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Field of the Invention
This disclosure is generally related to extended Ethernet passive optical networks. More specifically, this disclosure is related to a method and a system for scheduling in cascaded PONs.
Related Art
In order to keep pace with increasing Internet traffic, network operators have widely deployed optical fibers and optical transmission equipment, substantially increasing the capacity of backbone networks. A corresponding increase in access network capacity, however, has not matched this increase in backbone network capacity. Even with broadband solutions, such as digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable modem (CM), the limited bandwidth offered by current access networks still presents a severe bottleneck in delivering high bandwidth to end users.
Among different competing technologies, Ethernet passive optical networks (EPONs) are one of the best candidates for next-generation access networks. EPONs combine ubiquitous Ethernet technology with inexpensive passive optics, offering the simplicity and scalability of Ethernet with the cost-efficiency and high capacity of passive optics. With the high bandwidth of optical fibers, EPONs can accommodate broadband voice, data, and video traffic simultaneously. Such integrated service is difficult to provide with DSL or CM technology. Furthermore, EPONs are more suitable for Internet Protocol (IP) traffic, because Ethernet frames can directly encapsulate native IP packets with different sizes, whereas ATM passive optical networks (APONs) use fixed-size ATM cells and consequently require packet fragmentation and reassembly.
Typically, EPONs are used in the “first mile” of the network, which provides connectivity between the service provider's central offices and business or residential subscribers. The “first mile” is generally a logical point-to-multipoint network, where a central office serves a number of subscribers. For example, an EPON can adopt a tree topology, wherein one trunk fiber couples the central office to a passive optical splitter/combiner. Through a number of branch fibers, the passive optical splitter/combiner divides and distributes downstream optical signals to subscribers and combines upstream optical signals from subscribers (see FIG. 1).
Transmissions within an EPON are performed between an optical line terminal (OLT) and optical network units (ONUs). The OLT generally resides in the central office and couples the optical access network to a metro backbone, which can be an external network belonging to, for example, an Internet service provider (ISP) or a local exchange carrier. An ONU can reside either at the curb or at an end-user location, and can provide broadband voice, data, and video services. ONUs are coupled to a one-by-n (1×n) passive optical coupler, where n is the number of ONUs, and the passive optical coupler is coupled to the OLT over an optical link. One may use a number of cascaded optical splitters/couplers to increase the number of ONUs. This configuration can significantly save on the number of fibers and amount of hardware.
Communications within an EPON include downstream traffic and upstream traffic. In the following description, “downstream” refers to the direction from an OLT to one or more ONUs, and “upstream” refers to the direction from an ONU to the OLT. In the downstream direction, because of the broadcast nature of the 1×N passive optical coupler, data packets are broadcast by the OLT to all ONUs and are selectively extracted by their destination ONUs. Moreover, each ONU is assigned one or more logical link identifiers (LLIDs), and a data packet transmitted by the OLT typically specifies the LLID of the destination ONU. In the upstream direction, the ONUs need to share channel capacity and resources, because there is only one link coupling the passive optical coupler to the OLT.
Due to the limitations on optical power budget and fiber availability, in many cases, extended PONs with longer reaches and higher densities are needed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The efficient use of recirculated exhaust gas (“EGR”) is important to modern internal combustion engines, including both gasoline and diesel fueled engines. Efficient use of EGR generally supports the objectives of realizing high power output from these engines while also achieving high fuel efficiency and economy and while meeting increasingly stringent engine-out emission requirements. The use of forced induction, particularly including exhaust gas driven turbochargers, is also frequently employed to increase the engine intake mass airflow and the power output of the engine by using waste energy derived from the exhaust gas. The efficient use of EGR and turbocharged forced-induction necessitates synergistic design of these systems.
The exhaust gas emitted from an internal combustion engine, particularly a diesel engine, is a heterogeneous mixture that contains gaseous emissions such as carbon monoxide (“CO”), unburned hydrocarbons (“HC”), and oxides of nitrogen (“NOx”) as well as condensed phase materials (liquids and solids) that constitute particulate matter. Catalyst compositions typically disposed on catalyst supports or substrates are provided in an engine's exhaust system to convert certain, or all of these exhaust constituents into non-regulated exhaust gas components. An exhaust treatment technology in use for high levels of particulate matter reduction is the diesel particulate filter device (“DPF”). There are several known filter structures used in DPF's that have displayed effectiveness in removing particulate matter from exhaust gas such as ceramic honeycomb wall-flow filters, wound or packed fiber filters, open cell foams, sintered metals, fibers, etc.
The filter structure, regardless of the type used, is a physical structure for removing particulates from the exhaust gas and, as a result, the accumulation of filtered particulates will have the effect of gradually increasing the exhaust system backpressure experienced by the engine. To address backpressure increases caused by the accumulation of exhaust gas particulates, the DPF is periodically cleaned or regenerated. Regeneration of a DPF, particularly in vehicular applications, is typically automatic and is controlled by an engine or other controller based on signals generated by engine and exhaust system sensors. The regeneration event involves increasing the temperature of the DPF filter structure to levels that are often between 500° C. and 650° C. in order to burn the accumulated particulates. One method of generating the temperatures required in the exhaust system for regeneration of the DPF is to deliver unburned HC to an oxidation catalyst device that is disposed upstream of the DPF. The HC may be delivered to the exhaust system by adjusting the fuel injection, timing or both of the engine and “over-fueling” the engine resulting in unburned HC exiting the engine with the exhaust gas and entering the exhaust system. In the alternative, a fuel injector associated with a fuel system may be fluidly connected to the exhaust system upstream of the oxidation catalyst device for delivery of HC directly to the exhaust gas. The HC is oxidized in the oxidation catalyst device resulting in an exothermic reaction that raises the temperature of the exhaust gas to a level sufficient to burn the accumulated particulates in the DPF.
A disadvantage to this method of regeneration is that the inlet for the EGR system is typically upstream of the oxidation catalyst and DPF so that the EGR contains both unburned HC and particulate matter. The delivery of unburned HC to an EGR system may lead to clogging of the system, especially if the EGR system employs an exhaust gas cooler. Additionally, recirculation of HC's through the EGR system and back into the engine intake system reduces the quantity of HC available for DPF regeneration and reduces the fuel efficiency of the engine. One method for avoiding the introduction of unburned HC to the EGR system is to limit engine over-fueling to specific engine cylinders with un-fueled exhaust directed to the EGR system and HC-laden exhaust directed to the DPF during regeneration. In a V-configured engine, the over-fueling may involve one bank of cylinders and in an in-line engine it may involve a group of cylinders (cylinders 1, 2, 3 in an in-line 6 cylinder engine for example). A disadvantage to the above method of over-fueling the engine is that the exhaust flows are permanently separated, resulting in excess un-fueled exhaust bypassing the turbocharger when not required by the EGR system. For improved efficiency, it is desirable to take advantage of the full exhaust flow volume, less that diverted for EGR purposes, to power the turbocharger in an engine using forced induction. | {
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Plastic fasteners of the type used, for example, to attach merchandise tags to articles of commerce or to secure articles of commerce to packaging are well-known and widely used in the retail industry. One common such fastener is a unitary plastic member comprising a flexible filament, a cross-bar (also commonly referred to as a “T-bar”) at a first end of the flexible filament, and a paddle or other enlargement at a second end of the flexible filament. When used, for example, to secure a merchandise tag to an article of commerce, the cross-bar may be inserted through the merchandise tag and then through the article of commerce, with the paddle or other enlargement not being inserted through the merchandise tag or article of commerce and being appropriately sized and shaped to keep the tag from being pulled off the second end of the flexible filament. In an analogous fashion, when used, for example, to secure an article of commerce to packaging material, the cross-bar may be inserted through the packaging material, with the paddle or other enlargement not being inserted through the packaging material.
Plastic fasteners of the type described above are typically mass-produced in either one of two different forms known as fastener stock. A first type of fastener stock is a clip-type assembly, said assembly comprising a plurality of fasteners, each such fastener comprising a flexible filament having a cross-bar at one end thereof and a paddle or other enlargement at the opposite end thereof. The fasteners are arranged in a stacked orientation, with the respective cross-bars parallel to one another and the respective paddles parallel to one another, each of the cross-bars being joined to a common, orthogonally-disposed runner bar by a severable connector. Adjacent paddles also may be interconnected by severable connectors extending between the front face of one paddle and the rear face of its adjacent paddle.
The aforementioned fastener assembly is typically made through the process of injection molding. Several commercial embodiments of the above-described fastener assembly have been sold by the present assignee, Avery Dennison Corporation, as AVERY DENNISON® SWIFTACH® fastener clips.
A second type of fastener stock is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,475, which issued on Sep. 11, 1990, in the names of Francis T. McCarthy et al., and in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0205940 A1, which was published on Oct. 21, 2004, in the names of William J. Cooper et al., the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference. This type of fastener stock comprises a plurality of fasteners arranged in a side-by-side, co-planar assembly, the paddles and T-bars of successive fasteners being joined together by severable connectors so as to form a supply of continuously connected fastener stock. Several commercial embodiments of the above-described fastener assembly have been sold by the present assignee, Avery Dennison Corporation, as AVERY DENNISON® SYSTEM 1000® fastener assemblies.
The aforementioned second type of fastener stock is commonly manufactured using a process commonly referred to in the art as continuous molding. An example of an apparatus designed to manufacture continuously connected fastener stock using a continuous molding process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,784, inventor David B. Russell, issued Jul. 31, 1984, which patent is incorporated herein by reference. In the aforementioned patent, continuously connected fastener stock is produced using a rotating mold wheel that includes cavities in its periphery that correspond in shape to the molded fastener stock. To form the fastener stock, molten plastic is extruded into the cavities of the rotating mold wheel with a layer of controlled film overlying the peripheral impression. The molten plastic is then allowed to solidify. A knife in substantially elliptical contact with the peripheral impression is then used to skive excess plastic from the rotating mold wheel (i.e., the layer of controlled film), leaving plastic only in the molding cavities. After the skiving process, the continuously connected fastener stock is removed, in-line, from the cavities in the molding wheel. Transfer rolls advance the fastener stock typically to a stretching station where selected portions of the fastener stock are selectively distended (e.g., using divergent sprocket wheels). After the stretching process, the fastener stock is collected onto a windup roll for packaging.
As noted above, in the case of continuously connected fastener stock, the paddles of adjacent fasteners are typically joined together in a side-by-side arrangement by severable connectors. Such severable connectors are typically filamentous members typically having a square or rectangular transverse cross-section. As individual fasteners are dispensed from the continuously connected fastener stock, the severable connector that extends between the trailing end of the paddle of the dispensed fastener and the leading end of the successive paddle elongates and breaks, leaving a small remnant of the connector on one or both of the dispensed paddle and the successive paddle. As can be appreciated, such a remnant is undesirable as it may snag and damage the article of commerce to which the fastener is attached. The risk of significant damage caused by the remnant may be particularly great where the fastener is attached to fine articles of clothing. | {
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This invention relates to complex oxide catalysts and process for producing (meth)acrolein and (meth)acrylic acid. More particularly, the invention relates to Mo-Bi-containing complex oxide catalysts which are suitable for use in production of (meth)acrolein and (meth)acrylic acid, and process for producing (meth)acrolein and (meth)acrylic acid by vapor-phase oxidation of at least one compound selected from propylene, isobutylene, t-butanol and methyl-t-butyl ether, in presence of one of said catalysts.
Many proposals have been made for improved catalysts for vapor phase catalytic oxidation of propylene, isobutylene and the like to produce (meth)acrylic acid and (meth)acrolein. For example, Official Gazette of Sho 50 (1975)-13308A1-JP and Sho 50-47915A1-JP proposed catalysts containing at least an element selected from K, Rb and Cs as one of the essential components, besides Mo, Bi, Fe, Sb and Ni, and Sho 64 (1989)-56634A1-JP proposed those containing at least an element selected from Ni and Co as the essential component, in addition to Mo, Bi and Fe. Also Sho 56 (1981)-52013B1-JP disclosed catalysts containing at least an element selected from Mg, Ca, Zn, Cd and Ba as the essential component, besides Mo, Bi and Fe; and Sho 56-23969B1-JP, catalysts containing at least an element selected from IIA and IIB Group elements as the essential component, besides Mo, Bi and Fe.
In those prior art catalysts, as Bi-supplying source water-soluble compounds thereof, in particular, nitric acid salts are used. However, use of bismuth nitrate as the Bi-supplying source in production of the catalysts of high Bi content (e.g., those in which the atomic ratio of Mo to Bi is, where Mo is 12, Bi is 3-7) is problematical. With the view to solve that problem, Sho 62 (1987)-234548A1-JP has proposed a production method of complex oxide catalysts for which bismuth oxide or bismuth oxycarbonate are used as the Bi-supplying source.
While prior art Mo-Bi-containing complex oxide catalysts are considered to have overcome the problem incidental to the use of bismuth nitrate, there still remain shortcomings which must be improved. More specifically, for example, {circle around (1+L )} in the occasions of producing (meth)acrolein and (meth)acrylic acid by vapor-phase oxidation of propylene, isobutylene and the like using those catalysts, yield of the object products is not necessarily satisfactory, and {circle around (2+L )} due to sublimation of the molybdenum component in the catalysts during the vapor-phase oxidation reaction of propylene, isobutylene and the like, the catalytic activity decreases and the catalysts are unsatisfactory in respect of their life.
One of the objects of the present invention is, therefore, to provide complex oxide catalysts for production of (meth)acrolein and (meth)acrylic acid, which excel in activity, selectivity and catalyst life and exhibit stable performance over prolonged period.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process for producing (meth)acrolein and (meth)acrylic acid at high yield and with stability, by vapor-phase oxidation of at least one compound selected from propylene, isobutylene, t-butanol and methyl-t-butyl ether with molecular oxygen or a molecular oxygen-containing gas in the presence of the above complex oxide catalyst.
We have made concentrative studies on complex oxide catalysts to discover that the amount of molybdenum sublimation during vapor phase oxidation reaction of propylene, isobutylene and the like is inhibited when the amounts of bismuth, iron, cobalt and nickel are relatively large. However, it is also discovered that the relatively large amounts of bismuth, iron, cobalt and nickel increase also the amount of nitrate anions at the time of catalyst preparation, which has such adverse effects as deteriorating moldability of catalyst compositions and impairing their catalytic performance. We continued further investigations with the view to solve this problem, to find that the catalysts excelling in activity, selectivity and life can be produced with good reproducibility by reducing the molar ratio of nitrate anions to molybdenum at the time of the catalyst preparation.
Thus, according to the present invention, complex oxide catalysts are provided, which are represented by general formula (1) below:
MoaWbBicFedAeBfCgDhEiOxxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
(wherein Mo is molybdenum; W is tungsten; Bi is bismuth; Fe is iron; A is at least an element selected from nickel and cobalt; B is at least an element selected from sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium and thallium; C is at least an element selected from alkaline earth metals; D is at least an element selected from phosphorus, tellurium, antimony, tin, cerium, lead, niobium, manganese, arsenic, boron and zinc; E is at least an element selected from silicon, aluminum, titanium and zirconium; and O is oxygen; a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i and x denote the atomic ratios of Mo, W, Bi, Fe, A, B, C, D, E and O, respectively; and
where a is 12, 0xe2x89xa6bxe2x89xa610, 0 less than cxe2x89xa610 (preferably 0.1xe2x89xa6cxe2x89xa610), 0 less than dxe2x89xa610 (preferably 0xe2x89xa6dxe2x89xa610, 2xe2x89xa6exe2x89xa615, 0 less than fxe2x89xa610 (preferably 0.001xe2x89xa6fxe2x89xa610), 0xe2x89xa6gxe2x89xa610, 0xe2x89xa6hxe2x89xa64 and 0xe2x89xa6ixe2x89xa630, and x is determined by degree of oxidation of each of the elements),
said catalysts being characterized in that the molar ratio of total nitrate anions to molybdenum at the time of catalyst preparation is adjusted to be more than 1 but not more than 1.8.
According to the invention, furthermore, there is provided a process for producing (meth)acrolein and (meth)acrylic acid through vapor-phase oxidation of at least one compound selected from the group consisting of propylene, isobutylene, t-butanol and methyl-t-butyl ether with molecular oxygen or a molecular oxygen-containing gas, in the presence of an oxidation catalyst, the process being characterized in that it uses an above-defined complex oxide catalyst.
The catalysts of the present invention are complex oxide catalysts, at the time of whose preparation the ratio of the total molar amount of nitrate anions [NO3] to the molar amount of molybdenum [Mo] is adjusted to be more than 1 but not more than 1.8, i.e., 1 less than [NO3]/[Mo]xe2x89xa61.8. Preferably the ratio is within the range of 1.1xe2x89xa6[NO3]/[Mo]xe2x89xa61.8.
xe2x80x9cTotal molar amount of nitrate anions at the time of the catalyst preparationxe2x80x9d signifies the sum of the molar amount of nitrate anions contained in all of the starting materials which are used for preparation of the catalyst plus the molar amount of nitrate anions originating from the nitric acid which is used for the catalyst preparation as necessity arises. For example, referring to the later appearing Example 1, it is the total sum of the molar amount of nitrate anions derived from the cobalt nitrate, nickel nitrate, etc., which were used as the starting materials, plus the molar amount of the nitrate anions derived from the nitric acid which was used for dissolving bismuth nitrate.
When the ratio of [NO3] to [Mo] exceeds 1.8, deterioration in moldability and degradation in the catalytic performance result, and the objects of the present invention cannot be accomplished. That is, when such a large amount of nitrate anions is present at the time of the catalyst preparation, pH becomes very low and under the strongly acidic condition, stability and reactivity of molybdenum, tungsten and the like are adversely affected. Furthermore, because the powder obtained through such steps as evaporation to dry solid, drying and grinding contains the large amount of nitrate anions, it absorbs moisture during molding and is apt to invite deterioration in moldability. Whereas, when the ratio of [NO3] to [Mo] is 1 or less, reactivity among the used elements drops, which results in reduction in catalytic activity.
For controlling the ratio of the total molar amount of nitrate anions to that of molybdenum to be more than 1 but not more than 1.8 at the time of catalyst preparation, for example, basic bismuth nitrate is used as at least a part of the bismuth source. xe2x80x9cBasic bismuth nitratexe2x80x9d is, while its chemical formula is not necessarily established, also called, for example, bismuth oxynitrate or bismuth oxyhydroxide and has a lower nitrate anions content than that of bismuth nitrate (Bi(NO3)3.5H2O). For keeping the ratio within the specified range, furthermore, as the sources of other elements, compounds other than nitrates (e.g., compounds containing no or less nitric acid, such as hydroxides, carbonates, acetates or sulfates) may be used.
Of the catalysts of the present invention, those of high bismuth, iron and A component (nickel and/or cobalt) contents are preferred, because they can better reduce sublimation of molybdenum during the oxidation reaction. More specifically, referring to the general formula (1), those complex oxide compositions in which 9xe2x89xa6c+d+e, in particular, 9xe2x89xa6c+d+e xe2x89xa620, are preferred. Hence it is convenient to use, as at least a part of the bismuth-supply source, basic bismuth nitrate, and as the supply sources of iron and A component, compounds containing no or less nitric acid, to render the molar ratio of total nitrate anions to molybdenum not more than 1.8 at the time of preparing the catalyst. Specifically, use of iron hydroxide or the like as the source of iron, and nickel carbonate, nickel acetate, cobalt acetate or the like as the source of A component, is preferred.
The catalysts of the present invention can be prepared by the generally practiced methods for preparing this type of catalysts, from generally used starting materials.
As the starting materials, compounds which produce oxides upon calcination, for example, ammonium salts, nitrates and the like can be used. As the method of preparation, it normally comprises dissolving or dispersing each prescribed amount of staring materials containing the elementary components in an aqueous medium, heating the solution or dispersion under stirring, then evaporating the system to dry solid, drying and grinding the solid and molding the resultant powder into optional form by extrusion molding, making tablets or granulation. In that occasion, inorganic fibers such as glass fiber and various kinds of whiskers, which are generally well known for their effect of improving strength and attrition resistance of catalyst may be added. Also for controlling the catalyst properties with good reproducibility, additives generally known as powder binder such as ammonium nitrate, cellulose, starch, polyvinyl alcohol, stearic acid and the like may be used.
The catalyst of the present invention can be used by itself or may be supported on inert carriers such as alumina, silica-alumina, silicon carbide, titanium dioxide, magnesium oxide, aluminum sponge and the like.
The complex oxide catalysts according to the present invention can be obtained by calcining the molded products or those supported on carriers at 300-600xc2x0 C. for around 1-10 hours in an air stream.
The complex oxide catalysts of the present invention are favorably used for producing acrolein and acrylic acid by vapor-phase oxidation of propylene; methacrolein and methacrylic acid by vapor-phase oxidation of isobutylene; methacrolein and methacrylic acid by vapor-phase oxidation of t-butanol; and methacrolein and methacrylic acid by vapor-phase oxidation of methyl-t-butyl ether. Needless to say, furthermore, the present invention also covers such an embodiment, taking an example in the vapor-phase oxidation of propylene, of producing mainly acrolein.
Apparatus and operation conditions for practicing the vapor-phase catalytic oxidation reaction of the present invention a subject to no critical limitation. As the reactor, any of generally useandd fixed bed, fluidable bed and mobile bed reactors can be used, and as the reaction conditions those generally used for producing (meth)acrolein and (meth)acrylic acid by vapor-phase catalytic oxidation can be adopted. For example, a gaseous mixture comprising 1-15 vol. % of at least one compound selected from propylene, isobutylene, t-butanol and methyl-t-butyl ether as the starting gas and 1-10 vol. times of the starting gas of molecular oxygen and inert gas which is to serve as a diluent (e.g., nitrogen, carbon dioxide, steam, etc.) is contacted with a catalyst of the present invention at temperatures ranging from 250 to 450xc2x0 C., under a pressure ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 MPa and at a space velocity ranging from 300 to 5000 hrxe2x88x921 (STP) to carry out the intended reaction.
According to the process of the present invention, acrolein and acrylic acid are produced from propylene; methacrolein and methacrylic acid, from isobutylene; methacrolein and methacrylic acid, from t-butanol; and methacrolein and methacrylic acid, from methyl-t-butyl ether, at high yield.
The catalysts of the present invention can be prepared with good reproducibility, have high activity levels and exhibit high yields. Thus, according to the process of the present invention using the catalysts, (meth)acrolein and (meth)acrylic acid can be produced at high yields with high stability over prolonged period. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of optically active citronellal, which is also referred to as chiral citronellal, by the asymmetric hydrogenation of neral [E-3,7-dimethyloctadien-2,6-al] or geranial [Z-3,7-dimethyloctadien-2,6-al] which are achiral isomeric constituents of citral.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Chiral citronellal is a valuable intermediate in organic synthesis; in particular, d-citronellal is used for the preparation of (-) (1S)-menthol, hereafter simply 1-menthol, by a process which employs the cyclization of d-citronellal into (-) (1S)-isopulegol under the influence of a proton catalyst, or by a thermal route, followed by the hydrogenation of the isopulegol into 1-menthol [cf., J. C. Leffingwell and R. E. Shackelford, Cosmetics and Perfumery, 89, 70-78 (1974)].
The d-citronellal used for the synthesis of 1-menthol is obtained from various essential oils largely comprised of d-citronellal and, in particular, from citronella oil. The use of chiral citronellal of natural origin is not entirely satisfactory insofar as, because of the fluctuation in the prices of natural products, it periodically happens that the price of d-citronellal is higher than that of natural menthol. It is therefore of importance to industry to have available a source of chiral citronellal which has a relatively stable price and leads to a synthetic 1-menthol having a lower cost price than that of natural menthol.
The synthetic achiral citronellal obtained via the hydrogenation of citral [a mixture of neral and geranial] could constitute a valuable source of chiral citronellal and especially of d-citronellal; however, no industrial process exists for resolving racemic citronellal into its enantiomers, with the result that industry does not have any process available which makes it possible to obtain chiral citronellals by a synthetic route. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The following discussion is provided solely to assist the understanding of the reader, and does not constitute an admission that any of the information discussed or references cited constitute prior art.
Mineral spirits (CAS Reg. No. 64475-85-0) are petroleum distillates derived from the light distillate fractions during the crude oil refining process, and are generally composed of six to eleven carbon (C6-C11)-containing alkane hydrocarbon compounds (though small amounts of other compounds may be present), with the majority of the mass composed of C9-C11 alkanes. Mineral spirits are commonly used as a paint thinner and mild solvent. In industry, mineral spirits are used in conjunction with cutting oil, and for cleaning and degreasing machine tools and parts.
Odorless Mineral Spirits (hereinafter abbreviated “OMS”), e.g., CAS Reg. Nos. 8052-41-3 or 64742-48-9, are petroleum-derived mineral spirits that have been further refined to remove toxic aromatic compounds including benzene and toluene. OMS has an initial boiling point of about 340F (171-178° C.) and a specific mass of about 0.76 g/cc, and is often recommended for applications where humans have close contact with the solvent, including oil painting, ink printing and addition to barbecue charcoal as an easily ignited lighter fluid. As such, OMS has been used for many years to initiate combustion of more difficult to ignite regular fuels including charcoal, coal, and pellet fuels, for example. OMS charcoal lighter has dominated the marketplace and has been sold for many years by a number of companies including the Kingsford Products Company (Oakland, Calif.), Royal Oak Enterprises, LLC (Roswell, Ga.), Reckitt and Coleman (Wayne, N.J.) and Duraflame Inc. (Stockton, Calif.). User directions suggest that an amount of OMS fluid equal to approximately 10% the weight of the charcoal should be applied to the charcoal (1.6 fluid oz per pound of charcoal). Therefore, a quart of the fluid is sufficient to light approximately one 20 lb. bag of charcoal. Although used for many years, there is a significant opportunity to improve the safety and convenience of such lighter fluids by addition of an improved thickening agent.
Consideration is also given to hydrophobic non-petroleum fuels such as medium to long chain (C8-C18) fatty acid ester fuels such as biodiesel fuel. Biodiesel fuel can be used in standard diesel engines, and is thus distinct from vegetable and waste oils used to fuel converted diesel engines. Biodiesel can be used alone (termed “B100 fuel”), or blended with petroleum hydrocarbon fuels (e.g., B20 containing 20% biodiesel+80% petroleum diesel fuel). Blends of less than 20% biodiesel can be used in diesel equipment with no, or only minor, modification. Biodiesel can also be used as an alternative to petroleum-based heating oil.
Fatty acid esters contain alkyl chains of varying length, e.g., C4-C18 that may be esterified to methyl, ethyl or propyl moieties. Fatty acid methyl esters have been assigned standard CAS registration numbers based upon the number/range of carbon atoms in their fatty acids as follows: C6-C12, CAS Reg. No. 67762-39-4; C10, CAS Reg. No. 110-42-9; C12, CAS Reg. No. 111-82-0; C12-C18, CAS Reg. No. 68937-84-8; and C16-C18, CAS Reg. No. 85586-21-6. Fatty acid methyl esters are aliphatic organic esters primarily prepared by the reaction of carboxylic fatty acids derived from natural fats and oils and methanol in the presence of a base catalyst. The resulting esters can be subsequently processed into various alkyl range cuts by fractional distillation. Fatty acid methyl esters are used extensively as intermediates in the manufacture of detergents, emulsifiers, wetting agents, stabilizers, textile treatments, and waxes, among other applications. Lesser volumes of fatty acid methyl esters are used in a variety of direct and indirect food additive applications, including the dehydration of grapes to produce raisins, synthetic flavoring agents, and in metal lubricants for metallic articles intended for food contact use. Fatty acid methyl esters are also used as intermediates in the manufacture of a variety of food ingredients.
Applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/205,026, incorporated herein by reference, employs, in some embodiments, thermo-precipitated monoglycerides as rheology modifiers that thicken hydrophobic liquid fuels. When certain monoglycerides are thermo-precipitated and dispersed under suitable conditions in a hydrophobic liquid such as a petroleum-based fuel, these monoglycerides are capable of forming micron-sized solid microparticles that can thicken the liquid. The compositions and methods therein describe, in certain embodiments, the use of molten monoglycerides that are added and dispersed at an elevated temperature, e.g., 70-80° C., into a flammable fuel.
In the present invention, certain embodiments are directed to reducing the hazard associated with dispersing an ingredient in a flammable hydrophobic liquid, e.g., so that neither the ingredient nor the liquid are at a temperature above the flash point of the liquid. Applicant has devised various compositions herein, including compositions that allow dispersal of solid monoglycerides at ambient temperature in a flammable fuel in which the chemistry and the physical structure of the monoglycerides have been altered to allow such dispersal and thickening of a fuel at ambient temperature. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an arrangement for controlling an echo canceller and a centre clipper inserted in a telephone circuit comprising a receive path and a send path in which an echo signal may be generated by a signal entering the receive path. The echo canceller comprises an adaptive filter connected to the receive path; a subtractor arranged in the send path for subtracting the output signal of the adaptive filter from the signal in the send path; and an adjusting circuit for automatically adjusting the coefficients of the filter so the filter supplies an approximated value of the echo signal. The centre clipper is arranged in the send path at the output of the subtractor for suppressing there, when it is activated, signals having an amplitude equal to or below a clipping threshold. The coefficient adjusting circuit and the centre clipper operate under the control of said control arrangement, which forms control signals from the signal in the receive path and the level N.sub.REC of this signal and from the levels N.sub.AV and N.sub.AP of the signals in the send path, respectively before and after the subtractor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the above-described echo canceller, the adaptive filter has for its object to supply as accurate a copy as possible of the echo signal appearing in the send path of a four-wire circuit, in response to the signal generated by a distant talker in the receive path and passing through an unwanted echo path between the receive and send paths. When the echo path does not comprise non-linear circuits capable of generating noise, the adaptive filter may form, after an adaption period, an echo copy signal which in practice enables the cancellation of the echo signal at the output of the subtracting circuit. But in certain cases, the echo path may be the seat of cascaded non-linear operations such as analog-to-digital conversions or PCM-to-differential PCM conversions and vice versa. In such cases, the accumulated quantization noise in the echo path degrades the operation of the adaptive filter for low levels of the echo signal and produces a prohibitive residual echo level at the output of the subtractor. This occurs, for example, in the case of long-distance links via satellites in which an echo canceller is provided near a ground station for cancelling an echo generated by an imperfection in a two-wire-to-four-wire transition located anywhere in a nation.
To obtain an attenuation of the residual echo which the actual echo canceller cannot suppress, the CCITT recommends to arrange in the send path, at the output of the subtractor, a non-linear processing circuit which is often referred to as a centre clipper: see on this subject Recommandation G. 165 and Report R.24, appendix 3, of Study Group XV. The centre clipper is a circuit which nearly suppresses the signals having an amplitude equal to or below a clipping threshold and transmits the signals having an amplitude above this threshold. The centre clipper associated with an echo canceller has for its object to suppress the residue of the echo not eliminated by the echo canceller in single talk conditions of the distant talker so as to ensure that the latter does not hear his own echo and to disturb to the least possible extent the near talker speech signal to be transmitted via the send path.
Associated with the centre clipper is a control circuit to adjust the clipper continually to the state most suitable for performing its function, namely: to an active state when only a residue of the echo is present at its input, and to an inactive state corresponding to the transmission of all the signals in all the other situations, more specifically in double talk periods or when the echo is insufficiently eliminated by the echo canceller. To fulfill these conditions correctly, the centre clipper must respond rapidly to all changes in the conditions.
The operation of the coefficient adjusting circuit is also controlled by a control circuit, essentially: for authorizing the correction only when the output signal of the subtractor (error signal controlling the correction) is significant relative to the receive signal level; for disabling the correction in double talk conditions; for setting the coefficients to zero after divergence of the coefficients has been detected; and, possibly, for instantaneously increasing the correction step after the coefficients have been set to zero.
In certain types of known echo cancelling arrangements (see, for example, the article by Horna published in COMSAT Technical Review, Vol. 7 No. 2, 1977, pages 393-428), the control of the centre clipper is of a design similar to the control circuit of arrangements known as "echo suppressers" and is realized independently of the echo canceller. This control is based on the comparison between the level N.sub.REC of the signal in the receive path and the level N.sub.AV at the input of the send path. When the level ratio N.sub.REC /N.sub.AV is high, it is assumed that only the distant talker is speaking and producing an echo to be eliminated, therefore the centre clipper is made operative. When this ratio falls below a threshold, it is assumed that only the near talker is speaking or that a double talk condition exists, therefore the centre clipper is adjusted to the inactive state. The weak point of this criterion resides in the fact that the signal from the distant talker, present in the receive path, produces at the input of the send path an echo which may be variably delayed according to the echo path. When the signal from the distant talker decreases (at the end of each syllable), a significant echo may still be present in the send path, so that the ratio N.sub.REC /N.sub.AV gives the false impression that a double talk condition exists which makes the centre clipper inoperative at an inopportune moment. To try and remedy this shortcoming, one might delay switching the centre clipper from its active to its inactive state. This will, however, result in a degradation of the speech signal from the near talker when this talker wants to break in on the conversation during said delay. Finally, when the ratio N.sub.REc /N.sub.AV is used, it is only possible to detect strong double talk and the near speech signal will be distorted in weaker double talk conditions.
In an echo cancelling arrangement described in European Patent No. 0 053 202, some of the above-mentioned shortcomings are obviated by also taking into account the level N.sub.AP of the signal after the subtractor of the echo canceller, whilst the control of the centre clipper is combined with the control of the coefficients adjusting circuit. These controls are determined by a simple logic combination of three criteria which are obtained by respectively comparing the three ratios N.sub.AV /N.sub.REC, N.sub.AP /N.sub.REC and N.sub.AP /N.sub.AV with three thresholds. A disadvantage of this system is its lack of flexibility. Thus the three above-mentioned thresholds, which determine the operation of the echo canceller and also of the centre clipper, must be fixed at values which are chosen as a compromise and which may be detrimental in certain circumstances to the correct operation of the echo canceller. Similarly, the combinatorial character of the control logic makes it difficult to provide appropriate temporizing of certain controls, which may be vary useful in certain circumstances. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to an electronic cigarette personal vapouriser, also known as an electronic cigarette (e-cig or e-cigarette), vapestick, modding kit, personal vaporizer (PV), advanced personal vaporizer (APVs) or electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS). In this specification, we will typically use TV′ or ‘e-cigarette’ as the generic term. A PV vapourises ‘e-liquid’ or vaping substance to produce a non-pressurised vapour or mist for inhalation for pleasure or stress-relief, replicating or replacing the experience of smoking a cigarette. An ‘E-liquid’ or vaping substance is a liquid (or gel or other state) from which vapour or mist for inhalation can be generated and whose primary purpose is to deliver nicotine.
PVs are therefore mass-market consumer products that are equivalent to cigarettes, and are typically used by smokers as part of a cigarette reduction or cessation program. The main ingredients of e-liquids are usually a mix of propylene glycol and glycerine and a variable concentration of tobacco-derived nicotine. E-liquids can include various flavourings and also come with varying strengths of nicotine; users on a nicotine reduction or cessation program can hence choose decreasing concentrations of nicotine, including at the limit zero concentration nicotine e-liquid. The term ‘e-liquid’ will be used in this specification as the generic term for any kind of vaping substance. E-cigarette PVs were first conceived in 1963 and for the last 50 years of development have generally been seen as a separate and distinct category compared with conventional medicinal delivery systems. To emphasise the difference over medicinal devices, we will also in this specification use the term ‘e-cigarette PV’, as opposed to the term ‘PV’.
Despite this sector being over 50 years old, there are still many practical problems that have not yet been solved and that are a barrier to e-cigarette PVs achieving mass-market success; they are still a long way from replacing conventional cigarettes. If they were to largely replace cigarettes, then some experts state that large-scale adoption could bring significant public health benefits. Writing in the British Journal of General Practice, DOI: 10.3399/bjgp14X681253, published 1 Sep. 2014, Prof Robert West and Dr Jamie Brown from University College London stated that “For every million smokers who switched to an e-cigarette we could expect a reduction of more than 6000 premature deaths in the UK each year, even in the event that e-cigarette use carries a significant risk of fatal diseases, and users were to continue to use them indefinitely.”
2. Technical Background
PVs are typically battery-powered devices which simulate tobacco smoking by producing inhalable vapour (typically propylene glycol and nicotine). They generally use a heating element known as an atomizer, that vaporizes a liquid solution known as e-liquid or ‘juice’. E-liquids usually contain a mixture of propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, nicotine, and flavorings, while others release a flavored vapor without nicotine. Vaporization is an alternative to burning (smoking) that avoids the inhalation of many irritating toxic and carcinogenic by-products. Apart from simulating tobacco smoking, the electronic vapouriser can also be used as a smoking-cessation aid or for nicotine (or other substance) dosage control.
Most electronic cigarettes take an overall cylindrical shape although a wide array of shapes can be found: box, pipe styles etc. First generation electronic cigarettes were usually designed to simulate cigarettes in their use and appearance. They are often called ‘cig-a-likes’. Cig-a-likes are usually disposable, low cost items and the user-experience is often quite poor. New generation electronic cigarettes, often called mods, modding-kits or APV's (advanced personal vaporizer) have an increased nicotine-dispersal performance, housing higher capacity batteries and come in various form factors, including metal tubes and boxes. Many electronic cigarettes are composed of standardized replaceable parts that are interchangeable from one brand to the other, while disposable devices combine all components into a single part that is discarded when its liquid is depleted. Common components include a liquid delivery and container system like a cartridge or a tank, an atomizer, and a power source.
Atomizer
An atomizer generally consist of a small heating element responsible for vaporizing e-liquid, as well as a wicking material that draws liquid in. Along with a battery, the atomizer is the central component of every personal vaporizer. Differences between atomizers cause differences in the ingredients and their concentrations delivered to users, even when the same liquid is used.
A small length of resistance wire is coiled around the wicking material and then connected to the positive and negative poles of the device. When activated the resistance wire (or coil) quickly heats up, thus turning the liquid into a vapor, which is then inhaled by the user.
Wicking materials vary greatly from one atomizer to another but silica fibers are the most commonly used in manufactured atomizers. A wide array of atomizers and e-liquid container combinations are available.
