In the CMOS inverter shown in FIG. 60, for example, assume that the power supply voltage Vcc is 5 V and the threshold voltage Vth of n channel MOS transistor NT is 1 V. When input signal IN changes from 0 V to a value larger than 1 V, a large drain current flow is generated, starting discharging of load capacitance C. On the other hand, when the power supply voltage Vcc is lowered to 3 V, for example, while maintaining the threshold voltage Vth at the same value, the load capacitance C can be discharged with large current only when the input signal IN exceeds 1 V to turn on the n channel MOS transistor NT. More specifically, when the power supply voltage Vcc is 5 V, discharge of capacitive load starts at 1/5 of the amplitude of the input signal IN. Meanwhile, when the power supply voltage Vcc is 3 V, discharge of capacitive load C starts at 1/3 of the amplitude of input signal IN. Namely, input/output response characteristic is degraded, and hence high speed operation cannot be ensured. Therefore, the absolute value Vth of the threshold voltage needs to be scaled similarly down as the power supply voltage. However, as shown in FIG. 61, when the threshold voltage VT1 is lowered to the threshold voltage VT0, the subthreshold current characteristic changes from that represented by the line I to that of the line II. Accordingly, the subthreshold current when the gate voltage is 0 V (Vss level) rises from IL1 to IL0, increasing current consumption. Thus, difficulty is encountered in scaling down the absolute value Vth of the threshold voltage in the similar manner as the power supply voltage and in realizing superior operating characteristics, especially high speed operation.
Structures for suppressing subthreshold current without degrading high speed operation characteristic have been disclosed in pages 47 and 48, and in pages 83 and 84 of 1993 Symposium on VLSI Circuit, Digest of Technical Papers, by Horiguchi et al. and Takashima et al., respectively.
FIG. 62 shows a structure of a power supply line disclosed by Horiguchi et al. in the above described article. FIG. 62 shows, as an example of a CMOS circuit, n cascade connected CMOS inverters f1 to fn. Each of inverters f1 to f4 has the same structure as that shown in FIG. 60.
In a path for supplying one operating power supply voltage, a first power supply line 1911 is connected to the first power supply node 1910 receiving power supply voltage Vcc, and a second power supply line 1912 is arranged parallel to the first power supply line 1911. First power supply line 1911 is connected to second power supply line 1912 by means of a high resistance Ra. Parallel to the resistance Ra, a p channel MOS transistor Q1 for selectively connecting first power supply line 1911 and second power supply line 1912 in response to a control signal .phi.c is provided. Between the first and second power supply lines 1911 and 1912, a capacitor Ca having a relatively large capacitance for stabilizing the potential of second power supply line 1912 is provided.
A transmission path of the other power supply voltage Vss (ground potential:0 V) includes a third power supply line 1921 connected to a second power supply node 1920 receiving the other power supply voltage (hereinafter simply referred to as the ground voltage) Vss, and a fourth power supply line 1922 arranged parallel to the third power supply line 1921. Between the third and fourth power supply lines 1921 and 1922, a high resistance Rb is provided, and parallel to the resistance Rb, there is provided an n channel MOS transistor Q2 for selectively connecting the third power supply line 1921 and the fourth power supply line 1922 in response to a control signal .phi.s. Between the third and fourth power supply lines 1921 and 1922, a capacitor Cb having large capacitance for stabilizing the potential of the fourth power supply line 1922 is provided.
Inverters f1, f3, . . . of odd-numbered stages have one operating power supply node (power supply node receiving a high potential) connected to first power supply line 1911 and the other power supply node (power supply node receiving a low potential) connected to fourth power supply line 1922. Inverters f2, . . . of even-numbered stages have one operating power supply node connected to second power supply line 1912 and the other power supply node connected to third power supply line 1921. The operation will be described.
In a DRAM, a signal state at a stand-by state can be predicted in advance. The state of an output signal is also predictable. In the structure shown in FIG. 62, input signal IN attains to the low level at the stand-by state and attains to the high level in an active cycle. In a stand-by cycle, control signal .phi.c is set to the high level, control signal .phi.s is set to the low level and MOS transistors Q1 and Q2 are both turned off. At this state, power supply lines 1911 and 1912 are connected through high resistance Ra, while power supply lines 1921 and 1922 are connected through high resistance Rb. The potential VCL of power supply line 1912 is EQU VCL=Vcc-Ia.multidot.Ra
while the voltage VSL of power supply line 1922 is EQU VSL=Vss+Ib.multidot.Rb
where Ia and Ib represent currents flowing through resistances Ra and Rb, respectively. It is assumed that input signal IN is at the ground potential level Vss. In inverter f1, p channel MOS transistor PT is on, charging the output node to the power supply potential Vcc level on power supply line 1911. Meanwhile, source potential (potential of power supply node 1920) of n channel MOS transistor NT is the intermediate potential VSL, and set at a potential level higher than the ground potential Vss. Therefore, the gate-source voltage of n channel MOS transistor NT becomes negative, the subthreshold current corresponds to the subthreshold current IL2 when the gate-source voltage is -VSL, and is smaller than the subthreshold current IL1 flowing when the potential at power supply node 1902 is at the ground potential Vss, as shown in FIG. 61.
The operating characteristics of the MOS transistor will be described in accordance with the line I shown in FIG. 61. As for the on/off state of n channel MOS transistor, the state where the gate-source voltage is higher than the threshold voltage is referred to as the on state, and the state where the gate-source voltage is smaller than the threshold voltage is referred to as the off state. The relation is reversed in a p channel MOS transistor.
In inverter f2, the input signal/IN (output signal from inverter f1) is at the high level of the power supply potential Vcc. Therefore, in inverter f2, p channel MOS transistor is off and n channel MOS transistor is on. The p channel MOS transistor has its source connected to power supply line 1912 receiving the voltage VCL. Therefore, in inverter f2, the gate potential of p channel MOS transistor is higher than the source potential, and as in the n channel MOS transistor, the subthreshold current is also suppressed. This also applies to inverters f3 to fn of the succeeding stages. Therefore, in the stand-by state, subthreshold current in inverters f1 to fn is suppressed, and the stand-by current can be reduced.
When an active cycle starts, control signal .phi.c is set to the low level and control signal .phi.s is set to the high level. MOS transistors Q1 and Q2 are both turned on. MOS transistors Q1 and Q2 have large channel width W, and are capable of supplying sufficient charging/discharging current to inverters f1 to fn. At this state, potentials of power supply lines 1912 and 1922 are at the levels of the power supply potential Vcc and the ground potential Vss, respectively. Therefore, in the active cycle, the output signal OUT is set to the established state in accordance with the input signal IN.
FIG. 63 shows signal waveforms of the circuit shown in FIG. 62 and current flowing through the power supply lines. Referring to FIG. 63, in the stand-by cycle, MOS transistors Q1 and Q2 are both off in response to signals .phi.s and .phi.c, and the voltage VCL on power supply line 1912 and the voltage VSL of power supply line 1922 are at intermediate potentials between power supply voltage Vcc and ground potential Vcc (0 V), respectively. At this stage, MOS transistors in the subthreshold region (MOS transistors which are off) of inverters f1 to f4 are set more strongly off, thus reducing subthreshold current.
However, in the active cycle, control signals .phi.s and .phi.c are set to the high level and low level, respectively, MOS transistors Q1 and Q2 are turned on, the voltage VCL on power supply line 1912 becomes equal to the power supply potential Vcc and voltage VSL on power supply line 1922 becomes equal to the ground potential Vss. At the start of an active cycle, the power supply current Icc (VCL charging current) flows for charging power supply line 1912 and when input signal IN changes subsequently, inverters f1 to fn operate in response, charging/discharging current is generated for changing the respective signal levels, and thus a relatively large operating current flows.
In the active cycle, the voltage VCL is set to be equal to power supply potential Vcc, while the power supply voltage VSL is set equal to the ground potential Vss. Therefore, in inverters f1 to f4, the gate potential and the source potential of a transistor which is off are equal to each other. Therefore, when an MOS transistor having small absolute value Vth of the threshold voltage is used, considerably large subthreshold current flows. Namely, in the active cycle, before and after the change of the input signal IN, a large subthreshold current (active DC current) flows, causing a problem of a large current consumption in the active cycle. Especially in a semiconductor memory device having large storage capacity such as a 1 giga bit DRAM, when the number of MOS transistors which are the components of the device is increased, total sum of the active DC current is too large to be negligible.
In transistors Q1 and Q2 (see FIG. 62) which are turned off in the standby cycle, subthreshold current flows in the stand-by cycle. When the absolute values of the threshold voltages of transistors Q1 and Q2 are increased so as to reduce the subthreshold current flowing through transistors Q1 and Q2 in the stand-by cycle, the time necessary for recovering the potentials of power supply lines 1912 and 1922 at the transition into the active cycle becomes longer from the reason which will be described in the following, causing the problem that the access time of the semiconductor memory device becomes longer.
More specifically, at the transition from the stand-by cycle to the active cycle, it takes long period of time for the transistors Q1 and Q2 to operate in the saturated region as the absolute value of the threshold voltage of the transistors Q1 and Q2 is high. Thus, the transistors operate in the nonsaturated region for a long period of time. Therefore, as compared with an example in which the threshold value of the MOS transistor is small, current drivability of transistors Q1 and Q2 at the transition from the stand-by cycle to the active cycle becomes smaller, retarding recovery of potentials on power supply lines 1921 and 1922. It is necessary that internal circuitry is activated after the potentials on power supply lines 1921 and 1922 becomes stable. This means that the start of operation of the internal circuitry is delayed, and in the case of a semiconductor memory device, the access time becomes longer.
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The present invention relates to content distribution in packet-switched networks.
Packet-switched networks, such as networks based on the TCP/IP protocol suite, can be utilized to distribute a rich array of digital content to a variety of different client applications. The most popular applications on the Internet today are browsing applications for searching the World Wide Web, e.g. Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, which utilize the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to retrieve documents written in the HyperText Markup language (HTML) along with embedded content. See, e.g., R. Fielding et al., “Hypertext Transfer Protocol—HTTP/1.1,” IETF Network Working Group, RFC 2616 (1999), which is incorporated by reference herein. Other protocols for delivering data such as streaming media across the Internet include the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP). See, e.g., H. Schulzrinne et al., “Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP),” IETF Network Working Group, RFC 2326 (April 1998), which is incorporated by reference herein. Resources on the Internet, such as HTML documents or multimedia content, are identified by Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). See, e.g., T. Berners-Lee et al., “Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax,” IETF Network Working Group, RFC 2396 (August 1998), which is incorporated by reference herein. URis can be expressed by a representation of their location-dependent network access mechanism, i.e. as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (e.g. “http://www.xyz.com/dir/document.html”), or by a persistent name referred to as a Uniform Resource Name (URN).
It is often advantageous when distributing content across a packet-switched network to divide the duty of answering content requests among a plurality of geographically dispersed servers. Companies such as Akamai Technologies, Digital Island, AT&T and Adero provide services—referred to in the are as “content distribution” services—utilizing architectures which dynamically redirect content requests to a cache advantageously situated closer to the client issuing the request. Such network architectures are referred to herein generically as “content distribution networks” or “CDNs” for short. In its simplest form, content distribution networks consist of origin servers and edge servers. Clients connect to edge servers to request content. Requested content may already be in the edge server that the client connect to (for example if all of the edges are pre-populated with all of the content), or the edge server in question might fetch the content from the origin server on-demand if it does not already have the requested content. These two extremes, namely complete pre-population of the edges and on-demand loading of the edges, is clearly suboptimal in terms of storage and latency respectively. This is particularly true in the case of high quality streaming content where storing all of the content in all of the edge servers will not be feasible. At the same time if say a particular large piece of digital content, e.g. a movie, is already at an edge server, a new client requesting the same movie might potentially be best served from the same edge server.
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Recently, the cell cultures with the purpose of the development of artificial organs and the development of regeneration medicine, safety evaluation, drugs and the like are noted and their techniques are variegated and have become more and more highly advanced. As an example, the co-culture method (coexistent culture) for culturing two or more kinds of cells on the same culture substrate can be mentioned.
Heretofore, cell culture has been conducted on a glass surface or on the surface of a synthetic polymer having been subjected to various treatments. For example, various vessels using polystyrene as the material which have been subjected to the treatment, for example, γ-ray irradiation and silicone coating are widespread as the cell culture vessels but none of them could sufficiently cope with various culture methods.
Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. Hei 6-104061/1994 describes a novel cell culture method comprising culturing cells on a cell culture substrate whose substrate surface has been coated with a polymer having an upper or lower critical solution temperature to water of 0 to 80° C. at a temperature of not higher than the upper critical solution temperature or not lower than the lower critical solution temperature, and then rendering the culture temperature a temperature of not lower than the upper critical solution temperature or not higher than the lower critical solution temperature to detach the cultured cells without treating with an enzyme. However, with the substrate illustrated herein, a temperature-responsive polymer is uniformly coated on the substrate surface, and accordingly all cultured cells on the substrate surface are detached, and this substrate could not fully cope with a wide variety of culture methods.
Further, it is very difficult to allow a plurality of kinds of cells to proliferate to effect co-culture by using the above described cell culture vessels. For example, co-culture (in consideration of the structure of the liver of the body of living) has been considered to be effective for the long-term culture of hepatocyte but it is impossible to effect the co-culture by simply mixing hepatocyte with fibroblasts or hepatocyte with endothelial cells.
Hepatocyte is by no means singly present in the liver. The liver is composed of a repetition of a fine structure of a so-called hepatic lobule which endothelial cells, stellate cells and the like in addition to the hepatocyte constitutes. Co-culture has been examined on the basis of the thought that hepatic nonparenchymal cells are important for the maintenance of the function of hepatocyte. Further, also from the observation that the hepatic differentiation function can be better maintained when hepatic nonparenchymal cells are included, the necessity of hepatic nonparenchymal cells are strongly suggested when the primary hepatocyte is incorporated into an artificial liver module. However, the method using conventional dishes realizes only an ultrashort-term co-culture alone and, in addition, except for the variation in the ratio of the number of both kinds of cells, a sufficient examination could not be done and the details could not be clarified.
Toner et al. fixed laminin in the form of a pattern on a silicone surface by irradiation with rays with the use of the photoresist technique [S. N. Bhatia, M. L. Yarmush and M. Toner, J. Biomed. Mater. Res., 34, 189-199 (1997)]. When hepatocyte was cultured on this surface, they attached only to the laminin-fixed domain to proliferate. Then, when fibroblasts were seeded, they attached on to the silicone domain due to their very high adhesion to achieve a co-culture system with the hepatocyte. However, any combination could not achieve the co-culture system, and the co-culture of hepatocyte with endothelial cells having not so high adhesion as that of fibroblast could not be achieved.
Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) No. Hei 4-94679/1992 developed the technology as illustrated in the above described Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. Hei 6-104061/1994 and described a method for culturing cells with the use of a substrate whose surface has been coated with a temperature-responsive polymer in the form of a pattern. However, the substrate as illustrated herein had weak cell affinity for its surface to which the temperature-responsive polymer had not attached, and was insufficient as the substrate for culturing a plurality of kinds of cells. As long as this substrate was used, it was impossible to detach an entire cell sheet extending over the substrate surface after the co-culture.
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1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a stacked assembly of an integrated device of a microelectromechanical type, referred to in what follows as MEMS (Micro-ElectroMechanical System).
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of integrated devices there is a desire for size reduction in order to meet the increasingly stringent requisites of miniaturization, in particular in the field of portable apparatuses.
As it is known, a MEMS integrated device in general comprises: a first body (usually defined as “die”) including semiconductor material (for example, silicon), integrating a micromechanical structure, operating for example, as a sensor for one or more quantities to be detected (for example, for providing an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, etc.) and generating an electrical quantity that is a function of the quantity to be detected (for example, a capacitive variation, a variation of electrical resistance, etc.); and at least one second die including semiconductor material (for example, silicon), integrating at least one electronic component or circuit, designed to be electrically coupled to the micromechanical structure so as to co-operate functionally therewith. Typically, the second die integrates an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit), electrically coupled to the micromechanical structure, having, for example, the function of reading the electrical quantity detected by the micromechanical structure, where the structure operates as a sensor (for example, for carrying out operations of amplification and filtering of the detected electrical quantity).
A covering structure, or cap, is moreover provided in the MEMS integrated device, mechanically coupled on top of the first die integrating the micromechanical structure, with functions of protection for the same micromechanical structure. When the micromechanical structure have moving elements, for example, a beam or a membrane, designed to undergo deformation as a function of the quantity to be detected, the covering structure may have at least one cavity, provided above the moving elements, so as to define an empty space that ensures the freedom of movement and does not alter deformation thereof. Moreover, an access duct may possibly be formed through the covering structure, where a fluid connection with the outside (for example, for entry of pressure waves or acoustic waves) is utilized.
A MEMS integrated device generally also includes a package, i.e., a container or housing that surrounds, totally or in part, the dice of the device, enabling electrical connection thereof from the outside. The assembly of the MEMS integrated device, within the corresponding package, is usually defined as “chip” and may, for example, be electrically connected to a printed circuit board of an electronic apparatus in which the MEMS integrated device is to be used.
For example, a known package structure, defined as “wafer-level package” or “substrate-level package”, envisages the presence of a base substrate, to which the dice of the MEMS integrated device are coupled and which carries appropriate electrical contacts for electrical connection to the outside world, and of a protection coating, so-called “mold compound” formed directly on top of the base substrate and the dice, having coating and mechanical protection functions.
Traditionally, the dice of the MEMS integrated devices, integrating the respective micromechanical structure and ASIC, were set alongside one another on the inner surface of the base substrate of the package (i.e., the surface not facing the outside of the same package).
In order to reduce the lateral dimensions (i.e., the dimensions in a horizontal plane, parallel to the main plane of extension of the base substrate), stacking in the vertical direction (i.e., orthogonal to the horizontal plane) has been proposed for the first die integrating the micromechanical structure (with associated covering structure) and the second die integrating the ASIC.
This solution, although enabling the desired reduction of the lateral encumbrance, involves an increase in the overall thickness in the vertical direction that may be incompatible with some applications, in particular with applications of a portable type.
In fact, considering a typical thickness comprised between 400 μm and 420 μm for coupling between the first die integrating the micromechanical structure and the corresponding covering structure, and comprised between 80 μm and 280 μm for the thickness of the second die integrating the ASIC, and moreover considering the additional thickness represented by the package, with current techniques it is possible to obtain a minimum value of resulting thickness that is still rather high, ranging between 700 μm and 1000 μm.
To overcome at least in part this problem it has therefore been proposed to exploit the covering structure as active element in which to integrate the electrical/electronic components to be electrically coupled to the micromechanical structure in the first die (the second die being in this case absent in the assembly of the MEMS integrated device). This solution, although enabling a reduction of thickness equal to the thickness of the second die integrating the ASIC, is not, however, free from drawbacks.
In particular, the active use of the covering structure may prove to be difficult to implement, on account of the poor yield of the process of integration and of the imposed constraints as regards the usable dimensions.
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Certain patients present in a paroxystic manner symptoms of a bradycardia condition, such as unexplained syncopes, but without a presenting bradycardia condition that can be observed and documented by a conventional temporary external recording of the Holter type.
To make it possible for a practitioner to pose a diagnosis and to decide whether a pacemaker implant is an appropriate therapy, it has been proposed to implant a device with purely diagnostic objectives, making it possible to record information of the heartbeat rate in order to confirm whether various symptoms observed in the patient have a “rhythmic cause,” that is, a heartbeat rhythm (or lack of rhythm) that leads to the observed symptoms that is detected and to be treated. One such device is the Reveal® Insertable Loop Recorder, available from Medtronic, Inc. However this device does not comprise any means for providing cardiac stimulation and is designed not to have an endocardial probe so as to simplify its implantation. Therefore, this device does not offer any help in the event of an occurrence of a severe bradycardia whose consequence can be extremely noxious for patients having a risk of ventricular arrhythmia.
It would be certainly possible to implant in the patient, on a purely prophylactic basis, a complete pacemaker equipped with suitable Holter memory functions. Such an apparatus, initially, could then be used only for its Holter capabilities, in order to record information on the heartbeat rate at the time the symptoms are evoked by the patient, in order to confirm or not whether the symptoms have a rhythmic cause. But to be able to record the spontaneous cardiac activity of the patient, it is of course necessary to inhibit the cardiac stimulation function of the pacemaker device. In this example, it is not convenient to activate the stimulation means, because the indication for a therapeutic stimulation by the apparatus has not yet been demonstrated; however, according to the patient, the presence of a pacemaker and the acceptance of a surgical operation for its implantation make intolerable the persistence of symptoms that are sometimes severe, and whose consequences can be extremely serious. It would be thus essential in this example to envisage providing a back-up ventricular stimulation.
However, a traditional pacemaker would not be adapted to this situation. Indeed, the base stimulation frequency cannot be programmed with a sufficiently low value to let the spontaneous ventricular rhythm be expressed at the time of a bradycardia. And, even if the pacemaker could have a rather low base frequency value, that value would be fixed and arbitrary, and could thus appear insufficient or unsuited for the patient. It is indeed not possible to define a priori the ventricular back-up stimulation frequency, which must be sufficiently low so as not to disturb the recording of the spontaneous cardiac activity, and sufficiently high not to let too severe a bradycardia be expressed.
The compromise sought is thus impossible to find in a general manner, because the threshold of the severity of a bradycardia giving rise to symptoms is specific to each patient.
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The present invention is related in general to the field of semiconductor devices and processes and more specifically to molded low-cost ball grid array and chip scale packages and method of fabricating depressions for receiving solder balls.
The trend in semiconductor technology to double the functional complexity of its products every 18 months (Moore""s xe2x80x9clawxe2x80x9d), which is still valid today after having dominated the industry for the last three decades, has several implicit consequences. First, the cost per functional unit should drop with each generation of complexity so that the cost of the product with its doubled functionality would increase only slightly. Second, the higher product complexity should largely be achieved by shrinking the feature sizes of the chip components while holding the package dimensions constant; preferably, even the packages should shrink. Third, the increased functional complexity should be paralleled by an equivalent increase in reliability of the product. And fourth, but not least, the best financial profit rewards were held out for the ones who were ahead in the marketplace in reaching the complexity goal together with offering the most flexible products for application.
While plastic ball grid array (BGA) and chip-scale packages (CSP) became very popular in the last few years, they have been limited to fully participate in the trends for Moore""s law due to a number of shortcomings. It turned out to be difficult to reduce the cost of BGAs and CSPs due to high content of plastic materials and the fixed number of fabrication process steps. The reliability of plastic BGAs and CSPs suffers from sensitivity to thermo-mechanical stress and moisture absorption. It is difficult to adjust the package designs to custom requirements; consequently, the package designs are not flexible enough to fit the general application trends towards smaller package outlines and thinner profiles.
Known technology focuses the attention for developing BGA and CSP package designs and processes on devices with high lead counts (or solder ball numbers) and neglects the specific needs of BGAs and CSPs for smaller lead (or solder ball) numbers. Thus, opportunities in the huge application market requiring specifically low solder ball numbers go unattended.
In the present state of the art, plastic packages with small pin count use stamped or etched leadframes; these leadframes represent the dominant materials cost in these packages. Plastic BGAs and CSPs, use patterned polyimide films are as substrates for mounting the semiconductor chips; these films represent the dominant materials cost in these packages. In addition, the techniques used in present technology for attaching solder balls (or bumps) to the packages is unsatisfactory because of problems related to ball adhesion, missing balls, or ball duplication. The fabrication processes employed and the inspections required are hindering cost reductions.
According to the present invention for integrated circuit (IC) devices, the molding process for encapsulating the device is used to form depressions of suitable size and shape to receive solder balls, while these depressions are structured such that they have an electrically conductive and solderable surface which is electrically connected to the input/output terminals of the IC chip.
The present invention is related to high density ICs, especially those having low or modest numbers of inputs/outputs or bonding pads, further to devices using an electrically conductive or metallic substrate, to which they are usually connected by wire bonding, and also to devices requiring small package outlines and low profiles. These ICs can be found in many semiconductor device families such as processors, digital and analog devices, mixed signal and standard linear and logic products, telephone, RF and telecommunications devices, intelligent power devices, and both large and small area chip categories. The invention helps to insure built-in quality and reliability in applications such as cellular communications, pagers, hard disk drives, laptop computers, and medical instrumentation.
The invention provides some material modifications and several simplifications of basic process steps commonly practiced in semiconductor assembly and packaging technology so that significant manufacturing cost reductions are achieved. The chips are mounted on substrates provided as thin foils in the thickness range of about 10 to 75 xcexcm. In this thickness range, the foils respond to the pressure during conventional transfer molding processes, move against the steel walls of the mold cavity and align smoothly to the surface contours of the walls. Dimples reaching into the molded material, yet covered with a solderable surface, can thus be created; they serve as depressions holding the solder xe2x80x9cballsxe2x80x9d reliably and can be used to best advantage in solder attachments. The amount of deformation, or xe2x80x9cinside curvaturexe2x80x9d, to which certain foil materials can stretch in order to move from their original flat configuration to a curved configuration, has been determined by this invention. Ball-receiving depressions can be created between about 150 and 230 xcexcm deep using an annealed copper foil of about 30 to 40 xcexcm thickness.
It is an aspect of the present invention to be applicable to a variety of different ball grid array and chip-scale packages, especially those with a xe2x80x9cballxe2x80x9d count of about 4 to 80. The most frequently used range is between about 8 and 48 xe2x80x9cballsxe2x80x9d.
Another aspect of the present is to simplify the positioning of pre-fabricated solder balls on the device package by creating ball-receiving depressions in the flat package contour during the package molding process.
Another aspect of the present invention is to strengthen the solder ball attachment to the package by enlarging the attachment area.
Another aspect of the present invention is to enhance the package reliability by improving the adhesion between the molding compound and the metal foil used for electrical contacts to the outside world.
Another aspect of the present invention is to introduce manufacturing steps which contribute to the trends towards packages with lower overall profiles and smaller outlines, thus contributing to device space conservation.
Another aspect of the present invention is to improve product quality by process simplification, and to enhance reliability assurance by controlling thermomechanical stress, minimizing moisture absorption, and general in-process control at no extra cost.
Another aspect of the present invention is to introduce assembly concepts for thin profile packages which are flexible so that they can be applied to many families of semiconductor products, and are general so that they can be applied to several future generations of products.
These aspects have been achieved by the teachings of the invention concerning methods suitable for mass production. Various modifications have been successfully employed to satisfy different selections of product geometries and materials.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the size of the ball-receiving depression and thus the stretch of the foil material necessary to achieve this depression is used to produce devices of certain low profiles.
In another embodiment of the invention, the number of depressions and the arrangement in rows of solder ball receptors is used to produce devices of certain small ball grid array and chip-scale package outlines.
In another embodiment of the invention, the shape of the depressions has been modified from semi-spherical to truncated pyramid. This modification not only enhances solder ball attachment and molding compound adhesion to the metal foil, but also lowers the cost of manufacturing the bottom half of the mold by simplifying the work and the tools needed for preparing the surface contours of the steel.
In another embodiment of the invention, a simple mechanical grinding technique is employed to achieve electrical separation of the package metal contacts from each other, while avoiding stress between the molded package and the metal foil during this process step.
In another embodiment of the invention, the depressions are filled with solder paste in order to create solder bumps in place of using pre-fabricated solder balls.
The technical advances represented by the invention, as well as the aspects thereof, will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the novel features set forth in the appended claims.
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1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a non-magnetic substrate of a magnetic head, for vapor-depositing a metallic magnetic layer thereon. The present invention also relates to a magnetic head, in which the above mentioned substrate is used. The non-magnetic substrate according to the present invention is suited for producing magnetic heads, in which thin layers of Fe-Si-Al alloy are used. Such magnetic heads are appropriate for use at a high frequency and as high density-recording heads, such as video-heads and digital heads, in which a high S/N ratio is required. The present invention also relates to the method of producing the non-magnetic substrate of magnetic heads.
2. Description of Related Arts
The recent increase of recording density in the field of magnetic recording technique is outstanding. Along with this, not only are magnetic heads, which are an example of electro-magnetic transducers, required to provide an increasingly narrower track width, but also the core material of magnetic heads is required to have increasingly higher levels of saturation magnetization and permeability in a high frequency region. An example of the magnetic heads is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. Its structure is briefly described below.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a prosthesis for replacement of arthritic or damaged elbow joints. More particularly, it concerns a form of elbow joint prosthesis that has good joint stability with minimum bone removal while providing normal flexion and extension motion; there is no in-built constraint and so little strain on the seating of the prosthesis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, prosthetic replacement of the elbow has proved a difficult and often disappointing task over the years and this has been the experience of most surgeons in this field. In the past, it was common to replace the elbow joint by means of a constrained prosthesis, usually consisting of a large stem inserted into the humerus and another into the ulna and the two parts of the component linked together by an axle pin. The strong forces on the elbow tend to disrupt the prosthesis from the bone and a very great deal of bone had to be removed to put in such a prosthesis, resulting in the long-term in a disastrous situation very often if the prosthesis has, in fact, to be removed.
There has been a move in recent times to a surface replacement of the elbow joint and my work in this area led to the development of a constrained device with a T-slot stability factor which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,469. Numerous other U.S. patents have issued describing bone joint prosthesis of which the following is a representative listing: Nos.
2,784,416 PA1 3,547,115 PA1 3,748,662 PA1 3,798,679 PA1 3,801,990 PA1 3,816,854 PA1 3,840,905 PA1 3,852,831 PA1 3,869,729 PA1 3,886,599 PA1 3,919,725 PA1 3,990,116
In spite of the numerous procedures and devices previously developed and used for elbow reconstruction, there exists a need for further improvement particularly as regards resulting joint stability, minimal removal of bone for insertion and allowance for normal flexion and extension motion as well as minimal strain on the seating of the prosthesis.
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A known method of contactless crack measurements of a metallic material is to utilise optical means. The metallic material may be irradiated by light wherein a crack may be detected by means of an optical sensor such as a camera. Drawbacks with optical methods are that it is not possible to detect cracks which are not visible on the surface of the metallic material, and that colour variations in the metallic material may be interpreted as cracks by the optical sensor. Optical methods have been proved to be difficult to use in other applications than for inspection of completely clean and smooth metal surfaces.
Inspection of metallic materials in for instance steel production has been made utilising inductive techniques. When using an inductive technique a current is induced in the metallic material, e.g. a slab or a metal sheet, by means of a time-varying magnetic field generated by a transmitter coil fed with a likewise time-varying current. When the induced current encounters a crack in the metallic material, the crack constitutes an obstacle to the induced current. As a result, the crack alters the induced current at the crack as compared to a metallic material without a crack. The altered current provides a change in the magnetic field around the current. The change in the magnetic field is measured by a receiver coil, whereby it can be determined that a crack is present in the inspected surface portion of the metallic material.
There are several drawbacks with the induction techniques used today for crack detection in metallic materials. Several parameters other than a crack depth may for example influence changes in the magnetic field. Examples of such parameters are the distance between the coils and the object to be measured, magnetic oxide on the surface of the object, changes in the physical characteristics in the material of which the object is made, the position of the crack in relation to the coils, and the length of the crack. To this end, when a change is measured by a receiver coil, it may be difficult to determine whether this change is due to the crack depth or another parameter which may vary. Due to the fact that it is difficult to keep influencing parameters constant, it has been difficult to use inductive techniques for crack inspection of irregular surfaces such as casted metallic surfaces.
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1. Technical Field
Aspects and embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to methods and apparatus for mounting porous hollow filtration membranes in a membrane filtration system.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Synthetic polymeric membranes are well known in the field of ultrafiltration and microfiltration for a variety of implementations, including desalination, gas separation, filtration, and dialysis. The properties of the membranes vary depending on the morphology of the membranes, for example, depending on parameters such as symmetry, pore shape, and pore size, and the chemical nature of the polymeric material used to form the membrane.
A large membrane surface area may be provided when a large filtrate flow is desired. In commercial embodiments, a large number of hollow porous membranes may be mounted together and housed in filtration modules. A commonly used technique to reduce the size of the filtration apparatus is to form the hollow porous membranes in the shape of hollow porous fibers. The hollow porous membranes act in parallel to filter a feed liquid, for example, water for purification. By producing a pressure differential across the membrane walls, the liquid is forced to flow through the pores of the walls of each of the hollow porous membranes while contaminants remain trapped on one side of the membranes and filtrate is withdrawn from the other side. In systems where feed liquid is applied to the outer walls of the membranes (outside-in filtration), the filtrate collects inside the hollow regions, cavities or channels (known as lumens) within the porous hollow membranes and is drawn off through ends of the lumens.
By sealing the ends of a porous hollow membrane in a module pot an impenetrable barrier may be formed between the feed and the filtrate. It is desirable that the seal formed by the barrier between the feed and filtrate be maintained to avoid contamination of the filtrate with feed. It is thus desirable that such module pots be designed to withstand forces such as hydraulic pressure from fluid flow inside the filtration module which might otherwise compromise the seal between the feed and the filtrate.
In addition to sealing the ends of porous hollow membranes, a module pot may be designed to perform further functions including structurally supporting and mounting the membranes within a module or otherwise within a filtration system. In some filtration arrangements, filtrate is withdrawn only from one end of the membranes and the other ends are merely sealed and supported by a potting head. In other arrangements, only one potting head is provided with the membranes being looped with both open ends located in the same potting head.
