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Pressure-sensitive tapes are virtually ubiquitous in the home and workplace. In its simplest configuration, a pressure-sensitive tape comprises an adhesive and a backing, and the overall construction is tacky at the use temperature and adheres to a variety of substrates using only moderate pressure to form the bond. In this fashion, pressure-sensitive tapes constitute a complete, self-contained bonding system.
According to the Pressure-Sensitive Tape Council, pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are known to possess properties including the following: (1) aggressive and permanent tack, (2) adherence with no more than finger pressure, (3) sufficient ability to hold onto an adherend, and (4) sufficient cohesive strength to be removed cleanly from the adherend. Materials that have been found to function well as PSAs include polymers designed and formulated to exhibit the requisite viscoelastic properties resulting in a desired balance of tack, peel adhesion, and shear holding power. PSAs are characterized by being normally tacky at room temperature (e.g., 20° C.). PSAs do not embrace compositions merely because they are sticky or adhere to a surface.
These requirements are assessed generally by means of tests which are designed to individually measure tack, adhesion (peel strength), and cohesion (shear holding power), as noted in A. V. Pocius in Adhesion and Adhesives Technology: An Introduction, 2nd Ed., Hanser Gardner Publication, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2002. These measurements taken together constitute the balance of properties often used to characterize a PSA.
There are a wide variety of pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) materials available today that include natural crude or synthetic rubbers, block copolymers, and acrylic ester based polymeric compositions. Central to all PSAs is a desired balance of adhesion and cohesion that is often achieved by optimizing the physical properties of the adhesive, such as glass transition temperature and modulus. For example, if the glass transition temperature (Tg) or modulus of the elastomer is too high and above the Dahlquist criterion for tack (storage modulus of 3×106 dynes/cm2 at room temperature and oscillation frequency of 1 Hz), the material will not be tacky and is not useful by itself as a PSA material. Often in this case, low molecular weight, high Tg resin polymers (tackifiers) or low molecular weight, low Tg polymers (plasticizers) are often used to modulate the Tg and modulus into an optimal PSA range. | {
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This disclosure pertains to patches for repairing damage to structures, namely, self-stressing patches that use a combination of shape memory alloys (SMAs) and fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites.
Fatigue cracks form in steel structures due to cyclic loads such as wind, traffic, or machinery vibration. Under repeated loading cracks form and propagate which may compromise the integrity of the structure. Fatigue cracks initiate at locations of stress concentration such as notches, welded details or holes. Traditional methods of repairing cracked steel structures include bolting steel cover plates, drilling crack-stop holes (crack blunting), peening, or repair welding. The basic principal behind these approaches is to provide an alternate load path for stresses to bypass the crack tip, reduce the magnitude of stress concentrations near the crack tip, and/or to provide a residual compressive stress field near the crack tip to slow or halt crack propagation. However, these techniques require the use of heavy equipment and are often prone to crack re-initiation. Further, welding may be prohibited in some applications where there is a risk of explosion. Furthermore, all of these techniques require permanent, irreversible modification of the underlying structure.
Patching cracked steel members with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials, is emerging as an effective alternative to repair cracked steel structures. Externally bonded FRP patches do not require welding or bolting, can be applied without permanently modifying the parent structure, do not corrode, and add little dead load to the repaired member. Using this technique, the FRP patch is bonded across the crack with a structural adhesive. The FRP bridges the crack and reduces the stress range near the crack tip. The effectiveness of this repair method can be improved by prestressing the FRP patch thereby providing compressive stresses near the crack tip. Research has shown that using prestressed CFRP patches can completely halt crack propagation and extend the fatigue life of cracked steel members. However, the prestressing operation typically requires hydraulic jacks, pumps, and complex fixtures which can limit the applicability of this method in many practical applications. Some alternative approaches have been proposed which involve the use of specialized fixtures and threaded rods to achieve the prestressing force. However, these techniques are generally designed for global prestressing of an entire member rather than localized patching at a discrete crack location.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved device or method for applying prestressing forces to a FRP patch. | {
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The integration of wireless control systems into streetlights provides improved management and efficiency benefits. However, in-field installation and integration with control systems can be challenging particularly with the growing integration of smart city systems. Current sensor deployments within city infrastructure are cumbersome as they require separate infrastructure, power and can be costly to deploy. The overlay of sensors on streetlight infrastructure, particularly with the growth of the Internet of things (IOT) technologies, increases the demand for the streetlight infrastructure to provide additional functionality to support smart city systems.
There is therefore a need for an improved sensor platform for streetlights.
It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals. | {
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This invention relates to the art of examining a fluid property, and more particularly to viscosimeters and/or vibration densitometers. | {
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(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metal-ceramic composite article and a method of producing the same, and more particularly relates to a metal-ceramic composite article comprising a metal and a ceramic bonded with each other by fitting, and a method of producing the same.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Ceramics are hard and excellent in wear resistance, and further are excellent in mechanical strength and corrosion resistance at high temperatures. Therefore, ceramics can be used as structural material for a gas turbine rotor and turbocharger rotor, which are required to have high mechanical strength and wear resistance at high temperatures, and it has been investigated to use ceramics in gas turbine rotors and turchocharger rotors. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,445 discloses a turbine rotor whose blade and shaft are made of ceramics. In the turbine rotor of this structure, a threaded portion is formed at one end of the ceramic shaft, and a metallic impeller of a compressor is fixed thereto. However, the turbine rotor of this structure has a drawback that the threaded portion of the ceramic shaft is broken during the use of the turbine rotor due to the difference of the coefficients of thermal expansion between the metallic material which constitutes the impeller of the compressor, and the ceramic material which constitutes the shaft of the turbine rotor. Moreover, a high precision technique, requiring a long amount of time and a high cost are required for forming threads in the ceramic shaft. In order to overcome these drawbacks, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open Specification No. 92,097/82 discloses a turbine rotor having a structure, wherein its ceramic shaft is fitted into a hollow cylindrical portion formed at the end of its metallic shaft. However, this structure has a drawback that, when a ceramic shaft is fitted into a metallic hollow cylinder, whose outer surface has previously been hardened in order to improve the wear resistance of the contacting portion of the metallic shaft surface with a bearing, cracks are formed in the hardened surface portion. Further, when a hardening treatment, such as nitriding or the like, is carried out on the surface of a metallic shaft after the ceramic shaft has been fitted into the metallic shaft, the tightness of the fitted portion is decreased or the ceramic shaft is separated from the metallic shaft. Furthermore, when a ceramic shaft is fitted into a metallic shaft, and then the metallic shaft is subjected to a quenching treatment, the ceramic shaft is separated from the metallic shaft due to the phase transformation of the metallic shaft caused by the quenching. Therefore, in the above described structure, the wear resistance of the contacting portion of the metallic shaft surface with a bearing is poor, and the structure cannot be practically available. | {
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The present disclosure relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor and a method of manufacturing the same.
Examples of electronic components using ceramic materials include a capacitor, an inductor, a piezoelectric element, a varistor, and a thermistor.
A multilayer ceramic capacitor, a multilayer chip electronic component, is a chip-type condenser that is mounted on a printed circuit board of various electronic products such as display devices including liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma display panels (PDPs), computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones, and the like, to allow electricity to be charged therein and discharged therefrom.
A multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) is used in various types of electronic components since it is relatively small and can be easily mounted while implementing high capacitance. The multilayer ceramic capacitor may include a ceramic body in which a plurality of dielectric layers and internal electrodes are alternately laminated, and external electrodes. The external electrodes may be formed by applying a conductive paste on a surface of the ceramic body.
Recent advances in technologies of electronic products have led to an increasing demand for small, high-capacitance multilayer ceramic capacitors.
In order to implement high capacitance, the number of stacked internal electrodes needs to be increased, resulting in an increase in the size of the ceramic body.
In this case, an allowable range of external electrode thickness with respect to the entirety of a size of a multilayer ceramic capacitor including external electrodes installed in each product may be significantly reduced, and thus, it is necessary to reduce the thickness of the external electrodes.
However, external electrodes formed of copper-glass materials typically used in an existing ultra-thin, ultra-high capacitance multilayer ceramic capacitor may suffer from reliability problems due to the permeation of a plating solution when they are provided as thin films.
In order to address the reliability issue due to a reduction of density in the external electrodes when the thin films are applied, an attempt to increase the content of glass in the external electrodes has been made. However, an increase in the content of glass may cause low electrical conductivity with internal electrodes, non-plated portions due to poor plating, and soldering failures when the capacitor is mounted on a substrate.
Patent Document 1 discloses a multilayer ceramic capacitor including external electrodes having a double-layer structure, but fails to disclose a triple-layer structure in which two external electrode layers containing copper and glass are disposed in a region in contact with internal electrodes and a region to be plated, and one external electrode layer containing glass is disposed therebetween. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air-flow control device for an engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No, 63-143349 discloses an air-flow control device for an internal combustion engine having an intake passage and a fuel injector arranged in the intake passage for injecting fuel into the intake passage. The device includes an air-flow control valve arranged in the intake passage upstream of the fuel injector, and a driving apparatus for driving the air-flow control valve so as to close the air-flow control valve during an engine starting operation, and to open after the engine starting operation is finished.
In a typical engine having a throttle valve in the intake passage, when an engine starting operation is to be started, there exists a large amount of air in the intake passage downstream of the throttle valve, even if the throttle valve is substantially closed. In this condition, if the starting operation of the engine is started, this large amount of air is drawn into a combustion chamber of the engine, and thereby makes the air-fuel ratio in the combustion chamber extremely lean and causes improper combustion in the combustion chamber. As a result, a large amount of unburned HC could be exhausted into an exhaust passage of the engine. In particular, in an engine having a surge tank in the intake passage, a larger amount of air could be drawn into the combustion chamber at the starting operation of the engine, and thus, a larger amount of unburned HC could be exhausted into the exhaust passage. To solve this problem, in the air-flow control device mentioned above, the air-flow control valve is provided between the throttle valve and the fuel injector, and is made substantially closed to thereby prevent the combustion chamber from drawing a large amount of air during the engine starting operation. After the engine starting operation is finished, the air-flow control valve is made open so that a proper amount of air can be drawn into the combustion chamber.
In this connection, in the air-flow control device mentioned above, the driving apparatus for driving the air-flow control valve has a solenoid actuator that opens the valve when the engine starting operation completes. The solenoid actuator, however, complicates the construction of the driving apparatus and increases the cost thereof. | {
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Seismic data acquisition and processing techniques are used to generate a profile (image) of a geophysical structure (an horizon) of the strata underlying the land surface or seafloor (the earth subsurface). Among other things, seismic data acquisition involves the generation of acoustic waves and the collection of reflected/refracted versions of those acoustic waves to generate the image. This image does not necessarily provide an accurate location for oil and gas reservoirs, but it may suggest, to those trained in the field, the presence or absence of oil and/or gas reservoirs. Thus, providing an improved image of the subsurface in a shorter period of time is an ongoing process in the field of seismic surveying.
A somewhat more recent development in seismic acquisition is the use of so-called four-dimensional (4D) seismic surveying. 4D seismic surveying refers to the technique of taking one seismic survey of a particular geographical area at a first time (i.e., the baseline survey) and another seismic survey of the same geographical area at a later time (i.e., the monitor survey). The baseline survey and the monitor survey can then be compared for various purposes, e.g., to observe changes in the hydrocarbon deposits in a geographical area which has an active well operating therein. Different seismic surveys performed at different times for the same geographical area are also sometimes referred to as different “vintages”. In order for the comparison to be meaningful it is, therefore, important that the surveys be performed in a manner which is highly repeatable, i.e., such that the monitor survey is performed in much the same way (e.g., position of sources and receivers relative to the geography) as the baseline survey was performed.
Among other techniques used in 4D seismic data processing, is a technique known as 4D binning. 4D binning is a selection process in which the best matching subsets of traces within the full datasets acquired are identified. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the seismic arts, each “trace” refers to the seismic data recorded for one channel, i.e., between a source and a receiver. Currently performed as an early step in 4D seismic data processing, only the best matching subsets identified during the 4D binning process are considered for further seismic 4D comparison processes.
Conventional four-dimensional (4D) binning is performed in common mid-points, i.e., for each offset class and each mid-point bin, and only one, best-fitting coupled trace is kept for further 4D processing sequences. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the seismic arts, an “offset” refers to a distance relative to template of source and receiver lines used to perform the seismic acquisition. Offsets can be defined in various types or classes. For example, near offsets, mid offsets and far offsets are different classes of offsets which represent different (and increasing) distances from a shot point relative to the acquisition template. Additionally, a “mid-point bin” refers to a square or rectangular area which contains all of the midpoints that correspond to the same common midpoint. Fitting associated with selecting the best-fitting pair is calculated from various criteria, e.g., minimal source and receiver positioning misfit and minimal time-window normalized root mean square (NRMS) error between seismic traces. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, an NRMS error criterion refers to the RMS value of the difference between two input traces, normalized by the RMS values of the two input traces.
When performing 4D seismic data processing, it is desirable to select geological horizons in the vicinity of expected 4D changes, i.e., differences between the monitor survey and the baseline survey which are expected due to, e.g., the extraction of hydrocarbons. Selected target horizons, such as a reservoir horizon, are generally buried under laterally heterogeneous overburden and may carry proper dips. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, “dips” in this context refer to subsurface reflecting layers which have interfaces which are not perfectly horizontal. Then, with such media features, the midpoint is no longer the reflection point. Consequently, conventional 4D binning could select a couple of traces containing useless diffraction on target traces and discard the specular traces (obeying Snell-Descartes law of reflection) that carry the most important reflective information.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide systems and methods that avoid the afore-described problems and drawbacks associated with the improvement of seismic images based on preserving specular reflections on a depth target from 4D binning process. | {
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1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to resilient contact terminals and in particular to a zero on/zero off cam actuated connector assembly.
2. The Prior Art
There are many instances when it is highly desirable to have a low insertion force while mating electrical contacts. Many attempts have been made to solve this problem with various contact and housing configurations designed for mating with different arrays of fixed terminals.
A spring grip contact assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,783 in which a housing has a cover portion adapted to act on spring terminals to squeeze them into a position where they can accept terminal posts through aligned apertures. The housing is released, after mating, allowing the spring terminals to return toward their normal relaxed condition tightly gripping the terminal posts. | {
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Wound healing requires the recruitment of specialized cells to the site of the wound for the purposes of accomplishing such tasks as blood coagulation, immune responses, inflammation and tissue repair. Platelets adhere to a wound and aid in clot formation within minutes of an injury. The phagocytic cells (leukocytes and macrophages) then debride the wound, followed by the connective tissue cells (fibroblasts and smooth muscle-like cells) which proliferate and deposit extracellular matrix. The cells involved in the wound healing process produce and/or release factors which aid in the process.
Chemotaxis is the directed migration of a cell along a gradient toward the source of a chemical. A chemoattractant is a chemical which specifically stimulates chemotaxis. It is believed that it is the sequential production of cell type-specific chemoattractants which is responsible for the ordered recruitment of phagocytes, fibroblasts and endothelial cells to the wound. For example, platelet factor 4, elastin peptides and certain synthetic N-formylmethionyl peptides attract phagocytes (neutrophils and monocytes). Fibronectin and platelet-derived growth factor summon matrix producing cells and the former also stimulates endothelial cell migration.
Several biochemical events determine a cell""s ability to respond to a chemoattractant, e.g. a growth factor. First, the chemoattractant molecules must be produced in a manner which allows them to reach the target cells desired for migration. Second, the target cells must be capable of detecting the chemoattractant, i.e. via receptors. Third, the binding of the chemoattractant to an appropriate receptor must in some way signal the target cell to move to the desired site, i.e. wound.
The proliferation of connective tissues at the wound is promoted by various types of growth factors. Competence factors (platelet derived growth factor, fibroblast growth factor and leukocyte derived growth factors) activate quiescent cells in the Go phase of the cell cycle enabling them to respond to progression factors. Progression factors, e.g. insulin, somatonedin A or C, alveolar macrophage-derived growth factor, stimulate the cells to enter the S-phase of the cell cycle.
Mitogens are agents which induce mitosis of a cell leading to cell growth or proliferation. Growth factors may be mitogenic, chemotactic, or both mitogenic and chemotactic, i.e. a mitoattractant. Even further, a growth factor may be a mitogen for one type of cells yet be a chemo- or mitoattractant for another type of cells. For example, platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) is both a chemoattractant and a mitogen for connective cells. Epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factors a and xcex2, somatonedins A and C, and insulin are growth factors which are mitogenic for fibroblast cells and yet EGF is a mitoattractant for intestinal epithelial cells. The complex nature of the functions of the various growth factors make them an interesting and important field of study.
Presently, PDGF is a growth factor which has been studied extensively. PDGF has some limitations regarding its usefulness in wound repair. First, PDGF is a dimeric glycosylated protein which is difficult and expensive to produce. Second, PDGF is a relatively large molecule which also makes it more difficult to produce recombinantly or chemically than smaller molecules.
The present invention pertains to a novel protein, Leukocyte Derived Growth Factor 2 (hereinafter LDGF2) having PDGF-like activity. LDGF2 reacts with PDGF receptors and possesses mitogenic and/or chemotactic activity for various cell types, particularly connective tissue cells. LDGF2 may be used as the active ingredient in therapeutic compositions, e.g. wound healing compositions, or even further may be used as an additive to cell culture media for the purpose of stimulating cell growth.
LDGF2 may be purified from wound fluid or may be purified as a release product of activated human monocytes. The protein has a molecular weight of about 7000 daltons determined by SDS gel electrophoresis and is about 61 amino acids in length. The relatively small size of the protein is advantageous in that it is easier to produce than its larger, glycosylated PDGF counterpart. LDGF2 also is smaller than previously discovered Leukocyte Derived Growth Factor 1 (hereinafter LDGF1).
Leukocyte Derived Growth Factor 1 (hereinafter LDGF1) was previously described in copending application Ser. No. 07/472,377 filed on Feb. 1, 1990 now abandoned. LDGF1 and LDGF2 are structurally similar but distinct proteins in that the first 49 amino acids of each protein are the same. The last 12 amino acids of LDGF2 differ significantly from the corresponding portion of LDGF1. An interesting aspect of LDGF2 is that the first 49 amino acids represent a region that is responsible for LDGF1""s activity as a connective tissue mitoattractant.
Other aspects of this invention include isolated nucleic acid, i.e. DNA, coding for LDGF2, expression vectors designed to express LDGF2, host cells transformed to express LDGF2, methods of producing LDGF2, antibodies specifically reactive with LDGF2 and therapeutic compositions and cell culture media containing LDGF2. The preferred therapeutic compositions are wound healing compositions containing a wound healing effective amount of LDGF2 and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
Another important aspect of this invention pertains to the discovery that LDGF2 mRNA results from an intergenic exon exchange between the LDGF and PF4 genes and encodes two distinct polypeptides. The first being LDGF2 and the second being a fusion protein having multiple domains. The first domain of the protein is derived from a first gene (LDGF1) and the second domain is derived from a second gene (PF4) which differs from the first gene. Further, the protein exists in nature in a form that results from an intergenic exon exchange between the first and second gene that codes for a single open reading frame. The sequence of this protein is identical to that of LDGF1beginning at the methionine residue until it fuses to the sequence in exon number 2 of the PF4 gene where the sequence is identical to that of the mature PF4 peptide. This concept is particularly important for the SIG family of C-X-C proteins because it is believed that the genes responsible for these factors or proteins are localized on an area of one chromosome. Thus, it is expected that other growth factors in this family also will be the result of intergenic exon exchanges in view of the discovery that the fusion protein is the result of an intergenic exon exchange between two genes on this chromosome. | {
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Various types of rotary machine such as compressors, vacuum pumps, and hydraulic motors or pumps are provided with a rolling piston which rolls against the inside surface of the wall of a cylindrical chamber and which is coupled to a drive shaft via an eccentric portion or crank, which drive shaft is coaxial with said chamber, it being possible in a particular embodiment for the rolling piston to be mounted free to rotate around a drive ring which is itself connected to the crank.
In conventional manner, a separator blade or vane which is slidably mounted in the machine casing divides the empty space around the piston into two variable volume compartments, comprising a low pressure compartment into which a fluid suction port opens out, and a high pressure compartment into which a fluid delivery port opens out.
In normal operation, the separator vane is pressed against the periphery of the rolling piston by a spring interposed between the casing and the vane.
However, it is often desirable to be able to unload or limit the load on the rotary machine.
Proposals have already been made for doing this by means of a clutch for decoupling the machine from its drive member, or by means for clamping the suction port.
In the first case, providing a clutch tends to increase the weight of the machine and also its cost.
In the second case, the need to close the suction port causes considerable power to be absorbed to no purpose and constitutes a loss for which there is no return.
Proposals have also been made in Document FR-A-2 470 267 to remedy these drawbacks by using mechanical stop means for locking the separator vane in a position in which its free edge does not bear against the periphery of the rolling piston, at least during a portion of the motion of the piston. This document proposes providing the stop device in the form of a rod capable of moving in translation perpendicularly to the guide for the separator vane and having formed in the separator vane so as to hold the separator vane off the rolling piston while the rod is in its working position.
However, in practice, such an embodiment is unsatisfactory. In some applications the rolling piston rotates at very high speeds, of the order of several thousand revolutions per minute (rpm). It is therefore particularly difficult to cause a catch or finger that moves particularly to the displacement direction of the vane to penetrate into a notch in the vane oscillating as a function of the position of the rolling piston. Each time the catch enters the receiving notch formed in the vane, the catch suffers from wear as do the walls of the notch, and as a result the lifetime of the device is very limited. Further, on each occasion the catch enters or leaves the notch, the risk of jamming is not negligible. In addition, insofar as the vane can be retracted into a single position only, the prior device is unsuitable for regulating or progressively off-loading the power of the compressor.
The present invention seeks to remedy the above-mentioned drawbacks, and to enable rolling piston rotary machines to be off-loaded or to have their power regulated in a manner which is simple, convenient, and efficient, using a device which is lightweight, robust, and cheap, and absorbing minimum power when off-loaded.
More precisely, an object of the invention is to enable the position of a vane in a rotary machine to be adjusted accurately and reliably while ensuring both a high degree of operating safety and great flexibility in operation. | {
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The present invention relates to vascular repair devices, and in particular to intravascular stents, which are adapted to be implanted into a patient's body lumen, such as a blood vessel or coronary artery, for the treatment of unstable or vulnerable, human atherosclerotic plaque.
Currently, the treatment of unstable or vulnerable plaque presents a significant therapeutic challenge to medical investigators. Vulnerable plaque is characterized by a basic lesion which is a raised plaque beneath the innermost arterial layer, the intima. Atherosclerotic plaques are primarily composed of varying amounts of long chain extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins that are synthesized by smooth muscle cells. The other primary lesion component of atherosclerotic plaque includes lipoproteins, existing both extracellularly and within foam cells derived primarily from lipid-laden macrophages. In a more advanced lesion, a necrotic core may develop, consisting of lipids, foam cells, cell debris, and cholesterol crystals, and myxomatous configurations with crystalline lipid forms. The necrotic core is rich in tissue factor and quite thrombogenic, but in the stable plaque it is protected from the luminal blood flow by a robust fibrous cap composed primarily of long chain ECM proteins, such as elastin and collagen, which maintain the strength of the fibrous cap. The aforementioned plaque represents the most common form of vulnerable plaque, known as a fibroatheroma. Histology studies from autopsy suggest this form constitutes the majority of vulnerable plaques in humans. A second form of vulnerable plaque represents a smaller fraction of the total, and these are known as erosive plaques. Erosive plaques generally have a smaller content of lipid, a larger fibrous tissue content, and varying concentrations of proteoglycans. Various morphologic features that have been associated with vulnerable plaque, include thinned or eroded fibrous caps or luminal surfaces, lesion eccentricity, proximity of constituents having very different structural moduli, and the consistency and distribution of lipid accumulations. With the rupture of fibroatheroma forms of vulnerable plaque, the luminal blood becomes exposed to tissue factor, a highly thrombogenic core material, which can result in total thrombotic occlusion of the artery. In the erosive form of vulnerable plaque, mechanisms of thrombosis are less understood but may still yield total thrombotic occlusion.
Although rupture of the fibrous cap in a fibroatheroma is a major cause of myocardial infarction (MI) related deaths, there are currently no therapeutic strategies in place to treat these lesions that could lead to acute MI. The ability to detect vulnerable plaques and to treat them successfully with interventional techniques before acute MI occurs has long been an elusive goal. Numerous finite element analysis (FEA) studies have proved that, in the presence of a soft lipid core, the fibrous cap shows regions of high stresses. Representative of these studies include the following research articles, each of which are incorporated in their entirety by reference herein: Richardson et al. (1989), Influence of Plaque Configuration and Stress Distribution on Fissuring of Coronary Atherosclerotic Plaques, Lancet, 2(8669), 941-944; Loree et al. (1992), Effects of Fibrous Cap Thickness on Circumferential Stress in Model Atherosclerotic Vessels, Circulation Research, 71, 850-858; Cheng et al. (1992), Distribution of Circumferential Stress in Ruptured and Stable Atherosclerotic Lesions: A Structural Analysis With Histopathological Correlation, Circulation, 87, 1179-1187; Veress et al. (1993), Finite Element Modeling of Atherosclerotic Plaque, Proceedings of IEEE Computers in Cardiology, 791-794; Lee et al. (1996), Circumferential Stress and Matrix Metalloproteinase 1 in Human Coronary Atherosclerosis: Implications for Plaque Rupture, Atherosclerosis Thrombosis Vascular Biology, 16, 1070-1073; Vonesh et al. (1997), Regional Vascular Mechanical Properties by 3-D Intravascular Ultrasound Finite-Element Analysis, American Journal of Physiology, 272, 425-437; Beattie et al. (1999), Mechanical Modeling: Assessing Atherosclerotic Plaque Behavior and Stability in Humans, International Journal of Cardiovascular Medical Science, 2(2), 69-81; C. Feezor et al. (2001), Integration of Animal and Human Coronary Tissue Testing with Finite Element Techniques for Assessing Differences in Arterial Behavior, BED-Vol. 50, 2001 Bioengineering Conference, ASME 2001; and C. Feezor et al. (2003), Acute Mechanical Response Of Human Coronary Fibroatheromas To Stenting, 2003 Summer Bioengineering Conference, Key Biscayne, Fla., 167-168. Further, these studies have indicated that such high stress regions correlate with the observed prevalence of locations of cap fracture. Moreover, it has been shown that subintimal structural features such as the thickness of the fibrous cap and the extent of the lipid core, rather than stenosis severity are critical in determining the vulnerability of the plaque. The rupture of a highly stressed fibrous cap can be prevented by using novel, interventional, therapeutic techniques such as specially designed stents that redistribute and lower the stresses in the fibrous cap.
Stents are generally tubular-shaped devices which function to hold open a segment of a blood vessel, coronary artery, or other body lumen. They are also suitable for use to support and hold back a dissected arterial lining which can occlude the fluid passageway therethrough.
Various means have been described to deliver and implant stents. One method frequently described for delivering a stent to a desired intraluminal location includes mounting the expandable stent on an expandable member, such as a balloon, provided on the distal end of an intravascular catheter, advancing the catheter to the desired location within the patient's body lumen, inflating the balloon on the catheter to expand the stent into a permanent expanded condition and then deflating the balloon and removing the catheter.
Generally speaking, most prior art intravascular stents are formed from a metal such as stainless steel, which is balloon expandable and plastically deforms upon expansion to hold open a vessel. The component parts of these types of stents typically are all formed of the same type of metal, i.e., stainless steel. One of the advantages of the metallic stents is their high radial strength once expanded and implanted in the vessel. When a metallic stent is expanded and implanted in a coronary artery, for example, the stent typically uniformly expands forming a near perfect cylindrical shape which provides a cylindrical lumen for blood flow. The amount of strain imparted to the vessel wall from the prior art metallic stents typically is uniform at all points along the vessel wall, and in particular along the fibrous cap which retains the vulnerable plaque. Since the strains are uniform, the fibrous cap may have a tendency to rupture because it is typically quite thin and is susceptible to the expansion forces of the stent. Thus, one disadvantage of presently designed intravascular stents is the possibility of the stent, which expands uniformly, imparting expansion forces on the fibrous cap to the degree of rupturing the cap, and inadvertently releasing the lipid pool comprising vulnerable plaque.
What has been needed and heretofore unavailable is a stent that can be used to treat a vulnerable plaque by reducing the cap stresses. The present invention satisfies this need and others. | {
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This invention relates to a novel device and method for determining the flow rate of thermoplastic materials. In particular, this invention relates to a device and method for determining flow rate which utilizes electronic circuitry to monitor the extrusion or displacement of a known volume of a thermoplastic sample and conveniently calculate the flow rate of said sample. More particularly, this invention relates to a novel device and method which automatically and instantaneously computes and displays with high precision the flow rate of thermoplastic samples run in an extrusion plastometer in accordance with American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) Method D1238. This invention also relates to other types of melt, liquid, or solution viscosity measurements in which a flow or efflux time is measured and for which a simple computational constant can be derived.
The melt flow rate or "melt index" of thermoplastics as determined by ASTM Method D1238 (Current edition approved Jan. 26, 1979; published February, 1979; originally published as D1238-65T; last previous edition D1238-73--hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference), or foreign counterparts, is universally employed as a specification or inspection property. As a result, the extrusion plastometer is widely used in polymer manufacturing plants, polymer fabrication plants, technical service, research and other laboratory installations the world over. More recently, a variety of plastometer configurations have been developed. Examples of such plastometers are Brown et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,221), Murphy et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,225) and Fuxa (U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,516).
In Procedure A of ASTM Method D1238, the operator manually cuts off portions of extrudates at specified time intervals and weighs them on a balance accurate to .+-.0.001 g. This procedure is time consuming, requires an expensive balance as an accessory, and is subject to errors in both collecting extrudates at exact time intervals and in the weighing step. The final result is calculated manually in accordance with the test method. Procedure B of ASTM Method D1238 involves the use of an automatically operated timer to determine the time required to extrude a known volume of polymer. The flow rate is then determined from the following relationship EQU Flow rate=F/t
where F is a numerical factor which takes into account the volume extruded, the size of the piston used to extrude or displace the polymer, and the density of the polymer melt; and t is the time taken to extrude the known volume. Values of F are different for each polymer and are well known in the art. The method still involves a manual calculation of the result and is subject to the potential incorrect entry of the numerical factor each time the calculation is repeated. Precision may also be limited by the type of timing device used. Our invention overcomes the limitations of the currently-used procedures mentioned above through the use of a low cost microprocessor and supporting circuitry.
Previous attempts at an automatic flow rate measuring and method, most notably the Monsanto Automatic Capillary Rheometer, remain limited by the fact that the actual computation of flow rate must be performed each time by the user. In addition, such "automatic" devices are basically little more than sophisticated timers--the user is still required to read the timers and perform the subsequent calculations.
In contrast, the device and method of this invention requires only that the user input the numerical factor characteristic of the particular material being measured. All timing and control functions of the measurement, as well as all computational functions, are subsequently directed by a microprocessor and supporting circuitry. The flow rate is then displayed by means of the output device of choice.
The apparatus of this invention utilizes Procedure B of ASTM Method D1238. In accord with this method, the material to be measured is first preheated for a short period to prepare it for extrusion. A weighted piston of known surface area is then used to force material through a barrel and extrusion plastometer orifice of known dimensions. The measurement is based upon determining the time required to displace a known volume of material. | {
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The present invention relates to a vehicle light, in particular, a brake light, comprising at least one rod-shaped optical fiber and at least one light source, wherein the light from the light source is coupled into the optical fiber at the end face thereof, and is decoupled from the optical fiber via a peripheral exit surface.
In a conventional brake light of this type, a light source in the form of an LED is disposed in front of each of the two end faces of the optical fiber. On its periphery, the optical fiber comprises a light exit surface and, opposite thereto, a toothed surface for deflecting the light, coupled into the optical fiber at both end faces thereof, in the direction of the light exit surface. The number and geometry of the teeth are optimized, but nevertheless, the luminosity of long brake lights decreases towards the center due to the light coupled in from the end face, which is disturbing for the viewer. Moreover, an optical fiber length of e.g. 50 cm requires separate electric supply lines for both light sources.
In contrast thereto, it is the object of the present invention to further improve a brake light of the above-mentioned type. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to synthesizing speech and more specifically to providing access to a backend speech synthesis process via an application programming interface (API).
2. Introduction
To a casual observer, any text-to-speech (TTS) system appears to be a black-box solution for creating synthetic speech from input text. In fact, TTS systems are mostly used as black-box systems today. In other words, TTS systems do not require the user or application programmer to have linguistic or phonetic skills. However, internally, such a TTS system has multiple, clearly separated modules with unique functions. These modules process expensive source speech data for a specific speaker or task using algorithms and approaches that may be closely guarded trade secrets.
Often, one party generates the source speech data by recording many hours of speech for a particular speaker in a high-quality studio environment. Another party has a set of highly tuned, effective, and proprietary TTS algorithms. In order for these two parties to collaborate one with another, each must provide the other access to their own intellectual property, which one or both parties may oppose. Thus, the current approaches available in the art force parties that may be at arm's length to either cooperate at a much closer level than either party wants or not cooperate at all. This friction prevents the benefits of TTS to spread in certain circumstances. | {
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This invention relates generally to printing press components, and specifically to a removable ink cassette containing an ink pan and a meter roll.
Flexographic printing presses are used to print various images on a moving web. Such printing presses contain at least four rolls and an ink pan or tray. In a typical roll configuration, the meter or fountain roll is located above the ink pan and collects the ink(s) from the ink pan. The meter roll transfers the ink(s) to the anilox roll. The anilox roll in turn transfers the ink(s) to a textured plate roll, which contains the image to be printed onto the moving web. The plate roll contacts the first side of the moving web to transfer the image to the first side of the web. An impression cylinder contacts the second side of the moving web to press the web against the plate cylinder.