Cartomizers
A cartomizer (a portmanteau of cartridge and atomizer) or ‘carto’ consists of an atomizer surrounded by a liquid-soaked poly-foam that acts as an e-liquid holder. It is usually disposed of once the e-liquid acquires a burnt taste, which is usually due to an activation when the coil is dry or when the cartomizer gets consistently flooded (gurgling) because of sedimentation of the wick. Most cartomizers are refillable even if not advertised as such.
Cartomizers can be used on their own or in conjunction with a tank that allows more e-liquid capacity. In this case the portmanteau word of “carto-tank” has been coined. When used in a tank, the cartomizer is inserted in a plastic, glass or metal tube and holes or slots have to be punched on the sides of the cartomizer to allow liquid to reach the coil.
Clearomizers
Clearomizers or “clearos”, not unlike cartotanks, use a clear tank in which an atomizer is inserted. Unlike cartotanks, however, no poly-foam material can be found in them. There are a lot of different wicking systems employed inside of clearomizers to ensure good moistening of the wick without flooding the coil. Some rely on gravity to bring the e-liquid to the wick and coil assembly (bottom coil clearomizers for example) whereas others rely on capillary action and to some degree the user agitating the e-liquid while handling the clearomizer (top coil clearomizers)
Power
Most portable devices contain a rechargeable battery, which tends to be the largest component of an electronic cigarette. The battery may contain an electronic airflow sensor whereby activation is triggered simply by drawing breath through the device, while other models employ a power button that must be held during operation. An LED to indicate activation may also be employed. Some manufacturers also offer a cigarette pack-shaped portable charging and re-filling case (PCC), which contains a larger battery capable of charging e-cigarettes. Devices aimed at more experienced users may sport additional features, such as variable power output and support of a wide range of internal batteries and atomizer configurations and tend to stray away from the cigarette form factor. Some cheaper recent devices use an electret microphone with a custom IC to detect airflow and indicate battery status on the included blue LED.
Variable Power and Voltage Devices
Variable voltage or power personal vaporizers are devices that contain a built in electronic chip that allows the user to adjust the power that goes through the heating element. They usually incorporate a LED screen to display various information. Variable PV's eliminate the need of having to replace an atomizer with another one of lower or higher electrical resistance to change the intensity of the vapour (the lower the resistance, the higher the vapour intensity). They also feature voltage regulation and some battery protection.
Some of these devices offer additional features through their menu system such as: atomizer resistance checker, remaining battery voltage, puff counter, activation cut-off etc.
E-liquid
E-liquid, e-juice or simply “juice”, refers to a liquid solution that produces a mist or vapour when heated by an atomizer. The main ingredients of e-liquids are usually a mix of propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG), and/or polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG400), sometimes with differing levels of alcohol mixed with concentrated or extracted flavorings; and a variable concentration of tobacco-derived nicotine. There is variability in the purity, kinds and concentrations of chemicals used in liquids, and significant variability between labeled content and concentration and actual content and concentration
E-liquid is often sold in bottles or pre-filled disposable cartridges, or as a kit for consumers to make their own. Components are also available individually and consumers may choose to modify or boost their flavor, nicotine strength, or concentration with various offerings. Pre-made e-liquids are manufactured with various tobacco, fruit, and other flavors, as well as variable nicotine concentrations (including nicotine-free versions). The standard notation “mg/ml” is often used in labeling for denoting nicotine concentration, and is sometimes shortened to a simple “mg”
Source acknowledgement for this Technical Background section: Wikipedia entry on e-cigarettes.
3. Discussion of Related Art. The patent literature in this field is quite extensive, with the earliest e-cigarette PV dating from 1963.
Some of the more relevant patent disclosures in this space include the following. We highlight some of the main reasons why each item of prior art lacks relevance.
US 2014/020697 Liu. Just a PV charging device No e-liquid re-filling capability No user-replaceable e-liquid cartridge No data processor with communications capability
CN 202679020 Chen: Just a PV charging device No e-liquid re-filling capability No user-replaceable e-liquid cartridge No data processor with communications capability
US 2013/342157 Liu Just a PV charging device No e-liquid re-filling capability No user-replaceable e-liquid cartridge No data processor with communications capability
CN 201630238 Jian Just a PV charging device No e-liquid re-filling capability No user-replaceable e-liquid cartridge No data processor with communications capability
WO 2011/095781 Kind Not e-liquid, e-cigarette related No e-liquid re-filling capability—fills a pressurised gas instead No user-replaceable e-liquid cartridge (the gas canister is not described as being user-replaceable and doing so would in fact require the user to take the entire unit to pieces, so it teaches away from user-replaceability) No electrical charging capability (device has no battery) No data processor with communications capability
US 2012/167906 Gysland Not a PV charging device Just an e-liquid filling device, using a standard e-liquid squeezable bottle; the user unscrews the PV, separating it into an atomiser portion and an e-liquid chamber portion, and then screws the e-liquid chamber portion into one end of this device and screws the squeezable bottle into the other end of this device and then squeezes the bottle to transfer the e-liquid over. No charging capability No data processor with communications capability
WO 2011/026846 Wedegree Not e-liquid PV related—instead, it's a propane powered heat-based device No e-liquid re-filling, just re-fills a device with liquid propane Mouthpiece is removed before the device is inserted for gas re-filling No charging capability No user-replaceable cartridge No data processor with communications capability
WO 2009/001078 Kind Not e-liquid, e-cigarette related No e-liquid re-filling—fills pressurised gas instead No user-replaceable cartridge (gas canister in the refill unit is itself re-filled) No charging capability No data processor with communications capability
For completeness, we mention also another item of non-analogous art, which is firmly in the medical inhalation field and lacks any specific reference to e-cigarettes or nicotine delivery. The field of this invention is rather different from medical inhalation devices, such as asthma inhalers or other metered dose inhalers, since cigarette smoking is vey clearly not a medicinal activity. Specifically, the mind-set of the e-cigarette designer is to replicate as closely as possible the non-medicinal cigarette smoking experience, but without combusting tobacco. Metered dose inhalers on the other hand are typically designed for accurate, rapid, and very occasional (e.g. emergency-only) oral delivery of one or two doses of pressurised medicinal aerosol; the user experience of a PV is quite different, with relatively slow, but frequently repeated inhalations of a mist or vapour from a non-pressurised source; the experience is designed to be similar to, and hence an effective replacement for, the experience of smoking a conventional tobacco cigarette. One example of a metered dose inhaler is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,637,430 Ponwell. This lacks relevance for the following reasons: No explicit relevance to e-cigarettes—primarily, this is a piezo-electric metered dose inhaler system for respiratory medicines—a very different field from e-cigarette PVs Not suitable for re-filling PVs since it uses a needle in the case to puncture a rubber septum in the metered dose inhaler (a conventional approach used in the medicinal context where maintaining sterility of the medicament is key). But this rubber septum would degrade and tear with more than a few re-insertions; this is not an issue for a metered dose inhaler which is used relatively infrequently and sterility of the medicament is more important than durability of the medicament transfer mechanism. No user-replaceable liquid cartridge (in fact, teaches re-filling the medicament container, so it is not a user-replaceable cartridge) Is not a combined carrying and storage case for the metered dose inhaler
Emphasising the distance between the field of metered dose inhalers and e-cigarette PV design, one of the many problems facing the designer of an e-cigarette PV is how to minimse any toxins in the vapour produced by the PV.
For example, in the paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, ‘Hidden Formaldehyde in E-Cigarette Aerosols’ N Engl J Med 2015; 372:392-394, the authors describe how they tested for the presence of formaldehyde-releasing agents (whose safety when inhaled is not fully understood) in the vapour of an e-cigarette PV with a variable voltage power source: ‘At low voltage (3.3 V), we did not detect the formation of any formaldehyde-releasing agents (estimated limit of detection, approximately 0.1 μg per 10 puffs). At high voltage (5.0 V), a mean (±SE) of 380±90 μg per sample (10 puffs) of formaldehyde was detected as formaldehyde-releasing agents.’ They go on to state ‘How formaldehyde-releasing agents behave in the respiratory tract is unknown, but formaldehyde is an International Agency for Research on Cancer group 1 carcinogen.’ One solution would appear to be to ensure that e-cigarette PVs run at low voltage (e.g. 3.3V) and not higher voltages, like 5V. But the problem that then arises is that the PV current has to be higher for a good ‘vaping’ experience, and that in turn means that (a) the PV battery runs down more quickly, and (b) the e-liquid is consumed more rapidly.
This is inconvenient with conventional designs of PV because recharging or replacing a battery takes time and because re-filling with e-liquid takes time; users would for example then need to carry around spare batteries or charging cables and e-liquid bottles. This is very different from the relatively straightforward and simple experience (and, to smokers, deeply attractive ritual) of opening a pack of conventional cigarettes and just lighting up. Because we see replicating the behavioural aspects of the cigarette smoking user experience as key to a successful product, these are major drawbacks for conventional PV designs.
One solution is to use a large ‘modding-kit’ type PV with a very large capacity battery that can run at the low 3.3V voltage associated with no formaldehyde release and a large e-liquid reservoir. These devices can be the size of several packets of cigarettes, and so the user sacrifices easy portability. But the performance or user experience can be good, since these devices can produce good quantities of vapour, without the need for frequent and inconvenient battery re-charging or replacement and e-liquid re-filling. When e-liquid does need to be replenished however, that is typically done by dis-assembling the unit to expose the reservoir and to then squeeze e-liquid into the reservoir from a small bottle; this can be slow and cumbersome; users often then carry around a replacement bottle or e-liquid, especially if they are using e-cigarettes to quit tobacco smoking, since if they were to run out of e-liquid, then the temptation to buy a packet of cigarettes to smoke could prove hard to resist. And this complex e-liquid re-filling process clearly has none of the simplicity or attractive ritual of opening a packet of cigarettes and lighting up.
An ideal solution would be an e-cigarette PV with the form factor of a conventional cigarette, and with the best aspects of the performance and user experience of a large modding kit type PV. This specification describes such a solution. The solution is designed to replicate many of the key behavioural and experiential aspects that make smoking attractive to smokers (e.g. the tactile satisfaction of holding a cigarette packet and opening the lid and withdrawing a cigarette; the action of holding a slim cigarette;
the simplicity of the user's only action being to light up). Replicating these user experience aspects is we believe key to the successful mass-market adoption of e-cigarettes and hence delivering on their considerable public health potential. | {
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A Bingo Board that can be folded in half is needed to allow player to place three bingo sheets across under spring clips, with holes for ink dauber bottles, and also serve as holes for feet to close over. | {
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One form of technology currently available for fire protection glazing employs two or more panes of glazing materials separated by means of a spacer around the perimeter of the panes. The cavity between the glazing panels is entirely filled with a transparent gel, that stays transparent at ambient temperature. A primer for better adherence of the gel layer to the inside of the glazing panes is applied to the inside of the glazing panels before the cavity is filled. Ultimately the gel tends to harden after a certain time and in the process may discolor or develop discontinuities or otherwise mar the appearance of glazing panels.
A major disadvantage of this prior art fire protection glazing is a relatively great weight commonly on the order of approximately 12 pounds per square foot. The weight is due to the thickness of the gel layer and to the weight of the glazing panels. The weight of the fire protection glazing complicates the many difficulties in handling and transportation of the panels or installation of panels at the construction site. Therefore the possibility of breakage and damage is very high during manual transportation on the construction site and during loading onto and unloading from trucks.
Greater weight also requires stronger and heavier structure to hold the glazing in place after installation, and often involves some form of proprietary framing system.
An additional disadvantage is the relatively low light transmission through the glazing material. Up to 20% loss of light transmission has been observed. The pressure created in filling the cavity between the glass panels also creates a deformation of the gel. The resulting optical refraction and reflection creates distortion of the view through the glazing panel.
Furthermore, the filling of the cavity between the glass panels requires an enormous amount of attention and precision. If the cavity is not filled properly, or the adhesion between the applied primer and the gel is not exact, air bubbles in the gel will appear. Such air bubbles distort visibility through the glazing panel.
This prior art type of fire protection glazing also has a high degree of sensitivity to high and low temperatures. Because of this sensitivity, an installation of the glazing in environments which will be subjected to temperatures below approximately -18.degree. Celsius (5.degree. F.) and above +60.degree. Celsius (140.degree. F.) is not recommended. The fire protection gel will crystallize at temperatures lower than -18.degree. C. and therefore lose its transparency. At temperatures above +60.degree. C. the possibility exists of a premature reaction turning of the gel layer opaque. Such premature reaction of the fire protection gel can even be observed in panels directly exposed to sun light. Where an exterior application requires an installation of this type of glazing material, an additional pane of insulation glass has to be installed in front of the fire protection glazing. The additional glass not only increases the cost and the weight of the total structure but also lowers the light transmission through the glazing material.
Another currently available technology is the installation of a thin, transparent fire protection film between two or more glazing panels in a sandwich or laminated structure. The fire protection rating is determined by the number of glass panels aligned in series. In some instances a dead air space or vacuum between the glass panels is required to achieve a high fire resistancy. Such a laminated construction does not provide a vacuum or a dead air space within the individual panels so that multiple panels must be used in series.
This technology also produces a weight of approximately 12 pounds per square foot and the same disadvantage concerned with weight as the previously discussed prior art structure.
An additional disadvantage is that the additional layer may reduce the light transmission as much as 35%.
The danger of breakage due to the multiple glazing panels is apparent. The handling and transportation therefore requires maximum attention to reduce the amount of loss both in the manufacturing process and on the construction site before and during installation. This hazard is further increased because the product is often installed by unqualified workmen who do not fully understand the need to take special precautions against damage or breakage.
Again this sandwich construction often has sensitivity to temperatures below -18.degree. C. and above +60.degree. C. | {
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Enhancement of a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology and Coordinated Multipoint Transmission (CoMP) are important ways to accommodate requirements on increasing peak spectrum efficiency and average spectrum efficiency of a Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) system. In the current Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Release 10 (R10) edition, the enhanced MIMO technology is a spatial multiplexing technology supporting eight layers at most, which may adopt a codebook-based precoding solution or a non-codebook-based precoding solution. With principles of a distributed antenna, CoMP reduces interference by using collaboration of multiple base stations, thereby enhancing data spectrum efficiency. As a key technology of LTE-A, CoMP may effectively increase the average throughput of a system and performance of cell edge users. The Multiple User-Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) technology is adopted in a CoMP system so that multiple User Equipments (UEs) are served simultaneously in a multi-cell collaboration manner, which improves the system average throughput and improves an edge throughput by using inter-cell interference suppression. Therefore, application of the MU-MIMO under the CoMP system is a hot technology at present. Critical issues studied in the MU-MIMO technology under the CoMP system include how to support a demodulation pilot sequence collaboratively transmitted in multiple cells and interference suppression between multiple users.
In an existing MU-MIMO transmission mode based on non-codebook precoding, the base station precodes the service data and the pilot sequence Demodulation Reference Signals (DM-RS) and transmits them. The DM-RS is used in channel estimation of the receiver. At the receiver, channel estimation is performed for the DM-RS to obtain a channel estimation value required for data demodulation, and corresponding data demodulation is performed according to the channel estimation value to obtain the service data.
In the prior art, a user must obtain channel estimation of the equivalent channel by estimating the DM-RS, which requires that the DM-RS s of different layers/users must be orthogonal. In the CoMP system, an existing DM-RS does not support orthogonality between cells. Therefore, the existing DM-RS fails to support the MU-MIMO mode of the CoMP system well. When the existing DM-RS is adopted under the MU-MIMO mode of the CoMP system, channel estimation accuracy of the receiver is relatively poor and interference between multiple users can hardly be eliminated, which results in a low signal to interference plus noise ratio of the received signals. | {
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The present invention relates to an ozone supplying apparatus. More particularly, it relates to an ozone supplying apparatus for producing and storing ozone by using electricity which is capable of supplying stored ozone continuously or intermittently at specified ratios to an ozone consuming object.
There has been conventionally known an intermittent type ozone supplying apparatus for temporarily storing ozone which comprises the following components as shown in FIG. 15: an ozone generator 50, an oxygen supply source 51, a circulating blower 52, an adsorption/desorption tower 53 for temporarily storing generated ozone, a cooling source 54 for cooling the adsorption/desorption tower 53, a heating source 55 for heating the adsorption/desorption tower 53, a water flow ejector 56 for taking ozone out from the adsorption/desorption tower 53 through decompression and suction, and a group of switch valves 57a to 57g. The adsorption/desorption tower 53 is of double cylinder type as shown in FIG. 16, wherein an inner cylinder 58 is filled with an ozone adsorbent 59 and is further provided with a spiral heat transferring pipe 60 for heating (refer to Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 64484/1985). A cooling piping 61 through which a cooling medium is made to flow is wound around an outer surface of the inner cylinder 58 in a spiral manner. On the other hand, an outer cylinder 63 is filled with a heating medium 62. Silica gel is generally used as the adsorbent 59, and ethylene glycol or alcohol group as the heating medium 62. Note that numeral 53a is an inlet of the heating medium 62 and 53b an outlet of the heating medium 62. The circulating blower 52, ozone generator 50 and adsorption/desorption tower 53 constitute, in this order, a single circulating system.
Operations will now be explained. There are two operations, namely an adsorbing operation and a desorbing operation of ozone.
The adsorbing operation will first be explained. Oxygen is supplied by the oxygen supply source 51 through an inlet 53c so that the pressure in the circulating system is always a constant pressure. At this time, the pressure is normally maintained at 1.5 kg/cm.sup.2. When oxygen is made to flow in the circulating system by the circulating blower 52 while the switch valves 57c and 57d are in an opened condition, a part of the oxygen is converted into ozone through silent discharge to generate ozonized oxygen while passing through the discharge space of the ozone generator 50, and the ozonized oxygen is then transferred to the adsorption/desorption tower 53. The adsorbent in the adsorption/desorption tower 53 selectively adsorbs ozone, and the remaining oxygen is returned to the circulating blower 52 through the switch valve 57c. Oxygen which has been consumed as ozone is supplemented through the oxygen supply source 51. At this time, the temperature of the ozone adsorbent is cooled by the cooling source 54 to not more than -30.degree. C. This is because the ozone adsorbing amount of the ozone adsorbent largely varies depending on the temperature. That is, by lowering the temperature, the ozone adsorbing amount increases and by raising the temperature, the ozone adsorbing amount decreases. Therefore, when adsorbing ozone, the adsorbent is cooled, and when desorbing ozone, the temperature of the adsorbent is raised.
When the adsorbent in the adsorption/desorption tower 53 has adsorbed ozone to approach the ozone saturation adsorption amount, the desorbing operation of ozone is performed. In the desorbing operation, operations of the ozone generator 50, the circulating blower 52 and cooling source 54 are terminated and the switch valves 57a to 57d are closed. Thereafter, the heating source 55 and water flow ejector 56 start their operations and switch valves 57e to 57g are opened. In order to enable easy desorption of ozone adsorbed at the adsorbent, heat of the heating medium 62 which has been injected from the heating source 55 through inlet 53a is applied from both the inner and outer surfaces of the inner cylinder 58 to raise temperature of the adsorbent 59. Then, by decompressing for sucking ozone in the adsorption/desorption tower 53 at one stroke to the outlet 53d through the water flow ejector 56, ozone is made to disperse and dissolve into water in the water flow ejector 56 which is then sent as ozone water to places where ozone is used. By decompression for suction, the achieved pressure in the adsorption/desorption tower 53 is made to be approximately 0.1 kg/cm.sup.2 (absolute pressure). When the desorbing period is completed in this way, the process returns to the initial adsorbing operation and is continuously repeated.
A conventional intermittent type ozone supplying apparatus is disadvantaged in that, by increasing the amount of filled silica gel for storing a large quantity of ozone, time required for cooling silica gel is increased so that ozone can not be efficiently stored, and it is also disadvantaged in that, by increasing the number of arranged ozone adsorption/desorption towers, the installation area is increased or the operation of the apparatus becomes complicated. Further, since the heating source and cooling source are separately arranged, the apparatus is made complicated and maintenance of silica gel in the adsorption/desorption towers is made difficult.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an ozone supplying apparatus which is capable of shortening time required for cooling the ozone adsorbent, capable of efficiently storing ozone, and which can be arranged to be compact. | {
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The technique of colorimetric chemical analysis of liquids is well established. The classic method involves transmitting a light beam transversely through a transparent cell (for example, a glass cylinder) containing a liquid sample to be tested. To the liquid sample (such as water containing a foreign substance whose concentration is to be measured) are added appropriate types and amounts of reagents which will react with the foreign substance in the sample and form a color. The degree of transmittance of the light beam through the cell containing the liquid sample will be directly affected by the degree of color formation in the liquid sample (resulting from the concentration of the foreign substance in the liquid sample). The degree of light transmittance through the liquid sample, as measured by a photodetector, is compared with other samples containing known concentrations of the same foreign substance in order to determine the quantitative amount of the foreign substance in the tested sample. When using this classic technique a control sample of liquid (which does not contain any of the color forming reagents) in a separate cell is used in the colorimeter as a baseline for light transmittance.
One of the main disadvantages of the classic technique is that separate sample cells are used for the sample to be tested, the control sample (i.e., without reagents), and the samples of known concentrations of the foreign substance. Because of the variance in the amount of light absorbance by the walls of the different sample cells, there are inherent inaccuracies in the results obtained from the testing.
As is known in the art, the concentration of the foreign substance in the liquid sample is related to the photocell current developed by the photocell, the concentration being proportional to log (I ref./I sig.), where I ref. is the photocell current when no color-forming reagent is in the sample and I sig. is the photocell current after the color in the sample has been developed.
The simplest type of analyzer would have one sample cell, one light beam, and one photodetector. The instrument would require periodic standardization by introducing a pure liquid sample (i.e., a liquid sample not containing the foreign substance being tested for) which contains no color-producing means, and then making appropriate adjustments so as to make current A (the photocell output) equal to current B (a fixed current) such that the log amp output is zero. Span adjustment is achieved by introducing a standard solution of known concentration of foreign substance and adjusting the log amp gain until the instrument reads the proper value. The instrument would now read the proper value. Such an instrument has no provision for automatically compensating for drifts due to sample aging, temperature, or dirty optical windows; hence, it is suitable only for less exacting analysis.
Some of the disadvantages associated with use of the classic technique have been alleviated by means of a technique involving a single simple cell and a beam splitter which directs a portion of the light beam through a filter to a reference detector and the main part of the light beam through a second filter to a sample detector. The wavelengths of light passed by the two filters are predetermined based upon the particular sample parameter being tested. However, this technique also has associated disadvantages. For example, it requires that two photodetectors be used. The two photodetectors may drift or vary with temperature at different rates, particularly since they are measuring different wavelengths of light. Also, if there is turbidity in the sample it could absorb light differently at the different wavelengths. Another disadvantage is that it may not be possible to find a reference wavelength which is not absorbed to some extent by the color in the sample cell.
Another known technique involves an analyzer in which a single light source is used in conjunction with two sample cells, two color filters of the same type, and two photodetectors. The liquid sample is first introduced into sample cell B without any color-forming reagents present. The light transmitted through the sample reaches photodetector B (where current B is generated). The liquid sample is then transferred to sample cell A (with color forming reagents added enroute). The light transmitted through the prepared sample reaches photodetector A (where current A is generated). Such an analyzer is not affected by lamp aging or temperature-related drifts in the sample but it does have the disadvantage of having two sets of optical surfaces which may become dirty at different rates. Also, the two photodetectors may have different temperature drift characteristics.
Yet another technique involves a dual beam photometer. A light beam from a single light source is divided into two separate beams, one of the beams being directed through a sample cell containing the reference standard and the other beam being directed through a separate sample cell containing the sample to be tested. The same photodetector is used to measure light transmittance through both the reference cell and the sample cell. There are inherent limitations associated with this technique, however. For example, the sample cell and the reference cell may be of slightly different sizes. Also, the surface conditions of the reference cell and sample cell may be different. These types of differences, of course, may have a significant effect on the accuracy of the technique. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of process technology for the manufacture of semiconductor solid-state devices or of parts thereof. More specifically, the present invention relates to the manufacture of a semiconductor structure and components using processes to integrate semiconducting components of different crystalline orientation within the same substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor structures having components with different crystal orientations are of particular interest for the fabrication of high mobility metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) both in vertical or lateral architecture. The mobility of electrons and holes in silicon MOSFETs depends on the surface orientation of the crystals and are the highest for electrons in <100> and holes in <110> or <111> orientations. It is thus of technological interest to combine both silicon orientations on a single wafer.
This is currently achieved only by wafer bonding of silicon with different crystal orientation. (See U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,023,057, 7,023,055, and 7,041,538). An alternative process relies on a method to selectively grow epitaxial silicon in a trench formed within a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structure. (See U.S. Pat. No. 6,555,891). The SOI structure includes a buried silicon oxide layer (BOX) on a bulk silicon substrate having, for example, a <100> orientation, covered with a silicon layer of another orientation, e.g. <110>.
Future MOSFETs will rely on higher device density and combinations of novel materials, such as III-V and II-VI semiconductors, and germanium (Ge) which have higher charge carrier mobility than silicon. However, because of physical and/or economical reasons, large Ge or III-V substrates are not currently available. Thus, a process to grow areas of high mobility semiconductors on readily available silicon wafers is of significant interest. So far, however, attempts to grow, for example, III-V materials on silicon are hampered by the lattice mismatch of the semiconducting crystals.
Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) growth is known for selective growth of semiconducting nanowires using a catalytic nano-particle, typically made from gold (Au). See “Semiconductor Nanowires: From Self-Organization to Patterned Growth”, Hong Jin Fan et al., small 2006, 2, No. 6, pages 700-717. It was observed that the crystal orientation of epitaxial and non-epitaxial silicon nanowires (SiNWs) depends on the diameter of the SiNW. SiNWs having diameters larger than 30 nm grow exclusively in the <111> direction. See “Diameter-Dependent Growth Direction of Epitaxial Silicon Nanowires”, V. Schmidt et al., nanoletters 2005, Vol. 5, No. 5, pages 931-935, and “Controlled Growth and Structures of Molecular-Scale Silicon Nanowires” Yue WU et al., Nanoletters, 2004, Vol. 4, No. 3, pages 433-436. Further, VLS-growth of epitaxial III-V and Ge nanowires (NWs) on Si has been reported. VLS growth of epitaxial and random oriented silicon nanowires within the pores of anodized aluminum oxide membranes has been demonstrated. See “Template-directed vapor-liquid-solid growth of silicon nanowires”, Kok-Keong Lew et al., Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B 20(1), January/February 2002, pages 389-392. Further, VLS growth of epitaxial and random oriented silicon nanowires within porous organosilicate thin films has also been demonstrated. See “Templated germanium nanowire synthesis using oriented mesoporous organosilicate thin films” H. Jagannathan et al., Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B 24(5), September/October 2006, pages 2220-2224. In these cases the pores act as guides or templates for the VLS growth (templated growth). VLS based methods to grow epitaxial Ge layers on Si has been reported but only on a flat, non structured surface. See “Liquid-metal-mediated homoepitaxial film growth of Ge at low temperature”, F. Xiong et al., Applied Physic Letters 59 (27), 30 Dec. 1991, pages 3586-3588. Finally, doping during VLS-growth of nanowires has also been demonstrated.
It would be of benefit in the field to have a more ideal semiconductor structure for high mobility device fabrication and a manufacturing process for such semiconductor structure. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, the United States has the highest prison population per capita in the world. In 2009, for example, 1 out of every 135 U.S. residents was incarcerated. Generally, inmates convicted of felony offenses serve long sentences in prison (e.g., federal or state prisons), whereas those convicted of misdemeanors receive shorter sentences to be served in jail (e.g., county jail). In either case, while awaiting trial, a suspect or accused may remain incarcerated. During his or her incarceration, an inmate may have opportunities to communicate with the outside world.
By allowing prisoners to have some contact with friends and family while incarcerated, the justice system aims to facilitate their transition back into society upon release. Traditional forms of contact include telephone calls, in-person visitation, conjugal visits, etc. More recently, technological advances have allowed jails and prisons to provide other types of visitation, including individual-to-individual videoconferences and online chat sessions.
Traditional communication services provide residents (inmates) of controlled-environment facilities (such as correctional facilities) the ability to place outbound phone calls to non-residents of the controlled-environment facility. Additionally, non-residents can typically schedule video visitation with residents (inmates) of the controlled-environment facility. Other types of communication available to controlled-environment residents include the ability to exchange email and canned text messages between residents and non-residents of the controlled-environment facility. Basically, all of these forms of communication aim to facilitate communication between a resident of a controlled-environment facility and a non-resident.
Additionally, over the past several years, the above-mentioned sharp increase in the U.S. inmate population has not been followed by a proportional increase in the number of prison or jail staff. To the contrary, budget pressures in local, state, and federal governments have made it difficult for correctional facilities to maintain an adequate number of wardens, officers, and other administration personnel. Hence, many correctional facilities are often unable to perform investigations with respect to their own inmates. | {
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A multiaccess communication system without a central control device (i.e. distributed control) is disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 563,741, filed Mar. 31, 1975 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The system includes a plurality of transceivers connected to the communicating medium utilized in the system, each transceiver including transmitting apparatus for transmitting a signal onto the medium and receiving apparatus for receiving a signal onto the medium and receiving apparatus for receiving a signal communicated on the medium by another transceiver. Each transceiver includes a collision detector for generating a collision signal whenever a signal communicated in the medium from another transceiver is received during the time the transceiver is transmitting a signal onto the medium, the collision signal causing the interruption of the transmission of a signal onto the medium by the using device connected to the transceiver.
The network comprises sections of a coaxial cable such as disclosed in the copending application or could be any suitable medium such as fiber optic cable, radio channel or coaxial cable, etc. Since any medium includes losses, and since segments thereof may extend over large geographic ranges, various losses occur, and for that reason sections of the network are tied across repeaters.
Reference to repeaters in the aforementioned application was made for purposes of completing the embodiment since they are not necessary to practice the invention disclosed therein where short communication links are contemplated and line losses are taken out by selective design of the medium and the transceiver. However, in specific applications wherein large communication links are contenplated and selective design of the medium and transceiver cannot compensate for line losses, repeaters generally are required.
Since the system described in the aforementioned copending application is bidirectional in nature i.e., there being packets of information flowing in both directions on the cable which may arrive at the transceiver of a using device from either direction, a repeater for use in such system must be capable of bidirectional operation i.e., the repeater preferably will determine in which direction to repeat the information packet without external control. Further, the repeater, which has an incoming and repeating port, should be capable of responding to the detection of a collision by a transceiver at the repeating port and pass the occurrence of the collision back onto the incoming segment via the incoming port transceiver transmitter and cause the using device already transmitting the data packet to cease transmission. | {
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Radial lip seals are commonly used in journal boxes for sealing rotating shafts and in hinge joints for sealing oscillating pins and the like. The most common radial lip seals have a U-cup type of construction. In relatively clean environments, a little amount of inward radial load is required on the seal lip to seal in bearing lubricant. As the operating environment becomes dirtier and more severe, higher lip loads are required to ensure good sealability and to keep abrasive contaminants away from the bearings of such journal boxes or hinge joints. Garter springs have been frequently employed about such seal lips to increase the inward radial load on the lip so as to enhance its sealing ability. However, the amount of inward radial force that can be afforded by such garter spring devices is limited due to size constraints in view of the limited amount of space available for the seal and springs. Also in the typical U-cup seal, the seal lip is located at the distal end of one of the legs of the U-cup, providing an elastomeric hinge construction about which the lip moves. Such hinges do not respond rapidly at low temperatures. This low response rate can allow the seal lip to lift off of a pin that is shock loaded, for instance, so as to undergo a rapid radial deflection. Such lift off permits lubricant leakage and the entry of injurious contaminants.
Pin joints on the loader linkages of earthmoving vehicles present one of the most severe environments possible for seals. In such extremely severe applications, a very high inward radial force is desirable to prevent highly abrasive contaminants, such as mixtures of sand, dirt, and water, from not only entering the joint itself, but from becoming lodged under the seal lip, as abrasives under the lip will quickly grind a groove into the pin and/or quickly wear out the seal lip. Either of these results will lead to the entry of such contaminants into the joint and early joint failure. It has been found that the amount of radial force that can be provided by garter springs is insufficient to seal out such abrasives in the severe environments found in earthmoving applications.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the shortcomings of the prior attempts in radial lip seals at providing a sufficient amount of inward radial force on the seal lip to seal out abrasive contaminants in extremely severe applications, as well as providing better low temperature seal lip response. | {
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Such methods and the corresponding converters are known, for example, from the D. Boettle et al article "Alcatel ATM Switch Fabric and Its Properties", Electrical Communications, Volume 64, No. 2/3, 1990, pp. 156-165, particularly FIG. 7 with its respective description. The depiction is of a combined space and time coupling element from the switching technology. It has 32 serial inputs and 32 serial outputs. Each input data stream and each output data stream is composed of several individually time-division multiplexed data streams, between which switching can take place in any way. In the example, the data streams are asynchronously combined into an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) data stream. Comparable coupling elements for synchronously multiplexed STM (Synchronous Transfer Mode) data streams are also present. The switching takes place in that all input data streams are combined by a multiplexer into a supermultiplexed data stream, are input into a central memory, are read from the central memory in a different sequence, and form a second supermultiplexed data stream, which is then distributed by a demultiplexer to the individual outputs.
For various reasons, the supermultiplexed data stream is in parallel form in the cited article and also in other examples. One reason is the reduced processing speed with parallel processing. Another reason is that when corresponding pans of the data stream, such as data words in the STM, or cells or at least larger pans of cells in the ATM, are stored in the central memory, they must be stored together, for which parallel processing is available.
The solution of the example has an intermediate step on the input and the output side, where the data streams are present in a parallel form, but not yet or no longer as supermultiplexed data streams. These intermediate steps inevitably contain a large number of lines, which however can only operate at a clearly reduced transmission speed. Basically, the possibility to change the conversion sequence exists, so that a serial supermultiplexed data stream is used as the intermediate step. However, it would then have a very high transmission speed, which is usually not possible with this technology.
The present invention provides help with the method and converters used to perform such data conversions. In particular, it is directed to a method of converting a parallel, time-division-multiplexed data stream into individual serial data streams, wherein the individual parallel data words are written in parallel into and read serially from one of a plurality of buffers, characterized in that each parallel data word is presented simultaneously to the parallel inputs of all buffers, and that for each data word, the inputs of only one buffer are enabled. It is also directed to a converter for converting a parallel, time-division-multiplexed data stream into individual serial data streams, comprising one buffer per serial data stream which can be written into in parallel and read from serially, characterized in that all buffers are connected in parallel at the input end, that the inputs of each buffer can be enabled, and that a decoding device is provided on the parallel side having means for enabling one of the buffers at a time.
Therein demultiplexers and parallel-serial converters are constructed together, so that demultiplexing and parallel-serial converting are performed in a single process. The same applies if the processes are reversed.
A particularly advantageous version results from the use of specially configured write-read memories, so-called application-specific RAM's. Memories with separate inputs and outputs (Dual-port RAM's) are used in this instance. The entire memory is subdivided into individually activatable sectors. Compared to other storage elements such as flip-flops, a RAM memory cell has a very simple structure. Compared to conventionally constructed (two-stage) converters, an entire converter according to the invention needs only about 20% of the otherwise required chip surface. Even so, there is a fairly large savings when the memories are duplicated for asynchronous operation and, in the well known manner, are alternately written into one and read out from another. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to photoluminescent phosphorescent formulations, comprising an effective amount of photoluminescent phosphorescent materials, that exhibit high luminous intensity and persistence. The photoluminescent phosphorescent formulations may further comprise photoluminescent fluorescent materials, wherein said photoluminescent fluorescent materials increase the luminous intensity and persistence. These photoluminescent fluorescent formulations may further comprise photostabilizers to retard the photolytic degradation of said photoluminescent materials.
The present invention is also directed to photoluminescent objects comprising at least one photoluminescent formulation and a preformed article. Further disclosed are methods for creating photoluminescent objects comprising applying at least one photoluminescent formulation onto a preformed article.
2. Description of Related Art
Consumers have a continuing desire to receive added informational features and benefits from the products that they purchase. Such information and features can comprise safety information indicators, environmental information indicators, shelf-life information indicators, authentication and tamper indicators, fashion accessory benefits and/or fun and entertainment benefits. Color-change technology triggered by specific environmental events can form the foundation for creating these informational indicators or benefits. It is important to note that for the utilization of color-change as informational indicators or providing additional benefits to be effective, such color change needs to be visually striking and for outdoor usage environmentally robust.
“Envirochromic Materials” and “Envirochromic Layers” are those, when triggered by a specific environmental change or occurrence, that can change their visible color which can result from either onset or change in electromagnetic radiation emission, and/or change in the absorption reflection, and/or scattering of electromagnetic radiation. These environmental “triggers” include change in temperature, change in electromagnetic radiation, change in chemical environment, an electrical stimulus, etc.
Since color change can occur from a multiplicity of triggers, the word “chromic,” as used herein, signifies a color change occurring from change in reflection, absorption, or scattering of electromagnetic radiation. “Chromic,” as used herein, does not signify a color change occurring from change in emission. Thus, for example: photochromism signifies color change triggered by electromagnetic radiation; thermochromism signifies color change triggered by change in temperature; electrochromism signifies change in color occurring due to gain or loss of electrons; solvatochromism signifies color change resulting from change in solvent polarity; halochromism signifies color change caused by a change in pH; ionochromism signifies color change caused by ions; tribochromism signifies change in color caused by change in mechanical friction; and piezochromism signifies change in color caused by change in mechanical pressure.
As can be appreciated, color change can also result from luminescent emissions. For such a case, and being consistent with the definition above, “luminescent” or “luminous,” as used herein, signifies color change resulting from emissions.
The term “luminescence” is defined as the emission of electromagnetic radiation from any substance. Luminescence occurs from electronically-excited states. As seen in FIG. 1, absorption of ultraviolet radiation by a molecule excites it from a vibrational level in the electronic ground state to one of the many vibrational levels in the electronic excited states. The electronic states of most organic molecules can be divided into singlet states and triplet states.
