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In a graphical user interface (GUI) the “focus” indicates the component of the GUI which is selected to receive input. For example, text entered at a keyboard, or a button press on a user input device such as the “enter” button on the keyboard or a tap on a trackpad, results in an input event that is sent to the component which has the focus. Examples of components include buttons, drop down menus, menu buttons, radio buttons, check boxes, data entry fields, etc.
A focus indicator, such as a highlight or box, on or around the selected component enables the user to easily determine which component is currently selected. However, in some situations, such as when the user is providing input commands using a mouse device or a touch screen, a focus indicator is not needed and can detract from the overall presentation and clarity of components and other information being displayed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to the field of all-plastic drums of the heavy-duty, industrial type for shipping and storing liquids, semi-liquids, as well as many other forms of bulk material.
2. Prior Art
In recent years, many different types of drums have been proposed, particularly for liquid and semi-liquid materials, such as plastic lined fiber or metal drums and all-plastic blow-molded drums. Drums having outer shells of fiber and metal, while providing needed strength and rigidity, also add considerable weight to the final product. In many cases, fiber shells are subject to deterioration if exposed to heat, cold, water, or ice for any extended periods of time.
All plastic blow-molded drums, while effective for shipping and storing materials, are limited in their ability to be mass-produced because of the requirement that they be subjected to considerably long cooling cycles in order to permit the resin to adequately harden and set following the blow molding cycle.
One of the drawbacks of any blow molding operation is the inherent non-uniformity of thickness of the walls of the ultimately formed drum with some portions of the drum having considerably more thickness than required while others possessing zones of weakness which may ultimately cause rupture and failure at these locations during drum use and abuse.
There have been attempts to provide an all plastic drum by assembling a pre-formed tubular body member with pre-formed top and bottom closures. The top and bottom closures were secured to opposite ends of the body member by the use of metal chimes. A drum of this construction is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,705 granted May 11, 1976. While a drum of this type has met with success, it will be apparent that the metal chime strips add weight to the product and also require additional manufacturing steps in order to complete the assembly of the finished product. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Consumer products including food products, cleaning products, deodorizers and the like have a shelf life determined by the length of time the components of the product resist change to environmental influences. For example, food products have a given shelf life based on their ability to resist chemical or physical changes due to contact with air, heat and other influences in the environment. Many consumer products are date stamped to provide the user with an indication of the shelf life of the product. The shelf life may be relatively short such as a few days or may be relatively lengthy such as a few months. Date stamping of consumer products provides the user with some indication when the product may no longer be useful for its intended purpose.
Quite often, date stamps are printed inconspicuously on the product package. It is sometimes difficult to read the date stamp and in some cases even to find the date stamp because it may be printed anywhere on the package. Date stamping is particularly problematic for products which have a relatively long shelf life because such products tend to get stored in an obscure recesses of a storage area, such as a food cabinet or refrigerator. If the product is not used often, the consumer is often unaware that the expiration date is shortly forthcoming or has even passed.
There have been attempts to provide a visible indication of when the useful life of a product has expired. So called "life time indicators" are employed for food products such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,671,028; 3,751,382; and 3,942,467. These indicators typically work through chemical reactions initiated or increased in rate by exposure to high temperatures. Other lifetime indicators rely on diffusion of a component through a traditional wick or membrane as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,414,415; 3,479,877 and 3,768,976, each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Examples of such products include, for example, the Oral-B toothbrush indicator which is based on the diffusion of a dye out of the bristles. When the color of a select group of bristles disappears, the user is aware that the toothbrush may or should be discarded and replaced. Another example is the Glade Neutralizer which is a deodorizer product having a timer based on the evaporation of a solvent from a polymer gel and subsequent shrinkage of the gel.
The timing indicators mentioned above suffer from one or more disadvantages which makes their universal applicability to a wide range of packaged products problematical. Such disadvantages include a) the timing mechanism is part of the product (e.g. a deodorizer) and is therefore limited to employment with that product or that class of products, b) the timing mechanism is inaccurate or cannot be controlled to accommodate a wide range of product shelf lives, c) the timing mechanism is expensive and/or d) has a limited range of measurement.
It would therefore be an advance in the art of providing visible indicators for determining when a product should be replaced or rejuvenated if a cost efficient and effective shelf life indicator could be provided which provides a clear and distinct visible indication of when a product should be replaced or rejuvenated. It would be a further advance in the art if a shelf life indicator could be provided which enables the consumer to see how much time is remaining for the shelf life of the product which indication is accurate and clearly visible. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Kinases regulate many different cell proliferation, differentiation, and signaling processes by adding phosphate groups to proteins. Uncontrolled signaling has been implicated in a variety of disease conditions including inflammation, cancer, arteriosclerosis, and psoriasis. Reversible protein phosphorylation is the main strategy for controlling activities of eukaryotic cells. It is estimated that more than 1000 of the 10,000 proteins active in a typical mammalian cell are phosphorylated. The high energy phosphate which drives activation is generally transferred from adenosine triphosphate molecules (ATP) to a particular protein by protein kinases and removed from that protein by protein phosphatases.
Phosphorylation occurs in response to extracellular signals (hormones, neurotransmitters, growth and differentiation factors, etc), cell cycle checkpoints, and environmental or nutritional stresses and is roughly analogous to turning on a molecular switch. When the switch goes on, the appropriate protein kinase activates a metabolic enzyme, regulatory protein, receptor, cytoskeletal protein, ion channel or pump, or transcription factor.
The kinases comprise the largest known protein group, a superfamily of enzymes with widely varied functions and specificities. They are usually named after their substrate, their regulatory molecules, or some aspect of a mutant phenotype. With regard to substrates, the protein kinases may be roughly divided into two groups; those that phosphorylate tyrosine residues (protein tyrosine kinases, PTK) and those that phosphorylate serine or threonine residues (serine/threonine kinases, STK). A few protein kinases have dual specificity and phosphorylate threonine and tyrosine residues. Almost all kinases contain a similar 250-300 amino acid catalytic domain. The N-terminal domain, which contains subdomains I-IV, generally folds into a two-lobed structure which binds and orients the ATP (or GTP) donor molecule. The larger C terminal lobe, which contains subdomains VI A-XI, binds the protein substrate and carries out the transfer of the gamma phosphate from ATP to the hydroxyl group of a serine, threonine, or tyrosine residue. Subdomain V spans the two lobes.
The kinases may be categorized into families by the different amino acid sequences (generally between 5 and 100 residues) located on either side of, or inserted into loops of, the kinase domain. These added amino acid sequences allow the regulation of each kinase as it recognizes and interacts with its target protein. The primary structure of the kinase domains is conserved and can be further subdivided into 11 subdomains. Each of the 11 subdomains contain specific residues and motifs or patterns of amino acids that are characteristic of that subdomain and are highly conserved. (Hardie, G. and Hanks, S. (1995) The Protein Kinase Facts Books I, Academic Press, San Diego, Calif., pp. 7-20).
The second messenger dependent protein kinases primarily mediate the effects of second messengers such as cyclic AMP (cAMP) cyclic GMP, inositol triphosphate, phosphatidylinositol, 3,4,5-triphosphate, cyclic ADP ribose, arachidonic acid and diacylglycerol. The cyclic-AMP dependent protein kinases (PKA) are important members of the STK family. Cyclic-AMP is an intracellular mediator of hormone action in all procaryotic and animal cells that have been studied. Such hormone-induced cellular responses include thyroid hormone secretion, cortisol secretion, progesterone secretion, glycogen breakdown, bone resorption, and regulation of heart rate and force of heart muscle contraction. PKA is found in all animal cells and is thought to account for the effects of cyclic-AMP in most of these cells. Altered PKA expression is implicated in a variety of disorders and diseases including cancer, thyroid disorders, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease. (Isselbacher, K. J. et al. (1994) Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, McGraw-Hill, New York, N.Y., pp. 416-431).
The mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAP) are also members of the STK family. MAP kinases also regulate intracellular signaling pathways. They mediate signal transduction from the cell surface to the nucleus via phosphorylation cascades. Several subgroups have been identified, and each manifests different substrate specificities and responds to distinct extracellular stimuli (Egan, S. E. and Weinberg, R. A. (1993) Nature 365:781-783). MAP kinase signaling pathways are present in mammalian cells as well as in yeast. The extracellular stimuli which activate mammalian pathways include epidermal growth factor (EGF), ultraviolet light, hyperosmolar medium, heat shock, endotoxic lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-1 (IL-1). An important member of the MAP kinases is the cytoplasmic p70 ribosomal S6 kinase which is essential for the initiation of protein synthesis in all cell types following mitogenic stimulation (Hershey, J. W. B. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264: 20823-26). Altered MAP kinase expression can therefore be implicated in a variety of disease conditions including cancer, inflammation, immune disorders, and disorders affecting growth and development.
The discovery of new serine/threonine protein kinases and the polynucleotides encoding them satisfies a need in the art by providing new compositions which are useful in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer, inflammatory diseases, and disorders that affect growth and development. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Sanding blocks typically employ a rigid solid block of material to which an abrasive sheet is attached. An operator then grasps the handles of the block and provides a sanding action by supplying reciprocating, rectilinear, oblique or broadside motion to the block.
When long surfaces are to be sanded the operator needs to have a much greater skill in order to prevent the appearance of ripples or waves caused by the sanding. A longer sanding block will decrease the tendency to cause waves or ripples in the finished surface. However, longer sanding blocks greatly increase the weight of the sanding tool which makes it unwieldly and very difficult to operate. Additionally, the application of pressure at remote ends of long sanding blocks tends to deform the surface to which the sand paper is adhered. This in turn means that use of the tool will cause an uneven finish to be obtained. Repeated use of an elongated sanding block also tends to create a "set" in the tool such that the middle of the tool intermediate the ends tends to be bowed upwardly. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and evaporation chamber for generating a continuous vapor stream containing a compound in which gallium is present in monovalent form in a vacuum coating process for vacuum coating a substrate. The invention also relates to a vacuum coating apparatus operating according to such a method and having such an evacuation chamber.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Monovalent gallium (Ga.sup.1+) is frequently used as a doping substance in X-ray absorber materials such as CsBr or RbBr for storage phosphors. Substrates coated therewith are needed as radiation detectors for radiographic applications, for example. The monovalent gallium is applied as GaBr, but GaBr cannot be chemically isolated. To achieve a doping despite this fact, it is suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 5,736,069 to use GaCl as the starting material, which is mixed with metallic Ga and with the X-ray absorber material CsBr. This mix is dried at 400.degree. C., after which a monocrystal of the phosphor is grown at high temperature (e.g. 925.degree. C.). The powder-type phosphor is obtained by milling the monocrystal, and is dispersed in a solvent (e.g. ethyl acetate) in a solution of a binder (e.g. polyethyl acrylate), and is layered onto the carrier film, for instance by pouring, rolling or sedimenting. High-quality layers cannot be produced in this way. Good X-ray absorber layers are usually produced in the context of a vacuum evaporating process; that is, the X-ray absorber material is first evaporated in an evaporating device and then settles on the carrier. The high vapor pressure of the required starting materials, namely the bivalent or trivalent gallium-halogenide compound and the gallium metal, acts to inhibit deposition of the doping substance containing monovalent gallium, which can be GaBr or GaI, by means of a vacuum coating method, since these would evaporate abruptly in the vacuum at common evaporating temperatures in the range of a few hundred degrees upon the formation of the dopant, even before the reaction of the starting materials has begun. As a result, it has not been possible to perform doping with monovalent gallium in the context of a vacuum coating, and particularly to simultaneously generate the X-ray absorber layer and to introduce the doping in the context of an evaporation process. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates generally to aerating and agitating pumps. Such pumps may, for example, comprise part of a waste treatment system for use in connection with an animal maintenance house of the type in which animal waste drops into a water filled ditch. A slurry of the water and waste is recirculated and aerated to encourage the growth of aerobic bacteria which reduces the waste to mainly carbon dioxide and water thereby minimizing the odor associated with the raising of animals such as swine.
Pumps such as for use in waste treatment systems should be capable of combining air with agitation so that slurry in a waste treatment system can be both aerated and agitated for recirculation within the system. Such pumps should desirably have a provision for adjusting the amount of air introduced under pressure to cause aeration and should be capable of pumping the slurry in a downward direction upon aeration and agitation. Such pumps should also employ an arrangement such as rotatable and stationary blades to provide agitation of the incoming slurry and mixture thereof with air. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In a storage area network (SAN), remote computer storage devices such as disk arrays can be made accessible to host computers so that the storage devices appear as if they are locally attached to the host computer's operating system. SANs may be implemented using Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) storage devices, in which SCSI protocol entities perform input/output (I/O) operations (e.g., data reads and writes) and are exposed through a unique identifier such as a logical unit number (LUN) on a path. A given LUN typically corresponds to a logical volume, and may be represented within the host computer's operating system as a device. Interaction with a LUN is initiated by a SCSI initiator port on a host computer, which can issue various I/O request types to the LUN on a target data storage device.
The description above is presented as a general overview of related art in this field and should not be construed as an admission that any of the information it contains constitutes prior art against the present patent application. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a call center system and its voice recognition control method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a call center system suitable for voice recognition with high accuracy on recorded content of calls between customers and operators in a call center, and relates to a voice recognition control method of the call center system.
Call centers and offices have a system for recording the content of a call between a customer, who is the originator of the call, and an operator to prepare for trouble in the future and to review the content. By performing voice recognition on the recorded data and converting into text data, the recorded data can be searched, displayed, and printed by a computer system, thus allowing the recoded data to be effectively used as business data.
Such a voice recognition technology in call centers is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-170953. The call center device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-170953 is designed to allow the administrator to check the content of a call in the event of trouble with a customer and communication failure, by recording the content of the call, analyzing the recorded data (voice recognition), and if a specific word is included in the recorded data, transmitting the recorded data to the administrator terminal.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-31810 discloses a technology that, in the technology related to the operator business support system, highlights predetermined keywords when converting voice into text data. The operator business support system of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-31810 is designed to input analog call voice from a telephone set into a voice recognition engine, in which keywords are previously registered in a voice recognition dictionary in a word unit, thus converting the analog data into voice text and then converting the voice text into text data with the keyword highlighted, so that the result is displayed on a screen (FIG. 8).
The technologies disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2009-170953 and 2009-31810 both aim to improve operational efficiency by converting a call into a text and by detecting keywords.
However, the voice recognition in existing call centers has not taken into account in terms of the most appropriate voice recognition performed on the recorded data generated for every different business. In other words, the most appropriate recognition engine should be selected by language and specialized dictionary and there is a problem that the conventional technology does not take into account this point of view.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a call center system in which the most appropriate voice recognition engine can be selected to increase the recognition rate in voice recognition, allowing for performing an effective system operation. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a fiber-treatment agent. Fiber-treatment agents based on organopolysiloxane containing groups with the formula --CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 NHCH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 NH.sub.2 have been used in order to impart lubricity to fibrous materials composed of natural fibers such as cotton, flax, silk, wool, angora, and mohair; regenerated fibers such as rayon and Bemberg; semisynthetic fibers such as acetate; and synthetic fibers such as polyesters, polyamides, polyacrylonitriles, polyvinyl chlorides, Vinylon, polyethylenes, polypropylenes, and Spandex (refer to Japanese Patent Publication Number 57-43673 (43,673/82)). However, fibers treated with such an organopolysiloxane are subject to yellowing due to a spontaneous oxidation occurring with time. Moreover, when a continuous lubrication using rollers is carried out from a bath containing such an organopolysiloxane lubricant, moisture and carbon dioxide are absorbed from the atmosphere, a white turbidity appears in the bath, and the precipitation of a gel occurs. In addition, when such an organopolysiloxane is used for high-temperature oiling or lubrication as in the treatment of carbon fiber, for example, polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber, the organopolysiloxane is degraded to a gum, which sticks on the rollers, etc. This has the unfortunate effect of causing the fiber to snap. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for elevating a position determination pin and a spindle assembly for a disc player and more particularly, to an elevating apparatus for moving up and down the position determination pin and the spindle assembly in a disc player for playing alternatively a naked disc and a cartridge encased-disc by means of a pickup device and the spindle assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
Nowadays, each of widely used minidisc player and compact disc player is used for reproduction of only one type of disc. Thus, if a user wants to obtain information from a different type of disc, it is necessary to separately buy a new player applicable thereto.
In general, the disc which is at a naked state or at an encased state in a cartridge is mounted on the tray to be loaded on the player. Such disc loading method depends on a structure of a disc player, so that a user can not load the discs by his own selection. Also, in fields of a common disc player used for reproducing discs of different sizes, although products which can reproduce the discs of different sizes such laser discs (LD), compact discs ,etc., can be manufactured, those can be applicable only to the discs of different sizes which are at the naked state.
Katsuichi Sakurai et al. proposes the disc player, capable of reproducing the discs, which is both at the naked state and at the encased state in the cartridge in E.P. Publication 525201 A2 (corres. U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,185).
Also, Hideo Kawachi et al. proposes the disc player capable of reproducing the discs, which is both at the naked state and at the encased state in the cartridge in E.P. Publication 518259 A3 (corres. U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,176).
Recently, the compact disc player which can selectively reproduce the compact disc and a minidisc by using a single optical pickup device and a single spindle assembly provided with a turntable, a spindle motor and a spindle shaft has been developed in order to improve disadvantages of the prior art minidisc player and compact disc player.
In the compact disc and minidisc player provided with the single spindle assembly and pickup device, since there is a predetermined height difference of compact disc tray and minidisc tray, double constructions therefor are needed in that player in order that the minidisc or the compact disc can be selectively mounted over the turntable constituting the spindle assembly. Also, the minidisc is mounted on a upper portion of the turntable constituting the spindle assembly and the compact disc is mounted on a lower portion of the turntable constituting the spindle assembly. Further, in the construction of this double turntable with difference of heights, since the discs which are mounted on respective mounting surfaces and the pickup device should always maintain a predetermined gap in reproducing the disc, the height of spindle assembly should be adjusted to the lower surface of the mounted disc.
In Hideo's patent is also disclosed an apparatus for elevating the spindle assembly wherein one side of a chassis supporting the spindle assembly of that apparatus is secured to a main chassis of the disc player and the spindle assembly can be moved up and down in a radial direction centering around the fixing point. Despite that, the apparatus for elevating the spindle assembly can be applicable to the naked and cartridge-encased discs of only the same size, so that a transfiguration of the player for driving the minidisc and compact disc of different sizes is demanded as necessary. Further, since only the one end of spindle assembly elevating apparatus is moved reciprocatingly with fixation of its other end, it is difficult to precisely adjust a position of the spindle assembly. Position determination pins to be inserted into four position determination grooves formed on a bottom surface of the cartridge encased-disc should be projected from the base plate in order to reproduce the cartridge encased disc. However, since the position determination pins put obstacles in the way of the mounting of the naked disc on the turntable, it is necessary to move those pins downward. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cover-tape peeling apparatus for a tape feeder for peeling a cover tape released from a tape having a number of chip-like electronic parts sealed therein in a substantially equally spaced relation to wind and receive it into a reel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As the prior art of this kind, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 63(1988)-178,593 discloses an apparatus comprising a supply section for supplying a taping part having received therein chip-like electronic parts in a given pitch to a part of a frame body, and a peeling section for peeling a cover tape for the taping part supplied from said supply section from a carrier tape, said frame body including a cover tape winding section provided with a reel for winding the peeled cover tape and a carrier tape feeding section for feeding the carrier tapes in a given pitch, said frame body being provided with a lever oscillated by a drive source, said lever having the cover tape winding section and a ratchet mechanism of the carrier tape feeding section connected thereto through a link so that said parts are continuously supplied to a mounting head. The technique using the link is disclosed also in the specification and drawings of U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,341.
In the electronic parts supplying apparatus, the width of the whole apparatus becomes thick through a portion of thickness of the link for connecting the cover tape winding section and the ratchet mechanism of the carrier tape supplying section. Many electronic parts supplying apparatuses are originally placed on a horizontal moving table. The thickness of the aforementioned link increases according to the number of the apparatuses. Naturally, the horizontal moving table increases in length and as a result, the body of apparatus for automatically mounting electronic parts inevitably increases in size. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a chemistry monitor system for a power plant that selects the most valuable next sample and, more particularly, to a system that uses the usefulness of the samples to control which chemistry monitors analyze the next sample and the source of the sample.
2. Description of the Related Art
Correct water and steam chemistry is critical to the prevention of corrosion in steam driven power plants. A number of locations around the steam cycle must be sampled and analyzed to know that the chemistry is correct and to understand why chemistry imbalances occur. Current practice varies from a minimum of a daily collection of samples from a few locations and manual analysis of a few chemical properties of the samples to a maximum of dedicated on line monitors for every possible chemical being analyzed and at every location or source from which samples are taken. The dedicated monitors are frequently supplemented by manual analysis of chemical species for which on-line monitors are not available. The daily collection of samples does not allow a sufficiently rapid adjustment of plant chemistry to prevent corrosion problems from occurring. The use of the maximum number of dedicated monitors is very expensive in all but the very largest and most efficient power plants. When a chemical imbalance occurs, manual analysis in all cases is increased in frequency and in the variety of chemical species for which amounts are determined In addition, during an imbalance, samples from special sample locations may be collected to specifically analyze the problem so that corrective action may be taken. U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,858 describes a valving system where samples from multiple streams are directed to an analyzer on a periodic fixed schedule basis by a computer. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Many Interactive Development Environment (IDE) tools exist today to assist users in creating business enterprise computer applications and/or web pages or web applications for conducting business with on-line customers of the enterprise. A few examples are the aforementioned Eclipse® Integrated Development Environment and the Microsoft Corporation's Visual Studio® product. In practice, nearly all enterprise web applications are built using a set of libraries in a composing framework such as Apache® Struts®, Java® ServerFaces® or MicroSoft's ASP.NET®. IDE's often come bundled with web frameworks such as the aforementioned ones, for convenient use. Such web frameworks share the commonality of a session application interface for allowing developers to make objects persistent between web page invocations by an end user, but the IDE's are currently unaware of the usage of the session interfaces and they are treated just as any other library function.
Although it is often convenient to use such APIs, use of them to create a way to share state information between web servers can be problematic for the user because putting too many data structures into a session can virtually clog the operation of a website. For example, use of an HttpSession to maintain temporary user state information for a user's online session can present an enormous problem is, say, 1000 logged-in users each have a one-megabyte temporary storage of session information, the requirement on the system is for one gigabyte or more of memory in use to maintain the integrity of the 1000 user sessions in operation at the time. The general rule of thumb, however, is that programmers creating software for HttpSessions should store only as much state data or information as is necessary for the current business transaction and no more. Thus, when a developer writes the source code and finds it convenient to use the HttpSession API to insert an object, they need to be consistent in removing the object from the session once it is no longer needed for the business transaction. But keeping track of what is put into the session and what is taken out is difficult to do at the time the code is being created or developed by the programmer. The available solutions all provide for inspection and removal of unnecessarily saved data only later when a debugger after the application under development has been compiled.
The present invention solves this problem by providing a static monitoring and analysis tool enhancement to the IDE system which collects information from the source code the user-programmer is building. This information is used to help the user-programmer detect conditions where objects may inadvertently have been left in session. This analysis occurs at development time instead of after the application is actually deployed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to printer technology, and particularly to technology of processing control based on a specific command system used for the communication between a host device and printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order for a host device, as typified by a PC, to make a printer print application data, the host device requires a printer driver (program for controlling the printer) prepared for each printer. Upon receiving application data from an application program, the printer driver converts such application data into print job data unique to the printer and outputs this to such printer. When the printer receives this application data, it interprets this and generates bit map data in a raster format and thereby realizes printing on printing paper.
Further, in a typical information processing system, electronic devices such as a printer, scanner, digital camera and so on are peripherally arranged with the host device in the center. The host device having built-in drivers (device drivers) unique to the respective electronic devices intermediates information with such electronic devices. For example, when printing image data stored in a digital camera, the host device initially reads the image data stored in this digital camera into the application program, converts this image data into print job data via the printer driver from the application data, and outputs this to the printer.
The program size of the printer driver is ordinarily several hundred K Bytes or more. Therefore, host devices such as computers having superior processing speed and abundant memory space will have no problems being provided with built-in printer drivers. Nevertheless, with small electronic devices such as a digital camera, for example, it is difficult to provide built-in printer drivers due to hardware restrictions and so forth.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to enable a host device to make a printer print document data in the host device without requiring conventional printer drivers.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel communication protocol between the host device and printer based on a specific command system. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic disc device used as a memory means for mini-computers or micro-computers.
Conventionally, a Winchester type magnetic disc device using hard discs 3.5 inches in diameter has been used as a memory means for mini-computers or micro-computers. Such a magnetic disc devices must have a high memory density without any enlargement of the size thereof, to ensure that it is compatible with other conventional devices. Therefore, an improved magnetic disc device has been developed, which has a high memory density enriched by increasing the number of magnetic discs.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A conventional magnetic head of a known magnetic disc device is illustrated in FIGS. 13a and 13b. A magnetic head 5 includes coil lead wires 5a which are drawn upward in the direction opposite to a slider surface 5b. With this structure, the lead wires 5a may sometimes come into contact with a disc surface disposed above the magnetic head or another magnetic head disposed above and opposing this magnetic head 5 which will cause a short circuit or an instability of the head when in operation the head is separated from the disc surface and floating thereon.
Also, the conventional magnetic disc device includes a head actuator having a pivot 6f, as shown in FIG. 14. The pivot 6f has a plurality of head arms 6e which are secured to an outer sleeve 10. The outer sleeve 10 is installed on a stationary shaft 12 through two roller bearings 11 and 11'. The shaft 12 is disposed on a seat 12a for vertical positioning when secured to the base 1 through a screw. The diameter of the seat 12a is approximately the same as that of the outer sleeve 10. Therefore, the space corresponding to the height H of the seat 12a is wasted, thus causing an unnecessary enlarging of the case of the magnetic disc device.
A magnetic device has a record medium on which information data is recorded and a magnetic head for reading the information from that medium. The magnetic head is disposed in such a manner that it faces the recording area of the record medium, to transmit information data between the record medium and a read/write device.
When a magnetic disc is used as the magnetic medium, the head is attached to a head arm which carries the head and positions it at a desired track in the recording area of the magnetic disc. Therefore, in order to achieve an accurate positioning of the head at a high speed, it is necessary to reduce the weight of the head construction, including the head arm, to minimize the inertial force thereof.
A known magnetic head structure is illustrated in FIG. 12. A head 33 is supported at an end of a gimbal 32 which is secured to a head arm 31. Information data is transmitted between the head and a read/write device through a lead wire 34. A springy clip 35 made of plastic is attached to the head arm 31 to hold the lead wire 34 between the head arm 31 and the clip 35 along the head arm side edge.
With the above-mentioned magnetic head structure of the prior art, the head arm 31 becomes heavy, since the clip 35 is used for holding the lead wire 34, thus opposing the requirement for reducing the weight of the head arm structure. Also, the gap between the discs must be wide enough to accommodate the clips 35 therebetween, thus preventing a reduction of the height of the magnetic device. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Treatment of microbial infection in host organisms requires an effective means to kill the microbe while doing as little harm to the host as possible. Accordingly, agents which target characteristics unique to a pathology-causing microorganism are desirable for treatment. Penicillin is an extremely well-known example of such an agent. Penicillin acts by inhibiting biosynthesis of bacterial cell walls. Since mammalian cells do not require cell walls for survival, administration of penicillin to a human infected with bacteria may kill the bacteria without killing human cells.
However, the use of antibiotics and antimicrobials has also resulted in increased resistance to these agents. As bacteria become resistant to older, more widely used antimicrobial agents, new antimicrobials must be developed in order to provide effective treatments for human and non-human animals suffering from microbial infection.
Peptidyl deformylase (PDF) is a metallopeptidase found in prokaryotic organisms, such as bacteria. Protein synthesis in prokaryotic organisms begins with N-formyl methionine (fMet). After initiation of protein synthesis, the formyl group is removed by the enzyme PDF; this activity is essential for maturation of proteins. It has been shown that PDF is required for bacterial growth (see Chang et al., J. Bacteriol., Vol.171, pp. 4071-4072 (1989); Meinnel et al., J. Bacteriol., Vol.176, No. 23, pp.7387-7390 (1994); Mazel et al., EMBO J., Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 914-923 (1994)). Since protein synthesis in eukaryotic organisms does not depend on fMet for initiation, agents that will inhibit PDF are attractive candidates for development of new antimicrobial and antibacterial drugs. Prokaryotic organisms, including disease-causing prokaryotes, are described in Balows, Truper, Dworkin, Harder and Schleifer, Eds., The Prokaryotes, 2nd Ed., Springer-Verlag, NY (1992); and Holt, Editor-in-Chief, Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, Vols. 1-4, Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore (1982, 1986, 1989).