However, the present inventors have realized that the prior art flexographic printing presses suffer from the following disadvantages. The-ink pan, the meter roll and anilox roll in these printing presses are contained as separate elements in a housing, which is permanently attached to the printing press frame. These permanent housings sometimes require special tools to remove the ink pan and the meter roll from the printing press. Furthermore, in order to remove the ink pan from the printing press for cleaning and ink changing, the press operator first has to separately remove the anilox roll from the printing press and then remove the meter roll from the ink pan before removing the ink pan from the printing press. The separate roll removal steps lead to an increased down time for the printing press while the ink pan is being removed for cleaning. The present invention is directed to overcoming or at least reducing the problems set forth above.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a removable ink cassette for a printing press, comprising an ink pan and a meter roll, wherein the ink pan and the meter roll are removed from the printing press together by removing the ink cassette from the printing press.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a flexographic printing press, comprising a printing press frame, a first means for mounting an ink pan and a meter roll at the same time to the printing press frame and for removing the ink pan and the meter roll at the same time from the printing press frame, an anilox roll, a plate roll, and an impression roll.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of assembling a flexographic printing press, comprising providing a removable ink cassette containing an ink pan and a meter roll, guiding the ink cassette into a predetermined location on the printing press, and removably securing the ink cassette to a printing press frame.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of disassembling a flexographic printing press, comprising releasing an ink cassette containing an ink pan and a meter roll from the printing press frame without removing an anilox roll from the printing press frame, and transferring the ink cassette to a first location remote from the printing press. | {
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This invention relates to unmanned underwater vehicles and more particularly to the control thereof so as to operate substantially in a hovering mode. Certain unmanned underwater vehicles, for example carrying scientific or other instrumentation, have a requirement to operate at two or more depths and to maintain the ordered depth, within certain tolerances for a specified period of time.
Among the approaches used heretofore for obtaining hovering control are propellors driven by variable speed motors, alternation of intermittent periods of propellor driven ascent and drogue delayed descent as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,505, by controlling discharge of heavy and light liquid to increase or decrease buoyancy as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,369, and by flooding and blowing of chambers as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,297.
In addition, it is known to increase buoyancy of an underwater vehicle by discharge or dropping of weights, often in the form of shot, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,004,507. Since the dropping of a weight is an irreversible action, this expedient has generally been confined to a one time event, such as for the recovery of a spent practice torpedo at the end of its run, rather than for effecting hovering control at an assigned depth.
The mentioned known hovering systems have a variety of drawbacks or shortcomings when applied to an expendable unmanned instrumentation vehicle that is required to be stored for considerable period of time and then deployed and required to operate reliably for a predetermined, relatively short period of time. Then shortcomings include complex and expensive controls, noise of motors and pumps, requirement of substantial energy storage, size constraints, and limited reliability after prolonged periods of non-use. | {
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FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a structure in which a conventional underwater pump is installed. As shown in FIG. 1, a supporting frame 1 is mounted to the top of a water tank (not shown), and an elbow pipe 2 is mounted on the bottom of the water tank. To the supporting frame 1 is attached a bracket 9, by which the upper ends of a pair of guide bars 3 are fixed to the supporting frame 1. The lower ends of the guide bars 3 are attached to the elbow pipe 2. At one side of an underwater pump 4 is connected a guide member 5. When the underwater pump 4 is to be installed under the water in the water tank, a pulling rope 6, which is connected to the underwater pump 4, is moved down by means of a hoist (not shown). As the pulling rope 6 is moved down, the underwater pump 4 moves down due to its own weight while being guided along the guide bars 3. After the underwater pump 4 moves down along the guide bars 3, a flange 7a formed at an outlet 7 of the underwater pump 4 is connected to another flange 2a formed at an inlet of the elbow pipe 2. As a result, the outlet 7 of the underwater pump 4 communicates with the elbow pipe 2.
When the underwater pump 4 is energized through a power line 8, the underwater pump 4 is operated. When the underwater pump 4 is operated, the water in the water tank is discharged to the outside via the outlet 7 of the underwater pump 4, the elbow pipe 2, and a discharging pipe (not shown) connected to a flange 2b formed at an outlet of the elbow pipe 2.
FIG. 2 is a front view, partially in section, showing connection of a conventional underwater pump and an elbow pipe.
As shown in FIG. 2, to the upper side of the inlet of the elbow pipe 2 is fixed a supporting bar 25 while the right and left ends of the supporting bar 25 are extended outwardly. To the flange 7a formed at the outlet 7 of the underwater pump 4 is connected the guide member 5.
The guide member 5 comprises: an annular hollow part 51 having a central opening 52 formed therethrough for communicating the outlet 7 of the underwater pump 4 and the inlet of the elbow pipe 2 to each other; a projection part 54 having an inclined surface making contact with the inner side of the supporting bar 25; and a guide part 55 disposed between the guide bars 3 in such a manner that the guide part 55 is vertically movable along the guide bars 3. The outer side of the annular hollow part 51 of the guide member 5 is vertically disposed. Similarly, the outer side of the flange 2a formed at then inlet of the elbow pipe 2 is vertically disposed.
In the case of the above-mentioned connection of the conventional underwater pump 4 and the elbow pipe 2, however, a reaction force (A) is applied to the underwater pump 4 in the direction opposite to the elbow pipe 2, and a pressure (B) caused by the sum of the weight of the underwater pump 4 and the pressure of the water in the water tank is also applied to the underwater pump 4 in the lower direction of the underwater pump 4 when the underwater pump 4 is operated. Consequently, the underwater pump 4 and the guide member 5 are upwardly rotated counterclockwise about the supporting bar 25 by means of a resultant force (C), which is the sum of the reaction force (A) and the pressure (B). As a result, there is a gap created between the lower side of the annular hollow part 51 and the lower side of the flange 2a formed at the inlet of the elbow pipe 2, and water leaks through the gap. | {
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Turbomachines are widely utilized in fields such as power generation. For example, a conventional gas turbine system includes a compressor section, a combustor section, and at least one turbine section. The compressor section is configured to compress air as the air flows through the compressor section. The air is then flowed from the compressor section to the combustor section, where it is mixed with fuel and combusted, generating a hot gas flow. The hot gas flow is provided to the turbine section, which utilizes the hot gas flow by extracting energy from it to power the compressor, an electrical generator, and other various loads.
The combustor sections of turbomachines generally include tubes or ducts for flowing the combusted hot gas therethrough to the turbine section or sections. Recently, combustor sections have been introduced which include tubes or ducts that shift the flow of the hot gas. For example, ducts for combustor sections have been introduced that, while flowing the hot gas longitudinally therethrough, additionally shift the flow radially and/or tangentially such that the flow has various angular components. These designs have various advantages, including eliminating first stage nozzles from the turbine sections. The first stage nozzles were previously provided to shift the hot gas flow, and may not be required due to the design of these ducts. The elimination of first stage nozzles may eliminate associated pressure drops and increase the efficiency and power output of the turbomachine.
However, the connection of these ducts to turbine sections is of increased concern. For example, because known ducts do not simply extend along a longitudinal axis, but are rather shifted off-axis from the inlet of the duct to the outlet of the duct, thermal expansion of the ducts can cause undesirable shifts in the ducts along or about various axes. These shifts can cause stresses and strains within the ducts, and may cause the ducts to fail. | {
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Network operators/carriers have the will and the resources to fix the wireless network overload problem. However, the increased availability of free apps only makes network congestion worse with constant signaling from the application to the application stores and/or advertiser websites.
Part of that consideration includes traffic optimization, which can ameliorate signaling that comes from applications and from the network and optimizing traffic for resource conservation. However, network operators/carriers lack a mechanism of monitoring usage, in particular application usage and its impact on network resources. | {
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Vinyl aromatic compounds such as styrene undergo undesired spontaneous polymerization (i.e. polymerization of monomers due to heat or the random generation of free radicals in the monomers) during storage, shipping or processing. The problem is particularly acute during purification operations carried out at elevated temperatures such as distillation. Spontaneous polymerization is disadvantageous not only because it causes fouling of distillation column reboilers and other equipment used for processing the vinyl aromatic monomer, but also because it usually renders the monomer unfit for use without further treatment. Accordingly, it is desirable and often necessary to inhibit the spontaneous polymerization of vinyl aromatic monomers. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel electric current-producing cell. More particularly, this invention relates to improvements in the electric current producing cells of the type comprising an alkali metal anode, a solid electrolyte, and a cathode of a fluorinated carbon material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has been considerable interest in recent years in developing high energy density electrochemical cell systems. Among the systems being investigated are those employing nonaqueous electrolytes including liquid and fused electrolytes, anodes containing lightweight metals, such as alkali metals, and cathodes containing compounds of carbon, e.g., fluorinated carbon compounds. Typical systems are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,536,522 and 3,514,337.
Additionally, various efforts have been made to develop solid state electrolytes for high energy density electrochemical cell systems. Alkali metal-aluminum-halogen compounds have been utilized in liquid and molten state electrolyte systems (e.g., as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,877,984 and 3,751,298), and solid alkali metal-aluminum-halogen compound conductivity studies have been made (e.g., N. I. Anufrieva et al, Tseut. Metal., Vol. 1, pp. 32-36 (1973); W. Weppner et al, Physics Letters, Vol. 58A, No. 4, pp. 245-248 (1976); and J. Schoonman et al, J. Solid Chem., Vol. 16, pp. 413-422 (1976)). Additionally, some solvent complexed alkali metal salts have been described as useful electrolytes (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,704,174 and 3,977,900, for example.) However, to date, there has been no suggestion that solvated metal-alkali metal-halogen compounds of the type employed in the present invention might be useful in solid state electrolyte systems having alkali metal anodes and fluorinated carbon cathodes. | {
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Wireless communication networks are well known. Some networks are completely proprietary, while others are subject to one or more standards to allow various vendors to manufacture equipment for a common system. Standards-based networks include networks, such as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and its progeny (e.g., the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and the Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE)), and the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations to make globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specifications within the scope of the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 project of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
The 3GPP has adopted Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) as the wireless air interface access for the UMTS network. WCDMA provides high frequency spectrum utilization, universal coverage, and high quality, high-speed multimedia data transmission. When operating over a 3G mobile telecommunications system, such as UMTS, a user can utilize a wireless communications device, such as a mobile phone, to engage in real-time video communications and conference calls, play real-time games, receive online music broadcasts, and send/receive email. However, because these functions rely on fast, instantaneous transmission, 3G systems utilize technologies, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which includes High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), to improve uplink/downlink transmission rate.
In order to improve HSDPA and HSUPA, Release 7 (R7) of the 3GPP standard provides a Continuous Packet Connectivity (CPC) protocol specification, which includes features that aim to significantly increase the number of packet data users per cell, reduce the uplink noise level resulting from such increase in packet data users, reduce power consumption at the user equipment (UE) (e.g., mobile device), and improve the achievable download capacity for various data services, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
According to the CPC protocol specification, discontinuous transmission (DTX) and discontinuous reception (DRX) operation is used by the UE, such as a smart phone, when transmissions between the UE and the serving base station (e.g., enhanced Node B or eNodeB) are decreasing. The DTX-DRX operation includes discontinuous uplink transmission (uplink DTX) and discontinuous downlink reception (downlink DRX). Uplink DTX is a mechanism where control signals are transmitted on the uplink control channels (e.g., the Uplink Dedicated Physical Control Channel (UL-DPCCH)) according to defined discontinuous patterns during the inactive state of corresponding uplink data channels, such as an Enhanced Dedicated Transport Channel (E-DCH) or a High Speed Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH), in order to maintain signal synchronization and power control loop with less control signaling. For example, uplink DTX allows the UE to align UL-DPCCH transmission with a fixed DTX pattern to maintain UE synchronization with the network. Downlink DRX is configured by a Radio Network Controller (RNC), which may form part of the serving base station, and allows the UE to restrict the downlink reception times in order to reduce power consumption. When the downlink DRX is enabled, the UE is not required to receive physical downlink channels except during pre-established time intervals.
According to prior art downlink DRX approaches in the context of CPC during HSPA data transfer, the UE receiver is activated periodically (e.g. every DRX period, which can vary from 8 to 40 milliseconds (ms)) to perform certain tasks. For example, during each active period, the UE may receive a downlink control channel, such as the High Speed Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH), and process the received control signals to determine whether the serving base station has data to send to the UE. If the UE determines that the serving station has user data to send, the UE keeps its receiver activated so as to be able to receive the data from the serving station. After the data has been received, the UE may keep the receiver activated for an additional period of time according to an inactivity timer in case additional control information or user data is sent.
In addition to being periodically activated or awakened to monitor for data transmission notifications, the UE receiver is also typically activated during dedicated time periods to perform intra-frequency neighbor cell analysis functions so as to determine whether to select a new cell for communication. Depending on network configuration, neighbor cell analysis functions may include, among other things, detecting the presence of neighbor cells belonging to a monitored set and monitoring channel qualities of neighbor cells. The neighbor cell detection function typically occurs in multiple stages and includes receiving primary synchronization channels (stage 1), receiving secondary synchronization channels (stage 2), determining scrambling codes (stage 3), and decoding system frame numbers (SFN) (stage 4). According to 3GPP R7 Technical Specification (TS) 25.133, section 8.1.2.2.2, when DRX is active and the DRX cycle is less than ten subframes (e.g., less than 20 ms where each subframe has a 2 ms duration), the UE must identify and decode the SFN of a new cell in the monitored list within 800 ms. Alternatively, where the DRX cycle is greater than ten subframes, the UE must identify and decode the SFN of a new cell in the monitored list within 1.5 seconds.
In the context of 3GPP TS 25.133, section 8.1.2.2.2, the subframes referred to therein are generally used for monitoring the HS-SCCH of the serving cell in order to detect whether the serving base station has data to send to the UE as part of a continuing data session. Other channels, such as the Fractional Downlink Dedicated Physical Channel (F-DPCH), may also be monitored for power control purposes. To facilitate intra-frequency neighbor cell analysis, the DRX phase of CPC typically includes additional dedicated time periods which exceed the subframe duration and can extend beyond a DRX cycle (e.g., longer than 40 ms) depending on the quantity of neighbor cells to be detected and analyzed. Exemplary DTX-DRX operation is illustrated by the waveform 100 of FIG. 1. In the exemplary waveform 100, the DRX cycle between activations of the UE receiver for serving cell monitoring is 40 ms (e.g., as noted between signals 102 and 103) and the DTX cycle between activations of the UE transmitter is 320 ms (e.g., as noted between signals 105 and 106). Exemplary dedicated time periods for performing intra-frequency neighbor cell analysis are illustrated by signal waveforms 107-112, each of which is illustrated as lasting about 40 ms. While such additional dedicated time periods enable the UE receiver to perform necessary neighbor cell analysis, they also require the UE receiver to be powered on and activated, thereby utilizing valuable UE battery resources and undesirably shortening the time period between required battery recharging.
To facilitate analysis of neighbor cells other than intra-frequency neighbor cells (e.g., cells which do not operate in the same frequency band as the serving cell or operate using a different wireless protocol, such as inter-frequency neighbor cells or cells utilizing the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol), 3GPP R7 TS 25,212 provides for a so-called “compressed mode” of operation that introduces transmission gaps in what would otherwise be allocated transmission subframes. The transmission gaps temporarily halt UE transmissions and their associated downlink power control messaging to enable the UE receiver to monitor inter-frequency or other off-frequency neighbor cells instead of power control or other control signaling from the serving cell. To be compliant with the 3GPP specification, any battery-saving solution relating to CPC should preferably be compatible with compressed mode operation.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated alone or relative to other elements to help improve the understanding of the various embodiments of the present invention. | {
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The jumping of batteries via the use of jumper cables has been known in the past in which one battery is charged via another battery through the utilization of jumper cables which carry large currents. One of the problems with the utilization of such cables is the possibility of polarity reversal which causes a large amount of sparking that is both frightening and can, in fact, ignite some of the battery gases or other flammable materials within the engine compartment should the polarity be reversed when the cables are connected. While those skilled in the utilization battery cables, including auto mechanics and the like, have very little difficulty in ascertaining the polarity of batteries and whether or not a battery is capable of being charged, the utilization of battery cables by those not skilled in battery cable interconnection has resulted in either the non-use of battery jumper cables or the incorrect use of the cables which, at the very least, does not result in the proper battery being charged from a presumably "good" battery.
This situation is made more complicated and mistakes can be made because when batteries are in most need of charging, it is usually in cold weather or in the pouring rain, in which mistakes can be made due to the inclement conditions under which most battery jumping occurs. Also, dirt on, or corrosion of wires and terminals may be so great that the polarity of the battery to be charged cannot be easily ascertained. If the batteries are misconnected, the battery may overheat and even explode which can shower people with sulfuric acid. Moreover, highly explosive hydrogen gas is released from the car battery and can be ignited, in some instances, by a single spark.
There is, therefore, a need a for the sensing of the polarity of both batteries, ensuring that at least one of the batteries has sufficient charge to charge the bad battery, and also ensuring that the bad battery is not discharged so low that it is a risk to charge. There is therefore need for a system which ascertains when all of the conditions for proper charge have been met, and then to properly connect the batteries together. Thus, there is a necessity for an automatic jumper cable system which ascertains all of the above conditions and only connects the batteries together under an appropriate set of conditions. Moreover, the system must protect against inadvertently shorting the jaws of the cable clamps together which causes a rain of sparks that automatically discharges either one or both of the batteries. This is a frequenct situation since the battery jaws common on most jumper cables have exposed electrically conductive elements. | {
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Computer systems are constantly improving in terms of speed, reliability, and processing capability. As is known in the art, computer systems which process and store large amounts of data typically include a one or more processors in communication with a shared data storage system in which the data is stored. The data storage system may include one or more storage devices, usually of a fairly robust nature and useful for storage spanning various temporal requirements, e.g., disk drives. The one or more processors perform their respective operations using the storage system. Mass storage systems (MSS) typically include an array of a plurality of disks with on-board intelligent and communications electronics and software for making the data on the disks available.
To leverage the value of MSS, these are typically networked in some fashion, Popular implementations of networks for MSS include network attached storage (NAS) and storage area networks (SAN). In NAS, MSS is typically accessed over known TCP/IP lines such as Ethernet using industry standard file sharing protocols like NFS, HTTP, and Windows Networking. In SAN, the MSS is typically directly accessed over Fibre Channel switching fabric using encapsulated SCSI protocols.
Each network type has its advantages and disadvantages, but SAN's are particularly noted for providing the advantage of being reliable, maintainable, and being a scalable infrastructure but their complexity and disparate nature makes them difficult to centrally manage. Thus, a problem encountered in the implementation of SAN's is that the dispersion of resources tends to create an unwieldy and complicated data storage environment. Reducing the complexity by allowing unified management of the environment instead of treating as a disparate entity would be advancement in the data storage computer-related arts. While it is an advantage to distribute intelligence over various networks, it should be balanced against the need for unified and centralized management that can grow or scale proportionally with the growth of what is being managed. This is becoming increasingly important as the amount of information being handled and stored grows geometrically over short time periods and such environments add new applications, servers, and networks also at a rapid pace. | {
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The golf swing or stroke is difficult to master, requiring significant precision, discipline, and consistency. Even slight imperfections or differences in stroke technique may result in large differences in results, often manifesting as poor shot distance, accuracy or ball placement, and the like. In particular, poor swing mechanics may result in loss of distance, hooks, slices, shanks or other undesirable ball trajectories, low round/match scores, and perhaps even injury.
The inherent difficulty of the golf swing means that developing a proper and consistent swing often requires significant practice. Accordingly, it is desirable to develop better apparatuses and methods for practicing a golf swing. | {
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Mobility scooters are now popular means of transport for the elderly or infirm. They are heavy battery powered vehicles with a low centre of gravity, and typically utilise three or four wheels. Due to the weight of these scooters, transport to different locations is problematic. It is impossible for an elderly or infirm user to lift such a scooter into their car without significant assistance. As such, personal transport of such a scooter is typically not undertaken.
Furthermore, delivery of a new scooter often occurs by van or truck, and typically these vehicles do not have motorised or mechanically driven ramps to aid loading and unloading of the heavy scooter. As a consequence, injuries to the delivery person or persons can often occur whilst manually lifting the scooter.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a solution to this problem which can be utilised in both domestic and commercial environments in order to safely and efficiently load and unload a first smaller vehicle from a second larger vehicle. | {
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The present invention relates to a gas turbine engine combustor having at least one trapped vortex cavity and, more particularly, to a combustor having cavity with dual counter-rotating vortices.
Advanced aircraft gas turbine engine technology requirements are driving the combustors therein to be shorter in length, have higher performance levels over wider operating ranges, and produce lower exhaust pollutant emission levels. One example of a combustor designed to achieve these objectives is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,855 to Burrus. The Burrus combustor is designed to operate efficiently at inlet air flows having a high subsonic Mach Number. This stems in part from a dome inlet module which allows air to flow freely from an upstream compressor to the combustion chamber with fuel being injected into the flow passage. The combustor also has inner and outer liners attached to the dome inlet module, which include upstream cavity portions for creating a trapped vortex of fuel and air therein, as well as downstream portions extending to the turbine nozzle. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,791,148 and 5,857,339 also disclose the use of trapped vortex cavities in combustor liners. Fuel is injected into the trapped vortex cavities through a portion of the liner forming an aft wall of such cavity. Fuel is also injected into the flow passages of the dome inlet module via atomizers. It is desirable to have a combustion chamber, such as the one in Burrus, with better flame stabilization and flame propagation and which improves the combustor's performance characteristics of combustors, efficiency, NOx and CO emissions, and altitude-relight. | {
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This invention relates generally to air conditioning and refrigeration systems and, more particularly, to parallel flow evaporators thereof.
A definition of a so-called parallel flow heat exchanger is widely used in the air conditioning and refrigeration industry now and designates a heat exchanger with a plurality of parallel passages, among which refrigerant is distributed and flown in an orientation generally substantially perpendicular to the refrigerant flow direction in the inlet and outlet manifolds. This definition is well adopted within the technical community and will be used throughout the specification.
Refrigerant maldistribution in refrigerant system evaporators is a well-known phenomenon. It causes significant evaporator and overall system performance degradation over a wide range of operating conditions. Maldistribution of refrigerant may occur due to differences in flow impedances within evaporator channels, non-uniform airflow distribution over external heat transfer surfaces, improper heat exchanger orientation or poor manifold and distribution system design. Maldistribution is particularly pronounced in parallel flow evaporators due to their specific design with respect to refrigerant routing to each refrigerant circuit. Attempts to eliminate or reduce the effects of this phenomenon on the performance of parallel flow evaporators have been made with little or no success. The primary reasons for such failures have generally been related to complexity and inefficiency of the proposed technique or prohibitively high cost of the solution.
In recent years, parallel flow heat exchangers, and brazed aluminum heat exchangers in particular, have received much attention and interest, not just in the automotive field but also in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) industry. The primary reasons for the employment of the parallel flow technology are related to its superior performance, high degree of compactness and enhanced resistance to corrosion. Parallel flow heat exchangers are now utilized in both condenser and evaporator applications for multiple products and system designs and configurations. The evaporator applications, although promising greater benefits and rewards, are more challenging and problematic. Refrigerant maldistribution is one of the primary concerns and obstacles for the implementation of this technology in the evaporator applications.
As known, refrigerant maldistribution in parallel flow heat exchangers occurs because of unequal pressure drop inside the channels and in the inlet and outlet manifolds, as well as poor manifold and distribution system design. In the manifolds, the difference in length of refrigerant paths, phase separation, gravity and turbulence are the primary factors responsible for maldistribution. Inside the heat exchanger channels, variations in the heat transfer rate, airflow distribution, manufacturing tolerances, and gravity are the dominant factors. Furthermore, the recent trend of the heat exchanger performance enhancement promoted miniaturization of its channels (so-called minichannels and microchannels), which in turn negatively impacted refrigerant distribution. Since it is extremely difficult to control all these factors, many of the previous attempts to manage refrigerant distribution, especially in parallel flow evaporators, have failed.
In the refrigerant systems utilizing parallel flow heat exchangers, the inlet and outlet manifolds or headers (these terms will be used interchangeably throughout the text) usually have a conventional cylindrical shape. When the two-phase flow enters the header, the vapor phase is usually separated from the liquid phase. Since both phases flow independently, refrigerant maldistribution tends to occur.
If the two-phase flow enters the inlet manifold at a relatively high velocity, the liquid phase (droplets of liquid) is carried by the momentum of the flow further away from the manifold entrance to the remote portion of the header. Hence, the channels closest to the manifold entrance receive predominantly the vapor phase and the channels remote from the manifold entrance receive mostly the liquid phase. If, on the other hand, the velocity of the two-phase flow entering the manifold is low, there is not enough momentum to carry the liquid phase along the header. As a result, the liquid phase enters the channels closest to the inlet and the vapor phase proceeds to the most remote ones. Also, the liquid and vapor phases in the inlet manifold can be separated by the gravity forces, causing similar maldistribution consequences. In either case, maldistribution phenomenon quickly surfaces and manifests itself in evaporator and overall system performance degradation. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to frequency dividers.
2. Related Art
The wide proliferation of wireless products depends upon components that can convert a signal from one frequency to another. Accordingly, such components must be able to operate at different frequencies. Often such components include frequency dividers. Frequency dividers receive an input signal at a first frequency and produce an output signal at a second frequency. The second frequency is the quotient of the first frequency divided by an integer. For ultra high frequency operations, custom designed analog frequency dividers are often used. Although programmable frequency dividers have been designed to support division by more than one integer, typically the set of integers that can be used is small and excludes large odd integers. Furthermore, from an integrated circuit design perspective, analog frequency dividers occupy a substantial amount of substrate area, consume significant amounts of static power, and are generally not easily transferable from one component design to another. What is needed is a frequency divider that can be programmed to divide the frequency of an input signal by several integers, including large odd integers. Preferably, such a frequency divider would also be capable of operating at ultra high frequencies. | {
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In conventional instrument assemblies, a meter mounting panel which covers the front section of the assembly except portions where dial boards of the meters are exposed is constructed of an opaque material such as a darkly colored plastic and is not illuminated in any way. Thus, the instrument assembly as a whole tends to give a gloomy impression. Further, a problem with such an opaque panel is that it appears black in the nighttime, even if it is offered in a relatively bright color, presenting a totally different contrast in color and illumination to the meters, compared with the contrast in the daytime. | {
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It is very expensive to acquire seismic data in marine environments. The cost of mobilizing vessels, equipment and people can run in the several hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per day. Thus, once the survey is started, there is a lot of pressure to acquire data twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. A problem arises when another survey crew is collecting data in the same general area at the same time. The two operations may contaminate one another and be forced to work out a time sharing arrangement where only one crew acquires data for a period of time and then waits while the other crew takes a turn. It is common to time share seismic data collection in the North Sea off of northwest Europe and in the Gulf of Mexico among other active parts of the world.
A second concern in the collection of seismic data in marine environments is potential harm, injury or irritation of whales and other marine life due to the intensity of the energy coming off the conventional seismic sources. Air guns are used in an array formed from multiple air guns synchronized in a way to generate a single sharp pulse with short duration powerful enough to get echo returns from deep below the seafloor. The power of these pulses in the water are probably at least annoying to sea animals that use echo location like whales, dolphins and others. Seismic surveying techniques may cause these animals to leave the area and some believe that it may be harmful to sea life.
A solution is needed for each of these issues. A solution for both would be particularly well received. | {
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This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. JP2001-239352, filed on Aug. 7, 2001, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.
This disclosure relates to polyphenylene ether group resin composite containing recovered polystyrene group resin.
The polyphenylene ether (PPE) group resin composite is widely known as the resin having excellent anti-thermal characteristic, mechanical properties as well as electrical properties. It is being widely used as denatured polyphenylene ether group resin composite having its processability reformed by compounding it with polystyrene, rubber modified polystyrene (high impact polystyrene), etc. Such PPE group resin composites are being widely used in the fields of automobile parts, electric parts, office devices, etc., due to their excellent properties mentioned above.
As regards the polystyrene resin that is compounded with the polyphenylene ether group resin, virgin resin material was used. In the case of polystyrene group resin used in plastic parts, foaming styrol, etc., when a certain durability period is exceeded in the market, it is usually discarded, and replaced it with a new product. The end products of molding that get generated at the time of carrying out molding, or the inferior molded product that can be recycled, etc., are treated as the so-called recycled products in the factory. However, the number of products receiving such a treatment is insignificant if seen from the point of the total number of such products. If the polystyrene group resin is recovered from the market after it has completed its useful life, there would be an effective use of resources.
The authors carried out an earnest research on the use of such polystyrene group resin recovered from the market. They showed that if the recovered polystyrene group resin was used instead of virgin polystyrene group resin in the polyphenylene ether group resin composite and moreover, if flame retardation reagent was used jointly with it, then a composite having properties similar to that of polyphenylene ether group resin composite of the past can be obtained.
This disclosure is directed to polyphenylene ether group resin composites in which recovered polystyrene group resin, which has been discarded in the past, is effectively used, and articles made from embodiments of the polyphenylene ether group resin composite.
In one embodiment, a polyphenylene ether group resin composite can comprise: polyphenylene ether group resin, flame retardation reagent, and recovered polystyrene group resin. The recovered polystyrene group resin can be recovered using limonene or thermal shrinkage recovery, and can comprises polystyrene that has been recovered from a product or a part of a product that has been used by an end customer for a period of time.
One embodiment of a method for making an article comprises: dissolving a polystyrene group resin product that has been used as a product by an end customer for a period of time in a terpene group material, recovering polystyrene group resin from the polystyrene group resin product, melt blending the recovered polystyrene with polyphenylene ether group resin, flame retardation reagent, and additive, wherein the parts by weight are based upon a total of 100 parts by weight of polyphenylene ether group resin, recovered polystyrene group resin and any virgin polystyrene group resin, extruding the blend, and molding the extruded blend to form an article.
Another embodiment of a method for making an article comprises: employing thermal fusion to reduce a volume of a polystyrene group resin in a polystyrene group resin product that has been used as a product by an end customer for a period of time, recovering the polystyrene group resin from the polystyrene group resin product, melt blending the recovered polystyrene with polyphenylene ether group resin, and flame retardation reagent, extruding the blend, and molding the extruded blend to form an article.
The above described and other features are exemplified by the following detailed description. | {
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The present invention relates to a method for producing a CRT panel glass or a CRT having improved contrast and uniformity in brightness.
A panel glass for CRT is required to present a uniform brightness of an image displayed in the picture plane.
As a method to display an image brightness uniformly, a method wherein the transmittance of the panel glass is made constant in the plane, or a method wherein, while a transmittance distribution is permitted to be present in the panel glass, it is corrected by an intensity distribution of an electron beam, and a distribution is imparted to the emission intensity of the phosphor, may be mentioned.
However, the latter method has a technical limit such that when a panel glass which necessarily has a thickness in glass thickness in production of television, has a large transmittance distribution, such as a transmittance distribution with a difference of at least 10% between the center portion and the peripheral portion of the panel glass, it cannot cope therewith.
On the other hand, as a conventional method wherein the transmittance of a panel glass is made constant, the glass base material is made to be transparent to eliminate the difference in the transmittance due to the thickness of the glass. However, this method cannot cope with flattening of recent panel glasses where the center portion and the peripheral portion are large, and it is difficult to make the transmittance of such panel glasses to be uniform. Further, it has been attempted to solve the above problems by increasing the transmittance of the glass base material as a panel glass provided with an antireflection film and by reducing the transmittance of the antireflection film, but there has been a problem that the internal reflection tends to be high, and a double image is likely to form. Consequently, in a case of a flattened panel glass, there have been problems such that the contrast is poor, and a double image forms, in addition to a problem that uniformity cannot be attained in the brightness of images.
Further, as another related technology, JP-A-61-185852 discloses a method wherein the total glass thickness within the display area is made constant by attaching a front panel made of glass and provided with a thickness variation on the front surface of the panel glass by a resin. However, this method has had a problem that the weight of CRT increases, or the cost increases due to the bonding of the front panel.
Further, JP-A-6-308614 discloses a projection type display wherein, in order to improve the contrast, the projection screen is made to be a colored screen having an outer light absorption characteristic on its surface, and the color density is continuously changed from the center towards the periphery, so that the brightness distribution of the screen will be uniform, as seen by an observer. This publication also discloses that a similar effect can be obtained also by providing a distribution to the thickness of the colored screen. These methods are considered to be effective as means to make the brightness over the entire surface of the display uniform by intentionally providing a transmittance distribution to the display. However, in a case where such methods are applied to a panel glass for CRT, it will be required to have a resin face or a whole area panel corresponding to the colored screen, thus leading to a problem of the weight increase or the increase of the costs, as in the case described above.
Further, JP-A-10-177850 discloses a method for making the transmittance of the center portion and the peripheral portion uniform by bonding a resin film on the front surface of a panel glass for CRT and by adopting any one of {circle around (1)} coloring the resin film, {circle around (2)} applying a colored coating on the resin film surface and {circle around (3)} coloring the adhesive used for bonding the resin film to the panel glass. However, this method also has had a problem of the weight increase or the increase of the costs.
On the other hand, along with flattening of an image display plane, a problem of reflection of an outer image has newly arisen. This is caused because a flat image display plane acts as a mirror surface, and an external image is faithfully reproduced, whereby the reflection of the image is more likely to be recognized. In order to suppress this reflection of the image, it is simple and effective to apply an antireflection treatment to the image display plane. In WO00/44029, low reflection is attempted by forming a low refractive index film further on a light-absorbing film.
However, according to makeup examinations and studies by the present inventors, it has been found to be difficult to suppress reflection of the image uniformly over the entire surface of the image display plane only by providing a low refractive index film. Particularly with respect to the CRT for which a high precision image is required such as a display for computers, the reflectance in the image display plane is considered to be preferably at most 1.5%, particularly preferably at most 1.0%, however, it is very difficult to attain such a low reflectance uniformly over the entire surface of the image display plane.
FIG. 12 is a graph illustrating simulation of the relation, with respect to a glass plate having a low-reflection film comprising a light-absorbing film (titanium nitride film) and a low refractive index film (silicon oxide) formed thereon, between the light transmittance of the low-reflection film alone and the reflectance of the low-reflection film against light from the low refractive index film side. From the results of this simulation, it is found that the reflectance tends to be high along with an attempt to increase the light transmittance of the low-reflection film alone, and if light transmittance collection is carried out to make the brightness uniform, if the light transmittance is set to exceed 80% for example, the above low reflectance can not be realized.