As used herein, “singlet state” refers to when all electrons in the molecule are spin-paired. As used herein, “triplet state” refers to when one set of electron spins is unpaired. The excited state is usually the first excited state. A molecule in a high vibrational level of the excited state will quickly fall to the lowest vibrational level of this state by losing energy to other molecules through collision. The molecule will also partition the excess energy to other possible modes of vibration and rotation.
“Luminescent materials” are those which emit electromagnetic radiation. Characterizing luminescent materials requires consideration of: (1) the excitation source, (2) the nature of the emission, and (3) whether or not additional stimulation is required to cause emission.
With regard to the excitation source, luminescent materials excited by electromagnetic radiation are referred to herein as “photoluminescent.” Luminescent materials excited by electrical energy are referred to herein as “electroluminescent.” Luminescent materials excited by a chemical reaction are referred to herein as “chemiluminescent.”
With regard to the nature of the emission, this may be either fluorescence or phosphorescence. A “fluorescent” material stores electromagnetic radiation and releases it rapidly, in about 10−12 seconds or less. Contrarily, a “phosphorescent” material stores electromagnetic radiation and releases it gradually, in about 10−8 seconds or more.
Processes that occur between the absorption and emission of electromagnetic radiation are usually illustrated using a Jablonski Diagram, such as the one found in FIG. 2. Ground, first, and second electronic states are depicted in FIG. 2 by S0, S1, and S2, respectively. At each electronic energy level, the fluorophores can exist in a number of vibrational energy levels, denoted by 0, 1, 2, etc. Transitions between states are depicted in FIG. 2 as vertical lines to illustrate the instantaneous nature of electromagnetic radiation absorption.
“Fluorescence” occurs when a molecule returns, by emission of a photon, from the excited singlet state to the electronic ground state. If the photon emission occurs from S1 to S0, it is characterized as fluorescence.
“Phosphorescence” occurs when a molecule goes from the ground state to a metastable state such as T1, a triplet state, and then the metastable state slowly decays back to the ground state S0, via photon emission. Hence, if the emission occurs between T1 to S0, it is characterized as phosphorescence.
With regard to whether or not additional stimulation is required to cause emission, as used herein, the need for “additional stimulation” is based upon the predominant behavior of the material at about room temperature, i.e., at about 10° C. to about 35° C. Thus, in cases where electromagnetic radiation is used to stimulate emission at room temperature, such materials are referred to as “photoluminescent photo-stimulable.” In cases where electrical energy is used to stimulate emission at room temperature, such materials are referred to as “photoluminescent electrically-stimulable.” In cases where thermal energy is used to stimulate emission at room temperature, such materials are referred to as “photoluminescent thermally-stimulable.”
The instant invention applies and uses photoluminescent phosphorescent materials to cause nighttime emissions, which may additionally comprise photoluminescent fluorescent materials to enhance the intensity and persistence of the nighttime emission and/or the color of the daytime and nighttime emissions.
In the past, metal sulfide pigments were used in an attempt to arrive at photoluminescent phosphorescent materials. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,077 to Burnell Jones. A common such metal sulfide pigment is a zinc sulfide structure whereby the zinc is substituted and activation occurs via various elemental activators, coactivators, or compensators. Common activators include copper, aluminum, silver, gold, manganese, gallium, indium, scandium, lead, cerium, terbium, europium, gadolinium, samarium, praseodymium, and other rare-earth elements and halogens. These activators are believed to enter the crystal lattice of the host material and are responsible for imparting the luminescent properties to the material.
Examples of sulfide phosphorescent phosphors include CaS:Bi, which emits violet blue light; CaStS:Bi, which emits blue light; ZnS:Cu, which emits green light; and ZnCdS:Cu, which emits yellow or orange light. However, these sulfide phosphorescent phosphors are chemically-unstable and, as a result, exhibit photolytic instability
An extensively-used sulfide phosphorescent phosphor is zinc sulfide, ZnS:Cu. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,804 to Martin. However, zinc sulfide decomposes due to irradiation by ultraviolet radiation in the presence of moisture. This decomposition reduces and/or blackens the luminance, making the use of zinc sulfide difficult in environments containing ultraviolet radiation and/or moisture. As a result, zinc sulfide is used most-commonly in controlled environments, such as for clock, watch, and instrument dials, and for indoor uses.
Relatively recently, see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,006 to Murayama, metal aluminate photoluminescent pigments, particularly alkaline earth aluminate oxides having the formula MAl2O4, where M is a metal or mixture of metals, have been developed. Examples of such alkaline aluminate oxides include strontium aluminum oxide, SrAl2O4, calcium aluminum oxide, CaAl2O4, barium aluminum oxide, BaAl2O4, and mixtures thereof. These aluminate phosphors, with or without added magnesium, may be further activated with other metals and rare-earth elements.
These aluminate photoluminescent pigments exhibit afterglow characteristics that last much longer in duration than do those of metal sulfide pigments. These aluminate photoluminescent pigments also exhibit strong photolytic stability and are chemically more stable than the metal sulfide pigments. For example, strontium aluminum oxide, SrAl2O4, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,301 to Yonetani, exhibits luminance that is about five- to ten-times that of zinc sulfide phosphorescent phosphor, ZnS:Cu, and exhibits a smaller decay rate. Strontium aluminum oxide also exhibits an emission spectrum having a peak wavelength of 520 nanometers (“nm”), which is near the spectrum of peak human visibility, and exhibits a broad excitation spectrum with high excitation efficiency to ultraviolet electromagnetic radiation in the short wavelength region.
However, alkaline earth phosphors, such as strontium aluminum oxide, exhibit the disadvantage of requiring more excitation time to attain saturation luminance than do metal sulfide pigments, such as zinc sulfide phosphorescent phosphor. In addition, alkaline earth phosphors have the disadvantage of moisture sensitivity. On the other hand, sulfide-based phosphors degrade photolytically.
It can be appreciated that for optimal luminescent performance, specific photoluminescent phosphorescent materials and mixtures of such materials need to be adapted for use in varying conditions, be it excitation conditions or environmental considerations. Water-resistant formulations suitable for protecting the photoluminescent phosphorescent particles and formulations that minimize photolytic degradation, particularly where metal sulfides are utilized, are sought-after. Beyond the selection of the photoluminescent phosphorescent materials and/or any additional photoluminescent fluorescent materials used to enhance their performance, it should be noted that the luminous intensity and/or persistence from a photoluminescent formulation is greatly affected by both the way in which the photoluminescent phosphorescent material is distributed and the additives used, as well as the manner in which that formulation is applied. As noted above, for these materials to serve as color-change indicators or to provide added information and/or benefits to consumers, the color change needs to be visually striking to be effective.
The improper selection and use of formulation materials, such as resins, dispersants, wetting agents, thickeners, and the like can diminish the luminous intensity emanating from the formulation. This can occur, for example, due to agglomeration or settling of photoluminescent phosphorescent particles, either during handling of the formulated materials or after application of the formulated materials. The reduction in luminous intensity and/or persistence can result from both incomplete excitations and/or due to scattering of emitted radiation. The scattering of photoluminescent emissions can be either due to agglomeration of photoluminescent phosphorescent material or as a consequence of electromagnetic radiation scattering by of one or more of the additives selected to stabilize the photoluminescent phosphorescent pigment dispersion. The net result will be lower luminous intensity and persistence.
By and large, the current practice in commercially-available materials is to cite the luminous intensity and persistence of the underlying photoluminescent phosphorescent powder, rather than that of the resulting photoluminescent object. It can be recognized that for commercial success, the important parameter is not the photoluminescent intensity and persistence of the underlying powder, but that of the resulting photoluminescent object. There is a need, therefore, to not only develop photoluminescent phosphorescent powder materials of high performance but also develop photoluminescent formulations that result in photoluminescent emissions of high intensity and persistence.
Articles having inadequate reflection to the emitted electromagnetic radiation, either because of surface roughness or because of their color resulting from materials that are absorptive of photoluminescent phosphorescent emissions, can also result in degradation of luminous intensity and persistence even when high-performance formulations are applied to such articles to create photoluminescent objects. Further, outdoor usage of photoluminescent objects also necessitates, beyond good adhesion to substrates, mechanical robustness such as scratch resistance, etc. Specific requirements are dictated by the particular application, for which the use of a protective layer can also be highly beneficial. It can therefore be seen that beyond the need to develop photoluminescent formulations of high performance, there is a need for a multi-layer system construction for applying these formulations to articles to create photoluminescent objects of high intensity and persistence of nighttime emissions.
The use of colorants in the form of pigments that are absorptive of visible electromagnetic radiation to impart daylight color to photoluminescent formulations even when they are not absorptive of phosphorescent emissions can result in degradation of photoluminescent intensity and persistence by virtue of either scattering of photoluminescent phosphorescent emissions or by inadequate charging of photoluminescent phosphorescent materials. The latter phenomenon can result if the particle size of the absorptive colorants is small enough. Hence, while absorptive colorants can be used to alter the daytime appearance of photoluminescent objects, such usage will result in a lowering of luminous intensity and persistence. This is why a majority of daylight-colored formulations are rated for low intensity and persistence. Further, such usage also precludes the achievement of daytime colors and nighttime emissions being in the same family of colors.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,359,048 to Duynhoven discloses formulations of photoluminescent phosphorescent materials utilizing alkyd resins and modified castor oil rheology modifiers. This formulation requires using a secondary pigment particle, which, due to scattering of electromagnetic radiation, results in lower transmissivity of photoluminescent phosphorescent emissions, and thus lower perceived intensity and persistence of emissions from objects deploying this formulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,773,628 to Kinno discloses formulations of photoluminescent phosphorescent materials comprising synthetic cellulosic resin binders and silica-based powders used as suspending fillers. The silica-based suspending fillers, by virtue of either scattering of luminescent phosphorescent emissions, or, if sufficiently small, by virtue of scattering of charging radiation, will result in a lowering of perceived intensity and persistence of luminescent objects deploying this formulation.
Published U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0222247 to Putman discloses the use of absorptive pigments as colorants for imparting daytime color. Again, as discussed above, on account of scattering of photoluminescent phosphorescent emissions, the intensity and persistence of nighttime emissions from photoluminescent objects deploying this formulation will be lowered.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,390 to Cornell discloses a method of making single-layer photoluminescent phosphorescent or fluorescent films utilizing silica gel, which scatters electromagnetic radiation, to disperse the phosphorescent or fluorescent pigments. While this makes the film translucent, again, as stated above, there will be a reduction in photoluminescent intensity and persistence. Moreover, since the resin matrix selected for the pigments is a hot-melt adhesive, it requires heating coating fluid to temperatures in vicinity of 2950° F. or higher. The resulting application methodology is too restrictive for many applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,300 to Gravisse discloses single-layer phosphorescent coatings which comprise “Crystalline charges” in amounts of 50% to 65% by weight of the phosphorescent layer. Use of such high amounts of crystalline fillers is indicative of a basic composition that has low transmissivity to phosphor emissions without the crystalline fillers. Uses of such high amounts of filler material will not only result in significantly lower concentrations of phosphorescent pigments, but also, since these fillers are silica-based, they will also result in a lowering of luminous efficiency.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,813 to Gravisse discloses the making of flexible photoluminescent articles comprising a single-layer phosphorescent coating for applications requiring high water vapor transmissivity. This requirement does not result in a degradation of the phosphor materials, since they are ZnS-based. It is now well-appreciated that the photoluminescent intensity and persistence of ZnS-based materials is significantly lower, as compared to the newer alkaline earth materials which however can be degraded by water. Hence, the need remains for construction of photoluminescent objects that have low water vapor transmission and still exhibit nighttime emissions of high intensity and persistence.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,301 to Yonetani teaches the construction of a phosphorescent article embodying a three-layer construction, that is, a reflective layer, a photoluminescent layer, and a clear protective layer, without use of photoluminescent fluorescent materials. This invention does not require specific performance characteristics of each of the layers. With respect to the photoluminescent layer, all that is suggested is “dispersing a phosphorescent pigment in a varnish prepared by dissolving a resin in a solvent thereby preparing an ink.” Alkaline earth materials, such as strontium aluminates, are not easy to disperse and unless one achieves a construction of such a layer without photoluminescent phosphorescent particle agglomeration, there will be loss of efficiency due to incomplete charging. Also, since photoluminescent phosphorescent materials have high densities, without using specific additives, there will be settling and compaction as the film dries, resulting in a lower amount of nighttime emissions from the surface. It should also be noted that common additives for addressing these issues, e.g., silica, scatter electromagnetic radiation, causing the layer's transmissivity to photoluminescent phosphorescent emissions to be lower.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,673 to Hunt discloses the construction of a non-slip phosphorescent surface by applying to a ground surface epoxy resin containing compositions impregnated with phosphor pigment of the zinc sulfide type. The focus of this invention is on the creation of a hard surface with photoluminescent phosphorescent materials incorporated therein, and not on methodologies to maximize intensity and persistence of nighttime emissions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,895 to Franzin Nia discloses the rudimentary concept of a photoluminescent phosphorescent orthodontic appliance utilizing the older, zinc sulfide-type phosphors. The phosphorescent pigment can be deposited onto the exposed bracket surfaces utilizing methods such as glazing, ion beam implantation, plasma coating, and the like. However, since the appliances are based on the older sulfide-type photoluminescent phosphorescent materials, the resulting intensity and persistence of the emissions will be significantly lower and, further, the materials will be subject to rapid photolytic degradation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,077 to Burnell-Jones discloses the application of photoluminescent phosphorescent coatings to fiber optic articles using a curable layer construction, as well as a variety of fillers. The fillers include suspending fillers, such as silica, for preventing settling of phosphor particles, tailoring viscosity, etc. The heavy loading of filler materials, in the neighborhood of 30%, negatively impacts the amount of photoluminescent material present, thus requiring much thicker photoluminescent layers. In addition, due to scattering of electromagnetic radiation from the quantity and type of filler materials deployed, there will be a reduction in the intensity and persistence of nighttime emissions from the objects deploying this formulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,732 to Romberger discloses the construction of a tennis ball that includes an outer fabric cover that contains a photoluminescent phosphorescent component. The object of this invention is a luminescent tennis ball and not on methodologies to maximize intensity and persistence of nighttime emissions.
Accordingly, in view of the above, there remains a need for photoluminescent phosphorescent material formulations, photoluminescent phosphorescent objects, and methods for creating such objects, wherein the formulations and objects not only exhibit high intensity and persistence, but also which can be created in a variety of daytime and nighttime colors, also with high luminous intensity and persistence, and additionally including creation of photoluminescent objects wherein the daytime and nighttime colors are in the same family. The photoluminescent objects are also created to minimize photolytic degradation, do not degrade with moisture, and are mechanically robust, particularly in outdoor applications. | {
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In the process of conducting operations such as, for example, drilling operations, within an oil or gas wellbore, one or more torque transmission joints may be utilized to transfer torque and/or rotation between separate components of a downhole assembly. For example, a torque transmission joint may be utilized to transfer torque from a driver sub to a driveshaft of a drilling tool. The driver sub may be coupled to, and rotated by, a drill string. The driveshaft extends within the driver sub and may be coupled to another well tool such as, for example, a rotary drill bit. The torque transmission joint is disposed in an annular space between the driver sub and the driveshaft. Torque and/or rotation may be transmitted from the driver sub to the driveshaft by establishing an interference fit between the torque transmission joint and the driveshaft. Torque and/or rotation are transmitted from the driver sub to the driveshaft via frictional forces at the interference fit. Conventional interference fits include press-fits and shrink-fits. The use of a press-fit in the torque transmission joint permits easy assembly and disassembly. However, when a press-fit is used, the torque transmission joint is subject to significant wear at the interference fit, resulting in a loss of torque transfer, damage to communication equipment disposed within the drilling tool, and eventual failure. The use of a shrink-fit in the torque transmission joint provides increased wear resistance and reliability. However, when a shrink-fit is used, assembly and disassembly of the torque transmission joint is more difficult. Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and/or method that addressed one or more or the foregoing issues, among others. | {
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Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatuses for dressing and treating a wound with topical negative pressure (TNP) therapy. In particular, but without limitation, embodiments disclosed herein relate to negative pressure therapy pumps and dressings, and methods and algorithms for controlling the operation of TNP systems.
Description of the Related Art
Many different types of wound dressings are known for aiding in the healing process of a human or animal. These different types of wound dressings include many different types of materials and layers, for example, gauze, pads, foam pads or multi-layer wound dressings. Topical negative pressure (TNP) therapy, sometimes referred to as vacuum assisted closure, negative pressure wound therapy, or reduced pressure wound therapy, is widely recognized as a beneficial mechanism for improving the healing rate of a wound. Such therapy is applicable to a broad range of wounds such as incisional wounds, open wounds and abdominal wounds or the like.
TNP therapy assists in the closure and healing of wounds by reducing tissue oedema; encouraging blood flow; stimulating the formation of granulation tissue; removing excess exudates and may reduce bacterial load and thus, infection to the wound. Furthermore, TNP therapy permits less outside disturbance of the wound and promotes more rapid healing. | {
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In a waterproof plug disclosed in the following Patent Reference 1, a cylindrical resin member is buried so as to surround a coated electric wire and at the time of bending the electric wire, direct contact between the electric wire and an electric wire insertion hole of a shield shell is avoided by bringing the electric wire into contact with the resin member and the electric wire is prevented from being damaged by making sliding contact with the electric wire insertion hole. | {
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The present invention relates to process control systems. More specifically, the invention relates to transmission of process variables from field transmitters to control room circuitry in process control systems.
Generally, process variable field transmitters are used in process control systems to measure process variables such as flow, temperature or pressure and transmit these variables to a control room. This information is used at the control room to monitor and control operation of the process.
Traditionally, transmission of process variables has been through the use of two-wire current loops. A 4 mA signal in a typical 4-20 mA current loop represented a minimum reading and a 20 mA signal represented a maximum reading of the process variable. Power for the current loop and field transmitter was supplied from the control room in order to maintain an intrinsically safe and explosion-proof environment in the field. The field transmitter controlled the current flowing through the loop based upon the measured process variable. This, and other types of current loops, have become industry standards.
With the advent of microprocessors, field transmitters have become increasingly automated. One offshoot of this technology is the use of digital signal transmissions from field transmitters. In one design, a digital signal is superimposed on the 4-20 mA process variable current signal. This digital signal can represent a primary process variable typically also represented by the analog loop circuits or secondary process variables. In another configuration, multiple field transmitters are connected to the same process control loop and each transmitter transmits digital process variables over the loop to the control room. Traditional control room circuitry adapted for the analog communication techniques have not been able to fully utilize the transmitters capable of transmitting digital signals. | {
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1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a process for laminating a wood veneer to a gypsum board or drywall and impressing or debossing decorative patterns or designs into the wood veneer laminated gypsum board or drywall and relates to the product formed by the process.
2. Background of the Prior Invention
Several techniques have been proposed in the prior art for impressing or debossing decorative designs directly into gypsum board. Examples of the prior art techniques are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,871,843 and 1,943,663 to Ericson, 2,803,188 to Duvall, 3,630,817 to Winkowski, 4,007,076 to Clarke et al., 4,073,230 to Akerson, and 4,608,108 to Goll; and Great Britain Patent Publication No. 1,012,254.
More specifically, in one prior art technique, decorative impressions are debossed into the board while the core gypsum material is still in a plastic state during its initial manufacture as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,943,663 to Ericson and 4,608,108 to Goll. Experiences indicate that this technique is difficult to control because the core gypsum material hardens unevenly.
In another prior art technique a board or like material is debossed by wetting the board with a vaporized or vaporizable liquid agent such as steam or water or water soluble wetting solution and then heatpressing the wet board for a predetermined time, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,871,843 to Ericson, 2,803,188 to Duvall, 4,007,076 to Clarke et al, and 4,073,230 to Akerson. In such a process, the steam or the water, which vaporizes into steam when heated during the debossing stage, is designed to enter the pores of the paper coat of the gypsum board and to plasticize its interior. The plasticization of the board permits decorative patterns to be debossed.
In another prior technique, an outer paperlike covering layer of a gypsum board is lightly debossed with a heated press without using steam or water, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,507 to Colledge. A decorative pattern of wood grain is formed on the outer covering layer.
Yet in another prior technique, a water barrier layer of an acrylic film or the like material is formed on the board. Printing designs are debossed into the film covered board prior to the film fully setting as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos 3,630,817 to Winkowski.
Laminating a wood veneer and the like to a board or pre-debossed board, such as plywood and chip board and the like, is known, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,853,062 to Gartland, 4,812,188 to Hansen, 4,844,968 to Persson et al., 4,142,007 to Lampe et al, and 3,846,219 and 3,793,125 to Kunz.
A use of a metallic foil as a separation layer in a laminated board is also disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,793,125 to Kunz, and 4,153,490 to Werz et al. It is also known to bond an aluminum overlay with a wooden product before shaping the wooden product with a press, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,480,501 to Burch.
None of these prior inventions, however, disclose a process for debossing a decorative wood veneer laminated gypsum board with printing designs; nor do they disclose a debossed wood veneer laminated gypsum board. Furthermore, none of these prior inventions disclose the use of a metallic layer between the wood veneer and the gypsum board to enable the wood veneer to be debossed without damaging the wood veneer during the debossing stage. | {
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The Internet and the increasing availability of broadband services has led to the proliferation of online gambling, including online sports betting. In general, to participate in online gambling activities, such as placing bets on sporting events, a user must open an account with an online gambling service, which is typically a deposit or credit account. Once the user's account is open and funded, the user may participate in online gambling activities using the funds or balance available in his or her account. Over time, the user may deposit additional funds into, or withdraw funds from, his or her account.
To establish an account with an online gambling service, a user typically completes an account application, which must be approved by the online gambling service. For a deposit account, the user typically completes an online account application and funds the account through a credit card transaction with the online gambling service or by physically mailing a check, cash, or similar payment to the online gambling service. For a credit account, the user may be required to mail particular items, such as a credit card or bank statement for example, to the online gambling service in order for the gambling service to determine whether to approve the account application. Such mailings introduce delays into the account opening process, which may discourage potential users from opening an account with the gambling service. | {
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Fine particles having diameter between 1 nm and 10 μm may be present in inside air of residential building and rooms, office premises and also in industrial buildings as well as in outdoor air and open-air. These fine particles may be formed for example in different kind of combustion processes, industrial processes and also in natural sources. For various reasons these fine particles are measured. The fine particle measurements may be conducted because of their potential health effects and also for monitoring operation of combustion or industrial processes, such as operation of combustion engines, especially diesel engines. The fine particles are also measured in ventilation systems for monitoring air quality. Another reason for monitoring fine particles is the increasing use and production of nanosized particles in industrial processes. The above reasons generate a need for reliable fine particle measurement apparatuses and methods.
Prior art methods and apparatuses for measuring particles comprise measuring fine particles electrically utilizing electrical charging of the fine particles.
In a prior art apparatus clean, essentially particle free, gas is supplied into the apparatus. The clean gas is further ionized before and during supplying it into the apparatus. The prior art apparatus may comprise a corona charger connected to corona voltage source for ionizing the clean gas. The apparatus further comprises sample inlet via which particle containing aerosol sample is supplied into the apparatus. Inside the apparatus the ionized clean gas flow and the particle containing sample aerosol flow are brought into contact with each other and mixed such that a mixed sample aerosol flow is generated. The ionized clean gas electrically charges the particles of the sample aerosol flow by diffusion charging upon contact and mixing of the ionized clean gas and the particle containing sample aerosol flow.
Free ions, meaning ions not attached to particle, may be removed from the mixed sample aerosol flow using ion trap. The ion trap may be an ion trap electrode connected to an ion trap voltage source providing collection voltage for removing the free ions from the mixed sample aerosol flow. The ion trap voltage is high enough to deposit the free ions, but due to the lower mobility charged particles are not deposited.
The mixed sample aerosol flow comprising the electrically charged particles them flows to a filter unit in which the electrically charged particles are collected by a filter. The particle measurement is carried out by measuring the electrical current in the filter generated by the collected electrically charged particles for example with an electrometer. Downstream of the filter unit is arranged a pump or other suction device for providing the clean gas flow and the sample aerosol flow through apparatus.
In many applications the apparatus for particle measurement has to be located in small spaces. Therefore size of the apparatus should be as small as possible for efficient utilization of space. However, decreasing the dimensions of the apparatus may reduce quality of the measurements as the flow dynamics of the sample aerosol are compromised by the decreased dimension. Therefore, for the prior art apparatuses for particles measurement the balance between the dimensions and the measurement quality are a compromise. Small dimensions deteriorate measurement quality and large dimensions cause inefficient space utilization. | {
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The present invention relates to data caching. More particularly, the present invention relates to apparatus for pre-computing streaming media data and to methods of operation of streaming data media caches.
Typical file caching methods include a cache receiving a file from a file server, and storing the entire file. Later, when a client desires the file, instead of serving the file from the file server, the file is served from the cache. Because the cache is typically a server that is closer to the client or has higher bandwidth than the file server, the file is served to the client quickly from the cache.
It has been discovered by the inventors, that attempting to apply typical file caching methods to files that include streaming media data, raises many new problems. For instance, serving a streaming media data file from a cache requires much more processing by the cache than with classical file transfers over the web. For example, during normal playback, the cache may need to perform a lot of processing such as packet modification, resequencing, and retiming. As another example, the cache may be called upon to perform random access within the streaming media data file as a result of a client xe2x80x9crewindxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cfast forwardxe2x80x9d operation. Because, classical caching is typically file-based, such a random access would involve moving within a very large data file.
Another drawback is that since streaming media data files are very large, a huge penalty is incurred if the streaming media data file is deleted. Typically if a file cache determines that it needs more disk space for new files, it will first delete older files, regardless of the size. As an example, if an older file is a streaming media data file that stores an hour-long program, the entire hour-long program is deleted even if the cache only needs to free up the equivalent of 1 minute of space.
Another drawback is that many different streaming media formats exist, each with its own specific streaming requirements. This is in contrast to classical file transfer over the web, where the files are essentially opaque to the cache and for streaming data to clients, the cache does not need to process the actual contents of the file beyond storage and retrieval.
Thus what is required are improved methods and apparatus for storing and serving streaming media within a cache. Further, what is required are methods and apparatus for providing such solutions in economical ways.
The present invention relates to streaming media caches and methods of operation. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems for pre-computation of streaming media payloads in a cache memory. Storing a streaming media clip in the efficient manner described below allows for flushing from a streaming media cache, portions of a streaming media clip that are not often requested, while maintaining portions of the streaming media clip that are often requested.
In the present disclosure xe2x80x9cStreaming mediaxe2x80x9d data generally refers to media intended to be transported at a select (often, subscribed) bit rate, and with a desired timeliness. The streaming media is adapted for playback in a desired order without regard to the order the streaming media data are received by a client system. Streaming media generally conforms to a real-time delivery protocol, such as, e.g., RTSP, RTP, or the like. The media (media clip) represented in the streaming media data may include static images, video data, audio data, executable files, presentation data, applet data, data files, and the like.
The data that is cached in a streaming media cache may be an entire streaming media clip, portions of a streaming media clip, or the like. In the case where there is a streaming media cache hit, the portion of the streaming media stored in the streaming media cache is served to a client. In the case of a streaming media cache miss, the missing portion of a streaming media clip may be retrieved from a media server, instead of an entire streaming media clip. The missing portion of the streaming media clip that is retrieved from an upstream or origin server is then stored and then served to a client. Storing a streaming media clip in the efficient method described below allows the streaming media cache to maintain portions of a streaming media clip that are often requested, and to flush portions of the streaming media clip that are not often requested.
According to one aspect of the invention, a method for storing streaming media data in a cache memory is disclosed. One technique includes receiving a data file from a streaming media server, determining a plurality of payload data packets from the data file to be streamed to a client system, and determining header data from the data file. Additional methods may include storing a portion of the header data in a session data object in the cache memory, and storing the plurality of payload data packets in a plurality of data objects in the cache memory, wherein each data object of the first plurality of data objects is directly addressable in the cache memory via an associated object handle, and wherein each data object of the first plurality of data objects stores a set of payload data packets.
According to another aspect of the invention, a cache memory including a processor configured to store streaming media data are disclosed. The cache memory may include code that directs the processor to receive a data file from a streaming media server, the data file including encoded media data, code that directs the processor to determine header data from the data file, and code that directs the processor to pre-compute a plurality of payload packets from the encoded media data. In one embodiment, the cache memory may also include a session data file storing a portion of the header data, wherein the header data are selected from the group: encoding scheme, duration, and a plurality of data objects storing the plurality of payload packets, wherein each data object of first plurality of data objects is directly addressable in the cache memory via an associated object handle, and wherein each data object of the plurality of data objects stores a set of payload packets from the plurality of payload packets.
According to another aspect of the invention, a computer program product for a computer system including a processor is described. Included in a tangible memory are executable code that directs the processor to receive a data file from a streaming media server, the data file including encoded media data, executable code that directs the processor to determine header data from the data file, and executable code that directs the processor to pre-compute a plurality of payload packets from the encoded media data. Additionally, executable code that directs the processor to store the header data in a session data object in the cache memory, and executable code that directs the processor to store the plurality of payload packets in a plurality of data objects in the cache memory, wherein each data object of the plurality of data objects is directly addressable by the processor in the cache memory via an associated object handle, and wherein each data object of the plurality of data objects stores a set of payload packets are included. The tangible memory may include a hard disk drive, a CD-ROM, removable media, and the like. | {
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The transmission of signals indicative of data (e.g., signals indicative of video or audio data) to a receiver over a link degrades the data, for example by introducing time delay error (sometimes referred to as jitter) to the data. In effect, the link applies a filter (sometimes referred to as a “cable filter”) to the signals during propagation over the link. The cable filter can cause inter-symbol interference (ISI).
Equalization is the application of an inverted version of a cable filter to signals received after propagation over a link. The function of an equalization filter (sometimes referred to as an “equalizer”) in a receiver is to compensate for, and preferably cancel, the cable filter. Equalization at the receiver side of a link is typically needed in order to achieve reliable data recovery when the data rate is high (greater than or equal to 1 Gb/s).
A typical conventional equalizer used in a receiver employs both an adjustable high pass filter (HPF) and an adjustable low pass filter (LPF). The HPF and LPF can be adjusted to vary pole and zero locations and gain parameters thereof, in order to minimize signal degradation in the equalized signal (i.e., to achieve the best data “eye”), and the equalized signal can then be sampled to recover the transmitted data.
When a receiver including such a conventional equalizer is implemented using CMOS technology, adjustment of the equalizer is impractical when the data rate exceeds 1 Gb/s (1 Gigabit per second) because the transconductance (gm) for the CMOS transistor circuitry is relatively small and any additional switch or passive element in the equalizer would have a large adverse effect on equalizer performance. Thus most conventional equalizers are implemented using Bipolar or Bipolar/CMOS (BiCMOS) technology which is more costly than CMOS technology. See for example, the paper by M. H. Shakiba, entitled “A 2.5 Gb/s Adaptive Cable Equalizer,” 1999 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, Paper WP 23.3, pages 396-397 and 4483.
Several proposals have been made for implementing equalizers using CMOS technology, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,764, issued Jan. 2, 2001, to Babanezhad. U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,764 suggests implementing an equalizer as a high pass filter using “transconductance-capacitor (or gm-C) techniques,” or as a high-pass, continuous time (RMC) filter comprising differentiators that are made up of a variable resistor along with an operational amplifier and its differentiating capacitor. However, the high-pass, continuous time filters described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,764 are limited to applications in which the data rate does not exceed several hundred Megabits per second due to inherent limitations in both the CMOS technology and the circuit concept employed therein. | {
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Many pyrethroid compounds are known and developed for pesticidal use. 5-Benzyl-3-furylmethyl 2,2-dimethyl-3-(2-cyano-3-ethoxy-3-oxo-1-propenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylate is disclosed in Pestic. Sci., 1976, 7, p. 499-502. | {
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Electrical boxes are often mounted vertically in walls prior to completion of the wall structure to provide a housing for electrical devices and wiring that may be used for telephone, video, and networking, among other utility and communication uses. For example, an electrical box may be mounted on a wall stud prior to drywall installation, thus providing an electrical housing within the wall for the termination of electrical cable and the connection of the cable wiring to a mounted electrical outlet.
In outdoor applications, electrical boxes are often mounted vertically to a wall or other structure to supply electricity in an outdoor setting. Some traditional installations may provide a box that houses an electrical outlet mounted to the vertical surface of an exterior wall. A cover may be provided over outdoor electrical outlet receptacles to help protect the outlet from rain, snow and other environmental conditions. The cover allows access to the outlet receptacles in order to plug in a male electrical fitting of an electrical cord or device into a receptacle. In some installations, the electrical box may be mounted within the exterior wall and a cover provided over the outlet receptacles. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state imaging device, and particularly relates to a solid-state imaging device that can provide high quality images even when capturing an image of a subject with high brightness, and allows large tolerances in manufacture and operational conditions.
2. Description of Related Art
In a MOS type solid-state imaging device, for reading out image signals from a pixel array in which imaging pixels are arranged in a matrix form, generally, an analog memory is provided in each column, and signals are read out from the imaging pixels on a row-by-row basis, and then, the signals kept in the column memories are outputted serially to the outside. Further, it often has been the case with a conventional example of a MOS type solid-state imaging device that a column amplifier is inserted between a pixel array and a column memory. The reason for this is that in a serial readout portion, since a high-speed operation is required therein, noise suppression hardly can be achieved, while in a column circuit portion that operates at low speed, signal amplification can be performed to provide an image signal having a high S/N ratio.
In a conventional solid-state imaging device, with respect to a signal potential V1 obtained when a floating diffusion portion (FD) of an imaging pixel is in a reset state and a signal potential V2 obtained in a state where, after the FD is reset, an electric charge generated in a photodiode (PD) is transferred to the FD, a difference between these two signal potentials is detected and amplified. This difference between the two signal potentials represents a light irradiation amount detected by the PD.
FIG. 15 shows a first example of a circuit configuration of a column amplifier in such a conventional solid-state imaging device. In this first example, first, by means of a signal from a column amplifier reset signal line 27, a column amplifier reset transistor 24 is turned on, and in this state, from an imaging pixel, a first potential V1 is inputted as a column amplifier input potential 102. A column amplifier output potential 26 obtained at this time is indicated as Vamprst. Next, in a state where the column amplifier reset transistor 24 is turned off, a signal V2 is inputted from the imaging pixel, and the column amplifier output potential 26 changes to Vamprst+(C1/C2)(V2−V1). This means that an imaging pixel signal corresponding to a light irradiation amount is amplified at a gain of C1/C2. Herein, C1 denotes a column amplifier input capacitance 21, and C2 denotes a column amplifier feedback capacitance 101. In FIG. 15, reference numeral 30 denotes a column amplifier power supply, 23 denotes a column amplifier load transistor. 22 denotes a column amplifier driving transistor, 25 denotes a gate electrode, and 31 denotes a ground (JP 05(1993)-207220 A).
Furthermore, FIG. 16 shows a second example of the circuit configuration of the column amplifier included in the conventional solid-state imaging device. This configuration differs from the configuration shown in FIG. 15 in that a column amplifier bias potential 28 is supplied to a column amplifier load transistor 23 so that a load of a grounded-source amplifier is a constant current source, and in that a clip transistor 104 is connected to an amplifier output portion. An output limit potential 103 is supplied to the clip transistor 104, thereby providing an effect of being able to avoid a phenomenon in which an amplifier output level rises to such an extent that the column amplifier load transistor 23 cannot operate in a saturation region, which hampers a constant current operation. As in the case of the conventional solid-state imaging device, with respect to a pixel signal corresponding to a light irradiation amount that is a difference between two signals V1 and V2 from an imaging pixel, this column amplifier also has the function of amplifying the pixel signal at a gain of C1/C2 that is a ratio between a column amplifier input capacitance 21 and a column amplifier feedback capacitance 101 (JP 2005-252529 A).
Now, the following discusses peculiarities of a power supply layout pattern of a MOS type solid-state imaging device in which an amplifier is provided in each column. FIG. 17 shows a typical layout configuration. A MOS type solid-state imaging device in which an amplifier is provided in each column has the following configuration. That is, a column amplifier 109 is disposed in a one-to-one correspondence with a vertical signal line 108 in each column of a pixel array 1 in which a plurality of imaging pixels 20 are arranged in a matrix form, and in order to transmit image signals to a signal output portion 110, a column amplifier-arranged portion 3 inevitably has a configuration in which a large number of the column amplifiers 109 are arranged laterally. With respect to each of the large number of the column amplifiers 109 thus arranged, amplifier power is supplied from an amplifier power supply pad 105, and a ground potential is supplied through a ground pad 106. This requires that wiring for these column amplifiers 109 be extended from each of the pads for a distance in a lateral direction, such that the degree of the influence of a parasitic resistance 107 may become too large to be negligible.
Furthermore, in the column amplifier in the conventional solid-state imaging device described above as the first example, it is inevitable that an operation current of the column amplifier changes considerably in accordance with an input signal level. Therefore, for example, considering the case of capturing an image of a subject whose brightness is high only in a central portion thereof, in a column amplifier corresponding to the central portion, when a signal V2 from a pixel is inputted, an input potential of the column amplifier becomes high to reduce an operation current, so that an applied voltage to each of the column amplifiers positioned in a peripheral portion of the column amplifier deviates from a desired voltage value. Then, in each of these column amplifiers in the peripheral portion, a difference in applied voltage may occur between when a reset signal V1 is inputted and when an optical signal V2 is inputted, resulting in the occurrence of a deviation in amplifier output to cause a deviation in black level between the right and left sides of the subject with high brightness, which has been disadvantageous.
Furthermore, in the column amplifier in the conventional solid-state imaging device described above as the second example, by the function of a clip circuit, the transistor that functions as the constant current source operates only in a saturation region, thereby allowing a variation in operation current of the amplifier to be reduced. However, other problems may occur such as an operation range of the column amplifier being narrowed due to a variation in threshold value of the clip transistor, and characteristics changing when an output of the column amplifier approaches a clip level, thus making it difficult to secure a sufficient manufacture tolerance. Moreover, it also has been disadvantageous in that photoelectric conversion characteristics also may change as a result of a variation in threshold value due to a variation in ambient temperature. | {
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This invention relates to integrated circuits, and more particularly, to circuitry such as memory circuitry that may incorporate asymmetric transistors and stacked transistors.