PDF is part of the metalloproteinase superfamily. While PDF clearly shares many of the features which characterize metalloproteinases, it differs from other members of the superfamily in several important respects. First, the metal ion in the active enzyme appears to be Fe (II), or possibly another divalent cationic metal, instead of the zinc ion more commonly encountered (see Rajagopalan et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol. 119, pp. 12418-12419 (1997)). Second, the divalent ion appears to play an important role, not only in catalysis, but also in the structural integrity of the protein. Third, the third ligand of the divalent ion is a cysteine, rather than a histidine or a glutamate, as in other metalloproteinases and is not located at the C-terminal side of the HEXXH motif but far away along the amino acid sequence and N-terminal to the motif. Finally, the solution structure shows significant differences in the secondary and tertiary structure of PDF compared to other prototypical metalloproteinases (see Meinnel et al., J. Mol. Biol., Vol. 262, pp. 375-386 (1996)). PDF from E. coli, Bacillus stearothermophilus and Thermus thermophilus have been characterized (see Meinnel et al., J. Mol. Biol., Vol. 267, pp. 749-761 (1997)). The enzyme studied by Meinnel et al. contained a zinc ion as the divalent ion and the structural features summarized above were obtained from zinc-containing proteins. The structure of the protein has also been determined by NMR (see O'Connell et al., J. Biomol., NMR, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 311-324 (1999)).
Metalloproteinases are critical to many aspects of normal metabolism. The class known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are involved in tissue remodeling, such as degradation of the extracellular matrix. These enzymes are believed to play a role in normal or beneficial biological events, such as the formation of the corpus luteum during pregnancy (see Liu et al., Endocrinology, Vol. 140, No. 11, pp. 5330-5338 (1999)), wound healing (see Yamagiwa et al., Bone, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 197-203 (1999)), and bone growth in healthy children (see Bord et al., Bone, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 7-12 (1998)). Disorders involving metalloproteinases have been implicated in several diseases such as cancer, arthritis and autoimmune diseases.
Because of the importance of MMPs in normal physiological processes, it would be preferable to develop agents that inhibit PDF, a metalloproteinase present only in prokaryotes, while avoiding significant inhibition of MMPs. Alternatively, PDF inhibitors which also inhibit MMPs may be of use where the therapeutic benefits of inhibiting PDF outweigh the risk of side effects from MMP inhibition.
A wide variety of compounds have been developed as candidate inhibitors of MMPs and other metalloproteinases, and much effort has also been directed at synthetic methods for these compounds and related compounds (see Izquierdo-Martin et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol. 114, pp. 325-331 (1992); Cushman et al., Chapter 5, “Specific Inhibitors of Zinc Metallopeptidases”, Topics in Molecular Pharmacology, Burgen & Roberts, Eds. (1981); Mohler et al., Nature, Vol. 370, pp. 218-220 (1994); Gearing et al., Nature, Vol. 370, pp. 555-557 (1994); McGeehan et al., Nature, Vol. 370, pp. 558-561 (1994); U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,052,511, 4,303,662, 4,311,705, 4,321,383, 4,599,361, 4,804,676, 5,128,346, 5,256,657, 5,268,384, 5,447,929, 5,453,423, 5,552,419, 5,614,625, 5,643,908, 5,712,300 and 5,869,518; European patent publications EP 236872, EP 274453, EP 334244, EP 423943, EP 489577, EP 489579, EP 497192, EP 574758; and International PCT Patent Applications Publication Nos. WO 90/05716, WO 90/05719, WO 91/02716, WO 92/13831, WO 92/22523, WO 93/09090, WO 93/09097, WO 93/20047, WO 93/24449, WO 93/24475, WO 94/02446, WO 94/02447, WO 94/21612, WO 94/25434, WO 94/25435, WO 95/33731, WO 96/25156, WO 96/26918 WO 97/30707, WO 97/49674, WO 98/55449 and WO 99/02510.
Research on inhibitors of PDF is much less extensive than that for inhibitors of MMPs. N-formyl hydroxylamine derivatives are described in International Patent Application WO 99/39704. Peptide aldehyde inhibitors of PDFs are described in Durand et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., Vol. 367, No. 2, pp. 297-302 (1999). The PDF inhibitor (S)-2-O-(H-phosphonoxy)-L-caproyl-L-leucyl-p-nitroanilide is described in Hao et al., Biochem., Vol. 38, pp. 4712-4719 (1999), and peptidyl H-phosphonate inhibitors of PDF are discussed in Hu et al., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., Vol. 8, pp. 2479-2482 (1998). Formylated peptides and pseudopeptides are described in Meinnel et al., Biochem., Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 4288-4295 (1999) as inhibitors of PDF.
In view of the importance of identifying new antibiotics to treat bacteria resistant to existing antibiotics, and the relatively small amount of work that has been carried out on PDF inhibitors, it is desirable to develop novel inhibitors of PDF for evaluation and use as antibacterial and antimicrobial agents. The present invention fulfills this need. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
In an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system and an LTE-A (Long Term Evolution-Advanced) system, a phenomenon of intra-frequency networking usually occurs. In this case, downlink interference may exist between neighboring cells in a system. In particular, in a heterogeneous network and a small-cell network, this problem may be severer. Specifically, when downlink interference exists on a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel), downlink throughputs of a user terminal and a system are severely affected.
Specifically, the following manners are generally used in the industry currently to resolve the foregoing downlink interference problem.
Manner 1: An ABS (Almost Blank Subframe) manner is used to reduce downlink interference. Specifically, a network-side device such as a base station may set some time periods of a cell, for example, a subframe, as an ABS subframe. In a position of the ABS subframe, the cell basically does not transmit any downlink signal, so that interference caused in the position of the ABS subframe by the cell to a neighboring cell is greatly reduced, and that an effect of increasing a downlink throughput of the neighboring cell may be achieved.
Manner 2: A network-side device such as a base station may transmit an interference cancellation parameter such as a CRS (Cell-specific Reference Signal)-related parameter and/or a PDSCH-related parameter of a neighboring cell to a user terminal, so that the user terminal cancels, according to the interference cancellation parameter, interference caused by the CRS-related parameter and/or PDSCH-related parameter of the neighboring cell to downlink data.
However, when the manner 1 is used to cancel downlink interference, a specified cell basically does not transmit any downlink signal in some time periods, that is, the manner 1 is to obtain relatively weak downlink interference by sacrificing some communication resources of the specified cell, and therefore, utilization of downlink spectrum resources of the specified cell is reduced to some extent. When the manner 2 is used to cancel downlink interference, an interference cancellation effect of the user terminal may be impaired because currently there is no specification on how the user terminal should process a previously received interference cancellation parameter when the user terminal needs to perform an operation such as cell reestablishment or cell handover due to radio link failure or handover of the user terminal.
That is, when the existing interference cancellation manners are used to perform interference cancellation, an interference cancellation effect achieved is poor. Therefore, it is urgent to provide a new interference cancellation manner to resolve the foregoing problems. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Interleukin-33 (IL-33) is a ligand for ST2, a toll-like/interleukin-1 receptor super-family member that associates with an accessory protein, IL-1RAcP (for reviews, see, e.g., Kakkar and Lee, Nature Reviews—Drug Discovery 7(10):827-840 (2008), Schmitz et al., Immunity 23:479-490 (2005); Liew et al., Nature Reviews—Immunology 10:103-110 (2010); US 2010/0260770; US 2009/0041718). Upon activation of ST2/IL-1RAcP by IL-33, a signaling cascade is triggered through downstream molecules such as MyD88 (myeloid differentiation factor 88) and TRAF6 (TNF receptor associated factor 6), leading to activation of NFκB (nuclear factor-KB), among others. IL-33 signaling has been implicated as a factor in a variety of diseases and disorders. (Liew et al., Nature Reviews—Immunology 10:103-110 (2010)). | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a product search system and a product search method which is performed in the product search system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a product search system and method which can select a category corresponding to an original query entered by a user, identify a product identifier type associated with the selected category, apply a search logic corresponding to the identified product identifier type, search for a product identifier that matches the original query, and output a retrieved product identifier for the user.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, a website such as a shopping mall site, a shopping mall related site, and the like, provides a user with a product search window on its webpage. When the user enters a query, such as a brand name, a product type, a product model name, etc., on the product search window, the website provides the user with product categories including the query, and products for each of the product categories.
Such shopping-related websites have provided a conventional database search system. In this instance, the conventional database search system outputs only search results which include an entered original query as it is. Specifically, the conventional database search system may not output a predetermined number of search results that may match the original query by processing the original query via a plurality of operations according to various types of search logics. Specifically, the shopping-related websites currently output search results simply based on whether product categories and products for each of the product categories include the original query entered by the user. Accordingly, a category and products which match the original query may not be retrieved, 1) when the original query entered by the user is inaccurate, 2) when the original query entered by the user is a particular keyword since a keyword registered for each product is not used, or 3) when the original query entered by the user includes a mistyped character or missing character.
Further objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a careful reading of a detailed description provided hereinbelow, with appropriate reference to accompanying drawings. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to electronic devices, particularly, to an electronic device having a power button assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
An electronic device is provided with a power button assembly to turn a power supply on or off. The power button assembly may be received in an assembly hole defined in a housing of the electronic device. The power button assembly includes a press button and a printed circuit board (PCB), the PCB includes an electric terminal corresponding to the press button. When the press button is pressed to contact the electric terminal, the power supply turns on or off. In assembling the power button assembly to the electronic device, the press button is received in the assembly hole, and the PCB is positioned on one side of the press button by means of a positioning mechanism to ensure assembly accuracy between the PCB and the press button, thereby the press button effectively electronically contacts the PCB. However, the PCB may be incorrectly positioned in relation to the press button due to insufficient accuracy of the positioning mechanism, thus the power button assembly may malfunction or even break down in use.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to the field of linear motion actuators, and in particular, to a linear motion actuator which utilizes the memory effect provided by a shape memory alloy member.
Linear actuators are considered to be devices which, when supplied with electrical power of appropriate voltage and amperage or when operated in some other manner, provide linear motion so as to actuate another device or machine. A solenoid is a well known type of such linear motion actuator.
However, the defects of a solenoid when used as a linear motion actuator include the following:
(a) a solenoid is complicated in its construction, and it is difficult to reduce its cost and size;
(b) a solenoid is not easily designed for being driven with a low voltage electrical power source--typically, a solenoid requires a large and heavy coil;
(c) the stroke to force relationship for a solenoid is very non linear;
(d) it is difficult to design a solenoid to have a long stroke;
(e) in a plunger type solenoid, there is a noise problem because of the movable iron core hitting the fixed iron core, and, although a so called noiseless type solenoid has been developed, it incorporates less iron and thus it has less power;
(f) a solenoid provides low actuating force at the start of the motion of the core thereof, but in fact in many applications the greatest resistance is presented at the start of motion of the member to be actuated; and accordingly the stroke to force relationship for a solenoid is often very unsuited to particular applications.
A type of linear motion actuator that has recently been developed is one incorporating a coil of shape memory alloy wire material. Shape memory alloy has the property that, when a member made of shape memory alloy is supplied with an output of thermal energy and is heated, as for example by the Joule effect which is produced by an electric current passed through the member, the member exerts a force in the direction which will bring its shape nearer to the original shape via a phase transformation (the reversion transformation from the martensite phase to the parent phase), and its shape tends to alter towards an original that it remembers. This force tending towards alteration of the shape of the member can be utilized for driving a driven member in a desired direction, thus performing mechanical work. In the case of a linear motion actuator as described above, the shape memory alloy wire is wound into a coil, and the coil is arranged to remember a shape in which it has a particular length in its longitudinal direction. In the non actuated condition of the actuator, the coil is biased to have a particular different axial length, and then, when the coil is heated by the passage of an electric current through it, it tries to return to the original length, exerting a force in its longitudinal direction.
However, there are several problems with such prior art devices. First, since its shape memory alloy element is required to be taught in such a coiled shape, this involves cost and difficulties in production. Also, with this coil type shape memory actuator, when the coiled shape memory alloy member is heated by an electric current, relatively large temperature gradients are generated in it, and this may result in heat damage to the coil type shape memory member. Further, during actuation by electric current, some parts of the coil type shape memory actuator may in the worst case not be heated to a proper temperature for phase transformation at all. Also, in the case of such prior art coil type shape memory actuators, the shape recovering force which is being used for motion of the actuated member is the force of the restoration of the original shape of the wire of the coil shape which has become twisted by a torsion deformation, and therefore this shape recovering force is not very strong, because in the case of a torsion deformation the amount of deformation of the wire material of the coil spring is maximum only at the surface of the wire, and decreases towards the central portions of the wire. (As is well known in this art, the greater the amount of deformation of the shape memory alloy member, the greater becomes the shape recovering force thereof). | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
This invention relates to an outboard jet propulsion device and more particularly to an improved lower housing construction for such a device.
Many forms of outboard drives employ jet propulsion units for propelling the watercraft through the water. Such units include a vertically extending impeller shaft that rotates within a cylindrical cavity and which draws water through a downwardly and partially forwardly facing water inlet. Generally, the construction of the outer housing is such that the cavity is defined by a cylindrical portion and the water inlet is defined by a foot shaped portion.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show in side elevation and top plan the configuration of the conventional lower unit of such jet propulsion outboard drives. As seen in these figures, the lower unit housing has a generally cylindrical portion 21 that defines the impeller cavity in which the impeller is contained. A downwardly facing water inlet 22 is defined by a foot like portion 23 and which water inlet faces somewhat in a forward direction. It will be noted that there is a discontinuity in configuration between the foot like portion 23 that defines the inlet 22 and the cylindrical portion 21. As a result, the water flow as the watercraft travels through the water will be deflected back forwardly as shown by the arrow in FIG. 1 and add to the flow resistance. As a result, this type of unit consumes more power than is desirable for efficient operation.
It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide an improved lower unit arrangement for a jet propulsion outboard drive.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved streamlining arrangement for the lower unit of a jet propelled outboard drive. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Control systems are employed in many applications where the input to a subsystem (referred to as the “plant” herein) has to be generated such that its output (one or more physical, measurable quantities) follows a desired value over time, even in the presence of disturbing influences on the subsystem. This desired value of the system output represents the input to the entire control system and is referred to as “desired system output” or in the description of an implementation example as “command position signal” herein.
The generation of the controlling input signal to the plant can be optimized to generate the desired output with high bandwidth, low error or some other optimization criterion. At the same time, it may be desirable to optimize suppression of disturbing influences on the plant. Optimization for more than one of these criteria can generally not be achieved and the resulting implementation necessarily represents a compromise.
Control systems are typically implemented in a closed-loop configuration where the output of the subsystem to be controlled is measured and compared to a desired system output. The difference between desired and measured system output constitutes the “error”, which is used to generate the input to the controlled subsystem.
The use of a measure of the system output signal to generate the controlling input to the plant creates a signal-flow loop. Systems containing such loops are subject to stability limits, i.e. the components of the loop have to satisfy certain criteria to ensure stability of the loop and thus controllability of the system. These criteria impose additional constraints on the optimization of the system implementation.
What is needed are systems and methods for improving control system bandwidth that do not constrain optimization for the other criteria mentioned and do not affect the stability of the closed-loop system. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Furthermore most drill/drivers define a central axis along which the output shaft and the attached bit lie and, hence, rotate.
Should the body of the drill/driver be bulky, however, it is possible for some areas of potential use to become inaccessible. For example, a large battery for powering the drill/driver, or a large integral gearbox could make its outer dimensions so large that they extend far beyond the lateral sides of the drill/driver output shaft or its attached bit. This could mean, therefore, that the operator of the drill/driver is unable to use it in enclosed spaces (or next to walls) as the sheer bulk is too great to permit alignment of the bit with the work piece it is intended for the bit to act upon.
The possibility, therefore, of being able to axially offset the output shaft of a drill/driver relative to the central output axis is an attractive proposition, as this allows greater accessibility to confined areas, particularly with a hexagonal bit drive output spindle of relatively small diameter compared to the overall outside dimensions of the drill/driver. If, for example, the drill/driver were to utilise a relatively large chuck (large as compared to the overall outside dimensions of the drill/driver) then little advantage would be gained from being able to axially offset the position of the chuck, or its drive shaft. Such proposals are known and one example is that of a screwdriver sold by the Japanese tool manufacturer, National, under model number EZ 7680. This screwdriver has an output shaft which is permanently axially offset from the central motor output shaft, yet is freely rotatable in a plurality of positions thereabout. The output shaft may be locked in any one of these plurality of positions.
DE-A-3834886 discloses a hand-held electric drill having a gearbox 7 with the tool spindle 8 laterally offset with respect to the motor 2 armature shaft 3 and coupled therewith via gearing. The gearbox housing 10 is mounted to the front end of the motor housing 1 so that it can be angularly adjusted or rotated and is held in a fixed position by means of a connection ring 11 which ma be a clamp and can comprise indexing means.
However, in certain circumstances an operator of a drill/driver may wish to lock the output shaft against rotation thereby to facilitate manual operation of a screwdriver bit or a drill bit. This need may arise where delicate or controlled drilling or screwdriver work is required such as in fragile work pieces. Using a drill/driver such as the National toot described above in these circumstances, however, is not ideal. The fact that the output shaft is radially offset from the central drive shaft of the drill/driver means that very often a uniform application of torque in a manual mode is not possible. Even if it is possible, however, because the axis of application of applied force is not central with the axis of application of output drive, then problems such as slipping of the screwdriver bit from the screw head due to misalignment, for example, can occur.
A drill/driver which combines the facility to radially offset the rotational shaft driving the screwdriver bit or drill bit with the facility to allow the rotational drive shaft to be coaxial or collinear with the shaft along which the force is applied for use in a manual mode is a desirable aim. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The invention relates to a method and apparatus suitable for twisting a yarn. In another aspect the invention relates to a method and apparatus suitable for preventing a broken yarn from becoming entangled between the spindle and the spindle support means.
The use of synthetic yarns presently dominates the textile industry. Although some natural fibers such as cotton and wool are still used today, the majority of yarns used to produce clothing, carpeting, upholstery material and other textile goods are primarily synthetic yarns. In order for synthetic yarns to resemble yarns made from natural fibers, it is necessary to texture or bulk the synthetic yarns. Texturing synthetic yarns in order that such yarns when made into fabrics will have the hand and feel of fabrics made from natural staple yarns is well known in the art. The various texturing processes used to texture synthetic yarns also employ a variety of feed yarns. For example, a feed yarn can be drawn, partially drawn or undrawn and a feed yarn can be twisted or entangled to bind the filaments in the yarn closer together because a yarn that is not twisted or entangled often has filaments that become separated from the yarn that can snag and break during the various processing steps. Also packages of feed yarn should be used in a size or weight best suited for the particular process used. Some of the more commonly employed texturing processes use a feed yarn that has been twisted and drawn. To produce such a feed yarn, a draw-twist machine is frequently used. Such a machine, which is well known in the art, draws an as spun yarn and then twists the drawn yarn during windup by feeding the yarn to a rotating vertically mounted takeup bobbin through a rotatable "flyer" driven only by the angular momentum of the yarn. Although this type of machine works very well and is widely used, the packages of draw-twisted yarn that can be produced on such machines are relatively small because the windup bobbin itself must be rotated. In some texturing processes where large packages of feed yarn are desirable it is necesary to splice and recone the draw-twisted yarn to make larger feed yarn packages.
The problem of package size along with other disadvantages of the draw-twist process are overcome by use of the twist-draw process, that is, where the as spun yarn is twisted by a 2-for-1 twister and then drawn. In such a process the yarn is twisted prior to winding so that the types of winders employed are capable of winding much larger packages of yarn as compared to the takeup bobbin used on draw-twist machines.
One of the problems encountered with 2-for-1 twisters is that when the yarn breaks immediately downstream of the twister the yarn frequently becomes entangled between the spindle and the spindle support which results in costly down time of the equipment. Generally 2-for-1 twisters are equipped with a wrap guard which is usually a ring attached to the spindle that extends down over a portion of the spindle support means and thereby protects the bearings; however, experience has shown that while these wrap guards do provide some protection but that they are not entirely satisfactory. It has been found that a relatively simple modification to the 2-for-1 twister provides a substantial improvement in protecting the bearing from damage resulting from a broken yarn becoming entangled between the spindle and the spindle support means.
An object of the invention is to provide an improved 2-for-1 twister.
Another object of the invention is to improve the resistance of a 2-for-1 twister to bearing damage from broken yarns as compared with prior art 2-for-1 twisters.
Other aspects, objects and advantages will be apparent by studying the specification, drawings and the appended claims. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Modern operating systems may support multiple independent time zone (TZ) libraries, such as Olson and POSIX, which are collections of TZ information data by time zone. The TZ libraries and associated TZ information data may be provided as a series of data files. Each TZ library may be searched to obtain the desired TZ information data for a given time zone, for example an offset from Universal Standard Time (UTC), and any applicable Daylight Savings Time (DST) rules.
A computer system may provide a default system-wide TZ library/TZ information data pair setting. Additionally, each user, or application, may have a customizable profile where a preferred TZ library/TZ information data pair is set that overrides the system default. Therefore, within the same computer system several different TZ library/TZ information data pair settings may exist. A system-provided application programming interface (API), for example the localtime( ) function, checks system TZ setting, accepts as input a TZ library/TZ information data pair and returns the time for the requested time zone, formatted according to language and locale settings associated with the requested time zone. However, the TZ library/TZ information data pair is fixed for the duration of the application or user session, and may not be changed dynamically.
Regions around the world can change their TZ information data, for example DST rules, at any time, thereby requiring an update to TZ libraries and TZ information data many times throughout the year to stay current with all the latest TZ information data changes worldwide. However, because updates to TZ information data may be supplied as part of a vendor's operating system maintenance, where the customer's operating system may be not regularly maintained and updated, the TZ information may not be consistent across versions of TZ information data and between TZ libraries. As a result, when TZ information data for a TZ library becomes out of date, the inaccurate time data may adversely affect applications while the users wait for the operating system vendor to supply an update. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
In a digital computer system, several identical digital signal generators are usually used for generating synchronous and identical signals; the conventional method is to use a clock source as a common input for all such signal generators (as shown in FIG. 1), and each of them is to be counted for generating a synchronous signal. However, each signal generator has its particular characteristics, i.e., when each signal generator starts to count, the time required to count might have more or less of a difference of about 1-3 clock signals; further, as soon as the frequency of the clock source is higher, such difference will also be greater. Moreover, when the voltage level of the clock is unstable, a non-synchronization might take place. Therefore, an automatic correction means has to be provided, otherwise, the stability of the whole system would be reduced considerably. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
With respect to a switching power supply used as a power supply of an electronic appliance, there is a demand for a reduction in the loss (heat generation) and an increase in the efficiency. Moreover, also with respect to an image forming device for which load variation is great and which stays in a wait state for a long time, an increase in the efficiency of the power supply device is being studied.
For example, Patent document 1 discloses a switching power supply device which includes a flyback circuit of a diode and a capacitor on a secondary side of a forward converter transformer, and which switches to a flyback method when a load current drops to or below a predetermined value, and extracts energy accumulated in the converter transformer as flyback output.
However, there is a problem that it is difficult to achieve both higher efficiency and miniaturization of the power supply device. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel supply system for a boat and an outboard motor. Specifically, the present invention relates to a fuel supply system for a boat having a second fuel tank connected to a first fuel tank mounted on a hull and an outboard motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a fuel supply system for a boat having a second fuel tank connected to a first fuel tank mounted on a hull is known (See JP A 2001-140720 and JP A Hei 9-88623, for example).
The fuel supply system for a boat described in JP A 2001-140720 and JP A Hei 9-88623 is a fuel supply system for a boat having an outboard motor. In examples disclosed in JP A 2001-140720 and JP A Hei 9-88623, fuel pumped from a fuel tank (first fuel tank) mounted on a hull is contained in a vapor separator tank (second fuel tank). The fuel contained in the vapor separator tank is supplied to a fuel injection device by a fuel supply pump. The vapor separator tank is disposed close to an engine.
However, in the examples disclosed in JP A 2001-140720 and JP A Hei 9-88623, since the vapor separator tank is disposed close to the engine, it is subject to heat radiated from the engine. Therefore, when the engine of a boat is stopped after a heavily-loaded operation, the fuel temperature in the vapor separator tank is increased by heat radiated from the heated engine. Accordingly, the fuel in the vapor separator tank easily becomes vapor (vaporized fuel) and then returns to the fuel tank mounted on the hull. In this case, fuel in the vapor separator tank decreases due to the vaporized fuel that is returned to the fuel tank mounted on the hull. Therefore, during a restart of the engine, it takes a long time to pump up fuel to the vapor separator tank from the fuel tank on the hull, which makes it difficult for the fuel supply pump to efficiently pump up fuel from the vapor separator tank to supply to the fuel injection device. This hampers smooth engine starting. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The invention relates to an electrical contacting system for an electrophoretic dip painting plant for motor vehicle bodies, with which the bodies are guided through an electrophoretic dip paint bath by means of an overhead conveyor. The bodies are thereby each arranged on a body carrier and connected to this in an adequately secure manner; the body carrier is a flat structure which is approximately rectangular in the plan view, is customarily designated as a slide or skid and often has the shape of a rectangular carrier frame. The overhead conveyor possesses a plurality of conveyor hangers which are arranged one behind the other in the direction of conveyance and in spaced relation to one another and which are suspended so as to be pivotable about upper pivot axes extending horizontally and transversely to the direction of conveyance and are designed such that two conveyor hangers following one another in the direction of conveyance can engage beneath a respective body carrier in its front and in its rear area, respectively, and support it; normally, the conveyor hangers have the shape of a rectangular frame with a lower crossbar for engaging beneath a body carrier, wherein the plane of the frame normally extends vertically.
In the case of the electrophoretic dip paint bath, this is an aqueous suspension, from which color particles are deposited on the body submerged in the paint bath by way of electrophoresis when a corresponding, electrical difference in potential is maintained between the paint bath and the body. For this purpose, the bodies are connected in an electrically conductive manner to the metal body carriers and a corresponding electrical potential is applied to the conveyor hangers via the overhead conveyor; in addition, not only the conveyor hangers but also the body carriers are provided with electrical contacting devices which provide an electrical connection between conveyor hanger and body carrier when the latter is placed on two conveyor hangers. Moreover, these contacting devices also have the task of preventing any floating up of a body and thus any lifting of the body carrier from the two conveyor hangers supporting it when the overhead conveyor submerges the body in the paint bath--even if the body of a passenger vehicle is submerged in the paint bath with an open trunk lid, the trunk may, in the case of certain body shapes, not be filled by the aqueous suspension forming the paint bath until the load sill of the trunk dips into the paint bath and so without any locking of the body carrier to the conveyor hangers the trunk still filled with air would lead to the body carrier lifting away, in particular, from the conveyor hanger adjacent to the trunk.
DE-40 41 211-C1 discloses an electrophoretic dip painting plant of the type described above. In the known construction, the conveyor hangers have the shape of rectangular frames with a plane of the frame normally extending vertically and the body carriers have the shape of rectangular frames with a plane of the frames extending horizontally over the greatest portion of the path of conveyance. Two lower contacting devices are secured to the lower crossbar of each conveyor hanger and these consist essentially of a support and contact pin projecting vertically upwards and a rail-like guide element arranged next to the pin transversely to the direction of conveyance and likewise projecting vertically upwards. Two upper contacting devices are secured to each of the two longitudinal frame legs of the body carrier, namely one in the front and one in the rear area of the body carrier; each of these contacting devices has a metal protective bell which is open to the bottom, may be placed from above onto the support and contact pin of one of the lower contacting devices and encloses and stores a bubble of air when it dips into the paint bath from above. The protective bell has two side walls and a circular cylindrical circumferential wall which connects these side walls to one another and forms with the inner side of its upper area a support and contact surface, against which the associated support and contact pin abuts when the body carrier is borne by two conveyor hangers. The bubble of air ensures a good electrical contact between the contact surface of the protective bell and the upper end of the support and contact pin--color is applied not only to the body but also to all the areas of the body carrier coming into contact with the paint bath and the upper contacting devices secured to it. Two rib-like locking elements projecting from the side wall of the protective bell facing the guide element of the associated, lower contacting device are secured to this side wall and these locking elements--in a view of this side wall--extend downwards at an angle and towards one another, wherein their lower ends are arranged at a transverse distance from one another so that they form an opening between them, and wherein the angle bisector of the angle formed by the two locking elements extends through the cylinder axis of the circumferential wall of the protective bell.
