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Field
The present application relates to an electronic device, a control method, and a non-transitory storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
There is a known type of life-saving lamp that is lit automatically when it falls into water and that contributes to discovery of a person who has fallen into water (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-344185).
Conventional electronic devices have room for improvement in their functions to be executed at the time of detection when they fall into water, or the like. | {
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The substantial weight of the fifth-wheel travel trailer requires proper mounting of the hitch assembly relative to the axles of the towing vehicle. Where the typical pick-up truck is employed as the towing vehicle, the fifth-wheel hitch is secured in the bed of the truck above and slightly in front of the rear axle. It is desirable that the mounting not be located too far forward of the rear axle so as to avoid unnecessary bending moments about the axle. It is also desirable not to mount the hitch rearward of the axle, otherwise the towing vehicle will tend to rear off its front wheels resulting in loss of steering control.
Where a long-bed truck is employed as the towing vehicle, relatively few difficulties are encountered in the proper mounting of a fifth wheel hitch. Recently, though, the popularity of the short-bed pick-up truck has grown. With such short-bed trucks there is a decreased distance between the rear axle of the truck and the cab. In such cases, and so as to provide adequate clearance between the forward portion of the trailer and the cab during turning operations, the hitch may be mounted rearward in the bed, behind the rear axle. However, as noted above, this creates an undesirable and potentially dangerous towing configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,977 to Pulliam et al. teaches a self-adjusting fifth wheel hitch assembly which allows fifth wheel trailers to be towed using short bed pickup trucks, which prevents contact between the trailer and the truck during turning operations and which provides for the proper weight distribution, relative to the rear axle, during normal longitudinal movement of the truck and trailer.
The apparatus of Pulliam et al. includes a first hitch member on the trailer and a second hitch member on the towing vehicle. The hitch member on the towing vehicle is mounted on a sliding mount extending across the rear axle of the vehicle. A linkage is responsive to pivoting between the trailer and towing vehicle to move the hitch on the towing vehicle toward the rear of the vehicle when turning is effected and to move the hitch on the towing vehicle just forward of the rear axle during normal longitudinal movement of the truck and trailer.
However, design of Pulliam et al, is complex, has numerous moving and linked mechanical parts and has multiple hitch members. Many of these mechanical parts responsible for the self-adjustment and pivoting aspects are also subject to the towing force exerted by the truck onto the trailer. This places additional stress on these mechanical components.
What is needed is a self-adjusting fifth wheel hitch which is simple in design and does not have the above-mentioned disadvantages. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of geological exploration for hydrocarbons. More specifically, the invention relates to a method of determining wettability of rock samples.
2. Background of the Invention
Wettability is a property of rocks which measures the preference of a fluid such as oil, gas, or water, to be in contact with the surface of a rock pore. The pore surface may be a mineral or a mineral which is partially or completely coated with a hydrocarbon material and/or “heavy organic materials.” For the purposes of this disclosure, these “heavy organic materials” are highly viscous and/or semi-solid hydrocarbon materials. Examples of heavy organic materials include, for example and without limitation, bitumen, resins, asphaltenes, and pyrobitumen. Bitumen is organic matter soluble in organic solvents, such as carbon bisulfide. Asphaltene is organic matter that is insoluble in straight-chain solvents, such as pentane or heptane. Resin molecules are aromatic ring hydrocarbons. Pyrobitumen is insoluble, thermally altered bitumen or oil. To be clear, as used herein, heavy organic materials are to be distinguished from lighter, less viscous hydrocarbon crude oil components such as alkanes, naphtalenes, aromatics, etc. As used herein, these lighter, less viscous or lighter hydrocarbon crude oil components will be referred generically as “light hydrocarbon materials.” Typically, for rock or core samples obtained from a reservoir, wettability is determined for a very small number of samples. Limited results are generally extrapolated to large volumes of rocks. Wettability is a parameter which has an impact on a number of reservoir project economics. For example, wettability influences oil recovery from a reservoir. Additionally, wettability has an effect on waterflood and gasflood performance.
Consequently, there is a need for improved methods and systems to determine wettability of rock samples from a reservoir. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video recorder with a distortion corrector circuit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
From the German patent specification DE-3809394 there is known a distortion corrector circuit arranged in the signal path for processing the frequency-modulated brightness signals of a video recorder and containing a band-pass filter that is tuned to the deflection range of the part of the brightness signal that actually reproduces the brightness. This band-pass filter consists of a filter circuit component located in the signal path and a coupling component arranged downstream thereof. A diode switch is also connected in parallel with the output of the filter circuit component. When the oscillation amplitudes of the frequency-modulated brightness signal at the output side of the filter circuit component exceed a switching voltage of the diode switch, the said voltage being defined in the vicinity of the flection point of the diode switch characteristic, the diode switch will pass from a blocked state (off-state) to a conducting state (on-state) in this part of the characteristic and, together with the filter circuit component and the conducting state d.c. resistance of the diode switch, will form a transit-time controller with an amplitude-dependent retardation of tile transit time of the frequency-modulated brightness signal. In this switching state of the distortion corrector circuit the transit time of the frequency-modulated brightness signals is therefore retarded in a manner proportional to the amplitude of their oscillations, so that these signals have their transit time corrected. This transit time retardation compensates frequency and phase frequency characteristic errors, especially in the lower-frequency range of the lower sideband of the carrier frequencies of the frequency-modulated brightness signal immediately adjacent to the range of variation of the carrier oscillations, so that the amplitude-modulated brightness signals at the output side of the frequency modulator will maintain a linear frequency characteristic up to very high video frequencies (beyond 3 MHz), thereby making it possible to attain a very high image resolution in the image reproduction from the videotape without any additional noise. On the other hand, given small oscillation amplitudes of the transmitted frequency-modulated brightness signals that do not exceed the threshold value of the diode switch and therefore maintain the diode switch in its off-state, so that the entire distortion corrector circuit will be in the state of bandpass filter operation, the resonance effects of the band-pass filter, which to all intents and purposes trigger the basic or carrier oscillations of the frequency-modulated brightness signal, will make themselves felt. This leads to the suppression of the low oscillations of the lower sideband of the frequency-modulated brightness signals, the said frequencies having superposed on them the carrier frequencies of the frequency-modulated brightness signals and being capable--given adequate amplitudes in the vicinity of their maximum amplitude--of taking the carrier frequencies of the frequency-modulated brightness signal out of the switching range of the frequency modulator. Furthermore, this will also increase the amplitude of the carrier oscillations themselves and reduce the noise signals in the frequency range above the carrier oscillations.
These measures ensure that a sharper image will be reproduced on the screen. Furthermore, the arrangement substantially eliminates the edge noises that disturb image reproduction, especially the noises due to vertical brightness edges, as well as disturbing reflections and the defects described as "flitter".
However, the practical application of these measures has shown that the quality of the recording of video information on the tape of a video cassette and the quality of the video tapes themselves are so widely divergent as to make it impossible to find a design or dimensioning of the known distortion corrector circuit that can cover in a satisfactory manner this wide range of differences in quality of the video cassettes to be reproduced. | {
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This invention relates to synchronizing and organizing contact information received from multiple sources.
More people are relying on electronic devices such as smartphones or computers to store and organize contact information for various contact entities (e.g., friends, family members and business contacts). However, most electronic devices still rely heavily on users' manual operations to gather and populate contact information. As the number of contacts increases, the users spend more time on the tedious task of entering and updating contact information for other users. For example, anytime the users are notified of updates in the contact information, the users are responsible for manually assessing the reliability of the updated contact information and changing the contact information in the electronic devices.
Contact information of a user can be obtained via various sources. Traditional sources of contact information include business cards, v-cards, contact importing tools, emails and webpages. Other sources of contact information include social networking services provided over the Internet. The primary function of a social networking service is to enable users to conveniently communicate with other users. To enhance such a function, the social networking service often retains contact information of the users. The contact information in the social networking service may be generated and maintained directly by a user. For example, a user or may manage his or her profile on the social networking service to allow other users to get in touch with the user. Alternatively, a user's contact information in the social networking service may be entered by someone other than the user.
The increase in the number of sources for the contact information renders managing of the contact information more time consuming and complicated because the users need to assess the reliability of contact updates, manually update entries for the contact updates and resolve any conflicts in the contact information manually. To keep the contact information current all the time, the users may need to spend an inordinate amount of time and resources. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to web based software applications, and more particularly to is a server-page based software architecture that uses a use-case to drive development and maintenance of an evolving, web based software application.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Rapid software prototyping is an approach to facilitating the communications between customers and requirement engineers in defining software requirements, helping to gain an early customer buy in product ideas, managing the product risk by exploring the feasibility of the software development, and evaluating alternatives in which software can be built. Based upon different emphases for those goals, a software prototype can be classified as a throwaway software prototype, a mock-up, or an evolutionary prototype. For the throwaway software prototype, the requirement is the delivery rather than the software. For the mock-up, the prototype is used to gather the requirement and customer buy-in. Data used in the mock-up prototype is faked. The evolutionary prototype uses real data and the prototype evolves into a product.
An important challenge in developing an evolutionary prototype is how to ensure the software implementation is traceable from the software requirements, easy to modify, and behaves consistently when being invoked by different application functions. To add or modify an existing feature, the software developers need to trace the feature in the software requirements to the specific software prototype code for modifying. The developers need to ensure that the modification will change the software behaviors consistently over different invocations of the same feature and should not impact other features improperly.
Technologies that have been used to support user workflows in a web application include Business Process interpreters and scenario-based simulation.
The Business Process interpreter supports a workflow, using Microsoft® Active Server Page technology to get HTTP requests from the web page. The Business Process interpreter uses Microsoft® COM (Component Object Model) technology to set and save a context for the workflow, and interpret business process definitions that are defined in an XML format. The Business Process interpreter is not designed for systematically evolving the software from a prototype to a product.
Scenario-based simulation supports the implementation of scenarios for the prototyping purpose. Each request from the web page is processed to generate a XML definition of the user interface. This definition is further translated to HTML for displaying. Scenario-based simulation prototypes can only provide the user look and feel, and limited system behaviors. For example, the prototype may not be used to validate the system architecture vertically and the system behaviors that use real data. Scenario-based simulations lack a detailed and structured approach of evolving a prototype to a product.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for is a server-page based software architecture using a use-case to drive the evolutionary, rapid development and easy maintenance of a highly evolving, web based software application. | {
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User interfaces allow the computer user to interact or communicate with the computer system. User interfaces are typically implemented with a display screen and a user-controlled entry device, such as a keyboard, mouse, microphone, light pen or the like. The display screen displays information and data to the user and the user uses the entry device to give commands and provide information to the computer system.
During recent years, more and more people have wanted and needed to use the power of the computer in their daily work. However, generally these users do not want to be required to know specific commands, operators, syntax rules, etc, and much work has been expended on developing user interfaces which alleviate the need for such levels of knowledge. The most common form of user interface nowadays is the so-called graphical user interface (or GUI). Typically, a GUI presents the user with windows and icons. Windows typically include a menu bar, a tool bar, and a client area. The client area may typically include a number of icons, which are small stylized representations of entities (applications, folders, etc) with which the user works.
To enable the user to invoke particular operations on the computer system, the user interface needs to provide selection mechanisms to the user. In a typical user interface environment, this may be achieved by defining `actions` which the user can select via `views` of those actions provided via the user interface. For the purposes of this application, an action can be defined as a user initiated event which invokes an operation. The `views` used to represent an action within the user interface may take a number of different forms, both visual and non-visual.
Typical examples of visual views used in GUIs would be a word or phrase on a menu bar (as illustrated in FIG. 1A where the `Print` action is selected from a word view), a graphical representation such as an icon or bitmap on a tool bar (as illustrated in FIG. 1B where the `Print` action is selected from a print bitmap view), or other visual controls that enable user selection or input. Examples of such other controls are a combination box control that allows font selection (as illustrated in FIG. 1C), or an entry field that allows the setting of a string property such as setting the name of a directory or setting a tool bar name (as illustrated in FIG. 1D). Further examples of visual views are illustrated in FIG. 1E, where the print action is selectable from a context or pop up menu displayed by depressing the right mouse button whilst positioned over the window area, and in FIG. 1F where the print action is selectable from a push button view in a window layout.
The present invention concerns visual views of actions (as opposed to non-visual views), and in particular techniques which enable a user to group views together so that, for instance, views of actions most commonly used by the user can be grouped together.
In current day applications, the views for a set of actions are often grouped together in some way. For example, sets of actions may be represented as menu bars, tool bars and pop up menus, as already illustrated in FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1E respectively. For the purposes of the present application, such groupings of views shall be referred to herein as `collective views`. When the application developer is developing the application, he/she will generally create collective views to represent a logical grouping of actions. However, from the end user's point of view, these groupings may not represent the ideal groupings that the user would like.
However, unfortunately, most modern day applications only provide the user with limited ability to customise the collective views defined by the developer. For instance, Lotus Notes provides a `smart icon` facility, whereby the user can control the content of tool bars by using a drag and drop mechanism to drag actions from a list on to a tool bar. The mechanism of dragging and dropping UI objects in GUIs is well known to those skilled in the art, and hence need not be described in any more detail herein. With regards to the list in Lotus Notes, each entry in the list provides the user with a graphical image and a name identifying the action represented by that image. Further Lotus Wordpro extends the smart icons functionality by not only allowing the content of tool bars to be modified by the user but also specifying the context in which a selected tool bar will display.
Microsoft Word allows both customisation of tool bars and menu bars through drag and drop mechanisms. Customisation extends to allowing the user to assign keyboard fast key selections (or accelerators) to actions. The possible list of actions that the user can choose from also includes some actions that have a control type interface such as a combination box (sometimes referred to as a drop down list). An example of this type of action is a font selection action that displays a set of fonts within a drop down list, the user being able to select one of the fonts to change the font of selected textual objects within the client area.
Whilst the above mechanisms provide the user with some ability to customise tool bars, menu bars and keyboard fast key selections (or accelerators), they do not provide mechanisms for customising other types of collective views. Further, they are limited to certain types of actions. In particular, these techniques are not used for all types of actions that appear within the user interface. A category of action which is not generally made available for user selection during customisation is a `property action`. Herein the term `property action` will be used to refer to those actions that hold an item of user-selectable data such as a font name, a file name, etc. The user-selectable data may be chosen by the user from a list of possible data (such property actions may be referred to as `selector` property actions), or alternatively the user may be able to enter the data directly, eg. through an entry field. Although Microsoft Word provides the limited capability of allowing the user to select certain selector property actions from the list of all available actions, it does not allow all of the property actions within its interface to be dragged and dropped on to collective views.
Since property actions have some user-selectable data associated therewith, they tend to be made available to the user via views such as combination box controls or entry fields, such views having already been illustrated with reference to FIGS. 1C and 1D respectively. Since views of property actions include user-selectable data, it is more difficult to provide for such views to be moved around between various collective views, because there is then a requirement to provide some mechanism to handle view concurrency (ie any change to the user-selectable data in one view must be replicated in any other view of that property action). Hence prior art techniques such as the `smart icons` available in Lotus Notes have only enabled such customisation in relation to views of more standard actions such as cut, paste, copy, save, etc which do not include user selectable data. Further, whilst the prior art techniques within Microsoft Word allow a pre-defined number of property actions to be selected by the user and added to the tool bar, this is the exception rather than the norm, and they do not allow all property actions to be moved between different collective views.
It should also be noted that, because property actions are typically represented via rather `large` views such as entry fields and combination box controls, then even if techniques were provided which enabled any number of them to be dropped on to collective views, it is questionable whether collective views such as tool bars would be suitable for holding views of property actions, since at present tool bars tend to be small so that they do not occupy too much of the application display area. A user would soon `outgrow` the tool bar if he/she were to add property action views such as combination box controls and entry fields. Further, the tool bar is also not designed to show larger views such as list boxes or vertically arranged groups of check boxes and buttons.
Another type of collective view which illustrates the customisation problem facing users of GUI applications is the notebook. A typical notebook is illustrated in FIG. 2. As can be seen from that figure, the notebook consists of a number of pages, and any particular page can be accessed by selecting a tab associated with that page. An example of a notebook is the desktop settings notebook provided in the IBM OS/2 operating system. This notebook contains ten or so pages, each of which contains a number of entry fields, combination boxes, buttons, and other views. Additionally, some pages include a number of subsidiary pages. Hence, a notebook is potentially a powerful tool, since it can contain a large number of actions therein. However, up to now, the end user has not been provided with any facility to customise these notebooks, and so, even though the user may only use a small subset of the actions on a regular basis, he/she needs to spend a significant amount of time going through the various pages of often quite large notebooks trying to remember where the particular actions that he/she requires are located.
From the above discussion, it will be apparent that there is a need for a mechanism to be provided which will enable the end user to customise collective views to include those actions which he/she wishes to group together, eg those which he/she makes most use of. | {
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In UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) networks, attempts are made to adopt HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) or HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) for the purpose of improving frequency utilization efficiency and improving a data rate to thereby make the most of features of W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access)-based systems. Regarding this UMTS network, Long Term Evolution (LTE) is being studied aiming at a higher data rate and lower delay or the like.
Third-generation systems can generally realize a transmission rate of a maximum of the order of 2 Mbps on a downlink using a fixed band of 5 MHz. On the other hand, LTE-based systems can realize a transmission rate of a maximum of the order of 300 Mbps on a downlink and the order of 75 Mbps on an uplink using a variable band of 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz. Furthermore, in the UMTS networks, a system as the successor- to LTE is also being studied for the purpose of achieving a wider band and higher rate (e.g., LTE Advanced (LTE-A)). For example, in LTE-A, 20 MHz which is the maximum system band of the LTE specification is scheduled to be extended to the order of 100 MHz. Furthermore, In LTE-A, the maximum number (four) of transmission antennas in the LTE specification is scheduled to be increased to eight.
Furthermore, in the LTE-based system, a MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) system is being proposed as a radio communication technique for transmitting/receiving data using a plurality of antennas and improving a data rate (frequency utilization efficiency) (e.g., see Non-Patent Literature 1). In the MIMO system, a transmitter/receiver is provided with a plurality of transmitting/receiving antennas and different transmission information sequences are simultaneously transmitted from different transmitting antennas. On the other hand, the receiver side separates and detects information sequences which are simultaneously transmitted taking advantage of the fact that different fading fluctuations are generated between the transmitting/receiving antennas, and can thereby increase the data rate (frequency utilization efficiency). | {
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The invention relates to a magnetron cathode for sputtering ferromagnetic targets, consisting of a basic cathode body with a magnet system having a yoke and magnet poles of opposite polarity concatenated at the periphery and disposed one inside of the other on the yoke. The magnet poles are associated with pole shoes consisting at least partially of target material having emergence surfaces similar to the configuration of the magnet poles, and behind which, in the direction of the depth of the system, leaving two circumferential air gaps, a target is disposed which is concatenated at the periphery, composed of ferromagnetic metal, and has a sputtering surface; the magnet poles and target do not overlap in their surfaces of projection onto a plane parallel to the sputtering surface, and the pole shoes and the target are connected to one another in an electrically conductive manner.
Magnetron cathodes having planar or domed sputtering surfaces are sufficiently well known. In them there is provided a spatially defined arrangement of permanent magnets and/or electromagnets in such a position relative to the sputtering surface that an annular, closed tunnel of magnetic lines of force is produced over the sputtering surface, whereby the glow discharge producing the sputtering is limited to an area in the immediate adjacency of the sputtering surface and thus the sputtering rate is increased by more than a power of ten. The term "sputtering surface" refers to the effective target surface that is exposed to the glow discharge, and from which the sputtered particles emerge; this is the front surface of the target, as a rule (German publication AS No. 24 31 832).
Such magnetron cathodes have become known in a number of variants which either are of limited applicability and/or are not entirely adequate for the applications in which they would be desirable. Thus, in the known embodiment, the pole faces of the magnet system are disposed in back of the target, so that the majority of the magnetic lines of force penetrate the target face twice. Such a method of construction, however, either is not suitable, or is suitable only in conjunction with additional measures, for targets of magnetic materials, such as those needed, for example, for the production of magnetic recording tapes.
These measures can consist, for example, in making the target very thin, so that a sufficient number of magnetic lines of force can penetrate the target. This, however, necessitates frequent replacement of the target. Another possibility consists in operating the apparatus in the magnetic saturation region of the target material, but this requires extraordinarily strong magnet system, and it has not yet been possible to gain control of the distortions of the magnetic field, which change as the target material is increasingly consumed.
Furthermore, it is possible to heat the target material at a temperature above the specific Curie point, so that the magnetic lines of force can penetrate thicker target plates. The Curie temperatures are between about 400.degree. and 1100.degree. C., depending on the material, so that considerable thermal problems are involved in this approach. It is also known to facilitate the emergence of the lines of force by means of grooves in the target face (U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,678). Division of the face of the cathode into target and pole shoes by means of air gaps, however, is not provided, so that the effect is limited, and depends on the aid of temperature elevation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,198,283 discloses a magnetron cathode in which the target, consisting of a plurality of portions, is gripped between soft-magnetic pole shoes. This substantially satisfies the requirement that the projections of targets and pole face onto a common plane parallel to the sputtering surface do not overlap. The method of gripping precludes any air gap parallel to the said plane. Thus the use of targets of ferromagnetic materials is excluded, because in such a case the magnetic lines of force would enter the target from the pole shoes in the transverse direction, so that the formation of a magnetic tunnel, or the magnetron effect, would not occur.
In a magnetron cathode disclosed by German Federal Pat. No. 30 12 935, the magnet poles of opposite polarity lie between common planes and at the same time they have in each case an endless, elongated-round configuration which can be called concentric. The magnetic lines of force between the inner and outer poles penetrate the distance between these poles. Within this distance there is disposed a geometrically similar, i.e., elongated-round target of the material that is to be sputtered. This arrangement, however, is suitable only for the sputtering of nonferromagnetic material. German Federal Pat. No. 30 12 935 also describes the possibilities for the sputtering of ferromagnetic targets by producing a second magnetic field by additional magnet devices. This second magnetic field is configured with respect to the first magnetic field and the sputtering surface such that the tendency of the first magnetic field to penetrate the magnetically permeable sputtering surface is substantially reduced. This arrangement is very expensive because of the additional magnet system required. Furthermore, the utilization of the plate-like target material would be extremely poor, so that this known method is intended for ferromagnetic target material in rod or bar form.
The German Federal publication OS No. 33 16 640, which was not prepublished, discloses a magnetron cathode in which one magnetic pole is disposed behind the central part of the target consisting of magnetic material. This central part is surrounded, leaving an air gap, by a peripheral target part which to a certain extent has the function of pole shoes. To the extent that the peripheral target part lies spatially in front of the central target part, like magnetic poles face one another in the air gap in front of the central target part, so that a closed tunnel of magnetic lines of force overlapping the central part cannot form. The magnetic lines of force, therefore, can enter the central target from the peripheral target part only in the area of the one circumferential air gap, while the maximum sputtering effect occurs precisely in the area of the air gap in whose vicinity relatively little sputtering material is located. In fact, special measures must be taken to see that material is not sputtered from the floor of the air gap, since in the case of a noncompatible material it would contaminate the deposited layers. With such a method material can be sputtered substantially only in the immediate adjacency of the air gap, so that the degree of material utilization is very low. The locally high magnetic field concentration in the area of the only air gap, which is detrimental to a large-area ablation of the target material, is even intensified by direct coupling of the target parts to the magnet poles through highly permeable components.
German Federal patent publication OS No. 32 44 691 discloses a magnetron cathode of the kind described above, in which the permanent magnets are disposed in a plane which is either formed by the sputtering surface of the target or lies in the sputtering surface at the commencement of the first sputtering process. In a variant of this principle, the permanent magnets lie in a plane in which the back of the target is situated. In all cases, the permanent magnets are situated in a zone of very great thermal stress. Since especially the present-day high-performance magnetic materials lose their magnetic properties in a temperature range between 150.degree. and 200.degree. C., which is easily reached in magnetron cathodes, it is stated in the disclosure that the system described must be cooled very effectively. Since, in connection with the prescribed direction of magnetization, the permanent magnets must not be of less than a specified axial length of about 8 to 10 mm, but on the other hand it is essential that the magnetic substance itself or any nonferromagnetic blocks mounted laterally thereof be not sputtered, the air gaps present at this point must not exceed a gap width of about 1 to 2 mm. Keeping these air gaps small, however, can be achieved, in view of the necessary length of the permanent magnets, only if the pole shoes are provided on their inner edges with collar-like prolongations. The lines of force emerging at the collar ends are deflected on a very short path into the target material from which, following the path of least resistance, they re-enter the opposite pole of the permanent magnets, since the ferromagnetic target, the ferromagnetic supporting plate and the permanent magnets are resting directly on one another without any air gaps. The consequence is a narrowing of the "magnetic trap" so that, instead of a large-area ablation of the target material, which is desirable in itself, two pit-like erosion zones result under the edges of the collars. The arrangement of the collars makes the manufacturing process considerably more expensive, which is disadvantageous inasmuch as the pole shoes themselves participate in the sputtering process, so that as a result they have a short life.
On the one hand, magnetron cathodes are greatly favored on account of their high specific sputtering output, but on the other hand the utilization of the target materials achieved on the basis of the magnetron principle is very poor. This is because, in the area of culmination of the magnetic lines of force, the plasma produces deeply eroded pits which too soon render the target unusable. An attempt has been made to remedy this by broadening the erosion pits: German Federal Pat. No. 25 56 607 has disclosed the idea of periodically shifting the pattern of the magnetic lines of force by superimposing a second, oscillating magnetic field. For the same purpose, German Federal publication OS No. 27 07 144 has disclosed the idea of shifting the magnet system periodically parallel to the sputtering surface. Lastly, German Federal publication OS No. 30 04 546 has proposed, for the improvement of the utilization of the target material, in a rotationally symmetrical magnetron cathode, to provide in addition to the main magnet system a plurality of secondary magnet systems by which the outwardly diminishing density of the lines of force of the main magnet system is said to be compensated. However, all of the above-described measures can be used only with targets of nonferromagnetic materials, because in the case of ferromagnetic materials the magnetic lines of force are unable to penetrate the material of targets having economically adequate thickness.
It is therefore the aim of the invention to improve a magnetron cathode of the kind described above such that this can be used economically, i.e., with a higher specific sputtering output and with a high utilization of material, on ferromagnetic target materials. | {
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Particle accelerators are devices that energize ions and drive them into a target. Neutron generators are a specific use of particle accelerator that produce neutrons by fusing isotopes of hydrogen. A fusion reaction takes place by accelerating either deuterium, tritium or a mixture of the two isotopes into a target that also contains deuterium, tritium or a mixture of the isotopes. Fusion of deuterium atoms results half of the time in formation of a 3He ion and a neutron, the other half resulting in the formation of a 3H (tritium) ion and a proton. Fusion of a deuterium and a tritium atom results in the formation of a 4He ion and a neutron.
Particle accelerators and neutron generators have numerous applications in medicine, imaging, industrial processes (e.g., on-line analyzers, metal cleanliness, raw materials, Al base catalysts, energy production), material analysis, safeguards (e.g., nuclear material detection), research, education, exploration, security (e.g., explosive detection, chemical weapon detection, contraband detection), and ion implantation.
Historically, neutron generation has involved incredibly complex and expensive systems and employed approaches that either generate or use undue levels of hazardous materials or provide insufficient neutron output to satisfy commercial needs. Radioactive sources capable of producing high neutron levels contain hazardous quantities of radiation requiring many safety considerations. Neutrons can also be produced by nuclear reactions with accelerators (e.g., cyclotrons, Van de Graaff accelerators, LINAC) with large yields, but at substantial cost and complexity of operation. Use of neutron generators using deuterium-tritium (DT) reactions addressed some of the safety problems, but required sealing because of tritium content and have a typically short lifetime. Attempts at using deuterium-deuterium (DD) neutron generators have met with limited success because of the ˜100× lower fusion cross section of the DD reaction compared to the DT reaction.
The cost, lack of efficiency, safety concerns, and lack of durability of existing systems has kept them from finding use in many commercial applications that could benefit from neutron generators. Addressing these problems in this field has been very complex and routine optimization or alteration of existing systems has failed to provide meaningful or practical solutions. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lumped-element elliptic lowpass filter, and more particularly, to a lumped-element elliptic lowpass filter realized in a multi-layered substrate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lowpass filters are widely used as building blocks in circuit designs. They are usually used to filter out unwanted spurious responses and harmonics of higher frequencies. Performance of lowpass filters is characterized by insertion losses in the passband and rejections in the stopband.
Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a prototype circuit of a conventional nth-order lowpass filter 10, where n is an odd number. P1 and P2 are two ports of the lowpass filter 10. The lowpass filter 10 contains inductors L1, L3, L5, . . . , Ln and capacitors C2, C4, . . . , Cn-1. For cases in which the rejection in the stopband of the lowpass filter 10 shown in FIG. 1 is not enough to meet system requirements, an elliptic lowpass filter can be employed.
Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a prototype circuit of a conventional nth-order elliptic lowpass filter 20, where n is an odd number. Compared with the lowpass filter 10 in FIG. 1, in the elliptic lowpass filter 20, additional inductors L2j are added in series with shunt capacitors C2j, where j is a positive integer. The resulting series LC circuits will create notches in the insertion loss response within the stopband, and a better stopband rejection can be achieved.
Please refer to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a diagram of frequency responses for a conventional third-order lowpass filter and a conventional third-order elliptic lowpass filter. A solid line 21 represents the insertion loss of the conventional third-order lowpass filter, and a dotted line 22 represents the insertion loss of the conventional third-order elliptic lowpass filter. As shown in FIG. 3, there is a notch in the stopband of the elliptic filter, such that a better stopband rejection is achieved. In addition, the elliptic filter also exhibits sharper roll-off rate at the passband edge, which is usually considered a good characteristic for a lowpass filter.
Although elliptic lowpass filters exhibit much better performance compared to conventional lowpass filters, they require additional inductors. A larger number of circuit elements increases the circuit area needed. This is especially undesirable for modern wireless communication devices that are subject to stringent requirements on size and cost. Therefore, the task of designing a lowpass filter with fewer elements and a good rejection in the stopband has become an important topic in the advanced development of RF circuits. | {
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This invention relates to the general field of power generation systems, and more particularly to an improved power generation system for a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV).
Electric vehicles powered by storage batteries are subject to inconvenient energy replacement procedures. One of two procedures are currently used; either replacing the discharged battery with a fully charged battery or connecting a source of charging power to the vehicle and allowing the vehicle to sit, out of service, while the charging process is completed. Another operational disadvantage of a conventional battery powered electric vehicle is its inherent range limitation.
The hybrid electric vehicle is an attempt to overcome the above limitations. The usual way to form a hybrid electric has been to add an engine-generator to the electric vehicle for the purpose of battery charging while the vehicle is in operation. The conventional engine-generator has been of the reciprocating internal combustion configuration and the engine fuels have included diesel, LNG, CNG, propane, among others.
While the addition of a conventional internal combustion engine does solve the problems of charging and range, it introduced several significant disadvantages, including the vibration and noise caused by the reciprocating engine. More significantly, however, was the disadvantage of the air pollution caused by the burning of the hydrocarbon fuels in the reciprocating engine. The combined effects of noise, vibration, and air pollution renders the hybrid electric vehicle with a reciprocating engine less than ideal.
In addition, the output or bus voltage of the reciprocating internal combustion engine generator varies with the speed of the engine. This requires that the engine speed must be closely regulated to control the output or bus voltage with the consequence that the engine cannot be run too low in speed else the bus voltage would not be high enough to generate some of the voltages that are required. Contemporary HEV systems utilize battery voltages ranging from 250 V to 600 V, making it difficult to match the engine to the vehicle battery voltage. As a result, the engine needs to be run at higher speeds and lower temperatures, making it less efficient.
What is needed is an electric vehicle power system that overcomes the limitations described above.
The invention is directed to a hybrid electric vehicle, such as a bus or delivery vehicle, which includes batteries and a turbogenerator/motor connected through a bi-directional double conversion control system. The batteries and the turbogenerator/motor are each connected to a DC bus through bi-directional power converters operating as customized bi-directional switching converters configured, under the control of a power controller, to provide an interface between the DC bus and the batteries and turbogenerator/motor, respectively. In this manner a wide range of HEV battery voltages can be accommodated and also permits the HEV battery voltages to be used for starting the turbogenerator/motor. | {
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This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the presently described embodiments. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present embodiments. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In order to meet consumer and industrial demand for natural resources, companies often invest significant amounts of time and money in finding and extracting oil, natural gas, and other subterranean resources from the earth. Particularly, once a desired subterranean resource such as oil or natural gas is discovered, drilling and production systems are often employed to access and extract the resource. These systems may be located onshore or offshore depending on the location of a desired resource. Further, such systems generally include a wellhead assembly mounted on a well through which the resource is accessed or extracted. These wellhead assemblies may include a wide variety of components, such as various casings, valves, pumps, fluid conduits, and the like, that control drilling or extraction operations.
As will be appreciated, wells are often lined with casing that generally serves to stabilize the well and to isolate fluids within the wellbore from certain formations penetrated by the well (e.g., to prevent contamination of freshwater reservoirs). Such casing is frequently cemented into place within the well. During a cement job, cement can be pumped down a casing string in a well, out the bottom of the casing string, and then up the annular space surrounding the casing string. The cement is then allowed to set in the annular space. | {
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Fullerene is a soccer-ball-shaped molecule which consists of an arrangement of carbon atoms with a hollow inside. As a conventional carbon Fullerene superconducting material, alkali-doped C60 Fullerene molecules are known to exert superconductivity. An oxide superconductor is also known as a high-temperature superconducting material.
However, superconducting transition temperature of such an alkali-doped C60 Fullerene molecule is as low as 40K at maximum, rendering it unpractical for use under a relatively high temperature. An oxide superconductor that exerts superconductivity at the temperature of liquefied nitrogen is poor in chemical stability and thus is not quite appropriate to be used in an electric circuit material that requires fine fabrication. Other superconducting material consisting of carbon Fullerene molecules smaller than C60 molecules has not been achieved.
Thus, the present invention has an objective of providing a superconducting material in which C20 Fullerene molecules are polymerized into a one-dimensional chain, where bonding portions between C20 Fullerene molecules are bound via a SP3-bond form, or no sp3-bond is contained other than at the bonding portions between C20 Fullerene molecules, or where the superconducting material is obtained by injection of electrons or positive holes. | {
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The invention relates to the general field of electrostatic devices with particular reference to the prevention of charge accumulation during attachment/detachment cycles.
Over the past several years, much progress has been made in the development of electrostatic actuators mainly through adoption of the same photolithographic and etching techniques as those employed for fabricating integrated circuits. Micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) devices employ small air gaps (below the Paschen minimum) so can sustain relatively large electric fields without breakdown. The electrostatic forces produced by these large fields are comparable to counteracting mechanical forces present in devices of this size, thereby making electrostatic control of motion and position feasible.
In FIG. 1 we show, in schematic representation, an example of an electrostatic actuator based motor known as a wobble motor. The principal components are a rotor 12. made of an insulating material, and a stator in the form of a tube inside which the rotor 12 rotates. This stator is, essentially, a series of electrodes 13 (the actuators) that are insulated from one another and from the rotor by being encased within dielectric material 14. Voltage is successively applied to succeeding electrodes 13 in a constant direction, such as 10, so that rotor 12 is constantly being attracted to the next actuator in line, resulting in its rotating in direction 11.
FIG. 2 is an example of a linear motor having multiple stators such as 26. Each such stator has the form of a rigid beam made up of (in this example) four actuators such as 27 or 28 encased in a dielectric 14. The rotor 21 in this design is a beam of insulating, as well as flexible, material of a similar size and shape as the stator. Depending on which actuators are charged, the shape of the rotor can be altered. In FIG. 2, uncharged actuators (such as 27) are shown as hatched while charged actuators (such as 28) are shown as solid. Three possible shapes, 22, 23, and 24, for the rotors are shown in this example. By cyclically adjusting the rotor shapes, rotary (via crankshaft) or linear (reciprocating) motion can be achieved.