In some potting arrangements, the porous membrane ends may be sealingly potted using a curable resin material with the porous membrane ends being positioned within the resin material in its liquid non-cured state. The resin material may be allowed to cure to form a generally solid potting head. The curable resin material may be surrounded by a potting sleeve. The potting sleeve may be used to provide an interface between the potting head formed by the cured resin material and associated equipment such as headers and mounting apparatus.
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1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a slot array antenna.
2. Description of the Related Art
An array antenna including a plurality of antenna elements (hereinafter also referred to “radiating elements”) that are arrayed on a line or a plane finds its use in various applications, e.g., radar and communication systems. In order to radiate electromagnetic waves from an array antenna, it is necessary to supply electromagnetic waves (e.g., radio-frequency signal waves) to each antenna element, from a circuit which generates electromagnetic waves (“feed”). Such feed is performed via a waveguide. A waveguide is also used to send electromagnetic waves that are received at the antenna elements to a reception circuit.
Conventionally, feed to an array antenna has often been achieved by using a microstrip line(s). However, in the case where the frequency of an electromagnetic wave to be transmitted or received by an array antenna is a high frequency, e.g., above 30 gigahertz (GHz), a microstrip line will incur a large dielectric loss, thus detracting from the efficiency of the antenna. Therefore, in such a radio frequency region, an alternative waveguide to replace a microstrip line is needed.
It is known that using a hollow waveguide, instead of a microstrip line, to feed each antenna element allows the loss to be reduced even in frequency regions exceeding 30 GHz. A hollow waveguide, also known as a hollow metallic waveguide, is a metal body having a circular or rectangular cross section. In the interior of a hollow waveguide, an electromagnetic field mode which is adapted to the shape and size of the body is created. For this reason, an electromagnetic wave is able to propagate within the body in a certain electromagnetic field mode. Since the body interior is hollow, no dielectric loss problem occurs even if the frequency of the electromagnetic wave to propagate increases. However, by using a hollow waveguide, it is difficult to dispose antenna elements with a high density, because the hollow portion of a hollow waveguide needs to have a width which is equal to or greater than a half wavelength of the electromagnetic wave to be propagated, and the body (metal wall) of the hollow waveguide itself also needs to be thick enough.
Patent Documents 1 to 3, and Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose waveguiding structures which guide electromagnetic waves by utilizing an artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) extending on both sides of a ridge-type waveguide.
[Patent Document 1] International Publication No. 2010/050122
[Patent Document 2] the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 8,803,638
[Patent Document 3] European Patent Application Publication No. 1331688
[Non-Patent Document 1] Kirino et al., “A 76 GHz Multi-Layered Phased Array Antenna Using a Non-Metal Contact Metamaterial Waveguide”, IEEE Transaction on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 60, No. 2, February 2012, pp 840-853
[Non-Patent Document 2] Kildal et al., “Local Metamaterial-Based Waveguides in Gaps Between Parallel Metal Plates”, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 8, 2009, pp 84-87
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This invention relates to methods of treating cardiovascular and related diseases, such as hypertrophy, hypertension, congestive heart failure, ischemia, such as myocardial ischemia, ischemia reperfusion injuries in various organs, arrhythmia, and myocardial infarction.
Heart failure is a pathophysiological condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood at a rate commensurate with the requirement of the metabolizing tissues or can do so only from an elevated filling pressure (increased load). Thus, the heart has a diminished ability to keep up with its workload. Over time, this condition leads to excess fluid accumulation, such as peripheral edema, and is referred to as congestive heart failure.
When an excessive pressure or volume load is imposed on a ventricle, myocardial hypertrophy (i.e., enlargement of the heart muscle) develops as a compensatory mechanism. Hypertrophy permits the ventricle to sustain an increased load because the heart muscle can contract with greater force. However, a ventricle subjected to an abnormally elevated load for a prolonged period eventually fails to sustain an increased load despite the presence of ventricular hypertrophy, and pump failure may ultimately occur.
Heart failure can arise from any disease that affects the heart and interferes with circulation. For example, a disease that increases the heart muscle""s workload, such as hypertension, will eventually weaken the force of the heart""s contraction. Hypertension is a condition in which there is an increase in resistance to blood flow through the vascular system. This resistance leads to increases in systolic and/or diastolic blood pressures. Hypertension places increased tension to the left ventricular myocardium, causing it to stiffen and hypertrophy, and accelerates the development of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries. The combination of increased demand and lessened supply increases the likelihood of myocardial ischemia leading to myocardial infarction, sudden death, arrhythmias, and congestive heart failure.
Ischemia is a condition in which an organ or a part of the body fails to receive a sufficient blood supply. When an organ is deprived of its blood supply, it is said to be hypoxic. An organ will become hypoxic even when the blood supply temporarily ceases, such as during a surgical procedure or during temporary artery blockage. Ischemia initially leads to a decrease in or loss of contractile activity. When the organ affected is the heart, this condition is known as myocardial ischemia, and myocardial ischemia initially leads to abnormal electrical activity. This may generate an arrhythmia. When myocardial ischemia is of sufficient severity and duration, cell injury may progress to cell deathxe2x80x94i.e., myocardial infarctionxe2x80x94and subsequently to heart failure, hypertrophy, or congestive heart failure.
When blood flow resumes to an organ after temporary cessation, this is known as ischemic reperfusion of the organ. For example, reperfusion of an ischemic myocardium may counter the effects of coronary occlusion, a condition that leads to myocardial ischemia. Ischemic reperfusion to the myocardium may lead to reperfusion arrhythmia or reperfusion injury. The severity of reperfusion injury is affected by numerous factors, such as, for example, duration of ischemia, severity of ischemia, and speed of reperfusion. Conditions observed with ischemia reperfusion injury include neutrophil infiltration, necrosis, and apoptosis.
Drug therapies, using known active ingredients such as vasodilators, angiotensin II receptor antagonists, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, diuretics, antithrombolytic agents, -adrenergic receptor antagonists, I-adrenergic receptor antagonists, calcium channel blockers, and the like, are available for treating heart failure and associated diseases. Of course, any drug used for treatment may result in side effects. For example, vasodilators may result in hypotension, myocardial infarction, and adverse immune response. Angiotensin II receptor antagonists and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors are often associated with acute renal failure, fetopathic potential, proteinuria, hepatotoxicity, and glycosuria as side effects. Similarly, common side effects associated with calcium channel blockers include hypotension, peripheral edema, and pulmonary edema. -Adrenergic receptor antagonists and diuretics have been associated with incompatibility with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in addition to impotence, gout, and muscle cramps in the case of diuretics and in addition to a decrease in left ventricular function and sudden withdrawal syndrome in the case of -adrenergic receptor antagonists. Moreover, side effects associated with I-adrenergic receptor antagonists include thostatic hypotension, and side effects associated with antithrombolytic agents include excessive bleeding.
To address the side effects, the dosage of a drug may be reduced or the administration of the drug may be abated and replaced with another drug. It would be desirable to administer a drug therapy with decreased amounts of the active ingredient to reduce side effects but maintain effectiveness.
The present invention provides methods for treating cardiovascular and related diseases, such as, for example, hypertrophy, hypertension, congestive heart failure, myocardial ischemia, ischemia reperfusion injuries in an organ, arrhythmia, and myocardial infarction. One embodiment is directed to a method of treating cardiovascular disease in a mammal by concurrently administering to the mammal a therapeutically effective amount of a combination of a compound suitable for use in methods of the invention and a therapeutic cardiovascular compound. Therapeutic cardiovascular compounds suitable for use in methods of the invention include an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist, a calcium channel blocker, an antithrombolytic agent, a xcex2-adrenergic receptor antagonist, a vasodilator, a diuretic, an xcex1-adrenergic receptor antagonist, an antioxidant, and a mixture thereof. In some embodiments, the therapeutic cardiovascular compound is PPADS.
Compounds suitable for use in the methods of the invention include pyridoxal-5xe2x80x2-phosphate, pyridoxamine, pyridoxal, 3-acylated pyridoxal analogues, pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts thereof, and mixtures thereof.
In one embodiment, a 3-acylated pyridoxal analogue is a compound of the formula
In another embodiment, a 3-acylated pyridoxal analogue is a compound of the formula
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A phase-lock loop ("PLL") is typically used to generate an output signal after acquiring the frequency and the phase of a reference clock for purposes of synchronization. Although the frequency of the output signal is ultimately locked onto the frequency of the reference clock, there exists a static phase error between the reference clock and the output signal. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a conventional PLL. PLL 100 includes a phase comparator 110 coupled to receive a reference clock from a lead 105. Outputs from phase comparator 110 are provided to a charge pump 120 via leads 115 and 117. An output of charge pump 120 is provided to both a loop filter 130 and a voltage-controlled oscillator ("VCO") 140. An output signal from VCO 140 is provided to a divide by N circuit 150. The output of divide by N circuit 150 is provided as feedback to phase comparator 110. Eventually, the output signal from VCO 140 will have a static phase error relative to the reference clock.
Sources of static phase error are charge injection, loop filter leakage and pump up/down current mismatch. The pump up/down current mismatch can be illustrated by reference to FIG. 2. Circuit 120' is included in charge pump 120 of FIG. 1. Circuit 120' includes a current mirror 200 that includes transistors 210, 220 and a current sink 230. Circuit 120' also includes a current mirror 240 that includes transistors 250, 260 and a current source 270. Current mirrors 200, 240 are coupled to switches 280, 290, respectively. Switches 280, 290 are coupled to charge pump 120 (FIG. 1) via leads 115, 117, respectively. An output is provided at node 285. A loop filter, such as loop filter 130 in FIG. 1, is coupled to node 285.
Accumulated errors can cause the currents of current sink 230 and current source 270 to mismatch. Such errors are caused by process variations, ambient conditions and inherent device characteristics. This mismatch can cause static phase errors and gain error. Thus, a need exists for a charge pump that reduces current mismatch to reduce static phase error. The present invention meets this need.
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{
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There is an increasing number of computing devices which includes a touch screen display for a user to interface with the computing device. Touch screen displays are commonly found in mobile phones, tablet computers, and notebook computers.
Some users may prefer to use their fingers to make contact with the touch screen displays, but other users dislike the practice as they may have issues relating to, for example, undesirable touch accuracy caused by stubby fingertips, not wanting to leave fingerprints on the touch screen display and so forth. As a result, this has led to the use of stylus devices to enable a user to interface with a touch screen display. Stylus devices with soft tips are commonly used, but a common complaint of stylus devices with soft tips is that such stylus devices may not provide an accurate selection at desired positions on the touch screen display. In addition, the user may also experience physical discomfort when using the soft-tipped stylus devices.
Thus, there are issues pertaining to the use of stylus devices with soft tips.
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{
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to light-weight building structures that are designed particularly for environmentally friendly, i.e., green design and construction, without sacrificing from the standpoint of durability and serviceability. The present invention also concerns building framework systems that are designed to incorporate light-weight structural components that are manufactured by molding and/or extrusion operations and scrap or damaged components can be easily recycled, thus enhancing the environmentally friendly characteristic of the building framework system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A predecessor to the building framework construction system of the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,142,343; 4,194,338 and 5,979,119 of Ronald H. Trafton. In each case hollow support posts are provided having external longitudinal grooves which are designed to receive the connector elements of brackets that may be moved to desired positions along the lengths of the grooves and locked into place by clamping action or by other locking means. The support posts may have single, generally cylindrical walls or concentric internal and external spaced primary and secondary post walls as desired. Other prior art patents also show the use of structural posts having various types of connector members which permit simple and efficient assembly of a building framework.
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to fishing devices in general and to jug fishing devices in particular.
2. Prior Art
Jug fishing is a foam of setline fishing which involves the use of a floatation device attached to a fishing line. The commonly called “jugline” can be any buoyant container from an empty milk carton to a specially made jugfishing device. Jugfishing can be used to catch many varieties of fish. However, the method of jug fishing is particularly effective in catching catfish. There are two main varieties of juglines, either free floating or drifting juglines and anchored juglines. The disadvantage of the free floating juglines is that they are more difficult to control, and the user cannot predict where the current will take the free floating juglines, especially when a fish has taken the bait. Anchored juglines provide more user control and greatly decrease the unpredictability of movement. Also, anchored juglines provide resistance to the pull of a fish on the line allowing the user to capture the line and its fish with greater ease.
Fisherman use juglines because of their versatility and ease of use. A jugline can be preassembled and set in a matter of minutes, cutting down on time preparing to fish and allowing the fisherman to have multiple active juglines at one time. Once a fish has taken the bait, it is important that the user have a way of determining that a fish is on the line to avoid losing the fish and/or valuable equipment in the event of the fish getting away or breaking the equipment. Similarly, it is useful for the fisherman to be able to tell which lines have a fish on in order to allow the fisheiman to save time by not running lines that do not have a fish.
In the prior art, there are several ways for the user to determine when a fish has taken the bait on his jugline, including auditory indications and visual indications. An auditory indication can be difficult to detect when the user is far from the jugline, a problem that is likely to present itself when the user has set multiple juglines over a large area. Also, the sounds of the environment may inhibit the user's ability to detect the signal. Thus, a visual indicator may eliminate the problem of the user being unable to detect an auditory signal.
A visual indicator is seen in the prior art in the form of a device that floats in a nearly horizontal position initially. After a fish has engaged the hook and line that depend from the float, the float changes its orientation to vertical. The change in orientation of the device from a near horizontal floating position to a vertical floating position is caused by a free sliding object positioned within the device. However, when utilizing a visual indicator, the user is in danger of receiving a false positive in the form of a shift in the object inside of the hollow of the jugfishing device without a fish being attached to the line. The water current, the movement of animals in the water, the wake from vessels in the water, and wind are all potential sources of motion which can cause these false positives. Similarly, “nibbles” that do not result in a hook up with a fish may result in a false positive indication. In light of these problems in the prior art, an improved jug fishing device meeting the following objectives is desired.
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The invention relates to an actuator element for setting the position of a target mark of a sighting telescope of the type outlined in the introductory part of claim 1. When test firing a weapon in conjunction with a sighting device or a sighting telescope, deviations of the actual point of impact of a shot from the desired point of impact or position of the target mark are usually eliminated initially by changing the orientation of the inner tube bearing the target mark with the aid of actuator elements of a generic type. In a known manner, this process of zeroing in takes place at a fixed range (for example 100 m) with a horizontally oriented line of sight onto a target and using typical ammunition for the weapon. Actuator elements of the generic type, also known as adjusting turrets, also enable account to be taken of variations from the original test firing conditions which occur in practice. These influencing factors which have to be taken into account include above all a target distance that is different from the original firing range as well as ballistic characteristics of the ammunition or bullet used. An approach known from the prior art, therefore, is to provide actuator elements of the generic type with one or more, push-fit index elements. With the aid of the markings provided on the index elements, settings can be rapidly set on the adjusting turrets to enable allowance to be made for the differences in range and/or types of ammunition used. Also known from the prior art are actuator elements used as so-called side turrets by means of which allowance can be made for side wind. The disadvantage of actuator elements known from the prior art is that making changes to the settings of the index elements is often complicated and tedious and can only be done using tools. Making such changes to the settings is also very susceptible to errors. The objective of the invention is to propose an actuator element by means of which setting the position of a target mark of a sighting telescope is made easier and can be undertaken with greater flexibility.
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{
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for removing impurities from resist components. In particular, this invention relates to a method for removing metal impurities (including sodium, iron, calcium, chromium, copper, potassium, and zinc) from a resist component or resist composition solution by contacting that solution with a fibrous ion exchange resin.
2. Brief Description of Prior Art
Photoresist compositions are used in microlithographic processes for making miniaturized electronic components such as in the fabrication of integrated circuits and printed wiring board circuitry. Generally, in these processes, a thin coating or film of a photoresist composition is first applied to a substrate material, such as silicon wafers used for making integrated circuits or aluminum or copper plates of printed wiring boards. The coated substrate is then baked to evaporate any solvent in the photoresist composition and to fix the coating onto the substrate. The baked coated surface of the substrate is next subjected to an image-wise exposure of radiation. This radiation exposure causes a chemical transformation in the exposed areas of the coated surface. Visible light, ultraviolet (UV) light, electron beam, and X-ray radiant energy are radiation types commonly used today in microlithographic processes. After this image-wise exposure, the coated substrate is treated with a developer solution to dissolve and remove either the radiation-exposed or the unexposed areas of the coated surface of the substrate.
There are two types of photoresist compositions-negative-working and positive-working. Both negative-working and positive-working compositions are generally made up of a film-forming resin and a photoactive compound dissolved in a suitable casting solvent. Additives may be added for specific functions. When negative-working photoresist compositions are exposed image-wise to radiation, the areas of the resist composition exposed to the radiation becomes less soluble to a developer solution (e.g., a cross-linking reaction occurs) while the unexposed areas of the photoresist coating remain relatively soluble to a developing solution. Thus, treatment of an exposed negative-working resist with a developer solution causes removal of the nonexposed areas of the resist coating and the creation of a negative image in the photoresist coating; and thereby uncovering a desired portion of the underlying substrate surface on which the photoresist composition was deposited. On the other hand, when positive-working photoresist compositions are exposed image-wise to radiation, those areas of the resist composition exposed to the radiation become more soluble to the developer solution (e.g., a rearrangement reaction occurs) while those areas not exposed remain relatively insoluble to the developer solution. Thus, treatment of an exposed positive-working resist with the developer solution causes removal of the exposed areas of the resist coating and the creation of a positive image in the photoresist coating. Again, a desired portion of the underlying substrate surface is uncovered.
After this development operation, the now partially unprotected substrate may be treated with a substrate etchant solution, plasma gases, or the like. This etchant solution or plasma gases etch the portion of the substrate where the photoresist coating was removed during development. The areas of the substrate where the photoresist coating still remains are protected and, thus, an etched pattern is created in the substrate material which corresponds to the photomask used for the image-wise exposure of the radiation. Later, the remaining areas of the photoresist coating may be removed during a stripping operation, leaving a clean etched substrate surface. In some instances, it is desirable to heat treat the remaining resist layer after the development step and before the etching step to increase its adhesion to the underlying substrate and its resistance to etching solutions.
Positive-working photoresist compositions are currently favored over negative-working resists because the former generally have better resolution capabilities and pattern transfer characteristics. Preferred positive-working photoresist today generally involve novolak resins and o-quinonediazide photoactive compounds dissolved in a suitable solvent.
Impurity levels in photoresist compositions are becoming an increasingly important concern. Impurity contamination, especially by metals, of photoresists may cause deterioration of the semiconductor devices made with said photoresists, thus shortening these devices' lives.
Impurity levels in photoresist compositions have been and are currently controlled by (1) choosing materials for photoresist composition which meet strict impurity level specifications and (2) carefully controlling the photoresist formulation and processing parameters to avoid the introduction of impurities into the photoresist composition. As photoresist applications become more advanced, tighter impurity specifications must be made.
In the case of novolak resin materials used for making positive photoresists, such novolak resins have been subjected to distillation or crystallization purification operations in order to remove impurities, especially metals. However, such operations have deficiencies. One, they are time-consuming and costly. More importantly, they do not remove impurities down to the very low levels now needed for advanced applications (i.e., in low parts per billion maximum levels).
Alternatively, ion exchange resins have been used for novolak impurities. One general technique is to pass an impure novolak resin solution through a particulate cation exchange resin (e.g., AMBERLYST styrene sulfonic acid-divinyl benzene cation exchange resin). However, such treatments have several problems associated with it including the following:
1. The cation exchange resin treatment of the novolak may decrease the pH of the novolak-containing solution, possibly causing serious corrosion of metal containers in which the purified novolak-containing solution may be stored.
2. The purified novolak may have a decreased rate of dissolution during the development step of the photoresist which may be caused by the undesired adsorption of the lower molecular weight portion of novolak resin onto the cation exchange resin.
3. Alkali metals such as sodium and potassium are easily removed with conventional particulate cation exchange resins. However, divalent or trivalent metal cations (e.g., Cu.sup.+2 , Ni.sup.+2 , Zn.sup.+2, Fe.sup.+2, Fe.sup.+3, Ca.sup.+2 or Cr.sup.+3 ions) may have a lower affinity to conventional cation exchange resins. Iron and other easily oxidizable metals cannot be completely removed because they may be colloidal metal hydroxides or oxides. Such colloidals are not significantly removed by cation exchange resin treatment.
In addition to the standard cation exchange resin treatment of the novolak resin, it is known to subject complete photoresist compositions (e.g., novolak resin, photosensitizer, and solvent) to cation exchange resin treatment. For example, Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 01-228,560, which was published on Sep. 12, 1989, teaches that the metal impurities content in photosensitive resin solutions or photoresist compositions may be reduced with a mixture of a cation and anion exchange resins. However, this technique has the deficiency of not removing divalent and trivalent metal impurities.
In addition to the above-described problems, it is difficult to separate the particulate ion exchange resins by filtration from a viscous solution of a resist component on a whole resist formulation after the ion exchange treatment, especially when the relative amount of particulate ion exchange resin to resist component is high. In particular, when a particulate ion exchange resin is used, those resin particulates can become stuck in the microporous filter openings, thus significantly decreasing the filtering time.
Separately, fibrous ion exchange resins have been used to purify liquids such as water. U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,828 disclose a series of ion exchange fibers which are made of a polystyrene/polyolefin composite. Those patents also disclosed applications of those ion exchange fibers in the purification of water and chemicals. However, the patents do not teach or suggest purification of resist components with ion exchange fibers.
Accordingly, there is still a need in the photoresist art for improved methods of removing impurities from novolak resins and other materials used as photoresist components. The present invention is a solution to that need.
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Helicopters often include a tail rotor assembly, which includes two or more blades that rotate about a central axis of rotation to generate thrust. The thrust can be used to counter a torque effect created by a main rotor assembly and can also be used to allow a pilot to control the yaw of a helicopter. The amount and direction of the thrust is generally controlled by collectively changing the angles of attach of all of the tail rotor blades together.
Tail rotor blades can also accommodate at least some amount of cyclic flapping and feathering to counter the dissymmetry of lift phenomenon that occurs as a helicopter moves through the air. For example, as a tail rotor blade moves in the same direction as the helicopter movement (e.g., an advancing blade in forward flight), the tail rotor blade experiences a greater air speed, generates more thrust, and flaps in the direction opposite to the thrust. In another example, as a tail rotor blade moves in the opposite direction as the helicopter movement (e.g., a retreating blade in forward flight), the tail rotor blade experiences a lower air speed, generates less thrust, and flaps in the direction of the thrust. To compensate for the dissymmetry of lift and control the amount of flapping, tail rotor blades and pitch control mechanism can be designed to increase or decrease the angle of attack of the blades as the blades move in the same direction as the helicopter movement and change the angle of attack of the blades as they move in the opposite direction of the helicopter movement. The cyclic changing of the angles of attack that is in direct response to the flapping angle is commonly referred to as feathering or delta-3 and is used to limit flapping angles.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compass provided with a ratchet mechanism. In particular, the present invention also relates to, not only a compass for drawing a circle, but also a compass-cutter for cutting a cloth in circular configuration, the compass-cutter being provided with a ratchet mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows an ordinary compass 10, which is used for drawing a circle on, for example, a drawing paper. The compass 10 comprises a pair of legs 11, 15 the open angle therebetween can be adjusted, and a manipulate portion 19 which is provided on a location where the legs 11 and 15 are interconnected. The leg 11 is provided with a needle 12 on its distal end, and the other leg 15 carries a pencil 16 on its distal end.
When a user draws a circle, the user pinches the manipulate portion 19 with fingers, and moves the pencil 16 along a circular path, with the needle 12 stuck on a drawing paper being the center of the circular path. During this operation, it may be difficult to draw up a complete circle with 360 degrees in single action without re-pinching the manipulate portion with fingers. Therefore, the user often re-pinches the manipulate portion on the midway before a complete circle, and thereafter finishes the circle. This action of re-pinch is cumbersome, and if this re-pinch action is poor, the user can not draw a precise circle, because of unintentional shift of the needle 12, for example.
On the other hand, if the user forcibly tries to draw up a complete circle with 360 degrees in single action, an excessive force would shift the needle 12 stuck on a drawing paper, and as a result, a precise circle could not be drawn.
The above disadvantage may be true, not only in a compass for drawing a circle, but also in a compass-cutter for cutting an object in circular configuration.
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Obesity among adults and children has become increasingly prevalent in almost all industrialized countries. According to the National Institute of Health, over the past two decades the incidence of obesity has increased more than 50 percent. The primary causes of obesity are not precisely understood, although social, dietary, and genetic factors are thought to be involved. Obesity represents a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis, and atherosclerosis. It is believed that a 10% reduction of weight corresponds to a 20% reduction in coronary disease incidence, whereas a 10% increase in weight is associated with a 30% increase in coronary disease incidence [“Obesity: Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic” in WHO Obesity Technical Report Series 894. World Health Organization, Switzerland, 2000; Rose. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 1991 1:37–40; Ashley and Kannel. J. Chronic Dis. 1974 27:103–114]. Thus, reduction of obesity is of major importance to improve general health.
The term “obesity” refers to a state of excess body fat mass. This body fat mass is comprised of adipocytes. The primary function of adipocytes is to store excess energy in the form of triacylglycerol, and to release this stored energy as free fatty acid in times of increased energy need. Triacylglycerol is stored within adipocytes in the form of lipid droplets. The lipid droplets are composed of a hydrophobic core of neutral lipids (such as triacylglycerol) surrounded by a phospholipids monolayer, in which protein is embedded. Upon increased demand for energy (e.g., during fasting or exercise), this stored triacylglycerol is hydrolyzed to yield glycerol and free fatty acids. These hydrolysis products are release into the blood stream. The free fatty acids are then taken up by, and used for the generation of ATP in, a wide variety of tissues.
The balance of energy storage versus release by adipocytes is tightly regulated. For example, the anti-lipolytic hormone insulin stimulates the assembly of triacylglycerol lipid droplets in adipocytes. Conversely, lipolytic hormones, such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, catecholamines, and Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNFα), activate the hydrolysis of triglycerides. Reduction of the body fat mass occurs when pro-lipolytic effects predominate, such that triacylglycerol stores are hydrolyzed and adipocyte mass decreases.
Two key players in the regulation of the adipocyte lipolytic pathway are Hormone Sensitive Lipase (HSL) and perilipin.
The HSL enzyme catalyzes the rate limiting step of triglycerides hydrolysis. Lipolytic hormones activate HSL by stimulating its enzymatic activity and/or promoting its translocation from the cytoplasm to the periphery of the lipid droplet. This activation is thought to be mediated, at least in part, by phosphorylation of HSL by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKC).
Perilipin is the most abundant protein of the adipocyte lipid droplet. Up to four different isoforms of the perilipin protein may be generated by alternate splicing of a transcript produced from a single perilipin gene (Servetnick, et al. J. Biol. Chem. 1995 270:16970–16973). Perilipin protein is located at the periphery of the lipid droplet (Greenberg, et al. J. Biol. Chem. 1991 266:11341–11346), where it is thought to act as a barrier that precludes access of HSL to the stored triglycerides (Clifford, et al. FEBS Letters 1998 435:125–129; Souza, et al. J. Biol. Chem. 1998 273:24665–24669; and Brasaemle, et al. J. Biol. Chem. 2000 275:38486–38493). Lipolytic hormones antagonize the barrier function of perilipin, thereby allowing HSL to hydrolyze the lipid droplet triglycerides (Clifford, et al. J. Biol. Chem. 2000 275:5011–5015). This antagonism may be mediated, in part, by phosphorylation of perilipin by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKC).
The link between perilipin and HSL, and the importance of perilipin in the regulation of triglycerides storage, has been shown by a number of studies. Ectopic expression of perilipin in fibroblastic 3T3-L1 pre-adipocyte cells in vitro caused the formation of intracellular lipid droplets (Brasaemle, et al. J. Biol. Chem. 2000 275:38486–38493). These cells stored significantly more triacylglycerol that control cells. This increased storage was due to decreased hydrolysis of triacylglycerol. Ectopic expression of perilipin in 3T3-L1 cells also blocked the ability of TNFα to stimulate lipolysis (Souza, et al. J. Biol. Chem. 1998 273:24665–24669).
Mice lacking the perilipin gene are more muscular, have less fat, are resistant to diet-induced obesity, and have higher energy expenditure (Martinez-Botas, et al. Nature Genetics 2000 26:474–479; Tansey, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2001 98:6494–6499). In these mice, lipid droplet triglycerides are broken down as soon as they are made. These effects are related to the constitutive activation of HSL observed in these mice (Martinez-Botas, et al. Nature Genetics 2000 26:474–479). This result in mice establishes that disruption of perilipin function results in a decrease in fat mass, and prevents obesity.
Therefore, HSL and perilipin are attractive targets for drugs to treat obesity. Treatments which can activate HSL activity and simultaneously disrupt the perilipin shell of lipid droplets will promote body fat mass loss by stimulating lipolysis. The discovery of a novel pharmaceutical composition which has these effects, thus represents a significant advance in the treatment of obesity.
A number of dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals have been introduced for the promotion of fat loss (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,626,849; 5,804,596; 5,783,603; and 6,340,482). Most of the currently available pharmaceuticals for weight loss work by suppressing appetite via central mechanisms (Stunkard. Life Sci. 1982 30:2043–2055; Weiser, et al. J Clin Pharmacol. 1997 37:453–473). See, for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,783,603, which concerns the use of potassium hydroxy-citric acid to suppress appetite and reduce fatty acid synthesis.
Certain compounds have been disclosed that are able to induce weight loss by mechanisms other than appetite suppression (e.g., through stimulation of the peripheral metabolic rate of adipose tissue). For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,451,465; 4,772,631; 4,977,148; and 4,999,377 disclose compounds possessing thermogenic properties which cause few or no deleterious side effects (such as cardiac stimulation) at the suggested dose. Another compound, Orlistat, blocks absorption of ingested fat by inhibiting pancreatic lipase.
The most commonly used natural supplements for promotion of fat loss include hydroxycitric acid (U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,849), L-carnitine, ma huang (ephedrine) and green tea, forskolin, and citrus extract (U.S. Pat. No. 6,340,482). In addition, chromium picolinate is sold as an ingredient in “fat burner” formulas (Evans. Int J Biosocial Med Res. 1989 11:163–80). However, subsequent clinical studies have failed to demonstrate any significant effect of chromium picolinate, hydroxycitric acid, forskolin or other natural dietary supplements on body fat mass reduction (Hasten, et al. Int J Sport Nutr 1992 2:343–50; Clancy, et al. Int J Sport Nutr. 1994 4:142–53). A well-controlled study found no difference in the magnitude of body fat mass or lean body mass between those who took the above mentioned dietary formulas and those who took placebo (Trent and Thieding-Cancel. J Sports Med Physical Fitness 1995 35:273–80).
The ineffectiveness of prior described dietary formulas in the treatment of obesity and promotion of fat mass reduction may be related to the fact that none simultaneously disrupts the perilipin shell of lipid droplets and stimulates HSL activity.
The essential ingredients of the novel composition have been used individually for treatment of prevention of various health disorders, and thus have a long history of safe use in humans. However, neither of these components has been used for the treatment of obesity and promotion of fat loss in mammals, and in particular in humans.
Dihydroquercetin-3-rhamnoside and aglycon dihydroquercetin (see FIG. 1) are flavonoids found commonly in many different plant species, such as Grape stem (Vitis vinifera) and the leaves of Rhododendron caucasicum and Larix siberica. The dihydroquercetins in Engelhardtia chrysolepis tea, known as kohki tea, have been consumed in Vietnam, Japan and other Asian cultures for centuries (Kasai, et al. Chem. Pharm. Bull. 1988 36:4167–4170; Igarashi, et al. Biosci. Biotec. Biochem. 1996 60:513–515; Mizutani, et al. Nippon Shokuhin Shinsozai Kenkyukaishi. 1998 1:51–64). Dihydroquercetins possess superior antioxidant activity to suppress lipid peroxidation and protect against the destructive affects of free radicals (Haraguchi, et al. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 1996 60:45–48). Dihydroquercetins also stabilize blood vessels and protect against factors that cause atherosclerosis and cardiac, hepatic, and bronchio-pulmonary diseases. In addition, dihydroquercetins possess anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory activity (Tiukavkina, et al. Nutrition, Moscow 1997 6:12–15; Teselkin, et al. Biofizika. 1996 41:620–624; Tiukavkina, et al. Nutrition 1996 2:33–38), and protect the liver from toxins (Xu, et al. Eur J Pharmacol 1999 377:93–100). Dihydroquercetins have been approved in Russia as a medical preparations for use in antioxidant and capillary protective preparations (Russian National Pharmacopoeia Article 42-2398-94, approved on Jul. 29, 1996).
Dihydroquercetins are known to inhibit HMG-CoA reductase, a key enzyme in cholesterol synthesis (Chen, et al. Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi, Taipei 2001 64:382–387) and lower plasma triglycerides levels (Igarashi, et al. Biosci. Biotec. Biochem. 1996 60:513–515; Mizutani, et al. Nippon Shokuhin Shinsozai Kenkyukaishi 1998 1:51–64). However, these effects of dihydroquercetins have not been associated with promotion of weight loss or fat reduction. This lack of functional association is consistent with the activity of other compounds used for the treatment of hypercholesteremia (e.g., statins), which reduce cholesterol and/or triglycerides levels without promoting fat loss. Thus, dihydroquercetins in isolation are not sufficient to effectively treat obesity and promote weight loss.