These two locking elements interact with a locking nose, which is secured to the guide element of the lower contacting device, is approximately of a saw tooth shape in the side view and may be pushed through between the two locking elements from below with a horizontally extending body carrier and vertically extending conveyor hanger, but prevent any lifting of the protective bell from the lower contacting device as soon as--when seen transversely to the direction of conveyance and horizontally--the angle formed by the plane of the frame of the conveyor hanger and the plane of the frame of the body carrier deviates from 90.degree. by more than a specific angle. Since--as is apparent from FIG. 1 of DE-40 41 211-C1--the overhead conveyor submerges the body carriers in the paint bath at an angle and also guides them out of the paint bath again at an angle, wherein the plane of the frame of the guide hangers still extends at least approximately vertically even in this case, such angular deviations occur not only during the submergence of the bodies into the paint bath but also during the guidance of the bodies out of the paint bath.
It has been shown in practice that the construction resulting from DE-40 41 211-C1 cannot ensure a reliable locking of the body carrier on the conveyor hangers, namely during the submergence of the bodies into the paint bath: In this respect, the conveyor hanger adjacent to the trunk of the body and the body carrier can be pivoted relative to one another such that the angle bisector of the V-shaped configuration formed by the two locking elements of a protective bell forms with the plane of the frame of the conveyor hanger a relatively small, acute angle of up to, for example, approximately 12.degree.. This can result in the protective bell disengaging at the lower contacting device when the protective bell moves relative to the support and contact pin of the lower contacting device, during the course of the relative movement between body carrier and conveyor hanger, such that the contact pin does not constantly extend in a plane of diameter of the circular cylindrical circumferential wall of the protective bell. Such a disengaging of protective bells of the body carriers at the lower contacting devices of the conveyor hangers can, however, have extremely disadvantageous consequences--once the bodies are completely submerged in the paint bath, the body carriers are again lowered onto the conveyor hangers, and in this respect protective bells which have previously become disengaged can come to rest adjacent to the associated support and contact pins. | {
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This invention relates to an ink jet printing method which uses an ink jet ink set that provides images with improved color gamut.
Ink jet printing is a non-impact method for producing images by the deposition of ink droplets in a pixel-by-pixel manner to an image-recording element in response to digital signals. There are various methods which may be utilized to control the deposition of ink droplets on the image-recording element to yield the desired image. In one process, known as continuous ink jet, a continuous stream of droplets is charged and deflected in an imagewise manner onto the surface of the image-recording element, while unimaged droplets are caught and returned to an ink sump. In another process, known as drop-on-demand ink jet, individual ink droplets are projected as needed onto the image-recording element to form the desired image. Common methods of controlling the projection of ink droplets in drop-on-demand printing include piezoelectric transducers and thermal bubble formation. Ink jet printers have found broad applications across markets ranging from industrial labeling to short run printing to desktop document and pictorial imaging.
The inks used in the various ink jet printers can be classified as either dye-based or pigment-based. A dye is a colorant, which is dissolved in the carrier medium. A pigment is a colorant that is insoluble in the carrier medium, but is dispersed or suspended in the form of small particles, often stabilized against flocculation and settling by the use of dispersing agents. The carrier medium can be a liquid or a solid at room temperature in both cases. Commonly used carrier media include water, mixtures of water and organic co-solvents and high boiling organic solvents, such as hydrocarbons, esters, ketones, etc. For aqueous dye-based inks, the dyes needs to be sufficiently soluble in water to prepare a solution that is capable of producing adequate density on the receiving element and stable for extended periods of storage without precipitation. High quality ink jet printing with dye-based inks requires dyes which will provide both bright hue and good light fastness.
To generate full color prints via ink jet printing, ink sets comprising at least cyan, magenta and yellow inks are normally utilized. In addition a black ink is often added to enhance the printing of text and darker colors. The range of colors that can be produced with a given set of inks defines the color gamut of that ink set. For the production of high quality photorealistic images via ink jet printing, ink sets with a large color gamut are preferred. In addition, it is important that the ink sets produce images with good fastness, especially to light.
The choice of the colorants in ink jet systems is critical for both light fastness and color gamut. The color gamut of an ink set is controlled primarily by the spectral absorption characteristics of the component dyes. The primary dyes (e.g., cyan, magenta and yellow) should only absorb light of the required wavelengths (i.e., have relatively narrow absorption bands) and not overlap excessively with the dyes in the complementary inks. While there are many dyes with bright hues that are useful in inkjet printing, many have poor light fastness. Conversely many light stable dyes suitable for ink jet printing have broad absorption bands and give dull colors and limited color gamut.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,548 relates to an inkjet ink set comprising a magenta ink, yellow ink and a cyan ink and an optional black ink. However there is a problem with this ink jet ink set in that the color gamut is not as large as one would like.
It is an object of this invention to provide an ink jet printing method using a set of inks capable of producing images which has a better color gamut than the ink sets of the prior art.
This and other objects are achieved in accordance with the present invention comprising an ink jet printing method, comprising the steps of:
A) providing an ink jet printer that is responsive to digital data signals;
B) loading the printer with an ink jet recording element;
C) loading the printer with an color ink jet ink set comprising:
(i) a magenta ink comprising a carrier and a water-soluble, transition metal complex of an 8-heterocyclylazo-5-hydroxyquinoline dye;
(ii) a yellow ink comprising a carrier and a water-soluble yellow dye;
(iii) a cyan ink comprising a carrier and a water-soluble cyan dye; and
(iv) an orange and/or green and/or violet ink comprising a carrier and a water-soluble orange and/or green and/or violet dye; and
D) printing on the image-receiving layer using the ink jet ink set in response to the digital data signals.
This printing method of the invention uses a color ink jet ink set which provides color gamuts suitable for pictorial imaging. A black ink can also be added to further increase the available color gamuts of this ink set.
The ink sets used in the present invention are intended to be used in ink jet printers capable of printing four or more separate inks. At a minimum, cyan, magenta and yellow inks are required for full-color printing. The ink sets used in this invention include additional color inks that differ in hue from the cyan, magenta and yellow primaries; namely green, orange and/or violet. A black ink may be also be used to make text printing more efficient or to reduce overall ink lay-down when printing dark color areas.
The absorption characteristics of a given image dye will vary to some extent with a change in ink laydown or printed density. This is due to factors such as measurement flare, dye-dye interactions, dye-receiver interactions, dye concentration effects, and the presence of colored impurities in the media. However, by using characteristic vector analysis, sometimes referred to as principal component analysis or eigenvector analysis, one can determine a characteristic absorption curve that is representative of the absorption characteristics of the dye over the complete wavelength and density ranges of interest. The characteristic vector for each dye is thus a two-dimensional array of optical density and wavelength. This technique is described by Albert J. Sant in Photographic Science and Engineering, 5(3), May-June 1961 and by J. L. Simonds in the Journal of the Optical Society of America, 53(8), 968-974 (1963). Characteristic vectors thus derived can be used to calculate the color gamuts of ink sets described below as described in the above reference.
Dyes referred to by dye numbers are numbers assigned by The Color Index.
Any water-soluble yellow dye may be employed in the yellow ink of the ink jet ink set employed in the invention. In a preferred embodiment, the yellow dye is Direct Yellow 107, Direct Yellow 132, Direct Yellow 86 or mixtures thereof.
Any water-soluble cyan dye may be employed in the cyan ink of the ink jet ink set employed in the invention. In a preferred embodiment, the cyan dye is Acid Blue 9 or a water-soluble metal phthalocyanine dye such as Direct Blue 199 or Direct Blue 86 or mixtures thereof.
Any water-soluble black dye may be employed in the optional black ink of the ink jet ink set employed in the invention. In a preferred embodiment, the black dye is Reactive Black 31, Direct Black 19, Direct Black 168, Solubilized Sulfur Black or mixtures thereof.
The magenta inks employed in the invention may by formulated with one or more water-soluble, transition metal complexes of 8-heterocyclylazo-5-hydroxyquinoline dyes, represented by Structure 1 (below). These dyes are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,997,622 and 6,001,161, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference:
wherein:
M represents a polyvalent transition metal ion;
L represents a neutral or anionic ligand;
each X, Y and Z independently represents a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group of 1 to about 6 carbon atoms, a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group of about 6 to about 10 carbon atoms, a substituted or unsubstituted hetaryl group of about 5 to about 10 atoms, halogen, cyano, a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group of 1 to about 6 carbon atoms, hydroxy, a polyoxyalkylene group of 2 to about 20 alkylene oxide residues, carboxy (or a salt thereof), sulfo (or a salt thereof), phospho (or a salt thereof), carbamoyl, a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl-, aralkyl-, aryl-, diaryl- or dialkyl carbamoyl group of 1 to about 20 carbon atoms, sulfamoyl, a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl-, aralkyl-, aryl-, diaryl- or dialkyl-sulfamoyl group of 1 to about 20 carbon atoms, acylamino, sulfonylamino, amino, a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl-, aralkyl-, aryl-, diaryl-or dialkyl-amino group of 1 to about 20 carbon atoms or a quaternary ammonium or phosphonium group;
Q represents the atoms necessary to complete a 5- or 6-membered heterocyclic ring;
n represents 2 or 3;
m represents an integer from 1-3;
each p and r independently represents integers from 0-3;
q represents 0, 1 or 2;
two or more of L may be joined together to form a bi- or tridentate ligand or may represent another polydentate dye molecule;
one or more of X, Y and Z, together with the carbon to which they are attached, may independently represent a ring nitrogen; and
any two of X, Y or Z may be joined together to form a 5-7 membered saturated or unsaturated ring;
with the proviso that at least one of X, Y and Z is a water solubilizing group or contains such a group as a substituent.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, q is 0, Q represents the atoms necessary to complete a pyridine ring, r is 0, M is Ni, n is 2, m is 1, p is 2, X represents 2-methyl and 3-carboxy and L represents a second, identical 8-heterocyclylazo-5-hydroxyquinoline dye residue.
Preferred transition metal ions for M include Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Fe2+, Fe3+, C3+ and Co2+.
Examples of neutral ligands for L include water, pyridine, morpholine, ammonia, bipyridine and terpyridine.
Examples of anionic ligands for L include acetate, iminodiacetate, glycine and 8-hydroxyquinoline.
Examples of a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group for the above substituents include methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, hydroxyethyl, 3-(N,N-dimethylamino)propyl, sulfatoethyl and benzyl. Examples of a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group include phenyl, naphthyl 4-chlorophenyl and 2-carboxyphenyl. Examples of a substituted or unsubstituted hetaryl group include pyridyl, imidazolyl and quinolyl. Examples of halogen include chloro, fluoro, bromo and iodo. Examples of a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group include methoxy, isopropoxy, 2-hydroxyethoxy and carboxymethoxy. Useful salts of carboxy, sulfo, phospho and sulfato include sodium, lithium, potassium, triethanolammonium, pyridinium and tetramethylammonium. Examples of a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl-, aralkyl-, aryl-, diaryl- or dialkyl carbamoyl group include N-methylcarbamoyl, N-methyl-N-(3sulfophenyl)-carbamoyl, N-p-(trimethylammonium)phenylcarbamoyl and N,N-bis (4-carboxyphenyl)carbamoyl. Examples of a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl-, aralkyl-, aryl-, diaryl- or dialkyl sulfamoyl group include N-methylsulfamoyl, N-methyl-N-(3sulfophenyl)-sulfamoyl, N-p-(trimethylammonium)phenylsulfamoyl and N,N-bis (4-carboxyphenyl)sulfamoyl. Examples of an acylamino group include acetamido, carboxyethylacetamido and benzamido. Examples of a ureido group include n-methylureido, ureido and 3,5-bis carboxyphenylureido. Examples of a sulfonylamino group include methanesulfonamido, p-toluenesulfonamido and 2-(trimethlyammonium)ethanesulfonamido. Examples of a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl-, aralkyl-, aryl-diaryl- or dialkyl-amino group include methylamino, N,N-dimethylamino, carboxymethylamino and 2,5-disulfonamido. Examples of a quaternary ammonium group include trimethylammonium and benzyldimethylammonium. Examples of a phosphonium group include triphenylphosphonium and trimethlyphosphonium.
Examples of heterocyclic ring systems completed by the atoms represented by Q include pyridine, pyrazine, quinoline, thiazole, benzothiazole and pyrazole.
Specific dyes according to Structure 1 useful in this invention include:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,548, discussed above, describes a set of cyan, magenta, yellow and optionally black inks comprising specific dyes including Dyes A,B,C and D (below). These ink sets are designated hereinafter as the base sets CMY and CMYK as described in the examples below.
A. Direct Blue 199, available as Duasyn Turquoise Blue FRL-SF(copyright) from Clariant Corp.
B. Kodak Lightfast Magenta 1(copyright), a transition metal complex of an 8-heterocyclylazo-5-hydroxyquinoline dye manufactured by Eastman Kodak, (see Table 1 below)
C. Direct Yellow 132, available as ProJet Yellow 1G(copyright) from Zeneca Specialties.
D. Reactive Black 31, available as Duasyn Black KRL-SF(copyright) from Clariant Corp.
One or more additional inks comprising green, orange and/or violet dyes may be used in addition to the above base sets to give ink sets with a larger color gamut. Any water-soluble orange and/or green and/or violet dye may be used in the invention. In a preferred embodiment, the orange dye has a hue angle between about 58 and 83. In another preferred embodiment, the green dye has a hue angle between about 128 and 189. In yet another preferred embodiment, the violet dye has a hue angle between about 235 and 315.
Following are examples of specific orange, green and violet dyes which can be used in the invention:
E. Acid Orange 7 (Keyacid Orange II, available from Keystone Aniline Corp.)
F. Keyacid Fast Orange G, available from Keystone Aniline Corp.
G. Acid Orange 8 (Keyacid Orange RO, available from Keystone Aniline Corp.)
H. Acid Orange 10 (Keyacid Orange 2G, available from Keystone Aniline Corp.)
I. Acid Orange 12 (Orange G, available from Aldrich Chemical Co.)
J. Food Yellow 3 (FDandC Yellow #6, available from Tricon Colors)
K. Reactive Yellow 84, available from Dye-Land
L. Acid Orange 24 (Resorcine Brown B, available from Aldrich Chemical Co.)
M. Acid Orange 33 (BRYtracid Fast Orange GS, available from BRY Chemicals)
N. Reactive Orange 5 (BRYreact Brilliant Orange K-GN, available from BRY Chemicals)
O. Reactive Orange 20 (BRYreact Orange KE-G, available from BRY Chemicals)
P. Reactive Orange 107, available from Dye-Land
Q. Reactive Orange 1 (BRYreact Brilliant Orange X-GN 140%, available from BRY Chemicals)
R. Orange LX-10432 (a mixture of Food Yellow 3 and Acid Orange 10) available from Pylam Corp.
S. Levolfast Green BD, available from Keystone Aniline Corp.
T. Acid Green 25 (Keyacid Green 25, available from Keystone Aniline Corp.)
U. Reactive Green 12, available from Tricon Colors
V. Acid Green 3 (Guinea Green B, available from Aldrich Chemical Co.)
W. Acid Green 5 (Light Green SF, available from Aldrich Chemical Co.)
X. Acid Green 1 (Napthol Green B, available from Aldrich Chemical Co.)
Y. BRYtracid Brilliant Green 3GM 150%, available from BRY Chemicals
Z. Acid Green 16 (BRYacid Green V, available from BRY Chemicals)
AA. Bright Green 125961 available from Pylam Corp.
BB. Acid Violet 17, available from Aldrich Chemical Co.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the water-soluble orange dye is Reactive Orange 5, Acid Orange 10 or Acid Orange 12.
In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the water-soluble green dye is Reactive Green 12, Acid Green 25, Acid Green 5 or Acid Green 3.
In still another preferred embodiment of the invention, the water-soluble violet dye is Acid Violet 17.
In general, the inks employed in this invention comprise the above dyes at a concentration of from about 0.2 to about 10%, preferably from about 0.4 to about 3% by weight of the inkjet ink composition.
A humectant is usually employed in the ink jet compositions employed in the invention to help prevent the ink from drying out or crusting in the orifices of the printhead. Examples of humectants which can be used include polyhydric alcohols, such as ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol(DEG), triethylene glycol, propylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol, glycerol, 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol, 2-ethyl-2-hydroxymethyl-1,3-propanediol(EHMP), 1,5 pentanediol, 1,2-hexanediol, 1,2,6-hexanetriol and thioglycol; lower alkyl mono- or di-ethers derived from alkylene glycols, such as ethylene glycol mono-methyl or mono-ethyl ether, diethylene glycol mono-methyl or mono-ethyl ether, propylene glycol mono-methyl or mono-ethyl ether, triethylene glycol mono-methyl or mono-ethyl ether, diethylene glycol di-methyl or di-ethyl ether, poly(ethylene glycol) monobutyl ether (PEGMBE), and diethylene glycol monobutylether(DEGMBE); nitrogen-containing compounds, such as urea, 2-pyrrolidinone, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone, and 1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone; and sulfur-containing compounds such as dimethyl sulfoxide and tetramethylene sulfone.
Preferred humectants for the inks employed in the invention include DEG, glycerol, DEGMBE, PEGMBE, 1,2-hexanediol, 1,5-pentanediol, urea, 2-pyrrolidinone, EHMP and mixtures thereof.
Water-miscible organic solvents may also be added to the aqueous inks employed in the invention to help the ink penetrate the receiving substrate, especially when the substrate is a highly sized paper. Examples of such solvents include alcohols, such as methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, n-propyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol, sec-butyl alcohol, t-butyl alcohol, iso-butyl alcohol, furfuryl alcohol, and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol; ketones or ketoalcohols such as acetone, methyl ethyl ketone and diacetone alcohol; ethers, such as tetrahydrofuran and dioxane; and esters, such as, ethyl lactate, ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate.
The amount of aqueous carrier employed is in the range of approximately 70 to 98 weight %, preferably approximately 90 to 98 weight %, based on the total weight of the ink. A mixture of water and a polyhydric alcohol, such as diethylene glycol, is useful as an aqueous carrier. In a preferred embodiment, the inks contain from about 5 to about 60 weight % of water miscible organic solvent. Percentages are based on the total weight of the aqueous carrier.
Surfactants may be added to the ink to adjust the surface tension to an appropriate level. The surfactants may be anionic, cationic, amphoteric or nonionic and used at levels of 0.01 to 1% of the ink composition. Preferred surfactants include Surfynol 465(copyright) (available from Air Products Corp.) and Tergitol 15-S-5(copyright) (available from Union Carbide).
A biocide may be added to the ink composition employed in the invention to suppress the growth of micro-organisms such as molds, fungi, etc. in aqueous inks. A preferred biocide for the ink composition employed in the present invention is Proxel(copyright) GXL (Zeneca Specialties Co.) at a final concentration of 0.0001-0.5 wt. %.
The pH of the aqueous ink compositions employed in the invention may be adjusted by the addition of organic or inorganic acids or bases. Useful inks may have a preferred pH of from about 2 to 10, depending upon the type of dye being used. Typical inorganic acids include hydrochloric, phosphoric and sulfuric acids. Typical organic acids include methanesulfonic, acetic and lactic acids. Typical inorganic bases include alkali metal hydroxides and carbonates. Typical organic bases include ammonia, triethanolamine and tetramethylethlenediamine.
A typical ink composition employed in the invention may comprise, for example, the following components by weight: colorant (0.05-20%), water (20-95%), a humectant (5-70%), water miscible co-solvents (2-20%), surfactant (0.1-10%), biocide (0.05-5%) and pH control agents (0.1-10%).
Additional additives which may optionally be present in the ink jet ink compositions employed in the invention include thickeners, conductivity enhancing agents, anti-kogation agents, drying agents, and defoamers.
The ink jet inks described above may be employed in ink jet printing wherein liquid ink drops are applied in a controlled fashion to an ink receptive layer substrate, by ejecting ink droplets from a plurality of nozzles or orifices of the print head of an ink jet printer.
Commercially available ink jet printers use several different schemes to control the deposition of the ink droplets. Such schemes are generally of two types: continuous stream and drop-on-demand.
In drop-on-demand systems, a droplet of ink is ejected from an orifice directly to a position on the ink receptive layer by pressure created by, for example, a piezoelectric device, an acoustic device, or a thermal process controlled in accordance digital data signals. An ink droplet is not generated and ejected through the orifices of the print head unless it is needed. Ink jet printing methods, and related printers, are commercially available and need not be described in detail.
Ink jet inks employed in the present invention can be used in any of the popular ink jet printing systems, including thermal or piezoelectric drop-on-demand printers and continuous ink jet printers. Of course, the specific ink formulations will vary depending upon the type of ink jet printing system.
Ink-receptive substrates useful in ink jet printing are well known to those skilled in the art. Representative examples of such substrates are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,605,750; 5,723,211; and 5,789,070 and EP 813 978 A1, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The following examples illustrate the utility of the present invention. | {
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The present invention is directed to anti-corrosion protection in a fire protection system and, in particular, to anti-corrosion in a wet pipe fire sprinkler system.
Wet pipe fire protection systems must be occasionally drained for maintenance, system upgrade, and the like. According to many fire protection codes, it is necessary to place the system back into operation daily, even if the maintenance or upgrade takes multiple days. Also, it is usually necessary to be able to place the system back into operation within a relatively short defined period that is usually measured in terms of a few minutes. This draining and refilling with water tends to create corrosion in the piping of the wet pipe fire sprinkler system. This is caused, at least in part, from the high oxygen content air that is introduced into the system upon refilling the system with water. Such corrosion can lead to system failure resulting in expensive repairs. | {
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The inventive subject matter relates to power supply systems and methods and, more particularly, to uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and methods.
Data centers, industrial facilities, medical facilities and the like often have three-phase AC power distribution systems that are protected by UPS systems. Three-phase UPS systems may be used in such applications to provide backup power to maintain operation in event of failure of the primary utility supply. Three-phase UPS systems commonly have an “on-line” configuration including a rectifier and inverter coupled by a DC link that is also coupled to an auxiliary source, such as a battery, flywheel converter or other energy storage device.
A frequent goal in such applications is to provide uninterruptible power with high efficiency. Towards this end, on-line UPSs may support an “efficiency” mode in which the rectifier/inverter conversion chain is bypassed using a static switch when the utility source is within nominally acceptable bounds, so that power is not needlessly wasted in the rectifier/inverter chain. In addition, renewable sources, such as photovoltaic sources, may be coupled to the DC link of an on-line UPS to provide supplemental power, as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,411,308 to Parmley and an article entitled “Photovoltaic UPS” by Jayasimha et al., IEEE TENCON 2003 Conference on Convergent Technologies for Asia-Pacific Region, vol. 4, pp. 1419-1423 (2003). | {
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The use of hematopoietic stem cells and their progeny through bone marrow transplants to reconstitute the hematopoietic system has been employed to treat various blood-related diseases and disorders such as aplastic anemia, immune deficiencies and several forms of cancer including lymphomas and leukemias (see review in Lu et al. Critical Rev. Oncol/Hematol. 22:61-78 (1996)). Bone marrow transplantation is most commonly used in an attempt to restore hematopoietic function following exposure to myeloablative agents, for example after radiation therapy or chemotherapy in the treatment of a variety of cancers. These therapies, in addition to destroying the cancer, can also result in myelosuppression or myeloablation which, in turn, can lead to infection, bleeding disorders, and other complications. Recent estimates suggest that the need for transplantation of bone marrow-derived hematopoietic stem cells is growing at a rate of 20% per year and the market for the product is approximately $500 million per year (Strickland, D. Bioworld Today 8(14):1).
Unfortunately for patients, the use of bone marrow transplantation as a therapy is very restricted. Several disadvantages are inherent to the use of hematopoietic cells as a source of cells in the treatment of blood-related disorders and diseases. The success of an allogeneic transplant usually depends on finding a donor who is histocompatible with the recipient and willing to be subjected to the painful and time-consuming bone marrow donation process. Genetic incompatibility can lead to two common and potentially lethal complications. First, to decrease the chances of host versus graft reaction, the patient's immune system is compromised through the use of immunosuppressive drugs, leaving the patient highly susceptible to infection. Second, once the transplanted marrow cells are established they sometimes attack the patient in a graft versus host reaction. Combined, these two factors account for the major causes of non-autologous bone marrow transplant patient mortality and morbidity.
As an option to allogeneic transplantation, a patient's own bone marrow can sometimes be harvested and stored for later use assuming that the patient is healthy enough to withstand the procedure, and that the marrow is useful. Although the employment of such an autologous system generally precludes the danger of a genetic mismatch, serious risks still exist from possible undetectable contamination with malignant cells. The reliable detection and elimination of transformed marrow cells has yet to be accomplished. A further disadvantage with this approach is that only a limited amount of bone marrow cells capable of completely reconstituting the hematopoietic system can be harvested from an individual.
There has been much effort in establishing ex vivo culture systems for hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells for the purpose of generating a sufficient number of cells for transplantation purposes. However, the procurement of sufficient quantities of hematopoietic stem cells, either through bone marrow biopsy or from other sources, is a limitation to the use of this tissue for hematopoietic system related therapies. Present systems require complex culture conditions and tedious cell separation steps, and result in only a limited expansion of the numbers of hematopoietic stem cells. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,043, to Emerson et al. The biggest drawback is the lack of ability to sequentially passage the stem cells in vitro under defined culture conditions, over an extended period of time, in order to expand the numbers of functional cells available for transplantation. (Amos & Gordon, supra; Lu, et al., supra). As a consequence, there exists an ongoing need to either repeatedly harvest autologous stem cells or recruit compatible donors for therapies involving reconstitution of the hematopoietic system.
Due to the complications mentioned above, other sources of stem cells for hematopoietic reconstitution have been sought. Studies on the employment of fetal liver cells, neonatal spleen cells, or thymus cells have been reported. (Amos & Gordon, supra; Lu et al., supra). However, the ethical issues related to employing these cell types make the commercial use of them less attractive. The possibility of harvesting and cryopreserving cord blood is currently being studied, and may provide a more acceptable means of procuring cells for future use (Broxmeyer et al., (1989) Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 86:3828). To date, however, cord blood derived cells have only been shown capable of successfully repopulating the hematopoietic system of children (Amos & Gordon, supra). The recent identification of peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC) with marrow repopulating abilities has opened investigations into the use of PBPC for transplantation (reviewed in Lu et al., supra). Harvesting of these cells would potentially replace the need for bone marrow transplants. However, several disadvantages are apparent with this system: 1) the harvested blood may be contaminated, 2) the incidence of graft versus host disease is still very high, 3) many runs of leukapheresis are required to collect enough circulating stem cells for a complete hematopoietic reconstitution, and 4) collected stem cells cannot be held in an undifferentiated state for long periods of time.
It is apparent from the foregoing that alternatives are needed to present methods for reconstitution of a patient's hematopoietic system. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Data storage devices store digital information on a rotating disc. Heads are coupled to an actuator assembly which is energized to position the head relative to the disc surface for read/write operations. The head includes transducer elements which are supported on an air bearing slider to read data from or write data to the disc. For operation, rotation of the disc creates an air flow along the air bearing of the slider to create a hydrodynamic lifting force. The hydrodynamic lifting force is countered by a load force at a load point so that the slider pitches and rolls above the disc surface at a fly height defined in part by the hydrodynamic lifting force of the air bearing and the load force supplied by a suspension assembly.
Areal density is increasing, necessitating a decrease in fly height parameters or head-disc spacing to increase bits per inch. As the head-disc spacing is decreased, shorter wavelength low amplitude disc roughness becomes more of a problem. As the wavelength of the surface roughness of the disc which the slider is required to follow decreases below the length of the slider it is more difficult for the slider to follow the topography of the disc surface increasing the propensity for head disc contact. Embodiments of the present invention provide solutions to these and other problems, and offer other advantages over the prior art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to software testing. More particularly this invention relates to the automatic generation of test programs for a software implementation that has been modeled as a finite state machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of hardware, testing it is common to treat the device under test as a finite state machine (FSM). It has been proposed to similarly automate software testing by similarly representing the software program as a finite state machine, in which transitions are represented as directed edges between states. However, the number of tests required to exhaustively exercise a software program is typically much larger than is required for hardware. Furthermore resources for test execution are limited, and their use constitutes a cost. Accordingly, test engineers have attempted to selectively reduce the number of tests in order that the test generation process be practical in terms of cost and execution time, recognizing that the testing process must still be reliable. Explosion of the number of test programs that are generated by automatic techniques is a drawback of automatic test program generation.