Structures such as those just discussed, that utilize electrostatic forces to attract members into direct contact with one another, are known to suffer from charging effects whereby charge gradually builds up on the surface of the dielectric 14. This charging behavior manifests itself in two ways: as a variation in the potential required to attract the members into contact and as a time delay in the separation of the members after the applied potential has been removed.
The problem has been classified as the attachment /detachment cycle and has been reported in a number of papers. For example, K. M. Anderson and J. E. Colgate in xe2x80x9cA model of the attachment/detachment cycle of electrostatic micro actuatorsxe2x80x9d, DSC Vol 32, Microelectromechanical Sensors, Actuators, and Systems, ASME 1991 pp 255-268, have identified several mechanisms which provide valid explanations for the observations. These include ionization in the air gap, tribo charging due to dissimilar materials, and surface micro conduction.
Ionization has been confirmed as a mechanism by Wibbler et al. (wibbeler J, Gunter P, and Hietschold M, xe2x80x9cParasitic charging of dielectric surfaces in Capacitive micro electromechanical systems (MEMS)xe2x80x9d, Sensors and Actuators A71 (1998) pp 74-80).
Tribo charging is commonly eliminated by ensuring that the materials that are brought into contact with one another have similar work functions.
Surface microconduction can be minimized by reducing the contact area but this solution does not eliminate the problem.
Of interest, also, is work on the charging problem that was done in two fields unrelated to electrostatic microstructure, but using materials to which the present invention could be applied. These are xe2x80x9cThe design of quasi electrostatic induction actuatorsxe2x80x9d by Egawa S, Niino, T, and Higuchi T, in xe2x80x9cFilm actuators: planar electrostatic surface-drive actuatorsxe2x80x9d, (IEEE CH2957-9/91 pp. 9-14) and Egawa, S and Higuchi, T in xe2x80x9cMulti-layered electrostatic film actuatorxe2x80x9d, (CH2832-4/90 pp 166-171). In the latter, low mobility of charge in high resistivity materials is exploited as a mechanism for generating force in a moving electrostatic field.
In the fabrication of high voltage integrated circuits, semi-insulating polysilicon (SIPOS) has been used as a means of passivating electronic structures and limiting the surface charge sensitivity and external electric field sensitivity of devices by providing a resistive field shield. For example, Jaume D, Charitat G, Reynes J M, and Rossel P in xe2x80x9cHigh-voltage planar devices using field plate and semi-resistive layersxe2x80x9d, (IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices Vol 38 No. 7 July 1991 pp 1681-1684); Held R, Serafin J, Fullmann M, Constapel R, and Korec J, in xe2x80x9cInvestigation of static and dynamic characteristics of SOI-LDMOSFETs passivated with semi-insulating layersxe2x80x9d, (5th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor devices and IC""s 1993 pp 130-134); and Charitat G, Jaume D, Peyre-Lavigne A, and Rossel P, in xe2x80x9c1000 and 1500 volts planar devices using field plate and semi-resistive layers: design and fabricationxe2x80x9d, (IEDM 90-803 pp. 32.5.1-32.5.4.
A routine search of the patented prior art was conducted but no references that teach the same solution to the charging problem as that disclosed in the present invention were uncovered. Of interest is a description by Cabuz et al. in U.S. Pat. 5,822,170 of a hydrophobic coating for reducing humidity effects in electrostatic actuators This addresses the effects of charging due to moisture related effects by a hydrophobic surface treatment.
It has been an object of the present invention to provide an electrostatically actuated device which is not subject to charging effects that either slow down the operation of the device, gradually increase the voltage required to operate the device, or cause parts of the device to adhere to each other at the wrong time.
Another object of the invention has been to provide a method for forming said electrostatic device.
A further object has been that said method not change significantly the operating characteristics of the device.
These objects have been achieved by replacing the dielectric material that is normally present between the force generating conductor surfaces with a semi-insulating material. This semi-insulating film overcomes the effects of charging, while avoiding short-circuits when the surfaces are pulled into contact. It is not subject to insulation breakdown within the range of voltages used to operate the device. | {
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1. Technical Field
This application relates to wireless communication techniques in general, and to a system and method of transmit power control for a mobile wireless device with multiple operating modes of the antenna in particular.
2. Description of the Related Art
An antenna is used in a mobile communication device for picking up received signals and for radiating transmitted signals. For transmitting purposes, the radiated radio frequency field includes “Far Field” and “Near Field” components. The far field is the radiated field that is useful for wireless communication. The transition from the near field to the far field is gradual but a practical definition is that the near field is dominant at distances less than twice an antenna's largest dimension squared divided by the wavelength from the antenna. Conversely, the far field refers to the field generated by the antenna at distances beyond twice an antenna's largest dimension squared divided by the wavelength.
The near field is close to the user's body, and also close to the circuitry within the wireless device, both of which may result in various side effects. One of these side effects is radiation absorption to the human user, measured by the Specific Absorption Rate or SAR. SAR is the measurement of the amount of radiation absorption by the human body. SAR is usually calculated in watts per kilogram or milli-watts (mW) per gram.
Different countries have different regulatory requirements for SAR. For example, in North America, the SAR of a handheld wireless communication device might be regulated to not exceed the 1.6 mW/g limit while the device is held at a human head. It is a challenge to design an antenna and its surrounding structure of a wireless communication device to generate a strong far field, while also minimizing SAR, as these may be conflicting requirements.
Certain designs may utilize multiple operating antenna positions to satisfy the conflicting requirements. For example, a whip antenna can have two operating positions—an extended position and retracted position; a flip mobile phone can have open and close positions, and the antenna can further be extended and retracted in combination with the open and close positions. Each of the positions may have different effects to the SAR of the user and to the antenna gain in the far field. This may not be an acceptable solution, as improving the situation in one field may be done at the expense of the situation at the other field.
The SAR is proportional to the transmitted power generated by a device. The transmitted power is typically regulated by a transmit power control unit in the device. A maximum allowed transmit power is usually set to a given value in a transmit power control unit so that the SAR cannot exceed the regulatory limit. | {
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Trim strips of various configurations have been used for years in the automotive industry as a means of achieving the desired decorative effects on the interior of an automobile and for protective purposes on the exterior of the automobile. In recent years, increasing emphasis has been placed on achieving various decorative effects on automobile exteriors as well as providing improved trim strips which can be adhesively secured to the body of the automobile in a manner which resists separation from the car when impacted.
While the prior art has addressed itself to trim strips which are adapted for use to decorate various structures, but especially automobile side bodies, there exists a need for an improved trim strip which can be adhesively secured to the surface to be decorated, and which better resists separation when impacted, as well as provides a means for custom decorating such surfaces. The present invention provides such a trim strip. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a memory system, and more particularly to a reading device for a memory system which has an improved data sensing structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a memory system, to enhance working efficiency for memory reading and writing operations, prior arts adopt specification of page reading buffering to read data from a memory to effectively raise an average reading rate. In the specification of page reading buffering, a plurality of page buffers are required for a reading operation of one page. To make all of the gate buffers capable of randomly and rapidly reading data from a memory, one set of high speed sensing amplifiers is configured, and the number of high speed sensing amplifiers in the one set is equal to the number of page buffers. However, the configuration of the high speed sensing amplifiers induces a large current and big noise and even affects the operation speed of high speed sensing amplifiers. Moreover, with the increment of the size of one page, the number of page buffers has to be increased. Accordingly, the number of high speed sensing amplifiers is also increased. The large area occupied by the large number of high speed sensing amplifiers may cause increased power consumption.
Thus, it is desired to provide a memory system and a reading device thereof which can improve the drawback of prior arts. | {
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In the electrolysis of brines to yield chlorine or sodium chlorate, an anode and a cathode are provided within an electrolytic cell. An electrical potential is established between the anode and the cathode whereby the negatively charged chloride ions are attracted to the anode. At the anode, the reaction: EQU Cl.sup.-.fwdarw.Cl + e.sup.-
Occurs. Thereafter, the monoatomic chlorine atoms, i.e., nascent chlorine, combine to form diatomic chlorine molecules according to the reaction: EQU 2Cl.fwdarw.Cl.sub.2
In chlorine production, the chlorine molecules form gas bubbles on the surface of the anode, and chlorine is subsequently recovered as a gas above the electrolyte. In chlorate production, the neutral to basic pH of the cell causes further oxidation of the chlorine molecules and ultimately results in the formation of chlorate ion, C10.sup.-.sub.3.
In both processes, the anode is subjected to rigorous conditions. For example, the anode is subjected to conditions of attack by nascent chlorine atoms in an acidic media under anodic conditions. This necessitates the use of a particularly corrosion-resistant material for the electrode. However, the electrode material must have electrocatalytic properties for the chlorine evolution reaction and sufficient electroconductivity to permit the passage of electrical current therethrough with a minimum IR voltage drop with an electrode coating thickness sufficient to protect the substrate from the effect of the electrolyte and electrolytical reaction. | {
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An evaporator of a HVAC system typically has a tube bundle in a shell design. The tube bundle typically includes a plurality of tubes configured to carrya process fluid, such as water. Refrigerant in the shell can exchange heat with the process fluid in the tube bundle to cool down the process fluid.
Typically, the heat exchanging tubes extend a full length of the evaporator. In a single-pass evaporator design, a process fluid typically flows into inlets of the heat exchanging tubes from one end of the evaporator, through the full length of the evaporator, then out of outlets of the heat exchanging tubes from the other end of the evaporator. In a two pass evaporator design, the process fluid typically flows into inlets of first pass heat exchanging tubes from one end of the evaporator. The process fluid flows the full length of the evaporator through the first pass heat exchanging tubes, makes a turn in a returning box positioned at the other end of the evaporator, then flows into second pass heat exchanging tubes to return to outlets located at the same end as the inlets. Some evaporators may also have a four-pass design.
A water head is a device positioned on the end of the evaporator, and configured to distribute or receive the process fluid from the tube bundle. For example, in some evaporators, the inlets of the first pass heat exchanging tubes are positioned at a bottom section of the end of the evaporator, while the outlets of the second pass heat exchanging tubes are positioned at a top section of the end of the evaporator. The water head may have a fluid entrance and a fluid exit that have an “under-over” design, i.e., the fluid entrance is positioned at a bottom section of the water head and is configured to be in fluid communication with the inlets of the first pass heat exchanging tubes; and the fluid exit is positioned at a top section of the water head and is configured to be in fluid communication with the outlets of the second pass heat exchanging tubes.
In some other evaporators, the inlets of the first pass heat exchanging tubes may be positioned toward a left (or right) side of the evaporator, while the outlets of the second pass heat exchanging tubes may be positioned toward a right (or left) side of the evaporator. Accordingly, a water entrance and the water exit of a water head may be configured to have a “side-by-side” configuration. | {
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1. Technical Field
The invention relates to semiconductor devices. In particular, the invention relates to semiconductor devices having a semiconductor junction.
2. Description of Related Art
Semiconductor devices that have need of high switching speeds are being employed in an increasing number of subsytems and systems. Among such high switching speed semiconductor devices are high-frequency electrical components (e.g., microwave and radio frequency switches and amplifying devices), signal emitters (e.g., light emitting diodes or ‘LEDs’, semiconductor lasers, etc.), optical modulators, and signal detectors (e.g., optical detectors, etc.). In recent years, semiconductor devices comprising nanowires have been developed. In particular, semiconductor nanowires that incorporate an integral semiconductor junction have been demonstrated. Nanowire-based semiconductor devices such as LEDs and semiconductor lasers have been realized using such semiconductor nanowires. Similarly, devices such as diodes and detectors including, but not limited to, optical detectors, have been fabricated using semiconductor nanowires with integral junctions. Such semiconductor devices that employ a semiconductor nanowire, either singly or in a plurality, may be attractive for use in a wide variety of applications.
A switching speed or a modulation rate of semiconductor nanowire-based devices may be limited by the presence of residual carriers that remain in or near the semiconductor junction when the device is turned off. Efforts to overcome this limitation have included decreasing a carrier lifetime in a vicinity of the semiconductor junction. Unfortunately decreasing the carrier lifetime also tends to decrease an efficient of the semiconductor device. As such, there is a keen interest in developing a means for effectively removing residual carriers without significantly adversely affecting device performance and efficiency. Moreover, such means for residual carrier removal that applies to nanowire-based semiconductor junction devices would satisfy a long felt need. | {
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The prostagladins are currently of great interest because of the broad physiological responses which they elicit in animals, including man.
Development of the potential application of both natural and synthetic prostaglandins relies upon efficient chemical synthetic methods being available.
Processes for preparing prostaglandins and derivatives via a conjugate addition process have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,965,143 and 3,950,406, and Tet. Letters, No. 4, 235 (1976) and Prostaglandins, 10 733 (1975).
Each of the following references utilize a hydroxy protected vinyliodide such as A, B or C: ##STR1## as described, among others, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,962,351; 3,962,352; 3,962,353; 4,007,210; 3,932,479; 3,965,143; and 3,950,406.
Recently E. J. Corey [Journ. Org. Chem. Soc., 40, 2265 (1975)] described the preparation of the vinylstannane D, and more recently [Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc., 98, 222 (1976)] the vinylstannyl derivative E. ##STR2## | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to measuring and control of fluid flow, particularly at low fluid flow rates. More particularly, the present invention permits such measurement and control of fluid flow with a flow sensor which is accurate at fluid flow rates as low as 4-5 milliliters per minute and as high as 100 milliliters per minute.
2. Description of the Related Art
Measurement of the flow or flow rate of a fluid in a conduit, particularly, at very low fluid flow rates, has been a problem if attempted using conventional flow sensors. At very low flow many fluid sensors do not operate properly. For example, velocity flow meters such as turbine wheel flow sensors cease to operate due to there being insufficient energy in the fluid to rotate the wheel. Differential pressure flow sensors can at times operate at low flows, but the smaller flow orifices required for low flows have been prone to obstruction if there were suspended particles in the fluid. Also, pressure drops across the orifices could be significant.
Other related specialized flow sensing techniques are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,542,302; 5,728,949; and 7,051,757 which disclose the use of infrared light from an optical flow measurement circuit that passes through spaced holes in the rotating turbine wheel.
Although these prior flow sensing techniques patents address some of the problems of measuring and controlling flow rate of a fluid in a conduit, so far as is known, these prior flow sensing techniques are not capable of satisfactorily measuring or controlling fluid flow rate at rates less than approximately 10 milliliters per minute. | {
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Telephone call monitoring systems are used in a variety of contexts, including emergency dispatch centers and commercial call centers. In many currently available call monitoring systems, a multitude of audio input sources (“channels”) are monitored and recorded by a single hardware unit, and the audio recordings are saved and organized according to the input channel, date, time and duration. The capacity of the recording unit can be expanded to handle a larger number of channels by combining several recording units into a system using a local area network (LAN). Because retrieval is only possible using basic search criteria (recording unit, channel, date, time and duration), it is often difficult to locate a particular audio recording that is of interest. When there is a need to search for a recording according to search criteria that are not directly supported by simple voice recording, locating a specific recording may require tedious and repetitive searching. For example, if there is a need to find a specific customer's call to resolve a disputed transaction, the recording unit or channel that carried the original call might not be known, so the searcher would be forced to manually play back many calls before finding the correct one.
With the advent of computer telephony integration (CTI), it is now possible to monitor a data link that supplies more information about telephone calls, in addition to simple voice recording. In a typical CTI system a telephone switch or private branch exchange (PBX) provides an interface suitable for processing by a computer, and expanded information about telephone calls is made available through this interface as the calls occur. Data fields that are available within this expanded information may include the external telephone number of the calling party, as well as identification numbers to help associate a series of events pertaining to the same call. With such a data link being used alongside a voice recording system, the search and retrieval system can be supplemented by constructing a database that combines the previously discussed basic search criteria with enhanced search criteria (based upon information obtained through a CTI data link) such as: telephone numbers of parties involved in the call; Caller ID (CLID) or Automatic Number Identification (ANI); Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS); or the Agent ID Number of the Customer Service Representative.
As shown in FIG. 2, with suitable equipment for tapping into a voice communications line, a recording unit can intercept telephone call traffic using two methods. By attaching wires for recording channels on each extension within a call center, the traffic can be intercepted and recorded as it passes between the PBX and the agent telephone set. This first method is known as “station-side” recording 180. Alternatively, by attaching equipment on the trunk lines between the PBX and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the traffic can be intercepted at its point of entry into the call center before the calls are dispatched by the PBX. This second method is known as “trunk-side” recording 170. Since businesses usually have more agent telephone sets than trunk lines, a “trunk-side” solution is likely to require less recording equipment and thus be less expensive. Another significant point for consideration is that “trunk-side” provides access only to external inbound or outbound calls, which are those typically involving customers of a business, whereas “station-side” also provides access to internal calls between agents (which may or may not relate to an external customer's transaction).
With respect to data links to provide call information to computers, there are typically two different categories of links from the PBX available. Some older links use interfaces such as SMDR (Station Message Detail Recording) or CDR (Call Detail Recording) that provide summary information about telephone calls in a line-oriented text format. Both acronyms refer to essentially the same type of system. Information from these links is generally provided after the call has concluded, and as such is suitable for billing applications or traffic analysis software. Many newer links use real-time interfaces that are designed to supply a series of events while a telephone call is still active within the PBX, to enable computer and multimedia systems to respond and interact with an external caller. The information provided by such real-time links is typically much more detailed than that provided by SMDR.
The detailed information and real-time nature of a CTI link is particularly important when building a recording system that is intended to react to telephone calls as they occur and to dynamically select which calls ought to be recorded or discarded. CTI-supplied information is also important when building a recording system that is intended to capture the full history of a telephone call, including recording the different agents who were involved in the conversation and how the call was held, transferred or conferenced. Likewise, real-time information is important in a system that intends to support (a) a live display of active calls, and (b) the capability for a user to listen and monitor the live audio traffic.
A “trunk-side” solution based upon voice recording alone will not satisfy the above requirements in a practical manner, since telephone calls are assigned to trunks dynamically as needed to handle the traffic. What trunk channel a particular call will be carried on cannot be predicted in advance. Without information to associate a logical telephone call with a physical recording of audio from a trunk channel, a user might have to search and retrieve many recordings before finding the one that is of interest. Moreover, in a system designed to make use of the enhanced search criteria provided by a data link, it would not be possible to programmatically associate the search data with the voice recording without information about the trunk channel where the call occurred.
This problem can be avoided as long as the data link provides sufficient information about the trunk channels being used for each call. Unfortunately, some PBX environments do not supply this critical information about trunk channels within the data provided on the real-time CTI link. For example, this problem is manifested by the Lucent Technologies DEFINITY G3 PBX, which is a commonly used telephone switch in North America. While the Lucent G3 PBX provides trunk channel information through its SMDR link, that information is not available until after the conclusion of the call. This presents a problem for system features and capabilities dependent upon real-time data. The real-time data link provided by the Lucent G3 PBX does not provide the necessary information about trunk channels. There is thus a need for a system which is capable of simultaneously monitoring both the SMDR link and the real-time CTI link, gathering information about calls from both sources, and combining that information into a single data model of the telephony activity within the call center. | {
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Electrophotography is a useful process for printing images on a receiver (or “imaging substrate”), such as a piece or sheet of paper or another planar medium, glass, fabric, metal, or other objects as will be described below. In this process, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoreceptor by uniformly charging the photoreceptor and then discharging selected areas of the uniform charge to yield an electrostatic charge pattern corresponding to the desired image (a “latent image”).
After the latent image is formed, charged toner particles are brought into the vicinity of the photoreceptor and are attracted to the latent image to develop the latent image into a visible image. Note that the visible image may not be visible to the naked eye depending on the composition of the toner particles (e.g. clear toner).
After the latent image is developed into a visible image on the photoreceptor, a suitable receiver is brought into juxtaposition with the visible image. A suitable electric field is applied to transfer the toner particles of the visible image to the receiver to form the desired print image on the receiver. The imaging process is typically repeated many times with reusable photoreceptors.
The receiver is then removed from its operative association with the photoreceptor and subjected to heat or pressure to permanently fix (“fuse”) the print image to the receiver. Plural print images, e.g. of separations of different colors, are overlaid on one receiver before fusing to form a multi-color print image on the receiver.
Electrophotographic (EP) printers typically transport the receiver past the photoreceptor to form the print image. The direction of travel of the receiver is referred to as the slow-scan, process, or in-track direction. The direction perpendicular to the slow-scan direction is referred to as the fast-scan, cross-process, or cross-track direction. “Scan” does not imply that any components are moving or scanning across the receiver; the terminology is conventional in the art.
Various undesirable toner features (artifacts) can appear on prints produced by electrophotography. One type is a comet, which is a light splotch of toner (or, more generally, an area of increased density) spanning a restricted extent of the cross-track direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,795 to Tatsumi et al. describes cleaning rollers in a printer. GB2282781 describes cleaning elements urged into contact with the surface of a charging roller. However, these schemes can cause damage to the rollers, and are not applicable to stationary surfaces such as skive mounts.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,555,236 describes cleaning a transfer drum electrostatically. Electrical bias is modified to clean. U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,795 describes engaging a secondary drum and modifying electrical signals to attract toner to a waste area. This is used to clean a transfer drum of developer or toner that has not transferred to a photoreceptor. However, the toner or developer deposited on a skive mount does not have a controlled charge, so electrostatic methods are not capable of reliably cleaning the skive mount.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,627,280 describes tubes for carrying waste through a printer. The waste is the developer which has escaped the normal development cycle and is transported to a removal container. However, this scheme is not useful for removing toner from a skive mount.
Skive mounts adjacent to development rollers can collect stray toner during operation. When the toner layer on the skive mount becomes thick enough, toner can fall off onto the development roller, causing a “comet” artifact, an area of increased density in the print. There is a need, therefore, for a system for correcting these defects. | {
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A tripod gimbal head is a support device for mounting and fixing a photographic apparatus. Due to design deficiencies in the prior art, for example, troubles caused by assembling and mounting on the tripod, removing from the tripod, carrying and the like, a special connection structure for a gimbal head is proposed. | {
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The invention is directed to an improved approach for designing, testing, and manufacturing integrated circuits.
A semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) has a large number of electronic components, such as transistors, logic gates, diodes, wires, etc., that are fabricated by forming layers of different materials and of different geometric shapes on various regions of a silicon wafer.
Many phases of physical design may be performed with computer aided design (CAD) tools or electronic design automation (EDA) systems. To design an integrated circuit, a designer first creates high level behavior descriptions of the IC device using a high-level hardware design language. An EDA system typically receives the high level behavior descriptions of the IC device and translates this high-level design language into netlists of various levels of abstraction using a computer synthesis process. A netlist describes interconnections of nodes and components on the chip and includes information of circuit primitives such as transistors and diodes, their sizes and interconnections, for example.
An integrated circuit designer may use a set of layout EDA application programs to create a physical integrated circuit design layout from a logical circuit design. The layout EDA application uses geometric shapes of different materials to create the various electrical components on an integrated circuit and to represent electronic and circuit IC components as geometric objects with varying shapes and sizes. After an integrated circuit designer has created an initial integrated circuit layout, the integrated circuit designer then verifies and optimizes the integrated circuit layout using a set of EDA testing and analysis tools. Verification may include, for example, design rule checking to verify compliance with rules established for various IC parameters.
In recent years, constant innovation in silicon process technology has drastically reduced the price and increased the performance and functionality of integrated circuit devices, thus stimulating the development of the electronics manufacturing and information processing industries. In turn, these fast growing industries impose increasing demands on the integrated circuit design system developers for still faster, cheaper, and more powerful devices.
To address these demands, many designers of electronic systems have moved to a methodology known as Block Based Design (“BBD”), in which a system is designed by integrating a plurality of existing component design blocks. These pre-designed blocks may be obtained from internal design teams or licensed from other design companies. Moreover, pre-designed blocks may be developed to meet different design requirements and constraints.
In recent years, many companies and organizations have created entire libraries of component design blocks and other units of electronic design (also referred to in the art as “intellectual property blocks”, “IP blocks”, “IP components”, or “cores”), and have created businesses out of licensing or selling these IP blocks to other companies that use these design blocks to create an electronic product. As of the filing of this application, there exist a large number of companies that supply such IP blocks to customers, and many thousands of such IP blocks available to be integrated into a customer's own design.
One of the significant challenges faced by a modern designer is that, given the large number of potential suppliers of IP blocks, how the designer can best and most efficiently identify which of the suppliers is able to provide an IP block that will suit the needs of the designer for a given design project. This is not a trivial problem given the existence of such a large number of vendors and suppliers of IP blocks and the even larger number of IP blocks that are available for licensing or purchase. The fact that certain hard macros are available on specific, predefined processes adds another layer of complexity in terms of IP selection. | {
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Force transducers are often used as force-to-frequency converters in accelerometers and other instruments. One type of force transducer employs a vibratable assembly which can be used to sense acceleration. In one known arrangement, the transducers are used in push-pull pairs in which a given acceleration results in a compression force on one transducer, and a tension force on the other transducer. This mode of operation provides a high degree of compensation for many so-called common mode errors, i.e. errors that cause the frequencies of the transducer to shift by the same amount in the same direction, because the shifts cancel in the algorithms normally used to process the transducer outputs. Such errors include vibration rectification errors, errors induced by temperature change, aging errors, and measurement errors induced by a drift in the clock frequency.
Such force transducers can also be sensitive to density or pressure variations. The density or pressure sensitivity is primarily due to mass loading effects on the beams. Specifically, gas molecules near the beams tend to oscillate with the beams. Such effectively increases the mass of the beams, thereby affecting the frequencies at which the beam vibrates. When the pressure or density of the surrounding gas increases, the effective mass of the beams also increase which lowers the beams' vibration frequencies. Because the beams' vibration frequencies are employed as a measurement of the applied force, e.g. acceleration, the density-induced or pressure-induced variation can cause an unwanted error in the sensed acceleration output. Accordingly, it would be desirable to reduce, if not eliminate this density-induced or pressure-induced error.
Precision force transducers can be packaged in a vacuum to avoid errors resulting from the density-induced variation. However, the choice of internal materials used in precision sensor designs is severely constrained due to out-gassing concerns. Because gas density within the package directly drives density-induced variations, a heavy burden of hermeticity is place on the packaging. The material constraints in hermeticity requirements, in turn, increase the cost and limit performance. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an accelerometer with reduced pressure effects and simpler packaging constraints.
This invention arose out of concerns associated with improving forced-sensing transducer and accelerometer operations. In particular, the invention arose out of concerns associated with providing improved vibrating beam force transducers and methods. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a current controlled CR oscillator circuit, and more specifically, to a CR oscillator circuit that achieves small current consumption and a small occupied area.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an oscillator circuit to be used in an electronic device, a crystal oscillator circuit has hitherto been used, in which a semiconductor integrated circuit and a quartz resonator are combined. In the crystal oscillator circuit, when a parasitic capacitance exists near the semiconductor integrated circuit or the quartz resonator, an oscillation frequency may sometimes be deviated from a set value.
Incidentally, in recent years, electronic components have often been mounted at high density owing to a demand for downsizing of the electronic device, and hence the parasitic capacitance existing near the semiconductor integrated circuit or the quartz resonator has tended to be large. In view of this, as an oscillator circuit independent of the mounted state of the integrated circuit, a CR oscillator circuit has hitherto been known.
FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram for illustrating a related-art CR oscillator circuit.
The related-art CR oscillator circuit includes voltage comparators X1 and X2, reference voltage circuits VH and VL, constant current sources I1 and I2, switches S1 and S2, and a capacitor C.
The related-art CR oscillator circuit compares a triangular wave voltage, which is generated by the constant current sources I1 and I2 and the capacitor C, to reference voltages VH and VL by the voltage comparators X1 and X2, to thereby serve as a CR oscillator circuit configured to oscillate a voltage having upper and lower peaks corresponding to the reference voltages VH and VL.
The related-art CR oscillator circuit includes two voltage comparators and thus has a problem of increasing current consumption and an occupied area.
Moreover, an offset voltage is always generated at the voltage comparator, and hence the triangular wave voltage is compared to a voltage different from the set reference voltage, which leads to an oscillation frequency error. Further, the offset voltages of the two voltage comparators do not necessarily have constant voltage values, and hence it is difficult to predict the oscillation frequency error.
In general, a circuit including MOS transistors configured as a differential pair is often used as the voltage comparator. Now, the offset voltage of the voltage comparator is considered. The offset voltage is generated mainly when threshold voltages of the MOS transistors forming the differential pair configuration are deviated from each other. When the threshold voltages of the MOS transistors forming the differential pair configuration are respectively represented by VTH1 and VTH2, a difference ΔVTH between those threshold voltages is generally expressed by Expression 1.ΔVTH=α×tox/√(W×L) (1)
From Expression 1, it is found that increasing areas of the MOS transistors is a simple method for reducing the difference ΔVTH between the threshold voltages. However, the thickness tox of an oxide film is varied depending on manufacturing conditions, and hence simply increasing the areas of the transistors reduces the difference ΔVTH between the threshold voltages, but cannot keep the value constant. In addition, due to the large area of the transistor, a gate capacitance of the MOS transistor becomes larger as compared to the capacitor for generating a triangular wave voltage. As a result, increasing the areas may be a cause of the oscillation frequency error. | {
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The present invention is related to bit masks. More particularly, the present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for masking bits held in a configuration register in a single operation through the use of a masking circuit.
The masking of bits in the registers, particularly configuration registers, of computer systems is necessary in a wide variety of applications. If the entire configuration register needs to be updated, it can be accomplished by a simple write operation. However, during normal operation, it is often necessary to update less than the entire configuration register.
In this case a series of steps must be performed. First, a lock operation must be performed to prevent reading of the configuration register while the data are being masked. Second, the data are read out of the configuration register. Third, the data are masked. Fourth, the new data are written back into the configuration register. And finally, the configuration register is unlocked.
This series of steps requires manipulation of the data in the configuration register which results in a delay in the system before the configuration register can be accessed. To minimize system delay and increase performance results it is desirable to provide a more efficient masking technique when less than the entire configuration register must be updated. | {
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A popular method of displaying information is by the use of overhead transparencies. Clear plastic sheets are imprinted with information from a variety of sources, such as photocopies, desktop plotters, and hand-drawn images using ink pens. These images are then placed on an overhead projector for display. The overhead projector passes high-intensity light through the transparent images, through a set of optics and onto a screen.
An overhead projector commonly includes a light box having a horizontal cover glass, and a lens and mirror arrangement positioned above the cover glass for projecting onto a remote viewing screen the image of a transparency positioned on the cover glass and illuminated by a light source located within the box. Usually, the changing from one transparency to the next is performed manually, with each transparency being manually placed in turn onto the light box cover glass for viewing, and then manually removed after viewing. Such procedure is not only tedious and tiresome, but makes it difficult to maintain the transparencies in proper order, particularly if some of the transparencies will be shown multiple times during the same presentation. Moreover, in order to have correct image orientation during viewing, each transparency must be correspondingly correctly oriented on the viewing plate. This makes handling even more cumbersome, especially if the room is darkened to enhance image contrast.
Accordingly, attempts have been made to construct power-operated changers for automatically feeding a stack of transparencies, one at a time, successively onto the cover glass of an overhead projector. Examples of such changers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,110,217; 3,352,202; 3,594,082; and 4,756,616 (the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto). In such prior art changer mechanisms, the transparencies to be viewed are stacked in a supply bin located on one side of a projector. They are automatically successively transported, one transparency at a time, to a viewing station in registration with the projector cover glass and then, following projection, are delivered to a receiving bin.
The conventional changers are complex and bulky. Supply and receiving bins are normally separate elements, awkwardly arranged to stick out in generally horizontal projection, often from opposite sides of the projector. Transparencies are stacked in horizontal orientation, parallel with the plane of the cover glass. And, even when bidirectional provision is made so that feeding of transparencies can occur both from the supply bin to the receiving bin and vice versa, the next transparency is always selected from or returned to the same side (top or bottom) of the stack in any one bin. | {
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JP2009-013753A describes this type of control valve.
Further, a conventional valve shown in FIG. 2 is known as this type of control valve. In the control valve shown in FIG. 2, a spool 2 is incorporated into a valve main body 1 to be free to slide, and a spring force of a centering spring 3 is exerted on the spool 2. Respective ends of the spool 2 oppose pilot chambers 4, 5, and the spool 2 is switched by an action of a pilot pressure led to one of the pilot chambers 4, 5 such that one of a pair of actuator ports 6, 7 formed in the valve main body 1 communicates with a pump and the other communicates with a tank.
A signal pressure passage 8 that transmits the pilot pressure of the pilot chamber 4 or 5 as a signal pressure of another device is formed in the valve main body 1. The signal pressure passage 8 communicates with the pilot chamber 4 via a check valve 9. The check valve 9 allows working oil to flow only from the pilot chamber 4 into the signal pressure passage 8.
The pilot chamber 5 communicates with the signal pressure passage 8 via a connecting hole 10 formed in the spool 2 and a check valve 11 provided in the connecting hole 10. The check valve 11 allows working oil to flow only from the pilot chamber 5 into the signal pressure passage 8.
When the pilot pressure is led into the pilot chamber 4, the spool 2 moves in a rightward direction of the figure in a first direction relative to the direction of the spring force of the centering spring 3 such that the actuator port 7 communicates with the pump and the actuator port 6 communicates with the tank. At this time, the pilot pressure led into the pilot chamber 4 pushes open the check valve 9 so as to be led into the signal pressure passage 8, and is then led from the signal pressure passage 8 into the other device.
When the pilot pressure is led into the pilot chamber 5, the spool 2 moves in a leftward direction of the figure in a second direction (opposite to the first direction) relative to the direction of the spring force of the centering spring 3 such that the actuator port 6 communicates with the pump and the actuator port 7 communicates with the tank. At this time, the pilot pressure led into the pilot chamber 5 pushes open the check valve 11 via the connecting hole 10 so as to be led into the signal pressure passage 8, and is then led from the signal pressure passage 8 into the other device.
Thus, an actuator operated by the control valve is synchronized with the other device. | {
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This application claims the benefit of a Japanese Patent Application No.2002-112247 filed Apr. 15, 2002, in the Japanese Patent Office, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to substrates, connecting structures and electronic equipments, and more particularly to a substrate which uses an electrical connecting body such as a flexible printed circuit (FPC), a connecting structure which uses an electrical connecting body such as the FPC and is suited for connecting a main body and a lid which opens and closes with respect to the main body, and an electronic equipment having such a substrate or connecting structure.
In this specification, the electronic equipment refers to information processing apparatuses such as a lap-top personal computer, portable telephones and the like which are made up of a main body and a lid which opens and closes with respect to the main body.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, the lap-top personal computer is made up of the main body and the lid which opens and closes with respect to the main body. A substrate mounted with various parts such as integrated circuit devices (IC chips) is provided within the main body, and a display section made up of a liquid crystal display (LCD) or the like is provided within the lid. Because the lid opens and closes with respect to the main body, the display section and the substrate are electrically connected via the FPC. One end of the FPC is connected to the display section, and the other end of the FPC is connected to a connecting part which is provided at an end portion on the substrate. The connecting part is connected to the electronic parts such as the IC chips on the substrate via a printed wiring formed on the substrate.
The printed wiring on the substrate may be provided on both top and bottom surfaces of the substrate, but the printed wiring must be arranged avoiding positions where the various parts are mounted on the substrate and positions where holes and cutouts are formed in the substrate. Signals supplied to the display section employ the LVDS system or the like, and are high-speed and small-amplitude signals. Hence, the substrate must satisfy various layout and wiring conditions, such as limited wiring length and wiring layout for preventing mixture of external noise. Accordingly, depending on the layout and wiring conditions, it is necessary to take measures such as arranging the IC chip for driving the display section in a vicinity of the connecting part on the substrate, and arranging the printed wiring on the substrate at a position separated from other printed wiring for the high-speed signals.