The object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a CRT panel glass or a CRT whereby the uniform brightness image can be seen with a good contrast, even with a flattened panel glass whereby the difference in brightness between the center portion and the peripheral portion becomes distinct especially when a colored glass is employed.
The present invention further has an object to provide a panel glass which has uniform brightness and contrast particularly over the entire surface of the image display plane, with which reflection is low and reflection of the image can be suppressed.
The present invention further has an object to provide a method for producing a CRT panel glass or a CRT, whereby the above panel glass can be obtained in a simple method at a low cost.
The present invention further has an object to provide a method for producing a CRT panel glass or a CRT having also an electromagnetic wave shielding performance.
The present invention further has an object to provide a method for producing a CRT panel glass or a CRT having also a low reflection performance.
Further, the present invention has an object to provide a method for producing a CRT panel glass or a CRT having occurrence of a double image suppressed.
Further, the present invention has an object to provide a CRT panel glass or a CRT obtained by the above production methods.
In order to achieve the above objects, the present invention provides the following method for producing a CRT panel glass or a CRT, and a CRT panel glass or a CRT, and the above objects of the present invention have been achieved.
1) A method for producing a CRT panel glass or a CRT, which comprises disposing baffle plates between an outer surface of a CRT panel on which a film is formed and a sputter target, and forming a surface treating film on the outer surface of said panel by a sputtering method so that the value A defined by the following mathematical expression (1) is less than 1 within an effective picture plane on the outer surface of said panel: A xe2x80x83 value = "LeftBracketingBar" 1 - Tgf xe2x80x83 ( min ) Tgf xe2x80x83 ( max ) 1 - Tg xe2x80x83 ( min ) Tg xe2x80x83 ( max ) "RightBracketingBar" ( 1 )
In the above mathematical expression (1):
Tg(min) and Tg(max) represent the minimum transmittance (%) and the maximum transmittance (%) of the CRT panel itself, respectively; and
Tgf(max) and Tgf(min) represent the maximum transmittance (%) and the minimum transmittance (%) of an integrated body comprising the CRT panel and the surface treating film, respectively.
2) The method for producing a CRT panel glass or a CRT according to the above 1), wherein baffle plates having such a shape that the region on the outer surface of the CRT panel to which film-forming particles are adhered has such a width that the width in the outer surface width direction becomes narrow to narrow via broad continuously in a longitudinal direction of the CRT panel, are used.
3) The method for producing a CRT panel glass or a CRT according to the above 1), wherein film-forming particles are adhered on the surface treating film formed by the baffle plates as defined in the above 2), by using baffle plates having such a shape that the width in the outer surface width direction becomes broad to broad via narrow continuously in a longitudinal direction of the CRT panel.
4) A CRT panel glass or a CRT, which is obtained by the production method as defined in the above 3).
5) The CRT panel glass or the CRT according to the above 4), wherein the visible light reflectance against light incident from outside of the panel is at most 1.5% within the above effective picture plane.
6) A CRT panel glass, which comprises a surface treating film comprising a light-absorbing film and a low refractive index film laminated on the light-absorbing film, formed on an image display plane of a substrate glass having a flat image display plane and having such a light transmittance distribution that the light transmittance Tg(0) of the panel itself at the center portion of the flat image display plane and the light transmittance Tg(E) of the panel itself at a diagonal line top end corresponding to a panel effective plane end at each panel size as defined in accordance with individual standards by Electronic Industries Association of Japan EIAJ-2134B, satisfy xe2x80x9cTg(0)xe2x89xa7Tg(E)xe2x80x9d; which has such a light transmittance distribution that the overall light transmittance Tgf(0) including the surface treating film at the center portion of the image display plane and the overall light transmittance Tgf(E) including the surface treating film at the diagonal line top end corresponding to the panel effective plane end at each panel size as defined in accordance with individual standards by Electronic Industries Association of Japan EIAJ-2134B, satisfy xe2x80x9cTfg(E)/Tgf(0)xe2x89xa790%xe2x80x9d; and which has such a reflectance distribution that the reflectance Rf(0) against light from the low refractive index film side at the center portion of the image display plane and the reflectance Rf(E) against light from the low refractive index film side at the diagonal line top end corresponding to the panel effective plane end at each panel size as defined in accordance with individual standards by Electronic Industries Association of Japan EIAJ-2134B, satisfy xe2x80x9c|Rf(0)xe2x88x92Rf(E)|xe2x89xa60.5%xe2x80x9d.
7) The CRT panel glass according to the above 6), wherein both Rf(0) and Rf(E) are at most 0.7%.
8) The CRT panel glass according to the above 6) or 7), wherein the difference between the light transmittance Tf(0) of the surface treating film alone at the center portion of the image display plane and the light transmittance Tf(E) of the surface treating film alone at the diagonal line top end corresponding to the panel effective plane end at each panel size as defined in accordance with individual standards by Electronic Industries Association of Japan EIAJ-2134B, xcex94Tf=Tf(0)xe2x88x92Tf(E)|, is at least 2% and at most 25%.
9) The CRT panel glass according to any one of the above 6) to 8), wherein both Tf(0) and Tf(E) are at least 60% and at most 90%.
10) The CRT panel glass according to any one of the above 6) to 9), wherein the light-absorbing film is a film containing titanium nitride as the main component.
11) The CRT panel glass according to any one of the above 6) to 10), wherein the low refractive index film is a film containing silica as the main component.
12) The CRT panel glass according to any one of the above 6) to 11), wherein a layer which prevents oxidation of the light-absorbing film is interposed between the light-absorbing film and the low refractive index film.
13) The CRT panel glass according to the above 12), wherein the film thickness of the layer which prevents oxidation of the light-absorbing film is different as between the center portion of the image display plane and the diagonal line top end corresponding to the panel effective plane end at each panel size as defined in accordance with individual standards by Electronic Industries Association of Japan EIAJ-2134B.
14) A CRT having the CRT panel glass as defined in any one of the above 6) to 13).
15) A method for producing a CRT, which comprises incorporating components for CRT into the CRT panel glass as defined in any one of the above 6) to 13). | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small-sized direct current rotary electric appliance, and, more particularly, it is concerned with an improved structure of the brush therefor.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
A recent trend in the field of small-sized direct current rotary electric appliances is the demand for such appliances having a flattened configuration, wherein the axial length thereof is made as short as possible.
Such flat rotary appliance with shortened axial length is mainly utilized as a motor for audio equipment, e.g., as a motor for stereo-phonic equipment, etc. in automobiles. Since the recent oil crisis, the world has been demanding, as a general tendency, more compact cars for saving the limited natural resource, and also, from the standpoint of designing cars adapted for a safer driving norm, various gauges and instruments installed in dash-board of the automobiles which appeal to the sense of sight are required to be given more space than ever before. In the latter event, however, when a larger space is provided within a certain limited area of the dash-board for such instruments appealing to the eyesight, the space for stereo-phonic equipment, etc. which utilize the sense of hearing would naturally be sacrificed. Under such circumstances, the attempt to flatten rotary electric appliances like motors in their axial directions is highly significant in view of miniaturization and flattening of the audio equipment, particularly, for automobiles.
As a method for realizing such flat-type appliance using the armature as the rotor, there has heretofore been practiced a way, in which the commutator is arranged along the axial direction of rotor shaft. A step further, there has also been developed such flattened rotary electric appliance, as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,518, FIG. 4, for example, wherein the commutator in a disc-shape is fixed on the rotor shaft substantially perpendicularly thereto so that the brushes may be in contact with the surface of the commutator in a direction substantially parallel thereto, thereby reducing the axial length of the commutator.
The motor disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,518 is in such a construction that both ends of the rotor shaft are rotatably supported on the motor casing through bearings, and a lubricant has to be supplied between the rotor shaft and the bearings in order to reduce the friction therebetween and facilitate rotation of the rotor shaft. However, in the case of a motor as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,518, wherein the armature is used as the rotor, when the thus supplied lubricant flows along the rotor shaft and penetrates into the armature windings, the armature windings are heated to cause eventual damage or other mal-effect thereto. In such motor, therefore, it is necessary to provide an oil thrower, or slinger, on the rotor shaft at both sides of the armature winding. However, in the motor of a type, wherein brushes in the form of a cantilever spring are caused to contact on the surface of the commutator along a direction substantially parallel thereto as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,518, when the oil throwers are to be provided, the member came into contact with the brushes to hinder assembly of the motor. Moreover, such oil throwers, if provided exclusively for the purpose of slinging the lubricant oil, inevitably increase the axial length of the rotor for the axial length of such members, which is therefore not desirable for realizing flattening of the motor.
Besides the abovementioned U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,518, a motor, in which a disc-shaped commutator is fixed on the rotor shaft in a manner to be substantially perpendicular thereto, and the brushes are caused to contact the surface of the commutator along a direction substantially parallel thereto, is also disclosed in British Pat. No. 1,111,527. In such motor, the contact point between the brushes and the commutator has to be brought to as close a position as possible with respect to the axis of rotation so as to minimize the loss of torque resulting from the friction between the brushes and the commutator, due to which requirement the brushes are limited in their width and are formed in an elongated shape. Consequently, the brush disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,518 (FIG. 4) is formed as a very thin and long rod, one end of which is fixed and the other end of which is free to serve as a contacting end to the commutator. Such brush is accompanied by various defects in that it undergoes vibrations with the position at which it is fixed being made the fulcrum thereof and, since the distance from the fulcrum to the free contacting end thereof is long, the brush vibrates with a very large amplitude. When the motor is rotated, stable contact of the brushes with the commutator is hindered, thereby causing not only undesirable noise but also detachment of the brush from the commutator with eventual interruption of electric conduction. In order to avoid the drawbacks of the brush as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,518, the British Pat. No. 1,111,527 provides a brush of simply increased width, one end of which is fixed, and the other end of which is formed in an extremely thin plate spring and made free to serve as the contacting end with the commutator. Even in this case, however, the brush as a whole undergoes vibrations with the position at which it is fixed, being made the fulcrum and, since the distance from the fulcrum to the free contacting end is long, the brush vibrates with a very large amplitude when the motor is rotated, thus hindering stable contact of the brush with the commutator. Therefore, not only undesirable noise but also detachment of brush from the commutator with eventual interruption of electric conduction is caused. Thus, the simple increase in thickness or width of the brush does by no means constitute a satisfactory solution to the abovementioned drawbacks.
Further, in order to alleviate the abovementioned drawbacks, there has also been known already a brush structure, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 39-5905, wherein a plate spring of a shape having relatively similar longitudinal and transversal lengths which may be circular or square is provided with a fixing hole in the center part thereof, and in the outer periphery of which a U-shape or a right-angled U-shape opening or window is formed to construct elastic arm portions on both sides of the fixing hole in a symmetrical manner. Two contact pieces which contact with the commutator are integrally formed outside of the center part between the two elastic arm portions to increase the width of the brush, and to reduce length of the brush. Furthermore, DAS No. 1,293,318 discloses a similar brush structure consisting of a plate spring of a shape having relatively similar longitudinal and transversal lengthes either circular or a square and provided with a fixing hole in the center part thereof, in the outer periphery of which a U-shape, or a right-angled U-shape opening or window is formed therearound to constract elastic arm portions on both side of the fixing hole in a symmetrical manner. Two contact pieces contacting with the commutator are formed integrally between the two elastic arm portions, and at an outside position where it is nearer to one of the arm portions to thereby widen the width of the brush and to shorten its length.
However, such brushes as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 39-5905 and DAS No. 1,293,318 undergo a concentrated bending moment at the connecting portion between the center part provided with the fitting hole and the elastic arm portions, i.e., at the extreme end of the U-shape, or right-angled U-shape opening or window, as a result of which they bend at the connecting part which acts as the fulcrum, while tending to be twisted. Consequently, such brushes are unable to exhibit spring characteristics to a satisfactory and effective degree, and also lack stability when they contact the commutator. | {
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This invention is directed to an apparatus and method for cutting a meat product and, more particularly, to an automated apparatus and method for cutting a meat product that increases throughput and improves safety for an operator.
Various steps are typically required in the processing meat carcasses such as hog carcasses. One step that typically occurs after a hog is slaughtered is the separation of the carcass into separate pork sides. The loin and belly portions of the individual pork sides are then separated from one another and individual chops are cut from the loin portion.
These operations have traditionally been performed by human operators using different handheld tools. An operator at a work station typically uses a bandsaw to cut the individual chops. Using human operators to perform the chop cutting operation, however, poses several problems. One problem is the time consuming nature of the chore which limits throughput since each chop must be cut by hand. Also, because the operator is handling the cutting tools, safety is a serious concern. In addition, the repeatability of the operation is a concern since it is very difficult for an operator to consistently cut chops of a desired thickness.
To address the problems associated with manual processes, various automated systems have been proposed. Examples include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,603,610 and 4,688,296; for example, among others.
Many of these systems attempt to replace human operators with automated cutting tools, often resulting in greater efficiency and more repeatable results. However, many prior automated systems are limited in the degree of control they provide.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an automated cutting apparatus including a cutting tool, a cutting platform, a programmable controller and an input device. The cutting platform is located adjacent to the cutting tool for transporting a piece of meat to the cutting tool. The programmable controller is coupled to the cutting platform and cutting tool. The programmable controller sends commands to the cutting platform and the cutting tool to control their respective movement. The input device is coupled to the programmable controller and has input parameters selectable by an operator to specify thicknesses and quantities of chops cut from the piece of meat for a plurality of groups. The programmable controller uses the input parameters to control the movement of the cutting tool and cutting platform accordingly.
According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided an automated cutting apparatus including a cradle for holding a piece of meat therein; a first, second and third carriage; a first, second and third actuator; and a controller. The first carriage is located at a first end of the cradle and the first actuator is operatively coupled to the first carriage to move the first carriage along a first axis. The second carriage is located at a second end of the cradle and the second actuator is operatively coupled to the second carriage to move the second carriage along the first axis. The third carriage is located along a side of the cradle in between the first and second end of the cradle and the third actuator is operatively coupled to the third carriage to move the third carriage along a second axis. The second axis is perpendicular to the first axis. The controller is operatively coupled to the first, second and third actuators wherein the controller controls the speed of movement of the first, second and third actuators. The speed of movement of the first and second actuators is directly proportional to the speed of movement of the third actuator.
According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a system for automatically cutting meat, the system includes an advance actuator moveable along an advance axis, a backstop actuator movable along a backstop axis, and a cut actuator movable along a cut axis. The cut axis is perpendicular to the advance and backstop axes. Also included is a general purpose computing device operatively coupled to the advance, backstop and cut actuators, and a computer program including one or more program modules executable by the computing device. The program modules include an input module for receiving input parameters selected by an operator, a motion control module for converting input parameters received by the input module to output commands to control the movement of the advance actuator, backstop actuator, cut actuator and cutting tool according to the input parameters selected by an operator.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a method for automatically cutting meat. The method includes the steps of receiving input parameters from an operator specifying the thicknesses and quantities of chops to be cut from a piece of meat for a plurality of groups, converting the input parameters received to motion control parameters, and outputting the motion control parameters to a cutting tool and cutting platform located adjacent to the cutting tool to control movement of the cutting tool and cutting platform according to the input parameters received.
According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions to carry out the method.
According to a sixth aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave readable by a computing system and encoding a computer process for performing the method. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates generally to the measurement of hypochlorous acid, and more particularly to an in-line analyzer for continuously and accurately determining the hypochlorous acid content of chlorinated water.
Disinfection of water in drinking water supplies, swimming pools, industrial process and cooling waters and waste-waters is essential to health and safety, for disinfection serves to destroy pathogens and other organisms present therein. The most widely used method of disinfection is chlorination. This involves continuously feeding either chlorine gas, calcium hypochlorite or sodium hypochlorite into the water at a controlled and regulated rate in a sufficient quantity to impart and to maintain a chlorine residual of specified type and quantity.
The quantity of any selected chlorination agent that must be applied is referred to as the "dosage." This dosage quantity, in turn, includes not only the quantity of the chlorination agent required to impart to the water the specified chlorine residual but also includes the quantity of chlorination agent required to satisfy the chlorine demand of the water. By convention, all three of these distinct quantities--the demand quantity, the residual quantity, and the dosage quantity--are expressed in parts per million (ppm); i.e., parts or chlorine per million parts of water.
The chlorine demand is the ppm chlorine that is required to destroy all harmful bacteria and to react with any oxidizable organic or inorganic chemical substances present in the water. The chlorine demand value is also related to the pH of the water, the temperature of the water, and the particular type of chlorine residual desired.
Chlorine residual is the ppm chlorine present in the water in a form which is either immediately available or potentially available to react with pollutants introduced into the water. Chlorine residual is of two types: free available chlorine residual, the form immediately available for reaction; and combined available chlorine residual, the form potentially available for reaction.
Free available chlorine is created when chlorine gas dissolves in water. In this form, chlorine is extremely reactive and is highly effective as a disinfectant. Combined available chlorine is chlorine which is present in the form of one of the chloramine compounds. This series of compounds results from the reaction of chlorine and ammonia or some nitrogeneous organic compound. In the chloramine form, the reactivity of the chloramine is reduced considerably.
Since free available chlorine is a far more powerful disinfectant than combined available chlorine, it has heretofore been the practice to continuously monitor the free chlorine residual in the water to be sure that adequate disinfection is maintained. Commonly used for this purpose is an in-line analyzer of the type described in the Morrow U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,087, wherein a sample stream of water to be tested is conducted through an amperometric cell having spaced measuring and counter-electrodes. By impressing a voltage across the electrodes causing this cell to operate in a saturation zone, the current flow through the cell becomes a function of the free available chlorine content of the stream being tested and is independent of the combined available chlorine content.
A commercially-available instrument that is capable of discriminating between free available chlorine and combined available chlorine residual to provide a continuous reading of the free chlorine content of chlorinated water is the "Anachlor" Residual Chlorine Analyzer-Transmitter manufactured by Fischer & Porter of Warminster, Pa. This instrument is described in the Fischer & Porter Instruction Bulletin 17B4200, Revision B, published in 1975.
An Anachlor instrument is not, however, capable of discriminating between the hypochlorous acid (HOCl) component of free available chlorine and the other fraction which is hypochlorite ions (OCl.sup.-). The HOCl species is more active as an oxidizing and disinfecting agent than OCl.sup.-, and it therefore becomes desirable to monitor the HOCl component so that by specifically sensing this process variable, one can regulate the dosage so as to maintain optimum disinfection conditions.
To this end, one must be able to select the HOCl component from the free available chlorine residual. One commercially-available instrument which is designed to carry out in situ measurements of HOCl in wter is the "Delta Chlorine Analyzer" manufactured by Delta Scientific Company of Lindenhurst, N.Y. The crucial element in this analyzer is a polarographic membrane electrode that renders the instrument selectively responsive to the chlorine species whereby its primary response is due to HOCl and its smaller secondary responses are to relatively weak chlorine disinfectants such as OCl.sup.- and chloramines.
One of the problems encountered with an instrument of the Delta type is the tendency of the membrane to absorb water by osmosis. This produces osmotic swelling of the HOCl permeable member and results in failure of the sensor when the membrane ruptures. Moreover, since the Delta instrument does not take into account the effect of variations in temperature and pH factor in HOCl, the instrument is unreliable and inaccurate in operation. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fastener. When the fastener is inserted in a piece of material, at least one prong digs into the surface of the material to prevent the fastener from rotating when a threaded fastener is screwed into the fastener.
2. Description of Background Art
Fasteners including a flange with a shaft extending therefrom are well known. It is also well known to provide the shaft with an end remote from the flange having a reduced wall thickness to facilitate riveting that end over the surface of a piece of material through which the shaft has been inserted to hold the fastener against axial movement once riveted. Rivets may also prevent rotation of the fastener, particularly rivets which have alternating flaired and non-flaired portions.
However, riveting fasteners, which would be desirable to prevent rotation of the fasteners, is difficult in several situations, including the following:
1. Tapered holes. In the manufacture of office seating, the curved plywood pieces that make up the backs of the seats are sometimes punched out of a formed blank with a knife edge die. For forms with a simple curvature, this is faster than using a router to cut out the piece, and in addition the holes for the fasteners can be punched at the same time, saving the time and cost of the secondary drilling operation. However, punched holes are tapered. When using conventional riveting methods, it is difficult to ensure that there is sufficient penetration into the sides of the hole to prevent rotation when the hole is opening up.
2. Varying material thickness. Components made from plywood have a consistent thickness throughout. However components that are molded from plastic or a wood sawdust/resin mixture generally are thinner in some areas and thicker in others. This leads to different depths of holes into which the fasteners are inserted. It is very difficult to ensure consistently good riveting into different depth holes with a single set-up.
In view of the problems described above, a need has developed for a fastener that may be 1) guided within the track by the sides of the fastener; 2) more firmly secured to the surface of the material to prevent the fastener from rotating, particularly for fasteners that are not riveted; and 3) prevented from shingling solely by the thickness of the straight sides of the fastener. Furthermore, a need has developed for a fastener wherein the fastener blank is formed in a forging operation with the fastener blank being subsequently tapped. It is with these needs in mind that the present invention was developed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to turbomachinery systems, such as gas turbines. Specifically, the subject matter relates to methods and systems for controlling a gas turbine system.
In a turbine system, the firing temperature is the temperature produced within the turbine's combustion system, e.g. flame temperature. Firing control algorithms may determine how to derive a desired firing temperature and then provide the actual firing temperature of the turbine by controlling, for example, an amount of fuel fed to the combustion system. The firing control algorithms may determine the desired firing temperature based on turbine parameters such as exhaust temperature, compressor pressure ratio, and compressor inlet temperature.
Current firing control algorithms incorporate static assumptions about the turbine's operating environment and component performance over time. They also consider the turbine's various operating states and constraints interdependent with each other. Because of such assumptions and state interdependency, the accuracy of the firing temperature control and the level of performance associated with these firing control algorithms may decreases as the turbine ages, and the algorithms may require seasonal tuning.
Certain firing control algorithms, such as model based control (MBC) algorithms, may incorporate variations in the turbine's operating environment and/or component performance over time. MBC firing control algorithms may treat the turbine's various operating states and constraints as independent states, leading to more accurate firing temperature control and increased levels of performance. However, implementing MBC firing control algorithms may require a complete overhaul of the turbine controller's software and/or hardware by a qualified technician, which can be slow and expensive. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Brannon et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,749 issued Apr. 2, 1985 illustrates that ablation of openings in polyimide can be done using imaging systems in combination with excimer lasers. FIGS. 1 and 2 of this patent illustrate apparatus for accomplishing this purpose. The mask used for ablation in Brannon et al. is typically a reflective dielectric mask. A dielectric mask is required since the usual hard chrome masks quickly erode when exposed to the fluence levels required for polyimide ablation.
More resilient and better suited for the purposes of ablation are the wholly transparent masks of our patent applications Hunter et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/058,906 filed May 6, 1993, entitled Apparatus and Process for the Production of Fine Line Metal Traces (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,493, issued Nov. 15, 1994); Smith et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/230,183 filed Apr. 20, 1994 entitled High Power Phase Masks for Imaging Systems (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,801 issued Apr. 20, 1994); and Smith et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/833,939 filed Feb. 10, 1992 entitled High Power Phase Mask for Imaging Systems (now U.S. Pat. 5,328,785 issued Jul. 12, 1994).
In certain applications, notably ink jet nozzle production, it is desirable to control the exact fluence profile on the workpiece in order to achieve specific wall slopes and shapes. This much is set forth in Smith et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/215,851 filed Mar. 21, 1994 entitled Apparatus and Process for Optically Ablated Openings Having Designed Profile. This reference requires that the profile of ablation over the area of an opening in a workpiece be carefully controlled.
Existing techniques for varying the intensity level over a mask are rather crude and limited in their scope of applicability. Most commonly, a multiple step process is used to manufacture a dielectric mask with a discrete number of transmission or gray levels. See Burns et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,436 issued Aug. 4, 1987 and entitled Method of Simultaneously Etching Personality and Select. Alternately, it is known to shape holes utilizing a wobbling optical reflecting surface which imparts to an ablating beam a profile which can be reproduced. Others have noted that certain beams produce holes of certain shapes--and where the shape is desirable, the beam structure is used. It is to be noted that such techniques do not lend themselves to the design of the specific profile of an aperture to be produced. That is to say, determining first the specific profile that it is desired to achieve and thereafter designing a beam and mask combination which will ablate that desired profile--both in overall shape and desired depth. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
This invention relates to a drill for use in a boring machine and having a tool holder with two cutter bars, each having a cutter projecting radially from the periphery of the tool holder, the cutter bars being movably mounted in a radial direction in a recess passing through the tool holder, the cutter bars being fixable in their respective positions. Thus such drills serve for boring of drilled holes, the radial spacing between the cutters and the longitudinal axis of the tool holder being alterable, in order to adapt the drill to holes of various diameters, or in order to vary the thickness of chip material removed during processing. Because during processing of drilled holes considerable forces have to be applied by the cutters, correspondingly large torques must be transmitted by the drill and if the range of usefulness of the drill in relation to the forces to be applied during cutting is not to be limited, the construction of the drill should be extremely robust. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a workpiece and a production method thereof, and more particularly to a workpiece with three-dimensional pattern and a production method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, electronic devices such as notebook computers, mobile phones, or digital cameras mostly adopt metal material for constituting the exterior. In order to advance the overall aesthetic appearance of electronic devices, various patterns are usually formed on the appealing configuration. Patterns are produced on the surface of metal material frequently by etching metal material with a solvent or by paint-spraying and transfer printing. Nonetheless, the surface treatment technique of the former is complicated and difficult, and the production thereof is highly contaminative. The latter is restrained by the chemical property of metal material, such that artistic configuration cannot be produced. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer graphic process and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for perspective-transforming a three-dimensional thing on a virtual two-dimensional screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional technique, when a three-dimensional object (thing) is perspective-transformed on a virtual two-dimensional screen, points for specifying the thing are respectively calculated in accordance with ratios of distances between a point of view and the points to a distance between the point of view and the screen to perform perspective transformation.
However, since the distances between the point of view and the respective points for specifying the thing are different from each other, very large amounts of calculation for the distances are required by the CPU (Central Processing Unit) or another device of a computer. In other words, in an entertainment system such as a video game apparatus, the heavy load on the CPU or the like is a problem when high-speed processing for an object image which continuously changes is performed.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problem, relates to a computer graphic process, and has as its object to provide a novel method and apparatus for perspective-transforming a three-dimensional thing on a virtual two-dimensional screen.
An apparatus for perspective-transforming a thing placed in a three-dimensional space according to the present invention has means in which, when the coordinate values of a plurality of points for specifying the thing are localized with respect to a certain direction in the three-dimensional space, by using the coordinate values of a typical point selected from the plurality of points, perspective transformation of the other points is approximated, and calculation for graphics is performed at a high speed.
When a plurality of things are localized in a three-dimensional space, approximation is performed in units of things.
The direction of a line of sight extending from a point of view to the thing is frequently used. For example, this direction of the line of sight is a Z-axis direction in an XYZ coordinate system specified around the point of view.
As the plurality of points, vertex coordinates obtained when a thing is drawn with polygons are frequently used.
The typical point is determined by a replacing method on the basis of the coordinate values of the plurality of points. For example, as the typical point, an average value of Z values, the Z value of the first selected point, or a point selected last can be set.
The coordinate values can also be calculated by a linear approximation, a quadratic approximation, or a higher-order approximation.
In this case, whether the coordinate values of a plurality of points for specifying the thing are localized with respect to a certain direction in the three-dimensional space or not is determined in the following manner. That is, it is assumed that the minimum value of the Z values of the thing in the Z-axis direction is represented by minZ, that the maximum value of the Z values of the thing is represented by maxZ, and that the average value of the Z values of the thing is represented by meanZ. In this case, when expressions:
|minZxe2x88x92maxZ|÷|minZ|xc2x7K1,
|minZxe2x88x92maxZ|÷|maxZ|xc2x7K1, or
|minZxe2x88x92maxZ|÷|meanZ|xc2x7K1
are satisfied, it is determined that the Z values of the thing are localized. The value of K1 is, e.g., 0.1.
However, the value of K1 may be changed depending on an application program to be applied, a scene to be applied, and the like.
In addition, whether the coordinate values of the plurality of points for specifying a plurality of things are localized with respect to a certain direction in the three-dimensional space in units of things or not is determined in the following manner. That is, it is assumed that the minimum value of the Z values of the ith thing (i=1, 2, . . . , M) in the Z-axis direction is represented by minZi, that the maximum value of the Z values of the ith thing is represented by maxZi, and that the average value of the Z values of the ith thing is represented by meanZi. In this case, when expressions:
|minZ1xe2x88x92maxZ1|÷|meanZ1xe2x88x92meanZ2|xc2x7K2,
|minZ2xe2x88x92maxZ2|÷|meanZ1xe2x88x92meanZ2|xc2x7K2,
|minZ2xe2x88x92maxZ2|÷|meanZ2xe2x88x92meanZ3|xc2x7K2,
|minZ3xe2x88x92maxZ3|÷|meanZ2xe2x88x92meanZ3|xc2x7K2,
|minZMxe2x88x921xe2x88x92maxZMxe2x88x921xe2x88x92|÷|meanZMxe2x88x921xe2x88x92meanZM|xc2x7K2, and
|minZMxe2x88x92maxZM|÷|meanZMxe2x88x921xe2x88x92meanZM|xc2x7K2,
are satisfied, it is determined that the Z values are localized in units of things. In this case, approximate calculations are performed in units of things. The value of K2 is, e.g., 0.1.
However, the value of K2 may be changed depending on an application program to be applied, a scene to be applied, and the like. The method may be selectively applied to only a thing in which the expressions are satisfied.
In addition, an apparatus for perspective-transforming a thing placed in a three-dimensional space on a virtual two-dimensional screen has means in which, when the coordinate values of a plurality of points for specifying things on the same scene are localized with respect to a certain direction in units of things, by using the coordinate values of a typical point selected for the respective things, perspective transformation of the other points for specifying the things is approximated.
The typical points may be selected by a replacing method, a linear approximation, a quadratic approximation, or a higher-order approximation.
In addition, an entertainment system according to the present invention including a control system, a graphic system, a sound system, an optical disk control unit, and a bus for connecting these systems and the unit to each other, and wherein the graphic system has a geometry transfer engine, and when the coordinate values of a plurality of points for specifying the thing are localized with respect to a certain direction in the three-dimensional space, by using the coordinate values of a typical point selected from the plurality of points, the graphic system approximates perspective transformation of the other points.
Here, when a plurality of things exist, and when the things are localized in units of things, approximation is performed in units of things.
In addition, a method of perspective-transforming a thing placed in a three-dimensional space according to the present invention includes the steps of: checking whether the coordinate values of a plurality of points for specifying the thing are localized with respect to a certain direction in the three-dimensional space or not; and, if the coordinate values are localized, approximating perspective transformation of the other points by using the coordinate values of a typical point selected from the plurality of points.
Here, when a plurality of things exist, and when the things are localized in units of things, approximation is performed in units of things.
In this manner, when the plurality of points are perspective-transformed, the Z values of several points can be arithmetically operated with approximate values. For this reason, a load on a CPU and other arithmetic operation means is reduced, and a high-speed perspective transformation can be achieved. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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With the continuous development of electronic technology, LCD displays have been widely used in various fields. A thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate is an important part of a liquid crystal display. Most TFT array substrate includes a base, common electrode lines, gate lines and data lines and other structures, wherein the gate lines are disposed between the two lines of sub-pixel, the data lines are disposed between the two columns of sub-pixels, the crossing regions of the gate lines and the data lines form the pixel units; the common electrode lines are also disposed between two lines of sub-pixel.
A driving method shown in FIG. 1 uses the overlapping scan driving modes, that is the gate pulse signal are overlapped therebetween. FIG. 1 shows the data voltage signal on the data lines and the switching voltage signals on four gate lines G1, G2, G3, and G4, wherein the switching voltage signal may be a pulse signal. As for the switching voltage signal on the gate line G2, in the first half of the switching voltage signal, the data voltage signal corresponding to the last gate line is written, in the second half of the switching voltage signal, the data voltage signal corresponding to the current gate line is written. During actual driving, firstly the thin-film transistor is turned on and the data voltage signal is provided to the pixel unit, if the switching voltage signals on the four gate lines G1, G2, G3 and G4 control the thin film transistors to be turned on in order. During changing of the gate voltages, there are certain periods wherein the switching voltage signals on two adjacent gate lines are both in high level (i.e., TFT is turned on), thus the magnetic field generated by the changing voltage on two gates lines are superimposed, leading to a strong coupling effect. In addition, due to the rapid changes of the voltage on the gate line, while the voltage on the common electrode line parallel to the gate line is usually constant, the enhanced coupling effect will further lead to instability of the common electrode voltage VCOM, affecting the display quality of the screen. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Automotive vehicles, generally those vehicles that are wheeled and self-propelled, may used to carry wide variety of objects that are too large or long to be carried inside the automotive vehicle. These objects may include sporting equipment (e.g., canoes, kayaks; standup paddle boards, surf boards, dinghies, etc.), construction materials (plywood sheets, piping, lumber, etc.); tools (e.g., extension ladders, scaffolding, etc.); home furnishings (mattresses, bed frames, book cases, etc.); seasonal decorations (e.g., Christmas trees, outside decorations, etc.); and the like. The dimensions of these objects may dictate they be secured to the top or roof of a vehicle (e.g., attached or secured to a top [e.g., a roof rack.])
Two issues may arise as a result of this type of transportation. First, the act of placing such objects upon the automotive vehicle's top, due to object's bulk weight and the height of the automotive vehicle (e.g., vans, minivans, sports utility vehicles, etc.), may require considerable exertion and effort to do so, especially if only one person is loading the object upon the top. If the loading is not performed competently, it could also result in damage to automotive vehicle or the object, or worse, result in personal injury.
The second issue in the use of such transport could occur when the loaded object(s) is longer in length than length of the top or roof of the automotive vehicle. In such aspects, the rear portion of the object could overhang from the vehicle top. This overhanging rear portion of the top-loaded object could have serious impact on the load stability of the object when traveling at high speeds. At such speeds, the accumulating wind pressure upon a front portion of the top-loaded object, in combination with the object's overhang, could cause the object to shift or otherwise fall off the moving automotive vehicle. At the very least, rear overhanging top objects could call the attention of law enforcement to a potentially unsafe driving situation and possibly leading to the issuance of a traffic citation to the driver.