Test engineers use finite state machines to model externally observable behavior, and then use various tools to traverse paths of test actions that connect a sequence of states They then generate test cases for a variety of purposes, for example acceptance suites, full functional test suites, and regression test suites. Regression test suites involve a rerun of selected portions of a test suite following a revision of an application.
Because a finite state machine that reflects the specification of a useful software program is typically very large, various approaches have been taken to manage the model, using concise and powerful graphical and textual languages. Various traversal algorithms are applied to the finite state machine for test generation. These algorithms are parameterized by the test engineer at runtime.
The generation of an astronomical number of possible test cases is a well-known software testing problem, which has been exacerbated by the speed of automated test generation. Test engineers deal with this by identifying “equivalence classes” for various attributes of test cases. For example, for a function call argument that must fall within the range of 1 to 5, a test engineer may decide to test the minimum value (1), the maximum value (5), and one value that falls between the minimum and the maximum, such as the value (2). With these decisions, the test engineer places the values (2), (3), and (4) in an “equivalence class”. Each value is considered equivalent to the other two, in the sense that if the test fails for any value in the class, then it will fail for all other values of the class. The recognition of equivalence classes stems from the recognition of inherent properties of the software being tested. In theory, there is one “true” set of equivalence classes for a particular program. Once these classes are correctly ascertained, they will remain static throughout the testing period, or until the software application under test is significantly changed.
Conventional approaches to test generation have common problems that this invention builds upon. In each case, the number of unique paths, or generated test programs is an exponential function of the number of modeled states and transitions. Thus as the scope of the modeled behavior grows, the time to exhaustively generate test cases, and more significantly, the time needed to execute the generated test cases grows exponentially. This growth places a practical limit on the complexity of the program behavior to which automated test generation can be applied. The invention focuses and therefore reduces the number of tests to a practical level. In so doing, the invention raises the practical limit on the complexity of the software program to which automated test generation may be applied.
A common test planning heuristic is “suspicion testing”, in which “suspected” features of the program are evaluated. For example, aspects of the program that are inherently difficult to implement are suspected to have a relatively high probability of containing defects.
In other approaches, constraints have been imposed on paths or transitions, and if not satisfied, the path would not be tested further.
Typical of prior art approaches for generating test programs is U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,347 to Kita et al. which discloses a method of modeling a specification as an extended finite state machine, then performing a depth-first traversal of the resulting state diagram to generate a path file as a basis for a test program.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,499 to Ko et al. discloses a technique for generating a test data sequence of minimal length, employing an extended finite state machine. This technique attempts to balance the number of traversals of the directed edges in order to test values in a predetermined test data set. The test data sequence is constructed using an Euler tour.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,037 to Tremblay et al., it is proposed to employ a test generator that automatically produces test programs based on a finite state machine model of the software. Limiting the number of test programs is achieved by controlling loop execution, and by appropriately setting the coverage level for the model, known as “transition cover testing”. This approach seeks to specify during the test program generation process that each transition within the finite state machine model be exercised once. The generator is capable of specifying different coverage levels for selected portions of the program under test, so that critical portions might be exhaustively tested, while other portions receive less comprehensive testing.
There are several reasons for focusing test program generation. Some may be unanticipated during the development and implementation of the software specification. For example, the testing process may uncover programming defects. Such discovery may create the need to generate still more tests that work around the newly discovered defect in order to test unaffected parts of the software. Once the defect has been corrected, even more tests may need to be generated in order for verification. In practice, a supposedly corrected defect may surface again following subsequent program modification, or changes in the conditions of usage. Thus, it is desirable to repeatedly verify that the defect has not recurred.
The task has fallen to software engineers to revise test programs to accommodate incremental changes in the software program. As there is a cost in the generation of test models, engineers archive and reuse the products of the test generation process. While the archival technique is generally practical, maintaining compatible archived test programs has itself been proven costly. Furthermore, ad hoc practices of cataloging, finding, and retrieving combinations of test generation parameters are impractical. Because of the lack of alternatives, test engineers often are compelled to resort to archiving entire test suites, which is relatively costly.
It would be desirable to be able to automatically create test programs directed at narrowed targets in a manner that allows more compact archival of data objects that can be readily retrieved and reused when it becomes necessary to retest a software application, or for use in testing different software applications. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a magnetic head for a disk drive, and more particularly to a magnetic write head having a pole piece with a double pedestal structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
A write head is typically combined with a magnetoresistive (MR) or giant magnetoresistive (GMR) read head to form a merged head, certain elements of which are exposed at an air bearing surface (ABS). The write head comprises first and second pole pieces connected at a back gap that is recessed from the ABS. The first and second pole pieces terminate at the ABS where they define first and second pole tips, respectively. An insulation stack, which comprises a plurality of insulation layers, is sandwiched between the first and second pole pieces, and a coil layer is embedded in the insulation stack. A processing circuit is connected to the coil layer for conducting write current through the coil layer which, in turn, induces magnetic write fields in the first and second pole pieces. A non-magnetic gap layer is sandwiched between the first and second pole tips. Write fields of the first and second pole tips at the ABS fringe across the gap layer. In a magnetic disk drive, a magnetic disk is rotated adjacent to and a short distance (fly height) from the ABS so that the write fields magnetize the disk along circular tracks. The written circular tracks then contain information in the form of magnetized segments with fields detectable by the MR or GMR read head.
An MR read head includes an MR sensor sandwiched between first and second non-magnetic gap layers, and located at the ABS. The first and second gap layers and the MR sensor are sandwiched between first and second shield layers. In a merged MR head, the second shield layer and the first pole piece are a common layer. The MR sensor detects magnetic flux from the circular tracks of the rotating disk by a change in resistance that corresponds to the strength of the fields. A sense current is conducted through the MR sensor, where changes in resistance cause voltage changes that are received by the processing circuitry as readback signals.
A GMR read head includes a GMR sensor which manifests the GMR effect. In the GMR sensor, the resistance of the MR sensing layer varies as a function of the spin-dependent transmission of the conduction electrons between magnetic layers separated by a non-magnetic layer (spacer) and the accompanying spin-dependent scattering which takes place at the interface of the magnetic and non-magnetic layers and within the magnetic layers. GMR sensors using only two layers of ferromagnetic material (e.g., nickel-iron, cobalt, or nickel-iron-cobalt) separated by a layer of nonmagnetic material (e.g., copper) are generally referred to as spin valve (SV) sensors manifesting the SV effect. Recorded data can be read from a magnetic medium because the external magnetic field from the recorded magnetic medium (the signal field) causes a change in direction of magnetization in the free layer, which in turn causes a change in resistance of the SV sensor and a corresponding change in the sensed current or voltage. A GMR head is typically associated with a design in which the second shield layer and first pole piece are not a common layer. These pieces are separated by a non-magnetic material, such as alumina, or a metal that can be deposited using a physical vapor deposition technique or an electro-plating technique, for example.
One or more heads may be employed in a magnetic disk drive for reading and writing information on circular tracks of a rotating disk. A merged head is mounted on a slider that is carried on a suspension. The suspension is mounted to an actuator which rotates the magnetic head to locations corresponding to desired tracks. As the disk rotates, an air layer (an “air bearing”) is generated between the rotating disk and an air bearing surface (ABS) of the slider. A force of the air bearing against the air bearing surface is opposed by an opposite loading force of the suspension, causing the magnetic head to be suspended a slight distance (flying height) from the surface of the disk. Flying heights are typically less than 0.02 μm in today's disk drives.
Prior art described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,450 entitled “Ni45Fe55 Metal-In-Gap Thin Film Magnetic Head” teaches the utilization of an additional material on top of the pole tip which has a higher saturation magnetization than that of the material beneath it. This advantageously improves the write performance of the write head. However, this technique is limited in application to a write head which requires higher magnetic moment materials sputtered on top of the pole tip with a throat height being more or less aligned with the bottom pole tip. Prior art described in published U.S. patent application Ser. No. 20020191334 entitled “Magnetic Transducer With Pedestal Pole Piece Structure” teaches a writer structure having a sunken first layer coil to achieve a shorter yoke length for writer efficiency and a substantial planar surface to facilitate a top pole process having enhanced pole width control. As the throat height, typically about 2 μm, is defined by the bottom P1 pedestal, this structure suffers from mechanic reliability problems when the pedestal length is smaller than 0.5 μm, or the aspect ratio (pedestal height/pedestal length) is greater than 2.5. Thus, this prior art is not extendible to relatively short write throat applications.
Write heads must continuously be improved to provide better overwrite (OW) capabilities and reduced fringing fields as track pitch increases with reduced write track width and write gap. In FIG. 9, a graph 900 shows a three-dimensional finite-element calculation of deep gap field vs. the current-coil-turn product (where N is coil turns and I is current through the coil). As apparent from graph 900, a short throat height is imperative to achieve a high deep gap field for narrow track write heads, which corresponds to a higher write field for superior writeability.
What is needed is an improved write head design and apparatus which provides for a reduced throat height and a superior mechanical stability. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Heretofore marine piers constructed for stability when standing on seabed in water deeper than 100 feet have proposed to store fluid materials in one centered tank or in a cluster of tanks having upright axes carried on a base slab and extending upwardly beyond the level reached by the largest amplitude gravity waves propagating over the site. Such piers have required the construction of a peripherally-complete surrounding wall capable of transforming the full energy of incident waves to solely kinetic energy of stream flow of seawater as jets guided by the bounding surfaces of channels constituted by perforations opening through the wall, as fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,383,869 to G. E. Jarlan.
The construction of the prior art pier requires an initial drydock building phase to fabricate a pan or raft upon which the bottom of the tank cluster is erected and which extends radially to provide a base for the surrounding perforated wall, followed by slip-forming of the upwardly-extending concrete structures, towing the pier structure to a site, and lowering it to stand on seabed, as described for example in Civil Engineering, August, 1973, Gerwick Jr., and Hogenstad, E. -- "Concrete Oil Storage Tank Placed on North Sea Floor".
Two disadvantages of the prior structure and method are evident in attempting to scale the dimensions of the prior pier upward to stand in very deep water and store a volume of fluid of the order of three million barrels, namely, the increased moment arm at which the lateral thrust due to wave forces is directed toward the structure, increasing the risk of sliding and unsafe rocking displacements, and, the greater cost per unit of storage volume due to the longer fabrication time required and the larger mass of concrete, reinforcement, and post-tensioned steel tendons necessary to build a perimetral perforated wall. A protected deep-water building site at which a pier of vertical extent approaching even 300 feet can be built is rarely available within a safe towing distance from the final site.
Even when the storage chambers of the prior art pier may be depressed so that their upper ends do not extend above the sea surface, to reduce wave pressures, the difficulties noted above would apply, compounded by any climatic obstacles such as frequent bad weather, distances from sources of construction materials and expense of maintaining a large working force by ship supply. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to decorative panels, especially decorative panels utilized for buildings.
2. Summary of the Known Art
The invention relates to decorative panels, especially decorative panels utilized for buildings.
Light emitting transparent panels of various kinds are known in the art. These panels are illuminated at one or more places along an edge of the panel using any one of a number of different light sources, such as light emitting diodes. The light from the light sources in a transparent panel with flat, parallel surfaces will have a shallow enough angle to continuously reflect from the surfaces of the panel and be confined within the panel. The light hat does not have a sufficiently shallow angle will be emitted from the light panel very near the light source, and can be shaded to blackened out there. However, given a pattern of light extracting deformities or disruptions in the surface of the panel, some of the light within and passing along the panel will be interrupted and redirected outward from the surface of the panel and made visible to one looking at that surface of the panel. The light extracting deformities in the prior art have been formed by etching or molding. The size, shape and other characteristics of these deformities or disruptions may take various forms and have, in the prior art, been made of uniform size, or of increasing size with increasing distance from the light source. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a proximity responsive toy which is responsive to the approach of a body part.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,916 by Giordano et al. discloses a toy which is in the form of a pup and which has a motor-driven drive means therein. The drive means is coupled to ground wheels and is activated to drive the ground wheels when a capacitive body approaches to the toy.
The main drawback of the Giordano et al. patent is that the sensitivity of the toy cannot be adjusted in accordance with variations in environmental conditions, such as humidity. This results in faulty operation of the toy. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Medical devices, such as electrical stimulators, may be used in different therapeutic applications, such as deep brain stimulation (DBS), spinal cord stimulation (SCS), pelvic stimulation, gastric stimulation, peripheral nerve stimulation, cardiac rhythm management, and functional electrical stimulation. A medical device may be configured to deliver therapy to a patient to treat a variety of symptoms or patient conditions such as chronic pain, tremor, Parkinson's disease, other types of movement disorders, seizure disorders (e.g., epilepsy), urinary or fecal incontinence, sexual dysfunction, obesity, mood disorders, gastro paresis or diabetes. For example, an IMD may deliver an electrical stimulation therapy such as cardiac pacing, cardiac cardio version/defibrillation, neurostimulation, muscle stimulation, or the like.
An implantable medical device may provide electrical stimulation therapy according to a set of stimulation parameter values, which may also be referred to as a therapy program. A therapy program may define respective values for each of a plurality of electrical stimulation parameters, e.g., as specified by a clinician. In some cases, the medical device may receive one or more therapy programs from an external medical device programmer operated by the clinician. In addition, in some cases, a patient also may be equipped with a medical device programmer and may interact with the programmer to select or modify therapy programs for delivery of stimulation.
Examples of implantable medical devices that deliver electrical stimulation include implantable neurostimulators, implantable cardioverters, implantable cardiac pacemakers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, and cochlear implants. Such devices may be implanted or external to a patient, and configured to deliver electrical stimulation therapy to and/or measure a signal from a target tissue site within the patient. The electrical stimulation may be delivered to the tissue site via electrodes, some of which may be located on a device housing and/or on one or more implantable leads. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Tennis rackets are strung with the use of a stringing machine. FIG. 1 displays a standard embodiment of the prior art. A tennis racket 20 is placed in a mounting plate 60 and clamped in place. A string is threaded through grommets in the tennis racket. The string is held in place within the tennis racket by a string clamp. The free end of the string is threaded through a roller mounted within the tension head 140. The tension head 140 is incorporated with other items to comprise the tension head assembly 100. The tension head assembly 100 is mounted on the winder bar 40. The tension head assembly 100 includes a tension crank 120. Turning the tension crank 120 causes the tension head assembly 100 to move along the winder bar 40. When a string is threaded through the tension head 140, a user can turn the tension crank 120 to move the tension head 140 away from the mounting plate 60. This movement pulls on the string and creates the necessary tension in the string until it is secured in place on the racket 20.
The tension head assembly 100 is designed so that the tension in the string is set at a predetermined tension. Historically, in tennis racket stringing machines, this predetermined tension is accomplished by means of a precompressed spring 110 within the tension head assembly 100. The tension placed on the tension head 140 by the string is transferred to the precompressed spring 110 by means of a tension transfer bar 150. The tension transfer bar 150 operates as a simple lever, where the axel 145 of the tension head operates as the fulcrum and the distance between the axel 145 and the precompressed spring 110 and the axel 145 and the string are the respective arms of the lever. Traditionally, the ratio of these arms is fixed, thus the tension is changed or set by precompressing the spring 110. When the tension in the string multiplied by the distance of the string to the axel 145 matches the tension in the precompressed spring 110 multiplied by the distance of the spring 110 from the axel 145, the tension head 140 rotates along the axel 145, releasing the tension brake 130. The brake engages with the tension crank 120, preventing additional movement of the tension head assembly 100 along the winder bar 40.
The tension of the precompressed spring 110 can be manipulated and set by turning a knob 160 connected to the precompressed spring 110, causing the winding of the precompressed spring 110 to become looser or tighter. The precompressed screw is wound about a screw connected to the knob. Turning the screw changes the winding of the spring, which changes the tension. The distance of the precompression is normally very short. The screw, to which the knob 160 is mounted, and the precompressed spring 110 are set such that one unit, or partial unit, of turning changes the tension of the spring by one pound of force. Users in countries utilizing the metric system must purchase a machine set for kilograms instead of pounds since a change of tension in one pound of force is not equal to one kilogram of force. This presents a limitation. In addition, to make the distance of precompression greater, much larger spring would have to be used, which would not be practical. In addition, utilization of a precompressed spring 110 is limiting in that the spring becomes fatigued through repetitive use and constant tension. This fatigue can cause the tension in the strings attached to the racket 20 to decrease, decreasing the performance of the racket 20. Such fatigue also requires a user to take time to recalibrate the tension, lessening the effectiveness of the user and decreasing the rate of production. In addition, the fatigue of the spring requires that the spring be replaced on a frequent basis. What is needed is a means of allowing a user to set a tension on the string and the tension head 140 without utilizing a precompressed spring 110. What is needed is a tension scale large enough so a user can easily change the tension in the tension head and to adjust the tension between the English system and metric system of measurement as needed.
When a user strings a racket 20, the racket 20 is attached to the mounting plate 60. The mounting plate 60 rotates so that the user may turn the racket 20 as needed to thread a string through separate grommets. Historically, to prevent the mounting plate 60 from rotating during the threading process, a brake 70 has been installed that is utilized by a lever. When a user desires to prevent the mounting plate 60 from rotating, the user pulls a lever into a locking position, engaging the brake 70, and preventing the mounting plate 60 from rotating. Such a method is flawed. Utilizing a separate lever for locking the mounting plate 60 becomes burdensome during the stringing process. A user must lock and release the lever several times while maintaining the tension in strings which have been threaded. In addition, some users fail to engage the brake 70, leaving the mounting plate 60 movable during the stringing process. What is needed is a means of locking the mounting plate 60 in place during the stringing process without requiring a user to make additional movements.
In addition, historically, string clamps engage strings from below. In the prior art, the string clamp is positioned on a base clamp. The base clamp is positioned in the correct position on the mounting plate and then locked in place. The string clamp is then extended upwards until it engages the strings in the racket. The clamp closes in from the sides around the string until it presses the string within the clamp with sufficient pressure to prevent the string from slipping or moving. The end of the clamp is fashioned into a comb shape. This shape allows cross strings to be positioned between the fingers of the clamp during the stringing process. The prior art is limited in that the string clamp requires a user to engage two locks to utilize the clamp. The user must engage a base clamp lock and the string clamp lock. This requires additional time on the part of the user when utilizing the string clamp. Previous attempts at creating an automatic base clamp lock were either too complicated and thus unreliable, or utilized a self-locking torque feature. The self-locking torque feature utilized the string tension, which created sufficient torque on the clamp base to become self-locking This solution resulted in considerable play and required increased skill and attention of the stringer. What is needed is a simple self-locking base clamp lock which locks positionally in place when utilized. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The number of information items which are displayed to a vehicle driver is increasing continuously due to the rising number of comfort and convenience devices. The comfort and convenience devices which are used in modern vehicles include navigation devices, telecommunication devices, driver assistance systems and warning instructions relating to a large number of devices of the vehicle and to ambient conditions. In many vehicles, what are referred to as multi-function operator control and display devices are therefore used. The display of such multi-function operator control and display devices is conventionally arranged in the center console. Furthermore, such vehicles have what is referred to as a combination instrument near to the vehicle driver's main field of vision, which combination instrument displays dynamic information and monitoring information to which the vehicle driver is, under certain circumstances, intended to react immediately. Recently, the combination instruments not only have conventional round instruments but also freely programmable displays which display information from a navigation device, from a telecommunication device and in particular from the driver assistance systems. Displaying comprehensive information in the combination instrument of the vehicle has the advantage that the vehicle driver only has to avert his gaze slightly from the events on the road in order to perceive the displayed information.
However, if excessively comprehensive information is displayed in the combination instrument, the problem arises that the vehicle driver can no longer quickly and intuitively take in the desired information and he is distracted from driving by the plethora of information on the display of the combination instrument. For this reason, new systems are being developed, such as the provision of information by display devices in a vehicle, in particular by the combination instrument, in the vicinity of the vehicle driver's field of vision. For the displaying of information it is particularly important that the vehicle driver can take in the information as quickly and intuitively as possible. At the same time, the intention is that the information displayed will be particularly relevant for the vehicle driver in the respective driving situation.
German Published Patent Application No. 43 07 367 discloses a display device for a vehicle, which display device has a screen which includes an area in which a freely selectable status information item, which is called up by operator control elements, can be displayed in different forms which can be selected by the operator.
German Patent No. 199 02 136 discloses a combination instrument for a vehicle which has two display panels, the second display panel having a lower luminance than the first display panel, and the two display panels being combined with one another. The combination instrument has a darkening filter, for the transparency of which a high value is selected in wavelength ranges corresponding to a wavelength range of the light emitted by the second display panel, and to a wavelength range of light which has a color which is complementary to a color of the light which is emitted by the second display panel.
Further combination instruments for vehicles are described, for example, in European Published Patent Application No. 1 190 886, European Published Patent Application No. 1 559 995 and PCT International Published Patent Application No. WO 03/057522.
If analog display instruments, such as the round instruments for displaying the engine speed and the display of the velocity are also used in the combination instrument, the problem arises that only a limited area for displaying further information is available on the display. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
As computing technology has advanced, computers have become smaller and more portable thereby bringing about powerful handheld devices capable of performing functions of more traditional computing technology. At the same time electronic devices have increasingly been used for reading and as a substitute for printed, physical books, publications, and documents. Such a device may be referred to as an eReader and an electronic book may be referred to as an eBook.
With the increase in devices being used as eReaders, eBooks may be acquired from a variety of sources. An eReader may have a customized or local catalogue application for allowing a user to access and browse eBooks on the eReader. Value added services may be applied to eBooks that are obtained from the catalogue application, such as synchronizing bookmarks across devices and personalized recommendations. EBooks that are acquired from a source outside of the catalogue application are not presentable with the catalogue application and therefore not available for value added services. For example, the catalogue application may not have sufficient information about an eBook acquired from an external source. Each eBook may have metadata associated with the eBook, for example, including the title and author. However, metadata information about the particular eBook is not standardized thereby making it difficult to identify the particular eBook based solely on the metadata. Thus, eBooks from other sources are not easy to identify and therefore not available for the value added services from the catalogue application and are not available within the catalogue application. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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An example of the conventional signal transmission system for a fire alarm junction line is shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, on the receiving unit side, a junction line L.sub.11 is connected to a power source through a resistor R, and the collector electrode and the emitter electrode of a transistor T.sub.1 are respectively connected to the junction line L.sub.11 and another junction line L.sub.12 and a binary signal is applied to the base electrode of the transistor T.sub.1 so that a signal is sent out. On the repeater unit side, the sent-out signal is restored to its original state from a received waveform by distinguishing the potential of the junction line L.sub.11 with the aid of a comparator circuit A.sub.12. Another transistor T.sub.2 which is similar to the transistor T.sub.1 is provided on the repeater unit side and binary signals are applied to the base electrode of the transistor T.sub.2, thus a signal sent out from the repeater can be restored on the receiving unit side by means of another comparator circuit A.sub.11 which is similar to the comparator circuit A.sub.12. A plurality of fire detectors, not shown in the figure, are connected to the repeater and the code (number) of the fire detector that has issued a fire alarm signal is reported to the receiving unit by the repeater, while a signal for controlling smoke prevention and/or exhaust equipment can be sent to the repeater from the receiving unit side. As a plurality of repeaters are connected to a pair of junction lines, centralized administration of a plurality of fire detectors is possible with a junction line comprising a pair of wires.
However, when the number of repeaters connected to one pair of wires is increased and a plurality of fire detectors are connected to each repeater, signals must be sent out and received at a high speed through the junction line in order to transmit more detailed information. In the circuit as described above, a signal as shown in FIG. 2(a), which has been sent out is received in the waveform as shown in FIG. 2(b). The reason for this is as follows: When the transistor T.sub.1 turns ON, the potential of the junction line L.sub.11 drops immediately to zero potential. However, when the transistor T.sub.1 turns OFF, it takes some time for the junction line L.sub.11, which has a certain static capacity, to be charged by the battery through the resistor R. Accordingly, the conventional signal transmission system is defective in that the signals sent out at a high speed cannot be appropriately received on the receiving unit side. If a resistor R with lower resistance is used in order to alleviate the above-mentioned defect, the voltage drop due to the resistance of the junction line L.sub.11 becomes larger during the ON state of the transistor T.sub.2 when a signal is sent from the repeater side, and distinction of signals on the receiving unit side becomes difficult. In addition, this difficulty will be aggravated owing to the difference in the length of the junction line L.sub.11 to each repeater, and in the worst case the signals cannot be distinguished on the receiving unit side. So employment of a resistor R.sub.1 of lower resistance is impractical.
The object of this invention is to provide a signal transmission system for a fire alarm junction line in which signals can be transmitted at a high speed between a fire alarm receiving unit and a plurality of repeaters, in which the defects of the prior art systems are diminished. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates generally to gas turbine engines, and, more specifically, a blade assembly for a gas turbine engine.
Some known turbines include a compressor that compresses fluid and channels the compressed fluid towards a turbine wherein energy is extracted from the fluid flow. Some known compressors include a row of blades secured to the compressor casing. Such blades may be secured to the casing using flanges on the base of the blade that are inserted into grooves defined in the casing. More specifically, in at least some known embodiments, the casing includes T-shaped grooves for each row of blades, and the blade flanges are sized and shaped to fit within the T-shaped groove.
During operation, some blades in the compressor may loosen in the grooves and shift with respect to each other and with respect to the compressor casing. Such movement may increase the turbine dynamics and may increase the wear of the blade. The movement of the blades may also induce stresses to the blade, which, over time, cause cracking or failure of the blade.
To reduce blade movement, some known compressor blades are shimmed to decrease the clearance between turbine blade bases and to limit movement of the blade within the casing. Some known shims are formed with tabs extending from each side to enable the shim to be secured in position against the casing. In at least some compressors, the tabs fit into the same grooves used to retain the blades within the casing. During turbine operation, some known shims may be chafed by the adjacent blade bases causing the shim to thin. As the shim wears, the clearance defined between the blade and the shim, or between the blade and the groove, is increased. Over time, the increased clearance enables the blades to move within the casing groove.
In some known turbines, during turbine operation, the pressure and loading on each blade and shim may fluctuate. Variations in loading induced to the blades and/or shims may cause wear of the shim tabs. Over time, the wear to the tabs may loosen the shim from the casing such that the shim may protrude into the fluid flow path and/or fall into the flow stream. Any shim protruding into the flow stream may disrupt the flow stream and/or decrease turbine operating efficiency. Any shim falling into the flow stream may contact other compressor components, such as the blades, which may damage such components. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Catalysts comprising palladium and a support material are known catalysts for dienes and/or alkynes hydrogenation. Even though these catalysts are effective hydrogenation catalysts, some such catalysts tend to produce green oil by oligomerizing the alkynes and dienes. The green oil has 6 or more carbons per molecule and is not desirable in the production of an alkene such as, for example, ethylene because it fouls the catalyst and cuts the yield to alkene. Therefore, there is an ever present need for further improvements of a selective hydrogenation process to achieve enhanced selectivity to monoolefins, or increased catalyst life, or both. Accordingly, development of a modified supported palladium catalyst composition and its use in processes for the selective hydrogenation of diolefins (alkadienes) or alkynes to monoolefins (alkenes) would be a significant contribution to the art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In a fifth-generation mobile communication system (referred to as 5G), such a technical demand is proposed as a rate of gigabits per second (Gbps) for user experience, an ultrahigh flow density, an extra-large number of connections, an improved spectral efficiency, a reduced time delay, or the like.
In order to meet a requirement of 5G for the extra-large number of connections, a non-orthogonal multiple access technology is introduced.
As for a requirement to support a mobile Internet of Things (IoT) application scenario of 5G with a large number of connections, a low time delay and high reliability, when an uplink scheduling algorithm of a 4G system is still used, it needs a significant amount of control signaling, with relatively high signaling overhead. In the case that the number of connections reaches to a certain value, the number of scheduled users is limited by control channel resources. Therefore, as for the mobile IoT application, a scheduling-free mechanism should be utilized.