Recently, due to increased operation speeds of internal circuits of the CPU or the like, heat generated from the IC chips mounted on the substrate has become large. For this reason, it has become necessary to provide holes and cutouts in the substrate, and to provide radiator parts or heat sinks at the holes and cutouts so as to improve the heat radiation or heat release from the IC chips. In order to improve the heat radiation, the radiator parts must be made large, which means that the corresponding holes and cutouts in the substrate must also be made large. The printed wiring on the substrate must be arranged avoiding these holes, cutouts and radiator parts.
On the other hand, in order to meet the demands to further reduce the size of the lap-top personal computer, gaps or spacings between the parts mounted on the substrate are becoming smaller. As a result, the degree of freedom of wiring is decreasing for the printed wiring on the substrate.
It is conceivable to provide a multi-layer (or multi-level) wiring structure on the substrate, but the structure of the substrate will become complex. In addition, as the multi-layer wiring structure itself and the connections of the various wiring layers and the electronic parts such as the IC chips become more complex, the assembling process becomes complex, to thereby increase both the production cost of the substrate and the thickness of the substrate. Hence, it is difficult to realize a thin lap-top personal computer using the substrate having the multi-layer wiring structure.
Therefore, in the conventional electronic equipment, there are problems in that it is difficult to conform to the various restrictions with respect to the printed wiring on the substrate, secure a relatively large degree of freedom of wiring, and electrically connect a portion on the substrate and another portion, while simultaneously meeting the demands to reduce both the cost and size of the electronic equipment. | {
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The present invention relates to a suspension apparatus for a vehicle, such as an automobile.
Generally, in a suspension apparatus for an automobile, comprising a hydraulic shock absorber generating damping force, a small damping force is desired while driving in a straight line, from the viewpoint of ease in absorbing vibration and obtaining good riding quality. On the other hand, a large damping force is desired during braking, acceleration or cornering, from the viewpoint of suppressing pitching and rolling of the vehicle body and obtaining good steering stability. Therefore, there has been conventionally employed a suspension control apparatus comprising: a hydraulic shock absorber capable of controlling a damping force; an actuator for switching the damping force; a controller which controls an operation of the actuator; and various sensors which detect an acceleration of the vehicle body, etc. In this suspension control apparatus, the damping force is controlled appropriately according to a road surface condition, a vehicle running condition, etc., so as to obtain good riding quality and steering stability.
The above-mentioned suspension control apparatus requires use of various electronic devices, such as the controller and the actuator. These electronic devices are expensive, and further require costs for ensuring reliability of the devices. As a countermeasure, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Public Disclosure No. 10-213171 proposes a suspension apparatus in which hydraulic shock absorbers provided at left and right wheels of a vehicle are connected through a pipe to each other. In this apparatus, a spool provided in a piston rod in the hydraulic shock absorber is moved by utilizing a difference in hydraulic pressure in the left-handed and right-handed hydraulic shock absorbers, to thereby adjust a damping force of the hydraulic shock absorber automatically according to a vehicle running condition.
Thus, there has been an increasing demand for a suspension apparatus which is capable of adjusting a damping force of the hydraulic shock absorber mechanically and automatically according to a vehicle running condition, without using electronic devices such as a controller and an actuator. In addition, it has been required to develop a suspension apparatus which has a simple construction and which is capable of generating an appropriate damping force according to a vehicle running condition, by adjusting damping force characteristics in a wide range. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal dispensing apparatus, and more particularly, to a liquid crystal dispensing apparatus having a multipart, separable needle that can be easily repaired.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Portable electric devices, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), and notebook computers, often require thin, lightweight, and efficient flat panel displays. There are various types of flat panel displays, including liquid crystal displays (LCD), plasma display panels (PDP), field emission displays (FED), and vacuum fluorescent displays (VFD). Of these, LCDs have the advantages of being widely available, easy to use, and superior image quality.
The LCD displays information based on the refractive anisotropy of liquid crystal. As shown in FIG. 1, an LCD 1 comprises a lower substrate 5, an upper substrate 3, and a liquid crystal layer 7 that is disposed between the lower substrate 5 and the upper substrate 3. The lower substrate 5 includes an array of driving devices and a plurality of pixels (not shown). The individual driving devices are usually thin film transistors (TFT) located at each pixel. The upper substrate 3 includes color filters for producing color. Furthermore, a pixel electrode and a common electrode are respectively formed on the lower substrate 5 and on the upper substrate 3. Alignment layers are formed on the lower substrate 5 and on the upper substrate 3. The alignment layers are used to uniformly align the liquid crystal layer 7.
The lower substrate 5 and the upper substrate 3 are attached using a sealing material 9. In operation, the liquid crystal molecules are initially oriented by the alignment layers, and then reoriented by the driving device according to video information so as to control the light transmitted through the liquid crystal layer to produce an image.
The fabrication of an LCD device requires the forming of driving devices on the lower substrate 5, the forming of the color filters on the upper substrate 3, and performing a cell process (described subsequently). Those processes will be described with reference to FIG. 2.
Initially, in step S101, a plurality of perpendicularly crossing gate lines and data lines are formed on the lower substrate 5, thereby defining pixel areas between the gate and data lines. A thin film transistor that is connected to a gate line and to a data line is formed in each pixel area. Also, a pixel electrode that is connected to the thin film transistor is formed in each pixel area. This enables driving the liquid crystal layer according to signals applied through the thin film transistor.
In step S104, R (Red), G (Green), and B (Blue) color filter layers (for reproducing color) and a common electrode are formed on the upper substrate 3. Then, in steps S102 and S105, alignment layers are formed on the lower substrate 5 and on the upper substrate 3. The alignment layers are rubbed to induce surface anchoring (establishing a pretilt angle and an alignment direction) for the liquid crystal molecules. Thereafter, in step S103, spacers for maintaining a constant, uniform cell gap is dispersed onto the lower substrate 5.
Then, in steps S106 and S107, a sealing material is applied onto outer portions such that the resulting seal has a liquid crystal injection opening. That opening is used to inject liquid crystal. The upper substrate 3 and the lower substrate 5 are then attached together by compressing the sealing material.
While the foregoing has described forming a single panel area, in practice it is economically beneficial to form a plurality of unit panel areas. To this end, the lower substrate 5 and the upper substrate 3 are large glass substrates that contain a plurality of unit panel areas, each having a driving device array or a color filter array surrounded by sealant having a liquid crystal injection opening. To isolate the individual unit panels, in step S108 the assembled glass substrates are cut into individual unit panels. Thereafter, in step S109 liquid crystal is injected into the individual unit panels by way of liquid crystal injection openings, which are then sealed. Finally, in step S110 the individual unit panels are tested.
As described above, liquid crystal is injected through a liquid crystal injection opening. Injection of the liquid crystal is usually pressure induced. FIG. 3 shows a device for injecting liquid crystal. As shown, a container 12 that contains liquid crystal, and a plurality of individual unit panels 1 are placed in a vacuum chamber 10 such that the individual unit panels 1 are located above the container 12. The vacuum chamber 10 is connected to a vacuum pump that produces a predetermined vacuum. A liquid crystal display panel moving device (not shown) moves the individual unit panels 1 into contact with the liquid crystal 14 such that each injection opening 16 is in the liquid crystal 14.
When the vacuum within the chamber 10 is increased by inflowing nitrogen gas (N2) the liquid crystal 14 is injected into the individual unit panels 1 through the liquid crystal injection openings 16. After the liquid crystal 14 entirely fills the individual unit panels 1, the liquid crystal injection opening 16 of each individual unit panel 1 is sealed by a sealing material.
While generally successful, there are problems with pressure injecting liquid crystal 14. First, the time required for the liquid crystal 14 to inject into the individual unit panels 1 is rather long. Generally, the gap between the driving device array substrate and the color filter substrate is very narrow, on the order of micrometers. Thus, only a very small amount of liquid crystal 14 is injected into per unit time. For example, it takes about 8 hours to inject liquid crystal 14 into an individual 15-inch unit panel 1. This decreases fabrication efficiency.
Second, liquid crystal 14 consumption is excessive. Only a small amount of liquid crystal 14 in the container 12 is actually injected into the individual unit panels 1. Since liquid crystal 14 exposed to air or to certain other gases can be contaminated by chemical reaction the remaining liquid crystal 14 should be discarded. This increases liquid crystal fabrication costs.
Therefore, an improved method and apparatus of disposing a liquid crystal between substrates would be beneficial.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to provide a liquid crystal dispensing apparatus for directly dropping liquid crystal onto a glass substrate having at least one liquid crystal panel that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal dispensing apparatus having a needle which is inserted into a liquid crystal container for opening/closing of a discharging hole of a needle sheet, with the needle being separable to enable repair of worn or damaged portions.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a liquid crystal dispensing apparatus comprising: a liquid crystal container for holding liquid crystal; a case for receiving the liquid crystal container; a needle sheet disposed adjacent the liquid crystal container and having a discharging hole through which liquid crystal is discharged; a movable needle, comprised of separable first and second needle portions, that is inserted into the liquid crystal container and that can open and close the discharging hole; a spring that biases the needle toward the discharging hole; a solenoid and a bar magnetic adjacent the needle for producing a magnetic force that moves the needle to open the discharging hole; and a nozzle for dropping liquid crystal discharged through the discharging hole.
Beneficially, the first needle portion includes a protrusion and the second needle portion includes a recess. The protrusion and recess enable coupling of the first and second needle portions together. The needle beneficially further includes a coupling member that prevents the first and second needle portions from undesirably separating. That coupling member could be a split circular ring.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. | {
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The present invention relates to a force measuring device, and in particular to an improved device for measuring the force exerted by jaws of a chuck under both static and dynamic rotary conditions.
A new power operated chuck, for example a 12" chuck, can be expected to have a maximum static gripping force on the order of 10,000 lbs. However, if the chuck is poorly maintained, the gripping force could drop to only 5,000 lbs. At the same time, gripping pressures decline as spindle speeds increase due to centrifugal force acting on the chuck jaws, and when the chuck rotates at, for example, 2500 rpm, the gripping force may drop another 2,000 lbs. In consequence, the original static gripping force of 10,000 lbs. may in actuality be reduced to about 3,000 lbs. at operating speeds.
Workpiece damage can result not only from insufficient chuck pressure that might allow the workpiece to rotate within the chuck or fly free while turning, but also by excessive pressure which can deform or crush the workpiece. Therefore, it is desirable to periodically test chuck gripping forces, so that any decline resulting from normal wear and lack of maintenance can be detected, promoting working efficiency and operator safety, and also so that excessive gripping pressures can be avoided.
Devices are available for measuring clamping forces. However, they tend to be special purpose devices designed to work with either 2-jaw or 3-jaw clamps. A hydraulic dial gauge may be used to read load, and when the device is used for rotating applications, a rotary pressure joint and torque arm keep the gauge stationary so that it can be read. In the case of electrical/electromagnetic strain gauge type devices, either a slip-ring rotary joint, a "radio" transmitter or other complex system is required to cope with rotation. Such devices are inherently complex, expensive and often inconvenient to use. | {
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Lipid kinases catalyse the phosphorylation of lipids to produce species involved in the regulation of a wide range of physiological processes, including cellular migration and adhesion. The PI3-kinases belong to this class of enzymes and are membrane associated proteins which catalyse the phosphorylation of lipids which are themselves associated with cell membranes. The PI3-kinase delta (δ) isozyme (PI3 kinase δ) is one of four isoforms of type I PI3 kinases responsible for generating various 3′-phosphorylated phosphoinositides, that mediate cellular signalling and have been implicated in a number of cellular processes such as inflammation, growth factor signalling, malignant transformation and immunity (See Review by Rameh, L. E. and Cantley, L. C. J. Biol. Chem., 1999, 274:8347-8350).
Involvement of PI3 kinases in controlling inflammation has been confirmed in several models using pan-PI3 kinase inhibitors, such as LY-294002 and wortmannin (Ito, K. et al., J Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 2007, 321:1-8). Recent studies have been conducted using either selective PI3 kinase inhibitors or in knock-out mice lacking a specific enzyme isoform. These studies have demonstrated the role of the pathways controlled by PI3 kinase enzymes in inflammation. The PI3 kinase δ selective inhibitor IC-87114 was found to inhibit airway hyper-responsiveness, IgE release, pro-inflammatory cytokine expression, inflammatory cell accumulation into the lung and vascular permeability in ovalbumin-sensitized, ovalbumin-challenged mice [Lee, K. S. et al., J. Allergy Clin. Immunol., 2006, 118:403-409 and Lee, K. S. et al., FASEB J., 2006, 20:455-65]. In addition, IC-87114 lowered neutrophil accumulation in the lungs of mice and neutrophil function, stimulated by TNFα [Sadhu, C. et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 2003, 308:764-9]. The PI3 kinase δ isoform is activated by insulin and other growth factors, as well as G-protein coupled protein signaling and inflammatory cytokines. Recently the PI3 kinase dual δ/γ inhibitor TG100-115 was reported to inhibit pulmonary eosinophilia, interleukin-13 as well as mucin accumulation and airways hyperesponsiveness in a murine model, when administered by aerosolisation. The same authors also reported that the compound was able to inhibit pulmonary neutrophilia elicited by either LPS or cigarette smoke [Doukas, J. et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 2009, 328:758-765]
Since it is also activated by oxidative stress, the PI3 kinase δ isoform is likely to be relevant as a target for therapeutic intervention in those diseases where a high level of oxidative stress is implicated. Downstream mediators of the PI3 kinase signal transduction pathway include Akt (a serine/threonine protein kinase) and the mammalian target of rapamycin, the enzyme mTOR. Recent work has suggested that activation of PI3 kinase δ, leading to phosphorylation of Akt, is able to induce a state of corticosteroid resistance in otherwise corticosteroid-sensitive cells [To, Y. et al., Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., 2010, 182:897-904]. These observations have led to the hypothesis that this signalling cascade could be one mechanism responsible for the corticosteroid-insensitivity of inflammation observed in the lungs of patients suffering from COPD, as well as those asthmatics who smoke, thereby subjecting their lungs to increased oxidative stress. Indeed, theophylline, a compound used in the treatment of both COPD and asthma, has been suggested to reverse steroid insensitivity through mechanisms involving interaction with pathways controlled by PI3 kinase δ [To, Y. et al., Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., 2010, 182:897-904].
At present the mainstay of treatment for both asthma and COPD is inhaled therapy, using a combination of corticosteroids, muscarinic antagonists and β2-agonists, as judged clinically appropriate. One way of addressing the unmet medical needs in COPD and asthma is to identify new therapeutic agents, for example suitable for use as inhaled medicines, which have the potential to provide significant benefit when used as a monotherapy or in combination with one or more medicaments from these three pharmacological classes. Therefore, there remains a need to identify and develop isoform selective PI3 kinase inhibitors which have the potential to provide enhanced therapeutic efficacy in asthma, COPD and other inflammatory diseases. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates to a sieve drum device for the flow-through heat treatment of a gas-permeable length of material, especially textile material, said device having a substantially closed housing, the inner space of which is subdivided by a wall into a treatment chamber and a fan chamber; at least one sieve drum which is under a suction draft which is covered in the peripheral zone not blanketed by the material and which is rotatably mounted in the treatment chamber as a conveying element; and a fan in the fan chamber at the end face side associated with this sieve drum, this fan blowing a treatment gas suctioned out of the sieve drum, after heating by means of an associated heating unit, again back into the treatment chamber via a perforated screen cover concentrically surrounding the sieve drum. The device including means for effecting movement of the perforated screen cover.
A similar device is known from DOS 3,006,758. A screen cover concentrically surrounding the sieve drum has the advantage that the air flowing to the sieve drum is not only dammed up by the screen cover, but it is also caused to blow more uniformly over the periphery onto the sieve drum. However, this construction has the disadvantage that, if any material to be treated should jam up on the sieve drum, a knot could be formed perhaps in the narrowed space between the screen cover and the sieve drum and then untangling of this know would hardly be possible. Also, cleaning of the screen cover is feasible only under conditions that are made difficult because the screen cover surrounds the sieve drum closely all around and thus cleaning utensils cannot reach the underside of the screen cover. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronics enclosure for an electronics assembly belonging to an electrotechnical apparatus, comprising an open end situated at the top in a filling position, through which a fluid potting compound is filled and which is closed off by a plug after filling of the potting compound.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For electronics enclosures of this kind always the same metered amount of potting compound is measured in quantity and filled to automate production. The problem in this respect is that due to production tolerances and differing sizes of electronic components the cavities to be potted may differ from one apparatus to another, so that the same filling quantity may result in differing filling heights which is undesirable f or the subsequent steps in production. If the filling quantity is metered so that the desired filling height is achieved even in the case of greatest possible remaining volume, spillage results when the remaining volume is smaller. If, on the other hand, the filling quantity is metered such that no spillage occurs even in the case of a smallest possible remaining volume, then the desired filling height fails to be achieved in the case of a greater remaining volume. A further cause f or differences in the filling height are also inaccuracies in metering the filling quantity. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The invention relates generally to a power generator, and in particular to reduction of keybar voltages in a power generator.
In order to improve generator efficiency and reduce generator size, generator manufacturers are constantly endeavoring to improve the thermal performance of the generator. For example, a prior art design of a high power electrical generator 100 is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is an end view of a cross-section of generator 100 from an isometric perspective. FIG. 2 is a cut-away view of generator 100 along axis 2xe2x80x942. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, electrical generator 100 includes a substantially cylindrical stator 102 housing a substantially cylindrical rotor 110. Power generator 100 further includes multiple axially oriented keybars 118 that are circumferentially distributed around an outer surface of the stator 102. Each keybar 118 is mechanically coupled to the outer surface of stator 102. Each keybar 118 is further mechanically coupled at each of a proximal end and a distal end to one of multiple flanges 204. The multiple keybars 118, together with the multiple flanges 204, form a keybar cage around stator 102.
An inner surface of stator 102 includes multiple stator slots 106 that are circumferentially distributed around an inner surface of stator 102. Each stator slot 106 is radially oriented and longitudinally extends approximately a full length of stator 102. Each stator slot 106 receives an electrically conductive stator winding (not shown).
Rotor 110 is rotatably disposed inside of stator 102. An outer surface of rotor 110 includes multiple rotor slots 114 that are circumferentially distributed around the outer surface of rotor 110. Each rotor slot 114 is radially oriented and longitudinally extends approximately a full length of rotor 110. An air gap exists between stator 102 and rotor 110 and allows for a peripheral rotation of rotor 110 about axis 130.
Each rotor slot 114 receives an electrically conductive rotor winding (not shown). Each rotor winding typically extends from a proximal end of rotor 110 to a distal end of the rotor in a first rotor slot 114, and then returns from the distal end to the proximal end in a second rotor slot 114, thereby forming a loop around a portion of the rotor. When a direct current (DC) voltage differential is applied across a rotor winding at the proximal end of rotor 110, an electrical DC current is established in the winding. Similar to the rotor windings, each stator winding typically extends from a proximal end of stator 102 to a distal end of the stator in a first stator slot 106, and then returns from the distal end of the stator to the proximal of the stator in a second stator slot 106, thereby forming a stator winding loop.
FIG. 3 is a partial perspective of generator of 100 and illustrates a typical technique of constructing a stator core 104. As shown in FIG. 3, stator core 104 includes multiple ring-shaped lamination packets 302 that are stacked one on top of another in order to build up the core. A gap 303 between adjacent packets allows for ventilation to cool rotor 110 and stator core 104. One design of stator core 104 further includes subdividing each lamination packet 302 into multiple lamination segments 304. A radially outer surface of each lamination segment 304 includes at least one slot 120 (not shown in FIG. 3) that aligns with one of the multiple keybars 118. Each keybar in turn includes an outer side 124 and an inner, or locking, side 122 that mechanically mates with one of the multiple slots 120. Stator core 104 is then constructed by sliding each lamination segment 304, via one of the multiple slots 120, into the keybar cage formed by the multiple keybars 118. The coupling of each slot of the multiple slots 120 of a lamination segment 304 with a locking side 122 of a keybar 118 affixes each lamination segment in position in stator 102.
A rotation of rotor 110 inside of stator 102 with a DC current in the multiple windings of rotor 110 establishes a magnetic flux in the generator. A portion of the magnetic flux that passes through stator 102, spills outside of the outer surface of stator 102 coupling into each of the multiple keybars 118. The coupling of magnetic flux into each of multiple keybars 118 can induce keybar voltages and thus setup keybar currents in each keybar. One possible result is a development of a voltage differential between keybar voltages produced in each of two different keybars 118. When adjacent keybars 118 are coupled to adjacent lamination segments, a voltage differential between the adjacent keybars 118 may also appear across the adjacent lamination segments. The voltage differential between adjacent lamination segments can cause arcing between the two segments; overheating in the stator core 104, and reduced generator performance.
Furthermore, the keybar currents induced in each keybar 118 flow from the keybar 118 to a flange 204 coupled to the keybar. A mechanical joint by which a keybar 118 is coupled to a flange 204 can be a poor electrical conductor that provides a high resistance path for the current. As a result, the joint can be a source of undesirable energy dissipation and heat generation in power generator 100, and is also a potential source of arcing and pitting in the power generator. Furthermore, a flow of keybar current in a magnetically and electrically resistive flange 204 results in undesirable energy and heat dissipation in the flange. To avoid overheating the joint and the flange 204 and potential arcing and pitting, a power generator such as power generator 100 sometimes must be operated at backed off levels of magnetic flux and output voltage, reducing the efficiency and rated power level of the power generator 100.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for reducing keybar currents and keybar voltage differentials induced in each of the multiple keybars.
Thus there is a particular need for a method and apparatus that reduces keybar currents and that reduces any voltage differential that may appear between keybars. Briefly, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a keybar shield is provided for insertion adjacent to an outer surface of a stator and that extends approximately an axial length of the stator. The keybar shield reduces the amount of flux coupling into a keybar during operation of a power generator, reducing a keybar voltage and a voltage differential that may appear between keybars. Also, by reducing the amount of flux coupling into a keybar, the keybar shield also reduces keybar currents and flange currents and their associated energy losses. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computing device and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for controlling a processor""s clock frequency.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that if no user activity has occurred for a period of time that a portable computer can be placed in a suspend or sleep mode. It is also known to suspend or slow a computer""s processor (e.g., microprocessor, CPU) when the processor is not actively processing. The following patents and patent publications are representative of the current state of the art:
(a) U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,059 discloses a sleep mode which is activated when control given to BIOS or alternatively by incorporating some statistical analysis of the frequency of BIOS calls. In this patent, the sleep mode either stops the clock or slows it to 4 MHz.
(b) U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,024 discloses a power management system for a laptop computer. The power management system operates to disconnect power sources and/or clock signals to various peripheral devices to conserve battery power. The slow mode is entered into when no activity has been detected for a predetermined period of time.
(c) U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,704 discloses a technique for power conservation based on real-time sampling of CPU activity. The activity is sampled during interrupts and when it determines that the CPU may rest, a sleep clock is supplied to the CPU. The detection of an interrupt restores the clock to the fast rate prior to processing the interrupt.
(d) U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,652 discloses a technique for power consumption which disconnects the CPU from the power supply when control logic determines the CPU is not actively processing. Thereafter, the CPU is periodically powered-up to perform housekeeping chores as well as to determine it normal processing should be resumed.
(e) European patent publication EP-0474963 discloses a sleep mode controller which lowers the CPU clock speed when no input/output operation (when keyboard control routine of BIOS executed no input key data in key buffer, or when CPU is idle and no input key data in the key buffer) is performed. The system uses a clock generator circuit which produces the low clock (4 MHz), the high clock (32 MHz) and a slightly slower high clock (16 MHz). A keyboard controller is used to determine which of the high clocks is used, with selection being made by the computer user. The sleep mode controller is disabled if the AC adapter is connected.
(f) U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,055 discloses a portable computer wherein the computer is make inoperable when ambient temperature or humidity become too high. Here, ambient temperature and humidity are periodically monitored.
(g) European patent publication EP-0381021 discloses a power saving system for a personal computer. The system operates to allow or stop power to be supplied to an oscillator based on control data set to a control register via keyboard or software.
(h) U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,679 discloses a power system for a portable computer wherein the supply voltage is varied depending on the current being supplied to the computer by the power system. Further, a variable-frequency clock is provided which varies its frequency based on the supply voltage being produced.
External clocks have been used to provide a computer system with faster clocks. Here, the faster external clock is substituted for the internal clock of the computer system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,703 is illustrative of an external clock unit which supplies a faster clock to a computer without requiring any hardware changes within the computer.
The problem with all the prior solutions to energy conservation is that the processors can still overheat. In particular, during prolonged processing or activity by a computer""s processor, the processor will not enter its sleep mode (if any) and as a result the processor will become hot and require extensive means to cool the processor to prevent overheating and eventual failure of the processor. Overheating and failure of the processor can also occur when the computer is used in particularly hot environmental temperatures, the computer""s cooling fan fails, or when cooling of the processor is otherwise inadequate.
Another problem is that with portable computers, manufacturers have to either use a lower clock frequency (lower than would be used in a comparable desk top computer) for processing or provide a fan for cooling. A lower clock frequency is not satisfactory as users want maximum processing power just as they get with a desk top computer. Requiring a portable computer to use a fan for cooling is also unsatisfactory because it consumes battery energy.
Thus, there is a need for a solution to the above problems which enables a computing device to maximize its processing speed while, at the same time, preventing overheating.
Broadly speaking, the invention relates to novel techniques for providing thermal and power management for a computing device. These techniques facilitate intelligent control of a processor""s clock frequency and/or a fan""s speed so as to provide thermal and/or power management for the computing device.
The invention may be implemented as an apparatus or a method. According to one embodiment, the invention monitors a processor""s activity and its temperature. When there is no activity for the processor, a slowed clock frequency is used, thereby saving power and lowering the thermal heat produced by the processor. On the other hand, when there is activity for the processor, a fast clock frequency is used. However, when prolonged activity (i.e., sustained fast clock frequency) causes the processor""s temperature to become dangerously high for proper operation, the clock frequency is reduced so as to maintain processing speed at a reduced speed while preventing overheating.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principals of the invention. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Probe cards used in testing integrated circuits during their manufacture require periodic assessment and maintenance to avoid damaging the integrated circuits. As part of the assessment and maintenance of probe cards, optical inspection devices are used to measure the X, Y and Z positions of probes in a probe card in order to determine whether the probes are planar and whether they are properly aligned with the set pattern of bond pads on a semiconductor wafer that the probes are intended to address. The devices may also predict the length and location of a scrub mark that would be formed in a bond pad based on measurements made using a fiducial plate (i.e. checkplate) in lieu of a semiconductor wafer with a bond pad.
Even though each probe is very small, the force needed to achieve the appropriate amount of scrubbing is several grams. Where there are hundreds or thousands of probes in a single probe card, the amount of force needed to overtravel the probes to achieve a proper scrub mark can be very high. Often, overtravel of all the probes occurs at once. For example, the device may have a conductive checkplate that is used to measure the Z height of each separately wired probe and the Z height of the lowest of a group of bussed probes (some probes are wired together making it impossible to electrically separate the signals from each one). In this Z height measurement process, the checkplate is driven into contact with all of the probes and the Z height of the checkplate is recorded when each probe (or group of probes) makes electrical contact.
In order to measure the XY position of probes, also referred to as alignment of the probes, images of the probes may be captured. In some instances, probes are located within the image and linear encoders of the stages on which the camera is mounted are used to help determine the XY position. In other instances, the position of the probes is related in an image to fiducial marks that are formed on windows. Due to the large forces involved in overtravelling all of the probes into contact with the fiducial plate, deflections in the inspection system and the probe card can result. Thus, it is desirable to minimize the applied forces.
In addition to minimizing the amount of force applied to a probe card, it is desirable to minimize the amount of wear to which a probe card and its probes are subject. For example, in systems such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,394 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,118,894 it is necessary for probes to touch down each time an optical alignment measurement is taken. Even considering that multiple probes may be imaged together, where a probe card has many hundreds or thousands of probes, each probe and the probe card will be subjected to much unnecessary wear that inevitably leads to a shorter life for a probe card and its probes.
Accordingly, there is a need for a mechanism for analyzing probe cards that minimizes stresses placed on a probe card and its probes and which similarly minimizes wear to a probe card and its probes. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Many transmission systems utilize an optical fiber network of interconnected optical fiber cables to enable optical communications between network locations. Typically, an optical fiber cable consists of a plurality of optical fibers surrounded by a protective sheath. Individual optical fibers consist of a small diameter core of low-loss material such as glass or plastic surrounded by a protective cladding that has a slightly lower index of refraction than the core. As is well known, a fiber optic cable operates to guide transmitted light pulses over distances with small pulse attenuation (i.e., low signal loss).
Due to the fragile nature of today's commercial fiber, there is a need to protect the fiber from external sources of stress, such as bending, pressure and strain, which can damage the fiber and/or cause degradation of the signal being transmitted via the fiber. For example, a fiber should not be bent sharply anywhere along its path. In addition to the possibility of breakage or fracture, if a fiber is bent past a critical angle, portions of transmitted light pulses will leak out, rather than being reflected within the fiber core, thereby attenuating the transmitted light pulses and degrading signal quality. Accordingly, it is necessary that a fiber be routed so that bends in the fiber be of a sufficient radius to substantially avoid occurrence of such light leakage.
The radius below which a fiber should not be bent to avoid light ray leakage is characterized as the minimum bend radius. Typically, the minimum bend radius varies with fiber design. However, in all fiber designs, bending the fiber with a radius smaller than its minimum bend radius may result in increased signal attenuation and/or a broken fiber.
Ordinarily, a unique fiber routing will be required to transmit light pulses between network locations. Over this unique route, light pulses may be propagated across several different fibers. At each transition from one fiber to another, individual fibers are connected, thereby enabling light pulses to be carried between a first fiber and a second fiber. In many cases, such as at a central office for the communications system, large numbers of fiber connections must be made and a fiber administration system is employed to manage the various connections.
In many fiber administration systems, as the optical fibers in a network enter the central office, they are directed into a fiber distribution frame where the individual optical fibers are terminated in an organized manner. Such fiber administration systems are exemplified by the LGX® Fiber Administration System that is currently manufactured by Lucent Technologies of Murray Hill, N.J., the assignee herein.
A fiber distribution frame typically provides an equipment rack housing a column of spaced apart shelves and/or horizontally slideable drawers for distributing a large number of fibers. Each shelf and/or drawer has an enclosed chamber with an aperture through which fiber cabling may pass. Fiber connections are fashioned within the enclosed chamber of the shelf. In a typical application, the frame serves as an interface between central office switching equipment and a network of transmission lines terminated at the central office.
Pre-terminated fiber shelves provide a convenient means of installing fiber cable connections at a network location. Such shelves are equipped with optical connectors that have been assembled onto the end of a fiber cable stub (i.e., a short length of fiber cable). Although fiber cable specifications normally require that the fiber cable not be bent in diameters smaller than 20× the cable diameter, if the fiber cable sheath is removed, individual fibers can be bent, or coiled, to smaller diameters. This permits the routing of a given number of fiber cables in a smaller area of a distribution frame. For this reason, the end of the fiber cable stub, which enters the shelf, are typically unsheathed. The fiber connections for a pre-terminated shelf are also fashioned during manufacture of the shelf, so that no field connectorization is required during installation.
Because of the delicate nature of unsheathed fibers and the need to maintain fiber bend limits for fibers transitioning to connectors in a shelf, the stub must be securely fastened to the shelf during manufacture. The stub may be fastened to provide either a top entry direction or a bottom entry direction. After manufacture, it is not desirable to loosen the stub from the shelf or to attempt to reconfigure the entry direction of the stub, for example, during installation of a shelf. Because the stiffness of fiber cable and the bend radius constraints associated with fibers, such reconfiguration attempts are prone to craft errors that could significantly damage the stub and/or fibers. At best, special care is required to reconfigure stub entry direction without exceeding fiber bend limits or breaking fibers.
Often, the specific fiber cable routing for a network location is not determined prior to set-up of the location. Consequently, the desired stub entry direction for shelves to be installed at the location is also not known. For this reason, and for manufacturing efficiency, shelves are typically manufactured as configured only for a top stub entry direction. Thus, shelves configured for top stub entry are shipped to a network location regardless of the location requirement. This causes significant problems when the network location requires a shelf configured for bottom stub entry.
Since stub entry direction is not easily reconfigured, a typical work-around for altering stub entry direction is to route the stubs through a circuitous route up the opposite side of the distribution frame, and then to loop the stubs over the top of the frame back down the other side. However, this method requires an extra length of fiber cable for the circuitous loop. In a typical application where multiple shelves are installed in one frame, this circuitous looping is likely to result in cable congestion—there being twice as much fiber cable in the vertical area of the frame as there would be if the fiber cable route were restricted to a single side of the frame. Furthermore, the excess fiber cable may block the path of other fiber cables that are routed through the top of the frame. In addition, the stiffness of fiber cable makes it difficult to manage fiber cable loops within the width of the frame. Therefore, this work-around is only practical for use with cables that allow a tight bend radius. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for driving a touch sensor, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for driving a touch sensor, which is capable of improving touch sensitivity and accuracy by adaptively setting a secondary reference value of each touch node and determining presence/absence of a touch operation.
Discussion of the Related Art
Today, touch sensors capable of inputting information through touch on screens of various display apparatuses have been widely used as an information input apparatus of a computer system. Since a touch sensor moves or selects display information by touching a screen using a finger or a stylus, all people may easily utilize the touch sensor.
An apparatus for driving a touch sensor detects touch generated in the touch sensor on a display apparatus and a touch position and outputs touch information and a computer system analyzes the touch information and executes a command. As a display apparatus, a liquid crystal display apparatus, a flat display apparatus such as a plasma display panel, an organic light emitting diode display apparatus, etc. is mainly used. As touch sensor technology, a resistive method, a capacitive method, an optical method, an infrared method, an ultrasonic method, an electromagnetic method, etc. may be used according to sensing principles.
The touch sensor is manufactured in the form of a panel and is composed of an on-cell touch sensor attached to an upper portion of a display apparatus or an in-cell touch sensor mounted in a pixel matrix of a display apparatus. As a touch sensor, a photo touch sensor for detecting touch according to optical power using a photo transistor and a capacitive touch sensor for detecting touch according to capacitive change are mainly used.
In general, in an apparatus for driving a touch sensor, a read-out integrated circuit (IC) drives a touch sensor and detects raw data using a read-out signal received from the touch sensor. A micro control unit (MCU), which is a signal processor, compares the raw data with a reference signal, determines presence/absence of a touch operation, calculates touch coordinates, and transmits the touch coordinates to a host computer. The host computer executes a command corresponding to the touch coordinates.
In a display apparatus having a touch sensor, a noise component generated in the display apparatus is introduced into the touch sensor to be included in a read-out signal of the touch sensor. Although a noise filter for reducing a noise component is used, a noise component remains in raw data. Since the noise component of the display apparatus is changed according to images, raw data detected from a read-out signal of a touch node is also changed according to frames. In addition, raw data of each touch node may be changed according to external environmental conditions of a touch sensor and positions of a touch node.
However, since a conventional MCU compares raw data of each touch node with the same predetermined reference value and determines presence/absence of a touch operation, if raw data is changed according to noise of a peripheral environment, a touch operation may not be detected. Thus, touch sensitivity and accuracy may be deteriorated. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Fifth wheel trailers and tow vehicles for fifth wheel trailers are generally well known in the art. Fifth wheel trailers are much longer, roomier, and heavier than typical tent campers and travel trailers, and thus a fifth wheel trailer typically requires a specially modified, relatively heavy tow vehicle such as a heavy duty pickup truck. The front portion of a fifth wheel trailer extends over the rear portion of the tow vehicle so that a portion of the trailer's weight is carried directly over the rear axle of the tow vehicle. In order to accommodate the weight of the trailer a special hitch assembly is required.