There is a trend with each successive generation of integrated circuit technology to scale transistors to smaller sizes, smaller threshold voltages, and smaller power supply voltages. Made properly, these adjustments allow improved performance and lowered costs. Care must be taken, however, to avoid issues such as excessive power consumption.
One aspect of lowering power consumption on an integrated circuit relates to transistor leakage currents. Leakage currents are undesired currents that flow between the terminals of a transistor during normal operation. An ideal transistor would exhibit no leakage. In the real world, however, leakage currents are unavoidable and must be minimized as best possible. If leakage currents are too high, a circuit may exhibit unacceptably large static power consumption. Particularly in circuits with large numbers of transistors, such as modern integrated circuits that include memory cells, leakage current minimization can be highly beneficial. Although leakage currents can be reduced by limiting power supply voltages and using less leaky transistors such as transistors with increased threshold voltages and reduced gate widths, these approaches tend to slow circuit speed and may not be acceptable for many designs.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide transistor structures that help improve the tradeoffs that exist between transistor performance and leakage current reduction. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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A number of applications in biology, medicine, and toxicology involve real-time sensing of complex biophysical, biochemical, and functional characteristics of cells in physiologically-relevant 3D environments. Because these characteristics may alter heterogeneously and transiently during progression from normal to disease state and/or upon exposure to drugs and toxicants, it is desirable for cells (in single or colony states) to be monitored in parallel and continuously. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to physical exercise equipment, in particular to a novel apparatus for strength training.
Many studies indicate that the isokinetic strength training technique which requires movement at constant speed and at peak force throughout the full range of motion is the most effective for building strength and muscle mass. Hydraulic cylinders are commonly used in this type of exercise equipment; since its generated resistance increases with increasing speed, it can provide to the user the resistance up to his maximum capacity and limit his motion to the speed determined by his peak force. An electric generator having an electrical resistive load connected across its two output terminals can also be used as a means for generating resistance in isokinetic exercise equipments. When the rotation speed increases, the output voltage and current raise and cause the resisting force to match the user's maximum capacity. As a result, the motion speed is limited by the user's strength. By changing the electrical resistive load, the user can change the speed limit of his motion.
The isokinetic exercise equipments which utilize hydraulic cylinder and electric generator as means for generating resistance suffer a major draw-back: lack of resistance at the beginning and the end of each motion. The resistance generated by these devices increases with increasing speed of motion; therefore, at the beginning and the end of each exercise repetition where the motion speed is minimal, the resistance is virtually diminished. As a result, the exercise motion does not have the pre-stretch and full range resistance which are necessary for an effective strength training. The present invention provides a solution for the above short-coming. | {
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This application claims priority of German application number 199 16 68.4, filed Apr. 14, 1999, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention relates to an arrangement for transporting cardboard blanks or the like in the flat, in particular for book cover or letter file machines, comprising at least two sequenced transport belts extending parallel to one another which are guided over deflecting wheels, at which transport belts grippers for holding the blanks are applied.
An arrangement of this type is prior art in the Hoerauf brochure BDM 30. The embodiment of the grippers is not described in any detail in this brochure, but the relevant machine in practice is so designed that the blanks were clamped between clamping parts, which engaged with two opposite edges of the blank.
It is an object of the present invention to improve an arrangement of the above mentioned type with regard to the grippers.
This object has been achieved in accordance with the present invention in that the grippers comprise controlled, swivelling clamping elements, which can be opened at the deflecting wheels.
Grippers of this design are capable of holding a blank reliably and with exact positioning. Furthermore, they can grip a blank at a deflecting wheel and let go in time at the other deflecting wheel. This does not involve a complicated process.
Advantageously the grippers are clamped by fixing elements in the teeth gaps of the transport belts, which are toothed belts. By using this type of fixing elements, the grippers can not only be applied easily to the transport belts, they are also adjustable or exchangeable as required.
For the purpose of the invention, the grippers comprise a supporting body on which the respective clamping element is supported with a swivel axle. In this way the grippers are divided into a holding element and a function element.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the clamping elements take the form of essentially L-shaped fingers, whose free limbs can be advanced to the blank in their axial direction. This embodiment requires the smallest possible clamping surface on the blank. With clamping elements of this design, the procedural steps to be carried out by the machine, for example the folding in of an edge by rotating brushes in book cover machines, are not hindered.
Advantageously, the clamping elements are arranged at the front edge in transport direction of the blanks. Thus the blanks are merely drawn along and therefore reliably transported. The other edges of the blank are free so that procedural steps can be carried out there unhindered.
It is provided in preferred embodiments that, at a distance corresponding to the space between two grippers in the transport direction of the transport belts, the deflecting wheels, in the form of toothed belt wheels, each have a milled tooth. Thus, for example, one single tooth gap arises in the circumference of the deflecting wheel, in which gap the affixing structure can engage when the gap passes during rotation. Thus the affixing structure are not hindered by the design type of the deflecting wheel.
In certain preferred embodiments of the present invention, cam discs are provided for controlling the clamping elements, which cam discs are arranged coaxial to the deflecting wheels, on which cam discs spring-loaded rollers are disposed which swivel with the clamping elements. The clamping elements in the area of the deflecting wheels can therefore be easily controlled, namely there where it is necessary that the grippers be opened. Separate drives for the controlling structure can thus be omitted.
To bridge the opening phase of the clamping elements, clamping rollers which guide the blanks can be provided in the area of the deflecting wheels. Thus the respective blank is at no time left unattended and unclamped, not even at the deflecting wheels.
For the purpose of certain preferred embodiments of the present invention it is provided that the rollers, which are disposed on the cam discs, are supported outside of the area of the cam discs on rails extending parallel to the transport belts. This prevents the blanks becoming deformed during transport due to excessively long traveling paths of the clamping elements. | {
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Many molecular biology applications, such as capillary electrophoresis, nucleotide sequencing, reverse transcription cloning and gene therapy protocols, which contemplate the transfection, transduction or microinjection of mammalian cells, require the isolation of high quality nucleic acid and peptide preparations. A need exists for methods which produce such high quality nucleic acid and peptide preparations. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a CDMA communication technique and particularly, to a SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio) measuring apparatus and a SIR measuring method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In spectrum-spreading radio communications using CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) communication system, at a transmission side, after a primary modulation is executed on data, a secondary modulation using spread codes (Pseudo Noise: PN) is executed to spread the signal band of the data and then the data thus spread are transmitted. In this case, the spread codes (pseudo noises) used for spreading are allocated while they are different among users or information channels, so that multiplexing is performed and the frequency band can be used on plural channels at the same time. At a reception side, a reception signal (data) in a broad band are subjected to de-spreading using spread codes (pseudo noises) so as to be returned to the original signal in a narrow band, and then demodulation processing is executed on the original signal thus returned.
In the de-spreading process described above, the correlation with the reception signal is executed by using the same spread codes as the spread codes (pseudo noises) used at the transmission side, and correlation detection at a desired channel is carried out by using a de-spreading filter, so that a signal desired by a user can be detected from the multiplexed reception signal.
Since cross-correlation generally exists among spreading codes, the cross-correlation is also outputted while it is contained in a de-spread output signal, and thus it generates an interference signal. If the number of users to be multiplexed increases, the number of interference signals (the magnitude of the interference signal) increases, resulting in degradation in reception characteristic. In the CDMA system for spreading signals to signals in a broader band by using higher-speed spreading codes than the period of information (symbols) and carrying out multiplexing access transmission, a pilot signal whose pattern has been known is periodically inserted between information signals to construct frames.
In a mobile communication system based on the CDMA system, transmission power is required to be optimally controlled on the basis of reception SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio) in order to reduce interference signals. In order to satisfy this requirement, it is important to estimate SIR of reception signals with high precision. SIR of a CDMA receiver is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-49662, and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-68981.
Mobile communications are used under multi-path environments, and RAKE combining based on a path diversity system is generally used in the CDMA communications. As a CDMA receiver is used a RAKE receiver in which plural reception signals passing through different paths (transmission paths) are respectively subjected to de-spreading (a correlator for performing de-spreading is called as “RAKE finger”) using the reception delay amounts corresponding to the respective paths, respectively and then RAKE combining is carried out.
In this case, it is required to estimate SIR after RAKE combining. As well known, according to the RAKE combining system, a reception signal is subjected to de-spreading on the basis of path delay information detected by a path detector (path search portion), then a de-spread signal of each path is phase-detected, and then they are weighted and added so that SIR after combining is maximum.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the construction of a conventional SIR measuring apparatus for estimating SIR after RAKE combining. Referring to FIG. 1, path detector 10 to which reception signal 1 is inputted includes plural correlators for taking the correlation between the reception signal and each of spreading codes (pseudo noise signals) that are delayed by the respective different delay amounts within a path search range. Thereafter, delay profiles are created on the basis of the correlation output values from the plural correlators, and then the delay profiles are compared with a predetermined threshold value, so that path detection is performed and path delay amount signal is outputted to de-spreaders 111 to 11k. The de-spreaders 111 to 11k take the correlation between the inputted reception signal 1 and the spreading code. In the de-spreaders 111 to 11k, the spreading code from a spreading code generator is delayed on the basis of the path delay amount signal from the path detector 10.
SIR estimators 121 to 12K receive the outputs of the de-spreaders 111 to 11k to estimate SIR. That is, by using pilot symbols, for which a transmission sequence is known, of signals after synchronous detection, the data after the detection are subjected to inverse modulation based on the known transmission sequence, and then the average value of the power of the signal thus inversely-modulated is divided by the dispersion of the inversely-modulated signal to determine SIR. That is, the average of the symbols of the known inversely-modulated pilot signal is determined, and the power Ps of the signal is calculated from the square of the amplitude of the average value. On the basis of the inversely-modulated signal and the average value, the dispersion PI of the power is determined, and the SIR estimated value R is determined from the ratio PS/PI.
In combiner 18, representing the SIR value of each path by Ri, the total of the SIR value represented by the following equation (1) is outputted.
∑ i = 1 K Ri ( 1 ) That is, the total of the SIR output 2 after RAKE combining is given by the above equation (1) where the SIR value of each path is represented by Ri (i=1 to K).
In the SIR estimation described above, the SIR value Ri of each path is first estimated, and these SIR values are added with one another to implement the SIR estimation. The output of the combiner 18 shown in FIG. 1 is supplied to a transmission power controller or the like, and used to perform the transmission power control based on the value of SIR.
Under an actual transmission environment, there may be assumed such a situation that the delay amount of each path is extremely small. Therefore, the reception characteristic is enhanced by detecting path information at a narrow path interval less than 1 chip in the path detector.
Therefore, actually, there is such a case that even when there is only one path, plural path delay amounts are detected for the one path. That is, in the case where the path interval is set at a half chip, there is such a case that two path delays are detected for one chip.
In such a case, according to the conventional SIR estimation system described above, SIR for the same path is added twice when the difference of the delay amount of the path is small, and thus a larger value than actual SIR is estimated. That is, when the apparatus is designed so that path information is detected at a path interval less than one chip in order to enhance the reception characteristic, there may occur such a case that SIR for the same path is added at plural times, so that the measurement of SIR is inaccurate, and accurate power control cannot be performed. | {
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The present invention relates to motion stabilizers, and more particularly to devices including a spring and a telescoping body assembly for yieldingly holding a load in a normal or centered position.
There is a long standing need for a stabilizer for stabilizing the movement of a load that is movable relative to another load or a relatively fixed support. Such a stabilizer should yieldingly hold the load in a normal position. In may instances the normal position is a centered position in a range of movement of the load. The stabilizer should include a reaction unit having a spring acting through a body assembly to permit the load to be displaced from the normal position and to resiliently bias the load to return from the displaced position back toward the normal position.
There are numerous and varied applications for a motion stabilizer of this kind. One example of an application exhibiting such a need is the steering system of a large vehicle such as a truck or recreational vehicle. In this application, the motion stabilizer urges the steering gear toward a normal or centered position in which the vehicle travels straight ahead, and permits the steering gear to be displaced so that the vehicle can be turned. In a vehicle application, a motion stabilizer should be able to hold the vehicle under control in the presence of cross winds, road irregularities, tire blow outs and the like. Other applications for motion stabilizers include conveyors and manufacturing equipment, power boats, vehicles of many types and trailer hitch systems. A motion stabilizer can provide advantages in many situations where a movable load must be yielding held in a centered or normal position.
Many stabilizing or centering systems have been developed or proposed in the past. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,223,573 and 4,406,473 disclose vehicle steering stabilizer systems using a pair of coil springs urging a component of the vehicle steering linkage toward a centered or normal position. In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,012 discloses a bidirectional steering stabilizer having a single spring and a damper for yieldably biasing the wheels of a vehicle toward a straight ahead direction. Although these systems are relatively simple in that they are mechanical devices with relatively few parts, they suffer from disadvantages including interfering with the operator's ability to control the vehicle in a natural way, and a lack of the ability to accommodate a variety of types of springs and reaction units and the ability to easily adjust the stabilizer to match the requirements of a particular vehicle or application.
Another approach that has been used in the past is to provide a complex hydraulic and pneumatic system for assisting the power steering system of a large vehicle in holding the steering linkage and wheels on center. One example of a system of this type is the Howard Power Center Steering System sold by River City Products, Inc. of San Antonio, Tex. Although this steering control system performs well, it is subject to the disadvantages of complexity and large expense, and it is not easily adaptable to a variety of differing applications. | {
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Directional drilling, subsurface boring, microtunneling and the like share the objective of producing a hole beneath the surface of the earth in a carefully controlled manner. The hole is usually required for installation of tubular members such as pipes (for natural gas, petroleum fluids, steam, water, other gases and liquids, slurries, or sewer connections), protective conduits (for subsequent installation of electrical wires, cable television lines or fiber optic cable), for direct burial of electric wires and fiber optic cable, and the like. All such activities, particularly those in the top most one hundred feet or so of the subsurface, are described as subsurface boring.
Subsurface boring is increasingly important because it allows rapid placement or replacement of gas and water lines, sewers, electrical service, cable television service and similar utility connections with minimal disturbance of roads, landscaping, buildings, and other surface features. Subsurface boring allows placement of pipe and utility connections where conventional surface installation by trenching is impractical or impossible as, for example, when utility connections must cross rivers, canals, major highways, or rail lines. Significant practical and economic advantages are derived from the ability to provide pipe and utility connections with minimal surface disturbance or to provide subsurface crossing of surface barriers.
Locating and communicating with the boring tool are problems that must be solved to realize all advantages of subsurface boring. In many boring tool systems, a small transmitting device called a beacon is installed immediately behind the drill bit. The electromagnetic field generated by the subsurface beacon is detected at the surface using devices variously called trackers or locators. The beacon's electromagnetic field is often modulated to convey subsurface information from the beacon to the system operator. Beacon signal amplitudes, measured by one or a plurality of surface antennas, can be used to calculate distance between the beacon and the tracker or locator. Depending on beacon modulation details, the subsurface beacon transmits on or around one of several possible frequencies. It is common to allow operation at one of at least two different frequencies, thereby allowing two boring operations to proceed simultaneously in close proximity while still being able to differentiate between the two by using different beacon frequencies.
As operating depth increases, locating and communicating become increasingly difficult because, in the near field, signal amplitude decreases according to the third power of distance. As in any communication system, the signal-to-noise ratio is a primary determinant of success in signal estimation and communication. Beacon power is limited, hence available signal is limited. Accordingly, noise reduction assumes great importance. With limited signal power, the only way to improve the signal-to-noise ratio is to reduce the noise.
The noise figure of the receiving channel in the tracker or locator is determined largely by the preamplifier. Therefore, improvements in the preamplifier relating to signal handling and noise rejection are of great significance to the art.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,155,442 and 5,337,002 by Mercer, disclose locator equipment for detecting the magnetic field transmitted by a boring tool of the type that forms a horizontal bore under the surface of the earth. The locator equipment is either hand held, in which case it is maneuvered over the surface to detect the magnetic field transmitted by a small battery-operated transmitter carried by the boring tool, or it is surface mounted at some location determined by the equipment operator. The locator equipment includes a conventional parallel LC resonant circuit to selectively receive the fundamental frequency associated with roll/pitch information transmitted by the boring tool. The capacitor component of the resonant circuit is apparently variable to either change the resonant frequency of the receiver, or to change the resonant frequency to compensate changes due to aging, temperature, calibration, etc. The shortcomings of such an arrangement are noted below and are overcome by the present invention. | {
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This invention relates to containers constructed with vents which allow release of pressure from inside the container and more particularly to a battery box which is self-venting.
Containers have been constructed with vents in order to allow the passage of a liquid or gas out of the container when the liquid or gas reaches a pressure level above that which the container can accommodate. The release of the pressure prevents potential rupture of the container and prevents a cover of the container from being ejected during removal. It also prevents injury to anyone in the vicinity of the container when rupture or ejection of the cover occurs.
Vented containers have a number of uses including holding batteries. An example of a battery which can cause a volatile reaction and result in extremely large pressure in a container is a lithium sulfur dioxide battery. These batteries are in use in both commercial and in military applications.
One type of military battery operated radio uses a lithium BA-5513 battery. The battery is typically housed in an aluminum, die-cast container which has a vent. The container is designed to contain the pressure caused by any volatile reaction, and the vent allows air to escape to relieve the pressure.
There are two major shortcomings to these vented containers. The first is the cross-sectional area of the vents, which is relatively small when compared to the volume and the velocity of the air that is attempting to exit. Therefore, during a battery explosion, the air pressure increases due to what is essentially a "log-jam" at the vent opening. The increase in air pressure then creates excessive stress on the walls of the container. Since the vents are unable to perform their intended function adequately, the increased stress on the walls of the container often results in catastrophic failure.
The second shortcoming is the construction and material of the containers. The containers are typically aluminum die castings which are very brittle. The material ruptures violently rather than yielding in a ductile manner.
Lithium batteries are known to produce explosions of as high as 400 psi in a few milliseconds. The vents on the containers currently being used for the military radios are incapable of releasing such a rapid increase in pressure thereby creating a major safety hazard.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a container which is self-venting.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a container for a lithium battery which is capable of alleviating internal pressures in the container in a reliable manner.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a venting battery container which is more economical and easier to fabricate. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and, particularly, to such device in which the charge on a counter electrode is controlled not to vary.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display device displays an image by means of liquid crystal. The liquid crystal display device includes an upper glass substrate, a lower glass substrate, and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between these substrates. Of the upper glass substrate, on its under surface facing the liquid crystal layer, a counter electrode for applying a common voltage Vcom to the liquid crystal layer and a transmission line X for supplying the common voltage Vcom to the counter electrode are situated. Of the lower glass substrate, on its upper surface facing the liquid crystal layer, a display electrode applying a display voltage to the liquid crystal layer and a transmission line Y for supplying a source voltage to the display electrode are situated.
In the arrangement as above, when a source voltage is applied to the display electrode and a common voltage Vcom is applied to the counter electrode through the transmission line X, a drive voltage determined by a potential difference between the applied source voltage and common voltage Vcom is applied to the liquid crystal layer.
The common voltage Vcom serves as a reference voltage for the voltage that is applied to the liquid crystal layer. For example, in a liquid crystal display device using an inversion driving method, with respect to the counter electrode, the polarity of charge supplied to the display electrode is inverted at given intervals. In this case, a drive voltage corresponding to a voltage difference between the display electrode and the common electrode in each interval is applied to the liquid crystal layer. For this reason, it is desired that the common voltage Vcom is stable for driving by the liquid crystal display device.
In the above arrangement of the liquid crystal display device, a common voltage Vcom that is applied to the counter electrode may become nonuniform. This is due to varying impedance of the counter electrode and varying wiring lengths of the transmission line through which the common voltage Vcom is supplied to the counter electrode. Nonuniform common voltage Vcom that is applied to the counter electrode results in nonuniformity in the drive voltage Vd per pixel applied to the liquid crystal layer and gives rise to a flicker in the screen and uneven image quality. One possible method for preventing an increase of transmission line impedance is to increase the wire diameter of the transmission line. However, this method is not practicable, because the larger the wire diameter, the smaller will be the aperture ratio of the glass substrate.
A technique concerning a common line wired on the glass substrate for transmitting a common signal is known.
Patent Document 1 (Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2000-214431) discloses a semiconductor integrated circuit device having common output terminals and segment output terminals which output electric signals to drive a liquid crystal display panel, wherein the common output terminals are arranged virtually evenly at both opposite sides of the semiconductor integrated circuit.
According to Patent Document 2 (Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2007-140384), in order to stabilize a common voltage Vcom, a supply voltage used as a reference for the common voltage Vcom that is applied to the counter electrode is supplied from a power supply circuit provided outside the liquid crystal panel.
The technique disclosed in the above Patent Document 1 provides even wiring lengths of the common line for transmitting a common signal. However, the impedance of the counter electrode is not uniform. There is still a possibility of failing to keep the common voltage Vcom applied to the counter electrode constant.
The technique disclosed in Patent Document 2 provides stable supply of the reference voltage for a common voltage Vcom. However, the wiring lengths of the transmission line are uneven and impedance differs from one portion to another of the counter electrode. Hence, there is still a possibility of failing to keep the common voltage Vcom applied to the counter electrode constant. | {
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In many situations, potential buyers or other acquirers of various types of items (such as products and/or services) are faced with difficult decisions when attempting to determine whether acquiring a particular item of interest under current conditions is desirable or optimal based on their goals, or whether instead delaying the acquisition would be preferable. For example, when the potential acquirer desires to obtain the item at the lowest price possible before some future date, and the item is currently offered by a seller for a current price, the potential acquirer needs to evaluate whether accepting the current price is more advantageous than the potential benefits and costs associated with waiting to see if the item will continue to be available and will be later offered at a lower price before the future date. Such potential acquisitions can include a variety of types of transactions (e.g., fixed-price purchase, auction-based purchase, reverse auction purchase, name-your-price purchase, rent, lease, license, trade, evaluation, sampling, etc.), and can be performed in a variety of ways (e.g., by online shopping using a computing device, such as via the World Wide Web or other computer network).
The difficulty of evaluating a potential current item acquisition is exacerbated in environments in which the prices of the items frequently change, such as when sellers or other suppliers of the items frequently modify item prices (e.g., in an attempt to perform yield management and maximize overall profits). In such environments, the likelihood of future price changes may be high or even a certainty, but it may be difficult or impossible for the potential acquirer to determine whether the future price changes are likely to be increases or drops, let alone a likely magnitude and timing of such changes. A large number of types of items may have such frequent price changes, such as airline tickets, car rentals, hotel rentals, gasoline, food products, jewelry, various types of services, etc. Moreover, a potential acquirer may in some situations need to evaluate not only a current price of an item of interest from a single seller or other provider, but may future need to consider prices offered by other providers and/or prices for other items that are sufficiently similar to be potential substitutes for the item of interest (e.g., airline flights with the same route that leave within a determined period of time, whether from the same airline or from competitor airlines).
In a similar manner, some sellers or other providers of items may similarly face difficulties in determining an advantageous strategy related to the providing of the items, such as for intermediary sellers that must acquire an item from a third-party supplier (e.g., an original supplier of the item or other intermediary seller) before providing it to a customer. For example, it may be difficult in at least some situations for such intermediary sellers to know what price to offer to customers in order to maximize profit, as well as whether to immediately acquire from a third-party supplier an item purchased by a customer or to instead delay such an acquisition in an attempt to later acquire the item at a lower price. In the context of the airline industry, for example, such intermediary sellers may include various types of travel agents, including travel agents that typically buy only single airline tickets in response to explicit current instructions from a customer, consolidators that buy large numbers of airline tickets in advance for later resale, tour package operators that buy large numbers of airline tickets for bundling with other tickets and/or services, etc.
Thus, it would be beneficial to be able to predict future pricing information for items, such as likely future directions in price changes and/or likely specific future item prices, as doing so would enable buyers and/or intermediate sellers to make better acquisition-related decisions. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Plasma etchers utilize directed ribbon ion beams to achieve complex etching and surface processing, thus solving many challenges in the fabrication of most advanced 3D semiconductor structures. Characterization of the ion beam, monitoring process end-points, and advanced plasma probing are relevant metrologies necessary for implanter operations. Currently, the metrologies are achieved with different mechanisms, such as Faraday cup arrays and free space optical emission spectrum (OES). These approaches have their limits and disadvantages. For example, the Faraday cup array is an in-chamber metrology device. As a result, the Faraday cup array presentation brings in extra particles and metals. Furthermore, patch charges accumulated on the shield of the Faraday cup array may also perturb the beam path and give results deviating from the actual values. The free space OES is widely adopted in process endpoint control, yet cannot resolve the ion beam's spatial distribution, and may suffer from various optical noises from the environment and from different materials in the etching beam.
The present disclosure addresses at least the above identified deficiencies of the prior art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In a system having multiple, interconnected nodes, credits are often used to proactively control the flow of transactions. In this approach, if two nodes A and B are connected, A maintains a certain number of credits for B in each flow-control class in which it can send a transaction to B. Each transaction sent from A to B enters a first-in, first-out (FIFO) structure belonging to the flow-control class for that transaction. Thus, A maintains the amount of available space for B in each flow-control class in which it can send a transaction to B. A flow-control class may consist of instructions of a particular type. For example, a class may consist of “read” requests in which the requesting node sends a memory address to the receiving node and the receiving node retrieves the data from memory and sends the data as a response to the requesting node.
When A sends a transaction to B in a particular flow-control class (e.g., class F), a credit system decrements the amount of available credits of class F for B by the amount reflecting the amount of FIFO storage that will be consumed in B for node A. When node B consumes the transaction, it releases those credits back to A. In the “read” example above, the requesting node may have 100 credits initially allotted for the “read” class, and a single read request might require 2 credits. Under existing credit systems, the available balance for the “read” class credits will decrease by two each time a request is made. The destination node will release the credits back to the sender as it removes the transaction from its queue. The released credits for each flow control class travel back to the sender A from receiver B either through a special transaction or as part of normal transactions that B sends to A. It should be noted that different transactions in the same flow control class may need different credits. The sender sends a transaction if it has enough credits needed for that transaction.
It may be noted that node A may have to keep track of credits for other nodes if node A is directly connected to those nodes. For example, in a multi-processor system, the nodes may be different interconnect chipsets such as the memory controller, the I/O controller, the cross-bar, etc. The various flow-control classes may be used for transactions such as to obtain a cache line, data return from memory, coherency responses from the various caches, etc. Some systems may not employ a proactive credit-based flow-control mechanism, but instead may adopt a separate signal from the destination node requesting the sender to stop transmitting any new transactions. The proposed scheme should work for the signaling way of flow control as well.
While the credit-based scheme, or the reactive flow-control scheme, guarantees that a transaction does not get dropped due to a lack of FIFO space in the destination node, they do not guarantee that access requests from one node do not slow down traffic in the entire system. Existing credit systems only consider the amount of space required by a transaction in the destination node and do not consider the amount of space required if the transaction needs a response. For example, a system may include a cross-bar chip connected to a cache coherent host I/O bridge. The cross-bar chip may also be connected to a memory controller, some CPU chips, other host I/O bridges, and connections to other cross-bars if a bigger system is used. The host I/O bridge may serve one or more I/O buses, each of which may contain one or more I/O devices. It is conceivable that if a lot of I/O devices are actively doing direct memory access (DMA) and the cache is pre-fetching deep for each DMA read request, many cache line read requests may go to the system. A DMA read request will enter the read request queue in the cross-bar chip. The read request will then be forwarded to the system memory controller or other caches, or some other system memory controller, if they hold the data. The requested entity subsequently provides the data to the cross-bar chip. This data enters the data return queue in the cross-bar and is eventually returned to the host I/O bridge that requested the data as a data return transaction in a different flow control class.
Typically, data return requires many more cycles than a read request. If requests from the host bridge arrive at a fast pace, the data returning to the host bridge will be queued in the cross-bar chip. This may create a situation in which the data return queue in the cross-bar chip is full due to multiple pending data returns to the host bridge. When this happens, the traffic to other parts of the system also stalls because the data return queue in the cross-bar is a shared resource. The problem arises because an entity such as the host I/O bridge can make requests at a rate at which it cannot sustain the resultant data return. Even though the host bridge may possess the credits to make the read requests, it does not have enough bandwidth to process the data returns at the rate at which it can make read requests. This causes a backlog of data return traffic in the system and slows down the entire system. Thus, a greedy agent can lower the entire system's performance. Existing strategies do not provide any safeguards against this kind of performance bottleneck. What is needed is a system that prevents a single requesting agent from slowing the system. In particular what is needed is a system that considers the effects of pending transactions on the system when it decides whether or not to initiate a new transaction. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Pulp and paper manufacturers continually are looking for alternatives for use of waste produced during the manufacture of various paper-based products. Although some alternative disposal methods exist, there remains a need for cost effective methods to convert at least a portion of the sludge to one or more products having a higher value than use of the sludge as a combustible fuel or other commodity. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a history management system for managing, via a network, the history of parts comprising a product installed at the location of a customer.
2. Description of Related Art
There are history management systems that are used for managing the history of a product, like computer equipment sold to a customer for example, using a network like the internet. These systems can be used to provide things like maintenance services. Such systems are premised on the product being managed having a network connection part that enables it to be connected to a network. Such a product could include for example, computer equipment connected to a network. Information acquired via a network on parts comprising computer equipment sold to a customer can be used when maintenance services are performed.
The applicant has searched prior art documents relating to this invention and found as follows,
JP2000-048066A,
JP2000-246921A,
JP2000-285170A, and
JP2001-225915A.
However, a history management system of the prior art, managing for example computer equipment, performs its history management only in respect of those parts comprising the computer that are capable of being recognized by an operating system, in other words only those parts recognized by a CPU (central processing unit), and those parts that cannot be recognized by the CPU cannot be subject to history management performed using a network. For example, parts like a hard disk or flexible disk drive are connected to the main board where the CPU or control chip for example is located, using a prescribed cable, but history management systems of the prior art are not capable of performing history management for this cable. In other words, a problem affecting history management systems of the prior art is that they are incapable of managing the history of a passive part, such as a cable for example.
The present invention aims to solve the above problem. It""s object is to provide a history management system capable of ascertaining, via a network, the history of a passive part comprising a product, such as a cable.
A history management system according to the present invention comprises a noncontact label applied to each part comprising a product which label has a storage part that transfers data to and receives from an external entity through wireless transmission and a noncontact label reader that connects to a prescribed network in the product, that through wireless transmission reads-out part information stored in the storage part of the noncontact label, and operates such that the storage part of the noncontact label stores part information comprised of information concerning the part to which the noncontact label of that storage part is applied and in response to a transmission request for part information received via the network, that noncontact label reader reads, through wireless transmission, the part information stored in the storage part and outputs that part information to the source that issued the transmission request.
According to this invention the part information stored in the storage part of the noncontact label installed for the part can be acquired via a network.
Another embodiment of a history management system according to the present invention comprises a noncontact label applied to each part comprising a product which label has a storage part that transfers data to and receives from an external entity through wireless transmission and a noncontact label reader that connects to a prescribed network in the product, that through wireless transmission reads-out part information stored in the storage part of the noncontact label and a maintenance server connected to the network, and operates such that the storage part of the noncontact label stores part information comprised of information concerning the part to which the noncontact label of that storage part is applied and the noncontact label reader receives via the network, a transmission request for part information output from the maintenance server, reads out through wireless transmission, part information stored in the storage part of the noncontact label and transmits the part information thus read out to the maintenance server via the network.
According to this invention the part information stored in the storage part of the noncontact label installed for the part can be accessed at the connected maintenance server via a network.
Parts for the above history management system, are a CPU, liquid crystal display part, a prepaid card reader/writer, a flexible drive device, a thermal printer, a hard disk device, power supply unit, cache drawer part and an extension board and the information provided by these parts is read in by the noncontact label reader via the CPU and stored in each noncontact label. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Immunoassays exploiting the properties of an optical technique known as total internal reflection (abbreviated “TIR”) are proving to be a valuable tool for detection of analytes at concentrations of 10−10 to 10−13 molar or below, without a wash step. When a light beam traveling in a waveguide is totally internally reflected at the interface between the waveguide and an adjacent medium having a lower refractive index, a portion of the electromagnetic field of the TIR light penetrates shallowly into the adjacent medium. This phenomenon is termed an “evanescent penetration” or “evanescent light”. The intensity of evanescent light drops off exponentially with distance from the waveguide surface.
Binding assays, in general, are based on the strong affinity of a selected “capture” molecule to specifically bind a desired analyte. The capture molecule/analyte pair can be an antibody/antigen pair or its converse, a receptor/ligand pair or its converse, etc., as known in the art. In a fluorescent binding assay, the binding of the analyte to the antibody is monitored by a tracer molecule which emits fluorescent light in response to excitation by an input light beam.
One of several possible schemes for exploiting the properties of evanescent light fields for fluorescence measurements is as follows. If an antibody is immobilized on an optical structure in which a light beam is being propagated by TIR, the resulting evanescent light can be used to selectively excite tracer molecules that are bound (whether directly or indirectly) to the immobilized antibody. Tracer molecules free in solution beyond the evanescent penetration depth are not excited and, therefore, do not emit fluorescence. For silica-based optical materials or optical plastics such as polystyrene, with the adjacent medium being an aqueous solution, the evanescent penetration depth is generally about 1000 to 2000 Å (angstroms). The amount of fluorescence is thus a measure of the amount of tracer bound to the immobilized capture molecules. The amount of bound tracer in turn depends on the amount of analyte present, in a manner determined by the specifics of the immunoassay procedure.
U.S. Pat. Nos. RE 33,064 to Carter, 5,081,012 to Flanagan et al., 4,880,752 to Keck, 5,166,515 to Attridge, and 5,156,976 to Slovacek and Love, and EP publication Nos. 0 517 516 and 0 519 623, both by Slovacek et al., all disclose apparatus for immunoassays utilizing evanescent sensing principles.
Desirably, an immunosensor should be capable of accurately and repeatably detecting analyte molecules at concentrations of 10−13 M (molar) to 10−15 M and preferably below. At present, such sensitivity is not believed to be available in a commercially practical and affordable immunosensor. Also desirably, an immunosensor should provide multiple “channels”, that is, the capacity for measuring multiple analytes and multiple measurements of the same analyte, on the same waveguide substrate. Such an immunosensor would allow both self-calibration with known standards and screening for a panel of different analytes selected for a particular differential diagnostic procedure.
One approach to improving the sensitivity (lowering the detection limits) of fluorescent immunosensors, proposed by Ives et al. (Ives, J. T.; Reichert, W. M.; Lin, J. N.; Hlady, V.; Reinecke, D.; Suci, P. A.; Van Wagenen, R. A.; Newby, K.; Herron, J.; Dryden, P. and Andrade, J. D. “Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Surface Sensors” in A. N. Chester, S. Martellucci and A. M. Verga Scheggi Eds., Optical Fiber Sensors, NATO ASI Series E, Vol. 132, 391-397, 1987), is to use waveguides which are very thin, perhaps about 1 mm in thickness. Such thin waveguides may provide higher evanescent intensity and a reflection density of 500-1000 reflections/cm or more. However, the potential lowering of the detection limit by use of thin-film waveguides is achievable only if the waveguide material is nonfluorescent and low-loss. Most present evanescent immunosensing technology (“thick” waveguides) utilizes silica glass (SiO2), which is intrinsically nonfluorescent. Only the purest grades of silica, for example, UV grade quartz which is rather expensive, lack the additives and impurities that fluoresce (Dierker et al., 1987).
Further, one cannot simply fabricate silica-on-silica waveguides by depositing SiO2 onto a quartz substrate because there would be no refractive index difference. Instead, one must either (1) fabricate a glass waveguide of higher refractive index than the underlying silica substrate, or (2) deposit a silica waveguide onto a transparent substrate of a lower refractive index. Therefore, other materials must be employed.
Thin film waveguides have been described by Sloper et al. (“A planar indium phosphate monomode waveguide evanescent field immunosensor,” Sensors and Actuators, B1: 589-591, 1990) and Zhou et al. (“An evanescent fluorescence biosensor using ion-exchanged buried waveguides and the enhancement of peak fluorescence”, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 6:595-607, 1991. However, neither of these devices was capable of achieving detection of analyte concentrations significantly below 10−10 molar. The waveguide structure of Sloper et al. was of the gradient-index type, formed by diffusion of a dopant into the silica base, which results in a drop-off of dopant concentration with distance from the interface. The waveguide of Zhou et al. had only a single “channel” (measurement region).
Therefore, a need exists for an optical structure useful in an evanescent sensing immunoassay which provides increased levels of propagated TIR light and increased evanescent field intensity, as well as multiple measurement regions. Such an optical structure should desirably be capable of detection of analyte concentrations of 10−13 M and preferably below 10−15 M. A need also remains for an immunosensor including such an optical structure which is sufficiently inexpensive and practical to produce as a commercial device, and which provides accurate and repeatable results in the hands of nonskilled persons. Still further, a need also remains for a biosensor capable of detecting ions, as opposed to hormones or other biological molecules. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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There are two distinct tasks in vision or image processing. On the one hand there is the difficult task of image analysis and feature recognition, and on the other there is the less difficult task of computing the 3D world position of the camera given an input image.
In biological vision, these two tasks are intertwined together such that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. We perceive our position in world coordinates by recognizing and triangulating from features around us. It seems we can not triangulate if we don't identify first the features we triangulate from, and we can't really identify unless we can place a feature somewhere in the 3D world we live in.
Most, if not all, vision systems in prior art are an attempt to implement both tasks in the same system. For instance, reference patent number U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,970 comprises both tasks; reference patent number U.S. Pat. No. 6,704,621 seems to comprise of triangulation alone, but it actually requires recognition of the road. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Related subject matter is disclosed in the co-pending, commonly assigned, U.S. Patent application of ten Brink, entitled xe2x80x9cDigital Transmission System and Method,xe2x80x9d which is being filed concurrently herewith.