In a long term evolution (LTE) system, since a scheduling mechanism is adopted, a base station knows a transmission time and a position of an uplink pilot for each user, and accordingly performs uplink detection. However, in the case that a terminal employs a scheduling-free access mechanism, the base station does not know when the terminal transmits data. In this case, how a base station side performs the uplink detection is a problem to be solved currently. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Fluorine-containing elastomers, particularly perfluoro elastomers mainly comprising a tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) unit are widely used as a sealing material to be used under hard environment because of excellent chemical resistance, solvent resistance and heat resistance thereof.
However requirements for characteristics thereof required with advance of technology are becoming strict. In the fields of space aeronautics, semi-conductor production apparatuses and chemical plants, a sealing property under high temperature environment of 300° C. or more is demanded.
To cope with such requirements, proposals have been made to enhance heat resistance by improving a crosslinking system. As such a crosslinking system, there are known crosslinking methods, for example, a method of triazine crosslinking by forming a triazine ring with an organotin compound by using a fluorine-containing elastomer having a nitrile group introduced as a crosslinking point (for example, JP-A-58-152041), a method of oxazol crosslinking by forming an oxazol ring with bisaminophenol similarly by using a fluorine-containing elastomer having a nitrile group introduced as a crosslinking point (for example, JP-A-59-109546), a method of imidazole crosslinking by forming an imidazole ring with a bisdiaminophenyl compound (for example, JP-A-59-109546) and a method of thiazole crosslinking by forming a thiazole ring with bisaminothiophenol (for example, JP-A-8-104789).
In a series of PCT patent applications (WO97/19982, WO98/23653, WO98/23654 and WO98/23655) of Du Pont, U.S.A., it is proposed that an end of a fluorine-containing elastomer having nitrile group is converted to a carbonyl-containing end group for the purpose to increase a crosslinking rate in peroxide crosslinking system in addition to the above-mentioned triazine crosslinking system and oxazole crosslinking system.
However a crosslinked rubber obtained by a crosslinking system described in JP-A-58-152041, JP-A-59-109546 and JP-A-8-104789 is insufficient in a mechanical strength and compression set at high temperature because a crosslinkable functional group is present only in a branched chain derived from a cure site monomer.
An essential object of the inventions disclosed in the above-mentioned applications of Du Pont is to decrease the number of sulfonic acid end groups which may cause a crosslinking failure. To achieve such an object, the end groups are converted to carbonyl-containing groups. Namely, the crosslinking rate is enhanced by decreasing the number of sulfonic acid groups but not by using carbonyl-containing groups as crosslinking points. This can be seen from the description that it is preferable to decarboxylate carbonyl-containing end groups by heating to decrease a viscosity of the elastomer because the carbonyl-containing end groups ionized or to be ionized increase the viscosity of elastomer. In those publications, carboxyl group, carboxylic acid salt and carboxyamide group are raised as a carbonyl-containing end group. However since a metal salt is used for coagulation of the obtained emulsified polymer, carbonyl-containing end groups of the coagulated and isolated elastomer to be subjected to crosslinking have been converted to metal salts of carboxylic acid or carboxyamide group. It is assumed that those salts cause an increase in a viscosity of the elastomer. The decarboxylation treatment of the carbonyl-containing end groups indicates that the end groups are not used for crosslinking.
Further also in the crosslinking system of the invention of Du Pont, in which a fluorine- and nitrile-containing elastomer having a carbonyl-containing group as an end group is used, a mechanical strength and compression set at high temperature of the obtained crosslinked product are not improved.
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel crosslinking system of a fluorine-containing elastomer giving a crosslinked product having improved mechanical strength and compression set at high temperature. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surgical system controlling apparatus and a surgical system controlling method, and more particularly to a surgical system controlling apparatus including a characteristic voice processing unit for operating medical instruments with voice and a method for controlling the surgical system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an endoscopic surgical operation and the like using an endoscope apparatus are performed at a medical site. In the endoscopic surgical operation, it is possible to perform various kinds of treatments, while observing with an endoscope by adding a plurality of surgical instruments to the endoscope apparatus. The plurality of surgical instruments are, for example, a gas insufflator used for inflating inside of an abdominal cavity, a treatment apparatus for therapeutic procedure, and a high-frequency cauterizing apparatus for resecting or coagulating a living tissue.
Furthermore, an endoscopic surgical system provided with the plurality of various kinds of instruments, which is used for performing an endoscopic surgical operation, is capable of operating and controlling a plurality of apparatuses.
The endoscopic surgical system includes, for the purpose of improving an operatability of the system, a display panel such as a liquid crystal panel, as a display section for an operator to confirm setting states of various instruments in a sterilized area, a remote operation apparatus such as a remote controller, as a remote operation section operated by the operator in the sterilized area to change functions and setting values of the various instruments, and in addition, a centralized operation panel provided on a touch panel with operation switches of the respective instruments, which is operated in a non-sterilized area by an assistant such as a nurse or the like according to instruction by the operator to change functions and setting values of the various kinds of instruments, a microphone for operating the various kinds of instruments with voice, and the like.
In the conventional endoscopic surgical system, when operating various kinds of instruments with voice, the operator is required to hierarchically and intentionally issue commands for operating the instruments. Consequently, the system is not user-friendly in performing a therapeutic procedure.
Therefore, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-5777 discloses an endoscopic surgical system capable of controlling a target instrument only by voice-inputting a state of the instrument using conversational phrases. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Most grape varieties used for production of high quality wines around the world are of the species Vitis vinifera. These V. vinifera varieties, when cultivated in northern regions of the United States with a continental climate are often subject to serious injury or death from low temperatures during winter. V. vinifera must also be grafted onto an American rootstock in order to be grown successfully. Although several wild Vitis species occur in colder regions of North America and eastern Asia, the wine made from these species generally has serious defects. Thus, a great need existed for grape plants that would combine the superior wine quality of V. vinifera with the cold weather resistance and disease resistance of wild species yet be free of their unpleasant wild flavors. A grape breeding program conducted by Lucian W. Dressel at Davis, Calif. and at Winters, Calif. from 2000 to 2002 developed such varieties by combining various V. vinifera with the native grape plant known as ‘Norton’ (aka ‘Cynthiana’). | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of cartons of the paperboard or boxboard type. More particularly, the invention relates to carton structures for forming a lined carton.
In many cartons of the indicated type it is required that the carton be accompanied with a brochure or sheet of instructions or the like or an envelope or packet containing additional material, which are hereinafter referred to as an "insert". For example, in cartons containing various chemicals, such as fungicides, the insert provides printed information regarding the nature of the sealed carton, its uses, and its possible harmful affects if not used according to directions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, the inserts of the indicated-type are placed on the outside of the carton by means of an adhesive strip. However, there are several problems with this prior art arrangement. For example, the insert may be knocked off or damaged during shipping or other handling procedures. Also, this arrangement is expensive to manufacture.
Another arrangement that might be used is to place the insert with the contents inside the liner. However, this is unsatisfactory since it is necessary to open the top of the carton and the liner in order to obtain access to the insert. The user would not have access to the insert and the information provided thereby until after the liner was opened, which may not be satisfactory. This arrangement has the further disadvantage that sometimes the insert is covered completely by the ingredients of the carton and is difficult to find. Moreover, thers is no way of determining if the carton does actually contain the essential insert without opening the carton and the liner.
Patents relating to cartons of the indicated type are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,099,665 and 4,236,368, which disclose carton constructions and methods of making the same for cartons of the type disclosed herein. Also, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 3,342,402 which discloses a bag of the automatic or self-opening type wherein an insert is positioned within the bottom folds of the bottom construction of the bag. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Technical Field
The embodiments of the present disclosure relate to data processing technology, and particularly to an image processing apparatus and method.
2. Description of Related Art
Digital cameras are very popular and widely used in daily life. However, images captured by a digital camera may have an off-color effect due to inaccurate focusing, bad illumination, or movement of objects (such as children or pets) to be captured. | {
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The present invention relates to a circuit configuration for the generation of a reference voltage, with a reference voltage source and a storage capacitor to which a voltage provided by a reference voltage source can be applied via a controllable switch, and whose charging voltage is the reference voltage to be generated, whereby the controllable switch is a MOS field-effect transistor with back gate which, by means of a refresh signal supplied by a control circuit, can be put periodically into either a conducting or a non-conducting state.
A circuit configuration with which the supply voltage of digital systems can be monitored is known from the application report SLVA 091 of Texas Instruments. This circuit configuration comprises a circuit section which generates the reference voltage required for the monitoring process. In an attempt to make the monitoring circuit as current saving as possible, the sample-and-hold principle is used by the circuit section for the generation of the reference voltage. This means that the reference voltage source is not continually operative, but is only switched into action periodically, each time for a short span of time. To ensure that the required reference voltage is nevertheless available on a continuous basis, it is stored in a capacitor which is connected by means of a switch during the time periods whenever the reference voltage source is active. The charging current of the capacitor is used as the required reference voltage. The switch between the reference voltage source and the capacitor is made by a MOS field-effect transistor which has a certain leakage current, leading to a discharge of the capacitor and, as a consequence, to a drop of the reference voltage stored. This leakage current therefore determines the time intervals after which the reference voltage source must be made active once again. In the circuit configuration known, no specific measures have been taken to reduce the leakage current of the MOS field-effect transistor used as switch between the reference voltage source and the capacitor.
The invention rests on the requirement of providing a circuit configuration of the type previously indicated, which supplies the reference voltage on a continuous basis and with high precision, and whose current consumption can be kept very low.
According to the invention, this requirement is satisfied in that the back gate of the MOS field-effect transistor is connected to an auxiliary storage capacitor to which the voltage supplied by the reference voltage source can be applied via a further switch, including a MOS field-effect transistor with a back gate, also controlled by the refresh signal, whereby a fixed voltage, which is greater than the voltage supplied by the reference voltage source, is applied to the back gate of the further MOS field-effect transistor.
In the circuit configuration according to the invention, the leakage current of the switch between the reference voltage source and the storage capacitor is reduced to a very low level in that the back gate of the MOS field-effect transistor used in this switch is kept at practically the same voltage level as the one supplied by the reference voltage source and which is also present at the storage capacitor. Because of the lack of any noticeable voltage difference between the back gate and the terminal of the MOS field-effect transistor connected to the storage capacitor, leakage of current through the back gate is now prevented. Since the charging voltage at the storage capacitor is thereby maintained for a long time, the time intervals, after which the reference voltage source has to be made active again, can be very long, thus resulting in a correspondingly reduced current consumption of the circuit configuration. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to an axle system for a two-wheeled vehicle and in particular for a bicycle operated by muscular energy at least in part. The bicycle may be provided with an auxiliary motor drive configured in particular as an electric motor to assist the rider if and as desired. Use is likewise conceivable with other bi- and multicycles.
Various axle systems with a quick release mechanism have become known in the prior art to allow fast and easy mounting and demounting of bicycle wheels.
In many of the quick releases for bicycles as known in the prior art the clamping force is applied by flipping an eccentric member after adapting the clamping length by means of a tightening nut and a stopper. The drawback of this system is that first the clamping length must be set by means of the tightening nut before the clamping length and the clamping force can be checked by flipping the eccentric member. As a rule a number of cycles is required until the proper clamping length and thus the clamping force are suitable.
Due to safety requirements for quick releases the dropouts of modern bicycles tend to be configured not smooth but comprising end bearings for the axle system so as to initially ensure continued safe accommodation of the axle system at the dropouts even after releasing the clamping force. Because of these end bearings or lugs at the dropouts the opened distance must be enlarged wherein the stroke length of a classic quick release lever obtained by flipping the eccentric member is not always sufficient to release the clamping force and to overcome the additionally required lift for overcoming the additional end bearings. Therefore many systems require to operate not only the quick release lever but also to turn the screw nut on the opposite side in the opening direction for removing the wheel every time that a wheel is released and later clamped. Thus the axle system must be adjusted with every wheel change.
In EP 1 801 005 B1 a quick release in particular for bicycles has become known offering greater ease of operation. In this quick release the clamping force is not applied by flipping an eccentric member but via a screwed connection. A spring mechanism allows to pull the operating lever axially outwardly out of engagement and to freely turn it back in to quickly tighten the quick release. The known system operates reliably and allows precise adjustment of the clamping force required. Moreover the operating lever may be rotated to any desired direction after setting the clamping force.
Due to safety requirements and the increased opened distance which may be for example 5 mm, the quick release lever must be rotated approximately 5 or 6 turns every time that a wheel is released and later clamped, before the wheel can be removed or is again reliably clamped. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vacuum cleaner, and more particularly, to a cyclone dust collecting apparatus for the vacuum cleaner for centrifuging and collecting contaminants entrained in sucked air.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a vacuum cleaner includes a suction brush movably connected to a cleaner body, which moves along the cleaning surface during the cleaning process. The cleaner body has a dust collecting chamber with a detachable dust filter disposed inside, and a motor operating chamber including a motor for generating a suction force. When the motor operates, it generates a strong suction force at the suction brush. Accordingly, contaminants, such as dust or dirt, on the cleaning surface are drawn in together with air into the cleaner body. The contaminants entrained in the air are filtered through a dust filter disposed in the dust collecting chamber of the cleaner body, and the clean air is discharged back into the environment through the motor operating chamber.
A conventional vacuum cleaner collects contaminants by using an expendable dust filter. When the dust filter is filled with contaminants, the dust filter must be replaced manually. Replacing the dust filter manually is inconvenient and results in poor sanitation conditions.
The present invention has been made to overcome the above-mentioned problems of the related art. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cyclone dust collecting apparatus for a vacuum cleaner for centrifuging and collecting contaminants entrained in the air that is sucked into the vacuum cleaner through a suction brush.
The above object is accomplished by providing a cyclone dust collecting apparatus for the vacuum cleaner including a hollow cylindrical cyclone body having open upper and lower ends, and a dust discharge port located proximate the lower end for receiving contaminants that are separated from the air by centrifugal force and discharged from the cyclone body. The apparatus further includes a dust receptacle connected to the cyclone body. The dust receptacle collects the contaminants from the cyclone body through the dust discharge port. A base member is connected to and closes the lower end of the cyclone body and the dust receptacle, and a cover is removably connected to the upper end of the cyclone body and the dust receptacle. The cover has an air intake channel for drawing outside air and contaminants into the cyclone body and an air discharge channel for discharging clean air from the cyclone body. The apparatus further includes a backflow prevention means for guiding contaminants that are discharged from the cyclone body into the dust receptacle and preventing a backflow of the contaminants collected in the dust receptacle from returning to the cyclone body. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In a traditional communication system using encoding and modulation, output data of an encoding module typically results from puncturing or repeating a mother code. If a required code rate is lower than a rate of the mother code, then it is typically repeated. On the contrary, if the required code rate is higher than the rate of the mother code, then it is typically punctured.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an encoding module using puncturing and/or repetition. In FIG. 1, information is encoded by the encoding module to obtain a mother code at a code rate of 1/3. The mother code is composed of information data and parity data. In the example of FIG. 1, the parity data is composed of parity data 1 and parity data 2. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the last four bits are a repetition of the first four bits and referred to a repetition code in the case of using repetition and requiring a code rate of 1/4. In this case of repetition, the mother code and the repetition code serve together as transmission data. Only the first eight bits of data of the mother code is transmitted in the case of using puncturing and requiring a code rate of 1/2.
As can be apparent from currently published articles and patents, a majority of solutions concern a design of a puncturing pattern for the approach of puncturing. For the approach of repeating, a typical solution is to select data of a mother code as a repetition code through loop buffering and then modulate output data of an encoding module in a pre-selected modulation scheme. These methods can be found in, for example, “3GPP TS 36.212 v8.4.0 (2008-09)-3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Multiplexing and channel coding (Release 8)” and U.S. patent application Publication No. US2008260067A1, by Christian Wengerter et al, entitled “Bit Reliability Equalization By Modulation Switching For HARQ”. The contents of these documents are incorporated here by reference.
However, an improved data transmission method and apparatus is still desired at present to reduce the complexity of demodulation at a receiver while improving the performance of reception at a communication system. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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With the rapid development of the network technology and the various information technologies, the contents that the user may access gradually get out of the constraint of time and space. As a result, the possibility of the user being exposed to contents that are unhealthy and threatening to the client, such as pornography, violence and virus, are significantly increased, which leads to an ever stronger requirement for screening of the communication contents. The existing screening technologies include list screening, keyword screening, template screening and categorization screening etc, among which the categorization-based content screening is a much interested research topic due to its flexibility and wide application. On the other hand, with 50 years of development of the automatic digest technology, the related fundamental technologies (such as automatic word segmentation) also went through a long-term development and formed some application systems. Automatic digest of western language is particularly well developed. Also the research on video digest technology has rendered much result and is getting more well-established.
Please refer to FIG. 1, the current Categorization-Based Content Screening (CBCS) architecture is principally divided into two parts, that is, a content screening component and a content categorization component. The content categorization component is adapted to provide an interface CBCS-1, whereby a content categorization requester (including the content screening component internal to the architecture and other external requesters) may obtain content category of the contents to be categorized. The parameters that can be input by the content categorization requester include the content itself or content references, such as Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) and/or other content-related information (such as content provider).
Please refer to FIG. 2, which shows a process for the content categorization requester to obtain the content categories of the content to be categorized according to the prior art. The process includes the following steps:
Step 1: The content categorization requester determines to request the content categories by means of the content itself. For example, in case one, the content categorization requester is the content screening component, and a content screening request received by the content screening component only contains the content itself without other content reference or pre-categorized information. In case two, the content categorization requester is the content screening component, and the content of a content screening request received by the content screening component is the pre-categorized content, but the pre-categorization information is unreliable and there is no other content reference. In case three, the content categorization requester is the content screening component, and a content screening request received by the content screening component contains the content itself and its content reference, but the content categorization provider (content categorization component) can not provide category information corresponding to the content reference. In case four the content provider as the content categorization requester only intends to request the category information in order to generate pre-categorized content. Thus the content provided by the content provider contains its category which can be used directly. In case five, the content categorization requester is the content screening component, and a content screening request received by the content screening component contains the content itself and its content reference. However, the content itself is directly used to request the content category since the content screening component is configured into a mode that doesn't support the obtaining of category based on the content reference.
Step 2: The content categorization requester formulates a content categorization request message which carries the content itself, and transmits the message to the content categorization provider.
Step 3: The content categorization provider extracts the content itself from the content categorization request message and applies an appropriate algorithm to the content itself to perform categorization.
Step 4: The content categorization provider formulates a response message and returns the content category to the content categorization requester.
Among the input parameters, only the content itself and the URI corresponding to the content can reflect the content directly. The URI can not always be available. Meanwhile, the content categorization provider may not always be able to provide the content category corresponding to the URI (because, for example, the corresponding content categories may not be stored within the content categorization component or can not be obtained by the content categorization component externally). In this case, the content categorization requester can provide only the content itself to the content categorization provider. While the content is probably very large and needs to be carried in a plurality of data packets partitioned from a content categorization request message. In this case, not only the content categorization provider is required to parse the content to be categorized from the request message, but also lots of buffering and content rearranging is required. Finally, the categorization may be performed according to the categorization algorithm.
During the research, the inventor has the following finding: in the prior art, in the information provided by the content categorization requester to the content categorization provider when requesting the content category, only two input parameters, the content itself and the URI are shown directly. There is a lack of an efficient processing method while providing the content itself to the content categorization provider. This not only makes the processing burden of the content categorization provider heavier, but also increases the network transmission traffic, especially when an external entity requests the content category through the interface CBCS. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The instant invention relates generally to hydraulic automotive brake systems and more specifically it relates to a brake bleeder wrench.
Numerous hydraulic automotive brake systems have been provided in prior art that are adapted to include bleeder valves which can be operated to remove air from the brake systems. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,477,864; 2,611,387 and 2,771,093 all are illustrative of such prior art. While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates generally to the field of data monitoring, and more particularly to the statistical analysis of variables to extract correlations in data.
IT monitoring products continuously monitor data, store it in repositories, categorize and present the collected metrics in graphical dashboards. However, symptoms to low performance may be elusive. This makes it very difficult for administrators to efficiently perform quick root cause analysis of performance issues. Resolving performance issues is a big challenge as they are mostly ad-hoc in nature. Performance investigation time may be spent in determining what the cause of the performance issue is. The need to go through data/metrics and manually correlate the symptoms to periods of good vs bad performance may be time consuming.
A particular challenge come when analyzing SQL executions, processes, or functions, which contribute to the bad performance. As many SQLs are executed per a particular monitoring interval, it can become exceedingly difficult to determine which SQLs/pattern of SQLs are executing inefficiently, or deviating from their average execution time, during periods of bad performance. It may be advantageous to determine which SQLs have the strongest correlation to database performance, or which SQLs have the greatest impact on a reduction in performance. The complexity increases when such analysis is being done across several intervals to reliably identify candidates for SQL tuning. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a power semiconductor device, in particular to vertical power devices with guard rings.
Power semiconductors are mostly used to switch high currents and high voltages in many applications. They have to be stable for a long time. Depending on the application, the devices have to switch frequently or only occasionally. The requirement for power devices generally is to have very low forward voltage drops in conduction mode and a very low leakage current in blocking mode.
Usually power semiconductor devices include n-type and p-type conductivity regions, metalized contact areas for current conduction and passivated areas configured to handle a given breakdown voltage.
Some power devices are configured to handle up to several thousand volts in blocking mode. As a result, the pn junctions in such devices produce very high electric fields which penetrate the surface of the devices. To withstand these blocking voltages, the power devices may be provided with special guard ring structures to reduce the electric fields stepwise.
Generally, the actual breakdown voltage is influenced by the design of the guard rings as well as the charges at the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate. The ions and charged particles in the insulating layers overlying the depletion region also negatively affect the breakdown voltage.
To obtain stable devices, the charges on the depleted zones should be time and temperature independent. Non-passivated depletion areas generally cannot be handled. Typically, the devices are mounted in plastic housings with potting materials (which includes glue or adhesion material). Such materials can be highly ion contaminated and/or may be polarized by the electric fields of the power devices. To protect the devices against these influences from the environment, they are covered with passivation layers on top of the depletion zones.
Also, ion contaminated glues should be kept away from the silicon surface, preferably as far as reasonably possible. Any coating or layer that is in direct contact with the silicon surface should be of very high purity in order not to degrade the breakdown voltage rating as well as for other reasons. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to client-server computing and, more particularly, to client-server computing for securely accessing resources over a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Network browsers (browser applications), such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer, allow users of client machines to request and retrieve resources from remotely located server machines via the Internet. These network browsers can display or render HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents provided by the remotely located server machines. Additionally, browsers are able to execute script programs embedded in the HTML documents to provide some local functionality.
Further, applets (e.g., Java™ applets) can also be embedded in the HTML documents. In such case, the browser will fetch the bytecode for the applet from a web server by issuing HTTPS requests to get the appropriate class and/or archive files for the applet. The received bytecode is then loaded into a virtual machine (e.g., Java Virtual Machine). During runtime, the applet typically communicates with an application server over a secure connection, such as HTTPS or socket connections. Further, in the case of Java, the Java Sandbox operates to restrict the applet from communicating with a network domain (host) other than the network domain from which the applet was obtained.
Conventionally, network browsers are used to access public networks, such as the Internet. Private networks are normally protected by firewalls so that network browsers residing on computing machines outside the private network are not able to gain access to any resources on the private network.
While firewalls are effective at protecting against external access to private networks, there is often the need for external persons or businesses to gain at least limited access to the private networks of other persons or businesses. For example, a supplier of parts to a business customer may be able to better serve their business customer by having access to information (e.g., inventory levels or orders) maintained on the private network of the business customer. One conventional approach is to allow the supplier's machine to access the private network through the firewall via a public network. This provides a “hole” in the firewall that seriously compromises the security of the private network. Hence, this conventional approach is normally not permitted if security is an important concern. Another conventional approach is to establish a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with the supplier's machine. Here, the supplier's machine is also able to access the private network through the public network and the firewall, but all data transmissions are encrypted. Some firewalls support VPNs and protocols providing encrypted communications, such as Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP). While VPNs offer remote secure access, they are difficult to arrange, configure and manage. Each VPN must also be provided for each external person or business given access to the private network. Still further, VPNs are costly and each VPN provides some security exposure to the entire private network.
Thus, there is a need for improved approaches to providing secure remote access to resources maintained on private networks. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a fabrication method for a thermoelectric material. More specifically, the invention relates to a fabrication method for a nanovoid-imbedded bismuth telluride with a high figure of merit.
2. Description of the Related Art
To date, void-incorporated thermoelectric (TE) materials have been studied in only a few compound systems, such as bismuth, silicon, Si—Ge solid solutions, Al-doped SiC, strontium oxide and strontium carbonate. Si—Ge samples prepared by Pulverized and Intermixed Elements Sintering (PIES) method exhibited 30% increase in TE performance with 15-20% void fraction. Based on recent experimental research, theoretical calculations also indicated that it is possible to increase the ZT of certain materials by a factor of several times their bulk values by preparing them in 1D or 2D nanostructures. Bi—Te materials, especially with low-dimensional system, have been fabricated through solvo-thermal method (1D or 2D nanocrystals), metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) (2D superlattice structure), electrodeposition in porous alumina substrates (1D nanowire), and reverse micelle method (0-D quantum dots).
Typical void sizes in most of prior-art studies were in the micrometer range and no appreciable reduction in thermal conductivity was realized. Lower thermal conductivity contributes to the thermoelectric performance and in the prior-art studies, no noticeable phonon disruption was observed. Aside from theoretical predictions, there are no TE materials, based on Bi—Te, that have demonstrated such an enhancement in ZT values due to low-dimensional crystalline system. The previous studies also showed most of voids in Bi—Te film existed in an interconnected form which causes poor electron mobility, resulting in lower electrical conductivity and hence, lower thermoelectric performance. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for measuring electromagnetic signal characteristics and predicting a system response to a change in signal input; and, more particularly, to an adaptively controlled electromagnetic signal analyzer utilizing a biased semiconductor junction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Accurate measurement and control of electromagnetic signals is important in signal processing applications. Current approaches for achieving high measurement accuracy include: (1) using costly precision hardware and (2) calibrating the measurement errors of more moderately priced hardware. Although error calibration is generally more cost effective than using precision hardware, calibration accuracy associated with moderately priced components is limited.
Instantaneous frequency detectors are presently available in the electromagnetic signal processing market. Currently, biased semiconductor junctions are used to perform attenuation and detection separately in signal processing.
For measurement of the relative amplitude and phase between signals, the test instrument market is now dominated by heterodyne network analyzers with computerized calibration. In the past decade, much work has been completed on 4-port and 6-port network analyzers because of their potential for replacing the costly and complex electromagnetic and analog circuitry of a heterodyne analyzer by simple power detectors. Problems in achieving accurate calibration of power detectors over a wide dynamic range have limited the success of 4-port and 6-port network analyzers in the test instrument market.
For measurement of electromagnetic signal amplitude versus frequency, the test instrument market is dominated by dedicated heterodyne spectrum analyzers. Dual-purpose scalar network analyzers (SNA) which also perform scalar spectrum analyzer measurements are available. Dual use of circuitry common to network and spectrum measurements offers cost savings compared to separate spectrum and network analyzers. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processors also are available to calculate the absolute amplitude and phase versus frequency of a signal, but the frequency range is limited by available analog-to-digital converter (ADC) speeds.
Complex phasor modulators are available for controlling the magnitude and phase of an electromagnetic signal. Complex phasor modulators of the prior art are limited in the level of precision signal control over frequency and temperature, and they introduce signal distortion. This makes the prior art unsuitable for precise interference cancellation of amplitude-modulated or frequency-hopping signals.
Precise adaptive interference cancellation is needed in communication systems which must operate a radio transmitter in close proximity to a radio receiver. In this interference reduction approach, a sample signal is coupled from the interfering transmitter, passed through a controlled reference path, and then summed with the signals at the receiving antenna. The signal at the receiver is measured and the amplitude and phase of the interference in the reference path is adjusted to cancel the interference in the receiver.
For interference cancellation in a system with a narrow-band signal centered about a hopping carrier frequency, the control values at one carrier frequency may require adjustment at another carrier frequency. Fast frequency-hopping systems require the speed of a lookup table for determining control adjustment between hops. However, system changes or hostile jamming may degrade table accuracy; and there may be little, if any, time available for table update. Also, conventional methods for updating the table are based on calculating the correlation of signals by integrating over time the product of the signals. However, the accuracy of this signal correlation calculation breaks down for a fast hopping system. That is, the time at each frequency is too short to accurately define correlation between signals.