The front portion of the trailer includes a pin box which includes a support plate and a downwardly extending hitch pin. A base plate having an aperture and a latch mechanism is mounted to the tow vehicle, and the support plate carried by the pin box rests on the base plate with the hitch pin secured in the aperture by the latch mechanism. The support plate rotates relative to the base plate with the hitch pin acting as a pivot point. Typically, grease or other lubricant is applied between the support plate and the base plate. The fifth wheel trailer is thus able to pivot relative to the tow vehicle about a vertical axis to facilitate cornering and parking. Normally, the hitch assembly is mounted directly over or a short distance in front of the rear axle of the tow vehicle in order to maintain proper weight distribution.
The vehicle most commonly used to tow fifth wheel trailers is a pickup truck having an 8 foot bed length. On such a truck, there is typically at least 53 inches between the centerline of the rear axle and the rear of the cab. The maximum width for a fifth wheel trailer is 102 inches as dictated by federal highway regulations, which amounts to 51 inches on each side of the pivot point. Thus, in order to prevent contact between the trailer and the cab during cornering, there must be at least 51 inches of clearance between the pivot point and the rear of the cab (sometimes more depending on the fore/aft location of the pivot pin relative to the front of the trailer).
Recently, there has been a consumer trend towards extended cab pickup trucks, which have longer, roomier cabs. These trucks have greatly expanded interior cargo volume and also have specially designed rear jump seats for accommodating additional passengers. Unfortunately, most of these extended cab pickups are built on a standard wheelbase chassis because consumers prefer the driving characteristics of a shorter truck, and accordingly, the bed of these trucks is typically 6 feet long rather than 8 feet long. Although these shorter bed pickups have the towing capacity to handle fifth wheel trailers, they do not have enough clearance between the axle and the rear of the cab to allow the trailer to pivot to 90 degree angle without contacting the cab, which could damage the truck and severely injure any occupants. In most circumstances, a fifth wheel trailer will contact the cab of a short bed pickup at angles much less than 90 degrees.
A number of approaches have been contemplated to adapt fifth wheel trailers to short bed pickup trucks, all of which have their drawbacks. One possible approach is to use a hydraulically operated sliding base to force the hitch assembly, and hence the pivot point, rearward away from the truck cab. Such a system would be expensive, difficult to maintain and would have to be driver actuated. Hence such a system would involve a significant delay or lag time. In an accident such as a jackknife such a system would operate too slowly to prevent the trailer from contacting and most likely damaging the cab.
Another approach, which also uses a sliding base, requires the operator to exit the truck, unlock the base, lock the brakes on the trailer and pull the truck forward. This temporarily moves the pivot point rearward so that the trailer can pivot relative to the truck to a certain extent without contacting the cab. However, before resuming driving, the driver must lock the trailer brakes, back the truck towards the trailer, again exit the truck and lock the sliding hitch, and return to the truck. Obviously, such a system is impractical in many situations, such as negotiating sharp turns in traffic, and is practically useless in an emergency.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved sliding hitch assembly that allows fifth wheel trailers to be towed using short bed pickup trucks, but which prevents contact between the trailer and the truck during normal operations. There also exists a need for a sliding hitch assembly that slides automatically in response to pivoting movement between the trailer and the tow truck and that does not require the expense, maintenance and lag time of hydraulic systems, and does not require the operator to exit the vehicle in order to lock or unlock the hitch assembly. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates generally to a double resist layer lift-off technique for high energy radiation lithography and more particularly to highly sensitive resist layers having different solvent development systems.
The formation of positive resist masks from layers of radiation degradable polymers is described, for example, by Haller and Hatzakis in U.S. Pat. No. 3,535,137. In this process a radiation degradable polymer layer is coated on a substrate and is subjected to patternwise exposure to high energy radiation such as, for example, x-rays, nuclear radiation, and electrons. The irradiated regions of the polymer suffer a decrease in molecular weight and thereby become more soluble. A developer is then used to preferentially remove the irradiated portions of the layer. The substrate can then be subjected to an additive or subtractive process such as metallization or etching with the remaining portions of the resist layer protecting the substrate from the processing.
In the formation of integrated circuits or exposure masks, one process which is employed is a lift-off process in which a patterned relief layer of resist is first formed on a substrate. A layer of material, such as a metal for integrated circuit conductor lines or an opaque masking material for mask fabrication is coated over the resist layer and the exposed portions of the substrate. The resist layer is then stripped off and takes with it the overlying material to leave only the pattern of material in direct contact with the substrate. Such a process is described, for example, by M. Hatzakis, Electron Resists for Micro Circuit and Mask Production, Journal of the Electro Chemical Society, Volume 116, No. 7, pages 1033 to 1037, July 1969 and by M. Hatzakis and A. Broers, Record of the Eleventh Symposium on Electron, Ion and Laser Beam Technology, pages 337 to 344.
The described process takes advantage of the natural undercutting of the resist during high energy exposure such that the developed resist pattern is wider at the bottom then the top. This profile aids in forming a discontinuity between the portions of material which are on the substrate surface and the portions which cover the resist. This discontinuity is needed in order to permit the resist stripping solution to attack the unexposed resist and remove it along with the overlying material.
The resist layer thickness required for a metal lift-off process, for example, must be in the ratio of a minimum of about 1.5/1 resist thickness to metal thickness to avoid bridging of metal between the portion on the substrate and the portion covering the resist. Therefore, the loss of unexposed resist during development must be limited. This can be done by increasing exposure times to create a greater molecular weight differential between the exposed and unexposed resist. However, this has the effect of slowing down the exposure process.
Another factor involved in the use of high energy radiation to exposed resist layers is the fact that there are certain advantages to the use of, for example, beams of increasing energy, for example, 10 to 50 kilovolts (KV). This has the advantage of decreasing writing times for a resist because higher amps/per square centimeter can be produced by the electron gun and the higher energy beams also provide more back scatter electron signal for better registration and detection. However, it has been found that for any given resist thickness employed, the higher energy beams produce less electron scattering and undercutting of the resist such that excessive exposure times would be required to obtain the desired undercut profile by exposure alone.
A method of enhancing metallurgical lift-off is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Application Ser. No. 426,403 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,057 (427/43). The application teaches the use of 2 or more layers of resist, each resist having a different dissolution rates. The layer can be of the same or different polymeric material. The differing dissolution rate can be due to differing molecular weight polymers or of differing tacticity. The layered materials used therein can be dissolved by the same solvent. This method does not provide sufficient improvement in resist sensitivity to allow lift-off below exposures of 2 .times. 10.sup.-.sup.5 coulombs/cm.sup.2. At exposures lower than 2 .times. 10.sup.-.sup.5 coulombs/cm.sup.2 the required development time is so long that the undercut feature of the resist combination can not be maintained. Although the dissolution rate of the two or more resist films in this process is different, the top resist film has a finite development rate which causes the opening on the top film to widen and destroy the undercut if the total development time is long.
One of the limitations of a high speed electron beam fabrication system is resist speed, especially for lift-off metallization where high exposure is required to provide some undercut in the developed resist profile. Until the discovery of the present invention no known assist system was available which could operate for lift-off at 5 .times. 10.sup.-.sup.6 coul/cm.sup.2 or even 10.sup.-.sup.5 coulombs/cm.sup.2. | {
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1. Field of the Invention:
The present application relates generally to rotorcraft, and more particularly to a remotely controlled co-axial rotorcraft for heavy-lift aerial crane operations and associated systems and methods.
2. Description of Related Art:
Many industries use existing manned helicopter types, which are mostly based on 1960s technology. These aging, manned aircraft are generally ill-suited for crane operations, primarily due to inefficiencies inherent in the need to accommodate the human crew. A significant amount of lift capability is lost in order to provide for crew accommodations and safety, and helicopters designed initially as troop carriers are particularly inefficient in the heavy-lift crane role. In addition, carrying humans in the vehicle requires significant payroll, insurance, and training costs. | {
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The present application is the national stage under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7371 of international application PCT/ES00/00064, filed Feb. 23, 2000 which designated the United States, and which application was not published in the English language.
The invention concerns a door trim for vehicles which is fitted to the door of the motor vehicle and which incorporates the window winder motor.
In traditional systems, the window winder motor and other door components are fastened directly onto the inner covering of the door shell, i.e. they are bolted directly onto the steel sheet. A trim or decorative coveringxe2x80x94what the user will see inside the vehiclexe2x80x94is then fitted over the unit.
The current trend is for modular solutions. These solutions are characterised by the fact that the window winder motor is fastened beforehand to a single part or module, which is then bolted to the door after being fitted on. This part also acts as a trim and can be termed as such.
Traditional door shells are exposed to incoming moisture and dirt and, logically, form a damp area. In order to prevent water and dust from getting inside the vehicle, various dust-tight and watertight systems are employed, such as the forming of holes on the unit to enable water to escape or the positioning of insulating material around the perimeter of the trim (thus forming a dry area between the steel sheet or the inner cover of the door shell and the trim). The dust-tight and watertight systems do not prevent, however, the window winder motor and other elements housed in the door shell from becoming exposed to a damp atmosphere and, as a result, from coming into contact with water.
There are modular systems in which, however, the window winder motor and other elements can be housed in the dry area, more precisely in the area between the inner covering of the door and the trim bolted to it (featuring the necessary insulating material, as in the previous example). The elements are arranged as follows: the motor, all the electronic components and the gear-motor system are housed in this dry area whereas the drum from which the window winder mechanism cables run and the drum cover are located in the damp area formed by the door shell. Logically, the holes linking the elements in both areas must be properly insulated.
There are a number of drawbacks associated with these solutions. First of all, the trim must be taken off in order to gain access to the motor. Secondly, a number of elements are required to make the unit dust-tight and watertight. Thirdly, the various elements on the module must be assembled in a number of operations beforehand.
It is an object of this invention to provide a trim bearing the window winder motor in a dry area and which needs only a minimum number of requirements to protect it against moisture, reducing costs in the process.
Another object of this invention is to provide a trim which already has the window winder mechanism system fitted onto it, which would enable these operations to be carried out easily, quickly and ergonomically.
Another object of this invention is the fact that all the operations for the assembly of components on the trim can be removed from the vehicle-door assembly line, thereby saving the manufacturer time and space.
Another object of this invention is to make the motor dust-tight and watertight using only a very few elements in order to create a lighter and more economical unit.
Another object of this invention is to make the motor accessible without having to remove the trim completely, thereby making it easier to resolve problems in the event of the window becoming stuck at the top.
To attain these objectives, the invention claims a trim panel bearing the window winder motor, both during the fitting of the window winder mechanism unit onto the door and throughout its operating life. The motor is connected to the trim panel during the assembly phase and can be fastened either to the trim panel only or to the steel sheet through said trim panel.
According to the invention, this trim panel ensures that the motor is housed in the dry area with it being incorporated, regardless of how it is fastened, on the visible side or exterior of the trim panel. To achieve this, at least one part of this trim panel has been designed to conceal the motor, thereby ensuring that this part can easily be dismantled to provide access to the motor if the window winder mechanism malfunctions.
The door trim panel, regardless of the material it is made of, features a concave area on its visible side which is designed to house the vehicle""s window winder motor specifically and the gear-motor system and electronic components at the very least. This concave area must be shaped in such a way that it can also house the connector linking the motor""s electronic box to the wiring on the door.
The wiring runs from the non-visible side of the trim to the visible side through the concave area housing the motor and passes through a hole made in the trim itself, which is why bushing or a similar system guaranteeing the unit remains dust-tight and watertight is used.
The concave area forms a dry area in itself which completely insulates the elements it houses.
At the same time, the trim panel according to the invention features another portion situated on the outer side, i.e. the side visible from the inside of the passenger compartment of the vehicle, located above the concave area and concealing the elements housed inside it. This second portion of the trim panel is easy to close and open, as will be demonstrated later.
By this invention two practical solutions are envisaged and claimed, namely:
A) One, the aforementioned solution, according to which the gear-motor unit, its electronic components and the connector are housed inside the dry area formed by the concave area on the trim panel.
B) The other solution, according to which all the components of the window winder motor, including the connector linking the motor""s electronic box to the wiring on the door are housed in the concave area on the trim panel.
In solution A the concave area comprises the gear-motor unit and its electronic components as well as the connector. The wiring for the motor passes through a hole featuring dust-tight and watertight bushing formed in the thickness of the trim panel to the interior of the concave area.
The drum holding the cable for the window winder mechanism is positioned on the non-visible side of the trim panel, outside the concave area and projecting towards the damp area. The interconnection is made through a hole in the thickness of the trim panel in the concave area, with the hole being made dust-tight and watertight by a gasket fitted on the motor itself as part of a manufacturing solution that is already on the market.
The other holes formed in the concave area allow the bolts connecting the drum cover to the rest of the motor and the whole of the system to the door trim panel or panel and steel sheet to pass through, with all these holes having been designed to be dust-tight and watertight.
The drum and its cover feature, logically, the outlets for the window winder mechanism cables.
In solution B, the concave area houses the window winder motor with all its components, with all these components situated, therefore, in the dry area.
As the drum holding the cables is on the visible side of the trim and the cables are on the unseen side, the concave area in this solution features a lateral aperture on one of its sides. The entire motor passes through this aperture to the outer side of the trim panel, leaving the rest of the window winder mechanism it is connected to on the other side.
In order to ensure the concave area is dust-tight and watertight, this lateral aperture must remain closed during the useful life of the unit, with only a few dust-tight and watertight holes being left for the outlets on the drum cover. The function of these holes is to guide these cables to the rest of the window winder system.
Two different means of closing off the unit in this way have been considered. One of them is based on a gasket and the other on a manufacturing solution. In this last version a projection on another part of the trim panel, such as the one concealing the concave area on the outside and the elements situated on the interior, can be provided in order to cover the open lateral.
This solution, B, has an additional advantage over solution A: the window winder mechanism can be adjusted before being fitted onto the trim panel. | {
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Mobile communication systems have been developed to provide communication services while ensuring a user's mobility. Recently, the mobile communication systems have reached a stage capable of providing not only the voice communication services but also the high-speed data communication services.
In recent years, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system proposed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is providing its services in many countries as one of the next-generation mobile communication systems. The LTE system is technology for implementing high-speed packet-based communication having a transfer rate of about 100 Mbps.
To meet the demand for wireless data traffic having increased since deployment of 4G (4th-Generation) communication systems such as the LTE system, efforts have been made to develop an improved 5G (5th-Generation) or pre-5G communication system. Therefore, the 5G or pre-5G communication system is also called a ‘Beyond 4G Network’ or a ‘Post LTE System’.
The 5G communication system is considered to be implemented in higher frequency (mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands, so as to accomplish higher data rates. To decrease propagation loss of the radio waves and increase the transmission distance, the beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, an analog beam forming, large scale antenna techniques are discussed in 5G communication systems.
In addition, in 5G communication systems, development for system network improvement is under way based on advanced small cells, cloud Radio Access Networks (RANs), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, moving network, cooperative communication, Coordinated Multi-Points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation and the like.
In the 5G system, Hybrid FSK and QAM Modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as an advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as an advanced access technology have been developed.
Recently, the commercialization of an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) communication system that has improved its transfer rate by combining a variety of new technologies for the LTE communication system is underway. The most typical one of the technologies to be newly introduced may include Carrier Aggregation (CA). The term ‘carrier aggregation’ as used herein may refer to technology in which one terminal or User Equipment (UE) uses a plurality of forward carriers and a plurality of reverse carriers in transmitting and receiving data, unlike the technology according to the related art in which a UE transmits and receives data using one forward carrier and one reverse carrier.
Currently, however, only the intra-Evolved Node B (ENB) CA is defined in LTE-A. This may result in reducing the applicability of the CA function, thus causing the possible problems that macro cells and pico cells cannot be aggregated especially in a scenario where a plurality of pico cells and one macro cell are operated in an overlapping manner. The pico cell may be referred to as another term such as ‘micro cell’, ‘small cell’ or the like.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure. | {
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The present invention is related to pharmaceutical compositions which are particularly suitable for treating Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD, also known as ADD, both terms may be used interchangeably herein). More particularly, the present invention is related to pharmaceutical compositions, particularly comprising racemic or single isomer ritalinic acid or phenethylamine derivatives, such as methylphenidate or amphetamine, which can be rendered less susceptible to abuse or dose dumping and which can be tailored to achieve specific lipophilic and hydrophilic properties.
Shire is a prominent pharmaceutical company engaged in marketing medication for the treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In a “Shire News” informational newsletter (May 21, 2009) entitled, “Results from a European Caregiver Survey Highlight the Impact of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on the Child and the Family”, the following excerpt from the section “About ADHD” is included below as a primer on ADHD. “ADHD is one of the most common psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. Worldwide prevalence of ADHD is estimated at 5.3 percent (with large variability), according to a comprehensive systematic review of this topic published in 2007 in the American Journal of Psychiatry. In the United States, approximately 7.8 percent of all school-aged children, or about 4.4 million children aged 4 to 17 years, have been diagnosed with ADHD at some point in their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The disorder is also estimated to affect 4.4 percent of US adults aged 18 to 44 based on results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. When this percentage is extrapolated to the full US population aged 18 and over, approximately 9.8 million adults are believed to have ADHD. ADHD is a psychiatric behavioral disorder that manifests as a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that is more frequent and severe than is typically observed in individuals at a comparable level of development. The specific etiology of ADHD is unknown and there is no single diagnostic test for this syndrome. Adequate diagnosis requires the use of medical and special psychological, educational and social resources, utilizing diagnostic criteria such as Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV-TR) or International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD-10). Although there is no “cure” for ADHD, there are accepted treatments that specifically target its symptoms. Standard treatments include educational approaches, psychological, or behavioral modification, and medication.”
The treatment of ADHD as manifested in adults and children is a disease with known treatment regimens. An overview of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and therapeutic agents applicable to these learning and developmental disorders can be found in The Merck Manual 18th Edition, ©2006, published by Merck Research Laboratories, pp. 2483-2486. Two drugs are principally used to treat these conditions: methylphenidate and dextro-amphetamine. The dosing regimen generally consists of first titrating the patient with immediate release (IR) dosage forms to effect the desired change while minimizing adverse effects followed by switching to an extended release (ER) formulation once the patient's response to the drug is understood. Both dextro-amphetamine and methylphenidate, in either IR or ER formulations, are stimulants and prone to abuse, misuse and diversion.
The abuse, misuse and diversion of controlled substances is discussed at length in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/805,225 [Bristol et al.], and Ser. No. 11/973,252 [King, et al.] and Ser. No. 12/423,641 [King et al.] wherein included are technical approaches to imparting anti-abuse and abuse deterrent features to controlled substances. The abuse of dextro-amphetamine and methylphenidate, both of which are controlled substances, is widespread. These drugs are readily prescribed and consequently, their common availability or access by diversion has made them comparatively easy targets for those people intent on abuse or misuse of the drug. The challenge to the pharmaceutical industry and to medical professionals is to provide these medications to patients in genuine need of the drug's therapeutic benefits while restricting or eliminating the ability to abuse the drug.
In the case of dextro-amphetamine, New River Pharmaceuticals has risen to the abuse deterrent/misuse/diversion challenge by preparing a prodrug form of dextro-amphetamine. New River's U.S. Pat. No. 7,105,486 B2 (Mickle et al.), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes the covalent attachment of L-lysine to the drug substance, amphetamine, to provide compounds and compositions exhibiting abuse-resistant properties and which are useful for the treatment of disorders including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), narcolepsy and obesity. The drug product incorporating the prodrug delivers an abuse deterrent feature through chemical means which would require some expertise to defeat—and only through chemical transformation. Unfortunately, the prodrug approach, in general, requires significant R&D resources to tailor each prodrug to a host of regulatory specifications before market approval can be granted by the FDA. Consequently, the prodrug approach is costly, time-intensive and does not provide a universal, platform solution to imparting abuse deterrent properties to the medically necessary amine-containing controlled substances. The invention described herein encompasses a platform approach to imparting abuse deterrent properties at the molecular level through unique salt forms of the opioid alkaloids.
Not surprisingly, the abuse, misuse and diversion of (dextro)-amphetamine and methylphenidate (racemic and single isomer) is due to the psychoactive effect these drugs exhibit which is similar to cocaine. In “The Chemistry of Mind-Altering Drugs, History, Pharmacology, and Cultural Context”, by Daniel M. Perrine, ©1996, published by the American Chemical Society, p. 196-198, the authors report on a study conclusively demonstrating methylphenidate and cocaine acted on the same part of the brain. Similarly, on page 193 the authors report that the final psychotic toxicity of amphetamines is “essentially identical to that found with cocaine”. While these drugs provide necessary medical treatment, their abuse serves no valued purpose to society. Consequently, the challenge is to provide these drugs, as drug substances and in dosage forms (drug products) which are not easily abused or misused and thereby diminish the motive for diversion.
In addition to the scientific and technical challenges faced by drug substance and product manufacturers, the United States government recognizes the severe detrimental consequences drug abuse has on the Nation and has taken action, principally through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in an effort to mitigate drug abuse. A summary of the FDA's intent, philosophy and actions is found in the Federal Register, Volume 74, Number 74, Monday Apr. 20, 2009, pages 17967-17970 as it relates to their Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) program for opioid-based drug products. However, a REMS program requirement may be required by all drug product manufacturers to ascertain the risk/benefit to (controversial) drug products as authorized by the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007. Beyond cited opioids in the FDA's Federal Registry entry, all controlled substances including those of the present invention will likely be subject to a REMS requirement. A top level overview of the REMS initiative, presented by the FDA's top administrators, is available on-line. As the effort to fight drug abuse increases, the terminology employed to address the topic is evolving. In previous applications by the present inventors, “anti-abuse” was employed as a term to describe properties imparted to drug substances and drug products as a result of design engineering to these substances and products, features which inhibit their use in a manner for which they were not intended. As the terminology has evolved within administrative law, the term “abuse-deterrent” is more often employed. Within the context of this disclosure, no limitation is implied through the use of either term and both are engendered to be interpreted in the broadest sense. However, for completeness and to provide a broader understanding of the invention herein, the United States Food and Drug Administration in their January 2010 issuance of Guidance for Industry: Assessment of Abuse Potential of Drugs, it is stated: “Currently, the concept of abuse deterrence is viewed as the introduction of some limits or impediments to abuse, as opposed to the outright elimination of abuse.”
The Government Accounting Office (GAO) in a publication entitled, “Prescription Drugs, OxyContin Abuse and Diversion and Efforts to Address the Problem”, (GAO-04-110) in the “Recommendation for Executive Action”, page 42, stated: “To improve efforts to prevent or identify the abuse and diversion of schedule II controlled substances, we recommend that the Commissioner of Food and Drugs ensure that FDA's risk management plan guidance encourages pharmaceutical manufacturers that submit new drug applications for these substances to include plans that contain a strategy for monitoring the use of these drugs and identifying potential abuse and diversion problems.” It is well known that the amphetamines and methylphenidate are intentionally abused and diverted for illicit purpose.
Clearly there remains a need to address the abuse, misuse and diversion of schedule II controlled substances (both the active pharmaceutical ingredient and for the formulated dosage product). A host of technical requirements must be met in addition to the regulatory administrative requirements to meet society's needs. Beyond technical requirements, today's pharmaceutical marketplace requires inventions be consistent with the prevailing politics and policy of the federal government. The administrative controls being placed on the stakeholders involved in the commercial use of controlled substances are burdensome. The stakeholders include the drug manufacturer, distributor, the prescriber (physician and other medical personnel), dispenser (pharmacist) and the patient. Such burdensome administrative controls such as health provider certifications and the like may have the unintentional outcome of restricting necessary medications to those patients legitimately in need of the controlled substance, such as those substances of the present invention.
There has been a long felt need for pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical systems, and methods of predictably altering pharmaceuticals to achieve the goals set forth above. Pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical systems, and methods of predictably altering pharmaceuticals which are less susceptible to abuse, and particularly dose dumping, are provided herein. It is an object of the invention is to provide a beneficial technical solution which does not overwhelm the healthcare system and addresses an entire product/therapeutic family to curb prescriber and dispenser confusion. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for the production of methylenedicarbanilates. More particularly, this invention provides a process for the production of methylenedicarbanilates; i.e., an intermediate product for use in the production of 4,4'-diphenylmethanediisocyanate which is generally called "MDI" and an important starting material for the production of polyurethanes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
MDI is used as a starting material for the production of polyurethane elastomers, elastic fibers, adhesives, coating resins, etc., and recently its production has been sharply increasing. At present, MDI is produced by a method which comprises reacting aniline with formaldehyde to give 4,4'-diaminodiphenylmethane and reacting the 4,4'-diaminodiphenylmethane with phosgene. This method, however, has the disadvantages in that the use of harmful phosgene is necessary, the phosgenation step is complicated, and that hydrochloric acid by-produced in the phosgenation step must be disposed of safely.
In addition to the phosgenation process, various methods have been proposed for the production of isocyanates, including: (1) a method in which aromatic carbamates are produced by reacting aromatic nitro compounds with carbon monoxide and alcohol in the presence of a catalyst comprising palladium, Lewis acid, e.g., iron chloride, and a heterocyclic base, e.g., pyridine [see Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 98240/1976 (The term "OPI" as used herein refers to a "published unexamined Japanese patent application")] and then decomposed by heating; (2) a method in which the same reaction is carried out in the presence of a catalyst comprising palladium, vanadyl chloride and a heterocyclic base [see Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 22339/1979], and a method in which the same reaction is carried out in the presence of a catalyst comprising selenium, sulfur and a base [see Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 62420/1974]. | {
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1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for determining whether or not fog is present in an environment around a vehicle using images picked up by a camera mounted on the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known an apparatus for executing an image processing on a picked up image of an on-vehicle camera for determining the presence of fog (as disclosed in, for instance, Japanese Patent No. 3444192). In Japanese Patent No. 344419, the presence of fog is determined based on a degree of image blurring. With fog being present, the image gets blurred. Thus, the presence of fog is determined upon the estimated degree of image blurring. In estimating the degree of image blurring, first, a differential calculus is executed for each pixel of an entire image to calculate a rate of change of brightness (the amount of edges) in each pixel of the image. The brightness variations are used to estimate the degree of image blurring.
With the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3444192, the result of determining the presence of fog is utilized in recognizing a white line on a road. In recognizing the white line on the road on which a vehicle is traveling based on an image picked up by the on-vehicle camera, if fog is present in an atmosphere on the road, the image gets blurred with a resultant difficulty of recognizing the white line. Therefore, the presence of fog is determined prior to recognizing the white line. It is also disclosed that if the presence of fog is determined, fog lamps are turned on.
An apparatus, disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3312729, is not of a type that determines only the presence of fog. If an image gets blurred due to bad visibility caused by fog or the like, or, dirt on a windscreen of a vehicle, it becomes hard to appropriately monitor the vehicle exterior (i.e., a monitoring a distance between an own vehicle and an object at a distance from the vehicle, i.e, exterior of the vehicle). To address such an issue, the determination is made whether or not the image is blurred.
In the method of determining the image blurring disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3312729, a representative value of the brightness variation of the image is calculated based on the brightness variations in a fixed portion of the image, wherein the fixed portion is set to an upper center section of the image. In more detail, the representative value of the brightness variation of the image is estimated based on a ratio of the number of pixels in which the brightness variation exceeds a predetermined threshold value.
Both the apparatuses, disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3444192 and Japanese Patent No. 3312729, determine whether or not the image picked up by the on-vehicle camera gets blurred for thereby making a judgment on the presence of fog. If the brightness variations of each pixel of an entire image are calculated, an issue arises with an increase in processing time or load for carrying out the image processing as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3444192. Meanwhile, with the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3312729, the brightness variations of only the fixed area, set to the upper center section thereof, are calculated, resulting in a lower load or shorter processing time than that of the device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3444192. However, in image object in the image of a close range object to the own vehicle is relatively and clearly picked up even in the presence of fog. Therefore, if the object is picked up in the fixed area on the image at a close range from the vehicle, an issue arises with a difficulty of precisely determining the presence of fog.
With the above view in mind, the present applicant has made an invention on an apparatus, operative to determine the presence of fog using an image of a far-flung road region determined on the image picked up by an on-vehicle camera for representing a region over a road in a given far-flung distance from a vehicle, of which patent application was filed (Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 2006-349492). Thus, if the region of the image for which the presence of fog is determined is allocated to the region over the road, it is highly likely that due to the road normally continuing to a far-flung area, such a far-flung area involves a pickup image of a far-flung portion. This enables the presence of fog to be precisely determined.
Further, WO 03/069275 discloses means for determining whether or not fog is present in outside air, surrounding a field of view from a driver's seat and a vehicle, in an image picked up by an on-vehicle camera.
With such a method, a road portion and a sky portion are determined based on brightness in the image picked up by the on-vehicle camera. Thereafter, a calculation is executed to obtain coefficients of extinction in both areas under a Koschmieder's low, upon which the field of view is produced and the existence of or nonexistence of fog is determined based on the resulting coefficients of extinction.
However, with the apparatuses disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 2006-349492 or WO 03/069275 for determining the presence of fog, it is likely that when picked up by the on-vehicle camera mounted on a vehicle running on a road passing through a forest like a mountain corridor, a far-flung road region is present in the forest and, therefore, underexposure phenomena occurs in the pickup image. If such underexposure phenomena are present in the far-flung road region, there is a possibility of determining in error that the image is enveloped in fog.
The present invention has been completed with a view to addressing such issues and has an object to ensure a precision in determining the presence of fog even if underexposure phenomena occur in a far-flung road region of an image. | {
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The use of emulsions is well known in the chemical art, including the pharmaceutical, specialty chemical and agricultural industries. In agriculture, emulsions provide appropriate formulations vehicles for delivery of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, bactericides and fertilizers. Non-agricultural uses have included formulation of dyes, inks, pharmaceuticals, flavoring agents and fragrances.
Surfactants are required to aid in the emulsification process of oil into water (and vice versa) and to stabilise the thus formed emulsion against physical degradation processes.
A surfactant can adsorb to (and be desorbed from) an interface relatively easily. This process can lead to destabilisation of an emulsion; moreover, micellisation effects will also lead to redistribution of components throughout the system, often leading to Ostwald ripening and other undesirable interactions. All the many approaches to stabilisation of emulsions rely on one or more of the above described effects with typical surfactant adsorption as the stabilising mechanism.
Oil-in-Water emulsions (EW's) consist of a dispersion of oil droplets in a continuous aqueous medium. Such products are widely employed and encountered in various industries e.g., food (e.g. mayonnaise), detergency (e.g. removal of oil deposits), pharmaceuticals (e.g. drug administration), cosmetics (e.g. skin creams) and agricultural products (both as concentrates and diluted into water for application).
EW's are important in agriculture as a means of formulating oil-based systems in a more environmentally attractive form than the conventional Emulsifiable Concentrate (EC) where less solvent is sometimes possible per unit active ingredient and also as a precursor to Suspension-Emulsions (SE's) or Suspo-Emulsions which consist of a mixture of an oil-in-water and a suspension concentrate (SC). Such EW or SE products tend to have lower skin and eye toxicity ratings than the corresponding EC products as well as higher flash points and better compatibility with HDPE containers.
EW's, unlike EC's in the undiluted state, are only stable in the kinetic sense. This is because the system is inherently thermodynamically unstable and can only be formed non-spontaneously. This can be understood if one considers a large drop of oil, say with a volume of 1 ml, which is emulsified into many droplets each containing on average 0.001 ml. The interfacial area is greatly increased as a result of the sub-division of the bulk oil into much smaller units. This large interfacial energy is accompanied by a large surface energy that is given by the product of interfacial tension and increase in surface area ΔA (where ΔA=A2-A1 with A2 being the total area of the subdivided droplets and A1 that of the bulk oil). In the absence of any absorbed molecules at the interface the interfacial tension μSL is relatively large and hence the interfacial free energy for creating the interface ΔAμSL can be quite large. Thus the interfacial free energy opposes the process of emulsification.
It should be mentioned, however, that in an emulsification process, a large number of small droplets are formed and this is accompanied by an increase in the total entropy of the system. This increase in entropy facilitated the emulsification process although its value is relatively small compared to the interfacial free energy. From the second law of thermodynamics, the free energy of emulsification is given by the expressionΔGform=ΔAμSL−TΔSConf where ΔSConf is the configurational entropy term
In most dispersion processes ΔAμSL>>−TΔSConf and therefore ΔGform is large and positive. Thus the process of emulsification is non-spontaneous and hence with time the droplets tend to aggregate and/or coalesce to reduce the total energy of the system.
To prevent flocculation and/or coalescence one needs to create an energy barrier between the droplets to prevent their close approach. This energy barrier is the result of the creation of a repulsive force that overcomes the ever present van der Waals' attraction. The balance between repulsive and attractive forces determines the stability of the system against flocculation and coalescence. Assuming one can arrange to achieve a sufficient barrier to prevent close approach between the particles (i.e. stability in the colloid sense) what other factors play a role in keeping the droplets uniformly suspended in the continuous phase? One of the most important factors is gravity, which can cause separation of the droplets into a compact layer of cream depending on the density difference between the droplets and the medium, and their size.
There are basically five ways in which the structure of a dispersion of liquid droplets in a continuous medium can change. These are summarised as follows:
1. No change in droplet size (or droplet size distribution), but build-up of an equilibrium droplet concentration gradient within the emulsion. In limiting cases, the result is a close packed array (usually random) of droplets at one end of the system with the remainder of the volume occupied by the continuous phase liquid. This phenomenon results from external force fields, usually gravitational, centrifugal or electrostatic, acting on the system. “Creaming” is the special case in which the droplets collect in a concentrated layer at the top of an emulsion. A parallel effect may be seen when the oil phase has a density greater than 1.00 such that the cream sediments on the bottom of the container rather than rising to the top of the container when the density of the oil phase is less than 1.00.
2. Again, no change in basic droplet size or distribution but the build-up of aggregates of droplets within the emulsion. The individual droplets retain their identity. This process of flocculation results from the existence of attractive forces between the droplets.
3. In which flocculated droplets in an aggregate in the bulk of the emulsion, or alternatively, droplets within a close-packed array resulting from sedimentation or creaming, coalesce to form larger droplets. This results in a change in the initial droplet size distribution. The limiting state here is the complete separation of the emulsion into the two immiscible bulk liquids. Coalescence thus involves the elimination of the thin liquid film (of continuous phase) which separates two droplets in contact in an aggregate or a close-packed array. The forces to be considered here are therefore the forces acting within thin-liquid films in general. These can be complex and varied. In mixed emulsion systems, for example, in which there are droplets of liquid 1 and also liquid 2 dispersed in a continuous phase of liquid 3, coalescence between liquid 1 and liquid 2 droplets only occurs if liquids 1 and 2 are miscible with each other. If they are immiscible, then either droplet adhesion or droplet engulfment occurs. In either case, the thin liquid film between the contacting droplets is eliminated. When two droplets approach each other, surface fluctuations result since the interface is deformable. The amplitude of these fluctuations may grow to a considerable extent such that droplet coalescence occurs. However, this growth is opposed by the interfacial tension gradients that result in film expansion during growth of fluctuation. As a result of film expansion, regions of relatively higher interfacial tension than the rest of the film are created. This creates a gradient in the interfacial tension which tends to dampen the fluctuation. The driving force for this process is the Gibbs elasticity. The higher the Gibbs elasticity, the lower the tendency to coalesce.
Another factor which may retard coalescence is the surface viscosity which plays a role with many macromolecular films e.g. proteins. Indeed, such films are viscoelastic and they prevent coalescence by combination of the high viscosity in the film and elasticity which prevents fluctuation growth. Interfacial elasticity and viscosity may not be sufficient criteria for the prevention of coalescence, particularly when film drainage is fast. It is, therefore, essential to obtain information on the rate of drainage and equilibrium film thickness to assess emulsion stability.
