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included herein is a method of delivering pharmaceutical containers 12 and pharmaceutical caps 14 and 16 for the containers 12 to a pharmacy . the container 12 and caps 14 and 16 can be described as a pharmaceutical system 10 . the method includes providing at least one container 12 to hold pharmaceuticals , providing at least one non - child resistant cap 14 ( ncr cap ) shaped to removeably engage the container 12 , and providing at least one unattached child resistant element 16 , or child resistant cap 16 , ( cr element ) shaped to be permanently fixed to the ncr cap 14 . a method of selling pharmaceutical containers 12 and pharmaceutical caps , comprising 14 and 16 , for the containers 12 to a pharmacy is also taught . the method comprises selling a plurality of containers 12 shaped to hold pharmaceuticals , selling a plurality of non - child resistant caps 14 shaped to removably engage the containers 12 , and optionally selling a plurality of unattached child resistant elements 16 shaped to be permanently fixed to the non - child resistant caps 14 . the cr elements 16 are designed to be integrated with the ncr cap 14 and preferably include a design that lacks the capacity to be attached to the container 12 independent of the ncr cap 14 . the steps of providing or selling the plurality of unattached cr elements 16 is preferably based upon the use of those cr elements 16 by the pharmacy or pharmaceutical user . this use can be quantified by the fact that one of the ncr caps 14 is used with each container 12 while one of the cr elements 16 is optionally used based upon consumer driven demand . as such , the second quantity of cr elements 16 can be less than the first quantity of ncr caps 14 and containers 12 . for example , in one embodiment the quantity of cr elements 16 is approximately less than 50 % of the quantity of ncr caps 14 . in alternate embodiment , the second quantity of cr elements 16 is approximately less than 20 % of the first quantity of ncr caps 14 . additionally , a third quantity of cr elements 16 can be delivered subsequently to the delivery of the second quantity such that the third quantity of the cr elements 16 is less than the second quantity of cr elements 16 . these variances in quantities are facilitated by the option of a subsequent party , such as the pharmacy , pharmacist , pharmaceutical customer , medical prescription patient , and the like , to decide whether the pharmaceutical system 10 has child resistant capabilities . namely , an individual substantially unrelated to the manufacture of the pharmaceutical system 10 has the ability to decide whether the individual elements of pharmaceutical system 10 are assembled . this ability to decide facilitates the ability of a person or entity to establish post - manufacture , and more specifically , after the pharmaceutical system 10 leaves the manufacturer &# 39 ; s control , whether the pharmaceutical system 10 will have child resistant characteristics . alternately stated , at least the first user of the pharmaceutical system has the capability of deciding whether to assemble the child resistant element 16 with the non - child resistant cap 14 in order to make a pharmaceutical system 10 comprising a container 12 , non - child resistant cap 14 and child resistant element 16 . this combination would make the pharmaceutical system 10 child resistant . alternately , at least that first user of the pharmaceutical system can decide not to attach the child resistant element 16 to the non - child resistant cap 14 thus making the pharmaceutical system not possess child resistant characteristics and comprise the container 12 and the non - child resistant cap 14 without the child resistant element 16 . the current method is further enhanced by the fact that at least the first user of the pharmaceutical system 10 after manufactured control has been relinquished has the ability to determine the characteristics of the pharmaceutical system 10 . for example , a pharmacy can decide to preassemble ncr caps 14 on containers 12 and decide on an individual basis whether any of those preassembled combinations will have a child - resistant element 16 . additionally , the determination can be by the pharmaceutical patient who can choose not to have child resistant characteristics in their pharmaceutical system due to a lack of small children at their home that could be exposed to a potential health risk by the pharmaceuticals in the pharmaceutical system 10 or the inability to open a child resistant system . an advantage of the methods taught by this disclosure includes the fact that the pharmacy can reduce costs by only supplying a child resistant pharmaceutical system when desired by the ultimate consumer . this reduces the amount of overhead to the pharmacy , storage capacity need for the pharmaceutical systems , and the material amounts associated with each pharmaceutical system 10 , thereby reducing the overall costs to the pharmacy . additionally , an end user that has difficulty opening a child resistant pharmaceutical system can option to not have this characteristic . for example , this is very useful for pharmaceutical patients that suffer from arthritis in their hands , have other physical ailments that do not facilitate operating the child - resistant mechanisms on pharmaceutical systems , or otherwise do not need a system with child resistant characteristics . however , if a child resistant pharmaceutical system is desired , the child resistant element 16 is designed to be permanently fixed to the non - child resistant cap 14 . this reduces any unwanted shelling or removal of the child resistant element 16 from the non - child resistant cap 14 thereby facilitating the safe characteristics of a child resistant pharmaceutical system 10 and protecting at risk individuals from unwanted access to the pharmaceuticals contained therein . these inventive methods are facilitated by the construction of the pharmaceutical system 10 . in a preferred embodiment the ncr cap 14 , as exampled in fig5 a - 5f , includes an attachment device 18 , which can be a single thread , double thread , one or more beads , or other similar attachment methods known in the art . the attachment device 18 interacts with the fastener 20 on the container 12 in conventional manners to secure the ncr cap 14 to the container 12 . the bottom 22 of ncr cap 14 can rest on the angular ring 24 on the neck 26 of the container 12 . alternately , and more preferably , the bottom 22 can be suspended above the angular ring 24 by the attachment device 18 and the fastener 20 . the ncr cap 14 can include a gripping element 28 , such as knurlments , to provide a gripping surface for opening the ncr cap 14 . the child resistant element 16 is exampled in fig4 a - 4g . the cr element 16 can include gripping elements 30 , which can also be described as knurlments , used to facilitate the rotation of the cr element 16 . additionally , indicia 32 can be printed on the top surface 34 of the cr element 16 , wherein the indicia give instructions on how to open the cr element 16 . the cr element 16 is shown in the figures having an open top 34 , but alternately can have a solid top not allowing view of the ncr cap 14 . the rim 36 shown in fig4 a - 4f can be used to cover indicia on the ncr cap 14 . those indicia on the ncr cap 14 can include such warnings as “ caution not child resistant .” the rim 36 can be designed to cover the indicia on the ncr cap 14 . the top 34 , if solid , can cover any indicia on the ncr cap 14 when the cr element 16 and ncr cap 14 are attached . the cr element 16 includes at least one protrusion 38 , which can be described as an internal tab , engaging the bottom 22 of the ncr cap 14 . the internal tabs 38 are angled and include a substantially flat surface 40 that engages the bottom 22 of the ncr cap 14 to fix the cr element 16 to the ncr cap 14 . in a preferred embodiment there are four internal tabs 38 spaced around the internal wall 42 of the cr element 16 . the angled portion 39 of the tabs 38 facilitates the cr element 16 traversing the external wall ( referring to wall with knurlments 28 thereon ) of the ncr cap 14 . the height of the ncr cap 14 can be less than the distance from the flat surface 40 to the top 34 . this spatial configuration facilitates the selective engagement of teeth 46 positioned near the engagement between the internal wall 42 and top 34 of the cr element 16 . the teeth 46 interact with corresponding teeth 48 on the ncr cap 14 . the teeth 48 of the ncr cap 14 are positioned opposite the bottom 22 and near the top 50 of the ncr cap 14 . the teeth 48 can be an extension of the knurlments 28 , or can be separate items on the ncr cap 14 . in operation , since the height of the ncr cap 14 is less than the distance between the flat surface 40 and the teeth 46 of the cr element 16 , simply trying to turn the cr element 16 without a depressive force will facilitate a traversing motion of the teeth 46 across the teeth 48 . without pressure applied in a downward direction on the cr element 16 , the teeth 46 cr element 16 will not engage the teeth 48 on the ncr cap 14 . as such the ncr cap 14 , which is attached to the container will not rotate and open . however , when the downward pressure is applied to the cr element 16 the teeth 46 engage the teeth 48 of the ncr cap 14 to rotate and become disengaged from the container 12 to allow access to the pharmaceuticals therein . an advantage of this current system is the fact that the conversion of a pharmaceutical system 10 from a system having non - child resistant characteristics to a system having child resistant characteristics does not require the replacement of parts within the pharmaceutical system 10 . the current disclosure teaches that the selective addition of a child resistant cap that can be affixed to a non - child resistant cap adds to the pharmaceutical system a child resistant characteristic . thus , although there have been described particular embodiments of the present invention of a new and useful an optionally attachable , permanently fixed two piece container cap , it is not intended that such references be construed as limitations upon the scope of this invention except as set forth in the following claims . | 1 |
detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein ; however , it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely illustrative of the invention that may be embodied in various forms . in addition , each of the examples given in connection with the various embodiments of the invention are intended to be illustrative , and not restrictive . further , the figures are not necessarily to scale , some features may be exaggerated to show details of particular components . therefore , specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting , but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention . referring now to fig1 and 2 , it is seen that the shield 101 may incorporate one or more light sources 103 a , 103 b , a power source ( in this example , the batteries inside of the handle 105 ), and at least one control mechanism ( in this example , each end of the handle 105 may have a switch 107 a , 107 b ( e . g ., a pressure thumb pad switch ) to control the light source ( s )). in one example , an additional handle or strap 109 may be provided as well as a view port 111 . of course , any desired number of light source ( s ), power source ( s ), control mechanism ( s ), handle ( s )/ strap ( s ) and / or view port ( s ) may be utilized . as seen , in this example the handle 105 may be a tube - like sealed ( or , in another example , re - sealable ) container . in one specific example , the handle 105 may house four 3 volt lithium batteries ( in one example , the batteries may be replaceable ). in another specific example , the handle 105 may be 6½ inches long . in another specific example , the handle 105 may be capable of being retrofitted to the m . u . s . t . shield from first choice armor . in another specific example , the handle 105 may have a diameter of a minimum of 1 ″. in another specific example , there may be a minimum of 1 ″ overlap on both ends of the handle 105 . in another specific example , the handle may have a circular cross - section ( or any other desired shape ). in another example , one or more threaded bolts ( and / or one or more flashlight heads / lenses / caps ) may be utilized ( in one specific example , the threaded bolt may be a 1 ″ threaded bolt ). in another example , a 1 ″- 2 ″ flashlight head / lens / cap may accommodate the 1 ″ threaded bolt system ( e . g ., the threaded bolt may extend through an aperture in the flashlight head / lens / cap ). in another example , the lighting mechanism may be essentially electrically conductive to accommodate the tube - like handle system . in one specific example , the tube - like handle system may have a thumb pressure pad switch on one or both sides . in another example , the flashlight head / lens / cap may extend a minimum of 1 ″ from the view port cover . in one specific example , the flashlight head / lens / cap may have jagged edges ( e . g ., at a front or free end ). in another example , the light intensity may be a minimum of 80 lumens . in another example , each of the light source ( s ) may be a xenon and / or led type light source . in another example , each of the light source ( s ) may have strobe capacity . in one specific example , the strobe frequency may be selected to cause ( or tend to cause ) blindness ( either full or partial and either temporary or permanent ). in one example , the light power ( e . g ., measured in lumens ) may be selected to cause ( or tend to cause ) blindness ( either full or partial and either temporary or permanent ). in another example , the position of the light source ( s ) and / or flashlight head ( s )/ lens ( es )/ cap ( s ) may be essentially center of mass ( thus providing greater protection for the operator ). in another example , there may be no through hole through the shield for the light source ( s ). for example , the light source ( s ) may be mounted to the front of the shield , the handle ( including power source and one or more switches ) may be mounted to the rear of the shield , and the light source ( s ) may be powered and controlled through conductive elements formed as part of the shield ( either integrally formed or added , such as via one or more inserts ( e . g ., one or more threaded bolts , one or more rods , or the like )). see , for example , fig3 and 4 , showing conductive elements 201 a , 201 b , 203 a , 203 b , which may form circuits to conduct electricity from the batteries in handle 105 to the light sources 103 a , 103 b . of course , these figs . are provided as an example only , and any desired circuit configuration may be utilized . as shown and described herein , various embodiments of the present invention may provide for one or more of : a lightweight shield . in one example , the light system may add only about 1 pound . in another example , the light system may be utilized in conjunction with the m . u . s . t . shield from first choice armor so that total shield weight is about 15 pounds . a user - friendly handle ( e . g ., for right and / or left hand hold ). a configuration minimizing the chances of the user losing grip while activating the light source ( s ). a user - friendly configuration with regard to the use of weapons ( e . g ., handgun , rifle , submachine gun ): in various examples , such weapons may be used from the following positions : in various examples , such weapons may be manipulated from simple magazine exchanges to class three malfunctions with two hands . use of common batteries that are easy to replace ( e . g ., 3 volt lithium batteries ). use of flashlight head ( s )/ lens ( es )/ cap ( s ) with jagged edges that can be utilized , for example , as follows : as an offensive weapon to protect the view port ( e . g ., essentially transparent view port ) from scratches ( the view port may be provided to give the user increased visibility ) as shown and described herein , various embodiments of the present invention may provide a m . u . s . t . shield from first choice armor having a lighting system . in this regard , such a m . u . s . t . shield from first choice armor having a lighting system may be deployed ( for example ) into numerous patrol and / or tactical applications and may provide one or more of the following : light weight mobility simple pressure pad switch for right or left hand hold blinding lumens disorientation of people by using strobe light ( s ) directional lighting for deployment in another example , the threaded bolt ( s ) may be used as an offensive weapon . in another example , one or more spikes or the like ( e . g ., threaded spikes ) may be used in place of ( or in addition to ) the threaded bolt ( s ) as an offensive weapon . in another example , various embodiments of the present invention may be applied to the m . u . s . t . shield from first choice armor . in another example , the shield may comprise : polycarbonate , lexan , plastic , kevlar , boron carbide , silicon carbide , silicon nitride , aluminum oxide , alumina ceramic , titanium diboride , reinforced fiberglass composite , reinforced fiber and polymer resin composite , and / or combinations and / or mixtures of such materials . in another example , the shield may be made of a strong material ( e . g ., level iiia ballistic material ), so as to provide frontal protection to the user . in another example , one or more level iv ballistic inserts may be attached ( e . g ., releasably attached ) to the shield . in another example , the shield may be configured to stand unattended ( e . g ., be deployed on the ground as a fixed barrier to mitigate direct fire and / or ricochets ) in another example , the shield may be adapted for use by military , law enforcement , school , fire , and / or rescue personnel . specific uses for the shield may include ( but not be limited to ): active shooter response , dynamic entries , covert searches , officer and victim rescues , hazardous suspect and vehicle approaches , and crowd control . in other examples , any desired combination of one or more threaded bolts , one or more threaded spikes , one or more flashlight heads / lenses / caps , etc . may be used ( e . g ., in connection with one or more light sources ). in another embodiment of the present invention , a shield ( see , e . g ., shield 101 of fig1 - 4 ), wherein the shield has at least one light source ( see , e . g ., light sources 103 a , 103 b of fig1 - 4 ) powered by at least one battery is provided , comprising : a shield body , the shield body having an inside surface ( see , e . g ., inside surface “ i ” of fig2 - 4 ) generally facing a user of the shield when the shield is held by the user and an outside surface ( see , e . g ., outside surface “ o ” of fig1 , and 3 - 4 ) generally facing away from the user of the shield when the shield is held by the user ; and at least one handle ( see , e . g ., handle 105 of fig2 - 4 ); wherein the at least one light source is disposed to project light from the outside surface in a direction generally away from the inside surface ( see , e . g ., arrow “ away ” of fig3 - 4 ); wherein the handle comprises an elongated structure having a first end and a second end ; wherein the handle is configured to receive therein the at least one battery for powering the at least one light source ; wherein a first control mechanism is disposed at the first end of the elongated structure ( see , e . g ., switch 107 a of fig2 and 4 ); wherein a second control mechanism is disposed at the second end of the elongated structure ( see , e . g ., switch 107 b of fig2 and 4 ); and wherein the light source is operatively connected to the at least one battery , the first control mechanism and the second control mechanism such that the light source may be powered by the at least one battery and controlled by each of the first control mechanism and the second control mechanism . in one example , the light source may be operatively connected to the battery , the first control mechanism and the second control mechanism through one or more conductive paths . in another example , each of the first control mechanism and the second control mechanism may control the same light in an independent manner . in another example , having the first control mechanism and the second control mechanism may provide for easy use by a right - handed or left - handed user ( e . g ., one control mechanism may be positioned to be operable by a right hand of a user ( e . g ., the user &# 39 ; s thumb ) and the other control mechanism may be positioned to be operable by a left hand of a user ( e . g ., the user &# 39 ; s thumb )). in another example , the light source may extend out from the outside surface ( see , e . g ., outside surface “ o ” of fig1 and 3 - 4 ) in a direction generally away ( see , e . g ., arrow “ away ”) from the inside surface “ i ” ( see , e . g ., inside surface “ i ” of fig2 - 4 ). in another example , a free end of the light source may comprise at least one jagged edge . in another example , the free end of the light source may comprise a plurality of jagged edges . in another example , the shield may comprise a plurality of light sources . in another example , each of the plurality of light sources may extend out from the outside surface in a direction generally away from the inside surface . in another example , a free end of each of the light sources may comprise at least one jagged edge . in another example , the free end of each of the light sources may comprise a plurality of jagged edges . in another example , the first control mechanism may comprise a first switch and the second control mechanism may comprise a second switch . in another example , the handle may be configured to receive therein a plurality of batteries for powering the at least one light source . in another example , the at least one light source may be configured to provide strobe lighting . in another example , the shield may further comprise a fastening element ( see , e . g ., fastening element 201 of fig2 ) provided on the inside surface ( see , e . g ., inside surface “ i ” of fig2 - 4 ) to permit attachment of at least one accessory . in another example , the fastening element may be a hook and loop fastening combination . in another example , a plurality of fastening elements may be used . in another example , the fastening element ( s ) may be placed anywhere desired on the shield ( e . g ., at a center of mass to provide extra protection to the user ). in another example , the at least one accessory may be selected from the group consisting of ( but not limited to ): a gun holster , a utility bag , a forearm pad , a laser , a taser , a light illuminator , a trauma kit , a magazine pouch , a night vision device , and a ballistic plate insert . in another example , the shield may comprise level iiia ballistic material . in another example , the shield may further comprise a viewport ( see , e . g ., viewport 111 ) to provide the user with visibility therethrough . in one example , the viewport may comprise a substantially transparent material . in another example , the viewport may comprise a material resistant to bullets and the like . of course , any embodiment / example described herein ( or any feature or features of any embodiment / example described herein ) may be combined with any other embodiment / example described herein ( or any feature or features of any such other embodiment / example described herein ). while a number of embodiments of the present invention have been described , it is understood that these embodiments are illustrative only , and not restrictive , and that many modifications may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art . for example , while the shield of the present invention has been described principally as bullet or shrapnel resistant , the shield may also ( or instead ) be designed to be resistant to sharp and / or blunt weapons ( e . g ., knives , clubs , etc .). further , a shield according to the present invention may be designed such that certain components are reusable . further still , shields of the present invention may comprise any desired materials ( e . g ., aramid fiber ; nylon ; rayon ; cotton , and / or ceramic ). further still , lower “ shelf ” areas at the upper right and left of the shield ( see , e . g ., “ a ” and “ b ” of fig1 and 2 ) may be configured to support the barrel of a handgun , rifle or other weapon ( in this regard , a “ shelf ” may have one or more indentations or other features to hold and / or steady a barrel of a weapon ). further still , any desired number of light source ( s ), switch ( es ), flashlight head ( s )/ lens ( es )/ cap ( s ), threaded bolt ( s ), threaded spike ( s ), or the like may be used . further still , any steps may be performed in any desired order ( and any desired steps may be added and / or any desired steps may be deleted ). | 5 |
fig1 shows a view of a partial region of a centrifugal drum 1 , which is rotatable about a rotational axis d , of a continuously operable separator . the drum 1 includes a plate package 2 that includes a plurality of plates 3 . the drum 1 is disposed concentrically to the machine axis or rotational axis d . the centrifugal drum shown in fig1 is configured to be internally double - conical . the plates 3 have a conical shape , are stacked axially one above the other , and are spaced apart from one another by spacers , for example , tabs ( not shown ). the plate package 2 is held on a distributor shaft 4 of a distributor 5 which is provided on its external circumference with radially outwardly projecting webs ( not shown ) which on the internal circumference of the plates 3 engage therein . the plate package 2 has rising channels 6 which include holes in the plates 3 located directly above one another and extending over the entire height of the plate package 2 . an admission tube 7 located concentrically to the machine axis d allows the admission of material to be centrifuged , for example , from above into the centrifugal drum 1 and there through the distributor shaft 4 and distributor channels 8 formed below the plate package 2 in the distributor 5 into the plate package 2 , for example , in the area of the rising channel 6 or at another point . the actual clarification of the product to be processed from solids , for example , for sterilization and / or a separation of the product into different liquid phases which are then led off from the centrifugal drum 1 through one or more discharge lines 9 , possibly to different diameters , for example , through skimming disks ( not shown ) and solid removal openings 10 , then takes place continuously in the centrifugal drum 1 . a piston slider 11 is located upstream of the solid removal openings 10 , which slider 11 is movable vertically and by which slider 11 the solid removal openings 10 can be opened and closed . of particular interest is the structure of the admission region from the admission tube 7 , which is stationary in operation , into the distributor 5 , which rotates during operation , for example , from the system which does not rotate during operation into the system which rotates during operation . a product supplied through the admission tube 7 initially enters from the admission tube 7 into an admission chamber 12 at the center of the distributor shaft 4 , where the free lower outlet of the admission tube 7 extends as far as below the upper edge of the admission chamber 12 . the distributor channels 8 begin in the peripheral wall 13 of the admission tube 7 . the admission chamber 12 is configured , as shown in fig1 , in such a manner that a rib body 14 , including one or more ribs 15 , can be inserted therein . the rib body 14 is connected in a torque - proof manner to the centrifugal drum 1 , or , in accordance with the present disclosure , may be connected to the distributor 5 . as an example , two different rib bodes 14 are shown in fig3 and 4 . the rib bodies 14 each include a base section 16 . this base section 16 is , for example , configured as a circumferentially closed ring section . as shown in fig3 and 4 , the annular base sections 16 are configured to be flat so that in the built - in state they extend perpendicularly to the rotational axis d . in fig1 , the base section 16 extends vertically . in fig2 , on the other hand , the base section 16 is configured to be conical . the base sections 16 are connected to the rotating system , for example , to the distributor 5 in a torque - proof manner . the shape of the base section 16 , for example , corresponds to the shaping of the distributor 5 in a corresponding abutment or contact area . from the annular base section 16 , the ribs 15 project vertically upright and in the built - in state , they are also aligned vertically upright . the base sections 16 shown in the embodiments of fig3 and 4 are , for example , aligned vertically downwards so that the ribs 15 project vertically upwards into the admission chamber 12 . the ribs 15 of the embodiments , according to the present disclosure , are formed in one piece with the base section 16 and project vertically from the one axial side thereof . the ribs 15 are configured to be distributed circumferentially on the base body 16 . the radial length of the ribs 15 , for example , corresponds at least to the vertical height of the inlet openings 17 into the distributor channels 8 . according to an embodiment of the present disclosure , the ribs 15 are aligned radially to the rotational axis d ( see fig3 , fig4 ). however , — the ribs 15 may be aligned at an angle to the radial direction ( see fig2 ). the rib body 14 is inserted or built into the annular chamber 12 . a bore - like inlet opening 17 , from the admission chamber 12 into the admission boreholes or channels 8 , is formed in the direction of rotation , for example , clockwise , directly behind each of the ribs 15 and radially outside the ribs 15 . the ribs 15 are located radially on the inside with respect to the inlet openings 17 . it is advantageous , according to the present disclosure , that the rib body 14 as a whole or as a single element may be set extremely simply in the admission chamber 12 when assembling the centrifugal drum 1 , where it is fixed in a torque - proof manner on the distributor 5 , which can be accomplished , for example , by fastening with , for example , screws , in a bayonet - like manner , welding or the like . as a result of the vertical and radial alignment or inclined alignment of the ribs 15 in an angular range between ± 50 ° to a radial running from a center of base body 16 radially outwards , the product emerging from the admission tube 7 is accelerated to the rotational speed of the centrifugal drum 1 and fed in a gentle manner into the admission channels 8 of the distributor 5 . in addition , the admission chamber 12 is configured in such a manner that , during operation , a pressure increase is established in the admission chamber 12 , as compared with an embodiment of the present disclosure without the rib body 14 . in the embodiment of fig1 , this is achieved by the admission tube 7 having a disk section 18 , for example , a hydrodisk , which may be formed at the vertically lower end of the admission tube 7 where it extends from the admission tube 7 perpendicular to the rotational axis d or at right angles to the axial direction of the admission tube 7 outwards as far as in front of the inner peripheral wall of the distributor 5 . a remaining gap may be smaller than 10 mm , or , may be smaller than 7 mm . a radially inward projecting attachment 24 on the upper end of the distributor 5 forms an additional closure radially upwards during operation . in tests it has been shown that the admission pressure can be reduced , by installing the rib body 14 , for example , by 0 . 5 bar at 80 000 l / h admission capacity . the admission capacity can be increased accordingly . a structure similar to fig1 is shown in fig2 , but the ribs 15 shown in fig2 are not aligned radially but inclined obliquely to the radial so that the ribs 15 enclose an angle with the respective radials . in addition , in fig2 the base section 16 is conically shaped so that it can be placed on a corresponding conical section 19 of the distributor 5 , where the ribs 15 extending vertically upwards from the base section 16 and also follow the conical shape of the base section 16 . the admission chamber 12 , according to fig2 , is also formed conically , at least in the region in which the ribs 15 are formed . an axial tube section 20 of the distributor 5 extends above the admission chamber 12 . in an embodiment according to the present disclosure , tube section 20 is configured to be slightly conical in its upper vertical region in which the admission tube 7 ends and cylindrical in the adjoining lower region where the diameter in this region may correspond to the diameter of the admission tube 7 . in the conical region , the inside diameter may not be more than 10 mm , or not more than 7 mm , larger than the outside diameter of the admission tube 7 . the admission tube 7 in turn extends axially into an intake region of the distributor 5 . the admission tube 7 is surrounded by a disk section 18 . this disk section 18 may however , not be formed at the free axial end of the admission tube 7 but at a little distance from its axial end . the disk section 18 extends radially into an annular chamber 21 which extends vertically above and below the disk section 18 and radially inwards over the outer circumference of the disk section 18 . the annular chamber 21 vertically adjoins the tube section 20 of the distributor 5 . in a further embodiment according to the present disclosure , ribs 23 , which may be aligned partially radially , are formed on the upper edge of the annular chamber 21 on a ring 25 connected to the distributor 5 in a torque - proof manner during operation or connected to another machine part which rotates during operation . the ribs 23 entrain the material to be centrifuged in the annular chamber 21 in the circumferential direction during operation and thereby contribute to the fact that a radial liquid level can form in the annular chamber 21 . in turn , vertical ribs 22 may be formed on the disk section 18 . during operation , a liquid ring is formed outside in the annular chamber 18 which closes the admission region or tube 7 vertically towards the bottom . in combination with rib body 14 in the admission region or tube 7 , the admission pressure can in turn be reduced and the admission capacity increased . in addition , the risk of contamination of the admission region or tube 7 of the centrifugal drum 1 is particularly low . although the present disclosure has been described and illustrated in detail , it is to be clearly understood that this is done by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation . the scope of the present disclosure is to be limited only by the terms of the appended claims . | 1 |
referring now to fig1 there is shown a data reduction system constructed according to a first embodiment of the present invention . the data reduction system generally comprises a microcomputer 10 and a recording - playback apparatus 20 . the apparatus 20 may comprise a tape recording - playback section and a control board 20a having manual controls by which command signals are fed to the microcomputer 10 . a voice signal from a microphone 1 or any other source is applied to a low - pass filter 2 where the frequencies higher than 4000 hz are suppressed . the output of the low - pass filter 2 is fed to an analog - to - digital converter or pcm encoder 3 which is synchronized with a clock supplied from a time base 4 which forms part of the microcomputer 10 . the ad converter 3 samples the signal at intervals ts , fig2 or at a frequency of 8000 hz and converts the sampled value into a digital sample having an 8 - bit code . as will be detailed hereinbelow , the microcomputer 10 is programmed to receive the digitized signal at clock intervals and load it into a buffer memory m1 having a memory capacity of 512 bytes which forms part of the microcomputer and samples the stored digitized signal at longer intervals than ts , determined by the programmed instructions , for transfer to a read - write memory m2 to reduce the quantity of the data bits to be supplied to the recording - playback apparatus or external memory 20 . the read - write memory m2 having a capacity of 64 kilobytes stores the sampled digital signals prior to further transfer to the apparatus 20 . during playback modes , digital signal from the apparatus 20 is fed to the read - write memory m2 at clock intervals and thence to a digital - to - analog converter or pcm decoder 5 which is clocked by the time base 4 . the output of the da converter 5 is an analog representation of the data sample and coupled to an interpolator 6 . the interpolator 6 provides interpolation between successive analog samples . the interpolated analog signal is further processed by a low - pass filter 7 and delivered to a loudspeaker 8 . the control board includes switches r , p and e . the switch r is operated to initiate recording operation , the switch p is used to initiate playback operation , and the switch e to terminate either of the recording and playback operations . when switch r is operated , a clock signal is supplied to the ad converter 3 and the microcomputer 10 initiates the programmed instructions . according to a first embodiment of the invention , the microcomputer 10 is programmed to perform the steps as described in various blocks of fig3 a and 3b . these steps are interrupted at periodic clock intervals by an interrupt subroutine 100 to read digital samples from the ad converter 3 into the buffer memory m1 . the program begins with a block 101 when the switch r is operated by resetting a data set counter d . in block 102 , an 8 - bit zero - crosspoint interval counter t and a sampling counter s of the microcomputer 10 are reset to zero . the zero - crossing interval counter t is used to measure the interval between successive zero crossover points of the input analog signal . a digital sample is read from a 512 - byte buffer memory m1 in block 103 . the counter t is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in response to the reading of each digital sample from the memory m1 , block 104 . the zero crossing interval t is measured by a program loop formed by block 105 in which the digital sample just read from memory m1 is checked to see if there is a change in sign bit indicating the occurrence of a zero crosspoint and if not , the program returns to block 103 to read the next digital sample from the memory m1 , further incrementing the counter t . this process is continued until a zero crosspoint is detected in block 105 . the program now enters a block 106 to determine sampling points for transferring digital samples a 1 , a 2 , . . . a n - 1 from memory m1 to memory m2 . in block 106 the count value t , which is representative of the zero crossing interval from time t 0 to t n ( see fig2 ), is divided into n segments ( where n is an integer greater than unity ) and multiplied by integers from 1 to ( n - 1 ) to generate a series of sampling data t 1 (= t / n ), t 2 (= 2t / n ), . . . t n - 1 (=( n - 1 ) t / n ). a digital sample having an analog value a r ( r = 1 , 2 , . . . n - 1 ) is addressed by a corresponding sampling data t r and read out of memory m1 as stated in block 107 . the sampling counter s is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in block 108 and its count value is checked in block 109 if it corresponds to n - 1 , and if not , the program returns to block 107 to read the next digital sample a r + 1 . this process is repeated until digital samples a 1 to a n - 1 are read out of memory m1 . these digital samples and the sampling code t 1 are paired to form data sets ( a 1 , t 1 ; a 2 , t 1 ; . . . a n - 1 , t 1 ) and loaded into the read - write memory m2 , block 110 . the 15 - bit data set counter d is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in block 111 in response to the loading of each data set to count the total number of data sets stored in memory m2 . it is seen that there is a predetermined constant number of digital samples for each of the zero crossing intervals t while the latter interval may vary from instant to instant and the number of samples transferred to memory m2 is much smaller than the total number of digital samples stored in memory m1 . the data set counter d is checked in block 112 to see if it has a full count , and if not , the program returns to block 103 to read the next 1 - byte from the memory m1 . when a full count is reached in the counter d , all the data stored in memory m2 are transferred to the external memory 20 ( block 113 ). the recording mode is terminated by operating a stop switch e , this condition being detected in block 114 . playback mode is initiated by operation of a switch p on the control board 20a . when this occurs , the program shown in fig4 a begins with a block 201 in which the data - set counter d is reset to zero . the apparatus 20 is clocked to transfer the recorded data sets a r and t r from the storage medium to the read - write memory m2 at the same rate as they are recorded . this is done by an interrupt routine 200 . the digital samples and corresponding sampling data , now loaded into the memory m2 , are addressed sequentially and transferred to the da converters dac1 and dac2 , respectively , by having the microcomputer 10 execute blocks 202 to 206 . in block 202 , the sampling counter s is reset to zero . a digital sample a r is read from memory m2 and an amplitude difference δar between ar + 1 and ar is obtained and transferred to d / a converter dac1 ( block 203 ). sampling code t 1 is transferred from memory m28 to d / a converter dac2 . sampling counter s is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; block 205 . the counter s is checked in block 206 to see if it is filled to an n - 1 count . blocks 203 to 206 are repeated until s = n - 1 . when s = n - 1 , the program exits to a block 207 to increment the data set counter d by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;, and if not , it returns to block 203 to repeat the above process until s = n - 1 is reached . in order to decode the data now retrieved from the memory m2 , reference is made to fig5 in which the details of the decoder of the first embodiment are illustrated . the da converter 5 comprises a first da converter section dac1 and a second converter section dac2 which are respectively arranged to receive differential amplitude and time data ( δar , tr ) from the microcomputer 10 to convert them to corresponding analog values . the interpolator 6 comprises a divider 6a which receives the analog values of the amplitude and time data from dac1 and dac2 , and an integrator 6b coupled to the output of the divider 6a . the differential amplitude signal ar is divided by the time signal t 1 in the divider 6a to provide a quotient xr which represents the gradient θr to provide interpolation between successive sample points . the integrator 6b provides time integration of this quotient signal to generate a signal yr (= xi dt ) so that the slope of its waveform is proportional to the gradient θr and varies from one sampling point to another as illustrated in fig6 . therefore , the output of the interpolator 6 is an envelope of successively interconnected line segments which approximate the waveform of the original analog signal . through the filtering action of the low - pass filter 7 undesirable high frequency components of the signal from the interpolator are eliminated before it is applied to the loudspeaker 8 . returning to fig4 a , a delay time is introduced in block 207 to permit the converter 5 and interpolator 6 to process a input signals thereof in a manner just described before the next data set is read out of the memory m2 . the microcomputer checks the data set counter d in block 209 to see if it is filled to a full count and if not , advances to a block 210 to check if stop switch e is operated . the program exits from block 210 to block 202 to repeat the above process to reproduce the digital samples contained in the next data set . it is seen therefore that there is a substantial reduction in data quantity . the external memory system 20 may be dispensed with if the capacity of the internal memory m2 is sufficient to store the information . alternatively , the flowchart of fig4 a is modified as shown in fig4 b in which the blocks 203 and 204 of fig4 a are replaced with blocks 220 , 221 and 222 . in block 220 , the microcomputer reads the digital sample a r , derives the amplitude difference δar , and proceeds to block 221 to divide δar by sampling datum t 1 to obtain gradient θr . in block 222 , the gradient datum is transferred to the converter dac1 . in this modification , the da converter dac2 and the divider 6a of fig5 are dispensed with and the output of dac1 is directly connected to the input of the integrator 6b . according to the sampling theorem , quantum noise occurs if the one - half value of the sampling frequency is lower than the frequency range of the information signal . the data reduction system of the first embodiment , however , is not satisfactory in cases where the zero crosspoints are spaced at such long intervals that the one - half value of the sampling frequency becomes lower than the cut - off frequency of the low - pass filter 7 . fig7 a and 7b are illustrations of a flowchart describing the instructions of the microcomputer 10 programmed according to a second embodiment of the invention which eliminates the shortcoming of the first embodiment . when the manual switch r is operated , the program begins with a block 301 by resetting a frame counter f to zero . in block 302 , the microcomputer resets other counters to zero including a zero - crossing counter z , a 256 - byte sampling counter s1 for counting the number of digital samples forming a frame to be described later , and a second sampling counter s2 for counting the number of digital samples to be transferred from the buffer memory m1 to the read - write memory m2 . the zero - crossing counter z is used to register the number of zero crossover points that occur within the frame interval . the frame counter f serves to count the number of frames that have been formed . in block 303 one byte of digital sample is loaded from the ad converter 3 into the buffer memory m1 , which is followed by a block 304 to increment the sampling counter s1 by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;. a zero crossover point is detected when there is a change in sign bit of the loaded 8 - bit code that signifies the occurrence of a zero crossover point of the input analog signal . this zero crossover point detection is carried out in block 305 . if there is no change in the sign bit , the program returns to block 302 to read the next digital sample incrementing the counter s1 by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;. this is repeated until a zero crossover point is detected in block 305 . when this occurs , the zero - crossing counter z is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in block 306 to advance to a block 307 to check if 256 digital samples have been read from the memory m1 , and if not , the program returns to block 302 again to repeat the above process until full count (= 256 ) is reached in the sampling counter s1 . the frame counter f is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in block 308 . the fact that the sampling counter s1 has a full count is an index that defines a &# 34 ; frame &# 34 ; tf as shown in fig8 . the count value of the zero crossing counter z up to this moment is an indication of the number of zero crossover points of the input signal that occur in that frame interval . according to the second embodiment of the invention , a sampling interval ts is determined for each frame interval for purposes of transferring n digital samples from the buffer memory m1 to the memory m2 . this is done by dividing the number of sampling points (= 256 ) by the number of detected zero crossover points z which is multiplied by a factor k ( where , k is an integer ), as stated in block 309 . a datum n signifying the number of digital samples to be loaded into the memory m2 is determined in block 310 by dividing 256 by ts . using an address determined by ts , the microcomputer proceeds to read a digital sample a r ( where r = 1 , 2 , . . . n ) from memory m1 and the second sampling counter s2 is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;. these operations are carried out in blocks 311 and 312 . in block 313 , the contents of counter s2 are checked if it corresponds to n , and if not , the program returns to block 311 to read the next digital sample ar + 1 , further incrementing the counter s2 in block 312 until s2 = n is detected in block 313 , whereby digital samples a 1 to a n are read out of the memory m1 . digital samples a 1 to a n and data f , ts and n are combined in block 314 to form a data set ( a 1 - a n , f , ts , n ) that is stored in the read - write memory m2 . when a full count is reached in the frame counter f ( see block 315 ), the data stored in memory m2 is transferred at periodic intervals to the external memory or recording system 20 , block 316 . if a full count is not yet reached in the counter f , the program returns to block 302 to repeat the above process with respect to the digital samples which form the next frame and enters a block 317 to check if stop switch e is operated to terminate the recording mode . if it is assumed that k = 2 , z = 32 and the frame interval is 32 milliseconds , ts = 256 /( 32 × 2 )= 4 clock intervals which equals 0 . 5 milliseconds (= 4 / 8000 ) and therefore the number of data samples of each frame is reduced from 256 to 64 . if use is made of a low - pass filter having a cut - off frequency of 750 hz , no noise is in the reproduced signal . if the data f , n and ts are respectively assigned 2 , 1 and 64 bytes and the average number of data samples contained in the frame interval is 32 , 68 bytes of information is required for each frame and the 64k - byte read - write memory m2 is able to store a 30 - second duration of voiced information . referring to fig9 playback mode is initiated in response to the operation of switch p , causing the microcomputer 10 to execute the statements in blocks 400 and 401 by resetting the frame counter f and sampling counter s2 to zero . input data are loaded from apparatus 20 into memory m2 at clock intervals by an interrupt routine 402 . the sample number datum n of a given data set is read from the memory m2 in block 403 and the sampling interval datum ts of the data set is transferred from memory m2 to the da converter dac2 ( block 404 ). a digital sample ar of the data set is transferred from memory m2 to the da converter dac1 ( block 405 ). the sampling counter s2 is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in block 406 after each digital sample is transferred to the da converter dac1 . a delay time is introduced in block 407 so that the time involved in processing the blocks 405 to 408 corresponds to the sampling interval ts . in block 408 , the count value of the sampling counter s2 is checked if it corresponds to n , and if not , the program returns to block 405 to transfer the next digital sample ar + 1 of the given data set to converter dac1 . therefore , digital samples a 1 to a n of the given data set are transferred to the converter dac1 during each frame interval . the frame counter f is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in block 409 . the program goes through blocks 410 and 411 and returns to block 401 to reset the sampling counter to zero to repeat the above process until the frame counter f is filled to a full count or switch e is operated . fig1 is an illustration of the details of the da converter dac2 and a variable frequency low - pass filter according to the second embodiment of the invention . the da converter dac2 comprises an analog switch 30 , an operational amplifier 31 and a plurality of feedback resistors r1 , r2 , r3 and r4 . the analog switch 30 is responsive to the sampling interval data ts to selectively couple one or more resistors between the inverting input and output terminals of the amplifier 31 , so that the latter has a variable gain according to the sampling interval data . the variable frequency low - pass filter 40 comprises a pair of photocouplers pc1 and pc2 having variable resistance elements vr1 , vr2 connected in series between the output of the da converter dac1 and the noninverting input of an operational amplifier 41 through high - frequency determining resistors r5 and r8 ; the inverting input of amplifier 41 is coupled by a capacitor c1 to a junction between low - frequency determining resistors r6 and r7 . a capacitor c2 is coupled between the noninverting input of amplifier 41 to ground . capacitors c1 and c2 are also used to determine the cut - off frequencies of the low - pass filter 40 . the output of amplifier 41 is coupled to amplifier 42 , having an output fed to the loudspeaker 8 . the photodiode elements pd1 and pd2 of the photocouplers are connected from the output of amplifier 31 to ground . the resistors r2 and r3 are variable resistors which are adjusted so that the cut - off frequency of the low - pass filter 40 may correspond to the sampling interval . as a function of the digital value ts , the amplifier 30 provides a variable impedance to the photodiodes pd1 and pd2 . the impedance values of variable resistors vr1 and vr2 vary their impedance values in response to the varying brightness of the photodiodes pd1 , pd2 so that the following relationships are established between sampling clock interval ts , sampling frequency fs , and the cut - off frequency fc of the filter 40 : ______________________________________ts fs ( khz ) fc ( khz ) ______________________________________1 8 32 4 1 . 54 2 0 . 758 1 0 . 375______________________________________ it is seen that the cut - off frequency of the filter 40 becomes automatically equal to the one - half value of the varying sampling frequency , and therefore , no quantum noise occurs in the signal applied to the loudspeaker 8 . fig1 a and 11b are a flowchart describing an alternative form of the recording mode of the second embodiment . in interrupt subroutine 500 , digital samples are loaded from the ad converter 3 to the memory m1 at clock intervals ts . the program starts with a block 501 in which the frame counter f is rest to zero . subsequently , the sampling counters s1 and s2 are reset to zero in block 502 . a digital sample is read from the memory m1 in block 503 and the first sampling counter s1 is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in block 504 . blocks 505 to 509 describe steps for detecting the number of harmonic components of the digital samples that occur within a frame interval . a technique known as &# 34 ; fast fourier transform &# 34 ; is used for this purpose . while this technique may be used to detect a frequency spectrum of such digital samples and generate therefrom a power spectrum by simulataneouly treating them in a single subroutine , it is preferable that the digital samples of each frame be divided into eight groups of 32 samples each and the fft technique be applied in respect of each sample group . for this reason , a decision step is provided in block 505 to check if the counter s1 has reached a count of 32 , and if so , the program is advanced to block 506 to use the fft to derive a frequency spectrum from the group of 32 digital samples just read out of the memory m1 . a power spectrum is subsequently derived in block 507 from the frequency spectrum . the blocks 502 to 507 are repeatedly executed until power spectrums are derived respectively from eight groups of 32 digital samples when s1 = 256 is detected in a decision step in block 508 . in block 509 the microcomputer derives a peak or average value of the power spectrum from the power spectrums of the individual groups and advances to block 510 to remove unwanted higher frequency components having spectral values lower than ( 1 / 64 ) th , for example , of the detected peak or average value . in block 511 , the highest order of the harmonic components of the power spectrum is detected by checking the power spectrum of which the unwanted components have been removed . this harmonic order value is used in block 512 to determine a corresponding sampling interval ts from the following relationships : ______________________________________highest sampling sampling clockharmonic frequency ( khz ) interval ts______________________________________16 - 9 8 1 8 - 6 4 25 2 . 5 34 2 43 1 . 5 52 1 81 0 . 5 16______________________________________ in block 513 , the number of digital samples to be retrieved from the memory m1 is determined by dividing 256 by ts and the sampling number counter n is set to 263 / ts . digital samples a l to a n are sequentially retrieved from the memory m1 by executing a program loop including blocks 514 to 516 : in block 514 , a digital sample a r is read out of memory m1 and in block 515 , the second sampling counter s2 is incremented by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; and in block 516 , s2 = n ? is checked . the frame counter f is then incremented in block 517 . a data set f , a l to a n , ts and n is formed in block 518 and loaded into the memory m2 . the program returns through blocks 519 and 520 to block 502 to reinitialize the sampling counters to repeat the above process . | 7 |