In summary, the accurate modeling and calibration of moderately priced electromagnetic signal amplitude, phase, and frequency measurement hardware in the prior art is limited. Also, complex phasor modulators of the prior art introduce unacceptable signal distortion in the control of amplitude-modulated and frequency-hopping electromagnetic signals. Finally, interference cancelers of the prior art based on long term signal correlation at a single carrier frequency are unsuitable for fast frequency-hopping systems. | {
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The reproduction of images has had a positive effect on many people's lives. One of the earliest technologies for reproducing images was the movie projector, which allowed for audiences to view theatrical productions without live actors and actresses. Televisions were invented, which allowed people to watch moving pictures in the comfort of their own homes. The first televisions were cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions, which is a technology that is still being used today. During the computer age, it has been desirable to reproduce images which are output from computers through monitors. Like many televisions, many computer monitors use CRT technology.
Other technologies have been developed as substitutes for CRT technology. For example, liquid crystal display (LCD) technology is commonplace for both computer monitors and televisions. A LCD is a relatively thin display, which is convenient for many people. Other examples of displays are plasma displays, rear projections displays, and projectors. As display technology has improved, many new applications are being developed. For example, many attempts have been made to develop displays with relatively high contrast images. However, there have been many technical challenges that have prevented optimization of image contrast. Specifically, it has been difficult to minimize the amount of white light emitted from a display, which may detract from the contrast of the image displayed. It may also be desirable for display to be relatively thin for both aesthetic appearances and practical implementation. For example, thin display (e.g. plasma display and LCD display) may be mounted on walls or placed on a table with a relatively small width. | {
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This invention relates generally to structural frame assemblies. More particularly, this invention relates to frame assemblies, commonly used in the manufacture of windows and the like, that are formed from interconnected longitudinal elongate frame members.
Windows and doors are the most common light and passage openings applied in the building trade, home construction, or the like. Commonly, the windows and doors include a frame that is constructed to be secured to the building structure and which defines the operation area associated with the openable and closable opening. As is readily understood, windows are commonly provided in a number of configurations, such as, for example, casement windows, picture windows, and/or double hung windows. Such terms are commonly associated with the operation of the sashes or lights of the window relative to the frame. Likewise, doors can be provided in a number of shapes and configured as right or left hand and in or out swings. Regardless of the operation, doors and windows are commonly provided in a number of shapes and sizes to satisfy consumer demands.
Traditionally, opening frames formed of wood would be individualized to satisfy various product offerings. The corner connections associated with most such frame structures require particular attention to avoid failure of the frame assembly due to the possible concentration of forces at the connection between the elongate members of the frame assembly, particularly in view of the ever-increasing design demands being placed on the architectural rather than structural requirements of windows and doors. Design pressure (DP) is one metric of the strength of a window and is measured in pounds per square foot (psf). Measurement techniques for DP are further described in ASTM E1300, titled “Standard Practice for Determining Load Resistance of Glass in Buildings.” Windows must satisfy various requirements associated with their implantation. Accordingly, it is believed room exists for improving the frame coiner assembly and/or method for connecting elongated frame members to provide better window opening strength performance.
Another important consideration of window and door construction includes the thermal performance of the entire product which includes the frame. Windows progressed from single pane, storm windows, and double pane windows in an effort to improve the thermal performance of the window. The U-factor is a term that is used in the industry to quantify heat transfer. The units for U-factor are British thermal unit (Btu) per hour per square foot of area per degree Fahrenheit temperature difference. The computer programs Therm 5 and Window 5 are industry-standard computer tools used to simulate heat flow through the edge of the glass and window frame regions as well as through the center of glass. These programs also sum up the respective contribution of each component to determine the U-factor for the overall window assembly. These computer programs were developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and are well accepted for assessing the thermal performance of both a given window and window frame. Based on the parameters associated with currently available window structures, it is believed that room exists from improving the thermal performance of a window assembly by manipulation of the construction of the window frame, a portion of which is the only structure between inside and outside atmospheres.
Accordingly, there is a need for a more robust window or door frame system that can be quickly and conveniently assembled and can preferably be assembled from pre-manufactured parts that can be individualized during assembly. There is also a distinct need for a window or door frame assembly that provides better insulative performance than those currently available. | {
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The present invention relates to a distributed clocking mechanism for a distributed synchronous processing system, and more particularly, to a distributed clocking mechanism particularly useful for a distributed digital telephone switching network.
Distributed synchronous processing systems, e.g., those used in large digital telecommunication switching networks, typically require extremely accurate clocking systems to synchronize the various time related operations performed among a plurality of switching stages and their controllers. The clocking signals in such systems generally originate from a centralized clocking source that generates and transmits the clocking signals throughout the system over a dedicated clocking signal transmission network.
Although such clocking schemes are satisfactory for many applications, they suffer from a number of weaknesses. In particular, the reliance on a centralized clocking source leaves a distributed processing system susceptible to system-wide failures in the event of a malfunction in the clocking center. The dependence on a single centralized clock source may be minimized by utilizing a set of redundant clock sources. In such a system, there is a centralized clocking center having a set of clocks that generate and transmit a group of redundant clock signals throughout the network.
A system with this type of arrangement is the International Telephone and Telegraph (I.T.T.) System 12 (now produced by Alcatel). The System 12 uses a pair of reliable clock sources that are distributed by means of a separate clocking signal transmission network comprised of 2 continuous loops (one for each clock source). Each multi-port switch element in the System 12 is coupled to both clock distribution loops and includes a clock selection circuit for selecting one of the two available system clock signals for synchronizing its internal operations. The clock selection circuitry allows a switchover to the alternate clock when a degradation is detected in the currently selected clock signal. This system, however, has experienced problems associated with the distribution of the clocking signals. In particular, since each clock distribution loop is essentially a continuous conductor, a failure in any portion of one of the loops will entirely interrupt the distribution of the associated clock source; thereby leaving the System 12 without an alternate clock signal.
The clock sources in the System 12 must often act as slaves to clock signals derived from external sources such as the national digital network. In such a case, the System 12 is often connected to the national digital network by means of a number of external digital transmission links. Since it is desirable to synchronize to only one of the clock signals associated with these national network digital transmission links at any given time, the System 12 ranks the clock signals of the national network according to the rank of the associated Central Office and the grade of the particular transmission link. The ranking allows the best available clock to be selected for synchronizing the operations of the System 12. The System 12 ranking scheme is implemented in hardware by directly wiring the System 12 clocks to each of the highest ranked clock signals of the national network. As can be seen, the re-ranking of the clock sources in the System 12, as is often required in dynamic switching networks of this type, requires the movement of wires from one national network digital transmission link to another.
Other solutions that have been attempted suffer from similar deficiencies. Elastic buffer arrangements have been utilized to synchronize outgoing transmissions in switch elements having a number of unsynchronized inputs with unaligned phases. The elastic buffers write data into the buffer and read it out of the buffer with two independent clock signals, in order to adjust the unaligned incoming data signals so that the output signals are phase-aligned with one another. Problems in systems utilizing an elastic buffer arrangement have resulted because the two clock signals used to write into and read out of the buffer are not frequency synchronized which can often result in a frame slip (the loss or duplication of an entire frame). | {
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Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Computing systems such as personal computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, cellular phones, among many other types of computing systems, are increasingly prevalent in numerous aspects of modern life. As computers become progressively more integrated witCh users' everyday life, the convenience, efficiency, and intuitiveness of the user-interfaces by which users interact with computing devices becomes progressively more important.
A user-interface may include various combinations of hardware and software which enable the user to, among other things, interact with a computing system. One example of a modern user-interface is a “pointing device” that may allow a user to input spatial data into a computing system. The spatial data may be received and processed by the computing system, and may ultimately be used by the computing system as a basis for executing certain computing functions.
One type of pointing device may, generally, be based on a user moving an object. Examples of common such pointing devices include a computer mouse, a trackball, a joystick, a pointing stick, and a roller mouse. Other examples of pointing devices based on a user moving an object may exist as well. In typical arrangements, the object includes sensors that are arranged to transmit, to the computing system, data that indicates the distance and direction of movement of the object. The computing system may be equipped with a graphical display that may, for example, provide a visual depiction of a graphical pointer that moves in accordance with the movement of the object. The graphical display may also provide a visual depiction of other objects that the user may manipulate, including, for example, a visual depiction of a graphical user-interface. The user may refer to such a graphical user-interface when inputting data.
Another type of pointing device may, generally, be based on a user touching a surface. Examples of common such pointing devices include a touchpad and a touch screen. Other examples of pointing devices based on a user touching a surface may exist as well. In typical arrangements, the surface is a flat surface that can detect contact with the user's finger (and/or another pointing tool such as a stylus). For example, the surface may include electrode-sensors that are arranged to transmit, to the computing system, data that indicates the distance and direction of movement of the finger on the surface. The computing system may be equipped with a graphical display similar to the graphical display described above. Implementations of a touchpad typically involve a graphical display that is physically remote from the touchpad. However, a touchscreen is typically characterized by a touchpad embedded into a graphical display such that users may interact directly with a visual depiction of the graphical user-interface, and/or other elements displayed on the graphical display, by touching the graphical display itself.
User-interfaces may be arranged to provide various combinations of keys, buttons, and/or, more generally, input regions. Often, user-interfaces will include input regions that are associated with multiple characters and/or computing commands. Typically, users may select various characters and/or various computing commands, by performing various input actions on the user-interface.
However, difficulties can arise when user-interfaces include input regions that are associated with multiple characters and/or computing commands. More particularly, in such situations, users typically must carry out complex and burdensome input procedures to disambiguate between the multiple characters and/or computing commands that may be associated with a given input region. As a result, known methods for selecting characters and/or computing commands using such user-interfaces are often considered inconvenient, inefficient, and/or non-intuitive. | {
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This specification relates to aligning user interface elements.
Conventional user interfaces, e.g., of a web page, or a program application, can include one or more user interface elements, e.g., text boxes, windows, or application gadgets. Some user interfaces have layouts that include multiple columns. User interface elements can be arranged in the multiple columns based on predetermined presentation attributes. In some web pages, presentation attributes are defined within the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) markup or in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). As an example, the height and width of columns can be defined, and sizes of and locations for presenting user interface elements in the columns can also be defined within the HTML markup or CSS. | {
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Electronic systems, such as networking systems and data storage systems, typically include a chassis, a backplane, secondary or daughter cards and a variety of peripherals such as disc drives, auxiliary backplanes, displays and the like. The backplane, also known as a processor board, mother board, system board or main board, depending upon its function and configuration, is a relatively thin, flat sheet structure including one or more connectors for connection to daughter cards and peripherals, either directly or via cables. In addition, many backplanes support a variety of passive and active components. Examples of active components include one or more processors or central processing units or chips to direct signals. Some processors further include power conditioning modules with heat sinks.
The localized weight of the daughter cards and processors subject the backplane to bending and flexing stresses during assembly of the electronic equipment. The plugging and unplugging of secondary cards and peripherals to the backplane further subjects the backplane to bending and flexing stresses due to connector mate and un-mate forces.
A variety of structures are known for stiffening the backplane to enable the backplane to withstand such stresses and bending forces. Such stiffeners typically include one or more stiffening members which are directly fastened to the backplane through a large number of mounting holes within the backplane. Examples of such stiffeners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,260,265; 6,084,182; and 6,512,676. | {
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The present invention relates to a pantyhose under garment and, more particularly, to a pantyhose under garment having sheer leg portions that end with knitted-in welts just below or above the knees and a control top portion having good shaping and control characteristics that terminates in the waist region with a knitted-in welt.
A strong need exists for women to have an alternative under garment to traditional underwear and girdles. Traditional underwear creates undesirable panty lines under clothing, especially when worn with slim fitting skirts and slacks. Also, in addition to panty lines, traditional underwear can become easily misplaced, causing discomfort to the wearer. This also creates bulges under clothing. One alternative to traditional underwear is underwear known as a xe2x80x9cg-stringxe2x80x9d. This type of underwear is comprised of one piece of fabric that goes up the buttocks of the user so that panty lines do not occur. However, this under garment offers no support and is extremely uncomfortable to some users and may not be an option at all for users with vulvar conditions such as vulvar vestibulitis.
These types of under garments do not provide the user with an improved appearance under clothing and can be uncomfortable. Furthermore, they do not hold in bulges and cellulite on the most troubled areas of some users. These areas, known as xe2x80x9csaddlebagsxe2x80x9d, are below the buttocks on the back and sides of the thighs just below the hips. Although girdles cover these areas, they normally are made of relatively thick material and tend to stop above the knee, which creates bulges in clothing about the user""s thigh. Also, the thick fabric usually makes the user look heavier rather than thinner in slim fitting clothing.
Although pantyhose can now be manufactured in such a way that panty lines are often prevented, they are not an option in many cases because the leg portions of pantyhose usually cover the feet. Therefore, the pantyhose would be visible when worn under certain types of clothing, which normally is undesirable. For example, pants that stop below the knees, typically referred to as xe2x80x9ccapri pantsxe2x80x9d, would not be worn with normal pantyhose because the pantyhose would be visible. Also, pantyhose are not desired while wearing most stylish shoes (i.e., open-toed shoes, sandals, etc.).
Although pantyhose designs are known which do not cover the feet, those designs do not solve all of the aforementioned problems. U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,068 discloses a footless pantyhose design. One of the objectives of this design is to provide air ventilation to the foot to prevent xe2x80x9cathlete""s footxe2x80x9d from occurring. However, the upper reinforced portion of the pantyhose, often referred to as the control top, does not extend down over the region where the need for support is often the greatest, i.e., the xe2x80x9csaddlebagxe2x80x9d region. Also, the waist and leg portions have elastic bands at their points of termination. Elastic bands are tight on the skin and, in many cases, leave indentations in the skin and may cut off circulation causing extreme discomfort for the user. Furthermore, elastic bands are not produced during the knitting process, i.e.; they are not knitted in during the knitting of the hose. Rather, they are sewn on after the hose have been knitted. In addition, the leg portions of this design extend to the ankle and, therefore, would be visible when worn under capri pants or with open-toed shoes. Also, when women cross their legs, most pants rise up on the leg and, therefore, the pantyhose may be visible even when worn with normal length pants, which is also normally undesirable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,523 discloses a pantyhose garment having leg portions that terminate at the ankle. One of the objectives of this design is to help prevent sagging of soft body tissues. The garment has elastic bands running throughout it. As stated above, elastic bands bulge and create lines that can be seen under clothing and can produce discomfort. U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,537 discloses a multisectional hosiery garment that has detachable feet and leg sections. This design is intended to prevent the entire pantyhose from being ruined if a xe2x80x9crunxe2x80x9d occurs in a portion of the garment. The design is also intended to accommodate several different fashion purposes. The different sections are attached with elastic bands, which have the aforementioned disadvantages. A garment having this design would not provide the user with a slimmer or smoother appearance.
Accordingly, a need exists for a comfortable pantyhose garment that does not cover the lower legs or feet and that provides support in the thigh, buttocks and waist regions to help minimize or eliminate the appearance of xe2x80x9csaddlebagsxe2x80x9d. A need also exists for such a pantyhose garment is manufactured in a continuous knitting process so that the supportive regions blend in with the more sheer regions without creating seams or bands that can easily be seen through clothing.
The present invention provides a pantyhose under garment having relatively sheer leg portions that end with knitted-in welts just below or above the knees, and a reinforced control top portion having good shaping and control characteristics that terminates at the top of the waist region with a knitted-in welt. The pantyhose under garment provides the user with shaping support and because the lower leg is bare it gives the user the freedom to wear any type of shoe (i.e., open-toed shoes, sandals, etc.). Pantyhose worn with open shoes are usually undesirable, and also dangerous because the foot slips in the shoe. In addition, there are many occasions when the user wants a more casual look in clothing, and therefore pantyhose on the foot and ankle would not be desired. The reinforced control top portion extends down the leg portions of the pantyhose far enough to provide support over the xe2x80x9csaddlebagxe2x80x9d and cellulite regions of the body. The knitted-in welt at the waist region blends into the control top without causing waist constriction. Similarly, the knitted-in welts at the ends of the leg portions blend into the leg portions without causing leg constriction. The overall design provides the user with a smooth, tight appearance when worn under clothing, without causing the user to suffer discomfort.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, drawings and claims. | {
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Woven adhesive fastener portions may have the warp, weft, and functional filaments of textile fibers and of plastic or metal fibers, and are readily available on the market in a plurality of embodiments. The functional filaments form loop-like hooking elements in the base fabric of warp and weft filaments, if they are made of multifilament threads. If the functional filaments are of monofilament threads and if the respective closed loops are cut open or separated from each other by thermal means, fastener hooks are obtained which may be engaged with a correspondingly configured fleece loop material of another fastening element. If in the separating process the free loop ends are subjected to heat treatment, for example, if they are melted open, mushroom-shaped fastener heads are obtained as fastening elements as a result of the inherent behavior of the plastic material. The possibility also exists of engaging hook-shaped or mushroom-shaped fastener portions with felt-like adhesive fastening elements so that the two elements may be separated.
Very good peeling resistance values can be achieved with the disclosed adhesive fastener systems, that is, relatively high forces are required to pull apart the corresponding planar adhesive fastener portions forming the adhesive fastener to discontinue or disengage the connection. However, since the fastening elements of the corresponding fastener portions assume a specific orientation relative to each other, an orientation which is regular from the statistical viewpoint, it has been found in practical applications that after an initial adherence threshold has been crossed the fastener may be easily disengaged. In the respective common orientation, the fastening elements adhering to each other readily slide apart and break the connection.
To counter this problem U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,275 proposes, for a cast adhesive fastener portion, that the fastening elements be configured in sinusoidal paths. Each fastening element has a U-shaped hooked pair provided at its free ends with a mushroom head. In addition, spacing is maintained transversely to the sinusoidal path between the U-shaped fastening elements positioned transversely thereto so that the fastener heads may withdraw into the respective clear space. A suitably configured fastening element may then be received and engaged as free of resistance as possible in formation of the adhesive fastener, for example, also one in the form of a mushroom-shaped hook configuration. As a result of the sinusoidal path in the cast fastener, in which the U-shaped hook elements are cast in a base-matrix material, the rapid slipping off during opening of the fastener in a direction of stripping is prevented. The respective sine wave forces force yielding of the corresponding fastener hook introduced, and results in an obstruction, and accordingly, in an increase in the peeling resistance values. In an improved configuration of this solution (U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,238), the hooking pattern with the fastening elements may be configured “chaotically” in predetermined model patterns, that is, such that the fastening elements are arranged on the base fabric as randomly as possible to achieve an effect comparable to that obtained with the sinusoidal configuration. However, the respective cast plastic fastener cannot be produced as fabric with warp and weft filaments. Also, production of this disclosed fastener is complex and cost-intensive. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a molecular-drag vacuum pump. More particularly, the invention relates to a compact, portable, molecular-drag vacuum pump.
2. State of the Art
In recent years, smaller and more portable chemical and biological sensors have been developed. These sensors have many potential applications, such as in hand-held chemical analyzers, biological detection systems, and other portable sensory instruments. Such instruments may find advantageous use, for example, by soldiers or others to detect the presence of chemical and biological warfare agents; or by inspectors as a simple and rapid means of on-site testing of environmental contaminants; or by law-enforcement personnel testing unknown substances found at a particular location.
However, to fully realize the benefit of these new smaller and more portable sensor systems, relatively compact, low-power vacuum pumps are desirable. Conventional vacuum pumps capable of achieving the desired pumping characteristics are typically too large, and consume too much power, for compatibility with portable sensor systems. Similarly, conventional pumps that are small enough for such applications generally cannot provide the high vacuum typically required for highly accurate sensing and testing of substances at low concentrations. Such conventional pumps are generally ineffective in the Knudsen range, where the concentration of remaining gas molecules is too small for the pump to operate effectively, and yet is the vacuum level where many sensors' effectiveness is enhanced by its provision. Several other solutions to the problem of getting higher vacuum in a small device have been tried, including using cryogenics, absorption of remaining gas molecules by some means, and diaphragm pumps, but, to applicant's knowledge, these have not provided a satisfactory vacuum from a small-enough device. The molecular-drag pump is promising for application in this area.
The concept of the molecular-drag pump was first introduced early in the 20th century, see, e.g. W. Gaede, Annals of Physics, vol. 41, 337 (1913), and was later applied in a disk-shaped version see, e.g. M. Siegbahn, Archives of Mathematics, Astronomy, and Physics, vol. B30, 2 (1944). The basic principle of operation of the molecular-drag pump is to transfer momentum from a high-speed moving surface, such as a rotating rotor, disk or drum, to molecules of a gas, to thereby compress and direct the gas toward an outlet port. One or more wipers are provided to sweep molecules from the rotor toward the outlet, or toward another portion of the rotor in a multi-stage pump, as set forth below. Drag interaction between the moving surface and the gas causes the average kinetic energy of the gas molecules to increase along a pumping path through the pump in contact with the moving surface in a pumping direction; and imparts a net momentum toward the outlet along the path, making the gas as a whole more prone to evacuate the pump through the outlet. In a very low pressure range, this type of pump action causes a larger number of molecules to evacuate a space than other pump types, resulting in a more complete vacuum.
Some pumps of this type have more than one stage. The pumping path contacts a plurality of rotors sequentially, or contacts the same rotor sequentially at a plurality of places. A housing, and/or a housing in combination with wipers, conventionally re-directs the gas molecules sequentially to different locations, or stages, in a multi-stage pump.
Some Design goals regarding small molecular-drag pumps are to make efficient use of the space available for pumping, and to minimize power losses in bearings, in order to achieve a desired performance. In addition, in conventional molecular-drag pumps, the performance can be greatly effected by the tolerance between a wiper and a spinning rotor. Toward these goals, it would be desirable to have a compact molecular-drag pump that eases the fabrication tolerances of the pump parts, yet provides the desired performance. It would also be desirable to have a compact molecular-drag pump that makes use of efficient compact bearings. It is also desirable to have a compact molecular drag pump which compresses the gas in a series of stages in order to sequentially increase the pressure. Finally, it would be desirable to have a multiple-stage molecular-drag pump which accommodates a leakage between pumping stages by directing leakage gas from a later stage into a prior stage to combine with the incoming stream from the prior stage in a pumping direction along the pumping path back into the later stage. | {
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Nuts for attaching devices such as a water filter system to a second device such as a water supply (e.g., faucet) are well known in the art. These nuts generally have a hexagonal-shaped body or a body having a plurality of ribs or protrusions (“rib/protrusion” nut) extending from and disposed along a circumference of the body. The hexagonal-shaped nut includes pairs of intersecting faces that form six vertices to form its hexagonal shape. The hexagonal-shaped nut is symmetrical relative to planes that contain either pairs of opposing midpoints of the hexagonal faces or opposing vertices and the longitudinal axis of the nut. With respect to the “rib/protrusion” nut designs, such designs also include a plurality of two intersecting faces that form a plurality of ribs or protrusions. Similar to the hexagonal nut, the “rib/protrusion” nut designs are symmetrical relative to planes that contain a protrusion and the longitudinal axis of the nut.
The portion of the faces near the vertices of the hexagonal nut design and/or the faces of the ribs or protrusions of the rib/protrusion nut design provide a face of equal leverage for a user to grip and/or apply pressure to with his/her hand or fingers no matter which direction the user is rotating the nut (e.g., clockwise or counter-clockwise). In other words, the conventional nut designs are bi-directional because they provide a user the same tactile and visual signals in either direction of rotation. This often causes a user confusion as to which direction the nut should be rotated in order to tighten or loosen it.
Accordingly, an improved nut design and method for providing the same are needed in order to inform the user as to the direction that it should be turned to either tighten or loosen it. | {
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The present invention relates to wind deflectors for vehicle sunroofs.
The sunroofs of vehicles, when open, produce significant noise levels which increase with the speed of the vehicle. Generally the noise is of a broadband nature due to pressure fluctuations resulting from the shear layer between the exterior air flow and the stationary air in the vehicle. In addition to this broadband noise, resonant interactions between the shear layer and the air inside the vehicle create low frequency pressure fluctuations which produce a booming noise over a critical speed range which is typically 30 to 70 miles per hour.
Conventionally, wind deflectors of uniform profile have been fitted to the leading edge of the sunroof aperture, so that they extend above the line of the roof when the sunroof is open, thereby deflecting the air flow away from the sunroof aperture. Wind deflectors of this form significantly reduce the broadband noise and also reduce buffeting of air within the vehicle. However they are not effective in reducing the `boom`. As a result, even with a wind deflector of this form, it is necessary to reduce the degree of opening of the sunroof in order to reduce the `boom` to acceptable levels, when travelling at speeds at which intense boom would otherwise occur.
It has been found, as disclosed for example in German patent specification numbers DE 3925808 and DE 4012569, that modifying the profile of the wind deflector, so that its upper edge is castellated, does provide some reduction in `boom` but the `boom` is still obtrusive at speeds within the critical range.
The present invention provides a wind deflector with modified profile which will significantly reduce `boom` at speeds within the critical range, with the sunroof fully open. | {
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A control system and a method for assisting a motor vehicle in safely pulling in after overtaking is disclosed herein. This system and method is possible in motor vehicles, in particular in HGVs (heavy goods vehicles), in particular owing to the presence of ACC (autonomous/adaptive cruise control). | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a piezoelectric material, more specifically, to a piezoelectric material that does not contain any lead component. Further, the present invention relates to a piezoelectric element, a multilayered piezoelectric element, a liquid discharge head, a liquid discharge apparatus, an ultrasonic motor, an optical device, a vibrating apparatus, a dust removing apparatus, an imaging apparatus, and an electronic device, in which the piezoelectric material is employed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lead zirconate titanate is a representative lead-containing piezoelectric material, which can be used in various piezoelectric devices, such as an actuator, an oscillator, a sensor, and a filter. However, a lead component is harmful to the ecological system because there is a possibility that the lead component of a wasted piezoelectric material may dissolve into the soil. Accordingly, research and development enthusiastically performed recently is directed to non-lead piezoelectric materials that can realize non-lead piezoelectric devices.
When a piezoelectric element is employed in a home electrical appliance or a similar product, it is required that the piezoelectric performances do not greatly change in an operating temperature range of the product. If a parameter relating to the piezoelectric performances, e.g., an electromechanical coupling factor, a dielectric constant, a Young's modulus, a piezoelectric constant, a mechanical quality factor, or a resonance frequency, greatly changes (for example, by an amount equivalent to 30% or more) depending on the temperature, it becomes difficult to obtain stable element performances in the operating temperature range. In a phase transition of the piezoelectric material according to the temperature, the piezoelectricity is maximized at a phase transition temperature. Therefore, the phase transition is a factor that causes a great change in piezoelectric characteristics. Therefore, it is a key to obtain a product whose piezoelectric performances do not change so greatly in the operating temperature range that the phase transition temperature of a piezoelectric material is not in the operating temperature range.
When a resonance device (e.g., an ultrasonic motor) includes a piezoelectric composition, the mechanical quality factor that represents the sharpness of resonance is required to be large. If the mechanical quality factor is low, an amount of electric power required to operate a piezoelectric element becomes higher and a driving control of the piezoelectric element becomes difficult due to heat generation. This is the reason why a piezoelectric material possessing a higher mechanical quality factor is required.
A non-lead piezoelectric material expressed by a pseudo-binary system solid solution of {[(Ba1-x1M1x1)((Ti1-xZrx)1-y1N1y1)O3]-δ%[(Ba1-yCay)1-x2M2x2)(Ti1-y2N2y2)O3]}, in which M1, N1, M2, and N2 are additive chemical elements, is discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-215111. (Ba1-x1M1x1)((Ti1-xZrx)1-y1N1y1)O3 is a rhombohedral and (Ba1-yCay)1-x2M2x2) (Ti1-y2N2y2)O3 is a tetragonal. Dissolving two components different in the crystal system enables to adjust the temperature at which the phase transition occurs between the rhombohedral and the tetragonal around the room temperature. For example, according to the discussed contents, the phase transition of BaTi0.8Zr0.2O3-50% Ba0.7Ca0.3TiO3 occurs around the room temperature and a piezoelectric constant d33 at 20° C. is 584 pC/N. On the other hand, a piezoelectric constant d33 at 70° C. of the same material is 368 pC/N. More specifically, if an increased amount in the temperature is 50° C., a reduction amount in the piezoelectric constant d33 is 37%. The above-mentioned piezoelectric material is characterized in that a phase transition at which the piezoelectricity is maximized occurs around the room temperature. Therefore, although the above-mentioned piezoelectric material demonstrates excellent piezoelectric performances around the room temperature, it is not desired that the piezoelectric performances is remarkably variable depending on the temperature. In the above-mentioned material, the Zr amount (x) is set to be greater than 0.1 to obtain a rhombohedral of (Ba1-x1M1x1)((Ti1-xZrx)1-y1N1y1)O3, which is an edge component.