4. An alternative way in which the average droplet size in an emulsion can increase, without the droplets coalescing, occurs if the two liquids forming the disperse phase and the continuous phase, respectively, are not totally immiscible. This is the case in reality because all liquid pairs are mutually miscible to some finite extent. If one starts with a truly monodisperse emulsion system, then no effects arising from this mutual solubility will arise. However, if the emulsion is polydisperse, larger droplets will form at the expense of the smaller droplets owing to the process known as Ostwald Ripening. In principle, the system will tend to an equilibrium state in which all the droplets attain the same size (this may be, of course, that state when we have just one single large drop). The process of Ostwald ripening results from the difference in solubility between small and large droplets. Since the solubility S of a particle of radius α is proportional to 2 μ/α where μ is the interfacial tension, then S is larger the smaller the droplet radius. Thus, for two particles with radii α1 and α2, where α1<α2, the solubility S1 is larger than S2 and,
RT M 1 n S 1 S 2 = 2 μ p ( 1 a 1 - 1 a 2 )
where M is the molecular weight of the substance that has a density p. Thus the driving force of Ostwald ripening is the difference between S1 and S2. This means that, with time, the smaller droplets tend to dissolve and the solute diffuses in bulk solution and becomes deposited on the larger particles. This causes a shift in the particle size distribution towards the coarser size. This is clearly undesirable, since it accelerates sedimentation on the one hand and may produce a reduction in bio availability on the other.
5. A further way in which the structure of an emulsion may change is for the emulsion to “invert”, e.g. for an o/w emulsion to change to a w/o emulsion. This may be brought about by a change in temperature or concentration of one of the components or by the addition of a new component to the system. This may occur when the oil volume fraction exceeds a critical value Øcr that is usually the maximum possible packing fraction. For example, for a dispersion of uniform spheres, Øcr is 0.74 and any increase in Ø above Øcr usually results in inversion. Clearly with a polydisperse system, Øcr can exceed 0.74.
So the four main processes referred to above can be summarised as sedimentation (creaming), flocculation, coalescence and Ostwald Ripening. Certainly, in practical systems, all four processes may appear to occur simultaneously or sequentially in any order and this will depend upon the relative rate constants for the four basic processes under the conditions of storage of the emulsion.
Approaches to stabilisation of emulsions generally take the form of attempting to induce a repulsion between droplets by electrostatic or steric means—and this usually means the use of surfactants.
The best surfactants (emulsifiers) tend to be those of the block or graft type consisting of two main groups: the anchoring group B which must be chosen to have minimum solubility in the continuous medium and high affinity for the oil surface and A which must be chosen with maximum solvation by the continuous medium and minimum affinity for the oil surface. The ratio of groups A and B must be adequately chosen such that maximum adsorption occurs. It is clear that one should minimise micellisation of the block or graft polymer in order to allow adsorption to become more favourable. The length of the A chains must be optimised to give adsorbed layers with sufficient length such that the energy minimum seen in a typical energy interaction/distance curve for a sterically stablised particle becomes small. Various combinations of A and B groups may be produced of which A-B, A-B-A block copolymers and BAn graft copolymers are the most common.
It is also essential to choose materials that enhance the Gibbs elasticity. For this reason, surfactant mixtures, polymer/surfactant combinations, or liquid crystalline phases are most effective in producing stable emulsions.
To prevent sedimentation/creaming of emulsions it is essential to build up a “structure” (gel network) in the system that has (a) a high low-shear viscosity to overcome gravity and (b) sufficient elasticity (modulus or yield stress) to overcome compression of the whole network. Both can be achieved by the addition of a second phase that forms an “elastic” three-dimensional network in the medium. Several systems are available, of which xanthan gum (a microbial polysaccharide), sodium montmorillonite, microcrystalline cellulose and finely divided (fumed) silica are perhaps the most commonly used. Xanthan gum forms a highly elastic system as a result of polymer chain overlap. Sodium montmorillonite and microcrystalline cellulose form a gel structure as a result of interaction of extended double layers around the the thin clay platelet and/or edge-to-face flocculation. Fumed silicas form an elastic network as a result of the formation of chain aggregates. It is common to use mixtures of xanthan gum with sodium montmorillonite, microcrystalline cellulose or silica.
Various other methods may be used to build up a gel structure in emulsions. An example is controlled flocculation of electrostatically or sterically-stabilised dispersions. With electrostatically-stabilised dispersions, controlled flocculation is produced by addition of electrolyte which results in the formation of a sufficiently deep secondary minimum (of the order of 1-5 kT). This method must be applied with extreme care since coagulation may occur if the electrolyte concentration reaches a certain limit. With sterically-stabilised dispersions, controlled flocculation may be achieved by reducing the adsorbed layer thickness. Another method of controlled flocculation is that induced by the addition of a free non-adsorbing polymer to a sterically-stabilised suspension. Above a critical volume fraction of the free polymer (such as polyethylene oxide) weak flocculation occurs. This is usually referred to as depletion flocculation.
Much work has been carried out to produce “stable” emulsions as well as to more fully understand the processes whereby such emulsions deteriorate.
Approaches to the production of “stable” emulsions include: 1. Matching the densities of the oil phase to the aqueous phase (to minimise creaming or sedimentation) but this is difficult to achieve in practice due to variation of density with temperature as well as such a limitation resulting in low levels of active ingredient in a formulation. 2. Preparation of emulsions with a narrow particle size distribution. This is because a monodisperse emulsion cannot Ostwald ripen and clearly the narrower a distribution that can be achieved during processing, the less will be the drive to Ostwald ripen in the system. 3. Selection of the “best” surfactants to achieve charge-stabilisation, steric-stabilisation. 4. Use of colloid stabilisers such as polyvinylalcohol. 5. Stabilisation by adsorbed solid particles at the liquid/liquid interface, the so-called Pickering Emulsion.
It has been found that several of these approaches may have to be employed in a single formulation to achieve a storage-stable product. Even then, the products will only be kinetically stable (i.e. have a limited shelf-life-which may be two to three years) and given time will degrade.
A key mechanism of destabilisation is Ostwald Ripening, although it has received little attention in the public literature. Ostwald ripening is classically considered to occur because of the chemical potential difference between droplets (or particles) of different sizes and the transfer of oil from small to large particles such that the shape of the emulsion distribution and the size changes, moving upfield to a larger value with time. It has been considered that this transfer should be through the aqueous phase by dissolving oil in the continuous phase. In fact, water-insoluble oils do not “Ostwald” ripen when prepared as oil-in-water emulsions and this fact has been recognised in the literature.
However, until recently, it has not appeared to have been recognised that oils which are of a low water solubility and which might not be expected to Ostwald ripen quickly, can, in fact, do so rapidly, dependent upon the choice of surfactants employed to prepare and stabilise the emulsion. This is probably due to micelle transport of oil from small to large droplets. So we have, in most practical surfactant stabilised emulsions, two processes (at least) of effectively obtaining Ostwald ripening:
(a) Finite solubility in the aqueous phase of the dispersed oil,
(b) Ability of the oil to be dissolved in the surfactant micelle.
If either (or preferably both) of these processes can be prevented, then Ostwald ripening should not occur. This does not mean, of course, that a stable emulsion will then automatically be achieved, because other factors, especially the choice of surfactant type and amount, cosurfactant, temperature range for storage of the product then become critical in the overall formulation definition. However, if Ostwald ripening can be prevented, this would be a major benefit to all manufacturers and users of emulsions.
From the above, it is clear that a surfactant can adsorb to (and be desorbed from) an interface relatively easily. This process can lead to destabilisation of an emulsion; moreover, micellisation effects will also lead to redistribution of components throughout the system, often leading to Ostwald ripening and other undesirable interactions. All the many approaches to stabilisation of emulsions rely on one or more of the above described effects with typical surfactant adsorption as the stabilising mechanism.
If surfactants could be bound in such a manner that they could not be desorbed, then more stable emulsions could be produced, opening up new possibilities for processing of emulsions and uses for emulsions under adverse conditions.
Regardless of the type of process utilized, the final emulsion product may be packaged as a liquid containing oil droplets therein, or as a dried or solid formulation such as granules, tapes or tablets containing oil droplets which may be later added to a liquid solution such as a spray tank for agricultural use. This liquid often has various ingredients in addition to water, including wetters, dispersants, emulsifiers, protective colloids or colloid stabilizers and surface active agents or surfactants. The protective colloids serve to prevent agglomeration of the oil droplets. The surfactants perform various functions depending upon the type of surfactant used. These include varying the permeability of the wall, aiding in dispersing the emulsion, acting as a wetter, reducing or eliminating foaming, affecting the adhesiveness of the emulsion to the surface to which it is applied, and so forth. Primarily, conventional surfactants act as free, non-bound emulsifiers in the preparation of the emulsion. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air powder classifier and more particularly to a classifier suited especially for a strongly adhesive ultrafine ceramic powder. The classifier balances a centrifugal force which is developed by the rotation of a turbine-like classifying rotor acting on particles of the powder and a counter-acting carrying force of an air flow which flows in the direction contrary to the centrifugal force.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Powder classifiers of the type using a turbine-like classifying rotor have been known as air powder classifiers suited for powders such as ceramic powders, etc. measuring several .mu.m to 100 .mu.m. A typical example of the known powder classifiers of this type is arranged as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings. As shown, the classifier has a unified combination of a classifying rotor 4 and a balance rotor 5 which is rotated around a vertical rotating shaft 3 and interposed in between an upper casing 1 and a lower casing 2. In the peripheral part of the classifying rotor 4, there is formed a radial passage type classifying chamber C. The chamber C in this case consists of many classifying blades 6 and 7 which are arranged in a radial configuration of inner and outer arrays serving as many radial partitions. The outer circumferential opening of the classifying chamber C opens to a circular passage 8 which is formed with the upper casing 1. Further, a circular clearance 9 is provided on the upper side of the classifying chamber C. In the middle part of the upper side of the upper casing 1 is provided a powder pouring inlet 10. A powder material supplied from this pouring inlet 10 is turned and moved toward the outer side of the diameter into the classifying chamber C by dispersing blades 11 which are arranged to turn and are radially formed. The upper surface of the classifying rotor 4 is opposed to the dispersing blades 11 and to the inner surface of the upper casing 1 in such a manner that the powder supplied is turned and primarily dispersed by means of the dispersing blades 11. The primarily dispersed powder is then secondarily dispersed into an evenly dispersed state by a clearance part 12 between the inner surface of the upper casing 1 and the upper surface of the classifying rotor 4.
Further, the passage type classifying chamber C of the classifying rotor 4 bends downward on the inner side of the diameter and communicates with a spiral casing part 14 through a guide passage 13 formed on the balance rotor 5 and also through the peripheral part of the balance rotor 5. The spiral casing part 14 is connected to a collector such as a cyclone, a bag filter, etc. and is arranged to have negative pressure of an air flow produced by a suctorial action of the balance rotor 5 or by a blower or the like which is not shown.
The classifier further includes an air intake port 15 which is arranged between the upper and lower casings 1 and 2 to guide air into the above stated circular passage 8. The flow of air introduced via the intake port 15 is arranged to flow only toward the inside of the circular passage 8 by virtue of the lower end flange 16 of the upper casing 1 and radial auxiliary blades 17 of the classifying rotor 4. A rotating shaft bearing 18 is arranged to carry a rotating shaft 3. A powder flow deflecting member 19 is arranged below the powder pouring inlet 10 provided in the upper side of the classifying rotor 4.
When the powder material is continuously poured into the classifier via the powder pouring inlet 10 with the rotating shaft 3 allowed to rotate at a predetermined speed, the poured powder is subjected to the primary dispersion effected by the dispersing blades 11. The primarily dispersed powder is then subjected to the secondary dispersion and enters the classifying chamber C via the circular clearance 9. Within the chamber C, a centrifugal force which is produced by the turning classifying blades 6 and 7 and an air flow which takes place due to suction exerted from the guide passage 13 to the inside relative to the diameter of the rotor 4 act on the powder. The centrifugal force causes a corse powder portion of the powder material having a larger particle size to flow outward to the circular passage 8 disposed outside the diameter of the rotor 4. Meanwhile, since the centrifugal force acts to a less degree on a fine powder portion of the powder material having a smaller particle size, the air flow carries the fine powder into the spiral casing part 14 via the passage 13. The power material thus can be continuously classified. The fine powder thus classified and separated by the classifier is supplied from the spiral casing part 14 to a collector which is a bag filter or the like. Meanwhile, the coarse powder caused to flow out to the circular passage 8 by the centrifugal force is supplied to a coarse powder recovering device via the discharge port 20 (FIG. 2) which is formed in the outer circumferential wall of the circular passage 8 and also via a duct line which extends from the discharge port 20 outward or in the tangential direction relative to the outer circumferential wall.
However, with the conventional powder classifier arranged in this manner, there have been frequent occurrences of troubles caused by powder sticking to the wall surface of the classifier. The powder sticking troubles have frequently occurred especially in the coarse powder recovering system. To solve this problem, the present inventors contrived a powder classifier wherein the duct line which guides the coarse powder from the circular passage to the coarse powder recovering device is arranged to branch out halfway and to have the branch extend back to the circular passage. The reason for the branching out of the duct line and the bringing of the branch back to the circular passage is that the coarse powder recovering device is generally operated with a rotary valve or the like in an air sealed state. This results in a stagnant air flow and positive pressure within the duct line. Under such a condition, the powder tends to stick to the inner wall surface of the duct line. Therefore, the above stated connection arrangement to bring back a portion of the duct line of the coarse powder recovering system prevents the air flow from stagnating and from aiding the powder in sticking to the duct wall halfway in the duct line, so that the above stated inconvenience can be moderated to a great extent. The present inventors conducted many tests on the powder classifier arranged in the above stated manner. As a result of the tests and studies, they found another important advantage of the classifier in addition to the prevention of the duct line from being clogged by the sticking of the powder. The advantage found resides in that the powder classifier tends to enhance a fine powder recovery percentage .eta.. The inventors have further conducted studies on the reason for the improvement in the fine powder recovery percentage. These studies have led to the present invention. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is substituted 9-arylsulfone-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexahydroazepino[4,5-b]indoles (X) which are useful for treating anxiety, depression and other CNS disorders in humans and animals.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,652,588 discloses 6-alkyl-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexahydroazepino[4,5-b]indoles which were useful for tranquilizing and sedating mammals to suppress hunger in mammals. This document discloses that there can be substitution at the 9-position. However, those substituents are limited to hydrogen, alkyl, alkoxy and halogen.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,839,357 discloses 6-benzyl-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexahydroazepino[4,5-b]indoles which were useful for tranquilizing mammals. This document discloses that there can be substitution at the 9-position. However, those substituents are limited to hydrogen, alkyl, alkoxy and halogen.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,558 discloses 6-alkyl-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexahydroazepino[4,5-b]indoles which were useful to suppress hunger in mammals. This document discloses that there can be substitution at the 9-position. However, it is limited to hydrogen, alkyl, alkoxy and halogen. | {
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This application relates to a brake for a hydraulic device. It is particularly applicable to a hydraulic device of the type in which an eccentrically mounted shaft is adapted for orbital and rotational motion. Even more particularly, the present invention is useful as a motor brake in a hydraulic motor in which the orbital and rotational movement of the shaft is effected by the cooperating action of a gerotor gearset.
Hydraulic motors are designed to use high pressure fluid, to drive a mechanical output shaft. A particularly advantageous form of a hydraulic motor has been found to be one in which a series of expanding and contracting pockets are formed by relative rotational and orbital movement of a pair of gear members conventionally known as a gerotor gearset.
One of the gears of the gearset is generally supported by an eccentrically mounted shaft. In such motors an output shaft coupled to the eccentrically mounted shaft is rotated due to the torque applied to the eccentrically mounted shaft by the high pressure input fluid causing expanding and contracting of the fluid pockets formed by the gerotor gearset. In order to properly time the delivery of high pressure fluid to the pockets, and to convey low pressure fluid from the pockets, there is provided a commutation valve arrangement.
Such types of hydraulic devices require means for applying a braking force to the rotating driven shaft. There has been a need in the art for inexpensive, high torque braking systems which can be applied to hydraulic motors, and which can be actuated automatically when input fluid pressure falls below a predetermined minimum. | {
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The invention relates to a skin cleansing device for cleansing facial skin in particular, the skin cleansing device comprising a facial mask, two or more electrodes to be attached to the facial mask, a cleansing signal generator for generating an electric cleansing signal, and means for conveying the cleansing signal from the cleansing signal generator to the electrodes.
Cleansing methods mainly of three different types are nowadays used for cleansing human facial skin. The first method is based on utilizing different cleansing solutions and cleansing creams. In the method, cleansing solution absorbed in a piece of cotton, for example, is brought into contact with the skin in order to wipe the skin and dissolve impurities from the surface thereof. If the cleansing solution is to be left on the skin for a longer time to provide deeper cleansing and a more effective cleansing effect, the cleaner can be made more solid by combining it with a thicker cream or gel.
The second method is called exfoliation and it is based on using so-called exfoliating agents. In this method, a cleanser containing an abrasive material to mechanically rub the surface of the skin is spread on the skin. Exfoliation mechanically removes cell layers from the surface of the skin but leaves layers located deeper in the skin uncleansed.
The third method is based on utilizing the cooperative effect of a dissolving cleansing solution and electric current as the cleansing method. A cleansing solution is then used wherein the effective agents are electrically charged molecules, or ions. By bringing electric current into contact with the cleansing solution spread on the skin, the ions are made to move and transfer molecules of the cleanser into the skin, and, on the other hand, to transfer away from the pores impunties dissolved from the skin by the cleansing solution and to be removed therefrom. Hence, the skin purifying effect of the cleansing method can be improved and the deeper layers of the skin purified. The electric current is generated by a cleansing signal generator developed for the purpose, and it is conveyed to the skin by electrodes arranged in connection with a treatment towel or the like absorbing the cleansing solution and being preferably shaped according to the contours of an area in the skin to be treated.
Devices are previously known wherein pharmaceuticals or other conditioning agents are transferred into the body through the skin based on electrically charged molecules of the pharmaceuticals or conditioning agents and electric current. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,441 describes such a device. The purpose of the device is to transfer cosmetic conditioning agents into the skin by utilizing electric current. Also other devices are known that operate on a similar principle. In these devices, the current used for the treatment is usually direct current since the active agent is to be transferred in one direction only. Furthermore, devices are previously known wherein electric current or electric voltage is used in activating and rehabilitating muscles.
It can be generally stated, however, that the known devices and methods usually focus on transferring pharmaceuticals and cosmetic agents through the skin, activating muscles, improving the appearance or condition of the skin or tissues under the skin using at least partly mechanical means, even though these devices use electric current to generate a mechanical motion. The known devices are characterized in that they are developed to be used by professionals and experts in the field, which means that in order to achieve a favourable response and adequate user and patient safety, the users must have a proper knowledge of the treatment method used and the operation of the device; therefore, the devices are not suitable for non-professional use.
The known devices utilizing electric current usually use at least two electrodes, at least one electrode being attached to the body at a relatively long distance from the area of the skin to be treated. This means that in the body the electric current travels the distance between the electrodes, and, if alternating current is used, a risk exists that the alternating current travelling in the body might cause a serious heart dysfunction. When devices and methods based on direct current are used, the negative electrode is attached to a given point in the body, in which case the current travels via the same area in the skin throughout the entire treatment process. At said point, the relative current density may become high and the time of exposure long, which may cause hypersensitivity reactions to both electricity and manufacturing materials of the electrodes particularly at the points where the electrodes come into contact with the skin.
Since the known devices are intended for professionals, an average domestic user may often find them too expensive.
An object of the present invention is to implement a skin cleansing device so as to alleviate the above-mentioned problems and to provide a simple, easy-to-use, safe and inexpensive device particularly for skin cleansing for domestic use. This is achieved by a skin cleansing device disclosed in the preamble, the skin cleansing device being characterized in that the electrodes to be attached to the facial mask are arranged as electrode pairs comprising the positive electrode and the negative electrode, all electrode pairs are located in the facial mask substantially in the facial area, and the cleansing signal generated by the cleansing signal generator is an alternating current signal having substantially the shape of a square wave.
Preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.
The idea underlying the invention is that by arranging the electrodes to be attached to the facial mask as electrode pairs comprising the positive electrode and the negative electrode and by placing all electrode pairs in the facial mask substantially in the facial area, several advantages improving the cleansing efficiency, user-friendliness and safety of the skin cleansing device are achieved.
When all electrodes are located in the area of the skin to be cleansed and when they are placed in the facial mask, the user is provided with a simple and easy-to-use mask structure which can be held in place throughout the entire cleansing process. In addition, as all electrodes are located in the area of the skin to be cleansed, the electric cleansing signal used by the cleansing device only affects in the area of the skin to be cleansed, which has the advantage that the electric current travels in the body only in the area to be cleansed. Hence, the signal does not have to travel a long distance in the body, so it is unable to stress or harm the action of other tissues or the heart. Neither can the electric signal then cause a hypersensitivity reaction, thus improving the safety of the device as a treatment device.
Arranging the electrodes as electrode pairs has the advantage that the electrodes can be formed so as to have a preferred size and shape in regard to the area of the skin to be treated. For example, in the area of the forehead and the chin, the electrodes have a different preferred size and shape. A further advantage is that the active cleansing signal in the area of an electrode pair remains regional, thus improving the cleansing efficiency.
In a skin cleansing device of the invention, a cleansing signal which is generated by a cleansing signal generator and which is an alternating voltage signal having the shape of a square wave is used to provide an electric cleansing effect, i.e. to make the ions in the cleansing solution move. The ions in the cleansing solution are then engaged in an alternate backward and forward motion, which has the advantage that by the positive current impulse, positive ions of the cleansing solution are transferred deeper in the skin through the surface of the skin, while by the negative current impulse, correspondingly, the positive ions are transferred from the skin or vice versa, depending on the charge of the ion. Hence, the cleansing effect is enhanced since the device both transfers the cleansing solution to the skin and transfers impurities dissolved by the cleansing device from the skin. In skin cleansing, a preferred cleansing effect to yield adequate penetrability into the pores is achieved at a frequency of about 2000 Hz. A further advantage of this frequency is that it is sufficiently high so as not to harm the action of the heart.
In the skin cleansing device of the invention, the signal generated by the cleansing signal generator is substantially of the shape of a square wave. An advantage of the square wave is its high efficiency. The time taken by the skin cleansing process per a cleansing session can then be kept short. Furthermore, it has been found out that the third and the fifth harmonic wave in the square wave produce preferred cleansing effects. The voltage of the signal generated by the cleansing signal generator is lower than 5 V. A voltage of this magnitude is sufficiently low to be safe, producing, however, an adequate skin cleansing efficiency.
The facial mask of the skin cleansing device of the invention has a sandwich construction. A layer to be arranged against the face is manufactured of a substantially absorbent material with high receptivity of the cleansing solution, such as terry cloth, paper or some such material with high absorbency or a combination thereof. For a good cleansing efficiency, it is important that the material of the facial mask is capable of receiving a sufficient amount of the skin cleansing solution, and, in addition, feels comfortable against the face. Electrodes having a conductive contact with the cleansing solution are connected to a layer to be arranged on top of the absorbent layer, which can be manufactured of dense cloth, for example. A layer manufactured of a substantially more rigid material, such as plastic, serves as the outer surface layer of the mask. An advantage of this solution is that the facial mask is strong and easy to clean, and it enables the use of disposable components as the layer receiving the cleansing solution, for example.
In an implementation according to an embodiment of said skin cleansing device, the electrodes are manufactured of substantially chloridized silver. As a noble metal, silver is safe, causing no hypersensitivity reactions on the skin. Chloridized, a silver electrode has excellent electrical conductivity when used particularly as electrodes.
The skin cleansing device of the invention operates on low voltage direct current. Hence, being particularly designed for domestic skin cleansing use, an advantage of the skin cleansing device of the invention is its safety. | {
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Persons having problems emptying their bladders often use catheters to aid urination. Furthermore, it is common today to use an intermittent catheter, which the user can operate by him/herself without the need for assistance from a second person and only when voiding of the bladder is needed. Thus, the need of permanent catheterisation is avoided and more freedom and quality of life is obtained for the user.
A typical intermittent catheter comprises a tubular body having a proximal end, which is initially inserted into the urethra and a distal end opposite the proximal end. At least one opening at the proximal end is in fluid connection with an opening at the distal end. The opening at the distal end is usually coaxially connected to a so-called connector. A connector is generally a conical shaped tubular body tapering outwardly from the distal end of the catheter. The connector may be used to connect the catheter to an extension tube or a urine bag and a user can use the connector to operate the catheter. By holding the connector only the user may guide the catheter into the urethra, thereby avoiding touching the catheter body and thus reducing the risk of contaminating the tubular body.
In use, the user will typically grab hold of the connector and guide the catheter body into the urethra, starting by inserting the proximal end. When the opening at the proximal end enters the bladder, urine will flow into the proximal end through the tubular body and out through the connector.
To reduce the risk of injuring the mucosa, the wall of the urinary channel, it is common to close off and round the proximal end of the tubular body, giving it a smooth tip which is gentle on the mucosa. Inlet openings, i.e. the openings at the proximal end, are instead provided on the side of the tubular body as so-called catheter eyes or eyelets. Such eyelets can be provided in different ways for example they can be cut, drilled, stamped out or molded together with the catheter when the catheter is produced by molding. Although the location of such eyelets reduces the risk of tearing the mucosa considerably, there is still need for improvement as the mucosa is very vulnerable and the edge of the eyelet and irregularities surrounding the eyelet might cause injury to the mucosa.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,149,186 discloses a method from making an improved catheter for peritoneal dialysis. The distal end of the catheter is provided with seventy to one hundred fifty small holes, having diameters ranging between 0.010 to 0.025 inches. The holes are punched by heated pins, where the temperature of the pins is adjusted to a point where they soften, but do not melt, the wall of the thermoplastic tubing. In this way, the plastic material displaced by the pin is pushed inwardly forming an indented outer surface and an inner collar or flange.
GB patent 1 580 924 discloses a method especially applicable to the forming of lateral holes in plastics tubing of small diameter. The method comprises the steps of piercing the wall of the cannula with a needle to form an aperture therein, withdrawing the needle from the aperture, driving the needle to rotate at high speed about its longitudinal axis, inserting the rotating needle in the aperture to contact the rim of the aperture as to cause frictional heating and consequently flow of material of the workpiece and thereby smooth out the rim contour. | {
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The present invention relates to a connection between two longitudinal sections that are at an angle to each other, each section having two connecting sides and two wall sides, where at least one connecting side of each longitudinal section exhibits a groove that is undercut on both sides and an integral longitudinal flange on both sides of the undercut groove, the first longitudinal section being cut transversely and this transversely cut section face forms the end of the first longitudinal section which is secured at an angle to a connecting side of the second longitudinal section. The invention relates further to a process for manufacturing the connection and the use of the connection.
Connections of the above mentioned kind are employed from example in the assembly of frame-type structures for vehicle superstructures e.g. on road and railway vehicles. The structural components are usually made of steel, aluminum or plastic sections, complemented e.g. by shaped steel or aluminum sheets or panels of plastic or if desired plastic or glass segments. Such structural components are in particular made of extruded aluminum, plastic or steel sections.
Connection means for light metal sections utilizing shape and/or friction joining are known. From the Swiss patent CH 627 982 connections based on friction joining of metal sections with the aid of comer connecting pieces are known especially for the assembly of frame-type structures for superstructures of road and railway vehicles. The described comer connecting pieces feature integral spring like parts that are introduced into undercut grooves in the metal sections and secured by screws. The screw connections contain clamping pieces which are introduced into the undercut grooves in the metal sections and then tilted into the undercut parts of the section.
In the connection described in CH 627 982 forces are transferred from one section to the other essentially via the angle piece; often and especially in the case of thin walled sections, this does not provide optimum transfer of forces. Further, in many applications one longitudinal section is often joined to the end of another cross-cut section. In such cases it is necessary to have a clean dividing line at the cut across the latter section. The subsequent working or machining of the cut section end is time consuming and expensive. Further, thin walled sections cannot be well sealed as e.g. filling with a filler material is not possible because there is no proper contact at the joint.
Described in patents DE, A, 38 23 941, GB, A, 919 135 and FR, A, 2 641 809 are nodal joints of pairs of hollow longitudinal sections that are rectangular in cross-section, where the end of one section meets a long face of the other section. Thereby, a square shaped part is inserted into undercuts on the outside of the second section and the end of the first section pushed over the square shaped part so that the square shaped part engages in the end of the first section. The transfer of forces from one section to the other in this known connection is essentially via the outside of the section.
In order to prevent the first section from sliding in the axial direction, the connection according to DE, A, 38 23 941 exhibits deformations in the section wall which engage the square shaped part in recesses. In the case of GB, A, 919 315 and FR, A, 2 641 809 the same effect is achieved by friction, welding or by screwing the first section to the square shaped part.
The present state of the art is such that known connection means are not suitable for joining the end of one longitudinal section e.g. of small cross-section to the long side of another longitudinal section, as the mechanical stability of such a connection is normally inadequate. Further, in the case of known connections, the end of the first longituduinal section lies on the long side of the second longitudinal section so that in such connections, in order to accommodate large forces, the surfaces to be joined have to be of a very high standard. | {
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The subject of the present invention is a novel catalyst with homogeneous metals dispersion which features exceptional selectivity to desired products when employed in a hydrocarbon conversion process requiring a catalyst having both a hydrogenation-dehydrogenation function and a cracking function. More precisely, the present invention involves a novel dual-function catalyst characterized by low standard deviation of the local concentration of a Group IVA(14) metals component relative to the bulk concentration in a bed of catalyst particles which surprisingly enables substantial improvements in hydrocarbon conversion processes that have traditionally used a dual-function catalyst. Metals of Group IVA (IUPAC 14) of the Periodic Table [See Cotton and Wilkinson, Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, John Wiley & Sons (Fifth Edition, 1988)] having utility in the present invention are one or more of tin, germanium and lead.
In another aspect, the present invention comprehends improved processes that emanate from the use of the novel catalyst. In a specific aspect, an improved reforming process utilizes the subject catalyst to increase selectivity to gasoline and aromatics products. In an alternative aspect, the present catalyst is employed in a process for the dehydrogenation of dehydrogenatable hydrocarbons.
Catalysts having a hydrogenation-dehydrogenation function and a cracking function are used widely in many applications, particularly in the petroleum and petrochemical industry, to accelerate a wide spectrum of hydrocarbon-conversion reactions. The cracking function generally is thought to be associated with an acid-action material of the porous, adsorptive, refractory-oxide type which is typically utilized as the support or carrier for a heavy-metal component, such as the Group VIII(8-10) metals, to which is generally attributed the hydrogenation-dehydrogenation function.
These catalysts are used to accelerate a wide variety of hydrocarbon-conversion reactions such as dehydrogenation, hydrogenation, hydrocracking, hydrogenolysis, isomerization, desulfurization, cyclization, alkylation, polymerization, cracking, and hydroisomerization. In many cases, the commercial applications of these catalysts are in processes where more than one of these reactions are proceeding simultaneously. An example of this type of process is reforming wherein a hdydrocarbon feed stream containing paraffins and naphthenes is subjected to conditions which promote dehydrogenation of naphthenes to aromatics, dehydrocyclization of paraffins to aromatics, isomerization of paraffins and naphthenes, hydrocracking of naphthenes and paraffins and other reactions to products an octane-rich or aromatic-rich product stream. Another example is an isomerization process wherein a hdydrocarbon fraction which is relatively rich in straight-chain paraffin compounds is contacted with a dual-function catalyst to produce an output stream rich in isoparaffin compounds while converting any cyclics present to a mixture of paraffins and naphthenes by a combination of hydrogenation and ring opening. Yet another example is a hydrocracking process wherein catalysts of this type are utilized to effect selective hydrogenation and cracking of high molecular weight unsaturated materials, selective hydrocracking of high molecular weight compounds, and other reactions to produce a generally lower-boiling, more valuable output stream.
Regardless of the reactions or the particular process involved, it is of critical importance that the dual-function catalyst exhibit the capability both to initially perform its specified functions efficiently and to perform them satisfactorily for prolonged periods of time. The parameters used in the art to measure how well a particular catalyst performs its intended functions in a particular hydrocarbon reaction environment are activity, selectivity and stability. In a reforming environment, these parameters are defined as follows:
(1) Activity is a measure of the ability of the catalyst to convert hydrocarbon reactants to products at a designated severity level, with severity level representing a combination of reaction conditions: temperature, pressure, contact time, and hydrogen partial pressure. Activity typically is designated as the octane number of the pentanes and heavier ("C.sub.5 +") product stream from a given feedstock at a given severity level, or conversely as the temperature required to achieve a given octane number.
(2) Selectivity refers to the percentage yield of petrochemical aromatics or C.sub.5 + gasoline product from a given feedstock at a particular activity level.
(3) Stability refers to the rate of change of activity or selectivity per unit of time or of feedstock processed. Activity stability generally is measured as the rate of change of operating temperature per unit of time or of feedstock to achieve a given C.sub.5 + product octane, with a lower rate of temperature change corresponding to better activity stability, since catalytic reforming units typically operate at relatively constant product octane. Selectivity stability is measured as the rate of decrease of C.sub.5 + product or aromatics yield per unit of time or of feedstock.
Programs to improve reforming-catalyst performance are being stimulated by the widespread removal of lead antiknock additive from gasoline and by the increasing requirements of high-performance internal-combustion engines, which magnify the requirement for gasoline "octane" or knock resistance of the gasoline component. The catalytic reforming unit must operate at higher severity in order to meet these increased octane needs. This higher severity results in lower yield of gasoline product, and catalyst selectivity becomes even more important to avoid excessive losses of valuable product to fuel by-product. The major problem facing workers in this area of the art, therefore, is to develop more selective catalysts with sufficient activity and stability to operate effectively at current high reforming severities. | {
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In a conventional construction, an electric toy racing car track system is formed by a loop of track sections which are connected end-to-end together to form a pair of co-extending lanes for respective toy cars to race with each other. Each lane is provided with a central groove for guiding a respective toy car by its bottom guide pin and a pair of conductive rails on opposite sides of the guiding groove for supplying electrical power to the toy car via respective brush contacts on the bottom of the car. The track system may sometimes include an elevated portion, in the form of a bridge or flyover, for crossing over another portion below it.
The subject invention seeks to provide a bridge for use in a toy racing car track system, which adds variation and fun to the game. | {
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FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a conventional data processing machine or computer. The computer 10 comprises a processor or CPU 12, a main memory 14 and a disk memory 16 which are interconnected by a bus 18. Also connected to the bus 18 is an input device 20, such as a keyboard, as well as a display system 22. The display system 22 comprises a graphics interface 24 and display device 26 such as a CRT display.
The CPU 12 may maintain databases by storing the databases in data files in the disk memory 16. Each database may be stored in accordance with one of a plurality of file system formats. A file system format is an arrangement for organizing the data of each record of a database into a data file. The organization of the data of each record of a database within the data file controls the manner in which the database may be accessed.
Typically, the CPU 12 executes application programs which are resident in the main memory 14. An application is a program for performing a "high level" task or a task on a higher level of generality. Such "high level" tasks relate more to solving real world problems than "low level" tasks which relate more to operating the CPU 12 itself. Many applications involve the examination and alteration of the data of records of databases, which, for example, are stored in the disk memory 16. The application performs such manipulations of the data of records by means of executing record access procedures comprised therein.
Typically, procedures are program segments written for, and comprised within, an application program. Record access procedures ordinarily only access the records themselves, rather than the data files in which they are stored. For instance, record access procedures may maintain (manipulate the data of) records or permit the browsing of records, e.g., permit the display of a selected page of records. The former procedures relate to altering a record including adding and removing records from the database. The latter procedures relate to displaying selected records including filtering or displaying only selected fields of each record.
Maintenance procedures usually require the performance of at least one database access operation in order to alter or retrieve records of the database. Database access operations are generalized routines for maintaining a database, retrieving records from a database and positioning a pointer to point to a particular record within a database. Typically, the database access operations are performed by executing a program module pertaining to that particular operation and the particular file system format in which the database is stored. The file system, which has a program module for performing each database access operation, executes the appropriate program module to perform the requested access operation. The procedures of the application may call the modules, pass parameters to and receive messages and parameters therefrom. The procedures are otherwise typically isolated from the program modules and the data files in which the database is stored.