Plants of the genus Aralia are a natural source of the triterpene saponins known collectively as aralosides or elatosides. The terms “aralosides” and “elatosides” are derived from the scientific names of the Aralia plants from which these triterpene saponins may be derived (e.g., Aralia elata). These aralosides (or elatosides) have been shown to constitute the active ingredients of medicinal Aralia preparations. Eleven major triterpene saponins designated as aralosides A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, and K have been isolated from Aralia (Yoshokawa, et al Chem. Pharm. Bull. 1994 43:1878–1882). The major active triterpene saponins of medical Aralia preparations are aralosides A, B, C, and D (see FIG. 2).
Based on various clinical studies, Aralia tincture has been included in the Russian State Pharmacopoeia XI under the name “Saporali” (Sokolov. Pharmacology and Chemistry, Moscow Science Publishing, Russia, 1968). Aralosides stimulate the central nervous and immune systems, possess anti-stress properties, and protect against unfavorable environmental conditions such as hypoxia or viral infections. Aralosides also improve long term memory (Sedykh, et al. “The Influence of the Aralia mandshurica tincture, animalon or their combination for memorization of texts,” New Medicinal Preparations from Plants of Siberia and Far East. Tomsk State University, Russia: 1986. p. 132). Furthermore, aralosides reduce ethanol absorption (Yoshikawa, et al. Chem Pharm Bull. Tokyo 1993 41:2069–2071; Yoshikawa, et al. Chem Pharm Bull. Tokyo 1996 44:1915–1922); possess analgesic properties (Okuyama, et al. Chem Pharm Bull. Tokyo 1991 39:405–407); and reduce blood sugar levels (Yoshikawa, et al. Chem Pharm Bull. Tokyo 1996 44:1923–1927).
It has now been discovered that a combination of dihydroquercetins and aralosides is effective for treating obesity.
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Increasing the efficiency of general lighting is one of the main ways to reduce global power consumption. About 25% of the electrical power produced in US is used for lighting. Since conventional lamps are not quite inefficient, increasing the efficiency of general lighting will yield major energy-saving benefits worldwide. In the United States, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that power consumption for lighting could be reduced by 50% simply by replacing conventional lamps with solid state lamps. Currently, general lighting is achieved using a wide variety of lamp types: so incandescent, fluorescent, tungsten halogen, sodium, clear metal halide, etc. The most commonly used types of lamps are incandescent and fluorescent, with incandescent lamps being most widely used in residential settings. These types of lamps are available in many different forms and with different total lumen outputs and color characteristics. Two other important lighting parameters are the Color Temperature (CT) and the Color Rendering Index (CRI). The CT is a measure of the lamps “whiteness”, its yellowness or blueness, or its warmth or coolness. CRI is a measure of the quality of the light; in other words how accurately do colors appear when illuminated with the lighting source. The highest CRI is 100 and typically incandescent lamps have the highest value of CRI, as their emission spectrum is basically identical to a black body radiation spectrum. Other types of lamps may have a lower CRI. It is possible for different lamps to have the same color temperature but a different CRI.
The economics of lighting has three main variables—light (lumens, lm), power (watt, W), and cost (dollar, $). Luminous efficacy is the amount of light produced per unit of electrical power (lm/W). Purchase cost efficacy is the amount of light produced per dollar (lm/$). For reference, incandescent lamps have a luminous efficacy of about 8-15 lm/W. The purchase cost may also be referred to as the first cost.
For users of light, the cost of lighting has two components, the first (purchase and installation) costs, and the cost of the electricity (operating cost). While incandescent and fluorescent lamps have a relatively high purchase cost efficacy, their luminous efficacy and operating costs are relatively high because of their low luminous efficacy. In continuous operation, an incandescent lamp costs about $90-$120 per year and must be replaced after approximately 1000 hours (1.5 months). In normal residential use (about 14 hours/week of on time) incandescent lamps cost about $8/year to operate and must be replaced in about 18 months. Operating cost may also include the cost to change lamps, in addition to the electricity cost.
In order to reduce energy consumption associated with general lighting, new types of lamps are being investigated. One of the new types that are receiving interest because of its potentially relatively higher efficiency is a light emitting diode (LED)-based lamp. LEDs have demonstrated luminous efficacies over a wide range, from about 20 to about 140 lm/watt (here LED means a package containing an LED die; in a few cases a package may have several discrete die mounted in one package).
LEDs may emit light in one wavelength range, for example red, amber, yellow, green, blue, etc. or may be designed to emit white light. In general single color LEDs are made by using a material whose bandgap emits light in desired the wavelength range. For example, yellow, amber or red light may be produced using LEDs formed from the AlInGaP material system. Blue, UV and green LEDs may be formed, for example, using the AlInGaN material system. In other examples, single color LEDs may be formed using a combination of a LED emitting light of a first wavelength and a light conversion material, for example a phosphor, that absorbs a portion or all of the first emitted wavelength and re-emits it at a second wavelength.
White LEDs may be produced by a number of techniques, for example by combining an LED with one or more light conversion materials such as phosphors, here referred to as a phosphor-converted white LED, or by color mixing of multiple LEDs emitting different colors (a typical color mixing arrangement may comprise a red, a green and a blue LED but other combinations may be used) or by combinations of one or more phosphor-converted LEDs and one or more direct emitting LEDs, that is LEDs that do not comprise a phosphor. LEDs may have a high CRI (>90) and a warm CT, producing a quality of light similar to that of an incandescent lamp. The CT and CRI of an LED depend on the spectral output of the LED as well as the characteristics of the phosphor. Warm colors and a high CRI typically require more emission in the red wavelength range, and phosphor efficiency and the human eye's sensitivity in the red wavelength range is relatively lower than no that in green-yellow range. Thus LEDs with a warm color and/or a relatively high CRI typically have a relatively lower luminous efficacy than LEDs with a cool color and/or a relatively low CRI.
Conventional LED lamps, also called prior art LED lamps, have improved luminous efficacy (about 40 to about 70 lm/W) and long lifetime (about 30,000 to about 50,000 hours) compared to incandescent lamps. However, conventional LED lamps are very expensive (about $80 to about $130 per lamp) and thus, even though the electricity costs are typically about ¼ to about ½ that of incandescent lamps, the high first cost (also known as the purchase cost) is sufficient to prevent widespread adoption. A LED lamp comprises the LEDs and any necessary electronics, optics, thermal management systems and housing to permit it to operate on generally available AC power.
Two key problems with prior art LED lamps are (1) the luminous efficacy of the LED lamp is only about 50-70% of that achievable with an individual LED and (2) the very high first cost. Although higher first costs can be mitigated by reduced operating costs and longer lifetimes, customers' price expectations often pose psychological barriers to sales. The DOE predicts that a payback time of no more than 2 years (less than two incandescent bulb lifetimes (IBL)) will be required to accelerate adoption of LED lighting, Meaningful energy conservation is possible only with widespread adoption of LED lighting. The cost element with the biggest impact on the payback time is the first cost—for conventional LED lamps it is a virtually insurmountable obstacle. For example, the current approximately $100 lamp first cost leads to a payback time of about 10 years or about 7 IBL.
Payback time may be calculated in many different ways, but two main ones are the out-of-pocket approach and amortization approach. In the out of pocket approach, payback occurs when the cost of the LED lamp plus its electricity cost equals the cost of the incandescent lamp or lamps plus its electricity cost. This calculation includes the purchase of an additional incandescent lamp at the end of the payback time, to reflect the fact that going forward one would need a new lamp after the previous incandescent lamp burned out, whereas the LED lamp would keep operating because of its significantly longer lifetime. The amortization payback time approach amortizes the lamp cost over its entire lifetime, thus resulting in shorter payback times than the out-of-pocket approach. The out-of-pocket approach may be more realistic and representative of how such decisions are made and is the calculation mainly used for payback times in this document.
The lower luminous efficacy of prior art LED lamps compared to individual LEDs is caused by a number of factors including the reduction of luminous efficacy of the individual LEDs under actual operating conditions, the cost of assembling multiple LEDs into a lamp, the optical losses associated with the use of multiple LEDs in the lamp and fixture, the efficiency losses associated with the power converter and LED driver and the further reduction in efficiency and lifetime of all components from high operation temperatures, which in turn is a result of high junction temperatures and high current densities at which LED die are operated to achieve the desired total lumen output Each of these factors will be discussed in detail below.
Very few individual LEDs produce enough light to be used individually for general lighting. In most cases LED lamps contain a relatively large number of individual packaged LEDs, on the order of about 10 to about several hundred. It is understood that a large number of individually packaged LEDs increases the lamp cost as it then includes the package cost for each LED as well as the assembly cost of putting all of the LEDs together in the lamp. Thus the current industry direction and DOE roadmap is to drive the LEDs at higher currents in order to generate more light from each LED while minimizing the required number of LEDs.
The problem with this approach is that the luminous efficacy of an individual LED decreases strongly with increasing drive current (for a given LED die size one may use a value of current and when comparing LED die of different sizes, one may choose to use either current or current density). The relatively high luminous efficacies demonstrated for prior art LEDs are achieved by operating at very low current (current density). At the low currents used to achieve the high luminous efficacy numbers, these devices produce relatively little light; certainly not enough to replace a single incandescent lamp. For example individual LEDs may produce, at these current levels, about 5 to about 200 lumens. Operation at higher current produces more light, but at the expense of significantly reduced luminous efficacy. For example, FIG. 1 shows a plot of luminous efficacy (top graph) and total light output (bottom graph) as a function of drive current for several state of the art LEDs. In particular, there are three curves in each graph of FIG. 1 showing cool white LEDs made by Lumileds (K2 star package, dash lines), Cree (XLamp XR-E, dotted lines), and Luminus Devices (SST-90, dash-dotted lines). The data for the brightest bins for each device is used. Each curve has a thick solid part which represents the driving conditions at which devices are designed to operate. It is clear that the luminous efficacy decreases rapidly with increasing current, and that the luminous efficacy within the designed operation range is about half of the peak luminous efficacy that could be achieved at low currents.
The data shown in FIG. 1 is taken with the LEDs maintained at 25° C. In actual operation maintaining such a low temperature is not possible and as the current increases, the LEDs operate at significantly higher temperatures, in the range of about 50° C. to about 100° C., which causes the luminous efficacy to drop further. Advanced packaging techniques may be utilized to improve the heat removal and slow the junction temperature rise; nevertheless, the luminous efficacy of the same LED at high currents is almost always lower than that at low currents in actual operation.
Another problem with the conventional LED lamp approach of using high currents (current density) is that the temperature rise associated with this mode of operation decreases the lifetime of an LED. The LED lifetime is generally referred to as the time period during which the total light output of an LED decreases to some percentage, typically 70%, of its initial light output level (LEDs do not typically burn out, but instead have a gradual reduction in brightness). Driving an LED at relatively high current densities and junction temperatures causes degradation mechanisms to accelerate. A specific example of this is shown in FIG. 2 taken from DOE document PNNL-SA-51901, April 2007, Thermal management of white LEDs. One can see that for a typical GaN-based LED the lifetime is about 40,000 hours when the junction temperature is about 63° C. (curve 136) and decreases to about 14,000 hours when the junction temperature is about 74° C. (curve 138). It should also be noted that as the brightness decreases, the luminous efficacy is also decreasing, so a longer-lived LED may have a higher luminous efficacy and thus may have a lower cost, over its lifetime.
Because these LEDs are designed to operate at high current, the package must be designed to manage the relatively large amount of heat (about 1 to about 5 watts) generated when the LED is operated at relatively lower luminous efficacy (at high currents). Such packages are expensive, thus reducing the purchase cost efficacy. FIG. 3 shows the luminous efficacy (top graph) and the purchase cost efficacy (bottom graph) as a function of lumen output (the lumen output is varied by changing the drive current, as shown in FIG. 1) for the same devices as in FIG. 1. The same line types are used for each device and the thick solid part of each curve represents the designed operating range. It is clear from this data that the purchase cost efficacy (lm/$) increases rapidly with increased lumen output but this is at the expense of luminous efficacy. For example, for the Luminus Devices SST-90, a purchase cost efficacy of about 40 lm/$ is only achieved at a relatively low luminous efficacy of about 60 lm/watt, about half the value achieved at very low currents. At low currents, where the luminous efficacy is about 120 lm/W, the purchase cost efficacy drops to only about 10 lm/$.
As discussed above, a prior art LED lamp contains a relatively large number of LEDs. FIG. 4 shows a schematic of an exemplary prior art LED lamp. Each packaged LED 142 is mounted on a carrier or circuit board 141 and coupled with interconnects 144. The lamp housing 146 may also contain the power converter (to convert the 120 VAC input to a DC level suitable for the LED driver and the LED driver (together shown as 148, inside housing 146) that provides a controlled current to the LEDs, appropriate thermal management systems including heat sinks 150, and an optical system 140 to combine and diffuse and/or direct the light emitted from the individual LEDs into a desired profile exiting the lamp and a base 152.
LED lamp manufacturers must purchase multiple LEDs and assemble and integrate them on the circuit board. This can be relatively expensive, and the cost increases when using higher and higher power LEDs. In addition to more expensive LED die, the LED package cost increases as well. As the LEDs are designed to operate at higher and higher temperatures, the packages for such LEDs become more complex and more expensive, in some cases costing more than the LED die itself. As discussed above, the luminous efficacy decreases at high current levels where the LEDs are designed to be operated. Thus the LED package must be designed to handle the large amounts of heat generated when the LED is operating at the relatively lower luminous efficacy of the operation point. Such packages are expensive, and the need to use multiple such packages in the lamp significantly increases the lamp cost. Associated with this are the cost of the carrier or circuit board and the cost of attaching the LED packages to the circuit board or carrier, for example using solder. The lamp cost is further increased because of the need for advanced thermal management systems required by operation at sub-optimal luminous efficacy values. Such thermal management systems are often passive, including for example metal core circuit boards, heat sinks and heat radiating fins, but in some cases may even include an active device such as a fan. All of these factors act to decrease the LED lamp purchase cost efficacy, increase the total cost/unit time and decrease the lifetime of the lamp.
Referring again to FIG. 4, one can see that the light emitted from the lamp must traverse a large number of interfaces with different refractive indices. Starting with the LED die, the light passes from the semiconductor die through the encapsulation of the package, a region of air, the lens/diffuser system 140 and then out of the lamp. Thus the light must traverse at least 4 interfaces. Each interface is associated with optical losses resulting from the difference in refractive indices of the materials forming the interface. Even at a 00 incident angle part of the incident light may be reflected back and potentially absorbed and converted to heat. The amount of the light reflected back depends on the values of refractive indices of the materials forming the interface—the closer they are, the less light that may be reflected back. At a typical semiconductor (for example Si, GaAs, GaP or GaN)/air interface up to about 30% of visible light may be reflected back, as the ratio of refractive indices between semiconductor and air is typically around 3.
Another optical loss mechanism that occurs at the interface is total internal reflection. According to Snell's law, light incident upon an interface is refracted or reflected depending on the angle of incidence and the index of refraction on either side of the interface according to the equation n1 sin θ1=n2 sin θ2 where n1 and n2 are the index of refraction on either side of the interface, θ1 is the incident angle and θ2 is the refracted angle. A schematic of this is shown in FIG. 5 in which material 1 is identified as 164, material 2 is identified as 162 and the interface between material 1 and material 2 is identified as 160. 165 identifies the normal direction to the interface, 166 represents the angle of incidence in material 1 and 168 represents the refracted angle in material 2. When the angle of incidence is large enough, no light is refracted, but instead all light is reflected back into material 1. This situation is called total internal reflection (TIR) and may be the cause of large optical losses. For example, using typical values for semiconductors and encapsulants, all light incident upon that interface at an incident angle greater than about 27° will be totally internally reflected. TIR light will suffer absorption losses within the die as it is reflected from various interfaces, leading to reduced light output and increased generation of heat. For an example of a simple rectangular LED die, only about 28% or less of the light generated within the LED die may escape the die, into the surrounding encapsulant. A great deal of work has gone into improving the light extraction efficiency of the die within the package/encapsulant. As discussed above, the LED lamp includes at least three (3) other interfaces at which Snell's law applies and at which further optical losses may occur.
Additional optical losses may also occur in lamps comprising a plurality of individual LEDs, for example packaged LEDs, arranged on a circuit board or carrier because of the increased etendue of the optical system (etendue refers to how “spread out” the light is in area and angle). In a given lamp or fixture design, one can only capture all of the light from the light source if the etendue of the light source is below a certain value (that value depends on the optical design of the lamp or fixture). In other words, as the dimensions of the light emitting area increase (the etendue increases) it becomes more difficult to focus and direct the light into a desired pattern without optical losses.
Lamps may also suffer further optical losses when put into a fixture. This is more significant for incandescent and fluorescent lamps that emit light in a relatively omnidirectional pattern. LEDs emit light in a direction pattern and thus LED lamps may suffer less light losses when installed in a fixture. Typically the optical efficiencies associated with light loss from prior art LED lamps in a fixture are in the range of about 80%.
In some embodiments the LED lamp may use 120 VAC for its input source and this may be converted to DC to drive the LEDs in a constant current mode. In this situation electronics, also called the driver, may be required to convert the 120 VAC to a DC voltage and current suitable for the LEDs.
The electronics efficiency is affected by its output voltage and typically increases as the output voltage approaches the input voltage. For example FIG. 6 shows the efficiency of a National Semiconductor LM3445 Triac LED driver as a function of output voltage for an input voltage of 115 VAC. As the output voltage increases from about 33 volts to about 47 volts (corresponding to about 10 and about 14 GaN-based LEDs in series, respectively), the driver efficiency increases from about 85% to about 90%. LEDs typically operate in the range of about 2.5 to about 4 volts and when the number of the LEDs in the lamp is relatively low, the difference in LED voltage and the input voltage is relatively large, resulting in a relatively low efficiency. The electronics efficiency may also be a function of temperature, decreasing with increasing temperature. In some embodiments, the electronics efficiency may begin to decrease when the ambient temperature rises above about 500 C. FIG. 7 shows the power conversion efficiency of an exemplary 20 watt AC/DC converter (Recom RAC20-S_D_TA series) as a function of temperature. As can be seen, the power conversion efficiency decreases significantly over about 50° C. In the typical operating temperature range for prior art LED-based lamps (about 60° C.) the power conversion efficiency has decreased by almost 50% for this particular power converter.
Typically the efficiencies associated with present day electronics (drivers) are in the range of about 85%. While the electronics efficiency may be able be improved with respect to both output voltage and dissipated heat for conventional LED lamps, this may lead to unacceptable increases in the electronics form factor and cost.
As discussed above, prior-art LED lamps comprising one or more packaged LEDs driven at relatively high currents and high current densities generate significant heat because of their low luminous efficacy. As the temperature is increased, the light output of LEDs is reduced, thus further reducing the luminous efficacy. The LED and driver lifetime is also reduced as potentially is the efficiency of the driver. FIG. 8 shows a table presenting the percentage of input power that is converted to either heat (IR+conduction+convection) or light for exemplary incandescent and fluorescent lamps and exemplary prior art LED lamps. It can be seen that the LED lamps produce significantly more visible light power than incandescent lamps, but still produce a significant amount of heat which must be managed appropriately. Typically this means higher operating temperatures and more expensive packaging and thermal management techniques.
The overall luminous efficacy of a LED lamp may be expressed as where is the luminous efficacy of the LED and is a function of temperature, is the optical efficiency and is the efficiency of the driver electronics and is a function of ambient temperature. For example, the LEDs from dotted and dash-dotted curves in FIG. 1 which may have a low current luminous efficacy of about 135 lm/W, in typical prior art operation conditions may have a luminous efficacy of about 75-85 lm/W. Using values of 85% for both the optics and driver efficiency, the prior art LED lamp in operation would then have an overall luminous efficacy of 54 lm/W. Note that this does not include any temperature effects. Typical design guides recommend an 85% derating for the LED related to temperature, yielding a temperature-adjusted overall LED lamp luminous efficacy of only about 46 lm/W.
Alternatively the LED lamp efficiency may be described as the product of non-temperature sensitive factors for the LED, the optics and the driver and a temperature factor, which may also be called the thermal efficiency; ηlamp=ηLED*ηDriver*ηOptics*ηThermal. FIG. 9 shows current (2008) and 2015 target values for these four efficiencies as determined by the U.S. Department of Energy (Multi-Year Program Plan FY'09-FY'15, Solid State Lighting Research and Development, March 2009). In FIG. 9, the efficiency of the LED is expressed as a percentage, that is, the light output power divided by the input electrical power. For reference a neutral white LED efficiency of about 30% corresponds to a LED luminous efficacy of about 90 lm/W. From this table it can be seen that even though advances have been made in conventional LED lamps, the overall efficiency of conventional LED lamps is only about 17%.
In spite of all of these issues, the overall luminous efficacy of prior art LED lamps is still higher than that of incandescent lamps. However, conventional LED lamps are very expensive ($80-$120 per lamp) and thus, as discussed previously, even though the electricity costs are typically about ¼ to about ½ that of incandescent lamps, the high first cost is sufficient to prevent widespread adoption.
There is accordingly a general need in the art for techniques and devices that simultaneously provide high efficiency, high brightness and low cost in LEDs, LED lamps and LED lighting systems.
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The value of exercising the human body as an avenue to optimum health cannot be overly estimated. As a result of this awareness, more and more people are attempting to take the opportunity for exercise. Accordingly, many health clubs and other recreational facilities have been constructed and are attended by people seeking to stay physically fit. Sales of in-home exercise equipment has likewise escalated.
A vast array of mechanical apparatus has been developed for use in exercising the human body. One such type of apparatus typically includes a grip or engagement structure which a person engages, for example, with his/her arms, hands, back, feet, etc. The engagement structure is connected by cables, cams and pulleys to a weight assembly so that a selected weight may be loaded depending upon the individual's own strength. Other types of exercise machines includes treadmills, stationary bicycles, stair step machines and the like. While there is little doubt that these various exercising apparatus, if used properly, are of great utility in attaining and maintaining a physically fit body, such machines have two primary drawbacks. First, such apparatus are fairly complex in construction and are correspondingly expensive. Second, proper exercise requires a significant number of these machines to exercise the whole body.
Since few individuals can afford the complete ensemble of machines necessary to exercise the body, most individuals join health or recreational clubs which maintain an ensemble of machines for on-premise use. Unfortunately, the inconvenience of travel to a health club facility coupled with the cost of maintaining membership discourages many individuals from keeping up with their exercise regimen.
There has been recognized, therefore, a need for exercise apparatus that may be used in-home in addition to such equipment that may be available at health club and recreational facilities. Examples of common exercise apparatus of this type include treadmills, stair step machines and stationary bicycles. Another type of such apparatus is the resilient, compressible foam devices which I have disclosed in my earlier U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,253,661 and 4,603,851.
In each of my two earlier patents, I have disclosed leg exercising apparatus wherein a dense, resilient, compressible foam material is molded into a configuration that provides a ground engaging base with an upper surface which may be engaged by the feet of a user. Various exercises may be performed while standing or running in place on this device with the controlled compression and resilience of the foam providing beneficial resistance to the exercise. I have found that it is important to control the resistance to compression by the various pad portions of these devices in order to increase the performance thereof.
In order to control the compression of the foot pad portions of these devices, it is important that undesirable lateral spreading be eliminated and to isolate foot pads against potential transfer of energy from the compression of one foot pad to the other. My earlier exercise apparatus, as disclosed in the above referenced patents, had such disadvantages due to their unitary molded construction. Moreover, as a result of the transfer of energy, shearing or tearing between the foot pads could occur which would destroy the usefulness of the entire apparatus.
Accordingly, despite the improvements and advantages of all of the exercise apparatus described above, there remains a need for improved exercise apparatus which are simple and durable in construction. There remains a need for improved apparatus which may be used by a person for in-home exercising at a reasonable cost. There is further a need for exercise apparatus which are compact and easily stored.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to valves and is directed more particularly to plastic ball valves of the type typically used with plastic pipe in gas distribution lines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The provision of plastic ball valves for use in plastic pipe, particularly in gas distribution systems, is well known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,275 issued Sep. 13, 1977 to Earl A. Bake, et al, for example, describes an all-plastic valve and a method for assembling the valve. The Bake et al valve includes a main body and two end sections which, with components assembled therein, are fused together to provide a valve body having conduits extending therefrom and adapted for connection to a plastic pipe.
In keeping with environmental concerns, it is deemed beneficial to reduce to the extent possible, and eliminate where possible, any leakage from such valves. Accordingly, there is need in the industry for a valve adapted for use underground in gas distribution system, as in the Bake et al valve, but improved with respect to the sealing means resident in the valve to prevent, or at least minimize, undesirable emissions.
It is also deemed beneficial to provide such a valve in which the number of parts is reduced and/or the number of major steps in assembling the valve is reduced.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to covers for necktie knots.
2. Prior Art
The knot of a necktie is the most prominent feature of the necktie, especially when the rest of the tie is covered by a jacket or coat. Tying a necktie to produce a nice knot and the proper length at the dangling portions is a trial and error process for many people. The material at the knot can become worn out quickly because of the abrasion that results from retying the necktie several times for each time it is worn.
Knot covers have been invented to provide additional decoration at the most visible part of the necktie, and to conceal any worn out material. U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,593 to Stevens, Jr. shows a knot cover comprising a sheet with side flaps that fold backward to wrap completely around the knot. The sides are secured together with hook-and-loop fasteners. A top strap extending from the top edge of the sheet is wrapped around the top of the knot and secured to the flaps with hook-and- loop fasteners. Having to wrap the sheet around the knot and secure multiple fasteners makes this device difficult to put on.
Simulated knots have also been invented to eliminate the need to make a knot. U.S. Pat.2,898,600 to Lipes et al. shows a simulated knot c curve completely around the back of the sheet. A hinged arm is attached to the inner side of the sheet. The arm is not spring loaded. It cannot be conveniently used as a knob cover because the back of the sheet is almost completely closed, so that the necktie must be threaded through the top opening of the device. It would also be unstable as a knot cover because the arm does not exert any force to clamp against the necktie.
U.S. Pat.3,964,105 to Gideon shows another simulated knot comprising a curved sheet with spring loaded clips for attaching to a necktie. The sides of the sheet are too flat to hug the tie for stability. The clips are hinged about vertical axes, so that it cannot be clipped onto a real knot as a knot cover.
U.S. Pat.No.5,666,666 to Chaffen et al. shows yet another simulated knot comprising a sheet which is folded to form a knot shape. It cannot be used as a knot cover because there is no structure for attaching it to a real knot.
Spring loaded clips for earrings are well known. A typical earring clip 40 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. However, similar clips have not been provided on necktie covers. Further, clip 40 has an arm 41 with only a single gripping point 42. Even if clip 40 is provided on a necktie knot cover, it would not be able to stabilize the cover.
The objects of the present necktie knot cover are:
to cover a necktie knot;
to provide a surface for arranging decoration;
to be easy to install; and
to be stable on the knot.
Further objectives of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.
A necktie knot cover is comprised of a sheet with a center portion for being positioned against a necktie knot, and backwardly curved side panels for hugging the sides of the knot for stability. The sheet has two inwardly slanted side edges below its top edge. The top ends of the side panels terminate at the lower ends of the slanted side edges. The slanted side edges provide clearance for the loop of the necktie. A mounting bracket is attached to an inner surface of the center portion. A spring-loaded arm is hinged to the bracket. The arm is for hooking inside a pocket below a top edge of the knot. The arm has inwardly curved fingers for gripping the inside of the pocket.
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This invention relates generally to magnetic resonance spectroscopy and more particularly, the invention relates to RF pulses for use in spectral editing in MR spectroscopy.
Spectroscopic imaging is a combined spatial/spectral imaging where the goal is to obtain a MR spectrum at each spatial position or to display an image of each chemical shift species at each position. Chemical shift is a subtle frequency shift in a MR signal that is dependent on the chemical environment of a particular compound or metabolite. The chemical shift is a small displacement of resonant frequency due to a shielding dependent on chemical environment and created by the orbital motion of surrounding electrons in response to a main magnetic field, B0.
As described in Cunningham et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,428, there are numerous pulse sequences used in MRI and in NMR spectroscopy. These pulse sequences use at least one, and usually more than one, RF pulse near the Larmor frequency. In addition to the RF excitation pulse mentioned above, such RF excitation pulses may, for example, invert spin magnetization, saturate spin magnetization, stabilize spin magnetization or refocus spin magnetization. When used in combination with a magnetic field gradient, the RF pulses selectively affect spin magnetization over a specific frequency range which corresponds to a specific location within the subject being scanned. Such “selective” RF pulses are thus specified by the degree to which they tip magnetization (“flip angle”) over a range of frequencies.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,940, a method is disclosed for designing RF pulses that will produce a desired flip angle over a specified frequency range. The disclosure of this patent is hereby incorporated by reference. This method, known in the art as the “SLR” method, starts with the desired frequency domain pulse profile (for example, a 90° flip angle over a specified slice thickness/frequency range) and calculates the amplitude and phase of a RF pulse, that when played out over time, will produce the desired result. These calculations involve the approximation of the desired frequency domain pulse profile with two high order polynomials A and B which can then be transformed directly into a RF pulse that is “played out” on an NMR system. The step of producing the polynomials A and B employs a Remez (Parks-McClellan) algorithm that is executed in an iterative process. To calculate the necessary A and B polynomials (hereinafter referred to as the “SLR polynomials”) this iterative process is performed until the desired frequency domain pulse profile is approximated to a specified degree of accuracy.
The use of spectral-spatial EPSE (echo-planar spin-echo) pulses within pulse sequences for MR spectroscopic imaging is an attractive option, as the high bandwidth of the sub-pulses (5–10 kHz) greatly reduces the error associated with chemical-shift misregistration. However, exciting the spectral bandwidth needed to measure a typical set of metabolites (e.g., 300 Hz at 3T), along with an adequate spatial profile, requires high RF amplitude. The amplitude can be brought down into practical range using a RF pulse that excites a profile with non-linear phase but such pulses are inappropriate for J-difference editing of metabolites, such as lactate and GABA.
For editing, it is crucial that the coupled components are flipped simultaneously, and over a short interval. The problem is that a non-linear phase RF pulse affects different resonant frequencies at different times during the RF pulse. These pulses perform poorly for J-difference editing because the coupled components, which have different frequencies, are tipped by the pulse at different times. This causes the spin-echo and J-echo to occur at slightly different times, leading to errors in quantitation.
The present invention provides a new RF pulse design method to enable the use of spectral-spatial RF pulses for J-difference editing in magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI).
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescent display (OELD) device, and more particularly, to a top emission type OELD device with a high luminance and method for fabricating the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, organic electroluminescent display (OELD) devices emit light by injecting electrons from a cathode and holes from an anode into an emission layer, combining the electrons with the holes, generating excitons, and transforming the excitons of an excited state to a ground state. Unlike liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, OELD devices do not require an additional light source and therefore have the advantages of slimness and lightweight.
Since OELD devices have excellent characteristics, such as low power consumption, high luminance, fast response time, lightweight and so on, OELD devices can be applied to various electronic products, such as mobile phones, PDAs, camcorders, plam PCs, and so on. Moreover, due to their simple fabricating process, the fabrication costs of OELD devices are low as compared with LCD devices.
The OELD devices are divided into a passive matrix type and an active matrix type according to the driving method thereof. The passive matrix type OELD devices have a simple structure and a simple fabricating process. However, the passive matrix type OELD devices have disadvantages of high power consumption and low quality images. On the other hand, the active matrix type OELD devices have advantages of high emission efficiency and high quality images.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an active matrix type OELD device according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, the OELD device 10 includes first and second substrates 12 and 28 facing each other. The first substrate 12 is transparent and flexible. The first substrate 12 has an array element 14 including a plurality of thin film transistors (TFTs) T and an organic electroluminescent diode E including a first electrode 16, an organic luminescent layer 18 and a second electrode 20. The organic luminescent layer 18 in each pixel region P includes one of red, green and blue color materials.
The second substrate 28 includes a moisture absorbent 22 of a powder type. The moisture absorbent 22 removes moisture inside the OELD device. The moisture absorbent 22 is in a concave portion of the second substrate 28 and is sealed by a taping 25. The first and second substrates 12 and 28 are attached to each other with a seal pattern 26.
In the OELD device, because the first electrode 16 is formed of a transparent material, the light emitted from the organic luminescent layer 18 travels toward the first substrate 12. Accordingly, it is referred to as a bottom emission type OELD device.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of an OELD device according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 2, gate and data lines 42 and 44 are formed on a substrate 32. The gate and data lines 42 and 44 cross each other and a switching element Ts is formed near the crossing portion of the gate and data lines 42 and 44. The switching element Ts includes a gate electrode 46, a source electrode 56 and a drain electrode 60. The gate electrode 46 is connected to the gate line 42. The source electrode 56 separated from the drain electrode 60 is connected to the data line 44.
A driving element Td is electrically connected to the switching element Ts. The driving element Td of a p-type TFT includes a gate electrode 68, a source electrode 66 and a drain electrode 63. The gate electrode 68 of the driving element Td is connected to the switching element Ts. A storage capacitor Cst is formed between the source and gate electrodes 66 and 68 of the driving element Td. The drain electrode 63 of the driving element Td is connected to the first electrode 16 (of FIG. 1) of the organic electroluminescent diode E. The source electrode 66 of the driving element Td is connected to a power line 55.