in describing this invention there is first provided a notation and background for text joins , which we follow with a formal definition of the problem on which we focus in this paper . we denote with σ * the set of all strings over an alphabet . σ each string in σ * can be decomposed into a collection of atomic “ entities ” that we generally refer to as tokens . what constitutes a token can be defined in a variety of ways . for example , the tokens of a string could simply be defined as the “ words ” delimited by special characters that are treated as “ separators ” ( e . g .,“ ”) alternatively , the tokens of a string could correspond to all of its q - grams , which are overlapping substrings of exactly q consecutive characters , for a given q . in the following discussion , the term token is treated as generic , as the particular choice of token is orthogonal to the design of our algorithms . let r 1 and r 2 be two relations with the same or different schemas and attributes . to simplify our discussion and notation we assume , without loss of generality , that we assess similarity between the entire sets of attributes of r 1 and r 2 . our discussion extends to the case of arbitrary subsets of attributes in a straightforward way . given tuples : we assume that the values of their attributes are drawn from σ *. we adopt the vector - space retrieval model to define the textual similarity between t 1 and t 2 . let d be the ( arbitrarily ordered ) set of all unique tokens present in all values of attributes of both r 1 and r 2 . according to the vector - space retrieval model , we conceptually map each tuple the value of the j - th component ν t ( j ) of ν t is a real number that corresponds to the weight of the j - th token of d in ν t . drawing an analogy with information retrieval terminology , d is the set of all terms and ν t is a document weight vector . rather than developing new ways to define the weight vector v , for a tuple we exploit an instance of the well - established tf . idf weighting scheme from the information retrieval field . ( tf . idf stands for “ term frequency , inverse document frequency .”) our choice is further supported by the fact that a variant of this general weighting scheme has been successfully used for our task by cohen &# 39 ; s whirl system . given a collection of documents c , a simple version of the tf . idf eight for a term w and a document d is defined as ; tf w is the number of times that w appears in document d and where n w is the number of documents in the collection c that contain term w . the tf . idf weight for a term w in a document is high if w appears a large number of times in the document and w is a sufficiently “ rare ” term in the collection ( i . e ., if w &# 39 ; s discriminatory power in the collection is potentially high ). for example , for a collection of company names , relatively infrequent terms such as “ at & amp ; t ” or “ ibm ” will have higher idf weights than more frequent terms such as “ inc .” for our problem , the relation tuples are our “ documents ,” and the tokens in the textual attribute of the tuples are our “ terms .” consider the j - th token w in d and a tuple t from relation r i . then tfw is the number of times that w appears in t . also , idfw is : where n w is the total number of tuples in relation r i that contain token w . the if . idf weight for token w in tuple ; t ∈ r i is ν t ( j )= tf w log ( idf w ) to simplify the computation of vector similarities , we normalize vector ν t to unit length in the euclidean space after we define it ( the resulting weights corresponds to the impact of the terms ). note that the weight vectors will tend to be extremely sparse for certain choices of tokens ; we shall seek to utilize this sparseness in our proposed techniques definition 1 ( cosine similarity ) given tuples t 1 ∈ r 1 and t 2 ∈ r 2 , let ν t 1 and ν t 2 be their corresponding normalized weight vectors and d is the set of all tokens in r 1 and r 2 . the cosine similarity ( or just similarity , for brevity ) of ν t 1 and ν t 2 is defined as : sim ( v t 1 , v t 2 ) = ∑ j = 1 d v t 1 ( j ) v t 2 ( j ) since vectors are normalize his measure corresponds to the cosine of the angle between vectors ν i1 and ν i2 , and has values between 0 and 1 . the intuition behind this scheme is that the magnitude of a component of a vector expresses the relative “ importance ” of the corresponding token in the tuple represented by the vector . intuitively , two vectors are similar if they share many important tokens . for example , the string “ acme ” will be highly similar to “ acme inc ,” since the two strings differ only on the token “ inc ,” which appears in many different tuples , and hence has low weight . on the other hand , the strings “ ibm research ” and “ at & amp ; t research ” will have lower similarity as they share only one relatively common term . the following join between relations r 1 and r 2 brings together the tuples from these relations that are “ sufficiently close ” to each other according to a user - specified similarity threshold ; definition 2 ( text - join ) given two relations r 1 and r 2 , together with a similarity threshold 0 ≦ φ ≦ 1 , the text - join r 1 φ r 2 returns all pairs of tuples ( t 1 , t 2 ) such that : t 1 ∈ r 1 and t 2 ∈ r 2 , and sim ( ν t 1 ; ν t 2 )≧ φ . it can be easily modified to correlate arbitrary subsets of attributes of the relations . in this paper , we address the problem of computing the text - join of two relations efficiently and within an unmodified rdbms : problem 1 given two relations r 1 and r 2 , together with a similarity threshold 0 ≦ φ ≦ 1 , we want to efficiently compute ( an approximation of ) the text - join using “ vanilla ” sql in an unmodified rdbms . we first describe our methodology for deriving , in a preprocessing step , the vectors corresponding to each tuple of relations r 1 and r 2 using relational operations and representations . we then present our sampling - based solution for efficiently computing the text join of the two relations using standard sql in an rdbms creating weight vectors for tuples in this section , we describe how we define auxiliary relations to represent tuple weight vectors . in the following section , we develop a sampling - based technique to compute the text - join of two relations starting with the auxiliary relations that we define next . as in the previous section , it is assumed that we want to compute the text - join of two relations r 1 and r 2 . d is the ordered set of all the tokens that appear in r 1 and r 2 . we use sql expressions to create the weight vector associated with each tuple in the two relations . since for some choice of tokens each tuple is expected to contain only a few of the tokens in d , the associated weight vector is sparse . we exploit this sparseness and represent the weight vectors by storing only the tokens with non - zero weight . specifically , for a choice of tokens ( e . g ., words or q - grams ), we create the following relations for a relation r 1 : ritokens ( tid , token ): each tuple ( tid , w ) is associated with all occurrence of token w in the r i tuple with id tid . this relation is populated by inserting exactly one tuple ( tid , w ) for each occurrence of token w in a tuple of r i with tuple id tid . this relation can be implemented in pure sql and the implementation varies with the choice of tokens . ( see [?] for an example on how to create this relation when q - grams are used as tokens .) ri 1 df ( token , idf ): a tuple ( w , idf w ) indicates that token w has inverse document frequency idf w ( section 2 ) in relation r i . the sql statement to populate relation ri 1 df is shown in fig1 ( a ). this statement relies on a “ dummy ” relation risize ( size ) ( fig1 ( f )) that has just one tuple indicating the number of tuples in r i . ritf ( tid , token , tf ): a tuple ( tid , w , tf w ) indicates that token w has term frequency tf w ( section 2 ) for r i tuple with tuple id tid . the sql statement to populate relation ritf &# 39 ; is shown in fig1 ( b ). rilength ( tid , len ): a tuple ( tid , l ) indicates that the weight vector associated with r i tuple with tuple id tid has a euclidean norm of 1 . ( this relation is used for normalizing weight vectors .) the sql statement to populate relation rilength is shown in fig1 ( c ). riweights ( tid , token , weight ): a tuple ( tid , w , n ) indicates that token w has normalized weight rt in r i tuple with tuple id tid . the sql statement to populate relation riweights is shown in fig1 ( d ). this relation materializes a compact representation of the final weight vector for the tuples in r i . risum ( token , total ): a tuple ( w , t ) indicates that token w has a total added weight t in relation r i , as indicated in relation riweights . these numbers are used during sampling ( see section 4 ). the sql statement to populate relation risum is shown in fig1 ( e ). given two relations r 1 and r 2 , we can use the sql statements in fig1 to generate relations r1weights and r2weights with a compact representation of the weight vector for the r 1 and r 2 tuples . only the non - zero tf . idf weights are stored in these tables . the space overhead introduced by these tables is moderate . since the size of risum is bounded by the size of riweights , we just analyze the space requirements for riweights . consider the case where q - grams are the tokens of choice . ( as we will see , a good value is q = 3 .) then each tuple r i . t j of relation r i can contribute up to approximately ; is the number of characters in r i . t j . furthermore , each tuple in riweights consists of a tuple id tid , the actual token ( i . e ., q - gram in this case ), and its associated weight . then , if c bytes are needed to represent tid and weight , the total size of relation riweights will not exceed ; ∑ j = 1 r i ( c + q ) · r i . t j = ( c + q ) · ∑ j = 1 r i r i . t j , which is a ( small ) constant times the size of the original table ri . if words are used as the token of choice , then we have at most tokens per tuple in ri . also , to store the token attribute of riweights we need no more than one byte for each character in the r i . t j tuples . therefore , we can bound the size of riweights by times the size of ri . again , in this case the space overhead is linear in the size of the original relation r . given the relations r1weights and r2weights , a baseline approach to compute : this sql statement performs the text - join by computing the similarity of each pair of tuples and filtering out any pair with similarity less than the similarity threshold φ . this approach produces an exact answer to ; as will be described later , finding an exact answer with this approach is expensive , which motivates the sampling - based technique that we describe next . the result of r 1 φ r 2 only contains pairs of tuples from r 1 and r 2 with similarity φ or higher . usually we are interested in high values for threshold φ , which should result in only a few tuples from r 2 typically matching each tuple from r 1 . the baseline approach in fig2 , however , calculates the similarity of all pairs of tuples from r 1 and r 2 that share at least one token . as a result , this baseline approach is inefficient : most of the candidate tuple pairs that it considers do not make it to the final result of the text - join . in this section , we present a sampling - based technique to execute text - joins efficiently , drastically reducing the number of candidate tuple pairs that are considered during query processing . our sampling - based technique relies on the following intuition : could be computed efficiently if , for each tuple t q of r 1 , we managed to extract a sample from r 2 containing mostly tuples suspected to be highly similar to t q . by ignoring the remaining ( useless ) tuples in r 2 , we could approximate efficiently . the key challenge then is how to define a sampling strategy that leads to efficient text - join executions while producing an accurate approximation of the exact query results . the discussion of our technique is organized as follows : similarity sampling shows how to sample from r2 , ( unrealistically , but deliberately ) assuming knowledge of all tuple - pair similarity values . token weighted sampling shows how to estimate the tuple - pair similarity values by sampling directly from the tuple vectors of r 2 . finally , practical realization of sampling describes an efficient algorithm for computing an approximation of the text - join . the description of our approach will rely on the following conceptual vector , which will never be fully materialized and which contains the similarity of a tuple tq from relation r 1 with each tuple of relation r 2 : v ( t q )=[ sim ( ν t v , ν t 1 ), . . . , sim ( ν t q , ν t i ), . . . , sim ( ν t q , ν t | r2 | )] when t q is clear from the context , to simplify the notation we use ; σ i , as shorthand for v ( t q )=[ σ 1 , . . . , σ i , . . . , σ | r 2 | ] intuitively , our techniques will efficiently compute an approximation of vector v ( t q ) for each tuple ; the approximation can then be used to produce a close estimate of ; assume that v ( t q ) is already computed and available at hand ( we will relax this requirement in the next section ). we define ; t v ( t q ) as the sum of all entries in ; v ( t q ) ( i . e . , tv ( t g ) is the sum of the similarity of tuple t q with each tuple t i ∈ r 3 : t v ( t q ) = ∑ i = 1 r 2 σ i now , consider taking a sample of some size s from the set of r 2 tuples ; p i = σ i t v ( t q ) ( i . e ., the probability of picking t i is proportional to the similarity of r 2 tuple t i and our “ fixed ” r 1 tuple t q ). to get the s samples , we consider each tuple t i s times . let c i be the number of times that t i appears in the sample under this sampling strategy . we will show that ; c i s t v ( t q ) provides an estimate of σ i and we will establish a relationship between the sampling size s and the quality of estimation of σ i . specifically , the probability that ti is included x times in a sample of size s is ; p [ c i = τ ] = ( s τ ) p i τ ( 1 - p i ) ( s - τ ) in other words , each c i is a bernoulli trial with parameter pi and mean s · p i moreover , the c i &# 39 ; s are independent . according to the hoeffding bounds , for n trials of binomial variable x with mean μ and for 0 & lt ; e & lt ; 1 , we know : x = c i | n = s , and μ = s · p i , where p i = σ i t v ( t q ) : p [ c i s t v ( t q ) - σ i & gt ; ε t v ( t q ) ] ≤ ⅇ - 2 s ε 2 ( 1 ) and p [ c i s t v ( t q ) - σ i & lt ; - ε t v ( t q ) ] ≤ ⅇ - 2 s ε 2 ( 2 ) thus , we can get arbitrarily close to each σ i by choosing an appropriate sample size s . εt v ( t q ) to be smaller than δ s , and the probability of error ; e − 3se 2 be smaller than δ p1 , we can solve the two inequalities ; et v ( t q )≦ δ s and , e 2s ε 2 ≦ δ p1 to get a suitable sample size s : s ≥ ln ( δ p - 1 ) 2 δ s 2 t v ( t q ) 2 the sampling scheme that we described so far in this section is of course not useful in practice : if we knew v ( t q ), then we could just report all r 2 tuples with similarity ; in this section , it is described how to estimate the entries of v ( t q , by sampling directly from the set of tokens of r 2 . as discussed , the sampling strategy outlined above cannot be immediately realized for our problem , since v ( t q ) is not known a - priori . we now show how to perform sampling according to the values of v ( t q ) without computing v ( t q ) explicitly . consider tuple [ heading - 0097 ] t q ∈ r 1 with its associated token weight vector ; [ heading - 0098 ] ν t i . we extract a sample of r 2 tuples of size s for tq — with no knowledge of v ( t q ) as follows : identify each token j in t q that has non - zero weight for each such token j , perform s bernoulli trials over each ; t i ∈{ t 1 , . . . , t | r 2 | ) where the probability of picking t i in a trial depends on the weight of token j in tuple t q ∈ r 1 and in tuple t i ∈ r 2 . p ij = υ t q ( j ) · υ t i ( j ) t v ( t q ) . t v ( t q ) efficiently without information about the individual entries σ i of y ( t q ).) let c i be the number of times that t i appears in the sample of size s . it follows that : c i s · tv ( t q ) the proof of this theorem follows from an argument similar to that of section 4 . 1 and from the observation that the mean of the process that generates c i is ∑ j = 1 d υ t q ( j ) υ t i ( j ) t v ( t q ) = σ i t v ( t q ) . theorem 4 . 1 establishes that , given a tuple t q ∈ r 1 , we can obtain a sample of size s of tuples t i such that the frequency c ; of tuple t i can be used to approximate σ i . we can then report as part of the answer r 1 φ r 2 for each tuple t i ∈ r 2 such that its estimated similarity with t q ( i . e ., its estimated σ i ) is φ 1 or larger , where φ 1 =( 1 − ε ) φ is a slightly lower threshold , where ε is treated as a positive constant of less than 1 , derived from equations 1 and 2 . an apparent problem of the sampling scheme proposed so far is the lack of knowledge of the value tv ( t q ) 2 . we show that this value can be easily calculated without knowledge of the individual values σ i of v ( t q ). first , we define sum ( j ) as the total weight of the j - th token in relation ; r 2 , sum ( j ) = ∑ i = 1 r 2 υ t i ( j ) . ( these weights are kept in relation r 2 sum .) then , it is the case that : t v ( t q ) = ∑ i = 1 r 2 ∑ j = 1 d υ t q ( j ) υ t i ( j ) = ∑ j = 1 d υ t q ( j ) ∑ i = 1 r 2 υ t i ( j ) = ∑ j = 1 d υ t q ( j ) sum ( j ) ( 3 ) consequently , tv ( t q ) can be easily computed from the values stored in r2sum and in r1weights that are already computed using the sql statements of the previous section . given r 1 , r 2 and a threshold φ , our discussion suggests the following strategy for the evaluation of the r 1 φ r 2 text - join , in which we process one tuple t q ∈ r 1 at a time : obtain an individual sample of size s from r 2 for t q , using vector ν t q to sample tuples of r 2 for each token with nonzero weight in ν t q . if c i is the number of times that tuple t i appears in the sample for t q , then use c i s t v ( t q ) include tuple pair ( t q , t i ) in the text - join result only if c i s t v ( t q ) & gt ; ϕ ′ ( or equivalently c i & gt ; s t v ( t q ) ϕ ′ ) , ), and filter out the remaining r 2 tuples . we refer to this filter as count filter . this strategy guarantees that identify all pairs of tuples with similarity above φ , with a desired probability , as long as we choose an appropriate sample size s . so far , the discussion has focused on obtaining an r 2 sample of size s individually for each tuple ; a naive implementation of this sampling strategy would then require a scan of relation r 2 for each tuple in r 1 , which is clearly unacceptable in terms of performance . in the next section we describe how we perform the sampling with only one sequential scan of relation r 2 . as discussed so far , our sampling strategy requires extracting a separate sample from r 2 for each tuple in r 1 . this extraction of a potentially large set of independent samples from r 2 ( i . e ., one per r 1 tuple ) is of course inefficient , since it would require a large number of scans of the r 2 table . in this section , we describe how we adapt the original sampling strategy so that it requires one single sample of r 2 and show how we use this sample to create an approximate answer for the text - join ; as we have seen in the previous section , for each tuple ; we should sample a tuple t i from r 2 in a way that depends on the ν t q ( j )· ν t i ( j ) values . since these values are different for each tuple of r 1 , as straight forward implementation of this sampling strategy requires multiple samples of relation r 2 . here we describe an alternative sampling strategy that requires just one sample of r 2 : first , we sample r 2 using only the weights from the tuples t i of r 2 :, to generate a single sample of r 2 :. then , we use the single sample differently for each tuple t q of r 1 . intuitively , we “ weight ” the tuples in the sample according to the weights ν t q ( j ) of the t q tuples of r 1 . in particular , for a desired sample size s and a target similarity φ , we realize our sampling - based text - join ; 1 . sampling : we sample the tuple ids i and the corresponding tokens from the vectors ν t i for each tuple t i εr 2 . we sample each token j from a vector ν t i , with probability we perform s trials , yielding approximately s samples for each token j . 2 . weight : for each t q εr 1 and for each token j with non - zero weight in ν t q , scan the sample of r 2 and pick each tuple t i with probability v t q ( j ) · sum ( j ) t v ( t q ) . for each successful trial , add the corresponding tuple pair ( t q , t i ) to the candidate set . 3 . thresholding : after creating the candidate set , count the number of occurrences of each tuple pair ( t q , t i ). add tuple pair ( t q , t i ) to the final result only if its frequency satisfies , the count filter ( section 4 . 2 ). such a sampling scheme identifies tuples with similarity above φ from r 2 for each tuple in r 1 . observe for each ; v t q ( j ) v t i ( j ) t v ( t q ) by sampling r 2 only once , the sample will be correlated . as we verify experimentally in the experimental evaluation of the present invention , this sample correlation has negligible effect on the quality of the join approximation . the proposed solution , as presented , is asymmetric in the sense that it uses tuples from one relation ( r 1 ) to weight samples obtained from the other ( r 2 ). the text - join problem , as defined , is symmetric and does not distinguish or impose an ordering on the operands ( relations ). hence , the execution of the text - join r 1 φ r 2 naturally faces the problem of choosing which relation to sample . we argue that we can choose either r 1 or r 2 , as long as we also choose the appropriate sample size as described in the similarity sampling section . for a specific instance of the problem , we can break this asymmetry by executing the approximate join twice . thus , we first sample from vectors of r 2 and use r 1 to weight the samples . then , we sample from vectors of r 1 and use r 2 to weight the samples . then , we take the union of these as our final result . we refer to this as a symmetric text - join . we will evaluate this technique experimentally in the experimental evaluation . in this section we have showed how to approximate the text - join r 1 φ r 2 by using weighted sampling . in the next section , we describe how this approximate join can be completely implemented using a standard , unmodified rdbms . we now describe an sql implementation of the sampling - based join algorithm of the previous section . there is first described the sampling step , and then focuses on the weight and thresholding steps for the asymmetric versions of the join . finally , the implementation of a symmetric version of the approximate join is described . given the r i weights relations , we now show how to implement the sampling step of our text - join approximation strategy in sql . for a desired sample size s and similarity threshold φ , we create the auxiliary relation shown in fig3 . as the sql statement in the figure shows , we join the relations riweights and risum on the token attribute . the p attribute for a tuple in the result is the probability ; with which we should pick this tuple . conceptually , for each tuple in the output of the query of fig3 we need to perform s trials , picking each time the tuple with probability p . for each successful trial , we insert the corresponding tuple ( tid , token ) in a relation risample ( tid , token ), preserving duplicates . the sql statement utilizes a relation r1v to implement the weight step , storing the t v ( t q ) values for each tuple t q ∈ r 1 . as described later , the r1v relation can be eliminated from the query and is just shown here for clarity . the s trials can be implemented in various ways . one ( expensive ) way to do this is as follows : we add “ and p ≧ rand ( )” in the where clause of the fig3 query , so that the execution of this query corresponds to one “ trial .” then , executing this query s times and taking the union of the all results provides the desired answer . a more efficient alternative , which is what we implemented , is to open a cursor on the result of the query in fig3 , read one tuple at a time , perform s trials on each tuple , and then write back the result . finally , a pure - sql “ simulation ” of the sampling step deterministically defines that each tuple will result in ; round ( s · ri weights . weight risum . total ) “ successes ” after s trials , on average . this deterministic version of the query is shown in fig4 . we have implemented and run experiments using the deterministic version , and obtained virtually the same performance as with the cursor - based implementation of sampling over the fig3 query . in the remainder of this description , in order to keep the discussion close to a probabilistic framework a cursor - based approach for the sampling step is used . the weight and thresholding steps are previously described as two separate steps . in practice , we can combine them into one sql statement , shown in fig5 . the weight step is implemented by the sum aggregate in the “ having ” clause ”. we weight each tuple from the sample according to ; r1 weights . weight · r2 sum . total r1 v . t v , then , we can count the number of times that each which corresponds to ; v t q ( j ) · sum ( j ) t v ( t q ) the we can count the number of times that each particular tuple pair appears in the results ( see group by clause ). for each group , the result of the sum is the number of times c ; that a specific tuple pair appears in the candidate set . to implement the thresholding step , we apply the count filter as a simple comparison in the having clause : we check whether the frequency of a tuple pair exceeds the count threshold ( i . e . ; ( i . e . , c i & gt ; s t v ( t q ) ϕ ′ ) the final output of this sql operation is a set of tuple id pairs with expected similarity exceeding threshold φ . the sql statement in fig5 can be further simplified by completely eliminating the join with the r1v relation . the riv . tv values are used only in the having clause , to divide both parts of the inequality . the result of the inequality is not affected by this division , hence the r1v relation can be eliminated when combining the weight and the thresholding step into one sql statement . up to now we have described only an asymmetric text - join approximation approach , in which we sample relation r 2 and weight the samples according to the tuples in r 1 ( or vice versa ). however , as we described previously , the text - join r 1 φ r 2 treats r 1 and r 2 symmetrically . to break the asymmetry of our sampling - based strategy , we execute the two different asymmetric approximations and report the union of their results , as shown in fig6 . note that a tuple pair ( tid1 , tid2 ) that appears in the result of the two intervening asymmetric approximations needs high combined “ support ” to qualify in the final answer ( see having clause in fig6 ). an additional strategy naturally suggests itself : instead of executing the symmetric join algorithm by joining the samples with the original relations , we can just join the samples , ignoring the original relations . this version of the sampling - based text - join makes an independence assumption between the two relations . we sample each relation independently , join the samples , and then weight and threshold the output . we implement the weight step by weighting each tuple with r1 sum . total r1 v . t v · r2 sum . total r2 v . t v . c i & gt ; s · s t v ( t q ) · t v ( t i ) ϕ ′ ( again the t v values can be eliminated from the sql if we combine the weight and the thresholding steps ). fig7 shows the sql implementation of this version of the sampling - based text - join . we implemented the proposed techniques and performed a thorough experimental evaluation in terms of both accuracy and performance . we first describe the techniques that we compare and the data sets and metrics that we use for our experiments . then , we report the experimental results . the schema and the relations described in creating weight vectors for tuples , were implemented on a commercial rdmbs , microsoftsql server 2000 , running on a 550 mhz pentium iii - based pc with 768 mb of ram . sql server was configured to potentially utilize the entire ram as a buffer pool . data sets : for our experiments , we used real data from an at & amp ; t customer relationship database . we extracted from this database a random sample of 40 , 000 distinct attribute values of type string . we then split this sample into two data sets , r 1 and r 2 . data set r 1 contains about 14 , 000 strings , while data set r 2 contains about 26 , 000 strings . the average string length for r 1 is 19 characters and , on average , each string consists of 2 . 5 words . the average string length for r 2 is 21 characters and , on average , each string consists of 2 . 5 words . the length of the strings follows a close - to - gaussian distribution for both data sets and is reported in fig8 ( a ), while the size of ; r 1 φ r 2 for different similarity thresholds φ and token choices is reported in fig8 ( b ). metrics : to evaluate the accuracy and completeness of our techniques we use the standard precision and recall metrics : definition 3 consider two relations r 1 and r 2 and a user - specified similarity threshold φ . let answer φ be an approximate answer for test - join r 1 φ r 2 . then , the precision and recall of answer φ with respect to r 1 φ r 2 are defined as : precision = answer ϕ ⋂ ( r 1 ϕ r 2 ) answer ϕ and recall = answer ϕ ⋂ ( r 1 ϕ r 2 ) r 1 ϕ r 2 precision and recall can take values in the 0 - to - 1 range . precision measures the accuracy of the answer and indicates the fraction of tuples in the approximation of ; that are correct . in contrast , recall measures the completeness of the answer and indicates the fraction of the ; tuples that are captured in the approximation . for data cleaning applications , we believe that recall is more important than precision . the returned answer can always be checked for false positives in a post - join step , while we cannot locate false negatives without re - running the text - join algorithm . finally , to measure the efficiency of the algorithms , we measure the actual execution time of the similarity join for different techniques . all of these algorithms can be deployed completely within an rdbms : baseline : this expensive algorithm ( fig2 ) computes the exact answer for r 1 φ r 2 by considering all pairs of tuples from both relations . r1δr2 : this asymmetric approximation of r 1 φ r 2 samples relation r 2 and weights the sample using r 1 ( fig5 ). sr1r2 : this asymmetric approximation of r 1 φ r 2 samples relation r 1 and weights the sample using r 2 . r1r2 : this symmetric approximation of r 1 φ r 2 is shown in fig6 . sr1sr2 : this symmetric approximation or r 1 φ r 2 joins the two samples r1sample and r2sample ( fig7 ). in addition , we also compare the sql - based techniques against the stand - alone whirl system . given a similarity threshold φ and two relations r 1 and r 2 , whirl computes the text - join the fundamental difference with our techniques is that whirl is a separate application , not connected to any rdbms . initially , we attempted whirl over our data sets using its default settings . unfortunately , during the computation of the join whirl ran out of memory . we then limited the maximum heap size 6 to produce an approximate answer for we measure the precision and recall of the whirl answers , in addition to the running time to produce them . choice of tokens : we present experiments for different choices of tokens for the similarity computation . the token types that we consider in our experiments are : words : all space - delimited words in a tuple are used as tokens ( e . g ., “ at & amp ; t ” and “ labs ” for string “ at & amp ; t labs ”). q - grams : all substrings of q consecutive characters in a tuple are used as tokens ( e . g ., “$ a ,” “ at & amp ; t & amp ;,” “& amp ; t ,” “ t ,” “ l ,” “ la ,” “ ab ,” “ bs ,” “ s #,” for string “ at & amp ; t labs ” and q = 2 , after we append dummy characters “$” and “#” at the beginning and end of the tuple ). we consider q = 2 and q = 3 . the riweights table has 30 , 933 rows for words , 268 — 458 rows for q - grams with q = 3 , and 245 , 739 rows for q - grams with q = 2 . for the r2weights table , the corresponding numbers of rows are 61 , 715 , 536 , 982 , and 491 — 515 . in fig8 ( b ) we show the number of tuple pairs in the exact result of the text - join ; unfortunately , whirl natively supports only word tokenization but not q - grams . to test whirl with q - grams , we adopted the following strategy : we generated all the q - grams of the strings in r 1 and r 2 , and stored them as separate “ words .” for example , the string “ abc ” was transformed into “$ a abbc c #” for q = 2 . then whirl used the transformed data set as if each q - gram were a separate word . besides the specific choice of tokens , three other main parameters affect the performance and accuracy of our techniques : the sample size s , the choice of the user - defined similarity threshold φ 1 , and the choice of the error margin ε .. we now experimentally study how these parameters affect the accuracy and efficiency of sampling - based text - joins . comparing different techniques : our first experiment evaluates the precision and recall achieved by the different versions of the sampling - based text - joins and for whirl ( fig9 ). for sampling - based joins , a sample size of s = 128 is used ( we present experiments for varying sample size s below ). fig9 ( a ) presents the results for words and fig9 ( b )( c ) present the results for q - grams , for q = 2 and q = 3 . whirl has perfect precision ( whirl computes the actual similarity of the tuple pairs ), but it demonstrates very low recall for q - grams . the low recall is , to some extent , a result of the small heap size that we had to use to allow whirl to handle our data sets . the sampling - based joins , on the other hand , perform better . for words , they achieve recall higher than 0 . 8 for thresholds φ & gt ; 0 . 1 , with precision above 0 . 7 for most cases when φ & gt ; 0 . 2 ( with the exception of the sr1sr2 technique ). whirl has comparable performance for φ & gt ; 0 . 5 . for q - grams with q = 3 , sr1r2 has recall around 0 . 4 across different similarity metrics , with precision consistently above 0 . 7 , outperforming whirl in terms of recall across all similarity thresholds . when q = 2 , none of the algorithms performs well . for the sampling - based text - joins this is due to the small number of different tokens for q = 2 . by comparing the different versions of the sampling - based joins we can see that sr1sr2 performs worse than the other techniques in terms of precision and recall . also , r1sr2 is always worse than sr1r2 : since r 2 is larger than r 1 and the sample size is constant , the sample of r 1 represents the r 1 contents better than the corresponding sample of r 2 does for r 2 as we increase the number of samples s for each distinct token of the relation , more tuples are sampled and included in the final sample . this results in more matches in the final join , and , hence in higher recall . it is also interesting to observe the effect of the sample size for different token choices . the recall for q - grams with q = 2 is smaller than that for q - grams with q = 3 for a given sample size , which in turn is smaller than the recall for words . since we independently obtain a constant number of samples per distinct token , the higher the number of distinct tokens the more accurate the sampling is expected to be . this effect is visible in the recall plots of fig1 . the sample size also affects precision . when we increase the sample size , precision generally increases . however , in specific cases we can observe that smaller sizes can in fact achieve higher precision . this happens because for a smaller sample size we may get an underestimate of the similarity value ( e . g ., estimated similarity 0 . 5 for real similarity 0 . 7 ). underestimates do not have a negative effect on precision . however , an increase in the sample size might result in an overestimate of the similarity , even if the absolute estimation error is smaller ( e . g ., estimated similarity 0 . 8 for real similarity 0 . 7 ). overestimates , though , affect precision negatively when the similarity threshold φ happens to be between the real and the ( over ) estimated similarity . s tv ( t q ) ( 1 - ε ) ϕ . different values of ε affect the precision and recall of the answer . fig1 shows how different choices of ε affect precision and recall . when we increase ε , we lower the threshold for count filter and more tuple pairs are included in the answer . this , of course , increases recall , at the expense of precision : the tuple pairs included in the result have estimated similarity lower than the desired threshold φ . the choice of ε is an “ editorial ” decision , and should be set to either favor recall or precision . as discussed above , we believe that higher recall is more important for data cleaning applications . the returned answer can always be checked for false positives in a post - join step , while we cannot locate false negatives without re - running the text - join algorithm . to analyze efficiency , we measure the execution time of the different techniques . our measurements do not include the preprocessing step to build the auxiliary tables in fig1 : this preprocessing step is common to the baseline and all sampling - based text - join approaches . this preprocessing step took less than two minutes to process both relations r 1 and r 2 for words , and about five minutes for q - grams . also , the time needed to create the risample relations is less than five seconds . for whirl we similarly do not include the time needed to export the relations from the rdbms to a text file formatted as expected by whirl , the time needed to load the text files from disk , or the time needed to construct the inverted indexes 7 . the preprocessing time for whirl is about 15 seconds for words and one minute for q - grams , which is smaller than for the sampling - based techniques : whirl keeps the data in main memory , while we keep the weights in materialized relations inside the rdbms . the baseline technique ( fig2 ) could only be run for words . for q - grams , sql server executed the baseline query for approximately 7 hours before finishing abnormally . hence , we only report results for words for the baseline technique . fig1 ( a ) reports the execution time of sampling - based text - join variations for words , for different sample sizes . the execution time of the join did not change considerably for different similarity thresholds , and is consistently lower than that for baseline . the results for fig1 were computed for similarity threshold , φ = 0 . 5 ; the execution times for other values of φ are not significantly different . for example , for s = 64 , a sample size that results in high precision and recall ( fig1 ( a )), r1r2 is more than 10 times faster than baseline . the speedup is even higher for sr1r2 and r1sr2 . fig1 ( b ) and 12 ( c ) report the execution time for q - grams with q = 2 and q = 3 . not surprisingly , sr1sr2 , which joins only the two samples , is considerably faster than the other variations . this faster execution , however , is at the expense of accuracy ( fig9 ). for all choices of tokens , the symmetric version r1r2 has an associated execution time that is longer than the sum of the execution times of sr1r2 and r1sr2 . this is expected , since r1r2 requires executing , sr1r2 and r1sr2 to compute its answer . finally , fig1 ( d ) lists the execution time for whirl , for different similarity thresholds . for q - grams with q = 3 , the execution time for whirl is roughly comparable to that of r1sr2 when s = 128 . for this setting r1sr2 has recall generally at or above 0 . 2 , while whirl has recall usually lower than 0 . 1 . for words , whirl is more efficient than the sampling - based techniques for high values of s , while whirl has significantly lower recall for low to moderate similarity thresholds ( fig9 ( a )). for example , for s = 128 sampling - based text - joins have recall above 0 . 8 when ; in general , the sampling - based text - joins , which are executed in an unmodified rdbms , have efficiency comparable to whirl , provided that whirl has sufficient main memory available : whirl is a stand - alone application that implements a main - memory version of the a * algorithm . this algorithm requires keeping large search structures during processing ; when main memory is not sufficiently large for a dataset , whirl &# 39 ; s recall suffers considerably . in contrast , our techniques are fully executed within rdbmss , which are specifically designed to handle large data volumes in an efficient and scalable way . the experimental evaluation studied the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed sampling - based text - join executions according to the present invention , for different token choices and for a distance metric based on tf . idf token weights . we now compare this distance metric against string edit distance , especially in terms of the effectiveness of the distance metrics in helping data cleansing applications . the edit distance between two strings is the minimum number of edit operations ( i . e ., insertions , deletions , and substitutions ) of single characters needed to transform the first string into the second . the edit distance metric works very well for capturing typographical errors . for example , the strings “ computerscience ” and “ computer science ” have edit distance one . also edit distance can capture insertions of short words ( e . g ., “ microsoft ” and “ microsoft co ” have edit distance three ). unfortunately , a small increase of the distance threshold can result in many false positives , especially for short strings . for example , the string “ ibm ” is within edit distance three of both “ acm ” and “ ibm co . ” the simple edit distance metric does not work well when the compared strings involve block moves ( e . g ., “ computer science department ” and “ department of computer science ”). in this case , we can use block edit distance , a more general edit distance metric that allows for block moves as a basic edit operation . by allowing for block moves , the block edit distance can also capture word rearrangements . finding the exact block edit distance of two strings is an np - hard problem . block edit distance cannot capture all mismatches . differences between records also occur due to insertions and deletions of common words . for example , “ kar corporation international ” and “ kar corporation ” have block edit distance 14 . if we allow large edit distance threshold capture such mismatches , the answer will contain a large number of false positive matches . the insertion and deletion of common words can be handled effectively with the cosine similarity metric that we have described in this paper if we use words as tokens . common words , like “ international ,” have low idf weight . hence , two strings are deemed similar when they share many identical words ( i . e ., with no spelling mistakes ) that do not appear frequently in the relation . this metric also handles block moves naturally . the use of words as tokens in conjunction with the cosine similarity as distance metric was proposed by whirl . unfortunately , this similarity metric does not capture word spelling errors , especially if they are pervasive and affect many of the words in the strings . for example , the strings “ computer science department ” and “ department of computer science ” will have zero similarity under this metric . hence , we can see that ( block ) edit distance and cosine similarity with words serve complementary purposes for data cleansing applications . edit distance handles spelling errors well ( and possibly blockmoves as well ), while the cosine similarity with words nicely handles block moves and insertions of words . a similarity function that naturally combines the good properties of the two distance metrics is the cosine similarity with q - grams as tokens . a block move minimally affects the set of common q - grams of two strings , so the two strings “ gateway communications ” and “ communications gateway ” have high similarity under this metric . a related argument holds when there are spelling mistakes in these words . hence , “ gateway communications ” and “ communications gateway ” will also have high similarity under this metric despite the block move and the spelling errors in both words . finally this metric handles the insertion and deletion of words nicely . the string “ gateway communications ” matches with high similarity the string “ communications gateway international ” since the q - grams of the word “ international ” appear often in the relation and have low weight . table 1 summarizes the qualitative properties of the distance functions that we have described in this section . the choice of similarity function impacts the execution time of the associated text - joins . the use of the cosine similarity with words leads to fast query executions as we have seen in the experimental evaluation . when we use q - grams , the execution time of the join increases considerably , resulting nevertheless in higher quality of results with matches that neither edit distance nor cosine similarity with words could have captured . given the improved recall and precision of the sampling - based text join when q = 3 ( compared to the case where q = 2 ), we believe that the cosine similarity metric with 3 - grams can serve well for data cleansing applications . it will be appreciated that the present invention has been described herein with reference to certain preferred or exemplary embodiments . the preferred or exemplary embodiments described herein may be modified , changed , added to or deviated from without departing from the intent , spirit and scope of the present invention . it is intended that all such additions , modifications , amendments , and / or deviations be included within the scope of the claims appended hereto . | 6 |
the following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the disclosed embodiments , and is provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements . various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art , and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosed embodiments . thus , the disclosed embodiments are not limited to the embodiments shown , but are to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein the data structures and code described in this detailed description are typically stored on a non - transitory computer - readable storage medium , which may be any device or medium that can store code and / or data for use by a computer system . the non - transitory computer - readable storage medium includes , but is not limited to , volatile memory , non - volatile memory , magnetic and optical storage devices such as disk drives , magnetic tape , cds ( compact discs ), dvds ( digital versatile discs or digital video discs ), or other media capable of storing code and / or data now known or later developed . the methods and processes described in the detailed description section can be embodied as code and / or data , which can be stored in a non - transitory computer - readable storage medium as described above . when a computer system reads and executes the code and / or data stored on the non - transitory computer - readable storage medium , the computer system performs the methods and processes embodied as data structures and code and stored within the non - transitory computer - readable storage medium . furthermore , the methods and processes described below can be included in hardware modules . for example , the hardware modules can include , but are not limited to , application - specific integrated circuit ( asic ) chips , field - programmable gate arrays ( fpgas ), and other programmable - logic devices now known or later developed . when the hardware modules are activated , the hardware modules perform the methods and processes included within the hardware modules . fig1 illustrates the structure of network router ( or network switch ) 100 in accordance with the disclosed embodiments . network router / switch 100 includes a switch fabric 110 , which is coupled to a number of line cards 101 - 104 , through associated line card “ system interfaces ” 121 - 124 . these line cards 101 - 104 are coupled to various communication lines ( e . g ., fiber optic links ) through associated line card “ line interfaces ” 111 - 114 . referring to fig2 , line card 101 includes a physical interface 202 that contains circuitry to facilitate communications through line interface 111 . line card 101 also includes a switch fabric interface 206 that contains circuitry to facilitate communications through system interface 121 . physical interface 202 and switch fabric interface 206 are coupled to a network processor 204 , which performs various packet - processing operations . note that line card 101 provides an “ ingress data path ” 208 for packets , which flows from line interface 111 through physical interface 202 and network processor 204 , and then through switch fabric interface 206 and system interface 121 into switch fabric 110 ( see fig1 ). a corresponding “ egress data path ” 210 flows in the opposite direction from switch fabric 110 through system interface 121 , then through switch fabric interface 206 and network processor 204 , and then through physical interface 202 and line interface 111 to an associated communication channel . fig3 illustrates the internal structure of a network processor 204 in accordance with the disclosed embodiments . network processor 204 includes a number of packet interfaces 301 - 306 , which send and receive packets to physical interface 202 and switch fabric interface 206 in fig2 . ( although only two packet interfaces are shown , there can generally exist a larger number of packet interfaces .) referring to the left - hand side of fig3 , traffic packets and cm packets from packet interfaces 301 - 306 feed into arbiter 307 . more specifically , a stream of traffic packets 302 and a stream of cm packets 303 from packet interface 301 feed into arbiter 307 . at the same time , a stream of traffic packets 304 and a stream of cm packets 305 from packet interface 306 feed into arbiter 307 . arbiter 307 schedules these traffic and cm packets to produce a stream of traffic packets 308 and a stream of cm packets 309 for an ingress virtual pipeline 320 , and also to produce a stream of traffic packets 310 and a stream of cm packets for an egress virtual pipeline 322 . note that ingress virtual pipeline 320 and egress virtual pipeline 322 actually flow through the same underlying physical pipeline ( not shown ). also note that packets from the end of ingress virtual pipeline 320 and the end of egress virtual pipeline 322 flow back to packet interfaces 301 - 306 . the ingress virtual pipeline 320 and egress virtual pipeline 322 include a number of virtual engine access points ( eaps ), which as mentioned above are specialized pipeline stages that facilitate sending a request on behalf of a packet to a packet - processing engine , and receiving a corresponding response . these virtual eaps are represented by thin ovals in fig3 . note that these virtual eaps are associated with underlying physical eaps , which are not shown . also note that each eap includes a fixed size delay buffer , which can be thought of as a shift register or a fifo queue of fixed size . the virtual eaps access a shared engine 312 that can perform various packet - processing operations , such as accessing a lookup table . engine 312 also includes a queue ( not shown ) for storing requests which are waiting to be processed by shared engine 312 . ( note that there can exist multiple shared engines 312 , each protected by a dedicated separate instance of a resource shaper .) in the embodiment illustrated in fig3 , traffic packets make calls ( requests ) through different virtual eaps than cm packets . more specifically , traffic packets make calls through virtual eaps 315 , 317 and 318 in ingress virtual pipeline 320 and virtual eap 319 in egress virtual pipeline 322 , whereas cm packets make calls through virtual eaps 314 and 316 in ingress virtual pipeline 320 . to reserve engine capacity for cm packets , older systems periodically send a non - executed control message ( xcm ) into the pipeline . an xcm passes through the pipeline and uses the same eap as the traffic packets but does not execute any code . this ensures that a gap in traffic will periodically pass through the eap , which provides additional time for the engine to process a preceding request from a cm packet . instead of sending xcms , newer systems send cm packets containing programs , which can possibly send multiple read and write requests to an engine . in this case it is not possible to ensure that a cm packet will always use the same eap as normal traffic packets . for example , referring to fig3 , in older systems , cm packets and traffic packets make calls through the same virtual eap 315 ( c ). in this way , the system knows that when a gap in traffic passes through c , the queue at engine 312 will tend to decrease . in newer systems , a cm packet contains a program which performs management operations , and this program does not call engine 312 through c . the program instead calls engine 312 from virtual eap 314 ( a ) or virtual eap 316 ( b ). however , there are time differences between a , b and c . hence , if the program makes a call through a , the system cannot know if a gap in traffic that precedes the cm packet has reached c when the cm packet makes a call through a . on the other hand , if the program in the cm packet makes a call through b , a false gap may occur , where a gap in traffic that follows the cm packet may have already passed c when the cm packet makes a call through b . this problem can be solved by using a timer in addition to the resource shaper ( token bucket ) described in u . s . patent ser . no . 11 / 722 , 470 ( cited above ). this timer operates in two modes . in the case where the cm packet makes a call through a , the resource shaper counts to zero and then starts the timer to account for the difference in time between a and c . when this timer reaches zero and the resource shaper is zero , the system can let the cm packet into the pipeline . note that when the resource shaper reaches zero , the system knows that enough gaps have passed through the pipeline interface to allow the engine to process the call through a . the system then starts the timer to account for the time difference between a and c . this ensures that all the gaps have reached c before the call is made through a . for the case where the cm packet makes a call through b , the idea is to not count false gaps . this is accomplished as follows . when the resource shaper counts to zero , the system sends the cm packet and starts the timer , which counts down the difference in time between b and c . the system also freezes the resource shaper while this timer is running and does not unfreeze the resource shaper until the timer reaches zero . by freezing the resource shaper for the duration of the timer , the system does not count false gaps in the pipeline between b and c . the above - described scheduling process is described in more detail below with reference to the flow chart in fig4 . at the start of the process , the system ( arbiter ) receives one or more streams of packets including traffic packets and cm packets ( step 402 ). next , the system initializes the resource shaper variable ( rs ) to zero ( step 404 ). during operation , the system then increments rs for each time interval ( 406 ). the system also subtracts a traffic - packet cost ct from rs for each traffic packet ( step 408 ) and subtracts a cm - packet cost ccm from rs for each cm packet ( step 409 ). the system also determines whether a cm packet can enter the pipeline based on the value of rs and an associated timer t . in the case where an access point a cm for cm packets precedes an access point a t for traffic packets in the pipeline , the system : ( 1 ) allows a previous cm packet which addresses the engine through a cm to enter the pipeline ; ( 2 ) receives a next cm packet which also addresses the engine through a cm ; and ( 3 ) when rs reaches zero , starts timer t , where t counts down a number of pipeline stages between a cm and a t , and if t reaches 0 and if rs = 0 , allows the next cm packet to enter the pipeline ( step 410 ). in the case where the access point a cm for cm packets follows the access point a t for traffic packets in the pipeline , the system : ( 1 ) allows a previous cm packet which addresses the engine through a cm to enter the pipeline ; ( 2 ) receives a next cm packet which also addresses the engine through a cm ; and ( 3 ) when rs reaches zero , allows the next cm packet to enter the pipeline ; start timer t , where t counts down a number of pipeline stages between a t and a cm ; while t is running , freezes the value of rs so that rs does not change ; and when t reaches zero , unfreezes the value of rs ( step 412 ). for example , assume that a traffic packet costs 5 cycles and a cm packet costs 50 cycles . in each clock cycle , the system increases rs by one , so every five clock cycles a traffic packet is sent and rs reaches zero again . when rs reaches zero , the system can send another cm packet . ( in the case where the eap for cm packets precedes the eap for traffic packets , when rs reaches zero , the system starts the timer and waits until the timer counts down to zero before sending the cm packet .) after the cm packet is sent , rs will hover between − 50 and − 45 . ( in the case where the eap for cm packets follows the eap for traffic packets , when rs reaches zero , the system sends the cm packet , starts the timer and waits until the timer counts down to zero . while the counter is active , the system freezes the value of rs .) next , when there is a gap in traffic , rs increases until rs eventually reaches zero again . at this point , the system knows that the queue at the engine is empty , and the system can start processing another cm packet . the foregoing descriptions of embodiments have been presented for purposes of illustration and description only . they are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present description to the forms disclosed . accordingly , many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art . additionally , the above disclosure is not intended to limit the present description . the scope of the present description is defined by the appended claims . | 7 |
inbred corn line php60 is a yellow , dent corn inbred with superior characteristics and provides an acceptable female parental line in crosses for producing first generation f 1 corn hybrids . this inbred is best adapted over the southeastern areas of the united states . the inbreds can be used to produce hybrids from approximately 122 - 136 relative maturity based on the minnesota relative maturity rating system for harvest moisture of grain . php60 is best used as the female parent because of its acceptable female yields , but it is not acceptable as a male parent because of poor pollen shed . in the pollen yield test , php60 averaged only 51 percent ( 51 %) of the experimental mean for amount of pollen in the pollen yield test averaged over 9 locations . the inbred has shown uniformity and stability within the limits of environmental influence for all the traits as described in the variety description information ( table 1 ) that follows . most of the data in the variety description information was collected at johnston , iowa . this inbred has been self - pollinated and ear - rowed a sufficient number of generations with careful attention paid to uniformity of plant type to ensure homozygosity and phenotypic stability . the line has been increased both by hand and in isolated fields with continued observations for uniformity . no variant traits have been observed or are expected in php60 . inbred corn line php60 , being substantially homozygous , can be reproduced by planting seeds of the line , growing the resulting corn plants under self - pollinating or sibpollinating conditions with adequate isolation , and harvesting the resulting seed , using techniques familiar to the agricultural arts . table 1______________________________________php60variety description information______________________________________type : dent region best adapted : southeasta . maturity : average across southern maturity zone zone : 9inbred = php60heat unit shed : 1590heat unit silk : 1610no . reps : 32 ## str1 ## b . plant characteristics : plant height ( to tassel tip ): 246 cmlength of top ear internode : 13 cmnumber of ears per stalk : singleear height ( to base of top ear ): 103 cmnumber of tillers : nonecytoplasm type : normalc . leaf : color : ( b14 ) dark greenangle from stalk : & lt ; 30 degreesmarginal waves : ( oh7l ) manynumber of leaves ( mature plants ): 22sheath pubescence : ( w22 ) lightlongitudinal creases : ( oh56a ) fewlength ( ear node leaf ): 84 cmwidth ( widest point , ear node leaf ): 9 cmd . tassel : number lateral branches : 9branch angle from central spike : & lt ; 30 degreespollen shed : light based on pollen yield test ( 51 % ofexperiment meanpeduncle length ( top leaf to basal branches ): 23 cmanther color : pinkish yellowglume color : greene . ear ( husked ear data except when stated otherwise ): length : 17 cmweight : 84 cmmid - point diameter : 37 mmsilk color : greenish yellowhusk extension ( harvest stage ): long ( 8 - 10 cm beyondear tip ) husk leaf : long (& gt ; 15 cm ) taper of ear : slight taperposition of shank ( dry husks ): uprightkernel rows : straight , distinct , number = 14husk color ( fresh ): light greenhusk color ( dry ): buffshank length : 17 cmshank ( no . of internodes ): 10f . kernel ( dried ): size ( from ear mid - point ) length : 9 mmwidth : 8 mmthick : 6 mmshape grade (% rounds ): 40 - 60 % medium rounds base onparent test datapericarp color : colorlessaleurone color : homozygous yellowendosperm color : yellowendosperm type : normalgm wt / 100 seeds ( unsized ): 24 gmg . cob : diameter at mid - point : 25 mmstrength : strongcolor : whiteh . diseases : corn lethal necrosis ( mcmv = maize chlorotic mottlevirus and mdmv = maize dwarf mosaic virus ): susceptiblemaize dwarf mosaic complex ( mdmv & amp ; mcdv = maizechlorotic dwarf virus ): suscepitibleanthracnose stalk rot ( c . graminicola ): intermediates . leaf blight ( h . maydis ): intermediaten . leaf blight ( h . turcicum ): intermediatecarbonum leaf blight ( h . carbonum ): intermediatecommon rust ( p . sorghi ): intermediateeye spot ( k . zeae ): resistantgray leaf spot ( c . zeae ): intermediatestewarts wilt ( e . stewartii ): intermediatecommon smut ( u . maydis ): susceptiblehead smut ( s . reiliana ): intermediatedowny mildew ( s . sorghi ): susceptiblefusarium ear mold ( f . moniliforme ): intermediatei . insects : european corn borer - 1 leaf damage ( pre - flowering ): suscepitibleeuropean corn borer - 2 ( post - flowering ): intermediatej . variety most closely resembling : characterinbredmaturityphn47usageb73______________________________________ * if maximum is greater than 86 degrees fahrenheit , then 86 is used and if minimum is less than 50 , then 50 is used . heat units accumulated daily an can not be less than 0 . phn47 ( pvp certificate 8800217 ) is a pioneer hi - bred international , inc . proprietary inbred . b73 is a public inbred released by iowa state university that has been widely used . data for items b , c , d , e , f , & amp ; g are primarily based on 3 reps of data from johnston , iowa in 1987 and 1988 plus description information from the maintaining station . table 2______________________________________electrophoresis resultsisozyme genotypes for php60______________________________________isozyme data was generated for inbred corn line php60according to the procedure described in goodman , m . m . andstuber , c . m ., &# 34 ; genetic identification of lines and crossesusing isoenzyme electrophoresis ,&# 34 ; proceedings of the thirty - fifth annual corn and sorghum industry research conference , chicago , illinois ( 1980 ). ______________________________________alleles present loci php60______________________________________ acp1 4 adh1 4 cat3 9 dia1 12 got1 4 got2 4 got3 4 idh1 4 idh2 6 mdh1 6 mdh2 6 mdh3 16 mdh4 12 mdh5 12 mmm 4 pgm1 9 pgm2 4 pgd1 2 pgd2 5 phi1 4______________________________________ this invention also is directed to methods for producing a corn plant by crossing a first parent corn plant with a second parent corn plant wherein the first or second parent corn plant is an inbred corn plant from the line php60 . further , both first and second parent corn plants can come from the inbred corn line php60 . thus , any such methods using the inbred corn line php60 are part of this invention : selfing , backcrosses , hybrid production , crosses to populations , and the like . all plants produced using inbred corn line php60 as a parent are within the scope of this invention . advantageously , the inbred corn line is used in crosses with other , different , corn inbreds to produce first generation ( f 1 ) corn hybrid seeds and plants with superior characteristics . as used herein , the terms &# 34 ; plant and plant parts &# 34 ; include plant cells , plant protoplasts , plant cell tissue culture from which corn plants can be regenerated , plant calli , plant clumps , and plant cells that are intact in plants or parts of plants , such as embryos , pollen , flowers , kernels , ears , cobs , leaves , husks , stalks , roots , root tips , anthers , silk and the like . tissue culture of corn is described in european patent application , publication 160 , 390 , incorporated herein by reference . corn tissue culture procedures are also described in green and rhodes , &# 34 ; plant regeneration in tissue culture of maize ,&# 34 ; maize for biological research ( plant molecular biology association , charlottsville , va . 1982 , at 367 - 372 . thus , another aspect of this invention is to provide cells which upon growth and differentiation produce the inbred line php60 . the utility of inbred line php60 also extends to crosses with other species . commonly , suitable species will be of the family graminaceae , and especially of the genera zea , tripsacum , coix , schlerachne , polytoca , chionachne , and trilobachne , of the tribe maydeae . of these , zea and tripsacum , are most preferred . potentially suitable for crosses with php60 may be the various varieties of grain sorghum , sorghum bicolor ( l .) moench . corn is used as human food , livestock feed , and as raw material in industry . the food uses of corn , in addition to human consumption of corn kernels , include both products of dry - and wet - milling industries and alkaline cooking . the principal products of corn dry milling are grits , meal and flour . the corn wet - milling industry can provide corn starch , corn syrups , and dextrose for food use . alkaline cooking provides snack foods ( i . e ., corn chips , tortillas , etc .) corn oil is recovered from corn germ , which is a by - product of both dry - and wet - milling industries . corn , including both grain and non - grain portions of the plant , is also used extensively as livestock feed , primarily for beef cattle , dairy cattle , hogs , and poultry . industrial uses of corn are mainly from corn starch from the wet - milling industry and corn flour from the dry - milling industry . the industrial applications of corn starch and flour are based on functional properties , such as viscosity , film formation , adhesive properties , and ability to suspend particles . the corn starch and flour have application in the paper and textile industries . other industrial uses include applications in adhesives , building materials , foundry binders , laundry starches , explosives , oil - well muds , and other mining applications . plant parts other than the grain of corn are also used in industry . stalks and husks are made into paper and wallboard and cobs are used for fuel and to make charcoal . the seed of inbred corn line php60 , the plant produced from the inbred seed , the hybrid corn plant produced from the crossing of the inbred , hybrid seed , and various parts of the hybrid corn plant can be utilized for human food , livestock feed , and as a raw material in industry in the examples that follow the traits and characteristics of inbred corn line php60 are given as a line and in hybrid combination . the data collected on inbred corn line php60 is presented for the key characteristics and traits . the results in table 3 compare php60 to b73 . b73 is an important inbred developed by iowa state university and is used in the area that php60 would be used and would cross well with some of the same inbred lines . the results show that the two inbreds differ significantly for a number of traits . php60 is later maturing ( flowering and harvest moisture of grain ), has higher percentage of large kernels , is shorter and lower eared , has harder textured grain , higher stay green scores , and better stalk lodging resistance than b73 . php60 has better ear mold tolerance , gray leaf spot tolerance , and much better southern leaf blight tolerance which makes it an important new female to use in the south . the results in table 4 compare php60 to phv78 . phv78 ( pvp certificate # 8800003 , u . s . pat . no . 4 , 812 , 599 ) is an important inbred that would be used in the area that php60 would be used and would cross well with some of the same inbred lines . this data was collected over four years of research testing . the results show that the two inbreds differ significantly for a number of traits . php60 had a five - bushel per acre yield advantage over phv78 , had higher grain test weight with better grain quality and harder textured grain , and better stay green than phv78 . php60 was also more resistant to southern leaf blight , gray leaf spot , fusarium and general ear molds than phv78 . the results in table 5a compare a php60 hybrid to a b73 hybrid from one research station in the south central corn belt . although the data is limited it shows some significant differences between the b73 and php60 hybrids . the php60 hybrid was later maturing ( flowering and grain harvest moisture ) and had better stay green . the results in table 5b compare php60 to phv78 crossed to the same inbred testers . this data was collected in the central and southern corn belt . the results show that the two lines also differ significantly for a number of traits in hybrid combination . the php60 hybrids had better resistance to root lodging , better stay green and better grain test weight than the phv78 hybrids . php60 has given good performance in specific hybrid combinations for the southeast . the results in table 6 compare a php60 hybrid to pioneer ® brand hybrid 3343 where both hybrids have a parent in common ( not php60 ). this data has been collected over one year of research testing in the central and southern corn belt . the data in the comparison is from shelbyville , illinois and union city , tennessee . the comparison shows that the php60 hybrid has much higher test weight grain than 3343 . the results in table 7 compare the performance of a php60 hybrid to pioneer ® brand 3295 where the hybrids have a parent in common ( not php60 ). the hybrid 3295 is grown in some of the areas where the php60 hybrid is grown but will not be utilized as far south . the php60 hybrid is later for harvest moisture maturity , has higher yields , better stay green , improved test weight , better grain quality and is a taller hybrid than 3295 . the results in table 8 compare the performance of a php60 hybrid to pioneer ® brand 3140 . although the two hybrids have no parents in common , 3140 is a fairly new very important hybrid that is used in the same area as the php60 hybrid . the php60 hybrid has higher yield , lower harvest moisture of the grain , with better test weight and grain quality , and improved stand establishment in the spring compared to 3140 . these characteristics will make the php60 hybrid very important in the southeast . table 3__________________________________________________________________________paired inbred comparison datainbred # 1 -- php 60inbred # 2 -- b73 * = 10 % sig + = 5 % sig # = 1 % sig__________________________________________________________________________ bu bu bar brt ear ear est cld cld drp til gdu gdu var acr acr plt stk ht sz cnt tst tst ear ler shd slkyear # abs % mn abs abs abs abs abs abs % mn abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________total sum 1 66 . 2 93 81 . 4 87 . 9 27 . 7 6 . 2 37 . 1 66 . 7 81 100 . 0 14 . 8 163 . 2 167 . 7 2 77 . 8 116 92 . 6 83 . 8 32 . 0 5 . 9 41 . 4 78 . 9 100 99 . 8 0 . 5 154 . 3 158 . 3 locs 43 43 33 4 34 18 98 12 12 4 23 78 70 diff 11 . 6 23 11 . 2 4 . 1 4 . 3 0 . 4 4 . 3 12 . 3 19 0 . 2 14 . 3 8 . 9 9 . 5 prob . 027 + . 015 + . 001 # . 618 . 000 # . 313 . 000 # . 058 * . 072 * . 391 . 035 + . 000 # . 000 # __________________________________________________________________________ grn ker ksz ksz ksz ksz ksz ksz plt pol rt var qul lb xl l mr mf s tip mst ht sc ldgyear # abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________total sum 1 6 . 2 173 . 8 0 . 4 26 . 0 54 . 0 12 . 6 6 . 6 0 . 6 20 . 1 75 . 0 4 . 9 79 . 3 2 6 . 1 214 . 9 0 . 0 1 . 2 14 . 8 21 . 2 45 . 4 17 . 6 18 . 3 79 . 4 5 . 5 88 . 3 locs 15 12 5 5 5 5 5 5 44 36 22 19 diff 0 . 1 41 . 1 0 . 4 24 . 8 39 . 2 8 . 6 38 . 8 17 . 0 1 . 8 4 . 4 0 . 5 9 . 0 prob . 848 . 007 # . 178 . 100 . 004 # . 392 . 004 # . 053 * . 000 # . 007 # . 074 * . 043 + __________________________________________________________________________ tas tas tex tst sct sdg sta stk stk yld com com ear var bls sz ear wt grn vgr grn cnt ldg sc rst smt mldyear # abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________total sum 1 9 . 0 4 . 3 7 . 5 57 . 5 5 . 5 3 . 9 6 . 4 32 . 8 95 . 3 5 . 4 4 . 0 0 . 0 6 . 8 2 1 . 0 5 . 2 5 . 8 57 . 8 7 . 4 6 . 1 2 . 3 34 . 0 86 . 0 6 . 8 6 . 3 7 . 0 6 . 2 locs 1 33 13 43 25 51 53 99 16 28 3 1 28 diff 8 . 0 0 . 8 1 . 7 0 . 3 1 . 8 2 . 1 4 . 1 1 . 1 9 . 3 1 . 4 2 . 3 7 . 0 0 . 6 prob . 000 # . 001 # . 244 . 003 # . 000 # . 000 # . 001 # . 043 + . 009 # . 192 . 065 * __________________________________________________________________________ ecb ecb ecb eye fus glf mdm nlf slf so stw var dpe 1lf 2sc spt ear spt cpx blt blt rst wlt year # abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________ total sum 1 86 . 7 3 . 7 5 . 0 7 . 0 50 . 9 4 . 2 3 . 2 3 . 8 6 . 8 5 . 0 7 . 5 2 53 . 3 3 . 6 3 . 3 5 . 0 76 . 1 2 . 3 2 . 0 3 . 3 3 . 2 5 . 5 7 . 0 locs 1 11 3 1 4 8 3 3 12 1 2 diff 33 . 3 0 . 1 1 . 7 2 . 0 25 . 1 1 . 9 1 . 2 0 . 5 3 . 5 0 . 5 0 . 5 prob . 779 . 300 . 103 . 001 # . 118 . 762 . 000 # . 500__________________________________________________________________________ table 4__________________________________________________________________________paired inbred comparison datainbred # 1 -- php60inbred # 2 -- phv78 * = 10 % sig + = 5 % sig # = 1 % sig__________________________________________________________________________ bu bu bar brt ear ear est til gdu gdu grn plt var acr acr plt stk ht sz cnt ler shd slk qul mst htyear # abs % mn abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________total sum 1 88 . 8 126 79 . 0 95 . 2 29 . 7 6 . 0 30 . 6 12 . 7 163 . 7 167 . 3 8 . 3 21 . 5 81 . 6 2 83 . 0 117 96 . 1 92 . 1 29 . 2 7 . 0 29 . 4 2 . 0 158 . 6 164 . 7 5 . 8 16 . 2 83 . 4 locs 16 16 14 3 22 21 71 19 66 64 6 16 23 diff 5 . 8 9 17 . 1 3 . 1 0 . 5 1 . 0 1 . 2 10 . 6 5 . 1 2 . 6 2 . 4 5 . 3 1 . 8 prob . 173 . 150 . 074 * . 326 . 574 . 002 # . 095 * . 071 * . 000 # . 032 + . 042 + . 000 # . 418__________________________________________________________________________ pol pol pol rt tas tas tex tst sct sdg sta stk stk var wt wt sc ldg sz wt ear wt grn vgr grn cnt ldgyear # abs % mn abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________total sum 1 83 . 3 42 5 . 0 71 . 2 4 . 3 2 . 8 7 . 5 57 . 6 5 . 4 4 . 1 6 . 5 27 . 0 93 . 5 2 259 . 7 140 7 . 0 82 . 1 6 . 9 5 . 8 4 . 2 55 . 2 5 . 8 5 . 2 5 . 1 25 . 7 97 . 8 locs 3 3 26 7 33 3 15 16 26 36 34 68 3 diff 176 . 4 98 2 . 0 11 . 0 2 . 6 3 . 0 3 . 3 2 . 4 0 . 3 1 . 2 1 . 4 1 . 4 4 . 3 prob . 057 * . 082 * . 000 # . 424 . 000 # . 008 # . 000 # . 001 # . 486 . 000 # . 000 # . 008 # . 481__________________________________________________________________________ yld ant com com ear ecb ecb ecb ecb eye fus glf var sc rot cln rst smt mld dpe 1lf 2sc 2it spt ear sptyear # abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________total sum 1 5 . 0 5 . 5 2 . 0 4 . 0 0 . 0 6 . 7 91 . 7 4 . 1 5 . 5 5 . 9 7 . 0 56 . 8 4 . 3 2 6 . 0 5 . 5 5 . 5 4 . 3 0 . 0 5 . 0 85 . 0 5 . 7 4 . 5 9 . 2 3 . 0 39 . 8 2 . 9 locs 30 1 1 3 1 29 2 16 6 1 1 7 12 diff 1 . 0 0 . 0 3 . 5 0 . 3 0 . 0 1 . 8 6 . 7 1 . 7 1 . 0 3 . 3 4 . 0 17 . 0 1 . 3 prob . 038 + . 874 . 000 # . 500 . 001 # . 159 . 083 * . 000 # __________________________________________________________________________ hc hd mdm nlf slf so stw var blt smt cpx blt blt rst wlt year # abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________ total sum 1 5 . 5 100 . 0 3 . 3 3 . 8 6 . 6 5 . 0 5 . 9 2 5 . 0 98 . 8 2 . 8 5 . 7 5 . 0 6 . 0 6 . 8 locs 1 2 4 6 12 1 4 diff 0 . 5 1 . 2 0 . 5 1 . 8 1 . 5 1 . 0 0 . 9 prob . 500 . 391 . 048 + . 006 # . 310__________________________________________________________________________ tables 5a & amp ; 5b__________________________________________________________________________average inbred by tester performance comparing php60 to b73 and php60 tophv78 crossedto the same inbred tester ( s ) and grown in the same experiments . allvalues are expressed as percent of the experiment mean except predictedrm , selection index , and yield ( bu ./ ac . ). __________________________________________________________________________php60 to b73 sel bu gdu stk rt bar sta inbred prm ind acr yld mst shd ldg ldg plt grn__________________________________________________________________________total replic . 6 6 6 6 6 4 8 4 6 6mean wts b73 125 111 180 112 97 100 94 82 102 100mean wts php60 130 98 171 101 107 107 99 76 96 138 diff . 5 14 9 11 10 7 5 6 6 38__________________________________________________________________________ tst cob grn sdg est plt ear drp brt inbred wta sc qul vgr cnt ht ht ear stk__________________________________________________________________________total replic . 6 4 4 6 6mean wts b73 102 80 105 106 112mean wts php60 102 53 92 107 105 diff . 0 26 13 1 7__________________________________________________________________________php60 to phv78 sel bu gdu stk rt bar sta inbred prm ind acr yld mst shd ldg ldg plt grn__________________________________________________________________________total replic . 26 26 26 26 26 6 12 20 2 22mean wts php60 125 95 147 95 97 101 87 101 100 103mean wts phv78 123 102 158 104 95 100 86 94 102 83 diff . 2 7 11 8 2 0 1 7 2 20__________________________________________________________________________ tst cob grn sdg est plt ear drp brt inbred wta sc qul vgr cnt ht ht ear stk__________________________________________________________________________total replic . 26 4 6 16 24 12 16mean wts php60 103 98 96 91 95 100 98mean wts phv78 98 92 100 96 102 100 101 diff . 5 6 4 5 7 0 2__________________________________________________________________________ table 6__________________________________________________________________________ # 1 -- php60 hybrid # 2 -- pioneer ® brand 3343 * = 10 % sig + = 5 % sig # = 1 % sig__________________________________________________________________________ bu gdu stk rt sta var sel acr mst shd ldg ldg grnyear # ind prm abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________total sum 1 94 123 136 . 1 20 . 2 138 . 0 100 . 0 99 . 4 5 . 6 2 109 122 154 . 5 18 . 7 136 . 0 97 . 1 94 . 9 4 . 2 locs 2 1 6 6 1 3 4 5 diff 15 1 18 . 4 1 . 5 2 . 0 2 . 9 4 . 4 1 . 4 prob . 065 * . 068 * . 160 . 193 . 140 . 296__________________________________________________________________________ tst cob grn sdg est plt ear var wta sc qul vgr cnt ht htyear # abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________total sum 1 59 . 3 6 . 5 8 . 7 4 . 5 44 . 6 101 . 2 39 . 3 2 56 . 7 5 . 5 8 . 2 7 . 2 53 . 9 101 . 3 42 . 6 locs 6 1 3 3 5 3 4 diff 2 . 6 1 . 0 0 . 5 2 . 7 9 . 3 0 . 2 3 . 4 prob . 006 # . 225 . 202 . 003 # . 840 . 278__________________________________________________________________________ table 7__________________________________________________________________________ # 1 -- php60 hybrid # 2 -- pioneer ® brand 3295 * = 10 % sig + = 5 % sig # = 1 % sig__________________________________________________________________________ bu bu gdu stk rt bar sta tst var sel acr acr mst shd ldg ldg plt grn wtayear region # prm ind abs % mn abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________total sum 1 127 110 159 . 4 111 20 . 5 148 . 5 92 . 2 80 . 2 96 . 5 5 . 4 56 . 8 2 125 107 152 . 1 105 19 . 4 144 . 0 94 . 8 91 . 4 97 . 2 4 . 8 56 . 6 locs 43 43 166 166 166 39 109 69 28 117 160 diff 3 3 7 . 3 6 1 . 1 4 . 5 2 . 7 11 . 3 0 . 6 0 . 6 0 . 2 prob . 000 # . 111 . 000 # . 000 # . 000 # . 000 # . 012 + . 000 # . 293 . 000 # . 011 + __________________________________________________________________________ cob grn sdg est stk plt ear drp brt var sc qul vgr cnt cnt ht ht ear stk year region # abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________ total sum 1 4 . 6 6 . 1 5 . 2 54 . 6 43 . 1 115 . 6 50 . 3 99 . 7 98 . 6 2 5 . 6 5 . 6 7 . 0 56 . 3 43 . 2 113 . 5 49 . 0 99 . 7 100 . 0 locs 14 91 79 109 171 95 102 20 1 diff 1 . 1 0 . 5 1 . 8 1 . 8 0 . 1 2 . 1 1 . 3 0 . 0 1 . 4 prob . 002 # . 000 # . 000 # . 000 # . 357 . 000 # . 000 # . 944__________________________________________________________________________ table 8__________________________________________________________________________ # 1 -- php60 hybrid # 2 -- pioneer ® brand 3140 * = 10 % sig + = 5 % sig # = 1 % sig__________________________________________________________________________ bu bu gdu stk rt bar sta tst var sel acr acr mst shd ldg ldg plt grn wtayear region # prm ind abs % mn abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________total sum 1 127 109 154 . 0 110 19 . 8 149 . 5 89 . 6 79 . 7 97 . 5 5 . 0 57 . 1 2 128 108 148 . 4 106 20 . 2 149 . 4 94 . 6 89 . 2 98 . 2 5 . 5 56 . 6 locs 31 30 121 121 123 23 77 38 12 82 114 diff 1 1 5 . 6 4 0 . 3 0 . 1 4 . 9 9 . 5 0 . 6 0 . 5 0 . 5 prob . 001 # . 604 . 001 # . 001 # . 003 # . 891 . 000 # . 002 # . 447 . 004 # . 000 # __________________________________________________________________________ cob grn sdg est stk plt ear drp brt var sc qul vgr cnt cnt ht ht ear stk year region # abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs abs__________________________________________________________________________ total sum 1 4 . 9 6 . 0 5 . 1 55 . 1 43 . 9 116 . 3 50 . 8 99 . 7 98 . 6 2 5 . 3 5 . 7 5 . 0 53 . 0 43 . 4 115 . 2 51 . 2 99 . 7 96 . 7 locs 8 81 61 67 124 63 66 12 1 diff 0 . 3 0 . 3 0 . 1 2 . 1 0 . 5 1 . 2 0 . 4 0 . 0 1 . 9 prob . 279 . 024 + . 279 . 004 # . 044 + . 042 + . 350 . 918__________________________________________________________________________ applicants have made available to the public without restriction a deposit of at least 2500 seeds of inbred php60 with the american type culture collection ( atcc ), rockville , md 20852 usa , atcc deposit no . 75078 . the seeds deposited with the atcc are taken from the same deposit maintained by pioneer hi - bred international inc ., 700 capital square , 400 locust st ., des moines , iowa 50309 since prior to the filing date of this application . the deposit will be maintained in the atcc depository , which is a public depository , for a period of 30 years , or 5 years after the most recent request , or for the effective life of the patent , whichever is longer , and will be replaced if it becomes nonviable during that period . | 0 |