Most file systems support, i.e. can perform, the same basic set of database access operations. However, on account of the differences between different database storage formats of different file systems, the actual steps executed by each program module differ greatly. Thus, each application, although able to use the same logical sequence of each procedure, must accommodate the program modules of a variety of file systems in order to execute these procedures. Such an arrangement, whereby the applications themselves incorporate the record access procedures, is disadvantageous because:
1. The design of each application program, under this arrangement, is more time consuming and effort demanding; PA1 2. The expansion of applications is more difficult; PA1 3. The record access procedure command set, i.e. the set of requests for performing each record access procedure, of each application program, is not consistent with any other application; and PA1 4. The efficiency of application software is not optimal. PA1 (a) Browsing procedures PA1 (b) Record maintenance procedures PA1 Select Current Line PA1 (a) Record positioning operations PA1 (b) Record retrieval operations PA1 (c) Record maintenance operations PA1 1. The application program is easier to maintain as the application programmer need not maintain the database interface aspect of the program. Further, as the record management interface is updated, the database aspect of each user application is automatically updated or subsequently easily updated. PA1 2. Record access procedures occur on a higher level of generality. In other words, the programmer need not be concerned with the particulars of designing any of the procedures of the interface. Further, the programmer need not be concerned with determining which filing system formats to support, i.e. which file system program modules to incorporate. PA1 3. The user and programmer need only learn one general set of record access procedure commands rather than a set for each application. PA1 4. The storage space of each application which performs record access procedures is reduced as the record access procedures are removed and consolidated in one program.
The interaction of an application program with the database operations of a multiplicity of file system formats is schematically illustrated in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the group of operation program modules for three different file systems designated file system 1, file system 2 and file system 3. Each of the file systems has a corresponding group of databases in data files which accord with its own format. Each file system also provides program modules for executing database access operations such as: set current record position, get current record position, get first record, get previous record, get next record, get last record, insert one new record, delete current record, update current record, and select current record.
FIG. 2 also schematically illustrates two application programs, designated application A and application B. Application A interacts directly with the file system 1 and file system 2 program modules and application B interacts directly with the file system 2 and file system 3 program modules. As such, application A incorporates record access procedures which support, i.e. can cause the execution of, the database access operation program modules of file systems 1 and 2. Application B, on the other hand, incorporates record access procedures which support the database access operation program modules of file systems 2 and 3. As indicated above, the direct interaction of the application programs with the file system program modules is highly deleterious and duplicative.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a common interface by which application programs may perform record access procedures which support, i.e. can perform, database access operations for any one of a plurality of file system formats. Another object of the present invention is to insulate the applications from the various file system program modules. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a universal record maintenance procedure command set, i.e. a single set of messages for performing each record access procedure, which may be used by any application. | {
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The present invention relates to electric generator structures, and more particularly, to a piezoelectric sensor having a particular electrode arrangement.
The advancement, at lower cost, in the art of precision flight control and guidance of aircraft, missiles and space vehicles depends in part on progress in sensor technology. Present computer technology allows sophisticated and complex signal processing at reasonable cost, but the information processed is frequently derived from sensors having a cost which is a disproportionate part of the system cost. Other typical sensor limitations are poor accuracy and low reliability.
A characteristic inherent of piezoelectric devices that depend on remanent polarization is that they are susceptible to changes in output impedance and scale factor if exposed to substantial electrical, mechanical, or temperature stress. These changes affect the repeatability of the device parameters. The effects of offending stresses are time dependent, with long-term stresses being more detrimental than short-term stresses. Instrument applications such as accelerometers can be implemented without exposing the piezoelectric device to large DC voltages; therefore, electrical stress can be virtually eliminated as a factor affecting repeatability. Mechanical stresses occur at interfaces between the piezoelectrical material and other material of the device due primarily to mismatches in temperature coefficients of expansion. In addition to interface mechanical stress, temperature changes can cause device parameter changes; however, much of the change appears to be reversible and thus has minimal effect on scale-factor repeatability. The net effect of temperature swings is thus mechanical stresses exerted on the active piezoelectric material at the various interfaces associated with the device. Such temperature-induced mechanical stresses result in thermal hysteresis effects and changes of scale factor; therefore, for instrument applications, undesired or uncontrolled interface stresses must be reduced to the greatest extent possible.
Instruments utilizing commercially available piezoelectric ceramic sensors are susceptible to appreciable scale factor uncertainty, when exposed to extreme temperature variations such as those encountered in aerospace environments. Commercially available piezoelectric ceramic sensors are constructed, for example, of two layers of lead zirconate titante (PZT) bonded to a central layer of brass or steel. Representative ones of such devices were tested in the bender mode and were found to be unstable when exposed to repeated extreme temperature cycles; a scale factor change of five percent after several cycles was common. The tested devices exhibited long-term as well as short term changes. Accordingly, there is a need for a piezoelectric sensor having long-term stability and repeatablity of output impedance and scale factor in an environment of extreme variations of temperature. | {
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This invention relates to a method of removing aerosols by the radiation effect, in which an aerosol-containing ambient gas is exposed to a radiation so that the gas is ionized to pairs of positive and negative ions and in which either positive or negative ions are allowed to collide with aerosol particles by Brownian motion so that the aerosol particles are charged to a single polarity and in which the thus charged aerosol particles are removed by a suitable technique such as deposition on the surface of a substance by image force or trapping on an electrode of the opposite polarity or filter by Image force.
It is well known that when an ambient gas is exposed to a radiation, electrons are knocked out of the molecules of the gas to generate ionic pairs, with the positive ion being provided by the molecular ion and the negative ton by electrons.
The present inventors conducted an experiment in which an aerosol was irradiated with gamma rays to generate a charged aerosol, which was then passed through a screen electrode shielded from radiations. As it turned out, the percent deposition of particles on the electrodes with a size of 0.4 .mu.m and more was better than the percent trapping by a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter. It was also found that when the charged aerosol was passed through both the porous electrodes and the HEPA filter, the electrostatic force of the charged particles contributed to improve the trapping efficiency by approximately 10,000 times as high as the inherent efficiency of the filter. The HEPA filter is composed of extremely fine glass fibers and capable of trapping particles not larger than 10 .mu.m with a very high efficiency of at least 99.97%. The term "image force" as used herein means an electrostatic force that is provided by either positively or negatively charged aerosol particles approaching an uncharged substance in such a way that the surface of the latter is polarized to the opposite polarity, thereby trapping the aerosol particles on that surface.
Since the irradiation with gamma-rays and electron beams finds a wide range of applicability, the performance data set forth in the preceeding paragraph have potentially a far-reaching effect from the viewpoint of removing aerosols on an industrial scale. For example, the technique under consideration is applicable not only in cleanrooms used in the semiconductor and other electronic industries and biotechnological industries; it is also applicable to the treatment of aerosols of high concentration and, hence, it can be used in the treatment of flue gases from thermal power plants and general engineering practices. Further, experiments have shown that in the nuclear field, the technique holds promise for use not only in the incineration of burnable wastes of low radioactivity level but also in incinerators of medium-level wastes which have heretofore been difficult to incinerate.
(a) Producing charged aerosols by corona discharge PA1 (b) Production of unipolar aerosols by alpha-particle charging to a single polarity PA1 (c) Charged filters (for trapping by the electrostatic effect)
Charged aerosols are typically produced by corona discharge. In corona discharge, an intense dc electric field is applied between a plate electrode and a linear electrode so that discharge is caused to take place within the small region around tile linear electrode, thereby ionizing the ambient gas. If a negative potential is applied to the linear electrode, the positive ions will move toward the linear electrode whereas the electrons will move toward the plate (cylindrical) electrode.
The strength of potential decreases sharply with the increasing distance from the linear electrode and, hence, the velocity of electrons decreases as they come closer to the plate electrode and Brownian motion causes the electrons to collide with the particles of the ambient gas, thereby forming negative ions. The region of discharge is small and, therefore, if tile aerosol to be treated is introduced into an electric field, the aerosol particles will collide with negative ions to be charged negatively. For successful performance, corona discharge needs a strong electric field and involves difficulty in constructing large equipment. Therefore, the corona discharge technique is essentially unsuitable for large-scale treatment of aerosols.
A study has been reported on the production of monopolar aerosols using alpha particles. In this method, an electrode is placed both on the bottom and in the upper part of a small vessel about 10 cm high and a weak dc electric field is applied between the two electrodes. An alpha-particle source is mounted on the electrode on the bottom of the vessel. Upon irradiation with alpha particles, ionization occurs to produce ionic pairs consisting of positive and negative ions and, depending on the polarities of the electrodes, either positive or negative ions will move outside the range of alpha particles (which is about 4 cm) and mix with the aerosol flowing in the upper part of the vessel, whereby the aerosol particles are charged to a single polarity. In the reported study, the monopolar aerosol was passed through a filter to determine the effect of image force empirically and the image force of charged particles with respect to the filter was analyzed theoretically.
The use of alpha particles for charging to a single polarity depends on diffusive charging for electrification and hence is an effective method for charging submicron particles. "Diffusive charging" is a phenomenon in which aerosol particles are charged by the collision between those particles and the monopolar ions due to Brownian motion. A problem with the approach of the alpha charging method is that the short range of alpha particles introduces difficulty in constructing large equipment, thereby making the procedure unsuitable for large-scale treatment of aerosols.
For efficient trapping of submicron particles with filters, one may reduce the size of fibers in the filter medium but then the pressure loss that occurs in the filter will increase so much as to reduce the throughput to an impractical low level. Under the circumstances, studies have been conducted to trap aerosols on filters by making use of inductive force and charged filters suittable for use to that end have been commercialized.
The term "inductive force" as used herein means a force that acts on uncharged aerosol particles approaching a substance charged to a single polarity in such a way that the particles are polarized to the opposite polarity, whereby the latter are trapped on the surface of the charged substance. Charged filters have large fiber sizes, so if aerosol particles deposit on the filter, the charges in it are neutralized to cause a marked drop in trapping efficiency, which has been a serious problem with the prior art. | {
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Several efforts are underway to use silicon planar processing to fabricate large arrays of extrinsic silicon infrared (IR) detectors. Arrays of thousands of detectors are required for future IR imaging systems, and cost considerations will require large scale integration in planar silicon wafers which are doped with appropriate impurities to attain IR sensitivity wherein the detectors are not delineated, and optical and electrical cross-talk severely limit the density of the detectors.
Special efforts are also required to delimit the dopant materials used in the detectors from entering the CCD structures which are a part of the same silicon wafer. Selection of the dopant materials are restricted to those which diffuse very slowly at temperatures (1000.degree. C - 1200.degree. C) commonly used in silicon CCD processing. The only known 3-5 micrometer wavelength dopant which may be compatible with the CCD structure is the metal indium. This dopant is a very slow diffusant in silicon, has low solubility, and thus has low optical absorption in silicon. This is very restrictive since slow diffusant dopants at the 1000.degree. C - 1200.degree. C CCD processing temperature generally have low solubility. Thus efficient extrinsic silicon detectors must be very thick to be efficient since optical absorption is otherwise very small. If the detectors are thick, the optical and electrical cross-talk will be severe.
The apparatus of the present invention overcomes these problems since there is complete chemical isolation of the detectors from the CCD structure and thus the dopant is not limited to indium but may include a wide variety of either slow or rapid diffusant dopants that are incompatible with the CCD structure. Also, the SOS based structure will eliminate optical and electrical cross-talk and permit very close spacing of the detectors in the focal plane of the IR imager. | {
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The present invention concerns vehicle shifters for shifting manual transmissions, and more particularly concerns a shifter having a shift lever and a lockout device for controlling movement of the shift lever into a reverse gear position.
Vehicle manufacturers have lockout mechanisms designed to prevent an operator from accidentally and unknowingly shifting a manual transmission into reverse while operating a vehicle. However, such mechanisms have typically included a linkage that is not fully integrated into the shift lever and that is not configured to function in a confined space limited to an area very close to the shift lever. Further, the components of such linkages often are usually designed for use only on a particular model of vehicle, and cannot be used on other vehicle models having different shift lever shapes without substantial modification or several new components.
Therefore, a linkage is desired solving the aforementioned problems and that is compact, simple, easy to assemble, and adaptable for different models and styles of vehicles without the need for a substantial number of new parts and components for each different model or style. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image forming apparatus, an image processing method, and a recording medium on which an image processing program is recorded that determine whether a document to be read is a double-sided document or a single-sided document.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a copier or image reading apparatus, when a double-sided document is copied by an automatic document feeding apparatus, etc., or a document image is sent by electronic mail to a predetermined e-mail address as ‘scan to e-mail’, a user needs to separate the documents into single-sided documents and double-sided documents first by hand and then needs to perform reading operation on respective documents if a plurality of documents to be read include both single-sided documents and double-sided documents. Hence, the user needs to rearrange outputted documents in the original order.
On the other hand, if reading is performed without thus separating the documents, unwanted blank sheets are outputted. Particularly when color blank sheets are mixed, color toner (ink) is to be wastefully consumed. Also, when read document image data is stored, storage space of a hard disk or the like is to be wastefully used.
To solve the problems described above, the following methods are proposed.
In an invention described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 9-233321 (1997), when a user has selected a blank document page skip mode between a blank document page insert mode and the blank document page skip mode, a blank document detecting portion detects a blank document from data of image by comparing the data of image with blank reference data. The detected data of image is then discarded and an image forming operation is skipped. On the other hand, when the user has selected the blank document page insert mode, the inserting of blank page data enables image forming operation to be performed.
When the above-described related techniques are used, it is necessary for the user to select the blank document page skip mode or the blank document page insert mode for every copying operation or every document scanning operation, thus causing complication in operation.
In addition, the blank document determination is not fully made in a case where a document having suffered offset fails to be determined to be a blank document, or in a case where a document on which a text is written in pencil is determined to be a blank document, or in the like case. At this time, excess or deficiency of pages occurs, and thus an adjusting operation or a confirming operation is required.
Furthermore, since a color blank page document is not considered at all in the related art, determination cannot be made on a color blank page image, such as a blue or green blank page image. | {
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This disclosure is directed to methods for treating subterranean formations, such as hydraulic fracturing treatments and sand control, and in particular, use of lightweight polymers derived from cashew nut shell liquid as proppant material in hydraulic fracturing treatments or as particulate material in sand control methods such as gravel packing and frac pack treatments.
Hydraulic fracturing increases the flow of desirable fluids such as oil and gas from a subterranean formation and involves placing a fracturing fluid into a subterranean formation or zone at a rate and pressure sufficient to impart a stress in the formation or zone with attendant production of a fracture in the formation or zone.
Beyond creating the fracture, the fracturing fluid also transports a proppant into the fracture. The proppant keeps the fracture open after release of the exerted pressure. Further, the proppant establishes conductive means in which the formation fluids flow to the borehole. Since the proppant provides a higher conductivity than the surrounding rock, the fracture has greater potential for production of hydrocarbons.
Proppants used in the art include sand, glass beads, walnut hulls, and metal shot as well as polymer-coated sands, ceramics, sintered bauxite, and the like. In order to withstand high pressures downhole, the proppants must be of sufficient strength. The relative strength of proppants increases with their corresponding apparent specific gravity (ASG), typically ranging from 2.65 for sands to 3.4 for sintered bauxite. Unfortunately, increasing ASG leads directly to increasing degree of difficulty with proppant transport and reduced propped fracture volume, thereby reducing fracture conductivity.
More recently, ultra lightweight (ULW) materials have been used as proppants since they reduce the fluid velocity required to maintain proppant transport within the fracture, which, in turn, provides for a greater amount of the created fracture area to be propped. Despite all the advances in the art, there is a need for alternative lightweight proppants that exhibit high particle strength under high pressures. It would be a further advantage if such lightweight proppants have good chemical resistance and are stable at high temperatures. | {
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Microencapsulation of cells in semi-permeable membranes has been proposed to prevent their immune destruction following transplantation, thus alleviating the need to use toxic immunosuppressive drugs. This approach can be used for replacing defective organs, such as insulin-producing cells for the treatment of diabetes, and for delivering natural or synthetic therapeutic molecules for the treatment of numerous diseases.
The field of microencapsulation has been faced with a number of issues hindering proper use in physiological conditions. One such issue is the resistance of microcapsules to both chemical and mechanical degradation. More precisely, microcapsules resistant to both chemical and mechanical degradation are crucial in situations wherein microcapsule delivery has to lead to highly efficient and durable treatments.
Strong microcapsules will obviously increase the durability of the transplant. It is also likely to improve long term biocompatibility of microcapsules, since a strong pericapsular reaction always develops around broken or damaged capsules. Microcapsules that can hardly be destroyed in conditions compatible with life would improve the safety of a number of different transplanted cells such as virus-transfected bioengineered cells, immortalized cells or stem cell-derived cells.
Efforts have been made to improve microcapsule strength. Of particular interest is the formation of complexes between negatively charged polyanions such as alginate and positively-charged polycations such as poly-L-lysine (PLL) to form alginate-poly-L-lysine-alginate (APA) microcapsules. This is the most widely used method to microencapsulate cells. However, one of the major drawbacks of the presently used microcapsules is their limited resistance as well as their limited membrane stability.
In order to improve microcapsule strength, the applicants, as well as others, have evaluated the effect on microcapsule strength of modulating intrinsic parameters such as PLL molecular weight, concentration and incubation time and the manuronic acid/guluronic acid ratio of alginate. The formation of neutral capsules by the introduction of a new coating agent has also been investigated. Following these experiments, electrostatic binding between PLL and alginate has been obtained. Nevertheless, poly-L-lysine still competed with other positively charged molecules present in the environment to bind to the alginate beads. A prolonged incubation in solutions with high concentrations of calcium, for example, has shown a displacement of the alginate-poly-L-lysine bonds. In addition, it has been observed that the external sheet of alginate was progressively lost from microcapsules within days or weeks.
To prevent this competition with charged molecules in the environment, a new concept is proposed: the introduction of covalent links into the membrane of the microcapsule. Covalent links are known to be more stable than electrostatic interactions. The challenge is that most methods to create or break a covalent link are incompatible with cell survival.
Introducing covalent links within the structure of the alginate layer has increased the stability of alginate beads. However, for microcapsules comprised of an alginate bead core subsequently coated, the covalent links would only solidify the inside of the microcapsules with no effect on the stability of the semi-permeable membrane or of the outer coats.
In 2001, the Wang group has also suggested a way to create covalent links but this time, within a semi-permeable layer, made of modified poly(allylamine), which plays a role similar to the one played by poly-L-lysine in alginate poly-L-lysine microcapsules (Chang, S. J., et al., Biocompatible microcapsules with enhanced mechanical strength. J Biomed Mater Res 59(1): p. 118–126, 2002; Lu, M. Z., et al., A novel cell encapsulation method using photosensitive poly(allylamine alpha-cyanocinnamylideneacetate. J Microencapsul 17(2): p. 245–251, 2000; and Lu, M. Z., et al., Cell encapsulation with alginate and alpha-phenoxycinnamylidene-acetylated poly(allylamine). Biotechnol Bioeng 70(5): p. 479–483, 2000. To enhance the microcapsule's resistance, Wang et al. proposed to graft a photodimerizable reactive group on the polycationic polymer forming the semi-permeable membrane of microcapsules. This functional reactive group has the particularity to dimerize when exposed to light allowing these cationic polymers to form covalent bonds between one another. However, the remaining problem was that the microcapsule layers were linked to one another by only weak electrostatic bonds.
While the microcapsules known in the art have resulted in the expansion of the present field, there is still a need for a new semi-permeable microcapsule, such as one that exhibits an increased resistance to mechanical stresses as well as an increased resistance to chemical degradation, while permanently preserving a defined molecular cut-off of the semi-permeable membrane. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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A number of conditions and diseases in humans are accompanied by, or are a consequence of disruptions in cell signal molecules. For example, there can be inadequate synthesis, release or re-uptake of the cell signal molecule(s), or disruptions in mediating cellular signaling of the molecule(s) by receptor or non-receptor mechanisms that result in a disease or other condition. In many instances, clinical management strategies and currently available drugs are frequently associated with adverse side effects and must be meticulously monitored in patients. Current strategies to develop drugs to treat conditions and diseases that are accompanied by or are a consequence of disruptions in cell signal molecules require significant structure-activity modification of a compound. In addition, currently available drugs generally do not target the drug to particular cells or tissues and fail to result in delivery of a drug with a long-lasting effect. In many instances, correction of disruptions in a single cell signal molecule does not effectively treat symptoms of the disease or condition. Thus, there is a need to develop new, improved and effective methods of treatment for diseases or conditions that are associated with or are accompanied by disruptions in cell signal molecules. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The invention relates in general to printing presses and in particular to a new and useful device for loading and unloading paper rolls of a roll stand equipped with swivel arms of a web-fed rotary printing press using a traveling platform unit equipped with a lifting device and movable in the horizontal direction.
A similar loading and unloading device is shown, for example, in German OS 34 02 582. For loading the roll stand, a new paper roll is brought onto a lift device of a traveling platform unit built as a lift platform, the traveling platform unit being outside the area of the roll stand. The traveling platform unit then drives in a horizontal direction between the swivel arms of the roll stand, whereupon the lift platform lifts the paper roll to the required height. The paper roll clamping devices on the swivel arms can then reach into the central core opening of the paper rolls. The paper rolls, which can be very heavy depending on the dimension, must, for this insertion, be aligned exactly between the swivel arms of the roll stand, so that the paper roll clamping device can reach into the core opening of the paper roll. This aligning is still frequently done by hand, which requires operating personnel while being tied to a great deal of energy expenditure. Automatically building the paper rolls into the roll stand is not possible. Furthermore, on changing production as well as on continuous processing of the paper web, a residual paper roll of given diameter results, which before reloading the roll stand with a new paper roll must be removed from the roll stand.
Since in the head of the swivel arms of the roll stand, in addition to the mounting of the paper roll clamping device, additional apparatus like a shift mechanism of the paper roll clamping device, paper roll breaks, clamping device at the paper roll clamping journal, regulated drive of the paper roll clamping journal, are located, this head, understandably is of considerable size. And, since the swivel arms of the roll stand have to be able to accept paper rolls of different widths because of the different widths of the paper web, the swivel arms are constructed movable. The lift platform of the traveling platform unit, however, has to be constructed in such a way, that it can feed the widest paper roll or that a small paper roll can be processed on the left as well as on the right margin of the press.
With the prior traveling platform units with lift platforms only material up to a certain size, depending on the dimensions of the head of the swivel arm of the roll stand, can be lifted up to the paper roll bearing axle. Residual rolls of small diameter would, on unloading, have to be dropped a given distance onto the lift platform on unloading, which can lead to damage to the paper rolls and lead to disturbances during automatic roll changing. On the other hand, residual rolls, which have a relatively small diameter and which still need to be processed, can no longer be brought automatically between the swivel arms of the roll stand. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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At present, the cushioning offered by a body, such as a mattress, a shoe sole, etc., is provided by means of pressure or impact; the impact is not deflected and the effect of the cushioning is limited, logically depending on the physical characteristics of the body in question.
There are no known cushioning systems based on the structural characteristics claimed in this Patent of Invention. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to pressure differential-driven engines. More specifically, the invention relates to an engine using a pressurized working fluid to produce cyclic motion.
2. Related Art
Engines for converting energy from one form to another have been used for many years in a number of applications. Perhaps the best known example, the internal combustion (“IC”) engine, converts energy stored in the form of petroleum-based fuel into mechanical energy. IC engines have been successfully utilized to power vehicles, electric generators, lawn mowers, etc. Typical IC engines convert energy stored in fuel into mechanical energy by burning or detonating the fuel and extracting force generated in a cylinder/piston assembly. Typical IC engines use the force generated in the cylinder/piston assembly to drive some type of output device, such as a rotary crankshaft, a direct rotary output, or other power take-off device.
While IC engines have been used with success in a variety of applications, they can be problematic for a number of reasons. One such problem relates to the efficiency of the energy conversion process. For instance, typical IC engines have efficiency ratings in the range of 30-50%, with 50% considered to be highly efficient and generally only achievable by large, highly precise, and, therefore, costly engines. In addition, the process of converting fossil fuels into useful mechanical energy often results in large degrees of pollution released into the atmosphere, which can be detrimental to the environment in general, and particularly to humans who are exposed to or breathe the polluted air. As more and more IC-powered vehicles are produced and operated by an increasingly greater population, the levels of pollution produced by IC-powered vehicles is becoming an increasingly greater concern. In addition, IC engines necessarily create a great deal of heat, as they produce a series of combustion events which generate force and associated byproduct of heat. This can be problematic for applications which benefit from low-heat production engines.
In addition to IC engines, a variety of energy transducers have been developed for converting energy from one form to another. Examples of such transducers include heat engines, fluid compressors, hydraulic actuators, etc. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems, methods, and apparatus for producing decorative resin panels. In particular, at least some aspects of the invention relate to creating decorative resin panels employing a thin or brittle natural veneer layer.
2. The Relevant Technology
Decorative panels are increasingly popular for use in architectural design implementations, such as in walls, doors, floors, dividers, lighting diffusers, ceiling panels and the like. Decorative panels can also be formed into one or more shapes for use in sculptural works. Decorative panels made of glass or polymeric resins are particularly popular in architectural design due the structural and aesthetic properties that are possible in some circumstances. Typical polymeric resin materials used for making decorative panels include styrene based resins such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene or “ABS”, polyvinyl chloride or “PVC”; polyacrylate materials such as poly(methyl methacrylate) or “PMMA” (also known as acrylic); polyester or copolyester based materials such as poly(ethylene terephthalate), “PET,” either modified or unmodified with 1 to 99 mole percent of a diol or combination of diols, such as ethylene glycol, neopentyl glycol or cyclohexanedimethanol, or “PETG” and “PCTG”; as well as polycarbonate resin based materials.
There are many different materials (and ways for manufacturing these materials) used to create a resin-based panel that can be used for decorative purposes. In one example, a first sheet, such as an eighth-inch sheet of glass or polymeric resin sheet is positioned on a surface, an image layer is then positioned on the first sheet, and a second eighth-inch sheet of glass or polymeric resin is positioned on top of the image layer, thereby creating about a quarter or half-inch assembly. The combined assembly is then solidified using any number of panel forming processes. For example, a manufacturer might apply a liquid adhesive between the first and second sheets in the case of a glass assembly, or might thermoform the first and second sheets about the layer using an appropriate amount of temperature and pressure. The resulting panel, which exhibits the aesthetic properties of the layer, is then prepared and positioned in the appropriate architectural environment (e.g., door, window, wall, etc.)
Despite this seeming interchangeability of material compositions (e.g., glass, or polymeric resin), the choice of material for the panel can have a significant impact on the panel's ultimate use. For example, one type of decorative panel may be made by positioning a thin, decorative material, such as wood veneer, between two glass sheets. The manufacturer then applies a translucent liquid adhesive or casting resin between the glass sheets, which then cures at ambient temperature to form a composite panel. The resulting decorative panel in this example has a look of the decorative material, also having many of the aesthetic features (e.g., texture, shine, translucency) typically associated with glass. Unfortunately this type of glass panel is not used as much as it could be, since, as previously mentioned, glass works tend to be much more expensive, tend to be heavier, more fragile or brittle, and tend to be difficult to manufacture into a curved formation. As such, decorative glass panels are not ordinarily offered in many of the various shapes that could be possible or desired.
By contrast, conventional products using polymeric, resin-based materials have other types of limitations, such that laminates of thin and/or brittle natural materials can be difficult or impossible to make, particularly with any useful efficiency. For example, polymeric resin-based panels are generally formed about a decorative layer using combinations of fairly high temperature and pressures (e.g., about 300° F., and about 100 psi, etc.) Such temperatures and pressures are generally needed to soften the resin sheets to fuse the natural decorative layer to the opposing resin-based substrate panels. Nevertheless, these conventional thermoforming temperatures and pressures can be particularly harsh and can cause thin and/or brittle natural materials to split or otherwise deform, resulting in a laminate that does not have the desired aesthetic effect.
As such, conventional mechanisms for creating a natural-appearing image layer between polymeric resin panels generally involve substituting a decorative artificial image layer in place of the decorative natural material. For example, one conventional mechanism involves creating a printed film of a natural material, such as printing a natural material's image on a relatively thin polymeric resin sheet. In such a case, the printed image might be that of simulated wood or granite.
A manufacturer might then laminate the printed film or sheet by thermoforming two or more resin-based sheets about the printed film layer. Decorative panels made using this process can thus simulate the look of a laminated natural material to some degree without encountering some of the aforementioned manufacturing difficulties associated with using true, natural materials. One will appreciate, nevertheless, that even the best of such processes (printing, thermoforming, or otherwise) will betray the artifice of the image layer. That is, it is difficult if not impossible for most printing techniques to accurately convey each expected aesthetic of a true natural material.
Conventional mechanisms are therefore inefficient, if not completely ineffective, at accurately creating decorative resin-based panels that convey the aesthetics of true, natural materials. The look of true, natural materials, however, is increasingly popular in a number of architectural design and building applications. As such, there is an increasing need to combine the benefits of resin-based materials with the look of true, natural materials in an efficient, cost-effective way. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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One of the more recent developments in the field of cigarette technology involves cigarettes which contain a non-tobacco fuel source which typically heats tobacco contained within a cigarette.
One problem encountered in producing such cigarettes is the availability of a suitable wrapper. The burning of tobacco in conventional cigarettes masks the odor of the burning wrapper used in conventional cigarettes. Because non-tobacco fueled cigarettes have little or no odor attributable to the combustion of the fuel element or tobacco, any odor resulting from the burning of the wrapper is highly noticeable. A suitable wrapper must, therefore, emit little if any aroma or smoke upon ignition of the cigarette, have the appearance of a conventional cigarette and provide adequate support once the cigarette is lit to contain the fuel source within the cigarette.
It is known in the art to add burn control agents to paper used with smoking products to control burn rate, ash formation and sidestream smoke emission. These agents may act to either retard or accelerate the burn rate of the paper. However, even though burn rate is controlled, paper treated with such burn control agents generally burns unless large amounts of burn control agents are added. This burning produces an unpleasant odor and transforms the cellulose into a non-cellulose ash. Alternatively, paper treated with large amounts of burn control agents is transformed by the heat into a cellulose char, and the emission of appreciable odor and smoke is eliminated. However, the char produced is typically a black or an aesthetically unacceptable dark color.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,553, teaches a wrapper treated with a burn retarding compound which produces a light grey or white ash. This wrapper is not acceptable because it burns emitting an odor and forming an ash which does not possess sufficient strength to contain the fuel source within the cigarette.
Another example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,631. This wrapper, has the disadvantage of providing a non-uniform length of ash, the length of which varies with the puffing strength of the smoker, produces an aroma which is irritating and detrimental to room aroma, and does not provide uniform delivery to the smoker.
Thus, a need exists in the art for a wrapper for use with smoking products which does not produce a noticeable aroma, does not burn out to form an ash incapable of containing the fuel source, and does not produce a variable length char or char having an aesthetically unacceptable color, and which provides uniform delivery to the smoker. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to on-line operations and, more particularly, to operations pertaining to on-line forms and registrations.
Description of the Related Art
Today, the Internet has facilitated electronic transmission and filing of documents. Various business or legal forms and documents are available on-line via the Internet. Electronic filing of certain documents or forms (including registrations) is permitted, such as patent or trademark applications, product or user registrations, or court filings.
Nevertheless, the sophistication often required to prepare or file such documents or forms is significant and thus renders ordinary lay persons seriously disadvantaged in utilizing such on-line documents or forms. Many times the documents or forms require careful wording for clarity or legal purposes. As an example, legal documents need to be carefully crafted to provide the legal protection sought. Given the complexities often involved, the creation and filing of electronic documents is largely still manually performed by skilled or experienced persons. There are many books and sample documents (both on-line and off-line) that can be found after some effort, but it is difficult to not only locate the appropriate samples or forms but also to complete or alter the samples or forms for a user's particular situation.
Thus, there is a need for improved techniques for improved approaches to enable and assist unsophisticated persons to utilize on-line forms or documents. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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There currently exist laser shows and music shows which combine lights and lasers synchronized to music to enhance the experience of the audience. Besides an auditory experience, they add a visual aspect that thrills the audience. In a music show or the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics for example. In a live music show we have lights and lasers linked to the overall music and/or the beat or drums but none that links the audience to any particular instrument player as they play each individual note or beat. Similarly when a musician is practicing alone and would like an enhanced visual effect to every note that is played, there currently exists no such solution. There currently exists a need for a device that enhances the experience of both a single live instrument player alone and together with an audience | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gravesites and gravestones and more particularly pertains to a new gravesite covering system for protecting and decorating gravesites and gravestones.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of gravesites and gravestones is known in the prior art. More specifically, gravesites and gravestones heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art gravesites and gravestones include U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,076; U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,940; Des. U.S. Pat. No. 297,478; Des. U.S. Pat. No. 359,151; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,168. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,033 teaches a ground covering sheet.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new gravesite covering system. The inventive system includes a first member made from a flexible, transparent plastic sheet material. The first member has a main body portion shaped for disposal over a gravestone, and a skirt portion for anchoring the first member to the ground around the gravestone using spikes extending through grommets in the skirt portion. A planar, rectangular member made from a flexible, transparent plastic sheet material is secured along one edge thereof to the first member for covering the ground in front of the gravestone. The rectangular member also includes grommets therein for anchoring the rectangular member to the ground. The first member and the rectangular member each include a pocket for holding a picture of the deceased therein, and are provided with ornamentation for making the gravesite more attractive. The members can also be separately used if only a portion of the gravesite is to be protected and decorated.
In these respects, the gravesite covering 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 protecting and decorating gravesites and gravestones. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field
The subject invention relates to plasma processing chambers and, in particular, to a coating for an electrostatic chuck of a plasma processing chamber, which enhances the performance of the chuck in the presence of active plasma species.
2. Related Art
In plasma processing chambers, an electrostatic chuck (ESC) is often used to support the processed substrate inside the chamber. In certain plasma chambers, such as plasma etch chambers, the ESC may also function as an electrode, coupled to either ground or RF potential. During processing, at least part of the ESC is exposed to the plasma and is attacked by the active species within the plasma, such as halogen plasma of CF4, Cl2, etc. Additionally, the ESC is exposed to mechanical abrasion from the substrates it supports. Finally, in some cases various plasma cleaning procedures are employed, wherein the interior of the chamber is cleaned using plasma species. In many such cleaning procedures no wafer is present on the ESC, such that the entire substrate-supporting surface of the ESC is exposed to plasma.
Various coatings have been proposed and tested in the prior art for protecting plasma chamber parts from plasma erosion. One typical application is the plasma sprayed (PS) Y2O3 or Al2O3 on ESC base that could be metal, alloy or ceramics. Plasma sprayed Al2O3 coated ESC has been used for a quite long time, but it introduces the risk of aluminum contamination of the processed substrate. On the other hand, plasma sprayed Y2O3 ESC has a soft surface which is easily damaged by the substrates, creating particles and contamination of the processed substrate.
Generally, Yttria (Y2O3) coating is believed to be promising; however, it has been very difficult to find a process that results in good coating, especially one that does not crack or generate particles. For example, there have been proposals to use plasma spray to coat parts made of metal, alloy or ceramic. However, conventional plasma spray Y2O3 coating is formed by sprayed Y2O3 particles, and generally results in a coating having high surface roughness (Ra of 4 micron or more) and relatively high porosity (volume fraction is above 3%). The high surface roughness and porous structure makes the coating susceptible to generation of particles, which may contaminate the substrate being processed.