When a gate signal from the gate line 42 is supplied to the gate electrode 46 of the switching element Ts, a data signal from the data line 44 is supplied to the gate electrode 68 of the driving element Td through the switching element Ts. Then, the organic electroluminescent diode E is driven by the driving element Td such that the organic electroluminescent diode E emits light. Because the storage capacitor Cst maintains a voltage level of the gate electrode 68 of the driving element Td, even if the switching element Ts is turned off, the organic electroluminescent diode E can continuously emit light for a predetermined period of time.
The switching element Ts and the driving element Td include a semiconductor layer of one of amorphous silicon and polycrystalline silicon. When the semiconductor layer is formed of amorphous silicon, the switching element Ts and the driving element Td can be easily fabricated.
FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating an array element of an active matrix type OELD device according to the related art and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG. 3.
Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the active matrix type OELD device includes a switching element Ts, a driving element Td and a storage capacitor Cst on a substrate 32. Each pixel of the OELD device may include more than one pair of the switching element Ts and the driving element Td.
A gate line 42 and a data line 44 are formed on the substrate 32 with a gate insulating layer interposed therebetween. A pixel region P is defined by the crossing between the gate and data lines 42 and 44.
The switching element Ts includes a gate electrode 46, an active layer 50 and source and drain electrodes 56 and 60. The gate electrode 46 of the switching element Ts is connected to the gate line 42, and the source electrode 56 of the switching element Ts is connected to the data line 44. The drain electrode 60 of the switching element Ts is connected to a gate electrode 68 of the driving element Td through a gate contact hole 64.
The driving element Td includes the gate electrode 68, an active layer 62 and source and drain electrodes 66 and 63. The source electrode 66 of the driving element Td is connected to a power line 55 through a power line contact hole 58. The drain electrode 63 of the driving element Td is connected to a first electrode 36 through a drain contact hole 65. The storage capacitor Cst includes the silicon pattern 35 as a first storage electrode, the power line 55 as a second storage electrode and a dielectric layer therebetween.
As illustrated in FIG. 4, an organic electroluminescent diode E includes the first electrode 36, an organic luminescent layer 38 and a second electrode 40. The first electrode 36 contacts the drain electrode 63 of the driving element Td through the drain contact hole 65, and the organic luminescent layer 38 is interposed between the first and second electrodes 36 and 40. The first and second electrodes 36 and 40 function as anode and cathode, respectively.
FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an organic electroluminescent diode according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 5, the organic electroluminescent diode E formed on a substrate 32 includes a first electrode 36, an organic luminescent layer 38 and a second electrode 40. Although not shown, the substrate 32 includes an array element including the driving element Td (of FIG. 4). The first electrode 36 is connected to the driving element Td (of FIG. 4). The first and second electrode 36 and 40 function as anode and cathode, respectively. The organic luminescent layer 38 includes a hole injection layer (HIL) 38a, a hole transporting layer (HTL) 38b, an emitting material layer (EML) 38c, an electron transporting layer (ETL) 38d and an electron injection layer (EIL) 38e. The HTL 38b and the ETL 38d serve to improve emitting efficiency, and the HIL 38a and EIL 38e serve to reduce energy barrier in injecting electrons and holes.
The second electrode 40 functioning as cathode is formed of a low work function material, such as calcium (Ca), aluminum (Al), magnesium (Mg), silver (Ag) and lithium (Li), and the first electrode 36 functioning as anode is formed of a transparent conductive material such as indium-tin-oxide (ITO).
A sputtering process is generally used to form an ITO layer. However, it is difficult to deposit an ITO layer on the organic luminescent layer 38 because of damage on the organic luminescent layer 38 caused by the sputtering process. Accordingly, the OELD device according to the related art is the bottom emission type in which the first electrode 36 of ITO functioning as an anode is formed under the organic luminescent layer 38. However, the bottom emission type has disadvantages of low luminance and low aperture ratio. Moreover, because the first electrode 36 of ITO functioning as an anode is directly connected to the driving element Td, a p-type polycrystalline TFT should be used for the driving element Td, thereby complicating the fabrication process of the OELD device.
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The present invention relates to a variable crown sleeve roll and, more particularly, to an improved sleeve roll in which a chamber is defined between the outer peripheral surface of the arbor and the inner peripheral surface of the sleeve to permit control of the amount of expansion of the outer diameter of the roll by supplying a pressurized fluid to said chamber.
In the ensuing description, the amount of the diametrical expansion of the outer diameter of the roll is represented by the term "crown", the rolled steel plate is referred to as "strip", and the effect for making the thickness of the strip uniform and relieving the sharp local variation in the rolling pressure is referred to as the "softening effect".
In a rolling operation such as cold rolling, as generally known, since the rolls are subject to an extremely large rolling load which is applied to the rolls through bearings at the opposite ends thereof, the axes of the upper and the lower rolls are curved outwardly at the central portions of their lengths when a strip is held between the rolls, with the result that the rolled strip is thicker in the central region, in the duration of its width, than in other regions. In order to compensate for the curvature of the axes of the rolls and to make the strip thickness uniform, it is conventional to make the rolls by a method generally referred to as "crowning" in which each of the rolls is formed in a barrel-shape by progressively increasing the outer diameter of the roll from the opposite axial ends toward the central portion. The roll crown according to the conventional crowning method, has, however, a serious disadvantage in that the amount of the roll crown once determined in accordance with a certain rolling condition is not adjustable in response to changes in the rolling conditions or in the width of the strip being rolled.
This disadvantage has been overcome by a sleeve roll disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 18575/75 (Japanese Published Application No. 92770/76), in which the amount of the crown is variable and which has a softening effect. In this roll, a sleeve has the inner peripheral surface fitted on the peripheral surface of, an arbor and sealing means and securing means are provided at opposite ends of the fitting surface, step portions are machined in the inner peripheral surface of the sleeve or the outer peripheral of the arbor or both in the central portions of the fitting surfaces to define a sealed cylindrical chamber therebetween, and a fluid passage comprising a bore extending from an end face of the arbor therethrough and bores branching from said bore and extending to said sealed cylindrical chamber are provided.
The first characteristic of the operational effect of the roll disclosed by said Japanese Patent Application No. 18575/75 is that the sealed cylindrical chamber formed with the stepped portion thereabout substantially parallel to the fitting surfaces (in other words, the height of the stepped portion is constant with respect to the axial direction of the roll) can be supplied with a pressurized fluid, preferably oil, from outside through a rotary connection connected to the fluid passage to thereby elastically deform the outer peripheral surface of the sleeve so as to control the amount of the crown by adjusting the pressure of said fluid.
The second characteristic of the operational effect of said roll is that when some flaw such as a ridge-like local projection exists on the surface of the strip (heretofore such a projection was crushed flat by pressure and caused ridge buckles in the strip due to a difference extending in the rolling direction in the uneven region) the surface of the roll is depressed at the position corresponding to the projection on the strip because of the softening effect to relieve the sharp local variation of the linear pressure between the upper and the lower rolls with the strip therebetween to thereby roll the strip uniformly flat.
The roll disclosed in said Japanese Patent Application No. 18575/75 has the curvature of the crown substantially flat in a relatively wide range from the center of the width of the roll toward the opposite ends thereof.
After extensive research on the relationship between the crown of the roll and the shape of the strip produced thereby, the inventors have found that for a roll to produce a strip of a uniform thickness it is of a vital importance that the roll crown have a curvature in which the size of the substantially flat portion in the center of the width of the roll is reduced.
Japanese Patent Application No. 133312/75 (Japanese Published Application No. 57065/77) discloses an improved sleeve roll the shape of which is based on the above-described finding in which the sleeve has a progressively decreasing thickness from the opposite ends toward the center thereof or, in other words, the radial dimension of the sealed chamber progressively increases from the opposite ends toward the center thereof.
Further research by the inventors has revealed that a strip cannot be rolled into a satisfactory shape unless the sleeve thickness, the sleeve thickness taper angle, and the internal pressure receiving length are designed within certain limitations in accordance with the rolling conditions such as the cross sectional shape of the slab, the width of the strip, and the rolling load.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a sleeve roll capable of providing the optimum control of the roll crown and producing the optimum softening effect in accordance with the rolling conditions.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera having a main body whose front face is armored with a front cover, and a structure for securing the front cover.
2. Related Background Art
There has been known a compact camera which enables photographing with an angle of view adjusted by extending or retracting its lens barrel without exchanging lenses. Under development in such a compact camera is one in which the main body section thereof is armored with a cover made of a metal such as titanium or aluminum, so as to impart a feeling of quality thereto. Meanwhile, in a compact camera equipped with a zoom lens having a large zoom ratio, e.g., with a focal length ranging from 40 to 105 mm; since its taking lens is large, the lens barrel section for the taking lens projects from the front face of the camera. In order for the periphery of the lens barrel section in such a compact camera to be armored with the metal cover as well, as shown in FIG. 3, a cover A may be cylindrically projected by press machining (drawing) in conformity to the projecting state of a lens barrel B, thereby forming a protrusion C having an opening F, at its tip face, for projecting the lens barrel B therethrough. In this case, since the opening F and the tip portion of the lens barrel B are exposed to the exterior of the camera, it is important for the cover A to be accurately positioned with respect to the main body section having the lens barrel B. In order to position the cover A, a frame D of the main body section may be provided with a projection E, while a recess for receiving the projection E is formed on the rear face of the cover A. In this case, when the projection E is inserted into the recess, the center positions of the opening F of the cover A and the lens barrel B can be aligned with each other.
Nevertheless, the camera having the above-mentioned projecting lens barrel B may have the following problems. First, it is difficult to align the center positions of the opening F and lens barrel B with each other. Namely, the position of the cover A with respect to the frame D of the main body section is defined by the position of the projection E on the frame D and the position of the recess on the rear face of the cover A. Consequently, unless both of the projection E and the recess are formed at accurate positions with accurate dimensions, the opening F cannot be located as designed. In this case, the lens barrel B fails to be centered with respect to the opening F, whereby the appearance of the camera might be spoiled. Also, a boring step of forming the recess on the rear face of the metal cover A increases the cost of making the camera. Second, the cover A might float from the frame D (i.e., a gap might be formed between the frame D and the cover A). Namely, though an adhesive, a double-sided adhesive tape, or the like may be interposed between the frame D and the cover A in order to firmly attach the cover A to the frame D, the cover A might be floated from the frame D depending on the form of the protrusion C.
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An existing electrical connector includes an insulation body. Multiple terminal slots are opened on the insulation body, and multiple terminals are correspondingly received in the multiple terminal slots. Each terminal has a base portion fixed to the terminal slot, a contact portion extends upward from the base portion and contacts a chip module, and a welding portion extends downward from the base portion and welded to a circuit board. Interference fit between the base portion and the inner wall surface of the terminal slot may prevent the terminal from moving in a horizontal direction, but cannot prevent the terminal from exiting the PIN, that is, cannot prevent the terminal from excessively moving upward. In order to prevent the terminal from excessively moving upward under the action of an external force, persons skilled in the art generally place a locking block protruding from the inner wall surface of the receiving slot of the terminal opposite to the width direction of the welding portion. That is, the locking block protrudes from the inner wall surface of the terminal slot toward the section of the welding portion. The welding portion of the terminal has a hooking portion corresponding to the locking block. During installation, the welding portion first deflects outward and then strides over the locking block, so that the welding portion is located outside the locking block. Then the hooking portion is made under the action of an external force and its own elastic force to move along the width direction of the welding portion by a distance until it enters the locking block from the bottom, so as to cooperate with the locking block, thereby preventing the terminal from excessively moving upward.
However, the welding portion is formed by stamping a metal plate, and the thickness of the metal plate is generally small, so the welding portion formed by stamping is thin. That is, the thickness of the welding portion is small, but the width of the welding portion is generally much larger than the thickness. When entering the locking block from the bottom, the hooking portion needs to first move by a distance approximately equal to the width of the welding portion, so the hooking portion moves by a large distance, which easily drives the upper half part of the terminal to deflect, and causes the terminal to be pressed and deformed; or the terminal excessively presses the terminal slot to cause the width of the terminal slot to be widened, so that the terminal located in the terminal slot is loose, which affects contact stability of the terminal.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical element used in various optical apparatuses.
2. Description of Related Art
Many optical elements, such as a lens, a prism, and a splitter, are used in image pickup systems and projection optical systems of optical apparatuses, such as a DSC (Digital Still Camera), a DVC (Digital Video Camera), a camera for a cellular phone, a projection television, a BD (Blu-ray Disk) player, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) player, and a CD player.
As the optical apparatuses have higher magnification, higher fineness, and higher brightness as well as smaller size and weight, the optical elements also are required to have improved accuracy, function, handlability, strength, and cost.
Typically, an optical element is made of glass or plastic. Generally, a grinding method is used when an optical element is produced from glass and an injection molding method is used when an optical element is produced from plastic (JP 62(1987)-85918 A), from the viewpoint of mass productivity and accuracy. In some cases, an optical element is formed by a precision glass molding method in which a glass lump weighed in advance is plasticized and thereafter pressed by an upper die and a lower die to be formed directly into a desired shape (JP 2000-53428 A).
JP 62(1987)-85918 A and JP 2000-53428 A disclose respectively an invention intended to enhance the releasability between a molded product (an optical element) and a molding die, and an invention intended to enhance the transfer of the shape of a molding die to a material. Specifically, a stepped engagement portion inclined with respect to an optical axis direction is provided on an outer peripheral surface of the optical element in order to allow the optical element to rotate when it is released from the molding die (JP 62(1987)-85918 A), and a gas discharging groove is formed in the molding die (JP 2000-53428 A).
Hereinafter, a method for producing an optical element by the precision glass molding method will be described.
FIGS. 9A to 9C are cross-sectional views illustrating each process of a conventional precision glass molding method. FIG. 9A is a cross-sectional view illustrating the starting phase of the molding. FIG. 9B is a cross-sectional view illustrating a phase during the molding. FIG. 9C is a cross-sectional view illustrating the completion phase of the molding.
First, as shown in FIG. 9A, an optical material to be molded 30 is set in a cavity formed by an upper die 31, a lower die 32, and a cylindrical die 33, and all of them as a whole are placed between a lower head 35 and an upper head 34. The lower head 35 and the upper head 34 have heating and pressing mechanisms.
Then, the upper die 31, the lower die 32, the cylindrical die 33, and the optical material to be molded 30 are heated using the upper head 34 and the lower head 35.
When the temperature of the optical material to be molded 30 reaches a desired temperature that allows the material 30 to be deformed, the optical material to be molded 30 is pressed by the upper head 34 as shown in FIG. 9B. The pressing deforms the optical material to be molded 30 into the shape of an optical element 11.
Thereafter, the optical element 11 is cooled while the temperature and pressure are adjusted so that an optically functional surface is transferred to the optical element 11 satisfactorily. When the temperature of the molded optical element 11 is lowered to a temperature that allows the optical element 11 to be taken out, the upper head 34 and the upper die 31 are raised to take out the optical element 11.
FIGS. 8A and 8B show the conventional optical element 11 molded by the above-mentioned method. FIG. 8A is a top view of the optical element 11 when viewed from an optical axis direction. FIG. 8B is a cross-sectional view taken along a plane including an optical axis A.
The optical element 11 includes an optically functional part 12 and an outer peripheral part 15 provided around the optically functional part 12. The optical element 11 is produced so that a thickness T of the outer peripheral part 15 uniformly is 0.5 mm.
Upon observation, the optical element 11 has cracks 18 in the outer peripheral part 15. Specifically, the cracks 18 occur in the vicinity of a boundary portion between the optically functional part 12 and the outer peripheral part 15. Even more cracks occur when the thickness T of the outer peripheral part 15 is 0.5 mm or less.
Conceivably, the cracks 18 occur because the outer peripheral part 15 is sandwiched between the upper die 31 and the lower die 32 and thereby the shrinkage of the optical element 11 in a radial direction during the molding is hindered.
Specifically, the shrinkage of the optical element 11 in the radial direction occurs when the optical element 11 is cooled in the phase shown in FIG. 9B. However, since the outer peripheral part 15 of the optical element 11 is sandwiched between the upper die 31 and the lower die 32 in the phase of FIG. 9B, the shrinkage of the optical element 11 in the radial direction is hindered. Furthermore, the outer peripheral part 15 has a poor strength because the outer peripheral part 15 itself has a small thickness. Conceivably, these are the reasons why the cracks 18 occurred in the outer peripheral part 15.
The cracks that thus occurred lower the yield in the production of the optical element. Moreover, when the cracks grow and break the optical element, the fragments of the broken optical element need to be removed, lowering the production efficiency.
Particularly, optical elements required to have a high field angle and a high magnification, such as an optical element used in a DSC, etc., are required to be thinner every year, and the thicknesses of the optical elements tend to be increasingly small. In light of this, the occurrence of cracks mentioned above affects significantly the realization of a thin optical element in the future.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally in the field of electronic devices and systems. More particularly, the present invention is in the field of delivery of power to electronic devices and systems.
2. Background Art
The use of battery operated electronic devices continues to proliferate into all aspects of daily life, from the commonplace laptop to all the innovative accessories designed for convenient use of portable electronic devices. As demand for these devices has expanded, so has the demand for higher reliability, efficiency and convenience with respect to both the manufacturing and the operating life of the devices.
Conventional power supplies used to charge battery operated electronic devices are typically inefficient and unconfigurable, mainly to reduce manufacturing cost, but also because general safety and liability concerns steer manufacturers towards designing their power supplies to be physically differentiated from product to product so as to limit the risk of damage due to incompatible voltage and current specifications. Because each matched power supply is typically designed to serve only a very limited market for a limited amount of time (e.g., the life of a single product), little effort is invested into designing high efficiency and reliability into each iteration of the generic power supply. Further, the lack of interchangeability typically leads to consumers having multiple collections of conventional power supplies at home, at work, and even in their car, for example.
Thus, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a charging system that can be readily adapted to charge electronic devices efficiently, reliably and conveniently.
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1. Field of the invention
The present invention concerns new substances with therapeutic applications, usable in particular to treat certain troubles of cellular mitosis and cardiovascular diseases.
2. Description of the prior art human beings for many years, due in particular to the discoveries of N. DUFFAUT.
These water-soluble and atoxic compounds pass easily through the epidermis and dermis on local application (GUEYNE, DUFFAUT and QUILICHINI, Therapie 1962, 17, 417).
The numerous therapeutic properties of these organo-silicon compounds used on their own have been disclosed in several patents (in particular French Pat. Nos. 2.158.068, 2.160.293 and 2.230.376).
According to these documents, organo-silicon compounds are administered by intraveinous or intramuscular injection or by electrophoresis, the active ingredient being then in solution in water (isotonic solution), with the possible addition of an alcohol or polyalcohol, such as glycerol and/or a sodium salt of a pharmaceutically acceptable organic acid.
It has previously been shown, in particular in the above mentioned patents, that certain substances of various kinds are able to potentiate and widen the scope of the organo-silicon compounds.
It has now been unexpectedly found that it is possible to obtain a new substance with therapeutic applications by combining one or more organo-silicon compounds with one or more metals, preferably in the form of their salts (chloride, nitrate, sulfate or organic acid salt, for example) or in the form of oxides or hydroxides, all this by way of example with no limiting effect.
The metals concerned are titanium, zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, chromium, germanium, rhodium, gold, iridium, platinum and/or osmium, but use may also be made of uranyl derivatives and the rare earths.
It has also been found that substances of this type are especially useful for treating certain troubles of cellular mitosis and cardiovascular diseases against which they have a specific action, and that the substances thus obtained can be simply administered transcutaneously.
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It is well known that quantities of vapor tend to remain undissolved in aircraft fuel while the fuel is stored, for example, in the fuel tank of an aircraft at ground level. It is also well known that such dissolved vapor may separate from the fuel, and become undissolved free vapor within the physical confines of the system, when the ambient pressure decreases for example as the altitude of the aircraft increases during flight. Other factors, such as ambient temperatures and the kinetic energy imparted to the fuel in the course of mechanical displacement within the aircraft fuel system, also tend to affect the separation of vapor from the liquid fuel.
The design and physical size requirements of commercial and military aircraft often result in the fuel tank or tanks being positioned relatively far away from the engine. For example, in combat helicopters, it is common for the fuel tank to be located perhaps six or seven feet below the engine, measured in the vertical direction, and perhaps an equal number of feet away from the engine in the horizontal direction. In this context, the terms "vertical" and "horizontal" refer generally to the customary gravitational and earth-bound horizon alignment axes, respectively. The fuel conduits, generally pipes and tubes, that carry fuel from the tank to the engine, necessarily include various vertical and horizontal portions to accommodate and conform to the structural frame of the aircraft. It has been found that substantial quantities of free vapor can accumulate easily and unintentionally in the portions of the fuel system conduits that include significant changes in direction, such as right angle bends and "ell" couplings.
At any point where the upper end of a vertical section of a fuel conduit forms a right angle connection with a horizontal section, the possibility exists that the right angle may assume a position where it becomes the vertex of an inverted "v", depending upon the flight "attitude" or position of the aircraft. When this occurs, free vapor that is mixed with fuel traveling through the fuel conduit tends to accumulate at this vertex. As a result, the less dense, lighter vapor tends to rise above the heavier fuel and becomes trapped within the confines of the downward sloping conduit sections on either side of the bend. If an aircraft continues in this position for a long enough period of time, which may be merely a matter of several seconds, depending upon the nature of the aircraft and the fuel system involved, the volume of vapor that accumulates in such an inverted "trap" may be substantial (e.g., a vapor "bubble" may fully occupy a continuous length of four feet or more of a fuel conduit). It must be understood that the vapor accumulated in this manner will not necessarily interrupt the flow of liquid fuel through the bend in the conduit since the fuel may continue to flow through the bend, albeit in a constricted manner, between the trapped vapor bubble and the lowest interior surface of the conduit.
However, in the event of a subsequent abrupt change of position, the accumulated vapor may be released suddenly into the fluid flow path as the horizontal portion of the conduit returns to its normal position or becomes tilted upwardly relative to the right angle bend. The fluid "bubble" thus released, representing a volume from which fluid fuel is entirely excluded, may have a length of several feet in ordinary fuel supply systems of known designs. The bubble will be carried through the fuel system conduit to the engine, assuming the bubble does not adversely affect the pumping ability of the pump so as to completely prevent the displacement of fuel through the system as discussed more fully hereinbelow. When the continuous supply of combustible liquid fuel is interrupted by the discharge of a vapor bubble, having a significantly lower level of combustibility, into the combustion chamber of an engine, the combustion process is undesirably and unintentionally affected; engine power may be significantly reduced, or the combustion process mail be at least temporarily terminated entirely, an occurrence commonly referred to as "flame-out". During flame-out, the engine is unable to provide adequate power to the aircraft, thereby adversely affecting the flight of the aircraft while placing the aircraft and personnel in extreme danger. In addition, restoration of normal engine operation often requires the pilot to rapidly complete a series of separate engine control tasks.
A disadvantage of many existing fuel supply systems for aircraft is the inability to quickly and effectively re-establish fuel flow to the engine once flame-out has occurred. All fuel supply systems require at least one fuel pump to deliver fuel from the fuel supply tanks to the engines. As a result of aircraft design requirements, once flame-out occurs, it is often necessary for the pump to draw or raise liquid vertically through a distance of several feet from the supply tank, through an at least partially empty conduit. This capability is known as "self-priming". Positive displacement pumps, such as gear pumps, are known to have this capability and are widely used in aircraft for delivering fuel directly to the engine. However, it is also well-known that positive displacement pumps require a certain minimum level of inlet pressure to assure that fuel does not vaporize as it enters the pump. Such vaporization can cause a substantial and adverse reduction in pump output and overall performance. One condition that is known to result in low inlet pressure is a relatively long vertical rise between the pump inlet and the supply tank from which the fuel is being pumped.
To overcome the undesirable low pressure at the inlet of a "main-stage" positive displacement type fuel pump, a "boost pump" may be provided in the main fuel path between the supply tank and the inlet of the main stage pump. The purpose of the boost pump is to raise the ambient pressure of the fuel in the supply line upstream of the main stage pump to a level that will satisfy the minimum inlet pressure required at the fuel inlet of the main stage pump. Centrifugal pumps or impeller pumps are known to be particularly well suited to supplying acceptable quantities of liquid at relatively constant pressure independently of the inlet fluid pressure. Accordingly, centrifugal pumps are commonly employed in aircraft fuel systems as boost pumps to provide a steady supply of liquid fuel at relatively constant pressure to the inlet of a positive displacement main stage pump.
However, centrifugal pumps are also subject to certain operating restrictions which tend to make them less than satisfactory for use as boost pumps. For example, the basic design of a centrifugal or impeller pump generally cannot produce sufficient vacuum at its inlet to achieve self-priming operation. As a result, when a large vapor bubble enters the inlet of a conventional centrifugal type boost pump, an interruption of the inlet fuel supply occurs, often resulting in a complete loss of the "prime" condition of the boost pump. As a result, the boost pump is incapable of displacing fuel through the supply conduit thereby terminating the supply of fuel to the engine, thus resulting in engine flame-out. Moreover, quick and effective re-priming of conventional centrifugal boost pumps used in aircraft fuel systems is practically impossible. Consequently, this type of extended flame-out occurrence results in extreme danger to the pilot and aircraft.
To help avoid the risk and consequences of such a fuel shutdown, modified forms of centrifugal pumps have been developed that provide both satisfactory self-priming capability and relatively constant output pressure capability. Such pumps are known generally as side-channel pumps. They are characterized by the ability to cause the liquid fuel to re-absorb undissolved fuel vapor to process large quantities of such vapor. As a result, side-channel pumps automatically reprime the system following a flame-out and rapidly restore the supply of liquid fuel so as to permit restoration of normal engine operation. It should be understood that the delivery of large amounts of undissolved vapor to the side-channel pump still may cause temporary periods of flame-out if the amount of vapor exceeds the pump capability. These side-channel pumps do not decrease the amount of undissolved vapor delivered to the engine and, therefore, do not prevent or even minimize the occurrence of flame-out.
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Rotating electric machines include a rotor which rotates about a rotating shaft, a stator disposed opposite to a circumferential surface of the rotor and with a stator coil winded around a stator core, and a housing which fixes the stator and rotatably holds the rotor.
When a rotating electric machine is operated as an electric motor, an AC current is fed to the stator coil and a rotating magnetic field is generated, thereby giving turning force to the rotor to obtain mechanical output. Meanwhile, when a rotating electric machine is operated as a generator, turning force is externally given to the rotor to allow the rotor to rotate, thereby obtaining electric output generated at the stator coil.
When a rotating electric machine is operated as an electric motor or a generator in this manner to obtain mechanical output or electric output, the stator coil and the stator core generate heat due to loss of the rotating electric machine. An insulating material used for the rotating electric machine has an upper limit temperature that allows for maintaining insulating performance. Therefore, in order to maintain the temperature of the insulating material of the rotating electric machine to be less than or equal to the upper limit temperature, it is required to cool the rotating electric machine by some method when the rotating electric machine is operated.
Classifying cooling methods of the rotating electric machine by a medium used for cooling, the methods are divided into gas cooling methods using gas such as the air or hydrogen as a cooling medium and liquid cooling methods using liquid such as cooling water or cooling oil as a cooling medium.
Of the above, the liquid cooling methods can be classified into indirect cooling methods to indirectly cool a stator core and a stator coil by cooling a housing by circulating cooling liquid in a passage included in the housing and direct cooling methods to cool a stator core or a stator coil that is a portion generating heat by bringing cooling liquid, such as cooling oil having electric insulation property, into direct contact with the stator core or the stator coil.
It is known that in the indirect cooling methods a passage structure of the cooling liquid significantly influence cooling performance. For example, PTL 1 discloses a passage structure of a housing that allows for suppressing deterioration of cooling efficiency due to stagnation of cooling water.
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a procedure for the production of oxalic acid diesters by the oxidative carbonylization of alcohols with the use of palladium catalysts.
2. Background of the Invention
The production of oxalic acid esters from the apropriate alcohols by means of oxidative carbonylation through the catalytic effect of a metal from the platinum group has been described many times.
From U.S. Pat. No. 3,393,136 a procedure for the production of saturated oxalic acid esters is known, in which an essentially water-free reaction medium, consisting of a saturated simple C.sub.1 -C.sub.12 alcohol and 0.001 to 2% by weight of a metal from the platinum group as well as 0.05 to 5% by weight of a redox salt from the group of soluble Cu(II) and iron (III) salts, is brought into contact with carbon monoxide and oxygen simultaneously, in order to retain the redox salt at its highest oxidation level, at temperatures between 30.degree. and 300.degree. C. and pressures between 5 and 700 atmospheres. In DE-OS No. 22 13 435 there is also a suggestion for the production of oxalic acids and their esters in which carbon monoxide in an aqueous or alcoholic phase is oxidized with oxygen under pressure and at an elevated temperature in the presence of a catalytic system composed of a salt or a complex of a platinum metal and a salt or a complex of another metal which is more electropositive than the cited precious metals and which can appear at various oxidation levels. Also required is the conversion of insoluble or difficultly soluble platinum metal salts into soluble complexes by the addition of an alkali salt.
DE-OS No. 25 14 685 describes a procedure for the production of dialkyl oxalates by the conversion of an aliphatic alcohol with carbon monoxide and oxygen under pressure in the presence of a catalyst (consisting of a mixture of a salt, a metal of the platinum group and a salt of copper or iron) and possibly in the presence of an alkali metal salt, whereby the conversion is carried out in the presence of an activator. The group of cited "activators" is--in chemical terms--very inhomogenous. It includes, e.g., inorganic bases such as alkali hydroxides and carbonates as well as neutral substances known for their drying effect, such as, e.g., Na.sub.2 SO.sub.4 and MgSO.sub.4. The effect of nitrates may be related to the participation of nitrites or esters formed in the redox procedures during the oxidative carbonylization [see also European application No. 0 056 993, European application No. 0 056 994, DE-OS No. 27 33 730, European application No. 0 057 629, European application No. 0 057 630, European application No. 0 046 983, Japanese published application No. 83-21646, (Chem. Abstr. 98, 160258a), Japanese published application No. 83-126836 (Chem. Abstr. 99, 194450j), and European published application No. 0 105 480].
From DE-OS No. 26 01 139 a procedure is known which is characterized by the use of added ammonia or amines. A further development is suggested in DE-OS No. 27 21 734, according to which a halide-free ammonium salt is used in addition to amines and the copper (II) compound is also supposed to be free of halide ions.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,128 the use of at least stoichiometric amounts of amines under the exclusion of halides of the catalyst metals is suggested. According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,129 and DE-PS No. 27 21 734 this suggestion is supplemented by the addition of halogen-free ammonium salts, e.g. salts of sulfuric, acetic or trifluoroacetic acid. In DE-OS No. 28 14 708 the use of acidic co-catalysts is recommended.
Although the general suitability of precious metal catalysts of the platinum group in conjunction with redox systems such as Cu-II or Fe-III for the catalytic effect on the oxidative carbonylization of alcohols could be deduced from the state of the art, the various proposed variations presented a rather confusing, if not contradictory, picture.
More recently, heterogeneous catalysis with palladium containing mixed catalysts has gained increasing attention. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,447,638, the catalytic effect of a mixed catalyst of Pd or Pd salts in combinaton with crystalline vanadium oxide, phosphorus oides and titanium oxides has been employed. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,666 a comparable catalyst system is recommended, in which titanium has been replaced by manganese. According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,447,639, iron instead of titanium or manganese is used in the mixed catalysts. From Japanese published application No. 84,05 143 (Chem. Abstr. 100, 174285v) a procedure is known in which the carbon monoxide and oxygen, together with catalysts that contain tetramine-palladium(II)-nitrate on carbon, is reacted in the autoclave, and in Japanese published application No. 84-05144 (Chem. Abstr. 100, 113511q) a similar catalyst, containing T1 in addition, is recommended. In Japanese published application No. 81-142239 (Chem. Abstr. 96,68378), a process is suggested in which palladium metal has been added to activated carbon and the halogen components are present as the soluble component of the catalyst.
As a rule, in homogenous catalysis a considerable reduction of the catalytic effect is observed during continuous operation. Heterogeneous contact catalysis can provide certain advantages as compared to homogenous catalysis. It is, for example, usually easier to separate the catalyst components. This makes their reuse simpler. In addition, it does not cause precipitation of the heavy metal ions in the solution, the recycling of which into the original catalyst form can be very expensive.
However, even the state-of-the-art procedures which operate with heterogeneous catalysis are not wholly satisfactory. Especially the long reaction times and the yield obtained leave much to be desired.
Thus, there remains the problem of developing heterogeneously working contact catalysts which, with relatively short reaction times, provide a high yield of oxalic acid esters and have a high selectivity in the oxidative carbonylation of alcohols. In addition, the catalyst system should not be less readily accessible and not more costly than the ones already in use.
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Nuclear reactors such as pressurized water nuclear reactors include a vessel which contains the core of the nuclear reactor which consists of fuel assemblies and through which, in service, the cooling fluid of the reactor flows.
The core of the reactor consists of fuel assemblies which are generally of a right prismatic shape, which rest on a core support plate via their lower part or bottom nozzle and which are placed in a vertical arrangement. The fuel assemblies are juxtaposed and constitute a dense arrangement in which each of the fuel assemblies is in contact with adjacent assemblies, in a lattice arrangement, via its nozzles and its spacer grids.
The fissile fuel material contained in the fuel assemblies is progressively consumed in the nuclear reactor in service, so that the fuel assemblies are progressively depleted in fissile fuel material and consequently undergo a form of wear.