the devices disclosed herein provide for transmission of video signals and control signals from infrared transmitters across active networks of telephone wiring without affecting ordinary telephone communications . they are designed to accommodate video signals with the same resolutions and refresh rates as those used for public broadcasting . when transmitting signals across path lengths typical of those found in ordinary residences , the devices provide enough signal fidelity to produce undegraded images and unambiguous control commands . design of these devices required an extensive experimental and theoretical investigation of the physics of transmission of video signals across this type of network , a deep appreciation of the special need for convenience and economy in consumer products , some circuit design , as well as a novel combination of electrical signal processing components . a description of the disclosed devices is preceded by an overview of the topic of transmission across telephone wiring . the overview will begin with a summary of the investigation into the transmission of video and will conclude with a description of the method designed to transmit signals from infrared controllers . the descriptions that follow the overview include several options for the design of the pair of cooperating transceivers , the special television / transceiver pair , and the special adaptor referenced in the summary . the influence of the transmission investigation on these designs as well as the influence of other considerations related to consumer electronics will be included in those descriptions . the advantages and disadvantages of the various designs will also be discussed , and the preferred embodiment will be identified . finally , the electronic details of some circuitry described in general terms earlier on will be presented . the signals described as video herein refer to signals that provide picture information encoded according to ntsc , pal , secam , or similar formats that are used for public broadcasting throughout the world . these formats provide between 50 and 60 image frames per second , and vertical resolutions of between 525 and 625 lines per frame . in general , the disclosed devices are designed to transmit audio information along with video according to these formats . most of the disclosed technology , however , will function the same whether audio is present or not . for this reason , signals described as video shall refer to signals with or without audio information . an explicit description will be used whenever audio is specifically included or excluded . the following problems must be overcome for transmission of video signals to succeed across a network of telephone wiring : 1 ) multi - path effects , also known as “ reflections ” or “ ghosting ,” can cause video distortion . these effects can arise in a network of wiring because signals can travel from source to receiver via many different paths . if signal energy arrives at the receiver across two paths that differ in length , the signal conducted across one path will be offset in time relative to the signal traversing the second path . this will cause the same image to appear at two different points in the scanning cycle of the picture tube . this can create the special distortion pattern called “ ghosting ” if the offset difference is large enough . multi - path “ ghosting ” of broadcast signals is commonly caused by large buildings that reflect broadcast energy and create multiple paths of significantly different lengths to nearby antennae . 2 ) reduction of signal energy across the transmission paths can reduce the signal - to - noise ratio present at a television receiver below that required to produce a high - quality picture . a signal - to - noise ratio of 40 db is marginally sufficient for high - quality video . it follows that picture degradation will result whenever signal energy at the receiver falls to within 40 db of the noise level on the wiring or the minimum noise floor of the television receiver . three factors are principally responsible for attenuation of the energy of the signal as it travels from source to receiver , resulting in a lower energy at the end of any transmission path . these factors are : a ) attenuation or dissipation of signal energy by the wiring . unlike coaxial cable , over which video signals travel with little attenuation , telephone wiring dramatically attenuates high frequency energy . this attenuation increases linearly with path length , and also increases with frequency . at 90 mhz for example , typical telephone wiring attenuates energy at 14 db per 100 feet , while at 175 mhz , attenuation is approximately 25 db per 100 feet . b ) network junctions where the wiring splits . these can cause significant attenuation when they occur on one of the principal paths carrying energy from source to receiver . when the alternative path is very long , the energy splits , reducing the level on the main transmission path by approximately 3 . 5 db . as the alternate path becomes shorter , attenuation will depend on whether or not the branch is open , or “ terminated .” if the branch is unterminated , attenuation will be less than this amount , and will be negligible for very short branches . at higher frequencies , the 3 . 5 db limit is approached more quickly . c ) telephone devices that dissipate high frequency energy . a significant number of these devices exhibit this property . if they terminate short branches , as described above , they can drain energy from a principal transmission path . devices that have a strong dissipative effect can reduce the energy beyond the ordinary 3 . 5 db splitting loss . as the length of these branches increases , the attenuation of the branch prevents the draining phenomenon , and the ordinary 3 . 5 db splitting loss becomes the dominating factor . at higher frequencies , the 3 . 5 db limit is encountered at shorter path lengths . 3 ) the fact that attenuation increases with frequency can cause the energy near the high end of a 6 mhz video channel to attenuate more than the energy at the lower end . this causes a “ tilt ” in the signal power spectrum , which is a form of signal distortion that can cause picture degradation if it is sufficiently pronounced . 4 ) interference from strong broadcast signals picked up by the wiring acting as an antenna can cause severe distortion . the ability of the wiring to receive broadcast energy increases with frequency . 5 ) because telephone wiring , unlike coaxial cable , is not shielded by a grounded metallic conductor , significant electromagnetic radiation can be created when it conducts electrical energy at radio frequencies . this can create legal problems as well as interference to nearby televisions and other receivers tuned to those frequencies . the level of radiation caused by a given signal level increases with frequency . ( in contrast to reguations covering radiation , no special legal problems are created in the u . s . by the connection of radio frequency devices to the public telephone network if those devices do not transmit energy below 6 mhz . restrictions are not required because the network wiring will quickly attenuate such energy below any meaningful level .) one possible strategy for addressing these problems is to recode the video signal into a different waveform with equivalent information before imparting its energy to the wiring . if , for example , the bandwidth of the signal could be compressed without losing information , the problems of tilt , interference , and , possibly , radiation would be reduced . implementation of compression or other recoding techniques , however , is extremely expensive , and will probably not significantly alleviate all of these problems . because some conventions for video encoding and modulation provide signals with redundant information , the bandwidth of a video signal can sometimes be reduced by sharp filtering without significant loss of information . because the potential reduction would not be large , however , this strategy is also unlikely to significantly alleviate the problems described above . a second method of waveform alteration is to amplify the higher frequencies of the signal more than those at the low end . this is called “ pre - emphasis ” and can compensate for “ tilting ” of the signal . apart from the fact that it only addresses one of the potential problems , however , pre - emphasis is expensive , and also requires the inconvenience of adjusting the compensation level upon installation in a new residence . this is because the attenuation differential is a proportion of the overall attenuation which , in turn , will vary from one residence to another . beyond rewiring a residence , which defeats the purpose of the invention , the only other elements of control that can be exercised to help transmission succeed lie in the choice of the energy level and frequency , and in electronics that can limit the effects of the connected telephone devices . most individuals skilled in the art , however , expect that an amplified video signal conducted across telephone networks would suffer from “ ghosting ” at most any frequency and energy level . others suspect that amplification of the signal high enough to force it across the wiring would create completely unacceptable levels of radiation . to investigate transmission over this network , the inventors devised and conducted a series of experiments that included observation of the quality of pictures generated from transmitted signals , and also measurements of radiation created by the transmitting signals . as part of the experiment , a transmit / receive pair was designed , using technology disclosed later herein , to feed amplified video signals through one port on a network and to recover them from a second port . these devices were used to perform experiments in twenty residences using video signals at different energy levels and frequencies . for most of the experiments , telephone equipment was disconnected at the involved ports , but some remained elsewhere on the network . a few tests were performed to investigate the effects of telephone equipment sharing the same port . the radiation tests involved conduction of video signals on to an unterminated 50 foot length of wiring that was extended horizontally and elevated one foot above ground , and measuring field strength via a calibrated antenna placed 3 meters from the midpoint of the wire . the signals were conditioned to minimize radiation before they were fed to wiring . the conditioning involved a process called “ balancing ”, which is used in the disclosed transceivers and is described later on . the most natural choices for transmission frequencies are the channels in the low vhf range . in the u . s ., the low vhf range is composed of vhf channels 2 through 6 , which extend from 54 mhz to 88 mhz . vhf channels 2 through 4 constitute one adjacent group of three 6 mhz wide channels spanning between 54 mhz and 72 mhz , and vhf channels 5 and 6 constitute a second adjacent group spanning from 76 mhz to 88 mhz . channels in the low vhf range are good candidates for transmission frequencies because they constitute the lowest group of channels tunable by ordinary televisions . the benefit of tunability is that television receivers can recover these signals from the wiring in tunable form , eliminating the need for electronics that convert their frequency . the benefits of using the lower frequencies among the vhf channels are the attendant reductions in attenuation and radiation . a further advantage of tunability is that if the channel is not used for local video broadcasting , there is no possibility of interference from broadcast energy picked up by the wiring in the u . s . that is because the frequency bands allocated to video broadcasting in the u . s . are off limits to any other services . because little variation was expected across the low vhf range , tests were conducted only at vhf channel 3 . no frequencies above this range were tested because the first tunable channel above vhf channel 6 is vhf 7 which , at 174 mhz , would exhibit significantly greater attenuation and radiation , and would have no redeeming advantages over the low vhf channels . to see if further reductions in attenuation and radiation would offset the extra costs associated with using channels below the tunable range , it was decided to investigate transmission at frequencies below vhf channel 2 . because u . s . federal communications commission radiation limits are less restrictive below 30 mhz , it was decided to choose the channel spanning from 24 mhz to 30 mhz . to the inventors &# 39 ; knowledge , the only applications involving transmission of video signals with high resolutions and refresh rates at frequencies below the tunable range are those where extra bandwidth is needed on a cable tv distribution network . this requirement can arise when there is a need to send - video signals over cable from remote locations back to a central transmission site . these frequencies are available for reverse transmission because distribution systems do not ordinarily use frequencies below vhf channel 2 . they are not tunable by televisions and have never , to the inventors &# 39 ; knowledge , been used in any consumer video device . following is a summary of the results of the transmission and radiation experiments : 1 ) when a vhf channel 3 signal with a conducted energy level of 37 . 5 db re 1 mv was fed onto the wiring at the source end , visibly undegraded pictures were generated from signals recovered at a remote jack in 85 % of the test cases . radiation from signals at this energy level were measured at approximately 200 uv / m at 3 meters . 2 ) at an energy level of 42 . 5 db re 1 mv , video signals concentrated between 24 mhz and 30 mhz succeeded in generating a visibly undegraded picture in 100 % of the test cases . radiation levels were approximately 200 uv / m at 3 meters . ( this level was the same as the level for vhf channel 3 because a higher conducted signal level was used .) 3 ) ghosting was never observed at any frequency or energy level . 4 ) interference from a broadcast video source distorted the picture only when it was strong enough to create an undegraded picture via antenna reception . distant video sources caused no interference . this type of interference , of course , applied only to the tests at vhf channel 3 and not at the 24 mhz to 30 mhz channel . 5 ) signals from cb radio transceivers , which operate with 5 watts of power and span the range from 26 . 965 mhz to 27 . 4 mhz caused interference with transmission across the 24 - 30 mhz video channel when a cb transmitter was within 50 feet of the telephone wiring . interference from other sources was not noticed , but is obviously possible when a source transmitting at an interfering frequency is close enough or transmits with enough power . 6 ) the connection of telephone equipment at ports previously used only by the transceivers occasionally degraded an otherwise high quality picture . 7 ) no distortion that was noticed could be traced to “ tilting ” of the signal spectrum . 8 ) radiation from signals transmitting across the wiring at vhf channel 3 often caused slight but significant interference to nearby televisions tuned to a vhf 3 signal supplied by a different video source . this occurred most often when a cable converter and vcr both connected to a television receiver , and the television tuned in a signal from the cable converter at vhf channel 3 while the vcr supplied the vhf 3 signal that was transmitted across the telephone wiring . this type of interference occurred on older televisions that did not offer a shielded input port , and also on more modern televisions that connected via a shielded coaxial cable but allowed slight leakage from other available ports such as twin lead ports . note that this type of problem will not arise when using vhf channels 5 or 6 for transmission across the wiring , because video sources that supply signals at those channels are very rare . the survival of enough signal energy to generate a quality picture can be explained by simply considering the attenuation expected over the longest paths typically encountered in residences . if one assumes a minimum television receiver noise figure of 5 db , a receiver bandwidth of 6 mhz , and a desired signal - to - noise ratio of 50 db , one finds that the minimum signal level required at the receiver is 770 uv into 75 ohms . the output level of a typical vcr is approximately 2000 uv into the same impedance , well above the minimum necessary to reliably provide a high quality picture . at 66 mhz , attenuation of signals transmitted over telephone wiring is approximately 30 db over 250 feet . it follows that 30 db of amplification should ensure good signal quality over the longest paths in typical households , except where splits in the wiring and connected telephone equipment cause excessive attenuation . the lack of “ ghosting ” can be explained by the fact that there is usually a monotonic relationship between signal transit time and attenuation . ( the rare exceptions to this relationship can be caused by a short path over which signals suffer extraordinary attenuation due to the presence of many splits , or the presence of telephone devices connected off short branches . signals traversing such a path might attenuate more than those traversing a longer path that has a longer transit time .) because of this monotonic relationship , secondary signals arriving at the receiver after traversing long reflected paths will be usually be significantly attenuated relative to signals that travel over the most direct path from the transmitter . the “ offset ” in the picture that produces “ ghosting ” is related to the difference in travel times . to be visible , the offset must be at least as wide as the resolution of the television . it can be shown that path length differences that create offsets this large also have enough difference in attenuation to place the energy level of the reflected path at least 40 db below that of the incident path , which is below the minimum srr required for a quality picture , making the reflected energy negligible and its interference invisible . the results of the experiments verified that when two signals are fed to telephone wiring at energy levels that will cause them to generate the same amount of electromagnetic radiation , a signal transmitting at a channel below 54 mhz has a significantly higher probability of generating a high quality picture than a signal transmitting at a low vhf channel . transmission at lower frequencies , however , is more susceptible to interference from broadcast sources and also requires somewhat more expensive electronics . as described in the introduction , the second signal that will be passed between the transceivers is the control signal from an infrared transmitter operating in the area of a connected television . part of the disclosed transmission technique follows the known strategy of transducing the light pattern created by these signals into electrical energy and transmitting that energy across the wiring in the opposite direction of the video signals , to be received by the transceiver connected to the video source . that transceiver uses the electrical version of the signal to recreate the original infrared light pattern , for the purposes of controlling the video source to which it connects . the technique disclosed herein embodies an extension designed to avoid interference with telephone signals . the extension calls for the frequency of the electrical version of the control signals to be converted to a higher band before transmission across the wiring . this band will be high enough to eliminate interference with telephone or low - frequency communication signals . after recovery of this signal at the end of the transmission path , the signal is converted back to its original band before being used to recreate the original light pattern . maintaining the fidelity of the control signals across the wiring presents less of a challenge than was posed by transmission of video signals . unevenness , or “ tilting ” in the signal spectrum is not a problem because the bandwidth of the signal is small . an analysis of the factors governing multi - path interference indicates that that problem should not arise either . because the bandwidth of control signals from typical infrared transmitters is considerably less than 1 mhz , finding a frequency interval that will encounter little interference from ambient broadcast signals is not difficult . also , the information content is small so that little energy is required for successful transmission . the reduced energy generates less radiation . other requirements for the choice of a frequency band and energy level for transmission of these signals are that the band must not overlap , of course , the video signals at the frequencies chosen for video transmission , and the energy must meet the legal requirements that govern devices that connect to the public telephone network . as mentioned earlier , the u . s . federal communications commission imposes no restrictions on signals above 6 mhz , leaving ample room between that frequency and the video signals , even if a channel below vhf 2 is used . the control signals can also be transmitted above the frequencies used for transmission of video . a frequency centered at 10 . 7 mhz is used in the preferred embodiment because that is a common intermediate frequency in fm radio devices , the result of which is that there are very inexpensive electronic components available that are especially suited for that frequency . as a result of the investigation into transmission of video signals across active telephone wiring and the system adopted for transmission of control signals , a general design for a transceiver was developed to connect between a video source and telephone wiring to perform the functions of : 1 ) shifting the frequency of the video signal from the channel supplied by the source to the channel used for transmission , 2 ) amplifying the video signal , 3 ) “ balancing ” the two leads of the video signal so that their voltages are nearly equal and opposite with respect to ground , and matching the impedance of the telephone wiring , 4 ) transmitting this signal on to the telephone network without disturbing low - frequency communication signals , simultaneously recovering the control signals fed to the wiring by the transceiver connected to the television , 5 ) downshifting the control signals to their original frequency , 6 ) using the resulting energy to recreate the original infrared pattern , and 7 ) connecting to a telephone jack while allowing for telephone devices to share the same jack without loading down the energy of the video signal . fig1 shows an arrangement of electronics for a transceiver 1 designed to implement these functions . this transceiver is described in the following paragraphs . the description discloses several optional design variations . the transceiver 1 connects to the video source 2 to derive a signal . that signal is passed to rf converter 3 , which translates the signal to the frequency band chosen for transmission over the wiring . fortunately , nearly all consumer video sources provide their signals in one of only two different ways . some devices provide an unmodulated video signal containing no sound information from one port and an unmodulated audio signal from a second , separate port . others supply a video signal , possibly including sound information , at either vhf channel 3 or 4 , according to a switch set by the consumer . most vcrs make their signal available in both forms . two alternative design options for rf converters are disclosed for transmission at a low vhf channel . these options have clear advantages over all other possible designs . one design derives the signals from the port that supplies a low vhf signal , hereinafter referred to as the “ low vhf port .” that design is described first . that description is followed by a description of the second design , which derives its signal from the port that supplies an unmodulated signal , hereinafter referred to as the “ baseband ” port . operating manuals for video sources that provide a vhf channel 3 or 4 signal instruct users to select the channel not used for local broadcasting . one of the two is always guaranteed to be free from broadcast interference in the u . s . this is because the u . s . fcc has allocated frequencies to ensure that no locality has broadcasting at both of two adjacent video channels , and has reserved the video broadcast bands strictly for television . it follows that the low vhf port on a vcr is guaranteed to provide a low vhf signal that is not used for local broadcasting . this eliminates the need for rf conversion electronics and significantly reduces the expense of the device . furthermore , a single design can suffice for every location in the country . a possible drawback to this alternative is that of the interference problem , described earlier , caused by radiation of the transmitted signal from the wiring that leaks into televisions deriving signals from a separate source at vhf channel 3 or 4 . to minimize radiation and thus alleviate this problem , the use of a special connecting cable and a variable amplifier are disclosed later on in the description of this transceiver . the second design option for transmission at a low vhf channel calls for the signal to be derived in unmodulated form from the baseband port . this option has two significant advantages . one is that the low vhf port on vcrs is usually connected to a television receiver , while the baseband port on vcrs is almost always unused and open , making connection of the transceiver extremely easy . the other advantage derives from a switch , usually referred to as the “ tv / vcr ” switch , that controls the output of the low vhf port on vcrs . the tv / vcr switch allows the vcr signal , created from a video tape or from a signal tuned in by the vcr tuner , to be sent out at vhf channel 3 or 4 , or alternatively , it allows the signals input to the vcr to pass out the “ low vhf ” port at their original frequencies . meanwhile , the vcr signal always exits the baseband port . this allows the local television to tune to either the input signals , or to the signal produced by the vcr , while the vcr signal exits the baseband port separately , available for transmission across the wiring to the remote television . moreover , the “ tv / vcr ” switch usually responds to one of the controls on an accompanying infrared remote control transmitter . if a low vhf frequency is chosen for transmission and the baseband port is chosen as the signal source , the rf converter 3 is obviously required . the converter inputs a video signal , and uses that signal to modulate a low vhf carrier signal , creating an equivalent video signal at a low vhf frequency . ( if an audio signal is available , it would ordinarily make sense , of course , for the modulator to combine this signal together with the video according to the ntsc or an equivalent format , and then use the combined signal to modulate the carrier .) in order to achieve the economy provided by a single design that suffices for the entire u . s ., one of two adjacent low vhf channels should be made available and set according to a user - controlled switch . ( theoretically , the switch could also be automatically controlled , using circuitry that detects the presence of broadcast energy to choose the empty channel .) a design for this modulator is not given because several designs are well known . several advantages accrue if the modulator is designed to operate at either vhf channel 5 or 6 , instead of the other two available adjacent low vhf pairs : vhf 3 / 4 , and vhf 2 / 3 . first of all , the special problem of radiative energy from the wiring interfering with the signal provided by a separate video source to a nearby television will not occur . this is because consumer video sources seldom provide their video signal at vhf channel 5 or 6 . secondly , the television connected via the transceiver will more easily be able to combine the recovered signal together with a local video source , such as a cable converter , again because video sources almost always use vhf channels 2 , 3 , or 4 . finally , an advantage accrues from the fact that vhf channels 5 and 6 are not adjacent to any other channels . this means that when combining the telephone line signal with a signal from an antenna , the signal from the telephone line will never be adjacent to more than one broadcast signal . because only expensive modulators confine their signals completely within their intended band , this reduces possibilities of interference . the rf converter 3 is also required , of course , if a frequency below vhf channel 2 is used for transmission , independent of the port from which the video signal is derived . unlike low vhf channels , however , channels below vhf 2 are not tunable by ordinary televisions , making rf conversion a requirement at the transceiver that connects to the television , shown later in fig2 . the rf conversions performed by the two transceivers must obviously coordinate in this case . three systems for coordination between these conversion operations are disclosed following the description of the television transceiver . after it is derived at or shifted to the channel used for transmission , the video signal is passed to an rf amplifier 4 , which increases the energy level by a fixed factor . in order to increase the likelihood of success of transmission across all residences , amplification should be set to cause radiation that barely meets legal limits , unless a very high success rate can be achieved with a lesser setting . a variation of this design calls for an rf amplifier 4 that allows the user variable control over the amplification level . this is valuable in situations where vhf 3 or 4 is used for transmission , because radiation from the wiring can cause interference at televisions connected to separate sources , as described earlier . a variable reduction of signal level potentially enables a user to eliminate this interference while keeping signal level at the remote television high enough to generate an undegraded picture . after amplification , the video signal follows the conductive path to a coupling network 5 . this network 5 feeds the video signal to the telephone wiring , and allows the control signals from the television transceiver to pass from the wiring towards the control signal processing circuitry 6 . ( the process whereby control signals from an infrared transmitter are converted to electrical energy above voiceband and conducted on to the telephone line is included within the description of the television transceiver .) the network also performs the functions of balancing the energy of the video signal , matching the impedance of the video signal path to the impedance of the telephone wiring , blocking low - frequency telephone communication signals from the transceiver electronics , and blocking the flow of video signals towards the control signal processing circuitry 6 . the network 5 does not block the flow of control signals towards the rf amplifier 4 . the importance of these functions is described in the following paragraphs . the detailed electronic design of the preferred embodiment of this network is shown in fig6 and is described in detail later on . balancing the video signal energy on the two leads of the wiring promotes cancellation of the two electromagnetic fields created by these leads , dramatically reducing radiation . the frequency of the input will have the biggest effect on the balance achieved by a given network design . because the frequency will be known , the design can be tailored to produce a reliable balancing . balancing of the control signals , on the other hand , is not nearly as critical because the strength of those signals can be boosted high enough to guarantee quality transmission while limiting radiation to levels below legal or otherwise significant limits . the impedance of the internal transceiver circuitry wiring is matched to the impedance of the telephone line at the video frequencies because transition from one medium to another is inefficient and wastes signal energy if impedance is not matched . this can be important in situations where the video signal energy is only marginally high enough to create a high quality picture . impedance matching at the frequencies used by control signals is not important because of the excess power available for transmission of those signals . blocking low - frequency signals from transmission to the electronics of the transceiver prevents any interference with ordinary telephone communication signals . the blocking should render the connection and operation of the transceiver totally transparent to the functioning of low frequency telephone communications . blocking the flow of video energy to the control signal processing circuitry 6 allows that component to reliably recreate the original control signal without special expensive electronics . the video signal would ordinarily disrupt this processing because it has a very high energy level while passing through this network . note that the network 5 allows control signals to pass on to the rf amplifier 4 . there is no need to block these signals because they will be at frequencies above baseband and rf amplifiers are commonly designed to terminate low power rf signals that are incident at their outputs . the amplifier thus provides isolation of the control signal from the video source as a side effect . if this intelligence could traverse the amplifier and transmit to the rf converter 3 or the video source 2 , it would be similarly ignored , because these devices also commonly provide reverse isolation . the function of the control signal processing circuitry 6 is to downshift the frequency of the control signals back to their original location at baseband , and to use the resulting energy to drive an infrared emitting bulb 7 , recreating the original light pattern . this function completes the process of transmission of signals from an infrared transmitter over active telephone wiring , a function not heretofore a part of any commercial or consumer device . the preferred embodiment of the control signal circuitry 6 of the video source transceiver is shown in fig9 and is described in detail later on . if the video source transceiver is placed on top of the source to which it connects , which seems likely to be the most convenient placement , there will not be a line of sight path between the infrared bulb and the infrared sensitive pick up window on the source . this is not a problem if the infrared light can reflect off walls and retain its effectiveness , something that is known to be possible . to allow this convenient placement of the transmitter , the infrared transmission bulb should be driven at high power and with a wide beamwidth , in order to decrease the possibility of insufficient reflective energy . it may make sense to drive several bulbs oriented at different angles . the transceiver 1 connects to the telephone network 10 via a connecting cord 12 terminated with a male rj - 11 plug , the standard plug used to connect to telephone jacks . this cord includes two special components : a touch tone switch 8 , and a low pass filter 9 . also , the two conductors of the cord are systematically twisted about each other . the touch tone switch 8 is an optional feature provided for coordination of this transceiver with other video source transceivers connected to the same network . its function is described in detail later on . for the purposes of the current discussion , it can be assumed that the switch has no influence on signal flow across the cord 12 or on the operation of the other components . the other two features , the low pass filter 9 and the special nature of the conductors of the cord , are described in the following paragraphs . as mentioned earlier , telephone devices that connect to a main transmission path via a short stretch of wiring can cause significant dissipation of rf signal energy . to allow equipment to remain connected at the ports shared by the transceiver without causing attenuation , the low - pass filter 9 , consisting of two induction coils with low - pass properties connects in series to the two conductors of the cord to offer a second port for connection of telephone equipment 11 . this filter removes most high - frequency effects of both the equipment and the split in the wiring by presenting a high impedance to rf signals . twisting the conductors of the cord significantly reduces the energy that radiates from those conductors , beyond the reduction that derives from balancing the voltages . when used in combination with the low - pass filter , this feature leaves only the wiring connecting the jacks to the public telephone interface , and the wiring connecting telephone devices at uninvolved jacks as a source for significant radiation . ( if the connecting wires are twisted , and uninvolved jacks are far from the main transmission path , very few radiation opportunities will remain .) this reduction is important for the case where a television receiving a signal from a separate video source encounters interference from radiation generated by the wiring at vhf channel 3 or 4 . shielding of the conductors by a metallic conductor also will reduce radiation . this shielding is more effective if the conductor is connected to ground . based on the system adopted for transmitting infrared signals , and the requirements for conveniently supplying video signals to a television receiver , a general design for a transceiver was developed to connect between telephone wiring and a television receiver to perform the functions of : 1 ) receiving ambient infrared control signals , converting them to electrical energy , and boosting the frequency of this energy to a band that lies completely above the frequencies used for ordinary telephone communications , 2 ) feeding the control signal on to the telephone network without disturbing low - frequency communication signals , while simultaneously recovering video signals , 3 ) matching the impedance between the telephone wiring and the conductive path that receives the video signal , 4 ) converting , if necessary , the received video signal up to a channel that is tunable by a television and is not used for local broadcasting , and 5 ) connecting to a telephone jack while allowing for telephone devices to share the same jack without loading down the energy of video signals on the wiring . fig2 shows an arrangement of electronics for a transceiver 15 designed to implement these functions . this transceiver 15 is described in the following paragraphs . the description discloses several optional design variations . an infrared sensitive diode 16 reacts to control signals from an infrared control signal transmitter 23 to create the desired conversion to electrical energy . the resulting signal is passed to the control signal processing circuitry 17 which performs the translation to a frequency band above the telephone communications band . the preferred embodiment of this circuitry is shown in fig8 and described in detail later on . the preferred embodiment calls for a transmission frequency centered at 10 . 7 mhz . signals generated by the control signal processing circuitry 17 are passed to a coupling network 18 . this network feeds the control signals to the telephone network wiring 26 and allows video signals to pass from the wiring along the conductive path leading towards the television receiver 22 . the network also performs the functions of matching the impedance of the video signal path to that of the telephone wiring , blocking low - frequency signals from the transceiver electronics , blocking the diversion of video energy towards the control signal processing circuitry 17 , and blocking higher harmonics of the control signal , but not the fundamental of this signal from transmission to the telephone wiring and from transmission along the conductive path leading towards the television 22 . the importance of these functions is described in the following paragraphs . the detailed electronic design of the preferred embodiment of this network is shown in fig7 and is described in detail later on . impedance matching ensures an efficient transfer of energy from the telephone wiring to the electronics of the device . just as in the case of the video source transceiver , the efficient transfer of video energy across this junction can be important in situations where the signal energy is only marginally sufficient to produce a high quality picture . blocking telephone and other low - frequency communications signals from transmission to the electronics of the transceiver prevents any interference with those signals and also prevents disturbance of the dc power supplied to telephone devices . the blocking should be such that it renders the functioning of these communications totally transparent to the connection and operation of the transceiver . blocking of video signal energy from transmission between the network 18 and the control signal processing circuitry 17 is important because it prevents the reduction of video signal energy by diversion along this path . blocking the harmonics , but not the fundamental , of the signal emerging from the control signal processing circuitry 17 is important because some of the harmonics may coincide with the frequencies used for transmission of video . because they will transmit to the television 22 as well as to the telephone wiring , these harmonics can cause interference if they are of sufficient strength . no information is lost in this process because the information in the harmonics of a signal is completely redundant with the information in the signal fundamental . unless the energy level of the control signal is very high , there is no need to block the control signal from transmission across the network 18 towards the television receiver 22 . this is because television receivers ignore energy outside the video channel to which they are tuned unless that energy is at a very high level . for example , televisions ignore energy at vhf channel 4 when they are tuned to vhf channel 5 . problems also do not occur when the rf converter 19 is required . in that event , the control signal is shifted in frequency along with the video signal , but it is rejected by the television tuner for the same reasons as before . because the control signal signal cannot cause interference or other harm to the television transceiver the isolation circuitry described by the robbins patent , which blocks this intelligence from the television , is unnecessary . signals passing along the path from the network towards the television 22 encounter the rf converter 19 . as mentioned earlier , if a low vhf channel is used for transmission , frequency conversion at the television end is not necessary and signals can transmit directly from the coupling network 18 to the television 22 . when channels below vhf 2 are used for transmission , the rf converter 19 converts the video signal to a channel that is tunable by ordinary televisions . because of potential interference problems , this channel should be one that is not used by local broadcasting . ( interference could normally be avoided by connecting the transceiver via a shielded coaxial cable . many older televisions , however , do not offer a shielded input port , and many modern televisions exhibit slight leakage from other available ports such as twin lead ports .) because the video source transceiver outputs video signals at the transmission frequency , and this transceiver 15 , inputs signals at that frequency , the two units must obviously cooperate in their rf conversion designs . three systems are disclosed herein for cooperation between the rf converters of the disclosed transceiver pair to transmit video at a channel below vhf 2 . under each of these systems , the signal is provided to the television 22 at one of two adjacent broadcast channels , according to a switch set by the user . in the u . s ., this feature guarantees that the requirement of providing a signal at a channel not used for local broadcasting is fulfilled because , as described earlier , the u . s . fcc has ensured that one of two adjacent channels is always unused in a given locality . a complete description of each of these systems is presented in the next section . the television transceiver connects to the telephone wiring network 26 via a cord terminated with a male rj - 11 plug . just like the cord used for connection of the video source transceiver , this cord contains a low pass filter 24 , which creates an isolated port that allows connection of telephone equipment 25 without loading down the video signal passing from the network to the transceiver . unlike the cord connecting the video source transceiver to the telephone wiring , it is not as critical to supply this transceiver with a cord whose conductors are twisted . that is because the level of the video energy traversing the cord will be much lower , and will generate less radiation . because the television to which this transceiver connects may have another source of video signals available , and because most televisions only have one port for input of signals at vhf frequencies , it may make sense to provide a switch that allows users to connect both sources and quickly choose between them . because of the likelihood that no signals from the two sources contain energy at the same channel , any device or component that performs this function might also allow the addition of the two . technology to achieve these signal combination options is well known . such a component , not shown in the drawings , could be an attachment that connected in series with the cable connecting to the television . it might be more convenient , however , to include this component as part of the transceiver . in that case , the transceiver would simply include a coaxial port for input of signals from a second source , and would be able to provide signals from either source , or the combination of the two , to the local television . controls on the transceiver would allow the user to choose the composition of the signal provided to the television . there is a possibility that , when receiving signals from a video source located relatively close by , this transceiver 15 may receive a signal whose energy level is too high for the television to which it is connected . in the event that the transceiver includes rf conversion circuitry , the solution is to ensure that this circuitry can manage high signal levels , and that a level within the range of most television receivers is provided at the output . when a low vhf channel is used for transmission and rf conversion circuitry is not required , one solution is to provide attenuation circuitry , set automatically or manually , that reduces the energy of the signal to a level within the dynamic range of ordinary televisions . systems for rf conversion to achieve transmission below vhf channel 2 as mentioned earlier , two rf conversion operations are required in order to transmit the video signal across the wiring at a channel below vhf 2 . at the video source end , the transceiver must convert the signal from the frequency at which it is supplied to a band between 6 mhz and 54 mhz . the transceiver connected to the television must recover the signal from within this band and convert it to a channel tunable by ordinary television receivers . three systems for cooperation between these conversion operations are described in the following paragraphs , along with their respective advantages and disadvantages . under each of the systems , the signal is provided to the television 22 at one of two adjacent broadcast channels , according to a switch set by the user . in the u . s ., this feature guarantees that the requirement of providing a signal at a channel not used for local broadcasting is fulfilled because , as described earlier , the u . s . fcc has ensured that one of two adjacent channels is always unused in a given locality . the unusual nature of the conversion operations , combined with the novelty of using these channels for a consumer video application , or for any video application other than the cable distribution function described earlier , make the resulting electronics a new consumer electronic development . the systems are summarized by the chart in fig3 . the precise electronic details of the various converters are not given because technology to achieve these conversions is known , and would be within the ability of one of working skill in this field . under the first system , the video source transceiver derives its signal from a low vhf port and imparts a fixed downshift to produce one of two adjacent channels . signals spanning 24 mhz to 30 mhz or 30 mhz to 36 mhz , for example , are produced from vhf channels 3 or 4 by a fixed downshift of 36 mhz . in the final step of this system , the rf converter in the television transceiver imparts an equivalent fixed upshift , restoring the signal to its original channel for delivery to the television . the fixed downshifts mean that the choice of which of the two channels is actually used for transmission is determined by the setting on the video source that chooses between vhf channel 3 or 4 . ( there are a few video sources that supply signals at vhf channels 2 or 3 instead of vhf channels 3 or 4 . to account for these sources , the shifting should be designed to include bands covering at least 18 mhz , rather than 12 mhz .) the advantage of this system is that the versatility already supplied by the low vhf port of the video source is used to ensure that the transmitted signal is supplied to the television at an unused channel . this enables the two rf converters to be designed to translate by a fixed amount , reducing manufacturing costs . the second system calls for the rf converter in the video source transceiver to use the video signal from a baseband port to modulate a carrier to either one of two adjacent channels below vhf 2 , according to a switch set by the user . ( it would ordinarily make sense , of course , for the modulator to combine an audio signal , if available , together with the video according to the ntsc or an equivalent format , and then to modulate using this combined signal .) in cooperation with this conversion , the rf converter of the television transceiver again upconverts by a fixed amount . if the modulation created the channels spanning either 24 mhz to 30 mhz or 30 mhz to 36 mhz , for example , an upshift of 36 mhz would produce vhf channels 3 or 4 , an upshift of 52 mhz would produce vhf channels 5 or 6 , and an upshift of 150 mhz would produce vhf channels 7 or 8 . the primary advantages of this design over the first are those advantages , described earlier , that accrue to designs that derive signals from the baseband port of the video source . there is also a convenience in that inexpensive modulation ics are available that provide much of the circuitry necessary to build video modulators with options for one of two carriers in the 10 mhz to 100 mhz range . finally , being able to choose adjacent vhf channel pairs other than vhf channels 3 or 4 allows combination of the signal passed to the television with signals from most common video sources . two variations to the second system are now disclosed . in the first variation , the switch will be automatically controlled . it will rely on circuitry that samples the telephone line to detect the presence of broadcast energy at either of the two channels used to provide the signal to the television . ( broadcast energy will be on the telephone line because it acts as an antenna to some extent .) it will set the rf converter in the video source transceiver to provide a transmission frequency so as to ensure that the channel ultimately presented to the television receiver will be one unused for local broadcast . in the second variation , the rf converter in the video source transceiver will simultaneously provide the video signal at both of the two adjacent channels below vhf 2 , so that when the television transceiver converts the 12 mhz band spanning these channels , it produces signals at both of the two adjacent tunable channels . the third system also calls for the video source transceiver to derive its signal from the baseband port , but it includes an rf converter that has only a single carrier which modulates the signal to a single fixed channel that is used for transmission . the rf converter in the television transceiver then performs either one of two upward conversions , according to a switch set by the user , resulting in one of two adjacent low vhf channels . if the transmission channel spanned 24 mhz to 30 mhz , for example , upshifts of 36 mhz and 42 mhz would produce vhf channels 3 and 4 , and upshifts of 52 mhz and 58 mhz would produce vhf channels 5 and 6 . in a variation of this strategy the rf conversion component of the television transceiver allows continuously variable manual tuning , in place of two fixed upshift conversions . this tuning must , of course , allow the signal presented to the television to span two consecutive channels . the provision of manual tuning reduces the precision required for both converters , resulting in a certain economy . like the second design , the two variations of the third design also enjoy the advantages of baseband input , and the advantage of being able to output adjacent vhf frequencies other than vhf 3 and 4 . the main advantage over the second design is that the single optimal sub - vhf 2 channel , in terms of radiation , attenuation , interference from broadcast sources , legal restrictions , and expense of conversion electronics , can be chosen . because of these advantages , and because transmission over channels below vhf 2 affords reliability which is of enormous importance in consumer products , this third system is the preferred embodiment . furthermore , the fixed and not the variable tuning is preferred because of the importance of convenience in consumer products . the preferred channel spans from 24 to 30 mhz because there is a liberalization of u . s . fcc radiation restrictions below 30 mhz , and because the conversion electronics are slightly more expensive when lower frequencies are used . finally , it is preferred to present the signal to the television at either vhf 5 or 6 , because of the advantages of combining those channels with broadcast signals or other video sources . ( these preferences may change as a result of data not currently available to the inventors such as , specifically but not exclusively , information regarding the frequency , strength , and location of rf sources throughout the u . s . that may provide interference at channels below vhf 2 .) two further variations to the third system are now disclosed . in the first of these , the switch will be automatically controlled . it will rely on circuitry to detect the presence of broadcast energy , to set the rf converter of television transceiver to convert the transmitted video energy to the channel unused for local broadcast . in the second variation , the rf converter of the television transceiver will simultaneously provide the video signal at both of the two adjacent tunable channels . the transceiver pair disclosed above provides an ability to view and control a video source at a remotely located television . a significant economy can be achieved , however , if the function of the disclosed television transceiver is internalized in the television electronics . a special television 30 , shown in figure , provides such a combination . this television is intended to cooperate with the video source transceiver described above . it comes equipped with a cord that includes a low - pass filter 32 , similar to those used with the transceivers described earlier , for allowing telephone equipment 33 to share the same jack without loading down video signals on the wiring . the television includes an ir sensitive diode 42 , for converting infrared signals into electrical signals . these signals are passed to the special control signal processing circuitry 37 and the standard control signal processing circuitry 41 . the standard circuitry 41 reacts to these signals to execute control over television operations in the ordinary manner . the special control signal processing circuitry 37 translates the electrical version of the control signals to a frequency band above the highest frequency used for ordinary telephone communications , and passes them to the coupling network 34 . the functions performed by the special control signal processing circuitry 37 are the same functions performed by the control signal processing component included in the transceiver , described earlier , that connects to the television . the preferred embodiment of the circuitry is also the same . this embodiment is shown in fig8 and is described later on . the coupling network 34 allows the control signals to pass to the telephone network wiring 31 and video signals to transmit from the wiring along the conductive path leading towards the rf converter 35 . the network 34 also performs the important functions of matching the impedance of the conductive path leading to the rf converter to the impedance of the telephone wiring , blocking low - frequency signals from the television electronics , blocking the flow of video signals towards the special control signal processing circuitry 37 , and blocking harmonics of the control signal , but not the fundamental of this signal from the telephone line and the conductive path leading towards the rf converter 35 . the functions performed by this network are the same functions performed by the coupling network included in the television transceiver described earlier . an explanation of the importance of these functions was included in the description of that device . the preferred embodiment of the network used here is also the same . this embodiment is shown in fig7 and described later on . both the video and rf control signals pass from the coupling network 34 to the rf converter 35 . that component will convert the video signal to a channel that is tunable by ordinary television tuning electronics . if a low vhf channel is used for transmission across the wiring , however , ordinary television tuners can tune to the transmitted signal and this component is not necessary . signals emerging from the rf converter 35 transmit to the rf signal combiner 36 . ( if the rf converter 35 is not needed , signals flow directly from the coupling network 34 to this combiner .) the rf combiner 36 will accept video signals from a local video source 43 if one is available . it will add signals from the two sources , or will choose the signals from one source or the other to pass along to the tuning section 38 . the final composition of the signals passed to the tuning section 38 will be set by manual controls on the television 30 or by infrared control signals received by the ir sensitive diode 42 . the rf converter 35 disclosed herein can cooperate with the rf converter of the video source transceiver using one of the three alternative systems , described earlier , for cooperation between rf conversion components at the two ends of the communication path . the rf converter 35 included in the television will simply perform the same functions as the rf converter of the television transceiver described earlier , while the rf converter in the video signal transceiver will perform the corresponding conversion . a variation of the third system for cooperation between converters is now disclosed for the case of the special television receiver 30 . under this variation , the rf converter 35 demodulates the video signal it receives , and injects that signal into the television at the point where it ordinarily expects demodulated signals . ( the demodulated signal will not go into the combiner in this case , eliminating the need for that component . signals from a local video source 43 will pass to the tuner without combination .) this variation liberates the converter from providing a signal at either one of two adjacent channels , and might be less expensive , overall , than the alternative . note that the rf converter 35 is not necessary if the television tuner 38 can tune to signals below vhf channel 2 . this converter is offered as an alternative to providing the television with a special tuner because it may be less expensive to adapt the design of an ordinary television by adding this simple component . in the preferred embodiment , the video signal transmits across the wiring at a frequency below vhf channel 2 , and the rf converter is required because the television tuning section 38 tunes in only the ordinarily tunable channels . a channel below vhf 2 is preferred because of the decreased probability of picture degradation , and the rf converter is preferred because the inventors believe that it is less expensive to adapt the design of an ordinary television by adding a converter . a transmission channel spanning 24 mhz to 30 mhz is preferred , and it is preferred that the rf converter of the television convert that channel upwards by either 52 mhz or 58 mhz to vhf channels 5 or 6 , according to a switch setting on the television , or a command from the infrared controller . this embodiment follows the preferred system , presented earlier , for coordination between the rf converter of the video source transceiver and the rf converter of the television transceiver . the justifications used earlier also apply to this case . the option of demodulating the video signal is not currently preferred because the expense of this option is not clear . television 30 is novel in the following three respects . first , it connects to active telephone networks , without causing interference , to derive video signals , in addition to the video signals it derives from other sources . secondly , in addition to detecting infrared signals for the purposes of controlling television functions , it converts these signals to electrical rf energy , and passes them on to the telephone line for controlling the video source in cooperation with another device . finally , it is able to tune to signals at channels below vhf 2 . when the television 30 cooperates with the video source transceiver 1 described above , they allow the user to watch and control a video source from a remote location . to further increase the usefulness of this combination without significant extra cost , a unique combination of this pair of devices with a special piece of known technology is disclosed in the following two paragraphs . to control the video source from the area wherein the special television receiver 30 is located , the infrared transmitter unit that controls that source must ordinarily be available at that location . this is not always convenient , because this unit is obviously often required at the location of the video source . if the television 30 is provided with its own infrared controller , inclusion of the command set of the video source controller as a subset of the available commands significantly increases the convenience of the system without significant extra cost . recently , infrared control units with large command sets that include those of many different controllers have become available , as have other units that have the ability to learn the command sets from virtually any other controller . the novel combination disclosed here adds a similar universal controller together with the disclosed cooperating television 30 and transceiver 1 . this will significantly increase the usefulness of that pair of devices . the signals transmitted by the devices disclosed above travel from source to receiver via conduction across telephone wiring . a potential problem of this technique , described earlier , is that rf broadcast energy from nearby sources can be received by the wiring and interfere with the signal of interest . under the design option where the video signals transmit at a low vhf channel , the devices provide signals at a channel unused by any local service . this protection is not available when the video signals transmit at frequencies below vhf channel 2 . the following factors , however , make the possibility of interference unlikely : a ) the signal - to - noise ratio required for a quality video picture , approximately 40 db , is relatively low . interfering signals must have energy levels within 40 db of the signal of interest to visibly degrade a picture . b ) the signal of interest is conducted directly on to the wiring . the interfering signal must be received by the wiring acting as an antenna , a much less efficient method of creating conductive energy . c ) the ability of the wiring to receive broadcast energy decreases with decreasing frequency . d ) the level of the signal of interest can be boosted to reduce the potential of interference . ( because of legal and technological constraints , however , there are limits to the level to which this energy can be boosted .) despite these factors , tests have indicated that interference can occur . three methods for avoiding interference problems are discussed below . a ) one can choose a frequency band that is less likely to be used by many transmitters operating at high power near residential areas . this strategy requires a survey of frequency allocations and broadcasting patterns . preliminary investigation by the inventors revealed that amateur radio is allocated narrow bands at 7 mhz , 14 mhz , 21 mhz , and 28 mhz , conveniently leaving gaps of 7 mhz — just right for video . b ) the video source transceiver can simultaneously transmit its signal over two frequency bands , and the signal that encounters less interference can be chosen , at the television end , to provide the picture . in the case of the cooperating transceiver pair , the video source transceiver simultaneously transmits the same signal over two different and non - overlapping channels below vhf channel 2 . the rf converter of the transceiver that connects to the television chooses , according to a manual control or an automatic process , to accept one of the two channels , converting the energy within that channel to a tunable frequency unused for local broadcast . ( circuitry to automatically choose the less “ noisy ” channel would have to include means to detect the presence of broadcast energy within each of the two channels .) in the case of the special television that cooperates with the video source transceiver and includes a special rf converter , that converter performs the same functions as the converter in the television transceiver . under the design option wherein the television tuner can tune directly to signals below vhf channel 2 ( and a converter is not involved ) the tuner simply tunes to one channel or another . c ) because the information at the edges of an ntsc video signal is redundant , these edges can be filtered out before presentation to a television , removing any interfering energy at those edges . specifically , the first 1 . 