The material discussed in Karaki, 15th US-Japan Seminar on Dielectric and Piezoelectric Ceramics Extended Abstract, p. 40 to 41 is a non-lead piezoelectric ceramics that can be obtained by sintering BaTiO3 that includes additives of MnO (0.03 parts by weight (parts by weight)) and LiBiO2 (0 to 0.3 parts by weight) according to a two-step sintering method. The addition of LiBiO2 substantially increases the coercive field of BaTiO3 including the additive of MnO (0.03 parts by weight) linearly in proportion to the addition amount of LiBiO2. Further, the addition of LiBiO2 substantially decreases the piezoelectric constant d33, the dielectric constant, and the dielectric tangent. When the addition amount of LiBiO2 is 0.17 parts by weight, the piezoelectric constant d33 is 243 pC/N and the coercive field is 0.3 kV/mm. When the addition amount of LiBiO2 is 0.3 parts by weight, the coercive field is 0.5 kV/mm. However, according to an evaluation result, the above-mentioned piezoelectric material is not desired in that the temperature at which a phase transition occurs between the tetragonal and the orthorhombic is in a range from 5° C. to −20° C. Further, the above-mentioned piezoelectric material is not desired in that the mechanical quality factor at the room temperature is low (less than 500).
The above-mentioned conventional non-lead piezoelectric ceramics is not desired in that the piezoelectric performances greatly vary in the operating temperature range of a piezoelectric element and the mechanical quality factor is small.
To solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is directed to a piezoelectric material that does not contain any lead component and is characterized in that the temperature dependency in the piezoelectric constant is small in the operating temperature range, the density is high, the mechanical quality factor is high, and the piezoelectric constant is satisfactory. Further, the present invention is directed to a piezoelectric element, a multilayered piezoelectric element, a liquid discharge head, a liquid discharge apparatus, an ultrasonic motor, an optical device, a vibrating apparatus, a dust removing apparatus, an imaging apparatus, and an electronic device, in which the piezoelectric material is employed. | {
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1. Field
Embodiments relate to the adjustment of an information unit pacing credit to increase the rate of data transmission.
2. Background
Fibre Channel refers to an integrated set of architectural standards for data transfer developed by the American National Standards Institute. Fibre Connection (FICON) is a protocol of the Fibre Channel architecture and may also be referred to by the formal names of FC-SB-6, FC-SB-5, and other formal names used in other previously adopted FICON protocols. Further details of FC-SB-6 may be found in the publication, “Fibre Channel Single-Byte Command Code Sets Mapping Protocol-6 (FC-SB-6)”, Rev. 2.00, published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) on Dec. 9, 2015. Further details of FC-SB-5 may be found in the publication, “FIBRE CHANNEL Single-Byte Command Code Sets Mapping Protocol-5 (FC-SB-5)”, Rev. 2.0, published by ANSI on Mar. 26, 2013,
A channel is a direct or a switched point-to-point connection between communicating devices. In the Fibre Channel architecture, a FICON channel may perform the functions specified by FC-SB-6 or FC-SB-5 or other previously adopted FICON protocols to provide access to Input/Output (I/O) devices by means of control units or emulated control units. FICON channels may rely on packet switching for transferring data between communicating devices.
A channel command word (CCW) is a control block which includes an I/O request, and may refer to a structure of a specific system architecture which specifies a command to be executed along with parameters. A channel program is a sequence of one or more channel command words executed sequentially that controls a specific sequence of channel operations. FICON channels may transmit up to sixteen channel command words at a time along with the associated data for any write operations, where a channel command word and/or the associated data may be referred to as “information units” (IU). The channel command word may be referred to as a command IU, and the associated data may be referred to as a data IU. An IU may comprise a collection of data that is organized according to a particular structure depending on the function being performed or the data content. Information associated with the execution of an I/O operation and the operation of a device is transferred between a channel and a control unit as IUs. For example, in FC-SB-6, IUs may contain FC-SB-6 device-level commands, status, data, data descriptor or control information, or FC-SB-6 link-control information. If more than sixteen IUs are present in a channel program then the additional IUs are sent after a response received by the channel program. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a television motion detection arrangement having at least one television picture store for storing digital picture signal values related to picture elements of an interlaced television picture which on display is formed line-sequentially or horizontally and field-sequentially or vertically, a frame period comprising several field periods, and further including a picture signal value comparison circuit whose inputs are coupled to at least outputs of the store containing the picture signal values for producing picture signal value differences, to an absolute-value circuit coupled to outputs of the comparison circuit for supplying the picture signal value differences, to an adaptive threshold circuit coupled to outputs of the absolute-value circuit and to a threshold value-adapting circuit an output of which is coupled to a threshold value input of the adaptive threshold circuit for the supply of a threshold value which depends on the picture signal value differences, exceeding the adaptive threshold value being an indication of motion.
Such a motion detection arrangement can be used for various purposes. In the event of a television transmission channel having a bandwidth which is more limited than that of the television signal source, the motion detection can be used for bandwidth reduction. In the conversion of a television signal from one standard to another, the motion detection can be used to obtain an improved picture quality on display of the converted picture signal. In addition, the motion detection can be used during motion compensation for the case of a moving television camera. In all cases the detection can be combined with estimating the degree and/or the direction of the motion at a picture element of the television picture, considered or not considered across sub-regions of the television picture which comprise several, surrounding picture elements.
In all cases an appropriate detection whether there is motion or no motion in whatever degree or direction, is of basic importance. The adaptive structure of the threshold circuit results in known manner in an improved detection. Then, the adaptation can be effected on the basis of the picture signal value difference between an instantaneous picture element and the corresponding picture element one picture period earlier or earlier and later. However, at the occurrence of, on the one hand, details in the television picture having a high spatial frequency and, on the other hand, rapid motion corresponding to a high temporal frequency, it is still possible that faulty decisions as regards motion are taken, which, on display of the picture signal, results in an impermissible loss in picture quality. In practice, it has been found that a rapid motion transversely of a detail having a high spatial frequency may result in such a loss in quality. | {
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1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to apparatus, systems, methods, techniques, etc. for implementing seating systems that permit movement of a passenger or driver in a vehicle from an interior seat position (e.g., a driving position behind the motor vehicle steering wheel, or a passenger seat position) to an access position outside the motor vehicle, typically in a position that permits easy mounting and dismounting of the seat for someone of limited physical ability (e.g., older individuals, physically challenged individuals, etc.).
2. Description of Related Art
Motor vehicles can have seats and/or seating systems (referred to collectively at time herein as “seating systems”) either originally installed or retrofitted to address mobility and other issues for drivers and passengers. Some of these seating systems are powered in the sense that one or more electric motors, actuators and/or the like are used to move one or more components of a given seating system. Previous seating systems have been limited in several ways. In some such systems, the clearance required between the motor vehicle steering wheel and the nearest motor vehicle B-pillar has been more than 24 inches. This space requirement for installation of such systems has thus limited their use to only large vehicles that have sufficient clearance to permit such operation on the driver's side of the interior cabin or compartment. Moreover, earlier powered systems have been configured in a way that prevents use of the motor vehicle in the event that the seating system fails. That is, especially for seating systems on the driver's side, when a seating system motor fails, the motor vehicle becomes inoperable unless the failure occurred while the seat was in its “driving position” (meaning locked into position to permit safe operation of the motor vehicle by the driver sitting in the inoperable powered seating system). Finally, the mechanisms used to raise and lower the vertical position of the seat of such seating systems have been limited in their operation and construction. Apparatus, systems, methods, techniques, etc. that provide improved seating systems, especially as implemented in a driver's seat position in a motor vehicle, would represent a significant advancement in the art. | {
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The technology described herein relates to graphics processors, and in particular to the operation of graphics processors that include one or more programmable processing stages (“shaders”).
Graphics processing is typically carried out in a pipelined fashion, with one or more pipeline stages operating on the data to generate the final render output, e.g. frame that is displayed. Many graphics processing pipelines now include one or more programmable processing stages, commonly referred to as “shaders”. For example, a graphics processing pipeline may include one or more of, and typically all of, a geometry shader, a vertex shader and a fragment (pixel) shader. These shaders are programmable processing stages that execute shader programs on input data values to generate a desired set of output data (e.g. appropriately shaded and rendered fragment data in the case of a fragment shader) for processing by the rest of the graphics pipeline and/or for output. The shaders of the graphics processing pipeline may share programmable processing circuitry, or they may each be distinct programmable processing units.
A shader program to be executed by a given “shader” of a graphics processing pipeline will be provided by the application that requires the processing by the graphics processing pipeline using a high-level shader programming language, such as GLSL, HLSL, OpenCL, etc. This shader program will consist of “expressions” indicating desired programming steps defined in the relevant language standards (specifications). The high-level shader program is then translated by a shader language compiler to binary code for the target graphics processing pipeline. This binary code will consist of “instructions” which are specified in the instruction set specification for the given target graphics processing pipeline. The compilation process for converting the shader language expressions to binary code instructions may take place via a number of intermediate representations of the program within the compiler. Thus the program written in the high-level shader language may be translated into a compiler specific intermediate representation (and there may be several successive intermediate representations within the compiler), with the final intermediate representation being translated into the binary code instructions for the target graphics processing pipeline.
Thus, references to “expressions” herein, unless the context otherwise requires, refer to shader language constructions that are to be compiled to a target graphics processor binary code (i.e. are to be expressed in hardware micro-instructions). (Such shader language constructions may, depending on the shader language in question, be referred to as “expressions”, “statements”, etc. For convenience, the term “expressions” will be used herein, but this is intended to encompass all equivalent shader language constructions such as “statements” in GLSL.) “Instructions” correspondingly refer to the actual hardware instructions (code) that are emitted to perform an “expression”.
A graphics processing pipeline shader thus performs processing by running small programs for each “work item” in an output to be generated, such as a render target, e.g. frame (a “work item” in this case would be usually a vertex or a sampling position (e.g. in the case of a fragment shader)). Where the graphics processing pipeline is being used for “compute shading” (e.g. under OpenCL or DirectCompute) then the work items will be appropriate compute shading work items. This shader operation generally enables a high degree of parallelism, in that a typical render output, e.g. frame, features a rather large number of work items (e.g. vertices or fragments), each of which can be processed independently.
In graphics shader operation, each work item is processed by means of an execution thread which will execute the shader program in question for the work item in question. As there will typically be a large number of work items (e.g. vertices or sampling positions), and thus corresponding threads, to be processed for a given shader program, a graphics processing system can be considered to be a massively multi-threaded system.
The Applicants have recognised that many graphics shader programs will include operations (expressions) that will produce identical values for sets of plural threads to be executed (e.g. for every thread in a draw call).
For example, the OpenGL ES vertex shader:
uniform mat4 a;uniform mat4 b;uniform mat4 c;attribute vec4 d;void main( ){ gl_Position = a * b * c * d;}will produce identical values for the computation of “a*b*c” for each thread (where each thread represents a given vertex), as the data inputs are uniform variables. Thus if this computation could be executed once and the result shared between plural threads, the execution of the shader program could be made more efficient.
The Applicants have previously proposed in their earlier UK patent application no. GB-A-2516358 the use of a “pilot” shader program to execute once expressions that will produce identical values for a set of plural threads (e.g. for a draw call), and then a “main” shader program which executes for each work item, using the results of the “pilot shader” instead of recalculating the common expressions each time.
However, notwithstanding this, the Applicants believe that there remains scope for improvements to execution of shader programs in graphics processing pipelines that include one or more shader stages.
Like reference numerals are used for like components where appropriate in the drawings. | {
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Lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, the mask may contain a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g. comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system, one at a time. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion in one go; such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper. In an alternative apparatus, commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the projection beam in a given reference direction (the “scanning” direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. Since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally <1), the speed V at which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic devices as described herein can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,792, incorporated herein by reference.
In a manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus, a mask pattern is imaged onto a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). Prior to this imaging step, the substrate may undergo various procedures, such as priming, resist coating and a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures, such as a post-exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake and measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This array of procedures is used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device, e.g., an IC. Such a patterned layer may then undergo various processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, chemo-mechanical polishing, etc., all intended to finish off an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure, or a variant thereof, will have to be repeated for each new layer. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing, whence the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc.
For the sake of simplicity, the projection system may hereinafter be referred to as the “lens”; however, this term should be broadly interpreted as encompassing various types of projection systems, including refractive optics, reflective optics, and catadioptric systems, for example. The radiation system may also include components operating according to any of these design types for directing, shaping or controlling the projection beam of radiation, and such components may also be referred to below, collectively or singularly, as a “lens”. Further, the lithographic apparatus may be of a type having two or more substrate tables (and/or two or more mask tables). In such “multiple stage” devices the additional tables may be used in parallel, or preparatory steps may be carried out on one or more tables while one or more other tables are being used for exposures. Twin stage lithographic apparatus are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,441, incorporated herein by reference.
The photolithographic masks referred to above comprise geometric patterns corresponding to the circuit components to be integrated onto a silicon wafer. The patterns used to create such masks are generated utilizing CAD (computer-aided design) programs, this process often being referred to as EDA (electronic design automation). Most CAD programs follow a set of predetermined design rules in order to create functional masks. These rules are set by processing and design limitations. For example, design rules define the space tolerance between circuit devices (such as gates, capacitors, etc.) or interconnect lines, so as to ensure that the circuit devices or lines do not interact with one another in an undesirable way. The design rule limitations are typically referred to as “critical dimensions” (CD). A critical dimension of a circuit can be defined as the smallest width of a line or hole or the smallest space between two lines or two holes. Thus, the CD determines the overall size and density of the designed circuit. Of course, one of the goals in integrated circuit fabrication is to faithfully reproduce the original circuit design on the wafer (via the mask).
Another goal is to be able to utilize the same “process” for imaging a given pattern with different lithography systems (e.g., scanners) without having to expend considerable amounts of time and resources determining the necessary settings of each lithography system to achieve optimal/acceptable imaging performance. As is known, designers/engineers spend a considerable amount of time and money determining the optimal settings of a lithography system (e.g., scanner), which include numerical aperture (NA), σin, σout, etc., when initially setting up a given process to work with a particular scanner so that the resulting image satisfies the design requirements. Indeed, this is often a trial and error process wherein the scanner settings are selected and the desired pattern is imaged and then measured to determine if the resulting image is within specified tolerances. If not, the scanner settings are adjusted and the pattern is imaged once again and measured. This process is repeated until the resulting image is within the specified tolerances.
However, as each scanner, even identical model types, exhibit different optical proximity effects (OPEs) when imaging a pattern, the actual pattern imaged on the substrate differs from scanner to scanner due to the different OPEs. For example, different OPEs associated with given scanners can introduce significant CD variations through pitch. As such, it is not possible to simply utilize either scanner to image a given pattern, as the resulting image can vary considerable. Thus, if it is desirable to utilize a different scanner to print a given pattern, the engineers must optimize or tune the new scanner, so that the resulting image satisfies the design requirements. Currently, this is typically accomplished by a trial and error process, which as noted above, is both expensive and time consuming.
As such, there is a need for a method for optimizing a process for imaging a given pattern that allows the process to be utilized with different lithography systems that does not require a trial and error process to be performed to optimize the process and scanner settings for each individual scanner. In other words, there is a need for a method for optimizing the imaging performance of multiple scanners with respect to a given target mask that does not require a trial and error optimization process. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for mounting multiple optical elements, such as mirrors, beam splitters, lenses, gratings, filters and the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical mount which holds cylindrical and planar optical elements at angular offsets from either of two orthogonal orientations.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of adjustable mounting apparatus for supporting optical components, such as mirrors, beam splitters, lenses, gratings, and the like, is known. The use of adjustable mounting or clamping devices is a common technique in the field of experimental optics. Such mounts are used to position optical elements, such as mirrors, beam splitters, lenses and gratings, light sources and other optical devices. Since these devices do not conform to a standard set of dimensions, each may require its own mount. The requirements are further complicated by the fact that each optical element has to be positioned at a precise orientation and location to each other and to the optical bench.
Optical mounts comprise a pair of generally parallel plates, of which one of the plates is fixed to a surface or base and the other plate is adjustably suspended from the first plate. The second plate may be mounted using a "six-point suspension," where adjustment of the perpendicular distance between the plates at each of the three suspension points can provide for fine adjustments to the orientation of the second plate. The ability to perform minute adjustments, on the order of a few arc seconds, to the orientation of an optical element is particularly necessary, in applications such as interferometry, holography, and optical communication where precise collumnation of a laser beam(s) is necessary.
Typically, optical mounts incorporating a "six-point suspension" system are fabricated from metal, machined to close tolerances, and are thus expensive. Many such mounts are required in even the most elementary set-ups. Compounding the costs associated with precision optical set-ups is the fact that each mount typically requires an expensive adaptor to hold optical elements of different shapes and sizes.
Thus, there is a need for a optical mount that is inexpensive and capable of accommodating various shapes and sizes of optical elements. There is a further need for an optical mount which permits fine adjustments to the mounting surface such as those associated with a "six-point suspension." | {
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Induction devices are used in a variety of electronic components such as transformers, choke coils, inductors, or noise suppression components. Most of the induction devices consist of a core including a soft ferromagnetic material and one or more coils surrounding the core. This induction device is optimized depending on the type to operate at a desired frequency from the direct-current (DC) frequency to the GHz frequency.
In particular, the soft magnetic material is selected as the material of the core, depending on a combination of required characteristics, availability of a material in the form that can be effectively manufactured, and required size/cost necessary to be used in a given market.
In general, preferable soft magnetic materials represent characteristics of high saturation induction, high permeability and low core loss, to minimize size and low saturation coercivity of a core, and the silicon steel sheets, ferrite, amorphous metal, etc., are known as the kinds of the soft magnetic materials.
Specifically, the silicon steel sheet materials are cheap and have a high density, but are limited to have a large core loss in high-frequency use. In addition, since the ferrite has a low saturation flux density, and a poor temperature characteristic, it is not suitable for use of high power components such as high-capacity inverters, coil parts of power sources, and distribution transformers.
Meanwhile, the amorphous metal has a constituent atom having a disordered structure similar to the liquid state, and is manufactured by rapid cooling of molten liquid metal to thus represent various characteristics different from the existing crystalline materials, in particular, show excellent soft magnetic properties.
The amorphous metal is largely classified into iron (Fe)-based metal, cobalt (Co)-based metal, etc., depending on the main ingredient thereof. The Fe-based amorphous metal has a high saturation flux density and a small core loss when compared to those of the silicon steel sheet. Accordingly, the Fe-based amorphous metal is used in a large capacity pole transformer or in a high frequency large magnetic core. The Co-based amorphous metal has a high permeability, and a core loss and coercivity, and thus is used as a high frequency small magnetic core.
Moreover, the amorphous metal has a small core loss and a small eddy current loss when compared to other soft magnetic materials, and thus has been highlighted as the soft magnetic material for magnetic cores on behalf of silicon steel sheets or ferrite. The amorphous metal is excellent in view of high-efficiency, high frequency characteristics due to eddy current losses such as large electrical specific resistivity, noise suppression characteristics by high permeability and high saturation flux density, DC bias characteristics, and responsiveness required for miniaturization.
Products with low core loss characteristics are choke cores, high-frequency transformers for use in inverters, distribution transformers, various reactors, etc. Products using high permeability characteristics are pulse transformers, step-up transformers, audio transformers, current transformers, noise filters, etc. In this case, magnetic cores are classified into a relatively small-capacity gap type toroidal shape core and a relatively large-capacity rectangular shape cut core.
The amorphous metal is supplied as a thin continuous ribbon having a generally uniform ribbon width. However, since the amorphous metal is a very mild material, it is not easy to cut or mold the amorphous metal. If the amorphous metal is annealed to ensure peak magnetic properties, amorphous metal ribbons show noticeably great brittleness. The noticeably great brittleness makes it difficult to use conventional methods and causes costs to rise up to form bulk amorphous magnetic members.
The amorphous metal forming amorphous magnetic cores represents superior magnetic properties to other ferromagnetic materials, but has the difficulty in processing materials due to the above-described physical characteristics. In other words, the manufacturing tools may cause excessive wear at the time of performing a cutting process of forming a gap that gives unique magnetic properties in the conventional amorphous toroidal core or amorphous cut core.
In addition, in the case of the amorphous cut core, the amorphous ribbon is wound and impregnated and then fixed with a glue, to then undergo a cutting process for forming a gap, and a process of polishing a cut surface. This causes a problem of destructing insulation of the cut surface to thus increase the eddy current loss.
Meanwhile, the Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2005-67222 proposed a method of cutting an amorphous metal strip material to form a number of flat thin plates, respectively, to then laminating and aligning the flat thin plates in order to form bulk amorphous metal magnetic components (that is, thin plate laminates) having a three-dimensional shape, and annealing the thin plate laminates in order to improve the magnetic properties, to then bond the thin plate laminates with an adhesive.
The thin plate laminates are formed of only a number of amorphous metal thin plates in the Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2005-67222, and thus gaps and parallel states of the respective thin plate laminates with respect to the adjoining thin plate laminates are adjusted by using a retaining member to thus be mechanically assembled, for example, when the thin plate laminates are joined (or combined) with each other, to thus form a magnetic core (or a magnetic circuit) of a rectangle with a combination of an ‘E-I type, a ‘C-I’ type, or four I types.
Adhesives are used or bands and housings are proposed as the retaining member, in order to prevent a high stress that will result in the degradation of the magnetic properties such as permeability and core loss from being added to the components.
The above-described Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2005-67222 proposed a method of using a lithographic etching process in thin plates of complex shapes and using a stamping process in thin plates of large and simple shapes when cutting amorphous metal strip materials.
However, the lithographic etching process results in an increase in a machining cost to thus make it difficult to be applied to large-scale thin plates. In the case that the complex and large-scale thin plates such as E-, U-, and C-type thin plates employ a stamping machining method, although a punch and a die are configured by using a material having higher hardness than that of the amorphous metal, the wear of the punch and the die is caused in a mass-production process of machining a large number of thin plates, to thereby fail to ensure durability, and result in a rise in machining costs. Thus, a method of sufficiently ensuring the durability of machining equipment is required.
In addition, when the thin plate laminates are joined (or combined) to thus form (or temporarily assemble) a magnetic core (that is, a magnetic circuit) of a rectangle combined with four I shapes, while inserting a spacer in an air gap, and then the magnetic core (or the magnetic circuit) is fixed by a retaining unit such as a band, the two I-type thin plate laminates facing each other are required to be temporarily assembled while maintaining a state parallel to a pre-set interval. However, a structure or method of implementing the required two I-shaped thin plate laminates while maintaining high productivity has not been presented.
Moreover, even if the magnetic core (or the magnetic circuit) such as ‘E-I’ type and ‘C-I’ type is formed (or temporarily assembled) by inserting a spacer into an air gap, a structure of keeping the temporarily assembled state while ensuring a precise air gap similarly to the above-described case is not presented at all.
In addition, when a plurality of thin plate laminates are combined so as to form a magnetic circuit, a mechanical stress is added to the amorphous thin plate laminates, to thus cause a problem of increasing a core loss. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to a digital communication system of the type using error correction codes and, more particularly, to a digital communcation system which includes an improved scrambler/descrambler.
In a digital communication system of the type described, a transmitter station passes an input data signal through a scrambler to randomize it. Then, the random signal passes through an encoder to error-correction encode the scrambler output. The encoder output is sent to a receiver station via a transmission path. The receiver station, in turn, routes the received data signal through a decoder to error-correction decode it. Then, it passes through a descrambler to randomize the decoder output to thereby recover the original data signal.
As will be described later in detail, the descrambler comprises a shift register, with an inhibit circuit connected to intermediate taps of the shift register. An Exclusive-OR gate (modulo 2 adder) is connected to intermediate taps of the shift register and to an output of the inhibit circuit. The incoming data signal is applied to the shift register by way of the Exclusive-OR gate. Also, the intermediate tap output of the shift register is fed back to the shift register via the Exclusive-OR gate. The problem encountered with such a construction is that data errors developed in the transmission path are magnified by the descrambler at the receiver station. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention is in the field of data processing systems and, more particularly, data processing systems and electronic devices that employ active heat dissipation devices.
2. History of Related Art
Notebook computers, personal data administrators (PDAs), cellular telephones and an increasing number of emerging data processing devices may be characterized as mobile electronic devices that are inevitably but undesirably exposed to a wide range of environmental conditions. For such mobile devices, reliability is a particularly significant concern. The presence of environmental moisture, dust particulates, and other types of corrosive pollutants contribute to the failure rate for mobile devices particularly in components such as ribbon connectors used to connect displays, keyboards, optical disc drives, and track points to a central planar such as a motherboard or electronic circuit card.
In addition, there is evidence suggesting that the environments in which mobile devices have proliferated are environments that present problems not just for mobile data processing systems, but for the users of those systems as well. Mobile devices, for example, are extremely popular in developing economies where wire-based infrastructures may not exist. These environments are frequently subject to less than stringent environmental regulation. As a result, personal air purifiers are widely used in these locations. Even in highly regulated environments the awareness of these particulates has increased. Unfortunately, even the most recent and smallest personal air purifiers present a drawback in that they must be worn by or somehow attached to the user.
It would be desirable to implement a data processing system that addressed the reliability issues noted above. These reliability issues stem from corrosion of electrical contacts resulting in functional failures due to the environmental presence of environmental pollutants such as SO2, NO2, NH3, Cl2, and H2S as well as others. It would be further desirable if the implemented system also had a positive impact on the user's personal environment by reducing undesirable particulates that may affect long term health effects related to asthma, allergens, noxious fumes, and other pathogens of both synthetic and natural sources. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In many organic compounds, such as linear alkylbenzenes, trace amounts of unsaturation can cause undesirable by-products in downstream reactions. Since the exact nature of the unsaturation may vary and may even be unknown, indirect methods of measuring unsaturation are typically used. One well-known method of measuring trace unsaturation is the Bromine Index and is based on the fact that any chemical that can react with bromine at 0° C. in less than 15 minutes will cause an increase in Bromine Index. The measurement of Bromine Index is described in detail in ASTM D2710, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The Bromine Index indirectly measures the olefin content of aromatic containing hydrocarbon samples using potentiometric titration. Specifically, the Bromine Index is defined as the number of milligrams of bromine consumed by 100 grams of hydrocarbon sample.
Linear alkylbenzenes are used in the commercial production of detergents by a process involving sulfonation. In this process, excessive unsaturation in the linear alkylbenzene can result in undesirable discoloration of the detergent, typically as measured by its Klett color rating. As a result, linear alkylbenzenes used in detergent production are typically required to have a Bromine Index less than 10.
Linear alkylbenzenes are typically produced by contacting benzene with a long-chain (having more than 10 carbon atoms) alpha-olefin in the presence of a supported acid catalyst or a solid acid catalyst. However, this process frequently produces linear alkylbenzenes with Bromine Index values significantly in excess of 10 and sometimes in excess of 50. Thus additional processing to reduce the Bromine Index may be required.
Clays have been used for many years in the commercial treatment of organic products, such as paraffins, benzene, toluene and xylene, to reduce their Bromine Index. However, linear alkylbenzenes (LAB) are much larger molecules with higher molecular weight and the residual olefinic compounds can be highly substituted such that the activation of the olefinic group is sterically hindered. As a result, the treatment of LAB product with clays has resulted in relatively low catalyst activity and short cycle life at low temperatures and excessive cracking activity at higher temperatures resulting in lower yield of LAB after treatment.