It is therefore necessary periodically to carry out refuelling operations of the core of the nuclear reactor. These operations, which require shutdown and cooling of the nuclear reactor, are generally carried out on a fraction of the core of the reactor, so as to optimize the use of fuel.
Furthermore, when first commissioning a nuclear reactor, it is necessary to fuel the core with new fuel assemblies which constitute the first charge of the nuclear reactor.
The operations of fuelling or refuelling a nuclear reactor are carried out under water, with the vessel head being dismounted, from the upper level of the cavity of the reactor, in the bottom of which the reactor pit opens out.
In order to carry out fuelling and refuelling operations, use is made of a fuel assembly lifting and handling machine, called a fuelling machine, which includes horizontal guide means arranged above the upper level of the cavity and a carriage mounted movably on the guide means, in at least two directions of a horizontal plane, so as to be capable of placing fuel assembly gripping and lifting means in line with each of the fuel assembly positions in the core of the nuclear reactor.
The fuel assembly gripping and lifting means include a tubular external shaft of generally cylindrical shape, fastened on the carriage with its axis vertical, and a cylindrical internal mast in a coaxial arrangement and mounted movably in the axial direction, inside the external shaft.
In order to fit the fuel assemblies in the core of the reactor where these assemblies are placed contiguously in a lattice, it is necessary to provide extremely precise handling and lifting means.
In particular, the internal mast of the fuelling machine must make it possible to displace the fuel assemblies along a perfectly defined vertical axial direction. For this purpose, the mobile internal mast of the fuelling machine generally includes longitudinal slideways which interact, during displacement of the internal mast, with sets of rollers having axes perpendicular to the axial direction of the external shaft and of the internal mast and which are arranged in a plurality of groups aligned in directions parallel to the axis of the external shaft and of the mobile internal mast.
The displacements in the axial direction, i.e. in the vertical direction, of the mobile mast for carrying out the core refuelling operations are of very high amplitude and must be carried out with very high precision with respect to the alignment of the direction of displacement of the mobile mast with the axes of the assembly positions in the core of the reactor being fuelled.
The guide groups for the mobile mast which are carried by the external shaft are very long and must therefore have perfectly straight alignment axes which are perfectly defined in orientation and in position.
Before start-up of the fuelling machine, or even during use, it may be necessary to check and adjust the alignment of the mobile mast guide means carried by the external shaft.
These adjustments may be required, in particular, by loss of adjustment of the roller groups of the guide devices or by deformation of the external shaft, for example due to an impact.
This operation, which is carried out in the reactor building, in proximity to the reactor pit, requires scaffolding to be installed in order to be able to access the various roller positions along the external shaft.
Adjustment is carried out by means of eccentrics which are arranged at the level of each roller support which is accessible through an opening provided in the external shaft, at the level of the roller support.
Such an operation, which includes mounting and dismounting scaffolding, may require a length of the order of 48 hours, during which the fuelling machine is unavailable, which commensurately lengthens the total time of the shutdown of the reactor for refuelling.
In addition, the operations of adjusting the guide elements of the mobile mast of the fuelling machine inside the cavity of the reactor require this part of the cavity to be emptied, after fitting a gate.
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The present invention relates to the field of electronic design automation software. More specifically, the invention relates to the automatic adjustment of layout of integrated circuit designs.
To be able to continually increase the gate count of semiconductor devices on fixed die size, integrated circuit (IC) designs have involved shrinking feature sizes. For the next decade, the outlook is strong for photolithography to continue to be the process by which IC are manufactured. When processing the features in today""s deep sub-micron processes, the wavelength of light used in the photolithography process is less than that of the feature size. A result of the use of photolithography under these xe2x80x9ctightxe2x80x9d conditions is that the resulting design, notwithstanding the use of phase shift masking, does not precisely match the desired design.
A method of automatically correcting the resulting differences involves making subtle modifications to the mask or reticle used in the photolithography process (hereinafter collectively referred to as mask). These modifications are termed optical proximity corrections or optical and process corrections. Whether the term is referring to optical distortions alone or for process distortions in addition to optical distortions determines which term is the proper term to use. Regardless of the reason for these corrections, the discussions herein will generically refer to either or both of these types of corrections as OPC.
There are two basic types of OPC, rule-based and model-based. Rule based OPC applies corrections to the mask based on a predetermined set of rules. Thus, if an analysis of the mask determines that the mask meets a predetermined set of conditions, a process applies the appropriate correction to the mask for the conditions met. The corrections resulting from the rule-based approaches are typically less accurate, when compared to model based correction. However, rule-based corrections are more computationally efficient, and less costly. In contrast, a model-based OPC technique uses process simulation to determine corrections to the masks. The model-based OPC corrections, generated in accordance with the results of these simulations, generally provide for greater accuracy than the corrections provided by rule-based OPC. However, model-based OPC is computationally intensive and therefore time consuming as well as costly.
The invention discloses a method and apparatus for modifying, as appropriate, the geometries of a polygon. Based on various attributes associated with the polygon and its surroundings, modification of the location of the edge segments may conditionally occur. Additionally, if these modifications occur, a method to minimize the introduction of short edges during the modification is provided.
In one embodiment of the present invention, if the spacing between an edge segment and the nearest feature outside of a polygon comprising the edge segment is below a certain threshold, the edge segment will be negatively biased.
In one embodiment of the present invention, if the length of an edge segment, as a result of biasing, is too short as compared to a reference value, the edge will be lengthened by shortening adjacent edge segments and lengthening the short edge segment.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data transmission. More specifically, the present invention relates to asymmetrical data transmission over simplex and duplex channels.
2. Background of the Invention
Cellular telephones are tremendously popular. It is estimated that at the end of 2007 the total worldwide subscriber rate reached 3.3 billion. Close to 80% of the world's population enjoys mobile telephone coverage, a figure that will only increase. As cellular telephones gain popularity, their functionality has increased also. Standard service includes voice calling, caller ID, call waiting, and voice mail. Service providers also offer text messaging, push mail, navigation, and even a high-speed internet connection directly to the telephone through the use of protocols such as those included in High Speed Packet Access (HSPA).
HSPA is a collection of wireless protocols that improve upon the performance of existing Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocols. High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), a standard within HSPA, increases data packet transfer performance by using improved modulation schemes. These improved schemes better utilize existing radio bandwidth provided by UMTS. HSDPA currently supports downlink speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2, and 14.4 Mbit/s. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a promising standard for the next generation (4G) of mobile broadband networking.
Multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) requires the use of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver. The signals from the antennas are combined to minimize errors and optimize data speed, providing better range and performance. However, the use of multiple inputs and outputs requires a device to utilize the same radio spectrum frequency. The United States presently uses the GSM-850 and GSM-1900 radio spectrum frequencies for cellular transmissions. GSM-850 uses 824-849 MHz for uplink and 869-894 MHz for downlink, providing channel numbers 128-251. GSM-1900 uses 1850-1910 MHz to uplink and 1930-1990 MHz to downlink, providing channel numbers 512-818. The MIMO concept defined in Third Generation Partnership Project Revision 7 (3GPP R7) and Revision 8 (MIMO R8), incorporated by reference herein in their entirety into this disclosure, requires the use of the same radio spectrum frequency for both transmission paths. These frequencies and antennas are used in spatial multiplexing or transmission diversity mode according to radio conditions. This allows for multiple simultaneous data streams, thereby increasing the data transmission rate.
MIMO R8 also requires twice the amount of antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver locations, even though the transmission takes place across a single frequency band. This creates interference in the signal, which decreases the actual gain in bandwidth created by MIMO R8. The additional signal used in MIMO R8 is another two-way transmit path. Although MIMO R8 can have up to four transmit paths, the uplink bandwidth is still equivalent to the downlink bandwidth, because each additional transmit path adds a duplex channel.
Demanding data services for individual users can exceed the capabilities of a single frequency carrier and/or radio path for a variety of transmission technologies. In this case, the capacity of multiple bi-directional frequency carriers and/or radio paths are combined, or “bonded” for the single demanding user. Multiple pre-existing bi-directional transmission pairs are allocated to the demanding user and traffic is spread across them. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently auctioned the 700 MHz frequency spectrum. AWS-700 uses 776-794 MHz for uplink and 746-764 MHz for downlink.
As is, these transmission techniques offer useful means to boost individual peak throughput within the capabilities of the available transmission technology. However, bi-directional frequency carriers and/or radio paths, and the equipment required to use them, are best utilized if the data load and equipment capabilities are symmetrical. Unfortunately this is often not the case. Traffic for most data, audio, and video applications is heavily weighted in the downlink, server to user, direction. Roughly eight times as much data is downloaded to as is uploaded from mobile devices. The number of duplex signals available may limit these downlink requests. Many frequency bands are not intended for and not licensed for transmission by an individual user. Currently there are many of these frequencies available for downlink only which are being underutilized. Subscriber equipment, especially wireless, is also limited in terms of available space, power (battery life for mobile devices) and cost. The need for subscriber equipment to simultaneously transmit on all bonded frequency carriers and/or radio paths is therefore an unnecessary burden from an equipment complexity, cost and power perspective.
What is needed is a system that utilizes a downlink only channel to supplement the bandwidth of a conventional duplex channel to distribute the data load.
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Play mats for children, and in particular babies, are extremely popular. These play mats generally are padded to provide a soft, cushioned surface for the baby to lie on. Preferably the play mats are colorfully decorated to provide a pleasing appearance to the child.
Prior art play mats known to applicant are unitary, padded members. The are commonly square, rectangular, or round, and, by virtue of being a unitary construction, are of a fixed size and dimension. This imposes some limitations on the use of the mat. For example, if there is a need to put the child in an area of the room having limited space that is too small for the play mat, it may not be possible to use the play mat. In addition, the fact that the play mat is of a fixed size and dimension precludes varying the size, dimension or configuration, which might have the effect of providing added visual stimulation for the child.
The present invention overcomes a number of drawbacks of the prior art, unitary play mats.
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Electrographic printing has become the prevalent technology for modem computer-driven printing of text and images, on a wide variety of hard copy media. This technology is also referred to as electrographic marking, electrostatographic printing or marking, and electrophotographic printing or marking. Conventional electrographic printers are well suited for high resolution and high speed printing, with resolutions of 600 dpi (dots per inch) and higher becoming available even at modest prices. As will be described below, at these resolutions, modem electrographic printers and copiers are well-suited to be digitally controlled and driven, and are thus highly compatible with computer graphics and imaging. Controlling the appearance of printed images is an important aspect of printers. An example of such control efforts is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,181,438, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Efforts regarding printers or printing systems have led to continuing developments to improve their versatility practicality, and efficiency.
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Railway based passenger vehicles have used air spring secondary suspensions for a number of years. The secondary suspension provides vibration isolation for passengers and equipment in the car body, allowing for a comfortable ride. The air spring height is controlled through the use of a leveling valve which is so arranged that, as the passenger load of the vehicle changes, pressurized air is either admitted to or released from the air spring to maintain a constant air spring height, and thereby mitigate the change in car body height relative to a datum line. This is advantageous, for example, to mitigate the change in vehicle door threshold height relative to a fixed wayside platform that would otherwise occur due to air spring deflection.
Several different designs of air springs, such as rolling diaphragm and the convoluted air spring are widely available. Air springs typically have a nominal working height, with a design position range of between one and two inches. Leveling valves of various designs are also known in the art and typically use a mechanical linkage between the leveling valve and either the car body or truck, depending upon if the leveling valve is mounted to the truck or car body respectively, to control the relative height of the air spring when between the car body and the truck. As the air spring height changes, the linkage (also known as a sensing arm) causes a lever on the leveling valve to move in such a manner as to either increase the air spring pressure to compensate for an increasing load, or decrease the air spring pressure to compensate for a decreasing load, in either case restoring the original air spring height relative to its mounting. In some applications, air springs are mounted between a truck frame and truck bolster, and then the leveling valve is mounted between those two truck elements.
Railcars have a primary suspension which isolates the rail vehicle from track irregularities, and cushions the trucks and car body from the high forces generated at the wheel-rail interface. The primary suspension elements of railcars are typically rubber spring elements such as a chevron or a rolling rubber ring, or a steel coil spring either with a pedestal, radius arm or other guiding mechanism. Linear and non-linear primary suspension elements are used depending upon the design needs of the vehicle. In either case, the primary suspension is arranged to allow sufficient movement of the wheel sets for vertical wheel load equalization over track perturbations, provide a natural frequency generally less than 8 Hz, and perform other functions. Typical primary suspension deflection, depending upon the vehicle, is approximately 0.5 to 1 inch from the unloaded vehicle condition to the fully loaded vehicle condition.
In practice, car body height relative to a datum line is compensated for secondary suspension deflection, but not for primary suspension deflection. Hence, as it is desirable to maintain the vehicle passenger floor and threshold height in close alignment to the station platform to allow safe, efficient operation, and American with Disabilities Act conformance, the primary spring deflections should be compensated for, in addition to the secondary spring deflections.
Prior art teaches that primary and secondary suspension compensation can theoretically be obtained by mounting the leveling valve above the secondary suspension and connecting the leveling valve sensing arm to a link that communicates with a member that is below the primary suspension, such as the equalizing beam disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,031 to Polley, which extends between the axle boxes of the truck wheel sets. However, due to mechanical issues created by truck rotation relative to the car body, and the high shock and vibration levels below the primary suspension, such embodiments are difficult to implement. The current invention eliminates the need for connecting to elements below the primary suspension, and provides a simple installation to allow new vehicles to be equipped with, or existing vehicles to be retrofitted with, a device which compensates for the deflection of both the primary and secondary suspension with changing passenger load.
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As enterprises IT infrastructures become more virtualized, cloud-based, and fast changing, traditional cyber security cannot adapt well to this trend since it is tied to static network identities and relies on stateful devices. One example is an IP based stateful firewall in a cloud; it will not perform as expected if any protected virtual machine has changed its IP address due to cloud operations.
The traditional approach to performing security configuration largely relies on manual work. In addition, since many security controls use assets' physical attributes in their configurations, when the assets' physical attribute changes, it requires a lot of manual work to identify other assets and controls that are impacted by that change and to modify relevant configurations. When a new device is added to the network or an existing device is removed, it also requires manual changes to security control configurations.
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This invention relates to a support device and has particular reference to means for storing templates, triangles and other work tools within easy reach of a draftsman or artist.
The efficiency and quality of drafting and artwork, to a large extent, is dependent upon the draftsman or artist's ability to have quick and ready access to specific work tools. These work tools typically include a multitude of standard patterns or guides, commonly known as templates and triangles, for the drawing of repetitive lines and shapes.
Generally, the draftsman or artist when working, is seated at a large, flat desk illuminated by an overhead drafting/artist desk lamp. Conventional desk lamps usually include vertical and horizontal framework, and may be adjusted in a wide variety of positions to provide desired illumination of the work surface.
It has been the custom and practice of most draftsmen or artists to store templates, triangles and the like in cumbersome stacks to the left or right of the work surface. In this respect, it is not unusual for a draftsman to keep ten or more of such work tools nearby. Thus when a particular template or triangle is required by the artist, he or she must tediously search through the stack and hope to extricate the particular work tool desired without disturbing the remainder. This inefficient search and access for work tools operation is performed countless number of times by the draftsman or artist on a given project.
Accordingly, those skilled in the art have recognized a significant need for a support device for triangles, templates and the like which will keep work tools in a neat, orderly fashion and yet be readily accessible to a draftsman seated at his or her desk. The present invention fulfills these needs.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to braking system wear indicators and particularly to a brake lining wear indicator for an “S” cam type truck brake wherein an indicator is mounted on the slack adjuster lever arm and S cam shaft, which gives visual reference to the condition of the brake lining.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Most air braking systems for trucks have drum-type brakes with two arcuate shoe arms pivotally carried at first adjacent ends inside a brake drum for expansion against the inner surface of the drum to cause frictional braking action. The shoe arms are expanded by an “S” cam that is rotated between second adjacent ends of the opposed arms to cause both shoe arms to move radially outwardly in substantially similar fashion. A diaphragm type canister is normally provided that applies motive force to an actuator arm or lever which can include a slack adjuster mechanism that in turn rotates the “S” cam shaft for braking. A valve operated by the vehicle brake pedal releases compressed air to the canister to move the diaphragm. This system gives little, if any indication of brake wear condition to an operator.
Prior art devices do not provide indicators for brake wear which provide accurate visual wear indicators that can easily be viewed in a normal truck walk around inspection.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,198 issued Jun. 14, 1994 to Hoyt, is for an indicator for indicating the setting and linear stroke movement of a brake rod of a brake assembly. The gage includes reference indicators that are located on both the brake rod's clevis and on the arm of the brake's slack adjustment member, thereby indicating the brake rod travel and the need for brake adjustment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,854, issued Jul. 16, 1996 to Prince, provides a one piece brake lining wear indicator gauge which is a reversible circular dial. Calibration marks are included on both sides of the circular dial along with several accentuating notches on the outside circumference of the dial. When the dial is coupled to the splined end of a rotatable brake shoe camshaft equipped with manual or automatic slack adjusting levers, the dial acts as an indicator of the amount of brake lining wear that occurs inside the brake drum compartment.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,390,244, issued May 21, 2002 to Sitter, shows a brake wear indicator that provides visual and tactile indication of unacceptable brake wear. The brake wear indicator has a hub drive attached to a cam shaft, a brake wear disk attached to the hub drive and a body attached to a slack adjuster lever. The brake wear disk has a wear detector lug. The body has two the travel limit lugs which extend towards the centerline of the brake wear disk and are on the end of flexible fingers. When the brake linings are approaching unacceptable wear, the wear detector lug contacts one of the travel limit lugs and pushes the travel limit lug and the end of the corresponding finger away from the adjacent outer surface of the body. The rising of the end of the finger above the adjacent surface provides visual and tactile indication of unacceptable brake wear.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,188, issued Dec. 5, 1967 to Goldman, claims a brake lining wear indicator that comprises a dial and an indicating plate. The dial attaches to the S-Cam shaft and the indicating plate attaches to the slack adjuster lever. When new brake linings are installed and the brakes are properly adjusted a central lip on the dial corresponds with a tang on the indicating plate. As the brakes wear and the slack adjuster is adjusted the dial rotates with respect to the indicating plate. When the brake linings are completely worn and the brakes are properly adjusted, the tang corresponds with one of two lips on the dial.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,076, issued Oct. 25, 1994 to Lucas, describes an indicator unit for a vehicle air brake system which includes a brake rod mounted for movement between a non-braking first position and a predetermined safe maximum braking second position. A pivotally mounted slack adjuster is connected to the brake rod and is responsive to the movement of the rod. An indicator unit is provided which has a first section removably mounted on the connection between the rod and adjuster, a second section retained in a predetermined alignment with the rod, and a third section angularly disposed relative to the second section. The unit third section is provided with angularly disposed, exposed, first and second reference marks. When the rod is in the first position, the first reference mark is aligned with a predetermined first segment of the adjuster. When the rod is in the second position, the second reference mark is aligned with the predetermined segment of the adjuster. The alignment of the second reference mark with the adjuster segment is indicative that the rod has traversed 80%, or the limit, of its safe braking stroke and thus indicates adjustment of the brake system is warranted.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,379,796, issued Jul. 3, 1945 to Freeman, discloses a brake operating mechanism having a cam operating shaft with an operating arm mounted thereon, said shaft further having a pointer and a scale thereon for indicating the adjusted position of the cam.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,522,903, issued Sep. 19, 1950 to Shively, indicates a brake operating and adjusting mechanism having a cam shaft with an anchor arm and a cap mounted thereon, both of which have indicating marks that cooperate to show how much take up has been made from the initial position on the cam shaft.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,074, issued May 9, 2000 to Crewson, is for a gauge for visually indicating travel of a brake operating rod having one end pivotally connected to a slack adjuster including a plate bearing indicia, which is mounted for movement with the one end of the brake operating rod, and a pointer pivotally supported on the slack adjuster and arranged to point to the indicia, wherein the pointer is coupled to the plate to cause the pointer to pivot relative to the adjuster and swing relative to the indicia, during travel of the brake operating rod.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,165, issued Jun. 9,1998 to Crewson, shows indicia applied to opposite side surfaces of a housing of a slack adjuster for vehicle brakes and a pointer is fixed for movement with a connector serving to pivotally connect the housing to a brake operating rod; the pointer cooperating with the indicia to provide visual indication of when the brake operating rod is in a retracted brake release position and when movement of such operating rod away from the brake release position exceeds a desired limit of brake operating movement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,128, issued Aug. 15, 1995 to Hoyt, provides a bracket body which is easily affixed to the brake rod and clevis member of conventional brake adjustment apparatus of air-actuated braking mechanism, and provides indirect measurement of brake rod travel and adjustment, by the body showing the amount of angular rotation of the brake's adjuster member, even though brake rod travel is a generally linear stroke movement. The bracket body has a central body portion from which extends two extension members, a first one of the extension members being provided with attachment for the clevis and brake rod assembly, and the central body portion with attachment to the clevis pin. The second extension member provides the visual reference by relevance to the adjuster member.
What is needed is a visual indicator device showing brake lining condition which is highly visible to a driver in a simple walk around inspection of the truck without climbing under the truck.
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The present invention relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to a method of transmitting data in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system and an apparatus supporting the method.
With the advancement of information communication technologies, various wireless communication technologies have recently been developed. Among the wireless communication technologies, a wireless local area network (WLAN) is a technology whereby Internet access is possible in a wireless fashion in homes or businesses or in a region providing a specific service by using a portable terminal such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop computer, a portable multimedia player (PMP), etc.
Ever since the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802, i.e., a standardization organization for WLAN technologies, was established in February 1980, many standardization works have been conducted.
In the initial WLAN technology, a frequency of 2.4 GHz was used according to the IEEE 802.11 to support a data rate of 1 to 2 Mbps by using frequency hopping, spread spectrum, infrared communication, etc. Recently, the WLAN technology can support a data rate of up to 54 Mbps by using orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM). In addition, the IEEE 802.11 is developing or commercializing standards of various technologies such as quality of service (QoS) improvement, access point protocol compatibility, security enhancement, radio resource measurement, wireless access in vehicular environments, fast roaming, mesh networks, inter-working with external networks, wireless network management, etc.
The IEEE 802.11n is a technical standard relatively recently introduced to overcome a limited data rate which has been considered as a drawback in the WLAN. The IEEE 802.11n is devised to increase network speed and reliability and to extend an operational distance of a wireless network. More specifically, the IEEE 802.11n supports a high throughput (HT), i.e., a data processing rate of up to above 540 Mbps, and is based on a multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) technique which uses multiple antennas in both a transmitter and a receiver to minimize a transmission error and to optimize a data rate. In addition, this standard may use a coding scheme which transmits several duplicate copies to increase data reliability and also may use the OFDM to support a higher data rate.
An IEEE 802.11n HT WLAN system employs an HT green field physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) format which is a PPDU format designed effectively for an HT station (STA) and which can be used in a system consisting of only HT STAs supporting IEEE 802.11n in addition to a PPDU format supporting a legacy STA. In addition, an HT-mixed PPDU format which is a PPDU format defined such that a system in which the legacy STA and the HT STA coexist can support an HT system.
With the widespread use of a wireless local area network (WLAN) and the diversification of applications using the WLAN, there is a recent demand for a new WLAN system to support a higher throughput than a data processing rate supported by the IEEE 802.11n. A next generation WLAN system supporting a very high throughput (VHT) is a next version of the IEEE 802.11n WLAN system, and is one of IEEE 802.11 WLAN systems which have recently been proposed to support a data processing rate of 1 Gbps or higher in a medium access control (MAC) service access point (SAP).
In IEEE 802.11 TGac that conducts standardization of a next generation WLAN system, there is an ongoing research on a method of using 8×8 MIMO and a channel bandwidth of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or higher to provide a throughput of 1 Gbps or higher and a PLCP format for effectively supporting each STA in a WLAN system in which a legacy STA coexists with an HT STA and a VHT STA. There is a need to consider a method capable of transmitting a PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU) including data by supporting the use of a wider channel bandwidth of the VHT STA in the legacy WLAN system, and a wireless apparatus supporting the method.
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Pneumatic pumps are used in the automotive sector, for example, for filling the seat bladders with air to change the contour of the seat's sitting and backrest areas. A pump used for the purpose named above, for example, has at least one pump chamber. By enlarging and reducing the chamber volume with the help of a drive unit, surrounding air is suctioned into the pump chamber during volume enlargement and air is driven out from the pump chamber during volume reduction. To control the corresponding air flows, the pump is equipped with an inlet valve that has a valve element for controlling the inlet opening. The inlet valve opens autonomously when the pump chamber enlarges and air flows into it from the surroundings. An outlet valve serves for controlling the outgoing airflow. It is likewise equipped with a valve element, but it controls an outlet opening which opens when air is driven out of the pump chamber.
A pump of the type described above is additionally equipped with a pressure relief valve used especially when a vehicle's seat bladders are being filled because they can leak under an excess pressure load. The pressure relief valve, in turn, has a valve element that closes a pressure relief opening and in closing direction rests on a spring element arranged in a spring space. When the pressure in the pump chamber exceeds a preset value, the excess pressure valve opens when there is a limit pressure set by the spring element. With regard to the respectively permissible maximum pressure of the pneumatic system or of a designed part thereof, the limit pressure can vary depending on the application. So far, the approach has been to use springs of various strengths in the assembly of the pump, but this entails a corresponding logistical and technical assembly effort. Additionally, there is the risk of that the wrong springs could be fit into the pump during assembly.
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This invention relates to aerosol containers, and more particularly to a 2 piece or 3 piece thin walled, non-barrier type aerosol container.
Thin wall, non-barrier type, aerosol containers are known in the art. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,317 to Diamond et al., and its reissue Re 35,843. It is a feature of containers built in accordance with the teachings of these patents that the sidewall of the container has a relatively thin thickness. In the Diamond et al. patent and its reissue, the container wall thickness is said to be on the order of 0.004-0.005 inches (0.102 mm-0.127 mm).
In un-pressurized containers, it is often possible to distort the sidewall of the container. The Diamond et al. patents, for example, refer to the sidewall being deflected by as much as ¼ inch, if a force of as little as 5-10 pounds is applied to the can prior to filling. Additionally, the can, when empty, is said to be easily crushable by hand pressure. However, the cans can be pressurized in a manner so that at 130° F. (54.4° C.), for example, the pressure does not exceed 120-130 psig. Further, the cans will not burst at one and one-half times this pressure (180 psig). However, the cans cannot be vacuum filled at a vacuum level greater than 18 inches of Mercury because if they are, the container will collapse.
While there are a number of advantages to a container having thin sidewalls (lower material costs, for example), current thin wall can constructions have drawbacks as well. For example, during handling of the container prior to its being filled, even a moderate amount of force can distort or crush the container. This renders the container unusable and adds to the manufacturing cost. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that moderate amounts of force can be inadvertently applied to the container at any of a number of different points during the handling and manufacture process, even though the process is substantially automated.
There is a further problem with larger size containers such as are used for insecticides, wasp and hornet sprays, household starch, household products, etc. Examples of these larger size containers are those referred to in the industry as a 211×612, 211×713, 211×804, 214×714, and 214×804 size containers. These containers are made from steel sheets weighing from eighty to eighty-five pounds (80-85 Lbs) per base box. Smaller size aerosol containers are, for example, made from a steel sheet weighing approximately seventy-three to seventy-five pounds (73-75 Lbs) per base box. Since the steel sheets are all of the same size, the heavier sheets are thicker than the lighter weight sheets. Use of a thicker sheet is necessary to prevent damage to the container caused by handling during manufacture of the container, container collapse during vacuum filling, and crushing by hand before the container is filled. The larger cans are more susceptible to damage not only because they are heavy, but also they have significantly greater exposed area to which unwanted and/or unintended forces can be applied.
It would be advantageous therefore to provide a thin wall aerosol container; however, one which, when unfilled, is not easily distorted and rendered unusable. The container will, when filled, withstand substantial forces without distorting, and meets Department of Transportation (DOT) standards in this regard.
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The human eye functions to provide vision by transmitting light through a clear outer portion called the cornea, and focusing the image by way of a crystalline lens onto a retina. The quality of the focused image depends on many factors including the size and shape of the eye, and the transparency of the cornea and the lens. When age or disease causes the lens to become less transparent, vision deteriorates because of the diminished light which can be transmitted to the retina. This deficiency in the lens of the eye is medically known as a cataract. An accepted treatment for this condition is surgical removal of the lens and replacement of the lens function by an artificial intraocular lens (IOL).
In the United States, the majority of cataractous lenses are removed by a surgical technique called phacoemulsification. During this procedure, an opening is made in the anterior capsule and a thin phacoemulsification cutting tip is inserted into the diseased lens and vibrated ultrasonically. The vibrating cutting tip liquefies or emulsifies the lens so that the lens may be aspirated out of the eye. The diseased lens, once removed, is then replaced by the IOL.
The IOL is injected into the eye through the same small incision used to remove the diseased lens. An insertion cartridge of an IOL injector is loaded with the IOL, the tip of the insertion cartridge is inserted into the incision, and the lens is delivered into the eye.
Many IOLs manufactured today are made from a polymer with specific characteristics. These characteristics allow the lens to be folded for insertion through a very small incision; the lens unfolds into its proper shape after delivery into the eye. Injector cartridges that fold the lens and provide a relatively small diameter lumen through which the lens may be pushed into the eye, usually by a soft tip plunger, are commonly used. Some of these cartridges are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,976, issued Sep. 7, 1999 to Van Noy et al., and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,283, issued Mar. 25, 2003 to Van Noy; the entire contents of each of these patents is incorporated herein by reference. Other cartridges and injector devices are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,102 (Bartell), U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,494,484 and 5,499,987 (Feingold), U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,616,148 and 5,620,450 (Eagles, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,604 (Rheinish, et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,715 (Reich, et al.) the entire contents of each of these documents are also incorporated herein by reference to provide context and technical background for the disclosure that follows. Notwithstanding the various designs disclosed in these references, improvements in IOL injector cartridges and IOL injection techniques are still needed.
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Software application programs have long been used to perform tasks for computer users. For example, via use of a corresponding computer, a user can launch an application program such as a word processor application to modify or create a text-based file. To initiate execution of the application program, the user clicks on an icon of a computer display screen to launch the application program. Typically, the user must wait several seconds or even several minutes before the application program to be launched on the computer. Via the graphical user interface on the display screen, the user can supply commands (such as open a file, delete text, etc.) to the application program and in order to perform different functions supported by the application program. In response to receiving the commands issued by the user, the application program performs a respective function such as opening a file, deleting or adding text, etc.
Application programs that run on computers as discussed above are typically derived from so-called source code. Initially, a developer (e.g., a group of software engineers) generates source code via a particular programming language such as C, C++, etc. Thereafter, the developer derives a respective application program from the source code via a translation process. The translation process involves converting the source code into so-called machine language that can be understood by a computer.
The first step of the translation process is usually performed by a utility known as a compiler. The compiler translates the source code into machine code that is stored in files called object files. A so-called linker combines the object files into an executable application program. A so-called link order file used by the linker identifies an ordering of how the functions in the source code shall be stored in the application program.
Source code typically includes variables and functions. The variables are commonly assigned descriptive names and enable a programmer to keep track of data values (e.g., character strings, numbers, etc.) used by the functions. In addition to references associated with the variables, the functions in the source code include one or more instructions to carry out specific tasks associated with a respective application program.
Source code can include declarations of different types of variables such as local, static, and global types of variables. A global variable as defined in the main body of source code can be accessed by any of one or more functions associated with the source code. On the other hand, local variables are defined in a respective function to which the local variable pertains and generally cannot be accessed by other functions in the source code. Instead, local variables can be accessed only by accessed by the respective function to which the local variable pertains. Thus, variables can be declared as local or global variables depending on the purpose that they serve in a respective program.
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From a point of view of protection of a driver and/or a passenger in a car, an air bag apparatus which is a passenger protection apparatus has conventionally widely been used. The air bag apparatus is equipped for the purpose of protecting a driver and/or a passenger against shock caused at the time of collision of a vehicle, and it receives a body of a driver or a passenger with an air bag serving as a cushion, as the air bag is expanded and developed instantaneously at the time of collision of the vehicle.
The gas generator is equipment which is incorporated in this air bag apparatus, an igniter therein being ignited in response to power feed through a control unit at the time of collision of a vehicle to thereby burn a gas generating agent with flame caused by the igniter and instantaneously generate a large amount of gas, and thus expands and develops an air bag.
Gas generators of various structures are available. A disc type gas generator of which outer geometry is in a substantially short columnar shape is available as a gas generator suitably used for an air bag apparatus on a driver's seat side, and a cylinder type gas generator of which outer geometry is in a substantially long columnar shape is available as a gas generator suitably used for a side air bag apparatus, a curtain air bag apparatus, an air bag apparatus on a passenger's seat side, and a knee air bag apparatus.
A structure in which an igniter is fixed to a housing through insert molding of a resin material as a source material may be adopted for a gas generator in recent years from a point of view of reduction in weight and facilitation of manufacturing. Specifically, for example, for a disc type gas generator, such a structure has been adopted that a cylindrical lower shell with bottom having an opening formed in a bottom plate portion is fabricated by press-working one plate-shaped member made of metal, an igniter is arranged to pass through the opening, and a resin molding is formed by feeding an insulating fluid resin material into a space between the igniter and the lower shell and solidifying the resin material, so that the igniter is fixed to the lower shell with the formed resin molding.