What could be needed is a telescopic rack that could attach to a trailer or tow hitch of an automotive vehicle to adjustably present a top tube assembly with one or more rollers in a horizontal orientation distal from the trailer hitch. For the loading or unloading operations, the telescopic rack could be placed in a more compact position, height wise, locating the top tube assembly below the height of vehicle's top. This positioning could allow the operator to place an object (that is to be loaded upon the top of the automotive vehicle) so that the object's front portion rests upon the telescopic rack's roller(s). By lowering a rear portion of the object relative to the top tube assembly, the operator could then angle the object's front portion upwards towards a rear edge of the automotive vehicle's top. As the operator moves the object along the one or more rollers, the object (e.g., the front portion) could engage the rear edge of the vehicle's top (e.g., the roof rack) and then move past the rear edge and over the top. As the object's movement continues, a center of gravity (e.g., middle portion) of object could engage and then pass over the rear edge generally allowing the weight of the object to then drop the front portion upon the top or roof, placing most of the object upon the top of the vehicle. The telescopic rack could then be extended lengthwise so that the top tube assembly may engage and support the overhanging rear portion of the object as loaded upon the top. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Today, 3.3 million Americans over the age of 40 are blind or have low-vision—a number that will surpass 5 million within the next decade. In addition, over 21 million Americans have profound visual impairments that require large print documents. A vast majority of these individuals have bank accounts, credit cards, and savings in various investment vehicles that require monthly statements. However, these individuals often are unable to access the financial statements that are typically provided.
Many visually impaired individuals use assistive technologies to access digital information. Such assistive technologies range from screen readers to Braille printers. However, many documents and websites are not designed to be compatible with assistive technologies.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed guidelines for technology products. These Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) state that websites, software products and electronic documents should be built to work with assistive technologies.
Portable Document Format (PDF) is the most commonly used document format in electronic statements. However, this document format has presented one of the most problematic accessibility issues. A number of organizations have been working to address this issue by outlining the appropriate tagging requirements.
Currently, tagging of PDF documents is manually performed on a per-document basis. Unfortunately, this is a time-consuming and tedious process. There also fails to be a mechanism for tagging of documents that are stored in electronic formats other than PDF.
In view of the above, it would be beneficial if an improved process for tagging documents could be developed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The field of the invention is polyether ester amides.
The state of the art of preparing polyether ester amides may be ascertained by reference to British Pat. No. 1,211,118 and British Pat. No. 1,473,972; West German Published Application No. 2,658,714 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,428,710; 3,489,816; 3,944,629; 3,993,709; and 4,207,410, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein.
The preparation of polyether ester amides, also referred to as block polyamide polyether esters, is known.
The following procedures are manufacturing processes of the prior art; the polycondensation of a polyamide forming monomer, for instance lactams, omega-aminocarboxylic acids, or equivalent amounts of dicarboxylic acids and diamines with a polyether having end located amino groups in the presence of dicarboxylic acids or with a polyether having end located carboxyl groups in the presence of diamines; and polycondensation of a polyether with polyamide oligomers including either carboxyl end groups or amine end groups. These prior art processes are disclosed in West German Published Application No. 2,658,714; British Pat. Nos. 1,211,118 and 1,473,972 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,428,710; 3,489,816 and 4,207,410.
It is known that polyethers and polyamides are mutually incompatible. Due to the heterogeneity of the reaction components, polycondensation takes place very slowly. Furthermore, only molded materials having a high extract content and relatively low molecular weights are obtained, so that inadequate stability is incurred in the molded articles made by injection molding and especially by the extrusion process.
Furthermore, desirable products are not obtained either when catalysts are used which require high concentrations and processing under reduced pressure or mechanical mixing. Products prepared in the presence of such catalysts as tetraalkylorthotitanate in the high concentrations required of up to 2% by weight are not resistant to hydrolysis.
Operating under reduced pressure requires a much higher cost of apparatus but the problem of heterogeneity of the reaction components nevertheless remains. Mechanical mixing, such as stirring, presents difficulties, or stirring becomes impossible to implement adequately as the reaction proceeds.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,410 teaches that relatively high molecular weights are achieved in the absence of a catalyst provided the monomeric components are introduced simultaneously. This procedure however, is not fully satisfactory because the temperature sensitive polyethers are subjected to thermal stresses during a relatively long production time, whereby minor thermal damage is obvious. This thermal damage results in the degradation of the mechanical properties of the polyether ester amides. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Users of the mobile devices (laptops, palmtops, mobile phones, smart phones, multimedia phones, portable media players, GPS units, mobile gaming systems, etc.) may have applications installed that periodically receive notification messages from notification services. For example, such applications include “push” e-mail services (e.g., MobileMe, Microsoft Exchange, ActiveSync, Push-IMAP, Yahoo! Push, etc.), or other push services (e.g., update/upgrade services, news services, web blog services, podcast services, social networking services, or other types of services where notification messages may be sent). Notification messages typically represent events of interest, which are typically defined by the applications (e.g., new e-mail indicator, new news item indicator, new podcast indicator, change of on-line status of a social networking friend, etc.).
The increase in the use of mobile devices magnifies the complexity of routing notification messages to those devices. One problem is that mobile devices are not inherently addressable; for example, there is currently no mobile version of IPv6. In other words, mobile devices do not have their own IP addresses in the same way that a desktop computer, or even a laptop computer, has an IP address. Furthermore, mobile devices are sometimes logically behind a service provider firewall that likely employs network address translation (NAT). Such firewalls are applicable both within the cellular context and the wi-fi context. Given that mobile devices are not inherently addressable, it is difficult to route messages to a mobile device, particularly on a large scale.
Scalability becomes a particular issue within the context of notification messages sent to mobile devices as the number of mobile devices connected to a network increases. For example, a network device that connects to mobile devices can typically manage device connections for thousands of mobile devices at a time. Thus, to accommodate hundreds of millions of mobile devices would require hundreds of thousands of network server devices to manage the connections and the routing of messages to those hundreds of millions of devices. Of course, hundreds of thousands of network server devices would be both cost prohibitive and very complex to implement. Additionally, static routing of messages using network server devices are often not failsafe or fault tolerant, meaning that if a network device goes down, it is possible that notification messages will not be able to reach certain mobile devices. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
This invention relates to a computer database and particularly to a virtual database space system employing a nonvolatile virtual database space.
Computer system technology using virtual memory mechanisms has been in practical use in mainframes since the early 1970s and in personal computers since the early 1990s, about twenty years later, and since then has been accepted and developed as a core computer technology in the marketplace. Initially valued for its effect of enlarging small real memories, as real memory capacities have become larger it has since become historically valued as an effective technology for achieving maximum throughput of mixed transactions in various fields of application where this was not previously possible.
However, in databases, our historical experience with this valuable computer technology has not necessarily been used to the full.
Conventionally, processing carried out in databases such as relational databases has centered on searches. Since main memories of computers have generally been small in capacity, data of a database has been stored in a secondary storage device. Because the access speed of a secondary storage device is slower than that of a main storage device, a buffer area has been provided in the main storage device and reading and writing of data has been carried out by way of the buffer area by demand paging being conducted when necessary. When free space in the buffer area runs out, according to a method such as the LRU method the least recently used data in the buffer area is written to the secondary storage device and deleted from the buffer area.
The buffer area of a conventional database has at the most been in the range of capacity of a virtual memory device, and because virtual memory devices are volatile it has been considered completely impossible for databases to be held in them directly. Accordingly, the ultimate aim of conventional database manipulation and recovery has always been the manipulation and recovery of data in a secondary storage device such as a hard disc.
However, because it has been the manipulation of data in a secondary storage device that has been the ultimate aim, there has been a limit to increases in processing efficiency and naturally there has been a limit to the range of practical uses of the database processing of relational databases and the like. That is, although numerous trials and experiments have been conducted with the aim of using relational databases, which until recently were used mainly for searches, also as operational systems databases, in which the overwhelming majority of transactions are update transactions, there have been very few reports of satisfactory throughputs being obtained with conventional systems as they are when different transactions like these are mixed.
Also, when a failure such as a system stoppage occurs a buffer in a main storage device is lost and consequently it is necessary to carry out a recovery, and conventionally this has almost always been carried out by data in a target secondary storage device being recovered using a log constituting a history of updates. To carry out a recovery it has been necessary to separately execute a recovery program, and furthermore failures occurring during a recovery have almost always resulted in the system being down for a long time.
Also, to enable the database to be recovered when a failure occurs in the secondary storage device it has been usual for a backup copy of all the data of the database in a secondary storage device to be held in another storage device, but because when the database in the secondary storage device is updated during this backup operation the backup copy of the database may not match the database it has been necessary for updating of the database to be stopped for the duration of the backup operation. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Methanofullerenes such as phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC60BM) and phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) are widely used as electron acceptor materials in organic photovoltaic devices (OPV) and organic photodetectors (OPD) (G. Dennler et al., Adv. Mater. 2009, 21, 1-16; F. He and L. Yu., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2011, 2, 3102-3113; I. Etxebarria et al., Journal of Photonics for Energy 2015, 5, 057214).
The synthesis of methanofullerenes is most commonly based on [3+2] cycloadditions by the reaction of diazomethanes, diazoacetates, diazoamides or diazoketones (A. Hirsch and M. Brettreich, Fullerenes: Chemistry and Reactions, 2005, Wiley-VCH, ISBN: 3-527-60820-2, pp. 119ff). Also, cyclopropanation reactions by nucleophilic addition of deprotonated α-halo-esters or ketones have been used successfully (C. Bingel, Chem. Ber. 1993, 126, 1957-1959). It has been demonstrated that addition of unsymmetrically substituted diazoalkanes leads to two isomers, i.e., [5,6]fulleroids having an open C—C bond on the fullerene cage and [6,6]methanofullerenes (Hummelen et al., J. Org. Chem. 1995, 60, 532-538). While fulleroids are formed first, when submitted to heat or irradiation by light they convert quantitative to the latter, resulting in [6,6]methanofullerenes as the thermodynamically stable compound used for OPV and OPD applications (Hummelen et al., J. Org. Chem. 1995, 60, 532-538) (Kooistra et al., Org. Lett. 2007, 9, 551-554). An additional degree of complexity is reached when C70 instead of C60 is the reactant. Whereas C60 contains only one type of 6-6 bond (a bond between two six membered rings), C70 has four, leading to mixtures of regioisomers. Even larger numbers of different regioisomers are formed in the case of multiple (such as bis- and tris-) adducts. A general discussion of isomers among fullerene adducts in the case of fullerene larger than C60 (such as C70, C76, C78 and C84) can be found in Thilgen et al. (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1997, 36, 2268-2280.). A more specific description of isomers of phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) has been provided by Wienk et al. (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2003, 42, 3371-3375, U.S. Pat. No. 7,906,797 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 8,481,996 B2). Using a [3+2] cycloaddition of substituted diazomethane (using tosylhydrazone as reactant), products were analyzed using 1H NMR and 13C NMR. It was concluded that the major isomer (˜85%) is the α-type compound formed by 1,3-dipolar addition to the most “polar” double bond (the C(8)-C(25) bond) yielding a chiral enantiomeric mixture. Two minor isomers (a combined proportion of ˜15%) were also identified as achiral stereoisomeric “type” addends, in which the addend is bound to the C(9)-C(10) double bond (the second most “polar” C═C bond in the C70 skeleton, after the C(8)-C(25) bond). For simplification, in this document, it will not be differentiated between the enantiomers of the α-isomer, which are referred to collectively as the “α-isomer” or “α-PC70BM.” Similarly, the two achiral isomers are not addressed individually, and they are collectively referred to as the “β-isomers” or “β-PC70BM.” The chromatographic separation of these isomers has been found to be extremely challenging and no viable preparative solution exists.
Reactions of semistabilized sulfur ylides generated in situ from corresponding sulfonium salts with C70 have been investigated. Such synthetic approach has been initially reported by Ito et al. (Synlett. 2013, 24, 1988-1992; JP2014-034519A), who prepared dimethyl (5-methoxy-5-oxo-1-phenylpentyl) sulfonium tetrafluoroborate by bromination of methyl 5-phenylpentanoate at the benzyl position, followed by nucleophilic substitution of the bromide with dimethyl sulfide. After optimization of the reaction with C60 resulting in [6,6]-Phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC60BM) without initial formation of the [5,6] isomer, the reaction was carried out with C70, in o-dichlorobenzene (ODCB). [6,6] PC70BM was obtained with 45% isolated yield and the products consisted of the same isomers having a similar component ratio (e.g., α:β 85:15) as in the conventional substituted diazoalkane addition approach by Wienk et al. (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2003, 42, 3371-3375, U.S. Pat. No. 7,906,797 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 8,481,996 B2), e.g., 85:15.
While the reaction of C70 with dimethyl (5-methoxy-5-oxo-1-phenylpentyl) sulfonium salt resulted in an isomeric mixture, reactions of dimethyl-sulfonium ylides with C70 produced methanofullerenes of the type C70CHCOR with regioselectivity (Wang et al., J. Org. Chem. 1996, 61, 5198-5199). In yet other instances, using the methyl-, iso-propyl-substituted sulfonium ylide of methyl 5-phenylpentanoate resulted in enrichment of α-PC70BM to 95% (based on 1H NMR spectroscopy)(JP2014-034519A).
No systematic correlation of the structure of the substituted sulfonium ylide and the extent of regioselectivity has been established. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a process for the production of ethylbenzene and styrene.
2. Description of the Related Art
Styrene is an important monomer used in the manufacture of many of todays plastics. Styrene is commonly produced by making ethylbenzene, which is then dehydrogenated to produce styrene. Ethylbenzene is typically formed by one or more aromatic conversion processes involving the alkylation of benzene.
Aromatic conversion processes, which are typically carried out utilizing a molecular sieve type catalyst, are well known in the chemical processing industry. Such aromatic conversion processes include the alkylation of aromatic compounds such as benzene with ethylene to produce alkyl aromatics such as ethylbenzene. Typically an alkylation reactor, which can produce a mixture of monoalkyl and polyalkyl benzenes, will be coupled with a transalkylation reactor for the conversion of polyalkyl benzenes to monoalkyl benzenes. The transalkylation process is operated under conditions to cause disproportionation of the polyalkylated aromatic fraction, which can produce a product having an enhanced ethylbenzene content and a reduced polyalkylated content. When both alkylation and transalkylation processes are used, two separate reactors, each with its own catalyst, can be employed for each of the processes. The alkylation and transalkylation conversion processes can be carried out in the liquid phase, in the vapor phase, or under conditions in which both liquid and vapor phases are present, and combinations thereof.
In the formation of ethylbenzene from alkylation reactions of ethylene and benzene, impurities and undesirable side products may be formed in addition to the desired ethylbenzene. These undesirable products can include such compounds as xylene, cumene, n-propylbenzene and butylbenzene, as well as polyethylbenzenes, and high boiling point alkyl aromatic components, sometimes referred to as “heavies,” having a boiling point at or above 185° C. As can be expected, reduction of these impurities and side products is important. This is especially true in the case of xylene, particularly the meta and para xylenes, which have boiling points that are close to that of ethylbenzene and can make product separation and purification difficult.
Ethylene is obtained predominantly from the thermal cracking of hydrocarbons, such as ethane, propane, butane, or naphtha. Ethylene can also be produced and recovered from various refinery processes. Ethylene from these sources can include a variety of undesired products, including diolefins and acetylene, which can act to reduce the effectiveness of alkylation catalysts and can be costly to separate from the ethylene. Separation methods can include, for example, extractive distillation and selective hydrogenation of the acetylene back to ethylene. Thermal cracking and separation technologies for the production of relatively pure ethylene can account for a significant portion of the total ethylbenzene production costs.
Benzene can be obtained from the hydrodealkylation of toluene which involves heating a mixture of toluene with excess hydrogen to elevated temperatures (for example 500° C. to 600° C.) in the presence of a catalyst. Under these conditions, toluene can undergo dealkylation according to the chemical equation: C6H5CH3+H2→C6H6+CH4 This reaction requires energy input and as can be seen from the above equation, produces methane as a byproduct, which is typically separated and may used as heating fuel for the process.
In view of the above, it would be desirable to have a process of producing ethylbenzene, and styrene, which does not rely on thermal crackers and expensive separation technologies as a source of ethylene. It would also be desirable if the process was not dependent upon ethylene from refinery streams that contain impurities which can lower the effectiveness and can contaminate the alkylation catalyst. It would further be desirable to avoid the process of converting toluene to benzene with its inherent expense and loss of a carbon atom to form methane. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to tools for setting fasteners and more particularly to nose assemblies for installing pull type fasteners. Examples of such nose assemblies are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,107,806 issued Oct. 22, 1963 to Van Hecke et al for "Modified Nose Assembly", U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,728, issued Sep. 7, 1982 to Smith for "Apparatus And System For Setting Fasteners", U.S. Pat. No 5,119,554 issued Jun. 9, 1992 to Wilcox for "Pintail Ejector Assembly For Fastener Installation Tooling", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,773 issued Sep. 15, 1992 to Rosier for "Tapered Rotatable Offset Nose Assembly". As can be seen these nose assemblies are utilized in conjunction with a hydraulic and/or pneumatic power source for installing two piece fasteners by applying a relative axial pulling force, for example, between a pin or mandrel and a collar or sleeve. Examples of swage type fasteners, or lockbolts, employing a pin and collar and adapted to be set with a relative axial pulling force are shown in the '728 Smith patent, supra, U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,518, issued Apr. 13, 1992 to Dixon for "Dish Compensating Flush Head Fastener", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,852, issued Feb. 25, 1992 to Dixon for "High Strength Fastener And Method". Examples of blind type fasteners employing a pin and a sleeve and adapted to be set by a relative axial pulling force are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,775 issued Dec. 9, 1986 to Dixon for "Blind Fastener With Grip Compensating Means", U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,673, issued Jul. 4, 1989 to Kendall for "Lock Spindle Blind Bolt With Lock Collar Providing Pin Stop Support" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,325, issued Sep. 5, 1989 to Smith for "Two Piece Blind Fastener With Lock Spindle Construction". With both the swage and blind type fasteners, the pin has an elongated shank provided with a pintail or pull portion having a plurality of pull grooves adapted to be gripped by a plurality of chuck jaws in the nose assembly. The chuck jaws are normally resiliently biased towards a closed condition for engagement with the pull grooves such that, upon insertion of the pintail portion into the nose assembly and actuation of the tool, the pull grooves will be gripped by the chuck jaws. At the same time, however, in the deactuated condition, the chuck jaws will be normally held open against the resilient bias to facilitate insertion of the pintail portion into the aperture defined by the opened chuck jaws as well as ejection of the pintail portion after the fastener has been set.
An anvil member is adapted to engage the collar or sleeve, depending upon the type of fastener, and, upon actuation of the tool, the chuck jaws, as noted, are biased to their closed condition to grip the pintail portion of the pin shank and a relative axial pulling force is then applied between the engaged members of the fastener by way of the relative axial force between the chuck jaws and the anvil. Typically the pin or mandrel is also provided with a weakened portion or breakneck groove which is located on the shank of the pin between the pull or pintail portion and the remainder of the shank and is adapted to fracture at a preselected axial load, i.e. pin break load, after the fastener has been set. This results in a finally installed fastener having a generally flush and/or compact structure with minimal or no pintail protrusion.
The magnitude of the pin break load required to fracture the breakneck groove, however, can result in the transmission of significant reaction or shock loads to the nose assembly and more particularly to its internal structure including the chuck jaws and the resilient bias mechanism. The magnitude of pin break load can be especially high with swage type fasteners since the breakneck groove must be of sufficient strength to withstand the high installation loads required for the anvil to swage the collar onto the pin.
It has been a common practice in nose assembly designs to use a metal coil type spring to provide the resilient bias for actuating the chuck jaws (see '554 patent to Van Hecke, supra). The same spring, however, also fully receives the shock loads resulting from pin break. The continued, repetitive application of the shock load to the coil spring can result in wear and/or eventual reduction or loss of bias whereby the proper operation of the nose assembly could be impaired. On the other hand, a significant portion of the shock load, if not absorbed, may be transmitted to the operator.
In order to reduce the shock load experienced by the operator, nose assemblies were constructed using an elastomeric structure comprising a series of O-rings which were packed together to provide the resilient biasing action as well as an improved shock absorbing function; see for example the U.S. Pat. No. 3,446,509, issued May 27, 1969 to Colosimo for "Chuck Jaw", U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,580, issued Oct. 20, 1970 to Chirco for "Eccentric Riveting Tool", and U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,478, issued Sep. 20, 1971 to Chirco for "Integral Anvil Holder". In such constructions, however, the elastomeric material could be responsive to changes in temperature whereby the resilient bias force and shock absorbing resistance could vary. Also the build up of contamination and/or dirt could impair the operation of the O-ring assembly while, at the same time, the continuous, repetitive loading of the O-ring members could also eventually result in a reduction of the desired resilient bias applied to the chuck jaws.
Still another approach utilizes a combination of O-ring members and a coil spring placed in a series or aligned orientation. With this type of structure the coil spring is adapted to provide most of the resilient bias for the operation of the chuck jaws while the O-ring structure is adapted to provide most of the shock load absorption. With this series construction, however, the spring is substantially compressed and/or bottomed out in response to the full force of the pin break or shock load; thus, again, the problem of wear on the coil spring as a result of the heavy loads and changes in the load capability of the O-ring with temperature fluctuations could still result in undesired wear and functional variations.
Examples of installation tools with other shock absorbing constructions can be seen in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,372, issued Nov. 7, 1989 to Port et al for "Shock-Absorbing Fluid-Actuated Fastener Installation Tool" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,292, issued Oct. 23, 1990 to Kaelin et al for "Shock-Absorbing Fluid-Actuated Pressure System".
The present invention provides a nose assembly having a unique design in which a coil spring and assembly of O-ring members are utilized in a generally parallel combination in which the coil spring and O-ring members function substantially separately. In this construction the resilient bias required for the routine opening and closing function of the chuck jaws is provided substantially solely by the coil spring structure while the elastomeric O-ring members are used to provide substantially all of the shock or pin break load absorption with the coil spring being subject only to a small portion of the overall pin break load.
In addition the nose assembly of the present invention utilizes a unique construction in which dirt and debris introduced into the forward, open portion of the assembly is automatically expelled reducing the frequency with which the nose assembly has to be cleaned.
Thus it is an object of the present invention to provide a unique construction for a nose assembly for an installation for setting pull type fasteners.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Algin is a water-soluble polysaccharide found in all species of Phaeophyceae, brown algae. The generic term algin designates the derivatives of alginic acid chemically extracted from Phaeophyceae. The derivatives of alginic acid include varied soluble salts (e.g., sodium alginate) and salts of ethers (e.g., propylene glycol alginate); these derivatives, i.e., algin, are stored in their dry-powdered form. Algin is used in commercial gum applications for its thickening, suspending, emulsifying, stabilizing, adhesive, film-forming, and gel-forming properties.
Tamarind kernal powder is a commercially available product made by husking and milling the seed kernels of the tree Tamarindus indica Linn.
Guar gum is a commercially available product which is essentially the endosperm of the plant Cyanaposis tetragonolobus, family Leguminosae. Guar gum is used extensively as an additive in paper manufacturing as an aid in fiber-fiber bonding. Guar gum is also used as a flocculating agent in the mining industry since it flocculates clays, carbonates, hydroxides and silica. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates to the field of sintered electric contact materials particularly suitable for making contacts which must make and break while carrying relatively high power currents.
German Pat. No. 1,029,571 suggests a method for manufacturing sintered electric contact material by atomizing into an oxidizing atmosphere a molten alloy of silver and a non-noble metal, the non-noble metal being one that oxidizes at a temperature less than would result in the silver being oxidized. The result is a powder of spheroidal particles with the non-noble metal internally oxidized within the particles. Powder metallurgical techniques can be used to form the electric contact material from this powder. Metals, such as zinc, cadmium, mercury, tin and/or lead may be used as the non-noble metal alloyed with the silver to comprise the molten alloy that is atomized to form the spheroidal particles.
German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,011,002 sugggests a silver-metal oxide contact material having a coarse grained silver matrix with the metal oxide in the form of particles having a size less than 0.1 microns, concentrated at the grain boundaries of the silver.
This second suggestion has the disadvantage that the concentration of the metal oxide particles at the silver grain boundaries causes the resulting material to be excessively brittle.
The first suggestion has the disadvantage that the internally oxidized particles obtained by atomization, are spheroidal in shape preventing them from being compressed into moldings of adequately low porosity, the sintered moldings being of high porosity whereas electric contact material should be substantially free from porosity. The oxidized internal non-noble metal component provides such spheroidal particles with a dispersion-hardening effect preventing their deformation by compression to effect closing of the voids resulting from their spheroidal shape.
Furthermore, known techniques for atomizing a silver-non-noble metal alloy to powder form having a particle size below 0.2 mm, results in a yield of such maximum size of only about 50 percent, the balance of the particles necessarily being treated as a reflux which must be returned for remelting to be again atomized. This particle size cannot be exceeded to any substantial degree if the powder is to have good molding properties.
The object of the present invention is to provide a method for making electric contact material consisting of sintered internally oxidized silver-metal oxide powder particles, which avoids the foregoing undesirable features. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the management of visitors to a website and, more particularly, to a system and method for increasing the activity of a website user through the use of an incentive-based website architecture.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent explosion in the user of the World Wide Web (hereinafter “the web”) has created numerous opportunities for content providers such as advertisers and sellers of products and services to display and sell to consumers. It is becoming apparent, however, that advertising and sales techniques that in the past were practiced by virtually all advertisers and sellers do not necessarily apply to advertising and sales on the web.
In a typical “bricks and mortar” sales location, a salesperson often will have in mind certain products that they wish to actively “push” to consumers. Their goal is to sell as many of the products as possible at the highest margin possible. However, the salesperson may be willing to sacrifice some of the sales margin in order to make a sale and/or in order to sell multiple units of the product. Thus, the salesperson will “lead” the customer down a “path” that will ideally result in maximum sales units at a maximum price, but which path is replete with numerous branches that, from the salesperson's point of view, provide gradually reduced margins or additional incentives for the buyer to make the purchase. In other words, the salesperson will whittle away at margins as slowly as possible until reaching the point at which the buyer is convinced to make the purchase.
This process has been honed by salespersons over the years to an art form, and salespeople are very much aware of which paths are easier to lead a customer down (and which are harder), as well as which paths result in higher (or lower) profits. However, the web does not offer the same ability for a salesperson to interactively monitor the sale and minimize their “loss” on the original sales price. Typically, e-commerce websites will offer incentives such as free shipping, a discounted price, additional items free (e.g., two-for-one) and the like as an incentive to make a sale. However, these incentives are offered to each customer randomly from the beginning, i.e., the website does not offer the incentive the way a fallback position as a live salesperson would, instead offering them uniformly to all, or a particular class of, customers.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have available to a seller using an interactive sales medium (e.g., the World Wide Web, call centers, intelligent vending machines, etc.) the ability to identify the most likely paths for the interactive sales medium to be followed during the sales process and be able to provide gradually increasing rewards (or decreasing “punishments”) along these paths, thereby maximizing the margin on sales made in the interactive sales medium. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing molds.
Conventionally, computer-aided design (CAD) systems are employed to design molds, which are used to form molded products. A CAD system uses data representing the geometry of a molded product to design a mold in correspondence with the geometry of the molded product. That is, the CAD system generates design data for the mold of the molded product using data representing the finish geometry and dimension of the molded product. A computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system generates numerical control (NC) data, or process data, from the mold design data generated by the CAD system. An NC apparatus machines a workpiece in accordance with the process data to manufacture a mold.
In the prior art, a designer who designs a mold with a CAD system makes changes and modifications to mold design data, which is generated by the CAD system, based on experience. An operator using a CAM system also makes changes and modifications to the process data, which is generated by the CAM system, based on experience.
The design data and the process data represent the finish geometry of the mold and mold parts, which form the mold. In other words, in the prior art, the designing and manufacturing of a mold are performed based on only geometry information (i.e., design data and process data), which represents the finish geometry of the mold and mold parts. The geometry information does not represent machining information, such as the dimensions of the portions machined and removed from a mold material and the time required for the machining.
Accordingly, in the prior art, the geometry information of a mold is associated with the cutting information. This may result in the CAM system generating erroneous process data. Thus, when manufacturing different molds and mold parts that form the same molded product, the resulting mold and mold parts may have differing portions.
Furthermore, the designing process, which is performed by the CAD system, and the manufacturing process, which is performed by the CAM system, are based on only the geometry of the mold. Thus, the manufacturing process cannot be started until the designing process is completed. This requires enormous time for manufacturing the mold.
The process data generated by a CAM system, the information of mold parts that form a mold (unit information), process information, and the know-how accumulated by a machinist are not managed to be shared. Thus, the final mold may differ depending on the persons involved even when using the same information.
A conventional CAD system does not allow displaying the components of mold by unit. Therefore, it is difficult to check information operator requires such as parts list by unit and the progress. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Borehole nuclear magnetic resonance measurements provide different types of information about a reservoir. First, the measurements provide an indication of the amount of fluid in the formation. Second, the measurements present details about whether the fluid is bound by the formation rock or unbound and freely producible. Finally, the measurements can be used to identify the type of fluid--water, gas, or oil.
One approach to obtaining nuclear magnetic resonance measurements employs a locally generated static magnetic field, B.sub.0, which may be produced by one or more permanent magnets or electromagnets, and an oscillating magnetic field, B.sub.1, which may be produced by one or more RF antennas, to excite and detect nuclear magnetic resonance properties to determine porosity, free fluid ratio, and permeability of a formation. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,878 issued to Taicher et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,787 issued to Kleinberg et al. Nuclear spins align with the applied field B.sub.0 with a time constant of T.sub.1 generating a net nuclear magnetization. The angle between the nuclear magnetization and the applied field can be changed by applying an RF field, B.sub.1, perpendicular to the static field B.sub.0. The frequency of the RF field is equal to the Larmor frequency given by .omega..sub.0 =.gamma.B.sub.0 where .gamma. is the gyromagnetic ratio. After application of an RF pulse, the magnetization begins to precess around B.sub.0 and produces a detectable signal in the antenna.
Another approach to obtaining nuclear magnetic resonance measurements employs a locally generated static magnetic field, B.sub.0, which may be produced by one or more permanent magnets or electromagnets, and an azimuthally-oriented oscillating magnetic field, B.sub.1, which may be produced by one or more RF antenna segments that transmit and/or receive from different circumferential sectors of the logging device. See U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 08/880,343 and 09/094,201 assigned to Schlumberger Technology Corporation. Typical long echo trains (.about.600 spin-echoes) are unobtainable with a rotating azimuthal antenna. Since the antenna is only properly positioned in the measurement direction during a short time, the signal decays faster due to rotation of the tool than it would due to formation properties alone.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,252 issued to Kleinberg et al. describes a nuclear magnetic logging device which includes permanent magnets, an RF antenna, and a coil for generating a magnetic field gradient. The technique described in the '252 patent utilizes pulsed magnetic field gradients to obtain information regarding diffusion properties of the formation fluids. If internal gradients are present in the formation, a pulse sequence is applied to reduce or substantially eliminate the effect of internal gradients in the formation. The '252 patent does not identify a method for using the coil to obtain an azimuthal NMR measurement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,447 issued to Zvi Paltiel describes a nuclear magnetic logging device which includes permanent magnets and an RF antenna coil. The '447 patent requires a magnetic field gradient coil to determine a diffusion coefficient, i.e., the rate at which molecules of a material randomly travel within the bulk of the same material. The '447 patent employs the diffusion coefficient to determine at least one of the following petrophysical parameters: water/hydrocarbon discrimination, water and hydrocarbon saturation levels, permeability, pore size and pore size distribution, oil viscosity, a measure of the average increase in electrical resistance due to the formation tortuosity, and q-space imaging of the formation. The '447 patent does not identify a method for using the coil to obtain an azimuthal NMR measurement.
A primary object of this invention is to obtain an azimuthal NMR measurement. This measurement may be used to determine formation characteristics such as porosity, bound fluid volume, T.sub.2, T.sub.1, and permeability. Being able to measure the azimuthal variation of these characteristics is useful for interpreting heterogeneous formations and performing geologically based steering in deviated or horizontal boreholes.
Another object of the invention is to improve the vertical resolution of the tool using at least one gradient coil. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common leukemia in the United States. CLL involves the cancerous proliferation of lymphocytes. It is most common among older adults; 90 percent of the cases are in people more than 50 years old. It occurs 1–3 times more often among men than among women. The onset of CLL tends to be insidious, with symptoms developing gradually. Because it involves an overproduction of mature, functional lymphocytes, persons with this disorder may survive for years. In contrast, in some, the disorder proceeds very rapidly, and requires immediate treatment. Currently, the adenine deoxynucleosides fludarabine (fludara) and 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine (2CdA) are the drugs of choice to treat the disease. However, clinical remissions are seldom induced, and patients eventually succumb from their leukemia.
The number of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has increased to the point where they warrant separate classification. In addition to aspirin, the NSAIDs available in the U.S. include meclofenamate sodium, oxyphenbutazone, phenylbutazone, indomethacin, piroxicam, sulindac and tolmetin for the treatment of arthritis; mefenamic acid and zomepirac for analgesia; and ibuprofen, fenoprofen and naproxen for both analgesia and arthritis. Ibuprofen, mefenamic acid and naproxen are used also for the management of dysmenorrhea.
The clinical usefulness of NSAIDs is restricted by a number of adverse effects. Phenylbutazone has been implicated in hepatic necrosis and granulomatous hepatitis; and sulindac, indomethacin, ibuprofen and naproxen with hepatitis and cholestatic hepatitis. Transient increases in serum aminotransferases, especially alanine aminotransferase, have been reported. All of these drugs, including aspirin, inhibit cyclooxygenase, that in turn inhibits synthesis of prostaglandins, which help regulate glomerular filtration and renal sodium and water excretion. Thus, the NSAIDs can cause fluid retention and decrease sodium excretion, followed by hyperkalemia, oliguria and anuria. Moreover, all of these drugs can cause peptic ulceration. See, Remington's Pharmaceutical Sciences, Mack Pub. Co., Easton, Pa. (18th ed., 1990) at pages 1115–1122.