More recently, zeolites, and particularly large pore zeolites, have been proposed as replacements for clays in the removal of bromine reactive contaminants from organic feedstocks. Thus, for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,550 discloses the use of aluminosilicate zeolites to remove trace olefins from aromatic and naphthenic feedstocks so as to reduce the Bromine Index of the feedstocks from initial values of 50 to 2000 to final values of 0.1 to 50. Among the feedstocks mentioned as suitable in the '550 patent are C16 to C20 linear alkylbenzenes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,031,144 discloses a two-step process for reducing the residual olefin content of an alkylation reaction product of a single-ring aromatic hydrocarbon with an at least C16 olefin in which at least a portion of a non-alkylated single-ring aromatic hydrocarbon is removed in a first step; followed by a second step in which the remaining reaction product is reacted in the presence of an acidic catalyst to produce a final alkylation reaction product having reduced olefin content.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,219 discloses a multi-stage process for producing linear alkylbenzenes in which benzene is alkylated with a C6 to C20 linear olefin in a first alkylation stage with a first fluorided silica-alumina catalyst at a first temperature and then at least part of the first alkylation stage effluent is reacted in a second alkylation stage with a second fluorided silica-alumina catalyst at a second temperature higher than the first temperature. The second alkylation stage converts polymeric by-products in the first alkylation stage effluent to heavy alkylate which is separated from the LAB product in a downstream separation step.
According to the invention, it has now been found that a catalyst which contains zeolite Y catalyst which has an alpha value of 2 to 30 is particularly effective in reducing the Bromine Index of linear alkylbenzene products, especially in the presence of the benzene and n-paraffin impurities conventionally present in the direct effluent of an LAB manufacturing plant. Thus, using the process of the invention, it has been possible to reduce the Bromine Index of a linear alkylbenzene product from in excess of 80 to less than 10 using zeolite Y catalyst, or preferably an ultrastable zeolite Y (USY) catalyst. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In the oil and gas industry, after drilling a wellbore it is common practice to line the wellbore with one or more strings of pipe known in the industry as “casing,” and secure the casing in the wellbore with cement pumped into the annulus defined between the casing and the wall of the wellbore. In some cases, two or more strings of casing are concentrically positioned in the wellbore and cement is pumped in between the casings and the wellbore annulus to secure the casings within the wellbore.
Good cement bonding characterization between the casing and the wellbore, and also the location and distribution of other classes of materials and their characterization, is essential and particularly critical in the case of plug and abandonment operations. For instance, accurately characterizing the materials or substances disposed within the annulus, and determining their azimuthal and depth distributions throughout the wellbore may help an operator determine a preferred location to cut the casing so that upper portions of the casing may be pulled out of the wellbore. More particularly, determining the azimuthal and depth location of particular materials present within the annulus may help determine where the casing is relatively “free,” or has little resistance to being extracted (pulled) from the well after it is excised from lower. It is also desirable to estimate the forces required to extract cut casing when portions of the casing are covered entirely or in part by solids and/or gelled materials that increase the friction existing between the casing and materials in the annulus.
Past methods to accomplish this include using data acquired from cement bond logging tools, such as omni-directional or sectored/segmented logging tools, and ultrasonic measurement tools. Cement bond logging tools and ultrasonic measurement tools, however, are unable to make accurate determinations of the presence of certain substances in the wellbore annulus, such as settled drilling fluid (“mud”) solids. Over a period of years from the initial completion of the well to the time of well abandonment, drilling fluids left in place in the wellbore annulus deteriorate and precipitate the suspended weighting materials, which often accumulate between concentric or overlapping layers of casing. These solids can act as a binding agent that makes it harder to extract cut casing above a cutting depth.
By relying only on acoustic measurements, the identification of such solids is often inaccurate, if not impossible. This is because acoustic sensor readings for such solids fail to provide significant contrast to adjacent materials present in the wellbore annulus at a suitable level sufficient for identification purposes. This often results in the incorrect determination of the character of materials within the annulus and, therefore, a resulting miscalculation of optimal or feasible cutting forces required to extract the casing. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand-held drive-in tool for driving fastening elements in a workpiece and including a drive-in ram, a guide in which the drive-in ram is displaceable, a driving unit for displacing the drive-in ram and having at least one driving element that displaces the drive-in ram, a device for tensioning the at least one driving element.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the drive-in tools of the type described above, a mechanical driving spring, which can be tensioned by a tensioning mechanism, serves as a driving source for the drive-in ram. It is advantageous that the mechanical driving spring is inexpensive so that a drive-in tool of this kind can be produced economically. Further, mechanical springs have the advantage over gas springs that consists in that tensioning of the mechanical spring does not lead to increases in temperature as is the case in gas springs, and that a tensioned spring does not lose the stored energy for a long time, whereas in a gas spring, the energy is gradually lost because of leakage.
However, compared to gas springs, mechanical springs have the disadvantage that when tension is released quickly they lose a considerable portion of the energy stored in the spring because this energy must be expended for accelerating the spring own mass. Since the mass of a mechanical spring is much greater than that of a gas spring, this loss is much greater compared to gas springs. Since an impact process which occurs in the drive-in tools considered herein leads to a very quick release of tension in the spring, the phenomenon described above is very noticeable.
A drive-in tool of the type discussed above is disclosed in DE 40 13 022 A1. This drive-in tool has an impact mechanism which can be driven toward a tool muzzle by a spring for impacting a nail to drive the nail in. An adjusting device for returning the impact mechanism into its initial position has an electric motor and a speed reduction mechanism for the electric motor. A rotary movement of the electric motor is transmitted by the speed reduction mechanism and a toothed disk meshing with the latter, to a hammer body of the impact mechanism for transferring the impact mechanism against the force of the spring into the initial position in which the impact mechanism is ready for an impact process.
The known drive-in tool is disadvantageous in that the ram speed cannot exceed 15 to 20 m/s, which is not sufficient for applications requiring a setting energy higher than 10 to 20 J, e.g., for setting in steel or concrete. This is a result of the circumstance described above that the mechanical spring must expend a portion of the stored energy for accelerating the spring own mass so that this portion of energy cannot be used for accelerating the impact device. Attempting to increase the impact speed of the drive-in tool by providing a stronger spring of the same design only increases the spring own mass, which increases the energy lost in accelerating the spring own mass so that no increase in speed is achieved in the end result.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to develop a drive-in tool which avoids the disadvantages discussed above and which makes it possible to increase the drive-in speed while retaining a high drive-in energy by employing simple technical means. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cutting element for a rotary cutting machine comprising a multiplicity of adjacent cutting members each of which is intended, during cutting, to rotate about an upwardly directed respective axis, said cutting element comprising:
an active zone intended to cut plants, and
a connecting zone intended to connect said cutting element to a support of a respective one of said cutting members of said machine.
2. Discussion of the Background
A cutting element such as this is already known to those skilled in the art. Specifically, document WO 99/18769 describes a disk mower equipped with blades each comprising:
a substantially flat first end with a hole for pivotally connecting said blade to a shaft formed at the periphery of the respective disk of the mower,
an also substantially flat second end equipped with two cutting edges, and
a connecting zone connecting the first end and the second end,
the first end and the second end lying in respective planes which are substantially parallel and offset one with respect to the other.
One of the specific features of this known blade lies in the fact that the connecting zone has a substantially chevron-shaped profile, the purpose of which is to increase the bending strength of said blade.
Those skilled in the art know, from experience, that the wear on a cutting element during work causes the cutting edge to shift gradually toward the vertical mid-plane of said cutting element. On this known blade, said gradual shift means that the part of the cutting edge located in the connecting zone moves back up along the slope of the chevron. The part of the cutting edge located at the second end for its part remains in a plane substantially parallel to the ground. In consequence, as soon as wear begins, the cutting height along one and the same blade no longer remains uniform, which results in a quality of work which very quickly deteriorates.
The object of the present invention is to overcome this drawback while allowing the cutting element to retain increased bending strength.
To this end, the cutting element of the present invention which comprises:
a first zone known as the active zone which extends at one end of said cutting element and which is intended to cut plants, and
a second zone known as the connecting zone which extends at the other end of said cutting element and which is intended to connect said cutting element to the support of the respective cutting member,
wherein the connecting zone has, in cross section:
a relatively flat central part,
a first edge inclined toward one side of a plane of extension of said central part, and
a second edge inclined toward the other side of said plane of extension.
This profile with inclined edges gives the cutting element remarkable bending stiffness. The active zone, which is relatively flat, contains the entirety of the cutting edge(s). In spite of the inevitable progression of wear, the cutting height remains substantially uniform across the entire length of the cutting element. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to optical sensing of labels on rotating labeled containers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As an adjunct in consideration of the predication of the present invention, consider various well-known practices for the packaging and display of beverage bottles and cans, such as for soft drinks and beer. As is known, beverage bottles and cans are frequently marketed in cluster packages, such as the well-known six-pack, and the emerging two-pack of larger containers. The well-known six-pack may be a cardboard wrap, in whch the ends are open; or it may be High-cone (TM), in which cans are held together by a thin molded network of soft plastic; or in a clear wrap, in which the containes are wrapped in a plastic which is then shrunk so as to grip them. In the latter two cases, there is no labeling of the cluster package, other than labeling on the individual containers therein; in the case of the cardboard wrap, cluster package labeling appears from a side view, but end view labeling is limited to the labeling on the individual containers. Quite obviously, since most round container labels (particularly bonded paper labels) cover only 120.degree. of the container periphery, there is a more than 50 percent chance that full product identification will not be readable on at least some of the containers when the cluster package is disposed on a shelf for viewing by consumers. It is, therefore, desirable and advantageous to rotate the containers before assemblage in the cluster package to ensure that any container labels which are to be used for product identification while on the display shelf are rotated in such a fashion that the labels bearing product identification will be clearly visible to the consumer.
When orienting labels, the containers may be preclustered on the packaging machine and may be rotated the desired amount prior to arriving at the first packaging station. The containers should be viewed in some fashion while being rotated, and the rotation ceased when the viewing apparatus detects that the package is in the proper position. The techniques of gripping and rotating containers have been well known for many years in the package handling arts. However, the technology of viewing and of processing the resulting signals has heretofore left much to be desired. For instance, the technology for utilizing normal white light, which thereby permits the use of relatively inexpensive and highly available television-type equipment, is most advantageous; on the other hand, optical considerations--such as reflections from minor flaws, changes in ambient light as a result of surrounding procedures, transients from many different sources and the like--create difficulties in producing signals in response to ordinary white light. Additionally, the economics of beverage packaging are extremely critical; although a single bottle, can or other container may be processed at one time or a single cluster (such as a six-pack) may be processed at one time, the cost of such processing relative to the production rate of packaging of six-packs and the like may be prohibitive, since the containers must be packaged at a rate commensurate with the rate of other processing on an automated line. The on-line sensing must be powerful enough to avoid reducing production rates below those which are permissible, and to avoid the need of several computers or other signal processors.
In the container handling arts, apparatus is known which rotates containers, such as bottles and cans, and stops them in the desired position, either to check label registration (whether they be bonded paper labels or painted labels), or for other purposes. However, in such systems known to the art there is usually required a special sensing mark of some sort on the container, and most such devices are capable of orienting only one container at a time. Obviously, a multiplicity of such devices would be required in the event of usage with an assembly line which processes a large number of bottles in parallel at one time.
Additionally, in the event that cluster packaging is involved, it is difficult to process a single container at a time since there is a need to have the containers arranged in clusters as well as being properly oriented at the time of packaging. When complex electronic equipment is involved, it is desirable to utilize the electronic equipment for as many containers in one processing batch as possible, to minimize the amount of equipment required in order to process sufficient containers at the processing rate of the overall system. In some systems, the processing of the containers is already provided for, and the orienting equipment is to be added thereto as a retrofit. In some of these systems, the clusters of containers (such as six-packs) may be processed broadside, that is, with the long side of the cluster (or six-pack) arranged in the forward and aft direction and the short sides facing laterally of the processing line. This presents additional difficulties to optical sensing equipment since the two center containers in a six-pack (for instance) are not available at the edges of the production line, and must be accommodated in a special fashion. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The advent of mobile communications devices (MCDs) such as cellular telephones has enabled telecommunication in a wide variety of environments previously not contemplated. MCDs have decreased in cost to become more common than conventional land-line telephones. Thus, the MCD is commonly seen in stores, malls, public squares, sporting events, and has become ubiquitous.
MCDs have also evolved to host somewhat related technologies, such as digital cameras, scanners, text messaging, and computer supported internet browsing and email access, for example. All these nascent technologies have thus become available to users in a variety of conventional day-to-day environments. Some have contemplated applications for use of mobile phones in a commercial environment, including effectuating commercial transactions; however, most of these concepts require additional hardware and/or software for the consumer and/or the merchant.
In Japan, some mobile phones now include computer software that enables the telephone to capture and read quick response (QR) matrix codes. This computer software may be bundled with the phone, programmed into the phone by the customer, or purchased as third party commercial software. An individual may then use the mobile phone to take a picture of or capture the QR code, decode it, and transmit the code and user's digital information to a remote system as a request for marketing materials to be sent to the user. This is primarily a one-way or uni-directional transaction with respect to digital information and does not extend beyond the registration of the request and the response of providing the marketing materials to the potential consumer; there is currently no provision for a payment system. QR matrix codes are also used in inventory management, transportation, etc., subject to a Japanese industry standard. Denso Wave, Inc., of Tokyo, Japan, is a commercial provider of software using the QR codes, and more information may be found at http://www.denso-wave.com/qrcode/app-prod-e.html.
PayPal™ mobile is a one-way text-only payment system commercially available through Paypal of San Jose, Calif., and is capable of being hosted on mobile phones. A user may send a text message from their MCD designating a monetary amount and requesting a transaction with another party, using their telephone number or email account. Along with the monetary amount and designated type of transaction, the user must provide a personal identification number for confirmation of the transaction. As noted above, the PayPal™ mobile system is uni-directional, text-only and does not use graphic images to convey data about a transaction. Upon submission of a transaction request, a PayPal operator will call the user to confirm the transaction. Thus, this system is not real-time or completely automated (see https://www.paypal.com/cgibin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/mobile/MobileOverview-outside).
Obopay™ is a mobile phone system, offered commercially by Obopay, Inc. of Redwood City, Calif., that enables certain transactions using money held in an “Obopay account” at a bank designated by Obopay™. The transactions include sending or receiving money between Obopay accounts and management of an Obopay™ Prepaid MasterCard®. The system generally relies on proprietary software for full functionality; the proprietary Obopay™ software must be installed on the mobile phone, making it inaccessible or difficult for most users, and some mobile phones do not support the technology. The Obopay™ system can also use SMS (“Short Messaging Service” or “Simple Messaging Service”) messaging or mobile phone internet access; however, users without the Obopay™ software must use web access (i.e., wap.obopay.com) from their mobile phone or non-graphic SMS text messaging. Commercial transactions are contemplated as relying on use of the prepaid credit card and not by direct mobile phone communication.
Other proposals have contemplated including the mobile phone in steps such as scanning bar codes (e.g., the universal product code), generating bar codes, decoding bar codes, communicating with merchant hosted communication systems (e.g., blue tooth, infra red), etc. A common drawback with these proposals is the requirement for additional hardware and/or software for the consumer's mobile phone and/or the merchant's point of sale (POS) technology. For example, conventional (i.e., off the shelf mobile phones may be able to photograph and capture images, but they currently are unable to scan and decode universal product codes. Further, some of these systems require multiple interfaces that complicate the digital information flow. Of course, such requirements would complicate implementation and slow the development of a standard system.
Unfortunately, there is not available a secure, global, two-way payment system that relies on off-the-shelf mobile phones, is capable of accepting either graphics or text to complete a transaction, does not require additional software and/or hardware to be loaded onto the mobile phone or the merchant's POS technology, does not require a secure network, provides for out-of-channel two-factor authentication of the transaction by the consumer and does not require the merchant to receive payment directly from the customer at the point of purchase.
By providing such a system and method, the present invention thereby benefits a variety of entities including, for example, online digital content publishing/sales entities, offline unattended kiosks, and offline small-to-medium sized entities (SMEs) where real-time credit card authentication is not practical for the merchant.
The present invention is a distributed system and method for handling payment in commercial transactions. The present invention uses existing, common technologies already in widespread, global use to implement a bi-directional flow of digital information to enable commercial transactions. Further, the present invention does not require additional software/hardware to be installed on user's mobile telephones.
Of course, a two-way system supporting bi-directional transactions will present security challenges greater than the single-way systems. The configuration of the present invention preferentially provides a secure two way flow of information. Two-factor authentication (originating cell phone and personal identification number (PIN)), for example, may provide consumer fraud protection greater than or equal to Verified-by-Visa or MasterCard SPA, while maintaining an easily used interface for the mobile phone user, making it ideal for teens and young adults.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a distributed payment system that relies on the mobile phone keypad, the mobile phone camera, and SMS messaging technology. This system enables payment, online or offline, for transactions with minimal key entry on the mobile phone keypad by using the camera phone and SMS capabilities, respectively, to capture and transmit images of bar codes displayed by the vendor. The transaction is communicated using globally-accepted, consistent technologies and protocols, which renders the payment system independent of the mobile phone carrier and accessible to global consumers. The payment system can be accepted by merchants anywhere in the world that mobile camera phones are used, or any environment having Internet connectivity. The payment system travels over common, non-premium wireless protocols, providing the basis for the low-cost transactions critical for micro- and small-payment support, as well as for rapid merchant adoption. While the present invention does not require it, the present invention can operate with MCDs that implement additional or substitute software and hardware functionality, such as, for example, barcode scanning technology. In such an embodiment, the MCD can scan codes from paper or electronic interfaces in order to acquire the code for later processing as detailed herein or, where acceptable capture of the bar-code is problematic, accept text entry of the alphanumeric universal product code. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In offshore drilling operations in deep water, the operator will perform drilling operations through a drilling riser string. The drilling riser string extends from a floating platform, such as a drilling ship, to a subsea wellhead or subsea tree assembly on the seafloor. The drilling riser string is made up of a number of individual riser joints or sections that are secured together to form the drilling riser string. The drilling riser string forms a central tube for passing a drill pipe from the floating platform to the wellhead on the sea floor. The drilling riser string normally has a number of auxiliary conduits that extend around the central tube. The auxiliary conduits may serve several purposes, such as supplying hydraulic fluid pressure to the subsea blowout preventer and lower marine riser package.
Typically, the central tube of a drilling riser joint has a pin member on one end and a box member on the other end. The pin end of one riser joint stabs into the box end of the adjoining riser joint. In one type of riser joint, flanges extend outward from the pin and box. The operator connects the flanges together with bolts spaced around the circumference of the coupling. In another type of riser, individual segments or locking segments are spaced around the circumference of the box. A screw is connected to each locking segment. Rotating the screw causes the locking segment to advance into engagement with a profile formed on the end of a pin.
In these systems, a riser spider or support on a riser deploying floor moves between a retracted position into an engaged position to support previously made-up riser joints while the new riser joint is being stabbed into engagement with the string. Wave movement can cause the vessel to be moving upward and downward relative to the riser when the riser is in operation.
In both types of risers, workers use wrenches to make up the bolts or screws. Personnel employed to secure the screws or the bolts are exposed to a risk of injury. Also, the process of making up the individual bolts is time consuming. Often when moving the drilling rig from one location to another, the riser has to be pulled and stored. In very deep water, pulling and rerunning the riser is very expensive.
A technique has been developed that uses a cam ring and dogs to secure drilling riser joints together. Each riser joint has a box end and a pin end. The pin end of one drilling riser joint is disposed within the box end of an adjoining drilling riser joint. The box ends of each drilling riser joint have dogs that are driven into engagement with the pin ends of the adjoining drilling riser joints by moving the cam ring axially. Friction between the dogs and the cam ring maintains the cam ring positioned to drive the dogs against the pin end of the adjoining drilling riser joint. No bolts or screws are used to connect drilling riser joints using this technique.
However, it is conceivable that friction may not be sufficient to maintain the cam rings at their desired axial positions so that the cam rings drive the dogs against the pin ends of the adjoining drilling riser joints. Were a cam ring to move from its desired axial position, its dogs could back out from the pin end of the adjoining drilling riser joint. If that were to occur, the drilling riser joints may disconnect from each other.
Therefore, a more effective technique is needed to secure drilling riser joints together. In particular, a technique is desired that would enable adjoining drilling riser joints to be connected quickly and remain connected during operation. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
This relates generally to imaging devices, and more particularly, to imaging devices having light flickering mitigation capabilities.
Image sensors are commonly used in electronic devices such as cellular telephones, cameras, and computers to capture images. In a typical arrangement, an electronic device is provided with an array of image pixels arranged in pixel rows and pixel columns. Circuitry is commonly coupled to each pixel column for reading out image signals from the image pixels.
The rows of image pixels each contain a photodiode for generating charge in response to image light. The image pixels can be configured to have light flickering mitigation capabilities. However, image pixels operating in a light flickering mitigation mode can have a set of unnecessarily long integration time periods, which can affect the effectiveness of light flickering mitigation.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide imaging devices with improved image sensors. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
One approach to the design and implementation of computer networks, particularly with regard to the development of client/server applications, includes designing client applications and client devices so that the majority of the heavily used resources are at a remote computing device, such as a centralized server, connected via a network. These client devices generally have minimal memory, disk storage, and processor power, but are designed under the premise that most users connected to a powerful server do not need the additional processing power. With these client devices, the total cost of ownership is minimized, because of the reduced resources and because the clients can be centrally administered and updated from the server.
In practice, because a server allows a user logging from a remote client device to access applications on the server, a user is required to establish his identity through an authentication mechanism. Well-known authentication mechanisms may include username/password combination, verification of biometric characteristic of the user (fingerprint, retina scan, etc.), removable security modules such as dongles and smartcards, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, and others.
These authentication techniques suffer from drawbacks that they may be cumbersome, may be perceived by some users as being intrusive (biometric scans) or may be expensive to implement because they require special sensors, software and/or hardware. Furthermore, these authentications may limit portability of a remote desktop session from one client device to another. A better method for authentication and portability of a remote session is needed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to safety devices, and in particular to a pull-back safety mechanism for presses and other similar machines.
Pull-back safety devices are used in conjunction with riveting, staking, eyeletting, resistance welding, metal forming, and a wide variety of other industrial operations in which stock material is manually inserted between converging machine parts. Such devices typically include tethers attached to the arms or wrists of the operator, and include a feed position wherein the operator is permitted sufficient limb movement to place the stock material between the converging parts, such as between mating die halves when the die is open. When the die halves are converged, the safety device is shifted to a safety position, wherein the hands of the operator, if still positioned between the converging machine parts, are pulled back from inbetween the die halves to prevent them from being injured.
Some pull-back safety devices shift between the feed and safety positions with the motion of the descending die. In this manner, the operator's hands are not completely retracted until the die halves are fully converged. These devices must be carefully adjusted for each individual operator to insure that his hands will not be caught between the die halves, even when the press is operated at maximum production speeds.
Other types of pull-back safety devices employ a reciprocating ram to shift the user's hands between the feed and safety positions. The ram is usually operated by a control circuit which activates the ram and draws the operator's hands back at the beginning of the press stroke. Although such devices retract the operator's hands as the stroke motion begins, if the ram should fail to operate, the hands of the press operator are not retracted. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Chrysanthemum plant, botanically known as Chrysanthemum×morifolium, commercially grown as a garden Chrysanthemum plant and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Bkgardyl’.
The new Chrysanthemum plant is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of the Chrysanthemum×morifolium ‘Bkgardrs’, not patented. The new Chrysanthemum plant was discovered by the Inventor in September, 2012 as a single flowering plant from within a population of plants of ‘Bkgardrs’ in a controlled greenhouse environment in Monster, The Netherlands.
Asexual reproduction of the new Chrysanthemum plant by vegetative tip cuttings was first conducted in Maasdijk, The Netherlands in December, 2012. Asexual reproduction by cuttings has shown that the unique features of this new Chrysanthemum plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This patent relates to a tray and post type packaging system for shipping and displaying palletized products. More particularly, this patent relates to a dividerless tray and post type packaging system in which the trays are reinforced with separate brace members.
2. Description of the Related Art
Palletized packaging systems suitable for both shipping products and displaying them at retail are well known. For example, Sonoco Products Company makes a tray and post type packaging system that is described in co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,066,342, incorporated herein by reference. The products in their primary packages (what the consumer actually buys) are arranged on the trays. The entire unit is self-supporting and may be displayed in the store aisle.
There are two general types of palletized packaging systems: those in which the trays are supported by the products themselves, and those in which the trays are supported wholly or partly by structural components, such as corner posts, partitions and dividers. The use of dividers between each tray can improve stacking strength, but can make it difficult for consumers to view the products.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a palletized packaging system for the shipping and display of products that has increased stacking strength and enhanced product visibility.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a packaging system that eliminates dividers by reinforcing the trays with separate brace members.
Further and additional objects will appear from the description, accompanying drawings, and appended claims. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
In the field of medical science and research, it is often necessary to seal and unseal the open ends of centrifuge tubes, test tubes, culture tubes and the like. Medical and research technicians use centrifuges for various purposes, but mainly for separating the compounds of a multi-component fluid. The tubes used for such centrifugal separation generally include conventional glass or plastic lab tubes, or plastic tubes specifically designed to be used in centrifuge machines.
The high speed of the centrifuge process, coupled with the need to retain and control specimens in the tubes, make sealing of the open ends of the tubes with sealing caps necessary to prevent spillage or leakage. Typical closures for sealing the open end of centrifuge tubes include snap caps, such as is shown in Gerken et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,219, screw caps, such as are employed for many containers; and stretchable caps, such as the stretchable cap disclosed in De Vaughn, U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,833.
When only small amounts of fluid are necessary to be centrifuged, microcentrifuge or ultracentrifuge tubes may replace normal test tubes thereby saving space and costs. Perhaps the most common microcentrifuge tubes are of the type manufactured by Bio Plas, Inc., which utilize either snap caps or screw-on caps. These snap cap tubes are available in a variety of sizes, depending on their purpose. They employ a snap cap structure including a transversely extending end wall with a cap skirt which extends into the open end of the tube. An annular protruding bead on the skirt engages and seals against the inside of the microcentrifuge tube. Screw cap tubes employ a tube body having a threaded exterior end which mates with interior threads on the cap.
Microcentrifuge tubes are used in centrifuges which operate at speeds of up to about 20,000 RPM. For some separation applications, however, even greater speeds are required. In recent years, therefore, ultracentrifuges have been developed in which angular velocities as high as 45,000 RPM are possible. Such ultracentrifuges require a tube which is closed more positively than the conventional snap caps used on microcentrifuge tubes. Moreover, as the centrifugal forces build in the ultracentrifuge range, the weight of the tube and its contents must be supported in a manner which will not force open the tube cap.
The small size and large quantity of microcentrifuge and ultracentrifuge tubes handled by lab technicians, makes snapping and unsnapping, or screwing and unscrewing the caps from the tubes quite tedious and monotonous. As the snap cap closure structure becomes more positive in its securement of the cap on the tube, the removal of the snap cap becomes quite difficult and possibly painful or injurious. The technician must grab a small protruding lip of the snap cap and pry off the cap by inserting fingertips or a prying tool between the tube and the cap. This repetitious prying technique becomes very cumbersome, and can be complicated by the need for the lab technician to wear gloves. Moreover, the process of prying snap caps off centrifuge tubes can cause contamination of the specimen in the tube.
Similarly, the screw-on cap microcentrifuge tubes require the user to properly align the screw-on caps to the tubes in order to engage the thread structure. This seemingly common task appears very simple; however, because of the small size of the objects and the shear volume in usage, the task, again, becomes quite tedious. Moreover, the screw-on caps are often misplaced between removal and remounting, rendering the tube unusable if the original cap or another cap cannot be located.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a centrifuge tube which is particularly suited for use in ultracentrifuges and to provide centrifuge tube and cap assembly in which the cap is more positively secured to the tube and the centrifugal forces are supported independently of the cap securement structure.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cap manipulating tool which can be used to remove the remount snap caps and screw caps from centrifuge tubes.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cap manipulating tool which is suitable for use in removing and remounting of positively secured snap caps from ultracentrifuge tubes.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for removing screw caps from microcentrifuge tubes and for retaining control of the caps for subsequent remounting on the tubes.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a cap manipulating tool which reduces the risks of injury and contamination and also reduces the tedium of removing and installing caps from centrifuge tubes.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and device which will reduce the time required for a technician to remove and install snap caps and screw caps on microcentrifuge tubes.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a centrifuge tube and a centrifuge tube cap manipulating tool which are durable, compact, easy to maintain, are disposable, have a minimum number of components and are economical to manufacture.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a centrifuge tube having a snap cap with an improved sealing structure suitable for use in an ultracentrifuge.
The device of the present invention has other objects and features of advantage which will become apparent from, and are set forth in more detail in, the description of the Best Mode of Carrying Out the Invention and the accompanying drawing. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
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