This invention relates to a transmission of digital signals, e.g. in a digital radio communication system.
Iterative decoding algorithms have become a vital field of research in digital communications. The first discovered and still most popular encoding scheme suited for iterative decoding is the parallel concatenation of two recursive systematic convolutional codes, also referred to as xe2x80x98Turbo Codesxe2x80x99. The underlying xe2x80x98Turbo Principlexe2x80x99 is applicable more generally to other algorithms used in modern digital communications, and in the past few years, other applications of the xe2x80x9cTurbo Principlexe2x80x9d have been found.
Channel coding is used to make the transmitted digital information signal more robust against noise. For this the information bit sequence is encoded at the transmitter by a channel encoder and decoded at the receiver by a channel decoder. In the encoder redundant information is added to the information bit sequence in order to facilitate error correction in the decoder. For example, in a systematic channel encoding scheme the redundant information is added to the information bit sequence as additional, inserted xe2x80x9ccodedxe2x80x9d bits. In a non-systematic encoding scheme the outgoing bits are all coded bits, and there are no longer any xe2x80x9cnakedxe2x80x9d information bits. The number of incoming bits (information bits) at the encoder is smaller than the number of outgoing bits (information bits plus inserted coded bits, or all coded bits). The ratio of incoming/outgoing bits is called the xe2x80x9ccode rate Rxe2x80x9d (typically R=1:2).
Recent improvements using the xe2x80x9cTurbo Principlexe2x80x9d have shown that, in digital communication systems involving a plurality of users in wireless communication with a receiver, an improvement in the quality of the decoded signal can be achieved by applying iterative decoding steps to the received data. In particular, xe2x80x9cIterative Equalization and Decoding in Mobile Communication Systemsxe2x80x9d by Baunch, Khorram and Hagenauer, EPMCC""97, pp 307-312, October 1997, Bonn, Germany, discusses the application of the Turbo principle to iterative decoding of coded data transmitted over a mobile radio channel.
In order to be suitable for iterative decoding, a transmitted signal must be encoded by at least two concatenated codes, either serially or parallelly concatenated.
FIG. 1 shows a serially concatenated coding scheme: the transmission is done on a block-by-block basis. The binary signal from the digital source is encoded firstly by an outer encoder and is then passed through an interleaver, which changes the order of the incoming bit symbols to make the signal appear more random to the following processing stages. After the interleaver, the signal is encoded a second time by an xe2x80x98inner encoderxe2x80x99. Correspondingly, at the receiver the signal is first decoded by the inner decoder in a first decoding step, deinterleaved, and decoded by the outer decoder in a second decoding step. From the outer decoder soft decision values are fed back as additional a priori input to the inner decoder. The soft decision values provide information on the reliability of the hard decision values. In a first iteration the decoding step is repeated and the soft decision values are used as input values for the first and second decoder.
The iterative decoding of a particular transmitted sequence is stopped with an arbitrary termination criterion, e.g. after a fixed number of iterations, or until a certain bit error rate is reached. It should be noted that the a priori soft value input to the inner decoder is set to zero for the very first decoding of the transmitted bit sequence (xe2x80x980th iterationxe2x80x99).
The inner and outer binary codes can be of any type: systematic, or non-systematic, block or convolutional codes. Simple mapping (e.g. antipodal or binary phase shift keying) is performed in the transmitter (after the inner encoder) and simple demapping is performed in the receiver (after the inner decoder) although for clarity this is not shown in FIG. 1. Likewise, FIG. 1 illustrates a single user scenario, although application of appropriate multiplexing provides a suitable multi user system.
At the receiver the two decoders are soft-in/soft- out decoders (SISO-decoder). A soft value represents the reliability on the bit decision of the respective bit symbol (whether 0 or 1 was sent). A soft-in decoder accepts soft reliability values for the incoming bit symbols. A soft-out decoder provides soft reliability output values on the outgoing bit symbols. The soft-out reliability values are usually more accurate than the soft-in reliability values since they are improved during the decoding process, based on the redundant information added with each encoding step at the transmitter. The best performance is achieved by a SISO-decoder which provides the A Posterior Probability calculator (APP), tailored to the respective channel code. Several faster, but sub-optimal algorithms exist, e.g. the SOVA (soft output Viterbi algorithm).
In multilevel modulation, M bits (bit symbols) are grouped together at the transmitter to form one xe2x80x98mapped symbolxe2x80x99 (also briefly referred to as xe2x80x98symbolxe2x80x99). This symbol can be mapped onto a real or a complex signal space (i.e. real axis, or complex plane). The mapping operation simply associates the unmapped symbol (M bits, value from 0, . . . , 2Mxe2x88x921) with a discrete amplitude level for Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM), a discrete phase level for Phase Shift Keying (PSK), any discrete signal point in the complex plane for quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) or any combination of PAM, QAM, PSK. The mapping can be of any type.
At the receiver the incoming symbols are noise affected. The hard decision demapping operation associates the incoming symbol with the closest signal point in the signal space (signal point with minimum Euclidian distance in real or complex signal space) and takes for example the respective Gray-encoded codeword as the hard decision values (O,1) for the M bits per mapped symbol.
However, if multilevel modulation is used in conjunction with channel coding and soft channel decoding (i.e. a soft input decoder) the demapping operation preferably calculates soft reliability values as inputs to the channel decoder. For simplicity, the term xe2x80x9cmultilevel modulationxe2x80x9d is used when referring to PAM, PSK or QAM modulation, meaning xe2x80x9cmulti-amplitude levelxe2x80x9d for PAM, xe2x80x9cmulti phase levelxe2x80x9d for PSK, and xe2x80x9cmulti signal pointsxe2x80x9d for QAM.
In one prior proposal, apparatus for iteratively decoding a signal has a demapper which has a first input for receiving the signal and an output for generating a demapped signal; and a decoder which has an input for receiving the demapped signal and an output for generating a decoded signal, the demapper having a second input for receiving the decoded signal.
Each user in a mobile communication system may have a different Quality of Service (QoS) requirement, i.e. different BER and latency constraints due to differing communication services. For example: voice communication has the lowest BER requirements (i.e. can tolerate many bit errors) with the highest latency constraints (i.e. cannot tolerate long delays in two way conversation); visual communication has a higher BER requirement and high latency constraints; data communication (e.g. wireless Internet web- browsing) has the highest BER requirements and the lowest latency constraints. Each user communicates with the base station with a different signal quality (i.e. SNR), multipath propagation and fading due to differing distance from the base station, propagation environment and, if mobile, speed.
The mapping operation itself does not add redundancy (in contrast to the inner encoder in classic serially concatenated encoding schemes) to the signal, but links bits together by grouping several bit symbols to form one mapped symbol.
The demapper is a soft demapping device that has been modified in order to accept a priori information obtained from the decoder. The decoder is a channel decoder and can be any SISO-decoder (optimal APP, or other sub- optimal algorithm, e.g. SOVA). The iterative demapping and decoding can thus be regarded as a serially concatenated iterative decoding scheme whereby the inner decoder is replaced by the soft demapping device. The iterative demapping and decoding is stopped by an arbitrary termination criterion (e.g. after a fixed number of iterations, or when a certain bit error rare is reached).
Mutual information is a parameter taken from information theory, see xe2x80x9cThe Elements of Information Theoryxe2x80x9d by T. M. Cover and J. A.Thomas. It specifies the maximal possible throughput for a given communication channel condition.
If we regard the mapping/demapping as part of the communication channel we can describe the maximal throughput by means of unconditional bit-wise mutual information Io of the particular mapping.
The mean unconditional bit-wise mutual information Io for no other bits of the mapping known is defined as I o = I ( X k ; Y ) _ = 1 M · M - 1 xe2x96xa1 k = 0 I ( X k ; Y )
where
M is the number of bits of the mapping (e.g. for a 16 QAM-mapping M=4, since 24=16)
Xk is the kth bit of the mapping, with k=0. . . Mxe2x88x921; input variable to the communication channel
Y is the output variable of the communication channel.
I(Xk;Y) and thus Io are dependent on the applied mapping and the signal-to-noise ratio (typically given by Eb/No), and can be calculated according to methods given in xe2x80x9cElements of Information Theoryxe2x80x9d referred to above.
We have found by simulation, that the best mapping in an iterative demapping (IDEM) system depends on the Eb/No-region of interest and on the number of iterations NbIt that can be performed at the receiver (see FIG. 2). As explained before, this best mapping is determined by its unconditional bit-wise mutual information Io. Hence, for the optimal mapping we have
Io.opt=function of (Eb/No,NbIt).
In accordance with one aspect of the invention there is provided a digital transmission system, comprising:
a coder for coding an input signal with an error checking or error correcting code, an interleaver for interleaving the bits of the coded signal,
a mapper for mapping the interleaved coded signal into a multilevel signal, and a transmitter for sending the multilevel signal over a noisy channel in a transmission medium;
a receiver for receiving the multilevel signal distorted by noise (noisy multilevel signal), a demapper having a first input for receiving the noisy multilevel signal and operative to provide a soft demapped signal at an output, a deinterleaver, for deinterleaving the demapped signal, a decoder to decode the deinterleaved demapped signal to provide a soft decoded signal, an interleaver to interleave the decoded signal, the demapper having a second input for receiving the interleaved decoded signal and being operative to recalculate the demapped signal iteratively using the noisy signal and the soft decoded signal,
characterized by:a mapping store for storing a plurality of different mappings;
means for deriving an indication of the channel conditions; and
means for selecting the optimum mapping of the plurality dependent on the derived indication of channel conditions, the mapper and demapper being operatively responsive to the selected mapping.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided a digital transmission system, comprising:
a coder for coding an input signal with an error checking or error correcting code, an interleaver for interleaving the bits of the coded signal,
a mapper for mapping the interleaved coded signal into a multilevel signal, and a transmitter for sending the multilevel signal over a noisy channel in a transmission medium;
a receiver for receiving the multilevel signal distorted by noise (noisy multilevel signal), a demapper having a first input for receiving the noisy multilevel signal and operative to provide a soft demapped signal at an output, a deinterleaver, for deinterleaving the demapped signal, a decoder to decode the deinterleaved demapped signal to provide a soft decoded signal, an interleaver to interleave the decoded signal, the demapper having a second input for receiving the interleaved decoded signal and being operative to recalculate the demapped signal iteratively using the noisy signal and the soft decoded signal,
characterized by:
a mapping store for storing a plurality of different mappings;
means for determining the number of iterations to be carried out from a plurality of possible numbers of iteration; and
means for selecting the optimum mapping of the plurality, dependent on the number of iterations as determined, the mapper and demapper being operatively responsive to the selected mapping.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention there is provided a digital transmission system, comprising:
a coder for coding an input signal with an error checking or error correcting code, an interleaver for interleaving the bits of the coded signal,
a mapper for mapping the interleaved coded signal into a multilevel signal, and a transmitter for sending the multilevel signal over a noisy channel in a transmission medium;
a receiver for receiving the multilevel signal distorted by noise (noisy multilevel signal), a demapper having a first input for receiving the noisy multilevel signal and operative to provide a soft demapped signal at an output, a deinterleaver, for deinterleaving the demapped signal, a decoder to decode the deinterleaved demapped signal to provide a soft decoded signal, an interleaver to interleave the decoded signal, the demapper having a second input for receiving the interleaved decoded signal and being operative to recalculate the demapped signal iteratively using the noisy signal and the soft decoded signal,
characterized by:
a mapping store, storing a plurality of different mappings;
means for deriving an indication of the channel conditions;
means for determining the number of iterations to be carried out from a plurality of possible numbers of iterations; and
means for selecting the optimum mapping of the plurality dependent on the derived indication of channel conditions and on the number of iterations as determined, the mapper and demapper being operatively responsive to the selected mapping.
Preferably, the indication of the channel conditions is an estimate of the signal to noise ratio.
The soft output signals of the demapper and the decoder are preferably likelihood ratios more preferably log-likelihood ratios.
Each mapping is preferably stored with an indication of its mutual information, and the system includes a mutual information store storing an approximation of the optimum mutual information with a plurality of respective combinations of channel conditions and number of iterations, the means for selecting a mapping being operative to identify an optimum mutual information from the number of iterations as determined and the nearest stored channel conditions to the derived indication, and to select the mapping from the plurality for which the stored mutual information is nearest to the identified optimum.
The invention also extends to a method of transmitting a digital signal, comprising:
coding an input signal with an error checking or error correcting code, interleaving the bits of the coded signal, mapping the interleaved coded signal into a multilevel signal, sending the multilevel signal over a noisy channel in a transmission medium;
receiving the multilevel signal distorted by noise (noisy multilevel signal), demapping the noisy multilevel signal to provide a soft demapped signal at an output, deinterleaving the demapped signal, decoding the deinterleaved demapped signal to provide a soft decoded signal, interleaving the decoded signal, recalculating the demapped signal iteratively using the noisy signal and the soft decoded signal,
characterized by:
storing a plurality of different mappings;
deriving an indication of the channel conditions; and
selecting the optimum mapping of the plurality dependent on the derived indication of channel conditions, the mapping and demapping being operatively responsive to the selected mapping.
The invention further extends to a method of transmitting a digital signal, comprising:
coding an input signal with an error checking or error correcting code, interleaving the bits of the coded signal, mapping the interleaved coded signal into a multilevel signal, sending the multilevel signal over a noisy channel in a transmission medium;
receiving the multilevel signal distorted by noise (noisy multilevel signal), demapping the noisy multilevel signal to provide a soft demapped signal at an output, deinterleaving the demapped signal, decoding the deinterleaved demapped signal to provide a soft decoded signal, interleaving the decoded signal, recalculating the demapped signal iteratively using the noisy signal and the soft decoded signal,
characterized by:
storing a plurality of different mapping;
determining the number of iterations to be carried out from a plurality of possible numbers of iteration; and
selecting the optimum mapping of the plurality, dependent on the number of iterations as determined, the mapping and demapping being operatively responsive to the selected mapping.
The invention also extends to a method of transmitting a digital signal, comprising:
coding an input signal with an error checking or error correcting code, interleaving the bits of the coded signal, mapping the interleaved coded signal into a multilevel signal, sending the multilevel signal over a noisy channel in a transmission medium;
receiving the multilevel signal distorted by noise (noisy multilevel signal), demapping the noisy multilevel signal to provide a soft demapped signal at an output, deinterleaving the demapped signal, decoding the deinterleaved demapped signal to provide a soft decoded signal, interleaving the decoded signal, recalculating the demapped signal iteratively using the noisy signal and the soft decoded signal,
characterized by:
storing a plurality of different mappings;
deriving an indication of the channel conditions; means for determining the number of iterations to be carried out from a plurality of possible numbers of iterations; and
selecting the optimum mapping of the plurality dependent on the derived indication of channel conditions and on the number of iterations as determined, the mapping and demapping being operatively responsive to the selected mapping. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to load-connection-state detector circuits and more particularly to a load-connection-state detector circuit that can correctly detect connection-state of loads with a simplified construction. Description of the Prior Art
A stereo amplifier as shown in FIG. 1 is previously known in which a first input amplifier circuit 1 and first and second output amplifier circuits 2 and 3 make up a left-channel amplifier 4 so that a left-channel stereo signal derived from a first signal source 5 is applied from the left-channel amplifier to a left-channel speaker 6 that makes a load and in which, in contrast, a second input amplifier circuit 7 and third and fourth output amplifier circuits 8 and 9 make up a right-channel amplifier 10 so that a right-channel stereo signal derived from a second signal source 11 is applied from the right-channel amplifier 10 to a right-channel speaker 12.
In the stereo amplifier, output signals opposite in phase to each other generated by the first and second input amplifier circuits 1 and 7 are applied to the first to fourth output amplifier circuits 2 to 9, which circuits thus BTL-drive left-channel and right-channel speakers 6 and 12, respectively.
When the foregoing stereo amplifier is used as on-vehicle equipment, the left-channel and right-channel speakers 6 and 12 are embedded into a panel of a car. This prohibits visual verification of whether or not the stereo amplifiers are correctly connected with the speakers, so that it is required to listen to sounds produced by the speakers with input signals applied, by ear. In noisy places such as in factories, however, the aural check is difficult to carry out and, for more accuracy, requires a lot of time. This problem has been growing remarkably in recent days as the speakers provided in a car increases in number. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to transducers, and more particularly to transducers for use as leak detection probes in recovery boilers. Small leaks in boiler tubes of recovery boilers eject water or steam at high pressure. Sound produced by these jets have peak frequencies ranging from about 10 KHz for a one millimeter leak to 2 KHz for five millimeter leaks. The noise produced by these jets can be detected above the background low frequency combustion noise of the recovery boiler and used to produce an alarm. Leaks in recovery boilers are dangerous, and it is therefore desirable to have a reliable and rugged device to detect such leaks. The present invention is directed to a system employing carbon granules for leak detection.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In prior art systems, conventional microphones containing a vibrating diaphragm are employed to detect leaks. Because of the harsh atmosphere of the recovery boiler, the diaphragm typically corrodes within several weeks. In addition, the positioning of the microphone is such that some of the high frequency sounds to be detected are considerably attenuated.
Microphone systems employing carbon granules are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,581,334 to Crandell, 2,697,136 to Baker, et al. and 3,859,478 to Cragg, et al. Generally, such microphones operate on the basis of resistance changes in the carbon granules caused by changes in mechanical pressure on the granules. However, prior art microphones employing carbon granules have all included a diaphragm. Therefore, such microphones would be faced with the same problems of corrosion in a recovery boiler atmosphere as conventional microphones.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,028,450 to Manning, 3,167,824 to Florer, et al., 3,209,344 to Miller, 3,831,561 to Yamamoto, et al. and 4,309,576 to Corrigan disclose detection systems for water or gas leaks. The patent to Yamamoto is specifically directed to detection of leaks in recovery boilers. None of these patents discloses or suggests the use of a carbon granule microphone. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Learning has become more than lectures, taking notes, repetitions and dull, non-stimulating classrooms. Two of the most important elements of learning are “DESIRE and “INTEREST.” By stimulating students' interest, the level of enthusiasm and motivation increases, and students will less likely become distracted or disinterested. Consequently, interested students will make more effort in preparation for involvement in, and attendance at, classroom lessons, which will enhance the effectiveness of the educational system. The role of instructors in classrooms is to create the groundwork for student motivation by inspiring them, piquing their imaginations, stimulating their interests and tapping into their creativity.
Most education experts agree that success in the educational process depends on the level of retention of the material to be learned, based on the fact that the brain does not pay attention to everything. The rate of retention drops where there are uninteresting, boring or emotionally-flat lessons, since the brain simply drifts off to find other stimuli that are more interesting. Students will not remember dull, colorless or monotonous materials. If the classroom environment is creative, enlightening, inspiring and motivating, the goal of creating an effective and positive learning atmosphere is achieved. If the cold, lifeless and boring classroom can be converted into a vibrant, interesting and stimulating multimedia experience, students will have greater interest in attending classes and faculty effectiveness will improve dramatically. A successful educational experience should be “fun” for both faculty and students in day-to-day learning, but “fun” is often “frowned upon” by some educators. Students pay more attention to lessons that are presented in a way that is “fun.” Escalated student interest becomes the stimulus for increased improvements in other learning techniques and resources such as field trips, research and independent studies.
In the past, when computers and interactive software moved into classrooms, educators thought superior performance would result and anticipated that computers and interactive software would positively impact learning, and that student test scores would dramatically improve with these tools and methods. However, the results were very different from what was originally expected. It has become widely accepted that computer technology in the classroom fails to teach, accelerate overall comprehension, or to hold student attention over any length of time. There is no doubt that live instructors teach learners and have no substitute or replacement in the learning process for human beings. It is impossible to automate live instruction since only live instructors can sense the mood of the student body and attend, by instinct, and artistry to the velocity, momentum and acceleration of day-to-day learning. Humans are social learners and require social learning in classrooms in which the meaning of the social experience in terms of context, community, state and nation may be fully understood. With this rapid realization, computers are mainly used to assist students to CONFIRM that which is already LEARNED rather than to impart the learning itself.
Later, virtual-reality devices provided no further improvement over computers. Therefore, the mere application of computers in the classroom did not make much improvement and represented misapplied resources, wasted opportunity dollars, and can now be defined as a mistake based on performance evaluation and test scores. Need for a teaching tool that would employ the benefits of new technologies and enhance learning was considered vital. | {
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This invention relates to a technique for calibrating the ionosphere in respect to columnar electron content on a realtime universally applicable basis, and to application of that calibrating technique to surveillance of large-scale geophysical events which modify the ionosphere.
The ionosphere has been extensively explored in nonrealtime. The earliest technique involved the Ionosonde utilizing a pulsed transmitter that sends radio signals vertically upward while slowly sweeping the radio frequency.
Pulses reflected by the ionosphere are received and recorded; the elapsed time between pulsed transmission and reception can be interpreted as an apparent distance to the point of reflection. This sounds only the bottom side of the ionosphere. The resulting presentation is a curve of apparent height vs. frequency. This technique is still profitably and extensively used today. In recent years, many rockets have flown through the ionosphere to record data, and satellites have orbited above the ionosphere for similar purposes. An ionosonde in a satellite has been utilized to explore the topside of the ionosphere (that portion above the region of maximum electron concentration).
The Ionosonde technique applied at ground stations showed that the ionosphere is structured. It was first thought that discrete layers were involved, commonly referred to as D, E, F.sub.1, F.sub.2. However, rocket measurements have shown that the "layers" merge with one another to such an extent that they are now normally referred to as regions. A vertically incident radio wave is reflected from the ionosphere at that level where natural frequency of the plasma equals the radio frequency. This procedure makes it possible to identify the electron concentration at the point of reflection in terms of the radio frequency according to the relation EQU n.sub.e =1.24.times.10.sup.10 f.sup.2 ( 1)
where n.sub.e is the electron concentration per cubic meter and f is the radio frequency in megahertz.
The D region is the lowest ionospheric region extending approximately from 60 to 85 kilometers. The D region is susceptible to disturbance particularly due to x-ray bursts. The sudden ionospheric disturbances (SID's) occur over the daylight hemisphere with some solar flares; it can be shown that SID's also occur because of acoustic pressure, atomic blasts (including underground), volcanic eruptions, earthquakes which cause acoustic percussion, and large tropospheric storms.
VHF Faraday rotation has been used to estimate the charged particle count of the ionosphere, but this Faraday effect depends upon Earth's magnetic field and no measurable effect exists for electrons out of the magnetic field influence. Therefore, this technique cannot inherently measure the total electron content without modeling associated parameters.
A surprisingly large number of applications for accurate ionospheric measurements exist. The ionosphere represents a significant error source for high precision radio metric tracking data. For example, 1.times.10.sup.17 el/m.sup.2 zenith columnar content during night hours results in 12 cm of baseline length increase on an Astronomical Radio Interferometric Earth Surveying (ARIES) geodetic measurement at S-band on a 336 km distance. Spacecraft tracking at S-band and to a lesser degree at X-band by a factor of 13, also suffers from errors caused by free electrons in the radio path which are substantially the Earth's ionosphere. The time variable ionospheric electron columnar content in the tracking station to spacecraft line of sight causes variations which are highly correlated with the Doppler effects caused by changes in spacecraft right ascension and declination positions.
Less prosaic applications also exist because of the effect of troposphere to ionosphere dynamic coupling. Disturbances in the troposphere propagate into the ionosphere and can cause propagating ionospheric waves. Speculations exist concerning impulsive input in the troposphere which has manifestation in the ionosphere. For example, a tsunami event in the ocean causes an acoustic impusles which propagates into the ionosphere. The March 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption was very clearly evident in VHF Faraday rotation ionospheric monitoring at Goldstone, Calif. That Faraday rotation instrumentation has a sensitivity of approximately 3.times.10 .sup.15 el/m.sup.2 on 1 minute samples and an ambiguity of 4.times.10 .sup.16 el/m.sup.2. Other impulsive events of interest are nuclear explosions, especially underground explosions in which seismic hiding methods might be employed to confuse seismic detection of such events. If conducted underground, the explosive impulse could be transmitted to the surface and result in a tropospheric impulse which may be detectable as an ionospheric columnar electron content modification.
More direct influences in the ionosphere will also be detectable such as particle interactions, principally solar induced, but perhaps the result of ionospheric heating by input electromagnetic energy or disturbances caused by hot gases expelled by missiles during their boost phase or perhaps the testing of particle beam weapons.
Large scale weather systems in the troposphere and stratosphere probably also effect ionospheric patterns providing yet another opportunity to study global meteorological processes. Combining these ionospheric observations with the direct range and Doppler measurements from high precision geodetic receivers will yield small scale variations along the line of sight which are caused by tropospheric index of refraction changes. The water vapor and dry tropospheric components are responsible for these index changes which can be detected with millimeter path equivalent sensitivity once ionospheric effects have been removed.
It is thus evident that if the ionosphere is continually calibrated, any sudden change in the ionosphere will signal a terrestrial event within seconds. It is important to detect some events in realtime, such as a tsunami event in order to alert those in the path of these destructive sea waves, or the launching of an intercontinental missile in order to launch an intercepting missile. Other events, such as an underground atomic explosion of an experimental nature may not be as critical, but the ability to detect it in realtime would still be important.
The problem then is one of providing a technique for continual calibration of the ionosphere in realtime on at least a regional scale, but preferably on a global scale. This capability has not heretofore been available. Since the localized ionosphere is modified by terrestrial events because of troposphere acoustic coupling and direct atomic interaction, such as is due to hot gases expelled from missiles in their boost phase or plasma clouds in front of ballistic reentry vehicles or particle-beam impingng on the ionosphere, a plurality of ionosphere surveillance stations could then be clustered about any strategic area to provide passive continuous monitoring of that area for military applications as well as civil, commercial and geodetic applications while being compatible with existing active and passive local surveillance systems. | {
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Various types of coffee and tea makers have been proposed, particularly for use with glass coffee or tea pots which are sold as an integral or replacement component for such an element. Difficulties arise in the manufacture of the glass pot and matching the glass pot to the heat transfer surface of the coffee or tea maker. If the heating plate is located in the bottom of the apparatus, so that the coffee or tea pots sits on the heating plate itself, it is difficult to ensure good contact since the coffee or tea pot is hardly ever plane since, customarily, it is a pressed or blown glass element of rather wide tolerance. Locating the heating element beneath the coffee or tea pot requires a comparatively long connecting line for water from the heating element to the top of the coffee or tea pot, so that the water reaching the coffee or tea through which it percolates is not at the optimum high temperature anymore when it actually reaches the percolating surface. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Conventional image recording apparatus used in general printing, photographic printing, and copying use a light-emitting element such as laser diodes (LD) or light-emitting diodes (LED) as a light source for emitting a light beam for exposure of a recording carrier such as a photosensitive material or member. An optical modulator is used to carry picture information on the light beam. An optical deflector typically in the form of a rotary polygonal mirror deflects the light beam in a plane or in a linear direction to conduct digital primary scanning of the recording carrier. Auxiliary scanning is conducted to rotate or transfer the recording carrier as the primary scanning is continued, forming an image on the recording carrier. Thus, highly stable image signals of high quality are obtained by combining a laser with an optical modulator for modulating electrical signals indicative of picture information into optical signals and a scanner using a polygonal mirror.
The polygonal mirror ensures constant rotation at high rotation speed ranges, but experiences a speed variation at low rotation speed ranges. As the rotation speed lowers, the speed variation increases, inducing a jitter of a picture element position as will be later described in conjunction with FIG. 4.
To produce a stable image with laser scanning using a polygonal mirror, a high precision motor or a motor having an increased inertia must be used. The high precision motor is expensive, with the increased cost of a polygonal mirror assembly. The motor having an increased inertia has a certain limit above which the precision of rotation in low speed ranges cannot be improved, failing to achieve sufficient stabilization in low speed ranges.
For an assumed scanning time of 1.2 msec. as used in image recording at a density of 400 lines/inch for 10 seconds, for example, when it is desired to reduce the jitter caused by a variation in rotation of a polygonal mirror to within .+-.0.0025%, it is necessary to correct the scanning time within 30 nsec. (=1.2 msec..times.0.000025=3.times.10.sup.-5 msec.). Assume that there are 3,000 picture elements per line, in order to obtain a precision of 30 nsec./line by controlling a clock pulse per picture element of 400 nsec. (1.2 msec./3000 picture elements), the clock pulse per picture element of 400 nsec. must be corrected in a unit of 0.01 nsec. (30 nsec./3000 picture elements). The base clock used for control in 0.01 nsec. unit must have a frequency of 100 GHz (=1/0.01.times.10.sup.-9 =100.times.10.sup.9). This frequency is impractical because it is not available with commercial circuit elements currently used in business machines. | {
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Pneumatic tires used for on-road and off-road driving have a problem such that trapping of stones (stone stuffing) in circumferential main grooves needs to be reduced. When such trapping of stones occurs, separation may appear on a tread by stone drilling, and a retread rate may decrease, bringing about unfavorable results. For this reason, to reduce such trapping of stones, a recent heavy duty pneumatic tire is provided with a protrusion (stone ejector) on a groove bottom of the circumferential main groove.
A technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 has been known as a conventional pneumatic tire that employs such configuration. According to the conventional pneumatic tire (a pneumatic tire that includes a stone-stuffing protective protrusion), a stone-stuffing protective protrusion projects continuously along the circumferential direction from the groove bottom of the circumferential main groove on the tread of the pneumatic tire, and the stone-stuffing protective protrusion includes an outer surface on which curvilinear concaves and convexes are alternately formed in waves in the circumferential direction. Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H6-239107 | {
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When a business receives telephone calls, the caller is often put on hold awaiting further disposition. Before on-hold messaging was developed, callers were forced to listen to silence while they were on hold. Callers often got bored or frustrated if they were kept on hold for any length of time, sometimes to the point of hanging up. On-hold messaging systems were developed, at least in part, to solve this problem. With such systems, pre-recorded messages are played as the caller remains on hold. These messages have been in the form of music for the caller's listening pleasure and in the form of advertisements to provide the caller with information about the business. Because of the popularity of on-hold messaging, most business telephone systems available today have been designed to include on-hold messaging capabilities. These business telephone systems often include an on-hold input jack, usually referred to as a music on-hold (MOH) port. Previously, the audio output of a magnetic audio tape player was connected directly to the on-hold input jack. Typically, the messages were recorded onto endless loop cassette tapes. Once connected in this manner to the telephone system, the tape player is turned on and the endless loop cassette tape is played continuously. When a caller is put on hold, the tape player's audio output is connected to the caller's telephone receiver so that the caller hears the on-hold message or messages (i.e., music and/or advertisements). There are a number of problems associated with such on-hold messaging systems.
When used for on-hold messaging purposes, endless loop audio cassette tapes and the tape decks used to play them are prone to malfunctioning, usually from various types of mechanical failure. Such mechanical failures result in the on-hold messaging system being non-functional until the tape and/or the deck can be replaced or repaired. These tapes and decks are relatively expensive to replace or repair. The endless loop cassette tapes are typically played continuously for extended periods of time. The tapes are known to stretch, break, or just wear out and are generally replaced every 90 days before failure occurs. Being played so much, the tape decks are known to break down after a relatively short service life. Usually, the motors of the tape decks burn out. The decks typically have a life span without repair or replacement of only about six months. In addition, the tape decks were not always compatible with a given business telephone system, even when that telephone system had on-hold messaging capabilities. This incompatibility usually resulted in the sound quality (i.e., volume level and/or clarity) to be unacceptably poor.
From time to time, a business may want to vary the message being played, for example, playing seasonal music only during a particular season (e.g., Christmas music) and tailoring advertisements to a particular season's demands. For instance, a business may wish to advertise lawn mowers during the spring and summer and snow plows during winter. In addition, the business may no longer wish to play one of the messages (e.g., an advertisement on a discontinued product line) or may wish to change only a portion of one of the messages (e.g., change the brand name of the product being advertised). With prior on-hold messaging systems, businesses were limited in their ability to have such changes made to their on-hold messages.
While multiple messages can be recorded onto the endless loop cassette tape, all the messages are heard continuously with each message only being heard in the sequence in which it was recorded. In addition, the entire endless loop cassette tape is normally filled with messages (i.e., music, advertisements, etc.) in order to avoid periods of silence. Previously, in order to service the on-hold messaging needs of a business (i.e., to change the on-hold message(s)), a new tape was recorded containing the desired new and old messages. The tape recording process is costly. This cost escalates when messages which do not need changing have to be re-recorded.
Therefore, there is a need for a more versatile and reliable on-hold messaging system, which makes it easier and less expensive to service the on-hold messaging requirements of a business. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a projector having a device for measuring an angle of inclination between the projection optical axis of a projection device and a projection surface, and a method for correcting a trapezoidal distortion.
2. Description of the Related Art
As projectors have become smaller in size and higher in performance due to rapid advances in solid-state pixel display device technology, projectors for projecting images are being widely used and have become more attractive for use as large-size display apparatuses to replace home display-type TV sets.
However, since a projector, unlike a display-type TV set, projects an image onto a projection surface such as a screen or a wall, the displayed image tends to be distorted, depending on the relative relationship between the projection optical axis of the projector and the projection surface. The specification etc. of Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 281597/97 discloses a process of adjusting the angle of a liquid crystal display unit. The process has the step of detecting the installation angle of a liquid crystal projector and the step of detecting the distance between the liquid crystal projector and the projection surface onto which an image is projected. According to the disclosed processes, the angle of the liquid crystal display unit needs to be mechanically adjusted.
There has also been disclosed a projector apparatus that detects the distance from the projection lens to a screen, calculates the angle of inclination, then automatically corrects the distortion based on the detected distance. See the specification etc. of Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 355740/92, No. 81593/2000, and No. 122617/2000 for details.
In these prior art systems or processes in which the distance to the screen is detected, however, the distance measuring device is provided independently of the projector. The projected images are not utilized. Further, the measured distance and the actual distance to the screen do not always coincide, if the screen is surrounded by a frame projecting forwardly toward the projector, or the screen is set back away from the projector.
The specification etc. of Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 169211/2001 discloses a process of correcting a distortion by projecting a beam spot onto a curved screen from an angle-controllable laser pointer. According to the disclosed process, a spot image is generated and projected onto a screen by the projector, and the beam spot and the projected spot image are captured by a camera for measuring their positions. The spot image is moved until it overlaps with the beam spot, then the coordinate of the pixel of the spot image in the frame memory is replaced with the coordinate of the beam spot and stored in a coordinate transform parameter memory. Although this process is excellent for acquiring an angle accurately, it needs a means to control the different angles (positions) of the laser pointer, and also requires a complicated system configuration, since it is necessary to employ a laser pointer and a digital camera having a two-dimensional array of imaging elements.
According to another disclosed projector that sells in the market, the inclination of the projector in the vertical direction, which easily causes a distortion, is detected by a gravity sensor, when a screen is set vertically. The distortion is corrected depending on the detected inclination. See the specification etc. of Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 5278/2003 for details. However, the projector cannot correct the distortion correctly, if the screen is not set vertically or the screen is inclined in the horizontal plane with respect to the projection optical axis of the projector.
Once the angles of inclination of optical axis of the projector apparatus are detected with regards to the screen in the vertical and horizontal directions, an image can be projected without distortion from the projector onto the screen by means of conventional techniques such as the conversion of the coordinates of a frame memory of the projector, etc. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to synthetic fibers used in the manufacture of non-woven fabrics. In particular, the present invention relates to polypropylene fibers intended for such use, processes of producing polypropylene fibers, compositions for producing polypropylene fibers, non-woven fabrics produced with polypropylene fibers, and articles containing polypropylene fibers.
2. Background Information
The production of polypropylene fibers and filaments usually involves the use of a mix of a single polymer with nominal amounts of stabilizers and pigments. The mix is melt extruded into fibers and fibrous products using conventional commercial processes. Non-woven fabrics are typically made by making a web of the fibers, and then thermally bonding the fibers together where they meet. More specifically, staple fibers are converted into non-woven fabrics using, for example, a carding machine, and the carded fabric is thermally bonded. The thermal bonding can be achieved using various heating techniques, including heating with heated rollers and heating through the use of ultrasonic welding.
Conventional thermally bonded non-woven fabrics exhibit good loft and softness properties, but less than optimal cross-directional strength, and less than optimal cross-directional strength in combination with high elongation. The strength of the thermally bonded non-woven fabrics depends upon the orientation of the fibers and the inherent strength of the bond points.
Over the years, improvements have been made in fibers which provide stronger bond strengths. However, further improvements are needed to provide even higher fabric strengths to permit use of these fabrics in today's high speed converting processes for hygiene products, such as diapers and other types of incontinence products. In particular, there is a need for a thermally bondable fiber and a resulting nonwoven fabric that possess high cross-directional strength and high elongation. Additionally, there is a need for a one-step process for making staple fiber known as a "short spin" process that provides filaments and fibers with properties as good as those produced by a two-step process called a "long spin" process. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Field
Exemplary embodiments relate to a display device. More particularly, exemplary embodiments relate to an adaptive black clipping circuit for enhancing display quality, a display device including the adaptive black clipping circuit, and an adaptive black clipping method.
Discussion of the Background
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device that uses a thin film transistor (TFT) as a switching element is widely used. The LCD device includes a first substrate including pixel or pixel units each having a respective, to-be-charged pixel electrode, a second substrate including a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first and second substrates. If an electric field having a same direction or polarity is continuously applied to the liquid crystal layer, a desired characteristic of a liquid crystal may be degraded. In order to prevent the degradation of the characteristic of the liquid crystal, an inversion driving method may be used which repeatedly inverts a polarity of a data voltage applied across the liquid crystal by unit of frame, by unit of row or by unit of pixel, where the polarity is with respect to a common voltage applied to the common electrode.
For example, in case of a dot inversion method (DIM) in which the polarity of the data voltage is inverted repeatedly by unit of pixel (that is, pixel by pixel), the degradation of the characteristic of the liquid crystal may be prevented or reduced. However, the process of providing the inverted or not inverted data voltages to respective individual pixels may be complicated, signals on the data lines may be delayed as a result, and power consumption of the LCD device may be disadvantageously increased. To solve the above-mentioned problems, a column inversion method has been proposed in which the data voltages having polarities different from each other are applied to adjacent data lines. When employing the column inversion method, the polarity of data voltage applied to each respective data line is inverted in each successive frame so that the applying process of the data voltage may be simplified, and the delay time of the signals on the data lines may be decreased.