There is a large amount of literature on the effect of NSAIDs on cancer, particularly colon cancer. For example, see H. A. Weiss et al., Scand J. Gastroent., 31, 137 (1996) (suppl. 220) and Shiff et al., Exp. Cell Res., 222, 179 (1996). More recently, B. Bellosillo et al., Blood, 92, 1406 (1998) reported that aspirin and salicylate reduced the viability of B-cell CLL cells in vitro, but that indomethacin, ketoralac and NS-398, did not.
C. P. Duffy et al., Eur. J. Cancer, 34, 1250 (1998), reported that the cytotoxicity of certain chemotherapeutic drugs was enhanced when they were combined with certain non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents. The effects observed against human lung cancer cells and human leukemia cells were highly specific and not predictable; i.e., some combinations of NSAID and agent were effective and some were not. The only conclusion drawn was that the effect was not due to the cyclooxygenase inhibitory activity of the NSAID.
The Duffy group filed a PCT application (WO98/18490) on Oct. 24, 1997, directed to a combination of a “substrate for MRP”, which can be an anti-cancer drug, and a NSAID that increases the potency of the anti-cancer drug. NSAIDs recited by the claims are acemetacin, indomethacin, sulindac, sulindac sulfide, sulindac sulfone, tolmetin and zomepirac. Naproxen and piroxicam were reported to be inactive.
Therefore, a continuing need exists for methods to control cancers, such as leukemias, and to increase the potency of anti-cancer drugs with relatively non-toxic agents. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to gaseous fuel assemblies and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing a gaseous fuel for a power source.
Traditional railroad locomotives are powered by diesel-electric power sources, where a diesel engine drives a generator to produce electric power. The output power produced by these engine-generator sets is in turn used to power one or more electric traction motors. The traction motors power the drive wheels of the locomotive.
Locomotives are, by nature, self-contained in that they generate and use the power they require. Typically, locomotive limits are defined by the equipment and fuel that can be carried on the locomotive chassis. Attempts have been made to extend locomotive limits by, for example, attaching a tank car containing fuel (or water) behind a locomotive to give it extended operating range. However, these approaches are of limited utility and are generally not practiced due to harsh operating conditions that limit the ability to distribute locomotive functions across disparate chassis as well as the technical challenges of integrating stock railroad equipment with locomotives.
In recent years, as power needs have grown and railroads have become more concerned about emissions and fuel costs, a variety of approaches have been tried to improve the efficiency of locomotive power.
One such approach is a genset diesel locomotive, which includes a computer-controlled system that manages multiple smaller diesel engines that are turned on and off as power requirements of the railroad locomotive varies.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic of an exemplary prior art genset diesel locomotive 10 that includes a locomotive controller 12 that manages multiple engines and additional sensors and inputs. Genset diesel locomotive 10 includes a first engine-generator set 14 and a second engine-generator set 16, both operating in response to locomotive controller 12. Each engine-generator set 14, 16 includes an engine 18, 20 connected to a respective generator 22, 24, which produce electricity for the locomotive traction bus 26 and an auxiliary power bus (not shown). Generators 22, 24 are configured to convert the mechanical energy provided by engines 18, 20 into a form acceptable to one or more traction motors 28 (DC or AC type) configured to drive the axles coupled to the driving wheels 30 of the locomotive 10, and to provide DC or AC power to the respective auxiliary power bus. The amount of power produced by each generator 22, 24 is determined by the engine RPMs and the generator excitation control inputs that are received by generators 22, 24 from locomotive controller 12.
The computer-controlled system for a typical genset diesel locomotive includes an analog electro-mechanical locomotive controller 12 with a throttle control electro-mechanically linked to the controller 12. The controller 12 controls the amount of power generated by the engine-generator sets 14, 16 by varying engine speed and generator excitement in order to produce the desired amount of power on the traction bus 26. In some of these control systems, additional power sensors (not shown), such as load regulators, are used to monitor the traction bus 26 and/or one or more traction motors 28 and provide input to the controller 12 so it may more accurately manage the engine-generator sets 14, 16. Specifically, the control system uses these sensors for feedback to further govern control of the amount of power generated by the engine-generator sets 14, 16.
Locomotive 10 also includes an engine start and stop control 32 which interfaces with the locomotive controller 12 and is linked to engine-generator sets 14, 16 to initiate their operation and to terminate their operation.
Locomotive 10 also includes engine sensors 34, 36 electrically coupled to engines 18, 20 and the locomotive controller 12. Engine sensors 34, 36 transmit signals 38 to the locomotive controller 12 regarding the status and/or operation of each of the engines 18, 20 (e.g., various parameters of the engines 18, 20 such as RPMs, operating power output, temperature, and other engine status or operating parameters). Locomotive controller 12 transmits control signals 40, including engine RPM settings, generator excitation control inputs, etc., to engine-generator sets 14, 16 to control operation thereof.
In some implementations, engines 18, 20 are operated in response to a throttle position input sensor 42 which indicates the position of the throttle as controlled by the operator at an operator interface 44. In addition, an operator engine start input 46 may be included where the operator can directly or indirectly instruct the locomotive controller 12 (e.g., via a keypad (not shown) located on operator interface 44) with regard to initiation of operation of the engines 18, 20 or termination of operation of the engines 18, 20.
The second to second operation of a locomotive is managed by locomotive controllers. In general, there are two types of locomotive controllers, “traditional” controllers that recognize and control a single engine-generator combination installed on the locomotive chassis, and “genset” controllers, which control a plurality of engine-generator combinations installed on a locomotive chassis. These locomotive controllers manage the production of electricity, provision of the electricity to the power bus, and the generation of tractive effort by traction motors that use the provided electricity. These locomotive controllers also manage fuel use and efficiency, emissions production, and other aspects of the locomotive operation.
In each of these cases, the locomotive controller manages a static, predefined arrangement of one or more engine/generators that provide power to a bus, which in turn provides power to traction motors that move the locomotive. Some locomotive controllers have been configured to control static arrangements of dissimilar power sources (such as an engine-generator, fuel cell, gas turbine, or batteries). These static arrangements have failed due to the lack of operational flexibility required for day-to-day operation of locomotives and/or operational limitations (such as locomotive range, power production limitations, and requiring support for multiple fuel sources). In particular, “genset” style locomotive controllers have not found use in line haul applications because they produce lower overall power than a single, large engine. The amount of power available to the traction motors is a key operational component that characterizes line haul locomotives. Use of dissimilar power source arrangements have failed due to cost and operational issues.
Known locomotive controllers also fail to address unexpected signals and operational challenges that become evident when extending the locomotive control and power systems between disparate railcar chassis and integrating power from these external sources with power produced by the engine/generator(s) on the locomotive chassis. As a result, many locomotive power tender configurations have been tried and abandoned due to a number of operational, safety, and related technical issues.
Operational and safety concerns of extended locomotive control and power systems are many and varied. First, locomotive controllers and power tenders may be some distance apart, particularly in consists in which multiple power tenders are utilized. Each rail car is approximately 100 feet in length, and signal degradation, electro-magnetic interference, propagation delays, and related issues are factors when operating a power tender and locomotive together.
Second, extending the power bus (sometimes called a traction bus) between railcars presents similar concerns, not with the signal degradation, but with the cabling and switching apparatus used to safely transport high amperage currents (e.g., 2000 amps) between the power tender and the locomotive traction bus. Power losses, in particular, voltage losses, arcing, and related issues come into play. Since locomotive power blending is governed by the voltage of the provided power, and is characterized by tight control of the voltage provided to the power bus, losses in voltage or current between a power tender and the locomotive will cause the locomotive controller to improperly manage the combined locomotive/tender. In some cases, these losses will cause the locomotive to not operate. Switching of high amperage power requires Specialty circuitry is also need when switching high amperage power to prevent arcing, contact welding, voltage and amperage spikes and drops, etc.
Third, locomotives and attached power tenders operate in harsh environments. These environments include physical and electro-magnetic challenges. The physical challenges are many and varied; they include widely varied operating temperatures, weather, poor electrical connections between the locomotive and the tender, etc. The control and sensor data is subject to intense electro-magnetic environments (that disrupts the control and sensor data) both external to the consist and within the infrastructure. The shielding required to mitigate these issues described above is itself susceptible to the physical challenges, and degrades over time. Operating a locomotive/power tender in these conditions is challenging.
Fourth, locomotives and their attached power tenders may encounter operational issues, such as connector failure, cable separation, or even chassis separation during regular operation (for example, as would be caused by a coupler failure). Both the locomotive and the attached power tender must safely operate when these conditions occur.
To understand these issues, one must consider both physical and logical constraints of current locomotive consists and locomotive controller architecture.
Railroads have operated many configurations of locomotives and power tenders over the years. Traditionally, locomotive arrangements (herein called a “consist”) include multiple locomotives, linked together using multiple-unit (“MU”) controls. A locomotive consist is the arrangement of locomotives, slugs, and power tenders which are coupled together to provide motive power to a train. One common arrangement is the coupling of two or more independent locomotives together and operating them as a single unit. This arrangement of locomotives has an independent locomotive controller for each locomotive chassis, and shares only throttle setting (an input to a locomotive controller), brake settings, and fault indications. These throttle settings, brake settings, and fault indications are communicated using combination electrical and pneumatic connection commonly referred to “multiple unit” (“MU”).
MU locomotive arrangements are the current operating paradigm for most railroads today. MU locomotives arrangements are characterized by each locomotive having its own independent power generation, distribution (bus), and traction motors. MU controls relay throttle and brake instructions from a first locomotive (master or “A” units) to one or more second locomotives (slaves or “B” units), where these instructions are independently interpreted and tractive effort is provided independently by each locomotive in the consist.
MU locomotives operate independently and do not share power or engine control signals, nor do they permit a first locomotive controller to make requests of a second locomotive controller. Similarly, the locomotive controllers of locomotives operating in MU fashion do not share operational data and do not make operational decisions about the operations of a first locomotive controller based upon the operational characteristics of the second locomotive controller.
Locomotive controllers can be generally characterized as outputting engine control voltages (e.g., RPM and generator excitement voltages), receiving sensor input of operational information (e.g., actual RPM, some fault information, and, in some cases, power bus sensor readings), and then acting to adjust the operation of the engine by varying its control voltages. Locomotive controllers manage the locomotives engines and provide power blending by controlling the amount of power and voltage provided by each engine to the common power bus, which permits the provided power to be combined on the power bus.
Known locomotive controllers are constructed with a basic assumption that the power sources that they control are provided in a fixed arrangement. If a locomotive controller is unaware of multiple possible power sources (e.g., a traditional controller described above), then the use of an external power tender can only be provided on an “all or nothing” basis, where the power tender directly substitutes for the engine-generator on the locomotive chassis. Given the complex nature of locomotive control and the interrelatedness of locomotive loads such as traction motors and blowers, a locomotive's controller, its engine-generator, and an external power tender cannot “share” the generation requirement, with a portion of the power coming from the engine-generator, and remainder of the power coming from the external power tender without the locomotive controller being aware of the power tender and the amount of power it produces. The locomotive controller will recognize the additional power available on the bus and either fault, mis-control one or more power sources or loads, or even turn off the locomotive's engine-generator. Since other locomotive systems are often tied to the locomotive engine-generator or are utilized proportionally to the amount of power being used by locomotives loads (e.g., blowers, aux power), this results in a non-functioning locomotive.
Specialty locomotive controllers that are aware of multiple power sources also have challenges operating with external power tenders. First, the locomotive controller must be able to handle “power blending,” simultaneously taking part of the required power from a first power source and taking a second part of the required power from a second power source. Specialty controllers that select between one power source or another have the same operational challenges as a traditional locomotive controller (described above). Also, specialty controllers have the operational constraints of each specialty power source hard-coded into their logic and electronics, making changes to the power source configuration hard to impossible.
“Genset” style locomotive controllers are characterized in that they are designed to control multiple engine-generators and to “blend” the power produced by these generators. “Genset” style locomotive controllers typically operate in the DC realm, where they set the power sources to produce differing power amounts at differing voltages, as the blending of power on a common bus is based upon voltage differentials between the power bus and the various power sources (e.g., onboard engine-generators, power tenders). As voltage on the bus drops under load, additional power flows from power sources providing power at voltages about the power bus voltage. Thus, tight voltage control must be used to operate correctly.
Each diesel engine-generator combination is controlled with one set of operational parameters and is controlled by varying run RPM and alternator excitement. Even when engines are placed on disparate railcar chassis, a genset locomotive controller expects that the power tender provides a static, well-known power source that behaves as if it were present on the locomotive chassis. Genset locomotive controllers do not account for the operational issues described above, which lead to no-power, under-power (power not flowing from the power tender to the locomotive power bus), or even whether the power tender is currently attached as part of the consist.
Additionally, genset controllers have built-in assumptions regarding the power curve and engine settings (e.g., RPM, generator excitement) that are used to produce specific power/voltages. These operating assumptions are violated by physical limitations induced by separating the power tender from the locomotive chassis (as described above), and by logical considerations that power tenders may have differ operating parameters and settings (e.g., differing engine type, characteristics, fuels). In current configurations, power tenders and locomotive controllers must be operated as a single, non-varying consist because of inherent limitations in the locomotive control and the lack of locomotive controller knowledge of differing power tenders and each power tenders instructions and operational characteristics.
Newer locomotive power control systems have evolved from electro-mechanical to digital controls offering a variety of new options for power control that perform the same functions as the older electro-mechanical control systems, as well as add new power management and train control functions in order to improve performance and fuel efficiency. However, retrofitting these digital controllers to pre-existing (legacy) locomotives is problematic.
The cost and technical integration challenges of replacing an existing locomotive control system of these older legacy locomotives with a new generation control system are prohibitive. Generally, this requires the wholesale replacement of the locomotive control system and many of the locomotive controls, as well as substantial modifications to the locomotive engine, generator, and other electrical components on the locomotive. Furthermore, these types of changes typically cause a reclassification of the locomotive and require recertification of the locomotive power plant for safety and emissions. The recertification process requires that the engine emissions be updated to current EPA requirements, which adds additional cost. Combined, these costs are prohibitive.
In response to rising fuel costs and tightening emissions controls, attempts have been made to provide alternative power sources for genset diesel locomotives, including replacing the diesel fuel and engine with hydrogen and natural gas powered engines, fuel cells, batteries, and other mechanisms for generating and storing power. While in theory these alternative fuels are capable of producing traction power at a fraction of the cost of a diesel locomotive engine/generator, the use of these alternative power sources pose several challenges for the locomotive industry.
For example, outfitting railroad locomotives with alternative fuel technology incurs expensive infrastructure costs and fueling times. Gaseous fuels, such as hydrogen and natural gas, provide limited range, have limited stored energy, have long refueling times, and require extensive alternative fueling infrastructures. While attempts have been made to add alternative power sources and fuel sources to the locomotive consist, the power and fuel sources are provided in heavy rail containers that require large, container-handling cranes in a rail yard in order to lift containers that house engines and their alternative fuel sources, thereby limiting refueling of alternative fuel locomotives to rail yard locations that support the alternative fuel infrastructure. Further, expensive, rail yard based infrastructure, such as extensive cascades of pressurized tanks are needed to refuel a single set of locomotive tanks. These expensive rail yard infrastructures make the use of these existing technologies untenable. Still further, many alternative locomotive power approaches add substantial amounts of time to refueling and other maintenance operations. For example, the time required to refuel a set of tanks of natural gas is measured in hours, where the time required for fueling a diesel locomotive is closer to fifteen minutes. Fueling times further restrict alternative fuel uses to yard applications such as switchers where the alternative fuel equipment has substantial time available for recharging.
Existing systems also do not recognize the fundamental cost improvement for railroad locomotives that is available is based upon the cost of fuel relative to the amount of energy that is produced by using that fuel, and that other optimizations often are minor in comparison. These systems also fail to recognize that different fuels have different energy content, and that these fuels have different costs depending upon where they are obtained. For example, diesel fuel typically costs more in California than it does on the Gulf Coast, and depending upon market conditions, it may be more efficient to use natural gas, syngas, process gas, diesel, or some other fuel to produce the power required for railroad locomotive use. For these and other reasons, alternative fuel-based power for railroad locomotives has not been accepted by the industry.
Further, retrofitting pre-existing (legacy) locomotive engine controllers for use with alternative fuels is generally cost prohibitive and bring concerns about reliability in these retrofit applications. Current railroad locomotive inventories include many thousands of older locomotives, such as the EMD SD-40 family. The control systems integrated into these pre-existing legacy locomotives typically employ a single engine/generator combination that is controlled with electro-mechanical or simple electronic control systems. The lack of flexibility of these older control systems prohibits the use of newer, more desirable, power sources capable of operating with alternative fuel sources.
In light of the above, it would be advantageous to maintain the ability to operate an existing locomotive engine using the fuel for which it was originally designed while adding the ability provide extra power to that locomotive from an auxiliary power source. Such an approach would allow full redundancy of power generation from more than one fuel and engine/generator, and may in certain situations, allow a controller to provide power to the wheels of more than 100% of the locomotive engine/generator set originally paired with the drive motors.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to design an apparatus and method for providing an auxiliary power source for a locomotive that can be integrated with existing electro-mechanical locomotive controls to provide the benefits of being able to incorporate power from alternative fuel sources with a minimum of rework or recertification of the locomotive power plant or other locomotive systems, such as fans, air conditioning, or additional sensors.
It would further be desirable to design an apparatus and method for refueling a locomotive that permits the use of alternative fuels in easy to use interchangeable delivery systems, where alternatives, such as currently available gaseous fuels, can be provided to railroad locomotives without incurring expensive infrastructure costs and fueling times.
It would also be desirable to design a railroad locomotive that optimizes power usage based upon the costs of available fuel and power requirements, permitting fuel- and power-cost arbitrage within the locomotive and substantially reducing the costs of operating the locomotive. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fabrication method of a semiconductor device, and particularly to a semiconductor device having transistors with different high voltage gates as well as high voltage drains and an MNOS memory transistor within the same semiconductor layer.
2. Related Art
In the fabrication process of a high voltage transistor, by comparison to a low voltage drive transistor, a high temperature process for forming a deep well and a thick gate insulating layer are necessary. This high temperature process is unique to a forming process of the high voltage drive transistor, and, typically, the high voltage transistor for high voltage operation and the low voltage drive transistor were individually formed.
On the other hand, research and development on the so-called SOC (System On Chip) has been conducted in recent years to combine a plurality of ICs on one piece of IC chip. | {
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This application relates to optical semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing such optical semiconductor devices, including light-emitting devices.
In recent years, nitride semiconductors containing nitrogen as a group V element have been in the limelight in the field of semiconductor light-emitting devices utilizing pn junction, such as light-emitting diodes and laser diodes, and have been researched and developed. The nitride semiconductors such as AN, GaN, and InN are direct gap semiconductors. Moreover, nitride semiconductors of ternary mixed crystal type or quaternary mixed crystal type can emit light from infrared light to deep UV light by appropriately setting composition to vary a band gap (a band gap Eg can be varied from 0.75 eV to 6.2 eV).
Furthermore, a semiconductor light-emitting device which uses an AlGaInN quaternary mixed crystal as a material for a light-emitting layer and emits light in an UV region has received attention as exemplified by the disclosure of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 9-64477. Although an AlGaInN layer includes In, an emission peak wavelength can be set in a wavelength band of 360 nm or less and reportedly, its internal quantum efficiency can be improved to a similar extent to that of an InGaN layer. | {
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The need to obtain information on the performance and remaining lifetime of a tool is of prime importance to many industries. Examples of applications include the manufacturing industry (molds, dies, drilling bits, etc.), the aerospace industry (components of jet engines), the oil industry (drilling equipment), the power industry (vessels and pipes). Such applications call for on-line acquisition of information such as temperature and strain values from tooling and structures. Temperature and strain information can only be obtained by placing sensors into those tools, and information from extended area can only be obtained from arrays of such sensors. Such a solution calls for the placement of the sensors near the points of interest, and therefore the issues of assembly and protection need to be addressed. The assembly of a large number of sensors is cumbersome, time-consuming, and costly, and this endeavor might become difficult for tooling operating in harsh environments. Since the sensors are embedded into functional metallic structure, non-obtrusive embeddability is very important to maintain the integrity of the functional metallic structures. The sensors ought to be small in size and rugged inside the metal matrix. Thin film thermo-mechanical sensors and fiber optic sensors have been identified as two promising candidates.
Fiber optic sensors offer a series of advantages over conventional electronic sensors used to measure temperature, strain, ultrasonic pressure, and other properties. These advantages include small size, high sensitivity, immunity to electromagnetic interference, high temperature capability, multiplexing potential, and low cost.
The small size makes fiber optic sensors good candidates for embedding within structures. Embedded sensors measure parameters at locations not accessible to ordinary sensors, and allow for real-time measurements during fabrication and use of structures. They can also be used for non-contact measurements because they do not require wiring between the sensor and detector. In addition, embedded sensors are protected from damage and isolated from environmental effects to which the structure is subject. While embedding sensors in composite materials is a common process, no successful techniques have been developed for embedding sensors in metal structures with high melting temperatures. During metal casting, in which an enormous temperature change is suddenly applied to the sensor, the sensor undergoes extreme thermal stress and cracks. Silica-based fibers cannot withstand the processing of metals with melting temperatures above 1100° C.
Surviving processing is only one requirement of embedded sensors. Fiber sensors measure strain by measuring fiber displacement, which manifests in a change of a measured property of the light travelling through the fiber. The embedded fiber must, therefore, expand or contract with the metal during measurement, without slipping. There must also be good bonding between the fiber and metal. Without adequate bonding, the fiber slips at the interface during temperature- or stress-induced displacement, resulting in poor measurements.
A method for embedding fiber optic sensors in aluminum, which has a melting temperature of 660° C., has been disclosed by Lee et al., entitled “Method for Embedding Optical Fibers and Optical Fiber Sensors in Metal Parts and Structures” issued in Fiber Optics Smart Structures and Skins IV, SPIE, Vol. 1588, pp. 110-116 (1991). The fiber sensor is positioned in a graphite mold, machined with desired shape, having one optical fiber tube held at one side and a stainless steel held at the opposite side. One end of the fiber sensor is passing through the stainless steel tube and the another end passing through the optical fiber tube. It is believed that the tubes reduce the stress discontinuity at the air-metal interface, allowing the fibers to withstand aluminum casting. Then molten aluminum is poured into the mold. However, Lee's method only works for metals having low melting temperatures. Embedding a fiber optic sensor in a metal structure having high melting temperature will decay the fiber, thus damage the sensor.
Another article entitled “Sensing Applications of Fiber Fabry Perot Interferometers Embedded in Composites and in Metals” by Taylor and Lee, issued in Experiments in Smart Materials and Structures, ASME, AMD-Vol. 181, pp. 47-52 (1993) has disclosed a Fiber Fabry Perot Interferometer (FFBI) as a strong candidate for embedding in a composite or metal part to measure properties of this structure using the method described in the above prior art, “Method for Embedding Optical Fibers and Optical Fiber Sensors in Metal Parts and Structures”. However, the composite layer doesn't bond with nonmetal coating layers of the FFBI, thus the FFBI slips during the measurement.
Furthermore, for metals with higher melting temperatures, for example, stainless steel, nickel, iron, or titanium, all of which have melting temperatures above 1400° C., no solution has been disclosed.
There is a need, therefore, for an embedded fiber optic sensor and a method for embedding a fiber optic sensor in a high melting temperature metal structure, in which the resulting embedded sensor adheres strongly to the metal in which it is embedded. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Retroreflective sheeting is employed in many applications that enhance the safety of pedestrians and motorists. Many of these applications require the sheeting to have an eye pleasing or cosmetic appearance. One particularly useful type of retroreflective sheeting is cube-corner retroreflective sheeting. These types of retroreflective sheetings typically include a sheet having a generally planar front surface and an array of cube corner reflecting elements protruding from the back surface. The cube corner reflecting elements generally include trihedral structures (i.e., generally having three approximately mutually perpendicular lateral faces meeting in a single corner). In use, the retroreflector is arranged with the front surface disposed generally toward the anticipated location of the intended observers. In this orientation, light incident to the front surface enters the sheet, passes through the body of the sheet to be internally reflected by the faces of the cube corner reflecting elements so as to exit the front surface in a direction substantially toward the light source, i.e., retroreflection.
The manufacture of retroreflective cube corner element arrays is typically accomplished by employing molds primarily made by known techniques, including pin bundling and direct machining. Molds manufactured by pin bundling are made by assembling together individual pins which each have an end portion shaped with features of a cube corner reflective element. The direct machining technique, also known as ruling, involves cutting away portions of a substrate to create a pattern of grooves that intersect to form structures including cube corner elements. This grooved substrate is typically used as a master from which a series of impressions, replicas, or molds may be formed. These are typically then used as molds for retroreflective sheeting. An example of direct machining is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,258 (Hoopman).
Once the mold is made, retroreflective sheetings are then typically made either by thermally embossing a plastic sheet with the grooved substrate to form a molded surface or by subsequently depositing a crosslinkable, partially polymerized resin, on a mold to be replicated which is then typically exposed to radiation, e.g., actinic light or heat, to solidify the resin. An example of such replication is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,689,346 (Rowland).
Such manufacturing processes are typically continuous processes. For continuous manufacturing of retroreflective sheeting, a tool is generally formed from a flat originally ruled substrate, or a replica thereof, into a cylinder with one or more welding lines across the width of the sleeve. The resin composition flowing into the weld line tends to stick to the molding surface and cause objectionable seam lines and defects in the resulting sheeting. Moreover, in the step of bonding an overlay film to the array of cube corner elements, defects tend to result when the weld line aligns with an embossing protrusion on an embossing roll.
The efficiency and appearance of retroreflective sheeting can be affected by thermal or mechanical stresses, effects of resin shrinkage, removal from the mold, and the shape of the mold itself. For example, in a majority of retroreflective sheeting, seam lines can be observed across the width of the retroreflective sheeting. Because these seam lines reduce the cosmetics of the sheeting and, in some instances, impair the overall retroreflectivity of the sheeting, attempts have been made to eliminate them. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,643,400 and 5,558,740 (both to Bernard et al.) describe an apparatus and a method, respectively, for producing retroreflective sheeting, wherein at least two mold surfaces are used to generate two prism arrays which are overlapped at a leading and/or a trailing edge of each array. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Caladium plant, botanically known as Caladium×hortulanum, commercially referred to as a lance leaf-type Caladium and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Rio Red’.
The objective of the Inventor's breeding program is to create new Caladium plants that have uniform plant habit, exceptional container and garden performance and attractive foliage coloration.
The new Caladium plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in April, 2008 in Avon Park, Fla. of Caladium×hortulanum ‘Florida Red Ruffles’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,136, as the female, or seed, parent with Caladium×hortulanum ‘Gingerland’, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Caladium plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled outdoor nursery environment in Zolfo Springs, Fla. in September, 2009.
Asexual reproduction of the new Caladium plant by ‘chipping’ the tubers (cutting the tuber into segments each segment containing an axillary bud and tuber cortical tissue) in a controlled outdoor nursery environment in Zolfo Springs, Fla. since March, 2010 has shown that the unique features of this new Caladium plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction. | {
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This invention relates to the design and production of single-chain biosynthetic constructs herein called "morphons" which mimic the activities of one or more members of the TGF-.beta. superfamily.
The TGF-.beta. superfamily includes five distinct forms of TGF-.beta. (Sporn and Roberts (1990) in Peptide Growth Factors and Their Receptors, Sporn and Roberts, eds., Springer-Verlag: Berlin pp. 419-472), as well as the differentiation factors vg-1 (Weeks and Melton (1987) Cell 51: 861-867), DPP-C polypeptide (Padgett et al. (1987) Nature 325: 81-84), the hormones activin and inhibin (Mason et al. (1985) Nature 318: 659-663; Mason et al. (1987) Growth Factors 1: 77-88), the Mullerian-inhibiting substance, MIS (Cate et al. (1986) Cell 45:685-698), osteogenic and morphogenic proteins OP-1 (PCT/US90/05903), OP-2 (PCT/US91/07654), OP-3 (PCT/WO94/10202), the BMPs, (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,877,864; 5,141,905; 5,013,649; 5,116,738; 5,108,922; 5,106,748; and 5,155,058), the developmentally regulated protein VGR-1 (Lyons et al. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86: 4554-4558) and the growth/differentiation factors GDF-1, GDF-3, GDF-9 and dorsalin-1 (McPherron et al. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268: 3444-4449; Basler et al. (1993) Cell 73: 687-702).
The proteins of the TGF-.beta. superfamily are disulfide-linked homo- or heterodimers that are expressed as large precursor polypeptide chains containing a hydrophobic signal sequence, a long and relatively poorly conserved N-terminal pro region of several hundred amino acids, a cleavage site, and a mature domain comprising an N-terminal region which varies among the family members and a more highly conserved C-terminal region. This C-terminal region, present in the processed mature proteins of all known family members, contains approximately 100 amino acids with a characteristic cysteine motif having a conserved six or seven cysteine skeleton. Although the position of the cleavage site between the mature and pro regions varies among the family members, the cysteine pattern of the C-terminus of all of the proteins is in the identical format, ending in the sequence Cys-X-Cys-X, Ser. ID No: 44 (Sporn and Roberts (1990), supra).
Recombinant TGF-.beta.1 has been cloned (Derynck et al. (1985) Nature 316: 701-705), and expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells (Gentry et al. (1987) Mol. Cell. Biol. 7: 3418-3427). Additionally, recombinant human TGF-.beta.2 (deMartin et al. (1987) EMBO J. 6: 3673), as well as human and porcine TGF-.beta.3 (Derynck et al. (1988) EMBO J. 7: 3737-3743; Dijke et al. (1988) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85: 4715), have been cloned. Expression levels of the mature TGF-.beta.1 protein in COS cells have been increased by substituting cysteine residues located in the pro region of the TGF-.beta.1 precursor with serine residues (Brunner et al. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264: 13660-13664).
A unifying feature of the biology of the proteins of the TGF-.beta. superfamily is their ability to regulate developmental processes. These structurally related proteins have been identified as being involved in a variety of developmental events. For example, TGF-.beta. and the polypeptides of the inhibin/activin group appear to play a role in the regulation of cell growth and differentiation. MIS causes regression of the Mullerian duct in development of the mammalian male embryo, and dpp, the gene product of the Drosophila decapentaplegic complex, is required for appropriate dorsal-ventral specification. Similarly, Vg-1 is involved in mesoderm induction in Xenopus, and Vgr-1 has been identified in a variety of developing murine tissues. Regarding bone formation, many of the proteins in the TGF-.beta. supergene family, namely OP-1 and a subset of the BMPs apparently play the major role. OP-1 (BMP-7) and other osteogenic proteins have been produced using recombinant techniques (U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,691 and PCT Application No. US 90/05903) and shown to be able to induce formation of true endochondral bone in vivo. BMP-2 has been recombinantly produced in monkey COS-1 cells and Chinese hamster ovary cells (Wang et al. (1990) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87: 2220-2224).
Recently the family of proteins taught as having osteogenic activity as judged by the Sampath and Reddi bone formation assay have been shown to be morphogenic, i.e., capable of inducing the developmental cascade of tissue morphogenesis in a mature mammal (See PCT Application No. US 92/01968). In particular, these proteins are capable of inducing the proliferation of uncommitted progenitor cells, and inducing the differentiation of these stimulated progenitor cells in a tissue-specific manner under appropriate environmental conditions. In addition, the morphogens are capable of supporting the growth and maintenance of these differentiated cells. These morphogenic activities allow the proteins to initiate and maintain the developmental cascade of tissue morphogenesis in an appropriate, morphogenically permissive environment, stimulating stem cells to proliferate and differentiate in a tissue-specific manner, and inducing the progression of events that culminate in new tissue formation. These morphogenic activities also allow the proteins to induce the "redifferentiation" of cells previously stimulated to stray from their differentiation path. Under appropriate environmental conditions it is anticipated that these morphogens also may stimulate the "redifferentiation" of committed cells.
The tertiary and quaternary structure of both TGF-.beta.2 and OP-1 have been determined. Although TGF-.beta.2 and OP-1 exhibit only about 35% amino acid identity in their respective amino acid sequences the tertiary and quaternary structures of both molecules are strikingly similar. Both TGF-.beta.2 and OP-1 are dimeric in nature and have a unique folding pattern involving six of the seven C-terminal cysteine residues, as illustrated in FIG. 1A. FIG. 1A shows that in each subunit four cysteines bond to generate an eight residue ring, and two additional two cysteine residues form a disulfide bond that passes through the ring to form a knot-like structure. With a numbering scheme beginning with the most N-terminal cysteine of the 7 conserved cysteine residues assigned number 1, the 2nd and 6th cysteine residues bond to close one side of the eight residue ring while the 3rd and 7th cysteine residues close the other side. The 1st and 5th conserved cysteine residues bond through the center of the ring to form the core of the knot. The 4th cysteine forms an interchain disulfide bond with the corresponding residue in the other subunit.
The TGF-.beta.2 and OP-1 monomer subunits comprise three major structural elements and an N-terminal region. The structural elements are made up of regions of contiguous polypeptide chain that possess over 50% secondary structure of the following types: (1) loop, (2) helix and (3) .beta.-sheet. Furthermore, in these regions the N-terminal and C-terminal strands are not more than 7 A apart. The residues between the 1st and 2nd conserved cysteines (FIG. 1A) form a structural region characterized by an anti-parallel .beta.-sheet finger, referred to herein as the finger 1 region (F1). A ribbon trace of the finger 1 peptide backbone is shown in FIG. 1B. Similarly the residues between the 5th and 6th conserved cysteines in FIG. 1A also form an antiparallel .beta.-sheet finger, referred to herein as the finger 2 region (F2). A ribbon trace of the finger 2 peptide backbone is shown in FIG. 1D. A .beta.-sheet finger is a single amino acid chain, comprising a .beta.-strand that folds back on itself by means of a .beta.-turn or some larger loop so that the entering and exiting strands form one or more anti-parallel .beta.-sheet structures. The third major structural region, involving the residues between the 3rd and 4th conserved cysteines in FIG. 1A, is characterized by a three turn .alpha.-helix referred to herein as the heel region (H). A ribbon trace of the heel peptide backbone is shown in FIG. 1C.