Other proposals for forming Yttria coating involve using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), ion assisted deposition (IAD), ionized metal plasma (IMP), active reactive evaporation (ARE), sputtering deposition, and plasma immersion ion process (PIIP). However, all these deposition processes have some technical limitations such that they can not be actually used to scale up for the deposition of thick coating on the chamber parts for the plasma attack protections. For instance, CVD of Y2O3 can not be carried out on substrates that cannot sustain temperatures above 600 C, which excludes the deposition of plasma resistant coating on chamber parts that are made of aluminum alloys. PVD process, such as evaporation, can not deposit thick ceramic coating because of their poor adhesion to substrate. Other deposition processes can not deposit thick coating either due to the high residual stress and poor adhesion (such as sputtering deposition, ARE and IAD) or the very low deposition rate (such as sputtering deposition, IMP and PIIP). Therefore, so far no satisfactory film has been produced, that would have good erosion resistance, while generating low or no particles and can be made thick without cracking or delamination.
In view of the above-described problems in the art, a solution is needed for a coated ESC with coating that resists plasma species attack and does not generate particle or cracks. The coating should have acceptable roughness and porosity values, enough hardness and good thermal conductivity, so that it could provide long service life. The process for fabricating the coating should allow thick coating without being susceptible to cracking or delamination. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present disclosure relates generally to semiconductor fabrication and, more particularly, to a method of patterning a layer of a semiconductor device, including the fabrication of a masking element for such patterning.
The fabrication of semiconductor devices requires the formation of numerous features on a substrate such as, interconnect lines and other conductive layers, gate structures, doped regions, isolation regions, and/or other features known in the art. Formation of features such as these often requires a plurality of photolithography processes to pattern the feature. During a photolithography process, a masking element is formed on a substrate, the substrate including one or more layers of material. A masking element, typically a sacrificial patterned layer of photoresist, allows a portion of the substrate to be blocked, while exposing other portions. This allows for selective processing of the substrate, such as etching, ion implantation, and/or other processes known in the art. Forming a typical masking element requires coating the wafer with photoresist, exposing the photoresist to a soft bake, exposing the photoresist to a pattern, developing the photoresist, and exposing the photoresist to a hard bake.
One disadvantage to conventional semiconductor fabrication processes is the numerous steps required for fabrication of a feature on the substrate. For example, a process for the formation of a polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) gate electrode may be required. In order to pattern a layer of polysilicon deposited on a substrate to form a gate electrode, a first masking element is formed to provide a pattern for substantially linear features. The polysilicon layer is then etched according to this pattern to form substantially linear features. The first masking element is removed from the substrate. A second masking element may then be then formed to provide a pattern for gaps in the previously formed substantially linear features. The polysilicon features are then etched according to this second pattern. Thus, two photolithography processes and two etching processes are required. The numerous steps required add costs to the fabrication including, for example, increased complexity of the processing and increased cycle time.
As such, an improved method of patterning a feature of a semiconductor device is desired. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Many Internet-based service providers deliver digital content to clients around the world. Digital content may include web objects (e.g., text, graphics, URLs, scripts), downloadable objects (e.g., media files, software, documents), web applications, streaming media (e.g. audio and video content), etc. Providing digital content to numerous clients that are located in a broad variety geographical locations can present challenges to service providers. For example, a service provider may be unable to provide sufficient server resources and/or network bandwidth to serve all clients requesting digital content at a given time. In addition, clients that are geographically remote from a service provider's servers may experience high levels of latency and/or low transfer rates as traffic between the service provider and the client is routed through a large number of Internet servers and over great geographical distances.
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) aim to ease the ability of service providers to deliver digital content to large and/or geographically diverse groups of clients. CDNs position servers (or clusters of servers) in various geographical locations, and use these servers to cache and deliver content from origin servers of service providers. As such, CDNs can improve the service providers' ability to deliver content to clients both by increasing total available server resources and bandwidth used to deliver each service provider's content, and also by delivering each service provider's content from servers that are geographically nearer the clients that are being served.
CDNs often provide content delivery services for a large number of service providers. As such, CDNs allocate CDN resources among the various service providers. For example, if the CDN is experiencing a surge in traffic for a particular service provider in a particular geographical region, the CDN may reactively allocate additional server resources in the particular geographical region for use in delivering the particular service provider's content, while removing the additional server resources in the particular geographical region from one or more other service providers. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to the anaerobic biological conversion of biomass such as industrial sludges, slurried refuse and agricultural residues to combined heat and power (CHP). More particularly, this invention relates to a system, a digestion apparatus, and a process for effecting the rapid and complete anaerobic hydrolysis of biomass comprising wet organic matter, and the ultimate conversion of soluble and gaseous byproducts to methane and, ultimately, to useful thermal or electrical energy.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a technology having three main disadvantages that result in its rarely being considered for energy production. The principal disadvantage stems from the fact that the reduction in volatile organic solid material is frequently far from complete. The results depend on the substrate, but incomplete conversion is typical of systems in which water is the sole plasticizing agent and hydrolytic pretreatment is not employed.
The second disadvantage is the long hydraulic residence time or the length of time the liquid must stay in the digestion system to complete the transformation of the slowest metabolizing materials. Unless the digester is heated, the residence time in the digester can be very long, as much as 40 to 60 days. The third disadvantage is that conventional digestion is prone to failure caused by three types of overloadsxe2x80x94organic, hydraulic, and toxicxe2x80x94that can result in the disruption of gas production. In this case, the digestion system must be taken out of service, the digester tank(s) cleaned out, and the system restarted. The environmental effects of such failures can be serious, particularly when other facilities for treatment are unavailable and raw sewage or untreated sludge must be disposed directly to the environment.
Incomplete solids hydrolysis is caused by two problems. First, biomass is a mixture of colloidal and particulate constituents that have very different hydrolysis rates. Some organic constituents are metabolized and degrade more rapidly than others. For example, common soluble chemical intermediates such as acetic acid and glucose, as contained in sugar waste waters, are constituents that degrade rapidly. On the other hand, constituents that degrade slowly or not at all include particulate and colloidal materials, such as proteins, fats, vegetable oils, tallow, bacterial and yeast cell walls, lignin and cellulose. Accordingly, the hydrolysis of the most resistant organic fraction becomes the efficiency limiting step since complete degradation can take place only after hydrolysis of all the insoluble constituents"" has occurred. In conventional AD, the accumulation of unwanted digestion products wastes reactor space. The economic use of reactor space dictates that the diverse symbiotic bacterial mass and undigested material be efficiently captured and the spent materials be efficiently removed to ensure the hydrolysis of the slowest metabolizing materials. Incomplete hydrolysis and solids accumulation in conventional AD systems is generally responsible for the poor performance for these systems.
Conventional AD systems are prone to failure, and operational control has been problematic. Different biomass substrates can have very different degradative characteristics, or different ratios of easily degradable material to refractory organic material. This limits AD systems to one particular substrate and to a small loading range to insure continuous uninterrupted operation. The loading limits are determined by trial and error experimentation. To insure that the operation stays within the limits of digestion, AD operators monitor total gas production supplemented with intermittent analysis of pH, alkalinity and volatile solids testing of the mixed liquor. Error correction is accomplished by manually adjusting the flow rate and solids loading. However, the warning signs of imminent failure usually come too late. This haphazard process control methodology is insufficient to guarantee uninterrupted operation needed for energy production purposes.
Various approaches have been proposed for overcoming the shortcomings of conventional AD systems. The disclosures of all of the patents discussed in the paragraphs that follow are incorporated herein by reference.
Many investigators have shown the value in recycling solids between two reactors to maintain high substrate and bacterial enzyme concentrations. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,142 to Morper, it is recognized that it is economically advantageous to process the more slowly hydrolyzable material in a second reactor, separate from a reactor where the more rapidly hydrolyzed material is treated. Other investigators have recognized the benefit of maintaining the second reactor at a higher temperature to increase hydrolysis of slower hydrolyzing materials. However, these patents do not teach the control of temperature and pressure cycling on the second digester to improve both the rate and completeness of the digestion process.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,015,384 and 5,670,047 to Burke, mechanical or chemical enhanced mechanical means are used to thicken and separate the partially digested particulate constituents from the effluent stream and recycle the particulates back to the digester, saving substrate and bacterial enzymes to further the hydrolysis. In subsequent U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,786, Burke recognized the advantage of mechanically removing inorganic solids from the reacting medium in order to preserve reactor space for the partially digested organic solids. The Burke patents, however, do not suggest a process design that promotes in-reactor thickening while digestion and advanced hydrolysis is ongoing, nor do they teach the intermittent separation and removal of inorganic solids via short term gas expulsion during reactor blowdown.
Investigators have described the need to improve the digestibility or hydrolysis of wet biomass. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,852 to Rivard et al. is proposed an elaborate pretreatment scheme using a pressurized thermochemical and mechanical processes to liquefy 44-66% of the sludge solid prior to digestion. The resulting soluble mixture is then amenable to conventional AD and the inorganic solids washout with the system effluent. The Rivard patent does not suggest the use of in-reactor pressure swing digestion technique to improve the digestibility and hydrolysis of biomass, nor does it teach the reaction of gas plasticization via pressure cycling to disrupt the sludge integrity and enable the advanced hydrolysis of refractory particles.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,187 and related U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,401,565 and 4,375,412, the inventor of the present application described a system for separating and routing the slowly hydrolyzable material into a second reactor gas-solid suspension. Anaerobic bacteria are contacted with an influent slurry containing solid organic material, refractory organic material, and undissolved inorganic material, which are captured and recycled between the reactors in a closed loop to achieve a high conversion of the organic material to gaseous products, including methane. It was observed that pressure cycling in this second reactor facilitates the rapid anaerobic breakdown of refractory particulates, as measured by maximum volatile solids reduction and total gas production.
This basic approach has enabled rapid refractory solids hydrolysis with the continuous maintenance of a high bacterial concentration within the system reactors to attain nearly full solids conversion. These factors have allowed a significant reduction in digestion tankage and thus have improved the economic factors involved in energy production. U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,187 and its related patents do not teach the method of tuning the pressure swing program, the nature of the second stage reaction, or a variety of modifications needed to enable a wide array of bioenergy applications. Neither do they teach or suggest an apparatus or process of driving the hydrolysis of refractory solids substantially to completion via gas plasticization.
Furthermore, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,187, the inventor of the subject application described a method and baffle assembly in the first stage concentrator tank that diverts the flow to assist in stripping the gas, thereby facilitating solid-liquid separation and sedimentation. Solids undergoing active digestion often have gas bubbles adhered to them, which changes their specific gravity and settling characteristics. However, if a gasified particle contacts the gas phase during a free-fall cascade, the gases easily transfer from the solid to the gas phase, essentially degassing the solid and enabling the solid to concentrate by gravitational settling. Passing the gasified particles through a submerged gas volume is a minimum cost method of accomplishing effective solids-liquid separation and thickening in anaerobic environments. U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,187, however, does not teach or suggest the additional use of submerged gas volume to collect a gas volume needed to offset volume losses occurring in the second stage vacuum digester.
The present invention is directed to an improved digester apparatus for converting wet carbonaceous biomass materials to biogas comprising gaseous organic fuel. The apparatus comprises a digestion unit operating at a controlled temperature and having a concentrator component and a pressure swing component each containing anaerobic bacteria and means for conveying aqueous slurried biomass from a biomass source to the concentrator component, and for removing the biogas from the concentrator component. The apparatus also includes means for conveying concentrated aqueous biomass from the concentrator component to the pressure swing component and for conveying digested aqueous biomass from the pressure swing component to the concentrator component, thereby forming a closed loop between the concentrator and pressure swing components. The apparatus further includes means for removing waste solids from the pressure swing component and a pressure swing pump for controlling the pressure within the pressure swing component in a cycle comprising a first phase having a first time duration at a sub-atmospheric first pressure and a second phase having a second time duration and a second pressure at or above atmospheric pressure.
The improvement comprises: inclusion in the apparatus of a programmable computer provided with a database comprising data relating previously determined biomass-biogas conversion for biomass materials of varying compositions to values for the first and second, respectively, pressures and time durations of the first and second phases, wherein the computer operates to continuously monitor the pressure of biogas in the pressure swing component and adjust the cycle of the pressure swing pump to optimize biogas conversion of biomass from the biomass source.
This invention, which extends the capability the anaerobic digestion (AD) to substantially complete the transformation of wet biomass to methane gas and energy products, makes use of an ordinary mixed culture of anaerobes, or a pure culture or a genetically modified organism(s) (GMO) to extract the maximum amount of energy from biomass immersed in water. Fully recovering the mass energy content under water is dependent on completing microbial mass hydrolysis. A unique pressure swing method that cycles between pressurization-depressurization and is computer controlled to optimize system efficiency and reliability is capable of superior hydrolysis performance in anaerobic digestion, particularly of difficultly degradable materials such as cellulose.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved anaerobic cyclic digestion system for converting wet organic biomass materials such as sewage sludge to useful energy by optimizing the process through computer control.
It is a further object of the invention to utilize a programmable computer to control the cyclic digestion process, monitor the process for conditions leading to reduced performance, and take corrective action to maintain optimum operation.
It is a still further object of the invention to utilize gas plasticization to improve the second stage hydrolysis and digestion in the influent material fed to the system.
It is a further object of the invention to utilize a computer to monitor the anaerobic sludge digestion process for indication of insufficient plasticization and take corrective action to improve gas adsorption and penetration and optimize the second reactor hydrolysis rate.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved method for continuously and automatically correcting for loss or gain in system hydraulic volume to accommodate in-reactor biomass thickening during active continuous digestion by providing a submerged gas volume that is filled with gas production in the first reactor and subsequently used to offset the volume loss in the second reactor.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved method for continuous and automatic solids capture by providing a submerged gas volume at the top of the first reactor.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved method for removing inorganic solids, thereby preventing the buildup of inorganic materials and maintaining system digestion capacity during active continuous digestion.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide means for routing the ammonia-containing gas stream to the pressure side of the digestion system and thereby scrub the ammonia gas from the gas phase.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a means for scrubbing hydrogen sulfide gas, an undesirable combustion fuel contaminant that corrodes metals and produces sulfur dioxide, whose combustion leads to photochemical smog, from the biogas stream. | {
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1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a porous material, and in particular relates to a porous carbon material and manufacturing methods thereof, and a supercapacitor using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Supercapacitors represent revolutionary developments in energy storage, and may replace traditional storage batteries in certain fields in the future. The supercapacitor is a new energy storage device that exists due to advancements in material science. The supercapacitor is a new electrochemical device, which stores electrical energy via the polarization between an electrolytic solution and the surface of a carbon electrode. The global need for supercapacitors has risen quickly since commercial market availability, and they have become a new superstar in the field of electrochemical power. The supercapacitor has a huge application value and market potential in such applications as electric vehicles, mixed-fuel vehicles, exceptional-load vehicles, electrical power, railroads, communication, national defense, and consumer electronic products.
The supercapacitor has the advantages of having a high charge-discharge speed, being pollution-free, and having a long cycle life, so the supercapacitor is regarded as a new type of green energy storage system for the present century. In view of the usage qualities of electrical power, the supercapacitor has many advantages over batteries, such as a higher output power (>10 kW/kg), higher charge-discharge efficiency, and longer cycle life (>200,000 times). The supercapacitor may raise the instantaneous power and may recharge during braking. In view of energy savings, the supercapacitor is an indispensable auxiliary energy source. Also, the characteristic high discharge speed of the supercapacitor means it can be used in uninterruptible power supplies, and the supercapacitor can provide electric energy immediately at the moment of a power failure to recover the essential response time of batteries.
In general, the electrode of a supercapacitor is mainly made of a porous structure, which may be of a micro- or nanometer scale with a large surface area used to produce an electric double layer of an electrostatic-charge storage device. Specifically, the supercapacitor stores electrical energy by directly forming electrostatic charges on the electrode plate of the capacitor, and this kind of charge storage is called non-Faradic which means that there is no electron transfer occurring on the interface of the electrode.
The present commercial supercapacitor is limited by the small specific surface area (500-1000 m2/g) of the carbon electrode material thereof, such that the energy density thereof is lower (<5 Wh/kg), and the electrical capacity thereof is around 5-35 F/g. A carbon electrode material that is highly porous and has a large surface area can effectively improve the total efficiency of the supercapacitor, but the present manufacturing method of this kind of carbon electrode material (referring TW patent NO. I274453) involves a long processing time (about 3-7 days) and high energy (a process temperature is 2000° C.). | {
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The present invention pertains to a portable, battery-operated and hand held light apparatus.
After live concerts or performances, it often has been customary for the audience to signal its appreciation, and to ask for an encore, by displaying lights visible from the stage. This has been done by members in the audience using matches or cigarette lighters, and holding the burning matches or lighters above their heads. More recently, audiences have used devices relying upon chemical reactions to generate light. There are distinct disadvantages in using matches or lighters to so indicate one""s satisfaction with the performance, such disadvantages stemming from the possibility of being burned or burning others with the open flame. The relatively recent use of chemical lighting means also has disadvantages. Typically, light generated by such devices has a duration of only a few hours. Further, such devices are not reusable. Also, there are possibilities of harm to the environment and to human health from the chemicals present in such devices.
The present invention relates to a light apparatus that overcomes the disadvantages present in the prior art. The light apparatus according to the present invention relies upon electric power. In a preferred embodiment, such is provided by batteries, and the apparatus is operated to energize a lamp by way of a finger switch. Preferably, the apparatus is configured to rest comfortably within an user""s hand so that the user can turn on the lamp to signal the user""s appreciation during or after a performance.
The light apparatus has a flashing mode in addition to a continuous lighting mode. The flashing mode and the continuous lighting mode are chosen by the finger switch. The apparatus can be made to serve in the way of a conventional flashlight, which also provides the device with a safety function in that the device can be used to signal others that the user has an emergency.
To provide additional brightness, a noble gas electric lamp such as a neon lamp is provided. Along with this lamp, the apparatus includes an electric circuit suitable for operation of such a lamp. The circuit includes a transformer section for operating the lamp, and a portion for controlling flashing operation as well as continuous on operation.
In overview, a hand held light apparatus in accordance with the present invention comprises: a body having a handle portion, a central portion, and a cap portion; a lamp mounted within the cap portion; power supply means for providing electrical energy to the lamp; and electric circuit means for connecting the power supply to the lamp for energizing the lamp, the circuit means including an intermittent circuit for intermittently electrifying the lamp to operate the lamp in a flashing mode.
A lamp activation circuit includes an LC oscillation conversion circuit which generates high voltage to actuate the lamp in an continuous lighting mode. The circuit also includes a RC harmonic oscillation circuit for controlling LC oscillation to provide the lamp with intermittent oscillation current for operating the lamp in the flashing mode. A switch provides for selection between either of the flashing or continuous lighting modes and an OFF state.
The preferred lamp is a neon lamp. The power supply for the apparatus can be batteries housed in the handle portion. Further, the cap portion could be detachable to be interchangeable with like cap portions of different colors and/or shapes. | {
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a filtration system, and, in particular, to an underdrain with an underdrain wall adaptor for controlling air and water passage between the flume and the underdrain.
Description of Related Art
Gravity filtration systems use a filter media to remove impurities from water. The main components of gravity filters are filter media and underdrain blocks. Underdrain blocks are generally square or rectangular in cross section and may have a long longitudinal axis as compared to their cross section. They are attached end-to-end to form sections called laterals. The filter media sit atop the underdrain blocks.
In practice, the gravity filtration system works by introducing the solution to be filtered above the filter media. Gravity causes the solution to pass vertically downward through the filter media and into the underdrain block. The underdrain block channels the filtered fluid, which has passed through the filter media, through the underdrain block interior and away from the filter.
Gravity filtration systems must be periodically backwashed with water and/or air. However, it can be difficult to create passages for proper distribution of the air and water between the flume and underdrain, or, in some cases, to prevent air from entering the flume from the underdrain. The flume is the chamber for distribution of backwash water and sometimes air and for collection of filtered water.
The problem of creating passages is usually associated with the geometry or low profile of the underdrain when the water opening is not large enough for a wall feed arrangement while preventing the passage of air from the underdrain into the flume.
Creating a large enough water opening is also difficult when the air-water interface is controlled at a low elevation near the bottom of the underdrain such that air is not restricted when passing through low openings between the flume and the underdrain.
Another problem often encountered is associated with fusion welding of the endplate to the underdrain block. Fusion welding often results in warpage and uneven surfaces, making it difficult to seal the endplate to the filter wall or orifice plate.
Yet another problem often encountered is associated with a dead zone, an area where no backwash water or air can be discharged during the backwashing process for cleaning of the filter media. Particularly, the dead zone can encompass a large area. | {
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Various authentication mechanisms such as usernames and passwords are often used to control access to various kinds of computing resources and processes. A person who wishes to gain access to a resource or process may be asked to enter a username and password. If the person enters the correct username and password, then access may be granted. Otherwise, access may be withheld. Access to computing resource scenarios such as e-mail accounts, online shopping accounts, online bank accounts, accessing school records, corporate portals, virtual private networking, authenticated machine to machine communications (M2M), logging into social networking services, etc., are some examples of web or cloud-based resources and services to which access may be password-controlled. Usernames and passwords may also be required to unlock a user device such as a personal computer, mobile phone or to access functions and resources that are locally available on the user's computing device. Usernames and password are one example of a type of shared secret between two endpoints. Other examples of shared secrets are numerical PIN codes without requiring a username, and biometric information such as fingerprint or retina scanners. In each of these scenarios a credential must be presented and verified before access to the desired resource is granted.
An issue that arises in the use of passwords and the like is that they are subject to certain types of attacks. A malicious actor may gain access to protected resources if the username and password are compromised or stolen. The basis on which a password provides security is the assumption that only the legitimate user of the password knows the password. If this assumption is not true, then the password no longer provides the intended security. If a malicious actor learns the password and then presents it to the authentication manager that controls access to a resource, then the malicious actor can gain the same access as the legitimate user. Computing systems try to provide numerous layers of safeguards against malicious actors gaining access to a user's account, however if the malicious actor presents valid usernames and password credentials, it may be nearly impossible to detect the intrusion without the layers of safeguards placing an undue burden on valid users accesses to try and detect the malicious actors. | {
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This invention relates generally to the automatic steering of vehicles by scanning of a directrix or external course-determining facility. This directrix may be of the physical type, such as a furrow in the ground, a cutting edge of grain or other crops to be harvested, or a curbstone edge. The invention is also applicable to use with a directrix formed, for example, by a laser beam or the electro-magnetic field of a cable embedded in the ground. An appropriate sensor must accordingly be provided capable of scanning the associated directrix. In all cases, the driver of the vehicle is relieved of the tiring steering activity as long as a useable directrix is available thereby enabling the driver to concentrate attention on supervising operation of the engine, for example, or the cutting and threshing action of a combine. The driver is thereby able to make full use of all vehicle capabilities, such as speed of travel and width of cutting of a combine.
In connection with power assisted steering systems that are operated under automatic control, facilities must be provided for restoring the steering system to manual control operation. According to prior art arrangements as disclosed for example in a technical article by Hesse and Moeller appearing in "Landbauforschung Voelkenrade", issue No. 17 of 1973, pages 41-46, a sensor and regulating system for automatic steering operation is provided wherein both a feeler as well as a steering angle signal generator attached to a steerable wheel, deliver electric signals which operate an otherwise hydraulic regulating and control system. In an emergency situation, such as interruption in the operation of the directrix, vehicle steering must be restored to manual control. This was accomplished in prior art arrangements by means of an electrically operated restoring valve so that change-over from automatic to manual control required a special switching action before manual control through the steering control wheel became operative. Further, such prior art arrangements were highly susceptible to breakdown in the electrical control sections of the system to make mode switching unreliable. | {
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As technology advances, computer systems include greater numbers of processors, in the form of multiprocessor systems, e.g., via one or more multi-core processors that can execute multiple threads concurrently. Generally, before a thread accesses a shared resource, it may acquire a lock on the shared resource. In situations where the shared resource is a data structure stored in memory, all threads that are attempting to access the same resource may serialize the execution of their operations in light of mutual exclusivity provided by the locking mechanism. This may be detrimental to system performance and may cause program failures, e.g., due to deadlocks or other unwanted behavior.
The ever increasing number of cores and logical processors in a system enables more software threads to be executed. However, the increase in the number of software threads that may be executed simultaneously has created problems with synchronizing data shared among the software threads. One common solution to accessing shared data in multiple core or multiple logical processor systems uses locks to guarantee mutual exclusion across multiple accesses to shared data. However, the ever increasing ability to execute multiple software threads potentially results in false contention and a serialization of execution.
To reduce performance loss resulting from utilization of locking mechanisms, some computer systems may use transactional memory (TM). Transactional memory generally refers to a synchronization model that allows multiple threads to concurrently access a shared resource without utilizing a locking mechanism.
Often transactional execution may include speculatively executing groups of micro-operations, operations, or instructions. Current TM systems include hardware TM systems in which processor hardware is used to perform transactions, software TM systems in which transactions are implemented in software and hybrid TM systems in which both hardware and software can be used to execute a transaction. Typically, a hardware TM system can be most efficient, but if a transaction becomes too large, e.g., overflows a hardware memory, then the transaction is usually restarted. Here, the time taken to execute the transaction up to the overflow is potentially squandered.
Processors include various hardware and can also provide hardware for testing, debug and other operations. For example, various registers can be provided in a processor for performing processor checkpointing, exception reporting, branch recording and so forth. However, such performance monitoring hardware is generally not used in the context of transactional memory. | {
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Various ligands and receptors belonging to the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily have been identified in the art. Included among such ligands are tumor necrosis factor-alpha (“TNF-alpha”), tumor necrosis factor-beta (“TNF-beta” or “lymphotoxin-alpha”), lymphotoxin-beta (“LT-beta”), CD30 ligand, CD27 ligand, CD40 ligand, OX-40 ligand, 4-1BB ligand, LIGHT, Apo-1 ligand (also referred to as Fas ligand or CD95 ligand), Apo-2 ligand (also referred to as Apo2L or TRAIL), Apo-3 ligand (also referred to as TWEAK), APRIL, OPG ligand (also referred to as RANK ligand, ODF, or TRANCE), and TALL-1 (also referred to as BlyS, BAFF or THANK) (See, e.g., Ashkenazi, Nature Review, 2:420-430 (2002); Ashkenazi and Dixit, Science, 281:1305-1308 (1998); Ashkenazi and Dixit, Curr. Opin. Cell Biol., 11:255-260 (2000); Golstein, Curr. Biol., 7:750-753 (1997) Wallach, Cytokine Reference, Academic Press, 2000, pages 377-411; Locksley et al., Cell, 104:487-501 (2001); Gruss and Dower, Blood, 85:3378-3404 (1995); Schmid et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 83:1881 (1986); Dealtry et al., Eur. J. Immunol., 17:689 (1987); Pitti et al., J. Biol. Chem., 271:12687-12690 (1996); Wiley et al., Immunity, 3:673-682 (1995); Browning et al., Cell, 72:847-856 (1993); Armitage et al. Nature, 357:80-82 (1992), WO 97/01633 published Jan. 16, 1997; WO 97/25428 published Jul. 17, 1997; Marsters et al., Curr. Biol., 8:525-528 (1998); Chicheportiche et al., Biol. Chem., 272:32401-32410 (1997); Hahne et al., J. Exp. Med., 188:1185-1190 (1998); WO98/28426 published Jul. 2, 1998; WO98/46751 published Oct. 22, 1998; WO/98/18921 published May 7, 1998; Moore et al., Science, 285:260-263 (1999); Shu et al., J. Leukocyte Biol., 65:680 (1999); Schneider et al., J. Exp. Med., 189:1747-1756 (1999); Mukhopadhyay et al., J. Biol. Chem., 274:15978-15981 (1999)).
Induction of various cellular responses mediated by such TNF family ligands is typically initiated by their binding to specific cell receptors. Some, but not all, TNF family ligands bind to, and induce various biological activity through, cell surface “death receptors” to activate caspases, or enzymes that carry out the cell death or apoptosis pathway (Salvesen et al., Cell, 91:443-446 (1997). Included among the members of the TNF receptor superfamily identified to date are TNFR1, TNFR2, TACI, GITR, CD27, OX-40, CD30, CD40, HVEM, Fas (also referred to as Apo-1 or CD95), DR4 (also referred to as TRAIL-R1), DR5 (also referred to as Apo-2 or TRAIL-R2), DCR1, DcR2, osteoprotegerin (OPG), RANK and Apo-3 (also referred to as DR3 or TRAMP) (see, e.g., Ashkenazi, Nature Reviews, 2:420-430 (2002); Ashkenazi and Dixit, Science, 281:1305-1308 (1998); Ashkenazi and Dixit, Curr. Opin. Cell Biol., 11:255-260 (2000); Golstein, Curr. Biol., 7:750-753 (1997) Wallach, Cytokine Reference, Academic Press, 2000, pages 377411; Locksley et al., Cell, 104:487-501 (2001); Gruss and Dower, Blood, 85:3378-3404 (1995); Hohman et al., J. Biol. Chem., 264:14927-14934 (1989); Brockhaus et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 87:3127-3131 (1990); EP 417,563, published Mar. 20, 1991; Loetscher et al., Cell, 61:351 (1990); Schall et al., Cell, 61:361 (1990); Smith et al., Science, 248:1019-1023 (1990); Lewis et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 88:2830-2834 (1991); Goodwin et al., Mol. Cell. Biol., 11:3020-3026 (1991); Stamenkovic et al., EMBO J., 8:1403-1410 (1989); Mallett et al., EMBO J., 9:1063-1068 (1990); Anderson et al., Nature, 390:175-179 (1997); Chicheportiche et al., J. Biol. Chem., 272:32401-32410 (1997); Pan et al., Science. 276:111-113 (1997); Pan et al., Science, 277:815-818 (1997); Sheridan et al., Science, 277:818-821 (1997); Degli-Esposti et al., J. Exp. Med., 186:1165-1170 (1997); Marsters et al., Curr. Biol., 7:1003-1006 (1997); Tsuda et al., BBRC, 234:137-142 (1997); Nocentini et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 94:6216-6221 (1997); vonBulow et al., Science, 278:138-141 (1997)).
Most of these TNF receptor family members share the typical structure of cell surface receptors including extracellular, transmembrane and intracellular regions, while others are found naturally as soluble proteins lacking a transmembrane and intracellular domain. The extracellular portion of typical TNFRs contains a repetitive amino acid sequence pattern of multiple cysteine-rich domains (CRDs), starting from the NH2-terminus.
The ligand referred to as Apo-2L or TRAIL was identified several years ago as a member of the TNF family of cytokines. (See, e.g., Wiley et al., Immunity, 3:673-682 (1995); Pitti et al., J. Biol. Chem., 271:12697-12690 (1996); WO 97/01633; WO 97/25428; U.S. Pat. No. 5,763,223 issued Jun. 9, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 6,284,236 issued Sep. 4, 2001). The full-length native sequence human Apo2L/TRAIL polypeptide is a 281 amino acid long, Type II transmembrane protein. Some cells can produce a natural soluble form of the polypeptide, through enzymatic cleavage of the polypeptide's extracellular region (Mariani et al., J. Cell. Biol., 137:221-229 (1997)). Crystallographic studies of soluble forms of Apo2L/TRAIL reveal a homotrimeric structure similar to the structures of TNF and other related proteins (Hymowitz et al., Molec. Cell, 4:563-571 (1999); Cha et al., Immunity, 11:253-261 (1999); Mongkolsapaya et al., Nature Structural Biology, 6:1048 (1999); Hymowitz et al., Biochemistry, 39:633-644 (2000)). Apo2L/TRAIL, unlike other TNF family members however, was found to have a unique structural feature in that three cysteine residues (at position 230 of each subunit in the homotrimer) together coordinate a zinc atom, and that the zinc binding is important for trimer stability and biological activity. (Hymowitz et al., supra; Bodmer et al., J. Biol. Chem., 275:20632-20637 (2000)).
It has been reported in the literature that Apo2L/TRAIL may play a role in immune system modulation, including autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis [see, e.g., Thomas et al., J. Immunol., 161:2195-2200 (1998); Johnsen et al., Cytokine, 11:664-672 (1999); Griffith et al., J. Exp. Med., 189:1343-1353 (1999); Song et al., J. Exp. Med., 191:1095-1103 (2000)].
Soluble forms of Apo2L/TRAIL have also been reported to induce apoptosis in a variety of cancer cells, including colon, lung, breast, prostate, bladder, kidney, ovarian and brain tumors, as well as melanoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma (see, e.g., Wiley et al., supra; Pitti et al., supra; U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,945 issued Feb. 29, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,746,668 issued Jun. 8, 2004; Rieger et al., FEBS Letters, 427:124-128 (1998); Ashkenazi et al., J. Clin. Invest., 104:155-162 (1999); Walczak et al., Nature Med., 5:157-163 (1999); Keane et al., Cancer Research, 59:734-741 (1999); Mizutani et al., Clin. Cancer Res., 5:2605-2612 (1999); Gazitt, Leukemia, 13:1817-1824 (1999); Yu et al., Cancer Res., 60:2384-2389 (2000); Chinnaiyan et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 97:1754-1759 (2000)). In vivo studies in murine tumor models further suggest that Apo2L/TRAIL, alone or in combination with chemotherapy or radiation therapy, can exert substantial anti-tumor effects (see, e.g., Ashkenazi et al., supra; Walzcak et al., supra; Gliniak et al., Cancer Res., 59:6153-6158 (1999); Chinnaiyan et al., supra; Roth et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 265:1999 (1999); PCT Application US/00/15512; PCT Application US/01/23691). In contrast to many types of cancer cells, most normal human cell types appear to be resistant to apoptosis induction by certain recombinant forms of Apo2L/TRAIL (Ashkenazi et al., supra; Walzcak et al., supra). Jo et al. has reported that a polyhistidine-tagged soluble form of Apo2L/TRAIL induced apoptosis in vitro in normal isolated human, but not non-human, hepatocytes (Jo et al., Nature Med., 6:564-567 (2000); see also, Nagata, Nature Med., 6:502-503 (2000)). It is believed that certain recombinant Apo2L/TRAIL preparations may vary in terms of biochemical properties and biological activities on diseased versus normal cells, depending, for example, on the presence or absence of a tag molecule, zinc content, and % trimer content (See, Lawrence et al., Nature Med., Letter to the Editor, 7:383-385 (2001); Qin et al., Nature Med., Letter to the Editor, 7:385-386 (2001)).
Apo2L/TRAIL has been found to bind at least five different receptors. At least two of the receptors which bind Apo2L/TRAIL contain a functional, cytoplasmic death domain. One such receptor has been referred to as “DR4” (and alternatively as TR4 or TRAIL-R1) (Pan et al., Science, 276:111-113 (1997); see also WO98/32856 published Jul. 30, 1998; WO99/37684 published Jul. 29, 1999; WO 00/73349 published Dec. 7, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,433,147 issued Aug. 13, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,461,823 issued Oct. 8, 2002, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,342,383 issued Jan. 29, 2002).
Another such receptor for Apo2L/TRAIL has been referred to as DR5 (it has also been alternatively referred to as Apo-2; TRAIL-R or TRAIL-R, TR6, Tango-63, hAPO8, TRICK2 or KILLER) (see, e.g., Sheridan et al., Science, 277:818-821 (1997), Pan et al., Science, 277:815-818 (1997), WO98/51793 published Nov. 19, 1998; WO98/41629 published Sep. 24, 1998; Screaton et al., Curr. Biol., 7:693-696 (1997); Walczak et al., EMBO J., 16:5386-5387 (1997); Wu et al., Nature Genetics, 17:141-143 (1997); WO98/35986 published Aug. 20, 1998; EP870,827 published Oct. 14, 1998; WO98/46643 published Oct. 22, 1998; WO99/02653 published Jan. 21, 1999; WO99/09165 published Feb. 25, 1999; WO99/11791 published Mar. 11, 1999; US 2002/0072091 published Aug. 13, 2002; US 2002/0098550 published Dec. 7, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,269 issued Dec. 6, 2001; US 2001/0010924 published Aug. 2, 2001; US 2003/01255540 published Jul. 3, 2003; US 2002/0160446 published Oct. 31, 2002, US 2002/0048785 published Apr. 25, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,342,369 issued February, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,569,642 issued May 27, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,047 issued Jun. 6, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,642,358 issued Nov. 4, 2003; IS 6,743,625 issued Jun. 1, 2004). Like DR4, DR5 is reported to contain three cysteine-rich domains in its extracellular portion and a single cytoplasmic death domain and be capable of signaling apoptosis upon ligand binding (or upon binding a molecule, such as an agonist antibody, which mimics the activity of the ligand). The crystal structure of the complex formed between Apo-2L/TRAIL and DR5 is described in Hymowitz et al., Molecular Cell, 4:563-571 (1999).