To obtain the DIM checkerboard effect while instead using the column inversion method, pixels in a single column are alternately connected to one of two data lines adjacent to the column of pixels. In addition, a precharge driving method may be used to compensate for a charging time that tends to become shortened according to increase of resolution. However, when the precharge driving method is used, the appropriate precharging voltage is sufficiently charged only onto some pixel electrodes but not onto other pixel electrodes (where precharging is based on a previous data voltage applied to nearby pixel electrodes), and a difference of effective precharging relative to desired luminance can develop as between two adjacent rows of pixels. Accordingly, a difference of actual luminance between two adjacent rows of pixels (as opposed to desired luminances) may be undesirably created due to the difference of effective or ineffective prechargings applied to those adjacent rows. Thus, a horizontal dark or bright streak line may appear to be displayed on a display panel as an undesirable artifact resulting from the precharging process so that displayed image appears to have defects.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept, and, therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Ceramic honeycomb filters are commonly employed to filter exhaust gases. For example, ceramic honeycomb filters are known to be used to remove particulate and/or gases from the exhaust stream of a diesel engine. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention generally relates to an exterior sideview mirror assembly suitable for mounting on a vehicle and, more particularly, to an exterior sideview mirror assembly which incorporates a film applique to provide a decorative appearance to the assembly.
More recently, the trend in exterior sideview mirror assemblies has been to provide housings for the exterior sideview mirror assemblies that match the body of the vehicle. In addition, these housings are often molded with their respective mounting arms or "sails" to provide a unitary housing which exhibits enhanced aerodynamic characteristics. However, in an attempt to reduce the cost of manufacturing such assemblies, a composite assembly has been developed which includes a base housing or frame and a shell or skull cap which is mounted to the frame, for example by snap connectors. The frame is formed from an engineering plastic, typically reinforced engineering plastic, such as reinforced nylon or the like. The shell or skull cap is formed from a plastic substrate which is then painted to match the vehicle body color. The structural capacity of the housing is provided by the frame, with the shell providing a decorative covering over at least a portion of the frame so that the housing generally matches the vehicle body. In some cases, however, these sideview mirror assemblies have exhibited increased wind noise. This wind noise is generated, such as, by the gap between the decorative shell and the frame of the mirror assembly.
Various attempts have been made to minimize and/or eliminate the wind noise. One approach is to eliminate the gap between the decorative shell and the frame. However, in order to eliminate this gap, the tolerances on the respective parts must be extremely tight which adds to the expense of the sideview mirror assembly, thus effectively eliminating the savings achieved by the skull cap design. Another approach is to alter the surface topology of the decorative shell to separate the air flow over the exterior sideview mirror assembly, which reduces the noise of the wind flow.
For example, in German Pat. No. 4,039,484 to Bayerische Motoren Werke A G, a plurality of raised portions or "bumps" are provided to separate the air flow over the housing. However, these raised portions are not aesthetically pleasing to some automobile manufactures and, further, project above the assembly potentially creating a distraction to the driver. In addition, it has been found that when a discontinuity is introduced into the substrate of the skull cap (such as when it is molded into a molding tool), that the noise reduction advantages of the surface molded discontinuity is significantly reduced by the painting process since the painting process alters the surface topology of the substrate. Rather than following the surface discontinuities, the paint partially fills in the discontinuities.
More recently in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/482,199, entitled OUTSIDE SIDEVIEW MIRROR ASSEMBLY WITH REDUCED WIND NOISE, filed Jan. 12, 2000, by Leo W. Pavao and Tun-Jen Chu, commonly assigned to Donnelly Corporation, which is herein incorporated reference in its entirety, a skull cap incorporating wind noise reduction features is disclosed that uses a film to provide the desired decorative appearance but which maintains the definition of the wind noise reduction features of the skull cap so that the noise reduction features are maintained even after the skull cap is decorated.
While these decorative covers offer unique styling and assembly and, further, have resolved the wind noise problems associated with conventional skull caps, these decorative covers still increase the number of parts and hence the assembly time as compared to conventional unitary sideview mirror designs. Consequently, there is a need for an exterior sideview mirror assembly which includes a unique outer surface for matching the vehicle to which the assembly is to be mounted to provide an aesthetic appearance of the mirror assembly without the noise associated with conventional skull cap designs while reducing the number of parts. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates primarily to turbomachinery blading and, more particularly, to an improved tip cap configuration for a hollow turbomachinery blade and a method of making such a configuration.
It is well known that significant increases in gas turbine engine performance, in terms of thrust or work output per unit of fluid input, can be obtained by increasing the turbine inlet temperature of the motive fluid or hot gas stream flowing through the engine. It is also recognized that one major limitation on turbine inlet temperature is that which is imposed by the turbine blade temperature capability. In an effort to extend turbine blade capabilities, numerous complex turbomachinery blade structures have been proposed which employ one or more modes of cooling using fluid extracted from the gas turbine engine compressor.
One such mode of cooling which is becoming prevalent is the provision of impingement inserts within an internal cavity defined by a hollow body portion of the turbomachinery blade. Coolant is delivered to the interior of such an insert and is expelled through a multiplicity of small holes against an internal wall of the turbomachinery blade, thereby cooling that portion of the turbomachinery blade which is exposed to the hot gas stream.
In order to permit insertion of the impingement inserts into the interior of the turbomachinery blade, many such blades are provided with open tip ends. As is known to those skilled in the art, in order to maximize turbine efficiency, it becomes necessary to minimize the amount of cooling air which is expended in cooling each component. For this reason, it has become necessary to seal the tip ends of the blades in order to prevent cooling fluid from being wastefully discharged into the gas stream. In many prior art designs, the open tip end of the blade is sealed by means of a tip cap which is joined to the blade in a suitable manner. While a number of alternative methods have been proposed in the past for joining the tip cap to the blade, none of these methods has proven universally acceptable for numerous reasons. When one considers that these tip caps must operate in an environment where they are subjected to centrifugal forces on the order of 100,000 times the normal gravitational force and metal temperatures in excess of 1500.degree. F., it becomes easy to envision why no single method of joining the tip cap to the blade has proven universally acceptable.
When one further considers the fact that the tip cap is inserted in an airfoil-shaped blade and that any distortion in the shape of the airfoil at its tip end can greatly reduce the aerodynamic efficiency of the blade, the problems of joining the tip cap to the blade increase. The problems are even further complicated when cooling requirements for that portion of the blade tip which extends above the tip cap are considered. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The references cited herein are not admitted to be prior art to the claimed invention.
Neuropeptides present in the hypothalamus play a major role in mediating the control of body weight. (Flier et al., 1998, Cell, 92, 437–440.) Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is a cyclic 19-amino acid neuropeptide synthesized as part of a larger pre-prohormone precursor in the hypothalamus that also encodes neuropeptides NEI and NGE. (Nahon et al., 1990, Mol. Endocrinol., 4, 632–637.) MCH was first identified in salmon pituitary, and in fish MCH affects melanin aggregation thus affecting skin pigmentation. In trout and in eels MCH has also been shown to be involved in stress induced or CRF-stimulated ACTH release. (Kawauchi et al., 1983, Nature, 305, 321–323.)
In humans two genes encoding MCH have been identified that are expressed in the brain. (Breton et al., 1993, Mol. Brain Res., 18, 297–310.) In mammals MCH has been localized primarily to neuronal cell bodies of the hypothalamus which are implicated in the control of food intake, including perikarya of the lateral hypothalamus and zona inertia. (Knigge et al., 1996, Peptides, 17, 1063–1073.)
Pharmacological and genetic evidence suggest that the primary mode of MCH action is to promote feeding (orexigenic). MCH mRNA is up regulated in fasted mice and rats and in the ob/ob mouse. (Qu et al., 1996, Nature, 380, 243–247.) Injection of MCH centrally (ICV) stimulates food intake and MCH antagonizes the hypophagic effects seen with α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (αMSH). (Qu et al., 1996, Nature, 380, 243–247.) MCH-deficient mice are lean, hypophagic, and have increased metabolic rate. (Shimada et al., 1998, Nature, 396, 670–673.)
MCH action is not limited to modulation of food intake as effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary-axis have been reported. (Nahon, 1994, Critical Rev. in Neurobiol., 8, 221–262.) MCH may be involved in the body response to stress as MCH can modulate the stress-induced release of CRF from the hypothalamus and ACTH from the pituitary. In addition, MCH neuronal systems may be involved in reproductive or maternal function.
Several references describe a receptor that is indicated to bind MCH. (Chambers et al., 1999, Nature, 400, 261–265; Saito et al., 1999, Nature, 400, 265–269; Bächner et al., 1999, FEBS Letters, 457, 522–524; Shimomura et al., 1999, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 261, 622–626; and Lembo et al., 1999, Nat. Cell Biol., 1, 267–271.) | {
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a projection display device such as a projector.
2. Prior Arts
The projection display device needs to further enhance the contrast of a projected image because the projected image is significantly affected by projection environments.
A single panel projector employing a color switch is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-346219. The projector achieves the enhanced image contrast by taking a procedure of calculating an average luminance of input image signals and controlling the transmittance of the color switch based on the resultant average luminance. This prior-art technique has the following problem. Since the transmittance of the color switch is controlled based on the average luminance of the input image signals, the maximum luminance cannot be attained as the result of the rounding operation. In addition, this prior-art technique is limited to the single panel projector.
On the other hand, a technique of using plural light emitting diodes (LED) as a backlight of a liquid crystal display is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-128125. This prior-art technique offers effective means for enhancing the contrast of image on a direct-view LED display. However, plural light sources are necessary for adapting this technique to the projector, resulting in the increase of cost and size of the display. It is impracticable to apply this technique to the display. | {
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The present invention relates to farm implements and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for notifying the operator of a farm implement during an active seeding exercise that the farm implement is traversing a previously seeded area of a farm field.
Seed, fertilizer, inoculants, and the like are typically applied to a farm field, or other planning surface, using an air seeders or similar agricultural implement. A conventional air seeder includes an air cart that includes one or more hoppers and metering devices to hold particulate material and meter the particulate material from the hoppers for subsequent delivery to an air hoe drill or similar device for ultimate application on the farm field by row units.
To keep pace with the increasing in field sizes, air seeder manufactures have designed and made air seeders having larger hoppers and air hoe drills with greater field coverage, i.e., more row units. While larger air seeders with greater field coverage in a single pass, the larger equipment proves to be difficult when attempting to seed/fertilize a smaller piece of land within a larger piece of land, or a piece of land with an irregular shape. As a result, the cost expended on seed and fertilizer is in excess of what is necessary for proper seeding and fertilizing. Additionally, over-fertilization and/or over-seeding of an area causes the crop to lodge and not ripen at the appropriate time causing harvest problems and losses in yield. The accumulative effect of the seeding and fertilizing overlap in small sections over many fields can become a very significant expense to a farmer.
Prior art implements have sought to remedy this situation by implementing a metering device in the seeder than can apply a specific quantity of seed per linear distance. However, the prior art has not resolved the problem that double seeding can occur when the land seeded is too narrow or odd shaped for the seeding device. Further, the prior art has not resolved the problem that even though the meter has been turned off, ground-engaging openers are still engaging the ground and destroying the seed bed. This causes the seeded area which is overlapped to be destroyed by the ground-engaging openers resulting in uneven germination causing further problems with a poor crop and an uneven harvest in these areas.
Canadian Patent 2,503,174 provides for a multi-compartment air seeding system where each compartment is assigned to a selected air stream based on the volume or type of seed and fertilizer required for a specific crop. A metering assembly is provided which comprises a metering house 80 for receiving the seed or fertilizer material as well as a metering roller for metering the material. Metering cells then collect the material for seeding. Diverter plates are also provided to move front and backwards to open and close the tops of either the front and rear material cells.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,163 further provides a distribution manifold for an air seeder for dispensing product. Further, it provides by-pass ports and venturi ports, with the venturi ports making up the row of ports in which product from the product tank associated with the primary distribution manifold is to be deposited. The by-pass ports make up the remainder of rows in the primary distribution manifold. If the venturi ports do not make up the top row of ports in the primary distribution manifold, product from the associated product tank flows through rows of by-pass ports until the product encounters a row of venturi ports. Following entering into the venturi ports, product is carried by the pneumatic distribution system to the tillage. This device promotes a smooth flow of metered product as well as allowing the operator to adapt the pneumatic distribution system for varying configurations.
Although both of the above prior art devices disclose air seeders that allow for metered seeding or fertilizing, neither of the above devices disclose a device that is both able to selectively obstruct a portion of the meter, as well as lift the corresponding ground-engaging openers, thus, preventing double seeding and the destruction of the seed bed.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,690,440 discloses an apparatus that purports to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art described in the aforementioned Canadian patent and U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,163. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 7,690,440 describes an agricultural seeder or fertilizer having a meter device which dispenses seed or fertilizer to a plurality of ground-engaging members. The supply of metered seed or fertilizer to each of the ground-engaging members is controlled via input from a GPS/GNSS satellite navigation system to prevent the meter device delivering seed or fertilizer to selected of the ground-engaging members which would otherwise pass over soil which has been previously seeded or fertilized. Raising means, responsive to input from the GPS/GNSS satellite navigation system detecting that the device is travelling or is about to travel over areas of soil that has been previously seeded or fertilized, is further provided to raise the selected ground-engaging members to which delivery of seed/fertilizer has been prevented in order to prevent soil which has been previously seeded or fertilized from being disturbed.
While effective in preventing double seeding, the system described in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,690,440 and similar automated systems remove control of the seed metering system and raising/lowering of the ground-engaging members from the implement operator when the automated system determines, based on inputs received from the GPS/GNSS satellite navigation system, that the implement is traversing previously seeded land. While an automated system provides surety against double seeding or engaging a disc opener with seeded land, some operators may prefer that the metering system and/or tool bar to which the disc openers are mounted not be automatically controlled.
Consequently, there is a need for a system that notifies an operator of an implement that the implement, or parts thereof, is crossing in or out of already seeded or fertilized zones, which allows the operator to smartly, but manually control the seed metering system and/or tool bar to prevent repetitive seeding and/or fertilizing as well as prevent disturbing previously seeded/fertilized land. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to rail car braking systems and, more particularly, to an automatic parking brake that may be used with body mounted brake cylinders.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most rail vehicles have a manually-operated parking brake that applies the wheel brakes. Unfortunately, this requires that an operator manually apply the brake on each rail car in a train. As a result, an automatic parking brake, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,163,090, has been developed that will retain the braking system of any rail car equipped with the brake in the brakes applied position if brake pipe pressure is removed from a locking mechanism position about the shaft of the brake cylinder. Body mount brake cylinders are typically constructed with a hollow rod affixed to the piston and apply the brake force to the brake rigging by means of a push rod inside the hollow rod. This arrangement accommodates angular misalignment of the push rod as the connected brake lever operates through an arc, and decouples the manual hand brake from the body mount cylinder when the cylinder is released and the hand brake applies. In this condition, the hand brake acts on the same brake rigging as the body mount brake cylinder. In the hand brake applied position, the rigging pulls the body mount brake push rod independent of the brake piston, allowing the brake piston to remain in the released position, and decouples the influence of the body mount brake cylinder return spring from the hand brake application. Accordingly, there is a need for an automatic parking brake that can be used with body mounted braking systems while still using a hollow rod, or the same functionality as a hollow rod, so that the piston rod can still accommodates angular misalignment as the connected brake lever operates through an arc. | {
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile service licensing and more particularly to a system and method for providing service license aggregation across multiple physical and virtual SIM cards.
Description of the Related Art
Mobile devices may currently be provisioned with licenses for different services or service packages available on a wireless network. Many of these services may be offered by the carrier and charged to the customer on a per service level, or bundled with different service options. Often, service licenses are associated with a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card. However, when a user swaps SIM cards from a given device for various reasons, such as changing network access when traveling to different geographic locations, the service licenses associated with the original SIM card may not be accessible. | {
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Obesity, and especially upper body obesity, is a common and very serious public health problem in the United States and throughout the world. According to recent statistics, more than 25% of the United States population and 27% of the Canadian population are over weight. Kuczmarski, Amer. J. of Clin. Nut. 55: 495S-502S (1992); Reeder et. al., Can. Med. Ass. J., 23:226-233 (1992). Upper body obesity is the strongest risk factor known for type II diabetes mellitus, and is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease and cancer as well. Recent estimates for the medical cost of obesity are $150,000,000,000 world wide. The problem has become serious enough that the surgeon general has begun an initiative to combat the ever increasing adiposity rampant in American society.
Much of this obesity induced pathology can be attributed to the strong association with dyslipidemia, hypertension, and insulin resistance. Many studies have demonstrated that reduction in obesity by diet and exercise reduces these risk factors dramatically. Unfortunately these treatments are largely unsuccessful with a failure rate reaching 95%. This failure may be due to the fact that the condition is strongly associated with genetically inherited factors that contribute to increased appetite, preference for highly caloric foods, reduced physical activity, and increased lipogenic metabolism. This indicates that people inheriting these genetic traits are prone to becoming obese regardless of their efforts to combat the condition. Therefore, a new pharmacological agent that can correct this adiposity handicap and allow the physician to successfully treat obese patients in spite of their genetic inheritance is needed.
The ob/ob mouse is a model of obesity and diabetes that is known to carry an autosomal recessive trait linked to a mutation in the sixth chromosome. Recently, Yiying Zhang and co-workers published the positional cloning of the mouse gene linked with this condition. Yiying Zhang et al. Nature 372: 425-32 (1994). This report disclosed a gene coding for a 167 amino acid protein with a 21 amino acid signal peptide that is exclusively expressed in adipose tissue. The report continues to disclose that a mutation resulting in the conversion of a codon for arginine at position 105 to a stop codon results in the expression of a truncated protein, which presumably is inactive.
Physiologist have postulated for years that, when a mammal overeats, the resulting excess fat signals to the brain that the body is obese which, in turn, causes the body to eat less and burn more fuel. G. R. Hervey, Nature 227:629-631 (1969). This "feedback" model is supported by parabiotic experiments, which implicate a circulating hormone controlling adiposity. Based on this model, the protein, which is apparently encoded by the ob gene, is now speculated to be an adiposity regulating hormone.
Pharmacological agents which are biologically active and mimic the activity of this protein are useful to help patients regulate their appetite and metabolism and thereby control their adiposity. Until the present invention, such a pharmacological agent was unknown.
The present invention provides biologically active anti-obesity proteins. Such agents therefore allow patients to overcome their obesity handicap and live normal lives with a more normalized risk for type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. | {
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I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for attenuating noise resulting from fuel pump pulsation in a direct injection internal combustion engine.
II. Description of Related Art
Direct injection internal combustion engines have enjoyed increased acceptance for a variety of reasons. In particular, direct fuel injection into the engine combustion chamber typically results in better fuel economy and more efficient operation of the internal combustion engine.
In a direct injection internal combustion engine, a passageway is formed in the engine block, which includes the engine cylinder head, that is open to each combustion chamber. A direct injection fuel injector is then positioned within this passageway for each of the engine combustion chambers so that an outlet from the fuel injector is open to its associated combustion chamber.
Each fuel injector also includes an inlet that is connected by a fuel rail and typically a fuel pipe to a fuel pump. The fuel pump creates high pressure in the fuel rail and this high pressure, in turn, is fluidly connected to each fuel injector. Thus, upon activation or opening of each fuel injector, the injector injects the fuel directly into the engine combustion chamber.
One disadvantage of these previously known direct fuel injection engines, however, is that the fuel pump is typically cam driven and thus creates fuel pressure pulsations to the fuel rail. These fuel pressure pulsations, furthermore, vary in frequency in dependence upon the engine rpm. These fuel pump pulsations disadvantageously result in vibrations that are transmitted by the fuel injectors to the engine block and create an audible and undesirable noise as well as vibration and possible part fatigue. | {
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Digital broadband broadcast networks enable end users to receive digital content including video, audio, data, and so forth. Using a digital video broadcast receiver or a suitable mobile terminal, a user may receive digital content over a wireless digital broadcast network. Digital content can be transmitted in a cell within a network. A cell may represent a geographical area that may be covered by a transmitter in a communication network. A network may have multiple cells, and cells may be adjacent to other cells.
A receiver device, such as a mobile terminal, may receive a program or service in a data or transport stream. The transport stream carries individual elements of the program or service such as the audio, video, and data components of a program or service. Typically, the receiver device locates the different components of a particular program or service in a data stream through Program Specific Information (PSI) or Service Information (SI) embedded in the data stream. However, PSI or SI signalling may be insufficient in some wireless communications systems, such as Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) systems. Use of PSI or SI signalling in such systems may result in a sub-optimal end user experience as the PSI and SI tables carrying in PSI and SI information may have long repetition periods. In addition, PSI or SI signalling requires a relatively large amount of bandwidth which is costly and also decreases efficiency of the system.
The data transmission in certain digital video broadcast systems, e.g., Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial Second Generation (DVB-T2) is defined to be Time Division Multiplex (TDM) and possibly in addition frequency hopping (Time Frequency Slicing). Thus, Time-Frequency slots are assigned to each service. Further, different levels of robustness (i.e. coding and modulation) may be provided for the services. Considering the foregoing and other signalling factors, a relatively large amount of signalling information is involved. The signalling is transmitted in preamble symbols called P2 symbols following the P1 symbol.
Open System Interconnection (OSI) layer L1 (physical layer) signaling is divided into L1-pre (signalling) and L1 signalling, where L1-pre is of static size while the size of L1 varies as the amount of Physical Layer Pipes (PLPs) varies. L1-pre signalling acts as a key to the L1 signalling by signalling its transmission parameters, i.e., size, code rate, modulation, and the like. To enable the receiver to start receiving services, reception of L1-pre should be possible without other preliminary information than what is obtained from the reception of pilot or preamble symbol P1 (including FFT-size, guard interval (GI), Frame type).
Future Extension Frames (FEF) (also referred to herein as extension frames) are not part of a particular signalled telecommunication system. Instead the extension frames are separated in time from frames of data of the telecommunication system. Extension frames can be considered as ‘black holes’ between frames carrying the services of the telecommunication system in that a receiver may not be able to receive (i.e., extract meaningful information from) the extension frames. But the receiver should know when in time the extension frames occur so that the receiver can ignore the extension frames in case the receiver is not able to receive the extension frames.
As such, a signalling scheme that allows a transmitter to inform the receivers when the FEFs are scheduled would advance the art. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a transistor, and more particularly, to a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
To achieve a higher integration of semiconductor devices, the size of the semiconductor devices needs to be reduced. Particularly, a critical dimension (CD), which generally equals a length of a gate electrode of a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), needs to be reduced. However, a reduced CD results in a reduced channel length of a MOSFET, which causes various problems often referred to as short-channel effects.
Short channel effects deteriorate the characteristics of the MOSFET. For instance, as the channel length decreases, a threshold voltage decreases, a drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) phenomenon occurs, and a leakage current between a drain and a source increases.
In order to prevent or alleviate the short channel effects, there is proposed a method for implanting impurities for threshold voltage adjustment over an entire surface of a channel. However, this method does not allow high integration of semiconductor devices.
Alternative methods for alleviating the short channel effects have also been proposed. For example, in order to adjust a vertical doping profile, a super steep retrograde (SSR) well or a pocket implantation may be formed. However, these methods do not prevent the decrease in the threshold voltage due to the short channel effects. For another example, halo ion implantation regions formed in lower portions of the source/drain regions may also be formed to reduce the short channel effects.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a semiconductor device illustrating a related art method for forming halo ion implantation regions.
Referring to FIG. 1, a gate oxide 7 and a gate electrode 9 are formed on a semiconductor substrate 1. Semiconductor substrate 1 may comprise silicon. Semiconductor substrate 1 includes a low concentration impurity region 3 and a high concentration impurity region 5 acting as a source or drain region on each side of gate oxide 7 and gate electrode 9. Oxide spacers 11 are formed on sidewalls of gate electrode 9 and gate oxide 7.
To form halo ion implantation regions 13, impurities are implanted into lower portions of the source/drain regions using gate electrode 9 and oxide spacers 11 as an ion implantation mask. Halo ion implantation regions 13 prevent the reduction in the threshold voltage and preserve the channel mobility.
However, a problem with the related art halo ion implantation method is that a junction capacitance may be increased and a junction depth is affected because the halo ion implantation regions are formed in source/drain regions as well as the semiconductor substrate region. Accordingly, when the integration density is high, the threshold voltage of devices with halo ion implantation regions is difficult to control. | {
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The present invention relates to certain 4,7-disubstituted derivatives of 3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrrolo[1,2-a]pyrazin-1-one compounds, which modulate the activity of protein kinases. The compounds of this invention are therefore useful in treating diseases caused by dysregulated protein kinase activity. The present invention also relates to methods for preparing these compounds, combinatorial libraries thereof, pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds, and methods of treating diseases utilizing pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds.
The malfunctioning of protein kinases (PKs) is the hallmark of numerous diseases. A large share of the oncogenes and proto-oncogenes involved in human cancers code for PKs. The enhanced activities of PKs are also implicated in many non-malignant diseases, such as benign prostate hyperplasia, familial adenomatosis, polyposis, neuro-fibromatosis, psoriasis, vascular smooth cell proliferation associated with atherosclerosis, pulmonary fibrosis, arthritis glomerulonephritis and post-surgical stenosis and restenosis.
PKs are also implicated in inflammatory conditions and in the multiplication of viruses and parasites. PKs may also play a major role in the pathogenesis and development of neurodegenerative disorders.
For general reference to PKs malfunctioning or disregulation see, for instance, Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 1999, 3, 459-465 and Carcinogenesis 2008, 29, 1087-191.
8-Hydroxy-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrrolo[1,2-a]pyrazin-1-one derivatives for prevention and treatment of infection by HIV and in the prevention, delay in the onset and treatment of AIDS are disclosed in WO 2004/047725 in the name of Merck & Co., Inc., USA. The present inventors have now discovered that the new compounds of formula (I), described below, are kinase inhibitors and are thus useful in therapy as antitumor agents. | {
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In connection with polarization, compensation and retardation layers, films, or plates described in the present application, the following definitions of terms are used throughout the text.
The definition of a “thin” optical film is related to the wavelength of light: a thin optical film is that having a thickness comparable with a half of the wavelength of light in the working interval of optical spectrum.
The term optical axis refers to a direction in which the propagating light does not exhibit birefringence. The optical properties of an optical compensation film are described by the refractive index ellipsoid, with the refractive indices nx, ny, and nz in the directions of x, y and z axes, respectively. The in-plane x and y axes are mutually orthogonal and are both orthogonal to the vertical z axis.
Liquid crystals are widely used in electronics as optical display elements. In such display systems, a liquid crystal cell is typically situated between a pair of polarizer and analyzer plates. The incident light is polarized by the polarizer and transmitted through a liquid crystal cell, where it is affected by the molecular orientation of the liquid crystal that can be controlled by applying a bias voltage across the cell. Then, the thus altered light passes through the second (output) polarizer that is called analyzer. By employing this scheme, the transmission of light from any external source, including ambient light, can be controlled. The energy required to provide for this control is generally much lower than that required for controlling the emission from luminescent materials used in other types of displays such as cathode ray tubes (CRTs). Accordingly, liquid crystal technology is used in a number of electronic imaging devices, including (but not limited to) digital watches, calculators, portable computers, and electronic games, for which small weight, low power consumption, and long working life are important.
The contrast, colour reproduction (colour rendering), and stable grey scale intensity gradation are important quality characteristics of electronic displays employing liquid crystal technology. The primary factor determining the contrast of a liquid crystal display (LCD) is the propensity for light to “leak” through liquid crystal elements or cells, which are in the dark or “black” pixel state. In addition, the optical leakage and, hence, the contrast of an LCD also depend on the direction from which the display screen is viewed. Typically, the optimum contrast is observed only within a narrow viewing angle range around the normal (α=0) to the display and falls off rapidly as the polar viewing angle α is increased. The viewing direction herein is defined as a set of the polar viewing angle (α) and the azimuthal viewing angle (β) as shown in FIG. 1 with respect to a liquid crystal display 1. The polar viewing angle α is measured from the display normal direction 2 and the azimuthal viewing angle β spans between an appropriate reference direction 3 in the plane of the display surface 4 and the projection 5 of viewing arrow 6 onto the display surface 4. Various display image properties such as the contrast ratio, color reproduction, and image brightness are functions of the angles α and β. In colour displays, the leakage problem not only decreases the contrast but also causes colour or hue shifts with the resulting degradation of colour reproduction.
LCDs are now replacing CRTs as monitors for television (TV) sets, computers (especially in notebook computers and desktop computers), central control units, and various devices, for example, gambling machines, electro-optical displays, (e.g., in watches, pocket calculators, electronic pocket games), portable data banks (such as personal digital assistants or mobile telephones). It is expected that the proportion of LCD television monitors with a larger screen size will also sharply increase in the nearest future. However, unless problems related to the effect of viewing angle on the colour reproduction, contrast degradation, and brightness inversion are solved, the replacement of traditional CRTs by LCDs will be limited.
The type of optical compensation required depends on the type of display used in each particular system. In a normally black display, the twisted nematic cell is placed between polarizers whose transmission axes are parallel to one another and to the orientation of the liquid crystal director at the rear surface of the cell (i.e., at the cell side that is away from the viewer). In the unenergized state (zero applied voltage), normally incident light from the backlight system is polarized by the first polarizer and transmitted through the cell with the polarization direction rotated by the twist angle of the cell. The twist angle is set to 90 DEG so that the output polarizer (analyzer) blocks this light. Patterns can be written in the display by selectively applying a voltage to the portions of the display that are to appear illuminated.
However, when viewed at large angles, the dark (unenergized) areas of a normally black display will appear bright because of the angle-dependent retardation effect for the light rays passing through the liquid crystal layer at such angles, whereby off-normal incident light exhibits an angle-dependent change in the polarization. The contrast can be restored by using a compensating element, which has an optical symmetry similar to that of a twist cell but produces the reverse effect. One method consists in introducing an active liquid crystal layer containing a twist cell of the reverse helicity. Another method is to use one or more uniaxial compensators. These compensation methods work because the compensation element has the same optical symmetry as that of the twist nematic cell: both are made of uniaxial birefringent materials having an extraordinary axis that is orthogonal to the normal light propagation direction. These approaches to compensation have been widely utilized because of readily available materials with the required optical symmetry.
Thus, the technological progress poses the task of developing optical elements based on new materials with desired controllable properties. In particular, important optical elements in modern visual display systems are optically anisotropic films with optical characteristics optimised for use in a particular display module.
Various polymeric materials are known in the prior art, which are intended for use in the production of optically anisotropic films. Films based on these polymers acquire optical anisotropy through uniaxial extension and coloration with organic or inorganic (iodine) dyes. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is among polymers that are widely used for this purpose. However, a relatively low thermal stability of PVA based films limits their applications. PVA based films are described in greater detail in the monograph Liquid Crystals-Applications and Uses, B. Bahadur (ed.), World Scientific, Singapore-New York (1990), Vol. 1, p. 101.
Organic dichroic dyes constitute a new class of materials currently gaining prominence in the manufacture of optically anisotropic films with desirable optical and working characteristics. Films based on these materials can be obtained by applying an aqueous liquid crystal (LC) solution of supramolecules containing dye molecules onto a substrate surface, with the subsequent evaporation of water.
A hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance of molecules of polycyclic organic compounds makes them soluble in water and stimulates their self-assembly into supramolecules. Organic compounds in water form a colloid system or lyotropic liquid crystal, where molecules aggregate into supramolecules and these supramolecules represent kinetic units of the colloidal system (see, P. I. Lazarev, M. V. Paukshto, “Multilayer optical coating,” U.S. 2004/0233528 (2004)). Spectral characteristics and rheological properties of materials (see, V. Nazarov, L. Ignatov, K. Kienskaya, “Electronic Spectra of Aqueous Solutions and Films Made of Liquid Crystal Ink for Thin Film Polarizers,” Molecular Materials, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 153-163 (2001); S. Remizov, A. Krivoshchepov, V. Nazarov, A. Grodsky, “Rheology of The Lyotropic Liquid Crystalline Material for Thin Film Polarizers,” Molecular Materials, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 179-190 (2001)) indicate strong tendency of these molecules to aggregate, even in diluted aqueous solutions, with formation of supramolecules with columnar structure. Columnar structure is specific for flat shaped molecules grouped in “face-to-face” fashion with hydrophobic molecular planar cores of aromatic conjugated bond system stacked on each other inside of the supramolecule core and the hydrophilic peripheral groups exposed to water. Water provides the medium for electrostatic interaction and mutual alignment of supramolecules with resulting lyotropic liquid crystal structure of certain symmetry at certain level of aggregates concentration. Formation of supramolecules starts at low concentration of amphiphilic compounds in the water. There are two types of data that can be used as a basis for previous statement which are (1) optical spectra of molecular compounds that are building block of supramolecules, and (2) light scattering data that correlate with size of aggregates that are present in the system.
The applied films are rendered anisotropic either by preliminary mechanical orientation of the substrate surface or by post-treatment using external mechanical, electromagnetic, or other orienting forces applied to the LC film material on the substrate.
Liquid crystal properties of dye solutions are well known. In recent years, use of liquid crystals based of such dye solutions for commercial applications such as LCDs and glazing coatings has received much attention.
Dye supramolecules form lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs). Substantial molecular ordering or organization of dye molecules in the form of columns allows such supramolecular LC mesophases to be used for obtaining oriented, strongly dichroic films.
Dye molecules forming supramolecular LC mesophases possess unique properties. These dye molecules contain functional groups located at the periphery, which render these molecules soluble in water. Organic dye mesophases are characterized by specific structures, phase diagrams, optical properties, and solubility as described in greater detail in: J. Lydon, Chromonics, in Handbook of Liquid Crystals, Wiley VCH, Weinheim (1998), Vol. 2B, p. 981-1007 (see also references therein).
Anisotropic films characterized by high optical anisotropy can be formed from LLC systems based on dichroic dyes. Such films exhibit the properties of so-called E-type polarizers (due to the absorption of light by supramolecular complexes). Organic conjugated compounds with the general molecular structure similar to that of dye molecules, but exhibiting no absorption in the visible spectral range, can be used as retarders and compensators.
Retarders and compensators are the films possessing phase-retarding properties in the spectral regions where the optical absorption is absent. The phase-retarding or compensating properties of such films are determined by their double refraction also known as birefringence (Δn):Δn=|no−ne|,
which is the difference of the refractive indices for the extraordinary wave (ne) and the ordinary wave (no). The ne and no values vary depending on the orientation of molecules in a medium and on the direction of light propagation. For example, if this direction coincides with the optical or crystallographic axis, the ordinary polarization is predominantly observed. If the light propagates in the perpendicular direction or at some angle to the optical axis, the light emerging from the medium will separate into extraordinary and ordinary components.
It is also important to note that, in addition to the unique optical properties, the films based on organic aromatic compounds are characterized by a high thermal stability and radiation resistance (photostability).
Extensive investigations aimed at the development of new methods for fabricating dye-based films through variation of the film deposition conditions have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,739,296 and 6,174,394 and in published patent application EP 961138. Of particular interest is the development of new compositions of lyotropic liquid crystals by introducing modifying, stabilizing, surfactant and/or other additives in the known compositions, which improve the characteristics of LC films.
There is increasing demand for anisotropic films with improved selectivity in various wavelength ranges. Films exhibiting different optical absorption maxima over a wide spectral interval ranging from infrared (IR) to ultraviolet (UV) regions are required for a variety of technological applications. Hence, much recent research attention has been directed to the synthesis of new materials for the manufacture of isotropic and/or anisotropic birefringent films, polarizers, retarders or compensators (herein collectively referred to as optical materials or films) for LCD and telecommunication applications, such as (but not limited to) those described in P. Yeh, Optical Waves in Layered Media, New York, John Wiley &Sons (1998) and in P. Yeh and C. Gu, Optics of Liquid Crystal Displays, New York, John Wiley & Sons, (1999).
It has been found that ultrathin birefringent films can be fabricated using the known methods and technologies developed for the production of optically anisotropic films based on organic dye LLC systems. For example, the manufacture of thin, optically anisotropic crystalline films based on disulfoacids of the red dye Vat Red 14 has been described by P. Lazarev and M. Paukshto, Thin Crystal Film Retarders (in: Proceeding of the 7th International Display Workshops, Materials and Components, Kobe, Japan, Nov. 29-Dec. 1 (2000), pp. 1159-1160) In particular, such films can be obtained using cis- and trans-isomer mixtures of naphthalenetetracarboxylic acid dibenzimidazole:
This technology makes it possible to control the direction of the crystallographic axis of a film during the deposition and crystallization of LC molecules on a substrate (e.g., on a glass plate). The obtained films have uniform compositions and are characterized by high molecular and/or crystal ordering, with a dichroic ratio of approximately Kd˜28, which makes them useful optical materials, in particular, for polarizers, retarders, and birefringent films or compensators.
Thin birefringent films transparent in the visible spectral range have been also obtained based on disodium chromoglycate (DSCG):
The anisotropy of oriented films made of DSCG is not very high: a difference in the refractive indices Δn is in the visible range is approximately 0.1 to 0.13. However, the thicknesses of films based on DSCG can be varied over a wide range, thus making possible the preparation of films with desired phase-retarding properties despite low specific anisotropy characteristics of the material. These films are considered in greater detail in T. Fiske et al., Molecular Alignment in Crystal Polarizers and Retarders: Society for Information Display Int. Symp. (Boston, Mass., May 19-24 (2002), Digest of Technical Papers), pp. 566-569. The main disadvantage of many of these films is their dynamic instability, which leads to gradual recrystallization of the LC molecules and the resulting degradation of the optical anisotropy.