25 mhz in an ordinary ntsc channel , known as the vestigial side band , can be filtered out before presentation to the television . this will reduce the video bandwidth from 5 . 75 mhz to 4 . 5 mhz , reducing opportunities for interference . in the event that research shows that this causes some degradation of picture quality , the vestigial side band can be recreated free from interference within the shielded television transceiver , using known techniques . the upper 0 . 25 mhz of the full 5 . 75 mhz video signal can also be filtered without significant reduction in picture quality . trimming this energy , however , will remove the audio information , which is located immediately above the video information . the solution is to transmit the audio signal at a different frequency , converting that signal to its proper place before presentation to the television . a video source transceiver connecting a second source to the same residential wiring network obviously has to transmit its signal at a different frequency in order to operate simultaneously with the first source . ideally , this transceiver cooperates with the television transceiver unit without requiring any design changes to that transceiver . that allows the most economical design for the primary transceiver pair , and still allows expansion of the system to include a second source . if low vhf channels are used for transmission , design of the second video source transceiver is straightforward . that transceiver simply transmits its signal at one of a second pair of adjacent low vhf channels . if , for example , the primary video source transceiver uses vhf channel 5 or 6 , the secondary transceiver could use vhf channel 2 or 3 . the television transceiver described earlier will supply both signals to the television receiver without any design changes . if the primary transmitter uses a channel below vhf 2 , and the secondary transceiver uses a low vhf channel , a slight alteration in the design of the transceiver that connects to the television is required . the alteration calls for an extra signal path to the television that bypasses the rf converter . that path includes the unshifted low vhf signals which could be easily combined with the signal that was converted up by the rf converter . the channel generated by the rf converter , of course , will have to be different from the channel used for transmission of the second source . things are more complicated when both video signals transmit at channels below vhf 2 because the television transceiver must convert a second signal to a second tunable channel that is not used for local broadcasting . the shift in frequency required by the second signal , moreover , may not necessarily be the same as that required by the first signal . the largest problem , however , may be finding an extra 6 mhz that is free from broadcast source interference . extra transceivers that transmit video over the same channel as the primary transceiver can be connected , of course , as long as a viewer can disable all but one of the resulting group of connected transceivers . in the following paragraphs , two designs are disclosed for systems that allows a user to quickly , conveniently , and remotely activate exactly one of several connected video source transceivers transmitting at the same frequency . the first design calls for the signal from all but one of the transceivers to be blocked from transmission on to the wiring . the blocking is accomplished by the touch tone switch 8 shown in fig1 . this switch connects on the cord between the transceiver and the telephone jack , and contains a low pass filter , or other means that completely block signals above a frequency that is below the frequencies used for video transmission . it has two settings , one of which enables the filter and the other which defeats it . the switch reacts to the dtmf ( dual tone multi frequency ) touch tones commonly created by telephones , allowing users to conveniently select the active source from among the several connected . any logical command system will suffice . the electronic details of this switch are not shown because rf filters and touch tone controls are well known . the second design calls for each of the video source transceivers that transmit at the same frequency to derive its ac power via powerline switches similar to those built by the x - 10 corporation these switches connect between power cords and ac outlets . they detect high frequency control signals fed onto the wiring by a remote device , and respond by blocking or enabling power to pass along the power cord to the connected electrical device . this allows one to remotely control the ac power to any device in a residence via control signals sent through the ac wiring . thus , a user could conveniently select one of many sources sharing a transmission frequency by activiating the ac power for the transceiver of that source and none of the others . because the first design uses ordinary touch tone telephones to the send signals that establish the identity of the active transceiver , it is preferred over the second design , which requires special transmitters to send those signals . as mentioned in the introduction , a reliable conductive path is not always available in residences where each jack is wired directly to a central electronic interface unit that connects to the public telephone system . because of the topology of these networks , potential conductive paths from one jack to another will always traverse this unit , where their continuity is likely to be broken . to allow the disclosed devices to operate on such a network , an inexpensive adaptor 52 is disclosed . this adaptor is shown in fig5 . normally , the wiring leading from the jack 50 in the first area 51 would connect to the port 56 on the electronic switching unit 58 dedicated to the first area . similarly , the wiring leading from the jack 53 in the second area 54 would connect to the port 57 on the unit dedicated to the second area . the adaptor 58 reroutes these connections through a pair of low pass filters 59 and 60 . these block the transmission of high frequency signals away from the switching unit , eliminating attenuation . the filtering can be achieved by the same pair of inductors disclosed earlier that achieve low pass filtering of any telephone equipment that shares a jack with either of the two cooperating transceivers . the high pass filter 61 connects the paths leading from the first area 51 to the second area 54 at high frequencies , completing the conductive path for video and control signals between the associated jacks . transmission of low - frequency energy across this path is blocked , maintaining separation of the telephone and other low - frequency communication between each jack and the switching unit . in the preferred embodiment , the high pass filtering is achieved by a pair of 100 pf capacitors , connected as shown . the problem of inadequate video signal energy in the area where the television is located was described earlier . because the disclosed adaptor offers access to the signal near the midpoint of its transmission path , it offers a new solution to this problem . the solution , not shown in the drawings , calls for an amplifier to accompany the adaptor . a path leading from a video source could be passed through this amplifier just before connection to the adaptor . in this way , part of the total amplification required could be imparted at the video source transceiver , and the other part at the switching unit . this would reduce the peak signal power at any point for a given level of total amplification , thus reducing the maximum level of radiation . for systems that also transmit control signals , a bypass around the amplifier for transmission of these signals would have to be made . the bypass would simply be a conductive path around the amplifier including a filter to block video signals . similarly , the input to the amplifier would require a filter to block out control signals . because the technology disclosed herein is not limited to residential networks , and because “ star ” wiring configurations including a central switching unit are very common among telephone networks installed in commercial buildings , including but not limited to offices and hotels , the disclosed adaptor has the important function of enabling those installations to benefit from this video transmission technique . the earlier descriptions of the cooperating transceivers referred to coupling network circuitry in functional terms . the preferred embodiment of this circuitry is now presented in detail . fig6 shows the preferred embodiment of the coupling network of the video source transceiver . the principal element of this network is a transformer wound on a toroid core 71 . there are three isolated windings corresponding to the ports leading to the telephone network wiring 72 , the video signal amplifier 73 , and the control signal processing circuitry 74 . the special winding method shown for the phone line port serves to maximize its balance . the low pass filter 75 on the port leading to the control signal processing circuitry 74 blocks signals above the frequency used for control signals . this blocks the video energy , preventing that energy from disturbing the processing of the control signals , and prevents loading of video signals on the telephone line . there are different numbers of windings on the toroid core for the three different ports . ( the number of windings shown are only for purposes of illustration .) the turns ratios determine the impedance matching between the telephone port and the other two ports . different ratios are needed because the video port and the control signal port have different impedances at different frequencies . the impedance matching for video signals is governed strictly by the turns ratio between the telephone port and the video port . it is independent of the windings on the ir port because the filter 75 prevents video energy from flowing towards that port . the capacitor 77 serves as a high pass filter to block and present a high impedance to dc and low - frequency energy , preventing any disturbance of ordinary telephone communications at those frequencies . fig7 shows the preferred embodiment of the coupling network of the television transceiver . the principal element of this network is again a transformer wound on a toroid core 80 . there are three isolated windings corresponding to the ports leading to the telephone line 81 , the television receiver 82 , and the control signal processing circuitry 83 . the special winding method for the telephone line shown earlier is not necessary because maximum balance is not as important due to the lower energy level of the video signals at this end . the low pass filter 84 on the control signal port passes the 10 . 7 mhz signal but blocks harmonics of 10 . 7 mhz . these harmonics , whose intelligence is redundant with the intelligence in the fundamental , could potentially interfere with the video signals . the resulting control signal passes on to both the telephone line and to the television . to prevent loading down the video signal , the filter 84 also blocks video signals from the control signal port . there are different numbers of windings on the toroid core 80 for the three ports . ( the number of windings shown are only for purposes of illustration .) the turns ratios determine impedance matching . because the level of the control signal is high enough to easily survive the influence of any impedance mismatch , the impedance of the ports need only be properly matched at video frequencies and only between the telephone line port and the video port . the capacitor 85 serves as a high pass filter to block dc and low - frequency energy and prevent any disturbance with ordinary telephone communications at those frequencies . it should be understood that various changes and modifications to the preferred embodiment of the coupling network described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art . for example , other winding configurations are possible , including but not limited to broadband multifilar configurations . these and other changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . the earlier descriptions of the cooperating transceivers referred to control signal processing circuitry in functional terms . the preferred embodiment of this circuitry is now presented in detail . fig8 shows the details of the control signal processing circuitry in the television transceiver that detects infrared signals , and translates them to rf energy . this circuitry consists of a photodiode 101 , a high - gain amplifier stage 102 , a thresholded zero crossing detector 103 , and a gated oscillator 104 . these elements are arranged to produce a modulated rf carrier whose envelope is a replica of the infrared signal waveform . the rf carrier is coupled to the telephone line through the coupling network 105 . the coupling network shown in fig8 is designed only to feed control signals on to the network . the coupling network of the preferred embodiment , which is designed to include recovery of video signals from the wiring , is shown in fig7 and was described earlier . photodiode 101 functions as a current source with current proportional to the intensity of incident light within its spectral passband . this photocurrent is converted to a voltage by resistor is 110 and amplified by integrated circuit 111 . capacitors 112 and 113 reduce the low frequency gain of the amplifier stage to render the receiver insensitive to ambient light sources , such as sunlight or ac powered interior lighting with a nominal 120 hz flicker rate . transistor 114 buffers and level - shifts the output of the amplifier , and passes the signal to the zero crossing detector section 103 . the output of the detector section 103 is a bi - level waveform that corresponds to the received infrared signal . this output is high when the input signal exceeds its long term average , and low otherwise . noise effects are suppressed by disabling the bi - level signal except when the excursions of the input signal exceed a fixed threshold . the bi - level waveform is fed to the oscillation section to enable or disable the rf carrier , thus generating the desired am signal at an rf frequency . the output of comparator 122 is set high when the optical flux is greater than the long term average , which is formed using an averaging time of 100 msec , as determined by capacitor 127 . the noise condition is detected by comparator 123 . it sets its output low when the input signal is a fixed amount greater than the long term average . this threshold is set so that noise will not cause it to be exceeded . the threshold may be changed as desired by altering the ratio of resistors 116 and 117 to provide different levels of noise suppression . capacitor 126 causes a low output from comparator 123 to remain low for a fixed period . comparator 124 inverts this output , and comparator 125 is used to merge that output with the the output from comparator 122 . in this manner , the output exits to the oscillator section without interruption when a genuine signal is present , and dies off quickly when the signal disappears . in the oscillator section , transistor 118 is wired as a colpitts oscillator with frequency determined primarily by capacitor 119 and variable inductor 120 . in the preferred embodiment , this frequency is selected to be 10 . 7 mhz because of the good availability of tuning components at this frequency . when the oscillator is disabled by comparator 125 , an idle current of several milliamps is drawn through the inductor and resistor 121 . this idle current provides rapid turn - on of the oscillator within a microsecond when the oscillator is activated by comparator 125 going to a high impedance state at its open - collector output . fig9 shows the control signal processing circuitry in the video source transceiver that uses control signals recovered from the network to recreate the infrared pattern detected by the television transceiver . the circuitry consists of an rf amplifier / detector 131 , threshold / driver circuitry 132 , and an output led 142 . the control signals are recovered from the telephone line by the telephone coupling network 130 . the coupling network shown in fig9 is designed only to recover control signals from the network . the coupling network of the preferred embodiment , which is designed to include transmission of video signals onto the network , is shown in fig6 and was described earlier . signals recovered from the network pass through rf filter 133 . this filter , which is part of the coupling network , is a ceramic filter with bandpass centered at 10 . 7 mhz and a bandwidth of 280 khz . this matches the characteristics of the rf signals generated by the infrared signal processing circuitry described above . the rf amplifier / detector 131 amplifies and envelope detects the signals that pass through the filter . in the preferred embodiment , this function is performed by an integrated circuit 134 of type 3089 , which is commonly used as an if amplifier in commercial fm radios . the detected output is logarithmically related to the amplitude of the rf input signal . the detected output is buffered by darlington transistor 140 . comparator 141 provides - threshold detection by comparing the instantaneous envelope of the detected signal to the peak envelope of the detected signal . the comparator turns on led 142 whenever the envelope exceeds a fixed percentage of the peak . resistors 143 and 144 set the threshold of the transmitter ; the led will not be driven on unless a minimum signal level at the input of the integrated circuit 134 is exceeded . while the foregoing has been provided with reference to one or more preferred embodiments , various changes within the spirit of the invention will be apparent to those of working skill in this technical field . thus , the invention should be considered as limited only by the scope of the appended claims . | 7 |
referring first to fig3 a state of the art driven ( or secondary ) clutch will be described in enough detail so that its modification to employ the features of the present invention can be understood . the driven clutch 20 includes an actuator or clutch cover plate 21 which is essentially parallel to to an upper or top face 24 of an upper pulley half 23a of a pulley 23 . pulley 23 includes upper pulley half 23a and lower pulley half 23b , which when closed together form a deep &# 34 ; v &# 34 ; shaped trough therebetween in which a drive belt 25 resides . in order to achieve pulley separation , thereby reducing the effective radius travelled by the drive belt 25 residing therein , the lower pulley half 23b includes three piers 35 which are each secured to a hub area 1 ( see fig1 ) at equally spaced intervals and equal radial distances from the lower pulley half longitudinal axis 22 ( see fig1 ). the piers 35 extend through arcuate openings 30 that are formed through the upper pulley half 23a hub area 1 . the piers 35 each include a rod 36 that is coaxial therewith and that extend through the clutch cover plate 21 . the clutch cover plate 21 also includes a center hole 28 ( see fig1 ) wherein a bushing 29 is pressed or otherwise affixed in place . the bushing 29 supports travel of a cylindrical jackshaft 26 that is coaxial with longitudinal axis 22 . the straight cylindrical shaft 26 extends at a right angle to the clutch cover plate 21 and center hole 28 , being secured to the upper pulley half 23a and slidably extending through lower pulley half 23b . the cylindrical shaft 26 extends at a right angle through center bushing 29 of cover 21 , thereby allowing the shaft 26 to slide or translate relative to the clutch cover plate 21 during the operation of clutch 20 . movement of the clutch cover plate 21 towards the upper pulley half 23a top face 24 is transferred through the connecting rods 36 and piers 35 to the lower pulley half 23b in order to spread the halves of pulley 23 apart and thereby increase the width of the &# 34 ; v &# 34 ; formed by the two opposed pulley halves 23a and 23b . in other words , the clutch cover plate 21 and pulley 23 are operated to move the clutch cover plate 21 towards the upper pulley half 23a top face 24 . to provide for clutch cover plate 21 and lower pulley half 23b movement , the clutch 20 includes the radial and circumferentially equally spaced parallel piers 35 that are each positioned to extend at right angles upwardly from the hub area 2 ( see fig1 ) of the lower pulley half 23b . the piers 35 extend through arcuate holes 30 formed in the upper pulley half 23a . the piers 35 each include the smooth walled cylindrical rod 36 that extends axially from each pier top end . the rods 36 fit through holes in the cover plate 21 and are secured by nuts 38 , thereby rigidly affixing cover plate 21 to lower pulley half 23b and causing cover plate 21 to slide along cylindrical shaft 26 so as to open or close the pulley 23 . in order to outwardly bias the clutch cover plate 21 such that the pulley halves 23a and 23b are closed together , a coil spring 39 ( see fig1 ) is placed so as to surround shaft 26 . the ends of the coil spring 39 are arranged to engage , respectively , one of the holes 3 formed within cover plate 21 and the top face 24 of the upper pulley half 23a . the coil spring 39 thereby urges the cover plate 21 outwardly so that the halves of pulley 23 tend to come closer together . the bias of spring 39 must be overcome in order to urge the cover plate 21 towards the upper pulley half 23a , thereby spreading or enlarging the &# 34 ; v &# 34 ; formed by the opposed pulley halves . state of the art clutches employ a helix or cam cone 40 which includes tracks or surfaces 46 for guiding the cam follower assemblies 52 affixed to cam follower bearing plate 50 . referring now to fig2 the improved torque sensing helix 4 of the present invention will be described . the helix 4 is formed substantially as a right cylinder 5 having a bottom edge 6 and an upper surface 7 . extending axially through the cylinder are bores 8 which permit the cylinder to be affixed to the upper suface 24 of upper pulley half 23a by means of suitable fasteners ( not shown ). a helical ramp 10 is formed at 120 degree intervals within the sidewall 11 of the cylinder 5 . each of the three ramps 10 includes a bottom surface 9 , a rounded end surface 12 , and an upper surface 13 . as seen in fig5 and 8 , a cam follower assembly 42 including rollers 18 is attached to a cover plate and spring adjuster 15 . cover plate 15 is formed to include elongated perforations or recesses 16 . the recesses 16 are present to facilitate spring tension adjustments without removing the clutch cover 15 . at least some of these regions 16 align with the bores 17 formed within cam follower assembly 42 , and thereby permit the rods 36 of lower pulley half 23b to be fastened to the cover plate 15 . the remaining cutouts 19 formed within the cover plate 15 are dimensioned to permit clearance from the torque sensing helix 4 . referring to fig6 the position of the cam follower assembly 42 is shown with respect to the torque sensing helix 4 when the rollers 18 are near the bottom surface 12 of the helical ramp 10 . another feature of the present invention can best be appreciated by reference to fig4 . a sleeve 60 is formed to encircle the existing cylindrical clutch shaft 26 . an enlarged opening 61 is formed within the clutch cover plate 23b so as to permit the placement of enlarged bearing 62 . the bearing 62 diameter is selected in order to accommodate he inside diameter of the clutch spring 39 , while the length of bearing 62 is selected so as to increase the available load bearing surface 63 and thereby diminish the possiblity of seizing or sticking . the combination of the sleeve 60 and bearing 62 also allows the rebuilding of a clutch that would normally be discarded because of a worn or damaged clutch shaft . referring again to fig1 an enlarged bearing can also be used to advantage in conjunction with the driving or primary clutch assembly 65 . the engine primary clutch shaft 66 is fitted with a sleeve 67 , thereby increasing its effective diameter . an enlarged bearing 64 is placed within the clutch cover plate 68 and held in place by suitable fasteners 69 . fasteners such as round head machine screws permit the bushing 64 to be held in place by the screw head and a lip 70 formed within the cover plate 68 . this mounting method facilitates the replacement of the bushing 64 as it becomes worn . while preferred embodiments of the present invention in a clutch assembly for a belt drive system have been shown and described herein , the present disclosure is only an example of the technology which is regarded as inventive . the present invention is suitable for a number of uses in addition to that of a snowmobile clutch , and variations to the clutch improvements described herein are possible without departing from the subject matter falling within the scope of the invention . | 5 |
it is understood that the invention is not limited to the particular methodology , protocols , and reagents , etc ., described herein , as these may vary as the skilled artisan will recognize . it is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is used for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only , and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention . it also is be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims , the singular forms “ a ,” “ an ,” and “ the ” include the plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise . this , for example , a reference to “ a capsule ” is a reference to one or more capsules and equivalents thereof known to those skilled in the art . unless defined otherwise , all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains . the embodiments of the invention and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non - limiting embodiments and / or illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description . it should be noted that the features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale , and features of one embodiment may be employed with other embodiments as the skilled artisan would recognize , even if not explicitly stated herein . any numerical values recited herein include all values from the lower value to the upper value in increments of one unit provided that there is a separation of at least two units between any lower value and any higher value . as an example , if it is stated that the concentration of a component or value of a process variable such as , for example , size , temperature , pressure , time and the like , is , for example , from 1 to 90 , specifically from 20 to 80 , more specifically from 30 to 70 , it is intended that values such as 15 to 85 , 22 to 68 , 43 to 51 , 30 to 32 etc ., are expressly enumerated in this specification . for values which are less than one , one unit is considered to be 0 . 0001 , 0 . 001 , 0 . 01 or 0 . 1 as appropriate . these are only examples of what is specifically intended and all possible combinations of numerical values between the lowest value and the highest value enumerated are to be considered to be expressly stated in this application in a similar manner . moreover , provided below is a “ definitions ” section , where certain terms related to the invention are defined specifically . particular methods , devices , and materials are described , although any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the invention . all references referred to herein are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety . the term “ amplification ” of nucleic acids , including dna , as used herein means the use of pcr to increase the concentration of a particular nucleic acid sequence within a mixture of nucleic acid sequences . the particular nucleic acid sequence that is amplified is described herein as a “ target ” sequence . the term “ any bond ” as used herein , especially in reference to nucleic acid sequences , means any bond or configuration of atoms that will block 3 ′ chain extension of an oligonucleotide without interfering with the binding properties of the oligonucleotide . the term “ any link ” as used herein , especially in reference to nucleic acid sequences , means that any appropriate linkage may be used . for example , a number of different are available to join a fluorophore to an oligonucleotide , including without limitations thiol linkages and amine linkages . the terms “ biological sample ” and “ sample ” as used herein mean any specimen or sample of matter capable of containing an organism . non - limiting examples include a sample of water , a soil sample , an air sample , a stool sample , a blood sample , a urine sample , and the like . the term “ cryptosporidium ” as used herein means any species of cryptosporidium which is known to cause disease in humans including c . parvum , c . jells , c . muris , c . meleagridis , c . suis , c . canis , and / or c . hominis . the term “ giardia ” as used herein by itself , not followed by a species name , means any species of giardia which is known to cause disease in humans . this may include g . lamblia . g . duodenalis , and / or g . intestinalis . the term “ fluorophore ” as used herein means a functional group attached to a nucleic acid that will absorb energy of a specific wavelength and re - emit energy at a different , but equally specific , wavelength . the term “ internal control ” sequence as used herein refers to a nucleic acid sequence that may be used to demonstrate that a pcr reaction is functioning to detect a nucleic acid sequence . the terms “ pathogen ,” “ organism .” and “ species ” are used interchangeably herein and refer to any one species , or closely - related group of species , that may be uniquely identified by an oligonucleotide sequence . the species may be known or unknown and may include viruses . the term “ pcr ” as used herein means the polymerase chain reaction , as is well - known in the art . the term includes all forms of pcr , such as , e . g ., real - time pcr and quantitative pcr . the term “ positive control target dna ” means a nucleic acid containing a sequence known to be complementary to a probe or probe pair . positive control target dna may be used as a positive control to determine that the probe is correctly binding to its target . the term “ primer pair ” as used herein means a pair of oligonucleotide primers that are complementary to the sequences flanking a target sequence . the primer pair consists of a forward primer and a reverse primer . the forward primer has a nucleic acid sequence that is complementary to a sequence upstream , i . e . 5 ′, of the target sequence . the reverse primer has a nucleic acid sequence that is complementary to a sequence downstream , i . e . 3 ′, of the target sequence . the terms “ probe ” and “ probe pair ” refer to one or two oligonucleotide sequences that are complementary to a specific target sequence and are covalently linked to a fluorophore . a probe pair includes two oligonucleotides : a “ donor probe ” and an “ acceptor probe .” when both probes are bound to the target sequence , the donor probe &# 39 ; s fluorophore may transfer energy to the acceptor probe &# 39 ; s fluorophore in a förster resonance energy transfer ( fret ). the term “ reaction vessel ” as used herein means a container used for performing pcr and for detecting specific nucleic acid sequences . the term “ species under investigation ” as used herein means one or more species suspected to be present in a sample , and the methods , procedures , and materials of the present disclosure are employed to determine whether or not the species is actually present . the term “ target ” sequence as used herein means the sequence of a nucleic acid that is amplified by pcr . according to an aspect of the present disclosure , the presence of one or more species may be detected in a sample . in particular , the disclosure is well suited to detecting two pathogens , but more or different types of organisms may be targeted without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . for example , the disclosure permits testing for the presence or absence of cryptosporidium and giardia in a single sample . once a sample is collected , dna may be isolated and extracted from the sample . the isolated dna may be divided into small portions and placed in a reaction vessel , such as , e . g ., a pcr tube , with appropriate pcr reagents . each reaction vessel may also receive a pair of primers , a pair of oligonucleotide probes , an internal control ( ic ) construct , and a pair of probes for the internal control . the primers and probes may be specific for a single species under examination . the pcr reagents , primers , probes , and ic may be provided in a mixture or ready - to - use form , e . g ., in a solution or as a freeze - dried mixture . the internal control may also be amplified by the species - specific primer , but it is detected with its own unique probes . with the availability of primer and probe pairs for multiple species , the isolate from a single sample may be tested for the presence of multiple species of interest . in one aspect of the disclosure , a master mix may be prepared for each organism under investigation . for example , a master mix targeting cryptosporidium may contain the following primers : an exemplary cryptosporidium master mix may also contain the following probes : as an additional example , a master mix targeting giardia may contain the following primers : a master mix targeting giardia may also contain the following probes : in an additional aspect of the disclosure , an internal control ( ic ) construct may be provided as part of a pcr master mix or as a separate component . the ic allows monitoring of pcr efficiency and inhibition . pcr inhibition is a particular concern with dna isolated from stool samples , which may contain inhibitory compounds such as mucoglycoproteins and proteases . the internal control may be a double - stranded dna construct . starting at the 5 ′ end of the “ sense ” strand , the ic may include an end region 1 , an ic body , and an end region 2 . these regions may be immediately adjacent to one or other , or there may be spacer sequences between regions . end region 1 , end region , 2 or both may be omitted as appropriate for a particular application . in one aspect of the disclosure , end region 1 may contain a sequence that is complementary to a forward primer for a species under investigation . end region 2 may contain a sequence that is complementary to a reverse primer for the same species . in an alternate aspect , each end region may contain multiple forward or reverse primers . for example , if two species are under investigation , each end region may contain one primer binding site for each species . it is possible to investigate more species , and thus include more primer binding sites , without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure . for example , if the species under investigation are giardia and cryptosporidium , then end region may contain a binding site for a forward primer for giardia and a binding site for a forward primer for cryptosporidium . similarly , end region 2 may contain a binding site for a reverse primer for giardia and a binding site for a reverse primer for cryptosporidium . by relying on species - specific primers to amplify the internal control , the ic may not require its own set of primers for amplifaction . a single construct and a single set of probes may be included in the master mix for each targeted species , thereby reducing costs and complexity . more important , reducing the number of oligonucleotides in each reaction vessel may improve pcr efficiency and reduces the chance for artifacts , preferential amplification , and other errors . methods and assays according to the present disclosure may include a total of six oligonucleotides in each reaction vessel , for example , two giardia primers , two giardia probes , and two ic probes . as an additional example , the six oligonucleotides may include two cryptosporidium primers , two cryptosporidium probes , and two ic probes . oligonucleotides may be joined to fluorophores using amine linkages , thiol linkages , or the like . in addition , oligonucleotides may have functional groups or bonds to block 3 ′ chain extension , such as phosphate bonds , c - 3 spacer bonds , and the like . according to additional aspects of the disclosure , the ic may be present at relatively low levels so that it does not out - compete any template that may be present from a species under investigation . in this situation , a species target sequence , if present , may be preferentially amplified instead of the ic . in other words , only the species may be amplified and detected , and the ic may not be amplified or detected . if the species target sequence is not present , however , then ic template may be amplified by the species primers , and the internal control may be detected by its own probes . in the case where neither internal control nor species target sequence is detected , there may be a problem with the pcr reaction , most likely inhibition of pcr by components of the sample . by relying on an artificial sequence as internal control , the present disclosure eliminates problems inherent in other pcr assays for pathogen screening and detection . in particular , these assays typical amplify a human ( or other species ) gene present in a sample for their internal control . the gene may be present at high copy - numbers , which may mask a failure of pcr amplification , or the signal from the selected control gene may overwhelm any signal from the species under investigation . by using a small amount of artificial internal control dna and preferentially amplifying either the species target sequence or the ic , the present disclosure reduces or removes these types of errors . in some aspects of the disclosure , the ic body may have a length of 150 to 450 base pairs ( bp ). in some of these aspects , the ic body may have a length of 274 bp . in one particular aspect , the ic body may have the following sequence : according to an aspect of the disclosure , the probes far the ic construct may have the following sequences : in some aspects of the disclosure , the fluorophores of the various acceptor probes may be selected so that the ic probe emits at a different wavelength than a species - specific probe . the following illustrations are for exemplary purposes only , and any variation known to one skilled in the art may be practiced without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure and the claims . for example , the species acceptor probe may be fitted with a mid - range red fluorophore , such as , e . g ., alex fluor 680 , which emits at 680 nm , while the ic acceptor probe may be linked to a high - emission red fluorophore , such as , e . g ., lc 705 , which emits at a wavelength of 705 nm . in general , a donor probe may be linked to a fluorophore at its 3 ′ end , thereby preventing the probe from acting like a primer during pcr . in addition , an acceptor probe usually sits 3 ′ of the donor , further blocking chain extension . an acceptor probe , however , may be free at its 3 ′ end . according to some aspects of the disclosure , an acceptor probe may be blocked at its 3 ′ end to prevent it from acting as a primer during pcr . functional groups or bonds to block 3 ′ chain extension include phosphate bonds , c - 3 spacer bonds , and the like . as will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art , the present disclosure may utilize a förster resonance energy transfer ( fret ) for the detection of target dna . the fret transfer may take place between a low - emitting fluorophore attached to the 3 ′ end of a donor probe and a second , high - emitting fluorophore attached to the 5 ′ end of the corresponding acceptor probe . for example , low - emitting fluorophores may emit light with a wavelength of 400 - 500 nm , and high - emitting fluorophores may emit light with a wavelength of 580 - 710 nm . other arrangements of fluorophores and donor and acceptor probes are contemplated and are within the scope and spirit of the disclosure . by way of example only , the role of the donor probe and acceptor probe may be reversed . in this example , the sequences of the oligonucleotides stay the same , but the acceptor has a fluorophore at its 3 ′ end and binds upstream , i . e . 5 ′, of the donor and the donor has a fluorophore at its 5 ′ end . in some aspects , the donor probe may include a green fluorophore , and the acceptor probe may include a red fluorophore . examples of suitable green fluorophores may include , without limitation , fam , fitc , alexa fluor 488 , or the like . examples of suitable red fluorophores may include , without limitation , lc 705 , texas red , alexa fluor 680 , or the like . an emission by a red fluorophore may be detected in channel 3 of the lightcycler 2 . 0 , as well as on other common pcr platforms , such as abi 7300 / 7500 , corbett roto gene , finnzyme qpcr platform , biorad icycler , and the like . according to additional aspects of the disclosure , the ic may be used to monitor the efficiency of dna extraction techniques . poor dna extraction can occur due to incomplete cell lysis , dna degradation , or inefficient binding to the purification matrix . for example , the double - stranded dna of the ic construct may be inserted into a generic plasmid and transformed into e . coli for cloning . the transformed e . coli clones may then be used to spike a stool specimen prior to dna extraction . once dna has been extracted and isolated from the sample , the isolate may be tested to determine the presence and amount of ic in the isolate . testing may be performed , e . g ., using quantitative pcr . while the invention has been described in terms of exemplary aspects , those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modifications in the spirit and scope of the appended claims . these examples given above are merely illustrative and are not meant to be an exhaustive list of all possible designs , aspects , applications , or modifications of the invention . the following specific examples are indicative of preferred aspects of the present disclosure , but they are provided for illustrative purposes only . one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the following illustrative examples may be modified for a particular application within the spirit and scope of the claims . the present example is directed to a description of the product as it exists in the format of different modules , the specific modules depending on the end use of the test and / or the pcr platform being used . for example , in some embodiments , 2 modules may be included . these modules may include : ( 1 ) dna extraction reagents and consumables ; and / or ( 2 ) pcr detection reagents and protocol . the dna extraction reagents will vary depending upon the starting material to provide optimized extractions for each type of starting material . the pcr detection reagents and protocol will also vary depending upon the starting material and / or the pcr platform used for the assay , providing optimized reagents and protocol for at least , for example , 4 major pcr platforms . the final product may incorporate : ( 1 ) sensitive dna extraction methodology with reagents customized specifically for the end use , and / or ( 2 ) sensitive , optimized pcr reagents with internal control and positive control target dna , usable on , e . g ., roche lightcycler , cepheid smartcycler , abi 7300 / 7500 , corbett roto gene , finnzyme qpcr platform , biorad icycler , or the like . the present example is provided to demonstrate a protocol that may be used in the analysis of a specimen suspected to be infected or to contain two ( 2 ) or more environmental pathogens , such as cryptosporidium and giardia . the following presents the step - by - step method by which the diagnostic test of a sample of interest may be run . c . follow the standard software menu options to load or create an experiment file . a . all reagents should be kept cold and protected from light at all times . b . obtain the correct number of cryptosporidium - specific master mixes , prepared during manufacturing with the following components and then freeze - dried : the cryptosporidium forward primer may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 1 . the cryptosporidium reverse primer may halve the sequence specified by seq id no : 2 . the cryptosporidium donor probe may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 3 . the cryptosporidium acceptor probe may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 4 . the ic dna may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 9 . the ic donor probe may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 10 , and the ic acceptor probe may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 11 . c . obtain the correct number of giardia - specific master mixes , prepared during manufacturing with the following components and then freeze - dried : the giardia forward primer may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 5 . the giardia reverse primer may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 6 . the giardia donor probe may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 7 , and the giardia acceptor probe may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 8 . the ic dna may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 9 . the ic donor probe may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 10 , and the ic acceptor probe may have the sequence specified by seq id no : 11 . d . obtain a tube of reconstitution buffer , consisting of the following components : e . reconstitute the cryptosporidium - and giardia - specific master mixes with the volume of reconstitution buffer specified in the product insert . mix well and centrifuge briefly . f . pipette 17 μl of the appropriate master mix into each glass capillary . g . add 3 μl of molecular biology - grade h 2 o to each negative control capillary and cap . h . add 3 μl of the positive control target dna to each positive control capillary and cap . i . add 3 μl of the appropriate sample dna to each open capillary and cap . j . load capillaries into a lightcycler carousel and centrifuge capillaries using the procedure recommended in the product insert . a . the data analysis module will open automatically upon completion of the run . b . select the appropriate color compensation file as specified in the product insert . c . the appropriate quantification and melt curve data may now be viewed and printed using the lightcycler control software . | 2 |
illustrated in drawing fig2 a is a schematic diagram depicting a low - current array current limiting or bleeder circuit 20 according to the present invention . bleeder circuit 20 is intended to be used in a dynamic random access memory ( dram ) device found within a computer system . although the present invention will be described with respect to this embodiment , which includes a dram device , it will be understood by those having skill in the field of this invention that the present invention includes within its scope any electronic device , including a processor device having cache memory . an example of an exemplary dram circuit in which the present invention is incorporated is found in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 552 , 739 , entitled integrated circuit power supply having piece - wise linearity , herein incorporated by reference for all purposes , as well as in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 235 , 550 , entitled method for maintaining optimum biasing voltage and standby current levels in a dram array having repaired row to column shorts , also herein incorporated by reference for all purposes . u . s . pat . no . 5 , 235 , 550 further depicts how a current limiting circuit may be incorporated into a memory circuit , such as a dram array . illustrated in drawing fig2 a , a plurality of digit line pairs ( d1 - d1 *, d2 - d2 *, d3 - d3 *, and d4 - d4 *) is shown with its equilibrate circuitry . node 22 is a local node shared with all common nodes of each set of equilibrate transistors ( q1a - q1c , q2a - q2c , q3a - q3c , and q4a - q4c ). a current limiting device 24 is placed in series between shared node 22 and the vcc / 2 , also referred to as dvc2 , voltage generator bus 26 . this arrangement is repeated throughout the array , so that in the event of a row - to - column short within one or more of the digit lines of a particular digit line pair , only that pair will be affected . the current limiting device 24 incorporates a long length ( long l ), depletion mode transistor 28 having its gate tied to the column lines ( d and d *) while the drain is tied to dvc2 . in this configuration , the gate voltage is reduced under row - to - column short conditions in such a manner as to limit the bleeder current i ds , or the drain - to - source current . further , bleeder circuit 20 utilizes current feedback to limit the current flow from the row - to - column short . this arrangement also provides for a much lower i ds bleed current for a given transistor dimension . in this example , the bleeder current i ds is limited to 1 microa . illustrated in drawing fig2 b is a surface view of a memory array layout in a semiconductor substrate such as silicon . bleeder circuit 20 conforms the schematic diagram of 2a . datalines d and d * are metal leads . a voltage generator bus 26 is an m + semiconductor layer tied to the dvc2 . further , each transistor qv has its polysilicon gate tied to an equilibrate line . next , the long depletion mode device 28 is formed of a polysilicon gate that is coupled using a short metal strap 29 that ties the gate to its drain . although a single current limiting device could conceivably be used for each digit line pair , this increases the cost of the die having such architecture , as the high number of current limiting devices required for such an architecture would significantly increase die size . on the other hand , all column pairs isolated from the bias voltage generator bus by a single current limiting device will be shorted to vss if a row - to - column short exists on any of the digit lines among those column pairs . hence , the tied column pairs must be replaced as a unit if any one or more of the digit lines among the tied column pairs is shorted to a word line . this constraint places a practical limit on the total number of digit line pairs associated with a single current limiting device . typically , one or two column pairs will be tied to one current limiting device , although any number may be connected to a current limiting device . illustrated in drawing fig3 is an alternative embodiment of a current limiting circuit according to the present invention . the redundancy shown in drawing fig2 a and 2b has been eliminated merely for the sake of clarity . a low - current array bleeder circuit 30 is provided that uses a similar feedback arrangement or current limiting device 24 as that found in drawing fig2 a and 2b , but further includes a second switch 32 connected to transistor 28 . switch 32 is a p - channel mosfet having its gate tied to a negative supply voltage ( v bb ) switch 32 passes current in a row - to - column short mode until both digit and digit * lines ( d , d *) approach approximately 3 . 0 v . at this voltage level , i ds becomes 0 a and no current flows . illustrated in drawing fig4 is a graph illustrating the effect of using bleeder circuit 20 or 30 according to the present invention . at a voltage level dv2 , the voltage on d line causes the current to stop flowing . as the voltage decreases on d line , the bleeder current begins to flow until such a time as the voltage reaches approximately 0 . 2 - 0 . 3 v . at that time , the bleeder current ceases to flow or is now at 0 . 0 a . illustrated in drawing fig5 is a block diagram of a computer system 50 . computer system 50 includes an input device 52 , such as a keyboard , an output device 54 , such as a video monitor , and a storage device 56 , all coupled to a conventional processor 58 . the computer system 50 further includes a memory device , such as a dynamic random access memory ( dram ) device 60 , coupled to processor 58 . dram device 60 incorporates either embodiment of memory cells shown respectively in drawing fig2 a , 2b , and 3 . although dram is the memory of discussion , it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention includes other memory devices such as read only memory , cache memory , and video ram . as shown in drawing fig6 a dram device 60 that includes the dram portion 20 or 30 of fig2 or 3 , respectively , is fabricated on the surface of a semiconductor wafer 62 . the wafer 62 may comprise a sliced wafer of silicon , or may comprise any one of a wide variety of substrates , including , for example , a silicon - on - sapphire ( sos ) substrate , a silicon - on - insulator ( soi ) substrate , or a silicon - on - glass ( sog ) substrate . while the present invention has been described in terms of certain preferred embodiments , it is not so limited , and those of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize and appreciate that many additions , deletions and modifications to the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed . | 6 |