Upon ligand binding, both DR4 and DR5 can trigger apoptosis independently by recruiting and activating the apoptosis initiator, caspase-8, through the death-domain-containing adaptor molecule referred to as FADD/Mort1 [Kischkel et al., Immunity, 12:611-620 (2000); Sprick et al., Immunity, 12:599-609 (2000); Bodmer et al., Nature Cell Biol., 2:241-243 (2000)]. In particular, DR5 signals apoptosis through the “cell-extrinsic” pathway, which is independent of the p53 tumor suppressor gene (Ashkenazi and Dixit, Science 281:1305-8 (1998); Ashkenazi, Nat Rev Cancer 2:420-30 (2002)). Activation of this pathway involves raid formation of a death-inducing signaling complex (DISC) at the activated receptor's cytoplasmic death domain. First, the adaptor molecule FADD binds to DR5 through homophilic death domain interaction (Kischkel et al., supra, Sprick et al., supra, Bodmer et al., supra). Subsequently, FADD recruits the apoptosis-initiating proteases caspase-8 and caspase-10, mediating their activation by induced proximity Caspase-9 and caspase-10 undergo self-processing, releasing soluble active caspase subunits into the cytoplasm, where they assemble and cleave effector caspases, such as caspase-3 and caspase-7. Cleavage results in activation of the effector caspases, which carry out the apoprotix cell program (Thornberry and Lazebnik, Science 281:1312-6 (1998)).
Apo2L/TRAIL has been reported to also bind those receptors referred to as DcR1, DcR2 and OPG, which believed to function as inhibitors, rather than transducers of signaling (see., e.g., DCR1 (also referred to as TRID, LIT or TRAIL-R3) [Pan et al., Science, 276:111-113 (1997); Sheridan et al., Science 277:818-821 (1997); McFarlane et al., J. Biol. Chem., 272:25417-25420 (1997); Schneider et al., FEBS Letters, 416:329-334 (1997); Degli-Esposti et al., J. Exp. Med., 186:1165-1170 (1997); and Mongkolsapaya et al., J. Immunol., 160:3-6 (1998); DCR2 (also called TRUNDD or TRAIL-R4) [Marsters et al., Curr. Biol., 7:1003-1006 (1997); Pan et al., FEBS Letters, 424:41-45 (1998); Degli-Esposti et al., Immunity, 7:813-820 (1997)], and OPG [Simonet et al., supra]. In contrast to DR4 and DR5, the DcR1 and DcR2 receptors do not signal apoptosis.
Certain antibodies which bind to the DR4 and/or DR5 receptors have been reported in the literature. For example, anti-DR4 antibodies directed to the DR4 receptor and having agonistic or apoptotic activity in certain mammalian cells are described in, e.g., WO 99/37684 published Jul. 29, 1999; WO 00/73349 published Jul. 12, 2000; WO 03/066661 published Aug. 14, 2003. See, also, e.g., Griffith et al., J. Immunol., 162:2597-2605 (1999); Chuntharapai et al., J. Immunol., 166:4891-4898 (2001); WO 02/097033 published Dec. 2, 2002; WO 03/042367 published May 22, 2003; WO 03/038043 published May 8, 2003; WO 03/037913 published May 8, 2003. Certain anti-DR5 antibodies have likewise been described, see, e.g., WO 98/51793 published Nov. 8, 1998; Griffith et al., J. Immunol., 162:2597-2605 (1999); Ichikawa et al., Nature Med., 7:954-960 (2001); Hylander et al., “An Antibody to DR5 (TRAIL-Receptor 2) Suppresses the Growth of Patient Derived Gastrointestinal Tumors Grown in SCID mice”, Abstract, 2d International Congress on Monoclonal Antibodies in Cancers, Aug. 29-Sep. 1, 2002, Banff, Alberta, Canada; WO 03/038043 published May 8, 2003; WO 03/037913 published May 8, 2003. In addition, certain antibodies having cross-reactivity to both DR4 and DR5 receptors have been described (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,252,050 issued Jun. 26, 2001). | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates generally to aqueous copolymer dispersions for used in stone paint or in other architectural exterior or interior coatings which needs superior water whitening resistance.
Water whitening resistance is required in many architectural coatings. Normally, when an aqueous latex emulsion dries, the latex particles are coalesced to form a film. Other components in the coating, such as surfactant, initiator, buffer, coalescent and preservative, which may be ionically-charged and water-soluble, are trapped in the interstitial areas of the film. These components are prone to attract water due to their hydrophilic chemical nature which endows the film a driving force by which the water can easily migrate from the film surface into the interstitial areas and thus cause the water-whitening problem.
The water whitening resistance of latex compositions can be improved by removing hydrophilic components, introducing special monomers into the polymer latex, or crosslinking the polymer latex. But these methods are still not ideal in process simplicity, cost effectiveness and performance balance.
Polyamine is used as an additive in acrylic copolymer dispersions for aqueous coating compositions. JP7026194A provides a water-borne dispersion for coating with improved adhesion to the substrate, hardness and stain-proof properties by formulating an acrylic copolymer (A) having −20° C. or higher glass transition temperature with a polyamine additive (B) at 0.05 to 40 (B)/100 (A) weight ratio. The monomers of (a) 0.1 to 40 wt % of an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid; (b) 50 to 99.9 wt % of an alkyl(meth)acrylate; and (c) 0 to 49.9 wt % (where (a)+(b)+(c)=100 wt %) of other copolymerizable monomers are subjected to copolymerization to prepare copolymer (A). The water-borne dispersion shows good water resistance in performance evaluation. However, the water whitening resistance property of the dispersions are not mentioned in the reference. The inventors surprisingly found that, by adjusting the formulation copolymer composition and the content of the copolymer and the polyamine additive, the water whitening resistance performance of the dry coating film derived therefrom can be obviously improved.
Therefore, the problem addressed by this invention is to find copolymer dispersions for the application in coatings which show higher level of water whitening resistance of the dry coating film therefrom. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a magnetic memory for storing information in a magneto-resistivity effect element.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory) has been attracting attention as a memory cell for use in such information processing devices as computers and communication facilities. Since the MRAM is capable of memorizing data magnetically and therefore maintaining directions of magnetization without having to use any electric means, it is safe from incurring the disadvantage of losing information due to power failure as experienced by the DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and SRAM (Static RAM) which are volatile memories. The MRAM also excels such conventional nonvolatile memories as the flash EEPROM and the hard disk device in terms of access speed, reliability, and power consumption. The MRAM, therefore, is reputed to be capable of alternating all the functions of such volatile memories as DRAM and SRAM and the functions of such nonvolatile memories as the flash EEPROM and the hard disc devices.
In the development of an information device directed toward the so-called ubiquitous computing which enables information to be processed everywhere at the same time, the desirability of such a memory which fulfills high-speed processing and decreases power consumption as well and permits avoidance of loss of information even in the case of power failure finds general recognition. The MRAM promises to satisfy all these requirements and is expected to find adoption in numerous information devices in the future.
Particularly, cards and portable information terminals which are carried daily by users on their persons often fail to secure sufficient power supply. When a large volume of information is processed under a harsh environment of utility, therefore, even the MRAM which boasts of low power consumption is required to allow further decrease of power consumption during the course of processing information.
As one example of the technique which is capable of further decreasing power consumption in the MRAM, the magnetic memory which is published on page 133 of the Nov. 18, 2002 issue of the “Nikkei Electronics” is now available. This magnetic memory 500, as illustrated in FIG. 19, is provided in each of the individual memory regions (memory cells) thereof with a bit line 502, a word line 504 disposed perpendicularly to the bit line 502, a tunneling magneto-resistive element (TMR) 506 disposed between the bit line 502 and the word line at the position of intersection thereof, and a transistor 508 connected to the TMR element. The bit line 502 and the word line 506 are each adapted to generate nearly half of the magnetic field necessary for reversing the bit state (magnetized state) of the TMR element 506. When an electric current is advanced through the bit line 502 and word line 504 which have been selected, the magnetized state of the TMR element 506 is suitably inverted at the point of intersection of these lines.
This magnetic memory 500 is so configured that both the bit lines 502 and the word lines 504 are furnished with a structure clad with a ferromagnetic thin film 510 of high permeability. Thus, the leaks of magnetic flux from the bit line 502 and the word line 504 can be reduced. During the passage of electric current through the bit lines 502 and the word lines 504, since the ferromagnetic thin film 510 is made to generate a static magnetic field in consequence of the magnetization of the ferromagnetic thin film 510, the sum of this static magnetic field of the ferromagnetic thin film 510 and the induction magnetic fields of the bit lines 502 and the word lines 504 is applied to the TMR element 500. As a result, the magnetic field necessary for the inversion of the magnetized state of the TMR element 506 can be obtained even when the state of power consumption is low.
Since this magnetic memory is enabled to concentrate the magnetic flux in the TMR element 506 by keeping the bit lines and the word lines covered each on three surfaces with the ferromagnetic thin film 510 and leaving their surfaces on the TMR element 506 side open, it enjoys an advantage of reducing the writing time.
Incidentally, the TMR element is furnished with a first magnetizing layer (magnetic susceptibility layer) enabled to change the direction of magnetization by an external magnetic field, a second magnetic layer having a fixed direction of magnetization, and a non-magnetic insulating layer interposed between the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer and is adapted to memorizes binary data by controlling the direction of magnetization of the first magnetic layer parallel or not parallel to the direction of magnetization of the second magnetic layer.
A further study made by the present inventor, however, has ascertained that the coating of the bit lines 501 and the word lines 504 with the ferromagnetic thin film 510 is liable to induce dispersion in the produced magnetic field while it is indeed capable of reducing the magnitude of the electric current during the course of writing. Specifically, the ferromagnetic thin film 510 incurs difficulty in uniformly coating the bit lines 502 and the word lines along the directions of length thereof, eventually acquires in the interior thereof various directions of magnetization owing to the spontaneous formation of a plurality of magnetic domains. Because of these factors, the ferromagnetic thin film 510 entails the possibility of dispersing the magnetizing property to be imparted to the individual TMR elements 506 during the course of writing.
When the magnetic field is inverted by switching the directions of passage of electricity to the bit lines 502 and the word lines 504, the presence of the ferromagnetic thin film 510 results in posing the problem of rendering ununiform the speed of change and the intensity of the magnetic field between the electric current in the forward direction and the electric current in the reverse direction. As a result, the individual TMR elements 506 incur dispersion in the writing speed in one direction and the writing speed in the other direction and consequently cause an anxiety about complicating the control of electric current and the control of timing in the course of writing.
When the ferromagnetic thin film 501 happens to form numerous magnetic domains, it suffers emission of a Barkhausen noise during the change of the state of magnetization of the bit lines 502 and the word lines 504. This noise is considered to constitute a factor for deteriorating the writing property.
This invention, originated in the light of the problems enumerated above, is directed toward abating the dispersion of the magnetic field for writing in the magnetic memory and enhancing the writing property. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to railway vehicles and in particular to their supporting track structures and apparatus for switching the vehicle between different track sections.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior art disclosure is contained in U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,543 patented Nov. 27, 1973. The present invention is an improvement in that the switching arrangement includes at the switching junction conventional type track rails and specially built track rails. Raised flanges of the truck wheels on the vehicle are adapted to ride on the specially built track rails and the vehicle has in combination therewith an improved camming arrangement for steering the vehicle relative to the switching junction. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Our present invention relates to a garment hook, especially a transparent garment hook for use with lingerie, swimsuits and other garments in which a strap is to be connected to another part of the garment. More particularly, the invention relates to a garment hook of the type which has an eye through which a strap can be looped and a hook which is engageable with the aforementioned other part of the garment.
Garment hooks of the type mentioned are widely used in lingerie, undergarments, brassieres and swimsuits and wherever it may be necessary to releasably engage a strap with another part of the garment. Such garment hooks can have an eye through which the strip is looped and a hook which is inserted through some opening in the garment, e.g. another strap or a loop formed in a fabric piece integral with or attached to the garment and in which the fastener is retained by the hook end which can project beyond that fabric loop.
Garment hooks of this type are frequently bulky, insufficiently strong and unsightly. If injection molded, for example, from a synthetic resin they have a tendency to crack where the hook adjoins the body of the fastener and in many cases, the stress to which the hook is subjected can form stress cracks at the junction of the hook with the body and which, even if they do not lead to breakage, are unsightly, especially if the fastener is fabricated in a transparent material.
In modern fashion, it is frequently desirable to fabricate such fasteners from transparent material and hence the problem has become especially pronounced with more modern lingerie, brassieres and swimsuits.
It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a fastener, e.g. a garment hook, especially for lingerie, brassieres and swimsuits, whereby the drawbacks mentioned previously are obviated and the fastener is strong, free from cracks which may render the fastener unsightly and is easy to use.
Another object of the invention is to provide a garment hook for the purposes described which has a relatively slim appearance but nevertheless has high strength and can be employed without bunching up of the straps or other garment parts to which the fastener is applied.
These objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter are attained, in accordance with the invention, in a garment hook which comprises a hook body of a synthetic resin material formed with a bight, a loop arm extending from the bight and a hook arm juxtaposed with the loop arm, the loop arm being formed with an elongated eye adapted to receive a strap of a garment, the hook arm being formed with a hook at an end thereof opposite the bight, the hook arm defining an elongated gap with the loop arm whereby the hook arm is insertable through an opening in the garment, the bight being substantially semicircular and the arms at ends opposite the bight being thinner than the bight.
The garment hook of the invention can have its arms form thickness steps with the bight or arms which taper continuously from the bight to the ends of the arms opposite the bight. The bight can be of substantially trapezoidal outwardly tapering cross section and, as noted, the body can be substantially transparent and is preferably composed of a polycarbonate.
An important feature of the invention is that the cross section of the body at the bight is T-shaped. To this end, the gap and the eye can terminate proximal to the bight in a web of a thickness less than that of the bight and forming the shank of the T-section whose head is the bight itself. We have found that when the hook arm is curvilinearly convex toward the loop eye and the eye is defined between two longitudinal edges which are also convex toward the hook arm, the strap and the other garment part are evenly distributed or centered in the gap and in the eye and do not tend to bunch at either end of the gap or the eye. Preferably the hook arm also has a bulge substantially midway of its length and projecting toward the loop arm. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Content management is defined as software that builds, organizes, manages, and stores collections of digital works in any medium or format. Content management refers to the process of handling various types of structured and unstructured information, including images and documents that may contain billing data, customer service information, or other types of content. Content management further refers to the process of capturing, storing, sorting, codifying, integrating, updating, and protecting any and all information. Studiesestimate that more than 75% of enterprise data is unstructured and document-related (reference is made for example, to Lyman, Peter, et. al., “How Much Information, 2000”, http://www.sims.berkelev.edu/how-much-info).
Key technologies in the content management market include document management, web content management, digital asset management, and records management. Typical users of content management are in document-heavy industries in which document management is essential, often for regulatory or compliance reasons. Content comprises many different forms of unstructured data requiring management: business documents, dynamic web content, records management, and rich media. Business documents comprise contracts, invoices, forms, and e-mail. Business documents, for example, facilitate internal back-office processes and enable direct external communication with customers, partners, and suppliers. Dynamic web content comprises business data in relational databases and personalized information. Records management is typically driven by government and industry regulations to effectively document processes, audit trails, and data retention. Rich media comprises digital audio and video. Rich media is rapidly transforming areas of training, education, marketing, and customer relationship management in many industries.
Conventional document management applications are typically built on top of a document repository. Documents are typically indexed, ingested, and stored in the document repository to support query and retrieval. Indexing and any logic associated with the inbound and outbound document flow are hard coded as application specific logic. Examples of such application specific logic include e-mail notifications that accompany an inbound claims document, the addition of specific marketing collateral associated with invoice documents, etc.
The notion of relating document management with workflow has been prevalent for several decades and many document management systems incorporate this feature. One conventional method presents a tool that supports gathering together documents, adding metadata, and building new collections of libraries (reference is made to Bainbridge, D., et. al., “Assembling and Enriching Digital Library Collections”, In Proceedings of The Join Conference on Digital Libraries, 2003). The process of this conventional method involves selecting a document for inclusion, generating a suitable metadata set, assigning metadata to each document or group of documents, and designing the form of the collection in terms of document formats, searchable indexes, and browsing facilities. The process further involves building the necessary indexes and data structures and putting the collection in place for others to use. The tool of this conventional method is specific to a particular digital library but lends itself to more general contexts in the underlying ideas of this conventional approach.
Another conventional method utilizes a workflow language named exchangeable routing language (XRL) for supporting cross-organizational processes (reference is made to van der Aalst, W. M. P, et. al., “XRL/Woflan: Verification and Extensibility of an XML/Petri-net Based Language for Inter-organizational Workflows”, In Proceedings of the 6th INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technology, 2001). XRL also uses XML for the representation of process definitions and Petri nets for semantics purposes. XRL is instance-based; consequently, workflow definitions can be changed “on the fly” and sent across organizational boundaries. Although this technology has proven to be useful, it would be desirable to present additional improvements. The features of XRL make cross-organizational workflows susceptible to errors.
This conventional method also uses XRL/Woflan, a software tool using Petri-net analysis techniques for verifying XRL workflows. This tool uses extensible style language transformations (XLST) to translate SRL specifications to a specific class of Petri nets called workflow nets. The Petri-net representation is used to determine whether the workflow is correct. If the workflow is not correct, anomalies such as deadlocks and livelocks are reported.
Another conventional approach utilizes a systematic layered modeling approach (reference is made to Sadiq, W., “On Capturing Process Requirements of Workflow Based Business Information Systems”, In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Business Information Systems, 1999). This approach splits workflow specification into five basic dimensions: structure, data, execution, temporal, and transactional and introduces a graphical language for workflow modeling.
Yet another conventional method presents tools and methods to address problems in integrated document and workflow management with a case study involving offer processing for a machine tool company (reference is made to Morschheuser, S., et. al., “Integrated document and workflow management applied to the offer processing of a machine tool company”, In Proceedings of Conference on Organizational Computing Systems, 1995). This conventional method is a process definition language designed to make a document-oriented tool with a workflow engine more efficient.
Another conventional approach utilizes an idea of active document properties to document management applications (reference is made to Dourish, P., et al., “Extending document management systems with user-specific active properties”, In ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), Volume 18 Issue 2, 2000). This conventional approach avoids traditional hierarchical storage mechanisms, reflects document categorizations meaningful to user tasks, and provides a means to integrate the perspectives of one or more individuals within a uniform interaction framework. Property-based document management systems are augmented with the notion of active properties that carry executable code to enable the provision of document-based services on a property infrastructure.
Yet another conventional system captures essentially freely structured documents such as those typically used in the office domain (reference is made to Mattos, N. M., et. al., “An approach to integrated office document processing and management”, In ACM SIGOIS Bulletin, Proceedings of the Conference on Office Information Systems, Volume 11 Issue 2-3, 1990). This conventional system facilitates the handling of containing information. Analyzed documents are stored in a document management system that is connected to several different subsequent services and serves as rudimentary workflow.
A further conventional system uses the Eclipse platform to create customized perspectives and views. The Eclipse platform provides a stable, full-featured base layer on which custom tools can be created. An information visualization tool has been integrated within this platform. A plug-in has also been developed for this platform for providing a visual integrated development environment for JasCo, a dynamic language focused at component-based software engineering to guide developers in programming JasCo artifacts using visual wizards.
Much of the research related to model-driven development has been performed in the context of easing runtime aspects of user-database interactions such as query expression, query result display, and navigation through the stored data. Collectively, these tasks are referenced as Visual Query Systems. In comparison, relatively little focus has been placed on the interface provided by the tools used to define and manipulate models for data and applications. Conventional database modeling products provide visual data modeling profiles that integrate into a broader software development cycle.
The lifestyle of conventional document management applications typically comprises a set of loosely coupled subsystems that provide capture, index, search, workflow, fulfillment, and archival features. However, there currently exists no standard model or platform for composing these elements together to instantiate a compete application. Consequently, each application incorporates custom application code to provide linkages between each of the loosely coupled subsystems.
What is therefore needed is a system, a computer program product, and an associated method for defining and generating dynamic document management applications for use in a document management system. The need for such a solution has heretofore remained unsatisfied. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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FIG. 7 shows an external view structure of a conventional food fryer, and FIG. 8 shows a sectional view of an oil layer area and a water layer area in the conventional food fryer: 1 is the oil layer area for storing food frying oil; 2 is the water layer area; 3 is a heat source such as a heating burner; 4 is an air cooling tube formed by a means such as welding on the outer wall of the oil layer area 1; 10 is bits of fried batter; 11 is a water discharge cock; 12 is a net; 14 is an oil discharge cock; 15 is an adjusting wheel or a roller for adjusting a balance of the food fryer on a floor surface; 16 is an air outlet; 17 is a thermostat for controlling the heat source 3.
Now, oil and water in the food fryer are respectively separated into the oil layer area 1 and the water layer area 2 due to the difference in specific gravity thereof, where the oil is heated by the heat source 3 to fry meat, fish, vegetables, etc.
The cooling means such as the air cooling tube 4 provided below the heat source 3 insulates thermal conduction caused through the heated oil at a high temperature and by bits of fried batter settled down in the water during frying work so as to control oxidation of the oil and an increase of the water temperature, furthermore to avoid steam bubbles on the oil surface, which may bring difficulties in frying operation.
According to the conventional food fryer as described above, the temperature of the oil therein is usually heated up about 200 □ during the frying operation. And we must hence cool down the oil prior to cleaning the food fryer after the frying work. Furthermore, it is necessary to store the oil in a separate container and then to put it back to the food fryer, if the same oil is to be used repeatedly. In this way, it is not easy to handle the conventional food fryer.
In order to solve the problem of displacing the oil at this food fryer cleaning as described above, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,266 the inventor of this application disclosed a food fryer having an oil storage tank provided with each cock at its upper position and its lower position.
A preparation step in the above U.S. Patent for cleaning the oil layer area and the water layer area out the oil storage tank of the food fryer is explained hereafter as one example. It is optional whether water is to be put into the oil storage tank prior to frying anything or not: in this example the oil storage tank of the food fryer is filled with water by user's operation of closing the lower cock and simultaneously opening the upper cock, and closing the upper cock thereafter.
The preparation steps for cleaning are as follows. (1) first, opening the lower cock of the oil storage tank to discharge water therein so as to being empty the tank and then closing the lower cock, (2) second, opening the upper cock of the oil storage tank to fully move oil in the oil layer area to this tank, thereafter closing the upper cock, (3) finally, opening a water discharge cock formed at the lowest end of the water layer area to drain water in the water layer area out.
The food fryer after this preparation is put in steady state: the oil storage tank contains the oil, with both the upper cock and the lower cock closed; the oil layer area and the water layer area except the oil storage tank are in empty and these areas are in space coupled to outside of the food fryer through the water discharge cock; thereby capable of cleaning both the layers outside the oil storage tank.
After the layers are cleaned, the water discharge cock is to be closed and the upper cock of the oil storage tank is to be opened, where the oil in the oil storage would flow out by merely pouring water into the food fryer due to a difference in gravity between oil and water. This state is just ready for another food frying work.
The food fryer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,266 is good in use for improving the efficiency of the food frying operation.
And this food fryer has room for further improvement in product cost, assembling labor and handling performance of it because the oil storage tank comprises two cocks, the upper cock and the lower clock.
The object according to the invention is to reduce the cost and the labor for making the food fryer, and to improve frying and cleaning work by using an oil storage tank with an opening instead of the conventional upper cock, where an upper part of the opening is over its lower part and a lower cock of the oil storage tank is formed same as conventional. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Each end of a railway vehicle typically includes two wheel and axle assemblies journalled for rotation in bearings between a pair of laterally spaced side frame members. One end of each axle assembly is rotatably carried by a journal box mounted on one of the side frames. A laterally elongated bolster also extends between and is supported by the side frames. A body of the railway vehicle is supported on the bolster. Wheels are fit onto axles of each assembly so as to allow the railway vehicle to ride over rails or tracks between locations. Toward the inner sides thereof, each wheel is provided with a radial flange which operably engages one side of the respective rail or track to inhibit excessive lateral displacement of the trucks thus keeping the trucks and railway vehicle on the rails or tracks.
Rails and railbed conditions can be compromised due to weather, temperature changes and a myriad of other factors. Other serious hazards in railroad operations today involve wheel and bearing failures. When these failures occur and/or are encountered, the wheel and side frame member adjacent to the affected parts can drop off its rail toward the outside of the roadbed, often causing derailment not only of the railway vehicle in distress but also the railway vehicles coupled thereto and which follow. In many cases of derailments due to a broken rail or wheel/bearing failure, the rail and side frame components on the side opposite from the derailed wheel remain stable but drop off toward the inside of rail and toward the roadbed.
The damages resulting from a derailment can involve the train itself as well as the surrounding areas. Moreover, the extent of the damages can vary widely as a result of train behavior following a train derailment. The lateral spacing between the rails over which the railway vehicle travels is relatively narrow. In derailments in which the railway vehicle completely departs from the rails, and because of its momentum together with the pushing action of any coupled vehicles which follow, the railway vehicle can continue along its general path of travel and overturn upon itself causing significant damage to the surrounding area. Depending upon the commodity being transported in the railway vehicle, railway vehicle derailments can be detrimentally harmful to the surrounding environment.
As a result of physical constraints, as well as for cost and drainage purposes, many railbeds over which railway vehicles travel are relatively narrow and raised above the surrounding ground level with a sloping structure of rock ballast. This configuration places any derailed vehicle at a further risk of overturning upon itself as it leaves contact with the rails. In derailments in which the railway vehicle remains in close proximity to the rails, however, the railway vehicle often remains upright and the mishap frequently results in minimal damage.
In view of the above, and in accordance with the present invention disclosure, there is provided a cost effective system for inhibiting total derailment of the railway vehicle from the rails over which the railway vehicle is traveling. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The embodiments described herein relate generally to internal combustion engines and more specifically to rotary internal combustion engines. The embodiments described herein also relate generally to gas compressors and liquid pumps in the case where the engine has its shaft driven by an electric motor or engine.
Generally, piston engines are inefficient internal combustion engines. For example, gasoline piston engines have an efficiency of about 25%-35% and direct injection diesel engines may be about 40% efficient. To increase the efficiency and/or lower the mass of internal combustion engines, a variety of rotary internal combustion engines have been introduced. However, known rotary internal combustion engines lack sealing capabilities that maintain constant combustion chamber pressures over extended periods of use, fail to have optimal combustion burn resulting in high temperatures and poor fuel economy, produce lower than desired torque, and/or are limited in RPM due to cam follower mechanical configurations which float.
Generally, piston and scroll compressors and pumps are inefficient. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
A substantial body of evidence supports the relationship between 5-HT.sub.1c receptor modulation and a variety of diseases and conditions. The 5HT.sub.1c receptor has recently been designated as the 5HT.sub.2c receptor by researchers in this field. Hoyer, Pharmacological Reviews (draft document sanctioned by IUPHAR Receptor Nomenclature and Drug Classification Committee; Jul. 7, 1993). As used herein, the 5-HT.sub.1C receptor shall refer to the receptor now designated as 5HT.sub.2C.
The 5-HT.sub.1c receptor subtype was first detected in choroid plexus epithelial cells and is the only 5HT receptor subtype expressed by these cells. Studies of the 5-HT.sub.1c receptor using radioligand binding have been complex due to the cross reactivity of the 5-HT.sub.1c receptor with the 5-HT.sub.2 receptor. The discovery of selective, high affinity compounds which discriminate between 5-HT.sub.1c and 5-HT.sub.2 has been an elusive and important target. Hartig et al., The 5-HT.sub.1c Receptor Annals New York Academy of Science, 149, 159. Compounds with selective affinity for the 5-HT.sub.1c receptor can provide treatment for 5-HT.sub.1c -receptor-mediated conditions without the side effects associated with activity at the 5-HT.sub.2 receptor. Such compounds can simplify characterization of the 5-HT.sub.1c receptor and provide useful new therapeutic agents. In vitro, m-chlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP) has a slightly higher affinity for the 5-HT.sub.1c sites than for other 5-HT receptors; however, prior to the present invention, there have been no known 5-HT.sub.1c selective ligands.
The activation of the 5-HT.sub.1c receptor has been associated with numerous behavioral and physiological effects. TiPS, 11, 181 (May 1990). The 5HT.sub.1c receptors in the limbic system can affect mood, behavior, and hallucinogenesis. Hartig et al., The 5-HT.sub.1c Receptor Annals New York Academy of Science, 149, 159. Modulation of the 5HT.sub.1c receptors has been associated with schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorders. Ugedo, L. et. al. Psychopharmacology, 98, 45 (1989); Canton H. et. al. Eur. J. Pharmacol., 191, 93 (1990). Hypothalamic 5-HT.sub.1c receptors can influence sleep, appetite, thermoregulation, sexual behavior, motor activity, and neuroendocrine function. Hartig et al., The 5-HT.sub.1c Receptor Annals New York Academy of Science, 149, 159. Additionally, studies indicate that 5-HT.sub.1c receptors mediate hypoactivity, caused decreased feeding in rats, and have anxiogenic effects. Id. Studies have shown that drug-induced penile erections are 5-HT.sub.1c mediated. Psychopharmacology, 101, 57 (1990). Likewise, 5-HT.sub.1c modulation can treat or prevent priapism.
Other studies have used m-CPP to characterize responses associated with 5-HT.sub.1c receptors. Although responses to 5-HT.sub.1c are difficult to characterize by this method, the studies evince that 5-HT.sub.1c receptors influence the onset of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders, panic disorders, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and migraine headaches. TiPS 11, 181 (May 1990). The studies indicate that the 5-HT.sub.1c receptor can be involved in Alzheimer's disease as well. Id. The 5-HT.sub.1c receptor is involved in the modulation of the balance of cerebrospinal fluid. Further, the 5-HT.sub.1C receptor is associated with the sensation of pain. Zemlan, F. P. et al. Neurochem. Int., 16, 507 (1990).
Further, compounds having affinity and selectivity for the 5HT.sub.2A, 5HT.sub.2B, or 5HT.sub.2C receptor can be useful for treating a variety of conditions related to 5HT.sub.2A, 5HT.sub.2B, and 5HT.sub.2C modulation. For example, compounds useful for the modulation of the 5HT.sub.2B receptor are useful for treating patients suffering from or susceptible to a variety of conditions such as ichlasia, hypertonic lower esophageal sphinctor, tachygastria, hypermotility associated with irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, dyspepsia and/or other conditions associated with 5-HT.sub.2B modulation. Finally, modulation of the 5HT.sub.2A receptor has been associated with schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and migraines. Koek, W. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 16, 95-105 (1992).
It would be advantageous to have compounds which would permit modulation of the 5-HT.sub.1c, 5HT.sub.2A, and/or 5HT.sub.2B receptors. It would be particularly desirable to have compounds with high 5-HT.sub.1c receptor affinity and low 5-HT.sub.2 receptor affinity. It would be further advantageous to have compounds that minimize the effects of eating disorders, sexual disorders, and other disorders or conditions associated with 5-HT.sub.2A, 5-HT.sub.2B, and/or 5-HT.sub.1C modulation. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for cleaning an in-sink dishwasher having a removable basket that carries a spray arm.
2. Description of the Related Art
In-sink dishwashers use the bowl of a sink to form part of the dishwasher housing that defines a wash chamber, with the open top of the bowl providing access to the wash chamber. A liquid recirculation system sprays wash liquid throughout the wash chamber to clean any dishes placed within. A lid covers the open top of the bowl when the in-sink dishwasher is being used to prevent the splashing or spraying of the recirculating wash liquid out of the open top of the bowl.
For the in-sink dishwasher to be convenient for the anticipated user, conversion between the in-sink dishwasher and sink must be easy and simple. Such a convenient appliance will preferably not require the user to couple or uncouple any liquid supply conduits associated with the dishwasher function when switching between the dishwasher function and a traditional sink function. A convenient appliance will also minimize the number of dishwasher components that must be inserted or removed from the sink when switching between the dishwashing and sink functions.
The convenience of the appliance to the user must also be weighed against the complexity and redundancy of components needed to accomplish both the dishwashing and sink functions to avoid any unnecessary decrease in product reliability and any unnecessary increases in product costs. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the monitoring of devices connected to a network. More particularly, it relates to a method, system, and computer program product for the remote monitoring of network-connected devices using multiple protocols.
2. Discussion of the Background
As is generally known, computer systems include hardware and software. Software includes a list of instructions that are created to operate and manage hardware components that make up a computer system. Typically, computer systems include a variety of hardware components/devices that interface with one another. The computer system can be a stand-alone type or a networked type. In a networked-type computer system, a plurality of distinct devices are connected to a network and thus communication between these distinct devices is enabled via the network.
Further, software for operating the hardware devices must be configured in order to allow communication between the hardware devices so that the hardware devices are enabled to function cooperatively. Further, in order to facilitate such a communication, it is also desirable for hardware devices to be monitored and the status of each hardware device identified in order to ensure that each hardware device is functioning in an efficient manner.
For the purposes of this patent application, the inventor has determined that a hardware device that is controlling, configuring, or monitoring the plurality of distinct devices or hardware devices would be referred to as a monitoring device and the hardware devices that are being controlled, configured, or monitored by the monitoring device would be referred to as “monitored devices.”
For hardware devices that are located on a network, it is desirable for these devices to be monitored for maintenance, usage, or other purposes. However, in view of manufacturer differences relating to hardware devices and interfaces, it may be difficult for a monitoring device to communicate with various other devices connected to a network. Such a disadvantage most likely prevents network administrators from obtaining crucial information about the performance and efficiency of the devices connected to the network.
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is today a de-facto industry standard for the monitoring and management of devices on data communication networks, telecommunication systems and other globally reachable devices. Practically every organization dealing with computers and related devices expects to be able to centrally monitor, diagnose, and configure each such device across local- and wide-area networks. SNMP is the protocol that enables this interaction.
In order for a device to respond to SNMP requests, it is desirable to equip the device with the software that enables it to properly interpret an SNMP request, perform the actions required by that request, and produce an SNMP reply. The SNMP agent software is typically a subsystem software module residing in a network entity.
The collection of objects implemented by a system is generally referred to as a Management Information Base (MIB). An MIB may also be a database with information related to the monitoring of devices. Examples of other MIB's include Ethernet MIB, which focuses on Ethernet interfaces; Bridge MIB, which defines objects for the management of 802.1D bridges, to name a few.
Using SNMP for monitoring devices is difficult as private MIB's include values that are hard to decipher without a valid key. A company using SNMP for monitoring various devices connected to its network creates a unique identifier/key that is maintained as proprietary information of the company. For the most part, the results are displayed as binary or integer values. Thus, using SNMP, results received from the devices that are being monitored (“monitored devices”) fail to provide a user with the status of the monitored devices in a user comprehensible manner.
Further, using SNMP, it is difficult for one to obtain detailed information about a monitored device without a valid key or access to a private MIB to decipher the results obtained as binary or integer values. In addition, a given protocol (e.g., SNMP or HTTP/HTML) may fail for various reasons, such as time out or lost packets. Also, some information extracted from a given device using the multiple protocols may be duplicated for each protocol. Accordingly, if the extraction of data from the device is not properly managed in such situations, time and memory inefficiencies result since some protocols require more resources than other protocols. In addition, information extraction using some protocols may require much less processing and memory than using others. Furthermore, some information obtained through one protocol may be more useful for the monitoring device than the one obtained through another protocol. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
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