Other anisotropic film materials, based on water-soluble organic dyes, have been also obtained using the aforementioned technology; see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,739,296 and 6,174,394 and European patent EP 0961138. However, such materials exhibit high optical absorption in the visible spectral range, which limits their use in applications requiring transparent birefringent films.
Still other anisotropic materials have been synthesized based on acenaphtho[1,2-b]quinoxaline sulfoderivatives having the general structural formula
where n is an integer in the range from 1 to 4; m is an integer in the range from 0 to 4; z is an integer in the range from 0 to 6; m+z+n≦10; X and Y are molecular fragments individually selected from the list including CH3, C2H5, OCH3, OC2H5, Cl, Br, OH, OCOCH3, NH2, NHCOCH3, NO2, F, CF3, CN, OCN, SCN, COOH, and CONH2; M is a counter ion; and j is the number of counter ions in the molecule; with a proviso that, when n=1 and SO3− occupies position 1, then m≠0 or z≠0.
Thus, there is a general need for films, which are optically anisotropic and sufficiently transparent in the spectral regions in which they are intended to operate. In particular, there is a need for such optical films transparent in the visible spectral range. It is therefore desirable to provide improved methods for the synthesis and manufacture of optically anisotropic films. It is also desirable to provide optical films resistant to humidity and temperature variations. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to garage storage devices and more specifically it relates to an overhead storage system for efficiently and conveniently stowing items such as bicycles at ceiling level.
2. Description of the Related Art
Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Garage storage devices have been in use for years. One type of garage storage device is comprised of simple shelving that is supported by the floor in the garage or mounted directly to the wall where items can be placed upon the shelves. Another type of garage storage device are hooks with threaded ends that are threadably secured into the ceiling or walls of a garage whereby items such as bicycles can be attached to the hooks. One of the problems with conventional garage storage devices is that they are difficult to stow or remove larger awkward objects such as but not limited to bicycles. A further problem with conventional garage storage devices is that they require a significant amount of physical effort by a user to stow or remove an item. Another problem with conventional garage storage devices is that they typically either utilize a significant amount of space or do not efficiently utilize the ceiling space.
While conventional garage storage devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they are not as suitable for efficiently and conveniently stowing items such as bicycles at ceiling level as shown in by the present invention. Conventional garage storage devices require a significant amount of physical effort to stow or remove an item, and also do not typically efficiently utilize ceiling storage space.
In these respects, the overhead storage system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of efficiently and conveniently stowing items such as bicycles at ceiling level. | {
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Nowadays, polyester fiber is often applied not only to clothing, but also to general sheet materials for interiors because of the advantage that it is excellent in functionality, easiness of handling and fashionability. It is doubtless that such era in which polyester fiber is popular will continue more and its technical improvement and development will continue.
However, in recent years, in view of the global environmental conservation, enhancement of approaches to recycling and getting rid of petroleum-based synthetic fiber are strongly desired, and in the car industry which is a center of industry, there have been movements to take initiatives to solve this problem. In the fiber industry, too, it becomes essential to prepare for materials capable of converting to natural cultivation-reduction type.
In view of the above-mentioned background and looking toward the future, polylactic acid fiber or polytrimethylene terephthalate fiber is proposed and has been developed into practical use. Polytrimethylene terephthalate fiber has a low fiber Young's modulus and, in cases where it is used as a fabric such as a pile cloth, it forms a material having a very soft texture. In addition, it is understood to be a material excellent in light resistance and wear resistance.
As a fiber to be used for such a pile cloth, for example, 2 heater false twisting yarns of polytrimethylene terephthalate are proposed (i.e., refer to JP 2001-348740 A and Publication of JP Patent No. 3208362). However, in the 2 heater false twisting yarn of polytrimethylene terephthalate, crimp development by dry heat is large and results in a material having insufficient softness, and especially, a fabric with long piles having a high quality feeling cannot be obtained. In addition, its strength is insufficient and, for industrial material uses such as in cars where standards are high, it is a material which cannot satisfy such fabric standards.
As a material in which defects of polytrimethylene terephthalate material such as of the above-mentioned are improved and having handling properties of conventional polyester, a material in which polytrimethylene terephthalate and polyethylene terephthalate are composited into a core sheath configuration is proposed (i.e., refer to JP 2005-113279 A). However, since the softness of the material is lost in a later stage of processing, a further preferable false twisting yarn has been desired.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a false twisting yarn having a high strength and a soft texture when processed into a pile cloth, and capable of obtaining a pile cloth excellent in later stage processability. | {
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In the circuit configuration of a piezoelectric oscillator which is a type that changes an oscillation frequency by using a Variable Capacitance Diode, as summarized in a Voltage Controlled Crystal Oscillator (VCXO) on pages 17 to 18 in “Description and Application of Crystal Device (March, 2002)” published by QIAJ (Quartz Crystal Industry Association of Japan), for example, a variable capacitance diode is inserted in an oscillation loop, and a control voltage is externally applied to the variable capacitance diode, whereby a capacitance of the variable capacitance diode is changed. Accordingly, a load capacitance of the oscillation loop is changed so that the frequency is varied.
FIG. 5 shows an example of a circuit in a generally used voltage controlled crystal oscillator, which is also disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-214250. An inverter element IC1 is used in the oscillation circuit. A high resistance R1 is inserted between an input and an output of the inverter element IC1, so that an operating point is always set to the center. Between the input and the output of the inverter element IC1, a crystal unit Xtal, and a variable capacitance unit in which a condenser C5 is connected in parallel to a variable capacitance diode D1 are inserted in series, thereby configuring an oscillation loop. The parallel connection of the condenser C5 to the variable capacitance diode D1 allows a variable range to be controlled finely. Furthermore, condensers C1 and C2 are respectively inserted between GND and the input of the inverter element IC1 and between GND and the output thereof.
An external control voltage Vcont is divided by high resistances R2 and R3, and is applied to a cathode of the variable capacitance diode D1. An anode of the variable capacitance diode D1 is connected to GND through a high resistance R4. A capacitance is changed by the voltage between the cathode and the anode of the variable capacitance diode D1, so that a load capacitance of the oscillation loop is changed. As a result, an oscillation frequency is changed. The variable width and the linearity of the frequency can be controlled finely by the high resistance R3 and an element value of the condenser C5.
FIG. 6 is another conventional example used for a high-frequency oscillation, in which two transistors (TR1, TR2) are cascade-connected in an oscillation circuit. Two variable capacitance diodes D1 and D2 are connected in series so as to prevent deterioration in noise characteristic caused by self-modulating due to an oscillating level.
Conventionally, a frequency offset at the time of capacitance loading of the piezoelectric oscillation circuit is approximately given by Equation (1) as DL (=Fractional Load Resonance Frequency Offset). The equivalent circuit model therefor is shown in FIG. 7. A load capacitance of the oscillation loop (=CL) can be expressed as a configuration in which a circuit load (=Cc) and a variable capacitance (=Cx) are connected in series.
D L ( C x ) ≈ 1 2 γ ⨯ 1 1 + C L C 0 ∵ 1 C L = 1 C x + 1 C c ( 1 )
By setting a reference capacitance (=CLref) that gives a nominal frequency, the frequency offset can be expressed by Equation (2).
D Lref ( C x ) ≈ 1 2 γ ⨯ 1 1 + C Lref C 0 ( 2 )
ΔDL, an amount of change in frequency from the nominal frequency, is a difference calculated by subtracting Equation (2) from Equation (1). This can be expressed by Equations (3) and (4).
Δ D L ( C x ) ≈ D L ( C x ) - D Lref ( C x ) ( 3 ) Δ D L ( C x ) ≈ 1 2 γ { 1 1 + 1 C 0 ( 1 C x + 1 C c ) - 1 1 + C Lref C 0 } ∵ C L C 0 = 1 C 0 C L = 1 C 0 ( 1 C x + 1 C c ) γ : Capacitance Ratio ( = C 0 / C 1 ) ( 4 )
Examples of variable capacitance characteristics of the variable capacitance diode are shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. As is apparent from FIGS. 8 and 9, the variable characteristics of the variable capacitance diode can be approximated by Equation (5), and the variable capacitance Cx is obtained in Equation (6).Vari(ν)=α×e−nv (5) α: Capacitance when applied voltage is zero n: GradientCX=Vari(ν)+Cb (6) Cb: Parallel capacitance of variable capacitance
Substitution of Equation (4) into Equation (6) provides Equation (7), which is a relational expression showing a frequency change and a variable voltage applied by an external control voltage to the variable capacitance diode.
Δ D L ( C ( v ) ) ≈ 1 2 γ { 1 1 + 1 C 0 ( 1 αⅇ - nv + C b + 1 C c ) - 1 1 + C Lref C 0 } ( 7 )
Equation (8) for giving a linear frequency change with respect to the variable voltage is shown blow.
Δ D L ( C ( v ) ) ≈ 1 2 γ { 1 1 + 1 C 0 ( 1 C ( v ) + 1 C c ) - 1 1 + C Lref C 0 } = 1 2 γ { A ( v - a ) ) } A : Gradient of frequency with respect to variable voltage a : Voltage for Δ D L = 0 by nominal frequency ( 8 )
Equation (9) obtained by modifying Equation (8) is shown below. Equation (9) gives the linear frequency change with respect to the variable voltage.
C ( v ) = 1 1 C 0 1 1 A ( v - a ) ) + 1 1 + C Lref C 0 - 1 - 1 C c ( 9 )
FIG. 10 shows examples of simulation results of Equations (5), (6) and (9).
The crystal unit Xtal is At-Cut, and a resonance frequency thereof is 13 MHz. It should be noted that Co=1.35 pF, γ=277, and the circuit capacitance Cc is 60 pF. Furthermore, the 3 variable voltage is Vcont±2.5Vdc, and the variable width is ΔDL±45 ppm.
The variable capacitance C(v) for obtaining a straight line is a curve in which the variable capacitance C(v) is approximately equal to 11.8 pF at 0V, and is approximately equal to 7.5 pF at 5V. A combined capacitance of a variable capacitance diode Vbari and a parallel capacitance Cb that show a characteristic very close to that of the same capacitance change is expressed by Equation (10).11.02×e−0.097ν+0.6[pF] (10)
The difference in capacitance between the C(v) in this case and the combined capacitance of the variable capacitance diode is approximately equal to or less than 0.3 pF at maximum.
FIG. 11 shows a variable capacitance C(v) for obtaining a straight line, a frequency change by an approximate variable capacitance diode by the combined capacitance, and a difference therebetween. A difference of 1 ppm provides a change of 70 ppm in width. This value is expected to be a value that indicates a compensation limit by the variable capacitance diode.
The results shown in FIG. 12 indicate a capacitance difference in between an ideal capacitance change and an approximate variable capacitance diode, and a frequency deviation by the capacitance difference.
An outline of contents of FIG. 12 is shown in FIG. 13. That is, the most appropriate selection of an “ideal capacitance change for obtaining a straight line” and a “capacitance change of the variable capacitance diode” that follows a log change results in intersections at two points, P1 and P2. This indicates that the optimum characteristic can be obtained in the vicinity thereof, and indicates also a compensation limit.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-214250
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-056330
As shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, In conventional frequency control by single-direction voltage control to a variable capacitance diode, there is a limit in an amount of correction for obtaining a straight line. | {
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The present invention relates to a packaging apparatus in which a continuously transferred film is gripped and heat-sealed by a pair of seal rollers.
Known examples of conventional filling/packaging machines for automatically filling and packaging such products as liquids, powders or viscous substances are described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 2-46265 and 2-32929 published by the Japanese Patent Office. In such a apparatus, a portion of a film which is drawn out of a film web roll and continuously transferred is folded, both margins of the folded portion of the film are overlapped and vertically sealed by a pair of vertical seal rollers, a product is filled into the vertically sealed tube-shaped portion of the film, and the film is laterally sealed by a pair of lateral seal rollers, whereby bags containing the product are successively formed.
A film of a large length is generally used as a film web, which is a roll of the film used for packaging, to save the labor required for replacing the film and thereby allow for a high packaging work efficiency. For reasons related to the manufacture of such elongate film webs, a plurality of film strips of a specific length are joined together with tape, for example, to obtain a single film web.
As a consequence, film joints where the above-mentioned film strips are joined together occur in the film web during packaging operation. These joints are places where the film is interrupted and patches of the tape or other splicing parts are attached. Thus, when the packaging apparatus vertically seals the film by using the vertical seal rollers or laterally seals the film by using the lateral seal rollers, the tape or the like could become entangled between the seal rollers and, in certain cases, the tape or the like at the joints could melt and adhere to the seal rollers. Should this situation occur, it is likely to adversely affect subsequent sealing conditions.
A bag blank including such a film joint not only produces an awkward appearance but gives rise to a possibility that the filled product leaks from the bag blank. The bag blank of this kind should therefore be handled as a defective one, and there has been a demand to prevent leakage of product contents and a consequent damage to the apparatus.
In the light of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a packaging apparatus which makes it possible to maintain good sealing performance by keeping joints of a film from being entangled to rule out the possibility of adhesion of a molten material to seal rollers, easily remove portions of the film including the joints as defective parts, and prevent leakage of product contents through the joints to keep thereby the packaging apparatus clean.
A film is drawn out from a film roll and continuously transferred, and margins of the film are overlapped and vertically sealed by paired vertical seal rollers to shape the film into a tubular form. A product content is filled into a tube-shaped portion of the film, and the tube-shaped portion of the film is laterally sealed by paired lateral seal rollers to thereby form a bag. A packaging apparatus is constructed such that at least one of the lateral seal rollers is movably provided and the packaging apparatus comprises a pusher for at least one seal roller against the other seal roller, a joint detector provided upstream in a film transfer direction of the paired lateral seal rollers for detecting a joint in the film, and a controller which reduces or eliminates a pushing force exerted by the pusher when a specified time period has elapsed after detection of the joint in the film by the joint detector. In this construction, the pushing force exerted by the pusher for the lateral seal rollers is eliminated when the specified time period has elapsed by the aforementioned joint detector.
As a result, sealing blades of the seal rollers are separated from each other and, thus, the joint is allowed to pass through without being laterally sealed, so that it is possible to prevent a molten material of the joint from adhering to the sealing blades of the seal rollers causing a subsequent deterioration in sealing performance.
The aforementioned controller reduces or eliminates the pushing force of the paired seal rollers for a specified time period after the joint detector has detected the joint in the film, and returns the paired seal rollers to their pushing condition so that they can grip and heat-seal the film after allowing the joint to pass through by advancing the film. For the controller of the packaging apparatus in this way, only a portion of the film including the joint is allowed to pass and heat seal operation is resumed subsequently, it is possible to carry out continuous packaging operation without stopping the feeding of the film.
Furthermore, the aforementioned controller calculates arrival time required by the joint to arrive at the seal rollers after the joint detector has detected the joint in the film, and reduces or eliminates the pushing force exerted by the pusher before the arrival time elapses. Since the packaging apparatus can be constructed so as to set timing at which the pushing force of the pusher for pushing the seal rollers is reduced or eliminated or timing at which the pushing force is recovered based on the calculated arrival time, the seal rollers can be separated from each other in such a way that they do not heat-seal only the portion of the film including the joint.
A packaging apparatus in which a film is drawn out from a film roll and continuously transferred, and while the film is gripped and heat-sealed by paired seal rollers to form a bag, a product content is filled into the bag by a product feeder comprises a joint detector provided upstream in a film transfer direction of the product feeder for detecting a joint in the film, and a controller which interrupts feeding of the product content by the product feeder when a specified time period has elapsed after detection of the joint in the film by the joint detector. Since the feeding of the product content is interrupted when the specified time period has elapsed detection of the joint in the film by the joint detector so that the product content is not fed into a portion of the film including the joint, it is possible to prevent leakage of the product content.
A packaging apparatus in which a film is drawn out from a film roll, margins of the film which is continuously transferred are overlapped and vertically sealed by paired vertical seal rollers to shape the film into a tubular form, a product content is filled into a tube-shaped portion of the film, the tube-shaped portion of the film is laterally sealed by paired lateral seal rollers, and a laterally sealed portion is cut by a cutter to thereby form a bag comprises a joint detector provided upstream in a film transfer direction of the cutter for detecting a joint in the film, and a controller which disables the cutter from performing its cutting operation when a specified time period has elapsed after detection of the joint in the film by the joint detector. Since a bag including a joint is not cut but allowed to proceed continuously, such a bag can be rejected as a bag having a fault from ordinary bags. | {
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The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Lobelia plant, botanically known as Lobelia×hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Kielowasky.
The new Lobelia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Mariahout-Laarbeek, The Netherlands. The objective of the program is to create new trailing Lobelia cultivars that flower continuously during the flowering season.
The new Lobelia originated from a self-pollination made by the Inventor during the summer of 1998 of a proprietary selection of Lobelia×hybrida identified as code number KB-00-4/6, not patented. The new Lobelia was discovered and selected by the Inventor in a controlled environment in Mariahout-Laarbeek, The Netherlands, during the summer of 1999 from the resultant progeny of the above-mentioned self-pollination.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings since 2003 at Steenbergen, The Netherlands, has shown that the unique features of this new Lobelia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations. | {
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This invention relates generally to industrial liquid pressure filter apparatus and methods, for liquid-to-be-filtered having (1) a carrier liquid, (2) coalescing solids particles which tend to stick together to bridge and thus blind a filter element gap sized larger than the width of such particles, and (3) larger impurity elements to be filtered out and sized larger than such a filter element gap.
Ultrasonic energy has been applied to prior flow separation situations but, insofar as known to Applicants, not to the field to which the present invention is directed.
More particular, prior applications of ultrasonic energy in flow separation have included the following.
Thompson U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,962 intends to avoid use of chemical cleaning agents for cleaning ion selective membranes, such as reverse osmosis and electrodialysis membranes, of impurities to be filtered out, by applying ultrasonic energy below the threshold of cavitation in a manner to avoid destruction of the membrane by standing waves. Such a membrane is not self-supporting but rather requires a perforate rigid backing (for example, a mesh structure in turn backed by a rigid perforated tube.
Sieg U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,161, Goyal U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,331 and U.S. application, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,251,294, assigned to the Assignee of the present invention, disclose filtration systems with alternate filtration and cleaning cycles. Ultrasonic energy is applied to supplement or substitute for backwashing, during the cleaning cycle (not during the filtration cycles) to remove impurities to be filtered out, from the input side of the filter, and thereby renew the filter for another cycle of filtration.
However, none of these pressure liquid applications of ultrasonic energy deals with the above stated field of the present invention.
Ultrasonic energy has also been used to agitate an open screen used to separate, for example, dry contaminants from dry corn kernels. However, such application is even more remote from the above stated field of the present invention.
Turning more particularly to prior art in the field of the present invention, a series of inventions are disclosed and claimed in U.S. patents assigned to the Assignee of the present invention, and issued over approximately the last four decades. The latter patents apply to the field of the present invention and have attempted to overcome the problem to which the present invention is directed, as follows.
Petter, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,161,159 recognized, as to liquid solutions, suspensions and the like having a high solids content, particularly certain liquids of a viscous nature or otherwise having a high solids content such as colloidal gels, lime and clay slurries, starch solutions, clay coatings and the like in which the solids tend to coagulate or coalesce, that the filtering out of large impurity elements is a difficult problem.
For convenience herein, such a difficult-to-filter liquid is herein referred to as a composite liquid, which may be described as comprising (1) a carrier liquid and (2) coalescing solids particles which tend to stick together. Such coalescing solids particles, even at relatively low flow rates, tend to bridge, rather than pass with the carrier liquid through, the filtering gaps in the filter element.
Petter""s disclosed solution to the problem involved suspending elongate pressure air supply and exhaust hoses in the filter housing flanking the filter element, and from the hoses suspending a casing in the bottom of the housing below the filter element. The casing contains a circular path generally coaxial with the filter element and housing. A weighted ball is pushed by air pressure from the suspending air hoses along the circular path. The orbiting of the ball therein moves the casing and lower air hose portions in respective circular orbits in the liquid space inside the filter housing and outside the filter element, and thus moves the liquid-to-be-filtered in the housing in an attempt to maintain the coalescing solids particles in suspension in the carrier liquid. Reece U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,178 discloses a generally similar arrangement.
To attempt to improve on the aforementioned Petter and Reece inventions, Reece U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,640 fixed an air powered ball casing to the bottom of the suspended filter element and led the air supply and exhaust hoses through the open top (outlet) of the filter element and down inside the filter element to the air-powered ball casing at the bottom of the filter element, to vibrate the filter element. This approach was advanced by DeVisser, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,188 by fixing a single air-powered ball casing to the bottom of a group of three, side-by-side filter elements, to vibrate more filtering area in a single filter housing.
Thereafter, to attempt to improve on the aforementioned DeVisser invention, particularly to make more uniform the filter element vibration along the length of the filter element, Rishel, et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,922 used an air powered ball casing to pendently support the top of the filter element group from the overlying top of the filter housing.
Thereafter, Davis et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,176 reoriented the air powered ball casing of Rishel to change the plane of travel of the circulating ball to vibrate the filter element axially rather than radially, for use with a liquid-to-be-filtered less sensitive to coalescing particle sheer than in the Rishel patent.
Thus, over about the last four decades, the sequence of invention in the field of the invention has used an air powered ball casing vibrator, first to directly agitate liquid in a filter housing, then to directly vibrate the bottom of a filter element, then to directly vibrate the bottom of a group of the filter elements, then to attach the top of a filter element group to the filter housing and vibrate the filter element group (initially laterally and later axially).
While many of these air powered vibrator equipped filter units are still in satisfactory service, the Assignee of the present invention has now discontinued their manufacture (except as replacements for customer in-the-field older units), and has switched the sequence of invention, in the field of the present invention, to mechanically cleaned filter elements, examples of which it now manufactures and markets in its DCF(trademark) line of filter units.
More particularly, Davis U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,111; Davis et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,462 and Vander Ark U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,383, all assigned to the Assignee of the present invention, each require, per housing, a single relatively large diameter cylindrical filter element in which filtration flow direction is reversed (from the air powered vibrator equipped filter units above discussed) namely, from inside out, wherein a mechanically driven cleaning member moves slowly but continuously along the inlet surface of the filter element and mechanically wipes or scrapes coalescing solids particle bridges from the filter element gaps back into suspension in the liquid-to-be-filtered.
Accordingly, the recent prior art developments by the present Assignee have eliminated vibrating devices in favor of the above mentioned wiper/scraper equipped filter units, to try to overcome the continuing problem in the field of the present invention.
Such scraper/wiper equipped filter units have been commercially successful in a variety of filtering uses, including in the field of the present invention, except in some instances in which a composite liquid includes particularly aggressively coalescing solids particles and the filter element blinds at less than a commercially acceptable filtration flow rate.
Accordingly, the objects and purposes of the invention include provision of methods and apparatus for preventing bridging, and thus continuing filtration flow, through a liquid pressure filter unit, of liquid-to-be-filtered of the kind having (1) a carrier liquid (2) coalescing solids particles which tend to stick together to bridge and thus blind a filter element gap sized larger than the width of the said particles, and (3) larger impurity elements to be filtered out of said liquid-to-be-filtered and sized larger than such a filter element gap, and doing so at substantially enhanced flow rates approaching or exceeding commercial acceptance levels.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with apparatus and methods of this kind upon reading the accompanying specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.
The invention includes methods and apparatus for increasing the continuous filtering flow rate through a pressure liquid filter unit of liquid-to-be-filtered having (1) a carrier liquid, (2) coalescing solids particles which tend to adhere and bridge filter element gaps sized substantially larger than said particles and (3) larger impurity elements to be filtered out of said liquid-to-be-filtered and sized larger than such filter element gap, comprising:
providing a pressure liquid filter unit having a housing with an inlet and an outlet and containing a filter element having gaps, a given gap being sized to reliably pass the carrier liquid and coalescing solids particles at a first relatively low liquid flow rate, but blocking coalescing solids particles passage therethrough due to bridging of said gaps by the coalescing solids particles at a relatively high liquid flow rate;
simultaneously flowing the liquid-to-be-filtered under pressure through the inlet into the housing at the relatively high flow rate and applying ultrasonic energy to the liquid-to-be-filtered in the housing;
at an ultrasonic frequency agitating the coalescing solids particles adjacent said gap and thereby passing the carrier liquid and coalescing solids particles through the gap at the relatively high flow rate without bridging and blinding of the gap by the coalescing solids particles. | {
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Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Fuchsiaxc3x97hybrida cultivar Kiecandipu.
The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Fuchsia plant, botanically known as Fuchsiaxc3x97hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Kiecandipuxe2x80x99.
The new Fuchsia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Venhuizen, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to create new Fuchsia cultivars with an upright and compact plant habit, numerous flowers and attractive flower coloration.
The new Fuchsia originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor during the winter of 1998 of a proprietary selection Fuchsiaxc3x97hybrida identified as code number 9024-3, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection Fuchsiaxc3x97hybrida identified as code number 9078-7, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Kiecandipu was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the resulting progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Venhuizen, The Netherlands.
Asexual reproduction of the new Fuchsia by terminal cuttings at Venhuizen, The Netherlands, since the summer of 1998 has shown that the unique features of this new Fuchsia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
The cultivar Kiecandipu has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature and daylength, without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Kiecandipuxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Kiecandipuxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Fuchsia cultivar:
1. Compact and upright growth habit.
2. Freely branching habit; dense and full plant habit.
3. Red purple and purple violet-colored flowers.
4. Freely and continuous flowering habit.
Compared to plants of the female parent selection, plants of the new Fuchsia have darker colored leaves and flowers. Compared to plants of the male parent selection, plants of the new Fuchsia are more compact and differ in flower coloration.
Plants of the new Fuchsia can be compared to plants of the cultivar Rose Purple, not patented. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Venhuizen, The Netherlands, plants of the new Fuchsia differed primarily from plants of the cultivar Rose Purple in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Fuchsia were more uniform than plants of the cultivar Rose Purple.
2. Plants of the new Fuchsia flowered earlier and more continuously than plants of the cultivar Rose Purple.
3. Plants of the new Fuchsia were more tolerant to wind and rain than plants of the cultivar Rose Purple. | {
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It is very difficult to get effective rust inhibition in finished oils comprising highly paraffinic lubricating base oils. Highly paraffinic lubricating base oils include API Group II base oils having greater than 65% paraffinic chain carbons by ASTM D 3238, API Group III base oils having greater than 65% paraffinic chain carbons by ASTM D 3238, API Group IV base oils, polyinternal olefins, hydroisomerized Fischer-Tropsch wax, and Fischer-Tropsch oligomerized olefins. Others have approached this problem by using synergistic mixtures of different additives, and base oil blends to reduce the amount of highly paraffinic base oil in the finished oil. However, the current approaches have still not provided consistent passes in the 4 hour TORT B rust test using synthetic seawater, by ASTM D 665-02. The problem is notably more acute with higher viscosity oils, of ISO 100 grade or higher.
Others have made lubricant compositions with good rust inhibition, but these earlier compositions either had a different rust inhibitor formulation and/or they were made using different base oils than in the preferred embodiments of this invention. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,946 discloses a turbine engine oil that is resistant to seawater corrosion comprising a specific additive mixture different than what is disclosed in this invention, and preferably comprising a synthetic ester base oil. U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,273 describes lubricant compositions with good metal deactivation comprising antioxidants, amine phosphates and a preferred benzotriazole derivative.
There are a number of patents describing dual phosphorus and sulfur additives combined with amine phosphates for making superior load-carrying lubricants. These patents include U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,130; U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,358; U.S. Pat. No. 5,750,478; U.S. Pat. No. 5,679,627; U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,355; U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,029; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,760. None of these patents teach lubricating oils made with highly paraffinic base oils that have effective rust inhibition in seawater.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,575 teaches lubricating oils with anti-rust characteristics based on high quality base oils such as polyalphaolefins or hydroisomerized wax (petroleum or Fischer-Tropsch) with a secondary base oil, preferably a long chain alkylated aromatic. A synergistic combination of additives is used which is different than those of this invention. Unlike this invention, the additive mixture does not comprise a mixture of phosphate amines. The lubricating oils in U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,575 contain solubility improvers at levels much higher than are needed with preferred embodiments of our invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,558 teaches a rust-proofing oil composition for use in the surface treatment of steel sheets comprising at least one of a mineral oil and a synthetic oil as a base oil having a kinematic viscosity at 40° C. in the range of 5-50 cSt. The synthetic oil useful in U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,558 is selected from the group consisting of polybutene, alpha-olefin oligomer, alkylbenzene, alkylnaphthalene, diester, polyol ester, polyglycol, polyphenyl ether, tricresyl phosphate, silicone oil, perfluoroalkyl ether, normal paraffin and isoparaffin. Although this earlier patent included alkylnaphthalene and polyol ester as synthetic oils useful in the composition, there was no selection or understanding of the synthetic oil being potentially important as a solubility improver to improve rust inhibition. Alkylnaphthalene and polyol ester were grouped with other synthetic oils with high aniline points which are not the solubility improvers of this invention. U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,558 also used different rust inhibiting additives than those of this invention. | {
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This invention relates to direct electrostatic printing devices and more particularly to such a device capable of forming high resolution images.
Of the various electrostatic printing techniques, the most familiar and widely utilized is that of xerography wherein latent electrostatic images formed on a charge retentive surface are developed by a suitable toner material to render the images visible, the images being subsequently transferred to plain paper.
A lesser known and utilized form of electrostatic printing is one that has come to be known as direct electrostatic printing (DEP). This form of printing differs from the aforementioned xerographic form, in that, the toner or developing material is deposited directly onto a plain (i.e. not specially treated) substrate in image configuration. This type of printing device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,689,935 issued Sept. 5, 1972 to Gerald L. Pressman et. al.
Pressman et al disclose an electrostatic line printer incorporating a multilayered particle modulator or printhead comprising a layer of insulating material, a continuous layer of conducting material on one side of the insulating layer and a segmented layer of conducting material on the other side of the insulating layer. At least one row of apertures is formed through the multilayered particle modulator. Each segment of the segmented layer of the conductive material is formed around a portion of an aperture and is insulatively isolated from every other segment of the segmented conductive layer. Selected potentials are applied to each of the segments of the segmented conductive layer while a fixed potential is applied to the continuous conductive layer. An overall applied field projects charged particles through the row of apertures of the particle modulator and the density of the particle stream is modulated according to the pattern of potentials applied to the segments of the segmented conductive layer. The modulated stream of charged particles impinge upon a print-receiving medium interposed in the modulated particle stream and translated relative to the particle modulator to provide line-by-line scan printng. In the Pressman et. al. device the supply of the toner to the control member is not uniformly effected and irregularities are liable to occur in the image on the image receivng member. High-speed recording is difficult and moreover, the openings in the printhead are liable to be clogged by the toner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,855 issued on Jan. 1, 1985 in the name of Fujii et. al. discloses a method and apparatus utilizing a controller having a plurality of openings or slit-like openings to control the passage of charged particles and to record a visible image by the charged particles directly on an image receiving member. Specifically disclosed therein is an improved device for supplying the charged particles to a control electrode that has allegedly made high-speed and stable recording possible. The improvement in Fujii et. al. lies in that the changed particles supported on a supporting member and an alternating electric field is applied between the supporting member and the control electrode. Fujii et. al. purports to obviate the problems noted above with respect to Pressman et. al. Thus, Fujii et. al. alleges that their device makes it possible to sufficiently supply the charged particles to the control electrode without scattering them.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,955 issued on Feb. 4, 1986 to Hosoya et. al. discloses a recording apparatus wherein a visible image based on image information is formed on an ordinary sheet by a developer. The recording apparatus comprises a developing roller spaced at a predetermined distance from and facing the ordinary sheet and carrying the developer thereon. It further comprises a recording electrode and a signal source connected thereto for propelling the developer on the developing roller to the ordinary sheet by generating an electric field between the ordinary sheet and the developing roller according to the image information. A plurality of mutually insulated electrodes are provided on the developing roller and extend therefrom in one direction. An A.C. and a D.C. source are connected to the electrodes, for generating an alternating electric field between adjacent ones of the electrodes to cause oscillations of the developer found between the adjacent electrodes along electric lines of force therebetween to thereby liberate the developer from the developing roller. In a modified form of the Hosoya et. al. device, a toner reservoir is disposed beneath a recording electrode which has a top provided with an opening facing the recording electrode and an inclined bottom for holding a quantity of toner. In the toner reservoir are disposed a toner carrying plate as the developer carrying member, secured in a position such that it faces the end of the recording electrode at a predetermined distance therefrom and a toner agitator for agitating the toner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,179 granted to Fred W. Schmidlin on Mar. 3, 1987 discloses a toner transporting apparatus for use in forming powder images on an imaging surface. The apparatus is characterized by the provision of a travelling electrostatic wave conveyor for the toner particles for transporting them from a toner supply to an imaging surface. The conveyor comprises a linear electrode array consisting of spaced apart electrodes to which a multiphase a.c. voltage is connected such that adjacent electrodes have phase shifted voltages applied thereto which cooperate to form the travelling wave.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,361 issued to Masuda discloses an apparatus in which the flow of particulate material along a defined path is controlled electrodynamically by means of elongated electrodes curved concentrically to a path, as axially spaced rings or interwound spirals. Each electrode is axially spaced from its neighbors by a distance about equal to its diameter and is connected with one termnal of a multi-phase alternating high voltage source. Adjacent electrodes along the path are connected with different terminals in a regular sequence, producing a wave-like, non-uniform electric field that repels electrically charged particles axially inwardly and tends to propel them along the path.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,778,678 also issued to Masuda relates to a similar device as that disclosed in the aforementioned '367 patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,801,869 issued to Masuda discloses a booth in which electrically charged particulate material is sprayed onto a workpiece having an opposite charge, so that the particles are electrostatically attracted to the workpiece. All of the walls that confront the workpiece are made of electrically insulating material. A grid-like arrangement of parallel, spaced apart electrodes, insulated from each other extends across the entire area of every wall, parallel to a surface of the wall and in intimate juxtaposition thereto. Each electrode is connected with one terminal of an alternating high voltage source, every electrode with a different terminal than each of the electrodes laterally adjacent to it, to produce a constantly varying field that electrodynamically repels particles from the wall. While the primary purpose of the device disclosed is for powder painting, it is contended therein that it can be used for electrostatic or electrodynamic printing.
The Masuda devices all utilize a relatively high voltage source (i.e. 5-10 KV) operated at a relatively low frequency, i.e. 50 Hz, for generating his travelling waves. In a confined area such as a tube or between parallel plates the use of high voltages is tolerable and in the case of the '869 patent even necessary since a high voltage is required to charge the initially uncharged particles.
In U.S. Pat. Application Ser. No. 374,376, now abandoned and its foreign counterpart filed in Japan on May 7, 1981 there is disclosed a device comprising an elongated conduit which utilizes travelling waves for transporting toner from a supply bottle to a toner hopper.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,926 granted on May 10, 1988 to Schmidlin et. al. and assigned to the same assignee as the instant invention discloses an electrostatic printing apparatus including structure for delivering developer or toner particles to a printhead forming an integral part of the printing device. Alternatively, the toner particles can be delivered to a charge retentive surface containing latent images. The developer or toner delivery system is adapted to deliver toner containing a minimum quantity of wrong sign and size toner. To this end, the developer delivery system includes a pair of charged toner conveyors which are supported in face-to-face relation. A bias voltage is applied across the two conveyors to cause toner of one charge polarity to be attracted to one of the conveyors while toner of the opposite is attracted to the other conveyor. One of charged toner conveyors delivers toner of the desired polarity to an apertured printhead where the toner is attracted to various apertures thereof from the conveyor.
In another embodiment of the '926 patent, a single charged toner conveyor is supplied by a pair of three-phase generators which are biased by a dc source which causes toner of one polarity to travel in one direction on the electrode array while toner of the opposite polarity travels generally in the opposite direction.
In an additional embodiment disclosed in the '926 patent, a toner charging device is provided which charges uncharged toner particles to a level sufficient for movement by one or the other of the aforementioned charged toner conveyors.
The toner in a device such as disclosed in the '926 patent is extracted from the "tops" of the clouds via the fringe fields that extend into the clouds from around the apertures. The efficiency of toner usage in a charged toner conveyor of the type disclosed in the '937 application is currently limited by the relatively dilute toner density in the "tips" of the toner clouds that are transported thereby.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,796 granted on Mar. 21, 1989 to Fred W. Schmidlin and assigned to the same assignee as the instant invention discloses a direct electrostatic printing apparatus including structure for delivering developer or toner particles to a printhead forming an integral part of the printing device. The printing device includes, in addition to the printhead, a conductive shoe which is suitably biased during a printing cycle to assist in the electrostatic attraction of developer through apertures in the printhead onto the copying medium disposed intermediate the printhead and the conductive shoe. The structure for delivering developer or toner is adapted to deliver toner containing a minimum quantity of wrong sign and size toner. To this end, the developer delivery system includes a conventional magnetic brush which delivers toner to a donor roll structure which, in turn, delivers toner to the vicinity of apertures in the printhead structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,733 granted on Oct. 25, 1988 to Fred W. Schmidlin and assigned to the same assignee as the instant invention discloses a direct electrostatic printing apparatus including structure for delivering developer or toner particles to a printhead forming an integral part of the printing device. The printing device includes, in addition to an aperatured printhead, a conductive shoe which is suitably biased during a printing cycle to assist in the electrostatic attraction of developer through apertures in the printhead onto the copying medium disposed intermediate the printhead and the conductive shoe. Developer or toner is delivered to the printhead via a pair of opposed charged toner or developer conveyors. One of the conveyors is attached to the printhead and has an opening therethrough for permitting passage of the developer or toner from between the conveyors to areas adjacent the apertures in the printhead.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,755,837 granted on Jul. 5, 1988 to Fred W. Schmidlin and assigned to the same assignee as the instant invention discloses a direct electrostatic printing apparatus including structure for removing wrong sign developer particles from a printhead forming an integral part of the printing device. The printing device includes, in addition to the printhead, a conductive shoe which is suitably biased during a printing cycle to assist in the electrostatic attraction of developer passing through apertures in the printhead onto the copying medium disposed intermediate the printhead and the conductive shoe. During a cleaning cycle, the printing bias is removed from the show and an electrical bias suitable for creating an oscillating electrostatic field which effects removal of toner from the printhead is applied to the shoe. The toner particles so removed are attracted to the copy medium in areas away form the image areas.