the present invention is typically embodied in a receiving system for a communication network where information is transmitted and received as a stream of symbols modulated onto a carrier wave . one example would be a network employing time domain multiplexed access ( tdma ). the embodiments disclosed are not restricted to any particular standard , however . the well - known global system for mobile ( gsm ) communication system is one example of a tdma system which might employ the invention . the invention can also be used in a wireless data network employing code division multiplexed access ( cdma ). it should also be understood that not every feature of the receiving system described is necessary to implement the invention as claimed in any particular one of the appended claims . various elements of receivers are described to fully enable the invention . it should also be understood that throughout this disclosure , where a process or method is shown or described , the steps of the method may be performed in any order or simultaneously , unless it is clear from the context that one step depends on another being performed first . some of the diagrams , which are used to illustrate the inventive concepts , are shown in software flowchart form , while others are shown as block diagrams and signal processing flow diagrams with various operators . the particular form of illustration is selected in each case to aid in understanding the invention . it is to be understood that the concepts discussed can be implemented in hardware or software . for example , a flowchart which is described as a detector unit or a detection method can be thought of as illustrating an algorithm performed by software , or the operation of a specific piece of hardware , such as an application specific integrated circuit ( asic ) that performs the illustrated task . finally the usage of terms such as “ updating ” and “ initializing ” typically refer to updating symbols or vectors stored or being stored in order to be operated on , decoded , or demodulated . the term user , as in first user and second user is colloquially being used to refer to a transmitter or sender of information , notwithstanding that most aspects of the invention are being implemented in a receiver or a receiver portion of a transceiver in a communication system . the invention consists of the use of joint detection of at least two users to improve performance . in this approach , the objective is to minimize the quantity : under the same assumptions as the single user case , to obtain values for new estimates for users a and b using : a , b = arg min a , b | r - r ^ ( a , b ) | 2 . where h = c h g and the above equation needs to be maximized . channel estimates can be obtained via least - squares estimation if the symbol data are known . in the case of flat fading , and assuming | a | 2 = 1 , they reduce to : for the two - user scenario , with flat fading , the estimate for two user &# 39 ; s channels , c and g , becomes : [ c ^ g ^ ] ls = [ a h b h ] y and this equation shows each user interfering with the other user &# 39 ; s channel estimate . an alternative estimation technique is the least - squares estimate with the interfering term removed from the received signal . now , the estimates for each user &# 39 ; s channel can be found using : since the interfering users channel estimate must be known in order to find the new estimate , values from prior iterations can be used to calculate new estimates . one approach is to calculate the single - user estimates using the received signal with the interfering users term removed . equations for these estimates are written as : a ^ = 1 α c h ( r - gb ) , b ^ = 1 β g h ( r - ca ) . an assumption is made that the channel estimates for both users are known and prior estimates of the symbol values are available from some prior iteration . the above procedure provides continuous value estimates for the symbols , which may be quantized ( hard - detected ) to the closest transmit symbol . the channel estimation and detection steps are iteratively computed until some convergence criterion is met or some maximum number of iterations is reached . another iterative approach can be used to compute the maximum a poste - riori estimate of the possible transmit symbols . this approach is described in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 887 , 035 , which is incorporated herein by reference . one embodiment of the invention is based on a two - user situation in which the base stations are synchronized . this can easily be accomplished if the system is designed to allow for joint demodulation according to the invention . it is also the case if two users are transmitting from the same base station . in this case , the received signal can be written as : where b k is the vector of symbols transmitted from a second base station and g k is the corresponding channel response . different signals are transmitted from the multiple transmit antennas and channel estimates will contain the effects of any transformation from the originating signal stream to the multiple antennas . for this example , a form of joint detection is illustrated which assumes that both signals use transmit diversity , the medium response is flat faded , channel coefficients are not known , and there are no training symbols . to address this problem , an iterative solution to two suboptimal problems , detection and channel estimation is used . the cases where some of the above quantities are known require some modifications to the approach that can easily be accomplished by one of ordinary skill in the art . iteration is used to address the transmit diversity problem when multiple users ( desired and interfering ) are present . iteration can be performed in a block ( i . e . batch ) mode , or in a recursive mode of operation . fig3 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of the block mode . in this embodiment , a detector unit performs block detection at 301 for the symbols : the terms ã and { tilde over ( b )} are either initial values for the first iteration or prior detected values during subsequent iterations . in either case these can be referred to as “ previous ” values , simply meaning they are already stored and available . these values can be initially set at the initialization step , 300 . initially setting these values to zero results in single - user detection for the first pass of the detector unit . in this example , the channel estimates are represented as complete sequences ; however , a small set of channel estimates may be used when the channel is not time - varying or only slowly time - varying . at step 302 of fig3 the values of ĉ and ĝ are copied to { tilde over ( c )} and { tilde over ( g )}, respectively for further processing in a channel estimation unit at step 303 , where new channel estimates are computed . at step 305 a determination as to whether to perform another iteration is made . if another iteration is to be performed , the receiver copies the values â and { circumflex over ( b )} to ã and { tilde over ( b )}, respectively at step 304 . the detector unit calculates the values of â and { circumflex over ( b )} with ĉ and ĝ fixed . the values of â , { circumflex over ( b )}, ã and { tilde over ( b )} may be either hard or soft values . [ 0059 ] fig4 shows a similar embodiment , but initial values are now â , { circumflex over ( b )}, { tilde over ( c )} and { tilde over ( g )}. setting { tilde over ( c )} and { tilde over ( g )} to have zero initial values at initialization step 400 forces channel estimation at step 403 to perform single - user channel estimation for the first iteration . the rest of the processes are the same , with steps 401 , 402 , 404 , and 405 being essentially the same processes that take place in steps 301 , 302 , 304 , and 305 of fig3 . this embodiment is similar to the one shown in fig3 but the iterative algorithm has different starting and termination points . in the algorithm of fig3 if the channel estimation unit 303 is skipped , then iteration only executes detection at step 301 . this approach could be used when channel estimates are known or can be obtained by other means ( such as the use of alternate pilot channels in a cdma system ). similarly , in the second embodiment , if detection at step 401 is skipped during iteration , then only channel estimation at step 403 is executed . this might occur , for example , while detecting known pilot symbols that are being used for initial channel estimation . the initialized values are assumed to be known in the above examples . however , it may be the case that the second user signal is an interferer and the values corresponding to the interferer are unknown . fig5 illustrates a semi - blind initialization procedure that can be used in this case . assuming that â is known and can be initialized at step 500 , the single user channel estimate ĉ is computed at step 501 . next , some rough estimate of ĝ is generated at step 502 . then â is copies to ã at step 503 . { tilde over ( b )} is set to zero and the initial conditions are output at 504 . the rough estimate of ĝ discussed above can be obtained by training the desired user &# 39 ; s channel estimate over known symbols corresponding to the desired user , while using a sequence estimator to compute the channel estimate for the interfering user . such an approach is described in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 304 , 618 which is incorporated herein by reference . rather than use a block estimation approach , an embodiment that uses recursive estimation can also be used . fig6 shows a flowchart for the update at symbol time k . steps 601 through 605 are similar to the corresponding steps 301 - 305 in fig3 however , detection and channel estimation units only operate on the kth symbol or channel estimation term . at step 606 an update is made of the channel estimates from the kth to the ( k + 1 ) st symbol time . known , conventional channel tracking techniques may be used to predict the channel estimates from one time to a future time . a recursive embodiment corresponding to the block approach shown in fig4 can also be developed but is not shown here . in the case of recursive detection where the signals are synchronous , the detection at each symbol time can be performed separately . there are multiple ways to do this , and one of ordinary skill in the art can select the appropriate way for a proposed system . for the kth symbol time , the problem is to find the values of â k and { tilde over ( b )} k using the equation : a ^ k , b k ^ = arg min ak , bk | r k - r ^ k ( c k , g k ) | 2 . γ = re { a h γ a + b h γ b − a h h k b }, where h k = c k h g k . the object here is to detect the symbol from the first and second user at the current symbol time that maximizes the above equation . although this can be done directly , each symbol can no longer be detected independently , and so the complexity of the detection procedure is significant . a lower complexity approach is to calculate the single - user estimates using the received signal with the interfering user terms removed as previously discussed . in the recursive case the equations become : a ^ k = 1 α c k h ( r k - g k b ~ k ) , b ^ k = 1 β g k h ( r k - c k a ~ k ) , where ã k and { tilde over ( b )} k are previous estimates of a k and b k , respectively . a flowchart showing the method executed by a detector unit using this approach is shown in fig7 . after initialization at 700 , an update unit updates of â k and { circumflex over ( b )} k using channel estimates ĉ k and ĝ k , and prior detected values of ã k and { tilde over ( b )} k at step 701 . at step 702 a determination is made as to whether another iteration is needed . if not , final values of â k and { circumflex over ( b )} k are output at 704 . if so , current symbol values are copied to prior detected values at step 703 . [ 0069 ] fig8 shows a signal processing flow / block diagram for a symbol update unit around which a detector unit according to one embodiment of the invention can be build . the values ĉ k and ĝ k are reformed into c k and g k , respectively , by reformulation operators 801 and 802 . conjugation operators 803 and 804 provide complex conjugate values . logic such as that shown in fig8 provides continuous , final estimates for the symbols . for symbol aligned signals , batch detection can be accomplished by calling a recursive detection unit once for each symbol time given the appropriate input values for each call . alternate detection approaches can be used . for example , rather than use previously detected values for ã k and { tilde over ( b )} k , these terms could be enumerated . then , the chosen values of â k and { circumflex over ( b )} k will be determined by choosing hypotheses that correspond to the best metric . another alternate detection approach is to compute the maximum a posteriori estimate of the possible transmit symbols . this is more complicated in that probabilities for each transmit symbol are estimated during each iteration . u . s . pat . no . 5 , 887 , 035 , previously discussed and incorporated by reference , provides useful background that can be used to develop alternate detection approaches . the recursive channel estimation problem at time k is to find estimates of ĉ k and ĝ k from the equation : c ^ k g ^ k = arg min c k g k | y k - y ^ k ( a k , b k ) | 2 . since joint estimation was previously shown to result in the single - user estimator with interference terms , an approach similar to that employed in detection must be used . the channel update is performed according to the equations : ĉ k = a k h ( y k − b k { tilde over ( g )} k ), ĝ k = b k h ( y k − a k { tilde over ( c )} k ) where { tilde over ( c )} k and { tilde over ( g )} k are previous estimates of c k and g k , respectively . since the interfering user &# 39 ; s channel estimate must be known in order to find the new estimate , values from prior iterations can be used to calculate these new estimates . in the above approach , ĉ k and ĝ k depend only upon the single received sample vector y k , which may be subject to noise and other signal interference . since there typically is correlation in time from one sample to the next , channel tracking can be used . consider the least - means - square ( lms ) update for the channel coefficient c 1 ( k ). in the case that the transmit diversity approach has two received samples at two different symbol times , kε { 2j , 2j + 1 }, the lms updates are found using the following equations : ĉ ( 2 j + 1 )= ĉ ( 2 j )+ μ a 1 ( k )* e 1 ( k ), ĉ ( 2 j + 2 )= ĉ ( 2 j + 1 )− μ a 2 ( k ) e 2 ( k ). a similar form exists for the other channel coefficients . additional background on lms tracking can be found in haykin , adaptive filter theory , third edition , prentice hall , 1996 , which is incorporated herein by reference . the term ĉ k is the update given a new estimate of ĝ k . using exponential smoothing , this update is written as : ĉ k =( 1 − μ ) { tilde over ( c )} k + μa k h ( y k − b k { tilde over ( g )} k ). giving lms - like updates for the vector channel estimates . when no previous estimate for ĉ k is available , then estimates from previous time k − 1 can be used to give : a flowchart for the above approach is shown if fig9 . all vectors are initialized at step 900 . at step 901 , the update as described immediately above is performed . steps 902 and 903 provide iteration . once the iteration is complete , channel tracking is performed at step 904 using the step size term as input . final values are output at step 905 . [ 0082 ] fig1 is a signal flow diagram for a channel estimation unit that is used in performing the method illustrated in fig9 . the values â k and { circumflex over ( b )} k are reformed into a k and b k , respectively , by reformulation operators 1001 and 1002 . conjugation operators 1003 and 1004 provide complex conjugate values . one approach for batch channel estimation is to assume that the channel is fixed so that joint least - squares ( ls ) estimation can be performed using multiple received samples . this approach can work well since there is no longer an undetermined system of equations that need to be solved . for example , if the received signals y k through y k + n are used to find the joint ls : [ c ^ k g ^ k ] ls = ( [ a k b k a k + 1 b k + 1 ⋮ ⋮ a k + n b k + n ] ) + y k , where ( ) + is the pseudo - inverse operation . since the symbol terms may not be able to be pre - computed , a recursive approach may be desired . in this case , the recursive channel tracking approach described above can be used for each symbol . an alternative approach is needed when the two transmitted user signals are flat faded , but have misaligned symbol timing from each other at the receiver , resulting in intersymbol interference ( isi ) from one signal to the other . this isi appears , even in flat fading , since the pulse - shape responses are aligned so that they no longer have the same zero crossings . with dispersion , sampling the received signal at a higher , but uniform , sampling rate helps make the resulting receiver more tolerant to isi . a higher sampling rate is required in the case where the medium response is not flat faded and significant dispersion results . for the scenario above , non - uniform sampling at a rate greater than the symbol rate , but taking into account transmit diversity is used . the approaches discussed previously are modified so that they can be used in this case . sequence estimation approaches can be modified for use with multi - user transmit diversity , but the same method as previously described for recursive channel estimation is not used . instead , batch estimation and a sub - optimal , recursive form for detecting symbols and computing channel estimates is employed . consider the two - user system described previously , now with symbol misalignment . the received signal is now sampled twice , each sampling time being optimal to one of the transmitted signals in the sense that no own - signal isi is present for the corresponding signal . let the sequences of samples for the first signal be represented as { r k a } and { y k a }. similarly , the sequences of samples for the second signal are { r k b } and { y k b }. the signals ρ a ( j ) and ρ b ( j ) are introduced to represent the pulse - shape response for the first and second signals , respectively . the received signals are then written as : [ 0089 ] y k a = a k c k + γ k b g k a + v k a , y k b = γ k a c k + b k g k + v k b . u k a = ∑ j ρ a ( j ) a k + j , u k b = ∑ j ρ b ( j ) b k + j , γ k b = ∑ j ρ a ( j ) a k + j , γ k a = ∑ j ρ b ( j ) b k + j , where the summations above are taken over significant non - zero components of the pulse shape response terms . in batch mode , detection is performed in the same manner as in the synchronous case . for each symbol time k , the detection approach is used to update â k and { circumflex over ( b )} k . the ordering of k does not necessarily have to be in natural order { 1 , 2 , . . . , k }. after detection , channel estimation is performed using the approach described below . because of the nature of the channel fading process , updates in natural order are assumed for the recursive channel estimation approach . for detection , the terms u k a and u k b are composed of prior , detected symbol values from the kth as well as other symbols from times j ≠ k . a flowchart for this approach is shown in fig1 . the form of this flowchart is similar to previous flowcharts , with initialization taking place at step 1100 , iteration being handled by steps 1102 and 1103 , and final values being output at 1104 . now , however , step 1101 is a process that performs the symbol update based upon the following equations : a ^ k = 1 α c h ( r k a - g k u k b ) , b ^ k = 1 α g h ( r k b - c k u k a ) . the interfering terms are composed of symbols from prior iterations and the pulse shape component . fig1 shows a signal processing flow diagram of a symbol update unit that can be used to perform step 1101 in the flowchart of fig1 . the symbol update unit includes reformulation operators 1201 and 1202 and conjugation operators 1203 and 1204 as before . in this case however , calculation units 1205 and 1206 calculate values for the u terms . the interconnections between various other components such as adders and multipliers are shown in the figure . a recursive channel estimator uses a form similar to that of the synchronous case , and is described by the equations : ĉ k = ĉ k − 1 + μ a a h ( y k a − γ k b g k ), ĝ k = ĝ k − 1 + μ b b h ( y k b − γ k a c k ). [ 0096 ] fig1 is a flowchart for the recursive channel estimation . stored values are initialized at step 1300 . at step 1301 , the update the update according to the above equations is performed . steps 1302 and 1302 provide iteration . once the iteration is complete , channel tracking is performed at 1304 using the step size term as input . final values are output at step 1305 . [ 0097 ] fig1 is a signal processing flow diagram for the update unit that performs the update at step 1301 in fig1 . this unit includes operators similar to those previously discussed , including reformulation operators 1401 and 1402 and conjugation operators 1403 and 1404 . a recursive approach can be used with transmit diversity where there is isi . for the update of the symbols the same detection unit described above is used , but with the following changes . in performing the update of â k using received data sample y k a , the interference terms u k b are made up of hypothesized and / or feedback values of the terms { tilde over ( b )} j . from these hypothesized values , different estimates of â k and { circumflex over ( b )} k result , and the values that lead to the best metric are detected . once each symbol is detected at update time k , the recursive approach above is used to perform channel tracking . the detected symbols are used for channel tracking , along with any undetected ( hypothesized ) symbols that can be obtained from the chosen hypotheses . in the case that conventional transmission is used with systems that also contain transmit diversity , the invention can still be used . assume one signal , say a k , is a traditional transmission , and the interferer uses transmit diversity . in this case , assuming a 1 and a 2 are transmitted at consecutive symbol times corresponding to the transmit diversity symbol time k , then term y k replaces a k and c k as follows : y k = [ a 1 a 2 0 0 ] [ c 1 0 ] + b k g k + v k . r k = [ c 1 0 0 c 1 * ] [ a 1 a 2 * ] + g k b k + ω k . the above forms can be used for detection and channel estimation according to the invention in a mixed scenario . it is also important to understand that the invention can be applied where there are more than two users . in such cases , the technique is applied to two users at a time . such would be the case , for example , with a multi - input , multi - output ( mimo ) system with many users . [ 0103 ] fig1 is a block diagram of a mobile terminal that implements the invention . fig1 illustrates a terminal with voice capability , such as a mobile telephone . this illustration is an example only , and the invention works equally well with mobile terminals that are dedicated to communicating with text or other forms of data . some types of mobile terminals may not contain all of the components shown in fig1 . as shown in fig1 , the terminal includes radio block 1501 , a baseband logic block , 1502 , control logic block 1503 and an audio interface block , 1504 . within radio block 1501 , the receive and transmit information is converted from and to the radio frequencies ( rf ) of the various carrier types , and filtering is applied , as is understood in the art . radio block 1501 includes the preprocessor previously discussed . the terminal &# 39 ; s antenna system , 1507 , is connected to the radio block . in baseband logic block 1502 , basic signal processing occurs , e . g ., synchronization , channel coding , decoding and burst formatting . in this example , the baseband logic includes a channel estimation unit , 1512 , and a detection unit , 1513 , according to the invention . the baseband logic block can be implemented by one or more asic &# 39 ; s , or perhaps by a digital signal processor ( dsp ). audio interface block 1504 handles voice as well as analog - to - digital ( a / d ) and d / a processing . it also receives input through microphone 1505 , and produces output through speaker 1506 . control logic block 1503 , coordinates the aforedescribed blocks and also plays an important role in controlling the human interface components ( not shown ) such as a key pad and liquid crystal display ( lcd ). the functions of the aforedescribed transceiving blocks are directed and controlled by one or more microprocessors or digital signal processors such as main processor 1508 , shown for illustrative purposes . program code , often in the form of microcode is stored in memory 1509 and controls the operation of the terminal through the processor or processors . the mobile terminal illustrated in fig1 interfaces to a smart card identity module ( sim ), 1511 , through a smart card reader interface . the interconnection between the main processor , control logic , memory , and sim is depicted schematically . the interface is often an internal bus . a mobile terminal implementation of the invention does not have to be a traditional “ cellular telephone ” type of terminal , but may include a cellular radio - telephone with or without a multi - line display ; a personal communications system ( pcs ) terminal that may combine a cellular radiotelephone with data processing , facsimile and data communications capabilities ; a personal data assistant ( pda ) that can include a radiotelephone , pager , internet / intranet access , web browser , organizer ; and a conventional laptop and / or palmtop computer or other appliance that includes a radiotelephone transceiver . mobile terminals are sometimes also referred to as “ pervasive computing ” devices . specific embodiments of an invention are described herein . one of ordinary skill in the networking and signal processing arts will quickly recognize that the invention has other applications in other environments . in fact , many embodiments and implementations are possible . in addition , the recitation “ means for ” is intended to evoke a means - plus - function reading of an element in a claim , whereas , any elements that do not specifically use the recitation “ means for ,” are not intended to be read as means - plus - function elements , even if they otherwise include the word “ means .” the following claims are in no way intended to limit the scope of the invention to the specific embodiments described . | 7 |
referring to the drawings , and in particular to fig1 thereof , a vehicle 10 is illustrated which , in the form shown , is a track - type tractor . an operator &# 39 ; s station 12 is located on the vehicle 10 such that an operator , when seated in the seat of the compartment , has access , by the use of his hands and feet , to the various handles 14 , knobs 16 , and pedals 18 , and the like , for driving and steering the vehicle 10 and actuating various equipment on the vehicle . one hand - operated handle 14 is a hand brake and , as shown in fig1 projects horizontally across the access area to and from the operator &# 39 ; s compartment 12 . a foot brake actuator lever 18 projects downwardly and rearwardly from the inside of the fire wall 20 of the vehicle 10 with a foot - engaging pedal portion 24 projecting toward the operator &# 39 ; s station 12 . a foot rest 26 is located close to the foot pedal 24 upon which the operator can rest his foot when it is not needed for other purposes , such as actuating the pedal 24 of the foot brake 18 . the handle 14 of the hand brake extends horizontally substantially parallel to the floor or deck 28 of the operator &# 39 ; s compartment 12 and obstructs access to and from the operator &# 39 ; s compartment when the brake associated with the hand lever is in the &# 34 ; off &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; inoperative &# 34 ; position . an operator , to leave the operator &# 39 ; s compartment 12 , must maneuver over or around the horizontal handle 14 which is intended to remind him to set the hand brake on the vehicle . the hand brake is put in the &# 34 ; on &# 34 ; position by pivoting the handle 14 clockwise , as viewed in fig1 downward and rearward from its horizontal position in a manner to be described more in detail hereinafter . referring to fig2 and 3 , in particular , as they relate to fig1 the handle 14 is pivotally mounted at 30 to the frame 32 of the vehicle 10 . a connecting link 34 has one end portion 35 pivotally mounted at 36 to the handle 14 at an intermediate location between the hand grip portion 38 of the handle 14 and said pivot 30 . the other end portion 40 of the connecting link 34 is pivotally mounted at 42 to one leg 43 of the bell crank link 44 , which bell crank link 44 , in turn , is pivotally mounted at 46 to a bracket 48 mounted on the frame 32 . a second connecting link 50 is connected at one end portion 52 by means of a pivot 54 to a second leg 55 of the bell crank link 44 and is connected at its other end portion 56 by means of pivot 58 to one leg 59 of a lever 60 . the lever 60 is pivotally mounted on a shaft 62 for a purpose to be described more in detail hereinafter . comparing fig2 and 3 , it can be seen that when the handle 14 is in the horizontal position of fig2 the connection through the link 34 , bell crank 44 and link 50 to the lever 60 , positions the leg 59 of said lever 60 in a raised position relative to the horizontal . in fig3 the handle 14 has been rotated about the pivot 30 in a clockwise direction which has pivoted the bell crank 44 in a counterclockwise direction through the link 34 and has pivoted the lever 60 counterclockwise through the link 50 so that in fig3 the leg 59 of the lever 60 is in a lowered position relative to the raised position of fig2 . positioned to the left of the foot rest 26 is the foot - brake actuator lever 18 which supports the foot pedal 24 at the lower end thereof . the foot - brake actuator lever 18 is pivotally mounted about a pivot 74 which is supported by a bifurcated bracket 76 mounted on the fire wall 20 of the vehicle 10 . the foot - brake actuator lever 18 has a transversely extending leg 80 integrally formed at the pivot end thereof and projects rearwardly through the fire wall 20 from the pivot 74 so that pivotal movement of the foot - brake actuator lever 18 about the pivot 74 will , likewise , move the leg 80 an equal amount . a connecting link 82 is pivotally mounted at pivot 84 to the outer end portion of the leg 80 with the opposite end portion of said link 82 being pivotally mounted at pivot 86 to the outer end portion of one leg 88 of a bell crank 90 . the bell crank 90 is pivotally mounted at pivot 92 to a bracket 94 secured to the fire wall 20 . the bell crank 90 has a second leg 96 pivotally connected at 98 to a connecting link 100 . the opposite end portion of the connecting link 100 is pivotally mounted by means of pivot 102 to the lower end of a lever 104 which is rotatably mounted on said shaft 62 . thus , it can be seen that pressure applied to the pedal 24 of the foot - brake actuator lever 18 will pivot the lever 18 counterclockwise to raise the leg 80 and connecting link 82 thereby pivoting the bell crank 90 in a counterclockwise direction about the pivot 92 . the counterclockwise movement of the bell crank 90 will move the link 100 to the right , as viewed in fig2 which will pivot the lever 104 about the axis of the shaft 62 in a counterclockwise direction . referring to fig4 and 5 , in combination with the structure described with respect to fig2 it will be noted that a sealed housing 106 is bolted to the undersurface of the deck 28 and has a downwardly and angularly disposed sleeve 108 formed thereon . a plate 110 seals the opening at the end of the sleeve 108 with a rod 112 extending into the housing 106 through a sleeve guide bearing 114 . the rod 112 is connected through a connector 116 to a pivot pin 118 extending between the bifurcated end 120 of a lever 122 . the lever 122 is splined at 124 to the shaft 62 which shaft is rotatably mounted in bearings 126 in the side walls 128 of the housing 106 . the shaft 62 projects laterally from the housing 106 and has a t - shaped lever 130 splined at 131 to the exposed end portion 133 of said shaft 62 . the t - shaped lever 130 has a head portion 132 projecting axially in opposite directions from the shaft 135 of the &# 34 ; t &# 34 ; so as to provide independent overhanging contact pads 134 , 136 on the outer end portions thereof . since the t - shaped lever 130 is splined to the shaft 62 in the same manner as the lever 122 is splined to said shaft 62 , rotational movement of the t - shaped lever 130 about the axis of the shaft 62 will rotate the lever 122 a like amount . the lever 104 is rotatably mounted on the shaft 62 by a bearing 141 so that the lever 104 is free to rotate relative to the shaft 62 . lever 104 has a pair of radially and oppositely directed legs 142 , 144 with the leg 142 having a contact pad 146 aligned with and adapted to selectively contact the contact pad 134 on the t - shaped lever 130 . the leg 144 of the lever 104 has a bifurcated end portion 148 through which a pin 150 passes to engage with and secure the end portion of the link 100 to the lever 104 . the lever 60 , which has previously been described as being rotatably mounted on the outer end portion of the shaft 62 , is rotatably supported by a bearing 64 and is secured against axial displacement from the shaft 62 by means of a snap ring 161 . the lever 60 has one short leg 162 which extends radially outward from the body of the lever 60 and has a contact pad 164 aligned with and adapted to selectively contact the contact pad 136 of the t - shaped lever 130 . the lever 60 has the elongate leg 59 extending radially outward from the body of said lever 60 along an axis angularly disposed from the axis of the leg 162 . the outer end portion of the leg 59 is pivotally secured by pivot 58 to the one end portion 56 of the connecting link 50 . from the above , it will be noted that the levers 104 and 60 are free to rotate independent of each other and independent of the shaft 62 , the lever 104 being actuated by movement of the connecting link 100 , bell crank 90 , link 82 and foot - brake actuator lever 18 , and the lever 60 being actuated by movement of the connecting link 50 , bell crank 44 , link 34 , and hand brake 14 . it should be noted that the handle 14 , when in the position of fig2 positions the lever 60 so that the short leg 162 extends substantially straight upward with respect to the shaft 62 . when the handle 14 is pivoted in a counterclockwise direction to the position of fig3 the links 34 and 50 , through the bell crank 44 , will pivot the lever 60 in a counterclockwise direction so that the short leg 162 will pivot in a counterclockwise direction , as viewed in fig2 and 3 , so that the contact pad 164 will engage with the contact and 136 on the t - shaped lever 130 which will rotate the lever 130 , shaft 62 and lever 122 in a counterclockwise direction , once again as viewed in fig2 and 3 . the counterclockwise movement of the end portion 120 of the lever 122 will move the rod 112 to the right , as viewed in fig2 to the position of fig3 which will set the brakes of the vehicle . it should be noted that the lever 104 is in no way affected by the movement of the levers 60 and 130 as that the position of the foot pedal 24 is not altered . in normal operation , the hand - brake handle 14 will be in the horizontal position of fig2 such that the lever 60 will have the leg 162 in the vertical position , out of contact with the lever 130 . as the vehicle is operated , it becomes necessary to brake the vehicle by the operator depressing the pedal 24 which will pivot the foot - brake actuator lever 18 about the pivot 74 which will raise the link 82 , pivot the bell crank 90 in a counterclockwise direction , and shift the link 100 to the right , as viewed in fig2 which , in turn , will pivot the link 104 in a counterclockwise direction , as viewed in fig2 whereupon the leg 142 of the lever 104 will be pivoted in a counterclockwise direction with the pad 146 contacting the contact pad 134 of the link 130 . this will rotate the link 130 , shaft 62 and lever 122 in a counterclockwise direction which will shift the rod 112 and set the brake . it should be noted that actuation of the foot brake will in no way affect the position of the hand brake so that the link or lever 60 connected to the hand brake 14 will remain in position with the contact pad 164 out of contact with the contact pad 136 of the lever 130 . it should be noted that in the event the foot brake is set , as just described , the operator can pivot the handle 14 of the hand brake from the horizontal position of fig2 to the set position of fig3 which will pivot the lever 60 so as to bring the contact pad 164 in contact with the contact pad 136 of the lever 130 . since the brake is already set , this will in no way change the position of the rod 112 . however , in the event the operator removes his foot from the pedal 24 of the foot - brake actuator lever 18 , the connecting link 82 , bell crank 90 , and link 100 will be free to shift in a clockwise direction , as viewed in fig2 so as to remove the contact pad 146 from contact with the contact pad 134 of the lever 130 . however , the brakes will remain set due to the set position of the hand brake . the operator at that point can release the hand brake by grasping the handle 14 and rotating the handle 14 in a counterclockwise direction , as viewed in fig3 to the horizontal position of fig2 whereupon the lever 60 will be rotated in a clockwise direction which will permit the lever 130 to rotate in a clockwise direction thereby shifting the rod 112 and releasing the brake . in summary , a dual brake actuating mechanism has been described wherein a hand brake can be set without in any way affecting the operation or position of the foot brake and foot - brake lever . likewise , the foot brake can be set without in any way affecting the position of the hand - brake lever and hand - brake handle . in other words , one or the other of the brake actuating mechanisms can be operated without affecting the other &# 39 ; s position or operation . both brakes can be set at the same time and the release of one will not automatically release the other , therefore , it requires a positive action to release either or both of the brakes , which brakes are independently operative . | 8 |
fig1 is a circuit diagram illustrating one embodiment of an esd protection circuit that includes a diode 12 and a silicon controlled rectifier ( scr ) 14 to protect driver / receiver circuitry 20 . the circuits 12 , 14 , and 20 are coupled to a conductor ( wire ) 18 that makes connection to a pin on a package containing the circuit of fig1 . a pin may generally be any external connection point ( e . g . a solder ball for packages such as ball grid array , an electrical lead to connect to a through hole on a circuit board , a “ leadless ” lead to connect to a solder connection on a board , etc .). the pin is an external conductor , and thus may be subject to an esd event . esd events may include high voltages and / or currents that would otherwise damage transistors in the driver / receiver circuit 20 . the circuits 12 , 14 , and 20 are coupled to the v ss ( ground ) rail , and the driver / receiver circuit 20 is further coupled to the v dd ( power supply ) rail . the diode 12 may be configured to conduct current to handle an esd event from the ground ( v ss ) rail to the pin ( reverse - bias ). the scr 14 may be configured conduct current to handle an esd event to the v ss rail from the pin in response to a trigger ( forward - bias ). accordingly , the esd protection circuit may be bi - directional and no connection to the v dd rail may be needed . in one embodiment , the diode 12 and the scr 14 may share a single junction , and thus may reduce the capacitive load on the pin as compared to dual - diode structures and other esd structures . for pins that are highly sensitive to capacitance , the esd protection circuit described herein may provide a lighter load and thus a lower impact on the functional communication on the pin . examples of pins that are highly sensitive to capacitance may include various high speed input / output ( i / o ) interfaces such as peripheral component interconnect express ( pcie ), universal serial bus ( usb ), etc . the diode 12 and the scr 14 may be formed using the structure illustrated in fig4 - 6 , in one embodiment . the driver / receiver circuitry 20 may include any circuitry to drive and / or receive signals on the pin to which the conductor 18 is connected . if the pin is an output , the circuitry 20 may include driving transistors having source or drain connections to the conductor 18 . if the pin is an input , the circuitry 20 may include receiving transistors having gate connections to the conductor 18 . if the pin is an input / output pin , the circuitry 20 may include both driving and receiving transistors . the driver / receiver circuitry 20 may include additional esd protection circuitry ( e . g . a voltage clamp circuit ). fig2 is a circuit diagram illustrating another embodiment of an esd protection circuit that includes a diode 10 and an scr 16 to protect the driver / receiver circuitry 20 . the circuits 10 , 16 , and 20 are coupled to the conductor ( wire ) 18 that makes connection to a pin on a package containing the circuit of fig2 . the circuits 10 , 16 , and 20 are coupled to the v dd rail , and the driver / receiver circuit 20 is further coupled to the v ss rail . similar to the diode 12 and the scr 14 in fig1 , the diode 10 may be configured to conduct current to handle an esd event to the v dd rail from the pin and the scr 16 may be configured to conduct current to handle an esd event to the pin from the v dd rail . accordingly , the esd protection circuit may be bi - directional and no connection to the v ss rail may be needed . similar to the discussion above , the embodiment of fig2 may be a low capacitance solution for the pins that are sensitive to capacitance . it is noted that the embodiment of fig2 may be used in a “ triple well ” process in which an isolated p - well is available in the semiconductor substrate . it is further noted that , if desired , both of the esd circuits shown in fig1 and fig2 may be used in some embodiments . the v dd and v ss rails may be examples of voltage rails . generally , a voltage rail may refer to interconnect provided in an integrated circuit to be connected to a particular voltage level ( e . g . v dd and v ss , or power and ground , respectively ). for many integrated circuits , multiple pins on a package may be coupled to the power rail and multiple pins may be coupled to a ground rail , to help stabilize the voltages in the presence of ( possibly large ) current flows . fig3 is a top view of one embodiment of a semiconductor substrate . in the illustrated embodiment , the substrate may be p - type ( p ). the substrate may include an n - type ( n ) well 30 formed in the p - type substrate . other embodiments may have an n - type substrate and may use a p - well , or a dual - well semiconductor fabrication process may be used . more particularly , in one embodiment , n - wells may be formed and the remainder of the substrate may be p - well ( or vice versa ). semiconductor regions 32 may be formed within the n - well 30 . in one embodiment , the semiconductor material is silicon . the semiconductor regions 32 may be insulated from each other using any fabrication technique ( e . g . shallow trench isolation ( sti )). the semiconductor regions 32 may include multiple “ fins ” 34 in a finfet semiconductor fabrication technology . that is , the fins 34 in the semiconductor regions 32 may rise above the surface of the substrate as compared to the well 30 , for example . the fins 34 in each region 32 may be parallel to each other and parallel to the fins 34 in other regions 32 . the fins 34 may be doped with impurities to produce highly doped n - type and p - type conduction regions ( denoted as n + and p +). a highly - doped region may include a greater density of the impurities than the normally doped regions / wells ( e . g . p - wells , n - wells , and semiconductor substrate regions ). for example , highly - doped regions may include one or more orders of magnitude greater density of impurities than the normally doped regions . in the illustrated embodiment , cross - hatched areas 38 may represent p + regions and dot - filled areas 40 may represent n + regions . the areas 38 and 40 may be the areas over which the dopants may be implanted . the fins 34 may actually be separated by insulators such as sti , and so the actual n + and p + regions may be in the fins 34 themselves . the n + and p + regions may be constructed in areas of the substrate in which diodes and scrs are to be formed ( e . g . to form esd protection circuits ). depending on the finfet fabrication process , the fins may be further grown into other shapes such as diamond or merged together through a semiconductor epitaxial process step . each semiconductor region 32 may have polysilicon “ fingers ” built thereon . for example , fingers 36 are illustrated in fig3 . the fingers may form gates for transistors formed in the fins 34 in areas where transistors are fabricated , for example . the p - well sections of the semiconductor substrate may similarly include semiconductor regions 32 having fins 34 , fingers 36 , and n + and p + areas 38 and 40 . the border between each p + and n + area forms a p - n junction ( more briefly pn junction ) that may operate as a diode or may be used as one of the pn junctions of an scr . additionally , borders between p - wells and n - wells form pn junctions that may form diodes or scr junctions . similarly , borders between p + areas and n - wells , and borders between n + areas and p - wells , may form pn junctions . there may be gate - bound diodes / scrs formed across a region 32 ( e . g . the region 32 on the bottom of fig3 , in which multiple p + and n + areas are formed within the region ). additionally , sti - bound diodes / scrs may be formed between regions 32 , where one of the regions 32 is within the n - well 30 and the other region 32 is in a p - well ( e . g . the p - well outside the n - well 30 ) it is noted that , in other embodiments , adjacent regions 32 may be entirely of the opposite conduction type ( e . g . the p + area on the top region 32 may be adjacent to another region 32 that is entirely n +). alternatively , adjacent regions may have the same conduction type . any combination of various p + and n + areas in adjacent regions may be used . fig4 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a top view of esd protection circuits of fig1 on a semiconductor substrate . fig4 may be a simplified view . regions 32 that include n + or p + areas , including fingers 36 and fins 34 , are illustrated as blocks of conduction type ( n + or p +). each area should be viewed as a region 32 similar to that shown in fig3 , in an embodiment ( or multiple adjacent regions 32 ). various n - wells 30 a - 30 f are shown in fig4 . areas outside of the n - wells 30 a - 30 f may be p - well in this embodiment of the finfet technology . p - wells are not shown in fig4 , but are illustrated in the cross - sections of fig5 and 6 . n - wells 30 a - 30 d each include n + and p + regions that form transistors for i / o driver / receiver circuits similar to the circuits 20 shown in fig1 or 2 . the embodiment of fig4 may implement scrs 14 and diodes 12 similar to the embodiment of fig1 . thus , for example , n - well 30 a includes n + region 42 and p + region 44 to form n and p transistors for the i / o driver receiver circuit 20 . a p + region 46 that is coupled to the v ss rail is provided , as well as an n + region 48 that is coupled to the v ss rail . the discussion below will focus on the diode 12 and the scr 14 formed between the n - well 30 a regions 42 and 44 and the v ss regions 46 and 48 . a similar discussion may apply to the n - wells 30 b - 30 d and the surrounding v ss regions . the p - well that includes the p + v ss region 46 and the n - well 30 a may form a pn junction that may be used as an sti - bound diode 12 . the p + region 44 to the n - well 30 a to the p - well in which the n + region 48 is formed and finally to the n + region 48 itself may be pnpn junctions forming the scr 14 . again , the scr 14 may be an sti - bound scr in this embodiment . the n - well 30 a junction to the surrounding p - well may be a single junction that is shared by the diode 12 and the scr 14 ( particularly the cathode of the diode 12 and the anode of the scr 14 ), and thus the capacitive load presented by the esd protection circuit may be low compared to other esd protection circuits such as dual - diode circuits . a p + region 50 in fig4 may be used as a trigger contact for the scrs 14 . the contact may be a floating contact , and may be provided for any type of triggering circuit . for example , a resistance - capacitance ( rc ) trigger circuit or a diode trigger circuit may be used . the p + region 50 may be isolated from other p + regions such as the p + regions coupled to v ss ( e . g . the p + region 46 ). more particularly , the floating p contact may be shared by scrs that have their cathodes in the adjacent n + regions 48 and 52 . lines a - a ′ and b - b ′ are illustrated in fig4 , and correspond to the cross sections of fig5 and 6 , respectively . the line b - b ′ includes the p + region 50 ( and thus can be seen in fig4 to move to the right and then back to the left near the p + region 50 in fig4 ). the n - wells 30 e and 30 f may include p + regions for contacts for the driving and / or received signals for the driver / receiver circuits 20 , as well as n + regions coupled to the p + region 50 . the n + region in the n - wells 30 e and 30 f may form trigger diodes with the p + region 50 for the scrs 14 , for embodiments that use trigger diodes to detect esd events and triggering the scrs 14 . other embodiments that use other trigger circuits need not include the connections to the n + regions in the n - wells 30 e - 30 f and may not include the n + regions in the n - wells 30 e - 30 f either . fig5 is a cross section taken along the line a - a ′ in fig4 . a semiconductor substrate 54 is shown , into which the n - wells 30 a and 30 b are implanted . p - wells 30 g , 30 h , and 30 j are also illustrated in fig5 . p - wells 30 g , 30 h , and 30 j may be part of an overall p - well that may be provided in the substrate 54 at places that are not n - wells in the substrate 54 . the n + and p + regions 42 , 44 , 46 , and 48 are shown with various fins in the regions . the fins are separated by sti structures 60 in each region 42 , 44 , 46 , and 48 . thus , the actually highly - doped areas may be the areas under and in the fins . additionally , sti structures 60 separate the regions 42 , 44 , 46 , and 48 , as discussed above . the sti structures 60 between regions may be wider than the sti structures 60 within a region in an embodiment . additionally , depths of the sti structures 60 between regions may differ from the sti structures 60 within a region . while two fins are shown in a given region , in part due to the available space in the drawing , various embodiments may employ any desired number of fins . the diodes 12 are illustrated across the p - well 30 g to n - well 30 a boundary and the p - well 30 j to n - well 30 b boundary . the anodes of the diodes 12 are in the p - wells 30 g and 30 j and the cathodes of the diodes 12 are in the n - wells 30 a and 30 b . the scrs 14 are illustrated from the p + region 44 to the n - well 30 a to the p - well 30 h to the n + region 48 , and similarly from the p + region in the n - well 30 b to the n - well 30 b to the p - well 30 h to the n + region 48 . the anodes of the scrs 14 are in the n - wells 30 a and 30 b , and the cathodes of the scrs 14 are in the p - well 30 h . it is noted that , while the arrows illustrating the scrs 14 extend from one fin of each region to the fin of the adjoining region , each fin of the region may contribute to the scr 16 . fig6 is a cross section taken along the line b - b ′ in fig4 . a portion of the cross section is not shown in fig6 ( removed part illustrated by the ellipses shown in fig6 ) for space reasons . the removed part may be similar to the cross section illustrated in fig5 . the semiconductor substrate 54 is shown , into which the n - wells 30 a and 30 b are implanted . p - wells 30 g and 30 h are also illustrated in fig6 . the n + and p + regions 42 , 44 , 46 , and 48 are shown in various fins in the regions , separated by sti structures 60 in each region 42 , 44 , 46 , and 48 . furthermore , the p + region 50 is shown with the trigger input coupled thereto . the p + region 50 to the p - well 30 h is not a junction , so the trigger is coupled to the junction between the n - well 30 a and the p - well 30 h within the scr 14 on the left in fig6 . the trigger input is also coupled to the junction between the p - well 30 h and the n - well 30 b to provide the trigger within the scr 14 on the right in fig6 . thus , the trigger is shared by the two scrs 14 in fig6 . the trigger may further be shared by the scrs 14 extending from the n - wells 30 c and 30 d in fig4 . the trigger input may be next to the scr cathode but may not interfere with the scr current path in this embodiment . the floating p - well contact for the trigger input may be isolated from the anode of the diodes 12 in the p + v ss region 46 . fig7 is a circuit diagram illustrating the scr 14 and the diode 12 for one embodiment . the scr 14 in fig7 may include the transistors 70 and 72 . another transistor 74 may form a triggering diode for the scr 14 , for embodiments that employ the trigger diode . various resistances are illustrated in fig7 as well . in particular , the resistor 78 may be a resistance through the substrate 54 . as discussed previously , the scr 14 formed from the transistors 70 and 72 may be the main positive esd discharge path , while the diode 12 and the two resistors in series with it may be the main negative esd discharge path . to carry the potentially large esd current , the resistors in series with the diode 12 may be made as small as possible . during a positive esd event , the trigger diode 74 may inject current into the base of transistor 72 , and its base resistor 78 . the transistor 72 may thus be biased at its base by the voltage drop across resistor 78 into the forward active mode , triggering the scr current path through transistors 70 and 72 . fig8 is another embodiment , including a second trigger diode 76 . the embodiment of fig8 may be used , for example , if the leakage current through the diode 74 is of concern during normal operating conditions . the leakage current through the trigger diode ( s ) 74 and 76 may be significantly reduced . the triggering mechanism may remain the same with one or multiple trigger diodes in various embodiments . numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated . it is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications . | 7 |
particularly referring to the above figures , a viscoelastic support structure having improved energy absorption properties according to the invention is described , which is generally designated with numeral 1 . the structure 1 is designed to come in contact with a user and has a contact surface 2 on which the user will exert a stress p along an essentially transverse direction l . the structure 1 has a rigid or semirigid frame 3 and at least one layer of a resilient filler 4 , with at least one gel insert 5 located upon the frame 3 . an upper covering 6 is further provided which defines the contact surface 2 and is adapted to cover the filler layer 4 and the insert 5 . particularly , the insert 5 may have at least one surface 7 facing toward a top surface 8 of the frame 3 and at least one surface 7 ′ facing toward a bottom surface 6 ′ of the covering 6 to interact therewith as the user exerts a stress p thereon . possibly , an intermediate filler layer , not shown , may be interposed between the insert s and the frame and / or the covering 6 . a peculiar feature of the invention is that the insert 5 and / or the frame 3 and / or the covering 6 have a plurality of protuberances 9 and recesses 10 with respect to a mid - surface m adapted to facilitate the deformation of the insert 5 , in a direction transverse to the direction l of the stress p and / or essentially parallel to the mid - surface m . in greater detail , the protuberances 9 and the recesses 10 with respect to the mid - surface m may be formed on at least one of the surfaces 7 , 7 ′ of the insert 5 , as shown in fig1 . in certain embodiments , not shown in the annexed drawings , the protuberances 9 and the recesses 10 with respect to the mid - surface m may be provided either on the top surface 8 of the frame 3 or on the bottom surface 6 ′ of the flexible covering 6 , or on both , providing in either case an increased deformation of the insert 5 . in fact , the latter faces toward both the top surface 8 of the frame 3 and the bottom surface 6 ′ of the covering 6 . the stress p exerted along the direction l results in a deformation of the insert 5 which has at least one component parallel and one component transverse to the direction l . the protuberances 9 and the recesses 10 allow both deformation components to develop freely , and particularly enhance the transverse deformation component . in fact , no mutual sliding between the insert 5 and the frame 3 is required for the latter component to develop , and no friction or adhesion forces between the insert 5 and the frame 3 shall be defeated . if the stress p is essentially orthogonal to the mid - surface m , the transverse component of the deformation may be essentially parallel to the mid - surface m . as is shown , the protuberances 9 and the recesses 10 allow a greater deformation of the insert 5 and , as a result , a higher energy dissipation . in fact , the gel of the insert 5 may show hysteresis , and dissipate energy when it is under stress . the protuberances 9 and the recesses 10 may be of various types and have different designs . particularly , as shown in the annexed figures , the protuberances 9 may have top surfaces 11 mainly extending along respective first lines , and the recesses 10 may have bottom surfaces 12 mainly extending along respective second lines . the first and second main extension lines may be either curved or essentially straight and essentially parallel . furthermore , the top surfaces 11 of the protuberances 9 and the bottom surfaces 12 of the recesses 10 may be connected together by inclined surfaces 13 having respective inclination angles a relative to the mid - surface m . in greater detail , the inclination angles a may be of 5 ° to 85 ° and preferably of about 45 °. as shown in fig1 , the resilient filler layer 4 may be interposed between the frame 3 and the flexible covering 6 and may include an enlarged rear portion 14 for supporting the buttocks of a user , a front horn portion 15 and a central portion 16 . a through cavity 17 , which is designed to receive the insert 5 , may be formed on the central portion 16 or on the enlarged rear portion 14 . in this case , the through cavity ( not shown ) may be placed at the ischial bones of the user . also , the insert 5 may extend from the top surface 8 of the frame 3 to the flexible covering 6 . suitably , the gel material may be essentially optically transparent , to permit the passage of light through it . also , the flexible covering 6 may have at least one essentially optically transparent portion 18 , placed upon the insert 5 . the transparent portion 18 of the flexible covering 6 may be integral with the remaining portion thereof , or form a separate portion connected to the remaining portion by appropriate connection means ( not shown ). furthermore , the base material of the frame 3 may be polymeric and essentially optically transparent . therefore , light may pass through the covering 6 , the insert 5 and the frame 3 , i . e . through the whole support structure 1 . in a further embodiment ( not shown in the annexed drawings ), the base material of the frame 3 may be a ligneous , metal or composite material . here again , the passage of light through the whole support structure 1 may be assured by forming at least one through hole in the frame 3 . this hole may be positioned at the insert 5 , and may be covered with a polymeric , essentially optically transparent layer , to support the insert 5 and prevent the latter from being soiled with dust or dirt . the above description clearly shows that the inventive structure fulfils the proposed objects and particularly the design of the gel insert and the frame allows to considerably reduce the stresses transmitted to the user , with a consequent comfort increase . the structure of the invention is susceptible of a number of changes and variants , within the inventive concept disclosed in the appended claims . all the details thereof may be replaced by other technically equivalent parts , and the materials may vary depending on different needs , without departure from the scope of the invention . while the structure has been described with particular reference to the accompanying figures , the numerals referred to in the disclosure and claims are only used for the sake of a better intelligibility of the invention and shall not be intended to limit the claimed scope in any manner . | 1 |
the devices disclosed herein are useful in transport of agent into or across biological barriers including the skin ( or parts thereof ); the blood - brain barrier ; mucosal tissue ( e . g ., oral , nasal , ocular , vaginal , urethral , gastrointestinal , respiratory ); blood vessels ; lymphatic vessels ; or cell membranes ( e . g ., for the introduction of material into the interior of a cell or cells ). the biological barriers can be in humans or other types of animals , as well as in plants , insects , or other organisms , including bacteria , yeast , fungi , and embryos . the microneedle devices can be applied to tissue internally with the aid of a catheter or laparoscope . for certain applications , such as for drug delivery to an internal tissue , the devices can be surgically implanted . the present invention provides agents which can be a protein , peptide , cell homogenate , whole organism or glycoprotein effective as a sensing agent or protective agent . the present invention also provides a presentation configuration of the agent in which for sensing , single molecules , multimers , aggregates , or multimer through nanoparticle anchoring may be used ; whereas , for delivery ( vaccination ) the configuration of the biological molecule may also comprise : single molecules , multimers , aggregates , or multimers through nanoparticle anchoring . nanoparticle anchoring can be through nanoparticles of gold , silver , titanium , agarose , proteins , dendrimers , proteins or polymers . the preferred option is the multimeric nanoparticle presentation . the present invention also has applications in the food industry for quality detection and for one or more infective agent ( s ), the infective agent can be a microorganism . the microorganism can be selected from one or more of the group comprising a virus , bacteria , protozoa and / or fungus . the inventors have unexpectedly discovered that a novel delivery structure and composition , as well as the composition and configuration of the biological reagent for delivery and methods for their production . by forming the agents for delivery in the presence of removable and / or degradable nanoparticles of different composition to the composition of the delivery molecules , the nanostructured molecules incorporate a nanoporous structure capable of holding large and small molecules and nanoparticles - anchored biological molecules for delivery as vaccines and therapeutics . it is also recognised that a number of novel polymer systems which when subjected to certain stresses change composition to have a nanoparticular structure which is different to the surrounding polymer , and such polymers can have application with their improved solubility ( degradation properties ) for the delivery of reagents from polymer array patches . the aforementioned polyvalent nanoparticular vaccination particles can be released from polymer patches with penetration to the interstitial layer in live tissue the aforementioned polyvalent nanoparticular sensing agents can be retained on the surface of the polymer patches with conducting properties for signal transduction . the inventors have surprisingly found that the identical polymer is used for presenting ( delivery / anchored sensing ) the nanostructured molecule ( s ), and also unexpectedly , a polymer which although biocompatible is preferably not biodegradeable has advantages of speed of molecule delivery not requiring the lengthy time dependent degradation . in the aspect of the invention that has application to delivery for vaccination through the stratum corneum , resident time in this layer is of the order of two weeks . in a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a process for delivering molecule ( s ) precisely to the appropriate depth using the microneedle arrays having nanostructured delivery molecules . construction of the device and control of structure of the polymer , by embedding nanoparticle - sized materials with properties to allow dissolution of the nanoparticles to create a mesoporous structure with nanoporous cavities for holding reagents or nanoparticle structured reagents . to be delivered by the array patch structure . both hollow and solid penetrator ( solid needle ) arrays are constructed with any of a range of sizes between 20 μm and 250 μm but the preferred sizes ( lengths ) are 25 μm and 150 μm . the dimensions of the whole array could be in the order of 1 cm square or with a diameter of 1 cm . however , the size of the array patch would be based on the amount of material to be delivered and the needle density packing on the patches . the microneedles are preferred to be in an array format , but could be randomly arranged . the arrangement of the microneedles may be a result of the method used in manufacture . the microneedles may be arranged so that more than one reagent can be coated and delivered from the one array . a polymer which when subjected to certain stresses change composition to have a nanoparticle structure which is different to the surrounding polymer , and such polymers can have application with their improved solubility ( degradation properties ) for the delivery of reagents from polymer array patches . a polymer that contains a nanoparticle that can be selectively removed to produce nanosized pores or cavities on the microneedle surface . the microneedle array patches of the present also provide applications for the treatment and prevention of human diseases . preventative vaccination of a wide variety of human disease states can be achieved , for example , the present microneedle arrays can be used to vaccinate against any one or more of the disease states selected from the group comprising infectious diseases ( including but not limited to meningococcal disease and tuberculosis ) and autoimmune diseases ( including but not limited to multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis ). as used herein , the term “ nanoparticle ”, is intended to include particles that range in size from about 1 nm to about 1000 nm . preferably , the nanoparticles are in the range from about 50 nm to about 500 nm . as used herein , the term “ fabric ”, is intended to describe the material which the particle is composed of . as used herein , the term “ biocompatible ”, is intended to describe molecules that are not toxic to cells . compounds are “ biocompatible ” if their addition to cells in vitro results in less than or equal to 20 % cell death and do not induce inflammation or other such adverse effects in vivo . as used herein , “ biodegradable ” includes compounds are those that , when introduced into cells , are broken down by the cellular machinery into components that the cells can either reuse or dispose of without significant toxic effect on the cells ( i . e ., fewer than about 20 % of the cells are killed ). the agent that can be delivered by use of the present invention includes any therapeutic substance which possesses desirable therapeutic characteristics . these agents can be selected from any one or more of the group comprising : thrombin inhibitors , antithrombogenic agents , thrombolytic agents , fibrinolytic agents , vasospasm inhibitors , calcium channel blockers , vasodilators , antihypertensive agents , antimicrobial agents , antibiotics , inhibitors of surface glycoprotein receptors , antiplatelet agents , antimitotics , microtubule inhibitors , anti secretory agents , actin inhibitors , remodeling inhibitors , antisense nucleotides , anti metabolites , antiproliferatives , anticancer chemotherapeutic agents , anti - inflammatory steroid or non - steroidal anti - inflammatory agents , immunosuppressive agents , growth hormone antagonists , growth factors , dopamine agonists , radiotherapeutic agents , peptides , proteins , enzymes , extracellular matrix components , ace inhibitors , free radical scavengers , chelators , antioxidants , anti polymerases , antiviral agents , photodynamic therapy agents , and gene therapy agents . in particular , the therapeutic substance can be selected from any one or more of the group comprising alpha - 1 anti - trypsin , anti - angiogenesis agents , antisense , butorphanol , calcitonin and analogs , ceredase , cox - ii inhibitors , dermatological agents , dihydroergotamine , dopamine agonists and antagonists , enkephalins and other opioid peptides , epidermal growth factors , erythropoietin and analogs , follicle stimulating hormone , g - csf , glucagon , gm - csf , granisetron , growth hormone and analogs ( including growth hormone releasing hormone ), growth hormone antagonists , hirudin and hirudin analogs such as hirulog , ige suppressors , imiquimod , insulin , insulinotropin and analogs , insulin - like growth factors , interferons , interleukins , luteinizing hormone , luteinizing hormone releasing hormone and analogs , heparins , low molecular weight heparins and other natural , modified , or syntheic glycoaminoglycans , m - csf , metoclopramide , midazolam , monoclonal antibodies , peglyated antibodies , pegylated proteins or any proteins modified with hydrophilic or hydrophobic polymers or additional functional groups , fusion proteins , single chain antibody fragments or the same with any combination of attached proteins , macromolecules , or additional functional groups thereof , narcotic analgesics , nicotine , non - steroid anti - inflammatory agents , oligosaccharides , ondansetron , parathyroid hormone and analogs , parathyroid hormone antagonists , prostaglandin antagonists , prostaglandins , recombinant soluble receptors , scopolamine , serotonin agonists and antagonists , sildenafil , terbutaline , thrombolytics , tissue plasminogen activators , tnf -, and tnf - antagonist , the vaccines , with or without carriers / adjuvants , including prophylactics and therapeutic antigens ( including but not limited to subunit protein , peptide and polysaccharide , polysaccharide conjugates , toxoids , genetic based vaccines , live attenuated , reassortant , inactivated , whole cells , viral and bacterial vectors ) in connection with , addiction , arthritis , cholera , cocaine addiction , diphtheria , tetanus , hib , lyme disease , meningococcus , measles , mumps , rubella , varicella , yellow fever , respiratory syncytial virus , tick borne japanese encephalitis , pneumococcus , streptococcus , typhoid , influenza , hepatitis , including hepatitis a , b , c and e , otitis media , rabies , polio , hiv , parainfluenza , rotavirus , epstein barr virus , cmv , chlamydia , non - typeable haemophilus , moraxella catarrhalis , human papilloma virus , tuberculosis including bcg , gonorrhoea , asthma , atheroschlerosis malaria , e - coli , alzheimer &# 39 ; s disease , h . pylori , salmonella , diabetes , cancer , herpes simplex , human papilloma and the like other substances including all of the major therapeutics such as agents for the common cold , anti - addiction , anti - allergy , anti - emetics , anti - obesity , antiosteoporeteic , anti - infectives , analgesics , anesthetics , anorexics , antiarthritics , antiasthmatic agents , anticonvulsants , anti - depressants , antidiabetic agents , antihistamines , anti - inflammatory agents , antimigraine preparations , antimotion sickness preparations , antinauseants , antineoplastics , antiparkinsonism drugs , antipruritics , antipsychotics , antipyretics , anticholinergics , benzodiazepine antagonists , vasodilators , including general , coronary , peripheral and cerebral , bone stimulating agents , central nervous system stimulants , hormones , hypnotics , immunosuppressives , muscle relaxants , parasympatholytics , parasympathomimetrics , prostaglandins , proteins , peptides , polypeptides and other macromolecules , psychostimulants , sedatives , and sexual hypofunction and tranquilizers . paratuberculosis ( johne &# 39 ; s disease ) is a chronic , progressive enteric disease of ruminants caused by infection with mycobacterium paratuberculosis . the disease signs of infected animals include weight loss , diarrhea , and decreased milk production in cows . herd prevalence of johne &# 39 ; s disease is estimated to be 22 - 40 % and the economic impact of this disease on the dairy industry was estimated to be over $ 200 million per year in 1996 . in addition , m . paratuberculosis has been implicated as a causative factor in crohn &# 39 ; s disease , a chronic inflammatory bowel disease of human beings , which has served as a further impetus to control this disease in our national cattle industry . the treatment and prevention of johne &# 39 ; s disease has become a high priority disease in the cattle industry . the membrane protein p34 , seq id no 1a , elicits the predominant humoral response against m . paratuberculosis and within the published sequence antigenic peptide epitopes have been identified , which include but are not limited to : see for example , ostrowski , m et al . ( 2003 ) scandinavian journal of immunology , 58 , 511 - 521 . peptide regions on other potential antigens can also be used in the device which can include the antigens described in : alkyl hydroperoxide reductases c and d are major antigens constitutively expressed by mycobacterium avium subsp . paratuberculosis . olsen , et al . ( 2000 ) infection and immunity , 68 ( 2 ), 801 - 808 . two proteins p11 and p20 have been identified as potential antigens for use in vaccination . thus suitably nano - structured vaccinations for mycobacterium infection for diseases such as johnes disease can be made and delivered according to the methods and devices of the current invention . bovine mastitis is a serious problem , common in both lactating dairy - type and beef - type animals . the management of this disease is practiced mostly on the dairy - type animal where daily udder handling is required . mechanical milking machines may have caused an increased incidence of mastitis ; the true origins of the disease remain unknown . bacterial organisms identified from affected glands are varied ; however , the species of streptococcus and staphlococcus are most commonly isolated . purified proteins which act as antigens to bovine mastitis have also be described and are incorporated by reference ; immunisation of dairy cattle with recombinant streptococcus uberis gapc or a chimeric camp antigen confers protection against heterologous bacterial challenge . fontaine et al . ( 2002 ) vaccine , 2278 - 2286 . it would be expected that specific peptide epitopes from these proteins would be antigenic . paua protein has been successfully used to vaccinate cattle to prevent mastitis caused by challenge infection with s . uberis ( leigh , j . a . 1999 . “ streptococcus uberis : a permanent barrier to the control of bovine mastitis ?” vet . j . 