The organization of the monomer structure is similar to that of a left hand where the knot region is located at the position equivalent to the palm, finger 1 is equivalent to the index and middle fingers, the .alpha.-helix is equivalent to the heel of the hand, and finger 2 is equivalent to the ring and small fingers. The N-terminal region (not well defined in the published structures) is predicted to be located at a position roughly equivalent to the thumb.
In the dimeric forms of both TGF-.beta.2 and OP-1, the subunits are oriented such that the heel region of one subunit contacts the finger regions of the other subunit with the knot regions of the connected subunits forming the core of the molecule. The 4th cysteine forms a disulfide bridge with its counterpart on the second chain thereby equivalently linking the chains at the center of the palms. The dimer thus formed is an ellipsoidal (cigar shaped) molecule when viewed from the top looking down the two-fold axis of symmetry between the subunits (FIG. 2A). Viewed from the side, the molecule resembles a bent "cigar" since the two subunits are oriented at a slight angle relative to each other (FIG. 2B).
U.S. Pat. Nos.: 5,132,405; 5,091,513; and 5,258,498 and PCT Application No. PCT/US88/01737 disclose how to make single-chain binding proteins which mimic the structure of an immunoglobulin Fv region by linking the C- and N-termini of light- and heavy chain variable region domains, and how to make multifunctional proteins by linking together separate protein domains which function either independently or in concert. U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,704,692; 4,881,175; 4,939,666; 4,946,778; and 5,260,203 disclose computer-based techniques for selecting a peptide linker sequences for connecting separate protein chains to produce a single-chain protein. | {
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It is relatively common for hunters, hikers, pilots, outfitters, guides, and others to carry a supply of survival equipment when in remote wilderness. It is desirable to minimize the space and weight required for such equipment since emergencies in which the equipment is required seldom occur. The tendency is thus to short-supply the equipment and when an emergency does occur, the situation quickly becomes dangerous due to lack of preparedness.
It is known to provide survival weapons with certain survival provisions such as matches in the stock portion of a firearm. In one instance, the action and barrel of the firearm is also carried in the stock, thus severely reducing the space available that could otherwise be used for survival equipment storage. Further, the action and barrel must be removed and attached to the stock before the firearm can be effectively used. This is a serious and possible fatal drawback when the firearm is needed immediately for defense against a predator.
It is also known to provide firearms with detachable or extendible stocks. Such weapons however are typically not provided with survival features or equipment.
The present invention has for a first object, to provide a projectile firing weapon along with convertible survival features that can be used for survival in wilderness areas.
A further object is to provide such a survival weapon with a movable stock that will permit firing of the weapon with the stock in either a folded, inoperative position, or an extended operative position.
A still further object is to provide such a survival weapon with features that will facilitate cutting or chopping for firemaking, construction of shelters, or other activities that significantly increase the odds for survival in wilderness areas.
These and still further objects and advantages will become apparent upon reading the following description which, along with the appended drawings, describe a preferred mode for carrying out the present invention. | {
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The invention relates to a data input module for inputting data by means of electrical contact for a monitoring/control installation.
Such a module is disclosed in Document EP-0101643. That module is designed primarily to detect a command input via an electrical contact and to supply necessary data to a monitoring/control installation. In Document EP-0101643, the electrical contact, e.g. a push button, is electrically connected to a detection member such as an optocoupler. That module is organized to incorporate only one electrical contact and only one detection member. Moreover, that known module does not include a test circuit for testing operation of the detection member.
Currently, standardizing manufacture of this type of data input module is desired so as to reduce its cost given that a module must be capable of including a plurality of contacts and a plurality of detection members, each detection member being associated with a contact and being installed on a support such as a printed circuit card. Furthermore, the potential difference across the feed inputs of such a module may vary to a large extent, e.g. in the range 48 volts to 127 volts, depending on the installation which receives the module. Therefore, in each individual case and as a function of the feed potential difference of the module, it is currently necessary to adapt the characteristics of the detection member contained in the module, and the number of contacts that can be implemented because of the problems due to the effects of heat dissipation from components on the support. Currently, when the potential difference to which the feed inputs of a module are subjected is 48 volts, 16 contacts can be implemented. When the potential difference is 127 volts, only 8 contacts can be implemented, in order to keep the dissipated power below a certain level.
In order to mitigate that drawback, a voltage regulator, e.g. a chopper voltage regulator, could be used having an output connected to the first terminal of the contact via the detection member, the output delivering a voltage that is lower than the optionally variable voltage applied to the first input of the module.
However, it is desired to use such a module with a plurality of contacts, each of which may require a minimum defined potential difference across its terminals for reliable operation, which potential difference is that across the inputs of the module. The minimum potential difference is such that, on contact closing, a self-cleaning spark is produced between the terminals of the contact. Otherwise, the terminals of the contact become oxidized over time, and the contact becomes isolating even when it is actuated. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compound useful as an intermediate for a dye releasing redox compound which is suitable for use in the color diffusion transfer process and, more particularly, to a compound useful as an intermediate for a dye releasing redox compound having an improved transferability and light fastness.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Color diffusion transfer color image forming processes using a dye releasing redox compound are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,928,312, 3,931,144, 3,929,760, 3,932,381, 3,954,476, U.S. Patent Application Document B-351,673, West German Patent Application (OLS) 2,505,248, and Research Disclosure, No. 13024 (1957). The term "dye releasing redox compound" means a compound containing therein a group referred to as a redox moiety and a dye (including a dye precursor) moiety. The redox moiety renders the redox compound immobile due to a ballast group attached thereto, but the compound per se splits and releases a compound having the dye moiety (dye compound) due to a redox reaction under alkaline conditions. For instance, a light-sensitive element having a light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer and a redox compound associated therewith is exposed and developed with an alkaline processing solution, whereby the redox compound per se is oxidized in proportion to the amount of developed silver halide and then splits into a compound having a dye moiety (dye compound) and a nondiffusible quinone compound due to the alkaline processing solution. As a result, the compound having a dye moiety diffuses into an image receiving layer to provide a transferred image therein.
Examples of redox compounds which release cyan dye compounds are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,929,760 and 3,942,987, etc. Examples of redox compounds which release magenta dye compounds are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,954,476, 3,931,144 and 3,932,380, etc. Examples of redox compounds which release yellow dye compounds are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,013,633, etc. However, using these prior art dye releasing redox compounds, technical problems are encountered in that the transferred images have insufficient stability (for example, the light fastness of the images is not sufficient and the images fade to a large extent under light) and in that the transfer of the dye compounds is not sufficient.
The insufficient transferability and light fastness of the dye compound result from the structure of the redox moiety in the redox compound. That is, a typical known redox moiety is an o- or p-hydroxyarylsulfamoyl group having a ballast group. On the contrary, it was found that when a redox compound in which an aminosulfonyl (sulfamoyl) or aminocarbonyl (carbamoyl) group substituted with a phenyl group to which an alkoxy group and a known redox moiety are bonded at the para position and the meta position, respectively, is used as a redox moiety, a markedly improved transferability and light fastness is achieved in the dye compound. | {
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The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for generating and using electrical signals with precisely specified and controlled angle noise.
In general, any signal is characterized as having an amplitude and an angle. Any disturbance of the angle of a signal is referred to as angle disturbance. The angle of a signal includes a frequency term, a time term and a phase term. Any disturbance of the frequency term is referred to as frequency noise, any disturbance of the phase term is referred to as phase noise and any disturbance of the time term is referred to as time noise (time jitter). Frequency noise, phase noise and time noise are forms of angle disturbance.
Noise, and particularly phase noise, is a significant deleterious factor for many signals employing various modulation formats used in the communication industry. Phase noise causes the actual signal phase of a generated signal to deviate from the ideal phase of the generated signal. Typically, phase noise in communication systems is a random phenomenon that has higher amplitude at lower noise frequencies than at higher noise frequencies.
Many types of signal modulation formats are adversely affected by noise including, by way of example, Phase Modulation (PM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Shift Keyed (PSK) Modulation and Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), Quadrature Phase Shift Keyed (QPSK) Modulation, Frequency Shift Keyed (FSK) modulation, Frequency Hopped (FH) modulation and Ultra Wide Band (UWB) modulation.
In general for new communications systems that attempt to transmit more data for a given bandwidth, phase noise significantly affects signal quality and system performance. In order to transmit more data for a given bandwidth, various formats such as high-order PSK or QAM are employed and these formats require low phase noise. Since these formats are often used in an environment of tightly packed channel spacing, the requirements for low phase noise are even more important.
There are many techniques known for reducing phase noise in signal-generating devices. Typical examples are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,072,371, 6,175,284 and 6,236,275. U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,371 employs heterojunction circuit designs to reduce phase noise. U.S. Pat. No. 6,175,284 employs temperature compensated crystal circuit designs to reduce phase noise. U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,275 employs digital frequency synthesis to reduce phase noise. None of these techniques contemplates imparting a specified and known phase noise on the generated output signal.
There are many techniques known for measuring phase noise. Typical examples of methods known for measuring phase noise are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,167,359 and 6,313,619. U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,359 employs non-linear, differential-equation analysis for characterizing phase noise. U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,619 uses a spectrum analyzer for phase noise measurement. None of these known techniques, however, contemplates controlling or generating a signal with specified and accurate phase noise.
A spectrum analyzer is the most common device for measuring phase noise. Typically, a spectrum analyzer includes modules to automate phase noise measurement and operates on a sinusoidal input signal. To measure xe2x80x9ctruexe2x80x9d phase noise, measurement systems should perform a phase demodulation of a generated signal and then measure the power spectrum of the demodulated signal. Such measurement systems, however, are difficult to build and calibrate. Therefore, measurement systems typically assume the phase noise is small and make the small angle approximation, sin(x)=x and cos(x)xe2x89xa11. This approximation means the spectrum of the phase noise is approximately the same as the spectrum of the generated signal itself minus the desired tone for a sinusoidal signal. If the phase noise is large, however, this approximation is significantly inaccurate and these measurement systems produce erroneous results. Measured phase noise results are typically plotted in log power (dBc/Hz) versus log frequency.
One well-known method for producing a signal with specified phase noise operates by generating a phase signal and then applies that phase signal to the phase-modulation input of a standard signal generator. This method is described, for example, in the publication xe2x80x9cAudio Noise Sources for Generating Phase Noisexe2x80x9d by Charles Wenzel, available at the WEB address xe2x80x9chttp://www.wenzel.com/pdffiles/noise.pdfxe2x80x9d as of the date of this application. This method and other known methods are accurate at best only to about +/xe2x88x921 dB to 2 dB and even to achieve such poor accuracy, these methods are difficult to calibrate. Such poor accuracy and such calibration difficulty are unsatisfactory to meet the needs of communication systems and devices in the communications industry.
Accordingly, in order to meet the needs of the communication industry, improved methods and apparatus for generating and using signals with exact, accurate and specified noise are required.
The present invention is a digitally controlled angle noise signal generator for generating a signal with precise and accurate noise. The signal generator is formed of a digital noise generator for generating a digital noise signal xcex8N, and a digital signal generator for forming an internal signal S. The digital signal generator receives the digital noise signal xcfx86N and modulates the internal signal S with the digital noise signal xcfx86N to generate a digitally controlled signal yg=S{xcex8N}, where is the modulation operator, with precise and accurate noise.
In embodiments of the invention, the digital noise generator generates the digital noise signal xcex8N as a phase noise signal, as a frequency noise signal or as a time noise signal.
In some embodiments, the internal signal S is a sine wave and in other embodiments the internal signal S is a modulated signal modulated with a modulation format. Typically, the modulation format is one of the modulation formats Phase Modulation (PM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Shift Keyed (PSK) Modulation and Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), Quadrature Phase Shift Keyed (QPSK) Modulation, Frequency Shift Keyed (FSK) modulation, Frequency Hopped (FH) modulation and Ultra Wide Band (UWB) modulation.
In some embodiments, the digital noise generator generates the digital noise signal xcex8N as a phase noise signal and digital generates white noise. The white noise is digitally filtered to produce the digital noise signal xcex8N with precise and accurate noise. In one embodiment, the digital filtering is with an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter and in another embodiment, the digital filtering is with a finite impulse response (FIR) filter.
The digitally controlled signal yg is is further processed in an output processor. In one embodiment, the output processor includes a digital-to-analog converter that forms a converted signal and the converted signal is filtered to provide a filtered signal having accurate and controlled noise.
In some embodiments, the filtered signal has accurate and controlled noise at a first frequency and the first frequency is up-converted to an RF frequency to form an RF signal with precise and accurate noise.
The digitally controlled angle noise signal generator is used in a calibration apparatus for calibrating a noise analyzer. The digitally controlled signal yg is connected as an input to the noise analyzer to cause an analyzed digital signal to be produced in the noise analyzer. A comparator compares a digital signal from digitally controlled angle noise signal generator with the digital noise signal xcex8N to determine errors in the analyzed digital signal.
The digitally controlled angle noise signal generator is used for testing a communications system. The digitally controlled signal yg is connected as an input to the communications system. In one embodiment the input is to the local oscillator of the communications system. In another embodiment, the digitally controlled signal yg is in put to an RF receiver port of the communications system.
In some embodiments, the digital noise generator generates the digital noise signal xcex8N as a phase noise signal and executes an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform of a digital function to produce the digital noise signal xcex8N. | {
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Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to compositions, kits, uses, systems and methods for treating overweight and obesity using naltrexone plus bupropion, preferably in combination with a comprehensive web-based and/or telephone-based weight management program, and optionally in subjects at increased risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
Description of the Related Art
Obesity has been defined in terms of body mass index (BMI). BMI is calculated as weight (kg)/[height (m)]2. According to the guidelines of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), for adults over 20 years old, BMI is categorized as follows: below 18.5 is considered underweight, 18.5-24.9 is considered normal, 25.0-29.9 is considered overweight, and 30.0 and above is considered obese (World Health Organization. Physical status: The use and interpretation of anthropometry. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization 1995. WHO Technical Report Series).
The prevalence of obesity has markedly increased over the past three decades, with 32% of men and 36% of women considered obese. These individuals are at increased risk for a variety of chronic conditions associated with obesity, including type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, dyslipidemia, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis, as well as increased mortality risk from all causes (NHLBI Clinical Guidelines, 1998). Overweight and obesity are also associated with increased all-cause mortality.
Diet and exercise-based behavioral modification is the mainstay of weight management therapy. However, such intervention is often of limited effectiveness and difficult for individuals to adhere to. Therefore, pharmacotherapy has been employed as an adjunct to diet and exercise. Orlistat, lorcaserin, and phentermine/topiramate are currently the only three drugs approved in the United States for the long-term treatment of obesity. A 5-10% weight loss has been determined to lead to significant medical benefits. While orlistat has a favorable safety profile, it can cause loose stools and fecal incontinence, making acceptance by patients difficult. Bariatric surgery (specifically gastric banding) is now indicated for subjects with BMI≥30 kg/m2 who have at least one obesity-related comorbidity. While effective in most cases, it is invasive with possible complications including infection, death, hypoglycemia, failure to lose weight, gastrointestinal symptoms, nutritional deficiencies, depression, sexual and relationship problems, and noncompliance with behavioral recommendations.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,375,111 and 7,462,626 disclose the combination of naltrexone and bupropion (NB) for weight loss therapy. Wadden et al. disclose the combination of naltrexone and bupropion as an adjunct to an intensive behavioral modification (BMOD) program for weight loss. Obesity (2011) 19:110-120. The BMOD program described by Wadden et al. was delivered in person to groups of 10-20 persons. Group meetings lasted 90 min and were held weekly for the first 16 weeks, every other week for the next 12 weeks, and monthly thereafter (yielding a total of 28 sessions). Group sessions typically began with a review of participants' eating and activity records and other homework assignments. Group leaders then introduced a new topic in weight control which, during the first 16 weeks, included meal planning, stimulus control, slowing eating, problem solving, social support, and coping with high risk situations. Subsequent sessions covered skills required for maintaining lost weight.
While the combination of naltrexone and bupropion is known to be efficacious for weight management for some patient populations, alone or in combination with an intensive BMOD program, a need exists for an effective treatment of overweight or obesity in subjects at increased risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. In addition, there exists a need for a weight management program for use in combination with naltrexone and bupropion that is easier for patients to comply with than existing BMOD programs, but which is still efficacious, particularly in subjects at increased risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. | {
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The present invention relates to a method of controlling the transfer of a variety of information such as instruction information or data information between a memory or a peripheral circuit and a data processor, and a peripheral circuit, a data processor and a data processing system using the method, and, more particularly, to a technique which is especially effective if applied to the control technique of the data transfer between the data processor and a memory. Incidentally, the data processor in the present Specification will cover the general concept of a CPU (i.e., Central Processing Unit), a microprocessor, a microcomputer, a single-chip microcomputer, a digital-signal processor or a direct memory access controller. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bulk material handling. More specifically, the invention relates to the transportation, storage and dispensing of a multitude of dry bulk products such as gravel, sand, and mine minerals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Demurrage refers to the charges paid to a transporter for extra use of the transporting equipment as a result of wait time. Demurrage is one of the primary cost drivers in shipping material from a source (e.g., a quarry, construction site, industrial site, or agricultural site), and may apply at either end of the haul.
For example, a typical source may operate for a limited time (e.g., twelve hours) each day. In the event a particularly large order of material is to be hauled from the source on a given day, trucks may be lined up waiting to be loaded with material because the source cannot operate fast enough to eliminate wait time. This results in less product movement for the source and additional demurrage charges to the customer for the trucks that are filled later in the queue. In addition, the current practice in loading trucks may also include the trucks entering into the quarry to be loaded. In doing so, the trucks get really messy—the degree to which may depend on the weather—and end up removing dirt and mud from the quarry and tracking same all over the roads requiring substantial clean-up costs.
The same bottleneck may occur with material delivery. If a large number of trucks arrive within a short time period at the delivery site for the material, the trucks that arrived last may be forced to wait while the earlier trucks unload their material first. Typically, these trucks are of the belly-dump or end-dump variety, which have relatively lengthy unloading times. Thus, the receiving party may incur demurrage charges associated with the later arriving trucks because of the amount of time it takes for the earlier arrived trucks to dump their load.
Take, for example, gravel or base material to be used for a highway foundation. This means contractors from around the country use material from a limited number of quarries, resulting in large numbers of trucks arriving at the quarries to accept loads for delivery throughout the United States. If the quarries cannot load the material quickly enough into the waiting trucks, someone—maybe the quarry, maybe the customer—incurs demurrage charges.
Similarly, if a truck delivers bulk materials to the construction site but cannot unload immediately on arrival, the contractor is charged demurrage for waiting. In fact, it is not uncommon at a construction site for a number of trucks to be waiting in line to be unloaded, for which the contractor is being charged for demurrage. It is important that as soon as the bulk materials are delivered to the construction site, they can be immediately unloaded to minimize demurrage charges. | {
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The present invention relates to a solenoid for an integrated pressure management system that manages pressure and detects leaks in a fuel system. The present invention also relates to a solenoid for an integrated pressure management system that performs a leak diagnostic for the headspace in a fuel tank, a canister that collects volatile fuel vapors from the headspace, a purge valve, and all associated hoses.
In a conventional pressure management system for a vehicle, fuel vapor that escapes from a fuel tank is stored in a canister. If there is a leak in the fuel tank, canister or any other component of the vapor handling system, some fuel vapor could exit through the leak to escape into the atmosphere instead of being stored in the canister. Thus, it is desirable to detect leaks.
In such conventional pressure management systems, excess fuel vapor accumulates immediately after engine shutdown, thereby creating a positive pressure in the fuel vapor management system. Thus, it is desirable to vent, or xe2x80x9cblow-off,xe2x80x9d through the canister, this excess fuel vapor and to facilitate vacuum generation in the fuel vapor management system. Similarly, it is desirable to relieve positive pressure during tank refueling by allowing air to exit the tank at high flow rates. This is commonly referred to as onboard refueling vapor recovery (ORVR).
According to the present invention, a sensor or switch signals that a predetermined pressure exists. In particular, the sensor/switch signals that a predetermined vacuum exists. As it is used herein, xe2x80x9cpressurexe2x80x9d is measured relative to the ambient atmospheric pressure. Thus, positive pressure refers to pressure greater than the ambient atmospheric pressure and negative pressure, or xe2x80x9cvacuum,xe2x80x9d refers to pressure less than the ambient atmospheric pressure.
The present invention is achieved by providing an integrated pressure management apparatus. The integrated pressure management apparatus comprises a housing defining an interior chamber, a pressure operable device separating the chamber into a first portion and a second portion, and a switch signaling displacement of the pressure operable device in response to negative pressure at a first pressure level in the first portion the interior chamber. The housing includes first and second ports communicating with the interior chamber. The first portion of the pressure operable device communicates with the first port, the second portion of the pressure operable device communicates with the second port, and the pressure operable device permits fluid communication between the first and second ports in a first configuration and prevents fluid communication between the first and second ports in a second configuration.
The present invention is also achieved by an integrated pressure management apparatus for a fuel system. The integrated pressure management apparatus comprises a leak detector sensing negative pressure in the fuel system at a first pressure level; and a pressure operable device operatively connected to the leak detector, the pressure operable device relieving negative pressure in the fuel system below the first pressure level and relieving positive pressure above a second pressure level.
The present invention is further achieved by a method of managing pressure in a fuel system. The method comprises providing an integrated assembly including a switch actuated in response to the pressure and a valve actuated to relieve the pressure; and signaling with the switch a negative pressure at a first pressure level. | {
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This invention relates to a glasses, and particularly to a folding glasses.
Conventionally, a sunglasses comprises an eyecovering section or sun screen adapted to be swung optional into, or out of, the line of vision of the wearer as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,998,610. It is found inconvenient in bringing. Several types of folding glasses are available at the present time. Yet they work without decorative and lenses-protecting functions. To this end, the inventor has attempted to make an improved folding glasses to overcome the drawbacks of the known glasses. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates, for example, to a circuit device, a transmission module, an electronic apparatus, and a moving object.
2. Related Art
There is a known RF transmitter that outputs a transmission signal in an RF band, such as an automobile keyless entry module (key side). In an apparatus of this type, a communication circuit device (semiconductor integrated circuit or IC, for example) is controlled by a control IC (controller, microcomputer) to generate and output the transmission signal.
For example, JP-2006-261714 discloses a circuit device having an interface with a control IC (baseband IC), uses a fractional-N-type PLL circuit (PLL circuit having sigma-delta modulator) to generate a carrier wave signal, and uses a power amplifier to drive an antenna for wireless communication.
The circuit device receives the following two pieces of information from the controller: information for setting the frequency of the carrier wave, a modulation method, and other factors (transmission action setting information); and transmission data to be actually transmitted on a transmission signal in an RF band. Since a desired transmission signal cannot be generated without the transmission action setting information, it is required to receive the transmission action setting information at highest possible speed at timing before transmission starts. On the other hand, the transmission data communication speed is restricted by an implemented apparatus that receives the transmission signal (a receiver in an automobile in the case of a keyless entry module), and a communication speed of about several kHz typically suffices. That is, a plurality of pieces of information are transmitted and received to and from the circuit device and the controller at different desirable transmission speeds.
In JP-2006-261714, the communication between the controller and the circuit device is performed by three-line serial communication, and action setting communication (communication of transmission action setting information) and RF transmission data communication (communication of transmission data), which are desirably performed at different transmission speeds, are performed by single serial communication. The communication therefore needs to be performed in accordance with the transmission rate in the slow communication, resulting in inefficient communication. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-frequency bipolar transistor structure, and to a related manufacturing process.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Sophisticated techniques are employed to fabricate high-frequencies bipolar transistors, with cutoff frequency higher than 20 GHz, propagation delays below 40 ps and speed-power products of about 40 fJ. Such techniques involve, for example, dielectric or trench isolation, multiple polysilicon layers, self-aligned processes making use of SiO.sub.2 or composite material spacers, rapid thermal processes (RTP), and so on.
High-performance Double PolySilicon Self-Aligned Transistors (DPSSATs) feature shallow junctions, with the emitter region formed by diffusion of dopants from an overlaying second polysilicon layer into the intrinsic base region; this last is surrounded by a heavily doped extrinsic base region, which is formed by diffusion of dopants from a first polysilicon layer into an epitaxial layer. The second and first polysilicon layers are respectively contacted by metal emitter and base electrodes. The intrinsic base can be formed by implantation, or by diffusion of dopants through the second polysilicon layer.
A review of such transistors can be found in P. C. Hunt, "Bipolar device design for high density high performance applications", Proceedings of IEDM 1989, 791-794, which is incorporated herein by reference.
To improve the AC performance of these transistors, their distributed base resistance (r.sub.bb) should be reduced. In this way, the charge/discharge time of the emitter-base junction capacitance would be decreased, and the dynamic behavior of the transistors improved. Further, the Noise Figure (NF) would be significantly reduced.
To further improve the speed performance the extrinsic base region should be shallower than the intrinsic base. The influence of the ratio of the extrinsic base to the intrinsic base junction depths is described in R. Dekker et al, "Charge Sharing Effects in Bipolar Transistors with Sub-half-micron Emitter Widths", Proceedings of IEDM 1990, 29-32, which is incorporated herein by reference. A shallower extrinsic base region would also allow a reduction in the base-collector junction parasitic capacitance, since the distance between the junction and the buried layer would increase, and the depletion region would be wider.
In view of the state of the art discussed, it is an object of the present invention to provide a high-frequency bipolar transistor structure with improved speed performance. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Pricing financial instruments is a complex art requiring substantial expertise and experience. Trading financial instruments, such as options, involves a sophisticated process of pricing typically performed by a trader.
The term “option” in the context of the present application is broadly defined as any financial instrument having option-like properties, e.g., any financial derivative including an option or an option-like component. This category of financial instruments may include any type of option or option-like financial instrument, relating to some underlying asset. Assets as used in this application include anything of value; tangible or non-tangible, financial or non-financial, for example, stocks; currencies; commodities, e.g., oil, metals, or sugar; interest rates; forward-rate agreements (FRA); swaps; futures; bonds; weather, e.g., the temperature at a certain area; electricity; gas emission; credit; mortgages; indices; and the like. For example, as used herein, options range from a simple Vanilla option on a single stock and up to complex convertible bonds whose convertibility depends on some key, e.g., the weather.
The term “Exchange” in the context of the present application relates to any one or more exchanges throughout the world, and includes all assets/securities, which may be traded in these exchanges. The terms “submit a price to the exchange”, “submit a quote to the exchange”, and the like generally refer to actions that a trader may perform to submit a bid and/or offer prices for trading in the exchange. The price may be transferred from the trader to the exchange, for example, by a broker, by online trading, on a special communication network, through a clearing house system, and/or using in any other desired system and/or method.
The price of an asset for immediate, e.g., 1 or 2 business days, delivery is called the spot price. For an asset sold in an option contract, the strike price is the agreed upon price at which the deal is executed if the option is exercised. For example, a stock option involves buying or selling a stock. The spot price is the current stock price on the exchange in which is the stock is traded. The strike price is the agreed upon price to buy/sell the stock if the option is exercised.
To facilitate trading of options and other financial instruments, a market maker suggests a bid price and offer price (also called ask price) for a certain option. The bid price is the price at which the market maker is willing to purchase the option and the offer price is the price at which the market maker is willing to sell the option. As a market practice, a first trader interested in a certain option may ask a second trader for a quote, e.g., without indicating whether the first trader is interested to buy or to sell the option. The second trader quotes both the bid and offer prices, not knowing whether the first trader is interested in selling or buying the option. The market maker may earn a margin by buying options at a first price and selling them at a second price, e.g., higher than the first price. The difference between the offer and bid prices is referred to as bid-offer spread.
A call option is the right to buy an asset at a certain price (“the strike”) at a certain time, e.g., on a certain date. A put option is the right to sell an asset at a strike price at a certain time, e.g., on a certain date. Every option has an expiration time in which the option ceases to exist. Prior to the option expiration time, the holder of the option may determine whether or not to exercise the option, depending on the prevailing spot price for the underlying asset. If the spot price at expiration is lower than the strike price, the holder will choose not to exercise the call option and lose only the cost of the option itself. However, if the strike is lower than the spot, the holder of the call option will exercise the right to buy the underlying asset at the strike price making a profit equal to the difference between the spot and the strike prices. The cost of the option is also referred to as the premium.
A forward rate is defined as the predetermined rate or price of an asset, at which an agreed upon future transaction will take place. The forward rate may be calculated based on a current rate of the asset, a current interest rate prevailing in the market, expected dividends (for stocks), cost of carry (for commodities), and/or other parameters depending on the underlying asset of the option.
An at-the-money forward option (ATM) is an option whose strike is equal to the forward rate of the asset. In some fields, the at-the-money forward options are generically referred to as at-the-money options, as is the common terminology in the commodities and interest rates options. The at the money equity options are actually the at the money spot, i.e. where the strike is the current spot rate or price.
An in-the-money call option is a call option whose strike is below the forward rate of the underlying asset, and an in the-money put option is a put option whose strike is above the forward rate of the underlying asset. An out-of-the-money call option is a call option whose strike is above the forward rate of the underlying asset, and an out-of-the-money put option is a put option whose strike is below the forward rate of the underlying asset.
An exotic option, in the context of this application, is a generic name referring to any type of option other than a standard Vanilla option. While certain types of exotic options have been extensively and frequently traded over the years, and are still traded today, other types of exotic options had been used in the past but are no longer in use today. Currently, the most common exotic options include “barrier” options, “digital” options, “binary” options, “partial barrier” options (also known as “window” options), “average” options, “compound” options and “quanto” options. Some exotic options can be described as a complex version of the standard (Vanilla) option. For example, barrier options are exotic options where the payoff depends on whether the underlying asset's price reaches a certain level, hereinafter referred to as “trigger”, during a certain period of time. The “pay off” of an option is defined as the cash realized by the holder of the option upon its expiration. There are generally two types of barrier options, namely, a knock-out option and a knock-in option. A knock-out option is an option that terminates if and when the spot reaches the trigger. A knock-in option comes into existence only when the underlying asset's price reaches the trigger. It is noted that the combined effect of a knock-out option with strike K and trigger B and a knock-in option with strike K and trigger B, both having the same expiration, is equivalent to a corresponding Vanilla option with strike K. Thus, knock-in options can be priced by pricing corresponding knock-out and vanilla options. Similarly, a one-touch option can be decomposed into two knock-in call options and two knock-in put options, a double no-touch option can be decomposed into two double knock-out options, and so on. It is appreciated that there are many other types of exotic options known in the art.
Certain types of options, e.g., Vanilla options, are commonly categorized as either European or American. A European option can be exercised only upon its expiration. An American option can be exercised at any time after purchase and before expiration. For example, an American Vanilla option has all the properties of the Vanilla option type described above, with the additional property that the owner can exercise the option at any time up to and including the option's expiration date. As is known in the art, the right to exercise an American option prior to expiration makes American options more expensive than corresponding European options.
Generally in this application, the term “Vanilla” refers to a European style Vanilla option. European Vanilla options are the most commonly traded options; they are typically traded over the counter (OTC). American Vanilla options are more popular in the exchanges and, in general, are more difficult to price.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,517 (“the '517 patent”) describes a method of pricing American Vanilla options for trading in a certain exchange. This patent describes a method of pricing Call and Put American Vanilla options, where the price of the option depends on a constant margin or commission required by the market maker.
The method of the '517 patent ignores data that may affect the price of the option, except for the current price of the underlying asset and, thus, this method can lead to serious errors, for example, an absurd result of a negative option price. Clearly, this method does not emulate the way American style Vanilla options are priced in real markets.
The Black-Scholes (BS) model (developed in 1973) is a widely accepted method for valuing options. This model calculates a theoretical value (TV) for options based on the probability of the payout, which is commonly used as a starting point for approximating option prices. This model is based on a presumption that the change in the spot price of the asset generally follows a Brownian motion, as is known in the art. Using such Brownian motion model, known also as a stochastic process, one may calculate the theoretical price of any type of financial derivative, either analytically or numerically. For example, it is common to calculate the theoretical price of complicated financial derivatives through simulation techniques, such as the Monte-Carlo method, introduced by Boyle in 1977. Such techniques may be useful in calculating the theoretical value of an option, provided that a computer being used is sufficiently powerful to handle all the calculations involved. In the simulation method, the computer generates many propagation paths for the underlying asset, starting at the trade time and ending at the time of the option expiry. Each path is discrete and generally follows the Brownian motion probability, but may be generated as densely as necessary by reducing the time lapse between each move of the underlying asset. Thus, if the option is path-dependant, each path is followed and only the paths that satisfy the conditions of the option are taken into account. The end results of each such path are summarized and lead to the theoretical price of the derivative.
The original Black-Scholes model was derived for calculating theoretical prices of European Vanilla options, where the price of the option is described by a relatively simple formula. However, it should be understood that any reference in this application to the Black-Scholes model refers to use of the Black-Scholes model or any other suitable model for evaluating the behavior of the underlying asset, e.g., assuming a stochastic process (Brownian motion), and/or for evaluating the price of any type of option, including exotic options. Furthermore, this application is general and independent of the way in which the theoretical value of the option is obtained. It can be derived analytically, numerically, using any kind of simulation method or any other technique available.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,662 (“the '662 patent”) describes a method of evaluating the theoretical price of an option using a Monte-Carlo method based on historical data. The simulation method of the '662 patent uses stochastic historical data with a predetermined distribution function in order to evaluate the theoretical price of options. Examples is the '662 patent are used to illustrate that this method generates results which are very similar to those obtained by applying the Black-Scholes model to Vanilla options. Unfortunately, methods based on historical data alone are not relevant for simulating financial markets, even for the purpose of theoretical valuation. For example, one of the most important parameters used for valuation of options is the volatility of the underlying asset, which is a measure for how the price and/or rate of the underlying asset may fluctuate. It is well known that the financial markets use a predicted, or an expected, value for the volatility of the underlying assets, which often deviates dramatically from the historical data. In market terms, expected volatility is often referred to as “implied volatility”, and is differentiated from “historical volatility”. For example, the implied volatility tends to be much higher than the historical volatility of the underlying asset before a major event, such as risk of war, and in anticipation of or during a financial crisis.