Documents disclosing such a structure include, for example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-165600 (PTD 1), Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-173559 (PTD 2), and Japanese National Patent Publication No. 2012-504073 (PTD 3).
In order to obtain high gas output in an early stage from start of activation in a gas generator, it is important to efficiently guide thermal particles (that is, flames) generated in the igniter to the gas generating agent (to an enhancer agent when the enhancer agent is arranged between the gas generating agent and the igniter). Therefore, by arranging some member to surround the substantially columnar ignition portion of the igniter charged with the ignition agent, a direction of travel of the thermal particles generated in the igniter may be narrowed so that directivity is provided to the thermal particles.
For example, the gas generator disclosed in PTDs 2 and 3 is constructed such that substantially the entire outer circumferential surface of the ignition portion is covered with a thick resin molding and the resin molding in this portion provides directivity to a direction of travel of thermal particles generated in the igniter.
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Modern linear motion guide units are finding increased applications in diverse fields including various assembling machines, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and so on. Corresponding to the downsizing requirement in the applied fields, the advanced sliding devices are more needed to meet miniaturization or downsizing in construction and maintenance-free working for lubrication. Especially, the micromechanical ball-splines frequently used as linear motion guide units in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and so on, are challenged to meet the maintenance-free working for lubrication.
In a commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,637,662B2, US counterpart of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2006-38195A, there is described a rolling guide unit which allows greater freedom of design considerations, easier control of lubricant, and less resistance against sliding movement of the rolling elements. The prior rolling guide unit has a lubricant-impregnated member installed inside a cavity made in a cylindrical carriage of a slider, and a lubricant applicator built in an end cap of the slider to apply the lubricant around rolling elements while rolling through a turnaround passage in the end cap, the lubricant applicator being urged forcibly against the lubricant-impregnated member. With the prior rolling guide unit constructed as stated earlier, accordingly, the carriage is needed to have any extra space to provide the cavity for installation of the lubricant-impregnated member adjacent to the circulating circuit for the rolling elements. Further, the lubricant applicator has to have the desired size and stiffness enough to bear the squeeze against the lubricant-impregnated member. This means the prior rolling guide unit constructed as stated earlier is unsuited for the miniaturization or downsizing of the unit.
Another example of prior linear motion guide units is disclosed in a commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,862,234B2, US counterpart of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2008-82433A, in which the application points of lubricant around rolling elements are made in a turnaround passage to ensure proper and steady lubrication by the lubrication system that is simple in construction, with an accompanying sustainable maintenance-free condition for lubrication. A porous compact applicator impregnated with lubricant fits into a recess made to sink below an outward end surface of an end cap, which has a hole defined therein to communicate the recess with a turnaround passage. The porous compact applicator has a nose extending through the hole in the end cap to lead lubricant into the turnaround passage. The porous compact fits snugly into the recess in a fashion that the nose comes into rolling-touch at its tip with the rollers as they roll through the turnaround passage, applying the rollers with lubricant delivered from the nose. With the linear motion guide unit constructed as stated in this way, since the outward end surface of the end cap has a comparatively large area, the porous compact applicator to be laid on the substantially overall area of the outward end surface of the end cap has only stiffness enough allowing the porous compact applicator to fit easily into the recess in the end cap just by manual handling. Only installation of an end seal over the outward end surface of the end cap is necessary to make certain of steady application of lubricant around the rolling elements while rolling through the turnaround passage.
Though the prior linear motion guide unit constructed as stated in this way was befitting for maintenance-free operation for lubrication, yet it remained a major challenge to develop any miniature or micromechanical ball-spline. In conventional production of the miniature ball-spline in which tiny or minute parts were selected, discerned from each other and then assembled together, the assemblage of the tiny parts was found to be a formidable task. With the design considerations of adding the lubricating function to the end cap in the prior the ball-spline constructed as stated in this way, more especially, the parts and/or components for the end cap needed to be even smaller or tinier than in the prior miniature ball-spline. This meant there remained a major challenge about how to locate microscopic pieces or parts in place, then assemble them together, and join them together while keeping them in assembled relation into the finished end cap.
Following the ball-spline explained in the commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,637,662 B2 as recited earlier, a ball-spline has been developed, which is improved to have lubricating function and more downsized to be applicable to a guide shaft having a diameter of from 2 to 6 mm. The subject matter disclosed herein is how to build a lubricant applicator in a miniature end cap with ease in assembling work and accuracy in location. The linear motion guide unit of the present invention, although following the miniature ball-spline with a built-in lubricating system developed earlier, is motivated to find a way out of deadlock or difficulty encountered in the conventional production process in which more downsized pieces or parts than ever are selected individually, discerned and then assembled together into the end cap. With the miniature ball-spline with built-in lubricating system of the present invention, in summary, a lubricant applicator of porous compact is built in an end cap and confined inside the end cap with a retainer plate which is kept in the end cap by means of a snap-fit engagement with the end cap to squeeze the lubricant applicator.
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In the dispensing of viscous fluids such as toothpaste and the like, it has heretofore been proposed that dispensing construction be provided that function upon compression of a collapsible chamber to dispense a portion of the viscous fluid. Typical dispensers are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,141,580, 3,506,163 and 4,402,431.
The dispenser container shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,431 comprises a piston at one end of the container and a compressible chamber at the other which is actuated by axial displacement to dispense a portion of the contents.
It has also been suggested that the collapsible chamber be provided by a member that closes the container and includes a central tubular portion, circumferentially spaced planar portions extending from the tubular portion to a skirt, vertical ribs between the panels, and arcuate circumferentially spaced ribs on the panels at the juncture of the panels with the skirt.
One of the problems with respect to the collapsible chambers heretofore suggested is that it has been difficult to provide the desired amount of viscous fluid in the limited axial displacement of the chamber. Furthermore, the collapsible portion must be made of a highly elastomeric material which is costly.
Accordingly, among the objectives of the present invention are to provide a dispensing package which provides sufficient deflection in order to achieve the desired amount of dispensing; which is low in cost; and wherein the collapsible part may be formed integrally as a major component of the package.
In accordance with the invention, the dispenser package for viscous fluids comprises a container having one end open and provided with a piston and the other end closed by a compressible chamber defined by a plastic bellows that is deflected by movement of a plunger to dispense a portion of the viscous fluid from the container. The plastic bellows comprises a central tubular portion, a hub extending radially outwardly from the tubular portion, a plurality of circumferentially spaced panels extending transversely and radially from the hub to a peripheral skirt extending axially away from the tubular portion. Integral circumferentially spaced ribs interconnect the panels. Alternate panels extend axially and radially upwardly toward the tubular portion while the remaining panels extend transversely and radially downwardly away from the tubular portion.
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Compact disc storage and retrieval has become a significant factor for consideration in view of the proliferation of use of these discs for data storage in association with computerized information that must be readily available. While individual discs are capable of accepting relatively large amounts of data, the amount of data stored for many applications is immense and therefore requires a significant number of discs. In addition to requiring large data storage capacity, rapid retrieval of discs is also desired so that data from the discs can be accessed more quickly.
One major factor in determining the efficiency of disc retrieval and delivery is found in the capabilities of the disc loader and transport apparatus that travels among disc storage sites and drive mechanisms to accomplish disc movement to and from such storage sites and drive mechanisms. Specifically, if the loader and transport apparatus is able to quickly retrieve, carry and deliver a disc, data from that disc can be made available forthwith. If the loader and transport apparatus additionally is able to serve opposing disc storage banks of a magazine structure by having opposing openings thereto, efficiency improves more vividly. Thus, it is apparent that a need is present for a disc loader and transport apparatus that can retrieve and deliver discs in a timely manner. Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a compact disc loader and transport apparatus for placement within a compact disc storage magazine wherein the loader and transport apparatus comprises a plurality of disc engagers for frictional engagement of a compact disc presented thereto at edge sites of the disc to thereby cooperatively move the disc from or to the loader and transport apparatus.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a compact disc loader and transport apparatus wherein each disc engager is freely rotatable and is mounted at a periphery site of a respective rotatable platform, with four rotatable platforms situated to form four quadrants and four resulting disc engagers.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a compact disc loader and transport apparatus wherein the loader and transport apparatus has two opposing openings through either of which a disc can be made to proceed by the disc engagers through movement of the rotatable platforms as such a disc travels between the loader and transport apparatus and a storage shelf or a disc drive mechanism.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent throughout the description thereof which now follows.
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As various forms of distributed computing, such as cloud computing, have come to dominate the computing landscape, security has become a bottleneck issue that currently prevents the complete migration of various capabilities and systems associated with sensitive data, such as financial data, to cloud-based infrastructures, and/or other distributive computing models. This is because any vulnerability in any of the often numerous assets provided and/or utilized in a cloud-based infrastructure, such as operating systems, virtual machine and server instances, processing power, hardware, storage, applications, connectivity, etc., represents a potential vulnerability. Consequently, the number, and variety, of potential vulnerabilities can be overwhelming and many currently available vulnerability management approaches lack the ability to track and control these potentially numerous vulnerabilities in any reasonably comprehensive or tailored manner.
As noted above, the situation is particularly problematic in cases where sensitive data, such as financial data, is being provided to, processed by, utilized by, and/or distributed by, the various assets within the cloud. This is largely because exploitation of certain vulnerabilities in some asset can yield devastating results to the owners of the data, even if the breach is an isolated occurrence and is of limited duration. That is to say, with sensitive data, developing or deploying a remedy for a vulnerability after that vulnerability has been exploited is no solution at all because irreparable damage may have already been done.
Consequently, the historic, and largely current, approaches to vulnerability management that typically involve addressing vulnerabilities on an ad-hoc basis as they arise, or in a simplistic, uncoordinated, static, and largely manual, manner are no longer acceptable. Indeed, in order for applications and systems that process sensitive data to fully migrate to a cloud-based infrastructure, security issues and vulnerabilities must be addressed in a proactive, anticipatory, and comprehensive manner, well before any potential attack can possibly occur, e.g. before deployment and publishing. However, currently, this type of comprehensive approach to vulnerability management is largely unavailable, or is prohibitively resource intensive, often requiring significant amounts of dedicated hardware, software, and human administrators that are often used in a largely reactive and ad-hoc manner.
As a specific example, application development within a cloud infrastructure provides numerous opportunities for the introduction of vulnerabilities into the application and/or infrastructure. These vulnerabilities typically take the form of weaknesses within the assets used at various stages of the application development process that make the application development process, the application, and/or infrastructure, susceptible to various attacks and/or result in violations of defined security policies or procedures. The types of vulnerabilities of concern varies widely from asset-to asset, application-to-application, development platform-to-development platform, and deployment platform-to-deployment platform. For instance, as an illustrative example, vulnerabilities can take the form of a software flaw, or software created in a known vulnerable version of a language. As another example, a vulnerability can be a lack of proper authentication, an unacceptable level of access, or other insufficient security measures, required to meet the security policies and/or parameters associated with the application, the application development platform, and/or the application deployment platform.
In addition, vulnerabilities, and application characteristics, of particular interest, are not necessarily static, and are therefore subject to change based on new data from the field, the type of application being developed, the version of the application being developed, changes in the application developer platform, and/or changes in the application deployment platform. Consequently, even in the case where “all” vulnerabilities associated with an application development process are believed to be known, the list of vulnerabilities is dynamic and highly dependent on other, often currently unknown, parameters and/or characteristics.
In addition, if certain vulnerabilities are not identified at specific critical stages in the application/asset development process, e.g., at a critical stage of the application development pipeline, these vulnerabilities can propagate, and become so embedded in the application and infrastructure, that a single vulnerability in a single asset used in the application development process can result in a chain of vulnerabilities that extend beyond the application and can result in significant portions of infrastructure associated with the application being vulnerable to attack. Once this happens, the process for removing the vulnerability, and/or chain of resulting vulnerabilities, can become more difficult by orders of magnitude and can eventually consume unacceptable amounts of time and energy to correct.
Despite the situation described above, vulnerability management currently consists largely of the uncoordinated deployment/application of single vulnerability scans, often preformed after the vulnerability has been provided the opportunity to propagate through an asset and the infrastructure to become a chained vulnerability. Therefore, currently, many vulnerability management issues are ignored, or vulnerability remediation is performed in a reactive, piecemeal and incomplete manner. As a result, current levels of security are unacceptable for some systems and an unacceptable amount of resources are currently devoted to removing chained vulnerabilities that could have been removed with much less effort had they been identified earlier in the application development pipeline.
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This invention relates to the economical manufacture of a welded gate valve assembly in which component parts thereof are made of stamped metal. The economy of manufacture and the sealing effect of the invention are so great that it is possible to provide a gate valve assembly which may be placed in service for a long time and, when its useful life is at an end, simply thrown away and replaced by a similar economical gate valve assembly. The gate valve assembly of this invention is characterized in that component parts thereof are fabricated economically as stamped metal parts; and that these component parts are welded together to form the completed gate valve assembly. In Canadian patent 919152, assigned in common herewith, welding is used during the manufacture of the gate valve assembly and in particular in conjunction with the gate valve body and may also be used to weld casing halves together. A separate cover assembly, secured in place by nuts and studs, however, is taught inasmuch as this is necessary for manufacturing purposes. The Russian patent 819 475 of 04/81 teaches the manufacture of a gate valve assembly from component parts which are of stamped or pressed steel form and are welded together. The component parts, however, are of extremely complex form and there are many of them, with the result that the economy of manufacture suffers.
The gate valve assembly of this invention forms a very efficient seal and, to this end, it incorporates a wedge-shaped valve body assembly having resilient valve-seating elements which are made of such material as to be sensitive to destruction or detrimental effect from excess heat during manufacture of the gate valve of this invention. The valve body itself is formed of two stamped metal halves which are welded together and the valve body assembly is completed by sandwiching a heat-sensitive resilient disc between each side of the valve body and a circular plate, the plate in each case being riveted to the respective valve body side after the valve body has cooled from welding so that the heat-sensitive material is not damaged. Unfortunately, if such a valve body assembly is used, the heat-sensitive valve-seating elements thereof cannot be subjected too close to a weld seam being formed while in a closed welding environment during manufacture of the valve assembly. Hence the use of the separate and removable cover assembly of the noted Canadian patent 919152 which teaches the introduction of the heat-sensitive material (when used) into the interior of the casing subsequent to any welding operation. The Russian patent does not disclose the use of a valve body assembly employing vulnerable valve-seating elements and hence teaches nothing concerning protection thereof.
The necessity for the aforesaid protection of the heat-sensitive valve-seating elements arises by reason of the fact that at some point in the manufacture of the gate valve assembly, the valve body assembly to which the heat-sensitive elements are sandwiched must be confined within an enclosed environment defined by the casing and the cover components of the gate valve assembly, whereupon welding between components must be carried out which could easily cause such heat build-up within that environment as to damage the heat-sensitive elements if the weld seam passes in too close proximity to the heat-sensitive elements. In addition, there will be at least some metal-to-metal contact between the valve body assembly and other components during a final welding step of manufacture which could effect direct heat transfer to the heat-sensitive elements and thereby augment the possibility of damage due to the heat build-up Thus, in any embodiment of the invention where the likelihood of such damage is present, the manufacturing technique of this invention makes it possible to reposition or move the heat-sensitive elements during final welding to alter or change the proximity of the valve body assembly relative to the weld seam.
Accordingly, a primary object of the invention is to protect the heat-sensitive elements of a valve body assembly from damage during manufacture wherein stamped metal components are welded together to effect the final assembly.
It is of primary concern in connection with this invention to provide a method of manufacturing a gate valve assembly comprised substantially wholly of stamped steel components which are few in number and which lend themselves to simple and economical steps of manufacture and wherein heat-sensitive elements are also used which are protected from damage during manufacture. In association with the method, the sequence of steps employed which includes the use of a special fixture for locating the components for welding, is such as to protect the heat-sensitive elements to a maximum degree.
An object of this invention concerns the method of making a gate valve assembly which comprises the steps of: mating two stamped metal valve body halves while capturing an actuating nut between the mated halves; welding the mated valve body halves together to provide a wedge-shaped metal valve body with actuating nut captured therebetween; placing heat-sensitive resilient discs against converging opposite sides of the wedge-shaped metal valve body and mechanically sandwiching such heat-sensitive resilient discs against opposite sides of the metal wedge-shaped valve body to leave circumferential margins of the heat-sensitive resilient discs exposed for sealing purposes to provide a valve body assembly with actuating member captured thereby; inverting the valve body assembly and confining it within a closed environment defined by stamped metal components which, when welded together with the valve body assembly therewithin form a completed gate valve assembly, while supporting and locating the valve body assembly while in minimal contact with the stamped metal components; and then welding the confining stamped metal components together to provide a completed gate valve assembly.
It is preferred that the confining stamped metal components comprise a stamped metal cover to which an actuating spindle sleeve has been welded for receiving the actuating spindle cooperating with the actuating nut, and stamped metal halves forming casing components. The fixture of this invention holds the cover in inverted position with the actuating spindle and actuating nut engaged to support and locate the inverted valve body assembly on the inverted cover and to allow the casing halves to be mated and welded and then to be placed while inverted to surround the inverted valve body assembly in guiding relation thereto and located relative to the inverted cover for final welding.
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The gas turbine engine is the preferred class of internal combustion engine for many high power applications. Fundamentally, the gas turbine engine features an upstream rotating compressor coupled to, and typically driven by, a downstream turbine, with a combustion chamber residing in-between the two rotary components. A torch igniter is a device that may be used to ignite the primary combustor of a gas turbine engine. In some applications, the torch igniter has advantages over conventional spark igniters, because it can provide larger amounts of energy release to the main combustor, and thus, is capable of lighting the engine in a more reliable manner. To achieve this, the torch igniter requires an auxiliary source of fuel and air, as well as an ignition source. Auxiliary air flow is typically obtained from the plenum downstream of the engine's compressor or from an external source of compressed air; and the auxiliary fuel is obtained from the fuel-metering unit or manifold or from an independent fuel source. Air flow requirements to operate the torch igniter may vary under different conditions, but are often significantly less than the air flow requirements of the primary combustor. On a typical engine, much like a conventional spark igniter, there can be two or more torch igniters for redundancy.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to high speed data transmission and, more particularly to encoding data for high speed synchronous data transmission.
2. Background Description
As computer performance and computer peripheral performance improve, computer to computer and computer to peripheral communications become more complicated. In the fall of 1995, the IEEE adopted the 1394 High Speed Serial Bus standard, which defines operating points at 100 MegaHertz (MHZ), 200 MHz and 400 MHz. The IEEE 1394 standard is rapidly being accepted as the standard for high speed data communications.
To achieve high speed data transmission at these rates, data is transmitted non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and the transmission clock is encoded into a second NRZ serial signal, STROBE. STROBE is defined by: EQU STROBE.sub.new =DATA.sub.new .sym.DATA.sub.old .sym.STROBE.sub.old ,
wherein the subscript "old" indicates the current value of DATA or STROBE and "new" indicates the next, subsequent value. This encoding scheme is known as the Manchester encoding scheme.
Using the Manchester encoding scheme STROBE and Data are transmitted, serially, and the transmission clock is extracted at the receiving end from STROBE and DATA.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram provided in the IEEE 1394 specification of a prior art circuit 100 for generating STROBE and DATA. The circuit includes two edge triggered D-type latches 102, 104 and two exclusive ORs (EXORs) 106, 108. DATA.sub.old is latched in latch 102 and STROBE.sub.old is latched in latch 104. DATA.sub.new is provided to EXOR 106 and the D input to latch 102. DATA.sub.new is EXORed with DATA.sub.old in EXOR 104 and the result is provided to EXOR 108. The result from EXOR 106 is then EXORed with STROBE.sub.old to generate the D input (STROBE.sub.new) to latch 104. On each rising clock edge, the values of DATA.sub.new and STROBE.sub.new are latched into latches 102 and 104 as DATA.sub.old and STROBE.sub.old with a new value for DATA.sub.new being supplied.
While this circuit is adequate for generating STROBE at 100 MHz or 200 MHz, logic delays inherent in current logic families make a 400 MHz STROBE difficult to implement. Further, controlling STROBE and DATA transmission requires complicated control logic. Thus, there is a need for a circuit for generating STROBE at a 400 MHz data rate that is less sensitive to logic delays.
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The present invention relates to an automatic eaves trough downspout.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,482,084 (Cassidy et al 1996) and 5,522,427 (Johnson 1996), disclose automatic eaves trough downspouts. Each device has a downspout which remains out of the way in a substantially vertical stored position when it is not raining. When it rains, water accumulates in the downspout until the weight of the water causes it to descend to a substantially horizontal discharge position. Once the rain water has been discharged, a biasing force exerted by a spring causes the downspout to return to the substantially vertical stored position. Overtime, the downspout will descend numerous times from the substantially vertical stored position to the substantially horizontal discharge position as water accumulates and then return to the substantially vertical stored position due to the biasing force of the spring.
During initial installation spring tension must be set, based upon the length and weight of the drainpipe carried by the mechanism. Over time the spring becomes worn and spring tension must be adjusted in order to maintain the proper operation of the automatic eaves downspout. The Cassidy reference discloses what is referred to as a xe2x80x9cspring tension gaugexe2x80x9d that consists of a threaded bolt connected to a linear coil spring that can be engaged to varying degrees with a threaded attachment aperture to exert an axial force upon the spring and thereby increase spring tension. The Johnson reference discloses embodiments which use two different types of springs, a helical spring and a tension spring. In each case a number of holes provide alternative attachment positions. Spring tension is adjusted by selecting the attachment position which provides the desired spring tension.
What is required is an automatic eaves trough downspout having an alternative manner of adjusting spring tension.
According to the present invention there is provided an automatic eaves trough downspout which includes a first conduit having a coupling socket. A second conduit is provided having a hollow cylindrical coupling body which is adapted to fit in the socket to form a pivotal connection that enables the second conduit to move between a substantially vertical stored position parallel to the first conduit and a substantially horizontal discharge position. The cylindrical coupling body has opposed ends with hubs that have axle receiving openings and a first torsion spring attachment position. A pair of pivot pins are provided which each have a head portion and an axle portion. The axle portion extends from the coupling socket into the axle receiving openings of the cylindrical coupling body. Each of the pivot pins have a second torsion spring attachment position. At least one torsion spring is provided that has a first end and a second end and overlies one of the pivot pins. The first of the torsion spring is secured in the first torsion spring attachment position and the second end of the torsion spring is secured in the second spring attachment position, such that rotation of the pivot pin in a first direction increases the tension of the at least one torsion spring and rotation of the pivot pin in a second direction decreases the tension of the at least one torsion spring. The torsion spring biases the second conduit into the substantially vertical stored position. A ratchet engagement is provided between the head portion of the pivot pin and the socket of the first conduit. The ratchet engagement permits rotational movement of the pivot pin in the first direction to increase spring tension and resists rotational movement in the second direction.
With the automatic eaves downspout, as described above, spring tension is adjusted as the spring wears by merely rotating the pivot pin to increase the spring tension, as required.
Although beneficial results may be obtained through use of the automatic eaves trough downspout, as described above, even more beneficial results may be obtained through the use of dual torsion springs. A first torsion spring overlies a first of the pair of pivot pins and a second torsion spring overlies a second of the pair of pivot pins, thereby enabling either or both of pivot pins to be rotated to adjust the spring tension.
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The present invention generally relates to the field of integrated circuit design, and particularly to an optical proximity correction driven hierarchy.
With the advance of technology and the increasing desires of consumers for increased functionality, designing integrated circuits is becoming increasingly more complicated. For example, with advanced manufacturing techniques, increasingly smaller circuit elements are utilized, enabling increased numbers of circuit elements to be included on a circuit. As the number of elements increases, measures taken to correct designs of the integrated circuit have become even more resource intensive to the point that it may take a significant amount of time to even perform one aspect of design verification, even employing multiple information handling systems.
For example, integrated circuits have a distinctive physical circuit layout employing various geometric elements to provide the circuit functionality. Typically, the physical layout is first produced in the form of a drawing and later reduced and reproduced to a solid medium. During the design of an integrated circuit, optical proximity correction (OPC) may be employed. However, with the incredible numbers of circuit elements utilized on modem integrated circuits, performing such a correction may take days.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method for providing an optical proximity correction driven hierarchy.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an optical proximity correction driven hierarchy. In a first aspect of the present invention, a method for constructing a hierarchy of optically independent structures for use in optical proximity correction of a circuit includes receiving an integrated circuit design, the design including geometric circuit elements for providing circuit functions of an integrated circuit. At least a portion of the integrated circuit design is exploded and geometric circuit elements of the exploded integrated circuit design are gathered into optically independent classes. A search is then performed for congruency for each optically independent class.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a system for constructing a hierarchy of optically independent structures for use in optical proximity correction of a circuit includes a memory suitable for storing a program of instructions and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory. The program of instructions configures the processor to receive an integrated circuit design, the design including geometric circuit elements for providing circuit functions of an integrated circuit; explode at least a portion of the integrated circuit design; and gather geometry circuit elements of the exploded integrated circuit design into optically independent classes.
In a third aspect of the present invention, a method of performing optical proximity correction to a design of an integrated circuit includes receiving an integrated circuit design, the design including geometric circuit elements for providing circuit functions of an integrated circuit. A search is performed for congruency for at least two geometric circuit elements of the received integrated circuit design with an optically independent class arranged in a hierarchy of optically independent structures, wherein congruency is found, substituting the at least two geometric circuit elements with the optically independent structure.
It is to be understood that both the forgoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
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The present invention relates to an electron-emitting device manufacturing method and apparatus, electron-emitting device driving method, and electron-emitting device adjusting method.
Conventionally, electron-emitting devices are mainly classified into two types of devices: thermionic and cold cathode electron-emitting devices. Known examples of the cold cathode electron-emitting devices are field emission type electron-emitting devices (to be referred to as FE type electron-emitting devices hereinafter), metal/insulator/metal type electron-emitting devices (to be referred to as MIM type electron-emitting devices hereinafter), and surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices. Known examples of the FE type electron-emitting devices are disclosed in W. P. Dyke and W. W. Dolan, xe2x80x9cField emissionxe2x80x9d, Advance in Electron Physics, 8, 89 (1956) and C. A. Spindt, xe2x80x9cPHYSICAL Properties of thin-film field emission cathodes with molybdenium conesxe2x80x9d, J. Appl. Phys., 47, 5248 (1976). A known example of the MIM type electron-emitting devices is disclosed in C. A. Mead, xe2x80x9cOperation of Tunnel-Emission Devicesxe2x80x9d, J. Appl. Phys., 32,646 (1961). A known example of the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices is disclosed in, e.g., M. I. Elinson, Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 1290 (1965).
The surface-conduction emission type device utilizes the phenomenon that electrons are emitted from a small-area thin film formed on a substrate by flowing a current parallel through the film surface. The surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device includes electron-emitting devices using an SnO2 thin film according to Elinson mentioned above [M. I. Elinson, Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 1290, (1965)], an Au thin film [G. Dittmer, xe2x80x9cThin Solid Filmsxe2x80x9d, 9,317 (1972)], an In2O3/SnO2 thin film [M. Hartwell and C. G. Fonstad, xe2x80x9cIEEE Trans. ED Conf.xe2x80x9d, 519 (1975)], a carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al., xe2x80x9cVacuumxe2x80x9d, Vol. 26, No. 1, p. 22 (1983)], and the like.
The FE, MIM, and surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices have an advantage that many devices can be arranged on a substrate. Various image display apparatuses using these devices have been proposed.
The surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device emits electrons from an electron-emitting portion formed in a conductive thin film by flowing a current parallel to the surface of the small-area conductive thin film formed on a substrate. Since this device has a simple structure and can be easily manufactured, many devices can be formed on a wide area, and applications to, e.g., image display apparatuses and the like have been studied. Applications of a surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device to an image display apparatus are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,883 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-342636 filed by the assignee of the present applicant. These references disclose image forming means and manufacturing methods. In an image forming means, a plurality of surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices are two-dimensionally arranged each of which has a pair of device electrodes formed on a substrate, a conductive film connected to the pair of device electrodes, and an electron-emitting portion formed in the conductive film. An electrical selection means is adopted to individually select electrons emitted from each electron-emitting device. An image is formed in accordance with an input signal. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-235255 filed by the assignee of the present applicant discloses the following technique. A voltage is applied to a surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device in an organic atmosphere to deposit a deposit mainly containing carbon near an electron-emitting portion in order to improve the electron-emitting characteristics of the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device. According to the technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-235275 filed by the assignee of the present applicant, electron-emitting characteristics are stabilized by a means of setting the residual partial pressure of an organic substance to 1.3xc3x9710xe2x88x926 Pa or less in an environment where an electron-emitting device is formed. According to the technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-259753 filed by the assignee of the present applicant, a voltage pulse higher than the sum of the maximum value of a normal driving voltage and a noise voltage which may be applied to a surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device is applied to a plurality of surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices arranged two-dimensionally in an atmosphere in which the partial pressure of an organic gas is 1.3xc3x9710xe2x88x926 Pa or less. This suppresses irreversible unstableness of an emission current caused by the temperature characteristics or disturbance of a driving circuit in normal driving, and reduces luminance irregularity.
An image display apparatus using such surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device formed by the above method is expected to exhibit more excellent characteristics than other types of conventional image display apparatuses. For example, this image display apparatus is superior to recent popular liquid crystal display apparatuses in that it does not require a backlight because of a self-emission type and has a wide view angle.
As described above, the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device has a simple structure, can be easily manufactured, and exhibits excellent electron-emitting characteristics. For this reason, the electron-emitting device is suitable for constituting an image forming apparatus, such as a large-size self-emission flat display using a fluorescent substance as an image forming member. Applications to various analyzers and processors using electron sources are also expected. Considering applications to image forming apparatuses and the like, the electron-emitting device is required to stably keep emitting an expected electron beam amount. To provide image forming apparatuses and analyzers with high reliability, conventional electron-emitting devices must attain more stable electron-emitting characteristics.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a manufacturing method capable of manufacturing a preferable electron-emitting device, a manufacturing apparatus for a preferable electron-emitting device, a driving method for a preferable electron-emitting device, and an adjusting method for a preferable electron-emitting device.
It is another object of the present invention to realize stable electron-emitting characteristics in an electron-emitting device.
To achieve the above objects, an electron-emitting device manufacturing method according to the present invention has the following step.
That is, a method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device which has at least two electrodes and emits electrons by applying a voltage between the two electrodes is characterized by comprising:
the voltage application step of applying a voltage between the two electrodes constituting the electron-emitting device, the voltage application step including applying a voltage of the same polarity (to be also referred to as a positive polarity hereinafter) as a polarity of a voltage applied in normal driving, and applying a voltage of an opposite polarity to the polarity of the voltage applied in normal driving.
The magnitude of the voltage of the same polarity is preferably larger than the magnitude of the voltage applied in normal driving. The magnitude of the voltage of the opposite polarity is preferably larger than the magnitude of the voltage applied in normal driving. The magnitude of the voltage of the opposite polarity is preferably smaller than the magnitude of the voltage of the same polarity.
The voltage application step is preferably performed in a high-vacuum atmosphere. When the two electrodes have a gap therebetween, the voltage application step is preferably performed in an atmosphere in which the gap between the two electrodes is not made narrow by deposition of a substance in the atmosphere or a substance originating from the substance in the atmosphere in the voltage application step. The voltage application step is preferably performed in an atmosphere in which carbon and a carbon compound in the atmosphere have a partial pressure of not more than 1xc3x9710xe2x88x926 Pa. The voltage application step is preferably performed in substantially the same atmosphere as in normal driving.
The present invention can be most preferably adopted when the electron-emitting device manufacturing method further comprises the step of forming the two electrodes having a gap therebetween prior to the voltage application step.
The electron-emitting device manufacturing method according to the present invention can be preferably employed as a cold cathode device manufacturing method. Especially, the method of the present invention can be preferably employed as a method of manufacturing a field emission type electron-emitting device, a surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device, or an MIM type electron-emitting device having an insulating layer between two electrodes. More particularly, the method of the present invention can be preferably employed as a method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device having a gap between two electrodes. For example, in a Spindt field emission type electron-emitting device, an emitter cone electrode and gate electrode serve as two electrodes having a gap therebetween. In a surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device, a high-potential electrode and low-potential electrode serve as two electrodes having a gap therebetween. In the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device having a pair of device electrodes and a conductive film between them, the gap of the conductive film serves as the above-described gap.
For example, the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device is known to use a technique of executing in the manufacture a step called an activation step of depositing carbon or a carbon compound in a gap between two electrodes. This activation can form two electrodes having a gap therebetween in which a deposit is deposited. The present invention can be especially preferably applied to this structure in which the deposit is deposited in the gap between the electrodes. When depositing the deposit uses the deposition step of depositing a substance in the atmosphere or a substance originating from the substance in the atmosphere, the voltage application step of the present invention is desirably performed after the partial pressure of the substance serving as a deposit is decreased upon the deposition step.
In the present invention, the voltage application step preferably comprises applying a pulse voltage. The present invention preferably adopts the step of applying the pulse voltage a plurality of number of times.
In the present invention, the voltage application step preferably comprises alternately applying pulses of the voltage of the same polarity and pulses of the voltage of the opposite polarity. The present invention preferably adopts the step of repeating alternate voltage application a plurality of number of times.
In the present invention, a total application time of the voltage of the positive polarity in the voltage application step is preferably not less than 500 xcexcsec, and/or not more than 60 sec. A total application time of the voltage of the opposite polarity in the voltage application step is not more than a total application time of the voltage of the positive polarity. In this case, the total voltage application time is a total application time of pulses in application of a pulse voltage.