157 : 225 - 238 ). vaccinated , protected cattle generated serum antibody responses that inhibited plasminogen activation by paua ., s . uberis paua protein sequence : epitope region peptides selected from this protein useful as vaccines candidates when presented in the appropriate nanoparticle form : including but not restricted to as well as the whole or selected fragments of the protein sequence above . omp85 proteins of neisseria gonorrhoeae and n . meningitides and peptide sequences derived therefrom can be used as vaccines against the organisms causing meningococcal disease when presented in nanoparticle form , or variants according to us 2005074458 , which is herein incorporated by reference . and the gonococcal and opacity proteins according to epo273116 , including but not restricted to : fragments of the core protein used for in vitro immunisation can include but not be limited to : these can be used in conjunction with or without toll receptors and or lipoproteins as indicated by the following reference : cell activation by synthetic lipopeptides of the hepatitis c virus ( hcv )— core protein is mediated by toll like receptors ( tlrs ) 2 and 4 . liver flukes ( fasciola spp .) infect a wide range of animals , including humans . the disease that is caused is termed fasciolosis . as with most parasitic diseases , there is a complex life cycle . economically , sheep and cattle are of primary importance . infection with liver fluke leads to decreased production due to poor energy conversion ( meat and milk in cattle , meat and wool in sheep ) and can lead to mortality ( particularly in sheep ). vaccines targeting liver fluke have been investigated for many years , with most subunit vaccines centered on glutathione - s - transferase ( gst ), cathepsin l ( catl ) and fatty acid binding proteins ( fabp ). attenuated vaccines , created by the irradiation of metacercariae , are very effective , however this method of vaccination is not commercially viable . therefore , subunit vaccine candidates have been considered . dna vaccines have been assessed and recombinant proteins such as cathepsin b been cloned and analysed . antigens have been cloned and the use of cathepsin l proteases as vaccines described , see for example u . s . pat . nos . 6 , 623 , 735 and 20050208063 , which is herein incorporated by reference . the n - terminal sequences of the proteases to be used for in vitro immunisation can include but not be limited to : these can be incorporated into a nanoparticle ( s ) or can be formed as a nanoparticle . an injectable nanoparticle can be prepared that includes a substance to be delivered and a nanoparticular polymer that is covalently bound to the molecule ( s ), wherein the nanoparticle is prepared in such a manner that the delivery molecule ( s ) is on the outside surface of the particle . injectable nano - structured molecule ( s ) with for example , antibody or antibody fragments on their surfaces can be used to target specific cells or organs as desired for the selective dosing of drugs . the molecule for delivery can be covalently bound to the nanoparticular polymer by reaction with a terminal functional group , such as the hydroxyl group of a poly ( alkylene glycol ) nanoparticle by any method known to those skilled in the art . for example , the hydroxyl group can be reacted with a terminal carboxyl group or terminal amino group on the molecule or antibody or antibody fragment , to form an ester or amide linkage , respectively . alternatively , the molecule can be linked to the poly ( alkylene glycol ) through a difunctional spacing group such as a diamine or a dicarboxylic acid , including but not limited to sebacic acid , adipic acid , isophthalic acid , terephthalic acid , fumaric acid , dodecanedicarboxylic acid , azeleic acid , pimelic acid , suberic acid ( octanedioic acid ), itaconic acid , biphenyl - 4 , 4 ′- dicarboxylic acid , benzophenone - 4 , 4 ′- dicarboxylic acid , and p - carboxyphenoxyalkanoic acid . in this embodiment , the spacing group is reacted with the hydroxyl group on the poly ( alkylene glycol ), and then reacted with the molecule ( s ). alternatively , the spacing group can be reacted with the molecule , such as an antibody or antibody fragment , and then reacted with the hydroxyl group on the poly ( alkylene glycol ). the reaction should by accomplished under conditions that will not adversely affect the biological activity of the molecule being covalently attached to the nanoparticle . for example , conditions should be avoided that cause the denaturation of proteins or peptides , such as high temperature , certain organic solvents and high ionic strength solutions , when binding a protein to the particle . for example , organic solvents can be eliminated from the reaction system and a water - soluble coupling reagent such as edc used instead . according to another embodiment , the agent to be delivered can be incorporated into the polymer at the time of nanoparticle formation . the substances to be incorporated should not chemically interact with the polymer during fabrication , or during the release process . additives such as inorganic salts , bsa ( bovine serum albumin ), and inert organic compounds can be used to alter the profile of substance release , as known to those skilled in the art . biologically - labile materials , for example , procaryotic or eucaryotic cells , such as bacteria , yeast , or mammalian cells , including human cells , or components thereof , such as cell walls , or conjugates of cellular can also be included in the particle . injectable particles prepared according to this process can be used to deliver drugs such as non - steroidal anti - inflammatory compounds , anaesthetics , chemotherapeutic agents , immunotoxins , immunosuppressive agents , steroids , antibiotics , antivirals , antifungals , and steroidal anti - inflammatories , anticoagulants . for example , hydrophobic drugs such as lidocaine or tetracaine can be entrapped into the injectable particles and are released over several hours . loadings in the nanoparticles as high as 40 % ( by weight ) can be achieved . hydrophobic materials are more difficult to encapsulate , and in general , the loading efficiency is decreased over that of a hydrophilic material . in one embodiment , an antigen is incorporated into the nanoparticle , alternatively , the antigen can compose the entire nanoparticle . the term antigen includes any chemical structure that stimulates the formation of antibody or elicits a cell - mediated humoral response , including but not limited to protein , polysaccharide , nucleoprotein , lipoprotein , synthetic polypeptide , or a small molecule ( hapten ) linked to a protein carrier . the antigen can be administered together with an adjuvant as desired . examples of suitable adjuvants include synthetic glycopeptide , muramyl dipeptide . other adjuvants include killed bordetella pertussis , the liposaccaride of gram - negative bacteria , and large polymeric anions such as dextran sulfate . a polymer , such as a polyelectrolyte , can also be selected for fabrication of the nanoparticle that provides adjuvant activity . specific antigens that can be loaded into the nanoparticles described herein include , but are not limited to , attenuated or killed viruses , toxoids , polysaccharides , cell wall and surface or coat proteins of viruses and bacteria . these can also be used in combination with conjugates , adjuvants , or other antigens . for example , haemophilus influenzae in the form of purified capsular polysaccharide ( hib ) can be used alone or as a conjugate with diptheria toxoid . examples of organisms from which these antigens are derived include poliovirus , rotavirus , hepatitis a , b , and c , influenza , rabies , hiv , measles , mumps , rubella , bordetella pertussus , streptococcus pneumoniae , clostridium diptheria , c . tetani , vibrio cholera , salmonella spp ., neisseria spp ., and shigella spp . the nanoparticle should contain the substance to be delivered in an amount sufficient to deliver to a patient a therapeutically effective amount of compound , without causing serious toxic effects in the patient treated . the desired concentration of active compound in the nanoparticle will depend on absorption , inactivation , and excretion rates of the drug as well as the delivery rate of the compound from the nanoparticle . it is to be noted that dosage values will also vary with the severity of the condition to be alleviated . it is to be further understood that for any particular subject , specific dosage regimens should be adjusted over time according to the individual need and the professional judgment of the person administering or supervising the administration of the compositions . the present invention will now be more fully described with reference to the accompanying examples . it should be understood , however , that the description following is illustrative only and should not be taken in any way as a restriction on the generality of the invention described above . a polycarbonate sheet was laser ablated using an excimer laser beam . the needle cross - section is determined by the shape of the aperture that the laser beam passes through prior to irradiating the polycarbonate workpiece . this process known as excimer laser photolithographic ablation , uses an imaging projection lens to form the desired shapes . the depth of laser ablation , and hence the maximum height of the cast material is determined by a computer program operating the excimer micromachining system . using excimer laser ablation of a polycarbonate sheet , a series of moulds for a microneedle arrays were fabricated with eleven different shapes and heights in the ranges of 20 μm to 200 μm . moulds were fabricated for a number of different microneedle shapes including square , circular , oval , cross needle , triangular , chevron , jagged chevron and half moon . in addition to the shape of the microneedles , the density , depth and pitch of the microneedle were varied . for example , the laser ablation process was used to create moulds for two dense arrays : a ) 50 μm diameter shapes on a 50 μm pitch approx 100 μm high . b ) 100 μm diameter shapes on a 100 μm pitch approx 100 μm high the moulds were evaluated to determine their suitability for fabrication process with a variety of techniques including optical microscopy , laser scanning confocal microscopy and scanning electron microscopy . it has been our experience that good perforation structures are usually complex in cross section , and not normally simple conical protrusions . hence shapes were chosen that contain edge features and symmetry that , lead to improved performance for perforation . initial moulding trials were conducted with materials with two different viscosities . the most viscous material had a putty - like consistency , the second had a honey - like viscosity . these materials were applied to the polycarbonate moulds and pressure was applied via a glass tile to ensure the indentations were filled . to aid in the removal of gas bubbles in the moulds , a vacuum was applied to the moulded materials . the material was hardened by curing the polymer / polymer precursor using a sixty - second exposure to light from a handheld blue led source through the glass tile . demoulding was a simple process , relying on the material &# 39 ; s tendency to adhere more to the backing glass tile than to the polycarbonate mould . the moulds were made of polycarbonate sheet 250 to 500 μm thick and were more flexible than the glass tile . hence the moulded material could be “ peeled ” from the slightly more flexible mould . the resultant structures were examined under an optical microscope . some of the structures were measured using a laser scanning confocal microscope or imaged using a scanning electron microscope . the second honey - like material filled the mould , and the air bubbles formed in the needle recesses of the mould and were removed through the application of a vacuum . many of the structures demoulded satisfactorily and the mould was made usable for further trials with a combination of liquid and sonication cleaning . a silicone release agent was applied to the polycarbonate to assist in demoulding , alternatively , materials such as peek or silicone elastomers could be used as the female moulds . a number of microneedle arrays were fabricated with varying shapes , length , aspect ratios and needle densities . the various shapes are shown in fig1 . the cross - shaped needle moulds filled well with polymer , including the point at the intersection of the cross that is formed as a result of the ablation process . the combination of the relatively large side arms and the fine feature at the apex produces a robust structure with good mechanical properties . the circular microneedle approximately 140 μm high with an aspect ratio of about 3 was produced . a triangular microneedle which is approximately 100 μm high and has an aspect ratio of about 2 was prepared . the smooth apex of the shape is due to the polymer moulding material and has not fully reproduced the fine texture of the ablated mould . an array patches with circular microneedle 20 μm in diameter and 50 μm high and 100 μm in diameter at 100 μm pitch , approximately 100 μm high were produced a variety of different shaped needle profiles were produced to investigate the effect on skin perforation on the shape of the microneedle . array patches with a series of coloured spikes and crosses were constructed from polydimethylsiloxane ( pdms ), a clear elastomer material by excimer laser machining 2 moulds in polycarbonate with four patches of 10 mm × 10 mm each , with female features of tapering circular structures , and crosses . the pitch and depths of the structures were varied . clear and coloured pdms was cast from these features . initial moulding trials were conducted with standard pdms supplied by dupont . this is a two part formulation , with 10 % accelerator added to cause the material to set . the mixture was placed in a vacuum chamber to speed up outgassing prior to moulding to prevent bubble formation during curing . fig2 shows a top view of a fabricated pdms cross shaped microneedles and fig3 shows the side view of the fabricated cross shaped microneedles . fig4 , 5 and 6 show various microneedle arrays prepared according to the described methods . aqueous based colouring was added to the pdms prior to casting ; adding larger quantities of colouring intensified the colour , additional curing accelerator was added to compensate for the volume of aqueous colouring added . the material was hardened by curing the moulded material by placing in a 45 ° c . oven for several hours . curing rates were significantly slower for the coloured material . somewhat surprisingly demoulding the aqueous coloured material was more successful than the non - coloured material . this could be due to a range of effects such as increased curing accelerator , casting thicker pieces that tended to hold onto the needles more effectively during demoulding , or perhaps some inhibition of adhesion between pdms and polycarbonate as a result of the aqueous additive . the microneedles produced by the method of example 3 can be coated with a layer of a biocompatible electrically conducting polymer to modify the delivery characteristics of the microneedle . thus to assist in the delivery of certain types of molecules , a polyaniline coating can be applied to the solid polymeric microneedle after demoulding . the conducting polymer can be applied using techniques known in the art , including electrodeposition . during the electrodeposition phase ( including polymerisation ) biological reagents ( for vaccines , drug delivery etc ) can be included in the conductive polymer . the conductive polymer can be polymerised ( electrodeposited ) under conditions in such a way as that the electrodeposited polymer surface has characteristics that enable the diffusion of the biological reagent out into the surrounding environment ( skin ) in order for the biological reagent to be functional for its purpose . a number of different thickness coatings can be applied depending on the desired application , ranging from 20 nm to 20 μm can be produced . in another experiment , polyaniline and polypyrrole can be codeposited electrochemically on microneedles made from conductive materials under potentiostatic or galvanostatic conditions . electropolymerisation can be carried out by varying the applied potential and the feed ratio of monomers . formation of polyaniline - polypyrrole composite coatings can be confirmed by the presence of characteristic peaks for polyaniline and polypyrrole in the infrared spectra . composite coatings composed of polyaniline and polypyrrole can be formed at applied potentials of & lt ; 1 . 0 v . polypyrrole is preferentially formed at 1 . 5 v . methods of electrodeposition have been described previously and include adeloju , s . b . and shaw , s . j ., ( 1993 ) “ polypyrrole - based potentiometric biosensor for urea ” analytica cimica actica , 281 , page 611 - 620 ; adeloju s . b . and lawal , a ., ( 2005 ) intern . j . anal . chem ., 85 , page 771 - 780 , based on their use as a sensor . we have surprising found that the techniques can be applied to incorporating proteins and peptides into a polymer layer for delivery of the proteins and peptides as therapeutics such as peptide and protein antigens ( for vaccines ), hormones ( erythropoietin , parathyroid hormone ) and drugs ( insulin ). the nanoparticles can be formed from metals ( gold silver ) light metals , polymer material by any of the standard techniques ( u . s . pat . no . 6 , 908 , 496 to halas et al . ; u . s . pat . no . 6 , 906 , 339 to dutta ; u . s . pat . no . 6 , 855 , 426 to yadav ; u . s . pat . no . 6 , 893 , 493 to cho et al .). the surface of the nanoparticles can be functionalised to anchor / immobilise ( multimerise ) the biological reagents for improved immunisation efficiency . cao l , zhu t and liu z ( 2005 ) “ formation mechanism of nonspherical gold nanoparticles during seeding growth : role of anion adsorption and reduction rate .” journal of colloid interface science , july 11 . bilati u , alleman e and doelker e . ( 2005 ) “ poly ( d , l - lactide - co - glycolide ) protein - loaded nanoparticles prepared by the double emulsion method — processing and formulation issues for enhanced trapment efficiency .” journal of microencapsulation , 22 ( 2 ), 205 - 214 . rolland j p , maynor b w , euliss l e , exner a e , denison g m and desimone j m ( 2005 ) “ direct fabrication and harvesting of monodisperse , shape specific nanobiomaterials .” journal of the american chemical society , 127 ( 28 ), 10096 - 100 . the biological agents can be immobilized on the surface of a nanoparticle or integrally incorporated inside the nanoparticle during fabrication . the delivery agent may also be directly manufactured or naturally present in a nanoparticulate form . the biological agents insulin and ovalbumin were structured as nanoparticles using supercritical fluid technology , to produce nanoparticles of dimensions 50 - 300 nm . the insulin nanoparticles were suspended in a solvent ( ethanol ) and attached to the surface of the microneedles . insulin and ovalbumin attached to microneedles are each being delivered separately across the stratum corneum and the response to the delivery of insulin can be measured . erythropoietin is a glycoprotein hormone produced in the liver during foetal life and the kidneys of adults and is involved in the maturation of erythroid progenitor cells into erythrocytes . there are several human conditions and treatments for cancer which result in low levels of circulating red blood cells and therefore administration of erythropoietin is desirable . erythropoietin can be nanostructured by supercritical fluid technology and attached to microneedles for delivery by microneedle array , and delivery efficiency can be measured by physiological effects on red cell numbers in mice ( including flow cytometry ). the surface of a polymeric microneedle array can be nano - structured during fabrication by lining the microneedle mould with nanoparticles which can be selectively removed . the microneedles can then be cast , hardened and demoulded to produce microneedles with nanoparticles embedded on the surface of the microneedles . the embedded nanoparticles can then be removed , for example by dissolution or leeching techniques , to yield a microneedle that has nano - sized pores or cavities on their surface . the delivery agent molecules or nanoparticles can then be associated with the introduced pores by non - covalent interactions or covalent bonds . referring to the process shown in fig7 , the method includes the steps of : ii ) template nanoparticles removed with solvent leaving recesses over microneedle surface and then nano - structured reagent ( s ) are added to the solution ; iii ) nanostructured reagent ( s ) fits into recesses within needle structure to form the microneedles with the nanostructured reagents associated with the microneedles . the moulded microneedle can alternatively be chemically treated with a solvent , chemical reagent , electrochemcial or physical treatment to induce surface cavity and / or nanopore formation . a polyaniline microneedle array can be fabricated by electropolymerization of a monomer solution contained in a microneedle array mould under an applied potential . the progress of electropolymerisation can be monitored by weight gain analysis and infrared spectroscopy . the nanoparticles can be added to the monomer solution prior to polymerization to form a microneedle array with the delivery molecule integrally incorporated into the needles , or the nanoparticles can be associated to the surface of the microneedles by a post demoulding step . to demonstrate the efficacy for the loading of patches with nanoparticles , a series of microneedle arrays was coated with quantum dots . quantum dots are semiconductor crystals typically between 1 and 10 nm in diameter and have unique properties between that of single molecules and bulk materials . under the influence of an external electromagnetic radiation source , quantum dots can be made to fluoresce and therefore their position accurately determined using readily available optical techniques . circular microneedle array patches with both bullet and cross shaped needles were constructed in plga ( poly - dl - lactic glycolic acid , 0 . 8 cm in diameter with a 2 mm edge ). the patches were coated with quantum dots by placing 100 μl of cdse / zns quantum dots ( 200 picomolar , invitrogen qtracker ™ 655 nm ) on top of the microneedles and air drying . the arrays were examined for fluorescence using confocal microscopy . the arrays demonstrated red fluorescence on the both the bullet and cross shaped needles indicating coating by the quantum dots . as shown in fig7 , coverage was shown at the tops over the needles and down the sides to the base . the cross shaped needles demonstrated more confluent coverage of quantum dots , as shown in fig8 . the uptake of quantum dots by lymphocytes can be observed by in vitro studies on cultured cells and by in vivo studies on hairless mouse models . to demonstrate the efficacy for the loading of patches with nanoparticulate biological molecules , a series of microneedle array patches were coated with nanostructured insulin . insulin can be nanostructured using various methods including super critical fluid technologies . the particle size of the insulin averaged 300 nm . circular plga patches in high density cross and needle shapes were coated with the nanostructured insulin by placing 100 μl of nanostructured insulin in iso - amyl alcohol ( total 0 . 6 units insulin / patch ) on top of the patches and air drying . the patches were then examined for the presence of insulin using field emission gun scanning electron microscope ( feg - sem ), as shown in fig9 and 10 . the patches demonstrated the presence of nanostructured insulin both over the top surfaces of the microneedles and down the side edges of the needles . the density of the insulin nanoparticles on the cross shaped microneedles was much lower due to the higher surface area of the crosses compared to the bullets . bullet shaped patches were coated with quantum dots by placing 100 μl of cdse / zns quantum dots ( 200 picomolar in saline , invitrogen qtracker ™ 655 nm ) on top of the microneedles and air drying . the patches were applied to the rear flank of hairless mice by manually pressing . the patch was removed and the skin excised and examined for fluorescence using confocal microscopy , as shown in fig1 . the skin demonstrated red fluorescence on the surface of the stratum corneum indicating deposition of the quantum dot present on the base of the array . confocal imaging deeper into the epidermis indicated red fluorescence in the shape of a bullet demonstrating penetration of the microneedle to a total depth of approximately 60 μm , as shown in fig1 . this experiment demonstrates conclusively that the microneedle array can be used to deliver nanoparticles across stratum corneum layer of the dermis . insulin was nanostructured using a supercritical fluid process . an average particle size of 300 nm was obtained . the insulin was suspended in various solvents including isopropanol , isoamyl ethanol , ethanol , methanol or other coatings onto the array . for coating of the microarrays , insulin nanoparticles were suspended in solvent to a final concentration of 120 u / ml ( 4 . 32 mg / ml ) and sonicated for 60 seconds to ensure complete dispersal throughout the suspension . the suspension was then applied to each microarray ( 6 u in 50 μl ) and allowed to air dry . for subcutaneous delivery in the control experiments , the solution used to coat the microarrays was diluted 1 : 300 in normal saline ( final concentration of 0 . 4 u / ml ). hairless mice were anaesthetised with pentobarbitone ( 60 mg / kg , i . p .). blood samples were obtained by tail laceration and blood glucose was measured using a commercial glucose - meter ( optimum ™ xceed ™; abbot diagnostics ). after obtaining two consecutive readings , mice were treated as indicated and blood glucose was recorded every 20 minutes for the remainder of the experiment . mice were treated with either a positive control ( insulin suspension , 1 u / kg , s . c . ), insulin loaded microarrays ( 2 patches for each mouse , 6 u / patch ), or negative control ( 12 u insulin applied directly to the skin without any microarray ). administration of the insulin via the microarray patch can be shown in the mouse by a change in the blood glucose levels . any discussion of documents , acts , materials , devices , articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention . it is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application . it will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and / or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described . the present embodiments are , therefore , to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive . | 0 |
fig1 schematically illustrates an integrated circuit 2 comprising multiple circuit domains including a debug circuit 4 , a cpu 6 , a dsp 8 , a cache memory 10 , a random access memory 12 and a power controller 14 . these different circuit elements in their respective domains are subject to independent control , e . g . the debug domain 4 and the cpu 6 have respective independent reset signals as illustrated . the power controller 14 also operates to independently power - up or power - down the different circuit domains 6 , 8 , 10 , 12 as well as to vary the clocking speeds to these different domains , including stopping the clocks completely . resets may also be controlled from 14 . as illustrated by the bi - directional arrows in fig1 , the debug circuit 4 communicates with various of the other circuit elements in their respective domains via communication transactions which conform to a fixed transaction protocol , e . g . an ahb protocol . the bus infrastructure via which these transaction communications take place for the debug circuit 4 is shared with the normal operation of communication infrastructure and accordingly it is important that problems with uncompleted transactions involving the debug circuit 4 do not interfere with this infrastructure in a way that would upset normal operation . fig2 schematically illustrates communication controlling state machines 16 , 18 for controlling a communication transaction passing between a first domain a and a second domain b . this transaction can use a variety of transaction protocols . such transaction protocols typically require a predetermined sequence of signals to be exchanged in either direction , e . g . including address , data , response , error and other signals . as well as controlling in the transactions to be communicated in accordance with these predetermined protocols , the state machines 16 , 18 also include transaction level state machines 20 , 22 which serve to monitor the other parties ability to continue to communicate and to complete pending transactions . one hot encoded status signals are exchanged between these transaction level state machines 20 , 22 so that they can respond to each other &# 39 ; s state and control their own respective higher level state machines 16 , 18 to respond appropriately to the other party not being able to complete a pending transaction . examples of appropriate default behaviour when the other party is unable to complete the transaction include returning an error response , returning no response or returning a predetermined default response . depending upon the nature of the transaction being conducted , or the circuit concerned , any of these options may be triggered , or alternatively different default behaviours may be used . fig3 schematically illustrates the different states adopted by the transaction level state machines 20 , 22 , 23 of fig2 in this example embodiment . the state machine for domain a in the context of communication transactions passing across the transaction interface of fig2 can be considered to be the master which initiates the transaction . as will be seen , both of the state machines 20 , 22 reset into an initialised state . for domain a , the state machine 20 remains in this state until the state machine 22 for the domain b is either initialised or enters its ready state . the state machine 22 for domain b remains in the initialised state until the state machine 20 for domain a enters its ready state . the state machine 20 for domain a moves from its ready state to its busy state when it is detected that the state machine 22 for domain b is in its ready state and a transaction request is initiated within domain a to be passed to domain b across the transaction interface in question as illustrated in fig2 . the state machine 20 for domain a will then remain in this busy state until either the state machine 22 for domain b enters its busy state or its initialised state , at which time the state machine 20 for domain a passes to its hold state . if the move to the hold state is as a consequence of the state machine 22 for domain b moving to the initialised state , then this indicates that domain b will not be able to complete the pending transaction and accordingly a default response is triggered ( as indicated by the “#” in the drawing ). these default behaviours are as previously discussed . domain a will remain with its state machine 20 in the hold state whilst domain b is busy until domain b either moves to the ready state or is initialised . if initialisation of domain b occurs , then again this indicates non - completion of the pending transaction and default behaviour is triggered . the behaviour of state machine 22 for domain b is slightly different / simpler . having passed through its initialised state , the state machine 22 for domain b remains in the ready state until the state machine 20 for domain a becomes busy . at this time the state machine 22 for domain b moves to the busy state and remains there until the state machine 20 for domain a is in either its initialised state or its holding state and the pending transaction has been detected as being completed . the state machine 22 for domain b then returns to the ready state . this behaviour of remaining in the busy state and waiting until the transaction completes irrespective of whether the state machine 20 for domain a indicates that domain a has been initialised allows domain b to complete its intended transaction behaviour irrespective of the fact that domain a is now not able to complete its part of the transaction . fig4 schematically illustrates one example of one hot encoding which may be used to communicate the transaction level state machine states between the transaction level state machines 20 , 22 shown in fig2 . it will be appreciated that other one hot encodings and other forms of encodings may be used . if more than two bits are “ 1 ” at any different time , then such signals are ignored as they do not correspond to valid states and are not used to move the transaction level state machines 20 , 22 between states . although illustrative embodiments of the invention have been described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments , and that various changes and modifications can be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined by the appended claims . | 6 |
referring now to fig1 - 21 , a retraction tube system is shown comprising a retractor , retraction device or apparatus 10 . a first illustrative embodiment is shown relative to fig1 - 8 wherein a retractor , retraction device or apparatus 10 is shown . as illustrated in fig1 , the retractor , retraction device or apparatus 10 comprises a generally tubular or cylindrical body 12 having an inner wall 12 a that defines an aperture 14 . the retractor , retraction device or apparatus 10 in the illustration being shown is tubular and cylindrical in cross section . a pair of cut - outs 16 and 18 is provided in the body 12 . the cut - outs 16 and 18 define a first elongated portion , leg or wall 20 and a second elongated portion , leg or wall 22 as shown . the cut - outs 16 and 18 also cooperate to define a rod - receiving channel 26 for receiving a rod 28 . note that an end 20 a ( fig1 ) of the first elongated portion 20 has an inner wall 20 c ( fig2 ) having a recessed wall 20 a 1 , and an end 22 a of the second elongated portion 22 has an inner wall 22 c ( fig2 ) having a recessed wall 22 a 1 . the recessed walls 20 a 1 and 20 a 2 cooperate to define an area 24 for receiving a polyaxial screw 29 ( fig8 and 9 ). in the illustration being described , the polyaxial screw 29 comprises a capless receiver or polyaxial screw receiver 30 and a screw 29 a ( fig8 ) that is received in the capless receiver 30 . the polyaxial screw 29 may be of the type as shown and illustrated in u . s . pub . patent application nos . us20070043357a1 ; us20070123867a1 ; us20060155278a1 ; us20070123862a1 ; us20080097457a1 ; us20080071277a1 ; us20080249576a1 ; us20070093827a1 , all of which are assigned to the same assignee as the present application and which are incorporated herein by reference and made a part hereof . the polyaxial screw 29 may comprise at least one inner member ( not shown ), such as a compression member ( not shown ), of the type disclosed in one or more of the cited applications . note that the receiver 30 comprises a generally l - shaped rod - locking channel or slot 30 a ( fig6 - 8 ) conventionally known . the rod - locking channel 30 a has an opening 30 a 1 , a seat 30 a 2 , and a seat 30 a 3 as shown in fig6 . the receiver 30 comprises an outer wall 30 b that has a diameter that is dimensioned or adapted to permit the receiver 30 to be received in the receiving area 24 and rotate within and relative to the retraction device or apparatus 10 after the receiver 30 is received between the recessed walls 20 a 1 and 22 a 1 in the receiving area 24 . note that the outer wall 30 b of receiver 30 may comprise a lip or flange 30 b 1 having a retaining function described later herein . as best illustrated in fig1 and 7 , notice that the retractor body 12 has the pair of generally opposed walls , legs , portions 20 and 22 ( fig1 ). the walls , legs or portions 20 and 22 are arcuate or curved in cross - section . the recessed walls 20 a 1 and 22 a 1 and associated cut - outs 16 and 18 cooperate to define the rod - receiving channel 26 that receives the rod 28 ( fig7 ). the retractor body 12 comprises at least one or a plurality of lips or flanges 20 b and 22 b integrally formed in walls 20 and 22 and that engage and cooperate with the lip or flange 30 b 1 on receiver 30 to retain the receiver 30 in the area 24 and on the retractor body 12 . in the illustration being described the first and second elongated portions or legs 20 and 22 are resilient and elastic so that they can deflect to receive the receiver 30 when it is received in the area 24 between the inner walls 20 a 1 and 22 a 1 . in the illustration being described , a friction or interference fit is provided so that the receiver 30 can be slid onto and rotated within the retractor body 12 in the embodiment shown in fig1 - 8 . during a surgical procedure , a surgeon makes an incision and the retraction device or apparatus 10 , which has an assembly of the receiver 30 and screw 29 a after the screw 29 a is received in the receiver 30 and the receiver 30 is received in the receiving area 24 , is inserted through the incision and the screw 29 a is screwed into bone with a screw driver ( not shown ) inserted through the aperture 14 of retractor body 12 . the retractor , retraction device or apparatus 10 causes the tissue to be retracted during the act of the placement of the polyaxial screw 29 . it should be understood that after the screw 29 a is placed and screwed into the bone of the patient , a tool 32 ( fig7 ) may be inserted into the aperture 14 of the retractor body 12 in the illustration of fig1 - 8 . the tool 32 comprises a working end 32 a that is received in the channel or slot 30 a of the receiver 30 . after the rod 28 has been positioned in the desired position subsequent to screw 29 a placement , the tool 32 can be received in the channel or slot 30 a and the receiver 30 rotated ( clockwise in the illustration being described ) in order to lock the receiver 30 onto the rod 28 . it should be understood that in the illustration being described the retraction device or apparatus 10 does not rotate during the rotation of the receiver 30 . moreover , as with the second embodiment described later , it should be understood that the retraction device or apparatus 10 may be mounted onto the receiver 30 and then the screw 29 a placed or screwed into the bone , thereby providing a single unit for the surgeon to substantially simultaneously place the screw 29 a and retract the tissue . it should be understood that the screw 29 a and receiver 30 could alternatively be placed or screwed into the bone and then the retraction device or apparatus 10 placed over and mounted on the receiver 30 if desired . note that the retractor body 12 comprises the rod - receiving channel 26 that is generally elongated and traverses a majority or substantially all of the length of the retractor body 12 . the rod - receiving channel 26 is aligned with the opening 30 a 1 of the rod - locking channel 30 a so that when a rod 28 is placed in the rod - receiving channel 26 of the retractor body 12 it can be easily aligned with and guided into the opening 30 a 1 of the rod - locking channel 30 a and downward toward the seat 30 a 2 , as illustrated in fig6 and 7 . after the rod 28 is positioned in the seat 30 a 2 , the tool 32 ( fig7 ) can be used to rotate the receiver 30 to lock the rod 28 in the receiver 30 . after the receiver 30 locks the rod 28 therein , the retractor body 12 can be removed and dismounted from the receiver 30 by pulling it away from the receiver 30 . in this illustration , the rod - receiving channel 26 in the retractor body 12 is substantially linear or straight , while the rod - locking channel 30 a in the receiver 30 is not straight and is generally l - shaped as shown . fig7 and 8 illustrate the receiver 30 after it has been rotated from the unlocked position ( fig7 ) to the locked position ( fig8 ) using the tool 32 . in the illustrations described herein , the retractor body 12 is tubular and cylindrical , but it should be understood that it could take different forms , such as a solid form , without departing from the scope of the invention . for example , the retractor body 12 could be non - cylindrical ( e . g ., hexagonal , octagonal , square or like ). in the illustration being described , an indicia 39 a ( fig8 ) may be provided on the retractor body 12 and a second indicia 39 b provided on the outer wall 30 b to facilitate aligning the rod - receiving channel 26 with the opening 30 a 1 of the rod - locking channel 30 a . alternatively , and as described later herein relative to other embodiments , a coupler 31 ( fig9 ) may be provided that facilitates coupling and aligning the retractor body 12 to the receiver 30 . note that a dimension or width ( as viewed in fig4 ) of the rod - receiving channel 26 is substantially the same as a dimension or width of the inlet 30 a 1 of the rod - locking channel 30 a . advantageously , the channel 26 and retraction body 12 provide an alignment guide for receiving the rod 28 and directing the rod 28 through the slot or channel 26 and into the rod - locking channel 30 a of the receiver 30 . fig9 - 13 illustrate another embodiment of the invention . like parts are identified with the same part numbers in this embodiment , except that an apostrophe (“ ”) has been added to the part numbers in this embodiment . in this embodiment , the retraction device or apparatus 10 rotates with the receiver 30 during locking of the rod 28 in the receiver 30 . in this illustration , note that the retraction body 12 of retraction device or apparatus 10 comprises a generally l - shaped rod - receiving channel 34 ( fig1 ) that has a shape and dimension that generally complements a shape and dimension of the rod - locking channel 30 a of the receiver 30 . as best illustrated in fig1 and 12 , the rod 28 is inserted into an elongated portion 34 a of the rod - receiving channel 34 and then moved downward ( as viewed ) into opening 30 a 1 . notice that after the rod 28 is placed in the seat 30 a 2 of rod - locking channel 30 a of the receiver 30 both the retraction device or apparatus 10 and the receiver 30 , are rotated together to the locked position , as illustrated in fig1 and 12 . after the receiver 30 is locked onto the rod 28 , the retraction device or apparatus 10 may be rotated relative to the receiver 30 in a counterclockwise direction in the illustration being described and then removed or detached from the receiver 30 . in this regard , the frictional fit engagement and clamping force between the recessed wall 20 a 1 and 22 a 1 and the outer wall 30 b of the receiver 30 is less than the coupling strength between the receiver 30 and the rod 28 , thereby permitting the retraction device or apparatus 10 to rotate after the receiver 30 is locked onto the rod 28 and without rotating and unlocking the receiver 30 from the rod 28 . as illustrated in fig9 - 11 , the receiver 30 may comprise a coupler 31 , such as a notch , tooth or other male projections 20 a 2 and 22 a 2 that are received in notched areas or slots 30 d 1 and 30 d 2 , respectfully . this feature facilitates locking the retraction device or apparatus 10 to the receiver 30 . this feature also reduces or facilitates reducing undesired rotation of the retraction device or apparatus 10 relative to the receiver 30 during rotation of the retraction device or apparatus 10 and receiver 30 and locking of the receiver 30 onto the rod 28 . the coupler 31 also facilitates automatic or quick alignment of channel 34 with the rod - locking channel 30 a when the retractor body 12 is mounted on the receiver 30 . referring now to fig1 - 21 , another embodiment of the invention is shown . in this embodiment , like parts are identified with the same part numbers , except that a double apostrophe (“″”) mark has been added to the part numbers in fig1 - 21 . in this embodiment , an implant system is shown comprising a polyaxial screw assembly similar to the assembly shown in fig6 - 13 . this embodiment further comprises a reducer 60 ″, which will be described later herein . the retractor body 12 ″ is detachably mounted onto the polyaxial screw 29 ″ and receiver or polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ in the manner describer earlier . as with the embodiments illustrated in fig6 - 13 , the retractor body 12 ″ detachably mounts onto the outer wall 30 b of the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″. the retractor body 12 ″ further comprises a rod - receiving channel 34 ″. the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ becomes generally aligned with an opening 30 a 1 ″ and ultimately to the seat 30 a 2 ″. as with the prior embodiments , the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ and the retractor body 12 ″ is adapted to facilitate urging and guiding the rod 28 ″ into the channel opening 30 a 1 ″ and ultimately to the seat 30 a 2 ″ in the manner described herein . the retractor body 12 ″ comprises the first elongated portion , leg or wall 20 ″ and the second elongated portion , leg or wall 22 ″ as shown . an end 20 a ″ of the first elongated portion 20 ″ has the inner or recessed wall 20 a 1 ″, and end 22 a ″ of the second elongated portion 22 ″ comprises the inner or recessed wall 22 a 1 ″. the recessed walls 20 a 1 ″ and 22 a 1 ″ cooperate to define the area 24 ″ for receiving the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″. as with prior embodiments , the first and second recessed walls 20 a 1 ″ and 22 a 1 ″ of the first and second elongated portions 20 ″ and 22 ″ are dimensioned and adapted to be mounted onto the outer surface 30 b ″ of the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″. a friction , press or interference fit is provided so that rotating the retractor body 12 ″ will cause the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ to rotate as in the embodiment illustrated in fig9 - 13 . this rotation is performed after the rod 28 ″ has been received in rod - receiving channel 34 ″, guided into and received in the opening 30 a 1 ″ and seat 30 a 2 ″ of the rod - locking channel 30 a ″ in order to cause the rod 28 ″ to be received in the locking seat 30 a 3 ″ of the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″. as mentioned , the first and second elongated portions or legs 20 ″ and 22 ″ are elastic and resilient and permit the ends 20 a ″ and 22 a ″ to separate to receive the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ until it is captured in the receiving area 24 ″. as with the prior embodiment , notice that the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ may comprise the edge or lip 30 b 1 ″. the retractor body 12 ″ comprises the internal lip or flanges 20 b ″ and 22 b ″ that cooperate with the lip 30 b 1 ″ to retain the retractor body 12 ″ on the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″. the at least one inner wall , such as recessed wall 20 a 1 ″ and recessed wall 22 a 1 ″, is adapted to frictionally engage the outer surface 30 b ″ so that by rotating the retractor body 12 ″, the receiver 30 ″ will also rotate until the rod 28 ″ becomes locked in the rod - locking channel 30 a ″ of polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″. in another illustrative embodiment , the at least one inner wall , such as inner wall 20 a 1 ″ and inner wall 22 a 1 ″, are mounted on the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ and are adapted to permit the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ to be rotated to lock the rod 28 ″ in the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ while the retractor body 12 ″ is held stationary as in the embodiment of fig1 - 8 . in that application , the retractor body 12 ″ is held stationary while a tool , such as the tool 32 ″ in fig7 , is used to rotate the retractor body 12 ″ to the locked position whereupon the rod 28 ″ becomes locked in the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″. as with the embodiment illustrated in fig9 - 13 , the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ comprises a shape , configuration and / or dimension that is generally the same as the shape , configuration or dimension of the rod - locking channel 30 a ″ so that when the retractor body 12 ″ is mounted on the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″, the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ and rod - locking channel 30 a ″ become generally aligned . it should be understood that , as with the prior embodiments , the receiving area 24 ″ generally defines a female receiving area that generally complements the shape of the outer surface of the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″. this alignment enables the retractor body 12 ″ to be rotated in a first direction , such as in a clockwise direction , to cause the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ to rotate and lock the rod 28 ″ in the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ after the rod 28 ″ has been moved through the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ and into the rod - locking channel 30 a ″. thereafter , the retractor body 12 ″ may be rotated in a second direction , which is generally opposite the first direction , after the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ is locked onto the rod 28 ″ and without rotating the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ in the second direction as mentioned earlier . in this regard , after the rod 28 ″ has become locked in the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″, the retractor body 12 ″ can be rotated so as to align the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ with the rod 28 ″ so that the retractor body 12 ″ can be moved axially ( in the direction of arrow a in fig1 ) away from the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ and dismounted therefrom . the retractor body 12 ″ is fit or mounted onto the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ with a friction , press or interference fit . as mentioned earlier , the frictional engagement and gripping strength between the first and second inner walls 20 a 1 ″ and 22 a 1 ″ and the outer surface 30 b ″ of the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ is less than a frictional engagement and coupling strength between the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ and the rod 28 ″. this permits the retractor body 12 ″ to rotate ( counterclockwise in the illustration ) about the outer wall or surface 30 b ″ after the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ is locked onto the rod 28 ″ and without unlocking or rotating the polyaxial screw receiver 30 ″ to the unlock position . as illustrated in fig1 , the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ is generally l - shaped like the embodiment of fig1 - 13 . a portion 34 a ″ ( fig1 ) traverses a substantial or majority of a length of the retractor body 12 ″. it should be understood , however , that the retractor body 12 ″ of the type illustrated in fig1 - 20 could also be used with this embodiment and comprise a channel , like the channel 26 ″ that is substantially straight or linear , that traverses a majority of a length of the retractor body 12 ″. thus , the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ could be entirely straight or linear even though the rod - locking channel 30 a ″ is not entirely straight . alternatively , both the rod - locking channel 30 a ″ and the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ could be either linear or non - linear as illustrated in the figures . as with the embodiment shown in fig1 - 13 , the retractor system 10 ″ may comprise the coupler 31 ″ for facilitating coupling and securing the retractor body 12 ″ onto the receiver 30 ″. in the illustration described , the coupler 31 ″ may comprise the at least one or a plurality of projection 20 a 2 ″ and 22 a 2 ″ in the walls 20 ″ and 22 ″ of the retractor body 12 ″. as described earlier herein , the projections 20 a 2 ″ and 22 a 2 ″ mate with and are received in the notched - out areas 30 d 1 ″ and 30 d 2 ″ in receiver 30 ″. the notched - out areas 30 d 1 ″ and 30 d 2 ″ each have a shape that generally complements the shape of the projections 20 a 2 ″ and 22 a 2 ″. as with the embodiment illustrated in fig1 , for example , the coupler 31 ″ facilitates securing the retractor body 12 ″ to the receiver 30 ″ and causing the rod - locking channel 30 a ″ and rod - receiving channel 34 ″ to become generally aligned . if a coupler 31 ″ is not provided , the indicia or marking 39 a , 39 b ( fig8 ) or other means for aligning the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ with the opening 30 a 1 ″ of the rod - locking channel 30 a ″ may be provided . as with the prior embodiments , the retractor body 12 ″ is generally tubular and comprises the first wall 20 ″ and the second wall 22 ″ that are defined by the cut - out areas 16 ″ and 18 . the cut - out areas 16 ″ and 18 ″ cooperate to define the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ as with the prior illustrative embodiment . as with prior embodiments , the retractor body 12 ″ is sized and adapted to permit a tool , such as the tool 32 ″ ( fig7 ), to be placed in the area 14 ″ in order to either rotatably drive the receiver 30 ″ or to engage the head ( not shown ) of the screw 29 a ″ in order to screw the screw 29 a ″ into bone during the surgical procedure . one feature of the embodiment shown in fig1 - 21 is the use of a reducer 60 ″ for urging or driving the rod 28 ″ in the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ until it is received in the opening 30 a 1 ″ and seats 30 a 2 ″, 30 a 3 ″ of the rod - locking channel 30 a ″. the reducer 50 ″ comprises a non - linear reducer channel 66 ″ which in the embodiment illustrated in fig1 - 21 is helical . note in the illustration being described that reducer 60 ″ comprises a tubular wall 61 ″ having a first cut - out 62 ″ and a second cut - out 64 ″ which cooperate to define the reducer channel 66 ″. the rod 28 ″ may be placed through the cut outs 62 ″ and 64 ″ as illustrated in fig1 and into the reducer channel 66 ″. in the illustration being described , the first and second cut - out areas 62 ″ and 64 ″ define wall portions 61 a ″ and 61 b ″ that are helical . the cut outs 62 ″ and 64 ″ and wall portions 61 a ″ and 61 b ″ and are spaced approximately 180 ° apart to define the helical reducer channel 66 ″. an end 61 c of the wall 61 ″ comprises a generally circular knob or grip 68 ″ for facilitating gripping the reducer 60 ″. the grip 68 ″ is integrally formed with the tubular wall 61 ″ and capable of rotating the wall 61 ″ upon rotation of the grip 68 ″. the grip 68 ″ also comprises an annular flange 72 ″ that engages and cooperates with a seat 74 ″ in the retractor body 12 ″ so that the reducer 60 ″ may be rotatably mounted onto the retractor body 12 ″. as shown in fig2 , another embodiment is provided where the tubular wall 61 ″ is dimensioned and adapted to be received in the area 14 ″ inside the retractor body 12 ″ as shown . as best illustrated in fig1 , the reducer 60 ″ comprises an area 80 ″ that is dimensioned and adapted to receive and permit rotation of the retractor body 12 ″ inside the reducer 60 . the rod 28 ″ is placed and traversed through the reducer channel 66 ″ and through the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ as shown . the reducer knob , grip or handle 68 ″ is rotated which causes the rod 28 ″ to traverse the length of both the reducer channel 66 ″ and the rod - receiving channel 34 ″ in the retractor body 12 ″, as illustrated in fig1 - 17 . the ends of the tubular wall portions 61 a ″ and 61 b ″ each comprise a stop 82 ″ ( fig1 ) that engages and captures the rod 28 ″ when the rod 28 ″ has reached the end of its travel in the reducer channel 66 ″ and is received in the seat 30 a 2 ″ of the rod - locking channel 30 a ″, as illustrated in fig1 and 18 . in the illustration , the stop 82 ″ comprises a curved seat 82 a ″ formed or provided at the ends of the wall portions 61 a ″ and 61 b ″. the curved seat 82 a ″ captures and engages the rod 28 ″ as shown in fig1 . after the rod 28 ″ is received in the seat 30 a 2 ″ of the rod - locking channel 30 a ″ of the receiver 30 ″, the reducer 60 ″ may be removed from the retractor body 12 ″ by moving the reducer 60 ″ axially in the direction of arrow b in fig1 . after the reducer 60 ″ has been removed from the retractor body 12 ″, the receiver 30 ″ may be rotated ( in a clockwise direction in the illustration being described ) to lock the rod 28 ″ in the receiver 30 ″ in the manner described earlier relative to fig9 - 13 . alternatively , the retractor body 12 ″ may be rotated by using the tool 32 ″ in the manner illustrated in fig7 relative to the prior embodiment . in order to stabilize or retain the retractor body 12 ″ in a stationary position during rotation of the reducer 60 ″, a stabilizer 40 ″ or means for stabilizing the retractor body 12 ″ may be provided . in the illustration being described , the stabilizer 40 ″ may take the form of a plurality of apertures 40 a ″ and 40 b ″ in the retractor body 12 ″ wall . during use , a tool ( not shown ), such as a screwdriver or other elongated shafted tool or dow , may be placed through the apertures 40 a ″ and 40 b ″ and used to hold the retractor body 12 ″ stationary during rotation of the knob 68 ″ of reducer 60 ″. the tool ( not shown ) may also be used to rotate the retractor body 12 ″ in order to rotate the receiver 30 ″ to an unlocked or locked position and to pull or detach the retractor body 12 ″ from the receiver 30 ″. it should be appreciated that a length of the reducer 58 ″ is selected so that when the rod 28 ″ has reached the stops 82 ″ at the ends of the wall portions 61 a ″ and 60 b ″, respectively , the rod 28 ″ is seated at the seat 30 a 2 ″. this facilitates properly situating and seating the rod 28 ″ in the rod - locking channel 30 a ″ before the receiver 30 ″ is rotated from the open position shown in fig1 to the locked position illustrated in fig1 . in the illustration being described , the retraction device or apparatus 10 is made of stainless steel , but it should be understood that it could be made of any suitable material that is capable of performing the functions described herein . thus , for example , the retraction device or apparatus 10 could be made of a polymer material , plastic , composite material , metallic material , such as titanium , or other suitable material . advantageously , the retractor and reducer systems and methods described herein provide means , system and apparatus for guiding or placing a polyaxial screw in a patient and / or situating a rod in the polyaxial screw , while substantially simultaneously retracting tissue during a surgical procedure . while the form of apparatus herein and methods described constitutes a preferred embodiment of this invention , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to this precise form of apparatus , and that changes may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention . | 0 |