It is appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the Black-Scholes model is a limited approximation that may yield results very far from real market prices and, thus, corrections to the Black-Scholes model must generally be added by traders. For example, in the Foreign Exchange (FX) Vanilla market, and in commodities, the market trades in volatility terms and the translation to option price is performed through use of the Black-Scholes formula. In fact, traders commonly refer to using the Black-Scholes model as “using the wrong volatility with the wrong model to get the right price”.
In order to adjust the BS price, in the Vanilla market, traders use different volatilities for different strikes, i.e., instead of using one volatility per asset per expiration date, as is required by the BS model, a trader may use different volatility values for a given asset depending on the strike price. This adjustment is known as volatility “smile” adjustment. The origin of the term “smile”, in this context, is the typical shape of the volatility vs. strike, which is similar to a flat “U” shape (smile).
The phrase “market price of an option” is used herein to distinguish between the single value produced by some known models, such as the Black-Scholes model, and the actual bid and offer prices traded in the real market. For example, for some options, the market bid side may be twice the Black-Scholes model price and the offer side may be three times the Black-Scholes model price.
Many exotic options are characterized by discontinuity of the payout and, therefore, a discontinuity in some of the risk parameters near the trigger(s). This discontinuity prevents an oversimplified model such as the Black-Scholes model from taking into account the difficulty in risk-managing the option. Furthermore, due to the peculiar profile of some exotic options, there may be significant transaction costs associated with re-hedging some of the risk factors. Existing models, such as the Black-Scholes model, completely ignore such risk factors.
Several options pricing models were introduced since 1973, but none of these models was able to replicate the market prices universally and/or consistently. The most famous pricing models include, the stochastic volatility model, which assumes that the volatility itself is another stochastic process correlated with the underlying process; the local volatility model, where the volatility is a function of time and the underlying asset; and Libor based models, such as BGM, which generate the swaption prices from the Libor rates which are correlated stochastic processes.
Many factors may be taken into account in calculating option prices and corrections. The term “Factor” is used herein broadly as any quantifiable or computable value relating to the subject option. Some of the notable factors are defined as follows.
Volatility (“Vol”) is a measure of the fluctuation of the return realized on an asset, e.g., a daily return. An indication of the order of magnitude the volatility can be obtained by historical volatility, i.e., the standard deviation of the daily return of the assets for a certain past period.
However, the markets trade based on a volatility that reflects the market expectations of the standard deviation in the future. The volatility reflecting market expectations is called implied volatility. In order to buy/sell volatility one commonly trades Vanilla options. For example, in the foreign exchange market, the implied volatilities of ATM Vanilla options for frequently used option dates and currency pairs are available to users in real-time, e.g., via screens such as REUTERS, Bloomberg or directly from FX option brokers.
Volatility smile, as discussed above, relates to the behavior of the implied volatility with respect to the strike, i.e., the implied volatility as a function of the strike, where the implied volatility for the ATM strike is the given ATM volatility in the market. Typically the plot of the implied volatility as a function of the strike shows a minimum that looks like a smile. For example, usually in equity options the minimum volatility is below the ATM strike.
Delta is the rate of change in the price of an option in response to changes in the price of the underlying asset; in other words, it is a partial derivative of the option price with respect to the spot. For example, a 25 delta call option is defined as follows: if against buying the option on one unit of the underlying asset, 0.25 units of the underlying asset are sold, then for small changes in the underlying asset price, assuming all other factors are unchanged, the total change in the price of the option and the profit or loss generated by holding 0.25 units of the asset are null.
Vega is the rate of change in the price of an option or other derivative in response to changes in volatility, i.e., the partial derivative of the option price with respect to the volatility.
Volatility Convexity is the second partial derivative of the price with respect to the volatility, i.e. the derivative of the Vega with respect to the volatility, denoted dVega/dVol.
Straddle is a strategy, which includes buying Vanilla call and put options having the same strike price and the same expiration.
At-the-money Delta neutral straddle is a straddle wherein the Delta of the call option and the Delta of the put option have the same value with opposite sign. The buyer of the at-the-money Delta neutral straddle strategy is automatically Delta-hedged (protected from small changes in the price of the underlying asset).
Risk Reversal (RR) is a strategy, which includes buying a Vanilla call option and selling a Vanilla put option with the same expiration sand the same Delta with opposite sign. In some markets, the RR corresponds to the difference between the implied volatility of a call option and a put option with the same delta (in opposite directions). Traders in the currency and/or commodity option markets generally use 25delta RR, which is the difference between the implied volatility of a 25delta call option and a 25delta put option. Thus, 25delta RR may be calculated as follows:25delta RR=implied Vol (25delta call)−implied Vol (25delta put)
The 25delta RR may correspond to a combination of buying a 25 delta call option and selling a 25 delta put option. Accordingly, the 25delta RR may be characterized by a slope of Vega of such combination with respect to spot. Thus, the price of the 25delta RR may characterize the price of the Vega slope, since practically the convexity of 25delta RR at the current spot is close to zero. Therefore, the 25delta RR as defined above may be used to price the slope dVega/dspot.
Strangle is a strategy of buying call and put options with the same expiration. In some applications, the call and put options may have the same Delta with opposite signs. The strangle price can be presented as the average of the implied volatility of the call and put options. For example:25delta strangle=0.5(implied Vol (25delta call)+implied Vol (25delta put))
The 25delta strangle may be characterized by practically no slope of Vega with respect to spot at the current spot, but a lot of convexity, i.e., a change of Vega when the volatility changes. Therefore, it is used to price convexity.
Since the at-the-money Vol may be known, it is more common to quote the butterfly strategy, in which one buys one unit of the strangle and sells 2 units of the ATM 25 option. In some assets, the strangle/butterfly is quoted in terms of volatility. For example:25delta butterfly=0.5*(implied Vol (25delta call)++implied Vol (25delta put))−ATM Vol
The reason it is more common to quote the butterfly rather than the strangles is that butterfly provides a strategy with almost no Vega but significant convexity. Since butterfly and strangle are related through the ATM volatility, which may be known, they may be used interchangeably. The 25delta put and the 25delta call can be determined based on the 25delta RR and the 25delta strangle. The ATM volatility, 25 delta risk reversal and/or the 25 delta butterfly may be referred to, for example, as the “Volatility Parameters”. The Volatility Parameters may include any additional and/or alternative parameters and/or factors.
Bid/offer spread is the difference between the bid price and the offer price of a financial derivative. In the case of options, the bid/offer spread may be expressed, for example, either in terms of volatility or in terms of the price of the option. For example, the bid/ask spread of exchange traded options is quoted in price terms (e.g., cents, etc). The bid/offer spread of a given option depends on the specific parameters of the option. In general, the more difficult it is to manage the risk of an option, the wider is the bid/offer spread for that option.
In order to quote a price, traders typically try to calculate the price at which they would like to buy an option (i.e., the bid side) and the price at which they would like to sell the option (i.e., the offer side). Many traders have no computational methods for calculating the bid and offer prices, and so traders typically rely on intuition, experiments involving changing the factors of an option to see how they affect the market price, and past experience, which is considered to be the most important tool of traders.
One dilemma commonly faced by traders is how wide the bid/offer spread should be. Providing too wide a spread reduces the ability to compete in the options market and is considered unprofessional, yet too narrow a spread may result in losses to the trader. In determining what prices to provide, traders need to ensure that the bid/offer spread is appropriate. This is part of the pricing process, i.e., after the trader decides where to place the bid and offer prices, he/she needs to consider whether the resultant spread is appropriate. If the spread is not appropriate, the trader needs to change either or both of the bid and offer prices in order to show the appropriate spread.
Option prices that are quoted in exchanges typically have a relatively wide spread compared to their bid/ask spread in the OTC market, where traders of banks typically trade with each other through brokers. In addition the exchange price typically corresponds to small notional amounts of options (lots). A trader may sometimes change the exchange price of an option by suggesting a bid price or an offer price with a relatively small amount of options. This may result in the exchange prices being distorted in a biased way.
In contrast to the exchanges, the OTC option market has a greater “depth” in terms of liquidity. Furthermore, the options traded in the OTC market are not restricted to the specific strikes and expiration dates of the options traded in the exchanges. In addition, there are many market makers, which quote bid/offer prices, which are totally different from the bid/offer prices in the exchange.
One of the reasons that exchange prices of options are quoted with a wide spread is that the prices of options corresponding to many different strikes, and many different dates may change very frequently, e.g., in response to each change in the price of the underlying assets. As a result, the people that provide the bid and ask prices to the exchange have to constantly update a large number of bid and ask prices simultaneously, e.g., each time the price of the underlying assets changes. In order to avoid this tedious activity, it is mostly preferred to use “safe” bid and ask prices, which will not need to be frequently updated. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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All publications mentioned throughout this application are fully incorporated herein by reference, including all references cited therein.
Viruses, the ultimate parasites, usurp many cellular functions for their multiplication [Munther et al., Science's STKE 335:1-13 (2006)]. As soon as they bind to cells they trigger multiple cascades of events that they employ for cell entry, trafficking and disassembly, before they start utilizing cellular machinery for expression and replication. Some of the factors activated by the infecting virus participate in key processes such as inflammatory response and cell death.
The very early events that occur before disassembly and expression of the viral genome are most likely triggered by the viral outer shell. Thus viral capsids may be used to activate cellular mechanisms that may have therapeutic effects.
SV40 (and other members of the polyomavirus and papilloma virus families) induce chaperones following infection [Ioannis et al., FEBS Letters 355:282-286 (1994); Cripe et al., J. Virol. 69:7807-7813 (1995); Chromy et al., PNAS 100:10477-10482 (2006) and references therein], presumably because they utilize host chaperons for disassembly (and assembly). As surprisingly shown by the present invention, chaperones are induced by the capsid proteins, or the viral structural proteins, rather than by viral regulatory proteins. Chaperons were proposed to ameliorate critical conditions such as ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) and AKI (Acute Kidney Injury), which was previously referred to as ATN (acute tubular necrosis). In particular, ectopic expression of HSP70, applied by gene therapy to model ARDS rats, showed ameliorating effect [Weiss et al., the J. Clin. Invest. 110:801-806 (2002)]. Therefore, the inventors examined the possibility that induction of chaperones by SV40 may serve to treat these conditions. As clearly shown by the present invention, SV40 capsids (VLPs) remarkably ameliorated pathological symptoms using the AKI mice model, and are therefore applicable for use in the treatment of Acute Renal Failure (ARF). This particular example (ARF) clearly establishes the feasibility of using viral capsid proteins, and specifically the SV40 VP1, for treating any other disorders associated with disfunction of cellular quality control mechanisms, in variety of organs.
It is therefore one object of the invention to provide viral capsid proteins VP1, VP2 and VP3, preferably, the SV40 VP1 or any peptide, mutant, fragment and mixture thereof as the active ingredient in compositions for use in the treatment of pathologic disorders, preferably disorders associated with inactivation of cellular proteins. Such cellular proteins are preferably proteins involved with quality control processes, for example, chaperones.
In yet another object the invention provides methods for the treatment of disorders associated with inactivation of cellular proteins, preferably proteins involved with quality control processes, for example, chaperones.
Another object of the invention is to provide methods for enhancing the ameliorating effect of cellular proteins involved with quality control processes, for example, chaperones, on pathologic disorders, by augmenting these cellular proteins.
In another object, the invention provides the use of SV40 capsid proteins, or SV40 VLP's comprising said capsid proteins, in the preparation of compositions for the treatment of pathologic disorders, preferably, immune-related disorders or neurodegenerative disorders.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to dynamically establishing broadband quality of service (QoS) connections, on demand, between peers on a network to guarantee application specific IP QoS via the combination of ATM switched virtual connections (SVCs) and permanent virtual connection (PVCs). Alternative processes are disclosed, including (i) dynamically establishing an SVC shortcut connection from a peer device using an SVC signaling proxy device without going through an ISP, and (ii) creating multiple virtual user-to-network interfaces (UNIs) within a single virtual path (VP) at each port of an ATM edge switch to establish SVCs between subscribers.
2. Background Information
Network carriers are currently providing broadband access services to a large number of subscribers using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and digital subscriber lines (DSL). Under the current paradigm, subscribers connect to an Internet service provider (ISP) using a pre-existing static point-to-point or “nailed up” connection, e.g., a PVC. Once the connection has been established the subscriber can communicate to the ISP, via the connection, using various bridge or router modes. In the case of bridge mode, typically point-to-point protocol (PPP) or point-to-point protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) is used to set up the user sessions and carry the user IP packets to the ISP. When a subscriber wishes to communicate with a peer subscriber, all communications via IP packets travel through the ISP, thus suffering implementation complexity and operational unfeasibility for supporting application specific QoS.
Furthermore, subscribers currently interface with the ATM network over PVCs via standard UNIs. To support on-demand, SVC-based connections, each customer must be able to dynamically signal connection establishment requests to the ATM network. If both ATU-R and ATM switch support SVC, but the DSLAM does not, the current virtual UNI-based implementations suffer from scalability limitations. For example, using a single UNI supports only a single customer because one signaling channel exists for the entire UNI. Using virtual UNIs expands the limit to 256 customers because virtual UN's sub-divide the UNI into a maximum of 256 virtual UNIs, each having a unique Virtual Path Identifier (VPI). However, a single virtual UNI, which supports ATM network access of a single subscriber, requires an entire VP, even though most of the virtual channels (VCs) within the VP are not needed to support the SVC. A limited number of VPs are available at each port of an ATM edge switch and/or a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) connected to the ATM edge switch, which accordingly restricts the number of UNIs that may be supported by the network at any one time. For example, a DS3 or a OC3 port typically accommodates at most 256 VPIs, thereby limiting each port to support of 256 virtual UNIs, even though a DSLAM may service thousands of subscribers.
It is desirable to have a system that enables each VP to support multiple UNIs, expanding the ATM network's capability to support guaranteed QoS connections, without having to increase the number of physical ports of various network elements. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Foil-air bearings are advantageous as they operate efficiently over a large temperature range, have increasing load capacity as rotational speeds increase, can handle severe environmental conditions, and are more reliable than rolling element bearings because they require fewer parts to support the rotating assemblies and do not need lubrication. However, they also require inherently tight tolerance controls on the bearings themselves and their housings in order to maintain a very close alignment between each radial bearing in a rotor system in order to operate effectively. Bearing misalignment can be caused by excessive manufacturing tolerances, operational loads or thermal distortion of the bearing housing, and can result in shaft angular misalignment causing unacceptable whirl instability. Existing foil-air bearings also require a good control of both radial stiffness and damping characteristics of the inner foil support structure.
The use of hydrodynamic fluid journal bearings having compliant foils is known. The inner foils of the bearing are arranged such that the end sections of the foils themselves are more compliant than the central section of the foils, and can deflect independently in order to provide improved conformity to a misaligned rotor supported by the bearing. Strong misalignment forces can thereby be tolerated. U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,683 teaches such a compliant foil bearing. However, these hydrodynamic journal bearings require metallic corrugated foil assemblies that are comprised of several separate sections of foils, which must each be independently flexible and able to deflect different controlled amounts. Introducing independent flexibility to the metallic foils themselves considerably adds to the complexity, and consequently cost, of the bearing. Additionally, as each bearing requires several discrete metallic foil sections having different flexibility, the complexity and manufacturing costs are further increased.
There remains a need to provide a foil-fluid bearing capable of tolerating angular misalignment, without significantly adding complexity to the internal construction of the bearing, and consequently without significantly adding to material and manufacturing costs. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an ostomy appliance having a superior closure device for preventing inadvertent leakage of gas, liquid or solid therefrom. In another embodiment, the invention also relates to means for facilitating proper closure of said closure device as well as for preventing dropping of said appliance when said closure device is in the open position.
A colostomy is the surgical creation of a new opening for the colon on the surface of the body, while an ileostomy is the surgical creation of an opening for the ileum. In an ileostomy the entire colon, the rectum, and sometimes a small portion of the ileum, is removed. In a colostomy the rectum, and sometimes a portion of the colon, is removed.
Both ileostomy and colostomy operations involve the creation of an artificial opening (stoma) in the abdomen to which the distal end of the healthy intestine is attached. Generally, the stoma is placed low on the abdomen and to one side. A related enterostomy for which the present invention might be useful is the urinary diversion. It involves the formation of a permanent fistula through which the ureter may discharge its contents.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,906,951, issued Sept. 23, 1975, to Chen James Ling, discloses an ostomy device for use by ostamates that comprises a disposable bag, a base designed to be adhesively secured to the skin of the patient surrounding the stoma, and means for releasably securing the bag to the base. This patent is directed to dealing with several problems that commonly have been associated with the use of such devices. These include seepage around the stoma, which in turn results in both skin irritation and at least partial destruction of the adhesive bond, as well as inadvertent disconnection between the bag and the base. The patent is primarily concerned with the seepage problem (which is dealt with by use of a hydrocolloid ointment around the stoma), but also discloses several means for connecting the bag to the base, including an elastic band and a particular flange arrangement described in detail at column 1, line 65, to Column 2, line 16, of the patent, which arrangement appears to involve a conventional male/female sealing ring connection. The device described in this patent appears to be the same as one being marketed by E. R. Squibb & Sons, Inc. under the trademark SUR-FIT. Another patent to the same patentee that describes generally the use of adhesive means to attach a disposable bag to a base (or directly to the skin) surrounding a stoma in U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,133, issued Mar. 2, 1976. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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When video output from a computer is provided to multiple display panels, multiple video streams are created between one or more graphics display boards and the display panels. If the multiple panels are the same, the properties of the generated video streams that supply them can be the same (resolution, refresh rate, etc.). However, if one wishes to provide outputs to panels that are different from each other, the video streams are often different. Furthermore, different interfaces and protocols can be used for the different display panels which also cause differences in the video streams. For example, if one display is being supplied data using HDMI, one display is being supplied using DVI and another display is being supplied using DisplayPort, the hardware driving the outputs to these displays may need to use different hardware blocks to set up the various video streams. Similarly, two streams of the same protocol that are being sent to two different displays that support different resolutions also require divergent streams. Also, two streams of different protocols that are being sent to similar displays (or both to a single display) also require different streams. By way of further example, AMD Eyefinity technology supports up to six simultaneous displays off of a single graphics card. Eyefinity supports display outputs of DVI, DisplayPort, miniDisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA.
The differences in the video streams result in a difference in bit rates of the data being output to the panels. This difference in bit rates provides a lack of synchronicity. While the difference may be small, as the displays continue to run, the small differences begin to accumulate until the displayed images are out of synchronization by such a margin that it becomes noticeable. Specifically, the lack of synchronicity presents problems for users who can see both streams (such as in multi-screen or single screen 3D applications) or where multiple users need to perceive the video simultaneously (such as when there is a common audio stream projected to the viewers of the multiple screens).
When there is a lack of synchronization between video streams, clock pulses that drive the video streams are each firing at different times. Accordingly, other processes that look to operate on the streams or use the stream data (such as memory controllers) need to run relatively frequently to be sure and pick up current data. By way of example, video streams contain blank and active regions. The active regions are the portions that need to be fetched. If streams are not synchronized, then blank regions of one stream can occur while an active region is present for another stream. Thus, clock speeds must be maintained at all times in that an active region can be present at any time.
If the streams are synchronized, then other processes can run at a similar clock pulse and know that the process is aligned with the stream data. In this manner, the other processes can use a lower clock speed, thereby saving power. Again using the above example, when streams are synchronized, it can be determined when active regions are present in the streams and when blank regions are present in the streams. Furthermore, the active and blank regions for the streams are likewise synchronized. Thus, during blank regions, a lower clock speed can be applied.
Synchronization of different streams is currently possible through the use of additional hardware modules. Such modules include the S400 synchronization module and the NVIDIA® Quadro® G-Synch. However, these synchronization modules are provided for synchronizing signals from different stream sources (GPU's, etc).
Accordingly, there exists a need for a device and method to provide different video streams from a common source that operate so as to appear synchronous. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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There are still unmet demands from defense and commercial markets for very low profile array antennas capable of supporting transmit and receive operations with arbitrary polarization states and the ability to scan down to angles approaching the grazing regime with acceptable active reflection coefficients. Besides just the aforementioned major electrical requirements, such prospective arrays have to be of high radiation efficiency and low insertion loss along with their advanced structural properties. Such structural properties may include low complexity to fabricate, assemble and install while minimizing or excluding manual labor, as well as mechanical ability to withstand, for example, multi-G impacts. Also using predominantly low-cost fabrication materials and technologies suitable for mass production is preferable to achieve break-through technical and economic features. | {
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a. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a beam deflecting device to deflect a beam for irradiation onto a beam irradiating member. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a beam deflecting device having a beam detector to detect a position of the beam as deflected.
b. Description of Prior Arts
In a device for producing information outputs by scanning a beam irradiating member with a deflected beam, there is usually provided a beam detector in one part of a beam scanning path to render constant the position of the information output on the beam irradiating member. In other words, the starting position of the information output is determined by commencing modulation of the beam by an information signal in synchronism with a time, in which the beam is detected by the beam detector.
In the beam deflecting device using such beam detector, as the beam is detected in the above-described manner, a beam generator is so controlled that the beam may be emitted therefrom when the beam deflected by the deflector passes near-by the beam detector. With the beam deflecting device constructed as such, the beam detection signal output is produced at a predetermined time interval from the beam detector so far as the beam deflecting device operates regularly. By monitoring the time interval of this beam detection signal, therefore, it is possible to ascertain whether the beam deflecting device is operating regularly, or not. However, in the system of monitoring the time interval of the beam detection signal by emitting the beam only during a predetermined time period as mentioned above, a spurious beam detection signal is may be formed by noises, etc. to result in generation of an error signal, whereby accurate reinstating function cannot be imparted to the beam detector. For example, there exists a certain time period having no direct bearing on the recording operation after an information output is produced on one page until further information output is produced on a subsequent page, and also, in a state of waiting for an output, there is a time period which has no direct bearing on the recording operation. In case the abovementioned monitoring system is employed, if a spurious beam detection signal is detected during such time period, there is inevitably generated an error signal. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Perishables, such as ice-packed chicken, meat, fishery products, fruits and vegetables are typically shipped in boxes or containers formed of corrugated paperboard which has been coated with a water repellant material. Conventional water-repellant coatings include natural and synthetic waxes and various synthetic organic compounds such as ethylene vinyl acetate. Such coatings improve the water resistance and decrease the water vapor transmission rate of the board so that the box is better suited for shipping perishables in a damp environment than an uncoated board. However, once used, such coated shipping boxes are difficult to recycle, since the coating tends to hold the fibers together and makes them difficult to separate. Thus, conventional wax-based coatings cannot be separated to the degree necessary to enable satisfactory repulping of the board and typically contain particles of the coating ("stickies") which stick to the papermaking equipment, wire, presses and dryer cans and make the resulting furnish unsuitable for papermaking.
Since it has generally not been economical to repulp wax-coated board, used shipping boxes and the like made from water-repellant linerboard have typically been dumped into a landfill or incinerated rather than recycled. Not only is this practice wasteful, it is also environmentally undesirable and a contributing factor to the growing solid waste disposal problem.
In addition, conventional water repellant linerboard can be difficult to work with, especially under warm conditions, since conventional water-repellant coatings may become tacky causing stacked or contiguous sheets of coated board to block or stick together. This blocking often persists after the sheets are cooled and detrimentally affects handling of coated linerboard blanks and boxes made of coated linerboard.
Thus it would be desirable to find an alternative for conventional wax coated and known polymeric water-repellant coatings that have comparable water resistance properties but also have the added benefit of repulpability.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,307 to Canard et al. discloses a gloss coating composition comprising an aqueous dispersion containing a binder and a pigment. The pigment comprises 70-95% calcium carbonate and 5-30% of a non-film forming synthetic polymer having particle sizes in the range of 0.05 to 0.3 microns.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,977 to Kawamura et al. discloses a paper coating composition comprising an aqueous dispersion of styrene-butadiene copolymer binder in combination with conventional pigment materials and dispersants. The coating formulations contain pigments including clay, talc, calcium carbonate, aluminum hydroxide, barium sulfate as well as pigment dispersing agents and antifoaming agents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,210 to Yasuda et al. discloses an aqueous paper coating composition containing pigment and binder, where the binder may comprise styrene-butadiene copolymer and the pigment material may comprise clay, aluminum hydroxide, calcium carbonate, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,024 to Payne et al. relates to a low slip linerboard used in corrugated boxes having increased surface friction. The linerboard is coated with a composition consisting essentially of an acrylamide, glycerine and an antiskid aqueous silica sol.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,937 to Fife discloses polymer latex emulsions as a laminating adhesive in the production of corrugated board. The compositions include a styrene-butadiene latex emulsion, clay, paraffin wax and a wetting agent. The wax component is preferably a wax emulsion and is present in the range of 0.1 to 4% based on the amount of polymer latex solid in the composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,199 to Gotoh discloses a repulpable paper having a coating of synthetic rubber latex and a wax. The coating is produced from an aqueous emulsion containing 100 parts of butadiene-methyl methacrylate copolymer latex and 5-100 parts of a wax emulsion (paraffin and polyolefin waxes). The emulsion coating is dried at an elevated temperature the same as or higher than the melting point of the wax.
The art does not provide aqueous pigmented/polymer/wax formulations coated on linerboard substrates to produce a paper product with low slip, water resistent and heat resistent characteristics that is easily recycled. The invention is directed to the provision of such recyclable paper stocks. It would be appreciated that advantage over known compositions would be obtained by providing aqueous coatings including pigments, a carboxylated polymeric binder, a wax emulsion and an ionic crosslinking agent to provide a coated paper product with low slip and easy recyclability.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a water-repellant paperboard especially well-suited for use in the construction of corrugated boxes for shipment of perishable foods.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a water-repellant board of the character described which exhibits improved repulpability as compared with conventional wax coated boards.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a water-repellant paperboard of the character described which exhibits low slip and improved resistance to blocking.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a water-repellant paperboard of the character described which is economical to produce and to recycle.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a coating formulation useful as an overprint varnish over preprinted substrate surfaces to simultaneously provide scuff and water resistance.
Having regard to the foregoing and other objects and advantages, the present invention is directed to a water repellant paperboard which exhibits improved properties, particularly repulpability. The paperboard sheet is especially well suited for use as linerboard in the manufacture of corrugated boxes for shipping and storing food, particularly frozen foods such as ice-packed chicken, meat, fishery products, fruits and vegetables. The invention is useful in demanding applications which require a combination of high water repellency, high wet strength and durability under wet conditions for use in food containers. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to an adjusting method of a computer system and memory, more particularly, to the adjusting method for changing a working frequency according to a phase difference of a control signal of the memory, and the computer system and the memory still execute stably while loading an operation system.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the requirements of multi-media development and the computer system revolution improves, the memory with higher speed, preferred function and lower power consumption is needed. Some kinds of memory technologies, such as Rambus DRAM, DDR SDRAM, and standard SDRAM for PC133 are competitiveness in the market. High speed memory such as DDR can be manufactured by conventional apparatuses, and will be the next generation of DRAM standard. For DDR, the speed of transmitting data is doubled to increase the speed of execution.
FIG. 1A is a time-domain diagram of Data Queue Strobe (DQS) signal of DDR in a normal status. Referred to FIG. 1A, in the normal status, the cross point of the DQS signal 102 and the reference voltage signal 104 is about the time point of the positive peak value A or the negative peak value B of the data timing signal 106. In other words, when the voltage differential value of the data timing signal 106 meets a maximum absolute value, the DQS signal 102 crosses with the reference voltage signal 104 for the memory executing stably.
FIG. 1B is a time-domain diagram of DQS signal in an overclock rate status. Referred to FIG. 1B, when a computer executes in either a higher clock rate or a lower clock rate compared with a normal status, the curves of the DQS signal 102 and the data timing signal 106 become deformed, not as the smooth curves that shown in FIG. 1A. At the moment, the cross point of the DQS signal 102 and the reference voltage signal 104 will not possible equal to the time point that meets a maximum absolute value of the voltage differential value of the data timing signal 106. As a result, the memory cannot work stably. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the field of devices for restraining and selectively releasing a tension force. More particularly, the present invention is directed to the field of devices that deploy folded structures on a spacecraft after launch.
2. Background Art
It is common in the space industry to launch a spacecraft with some of its parts folded down against the exterior of the spacecraft. For example, when the spacecraft is a solar powered earth satellite, the large solar panels must be folded down so that the spacecraft can fit inside the payload space of a launch vehicle. Antennae, sensors, and nuclear power plants (mounted on extensible members) are examples of other bulky appendages that may need to be folded down to the side of a spacecraft during launch.
After the spacecraft has been placed in space, the folded parts must then be reliably deployed. Typically, this is done via a spring bias that tends to urge the folded part into an extended position. During launch, a retention member, which will later be released upon a remote command, counters the spring bias. The retention member is commonly referred to in the art as the "pin," although it sometimes is not literally in the form of a pin. The tension release device that releases the retention member (or pin) is commonly known in the art as the "pin puller."
Pyrotechnic devices have been long used as tension release devices. Commonly known as exploding nuts or exploding bolts, pyrotechnic devices are a mature technology that has the advantages of providing for very secure retention of folded structures and deploying reliably, that is, they are mechanically strong and have a low failure rate.
One disadvantage of pyrotechnics is that they are susceptible to premature firing. Static electricity and electromagnetic radiation can accidentally set them off. Premature firing causes untimely deployment of folded parts and other potentially catastrophic results. Thus, these prior art tension release devices are risky due to their tendency to prematurely actuate as a result of ambient conditions.
Another disadvantage common to the prior art tension release (i.e., pin puller) schemes is that they are high shock devices. Pyrotechnic devices, by their very nature, explode. The explosion sends mechanical shock waves all through the spacecraft. In addition, they impart subtle forces on the orbital mechanics of the vehicle. These shock waves place additional stress on the spacecraft that can only increase the risk of failure of delicate systems aboard the spacecraft, such as electronic circuits, electrical connectors, and optical sensors.
Another approach to tension release devices has been paraffin actuators. Upon receiving a remote command, the paraffin actuator develops a linear mechanical force to actuate a release mechanism, thereby deploying the folded parts of the spacecraft. The paraffin actuator operates based on the phenomenon that when paraffin changes from solid phase to liquid phase it undergoes a substantial expansion. A cylindrical slug of solid paraffin is loaded in a cylinder with a piston disposed against it. When a remote deployment command is received, heat is applied to the cylinder containing the paraffin, causing the paraffin to undergo a phase change. The resulting expansion of the paraffin forces the piston to move through the cylinder and develops a mechanical force. Pin pullers based on paraffin actuators also generate shock waves due to the suddenness with which the restraining force is released.
A failed attempt at improving on the above devices involved the use of a low temperature melting point metal alloy as a fusible link in the tension release device. This device was initially described by William D. Nygren, "Development of a High Force Thermal Latch" 29th Aerospace Mech. Symposium, May 17-19, 1995. This device is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,306. Upon receiving a remote command for deployment, heat was applied to the fusible link 100, 300 so that it would melt, thereby causing the tension release device to undergo a mechanical shift so as to permit release of the pin. This system failed because the fusible link 100, 300 was directly bearing more force than it could handle. The fusible link 100, 300 was unable to withstand the mechanical forces exerted on it and, thus, the fusible link 100, 300 tended to flow prematurely due to tension forces alone. Accordingly, this prior art tension release device is not commercially viable. The force that a tension release device must restrain is on the order of several thousand pounds, typically 5,000 to 10,000 pounds, for a folded solar panel array.
Another prior art tension release device is disclosed in published EPO patent application no. 0 441 669. This tension release device restrains a pin 8 that is holding down folded solar panels 3A, 3B on a spacecraft 4. The pin 8 is held in place by balls 12a, 12b, 12c, which are in turn held in place by a circular cam 16. When pyrotechnic devices 23 ignite, the restraint pin 22 is removed so that the cam 16 is free to rotate and thereby move the balls 12a, 12b, 12c downward and release the pin 8. By its use of pyrotechnic devices, it is clear that this invention does not contemplate solving either the problem of premature actuation or the problem of generation of large shock waves.
Thus, what is needed is a tension release device (i.e., pin puller) that operates reliably, that avoids premature actuation, and that avoids generation of large shock waves due to sudden actuation. | {
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This invention relates to making thin strip and more particularly casting of thin strip by a twin roll caster.
It is known to cast metal strip by continuous casting in a twin roll caster. Molten metal is introduced between a pair of counter-rotating horizontal casting rolls, which are cooled so that metal shells solidify on the moving roll surfaces and are brought together at the nip between the rolls to produce solidified strip product delivered downwardly from the nip between the rolls. The term “nip” is used herein to refer to the general region at which the rolls are closest together. The molten metal may be poured from a ladle into a smaller vessel, or tundish, from which it flows through a metal delivery nozzle positioned above the nip, longitudinally between the casting rolls, which delivers the molten metal to the region above the nip to form a casting pool of molten metal. The casting pool of molten metal is supported on the casting surfaces of the rolls above the nip. The casting pool is typically confined at the ends of the casting rolls by side plates or dams held in sliding engagement adjacent the ends of the casting rolls.
In casting thin strip by twin roll casting, the metal delivery nozzles receive molten metal from the moveable tundish and deposit the molten metal in the casting pool in a desired flow pattern. The flow pattern created by the manner in which the nozzle delivers molten metal to the casting pool can affect the quality and yield of the thin strip. For example, a flow pattern which causes thinning of the shells on the surface of the casting rolls before coming together at the nip is believed to cause ridges to be formed on the surface of the strip. A flow pattern which inhibits thinning of the shells on the casting roll would reduce such surface defects. Further, disturbance of the surface, or meniscus, of the casting pool has a tendency to cause meniscus marks on the surface of the strip. A flow pattern which inhibits disturbance of the surface of the casting pool is more likely to provide a metal strip with fewer meniscus marks and provide a better quality and improved yield of product.