In prior art direct electrostatic printing devices, some of the toner bounces off the image receiver or imaging member and attaches to the receiver at unintended locations. It can be observed with a magnifying eyepiece, that the aforementioned toner is scattered around the edges of the images and in a severe case some loss of image sharpness is visible to the unaided eye. | {
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Small tools including, tape measures, levels, pliers, screw drivers, wrenches, utility knives and others are an integral part of the professional and amateur tool kit. In particular, many projects require multiple tools to be used interchangeably throughout the course of the project. Tools not being used are typically placed on a tool bench or table and near the user for later use. However, because the tools are not secured, they may roll off of the tool bench or table and away from the user. Consequently, the user must stop what they are doing to look for the tools and take their eyes away from the project. This often leads to inefficiencies and time delays as the user must look for the proper tool and then focus back on the project in front of them. | {
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In associating a parison or preform which is formed of a thermoplastic material and is at ambient temperatures, and is often of generally tapered or conical configuration, with a complementally shaped heated mandrel, one of the important considerations is to assure uniform and firm surface engagement between the preform and the surface of the mandrel with resultant good thermal contact therebetween and to maintain that thermal contact until the preform reaches molding temperatures. This is usually accomplished by vacuum holding of the preform to the mandrel which is heated to impart molding temperature to the preform in preparation for relative positioning of the associated mandrel and preform to a female mold for re-shaping the preform to the desired configuration. This is usually accomplished by applied differential pressure such as vacuum forming or blow molding. To produce a satisfactory re-shaped product, that is, one without undesirable variations in shape and thickness, the preform should be maintained in uniformly firm engagement with the mandrel surface during heating. Prior attempts have been made in this direction by sand blasting or otherwise roughening the mandrel surface for good vacuum withdrawal of air or by similarly or equivalently configuring the inner surface of the preform as it is pre-molded, and which configured inner surface portions of the preform will effectively disappear as the preform is softened under applied heat. A difficulty has been encountered in that preforms made of most known thermoplastic materials tend to initially expand and thereafter contract along the mandrel as they are heated from ambient to molding temperatures. While a substantial air seal must be maintained between the upper rim portion of the preform and the mandrel assembly, if the upper end portion is restrained against creeping along the mandrel, as by a tight surface fit or abutment with a portion of the mandrel assembly, initial heating and expansion may result in a loosening or separation of lower portions of the preform from the mandrel surface with consequent loss of good thermal contact therebetween and resultant undesirable variations in shape and thickness which may show up in the re-shaped configuration imparted by the female mold under applied differential pressure upon cessation of the applied original vacuum. Further, if the area of the preform surrounding the vacuum draw passageways softens agaisnt those passageways before complete air evacuation occurs throughout the major body areas of the preform, localized air entrapment may occur with the result that those areas will be improperly heated. | {
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LTE is a new radio access network technology evolved from 3G WCDMA providing high peak bit rates and good end-to-end QoS. Nevertheless, the wireless link is still likely to be the bottleneck of an end-to-end connection in many cases. In an overload situation, that is, a situation where the incoming data rate to the link is larger than the outgoing rate, the excessive data is temporarily stored in memory. This memory is often referred to as a transmit buffer or queue. If the overload continues, the data queue will accumulate and become large. This may cause a number of problems e.g., large end-to-end delays, unfair sharing between different flows etc.
Furthermore, because a buffer is finite, the queue might finally exceed the physical limitation, and some data has to be discarded. A straightforward way to handle this problem is discarding newly incoming data when the buffer is full. This approach is intuitive and easy to implement, however the performance is far from optimal in terms of end user delay.
A more sophisticated approach to managing buffer queues is referred to as Active Queue Management (AQM). AQM drops packets before the buffer is full. As a result, assuming IP packets are being sent over a TCP/IP link, the TCP sender can sense the segment loss and, as a consequence, reduce its sending rate—see Stevens, W. TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols. Addison-Wesley, 1994. In this way, the queue size and queuing time can be maintained at relatively low levels. Additionally, the throughput of the end-to-end link will not be reduced significantly.
Considerable work has been done for AQM. However, most AQM algorithms are designed for wired networks and are not suitable for mobile communication networks, because of their varying bandwidth characteristics, which result from varying radio conditions. Packet Discard Prevention Counter (PDPC) algorithm, on the other hand, is one AQM algorithm for WCDMA—see Sågfors, M. Ludwig, R. Meyer, M. Peisa, J. Buffer Management for Rate-Varying 3G Wireless Links Supporting TCP Traffic. In Proceedings of Vehicular Technology Conference, 2003. 3GPP also specified a simple algorithm called PDCP discard in its specification—see 3GPP TS 36.321. Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol specification, version 8.2.0. May 2008. Another AQM algorithm is proposed for 3GPP in 3GGP R2-080937, On the Need for Active Queue Management for non-GBR Bearers, TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #60bis, February 2008. That proposal has not been accepted.
PDCP discard as specified for the UE in 3GPP Rel-8 is a simple delay-based algorithm which discards packets based on how long the packets have been in the PDCP queue. When the delay exceeds some predefined threshold, the packets will be discarded. This algorithm can maintain small end-to-end delay, but can result in considerable throughput degradation in some situations.
The more elaborate delay-based AQM algorithm proposed in the above-mentioned TSG-RAN meeting implements a mechanism to improve the throughput of PDCP discard, e.g., preventing consecutive packet drops, without introducing large end-to-end delay. However, as noted, the proposal was not accepted in 3GPP for LTE Rel-8. It would be possible to specify a UE based uplink AQM mechanism for LTE in Rel-9 (or later) to achieve a better performance but that would require standardization effort and the mechanism would not be available for Rel-8 UEs.
US2008/186918A1 relates to facilitated active queue management. The queue management can be effectuated in a serving radio base station as well as in the access terminal, and the application that generates the data packets can be executed locally or remotely to either the base station or the access terminal.
The 3GPP draft “SDU Discard”, R2-074689, Nov. 12, 2007 discusses AQM as a mechanism that controls the size of the L2 data queue. AQM is defined as a sender side function used to maintain the queue sizes on the sender side at an acceptable level, where a decision to dro a sacket can be based on e.g. the size of the queue. It is proposed that an AQM mechanism should be specified for LTE, and that the queuing should be modeled in PDCP and the AQM mechanism should be located in the PDCP layer.
The 3GPP draft “Specifying SDU Discard function for the UE”, R2-074703. Nov. 12, 2007 relates to the use of a SDU discard mechanism to realize an AQM mechanism as a sender side function for L TE UE to control the size of the queue on the sender side and corresponding queuing delays. AQM drops packets to force higher layer protocols to reduce their send rate, thereby leading to reduced queue size and reduced delays. | {
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The present invention relates to integrated circuit devices and, more particularly, to integrated circuit devices having passive devices thereon and methods of forming the same.
Integrated circuit devices are being introduced into a variety of different electronic products in place of discrete circuits as they may reduce the cost and the size and/or package complexity of the electronic circuitry included in such devices. Such integrated circuit devices, in some instances, may be referred to as system-on-chip (SOC) devices. Various commercial products in which such integrated circuit devices are being incorporated operate at the radio frequency (RF) band, such as wireless communication devices. In such devices, passive electronic components, such as an inductor or capacitor, are generally essential elements in analog circuitry and/or radio frequency circuits incorporated in the integrated circuit devices. The Quality factor (Q) is a commonly used indicator of performance of an inductor in an integrated circuit device. Q is a measurement of the relationship between power loss and energy storage in an inductor as expressed by the following equation:
Q = ω * Maximum energy stored per cycle Average power dissipated per cycle ( 1 ) where ω is the angular frequency and Q is the quality factor.
In operation, devices such as inductors generate magnetic fields. Various effects, such as eddy currents, may arise due to the presence of such magnetic fields passing into the integrated circuit device, which may reduce Q for the inductor. Various such effects are illustrated schematically in the perspective views of the FIGS. 1A and 1B. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, an integrated circuit (semiconductor) substrate 10 has an interlayer dielectric layer 40 thereon and an inductor 50 on a top surface of the interlayer dielectric layer 40. The inductor 50 generates a magnetic field 60 that passes into the substrate 10 and the interlayer dielectric layer 40. Furthermore, the magnetic field 60 generates eddy currents 70 in the integrated circuit substrate 10. In addition to the undesirable eddy currents 70, the inductor 50 may also create problems related to substrate noise coupling and a parasitic capacitance may be established between the inductor 50 and a shield pattern 20 formed in the interlayer dielectric layer 40 between the integrated circuit substrate 10 and the inductor 50. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus with a cooling device.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, flat panel display apparatuses for outdoor installation have appeared. In such an apparatus, in order to protect the panel from weather, dust and the like, it is considered to arrange the panel inside an accommodation chamber having a sealed structure.
However, since the air inside the chamber does not contact outside air, a temperature difference occurs between the outside air and the air inside the chamber when the outside air temperature falls. When the temperature of the outside air becomes lower than the temperature inside the chamber, moisture included in the air inside the chamber is condensed to dew drop on an inner surface of a glass portion provided in front of the panel, and as a result, the inner surface is misted and it may deteriorate the visibility of a screen of the panel.
Further, when the panel is accommodated in the chamber, the temperature in the chamber tends to increase due to the heat generated from the panel. Therefore, the temperature of the panel could rise to deteriorate the function of the panel, and it may result in inability of the panel to display images.
In order to inhibit temperature increase in the chamber, it is considered to accommodate a cooling device for cooling the air in the chamber inside the chamber. According to this structure, temperature increase of the panel is inhibited, and the function of the panel is maintained in normal state.
When the air in the chamber is cooled by the cooling device, moisture included in the air inside the chamber is condensed to dew drop on a surface of the cooling device, and thereby the moisture is reduced temporarily. However, since the dew condensed water is left untreated, the condensed water evaporates and is contained in the air inside the chamber again, when the cooling device stops its operation. Therefore, although the amount of the moisture included in the air inside the chamber is reduced temporarily, the amount is restored when the cooling device stops its operation. Accordingly, the inner surface of the glass portion cannot be prevented from being misted. | {
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Glass articles, such as cover glasses, for handheld electronic devices may be made by thermal reforming, which involves heating a glass sheet to a temperature at which the glass can be deformed without damage and then forming the heated glass sheet into a glass article having a three-dimensional (“3D”) shape. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing apparatus to be employed in an electronic photograph recorder or an electrostatic duplicator, and the like, particularly to a developing apparatus for supplying a developer from a supply roller to a developing roller, and further delivering the developer to an electrostatic latent image on a carrier, thereby to develop the image.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are various conventional methods for delivering a toner as a developer to an electrostatic latent image carrier in an electronic photograph recorder and the like, e.g. as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 63-231469 which employs a developing roller alone as the toner delivery means. Another known system employs, in addition to the developing roller, a delivery or supply roller that first delivers the toner to the developing roller that thereafter delivers the toner to the electrostatic latent image carrier.
In the latter developing apparatus, the supply roller for delivering the toner normally is disposed substantially beneath a toner hopper storing the toner therein, and the toner dropped from the toner hopper is supplied to a developing roller. A restricting or doctor blade contacts the developing roller and restricts the thickness of the toner layer on the surface of the developing roller. The blade is urged toward contact with the developing roller under pressure by a spring. The toner layer of restricted thickness is delivered to the electrostatic latent image carrier by the rotation of the developing roller per se, and hence the latent image is developed.
Since the supply roller supplies toner dropped thereon from the toner hopper and accumulated thereon, the amount of toner to be supplied to the developing roller is large, and the toner layer on the developing roller composed of a large amount of toner is thinned by the blade. The toner that is removed or stopped by the blade is residual and is maintained in a reservoir disposed upstream of the delivery direction. During the course of developing process, the amount of toner in the reservoir is increased and will fully occupy the entire space of the reservoir. Further supply the toner into the reservoir when it is fully occupied by toner permits the blade to push or lift upwardly from the surface of the developing roller against the resilient force of the spring due to the pressure of the toner. Consequently, there will be a space between the surface of the developing roller and the tip end of the blade, and there is a likelihood that the layer of the toner restricted by the blade will be undesirably thick. Furthermore, there is a likelihood that the toner will be compressed and solidified by such pressure of the toner, such that toner particles having large diameters will be delivered to the developing position. For these reasons, there have occurred such problems that the substrate on which the image is developed is contaminated, suitable resolution cannot be obtained, and surplus toner is absorbed by the electrostatic latent image carrier at the time of developing. | {
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Handheld computing devices, such as cellular phones, palmtop, laptop, and similar portable computers have become extremely common. Many business rely on the use of such devices by their employees to conduct day-to-day operations. For example, insurance adjusters may take these devices into the field to store customer reports and digital photographs; medical personnel may use handheld devices in a hospital or clinical environment to acquire and store patient data, refer to patient charts, and have a wide variety of information available to them rapidly. Most business, for various reasons, are issuing employees portable computers, handheld email devices, and other similar devices.
The common feature of these devices is their use of batteries that are specifically designed for a specific computing platform. Unlike traditional alkali-cell batteries that can be purchased at retail locations and used immediately, batteries used in portable computing devices are generally removed from the device for which they are intended, connected to a charger, and then reinserted into the device. Alternatively, the battery may be charged in situ by connecting a power cord to the portable device, but that method of charging greatly diminishes the portability of the device and can require the device to remain within reach of an AC power outlet for the duration of the charging period, eliminating the advantages of a portable device. Often, the productivity of the workers is inhibited during the time when the batteries are charging.
Further, employers are often reluctant to issue multiple batteries to each employee, due to the high cost of specialized lithium, nickel metal hydride, and other batteries used in portable computing devices. Employers also have significant concerns regarding loss or theft of expensive batteries. For this reason, employers are often reluctant to provide a surplus of batteries to their employees, which would permit each employee to have a charged battery ready whenever the battery in their portable computing device is depleted. | {
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Traditionally, hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E) is one of the most common staining methods in histology. The morphology from the H&E is most widely used in medical diagnosis for cancer detection. However, increasingly molecular analysis of tissue by immunohistochemistry (IHC) or immunofluorescence (IF) and fluorescence in situ hybridization have become an essential part of cancer diagnosis in addition to morphological assessment. With great strides in targeted therapies, detailed molecular assessment of cancer tissue is fast becoming a requirement. Additionally with early cancer detection sample size is diminishing, making it difficult to perform various analyses required for complete characterization of disease.
While valuable, many of these current techniques may detect only a few targets at one time (such as IHC or fluorescence-based Western blots where number of targets detectable is limited by the fluorescence-based detection system) in a single sample. Further analysis of targets may require use of additional biological samples from the source, limiting the ability to determine relative characteristics of the targets such as the presence, absence, concentration, and/or the spatial distribution of multiple biological targets in the biological sample. Moreover, in certain instances, a limited amount of sample may be available for analysis or the individual sample may require further analysis.
Furthermore in many older cases only samples available are H&E stained slides and as patients are relapsing molecular analysis of this tissue can significantly benefit these patients by matching their disease to available targeted therapies. A major problem with using the previously H&E stained slide for IHC and FISH is the interference from H&E stains in both chromogenic detection in IHC and fluorescence detection for IF and FISH. Attempts have been made to remove H&E from tissue for interrogation. While this has allowed IHC with chromogen detection, IF and FISH are not feasible due to strong residual fluorescence from eosin. Removal of residual eosin fluorescence has not been feasible with many different techniques attempted to date.
For this reason, the general practice has been to use different tissue sections for H&E and molecular analysis. In rare cases where previously stained H&E slides are the only sample available, partial removal of H&E is performed and the slides are used for IHC using a chromogenic signal (Benharroch et. al. Blood 1998, 91:2076-2084). In limited circumstances it may also be possible to perform IF or FISH using a fluorophore whose emission is far removed from the eosin fluorescence, however, most of the commercial probes or labeled antibodies are labeled with fluorphores whose emission overlaps with eosin emission.
Thus there still remains a need for a method to remove H &E signals from the tissue and use the same tissue section for subsequent analysis such as immunofluorescence and FISH. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to an optical element array, including a lens sheet that uses a lenticular lens or a fly-eye lens to provide image display to a plurality of view points, for providing a unique display such as a stereoscopic display and view angle control; a display device; and a method of manufacturing a display device, an optical element array and an optical element array molding die.
With the need for a more sophisticated display device in recent years, a unique display device that combines an optical element array such as lenticular lens, prism sheet, or diffusion sheet to a display panel which uses electrical optical element such as liquid crystal, and that enables a stereoscopic image display and view angle control is used.
A display device using a lenticular lens sheet will be described by way of example of such display device. FIG. 16 is a frame format perspective view of the lenticular lens sheet, and FIG. 17 is a frame format view showing a configuration example of the display device using the lenticular lens sheet and a stereoscopic display method.
As shown in FIG. 16, a lenticular lens sheet 110 has one surface that is planar, and the other surface that is arranged with a plurality of cylindrical lenses 111 continuously in the parallel direction, each cylindrical lens having a hog-backed cross section at a circular cylindrical surface.
As shown in FIG. 17, a left eye pixel 115a and a right eye pixel 115b are alternately arranged so as to correspond to the focus of each cylindrical lens 111 on a display panel 114. When the left eye pixel 115a and the right eye pixel 115b are driven according to a predetermined signal by a drive circuit (not shown), a left eye image is formed in a left eye region 120a and a right eye image is formed in a right eye region 120b by the cylindrical lens 111, and a stereoscopic image is recognized by the observer. A normal two-dimensional image display can also be obtained by driving the right eye pixel 115a and the left eye pixel 115b with the same signal.
A multi-image simultaneous display device for displaying multiple images simultaneously has been proposed as a display device using the lenticular lens sheet. This device also enables simultaneous display of different images to a plurality of observers by allocating the image in observing directions by the cylindrical lens with a method similar to that for the stereoscopic display as described above.
In such display device using the lenticular lens sheet, the lenticular lens sheet is required to be mounted on the display panel at high precision to obtain a high quality stereoscopic image display or a multi-image simultaneous display. A technique proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-324317 (P. 3, [0013] to [0018], FIG. 1) (patent document 1) for such problem is shown in FIG. 18.
FIGS. 18A, 18B, 18C and 18D are frame format views describing a basic configuration of the invention of patent document 1, where 18A is a frame format view of a display panel, 18B is a frame format view of a lenticular lens plate and an alignment lenticular lens, 18C is a frame format view of a state in which the lenticular lens plate is slanted and overlapped with respect to the display panel, and 18D is a frame format view of when the lenticular lens plate is accurately overlapped.
A configuration in which a linear alignment mark 213 is arranged on one side of a display region 212 of the display panel 211, and an alignment lenticular lens 215 is arranged at a position corresponding to the alignment mark 213 of the lenticular lens plate 214 is proposed. According to such configuration, when the lenticular lens plate 214 is rotation shifted with respect to the display panel 211, only one part of the linear alignment mark 213 is enlarged as shown in FIG. 18C, and thus alignment can be easily carried out by moving the lenticular lens plate 214 such that the entire linear alignment mark 213 is enlarged as shown in FIG. 18D.
Similar technique is also proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-123633 (P. 3, [0016] to [0023], FIG. 1) (patent document 2). FIGS. 19A and 19B are frame format views describing a basic configuration of the invention of patent document 2, where 19A is a frame format view of a lenticular lens plate and 19B is a frame format view of an image sheet; and FIGS. 20A and 20B are frame format views in which parts of FIGS. 19A and 19B are enlarged, where 20A is a partial cross sectional view of the lenticular lens plate and the image sheet and 20B is a partial top view of the image sheet.
In this configuration as well, a reference line 317 is formed on the image sheet 315, and a positioning groove 314 is formed in the lenticular lens plate 312 at a position corresponding to the reference line 317, where adjustment is made such that the reference line 317 can be clearly observed as one straight line through the groove 314.
However, the background art described above has the following problems. The techniques disclosed in patent document 1 and patent document 2 of arranging a linear reference mark in the display panel and forming the lenticular lens or the groove at a position corresponding to the reference mark of the lenticular lens sheet to be mounted on the display panel is advantageous when performing alignment at visual level. However, with higher definition of the recent display panel, there are limitations to mounting precision in the technique of observing the reference mark through the lenticular lens or through the groove when higher precision mounting of the lenticular lens is being demanded.
One example of such case is shown in FIGS. 21A and 21B. FIGS. 21A and 21B are frame format views describing production of error when observing the reference mark through the lenticular lens, where 21A is a frame format view of the reference mark arranged on the display panel and 21B is a frame format view when observing the reference mark through the lenticular lens.
When observing the reference mark 130 arranged on the display panel (not shown) without interposing the lens, the reference mark appears as a straight line as shown in FIG. 21A. The state of FIG. 21B is obtained when observed with the lenticular lens 110 interposed on the reference mark 130 but without the lenticular lens 110 interposed on one part of the reference mark 130. A difference of ΔL is created when observed through the lens. The dimension of ΔL changes with lens specification such as lens shape and refraction index of lens material, and also changes with respect to the reference mark imaging position shift (change with respect to normal line direction from the reference mark). Therefore, high precision alignment through the lens is very difficult.
Problems still arise even if a groove pattern is used as shown in FIGS. 20A and 20B. FIGS. 22A and 22B are frame format views of when observing the reference pattern through the groove when the groove pattern is used for the lens, where 22A shows interference of the bottom part of the groove and the reference line and 22B shows lowering in visibility of the reference line caused by the groove shape and the refraction index of the groove material.
First, the groove bottom part 131 interferes with the reference line 317 thereby inhibiting the high precision alignment, as shown in FIG. 22A. Secondly, the visibility of the reference line 317 lowers due to the groove shape and the refraction index of the groove material when performing alignment using transmissive light 132, as shown in FIG. 22B.
The alignment precision further lowers since the pitch precision, the shape precision (curvature precision for lenses), or the like of the positioning lenticular lens or groove pattern varies.
In recent display panels, a display panel incorporating a drive circuit such as a gate driver circuit using a system-on-glass technique on the outer side of the display part region is proposed. When applying the method of known technique of arranging a linear reference mark in the display panel with respect to such display panel, a response such as arranging the reference mark on the outer side of the drive circuit and the like is required, and thus the frame becomes extremely large. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to techniques for analyzing an image showing a graphical representation.
Helm, R., Marriott, K., Odersky, M., "Building Visual Language Parsers," in proceedings of CHI, 1991 (New Orleans, La., Apr. 28-May 2, 1991), ACM, New York, 1991, pp. 105-112, describe visual language parsers that take as input a set of hand-written gestures recognized by underlying software. A parser combines the gestures into higher-level pictures that are combined in turn until the whole diagram is represented by a single data structure, as illustrated in FIG. 1. Page 106 describes visual languages in which topological relationships use containment, intersection, and touch to relate elements in a diagram. Visual languages based on topological relationships include Venn diagrams and window layout diagrams. Page 107 describes statecharts, illustrated in FIG. 2, that use topological relationships to capture states and their substates. The diagram in the right column on page 107 can be parsed to produce an append program in Visual Prolog, which uses topological relationships, such as "inside" and "touching." Use of constrained set grammars to extract a diagram's meaning is described at pages 108-110. Constraints enable information about spatial layout and relationships to be naturally encoded in the grammar. A topological constraint, a minimization constraint, existential quantification, defining high-level constraints in terms of more primitive constraints, and a negative constraint are described at pages 109-110. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Current methods for retrieving unmanned waterborne vehicles such as small boats onto a retrieval ship often involve use of cranes or davits to lower some attachment device such as a hook from the retrieval ship onto the small boat to be retrieved. Under high sea state conditions, such retrieval methods become operationally difficult and inadequate because of the high winds and sea waves. In view of such retrieval difficulties, current practice often involves use of personnel to control maneuvering of the small boat to be retrieved, and manipulation of the crane suspended hook for attachment purposes. Such retrieval methods have therefore been become extremely difficult to perform and time consuming. It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a mostly underwater retrieval system which avoids use of the attachment lowering crane or davit and is fully automated to perform retrieval of a small boat under low to high sea state conditions. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates generally to stationery products, and, more specifically, to high speed and volume mailing systems.
Many companies have thousands of customers to which they periodically mail various documents during the normal course of business. The documents may include typical bills, checks, forms, and direct response applications. Periodic mailings typically occur on a monthly basis for many commercial applications.
Accordingly, these companies typically utilize conventional high volume and high speed equipment for printing the documents, compiling the documents in corresponding envelopes, and mailing the envelopes en masse.
The processing equipment used by these companies is specially configured for sustained, continuous, high speed operation including the printing and compiling of envelopes in thousands of units per hour. The systems are computer controlled and include sophisticated drive systems for sustaining the high speed throughput of the documents through the many stages of operation, from the initially provided printing medium or paper to the finally assembled envelopes.
Once the system is set into operation, it may operate continuously for many hours without operator intervention, unless problems are developed. Any problem which interrupts the high speed operation of the system has an associated cost in lost productivity as well as increased expense.
Accordingly, these companies require reliable processing equipment, and a high quality initial stationery product which can withstand the high speed processing thereof through the equipment. The typical stationery product for this equipment is a large diameter roll of printing media such as typical paper. The paper roll is initially provided from a paper mill company in a long web having plain or blank opposite sides.
The plain mill roll is then processed by an intermediate company that typically preprints on one or both sides of the web fixed or background printing for a particular high volume commercial customer, such as retail companies, utility companies, and credit card companies.
The roll is preprinted to define the specific configuration of the final document to be used by the associated customer. The individual document may have one or more pages with background print which will later be over-printed by the final customer with the requisite variable print thereon, such as typical billing statements or payment checks.
The documents are arranged in a repeating series along the running length of the product roll, and may also repeat across the transverse width of the web.
The web typically also includes various lines of perforations typically bridging the width of the web so that the individual documents may later be cleanly torn along the perforations as required for the specific document configuration and intended use.
The mill roll is typically printed in a high speed lithographic printer capable of printing thousands of page impressions per hour as the paper web is unwound from the mill roll and rewound into the product roll in preferably continuous high speed operation.
However, problems may develop in printing the mill roll which can interrupt the continuous printing thereof. In this case, hundreds of feet of the web may be improperly printed, or printed with defects rendering this section of the product roll unusable by the intended customer.
Another potential problem with the mill roll is the inclusion therein of a typical mill splice at which corresponding ends of the web are overlapped and adhesively bonded together to form the required diameter of the mill roll and associated requisite length of the web.
Mill splices are typically undesirable since they can adversely affect performance of the high speed processing equipment, and will present a significant defect in any document finally containing the mill splice.
Accordingly, the intermediate company will doctor the preprinted product to remove undesirable defects therein. For example, the long sections of improperly printed web will be removed from the web and discarded as print waste. And, any mill splice found in the roll will also be removed and discarded.
The sections of the web are typically removed in a manual operation by a technician and the corresponding severed ends of the web are manually spliced together in splice known as a press splice. The press splice may be a simple overlap of the web ends suitably adhesively bonded together. Or, the press splice may use a narrow strip of adhesive tape to join together the web ends at a transverse butt joint extending across the full width of the web.
The press splice is specifically configured for maintaining strength of the product roll when subsequently used in high speed laser printers by the intended customer. In a laser printer, a hot fusion roller is provided, and the press splice must be sufficiently strong to withstand the heat of the fusion roller without failure.
Furthermore, during the doctoring process the specific form of documents has already been preprinted on the web, and the press splice is then specifically introduced into the web at a convenient location either at the junction between two documents, or along a line of perforations therein to minimize the adverse aesthetic appearance thereof.
However, some intended customers may still find the press splice undesirable or unacceptable. Very few of such press splices are found in an individual product roll, yet even one press splice may be unacceptable to the customer since that splice will eventually be found in the final document mailed to the intended recipient or retail customer.
Accordingly, during the doctoring process a small flag can be introduced at the site of the press splice so that it is readily visible externally on the exposed side of the roll by the customer's technician. The technician, in turn will mount the infeed product roll into the high speed processing equipment therefor, and that equipment will be operated normally at high speed until the product roll is sufficiently unwound to the region of the flagged splice. The equipment will then be operated at relatively low speed to isolate the flagged splice and then ensure that the document containing the press splice is not printed or further used. Upon passing the flagged splice, the high speed printer then returns to high speed operation.
This typical manner of avoiding the use of the flagged splice document interrupts the high speed processing of the entire roll and is a significant problem when there may be only one or two press splices found in the entire product roll, which represents only one or two unacceptable documents in the multiple thousands of documents produced from the single product roll.
Interrupting the high speed printing of the product roll correspondingly reduces throughput of the printer, requires additional time to complete the full batch from the product roll, and has an associated extra cost in processing.
Although the preprinted web is typically rewound into the press or product roll, it may alternatively be provided in a large fanfold product for subsequent use by the customer. In either roll or fanfold form the preprinted product may still include the undesirable press splice.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved document product for eliminating the need to interrupt high speed processing thereof when a press splice is found therein. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to pre-filled syringes and pre-filled cartridges for administering various fluids into a patient, more particularly, the invention relates to plastic syringes and cartridges for injecting liquid pharmaceutical/biological agents, such as diagnostic imaging agents into a patient.
2. Reported Developments
Various syringes for taking body fluid samples or administering fluid medicaments to a patient are known. Such syringes generally include a cylindrical syringe barrel, a hypodermic needle engaged with the syringe barrel, and a plunger within the syringe barrel which, when a force is exerted axially by an operator, create a suction force drawing body fluids into the barrel, or delivers fluid medicament through the hypodermic needle. The purpose of the plunger is to provide an air tight seal between itself and the syringe barrel so that movement of the plunger up and down the barrel will allow liquid, blood or other fluids to be drawn into or forced out of the syringe through the distal end.
Syringes used for such purposes include glass syringes, in which the cylindrical barrel is made of glass and the plunger is a ground glass rod which closely fits within the cylindrical barrel. In order to eliminate leakage and at the same time reduce resistance to an acceptable level, close tolerances are necessary between the barrel and the plunger along with the use of a lubricant. These glass syringes suffer from a number of disadvantages including that: they are expensive since they require close tolerances; they cannot be easily mass produced since the plungers often cannot be interchanged with one another and have to be individually fit with the barrel during the grinding process by the manufacturer; and they are susceptible to breakage.
To obviate these problems syringes were proposed and/or made by using glass and plastic barrels with plastic or elastomeric plungers. In order to prevent leakage around the plunger, the plunger is made with one or more ribs which are slightly larger in diameter in the uncompressed state than the inside of the barrel which upon placement within the barrel are compressed and deformed against the wall of the barrel and thereby form a seal. The quality and strength of the seal depend on the elastomeric properties of the material used to make the plunger and the ratio of the respective diameters of the plunger and the inside of the barrel. To obtain a good leak-proof seal, a relatively large compressive force must be exerted on the elastomeric plunger by the syringe barrel. This quality of seal, however, makes the movement of the plunger within the barrel difficult requiring excessive force on the part of the operator to move the plunger. This drawback is even more pronounced with pre-filled syringes which are maintained, ready to use, in storage. During this shelf-life the plunger tends to bind with the barrel. To remedy the problem the prior art used lubricants to reduce friction and drag between the plunger and the inside of the syringe barrel. One of the commonly used lubricants for this purpose is silicone oil. The use of such lubricants is, however, undesirable, since the lubricants tend to disperse and/or dissolve in parenteral formulations thereby contaminating the formulations. Such potential adulteration is, of course, undesirable and attempts were made to avoid the use of lubricants and still provide a leakage-proof syringe with easily slideable plunger. Such attempts included the use of various plunger configurations including one or more ribs thereon projecting forwardly or rearwardly in the barrel to reduce the frictional drag between the plunger and the barrel. Another approach was, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,646, to laminate the elastomeric plunger with a film of tetrafluoroethylene, ethylenetetrafiuoroethylene or ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene resin.
While liquid tightness and sliding property have somewhat improved with these attempts as regards to syringes intended for taking body fluid samples or injecting medicaments from stored vials, the problem of inadequate sliding property in pre-filled syringes stored for extended time periods still remain unsolved.
It is a main object of the present invention to provide a pre-filled syringe and a pre-filled cartridge which will overcome the above-described inadequate sliding property while maintaining a tight, leak-proof seal between the plunger and the wall of the syringe barrel.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a self-aspirating syringe and cartridge.
In medical practice, hypodermic injections are sometimes administered subcutaneously, while others must be given intravenously, depending upon the particular medication to be administered. In either case, it is essential that the practitioner know with certainty, prior to injection of the medication whether the hypodermic needle tip is located in a major blood vessel, such as a vein, or in subcutaneous tissue. Use of an aspirating syringe in which a negative pressure can be generated in the syringe affords a means of making such determination. Thus the appearance of blood in the syringe upon generation of the negative pressure would indicate location of the needle tip in a major blood vessel, while the lack of appearance of blood would indicate location of the tip in subcutaneous tissue. Depending upon the type of injection intended, the injection can then either proceed directly or if appropriate, the tip can be withdrawn and relocated.
Aspirating syringes are generally of two types, namely, they are either manually or automatically aspirated. In the manually aspirated type the plunger is retracted for a short distance within the barrel of the syringe. This retraction lowers the pressure within the syringe which leaves fluids at the needle tip which are then observable within the barrel of the syringe. From solid tissues no fluids will be drawn into the barrel. In the manually aspirated syringes the injection necessitates the use of both hands, one to hold the barrel, and the other to exert pressure in a rearward direction on the plunger. Such manually actuatable aspirating syringes have the disadvantage that their proper use depends on very large measure on the degree of skill of the person administering the injections.
Aspiration in syringes of the automatic or self-aspirating type is effected by first inducing a positive pressure in a medicament-containing portion of the syringe. On release of the force inducing the positive pressure, a corresponding negative pressure in the syringe is generated thus giving rise to the aspirating effect. The present invention relates to the self-aspirating type syringes.
Ideally a self-aspirating hypodermic syringe should be: relatively simple in construction so as to minimize the cost of production; relatively simple to operate; capable of manipulation with one hand; adaptable to multiple self-aspirating actions; capable of expelling trapped air from the syringe prior to insertion of the needle into the injection site and prior to initiation of the self-aspirating action without either precluding self-aspirating action at a later time in the operation sequence of the syringe or otherwise rendering it inoperative.
The self-aspirating syringes provided by the present invention mimic, automatically, the slight rearward piston displacement withdrawal action of manually operable syringes, thus generating the slight negative pressure in the syringes essential for aspiration. The syringes of the present invention therefore obviate the disadvantage inherent in prior art syringes of the manual type, since the aspirating action is generated automatically which requires no special skill on the part of the practitioner.
These and other desirable objects will be explained as the description proceeds.
The invention will be described in reference to a pre-filled syringe; however, it is to be understood that a pre-filled cartridge, having essentially the same shape and other characteristics as a pre-filled syringe, is also intended to be described and covered by the appended claims. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Network service providers are increasingly providing network services such as security, tunneling, virtual private networks, filtering, load-balancing. VoIP/Multimedia processing and various types of application proxies (HTTP, XML, WAP, etc.) to packet flows from customer devices. Service providers also provide content-specific services designed to improve the quality of a user's experience, for example, video streaming and caching. To provide these new services, service providers have often turned to specialized, dedicated physical or virtual appliances. In some cases, routers or other network device have been modified to include additional hardware or software that applies various services to the incoming packets. For example, line cards installed in a service plane of a router may be configured to perform particular services, such as the services described above. In other example, service providers have deployed sophisticated service complex of specialized physical and/or virtual appliances to apply services to customer packet flows.
In some example implementations, physical and/or virtual appliances of the service complex are configured in the form of service chains that provide network services to customer packet flows. In a typical network deployment, instantiation of service nodes executing virtual machines (VMs) implementing virtual network functions (VNFs) to create a service chain providing the requisite network function may take anywhere from ten minutes to multiple hours, depending upon complexity and the particular network environment. This onerous start-up time negatively impacts the experience of the end user. Each time a new service chain is created to handle traffic from a subscriber device, the end user is often forced to wait a long period for the new service chain to initialize. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The invention relates to a colour display tube comprising a substantially rectangular display window having an upright edge, a substantially rectangular shadow mask comprising a large number of apertures and a skirt, a substantially rectangular supporting frame to which the skirt of the shadow mask is connected, and suspension means for suspending the supporting frame in the corners of the upright edge.
A colour display tube comprising a shadow mask connected to a supporting frame is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,098. The shadow mask described in said specification is connected to the supporting frame by means of twelve welds. Each side of the shadow mask is connected to the supporting frame by means of three welds, one weld being situated substantially in the centre of the side and the other two welds being situated near the corner of the side at a distance from the centre which is two thirds of the distance between the centre and the corner of the side. Furthermore the supporting frame is suspended in the upright edge of the display window by means of suspension means. Via said suspension means vibrations of the display window can be transmitted to the supporting frame. However, the operation of the colour display tube is adversely influenced by said vibrations of the shadow mask. It has been found in practice that the operation in particular of a colour display tube of which the supporting frame is connected in the corners of the upright edge of the display window is adversely influenced.
It is the object of the invention to provide a colour display tube having an improved operation by damping the detrimental vibrations of the shadow mask. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to data processing systems and particularly to analog/hybrid computing systems.
II. Prior Art
Analog/hybrid computing systems are known in the art such as Pacer 700 manufactured by Electronic Associates, Inc. Some of these prior hybrid computing systems have operated with a plurality of analog consoles to run hybrid simulations. However, prior systems have been limited in that they could not effectively run more than one hybrid simulation at a time. During the running of a single hybrid simulation for a user there are gaps of time when no computation or computation at slow speed takes place. For example, a user may be checking his program, he may be debugging his program or he may be examining results before the beginning of computation. Further, he may be waiting for initial conditions to be reached. During these times when the user waited or used slow speeds, the full resources of the hybrid computing system were not being taken advantage of. This resulted in a substantial effective loss in computer time of a costly system. A further drawback of these prior hybrid systems has been that they could not operate in a true multi-task mode. While they could run one hybrid simulation for a user they could not at the same time perform other important tasks for other users to effect maximum cost effectiveness of the hybrid system. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
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