the following detailed description , and the accompanying drawings to which it refers are provided for purposes of exemplifying and illustrating representative examples and embodiments of the invention only , and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way , and do not exhaustively illustrate and describe all possible embodiments and configurations in which one or more features of the present invention may take physical form . all patents and patent applications cited in this specification are herein incorporated by reference as if each individual patent or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference . fig1 shows the use and insertion into a biopsy site of any one of the biopsy site marker embodiments of the invention described herein . fig1 is a perspective view of a human breast 2 having a lesion 3 from which a biopsy specimen has been removed , thereby forming a biopsy cavity 4 within the lesion 3 , into which a biopsy site marker 10 of the of the present invention is implanted . the figure shows an outer cannula 12 with the distal end thereof operatively positioned within the biopsy site 4 . the outer cannula 12 has been inserted percutaneously into the lesion 3 and a biopsy needle ( not shown ) has been passed through the outer cannula 12 and used to remove a biopsy specimen from the center of the lesion . syringe - like marker application device 13 includes a marker introduction tube or inner cannula 14 . after removal of the biopsy needle ( not shown ), the marker introduction cannula 14 has been passed through the outer cannula 12 such that inner cannula distal end 14 d is located within the biopsy cavity 4 , the marker 10 being housed within cannula 14 . piston 15 of marker applicator 13 has an extension 16 which passes through the interior of inner cannula 14 . upon depressing piston 15 , extenuation 16 pushes marker 10 outward through an opening 17 in the tip 14 d of inner cannula 14 into the cavity 4 . the outer cannula 12 may be an outer tube element of a conventional vacuum assisted large core biopsy device , which has been left in place to assist in site marker application following biopsy sample recovery . one example of a applicator syringe device 13 is described in further detail below with respect to fig5 . fig2 a , 2 b , 2 c , 2 d and 2 e show exemplary internal conformations and shapes of the sintered or porous site marker embodiments of the invention 20 a - 20 e respectively . fig2 a and 2b show schematic cross sections of a alternative porous or sintered marker body embodiments . fig2 a is a cross section of a sintered site marker embodiment 20 a . the matrix or base material 21 encloses a plurality of irregular shaped pores 22 distributed within the body 20 a , preferably throughout the body volume . the term “ sintered ” will be used to describe the porous body conformation , it being noted that conventional methods of production other than sintering may be employed to produce a material containing internal voids , pores , discontinuities , inclusions , bubbles and the like . the pores 22 may be open celled , in which the pores 22 generally intersect or communicate with one another and the marker body exterior , which may give the body surface 23 a pitted texture on the scale of the pore size . alternatively , the pores may be closed celled , in which the pores 22 generally do not intersect one another or the exterior . in the event that the pores 22 communicate with the marker exterior 23 , the matrix material 21 is preferably hydrophobic ( or treated to have hydrophobic surfaces ) to resist displacement of air entrained in pores 22 . the base or matrix composition 21 has may be of high acoustic impedance relative to the surrounding tissue ( not shown ). sintered metal material may be shaped and sintered from commercially available metallic powders comprising a metal or mixtures of : metals , using conventional sintering and forming techniques to produce body of selected shaped , and selected pore size and surface texture , so as to enhance acoustic reflectivity . the porosity of the sintered metal provides an irregular surface texture as well as internal voids . a suitable bio - compatible material is sintered 316l stainless steel , and suitable sintered stainless steel stock is commercially available in various forms , for example from the mott corporation . the sintered stock may be economically cut and shaped by conventional methods . sintered stainless steel stock is commercially available with controlled pore size , selectable over a range of pore sizes . the pores 22 of the sintered body 20 a may vary over a range of pore sizes , and is typically from about 1 micrometer to 100 micrometers and preferably from about 5 micrometers to 40 micrometers . in addition to sintered metal , alternative bio - compatible , impedance materials may be included or substituted , such as ceramics , metal oxides , polymers or composites / mixtures of these materials , which may be configured to have a generally distributed internal porosity and porous surface texture . thus , the marker body 20 a may comprise a matrix or base composition 21 which has an acoustic impedance close to that of the tissue at the marked body site , since the air or other gas within the pores or internal spaces 22 provides a dramatic contrast to the matrix material 21 . suitable bio - compatible materials include polyethylene , polytetrafluoroethylene , pebax ( made by autochem corp . ), and the like . such porous materials may be formed by conventional methods , such as heat bonding of polymer powders , extrusion and the like . fig2 b is a schematic cross section of an alternative site marker embodiment 20 b . the matrix or base material 24 encloses a plurality of inclusions , suspended particles or bubbles 25 distributed within the body 20 b , preferably throughout the body volume . the inclusions 25 may be low - density or gas - filled particles , such as foamed - in - place bubbles , micro - beads , expanded beads , and the like , which have an acoustic impedance substantially lower than the matrix material 24 . the matrix material 24 may as in the example of fig2 a . fig2 c and 2d show exemplary shapes of the sintered or porous site marker embodiments of the invention 20 c and 20 d respectively . fig2 c shows schematically a cylindrical sintered marker 20 c . the marker 20 c comprises a generally cylindrical body having a diameter d and length 1 . the body may have diameter d of from 0 . 5 to 5 mm , and preferably about 1 . 5 mm . the length i may be from about 1 diameters to about 10 diameters , and preferably from about 5 to 7 diameters . this biopsy site marker produces a distinct , recognizable , marker image of artificial appearance when implanted at a depth of about 2 to 4 cm in human breast tissue , and visualized by a commercially available accuson 128 us imaging system with an l7 transducer . fig2 d illustrates a marker body 20 d having a polyhedral form of multiple intersecting flat surfaces 26 , 27 and 28 . fig2 e shows a cruciform shaped marker 20 e having cruciform cross - section having four longitudinal fin - like portions 29 , which may be aligned at right angles to one another and joined at the longitudinal central axis 30 providing a selectable number of side facets ( e . g ., hexagonal cross - section ). optionally , medial web portions 31 may span laterally and join between adjacent fins 29 , the webs 31 preferably being aligned perpendicularly to the fins 29 . in the example shown , there are four such web portions 31 positioned at about mid - length of the body 20 e , so that each fin 29 is joined by a pair of webs 31 , one on each side , to each adjacent fin . thus , the planes of the intersecting fins and webs form a pattern of eight mutually - perpendicular “ corner reflectors ” 32 . the length i and characteristic cross - section dimension c may be as described with respect to the embodiments of fig2 c and 2d . fig3 illustrates yet another alternative where the marker body is shaped to have the form , under ultrasound or radiological visualization , preferably both , of a familiar symbol or letter , to by easily recognizable as an artificial shape which is the lower - case greek letter gamma ( γ ), which when visualized in a biopsy site bears a resemblance to a familiar breast - cancer - awareness symbol . fig4 shows schematically an alternative coil marker 30 of the invention . the marker 30 comprises a generally helical coil - like body formed from one or more lengths of fine wire and / or fiber 31 . the coil 30 has a generally cylindrical overall form . as with the other biopsy site marker embodiments of the invention , the optimum dimensions of the coil shaped marker embodiment will depend on such factors as the type of visualization system used , its imaging resolution , and the physical nature of the biopsy tissue region . the coil length i and diameter d may be of a range of sizes , selected so as to be large enough to provide a distinct , recognizable ultrasound marker image within the tissue biopsy site , and small enough to avoid masking or obscuring diagnostically important tissue features . for example , the coil diameter d may be from 0 . 5 to 5 mm , and preferably about 1 . 5 mm . the coil length i is typically from about 1 coil diameters to about 10 coil diameters , and preferably from about 5 to 7 coil diameters . the helical turns of the coil provide a body surface contour including a outer helical groove 32 and inner helical groove 33 on the coil surfaces ( more than one such groove for a multiple helix ). the grooved coil body surface includes a plurality of lobes and crevices on the exterior of the coil which enhance acoustic reflectivity . in addition the similarly lobed internal surfaces of the coil provide additional reflectivity . optionally , the coil may be given a “ frosted ” or textured surface , such as by particle blasting in the manner of the spheroid marker described above . a uniform coil embodiment has a shape which is markedly artificial in appearance under conventional visualization methods , and is not easily confused tissue features of biological origin . the coil may comprise a fine wire 31 of a material of high acoustic impedance relative to the tissue of the site , and may optionally be radio - opaque . suitable materials are biologically compatible metals , such as stainless steel , titanium , platinum , palladium , alloys thereof and the like . the coil may alternatively comprise a composite of different materials , such as a composite of metal and polymeric materials . the coil may be wound about a central core of the same or different composition . coil stock of suitable material , helical form and diameter is available commercially , and may be cut to a selected length by conventional means . a suitable material is 316 l stainless steel surgical embolization coil currently used in arterial embolism repair procedures , e . g ., cook 4 mm diameter embolization coil mwce - 25 - 2 . 5 - 4 of 316l stainless steel and dacron . other suitable embolization coil stock is available in a range of coil diameters . this biopsy site marker produces a distinct , recognizable marker image as implanted at a depth of about 2 to 4 cm in human breast tissue , when visualized by a commercially available accuson 128 us imaging system with an l7 transducer . fig5 shows schematically the alternative spheroid marker 40 of the invention having a generally spherical body 40 . note that the porous or sintered marker embodiments of fig2 a - 2d may be spherical also . however , the embodiment of fig5 is a non - porous example , and the biopsy site marker 40 comprises a high acoustic impedance , biologically compatible material , such as 316 l stainless steel and titanium , or radiopaque metals such as platinum , palladium , or the like . non - spherical shaped bodies may be used , however , metallic spheres of suitable materials are readily commercially available , and have a shape which is markedly artificial in appearance under conventional visualization methods , i . e ., not easily confused tissue features of biological origin . the generally spherical body may have a diameter d selected so as to be large enough to provide a distinct , recognizable ultrasound marker image within the tissue biopsy site , and small enough to avoid obscuring tissue features . as with the other biopsy site marker embodiments of the invention , the optimum size of the sphere will depend on such factors as the type of visualization system used , its imaging resolution , and the physical nature of the biopsy tissue region . for example , the sphere diameter d is typically be from about 1 mm to about 4 mm , and preferably from about 1 . 5 mm . the spherical body 40 may include a pitted , matte , peened or frosted surface texture 41 , which may be produced by conventional particle blasting or peening techniques . for example , the sphere may be blasted with glass beads of about 100 micrometer diameter to produce a frosted surface . in another example , the sphere may be blasted with aluminum oxide abrasive particles of about 25 micrometer diameter to produce a frosted surface . the frosted surface 41 thus produced provides enhanced acoustic reflectivity in comparison to the untreated , smooth sphere . other conventional texturing , pitting or faceting methods may alternatively be used to produce a frosted or irregular surface texture . this biopsy site marker produces a distinct , recognizable marker image of artificial appearance when implanted at a depth of about 2 to 4 cm in human breast tissue , and visualized by a commercially available acuson 128 us imaging system with an l7 transducer . fig6 shows schematically in cut - away section an exemplary marker applicator device 50 configured to be operated in association with a conventional vacuum assisted large core biopsy device 6 . the dimensional size of the applicator device ( particularly the inside diameter ) may be adjusted to correspond to the selected diameter or characteristic dimension of the biopsy site marker to be deposited . in this connection it should be understood that the biopsy markers of the invention can be used without this applicator , and can be deposited in accordance with the various methods and techniques utilized in the state of the art . the applicator 50 comprises an elongated cylindrical body 52 which has an outer diameter selected so that it fits , and may be inserted through , the outer cannula 7 of vacuum assisted large core biopsy device 6 . as shown in fig6 the outer cannula 7 is inserted through the biopsy incision into the biopsy cavity 4 previously formed in the patient &# 39 ; s tissue site 8 , e . g ., a human breast in the case of a breast biopsy . the cylindrical body 52 has an interior cavity and a piston 54 that fits and slides back and forth in the elongated cylindrical body 52 . the proximal end of the outer cannula 7 may be provided with rectangularly shaped handle 56 the orientation of which indicates to the operator the orientation of the opening 9 provided in the distal end of the cannula 7 . the cylindrical body 52 may have an enlarged finger disk or handle 57 at its outer ( exterior to the patient ) end which permits a user ( not shown ) to operate or move the piston 54 within the cylinder 52 of applicator 50 . the orientation of the elongated finger disk 57 indicates the orientation of the opening 58 of body 53 adjacent its other , closed end 59 ( internal within biopsy cavity ). the opening 58 is configured to form a ramp in the side of the tube 52 . in this connection it should be understood that the selected dimensions of the tube 52 are coordinated with the dimensions of the piston 54 and with the cannula 7 of the vacuum assisted large core biopsy device 6 , thus permitting the tube 52 to both fit within cannula 7 and to contain one or more markers of the invention 10 within the inside diameter of cylinder 52 . the cylinder or tube 52 and the piston 54 may be made from any appropriate medical grade plastic material , such as high density polyethylene or pebax , made by the autochem corporation . in one method of implanting the biopsy markers 10 of the present invention , the tube 52 is loaded with one or more of markers 10 . the markers 10 may be any of the embodiments of the invention described above , and is shown schematically as a cylindrical object . optionally , in addition to the markers 10 , pellets composed of various other materials may be inserted along with one of the embodiments of the biopsy markers of the present invention described herein . for example , gelatin pellets of the type disclosed in our above referenced co - pending application ser . no . 09 / 343 , 975 may be inserted in conjunction with the biopsy markers 10 of the present invention . with the markers 10 in the tube 52 and the tube 52 and cannula 7 inserted into the biopsy site 4 , the opening 58 in the cylinder 52 is moved into alignment with the opening or port 9 of the in the internal end of cannula 7 of biopsy sampler 6 . the piston 54 is pressed inward by the operator so that the marker or markers 10 are expelled from the tube 52 through the ramp shaped opening 58 as the piston 54 is pushed into the cylinder or tube 52 . the markers 10 are thereby extruded through opening 59 and port 9 into the biopsy cavity 4 . the applicator 50 and biopsy device 6 are subsequently withdrawn . fig7 shows schematically an alternative marker 60 of the invention including one or more optional tissue - engaging or haptic elements 62 for resisting migration of the marker from the biopsy site . an exemplary cylindrical marker body 10 is shown , although each embodiment of the biopsy site marker of the invention described above may optionally comprises one or more such tissue engaging structures . the haptic elements 62 may comprise an wire - like material fixed to the marker body 10 at the proximal haptic end 64 and extending outward from the marker body 10 . the haptic 62 may be looped back at its hook - like terminal end 66 . the haptic 62 assists in resisting , migration of the marker from the biopsy cavity , during initial placement , i . e ., it engages the adjacent tissue to resist being sucked back towards the applicator when the applicator is withdrawn . the haptic also resists migration during later movement , flexure or manipulation of the tissue surrounding the biopsy site ; such as when a patient &# 39 ; s breast is decompressed upon removal from a mammography device . optionally , the marker body 10 may include an adhesive component 68 coated onto its surface to cause the marker body to adhere to adjacent tissue within the biopsy site . fig8 shows schematically the alternative marker 70 of the invention including an encapsulating element 72 and optional adhesive layer or component 74 , for resisting migration of the marker within the tissue . an exemplary cylindrical marker body 10 is shown , although each of the biopsy site marker of the invention described above may optionally comprise a pellet - shaped encapsulating element . the pellet - shaped encapsulating element 72 is disposed surrounding the marker body 10 and may fully or partially enclose the marker body . the encapsulating element 72 may be of lower impedance than the metallic marker body 10 . suitable materials are gelatin or reconstituted collagen material , polymers , or mixtures or composites thereof . an optional adhesive component 74 is shown coating the external surface of the encapsulating element , but may be included within the composition the encapsulating element 72 . fig9 a illustrates an alternative device 80 for delivering markers to a biopsy site which includes an elongated tube 81 , a handle 82 on the tubes proximal end and a closed distal end having a plurality of leafs or petals 83 as shown in more detail in fig9 b . as shown in fig9 c , the petals 83 open up to allow a marker 84 to be discharged into the biopsy site 85 as shown in fig9 c . the device 80 has an elongated plunger or piston 86 slidably disposed within the tube 81 for pushing one or more markers 84 through the petalled distal end by pressing on the knob 87 on the proximal end of the shaft 86 . the orientation of the body 88 on the shaft 86 gives the operator an indication of the orientation of the shaped distal end 89 . fig1 illustrates an alternative marker 90 which has an elongated cylindrically shaped body of gel 91 surrounded with a metallic band 92 which is preferably formed of radiopaque material . the band 92 may conpletely or only partially surround the body of gel 91 . in any of the above - described embodiments of the invention , the marker body ( and / or the optional encapsulating element ) may include an adhesive component to cause the marker body ( or encapsulating element ) to adhere to adjacent tissue within the biopsy site . the adhesive component may comprise a biocompatible adhesive , such as a polyurethane , polyacrylic compound , polyhydroxymethacrylate , fibrin glue ( e . g ., tisseal ™), collagen adhesive , or mixtures thereof . while particular forms of the invention have been illustrated and described , it will be apparent that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . accordingly , it is not intended that the invention be limited to the specific embodiments illustrated . it is therefore intended that this invention to be defined by the scope of the appended claims as broadly as the prior art will permit , and in view of the specification if need be . | 0 |
in the description that follows , terms such as “ left ” and “ right ” refer to the respective figure of the drawings . [ 0011 ] fig1 shows a so - called “ drum motor ” 10 that is driven directly by an electronically commutated external rotor motor 12 and preferably is adapted to drive conveyor belts . it has an external tubular casing part 14 made of ferromagnetic material , preferably steel , that can be of slightly convex configuration on its outer side 16 . external rotor motor 10 has a stationary support part 18 that , because of its appearance , is often referred to informally as a “ shaft .” this shaft 18 is stationary during operation , i . e . does not rotate . this stationary shaft 18 has a cylindrical segment 20 , of greater diameter , on which is mounted inner race 22 of a ball bearing 24 , whose outer race 26 is arranged displaceably inside a cylindrical inner surface 28 of casing part 14 and is acted upon , toward the right , by a compression spring 30 whose left end is braced against a prong ring 32 or other abutment . a prong ring has , on its external periphery , one or more prongs which , upon assembly , dig into the cylindrical inner surface 28 of casing part 14 , the result being that prong ring 32 constitutes an abutment for compression spring 30 , so that the latter can clamp ball bearing 24 , which contributes to noise reduction . shaft 18 furthermore has a cylindrical segment 36 of smaller diameter , on which is mounted inner race 38 of a ball bearing 40 , whose outer race 42 is arranged on a cylindrical portion 44 of casing part 14 and is secured there on the left by a shoulder 46 and on the right by a snap ring 48 . the two ball bearings 24 , 40 therefore have different sizes , and they support casing part 14 rotatably on shaft 18 . mounted in the cylindrical inner recess 28 of casing part 14 are permanent magnets 54 of external rotor motor 12 , which define an external rotor 49 . this is then magnet arrangement 50 of the motor part , which extends to the left from a shoulder 51 and coacts with an internal stator 52 whose lamination stack is pressed onto shaft 18 , which preferably is likewise made of ferromagnetic material and thus forms part of the magnetic circuit of internal stator 52 . shaft 18 is equipped with a shoulder 56 that defines the location of the lamination stack . adjoining permanent - magnet arrangement 50 to the left is a nonmagnetic spacer ring 58 , made e . g . of brass , and this is followed to the left by a magnet ring 60 that serves to control one or more galvanomagnetic sensors 62 , e . g . to control hall generators ( not depicted ). the function of sensors 62 is to sense the rotational position of casing part 14 relative to stationary axis 18 , which must occur very precisely , especially when motor 12 is running slowly and a rotation speed control system is being used . magnets 50 , 60 are preferably magnetized in the radial direction . magnet arrangement 50 can be implemented with , for example , four poles , and magnet ring 60 preferably has a greater number of poles , so that the rotational position can be sensed as accurately as possible . sensor 62 is mounted on a circuit board 66 , which in turn is mounted on shaft 18 and carries electronic components of the electronically commutated external rotor motor 12 , and extends approximately perpendicular to rotation axis 67 of casing part 14 . for passage of a connection to circuit board 66 , shaft 18 has an axial bore 68 and a radial bore 70 intersecting it . the winding of motor 12 is indicated at 72 . two sealing plates 76 , 78 are provided to seal the interior of drum motor 10 . these are of identical configuration , so a description of right sealing plate 78 will suffice . the latter has , on its radially inner side , a portion 80 that can deflect radially outward and is equipped with an inwardly projecting catch ridge 82 that , in the assembled state , engages into an annular groove 84 of shaft 18 that is approximately complementary to it . shaft 18 is formed , in a region to the left of sealing plate 76 , with a frusto - conical segment 86 to facilitate assembly of sealing plate 76 , and with a frusto - conical segment 88 to facilitate assembly of sealing plate 78 . this makes it easier to splay , and slide on , sealing plates 76 , 78 during final assembly . it is very advantageous that sealing plates 76 , 78 do not rotate ; this decreases the risk of injury to the user , and simplifies cleaning of drum motor 10 . sealing plates 76 , 78 can be made of metal or a suitable plastic . on its outer side , sealing plate 78 is equipped with two sealing elements 90 , e . g . two sealing lips , a radial packing ring , or the like . the inner surface of casing part 14 , located opposite sealing elements 90 , is ground and polished . to facilitate assembly , hollow frusto - conical segments 92 are provided on the inner side of casing part 14 , adjacent the sealing plates . with the invention , in contrast to drum motors having an internal gear linkage , shaft 18 can be continuous , thus imparting particularly high stability to drum motor 10 . electronically commutated motor 12 does not have a rotatable shaft . the continuous stationary shaft 18 means that two rolling bearings 24 , 40 are sufficient . since casing part 14 is integral with external rotor motor 12 , rather than a separate element , the weight of drum motor 10 is correspondingly reduced . motor magnets 54 , spacer 58 , and magnet ring 60 are adhesively bonded into casing part 14 , optionally with spot - grinding , and then magnetized in a suitable apparatus . rolling bearing 40 is also installed in recess 44 and secured with snap ring 48 . the stator lamination stack is pressed onto shaft 18 , and circuit board 66 is mounted on shaft 18 . ball bearing 24 is then pressed onto shaft 18 at the desired location . after these preparatory actions , shaft 18 , along with the parts installed on it , is inserted with its insertion end ( i . e . right end 94 in this case ) into the prepared casing part 14 from the left . insertion is facilitated by the fact that outer race 26 of left ball bearing 24 is axially displaceable in recess 28 , to allow it to be axially clamped by spring 30 . in the process , segment 36 of shaft 18 is pressed into inner race 38 of rolling bearing 40 , and sensor 62 is slid into the interior of control magnet 60 . an important advantage of the invention is that the control electronics ( on circuit board 66 ) are integrated into motor 10 . external connection of motor 10 is accomplished through transverse bore 70 and longitudinal bore 68 . to simplify assembly , an electrical plug connector ( not depicted ) can be provided at the transition from transverse bore 70 to longitudinal bore 68 . depending on the application , one or more hall generators or a resolver , a gmr ( giant magneto resistor ) sensor , an mr sensor , etc . can be used as sensor 62 . sensing of the rotor position using the so - called “ sensorless ” principle is also not excluded in the context of the invention . spring 30 is then introduced and is placed under load and secured by prong ring 32 or another securing element . lastly , sealing plates 76 , 78 are installed . assembly is thus very simple and time - saving . shaft 18 can optionally be put together from several parts , but a one - piece construction is preferred . the use of a large - diameter shaft , and bearings with small radial dimensions , yields the advantage that very good heat transfer out from the stator lamination stack 52 via shaft 18 is possible . an air gap 72 , shown in the enlargement in fig2 is located between rotor magnets 54 and lamination stack 57 . many variants and modifications are of course possible within the scope of the present invention . although motor 12 is shown as an external rotor motor having a permanent magnet rotor 54 , in other embodiments the rotor can nevertheless also be implemented as a short - circuit rotor ( having a short - circuit winding ), a synchronous motor , a reluctance motor ( having a magnetically soft rotor ), etc . since a collectorless motor allows very different rotation speeds to be set without great difficulty , the structure shown is particularly preferred for low rotation speed applications . rotor magnets 54 may have a trapezoidal or sinusoidal magnetization depending on the motor principle used , a trapezoidal magnetization being preferred for rotor magnets 54 , and a sinusoidal magnetization being preferred for sensor magnets 60 . | 7 |
the present invention addresses several shortcomings of the prior art by providing a security system and framework that is configured to deliver real - time information , including audiovisual information about alarm conditions and / or personal conditions to remote users . as a further advantage , the framework may be easily adapted for use in other applications that incorporate real - time information and video delivery . the term “ security system ” is used in this document to mean a system for monitoring a premises , e . g ., for the purpose of discouraging and responding to burglaries , fires , and other emergency situations . such a security system is well - suited for residential homes , but may also find use with schools , nursing homes , hospitals , businesses or any other location in which real - time information may be useful in obtaining adequate response upon the occurrence of alarm conditions . by integrating broadband features , including audiovisual capabilities , web access and wireless capabilities , and video and voice over ip protocols , embodiments of the present invention provide audiovisual alarm verification , 24 - hour monitoring capabilities , and a secure web site with remote access features and security - focused content . the term “ lifestyle monitoring ” is used in this document to mean audiovisual monitoring and communicating on demand during non - alarm situations . the term “ audiovisual ” is used in this document to mean audio or video or both . an example of a non - alarm situation is when a parent checks on latch - key children or a caregiver checks on an elderly person . embodiments of the present invention may be used to give peace of mind to the owner of the premises while he or she is away from the premises . embodiments of the present invention may also be used to proactively respond to situations before they become emergencies . the term “ remote user ” is used in this document to mean any individual located at any location other than the premises or the central monitoring station . a remote user may include the owner of the premises , when the owner is not physically located at the premises . a remote user may also include a guest user , such as an individual whom the owner has given permission to access certain aspects of the security system . because monitoring personnel at a central monitoring station do not have access to the security system except during alarm events , they are not considered remote users as they are described in this document . for purposes of the present invention , the term “ premises ” refers to real property , including one or more structures thereupon and their surroundings . for the purposes of the present invention , a premises preferably comprises a residential housing , but it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that a premises may also comprise commercial facilities , educational facilities , and the like . further , the term “ a ” is generally used in the present disclosure to mean one or more . still further , the terms “ coupled ” and “ operatively coupled ” mean connected in such a way that data may be transmitted or received . it is understood that “ coupled ” and “ operatively coupled ” do not require a direct connection , a wired connection , or even a permanent connection . it is sufficient for purposes of the present invention that the connection ( s ) be established for transmitting and receiving information . in the present disclosure , the term “ high - speed ” or “ high - bandwidth ” generally means capable of providing sufficient bandwidth for data to be transmitted in real - time , i . e ., with substantially no latency . in one embodiment , high - speed connections are those capable of transmitting at speeds of at least 128 kbps . high - speed connections include but are not limited to cable modem connections , xdsl connections , and high - speed wireless connection . the term “ non - alarm event ” is used in this document to describe an event that occurs at the premises which does not constitute an alarm event . a non - alarm event is designated by the triggering of a sensor . for example , a motion sensor located near the front door may detect the presence of a person approaching the front door . this person may be , for example , a delivery person dropping off a package for the resident and would not constitute an alarm event . this non - alarm event , however , may be used by the owner of the premises to analyze the security system effectiveness ( such as determining the capability of the front door camera to capture images in case of an alarm event ), for lifestyle purposes ( such as how often people approach the front door ), or to provide monitoring personnel with a general time frame associated with an alarm event . the term “ remote client ” is used in this document to mean any processor - based device capable of connecting to a network . for example , a remote client may comprise a personal computer , a pda , or a mobile phone . referring now to the drawings , fig1 depicts a block diagram of an exemplary security system 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention . security system 100 comprises a security gateway 115 , which is typically located , but is not required to be located , at premises 110 . security system 100 further comprises a monitoring client 133 operatively coupled to security gateway 115 through a network 120 . security system 100 further comprises a security system server 131 operatively coupled to security gateway 115 through network 120 . in general , network 120 may be a public network or private network , a single network or a combination of several networks . in most embodiments , network 120 may be , but is not required to be , an ip - based network . in some embodiments it may be desirable for all or a portion of network 120 to include publicly available networks , such as the internet , to avoid the need for installing , purchasing , or leasing additional infrastructure . however , in some systems , e . g ., those that use high - bandwidth transmissions , it may be desirable to include dedicated high - bandwidth connections including , without limitation , leased lines , frame relay networks , and atm networks , within network 120 . further , in some systems it may be desirable to use a network 120 with quality of service guarantees given the real - time nature of the information that is transmitted . generally , security gateway 115 is a processor - based device operable to monitor premises 110 by capturing and recording audiovisual information relating to the premises during pre - alarm , and post - alarm periods , as well as during non - alarm events . security gateway 115 also detects and relays alarm conditions at premises 110 and captures information relating to such alarm conditions . upon triggering of an alarm , security gateway 115 sends cached , stored , and live information from pre - event , pre - alarm , and post - alarm segments to security system server 131 for verification and response . security gateway 115 may , but is not required to be , located at premises 110 . some or all components of security gateway 115 may be located remotely , but remain operatively coupled to security sensors 105 , audio stations 107 , and video cameras 112 which are located at premises 110 . in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention , premises 110 comprises a building such as a residential home . advantageously , the present invention provides for sensors 105 , audio stations 107 and video cameras 112 to be located indoors as well as outdoors . for example , sensors 105 , audio stations 107 and video cameras 112 may be located in certain rooms or zones within the building on premises 110 , as well as outside the doors of the building . monitoring client 133 generally comprises a software program that may be used to display some or all of the information provided by security gateway 115 . monitoring client 133 may be a stand - alone program or integrated into one or more existing software programs . one or more operators may then use this information to evaluate whether the alarm condition corresponds to an actual alarm condition and then take additional action , if desired , such as alerting the appropriate authorities . security system 100 generally includes one or more sensors 105 coupled to security gateway 115 for the purpose of detecting certain events . one skilled in the art will appreciate that security system 100 is not limited to any specific type or model of sensor 105 . a variety of sensors 105 may be used , depending on the desired type and level of protection . examples include , without limitation , magnetic contact switches , audio sensors , infrared sensors , motion detectors , fire alarms , panic buttons , and carbon monoxide sensors . sensors 105 may be wired directly into an alarm control panel built into security gateway 115 , or they may be wirelessly connected . the type of sensors 105 to be used depends on the specific application for which security system 100 is designed . in some embodiments , multiple sensors 105 may be used . in such embodiments , security gateway 115 may consider data from all , some , or one of sensors 105 in the detection of alarm conditions . additionally , security system 100 can store multiple video events triggered by sensors 105 , or at scheduled times . security system 100 also includes one or more cameras 112 and audio stations 107 operable to capture video data and audio data , respectively , from premises 110 . cameras 112 may be , but are not required to be , 360 - degree cameras or panoramic cameras . audio stations 107 may include microphones and speakers and are capable of providing two - way communication as well as emitting a signal for alerting occupants of the premises that communication is occurring . in addition , security gateway 115 may be configured to create an association between one or more sensors 105 and an associated camera 112 or audio station 107 . whether or not separate sensors 105 are present , security gateway 115 may capture video or audio or both from cameras 112 and audio stations 107 to assist in the determination of whether an alarm condition exists and thereby whether to generate and send an alarm signal to the security system server 131 . cameras 112 and audio stations 107 continuously transmit audiovisual data to security gateway 115 for caching ( i . e ., temporarily storing ), recording ( i . e ., storing for a long term ), or streaming to a remote user 152 or security system server 131 . in some embodiments , sensors 105 , such as motion detectors , infra - red sensors and audio sensors , may be replaced by an intelligent alarm module that is able to detect motion or intrusion by analyzing the video data or audio data or both generated from cameras 112 and audio stations 107 . in some embodiments , the segment of audiovisual data may be compressed using one or more of any number compression techniques known by one of skill in the art . for example , this may involve the use of video compression algorithms such as motion pictures expert group ( mpeg ). further , the resolution or color depth of the video may be reduced to lessen the amount of bandwidth required for transmission . in one embodiment , alarm video can be transmitted at least 3 frames per second . in addition , the alarm video may have an end resolution ( i . e ., after interpolation and / or image enhancement , etc .) of 320 pixels by 240 pixels or higher , and optionally may be transmitted in color . it is noted that the present invention is not limited to any particular audio , video , or communications standards . the present invention may incorporate any such standards , including without limitation : h . 323 , adaptive differential pulse - code modulation ( adpcm ), h . 263 , mpeg , user datagram protocol ( jdp ), and transmission control protocol / internet protocol ( tcp / ip ). a disadvantage with intrusion systems in the prior art , including video surveillance systems , is that they provide very little or no information leading up to the alarm event . prior art systems are typically configured to record audiovisual information only after an alarm is triggered . the only information that a monitoring agent typically receives is specific to that information about how an alarm event was defined which usually includes the time , type and location of sensor that was triggered . this limited information does not adequately help the monitoring agent verify the event . even in video surveillance systems , the monitoring agent typically only views live camera ( s ) associated with that alarm sensor , which may not be adequate . a typical prior art intrusion system protects the perimeter of a residence or facility , and alarm events are only declared when the perimeter sensors , such as window or door contact switches , or internal sensors , such as motion sensors , are triggered . the present invention , however , provides for continuous caching of audiovisual data while the security system 100 is armed . furthermore , if the security system 100 is armed and one of the sensors 105 is triggered , the segment of cached audiovisual data immediately prior to , during , and immediately following the triggering of the sensor 105 is stored in memory , preferably located in the security gateway 115 for privacy reasons , or in another storage device that is operatively coupled to the security gateway 115 via a network . for example , when a particular sensor 105 is triggered , cached audiovisual data from the camera 112 and audio station 107 associated with that sensor 105 , beginning several seconds prior to the triggering of the sensor 105 and ending several seconds after the triggering of the sensor 105 , may be stored in the memory . in addition , audiovisual data may be also be stored in memory at scheduled times . the general administrator may view the stored data and may archive it if desired . if the system alarm is triggered , then the monitoring client 133 may access the stored data . the length and number of stored segments can be adjusted depending upon the capacity of the memory . furthermore , information from cameras 112 that are placed outside the facility of premises 110 is used in the verification of alarms . for example , in one implementation , a front door camera records “ events ” for a fixed duration of time , such as ten seconds . the events are defined by a motion sensor being triggered . in one implementation , the security gateway stores approximately twenty of these non - alarm events . however , this event is not an alarm event but a non - alarm event . if the alarm system is triggered , the monitoring agent can in substantially real time access the various non - alarm audiovisual events . the non - alarm information is used by the monitoring agent to provide contextual information surrounding an actual alarm event . an advantage of continuously caching audiovisual data and storing the cached data before and after a particular sensor 105 is triggered , even though an alarm has not been triggered , is allowing the ability to capture important information leading up to an intrusion or other alarm event . the stored data can provide context to audiovisual data surrounding the triggering of an alarm and can thus be used to verify whether an alarm is an actual emergency situation or a false alarm . for example , a potential intruder may walk around the premises 110 prior to breaking in , in order to look for a point of entry . the cached data surrounding the triggering of the sensors 105 provide the monitoring client 133 , and ultimately law enforcement , with more information about the intruder than may be available if the camera 112 only began recording after the alarm was triggered . a monitoring agent reviewing this information , within minutes of the alarm triggering , will be able to review the stored non - alarm audiovisual events and make a verification decision . for example , if the non - alarm information includes several events illustrating strange behavior by someone that does not look like the owner or occupant or authorized guest of premises 110 , this is likely to be an actual alarm event . non - alarm information is recorded even when the intruder is leaving the premises 110 . for example , a front door camera may record the intruder leaving the premises 110 and getting into his getaway car , further providing evidence for verification and possibly prosecution . in all recorded events , both non - alarm and alarm , the security gateway 115 records a segment of audiovisual information prior to a sensor 105 being triggered . in one implementation , the length of this pre - event recording is five seconds . it will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the length of recording may be customized in accordance with the requirements and specifications of the particular security gateway 115 and the preferences of the owner of the premises 110 . this function is enabled by the continuous caching of pre - event information in the security gateway 115 . a further advantage to continuously caching audiovisual data and storing the cached data before and after a particular sensor 105 is triggered is the added convenience and peace of mind of the owner of the premises . for example , the owner of the premises 110 may view the stored data remotely in order to verify whether a false alarm has occurred , or to check to see if the owner &# 39 ; s child has come home from school safely . the present invention provides for access to security gateway 115 and security system server 131 by remote user 152 using a remote client 155 which is located at a remote location 150 . remote user 152 may be the general administrator , i . e ., a person ( typically the owner of premises 110 ) having full access to security gateway 115 , including without limitation having the following capabilities : accessing all zones ; arming and disarming security system 100 ; reviewing logs of alarm events and non - alarm events ; accessing account information such as the billing address , phone number , and contact persons ; renaming a sensor ; performing maintenance on the system such as checking battery levels ; creating guest accounts for other remote users 152 , including defining access permissions for the guest user and creating a username and password for the guest user ; and adjusting controls on the security system 100 , such as the gain control for the microphones , the volume controls for the speakers , and the time limit for caching information . alternatively , remote user 152 may be a guest user , i . e ., a user whose permissions and access are controlled by the general administrator . the features of the security system that a guest user may access are defined and modified according to the general administrator &# 39 ; s preferences . additional information regarding general system administrative functions and user permissions can be found in u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 689 , 708 ; 5 , 694 , 595 ; and 5 , 696 , 898 , the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein . remote client 155 is operatively coupled to security gateway 115 and security system server 131 . remote user 152 is authenticated by security system server 131 . in a preferred embodiment , remote users 152 are identified by a user name and password . it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art , however , that the present invention contemplates the use of many authentication techniques , including without limitation , physical possession of a key , user name and password , smartcards , and biometrics . for example , the system could recognize the remote user &# 39 ; s 152 facial features , signature , voice or fingerprint and disarm the system without a personal identification number ( p 1 n ) code . additional information regarding the use of biometrics may be found in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 526 , 428 , the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference . remote client 155 may connect to security system server 131 and security gateway 115 ( after authentication ) via network 120 . en one particular embodiment , remote client 155 includes a web - browser - based video client for accessing audio and video data . typically , the web - based video client is a web browser or a plug - in for a web browser . after authentication , security system server 131 may be configured to create a data connection between remote client 155 and security gateway 115 such that communications between remote client 155 and security gateway 115 bypass security system server 131 . advantageously , this avoids network bottlenecks at the security system server 131 , particularly when transmitting large amounts of data such as during the transmission of streaming audiovisual data . in one embodiment , once authenticated , remote user 152 may perform lifestyle monitoring from remote location 150 through security gateway 115 . the remote monitoring feature allows remote user 152 at remote location 150 to view all or only selected portions of the video images from video cameras 112 , and to hear all or only selected portions of audio data from audio stations 107 . depending on the access permissions assigned to remote user 152 , remote user 152 may further have the capability to accomplish the following : arm and disarm the system 100 ; configure the security system 100 to monitor different zones ; review and change account information ; and participate in lifestyle communications with occupants at premises 110 . in addition , remote user 152 may be able to configure the quality of the audiovisual data for remote monitoring . depending on the bandwidth of the connection , the information transmitted to remote client 155 may be of a lower quality than that transmitted to security system server 131 for verification of alarm signals . for example , in one embodiment , the video transmitted to remote client 155 may have a lower frame rate , lower resolution , and / or lower color depth . security gateway 115 may be configured to limit the transmission of all data ( heartbeat , control , video , and audio ) to a configurable ceiling relating to the remote client 155 access . advantageously , this may provide the necessary amount of bandwidth to deliver the requested services , but prevents one user from creating a network bottleneck by requesting too much data at once . in one embodiment , a 128 kbps transmission ceiling is imposed . access by web based client 155 to security gateway 115 may be preempted whenever an alarm condition occurs so that monitoring personnel have full control over cameras 112 and audio stations 107 to respond to the alarm condition . the present invention also provides for lifestyle monitoring by a guest user . access permission for each remote user 152 is defined by the general administrator . access may be limited to certain time intervals ( such as only at certain times during the day ), a certain interval of time ( such as beginning friday and ending sunday ), or for a certain number of times ( such as three times a day or three times with no expiration date ). access may also be limited to certain cameras 112 or audio stations 107 , etc . when a guest user performs lifestyle monitoring , the guest user will have limited access to security system 100 . thus , guest users may not have full access to all cameras 112 and all audio stations 107 at all times . for example , remote user 152 may be able to access video from a camera 112 in a kitchen twenty - four hours a day , but may never be able to monitor audio or video from a bedroom . as another example , remote user 152 may be given permission to view video from several cameras 112 on a particular day , but only on that particular day . remote user 152 may also be given permission to only access certain audio stations 107 . although remote users 152 may be given unlimited access to a part or all of the security system 100 , such access does not necessarily give the remote users 152 the capability or authorization to change the security settings . therefore , remote user 152 can access at least a portion of security system 100 without accidentally or intentionally disarming parts or all of the system . furthermore , remote user &# 39 ; s 152 access privileges to security system 100 may be withdrawn or rescinded at any time by the general administrator . an advantage to allowing remote user 152 to access certain cameras 112 and audio stations 107 is that a lifestyle communication between the remote user 152 and one or more occupants of premises 110 can take place without requiring the occupants to do anything to acknowledge remote user 152 and start a communication session . unlike prior art video telephony systems , the system in accordance with the present invention is particularly advantageous in situations in which an occupant at premises 110 is unable to physically respond , for example , a person with certain disabilities . such a system is further advantageous in other settings in which a person at premises 110 is unwilling to participate in lifestyle communication , such as an unruly child . thus , the present invention provides for lifestyle communication without requiring an occupant of the premises 110 to walk to a keypad or other device to acknowledge remote user 152 and start a communication session . in one embodiment of the present invention , security gateway 115 may comprise a controller capable of performing one or more building automation control functions . such functions may include without limitation controlling air conditioning systems , doors , lighting devices , irrigation systems , and electrical appliances at the premises . building and home automation is described in more detail in u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 510 , 975 ; 5 , 572 , 438 ; 5 , 621 , 662 ; and 5 , 706 , 191 , the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference . reference is now made to fig2 , which depicts a block diagram of the system 100 of fig1 , according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention . as shown , security gateway 115 is operatively coupled to data center 132 through network 120 , which is , in turn , operatively coupled to a monitoring client 133 through network 134 . data center 132 stores customer information including billing information and security system settings , and is generally configured to automate certain aspects of security system 100 . data center 132 receives audio and video from security gateway 115 and sends it in real - time to monitoring client 133 . data center 132 authenticates remote user 152 of remote client 155 , recognizes multiple alarm notifications , and monitors the various components of security gateway 115 . technology - intensive equipment including the security system server 131 may be kept in the data center 132 where physical access may be strictly controlled . advantageously , in this configuration , non - technical personnel may be kept away from the sophisticated and expensive equipment in the data center 132 , and the non - security - related personnel would not have direct access to view sensitive alarm notifications and videos . any alarm notification and audiovisual information sent by security gateway 115 is transmitted to the security system server 131 at the data center 132 . the security system server 131 logs the alarm notification and retrieves information about the customer , which may include , without limitation , any prior alarm notifications or events . the security system server 131 also transmits the alarm notification and audiovisual information , along with any additional information , to one or more monitoring clients 133 , where such information and video may be displayed for a monitoring operator to determine if an alarm condition exists . in the illustrative embodiment , communications among security gateway 115 , data center 132 , and monitoring client 133 may occur through public and / or private networks . in particular , security gateway 115 is coupled to data center 132 , which is coupled to monitoring clients 133 through network 134 . although network 134 is logically depicted as a single network , it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that network 134 may comprise a plurality of data networks that may or may not be homogeneous . in one embodiment , at least some of the monitoring clients 133 may be coupled to the security system server 131 through the internet . in other embodiments , monitoring clients 133 may be coupled to the security system server 131 through dedicated connections such as a frame relay connection or atm connection . advantageously , maintaining dedicated lines between security gateway 115 and security system server 131 and between security system server 131 and monitoring client 133 provides a secure connection from security gateway 115 to monitoring client 133 that may have dedicated bandwidth and / or low latency . network 134 includes all such networks and connections . in another embodiment , not shown , data center 132 may be coupled to monitoring clients 133 through network 120 . reference is now made to fig3 , which illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the security gateway 115 of fig1 for use in monitoring the premises 110 . as shown in fig3 , security gateway 115 may include an alarm control panel 310 , a video module 320 , a user interface 350 , a communications interface 340 , and an audio module 330 . as shown in fig3 , the components of security gateway 115 are configured to communicate with one another through system bus 305 . in other embodiments , some or all of the components may be directly connected or otherwise operatively coupled to one another . alarm control panel 310 interfaces with one or more sensors 105 , which may be wired or wireless . in some embodiments , it may include an interface to the public switched telephone network ( pstn ) or a cellular network . however , as shown , the interface to the pstn may be contained in the communications interface 340 instead of the alarm control panel 310 . the alarm control panel 310 is preferably capable of operation in isolation as per ul requirements for residential fire applications and residential burglary operations . alarm control panel 310 is further capable of continuing to operate in the traditional manner regardless of the state of the video subsystem . alarm control panel 310 may be configured to communicate with the other components of the security system to monitor their operational state . information that the alarm control panel 310 may receive includes , but is not limited to , whether security gateway 115 can communicate with the security system server through the communications interface 340 , information about ac power failure , trouble by zone , fire trouble , telephone line trouble , low battery , bell output trouble , loss of internal clock , tamper by zone , fail to communicate , module fault , camera trouble , and intercom trouble . the detected operational failure of any component in security gateway 115 may be indicated by a communications loss between components and a concurrent alarm condition reported by alarm control panel 310 and displayed for the user on user interface 350 or announced through audio module 330 . in addition , any detected operation failures may be communicated to the security system server 131 through communications interface 340 . alarm control panel 310 may also be configured to record alarm conditions and associated data in memory . the security system server 131 may also be configured to record alarm conditions and associated data in addition to or in lieu of alarm control panel 310 doing so . in some embodiments , alarm control panel 310 supports dialup access by authorized users to remotely configure the system . however , the preferred mode of configuration is through an internet web site . in other embodiments , other components of security gateway 115 may be configured to perform this function . for example , in one embodiment , video module 320 records alarm conditions and the associated data . video module 320 may perform many functions including but not limited to analyzing data from one or more of the sensors 105 or cameras 112 to determine whether an alarm condition exists ; accessing data stored in memory ; generating alarm video to transmit to security system server 131 in response to detection of an alarm condition ; and communicating with security system server 131 and remote client 155 through communications interface 340 . in addition , video module 320 may buffer video from cameras 112 in memory . then based on predefined criteria , older video that is not considered essential to any alarm signals may be discarded . video module 320 may also be configured to record video , or potions thereof , on a predetermined basis , which may correspond , for example , to the requirements of the customer . non - alarm video may be stored for later retrieval by the customer . in one embodiment , the customer or remote user at remote location 150 may be able to adjust the predetermined basis including , without limitation , adjusting the recording times , duration , and total length of the recordings . in some embodiments , non - alarm video may also be sent to the security system server 131 for storage . video module 320 is also capable of streaming live audio and video from the residence during alarm conditions , pre - alarm events , post - alarm events , and non - alarm events , as well as for lifestyle monitoring . if a camera 112 is analog , video module 320 may digitize the video before transmitting it . when security system 100 is armed , audio and video data are constantly being stored in the video module &# 39 ; s memory for potential use as pre - event media . in one particular embodiment , video module 320 contains sufficient memory to store sixty seconds of pre - alarm video and audio from each camera 112 and microphone 334 at audio station 107 in ram and up to several hours of audio / video content ( per camera 112 and audio station 107 ) on disk . when an alarm condition occurs , this cached data may be stored more permanently . the general administrator of a security system 100 may delete recorded information , archive non - alarm information , and adjust the cache length . a guest user may only make such changes if the general administrator has assigned such permissions and access to the guest user . audio module 330 controls audio stations 107 , which typically include an audio transmitter , such as one or more speakers 338 , and an audio receiver , such as one or more microphones 334 . in a typical configuration , several microphones 334 and speakers 338 would be located throughout premises 110 . the audio signals detected by microphone ( s ) 334 are recorded through audio module 330 . audio module 330 may record the audio or it may transmit the audio to video module 320 for storage . audio module 330 may be capable of selecting an individual audio input 334 or any combination of audio inputs 334 . further , audio module 330 may play back audio signals through speaker ( s ) 338 . audio module 330 may provide gain control for microphones 334 and volume control for speakers 338 in audio station 332 . communications interface 340 may serve as the gateway between security gateway 115 and one or more communications networks such as a hybrid fiber coaxial network ( hfc ) plant , pstn 145 , wan , lan , and wireless networks . communications interface 340 may comprise software and hardware including , but not limited to a network interface card . in some embodiments , communications interface 340 may be physically separate from the other components of security gateway 115 . regardless of its form , communications interface 340 assists in the communication of data to and from security gateway 115 and security system server 131 . in addition , security gateway 115 may include a web - enabled user interface 350 . user interface 350 may further include a display device , such as a computer screen , television or keypad , for displaying information to the user . such information may include , without limitation , the current system status , whether an alarm condition has been detected , and whether any components have failed . in addition , other non - system - related information such as the time , date , weather forecasts , and news bulletins may be displayed . in the illustrative embodiment , user interface 350 is operatively coupled to a keypad 357 . a user could thereby activate or deactivate the security system by entering a predetermined code on keypad 357 . it will be understood with the benefit of this disclosure by those of skill in the art that other types of user interfaces 350 may be used with this invention . for example , security gateway 115 may be activated or deactivated with a remote portable transmitter 355 . wireless remote 355 communicates with user interface 350 via wireless receiver 352 . additional receivers may be used with the present invention to pick up weak signals . security gateway 115 is further capable of responding to wireless remotes 355 for changing alarm states of the security system . each wireless remote 355 may comprise , for example , a key fob , which may be identified to security gateway 115 as a unique user . in some embodiments of the present invention , two - way audio communications may be initiated between a remote user 152 and the premises 110 through audio module 330 . the monitoring station personnel cannot initiate lifestyle functions . to address privacy concerns , monitoring personnel have access to the security system components only during alarm events . advantageously , the two - way audio communication allows the remote user 152 to interact with a person at the premises without the need for the person at the premises to acknowledge communications channels . in order to address privacy concerns , in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention , an audio or visual indicator may be included to notify occupants at the premises that they are under remote surveillance . while streaming live media for lifestyle monitoring or any other remote connection is made with the security system 100 , security gateway 115 activates a notification signal such as an audible or visible “ splash tone ” on a frequent basis . for purposes of the present invention , the term “ splash tone ” is used broadly to mean an audio cue or visual cue , or both , to indicate to one or more persons at the premises that remote surveillance and monitoring of the premises 110 is occurring . the notification signal may include a unique tone , bell , or other manufactured sound . the notification signal may be a unique tone which repeats periodically . the notification signal may also include audible signals such as speech and other messages that announce the identity of the remote user 152 . the notification signal may further comprise a unique message when remote monitoring begins , such as “[ grannie ] has established a connection .” the notification signal may further comprise a signal to indicate when remote surveillance has ended , such as “[ grannie ] has disconnected .” the notification signal may also include a visual cue , such as an led located a keypad or on the appropriate camera ( s ) 112 . the notification signal may also include visual data for indicating the identity of the remote user 152 . for example , a graphical image , a depiction of the user , or an alphanumeric message may be used to identify the remote user 152 . therefore , the notification signal may be unique depending on the identity of the remote user 152 . in one embodiment , the security system may include one or more “ smart cameras ” that have much of the functionality of the video module 320 built in . specifically , these smart cameras may be operable to perform video capture , compression and storage and to communicate with the security gateway using a home area network , e . g ., a wireless standard such as the home networking standard 802 . 