The formation of pieces of solid metal known as “skulls” in the casting pool in the vicinity of the confining side plates or dams is a known problem. The rate of heat loss from the casting pool is higher near the side dams adjacent the casting roll ends due to the greater surface area of continuous caster components in contact with the molten metal in the casting pool increasing the conductive heat loss from the system. This area is called the “triple point region.” This localized heat loss gives rise to “skulls” of solid metal forming in that region, which can grow to considerable size. The skulls can drop through the nip of the casting rolls and into the forming strip, causing defects in the strip known as “snake eggs.” An increased flow of molten metal to the triple point regions, near the side dams, has been provided to help maintain the temperature of the casting pool in these regions. Examples of such proposals may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,887 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,511, which are both incorporated herein by reference. However, in providing increased flow in these regions it is important that the surface of the casting pool is disturbed as little as possible. Further, it is important to inhibit thinning of the shells on the surface of the casting roll in the triple point region to reduce surface defects in the strip. Also, it is important that the shells are not washed on the casting surfaces of the rolls in the triple point region, increasing the possibility of defects in the strip and reducing the quality and yield of the strip product.
The present disclosure provides a method for continuously casting metal strip, which comprises the steps of: (a) assembling a pair of casting rolls laterally positioned to form a nip between them and to maintain a casting pool of molten metal supported by the casting rolls between side dams, (b) assembling an elongated metal delivery nozzle extending along and above the nip, the delivery nozzle having one or more segments extending longitudinally along the metal delivery nozzle, each segment having: a main portion having one or more outlets positioned longitudinally along the elongated metal delivery nozzle and adapted to deliver molten metal downwardly converging toward the nip while forming the casting pool supported on the casting rolls above the nip, and an end portion adjacent a side dam having a reservoir portion having at least one pair of passages adapted to deliver molten metal into the casting pool adjacent the side dams the flow from the at least one pair of passages converging beneath the reservoir portion, (c) delivering molten metal from a metal delivery system to the main portion of the segments to deliver molten metal through the one or more outlets converging downwardly toward the nip, while forming the casting pool of molten metal supported on the casting rolls above the nip, and through the at least one pair of passages in the reservoir portion in the end portions into the casting pool adjacent the side dams, and (d) counter-rotating the casting rolls to form shells on the casting surfaces of the casting rolls brought together at the nip to cast metal strip downwardly from the nip.
Also disclosed is an apparatus for continuously casting metal strip, comprising: (a) a pair of casting rolls laterally positioned to form a nip between them and side dams to form a molten metal pool supported by the casting rolls between side dams and adapted to counter rotate to form shells on the casting rolls brought together at the nip to cast metal strip downwardly from the nip; (b) an elongated metal delivery nozzle extending along and above the nip, the delivery nozzle having one or more segments each having: a main portion extending along the elongated metal delivery nozzle with one or more outlets positioned longitudinally along the elongated metal delivery nozzle and directed converging downwardly toward the nip while forming a casting pool of molten metal supported on the casting rolls above the nip, and an end portion adjacent side dams having a reservoir portion having at least one pair of passages adapted to deliver molten metal into a molten metal pool adjacent the side dams with flow from the at least one pair of passages converging below the reservoir portion; and, (c) a metal delivery system adapted to introduce molten metal through the segments of the elongated metal delivery nozzle downwardly converging toward the nip.
In some alternatives of the above method and apparatus, the end portion of each segment has a laterally extending weir adapted to allow molten metal to flow over the weir between the reservoir portion and the main portion. Optionally in addition, or in the alternative, the main portion of each segment extends beneath the reservoir portion into the end portion.
In other alternatives of the above method and apparatus, the outlets in the main portion of each segment are in a pair of rows of outlets and deliver molten metal with flow from each row of outlets converging toward flow from the outlets of the other row. The pair of rows of outlets in the main portion of each segment may be angled such that their directions of flow converge below the delivery nozzle. In other alternatives, the outlets in the main portion of each segment may be configured to flow downwardly at an angle between 5 and 60 degrees substantially centered about a vertical centerline through the elongated delivery nozzle. Additionally, the at least one pair of passages in the reservoir portion of each segment may be angled such that their directions of flow converge below the reservoir portion. The passages of the at least one pair of passages in the reservoir portion of each segment may be positioned between 40 and 160 millimeters apart, or, alternatively, between 50 and 125 millimeters apart. Furthermore, the at least one pair of passages in the reservoir portion may have an angle of convergence between 5 and 60 degrees substantially centered about a vertical centerline through the elongated delivery nozzle.
In further alternatives of the above method and apparatus, the one or more outlets may be a channel extending longitudinally along each segment. The channel may have substantially parallel sides, or, in the alternative, the channel may have tapered sides.
The delivery nozzle of the above method and apparatus may further comprise a restrictive baffle in the main portion adapted to cause the molten metal to flow laterally within the delivery nozzle. In other alternatives the baffle may be adapted to support a pool of molten metal in the main portion of the delivery nozzle. The baffle may be adapted to reduce the velocity of the molten metal passing through the delivery nozzle, and optionally may have a convex or concave portion adapted to reduce the velocity, or change the direction, of the molten metal passing through the delivery nozzle.
The main portion of the delivery nozzle may comprise one or more passages above the one or more outlets, adapted to deliver molten metal to the outlets, and, optionally, the bottom portion of the main portion of the delivery nozzle may be tapered toward the one or more passages to converge the molten metal flow toward the nip between casting rolls of a twin roll caster. Alternatively, the bottom portion of the main portion of the delivery nozzle may be tapered toward the one or more outlets to converge the molten metal flow toward the nip between casting rolls.
Also disclosed is a method of continuously casting metal strip comprising: (a) assembling a pair of casting rolls laterally positioned to form a nip between them and adapted to maintain a casting pool of molten metal supported by the casting rolls adjacent side dams, (b) assembling an elongated metal delivery nozzle extending along and above the nip, the delivery nozzle having: at least one segment having a main portion, the main portion having one or more outlets adapted to deliver molten metal in the casting pool longitudinally along the metal delivery nozzle directed downwardly toward the nip; and, a restrictive baffle, positioned above the outlets adapted to alter the velocity of the molten metal flowing through the main portion of delivery nozzle and tapered sidewalls and/or passages below the baffle enables molten metal to flow below the baffle to converge toward the nip, (c) introducing molten metal from a metal delivery system through the elongated metal delivery nozzle downwardly toward the nip forming a casting pool of molten metal supported on the casting rolls above the nip, and (d) counter-rotating the casting rolls so as to form shells on the casting surfaces of the casting rolls brought together at the nip to cast metal strip downwardly from the nip.
Additionally disclosed is an apparatus for continuously casting metal strip comprising: (a) a pair of casting rolls laterally positioned to form a nip between them and adapted to maintain a casting pool of molten metal supported by the casting rolls between side dams- and adapted to counter rotate to form shells on the casting rolls brought together at the nip to cast metal strip downwardly from the nip, (b) an elongated metal delivery nozzle extending along and above the nip, the delivery nozzle having: at least one segment having a main portion, the main portion having one or more outlets positioned along the delivery nozzle adapted to deliver molten metal in the casting pool longitudinally along the metal delivery nozzle directed downwardly converging toward the nip; and a restrictive baffle positioned above the outlets adapted to alter the velocity of the molten metal flowing through the main portion of the delivery nozzle and downwardly in the delivery nozzle; and, (c) a metal delivery system for introducing molten metal through the segments of the elongated metal delivery nozzle downwardly converging toward the.
In some embodiments of the above method and apparatus, the elongated delivery nozzle has segments positioned end to end adapted to deliver molten metal in the casting pool along the metal delivery nozzle directed downwardly converging toward the nip.
The elongated metal delivery nozzle of the above method and apparatus for continuously casting metal strip may also comprise an end portion adjacent side dams having a reservoir portion having at least one pair of passages adapted to deliver molten metal into a molten metal pool adjacent side dams, the directions of flow to converge below the reservoir portion. The entries of each passage of the at least one pair of passages in the reservoir portion may be positioned between 40 and 160 millimeters apart, or between 55 and 125 millimeters apart, and may have an angle of convergence between 5 and 60 degrees substantially centered about a vertical centerline through the elongated delivery nozzle. Optionally in addition, or in the alternative, the reservoir portion in the end portion of each segment may have a laterally extending weir adapted to allow molten metal to flow over the weirs between the main portion and the reservoir portion. The main portion may extend beneath the reservoir portion into the end portion of each segment.
The baffle may comprise one or more passages adapted to allow molten metal to flow through the passages. The baffle may be adapted to cause the molten metal to flow laterally within the main portion of the delivery nozzle. In addition, or in the alternative, the baffle may be adapted to reduce the velocity of the molten metal flowing through the elongated delivery nozzle. The baffle may be adapted such that a pool of molten metal is formed in the main portion of the delivery nozzle above the baffle. Further, in some alternatives, the baffle may be removable from each segment of the elongated delivery nozzle.
In some embodiments, the one or more outlets in the main portion of the elongated metal delivery nozzle may be one or more pairs of rows of outlets positioned longitudinally along the elongated metal delivery nozzle directed downwardly toward the nip such that the directions of flow of the pair of outlets converge below the delivery nozzle. The at least one pair of outlets may be angled such that their directions of flow converge below the reservoir portion. The angle of convergence of the outlets may be between 5 and 60 degrees substantially centered about a vertical centerline through the elongated delivery nozzle.
In some alternatives, the one or more outlets in the main portion of each segment is at least one channel extending longitudinally along each segment. The channel may have substantially parallel sides, or, in the alternative, the channel may have tapered sides. The main portion may further comprise one or more passages above the channel, adapted to deliver molten metal to the channel. In embodiments, the one or more passages may be positioned below the baffle. In addition, or in the alternative, the main portion may be tapered toward the one or more passages. In addition, or in the alternative, the bottom portion of the main portion may be tapered toward the one or more outlets.
Various aspects of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, drawings and claims. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to the use of the polymeric materials for enlarging a human glans and a method of performing a surgery for enlarging a human glans with any of the said materials.
A sexual intercourse of an animal is a manifestation of the primitive instinct of the animal originating from its instinct of preservation of the species; however humans can have a sexual intercourse quite voluntarily at any time without any estrous cycle, which is a characteristic intrinsic to human alone. It can be hardly denied that the sexual intercourse is a very important part of physical and mental health in their life, not as the instinct of preservation of the species. It is thought that the sexual intercourse is an extremely primitive and fundamental nature of the love for maintaining and advancing the group society of each animal. A certain scholar even said that nothing but the sexual intercourse could make people feel happy both mentally and physically without any adverse effect.
A narcotic for an extremely pleasant sensation is said to give a physical and mental comfort, but it is much deficient in perfectness of satisfaction. Moreover, it goes without saying that its side effects have an enormous evil influence.
According to the old Chinese sexual literatures, a male genital organ can function best only under the following conditions;
first: the genital organ should be stiff;
second: the genital organ should be warm;
third: the glans should be large; and
fourth: the penis should be thick and long.
The old Japanese, Indian or Arabian sexual classics attach great importance to the size of the glans, rather than to the lenghth or the thickness of the penis. That is to say, they thought that a big glans, rather than a long or thick penis, was absolutely important in order for a male genital organ to enhance a pleasant sensation of a female mate and further give a satisfaction to her.
Since the sexual intercourse is thought to be so important, various efforts have been exerted to reinforce the male sexual function. However, most of such efforts have been focused on enlargement of the genital organ, while there has been no attempt to enlarge the glans in thickness.
A male glans is covered with a thin mucosa, and it comprises of corpus spongiosum which is full of blood just below the mucosa without any subcutaneous soft tissue layer existing in the general skin. For that reason, it has been thought that it is impossible to modify the glans shape. It has been, therefore, perceived that no method will be available for enlarging the glans, and such perception has led to no attempt to enlarge the glans so far.
The present inventor has studied the glans for a long period, and observed the glans histologically. As a result, it has been concluded that any polymeric material harmless to the human body and not well absorbed into the somatic tissue can be transplanted into a layer referred to as the lamina propria mucosae. It functions as a dermal layer of the skin, which is at least 2xcx9c3 mm thick between the epithelial layer of the mucosa and the corpus spongiosum in the glans. After transplantation, the radius of the glans corona can be enlarged by 0.5xcx9c3.0 mm, preferably 1.0xcx9c2.0 mm, and such enlargement of the glans will enable men who are possessed by psychological inferiority complex about their small glans to gain confidence in their sexual life, further giving sexual satisfaction to their female mate by nodular stimulating the vaginal wall during the sexual intercourse.
Under this conclusion, the present invention has been made perfectly.
The present invention is described in details as follows;
Polymeric materials harmless to the human body and not well absorbed into the somatic tissue is used in the present invention. It includes collagen, artecoll (trade name), dermalive (trade name), zyplast (trade name), perlane (trade name), hyaluronic acid and restylane (trade name). These materials have been used as an insertion into the human body for removing fine wrinkles or correcting recess regions in the skin, but their use for enlarging the glans have never been examined nor attempted so far.
Description of Available Materials
Collagen is a kind of protein and a constituent element of muscle, bone and skin.
Artecoll is a suspension of polymethyl-metacrylate of a micro global form in 3.5% collagen solution at a ratio of 1:3. The surfaces of the micro small globes are very smooth and uniform, and their purity is high. Each micro globe is 30xcx9c40 xcexcm in diameter.
Hyaluronic acid is a major element constituting the animal tissue, particularly the cartilage of birds. It is a significant component of the bio-tissue which is found even in the plant species.
Dermalive (trade name) comprises soft and non-absorbable fragments of acrylic hydrogel dispersed in hyaluronic acid gel prepared by crosslinking the non-animal hyaluronic acid.
Restylane (trade name) is a consistent elastomer substance which is sterilized and has no pyrogen.
Perlane (trade name) is a peculiar form of the non-animal stabilized hyaluronic acid (NASHA). Perlane does not contain any animal protein.
Zyplast (trade name) contains collagen prepared by crosslinking the cowhide collagen with glutaraldehyde in 0.3% lidocaine solution at a content of 35 mg/ml.
Collagen or hyaluronic acid is used in the state of 1xcx9c10% (weight) gel made by dissolving it in water, and preferably in the state of 3xcx9c8% (weight) gel.
All the said polymeric materials available for the present invention shall have neither bacteria nor pyrogen therein. It is desirable to transplant any of the said materials by using an injector. The said materials are already used for removing fine wrinkles between one""s eyes, dimple scars, wrinkles in the eye rims, facial scars, etc. The said polymeric materials are commercialized in the form of one dose of injection set.
Restylane delays absorption of hyaluronic acid in vivo by crosslinking hyaluronic acid, while zyplast delays absorption of collagen in vivo by crosslinking collagen with glutaraldehyde.
Histological Region for Injection
Any of collagen, restylane, zyplast and hyaluronic acid is usually transplanted by injecting it into the dermis layer.
It is already in public domain that artecoll or dermalive shall be injected into the subdermal region which is a boundary layer between the derma and the subcutaneous fat.
It is also in public domain that if the said transplantation is conducted, with collagen or hyaluronic acid, or crosslinked derivatives of collagen and hyaluronic acid are slowly absorbed in vivo. However, in case of artecoll or dermalive, it may cause the cicatricial tissue, which can keep any filled volume by generating the fibrous tissue from 2xcx9c3 months after such transplantation. Consequently, This can cause side effects such as swelling or hardening in the periphery of the transplanted region, and such deformity shall be removed by a proper surgery.
Accordingly, in case artecoll or dermalive is transplanted into the derma layer, polymethyl-metacrylate or acrylic hydrogel thereof may show through derma layer. Also, if the cicatricial tissue resulting from such transplantation is formed excessively, it may get nodular irregularity. Therefore, artecoll or dermalive shall not be transplanted into the derma layer, but into the subdermal region which is a boundary layer between the derma and the subcutaneous fat. If artecoll or dermalive is transplanted, the fibrous connective tissue is generated around polymethyl-metacrylate or acrylic hydrogel thereof, and then, fibrin is formed to generate the cicatricial tissue and consequently, the transplanted region may get to be nodulated.
However, this side effect is rather a merit in the plastic operation for enlarging the glans, because it can enhance a sexual satisfaction.
If any of the said materials for enlarging the glans is transplanted into the lamina propria mucosae just below the mucosa surrounding the glans, the circumference of the glans is increased by the thickness of the transplanted material, and consequently, enlarging the glans.
For example, if it is transplanted into the lamina propria mucosae just below the mucosa surrounding the glans whose radius is 15 mm (diameter:30 mm) so that the transplanted material may be 2 mm thick, the circumference of the glans corona gets is increased by 12.56 mm according to the formula for obtaining a circumference(2 mmxc3x972xc3x973.14). Consequently, the glans becomes considerably larger.
If the circumference of the glans corona gets is equaled to its radiusxc3x972 xcfx80 and the radius of the enlarged glans is 15 mm+2 mm;
Then, the circumference of the glans corona is;
(15 mm+2 mm)xc3x972xcfx80=15 mmxc3x973.14+2xc3x972xc3x973.14=47.10 mm+12.56 mm=59.66 mm
and section area is increased by about 28%.
If any of the said materials is transplanted into the lamina propria mucosae just below the mucosa surrounding the glans(30 mm), So the transplanted material may be 1.5 mm thick, the circumference of the glans corona is increased by 9.42 mm (1.5 mmxc3x972xcfx80=1.5 mmxc3x972xc3x973.14=9.42mm), and the sectional area is also increased by about 21%.
Any of the said materials can be transplanted into a partial or a whole lamina propria mucosae of the glans, but it is preferably transplanted into the lamina propria mucosae of the glans corona.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the glans, comprising the glans mucosa (1), the lamina propria mucosae (2), the corpus spongiosum of the glans, the urethra (4) and the corpus spongiosum of the urethra (5). The material as used in this invention is transplanted into the lamina propria mucosae (2). | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
There exists, for example, a position light as having a light emission function. By using this function, a driver, a cyclist, a pedestrian, etc. can recognize the presence of another pedestrian at night and the like.
Concerning light emission control of such light function, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-224287 discloses that when a user uses an operation section of a portable telephone to enter a luminescence start instruction or a luminescence end instruction, an incoming call notice section, a display section and the operation section are made to light up or to finish luminescence thereof, or the luminescence thereof are also made to be finished after an entered luminescence time has passed (Abstract, FIGS. 3, 4, etc.).
A position light has the main object of making others recognize the presence of oneself. This object differs from light emission of, for example, a penlight for lightening the dark by oneself. When a position light is turned on with using a battery, it is able to escape unnecessary power consumption if a switch, etc. that switches from/to light emission to/from extinction by manual is provided.
When a timer is set for the light emission control thus a light is turned on according to an inputted time (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-224287), a position light cannot be turned on even under the situation where the light is necessary, such as going out at night, unless the time for turning the light on is inputted. Therefore, the function of a position light of making others recognize the presence of oneself results being spoiled.
In the timer setting for emitting a light according to an inputted time, light is emitted till the setting time has passed even if the light emission is unnecessary. Then, an extinction operation thereof is needed. If the extinction operation is forgotten, vain power consumption is generated. If the light is driven by a battery, there is inconvenience of draining the battery.
Concerning such problems, there is no disclosure or suggestion thereof in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-224287, and no suggestion about the structure for solving them is presented. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Memory devices are widely used in electronic systems for data storage. Similar to other semiconductor devices, there is a trend to decrease the sizes of the memory devices and the components thereof. As the shrinkage of the memory devices, interference occurring between the components may become a problem. Such a problem may be resolved by modifying the materials and/or spatial arrangements of the components. Further, the interference may be alleviated by adjusting the operation methods of the memory devices. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Recombinant DNA technology refers generally to the technique of integrating genetic information from a donor source into vectors for subsequent processing, such as through introduction into a host, whereby the transferred genetic information is copied and/or expressed in the new environment. Commonly, the genetic information exists in the form of complementary DNA (cDNA) derived from messenger RNA (mRNA) coding for a desired protein product. The carrier is frequently a plasmid having the capacity to incorporate cDNA for later replication in a host and, in some cases, actually to control expression of the cDNA and thereby direct synthesis of the encoded product in the host.
For some time, it has been known that the mammalian immune response is based on a series of complex cellular interactions, called the “immune network”. Recent research has provided new insights into the inner workings of this network. While it remains clear that much of the response does, in fact, revolve around the network-like interactions of lymphocytes, macrophages, granulocytes, and other cells, immunologists now generally hold the opinion that soluble proteins, known as lymphokines, cytokines, or monokines, play a critical role in controlling these cellular interactions. Thus, there is considerable interest in the isolation, characterization, and mechanisms of action of cell modulatory factors, an understanding of which will lead to significant advancements in the diagnosis and therapy of numerous medical abnormalities, e.g., immune system disorders. Some of these factors are hematopoietic growth and/or differentiation factors, e.g., stem cell factor (SCF) and IL-7. See, e.g., Mire-Sluis and Thorpe (1998) Cytokines Academic Press, San Diego; Thomson (ed. 1998) The Cytokine Handbook (3d ed.) Academic Press, San Diego; Metcalf and Nicola (1995) The Hematopoietic Colony Stimulating Factors Cambridge University Press; and Aggarwal and Gutterman (1991) Human Cytokines Blackwell.
Lymphokines apparently mediate cellular activities in a variety of ways. They have been shown to support the proliferation, growth, and differentiation of pluripotential hematopoietic stem cells into vast numbers of progenitors comprising diverse cellular lineages making up a complex immune system. Proper and balanced interactions between the cellular components are necessary for a healthy immune response. The different cellular lineages often respond in a different manner when lymphokines are administered in conjunction with other agents.
Cell lineages especially important to the immune response include two classes of lymphocytes: B-cells, which can produce and secrete immunoglobulins (proteins with the capability of recognizing and binding to foreign matter to effect its removal), and T-cells of various subsets that secrete lymphokines and induce or suppress the B-cells and various other cells (including other T-cells) making up the immune network. These lymphocytes interact with many other cell types.
Another important cell lineage is the mast cell (which has not been positively identified in all mammalian species), which is a granule-containing connective tissue cell located proximal to capillaries throughout the body. These cells are found in especially high concentrations in the lungs, skin, and gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts. Mast cells play a central role in allergy-related disorders, particularly anaphylaxis as follows: when selected antigens crosslink one class of immunoglobulins bound to receptors on the mast cell surface, the mast cell degranulates and releases mediators, e.g., histamine, serotonin, heparin, and prostaglandins, which cause allergic reactions, e.g., anaphylaxis.
Research to better understand and treat various immune disorders has been hampered by the general inability to maintain cells of the immune system in vitro. Immunologists have discovered that culturing these cells can be accomplished through the use of T-cell and other cell supernatants, which contain various growth factors, including many of the lymphokines.
From the foregoing, it is evident that the discovery and development of new lymphokines, e.g., related to IL-7, could contribute to new therapies for a wide range of degenerative or abnormal conditions which directly or indirectly involve the immune system and/or hematopoietic cells. In particular, the discovery and development of lymphokines which enhance or potentiate the beneficial activities of known lymphokines would be highly advantageous. The present invention provides new interleukin compositions and related compounds, and methods for their use. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical scanning device using an array of light emitting elements for converting an electrical image signal into a light image signal to be applied to a light-sensitive recording medium, and, in particular, to an optical writing device for optically writing an image on a recording medium in accordance with electrical image information supplied thereto. More specifically, the present invention relates to a scanning device including an array of fluorescent light emitting elements, which are activated selectively to emit fluorescent light in the form of a desired pattern, and fiber optics for guiding the thus emitted fluorescent light to an imaging surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of optical writing devices are used in numerous recording machines such as printers. These optical writing devices used in printers are often times constructed with a laser, optical fiber tubes ( OFT ) and light emitting diodes ( LED ). An optical writing device using a laser beam as employed in laser printers requires the provision of high-speed moving parts such as a polygonal mirror, which necessarily makes the scanning optical system complicated in structure. OFT printers tend to be bulky due to the size of their scanning optical system, and, moreover, a fine gap between the end surface of each OFT and the imaging surface must be maintained accurately. Some printers use LED arrays or PLZT crystal optical shutter arrays as optical writing elements, but these semiconductor writing elements are rather expensive and limited in size and thus two or more of them must be electrically connected if the scanning line sector is relatively large. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Various kinds of products in connection with ball games, including baseball, table tennis, tennis, etc., have been developed and are available in the market. Most of the ball games require special sporting equipment, place, and fixed number of players. Thus, many ball-game players and lovers have to use practicing instruments to develop their skill. A ball serving machine is one example of such practicing instruments. With the ball serving machine, ball-game players and lovers may train themselves in a place with limited space.
The ball serving machine is generally used along with a ball feeder. A user puts balls in the ball feeder, which feeds the balls to the ball serving machine for automatic serving.
Most of the conventional ball feeders for use with the ball serving machine include a metal-made long ball path, and a motor and an elastic wheel to drive the balls forward, and are therefore bulky and heavy to cause difficulties in packaging and transporting them. Balls driven to move forward by the motor and the elastic wheel in the conventional ball feeder tend to skid or be stuck in the ball path. Moreover, the conventional ball feeders usually have complicate structure and are inconvenient to assemble and transport, and require considerably large space for storage. Therefore, it is desirable to develop a ball feeder for ball serving machine that can be conveniently stored and transported and is really useful in helping ball-game players and lovers to improve their skill. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to a method of forming a lubricant layer on a magnetic disc, a device for forming the lubricant layer thereon, and a magnetic disc.
A magnetic disc is made by coating a magnetizable material on surfaces of a circular disc, which is made of aluminum, glass, etc., and it constitutes a part of a magnetic disk unit, which is a data recording device. The magnetic disc is attached to a rotary shaft and rotated at high speed. A magnetic head is held by a carriage mechanism and loaded on the surface of the magnetic disc. The magnetic disc is slightly floated by an air stream caused by the high speed rotation of the magnetic disc. In this state, the magnetic head is moved in the radial direction of the magnetic disc to read data recorded on the magnetic disc.
A basic structure of the magnetic disc is shown in FIG. 4. Magnetizable layers 54 are respectively formed on both surfaces of a disc 52; and carbon layers 56, whose thickness is about 10 nm, are respectively formed on the surfaces of the magnetizable layers 54 so as to protect the magnetizable layers 54 when the magnetic head contacts the magnetizable layers 54. Further, lubricant layers 58, whose thickness is less than 10 nm, are respectively formed on the surfaces of the carbon layers 56 so as to smoothly start and stop the magnetic head, which contacts the surface of the magnetic disc 50, and so as to protect the surfaces of the magnetic disc 50. In the present explanation, the disc 52, on which the carbon layers 56 are formed without the lubricant layers 58, is called the magnetic disc 50.
Conventionally, the lubricant layers 58 are formed by several methods. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, a solution 60, in which a lubricant is diluted with volatile solvent, is reservoired in a container 62, and a magnetic disc 50 is dipped into the solution 60. Then, the magnetic disc 50 is taken out from the solution 60 at fixed speed. By taking out at fixed speed, prescribed amount of the solution 60 can be stuck on surfaces of the magnetic discs 50. The solvent in the solution 60 stuck on the surfaces of the magnetic disc 50 volatilizes when the surfaces are exposed in the air, so only the lubricant is left on the surfaces, and the lubricant layers 58 can be formed on the magnetic disc 50. This method is called a dip-method.
Another method, in which the lubricant layers are formed as well as the dip-method, is shown in FIG. 6. The solution 60, which has been reservoired in a tank 64, is supplied into the container 62, in which the magnetic disc 50 has been accommodated, by a pump 66, and the solution 60 in the container 62 can be discharged and returned to the tank 64. While discharging the solution 60 from the container 62, the surface of the solution layer 60 is descended at fixed speed to gradually expose the magnetic disc 50. Then, the magnetic disc 50 is taken out, so that the lubricant layers 58 can be formed thereon. This method is called a surface descent-method.
In the methods, PFPE (per fluoro polyethers) is usually used as the lubricant; PFPE whose density is different from that of said lubricant, PFC, HFE and FC are usually used as the volatile solvent. Usually, one of them is selected as the volatile solvent.
However, in the conventional methods of forming the lubricant layers on the magnetic disc 50, the solvent volatilizes from not only the solution on the magnetic disc but also the solution in the container, so amount of the solvent in the solution is naturally reduced. To maintain the density of the lubricant in the solution, the solvent must be continuously added. But it is difficult to correctly know the present density of the lubricant because of continuously adding the solvent, so that the density of the lubricant cannot be precisely controlled and thickness of the lubricant layers of the magnetic discs must be dispersed. To maintain the thickness of the lubricant layers in a predetermined range, the thickness must be examined twice: after the steps of dipping and post baking. So the working efficiency must be low. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
A method of manufacturing rimless spectacles is known in which connecting elements of the lugs and the bridge of the spectacles are adhesively bonded to the front sides of the lenses. In this known method initially two lens blanks onto the front and rear sides of which a coating is applied are manufactured of plastic material. The two coated lens blanks are ground in such way that two spectacle lenses having a desired lens shape are obtained. At predetermined mounting positions for the connecting elements of the lugs and the bridge on the front side of the lenses the coating is removed for forming joining surfaces which substantially correspond, as to their shape and dimensions, to joining surfaces formed at the connecting elements. The connecting elements are then adhesively bonded to the front side of the lenses at the mounting positions. Since in the area of the joining surfaces at the lenses the base material thereof is exposed, a permanently tight adhesive bond can be produced between the connecting elements and the lenses.
An apparatus for adhesively bonding the lenses to the connecting elements of the bridge and the lugs applicable to the afore-illustrated method is also known. This device includes a frame in the form of a mounting plate as well as holding devices with the aid of which the two lenses of the spectacles to be manufactured are fixed to the mounting plate. The front side of the respective lens faces away from the mounting plate so that the joining surfaces formed on the front sides of the lenses are exposed. It is provided in this context that initially the respective connecting element is arranged at and pressed against the associated mounting position, before adhesive is introduced between the joining surface at the lens and the joining surface at the connecting element. Until the initial adhesion is reached, the connecting element and the lens are pressed against each other. If the connecting element is pressed manually or by means of a hand-held tool, the quality of the adhesive bond is considerably dependent on the skills of the person performing the adhesive bonding. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
This invention relates to the field of telephone features, and, more specifically, to a new feature for controlling conference calls.
Any participant on a conference call can place his or her telephone on hold. If a xe2x80x9cmusic-on-holdxe2x80x9d feature is assigned to that participant""s line, music is played back to the far end party. In this case, however, the far end party is all of the other participants on the conference call. The injected music disrupts the conference call and there is no way for the remaining participants to identify or isolate who initiated the hold. Furthermore, one (or more) of the participants may have a high level of background noise or a noisy link and not be aware of it. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method to drop a conference participant who is disrupting a conference call.
This problem is solved and a technical advance is achieved in the art by a system and method that provides a participant on a conference call with the ability to determine which party is injecting the noise into the call and to cause the switching system to drop the selected participant from the conference call. Advantageously, one of the conference call participants is the controlling participant. Alternatively, any member of the conference that can control a conference circuit (e.g., is using a touch-tone telephone) may be the controlling party.
A method according to this invention provides control of a conference call in an established conference call, wherein a controlling party enters a code. The controlling party is then isolated from the conference. Each conference participant is sequentially connected to the controlling party so that the controlling party may determine the noise level on that leg of the call. If there is no excess noise, then the controlling party may enter a code which causes the switch to select the next party on the conference call. When the controlling party discerns the offending conference participant with the noisy connection, the controlling party can signal the switch to drop the offending party. The controlling party may then rejoin all of the conference participants. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Dual voltage charging systems are known for maintaining two series connected batteries at equal voltages for supplying power to a pair of variable loads. Such dual voltage charging systems have included a battery equalization circuit with two independent sensing networks each requiring an individual reference voltage. This type of equalization circuit does not provide automatic tracking of the battery voltages. Further, because of the duplicate sensing networks and the need for dual calibration, this type of circuit is costly and inefficient. This type of circuit is also susceptible to temperature drift.
Other battery equalization circuits for dual voltage charging systems have included a voltage divider circuit coupled to the batteries. The voltage divider circuit provides a reference voltage that is equal to half the total voltage across the batteries. A regulated D.C. to D.C. converter has its output connected across one of the batteries for charging that battery to a level indicated by the reference voltage. The voltage divider of this battery equalization circuit must either be calibrated or include expensive precision resistors in order to set a precise reference voltage for maintaining a balance between the voltages provided by the batteries. Further, the resistors in the voltage divider must have matched temperature coefficients to maintain the balance between the battery voltages over a range of temperatures. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Vaccines against Streptococcus pyogenes (the Lancefield group A streptococcus; GAS) have long been sought due to the debilitating diseases caused by the bacterium, particularly rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. Rheumatic fever is an uncommon disease today in most developed countries but it remains the major cause of acquired heart disease in children, adolescents and young adults in the developing world. In addition, invasive GAS disease is a frequent cause of sepsis in children and adults and has a high-case fatality rate. Further adding to the burden of GAS disease is post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis, which likely contributes to the high rates of end-stage renal failure in many GAS endemic regions. GAS pharyngitis and impetigo are responsible for the greatest absolute number of GAS infections each year. GAS pharyngitis affects approximately 8%-15% of school-aged children per year and GAS impetigo is a very common infection in children prevalence of 10-50%. Not only are severe GAS-associated diseases a problem in developing countries, but even in developed countries particularly virulent GAS strains have emerged that are resistant to standard antibiotic therapies and cause debilitating diseases such as severe necrotizing fasciitis.
An important virulence factor of GAS is M protein, which is strongly anti-phagocytic and binds to serum factor H, destroying C3-convertase and preventing opsonization by C3b. Vaccines have been developed that contain immunogenic peptides from the conserved C-repeat portion of the M protein, such as T and B-cell epitopes from the C-repeat region or the J8 and J14 peptide vaccines that contain single, minimal B cell epitopes from this C-repeat region. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present disclosure relates generally to devices configured to protect or shield an individual from environmental elements such as the sun, wind, and rain. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to portable barriers or screening devices that can be quickly deployed at a location where protection from the elements is desired such as a beach or a sideline of a sporting event, and then readily collapsed and transported after use.
Various existing devices for protecting or shielding an individual from environmental elements have been designed. For example, such devices are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,171,948; 8,176,928; 8,205,628; 8,464,739; and 8,651,125, the disclosures of each of the five (5) above-identified patents are hereby totally incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
It would be desirable to construct the portable barrier so that it occupies a relatively small space when it is positioned in its stowed position. It would be further desirable to construct the portable barrier so that it assumes a convenient shape for carrying when it is positioned in its stowed position. In addition, it would be desirable to construct the portable barrier so that it is relatively less by wind when the portable barrier is positioned in its deployed or use position. It is also desirable to construct the portable barrier so that it is durable and can be manufactured in a relatively low cost manner. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
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