The present invention includes a manufacturing apparatus used in the electron-emitting device manufacturing method, and the manufacturing apparatus comprises a potential output portion for applying a voltage between the two electrodes. As the potential output portion, a power source 51 shown in FIG. 6 can be used.
The present invention incorporates an electron-emitting device driving method. That is, a method of driving an electron-emitting device which has at least two electrodes and emits electrons by applying a voltage between the two electrodes is characterized in that
the electron-emitting device is manufactured or adjusted through the voltage application step of applying voltages of opposite polarities between the two electrodes constituting the electron-emitting device,
wherein, in driving, a voltage of one polarity among the voltages of opposite polarities is applied between the two electrodes to perform normal driving.
The present invention incorporates an electron-emitting device adjusting method having the following step.
That is, a method of adjusting an electron-emitting device which has at least two electrodes and emits electrons by applying a voltage between the two electrodes is characterized by comprising:
the voltage application step of applying a voltage between the two electrodes constituting the electron-emitting device, the voltage application step including applying a voltage of the same polarity as a polarity of a voltage applied in normal driving, and applying a voltage of an opposite polarity to the polarity of the voltage applied in normal driving.
This adjusting method can be preferably used when a manufactured electron-emitting device is adjusted after shipping.
These driving and adjusting methods can also adopt the same conditions as described for the manufacturing method.
The present invention provides an electron-emitting device whose emission current is stable for a long time, as will be described later. By applying the present invention to the manufacture or adjustment of an image forming apparatus or the like, an image forming apparatus with high reliability can be provided.
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This invention relates to biaxially oriented striped nonwoven fabrics and the method and apparatus for making same, and more particularly, to a nonwoven fabric having alternating high fiber density and low fiber density striped portions wherein the low fiber density stripes are substantially oriented in one direction and the high fiber density stripes are substantially oriented in a direction normal to that direction.
Nonwoven fabrics are now used for a variety of purposes in a number of industries. These fabrics have been made traditionally by methods such as carding, garnetting, air-laying and the like. Nonwoven webs have been made to have most of the fibers therein oriented in the machine direction; other nonwoven webs have been made to have some cross orientation; and still other webs have been produced having a randomized fiber distribution. However, substantially all of these webs are lacking in any surface character or natural decorative effect. Nowhere in the art, heretofore, has a nonwoven fabric been made having a striped construction wherein half of the stripes have a high fiber density and the other half of the stripes are of low fiber density; furthermore, no fabrics have yet been made in such a striped manner, for example, wherein a majority of the fibers in the high fiber density stripes are oriented in a direction parallel to stripes (machine direction), while a majority of the fibers in the low fiber density stripes are oriented in a direction substantially perpendicular to the stripes (cross direction). No method has yet been devised for manufacturing such a fabric with at least two types of orientation simultaneously.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to produce a nonwoven fabric that has a striped patterned construction manufctured into it.
It is another object of this invention to produce a striped nonwoven fabric having alternating stripes of high fiber density and low fiber density.
It is a further object of the present invention to produce a striped nonwoven fabric having alternating high fiber density stripes and low fiber density stripes herein a majority of the fibers in the high fiber density stripes are oriented in the machine direction while a majority of the fibers in the low fiber density stripes are oriented in the cross direction.
It is still a further object to produce a striped nonwoven fabric wherein the direction of the stripes are running across the fabric or at some other angle that is bias to the angle of the direction of travel of the fabric.
Still another object of the instant invention is to provide a method of manufacturing such a striped nonwoven fabric in a continuous operation.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods and systems for controlling an amount of fuel delivered to an individual engine cylinder during transient engine operating conditions.
2. Background Information
Under a steady-state operating condition of an internal combustion engine, the mass of the air charge for each cylinder event is constant. The fuel transport mechanisms in the fuel intake have reached near equilibrium conditions, allowing a constant mass of injected fuel for each combustion event in each cylinder. However, when the engine operating condition is not steady-state, such as in an acceleration mode or deceleration mode, the mass of injected fuel required to achieve the desired air/fuel ratio in each cylinder is not constant as a result of transients in the mass of air charge being delivered to the cylinders.
Various attempts have been made to improve control of air/fuel ratios during transient engine conditions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,183 describes control of fuel mass based on a fuel puddle model representative of a fuel puddle that theoretically is present in the intake manifold. The fuel puddle model uses a first order X and tau coupled inverse compensator model of the fuel puddle to control transient fuel compensation. For example, an initial estimate of desired fuel mass of the puddle per cylinder embodies a fuel/air function (f_a_ratio[n]) that represents a desired in-cylinder fuel-air ratio for that cylinder""s bank and comprises a closed loop input to the inverse compensator mathematics from another section of the engine control routine.
The dynamic response of the inverse compensator model is limited by the model and mathematical constraints imposed by the model (e.g. the coupling between X and tau as well as use of single X and tau values for both acceleration and deceleration modes) and as a result may encounter difficulty in responding to different drivability requirements associated with acceleration and deceleration modes of engine operation. The model-based control system is designed to provide mandatory fuel compensation during the engine crank mode. The mandatory fuel compensation during engine crank mode has resulted in increased calibration efforts to make this system responsive, primarily due to the interaction between transient compensation and crank fuel calculation.
The present invention provides a method and system for controlling fuel mass during transient engine conditions that is based on a transient fuel compensation algorithm that provides transient fuel compensations that address drivability requirements associated with the acceleration mode and deceleration mode of engine operation as well as the cranking mode of engine operation.
In accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the invention, a method and system for determining fuel mass to be delivered to each cylinder of an internal combustion engine during transient engine operation involve determining a desired in-cylinder fuel mass for combustion based on a plurality of engine parameters, determining whether a current mode of engine operation is an acceleration mode or a deceleration mode, and determining a transient fuel mass compensation factor (mf_tfc[inj]) in response to the determined current acceleration or deceleration mode of engine operation. The transient fuel mass compensation factor and a base desired in-cylinder fuel mass (calculated from fuel air ratio) are combined to provide a desired injected fuel mass for the next combustion event for each cylinder.
In a particular embodiment of the invention, the desired in-cylinder fuel mass for combustion is determined from engine parameters representing air charge, feedforward air-fuel demand, and air/fuel stoichiometric ratio.
In another particular embodiment of the invention, the determination of the current mode of engine operation is made by comparing the desired in-cylinder fuel mass for combustion and a filtered desired in-cylinder fuel mass obtained using the prior injection history of each cylinder and a time constant determined in response to the determined current acceleration or deceleration mode of engine operation.
In still another particular embodiment of the invention, the determination of a transient fuel mass compensation factor is made by obtaining a difference between the desired in-cylinder fuel mass for combustion and the filtered desired in-cylinder fuel mass and multiplying the difference by a value of a gain multiplier determined in response to the determined current acceleration or deceleration mode of engine operation.
In still another particular embodiment of the invention, the method and system of the invention optionally can force the transient fuel compensation factor to zero during an engine crank mode such that no fuel transient compensation is conducted during the engine crank mode.
The present invention is advantageous for determining transient fuel compensations for each cylinder independently for the acceleration mode or deceleration mode of engine operation to improve drivability and avoids transient fuel compensation during the engine crank mode, reducing calibration requirements for the method and system.
The above advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following description taken with the following drawings.
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The invention relates to a grinder, in particular an oscillating grinder, having a grinding spindle, to which a grinding tool can be attached, and having a housing, which has a first region that faces towards the grinding spindle and has a second region that faces away from the same, and having a dust extraction duct.
Such a grinder is known from EP 1 778 437 B1.
In the case of the known grinder, a dust extraction duct is integrated into the housing, at the lower end of the housing, and opens into an annular region around the grinding spindle.
Although such a grinder does have an effective means of extracting grinding dust, a frequent requirement is the ability to work either with or without an extraction duct, depending on the intended application.
Known from DE 10 2006 000 200 A1 is a hand-held electric saw having a reciprocating saw blade provided with an extraction device that is optionally attachable to the saw housing.
Such an arrangement, however, does not provide any indication of how a removable extraction device could be accommodated on a grinder.
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This invention relates generally to the development of electrostatic images, and more particularly concerns a development system having an electrostatic filtering system which allows a steady flow of air into a development housing and prevents toner emission therefrom.
The invention can be used in the art of electrophotographic printing. Generally, the process of electrophotographic printing includes sensitizing a photoconductive surface by charging it to a substantially uniform potential. The charge is selectively dissipated in accordance with a pattern of activating radiation corresponding to a desired image. The selective dissipation of the charge leaves a latent charge pattern that is developed by bringing a developer material into contact therewith. This process forms a toner powder image on the photoconductive surface which is subsequently transferred to a copy sheet. Finally, the powder image is heated to permanently affix it to the copy sheet in image configuration.
Two component and single component developer materials are commonly used. A typical two component developer material comprises magnetic carrier granules having toner particles adhering triboelectrically thereto. A single component developer material typically comprises toner particles having an electrostatic charge so that they will be attracted to, and adhere to, the latent image on the photoconductive surface.
There are various known development systems for bringing toner particles to a latent image on a photoconductive surface. Single component development systems use a donor roll for transporting charged toner to the development nip defined by the donor roll and the photoconductive surface. The toner is developed on the latent image recorded on the photoconductive surface by a combination of mechanical scavengeless development. A scavengeless development system uses a donor roll with a plurality of electrode wires closely spaced therefrom in the development zone. An AC voltage is applied to the wires detaching the toner from the donor roll and forming a toner powder cloud in the development zone. The electrostatic fields generated by the latent image attract toner from the toner cloud to develop the latent image. In another type of scavengeless system, a magnetic developer roll attracts developer from a reservoir. The developer includes carrier and toner. The toner is attracted from the carrier to a donor roll. The donor roll then carries the toner into proximity with the latent image.
One method of controlling toner emissions from developer housings in xerographic equipment is to relieve any positive pressure generated in the housing. Moving components such as the mag brush rolls and the mixing augers can pump air into the housing, causing slight positive pressures. These positive pressures can result in air flow out of the housing via low impedance leakage paths. This air escaping from the housing contains entrained toner and is a major potential source of dirt within the system. A common approach to relieving this pressure is through the use of a "sump sucker". In it's simplest form a sump sucker is a simple port into the air space above the developer material in the housing. This lowers the pressure in the housing below atmospheric pressure, therefore air flows into, rather than out of any low air impedance leakage paths within the housing. This toner laden air is drawn through a tube to a fiter/waste sump assembly. A shortcoming of this system involves the waste toner removed from the system with this air flow. The amount of toner withdrawn from the system has a direct negative effect on total systems efficiency by increasing the total amount of waste toner, resulting in increased cost of ownership to the customer. Further, toner particle size distributions and additive concentrations can be effected if there is preferential air entrainment of some particles.
Further, the scavengeless development housings have decreased in size, thus, increasing mag roll speeds have been required to obtain adequate developability or donor reload in the case of HSD. Under these conditions toner emissions have increased and are considered a serious problem.
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The present invention relates to suppressing (or removing) delayed audio feedback effects (also known as echo) from a live broadcast or other transmission.
In many commonly occurring live broadcast scenarios, one or more audio signals originate from sources that are located geographically distant from a broadcast studio, and combined with audio from other distant or in-studio sources to form the broadcast program. For example, television news programs often include segments where a field reporter provides live coverage from the local scene of a newsworthy event. Sometimes, the field reporter""s commentary is interrupted or interspersed with questions from an in-studio anchor. As another example, many television and radio talk shows feature live debates between a host and various experts who are electronically conferenced from multiple separate and geographically remote studios. The term xe2x80x9cbroadcastxe2x80x9d as used herein refers to both through-air or wireless transmissions and to transmissions distributed over cable and other on-wire communication networks.
In these scenarios, it is desirable and even necessary that the local xe2x80x9cperformerxe2x80x9d monitors the actual program being broadcast from the remote studio to receive his or her xe2x80x9ccuexe2x80x9d to begin speaking, and to hear other parties speak during the program. However, a time delay is introduced as the audio signal of the performer""s voice is transmitted to the remote studio (e.g., on a land line, radio, microwave or satellite path) for mixing into the broadcast program, and a further time delay until the broadcast program transmission arrives back at the performer""s site. This time delay is due to the time for the signal to travel along the communications path, as well as delays introduced by various electronics equipment in the path (more particularly, frame synchronizers, digital compressors, and other equipment). This delay produces an echo effect that can be very disconcerting and disruptive to performers (i.e., similar to the effect experienced by a singer in a large stadium), such that the performers may find it difficult (if not impossible) to speak while monitoring the broadcast program and are forced to remove or shut off their earphone to continue their live performance.
Echo also is a problem in other applications, such as distance learning and telephone conferencing. In some distance learning applications for example, students may attend a lecture transmitted to multiple locales. Often, the audio of the lecture is a mixture of not only the lecturer""s microphone, but also of microphones at each of the locales. This allows the students at each locale to freely pose questions, and also hear questions posed by the students at the other locales. When the various microphone inputs are mixed at a central location (e.g., typically the lecturer""s site), the students will hear a delayed echo of their own voice in the lecture""s audio while posing their questions due to the transmission and other equipment delays. Telephone conferencing among multiple locations experiences a similar echo problem.
One prior solution to the echo problem in live broadcasts is to transmit a xe2x80x9cmix-minusxe2x80x9d signal from the remote studio to each local site for monitoring by the performer. At the studio, the audio signal of the performer""s voice is mixed in with other audio inputs from other sources to form the broadcast program. An inverse of the performer""s audio signal also is mixed with the broadcast program at the studio to form the mix-minus signal, which effectively cancels the performer""s voice so that the mix-minus signal contains only the contributions of all the other audio inputs except that of the performer. The performer can then monitor the mix-minus signal without experiencing disconcerting echo effects. An example of a broadcast system using such mix-minus signals is disclosed in Davis, xe2x80x9cMix-Minus Monitor System,xe2x80x9d U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,041 (1995).
A drawback to the mix-minus approach is that an additional separate transmission path for each local performer is needed to transmit their respective mix-minus signal from the studio to their respective local site. The added communications links to the local sites can add significantly to the costs of producing the live broadcast program. Further, the additional signals and communications links to the local sites add considerable complexity to setting up and running production of a live broadcast program, and can increase the chance for technical errors during the program""s production.
Various echo suppression techniques also are known and commonly used in telephone communications, particularly with conference or speaker telephones. In a typical telephone conversation, it is expected that the audio content in each direction is different. Also, it is expected that if any transmit-to-receive leakage (i.e., the xe2x80x9cechoxe2x80x9d) exists, then the level of the echo will be substantially less than the level of the original audio (typically about 15 dB of attenuation) and has a minimal delay (less than 250 milliseconds). Echo suppression devices that have been used for such telephones generally have relied on these two conditions being present. These conditions, however, do not hold true in the above-described live broadcast, distance learning and conferencing situations. Specifically, the level of the performer""s voice in the broadcast program typically is equal to or even greater than that from the performer""s microphone, and the delay often is greater than 250 milliseconds (due, for example, to the use of frame synchronizers and digital compression). The signal sent from the performer""s site to the remote studio and the program broadcast from the studio often have similar content, particularly when the performer is speaking.
A further drawback to typical echo suppression techniques is the speed at which the local microphone input can be correlated to echo in the return audio signal, particularly when the delay is unknown over a longer time interval (e.g., greater than 250 milliseconds).
The present invention provides the capability to suppress or remove echo of a local source audio signal from a remote return audio signal received at the local site, such as in the above-described live broadcast, distance learning and conferencing scenarios. The source audio signal and the return audio signal are digitally processed (e.g., in a digital signal processor running a correlation routine) to detect a time delay and level difference of any echo of the source audio signal contained in the return audio signal. An inverse of the source audio signal adjusted according to the time delay and level difference is then mixed with the return audio signal to suppress or cancel the echo from the return audio signal. The resulting echo-suppressed audio signal can then be mixed with the source audio signal (not delayed) and played on a monitoring device (e.g., a set of headphones or speakers) for comfortable listening, such as by a performer during a live broadcast.
According to one aspect of the invention, the echo suppression has a multiple state operating sequence that controls the audio signal sent to the monitoring device (e.g., headphones). The multiple state operating sequence accounts for a complex set of conditions, including that the source audio signal is not always xe2x80x9con the airxe2x80x9d and that the correlation to detect time delay and level difference requires a finite amount of time to process. For example, a broadcast program audio signal may be sent to the monitoring device in an initial operating state when a live performer is xe2x80x9coff the air.xe2x80x9d When the performer goes xe2x80x9con the air,xe2x80x9d the source audio signal without the return audio signal is played to the monitoring device during one or more states in which the correlation to the echo is sought. Then, the echo-suppressed audio signal is played to the monitoring device in states after the correlation to the echo is achieved. Finally, the echo suppressed audio signal also preferably is played for an interval approximately equal to the time delay after the source audio signal again goes off the air.
According to another aspect of the invention, the source audio signal is always sent to the monitoring device (i.e., the performer always hears the signal originating from their microphone) so as to avoid intervals where the performer is unable to hear his or her own voice. Depending on the operating state, two other signals may be added to the source audio signal at different times, which include the return audio signal and the echo suppressed audio signal (e.g., the broadcast program and the broadcast program with echo removed). Preferably, the volume of the added signal is ramped up when adding the signal during a state switch for smoother audio transitions.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a voice activated switch (VOX) or like measure of activity on the source audio signal initiates transitions between at least some of the operating states. For example, the VOX initiates a transition from an initial state where the return audio signal is sent to the monitoring device to one or more states where only the source audio signal is sent to the monitoring device and during which correlation to the audio signal takes place.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the source audio signal is first correlated to the echo in the return audio signal at a reduced sample rate to define an approximate window (i.e., time interval) for a more exact correlation. This allows the amount of memory and processing needed for the correlation to be reduced, while allowing the correlation to be performed over a much larger time period.
In another aspect of the invention, values from a prior echo correlation are retained for use in a subsequent correlation so as to provide faster response in cases where the delay of the echo is likely to remain the same.
In yet another aspect of the invention, a correlation in a narrow window (based on echo delay from a prior correlation) is run simultaneously with a correlation at a reduced sample rate for a wider window. This allows the invention to detect echo over the wider window, while also providing the fast response in cases where the delay remains the same as the prior correlation.
The above features of the invention allow echo suppression in the specific conditions present in the above live broadcast, distance learning and conferencing scenarios. By defining a multiple state operating sequence under VOX control, the echo suppression according to these aspects of the invention prevents the performer from hearing echo while the correlation is being processed and as the source audio signal goes on and off the air. Further, the dual correlation (at both reduced and full sample rates) allows the echo suppression to be done more quickly for echo at longer time delays.
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The present invention relates to a crimp connector wherein a crimp contact is inserted forwards into a contact slot from the backside thereof.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a conventional crimp connector disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Provisional Publication No. 29748/95. The connector has such a structure that an electric wire is first crimp-connected onto a crimp contact 3 inserted in a connector housing 1 and then the crimp contact is set in an outer housing 4. In this conventional crimp connector, in order to join the crimp contact 3 on to the connector housing 1 without being drawn out, adopted is such a means that a flexible lance 5 is disposed on a wall defining a contact slot 2 and the crimp contact 3 is fixed in order not to be drawn out backward by means of linking the lance 5 to a recess 6 of the crimp contact 3 making use of deflectional deformation of the lance.
However, in the case of joining the crimp contact 3 without being drawn out with the flexible lance 5, due to the necessity of a deflection space/clearance space for the lance 5, an unfavorable clearance is liable to occur and a large clearance may make the crimp contact 3 movable back and forth resulting in degradation of contact reliability of a contact portion connected with a coupling connector. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, when an electric wire is crimped with a crimp punch 7, because of misalignment between a channel portion 8 of the crimp punch 7 and a crimp blade 9 of the crimp contact 3, the crimp punch 7 is likely to interfere unsuitably with the crimp blade 9 resulting in a crimp failure.
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This application claims priority from French patent application 01.08745, filed on Jul. 2, 2001, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
Many areas of industry have to cope with the problem of conveying fluids in systems comprising tubular parts coupled together, whether permanently or temporarily, these parts consisting in some cases of flexible pipes or lines, usually elastomeric in nature (often silicone), which may or may not be reinforced with a textile structure such as a braid incorporated into their walls.
The present invention has to do with a novel type of reusable coupling that can make such a connection.
2. Prior Art
Generally speaking, such connections are made by inserting a nipple into the end of the tube which is then crimped by an outer ferrule so that the wall of the tube is sandwiched between the two, and the nipple provides a support for the coupling parts of the mating means mounted at the outlet or inlet of the assembly to which the pipe is to be connected.
Such an approach, which is found for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,549,180 and FR 1 385 084, nonetheless has drawbacks in that the presence of a nipple inserted into the pipe significantly reduces the fluid pathway at this point, thus not only disturbing the movement of the fluid but possibly also, in some cases, resulting in a retention of the fluid.
The Applicant has proposed a solution in accordance with the teachings of the abovementioned documents by which this problem can be solved. This solution is illustrated in the accompanying FIG. 1 and provides almost perfect continuity of the inside wall of the tube with the inside surface of the coupling nipple.
In general terms, referring to this FIG. 1, to make the coupling of the end of the tube (1), a nipple denoted by the general reference (2) is inserted into its end. The outer portion (3) of the said nipple forms an annulus designed to support the means (J) for forming the joint with the part to which the pipe is to be coupled.
This done, a peripheral ferrule (4) is then crimped around the tube (1), thus fitted with the nipple (2), thus imprisoning the wall of the tube.
To ensure precise positioning, the ferrule (4) comprises an inward annulus (5) capable of fitting into a peripheral groove (6) on the external surface of the nipple (2) during the crimping operation.
Although such an approach makes it possible to produce couplings in which the internal pathway includes no region of fluid retention, it is not possible to guarantee that the assembly is completely aseptic, owing to the fact that mould, bacteria and the like may sometimes settle in the connection region between the nipple (2) and the end (5) of the ferrule (4).
In its patent application WO 00/01974, the Applicant proposed a solution which not only makes it possible to produce a coupling that contains no region of fluid retention but which also makes it possible to obtain a completely aseptic assembly that eliminates all risk of infiltration from the outside of bodies such as mould, bacteria and the like, which could contaminate the fluid conveyed inside the system. This solution consists, in general terms, in interposing a peripheral seal between the extreme edge of the annulus of the ferrule and that of the outer wall of the groove provided on the nipple.
Such a solution is perfectly satisfactory in the case of fixed systems, but as it involves crimping, it cannot be used to produce couplings that can be disassembled rapidly, for example if a defective pipe requires changing. Moreover, by its very design, such a coupling cannot be reused.
The solution to this problem of producing a reusable, anti-binding and aseptic coupling is to be found in the teachings of French Patent 2 766 901 by the Applicant.
Although this solution is satisfactory in the case of non-reinforced plastic pipes whose walls can be compressed relatively easily, it is unsuitable for producing couplings for the ends of pipes having thick, virtually incompressible walls containing a reinforcement.
To date, therefore, when making couplings on such thick-walled reinforced pipes, only crimped assemblies, of the type disclosed in WO 00/01974, provide mechanical characteristics that eliminate all risk of tearing, and eliminate the problems of retention and the risk of infiltration of contaminants from the outside.
In general terms, the invention therefore seeks to solve all the abovementioned problems while allowing the coupling to be assembled directly by the user in situ and the coupling component to be rapidly dismantled, as for example during a maintenance operation, whilst at the same time allowing it to be reused.
In general terms, the invention therefore relates to a reusable coupling adaptable to the ends of a tube and which comprises:
a nipple comprising a toothed end designed to be inserted into the tube, its inside diameter corresponding approximately to the inside diameter of the tube, the said end being continued by an annular surface external to the tube, at the end of which are the actual means of connection to the part to which the tube is to be connected;
a peripheral ferrule mounted around the tube and imprisoning the latter in engagement with the toothed part of the nipple, the said ferrule comprising an inward annulus capable of fitting into a peripheral groove on the surface of the nipple, while a seal is provided at the location of this annulus.
The coupling according to the invention is characterized in that the peripheral locking ferrule is radially compressible and is immobilized and fixed to the periphery of the tube by a xe2x80x9cconnectionxe2x80x9d assembly comprising two connectable parts mounted around the end of the tube on either side of the said locking ferrule, namely:
a first part or xe2x80x9couter sleevexe2x80x9d positioned around the nipple and comprising on its rear face an annulus capable of bearing against one of the ends of the clamping ferrule and, on its front face, an internal cage forming a nut;
a second part or xe2x80x9cclamping ringxe2x80x9d positioned around the pipe, downstream with respect to the clamping ferrule, the said ring comprising an external threaded portion that can be screwed into the threaded portion of the first part and an internal chamber capable of bearing against the peripheral surface of the ferrule, thereby crushing it and imprisoning the wall of the pipe, as well as pushing the inward annulus of the said ferrule into the peripheral groove on the surface of the said nipple, and imprisoning the seal between the said annulus and the bottom of the groove.
Materials from which the various parts of which a coupling according to the invention is composed can be made are preferably stainless steel for the nipple and the outer sleeve of the connection assembly, while the radially compressible peripheral ferrule and the clamping ring forming the second part of the connection assembly will be made in an engineering plastic.
Such a combination of materials eliminates any risk of binding during assembly and disassembly.
In a preferred embodiment, the compressible ferrule is made of plastic and comprises teeth on its internal face and along part of its length, its external surface having two oppositely tapering regions, the region facing the internal surface of the clamping ring bearing against a region of corresponding taper provided in the chamber of the said ring.
To make the said ferrule radially compressible, staggered slits are provided occupying at least part of the length of each tapering region of the compression ferrule.
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Specific hybridization of oligonucleotides and their analogs is a fundamental process that is employed in a wide variety of research, medical, and industrial applications, including the identification of disease-related polynucleotides in diagnostic assays, screening for clones of novel target polynucleotides, identification of specific polynucleotides in blots of mixtures of polynucleotides, amplification of specific target polynucleotides, therapeutic blocking of inappropriately expressed genes, DNA sequencing, and the like, e.g. Sambrook et al, Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Edition (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 1989); Keller and Manak, DNA Probes, 2nd Edition (Stockton Press, New York, 1993); Milligan et al, J. Med. Chem., 36: 1923-1937 (1993); Drmanac et al, Science, 260: 1649-1652 (1993), Bains, J. DNA Sequencing and Mapping, 4: 143-150 (1993).
Specific hybridization has also been proposed as a method of tracking, retrieving, and identifying compounds labeled with oligonucleotide tags. For example, in multiplex DNA sequencing oligonucleotide tags are used to identify electrophoretically separated bands on a gel that consist of DNA fragments generated in the same sequencing reaction. In this way, DNA fragments from many sequencing reactions are separated on the same lane of a gel which is then blotted with separate solid phase materials on which the fragment bands from the separate sequencing reactions are visualized with oligonucleotide probes that specifically hybridize to complementary tags, Church et al, Science, 240: 185-188 (1988). Similar uses of oligonucleotide tags have also been proposed for identifying explosives, potential pollutants, such as crude oil, and currency for prevention and detection of counterfeiting, e.g. reviewed by Dollinger, pages 265-274 in Mullis et al, editors, The Polymerase Chain Reaction (Birkhauser, Boston, 1994). More recently, systems employing oligonucleotide tags have also been proposed as a means of manipulating and identifying individual molecules in complex combinatorial chemical libraries, for example, as an aid to screening such libraries for drug candidates, Brenner and Lerner, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 89: 5381-5383 (1992); Alper, Science, 264: 1399-1401 (1994); and Needels et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 90: 10700-10704 (1993).
The successful implementation of such tagging schemes depends in large part on the success in achieving specific hybridization between a tag and its complementary probe. That is, for an oligonucleotide tag to successfully identify a substance, the number of false positive and false negative signals must be minimized. Unfortunately, such spurious signals are not uncommon because base pairing and base stacking free energies vary widely among nucleotides in a duplex or triplex structure. For example, a duplex consisting of a repeated sequence of deoxyadenosine (A) and thymidine (T) bound to its complement may have less stability than an equal-length duplex consisting of a repeated sequence of deoxyguanosine (G) and deoxycytidine (C) bound to a partially complementary target containing a mismatch. Thus, if a desired compound from a large combinatorial chemical library were tagged with the former oligonucleotide, a significant possibility would exist that, under hybridization conditions designed to detect perfectly matched AT-rich duplexes, undesired compounds labeled with the GC-rich oligonucleotide--even in a mismatched duplex--would be detected along with the perfectly matched duplexes consisting of the AT-rich tag. In the molecular tagging system proposed by Brenner et al (cited above), the related problem of mis-hybridizations of closely related tags was addressed by employing a so-called "comma-less" code, which ensures that a probe out of register (or frame shifted) with respect to its complementary tag would result in a duplex with one or more mismatches for each of its five or more three-base words, or "codons."
Even though reagents, such as tetramethylammonium chloride, are available to negate base-specific stability differences of oligonucleotide duplexes, the effect of such reagents is often limited and their presence can be incompatible with, or render more difficult, further manipulations of the selected compounds, e.g. amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), or the like.
Such problems have made the simultaneous use of multiple hybridization probes in the analysis of multiple or complex genetic loci, e.g. via multiplex PCR, reverse dot blotting, or the like, very difficult. As a result, direct sequencing of certain loci, e.g. HLA genes, has been promoted as a reliable alternative to indirect methods employing specific hybridization for the identification of genotypes, e.g. Gyllensten et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 85: 7652-7656 (1988).
The ability to sort cloned and identically tagged DNA fragments onto distinct solid phase supports would facilitate such sequencing, particularly when coupled with a non gel-based sequencing methodology simultaneously applicable to many samples in parallel.
In view of the above, it would be useful if there were available an oligonucleotide-based tagging system which provided a large repertoire of tags, but which also minimized the occurrence of false positive and false negative signals without the need to employ special reagents for altering natural base pairing and base stacking free energy differences. Such a tagging system would find applications in many areas, including construction and use of combinatorial chemical libraries, large-scale mapping and sequencing of DNA, genetic identification, medical diagnostics, and the like.
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Adhesive compositions, particularly conductive adhesives, are used for a variety of purposes in the fabrication and assembly of semiconductor packages and microelectronic devices. The more prominent uses include bonding of electronic elements such as integrated circuit chips to lead frames or other substrates, and bonding of circuit packages or assemblies to printed wire boards. Adhesives useful for electronic packaging applications typically exhibit properties such as good mechanical strength, curing properties that do not affect the component or the carrier, and thixotropic properties compatible with application to microelectronic and semiconductor components.
When a semiconductor chip is connected to a substrate, electrical connections are made between electrical terminations on the chip and corresponding electrical terminations on the substrate. A typical method for making these connections uses metallic or polymeric material that is applied in bumps (e.g., solder bumps) to the chip or substrate terminals. The solder bumps are aligned and placed in contact and the resulting assembly heated to reflow the metallic or polymeric material and solidify the connection.
During subsequent manufacturing steps, the electronic assembly is subjected to cycles of elevated and lowered temperatures. Due to the differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion for the semiconductor chip, the interconnect material, and the substrate, this thermal cycling can stress the components of the assembly and cause it to fail. To prevent failure, the gap between the component and the substrate is filled with a polymeric material, usually referred to as an underfill, to reinforce the interconnect and to absorb some of the stress of the thermal cycling.
Two prominent uses for underfill technology are in packages known in the industry as flip-chip, in which a chip is attached to a lead frame, and ball grid array, in which a package of one or more chips is attached to a printed wire board.
The underfill encapsulation may take place after the reflow of the metallic or polymeric interconnect, or it may take place simultaneously with the reflow. If underfill encapsulation takes place after reflow of the interconnect, a measured amount of underfill encapsulant material will be dispensed along one or more peripheral sides of the electronic assembly and capillary action within the component-to-substrate gap draws the material inward. The substrate may be preheated if needed to achieve the desired level of encapsulant viscosity for the optimum capillary action. After the gap is filled, additional underfill encapsulant may be dispensed along the complete assembly periphery to help reduce stress concentrations and prolong the fatigue life of the assembled structure. The underfill encapsulant is subsequently cured to reach its optimized final properties.
If underfill encapsulation is to take place simultaneously with reflow of the solder or polymeric interconnects, the underfill encapsulant, which can include a fluxing agent if solder is the interconnect material, first is applied to either the substrate or the component; then terminals on the component and substrate are aligned and contacted and the assembly heated to reflow the metallic or polymeric interconnect material. During this heating process, curing of the underfill encapsulant occurs simultaneously with reflow of the metallic or polymeric interconnect material.
For single chip packaging involving high volume commodity products, a failed chip can be discarded without significant loss. However, it becomes expensive to discard multi-chip packages with only one failed chip and the ability to rework the failed component would be a manufacturing advantage. Thus, there is a continuing need within the semiconductor industry for underfill materials that will meet all the requirements for reinforcement of the electrical interconnect.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus that is capable of accurately determining presence information, e.g., “Temporarily Unavailable” or “Not Available” to indicate that an apparatus user is absent.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an IP network that performs communication through TCP/UDP, IP, such as the Internet or an intranet, has provided various services including streaming, e-mail, and Bulletin board systems, by displaying hypertexts. However, these services are provided through systems whereby a server provides stored data in response to a request made by a client. In this regard, these services lack interactivity. As a real-time system, various services including chatting, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and teleconference have been provided. However, these services can only be used online (i.e., while being connected to a network), and thus cannot be considered perfectly real-time bidirectional communication, since access is made without confirming the state of a user using an opposing apparatus (hereafter referred to as second apparatus user), with its success left to chance.
Accordingly, a future IP network is expected to achieve more advanced interactive communication that allows the user to acknowledge a real time state of a second apparatus user. To achieve the advanced interactive communication, however, it is necessary for each apparatus user to keep complete track of the state of an opposing apparatus (hereafter referred to as second apparatus), i.e., presence information. Such presence information is defined by RFC3856, RFC2778, and particularly RFC2778, which are issued by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and is currently used for some apparatuses.
First, such presence information is described. Representative presence information, which is notified to apparatuses currently capable of using this service, includes four types: “Online”, “Offline”, “Away” and “Not Available”. For instance, when the connecting state of the second apparatus is changed from “Offline” to “Online”, a presence agent (hereinafter referred to as a “PA”) section of the second apparatus automatically sends such a notification message; a watcher (subscriber) of an apparatus (first apparatus) used by the self user (hereafter referred to as first apparatus user) receives this message, and retrieves presence information indicating such a state change. At the same time, the watcher stores the information that the user is “Online” in a non-self-presence information section, and displays the information on the apparatus display. In the present specification, a system in which the above-described presence information is notified and exchanged is referred to as a presence system. Further, in the present invention, “Temporarily away from desk” basically means “Away”; and “Away from desk” basically means “Not Available”. In other words, “Away from desk” and “Temporarily away from desk” not only refer to a state where the user is absent such as being away from the desk, but also refer to a state where the user cannot perform any operation since the user is driving, for example.
A conventional presence system only notifies representative presence information such as “Online”, “Offline”, “Away” and “Not Available”. Among these states, “Online” and “Offline” literally mean that the user is online (connected) or offline (disconnected), with no confusing meaning. As such a convention presence system, Related Art 1 is disclosed. In contrast, “Away” and “Not Available” need users to determine a meaning of the messages. “Away” indicates a state where the user is online, namely is currently being logged into the network, but is being away from the desk. The user is not able to respond for a predetermined period of time, although it is possible to receive a message from the second apparatus user “Not Available” indicates a state where the user is also online, namely is currently being logged into the network, but is being away from the desk for an extended period of time. The user is thus not reachable for a long time, although it is possible to receive a message from the second apparatus user (See Publication 1, for instance). There are further indications that, in addition to state information such as “Online” and “Offline”, it is also possible to provide other user-customized special categories of state such as “at work”, “at home” and “in a meeting” (See Related Art 2, for instance). However, these indications are not sufficiently specific.
Currently, these types of presence information that require assessment, such as “Away” and “Not Available”, are determined by apparatuses themselves based on given settings in many cases. Therefore, erroneous state determinations have been rampant due to discrepancies between actual user states and indicated presence information.
[Related Art 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication 2004-72485
[Related Art 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication 2004-318822
[Publication 1] Pocket Studio “Chapter 11, ICQ Setting Preferences”, [online], Aug. 30, 2005, Internet <URL: http://pockets.otto.to/˜pockets/icq/98a/guide/chap11/b-status.html>
As described above, presence information transmitted between conventional personal computers (PAs) in the system includes basically only four types: “Online”, “Offline”, “Away” and “Not Available”. “Away” and “Not Available” are concepts that incorporate estimations. Although they may match the actual states, there are many cases of mismatches as well.
For instance, a PC or the like automatically changes the state from “Online” to “Away” when the user has not touched a PC mouse or an input key for a predetermined period of time according to a condition to change the state. While the user is touching the mouse or the input key while working on the PC, the user state is “Online”. When the user is not working on the PC, the state is changed to “Away” after a predetermined period of time. In this regard, the “Away” state determined on the basis of the operation state of a PC or the like is reasonably accurate, and matches the actual state in most cases. With other communication apparatuses, on the other hand, as can be seen from cases involving wireless communication apparatuses, the user is rarely in need of constantly operating such apparatuses and uses them only when a call or the like is received. As a result, the state tends to change to “Away” very easily with such apparatuses because the user is not constantly touching them even when they are kept in the immediate surroundings of the user. This tendency also applies to “Not Available”.
Therefore, in regard to such communication apparatuses, the following determination process is more likely to yield accurate results, rather than determining the “Away” state depending on whether or not the user touches them at will. In this process, the user is determined to be “Away” when there is no response to a certain action performed by a user engaged in a communication with the user, such as IM (instant message) chatting. This also applies to “Not Available”.
More specifically, although “Away” and “Not Available” have been conventionally determined solely on the basis of the internal circumstances of each communication apparatus (whether the user has performed any action by operating the apparatus), it is basically more appropriate to determine these states after contact is lost with the second apparatus user. Therefore, it is appropriate to determine that the user is “Away” or “Not Available” when a caller action (e.g., a phone call, a message such as IM, or an alarm on the first apparatus) is not met by a reaction (i.e., a response to the phone call or the message, or stopping the alarm). In the present application, an action means a user operation, a notification from a second apparatus, or an automated process on the first apparatus.
The above-noted determination process can prevent a situation where, since “Away” or “Not Available” appears excessively, the ongoing communication is discontinued or put off until a later day, even when both parties are actually near their apparatuses and are online and available for communication.
On the other hand, although it is appropriate to determine the state after contact is lost with the second apparatus user, there are cases where it is appropriate to determine “Away” or “Not Available” based on the internal circumstances of a PC or the like. In other words, state determination rules vary from apparatus to apparatus and it is thus appropriate to change the setting rules for “Away” and “Not Available” depending on the type of the communication apparatus being used. At the same time, however, communication apparatuses have the common feature of being capable of receiving a call as described above. It is thus deemed more appropriate in many cases to make a state determination after communication is lost with the second apparatus user. Similarily, when there is no reaction to another action from a third party after the action from the original second apparatus user goes unanswered, it can be determined that the user is “Away” or “Not Available”. In order to make presence information more user-friendly, it is necessary to create a less error-prone system capable of making more accurate state determinations with respect to presence information that requires assessment, such as “Away” and “Not Available”.
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Options for accessing and listening to digital audio in an out-loud setting were limited until in 2003, when SONOS, Inc. filed for one of its first patent applications, entitled “Method for Synchronizing Audio Playback between Multiple Networked Devices,” and began offering a media playback system for sale in 2005. The Sonos Wireless HiFi System enables people to experience music from many sources via one or more networked playback devices. Through a software control application installed on a smartphone, tablet, or computer, one can play what he or she wants in any room that has a networked playback device. Additionally, using the controller, for example, different songs can be streamed to each room with a playback device, rooms can be grouped together for synchronous playback, or the same song can be heard in all rooms synchronously.
Given the ever growing interest in digital media, there continues to be a need to develop consumer-accessible technologies to further enhance the listening experience.
The drawings are for the purpose of illustrating example embodiments, but it is understood that the inventions are not limited to the arrangements and instrumentality shown in the drawings.
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Athletes often want to follow their performance in various ways. One way to follow the exercise is to measure muscle signals using electrodes. Surface electromyography (sEMG) is a technique for measuring electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. EMG detects electrical potential generated by muscle cells, and the measured signal is called an electromyogram. However, there do not exist good ways to guide the training accurately enough.
There is, therefore, a need for a solution that provides an improved way to implement the measurements and analysis of muscle signals for the purpose of guiding exercise.
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Most print output devices, such as copiers, printers, facsimile machines and other similar print output devices (collectively referred to as “printers”), may be used with a wide variety of output media. Indeed, conventional printers typically include one or more media trays that accept many different media types, sizes, colors and weights. When a user submits a print job to such a printer, such as by selecting a “Print” function from within a word processing, spreadsheet, page layout, or other software application, the application typically calls a print driver that permits the user to specify numerous print output specifications, such as a desired media for the print job. A user interface on conventional print drivers typically includes pull-down menus that allow the user to select a specific media tray or specific media attributes for printing the print job. For example, if a user knows that desired media are loaded in Tray 2 of the printer, the user may select Tray 2 from a media tray pulldown menu, and the print job will be printed on media extracted from Tray 2. Alternatively, a print driver may allow a user to specify media attributes, such as type, size, color or other attribute rather than specifying a particular media tray. For example, if any of a printer's media trays includes Letterhead paper, a user may specify Letterhead from a media type pulldown menu, and the print job will be printed on media extracted from a tray that includes Letterhead.
For conventional office or home printers, the number of different media trays and attributes is usually small, and the media specification process is usually quite straightforward. Indeed, most office or home printers include only a few media trays, and typically use only a handful of different media attributes. For commercial print shop printers, however, the number of different media sources and attributes may be quite large. Indeed, a commercial print shop printer may have many different media trays that may be loaded with media having a large number of different attributes. For example, a printer used in a print shop may have six media trays that each may be loaded with media having any of twenty different colors, ten different sizes, five different weights, and three different hole-punching styles.
If a printer supports many different media attributes, the printer may provide pulldown menus for selecting media attributes, such as media size, type, weight, color, and other attributes. Thus, a user may find it quite time consuming to specify each media attribute for every print job. To simplify this selection process, some previously known print systems include a paper catalog for media selection. An exemplary previously known paper catalog is illustrated in FIG. 1. Paper catalog 10 is a two-dimensional array that associates one or more media names 12 with a corresponding set of media attributes 14. In the illustrated example, media names 12 are associated with attributes “Size,” “Color,” “Weight” (in grams per square meter, “g/m2”), “Type,” and “Mode.” A system administrator typically creates the various entries in the paper catalog for commonly used media. Once the paper catalog is created, a user may specify desired media for a print job by selecting any one of the entries in the catalog via a print driver or other job submission means, such as a proprietary downloader or Web submission means.
For example, a paper catalog may include a first entry named “Letter” to designate media that are 8.5×11″, white, 75 g/m2, plain, single sided or double sided, and capable of being hole-punched, and a second entry named “Letter Pink” to designate media that are 8.5×11″, pink, 75 g/m2, plain, single sided or double sided, and capable of being hole-punched. For print systems that use a paper catalog, the media selection process is simple. Rather than navigating through numerous media attribute pulldown menus and submenus, a user instead only needs to select a desired media name from a single paper catalog pulldown menu. When the print job is submitted to the printer, the media attributes associated with the selected media name will be communicated to the printer, and the printer will extract media from the appropriate tray that includes media having those attributes. Paper catalogs therefore have greatly simplified the media selection process.
In addition to improvements in the media selection process, print systems have also advanced in other ways in recent years. Indeed, print technology has advanced to provide “cluster printing,” in which multiple printers may be coupled together in a network. In particular, cluster printing systems may be used to couple multiple printers together to form “virtual printer groups.” One exemplary cluster printing system is Velocity198 workflow software, including the Velocity Balance Servers198, licensed by Electronics for Imaging, Inc., Foster City, Ca. Velocity software may be used to couple many printers together, regardless of brand and model, to appear as a single virtual printer group on a network. Velocity software can load balance a single “long” print job among multiple printers, split color from black-and-white pages in the same document, route a print job to the best available printer based on the number of pages and other characteristics, send a print job to an alternate printer if a currently selected printer is out of paper or toner or if there is a paper jam, and automatically send certain types of jobs to specific printers, based on specified criteria such as media characteristics, finishing options and device capabilities.
Referring to FIG. 2, an exemplary previously known cluster printing system is described. Cluster printing system 20 includes one or more client devices 22a-22c coupled to server 28, which is also coupled to one or more printers 32a-32d. Client devices 22a-22c may be personal computers, laptop computers, handheld computers, computer workstations, personal digital assistants, cell-phones, fax machines, or any similar device that may be used to provide print jobs 24a-24c, respectively, for printing. Client devices 22a-22c may be coupled directly to server 28, or may be coupled to server 28 via a communications network 26. Server 28 may be a personal computer, laptop computer, handheld computer, computer workstation or any similar device that includes software and/or hardware that provides cluster printing capabilities.
Printers 32a-32d may be printers, copiers, fax machines, laser printers, plotters, inkjet printers, wide format printers, or other similar printers that may be used to provide print output 34a-34d, respectively. Printers 32a-32d may be the same make and model, or may include more than one make and model of printer. For example, printer 32a may be a 12 page per minute (“ppm”) black and white printer, printer 32b may be a 50 ppm black and white printer, printer 32c may be a 32 ppm color printer, and printer 32d may be a 75 ppm color printer. Printers 32a-32d may be coupled directly to server 28, or may be coupled via network 30. Networks 26 and 30 each may be a local area network, wide area network, wireless network, the Internet, or any similar network. Networks 26 and 30 each may be a single network or may include multiple networks, and the two networks may be the same network.
A user of any of client computers 22a-22c, such as client computer 22a, may create virtual printer clusters that include various combinations of printers 32a-32d. For example, a user of client computer 22a may form a first virtual printer group including printers 32a and 32b, a second virtual printer group including printers 32c and 32d, a third virtual printer group including printers 32b, 32c and 32d, and so on. A corresponding print driver for each virtual printer group may then be installed on client computer 22a, and print job 24a may then be submitted to any of the virtual printer groups by specifying the desired virtual printer group from a printer selection menu.
One problem associated with previously known cluster printing systems, however, pertains to media selection. Because cluster printing systems may be configured with printers that include more than one make and model of printer, the constituent printers in each virtual printer group may not use a single media selection process. For example, some printers in a cluster printing system may provide media selection via a paper catalog, other printers may provide media selection via media tray pulldown menus, and still other printers may provide media selection via media attribute pulldown menus. Further, even if several printers provide media selection via paper catalogs, the printers may not use the same paper catalog. Thus, printer 32a may provide media selection via a first paper catalog, printer 32b may provide media selection via a second paper catalog that differs from the first paper catalog, printer 32c may provide media selection via media tray pulldown menus, and printer 32d may provide media selection via media attribute pulldown menus.
Previously known cluster printing systems typically address this issue by providing print drivers that include a superset of media selection options for all printers in the corresponding virtual printer group. Thus, a print driver for a virtual printer group that includes all four printers 32a-32d may permit media selection using the first paper catalog, the second paper catalog, the media tray pulldown menu and optionally other media attribute pulldown menus, such as a media type pulldown menu. A problem may occur, however, if these different media selection techniques do not use a consistent convention for designating media. For example, printer 32a and printer 32b each may have three paper trays, with the first, second and third trays of each printer loaded with white paper having weights of 80 g/m2 , 75 g/m2 and 70 g/m2, respectively. The first paper catalog may classify theses media weights as “Heavy, ” “Medium,” and “Light,” respectively, whereas the second paper catalog may classify the exact same media weights as “80 g/m2,”“75 g/m2, ” and “70 g/m2,” respectively. If a user submits a print job 24a to the virtual printer group and selects an entry from the first paper catalog that specifies Medium weight paper, the entire print job will be sent only to printer 32a because only printer 32a recognizes a media weight designated as Medium. This is true even though printer 32b is a faster printer that has the exact same media as printer 32a, and could print some or all of the print job.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide methods and apparatus for simplifying and unifying the media selection process for cluster printing systems.
It further would be desirable to provide to provide methods and apparatus for providing a universal paper catalog for cluster printing systems.
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Generally, a polyimide (PI) film is obtained by shaping a polyimide resin into a film. The polyimide resin is a highly heat-resistant resin which is prepared by performing solution polymerization of aromatic dianhydride and aromatic diamine or aromatic diisocyanate to prepare a polyamic acid derivative and then performing imidization by ring-closing dehydration at a high temperature. Having excellent mechanical, heat resistance, and electrical insulation properties, the polyimide film is used in a wide range of electronic materials such as semiconductor insulating films, electrode-protective films of TFT-LCDs, and substrates for flexible printed wiring circuits.
Polyimide resins, however, are usually colored brown and yellow due to a high aromatic ring density, so that transmittance in a visible ray region is low and the resins exhibit a yellowish color. Accordingly, light transmittance is reduced and birefringence is high, which makes it difficult to use the polyimide resins as optical members.
In order to solve the above-described limitation, attempts have been made to perform polymerization using purification of monomers and solvents, but the improvement in transmittance was not significant. With respect thereto, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,480, the transparency and hue are improved when the resin is in a solution or in a film form using a method using an aliphatic cyclic dianhydride component instead of aromatic dianhydride. However, this was only an improvement of the purification method, and there remains a limitation in the ultimate increase in transmittance. Accordingly, high transmittance could not be achieved, but the thermal and mechanical deterioration resulted.
Further, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,595,548, 4,603,061, 4,645,824, 4,895,972, 5,218,083, 5,093,453, 5,218,077, 5,367,046, 5,338,826, 5,986,036, and 6,232,428 and Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2003-0009437 disclose a novel structure of polyimide having improved transmittance and color transparency while thermal properties are not significantly reduced using aromatic dianhydride and aromatic diamine monomers having a substituent group such as —CF3 or having a bent structure in which connection to a m-position instead of a p-position occurs due to a connection group such as —O—, —SO2—, or CH2—. However, this has been found to be insufficient for use as materials for display devices such as OLEDs, TFT-LCDs, and flexible displays due to limitations in terms of mechanical properties, heat resistance, and birefringence.
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to improved heap management and in particular to improved efficiency of heap management by a virtual manager in a multiprocessor system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to improved free item distribution among multiple free lists during garbage collection to improve memory usage and to increase the frequency of allocations from thread-local heaps.
2. Description of the Related Art
Software systems, such as the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that employ garbage collection, typically provide an explicit call for allocating objects, but no explicit call for freeing objects. Instead, in a system that employs garbage collection, when available storage on a heap is exhausted, an allocation failure occurs, operations are suspended, and garbage collection is invoked to replenish the free storage.
In one example, the JVM employs a mark and sweep phases during garbage collection to replenish the free storage. During a mark phase, items that are still referenced are located and marked. Then, during the sweep phase, free space of sufficient size is located and added as free items to a free list. Free items that are not large enough to be added to the free list are discarded. A free list may include a linked list of freed items, for example, with a pointer to the first item in the list held in global memory.
In addition, during garbage collection, compaction may occur. Compaction, in general, requires adjusting the position of objects within the heap to reduce fragmentation and attempt to make larger free items available. A forced compaction may occur if the sweep phase completes without finding a sufficiently large free item for the allocation request.
When an allocation request is received, a heap lock is acquired and the free list is scanned to locate a free item of sufficient size to meet the allocation request. If a free item of sufficient size is available on the list, it is popped from the list so that the new object can be allocated at the free item location. If a free item of sufficient size is not available, then garbage collection is initiated again to replenish the free list.
Because the heap lock is an exclusive lock and is acquired to search a free list, it is important that free items are efficiently located and popped from the list during allocation and, in particular, that the free list can be efficiently scanned to determine if a free item is available. In addition, because garbage collection is time consuming, it is important that larger items are not prematurely popped from the free list such that premature garbage collection is initiated. In particular, a premature garbage collection may occur if an allocation failure occurs and there is a large amount of free storage available, but no single free item large enough to satisfy the allocation request.
In an attempt to reduce the chance of premature garbage collection and reduce free list scanning time, some JVM's implement a large object area (LOA) or other large object protection area within the heap, where the LOA includes objects that are greater than a large object size threshold. Objects within the LOA are typically not allocated unless the requested allocation size is larger than the large object size threshold in an attempt to reduce premature garbage collection when large object requests are received.
In addition, in an attempt to increase the efficiency of searching for a free item, some JVM's implement multiple free lists, where each free list holds free items of a particular size. A vector maintains the list of sizes, wherein the list of sizes is scanned to locate a particular sized free list and then that sized free list is scanned for a free item of sufficient size for the allocation request, rather than requiring a scan of each item of a free list. While multiple free lists organized by a searchable vector reduce the number of free items that must be searched, searching a free list requires acquiring a heap lock.
Further, in an attempt to increase the efficiency of allocations of smaller objects, thread-local heaps (TLHs) may be implemented. In one example, a TLH is a cache buffer that has been previously reserved for use by a single thread. TLHs are advantageous because objects can be allocated directly to a TLH without the thread grabbing a heap lock. Furthermore, TLH's typically employ simple and fast allocation schemes, such as pointer bumping. Thus, it is advantageous to allocate as often as possible from the TLH, rather than searching from general free lists.
While allocating from a TLH is most efficient for smaller objects, when the current TLH does not have sufficient space to satisfy an allocation request, but the allocation request is within the size boundaries of a TLH, the heap lock must still be acquired to search the free list for a free item of sufficient size. The current TLH is replaced by a free item popped from a general free list. In addition, if an allocation request size exceeds the size boundaries of a TLH, the heap lock must still be acquired and the free lists must be searched to find a free item large enough to satisfy the request size. Thus, while implementing TLHs may improve efficiency of allocations when the requested allocation fits within the current TLH, current object allocation is still limited when the current TLH does not satisfy the allocation request.
Another issue arises in TLH allocation because the majority of requests for free items from the heap manager become requests for TLH replenishments. As a result, the free lists with smaller free items that are also large enough for TLH allocation will quickly be depleted, leading to premature garbage collection as larger items are carved up to meet normal smaller object allocation requests. One solution to the smaller free item depletion problem has been to increase the size of TLH's, however merely increasing the size only adjusts the low value of the range of free list sizes that are most quickly depleted by TLH requests, still leading to premature garbage collection/when other allocation requests within the TLH size range are received.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, there is a need for a method, system, and program for improving free item distribution among free lists to avoid premature depletion from TLH requests by using recent allocation history to predict future allocation requirements and distributing free items among free lists to meet the predicted future allocation requirements. In addition, to increase the efficiency of object allocation, there is a need for a method, system, and program for avoiding the acquisition of heap lock and in particular avoiding the acquisition of heap lock during TLH replenishment.
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Warm fog has frequently been the cause of aircraft takeoff and landing delays and flight cancellations. Much research has been conducted to obtain further knowledge on the physical and electrical characteristics of warm fog with the hope that a sound understanding would suggest a practical way to modify warm fog for improved visibility and subsequently increase airport utilization.
Promising methods and techniques developed included the seeding with hygroscopic material such as salt particles, using charged particle generators which produce a high-velocity jet of air and charged water droplets which disperse fog by modifying its electric field structure, using heaters and burners that evaporate the fog-forming droplets, using helicopters for mixing dry air downward into the fog, and dropping water from an aircraft in order to dissipate the fog.
These prior techniques have a characteristic of being expensive or being ineffective on a large scale or producing considerable environmental pollution.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an effective technique for fog dissipation on a large scale.
Another object is to provide a system for spraying large amounts of water in the air adjacent airport runways for fog dissipation.
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The invention relates to a joining and connecting block between flexible ducts made from an elastomer material such as rubber, which comprise at least two main ducts and two branch ducts, each connected to a main duct. The invention also relates to a method and a device for manufacturing this joining and connecting block.
The flexible ducts which are used in the motor vehicle industry, in particular for forming fluid circuits such as cooling, heating and/or air-conditioning circuits are frequently provided with tappings, connections or branches for connecting a circuit to different members, or connecting several circuits together. The flexible ducts of these circuits follow paths which are often sinuous and must sometimes be assembled or joined together, both for facilitating handling of a set of ducts and for reducing the space occupancy and increasing the reliability of the circuits.
In known constructions of cooling, heating or airconditioning circuits for motor vehicles, each circuit is formed from a main duct to which one or more branch ducts are connected, then the main ducts may be assembled together by means of plastic material parts or else by molding elastomer over the parts of the main ducts which do not comprise the connections to the branch ducts. It is then necessary first of all to connect the different branch ducts one by one to the main duct, then assemble the main ducts together, which is relatively time consuming, so costly, and does not guarantee a relative and strict arrangement of the different ducts with respect to each other.
The purpose of the invention is in particular to overcome these drawbacks of the known technique.
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Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor design technology, and more particularly, to a duty detection circuit and a duty cycle correction circuit including the same.
In semiconductor devices such as semiconductor memory devices designed to operate based on clocks, it is desirable to control a duty cycle of a clock. The 50% duty cycle of the clock means that a “high level duration” and a “low level duration” of a clock signal are equal to each other.
The semiconductor memory device may input/output data in synchronization with rising and falling edges of the clock. In such semiconductor devices, if the duty cycle of the clock is not 50%, data may not be inputted/outputted at the precise timing. Therefore, the semiconductor memory device may employ a duty cycle correction (DCC) circuit in order to adjust the duty cycle to 50%.
A known DCC circuit may have the limitations.
First, the known DCC circuits generate an up/down signal by comparing a width of high pulse and a width of low pulse of a clock and gradually correct a duty ratio according to the up/down signal. Such DCC circuits may complete the duty cycle correction after several comparison operations, and thus, the locking time may be long.
Second, digital type DCC circuits may have difficulty in measuring the duty ratio due to offsets of the duty detection circuits themselves.
Third, the duty cycle correction target, that is, the frequency range of the input clock, may be limited.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for detecting hydrocarbons in soil, and in particular to a method comprising extracting the hydrocarbons from the soil using a water miscible solvent.
It is now well accepted that corporations and individuals have a legal duty to protect the environment, including soil, against contamination by the inadvertent release of oil or other hydrocarbons, and that remedial measures must be taken should such accidents occur. Various tests have been developed to enable investigators to detect the presence of hydrocarbons in soil to help identify sites of releases from leaking storage tanks and other sources of contamination. Other tests for hydrocarbons in soil have been developed for the mining industry to help locate drilling sites for petroleum recovery.
2. Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 2,431,487 to Larsen, dated Nov. 25, 1947, discloses a method for detecting oil in drilling mud. The method involves mixing mud with a solvent for the oil which is miscible with water, to extract the oil into the solvent. A water-miscible solvent is used so that the solvent can penetrate the aqueous phase within which the oil resides in the mud, so that the solvent has immediate contact with the oil and a single phase within which the oil resides is created (see column 3, lines 24 through 34). A broad range of solvents is identified for use in the process, including ketones, alcohols, glycols and the like (see column 2, lines 7 through 16). Before adding the solvent, the mud may be diluted with water. Alternatively, the solvent may be mixed with water before it is added to the mud (see column 5, lines 34 through 38). After extracting the oil, the solvent is examined by exposure to ultraviolet light, and if the solvent fluoresces, oil is said to be present therein. Other analytical methods may be used to detect the oil, e.g., infrared adsorption, spectrophotometric analysis and the like (see column 3, line 72 through column 4, line 19). To better observe fluorescence, Larsen teaches a preference for a clear solution (see column 3, lines 50 through 54).
Mahendra Patel, in an article entitled Rapid and Convenient Laboratory Method for the Extraction and Subsequent Spectrophotometric Determination of Bitumen Content in Bituminous Sands, published in 46 Analytical Chem., No. 6, May 1974, discloses a method for determining the quantity of bitumen in sand. A sample of the sand is washed with an extraction solvent (toluene) to extract the bitumen from the sand. The solvent is subjected to photometric analysis, and the measured absorbance is compared against a calibration curve produced by analyzing a known test solution.
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{
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the attachment of internal equipment to pressure vessels. More specifically, this invention relates to pressure vessels containing high temperature particulate material and the attachment of high temperature internal partitions or baffles to relatively cold pressure vessel walls.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Common methods of processing chemicals and hydrocarbons routinely contact such materials with particulate materials comprising catalyst or adsorbents. High temperatures are frequently encountered in such processing so that containment vessels in which the particulate material and fluids undergoing processing or treatment are contacted often utilizing internal insulating lining on the inside of the metal containment vessel. The metal lining supports the insulating material and the insulating material lowers the temperature of the metal lining thereby permitting fabrication of the pressure vessel from less expensive metals.
Processing steps conducted within such vessels often require internal partitions to divide the internal area of the vessel into separate zones for carrying out processing steps or supporting internal equipment. The partitions often have a continuous circumferential attachment to the pressure containing vessel to seal different sections of the vessel from fluid or particulate flow. The continuous attachment of a partition that extends into the high temperature region of the containment vessel creates differential expansion between the relatively cold containment vessel shell and the much hotter partition attached thereto. This differential expansion deteriorates the structural integrity of the partition as well as any adjacent refractory lining.
One common form of such partition is in a regeneration vessel for the fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) of hydrocarbons. In this process, the interior of the regeneration vessel operates at temperatures in excess of 1300.degree. F. A rigid concrete-like lining, referred to as a refractory lining, covers the inside of the regeneration vessel to insulate the containment vessel from the high internal temperatures. Many of the regeneration vessels are divided by an internal structure into an upper regenerator and a lower regenerator section. The internal structure normally has a frusto conical or cylindrical form with the lowermost point rigidly attached, in most cases welded, about a circumferential section of the regenerator shell. The higher temperature of the internal cone with respect to the colder regeneration vessel sometimes results in bulging of the vessel wall section, spalling or breakage of the refractory lining, and most often localized deformation of the internal structure, all at the point of attachment to the pressure vessel wall. The prior art has tried a number of arrangements to alleviate the deformation of pressure vessels and attachments at their junction; in particular, soft insulating linings, and air spaces to solve the aforementioned problems. Soft insulation with or without a flexible containment liner has replaced the rigid refractory lining at the localized section of a junction between a cold external shell and an internal partition. In addition, other arrangements interpose a flexible element at the junction of the cold vessel shell to the internal structure to permit expansion of the partition without imposing deforming stresses on the shell of the pressure vessel. The air space at the junction often loses its effectiveness due to the migration of particulate material, lining, or other debris into the air space.
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{
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The present disclosure relates to a toner replenishing device for replenishing toner from a first container to a second container, and an image forming apparatus incorporated with the same.
An electrophotography image forming apparatus such as a printer or a copier includes a photosensitive drum for carrying an electrostatic latent image, a developing device for developing the electrostatic latent image into a toner image by supplying toner to the photosensitive drum, and a toner container for replenishing the developing device with toner. In an image forming apparatus for forming a full-color image, there may be employed a layout that an intermediate transfer unit is interposed between a toner container and a developing device. In such an arrangement, since the toner container and the developing device are disposed away from each other, a toner conveying portion for conveying toner from a toner discharge port of the toner container to a toner inlet of the developing device is formed.
In the above arrangement, if the toner discharge port can be formed at a position immediately above the toner inlet, it is possible to construct the toner conveying portion by merely forming a vertical conveying portion along which toner is allowed to drop downwardly. However, it is difficult to form a toner discharge port at a position immediately above a toner inlet due to the layout constraint of various units. In such a case, it is required to construct the toner conveying portion by forming a horizontal conveying portion for horizontally conveying toner, in addition to the vertical conveying portion. A conveying screw for conveying toner in the horizontal conveying portion is disposed in the horizontal conveying portion.
A toner conveying portion configured in such a manner that a horizontal conveying portion is disposed at a position posterior to a vertical conveying portion has a drawback that toner may be coagulated in the vicinity of an end portion of the vertical conveying portion (a start portion of the horizontal conveying portion), and smooth replenishment of toner may be obstructed. This is because the toner in the vicinity of the exit of the vertical conveying portion is likely to be conveyed backwardly by a rotational driving force of the conveying screw, and the toner is coagulated and clogs a convey path. Conventionally, there has been proposed a device constructed in such a manner that a torsion coil spring that is configured to swing as the conveying screw is rotated is mounted on the conveying screw for eliminating the above drawback.
With use of the conventional device, it is possible to prevent coagulation of toner in a region where the torsion coil spring swings. However, if toner is coagulated in a region outside of the region where the torsion coil spring swings, it is impossible or difficult to return the coagulated toner to a loosened state. Since it is difficult to manufacture a torsion coil spring having a sufficiently long length, there has been a demand for a technique of securely loosening the toner in a vertical conveying portion.
In view of the above, an object of the present disclosure is to provide an arrangement capable of securely conveying toner in a toner conveying portion configured in such a manner that a horizontal conveying portion is disposed at a position posterior to a vertical conveying portion, without coagulation.
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{
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This invention relates to an analogue current memory for storing input signals in the form of balanced sampled currents.
An analogue current memory comprising a first, coarse, current memory cell, a second, fine, current memory cell, an input for receiving a current to be stored, an output for delivering the stored current, first switch means for applying the input current to the first current memory cell during a first part of a first portion of a clock cycle, second switch means for applying the input current to the second current memory cell during a second part of the first portion of the clock cycle, and third switch means for delivering the combined output currents of the first and second current memory cells to the output of the current memory during a later portion of the clock cycle or during a subsequent clock cycle is disclosed in EP-A-0608 936, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,273 (PHB 33830). Two such current memories can be combined to produce a current memory suitable for storing balanced currents. While this current memory, which is known as S.sup.2 I current memory, gives a better performance than the simple current memory earlier proposed for switched current circuits and shown in FIG. 3.4 at page 36 of the book edited by C. Toumazou, J. B. Hughes, and N. C. Battersby entitled "SWITCHED-CURRENTS an analogue technique for digital technology" and published by Peter Peregrinus Limited in 1993, it still does not give an ideal performance.
In the operation of a switched-current memory, current transport errors are produced for a variety of reasons and these have been already described in the book edited by C. Toumazou et. al. referred to above. Briefly, they result from drain conductance of the memory transistors, drain-gate capacitance of the memory transistors and charge injection from the memory switches. These effects give the memory a current transport gain below its ideal value of unity. When used in integrators these non-ideal memories give a reduced Q-factor through the damping they introduce.
A variety of techniques have been employed to minimize these effects as described in the book referred to above and recently the S.sup.2 I technique was introduced. While the S.sup.2 I technique has proved highly effective in reducing errors, it has least impact on reducing errors arising from drain-gate capacitance. So, while reduction of drain-gate capacitance errors is important to all switched currents (SI) circuits, it is particularly so for the S.sup.2 I approach.
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{
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