11b , or power - line . in essence , the smart camera would function as a network appliance that is able to receive instructions from the security gateway to control the session , fps ( frames per second ), quality , bandwidth , support other supervised communication from the gateway , and to transmit video and other information to the security gateway . preferably , transmission between the camera and security gateway 115 should be secure and reliable , even taking into account the relatively noisy household environment . optionally , the smart camera is operable to detect motion in the recorded image and send an event signal to the security gateway . the camera may integrate other sensor functionality such as audio discrimination and analysis and motion detection . reference is now made to fig4 , which depicts a more detailed illustration of the various components of the security system server 131 of fig1 and a central monitoring station 136 , according to one embodiment of the present invention . these components may be software programs executable on processor - based devices operable to communicate with one another through lan 405 and lan 445 , respectively . in one particular embodiment , these components are processor - based devices operating under the microsoft ® windows nt ™ operating system . however , it is understood that the present invention is not limited to the illustrated configuration . for example , the components may be implemented as software running on one or more computing devices . alternatively , the components may be implemented in several devices that may be directly connected via communications interfaces ( e . g ., serial , parallel , ieee 1394 , ir , rf or usb ). central monitoring station ( cms ) 136 is a facility operatively coupled to data center 132 and security gateway 115 . any alarm notification and audiovisual information sent by the security gateway 115 is transmitted to central monitoring station to determine if an alarm condition exists . if an alarm condition exists , cms 136 personnel can contact the appropriate authorities , etc . in this configuration , a concentration of trained personnel handle systems located throughout the country . in most embodiments , the communication channel between the data center 132 and central monitoring station 136 is secure , and accordingly , an unencrypted protocol may be used . in one particular embodiment , an unencrypted ascii protocol over a tcp / ip connection may be used . in configurations where the connection between the security system server 131 and monitoring client ( s ) 133 is not secure , it may be desirable to use an encrypted protocol . monitoring client 133 resides in central monitoring station 136 and is operable to display video and images transmitted from security gateway 115 in real - time , as well as provide two - way communication between monitoring client 133 and security gateway 115 . in the present disclosure , the term “ real - time ” is intended to generally mean that no substantive time period elapses between the captured audiovisual data and the receipt of audiovisual data corresponding to the event by monitoring client 133 . as shown , security system server 131 may comprise alarm receiver 410 , media handler 415 , automation system server 420 , web interface 432 , application server 434 , database server 436 , and messaging interface 438 . alarm receiver 410 receives the alarm notification and associated information from security gateway 115 . the alarm event is then logged and recorded by automation system server 420 . alarm events can also be reported by security gateway 115 to alarm receiver 440 via a communications network such as pstn 145 . alarm receiver 440 posts the alarm condition to automation system server 420 . monitoring client 133 retrieves audio and video data from media handler 415 . in one particular embodiment , the monitoring client 133 retrieves the audio and video data from media handler 415 using microsoft ® activex . in other embodiments , other media handling / communications protocols may be used , including , without limitation , custom protocols . the communications protocol is used to transmit audio and video content from media handler 415 , submit control messages ( for selecting cameras , microphones , and speakers during live feeds ), and support voice over ip ( voip ), streaming audio , and video services between the residence and monitoring client 133 during an alarm condition . automation system server 420 is generally configured to store customer data , for example contact information , billing information , passwords , as well as alarm history . alternatively , some or all of this information may be stored in monitoring client 133 or at another remote site . since this data is usually low bandwidth , dedicated bandwidth may not be necessary . however , it may be desirable for security purposes for it to remain in data center 132 . automation system server 420 may also serve as a workflow system for operators responding to alarm conditions , as well as a log of all monitoring activity . in an exemplary embodiment , automation system server 420 is a database application based on , for example microsoft sql server 7 , running under windows nt . cms personnel may interface with automation system server 420 over the network via a client application , which may be built into monitoring client 133 . media handler 415 is generally operable to provide several functions . for example , media handler 415 receives and stores video and audio data associated with alarm conditions from security gateway 115 and relays alarm condition data , for example audio and video , to monitoring client 133 . media handler 415 may also be responsible for keeping track of the network addresses for all the security gateways 115 that are attached . for example , media handler 415 relays alarm conditions reported via tcp / ip from security gateway 115 to automation system server 420 . media handler 415 may also provide access to audio and video associated with alarm conditions to authorized personnel for a predetermined time period after an alarm condition is detected . additionally , media handler 415 may relay control and configuration data destined for security gateways 115 . this data may originate either from an operator ( located at central monitoring station 136 ) through monitoring client 133 or from remote user 152 at remote location 150 . the communications protocol between monitoring client 133 and media handler 415 may be proprietary and / or may use standard protocols . the communications protocol between security gateway 115 and media handler 415 may provide secondary pathways for transmitting alarm notifications , relays configuration information to security gateway 115 ( including control messages for arming and disarming partitions , bypassing zones , and selecting cameras 112 and audio stations 107 for live feeds ), uploading pre - event and relevant non - alarm audio and video to media handler 415 during an alarm condition , transmitting live video and audio during an alarm condition , supporting voice over ip ( voip ) services between the residence and monitoring client 133 during an alarm condition , and performing software updates . web interface 432 provides authorized remote users 152 with the ability to view and edit account information , arm and disarm security system 100 , and view and hear live and recorded media from premises 110 , all through a network - based interface . in many embodiments , this network - based interface is an internet web site , or a portion of a web site . after the remote user 152 is authenticated , application server 434 provides and / or facilitates the features available to remote client 155 through web interface 432 . the particular features that are made available are a design decision that may vary based upon several factors , which may include , without limitation , the permissions of the remote user 152 and the type of premises that is monitored . messaging interface 438 may also provide for transmission of a message to remote client 155 by page , phone , e - mail , interactive voice response , short message service , or other messaging tool . such a message will serve to notify multiple contacts on the alarm contact list when an alarm event has taken place or is taking place . in one embodiment , a three - tier architecture may be used to provide such an interface . the first tier may consist of web servers running internet information server ( iis ) on windows nt ™, which is responsible for static web content such as images . requests for dynamic content may be forwarded to application server 434 . application server 434 generally provides or facilitates all of the functionality that is accessible to remote clients 155 . the third tier is a database tier that may be provided by automation system server 420 . data storage may be , for example , a billing database . authorized users may receive information from the database regarding their account by accessing database server 436 . application server 434 may access automation system server 420 to obtain account information and issue commands ultimately destined for security gateway 115 . after remote client 152 is authenticated , application server 434 may be configured to allow remote client 152 to view audiovisual content from security gateway 115 , communicate with automation system server 420 to access customer data , and access features of the security system 100 . in one embodiment , such features may include , without limitation , arming or disarming security system 100 ; adjusting sensitivities of sensors 105 ( if present ); adjusting alarm condition detection sensitivity ; remote monitoring ; adjusting camera 112 settings and audio station 107 settings ; adjusting settings for lights , hvac ( heating , ventilation , and air conditioning ) systems , irrigation systems and other environmental controls ; and reviewing alarms and recordings . in particular , application server 434 may allow remote user 152 to access media directly from security gateway 115 . in one embodiment , a live feed from the premises is available with the ability to select among cameras 112 and microphones 334 . in some embodiments , only video from certain specified cameras is accessible for remote clients . in some embodiments , application server 434 may be configured to allow remote user 152 to initiate a two - way audio connection with the security gateway 115 so that the remote user 152 can communicate through the audio stations 332 via speaker ( s ) 338 and microphone ( s ) 334 attached to security gateway 115 . communication between application server 434 and automation system server 420 may take the form of calls to stored procedures defined in the master database maintained by automation system server 420 . access to web interface 432 requires successful authentication using any technique discussed above , such as entering a username and password . preferably , all account - specific web content , including the login request , employs the secure http protocol . in one embodiment , each customer may be assigned a general administrator ( ga ) account . ga accounts have full access to their respective associated security gateway 115 . the ga account can also create a number of guest user (“ remote user ” 152 ) accounts that have limited access ( as discussed above ) to their respective associated security gateway 115 . typically , all account information is stored through automation system server 420 , including usernames and passwords . web interface 432 retrieves account data from automation system server 420 for display via the web , by means of one or more stored procedures . the ga can modify a subset of this account data and update the corresponding entries in automation system server 420 . referring now to fig5 , a process flow diagram is shown illustrating the process for remote monitoring of a premises by a remote user using a remote client located at a remote location using a security system such as the security system 100 of fig1 – 2 . in particular , remote users may access features of a security gateway such as the security gateway 110 of fig3 . these features include without limitation viewing and editing account information , arming and disarming the security system , and accessing live and recorded audiovisual data from the premises . in step 500 , the remote user connects to a security system server . in an exemplary embodiment , the remote user may connect to the security system server using a web browser such as netscape navigator or microsoft ® internet explorer . in other embodiments , the remote user may connect to the security system server via an interactive television platform having a friendly and easy - to - navigate user interface . in step 510 , the remote user provides the security system server with information for authentication . the type of information used for authentication may take many forms . for example , in one embodiment , a media handler associated with the security system server may require some sort of a username and password combination . further , it is to be understood by the disclosure of one of skill in the art that any other procedure suitable for authenticating the identity of the remote user may be used , such as by validating the remote user &# 39 ; s biometric data . the security system server verifies the authentication information in step 520 . if the information is not authenticated , then the remote user is denied access to the features of the security gateway , and process flow ends in step 590 . precautions against unauthorized access may be implemented , including , but not limited to , logging incidents of access attempts , with emphasis on denied access . in step 530 , the security system server determines if the remote user has the necessary permissions to access the security gateway . necessary permissions may include access to a particular camera or a particular audio station located at the premises , access during a particular time period , access to audio and or video information , and access to change passwords , settings and / or activate and deactivate the security system . if the remote user does not have the necessary permissions , the remote user is denied access to the security system , and process flow ends in step 590 . if the remote user has the necessary permissions , in step 540 , the security system server provides the remote client and the security gateway with an access token . the access token will typically comprise the identity of the remote user , the identity of security gateway to be accessed , the access permissions to be granted for the access token , and the desired lifespan of the token , as well as a digital signature of the security system server . it is noted that in accordance with the present invention , the remote user is only allowed access to those features corresponding to the permissions associated with the remote user &# 39 ; s permissions profile . for instance , the remote user may only have permission to access a camera in a baby &# 39 ; s nursery , and may lack access to the other cameras in the premises . alternatively , if the remote user is the general administrator of the security gateway , then he or she has full access to the security gateway features . the remote client then connects directly to the security gateway and provides the security gateway with the access token in step 550 . it is noted that the term “ connects directly ” means that communications between the remote client and security gateway do not pass through security system server . the security gateway inspects the access token received from the remote client and compares it to the access token received by the security gateway in step 560 . if the access tokens do not match , then the remote user at the remote client is denied access to the security gateway , and process flow ends in step 590 . if the access tokens match in step 565 , then the remote user may access features of the security gateway in step 570 in accordance with the user &# 39 ; s permissions profile . during access by the remote user of the security system cameras or audio stations at the premises , the security gateway activates a notification signal comprising an audiovisual cue at the premises in step 575 , indicating to occupants of the premises that remote monitoring is occurring . for example , an led on a camera at the premises may be activated while the remote user is accessing that camera . in another example , an audible tone may be activated while the remote user is accessing an audio station at the premises . the remote user will continue to be able to access designated security gateway features until the remote user logs out according to step 580 or the access token expires according to step 585 . in some embodiments , the security system server may assign a lifespan to the access token . in such cases , after a pre - specified time or event , the access token expires and the remote user may not access the security gateway after the expiration of the access token . in order to access to the features of the security gateway after expiration of the access token , the remote user must reconnect to the security system server and provide valid authentication information . accordingly , the remote user may then connect directly to security gateway to perform remote monitoring through security gateway , check the system status , initiate a two - way audio conference , and / or any other features made available by security gateway and falling within the remote user &# 39 ; s permissions . in some embodiments , only remote monitoring and two - way audio conferencing is made available through security gateway . in these embodiments , all non - media features are provided through security system server . the remote monitoring feature allows remote user to view all or portions of the video signal from video cameras and to hear all or portions audio information from audio stations . depending on the bandwidth of the connection , the video may be of a lower quality than that transmitted to central monitoring station for verification of alarm signals in order to save bandwidth . for example , in one embodiment , the video transmitted to remote user may have a lower frame rate , lower resolution , and / or lower color depth . depending on the remote user &# 39 ; s permissions and the remote client &# 39 ; s capabilities , the remote user may be able to configure the quality of the video for remote monitoring . in addition , depending on the remote user &# 39 ; s level of permissions , the remote user may access remote features of the security gateway directly to reconfigure the security system . once authenticated , the remote user may reconfigure some or all of the features of the security gateway . these features may include , without limitation , arming or disarming the security system ; adjusting sensitivities of sensors ( if present ); adjusting alarm condition detection sensitivity ; remote monitoring ; adjusting camera and audio station settings ; and reviewing alarms and recordings . camera settings may include without limitation pan , tilt , focus , brightness , contrast and zoom . the present invention also overcomes similar problems with personal emergency response systems ( pers ) and telemedicine , including telehealth . the monitoring clients in these applications can now use the video and alarm to better diagnose the problem . in many ways , alarms from health sensors , emergency panic buttons and the like are similar to alarm sensors in terms of generating false and unwanted alarms . this system also enables health care givers and concerned family members to use the remote client feature for increased peace of mind . the foregoing examples are included to demonstrate embodiments of the invention . it should be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the techniques disclosed in the examples which follow represent techniques discovered by the inventor to function well in the practice of the invention , and thus can be considered to constitute preferred modes for its practice . however , those of skill in the art should , in light of the present disclosure , appreciate that many changes can be made in the specific embodiments which are disclosed and still obtain a like or similar result without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . | 6 |
reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the invention . wherever possible , same or similar reference numerals are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts or steps . the drawings are in simplified form and are not to precise scale . the word ‘ couple ’ and similar terms do not necessarily denote direct and immediate connections , but also include connections through intermediate elements or devices . for purposes of convenience and clarity only , directional ( up / down , etc .) or motional ( forward / back , etc .) terms may be used with respect to the drawings . these and similar directional terms should not be construed to limit the scope in any manner . it will also be understood that other embodiments may be utilized without departing from the scope of the present invention , and that the detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense , and that elements may be differently positioned , or otherwise noted as in the appended claims without requirements of the written description being required thereto . various operations may be described as multiple discrete operations in turn , in a manner that may be helpful in understanding embodiments of the present invention ; however , the order of description should not be construed to imply that these operations are order dependent . referring now to fig1 - 10 the present invention involves an induction assembly and system 1 for a supercharged internal combustion engine having a v - type configuration ( engine partially shown , but understood by those of skill in the art ). as noted , a monolithic continuous unitary casting 2 housing a super charger assembly rotor assembly 6 ( see fig1 ) positioned relative to an automobile hood 3 ( car not shown ). the hood 3 includes a set of initial hood vents 3 a ( see fig1 ) and a hood opening 3 b bounding an upper portion of monolithic continuous unitary casting 2 . hood 3 operates relative to a fire wall structure 8 within an engine cavity of the vehicle and a particular improvement of the present invention is to enable an operative positioning of all components within the engine cavity while allowing for maintenance without comprehensive disassembly of the vehicle engine . as will be noted from the figures , rotor assembly and super charger 11 includes a nose drive assembly 15 operative to receive a driving force from the internal combustion engine for operative rotation . during a use , an air intake 16 receives an air flow via hood vents 3 a and ambient atmosphere and the intake air flow is pressurized forcefully through supercharger rotor assembly 11 within monolithic continuous unitary casting 2 , and is transmitted through an access portal 11 a ( see fig1 - 17 ) as will be discussed herein . monolithic unitary casting 2 includes a left side 20 a and a right side 20 b intercooler portal for receiving respective ones of a pair of side intercooler assemblies 13 , 13 before joining to respective side air intake runners 12 , 12 for transferring cooled pressurized air to the cylinder heads of the internal combustion engine . casting 2 includes a central intercooler portal 20 c ( fig1 ) and a continuously bound plenum including left and right intercooler portals 20 a , 20 b as well as a central intercooler portal 23 on a rear side thereof shaped to slidably - receive a central intercooler 14 from the rear side ( see fig5 ). a super charger portal 24 ″ is part of the monolithic construction and is shaped to slidingly - receive the super charger rotor assembly 11 , as shown , from a rear side , and a super charger air intake portal 24 ′ is shaped on a front side of the monolithic housing 2 . it will be understood that the super charger rotor assembly includes a nose drive assembly 15 for receiving a driving force for operation , and a rear cover door 15 a . during an operation a water flow operates in parallel to the central intercooler assembly 14 and to each respective side intercooler assembly 13 , 13 . water flows from a heat exchanger 6 operative to exchange heat with an ambient air , through a water pump assembly 4 , and a reservoir system 5 via a plurality of outgoing and return tubing 7 ( shown respectively ) to each respective intercooler assembly 13 , 13 , 14 . at a front portion of the monolithic casting 2 , a water cross over manifold 10 receives and transmits cooling water in parallel from either side intercooler assembly 13 , 13 and links with a water manifold assembly 9 for regulating an in / out flow of cooling water between each intercooler assembly 13 , 13 , 14 and the other respective elements in the water flow system 30 . as is shown particularly in fig1 , 4 , and 5 tubing elements 7 for the central intercooler assembly 14 are shown for convenience . it will be understood by those of skill in the art of automotive engineering , after study of the present disclosure that the flow elements of water flow system 30 may be modified and positioned differently and remain within the scope and spirit of the present invention . the present arrangement shown provides an improved convenience but is not limited thereto . for example , additional pumps , different reservoirs , and different pumps , cross - over manifolds and other separate manifolds may be used without departing from the present invention . the interior surface of monolithic continuous unitary casting 2 includes a central rib member 21 ( see fig1 , 16 for example ) to aid in directionally bifurcating the laminar pressurized air flow exiting intercooler 14 . a plurality of lateral rib members 22 project generally perpendicularly away from central rib member 21 along the inside surface of casting 2 to further aid and generate laminar airflow to respective side intercooler assemblies 13 , 13 . it will be understood that internal ribs 21 , 22 guide efficient pressurized laminar air flow , manage sound attenuation to reduce noise , and aid stiffening of casting 2 . at a bottom location of monolithic continuous unitary casting 2 , below super charger rotor assembly 11 and super charger portals 24 ′, 24 ″ are provide a plurality of rotor support ribs 25 projecting outwardly therefrom ( see fig1 , 16 , and 18 ). ribs 25 provide an additional rigidity and thermal conduction to casting 2 while enabling a thin wall section in the casting for a substantial weight reduction . referring additionally to fig1 - 22 additional sectional views are provided to aid in comprehension of induction assembly and system 1 , monolithic continuous induction housing 2 , and the related positions of central intercooler 14 and side intercoolers 13 , 13 relative to runners 12 , 12 . as will well understood from the cross - sectional arrangements in fig8 , 10 , 15 , and 19 , the induction housing 2 is continuous as a monolithic member having a thin wall thickness . in this matter , induction housing 2 can advantageously be assembled and removed from a set of cylinder heads 35 , 35 and a respective cylinder block 40 provided for illustrative purposes and to illustrate an overall block assembly 41 containing these basic components . as a result , it will be recognized by those of skill in the art that induction assembly and system 1 may be readily incorporated with cylinder heads 35 , 35 and cylinder block 40 and overall block assembly 41 having various geometries , within the scope and spirit of the present invention . as will be understood from considering side elevation view of block assembly 41 in fig2 , there is enabled by the present invention , an air gap ( shown ) between the bottom super charger ribs 25 and the central portion of cylinder block 40 , allowing for additional cooling , as well as other advantages in terms of efficiency and engine - component - arrangement . it will be understood that monolithic continuous unitary casting 2 may be alternatively called a monolithic housing 2 , for convenience without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention . it will be noted that side intercooler assemblies 13 , 13 are provided within left and right intercooler portals 20 a , 20 b ( see fig1 , 15 , 16 ), and are positioned within monolithic housing 2 allowing for easy access upon simple removal of monolithic housing 2 for maintenance . as will be noted , monolithic housing 2 contains a series of bolt holes ( 16 in total shown ) respectively identified as openings 26 . as will be appreciated from study of the figures , bolt holes 26 are continuous through monolithic housing 2 and extend through either side walls of the respective outer sides of monolithic housing 2 or are fully enclosed passages through the interior sides of the continuous bounded plenum within housing 2 ( see for example , fig1 , 16 , 17 , 18 , where it can be seen that laminar air flows pass from central rib 21 region along lateral rib regions 22 directly to side intercooler assemblies 13 , 13 and directly therethrough . it is noted that with the full enclosure of bolt holes 26 that tightening during assembly cannot distort unitary casting 2 because any bolt is continuously supported by the bolt - hole - side - wall ( see fig9 ) as will be understood from the disclosure , and particularly from fig5 and 6 , as a substantial convenience central intercooler 14 may be accessed in a slide - out manner from the rear of monolithic housing 2 without removal of monolithic housing 2 from any other engine component . in process , for assembly or disassembly , this is a substantial time savings and quality improvement . specifically , there is no damage to any seal ( which is not effective by sliding removal ) between the monolithic housing 2 , and runners 12 , 12 , or any other component . the rear door access portal 11 a for supercharger rotor assembly 11 need not be opened for changing or inspecting central intercooler 14 . additionally , as a substantial benefit , side intercooler assemblies 13 , 13 may also be inspected via angled viewing through ( via ) the central intercooler portal 23 , providing an enhanced and very fast review . an inspection light ( not shown ) can be positioned within portal 23 ( see fig6 ) and each side intercooler 13 , 13 can be inspected without the need to remove monolithic continuous unitary casting 2 unless necessary . regarding the position of monolithic housing 2 positioned within hood opening 3 b ; during use , variable rate air flow flows over a pair of undulating outer surface region 27 , 27 for monolithic housing 2 , spaced by a smooth central surface region 28 . undulating outer surface regions 27 , 27 receive deflected air flow from central surface region 28 , which deflects laterally ( to the side ) due to a curved and slanted / angular arrangement . additionally , any direct air flow ( from the front of a vehicle ) undulates over undulating out surface regions 27 , 27 and mixes with the laterally deflected air flow . this combined air flow intermixes for an enhanced convection heat transfer from the surface of monolithic housing 2 during vehicle transfer . additionally , it will be understood that the rear - portion of monolithic housing 2 ( see fig5 , 7 , 12 , 15 - 18 , and 21 - 22 ) splits into two side ‘ boot ’ type portions ( shown but not numbered ) proximate the ends of relating left and right intercooler portals 20 a , 20 b and intakes and cylinders for the respective engine . in this way , it will be understood that the laminar air flow extends to the entire cylinder head bank and to the cylinder heads and is not detrimentally affected despite the split shape . this arrangement additionally allows a convenient sealing between respective air runners 12 , 12 and monolithic housing 2 , a convenient shape , and reduced weight for the overall engine and induction assembly 1 . it will be further understood that the proposed assembly and system , while maximizing the surface area for convective cooling and inner plenum surface for air flow and housing , the monolithic unitary housing may be formed in related , but different functional shapes without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention . for example , external air - flow fins may be added to the external housing surface to provide more ambient air flow surface area during vehicle movement , and these air flow fins may be shaped in numerous ways , ( parallel rows , series of irregular bumps , mixture of rows and ridges , etc .). for a second example , the monolithic unitary housing may be provided in differing widths and lengths to accommodate different engine block and intake arrangements or for use with different intercooler shapes . for a further example , the proposed monolithic unitary housing may be adapted to different cylinder arrangements ( 4 - cylinder , 6 - cylinder , 8 , cylinder 10 - cylinder , 12 - cylinder , etc ) all within the scope and spirit of the present invention . as a result , there is no single exclusive outer surface shape or profile to the present , rather there are numerous alternatives that will meet the same functional claims and goals as noted herein . having described at least one of the preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings , it will be apparent to those skills that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments , and that various modifications and variations can be made in the presently disclosed system without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention . thus , it is intended that the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents . 1 : induction assembly and system for a supercharged internal combustion engine | 8 |
as a preliminary matter , it will readily be understood by one having ordinary skill in the relevant art (“ ordinary artisan ”) that the present invention has broad utility and application . furthermore , any embodiment discussed and identified as being “ preferred ” is considered to be part of a best mode contemplated for carrying out the present invention . other embodiments also may be discussed for additional illustrative purposes in providing a full and enabling disclosure of the present invention . as should be understood , any embodiment may incorporate only one or a plurality of the above - disclosed aspects of the invention and may further incorporate only one or a plurality of the above - disclosed features . moreover , many embodiments , such as adaptations , variations , modifications , and equivalent arrangements , will be implicitly disclosed by the embodiments described herein and fall within the scope of the present invention . accordingly , while the present invention is described herein in detail in relation to one or more embodiments , it is to be understood that this disclosure is illustrative and exemplary of the present invention , and is made merely for the purposes of providing a full and enabling disclosure of the present invention . the detailed disclosure herein of one or more embodiments is not intended , nor is to be construed , to limit the scope of patent protection afforded the present invention , which scope is to be defined by the claims and the equivalents thereof . it is not intended that the scope of patent protection afforded the present invention be defined by reading into any claim a limitation found herein that does not explicitly appear in the claim itself . thus , for example , any sequence ( s ) and / or temporal order of steps of various processes or methods that are described herein are illustrative and not restrictive . accordingly , it should be understood that , although steps of various processes or methods may be shown and described as being in a sequence or temporal order , the steps of any such processes or methods are not limited to being carried out in any particular sequence or order , absent an indication otherwise . indeed , the steps in such processes or methods generally may be carried out in various different sequences and orders while still falling within the scope of the present invention . accordingly , it is intended that the scope of patent protection afforded the present invention is to be defined by the appended claims rather than the description set forth herein . additionally , it is important to note that each term used herein refers to that which the ordinary artisan would understand such term to mean based on the contextual use of such term herein . to the extent that the meaning of a term used herein — as understood by the ordinary artisan based on the contextual use of such term — differs in any way from any particular dictionary definition of such term , it is intended that the meaning of the term as understood by the ordinary artisan should prevail . regarding applicability of 35 u . s . c . § 112 , ¶ 6 , no claim element is intended to be read in accordance with this statutory provision unless the explicit phrase “ means for ” or “ step for ” is actually used in such claim element , whereupon this statutory provision is intended to apply in the interpretation of such claim element . furthermore , it is important to note that , as used herein , “ a ” and “ an ” each generally denotes “ at least one ,” but does not exclude a plurality unless the contextual use dictates otherwise . thus , reference to “ a picnic basket having an apple ” describes “ a picnic basket having at least one apple ” as well as “ a picnic basket having apples .” in contrast , reference to “ a picnic basket having a single apple ” describes “ a picnic basket having only one apple .” when used herein to join a list of items , “ or ” denotes “ at least one of the items ,” but does not exclude a plurality of items of the list . thus , reference to “ a picnic basket having cheese or crackers ” describes “ a picnic basket having cheese without crackers ,” “ a picnic basket having crackers without cheese ,” and “ a picnic basket having both cheese and crackers .” finally , when used herein to join a list of items , “ and ” denotes “ all of the items of the list .” thus , reference to “ a picnic basket having cheese and crackers ” describes “ a picnic basket having cheese , wherein the picnic basket further has crackers ,” as well as describes “ a picnic basket having crackers , wherein the picnic basket further has cheese .” referring now to the drawings , in which like numerals represent like components throughout the several views , one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention are next described . the following description of one or more preferred embodiment ( s ) is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention , its application , or uses . fig6 is a front isometric view of an emt system 110 for imaging a human head 19 in accordance with one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention , fig7 is a front plan view of the emt system 110 of fig6 , and fig8 is a rear perspective view of the emt system 110 of fig6 . as shown therein , the system 110 includes an image chamber unit 131 , a control cabinet 135 , a hydraulic system 140 for supplying , circulating , and otherwise managing a matching fluid to the image chamber unit 131 , and a rolling carriage 132 . in at least some embodiments , the image chamber unit 131 and the control cabinet 135 are housed together in a single enclosure 134 and are supported on a rolling carriage 132 . furthermore , in at least some embodiments , some or all of the hydraulic system 140 is supported on the rolling carriage 132 as well . however , in some embodiments , the image chamber unit 131 and control cabinet 135 are separate from each other and each may or may not be carried on its own rolling carriage . in some of these embodiments , the image chamber unit 131 and control cabinet 135 are not located in the same room . although not illustrated in fig6 - 8 , the system 110 also includes a user interface computer 208 , described elsewhere herein , which may be connected to the rest of the system 110 via ethernet or other port 136 located on the side of the control cabinet 131 . fig9 is a cross - sectional , partially schematic , right side view of the image chamber unit 131 of fig7 , taken along line 9 - 9 . as shown therein , the image chamber unit 131 includes a disk assembly 126 , a membrane 133 , and fluid inlets 167 , 168 . the disk assembly 126 includes a plurality of antenna disks 170 and a back disk 183 , wherein at least the antenna disks 170 are open in their centers . the center openings of the antenna disks 170 together with the back disk 183 at least partially define a “ working ” chamber or “ imaging ” chamber 122 . in at least some embodiments , the antenna disk center openings are circular , and the circular openings thus define a cylindrical portion of the working chamber 122 ( perhaps best seen in fig1 ), which simplifies the operation of the tomography somewhat , but in other embodiments the center openings and working chamber 122 may take on other shapes . in at least some embodiments , the volume of the working chamber 122 is approximately 12 liters . the center opening of the frontmost antenna disk 170 defines an entry opening 169 for receiving a patient . the entry opening 169 is preferably surrounded by a protective ring 182 ( shown in fig6 and 7 ) covering the surfaces of the antenna disk 170 and other portions of the working chamber 122 . fig1 is a view of the image chamber unit 131 similar to that of fig9 , but with a patient support 120 and a catch basin 165 in place adjacent the unit 131 , and fig1 is a view of the image chamber unit 131 similar to that of fig1 but shown with an upper portion of a patient &# 39 ; s head 19 inserted into the entry opening . for comfort and convenience , the patient may be positioned on the patient support 120 , which may be a gurney , cart , table , stretcher , or the like . in at least some embodiments of the present invention , a headrest 118 extends from the end of the patient support 120 . the headrest 118 is preferably padded and adjustable . adjustability of the headrest 118 may be provided in one or more of the longitudinal direction ( toward or away from the end of the patient support 120 ), the vertical direction ( up or down relative to the patient support 120 ), and rotationally ( for example , about an axis that is parallel with the end of the patient support 120 ). in the illustrated embodiment , the entry opening and the working chamber 122 are sized to correspond specifically to a human head , but it will be appreciated that other dimensions may be utilized for other body parts or to accommodate the entirety of a human body . the entry opening is substantially liquid - sealed by the membrane 133 such that the front of the working chamber 122 is separated by the membrane 133 from the rear of the chamber 122 . fluid leaks through the front of the working chamber 122 , such as around or through the membrane 133 , may be captured in the catch basin 165 disposed in front of the unit 131 . it is contemplated that the catch basin 165 can be integral with or otherwise part of the image chamber unit 131 . fig1 and 13 are a rear isometric view and a rear plan view , respectively , of the membrane 133 of the image chamber unit 131 of fig6 , and fig1 is a side cross - sectional view of the membrane 133 of fig1 , taken along line 14 - 14 . the membrane 133 is preferably somewhat hat - shaped , with a center crown portion 127 extending “ upward ” or “ inward ” from an outer brim portion 128 . the brim portion 128 is shaped to be fastened to the antenna disks 170 and may include apertures 129 for this purpose . as shown in fig1 , the crown portion 127 may be thinner than the brim portion 128 and is preferably flexible enough to wrap snugly around the patient &# 39 ; s head 19 , as shown in fig1 . in at least some embodiments , the membrane 133 is made of latex or similar material . fig1 is a view of the image chamber unit 131 similar to that of fig1 but shown with a fluid disposed within the working chamber 122 on the opposite side of the membrane 133 from the patient &# 39 ; s head 19 . the fluid may be supplied to or from the working chamber 122 via the inlets 167 , 168 , which may be arranged in or on the back disk 183 . the fluid itself is a “ matching ” fluid that is chosen for its properties so as to enhance the tomographic process . flow and other movement of the fluid is controlled by the hydraulic system 140 . fig1 is a schematic diagram of the hydraulic system 140 of fig8 . as shown therein , the hydraulic system 140 includes an external tank 141 , a bi - directional pump 142 , a valve 159 , backflow valve 160 , a check ( directional ) valve 161 , an inner upper tank 146 , one or more liquid sensors 147 , a lighter 148 , one or more temperature sensors 149 , 150 , and a variety of hoses , tubes , fittings , and the like , some of which are described herein . the external tank 141 holds a quantity of a matching fluid . a hose 151 connects the external tank 141 to the pump 142 , and another hose 152 connects the pump 142 to a fitting 153 on the enclosure 134 . in at least some embodiments , the pump hoses 151 , 152 are ¾ ″ flexible tube hoses , and the hose fitting 153 is a quick release fitting . the pump 142 is used to supply matching fluid from the external tank 141 to the working ( image ) chamber of the image chamber unit 131 . the matching fluid is a solution or gel that is needed or useful inside the imaging chamber when the object 19 is being measured inside it to address electromagnetic body - matching problems . in at least some embodiments , the matching liquid is a mixture of glycerol ( ph . eur . ), water and brine . in at least some embodiments , the pump 142 is connected by cable 154 to a standard power supply , such as a 220v electrical source , which may be provided from the control cabinet 135 via an outlet 137 , preferably located on the outer surface of the enclosure 134 , and a corresponding water proof socket 155 . direction , speed , and other control of the pump 142 may be provided by remote control 156 . one pump 142 suitable for use in at least some preferred embodiments is a watson marlow 620 re ip66 pump . inside the image chamber unit 131 , another hose 157 is connected between the external fitting 153 and a first inlet 167 to the working chamber , and still another hose 158 is connected between a second inlet 168 to the working chamber and the inner upper tank 146 . in at least some embodiments , the hose 157 is a ¾ ″ flexible tube hose . an inline valve 159 may optionally be provided in the hose 157 from the pump 134 , while a backflow valve 160 and check ( directional ) valve 161 may be provided in the hose 158 to the inner upper tank 146 . the backflow valve 160 provides at least two functions . first , when it is closed , the pump 142 may be used to generate an under - pressure , thereby denting in the membrane 133 ( as seen from outside the image chamber unit 131 ) and readying the unit 131 for a patient &# 39 ; s head to be inserted therein . second , when the patient &# 39 ; s head is positioned inside the membrane 133 , opening the backflow valve 160 allows the matching fluid to flow from the reservoir 146 back to the imaging chamber , which in turn causes the patient &# 39 ; s head to be slowly enclosed by the membrane 133 and the liquid . the check valve 161 , on the other hand , performs a safety function by avoiding the buildup of an overpressure if the backflow valve 160 is closed . the check valve 161 includes a manual control lever 181 , as shown in fig6 . the temperature sensors 149 , 150 may be used to determine the temperature of the matching fluid inside the working chamber , or in close proximity thereto . if the temperature becomes uncomfortably cool , the lamp or lighter 148 may be utilized to trigger heating of the inner upper tank 146 . unintentional heating of an empty tank 146 may be avoided by using the liquid sensors 147 to verify that sufficient liquid is present in the tank . an overfill path may be provided between the inner upper tank 146 and the external tank 141 so as to return any excess matching liquid to the external tank 141 . the overfill path may include an internal hose 162 , an external hose 163 , and a fitting 164 on the exterior of the enclosure 134 , wherein the internal hose 162 is connected between the inner upper tank 146 and the fitting 164 and the external hose is connected between the fitting 164 and the external tank 141 . generally , the overfill path is only utilized if the reservoir 146 is accidentally overfilled , in which case the overfill path allows the excess liquid to return to the external tank 141 . in at least some embodiments , the overfill path hoses 162 , 163 are ¾ ″ flexible tube hoses , and the hose fitting 164 is a quick release fitting . a leakage path may also be provided . the leakage path may include a catch basin 165 and a drain hose or tube 166 . the catch basin 165 may be disposed adjacent the working chamber so as to receive fluid escaping therefrom , such as during dismantling of the system 110 . in some embodiments , the drain hose 166 connects the catch basin 165 to the external tank , such as by the overflow path , while in others the drain hose 166 is routed to a waste tank ( not shown ) and / or is left open or unconnected . fig1 is a left front isometric view of portions of the disk assembly 126 of fig9 . as shown therein , the disk assembly 126 includes a plurality of antenna disks 170 arranged concentrically such that their center openings define the interior of the working chamber 122 , as described previously . notably , whereas traditional emt systems have used rings of transmitters / receivers / sensors that have been oriented in a horizontal plane to define a vertical working chamber , the rings of transmitter / receivers and receivers of the present invention are each oriented vertically so as to define a horizontal working chamber . each antenna disk 170 includes a multitude of antennas 173 arranged in a ring around the working chamber 122 . fig1 is a schematic representation of these concentric rings 180 of antennas 173 . although other numbers of disks 170 and rings 180 may be utilized , five antenna disks 170 and thus five antenna rings 180 are present in the embodiment shown in fig1 and 18 . furthermore , although other numbers of antennas 173 may be utilized , 32 antennas 173 are present in the embodiment shown in fig1 and 18 , and thus a total of 160 antennas 173 are utilized . in one embodiment , preferred for its simplicity , the antennas 173 in the middle ring 180 are both transmitting and receiving antennas , while the antennas 173 on the other four rings 180 are receiving antennas only . in one contemplated embodiment , the rings 180 ( i . e ., the center openings of the antenna disks 170 ) are 285 mm in diameter . in fig1 , transmitting / receiving antenna “ 9 ” on ring “ c ” is shown as transmitting an electromagnetic field or signal , all or some of which is received at each of various transmitting / receiving antennas on ring “ c ” and at each of various receiving antennas on rings “ a ”, “ b ”, “ d ”, and “ e ”. it will be appreciated , however , that any or all of the transmitting / receiving antennas on ring “ c ” and / or any or all of the receiving antennas on any or all of the other rings may receive the transmitted field or signal and thus may be incorporated into the tomographic process . fig1 is a top cross - sectional view of the disk assembly 126 of fig1 , taken along line 19 - 19 ; fig2 is a front view of one of the antenna disks 170 of fig1 , and fig2 is a top cross - sectional view of the antenna disk 170 of fig2 . notably , some visual detail regarding the electrical connections for the antennas has been omitted in fig1 ; however , much of the omitted visual detail is shown in fig2 . each antenna disk 170 includes two mating rings 171 , 172 , the antennas 173 themselves , a corner element 174 for each antenna 173 , a cable plate 175 , and a cable assembly 176 for each antenna 173 . each cable assembly 176 includes a cable and / or conduit with an appropriate terminator 177 , 178 on each end . screws or other cable positioners 179 are provided to hold the cable assemblies 176 in place . fig2 is a schematic diagram of the emt system 110 of fig6 . as shown therein , the emt system 110 includes the image chamber unit 131 ( including the working chamber 122 ), the hydraulic system 140 , the patient support 120 , and a control system 200 . the control system 200 includes two 16 - channel transmitting / receiving switch units 201 for the transmitting / receiving antenna disk 170 , two 16 - channel receiving switch units 202 for each of the receiving antenna disks 170 , a control unit 203 , a network analyzer 204 , a power unit 205 , one or more fan units 206 , a hub 207 , and a user interface computer 208 . in at least some embodiments , the switch units 201 , 202 , control unit 203 , network analyzer 204 , power unit 205 , fan units 206 , and hub 207 are supported on a rack 209 in the control cabinet 135 . the user interface computer 208 may be supported on or in the enclosure 134 or may be supported elsewhere , such as on a nearby desk , a user &# 39 ; s lap , or in some cases even outside the room . fig2 is a schematic representation of the operation of the rings 180 of antennas 173 around the imaging domain , which is defined by the imaging chamber . the general task is to make complex si , j , k parameters matrix measurement , where i is the transmitting antenna ( i = 1 . . . 32 ), j is the receiving antenna ( j = 1 . . . 31 ), and k is the ring of the receiving antenna ( k = 1 . . . 5 ). the more practical case for the number of receiving antennas that are measured for each transmitting antenna may be between 12 and 20 ( i . e ., only receivers generally opposite the transmitting antenna ), and the most practical case may be for 17 receiving antennas to be measured for each transmitting antenna , but other numbers are also viable . typical attenuations may be ˜ 90 db to ˜ 130 db . in at least some embodiments , frequencies may be 0 . 8 - 1 . 5 ghz , step 50 mhz . in at least some embodiments , channel - to - channel isolation may be ˜ 80 db to ˜ 100 db . in at least some embodiments , maximum power output may be + 20 dbm ( 100 mw ). in at least some embodiments , single frame data acquisition time may be less than 60 msec (“ frame ” being defined as the full cycle of s matrix measurements ). in at least some embodiments , the number of acquired frames may be from 1 to 1000 . in at least some embodiments , the dielectric properties of the matching media between antennas and object may be ˜( 30 - to - 60 )+ j ( 15 - to - 25 ). fig2 a and 24b are a more detailed schematic diagram of the control system 200 of fig2 . as shown therein , the hub 207 , which may provide both wireless and wired connections , communicatively connects the control unit 203 , the network analyzer 204 , and the user interface computer 208 . the control unit 203 includes a host controller that interfaces with the hub 207 as well as provides a trigger input to the network analyzer 204 and receives “ ready for trigger ” and / or “ busy ” signals from the network analyzer 204 . the host controller also receives an ecg input and controls drivers for mw switches . the control unit 203 also includes various circuitry , including amplifiers , multiplexers , and the like , to generate input signals for the ports of the network analyzer 204 , which may be a zva 4 port vector network analyzer available from rohde & amp ; schwarz . the network analyzer 204 is also communicatively connected to the hub 207 , preferably via a lan , and operations of the control unit 203 and network analyzer 204 are under the control of the user interface computer 208 . power is supplied by a power converter which may receive 24v power from the power unit 205 as described elsewhere herein . fig2 is a schematic diagram of one of the transmitting / receiving switch units 201 of fig2 , and fig2 is a schematic diagram of one of the receiving switch units 202 of fig2 . fig2 is a schematic diagram of the power unit 205 of fig2 . as shown therein , the ac line input is converted into power for the hub 207 , the network analyzer ( vna ) 204 , and for 24v ac / dc converters used to power the control unit 203 and transmitter / receiver and receiver switch units 201 , 202 . fig2 is a schematic block diagram of additional or alternative details of a control system for the emt system 110 . in operation , a patient 15 is placed on his back on a patient support 120 and transported to the image chamber unit 131 , shown in fig9 , or the image chamber unit 131 is transported to the location of the patient 15 . for sanitary purposes , a single - use protective cap ( not shown ) may be placed over the patient &# 39 ; s head 19 . such a protective cap may be made of plastic , latex , or the like . the patient &# 39 ; s head 19 is then inserted into the entry opening 169 in the working chamber 122 as shown in fig1 . the headrest 118 may be adjusted as necessary or desired to arrange the patient &# 39 ; s head in the desired position and orientation within the working chamber 122 . the patient &# 39 ; s head 19 bears against the membrane 133 , which then conforms to the shape of the patient &# 39 ; s head 19 . with the patient &# 39 ; s head 19 properly arranged , a technician fills the working chamber with a quantity of the prepared matching liquid . filling may be carried out using the remote control of the pump , which in at least some embodiments has toggle switches to start and stop the pump , control the direction of flow ( in or out ), and flow rate . filling is preferably initiated at a low flow rate to avoid splashing of matching liquid . matching liquid is pumped into the working chamber until it is full , as shown in fig1 . in addition to filling the working chamber with the matching liquid , the technician may also power on the various electronic components , including the control unit , the network analyzer , transmitter and receiver units , and the like . using the user interface computer , software may then be utilized to calibrate and operate the system . functionally , much of the operation of the emt system 110 may be similar to that described in the aforementioned u . s . pat . no . 7 , 239 , 731 , u . s . patent application publication no . 2012 / 0010493 a1 ( u . s . patent application ser . no . 13 / 173 , 078 ), and / or u . s . patent application publication no . 2014 / 0276012 a1 ( u . s . patent application ser . no . 13 / 894 , 395 ), but various particular embodiments and features thereof may be described herein . measurements are taken , a matrix of complex data is generated , and various algorithms are used to transform such data into tomographic images of the interior of the patient &# 39 ; s head 19 . other embodiments of the present invention are likewise possible . in particular , emt systems having components that are more easily transported than those of the system 110 described hereinabove are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention . in this regard , fig2 and 30 are a top front perspective view and a bottom rear perspective view , respectively , of another emt system 210 for imaging a human head 19 in accordance with one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention . the system 210 includes an image chamber unit 231 , a control cabinet 235 , and a hydraulic system 240 for supplying , circulating , and otherwise managing a matching fluid to the image chamber unit 231 . the entire system 210 may be carried on a patient support 220 , which again may be a gurney , cart , table , stretcher , or the like . in particular , the image chamber unit 231 , which includes a built - in headrest 218 , is carried on a top surface of the patient support 220 , near one end , and the control cabinet 235 is carried beneath the patient support 220 . such a system 210 may be more conveniently transported , and in particular , the system 210 may be rolled with the patient support 220 onto and off of an ambulance and into a medical facility . in this regard , fig3 is a top plan view of the system 210 in use in an ambulance 211 . in at least some embodiments , an image chamber unit of a type described herein is man - portable . as used herein , “ man - portable ” means cable of being carried or borne by one human . in particular , an image chamber unit of a type described herein may take the form of a wearable hat , helmet , cap , or the like . fig3 is a side perspective view of a cap serving as a wearable image chamber unit in accordance with one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention . aspects of such wearable apparatuses may be described , for example , in u . s . patent application ser . no . 13 / 894 , 395 . at least some embodiments of the emt systems presented herein , including without limitation the mobile embodiments such as the one presented in fig2 - 31 and the wearable cap of fig3 , may be utilized advantageously outside of the clinical setting . fig3 is a pictorial illustration of a timeline for use of an emt system , including the cap of fig3 , for imaging a human head in response to the onset of stroke symptoms in a patient . as shown therein , at 8 : 00 pm , a patient may be resting at home when he experiences the onset of stroke - like symptoms , such as disorientation and weakness in the face and arms . in response , he or a family member or friend contacts a medical provider , and an ambulance is dispatched . meanwhile , a doctor or other medical practitioner is contacted and updated on the situation . the patient &# 39 ; s head is placed in a mobile imaging unit , and scanning begins as shown around 8 : 25 pm . ( in fig3 , the mobile image chamber unit is the cap of fig3 , but it will be appreciated that the unit of fig2 - 31 may be used instead .) resulting data may be provided to the doctor , ambulance staff , imaging specialists , and other personnel . some of the data may be used directly for diagnosis , treatment , or the like , while complex image - related data may be processed according to the systems and methods of the present invention to reconstruct images from which further diagnosis , treatment , or the like may be triggered . in at least some embodiments , such processing may generate an automatic alert that the data indicates that a potential stroke is likely . notably , in at least some embodiments , such processing is carried out by a third party service provider who specializes in reconstruction of images according to the systems and methods of the present invention . during transport , from approximately 8 : 45 pm to 9 : 00 pm , the cap 331 continues to provide data regarding the patient &# 39 ; s condition , and the local hospital staff is further updated and arranges and prepares for further treatment . once the patient arrives at the hospital or other treatment center , the images and data may be used in providing timely , accurate information about the status of the stroke injury , and appropriate treatment and follow - up may be administered . such a system could be utilized to provide the desired “ under 3 hour ” treatment that can make a major difference in the final outcome of the stroke injury and its affect on the patient . it will be appreciated that in at least some embodiments , the systems , apparatuses and methods presented hereinabove may be incorporated into a 4d emt differential ( dynamic ) fused imaging system . 4d emt differential ( dynamic ) fused imaging system suitable for use with one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in appendix b . based on the foregoing information , it will be readily understood by those persons skilled in the art that the present invention is susceptible of broad utility and application . many embodiments and adaptations of the present invention other than those specifically described herein , as well as many variations , modifications , and equivalent arrangements , will be apparent from or reasonably suggested by the present invention and the foregoing descriptions thereof , without departing from the substance or scope of the present invention . accordingly , while the present invention has been described herein in detail in relation to one or more preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that this disclosure is only illustrative and exemplary of the present invention and is made merely for the purpose of providing a full and enabling disclosure of the invention . the foregoing disclosure is not intended to be construed to limit the present invention or otherwise exclude any such other embodiments , adaptations , variations , modifications or equivalent arrangements ; the present invention being limited only by the claims appended hereto and the equivalents thereof . | 0 |
in order for mobile devices to be used within the interior cabin of a vehicle , such as an automobile , the vehicle must be equipped with at least one complementary interface / port capable of wireless communication with the mobile device within the vehicle cabin , or when approaching the vehicle from the exterior . where wireless infrared connectivity is used , it is preferred that line - of - sight communication be possible between the mobile device and the interface / port of the vehicle that serves as the interface and exchange point for data between the mobile device and the vehicle electronics system / accessories . in this regard , placement of an ir data port at the interior rearview mirror assembly ( such as at or in the case / bezel of the assembly , or attached to the mirror assembly support about which the casing housing is adjustable , or at or in a pod attached to the attachment mount of the interior mirror assembly to the vehicle , such as to a mirror mounting button on a windshield as are known in the mirror arts ) has the advantage of being high mounted and central , and so accessible to all vehicle occupants including those in both the front seats and in rear seats . the interior rearview mirror of the vehicle ( and optionally an exterior side view mirror of the vehicle ) is preferably equipped with at least one infrared communication port such as an irda ( infrared data port ) such as the devices available from by clarinet systems inc ., san jose , calif . for wireless connectivity to other irda devices such as the personal digital assistants ( pda ) like the palm pilot palm iii , iiix , v , vii , glenarye pager , motorola 2000x pagewriter , and similar devices and cellular phones equipped with irda ports such as the nokia 6210 , windows ce devices , laptop computers , and similar mobile devices having wireless communication capabilities to paging , cellular , or satellite systems . also , by connecting a mobile device to the vehicle via a vehicle - mounted , preferably mirror - mounted , wireless connectivity interface / port , a low - feature and / or low - power mobile device can be linked to the vehicle , and the vehicle ( including its on - board computer ) can serve as the modem / communication port / computer for the mobile device , thus greatly expanding the capability of the mobile device . this enables wireless connectivity of devices that originally could not act as a wireless modem . also , mobile devices typically have restricted display capabilities . by connecting wirelessly to the vehicle and to the vehicle &# 39 ; s electronics ( such as a vehicle computer ), the greater display capability and / or greater computing power of the vehicle ( such as a vehicle video display , preferably mirror - mounted , such as disclosed in commonly assigned u . s . pat . no . 6 , 690 , 268 , which relates to u . s . provisional application ser . no . 60 / 263 , 680 , filed on jan . 23 , 2001 , u . s . provisional application ser . no . 60 / 243 , 986 , filed on oct . 27 , 2000 , u . s . provisional application ser . no . 60 / 238 , 483 , filed on oct . 6 , 2000 , u . s . provisional application ser . no . 60 / 237 , 077 , filed on sep . 30 , 2000 , u . s . provisional application ser . no . 60 / 234 , 412 , filed on sep . 21 , 2000 , u . s . provisional application ser . no . 60 / 218 , 336 , filed on jul . 14 , 2000 , and u . s . provisional patent application ser . no . 60 / 186 , 520 , filed mar . 2 , 2000 , the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference ), can be accessed and used by the mobile device . a separate display is located behind the mirror reflector . in such a configuration where a display element is behind the mirror reflector , the reflective mirror coating of the mirror reflective element can be locally at least partially removed at the location of the display element disposed behind the mirror element . optionally , where all the reflective mirror coating is removed , a semitransparent but significantly reflecting coating or series of coatings ( such as a thin metal film coating or a multilayer of coatings , including a thin metal coating of silver , aluminum , rhodium ( or their alloys ), or the like , or a dichroic coating or coating stack , can be used that substantially masks the display element from driver notice until the display element is powered to display information , such as disclosed in u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 668 , 663 and 5 , 724 , 187 , which are incorporated by reference in their entireties . such has been described as “ display on demand ” in the art . such display can include a “ display on demand ” such as disclosed in u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 668 , 663 and 5 , 724 , 187 noted above . in this regard , it is preferable that the display be a light - emitting display , such as a fluorescent display , a vacuum fluorescent display , a field emission display , an electroluminescent display , a fluorescent display , a plasma display , or a light - emitting diode display , such as an organic or inorganic light - emitting diode display . alternatively , the reflective element may comprise a substantially reflecting , significantly light - transmitting reflective element , such as disclosed in u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 668 , 663 and 5 , 724 , 187 noted above . an example , such as a semitransparent reflector , would be a third surface reflector coated on the third surface of an electrochromic mirror element , as known in the electrochromic mirror art , consisting of a thin metal coating ( such as of silver , silver alloy , aluminum , aluminum alloy ) that is significantly reflecting of at least 60 %, preferably at least 70 % and most preferably at least 75 % but also significantly transmitting in the range of between 5 % to 30 %, preferably in the range of between 10 % and 25 % and most preferably in the range of between 15 % and 20 %. preferably , the thin metal coating is overcoated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide when contacting an electrochromic medium ( preferably an electrochromic solid polymer film ) when serving as a combined third surface reflector / conductor layer in an electrochromic laminate cell construction . for further details of suitable reflective elements with portions of the reflective mirror coating adapted to permit light to transmit through the reflective element or of a highly reflecting / significantly transflective reflective element , reference is made to u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 668 , 663 and 5 , 724 , 187 . this access can be facilitated via protocols such as the wireless application protocol ( wap ) for mobile devices and can be networked via sub - networks of the worldwide web by systems providers such as jp systems inc . of dallas , tex . such networks are designed for mobile devices and include client applications , gateways , and backend servers integrating with open standards , such as wap . the server compresses and optimizes data so that it can be sent to wireless devices in a format that is best suited to those devices . typically this data is displayed in a few lines of text , preferably a scrolling line of text data , to suit such mobile interactive transceivers . when connected within a vehicle , preferably such data is displayed at the interior rearview mirror . as described in commonly assigned u . s . pat . no . 6 , 477 , 464 , which claims priority from u . s . provisional patent application ser . no . 60 / 187 , 960 filed on mar . 9 , 2000 , and u . s . pat . no . 6 , 553 , 308 , which claims priority from u . s . provisional application ser . no . 60 / 131 , 593 filed on apr . 29 , 1999 , the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference , provision of a display and particularly a scrolling text display at the interior rear view assembly of the vehicle ( and / or the exterior rear view mirror assembly ) has many advantages including ease of readability and recognition by the driver of the vehicle . the interfacing of a mobile accessory to the vehicle via a wireless link , preferably a wireless ir link , can be further enhanced by linking to the vehicle &# 39 ; s gps system . the gps system can provide location / directional information to the driver . this can facilitate a push communication protocol whereby information and messages are automatically transmitted to the driver . alternatively , or in addition , a pull communication protocol can be used whereby the driver selects information at his / her request only . this optionally can be a user - defined option . for example , assume the vehicle equipped with the present invention is approaching a service / convenience / food supplier such as a starbucks coffee location or a service station . the in - vehicle gps system can alert the wap hardware located either in the vehicle or , through the irda port , on the handheld device and offer a discount such as a $ 0 . 25 electronic coupon if the driver decides to stop for a particular purchase at that store . the vehicle location is wirelessly transmitted from the vehicle to a system such as onstar ™ available from general motors or a similar system . the location of the vehicle is then provided to a service location proximate to the location of the vehicle or in the direction of travel of the vehicle . such service provider ( s ) can then communicate wirelessly back to the vehicle specific information / service offers / discount information / advertisements , and the driver or other occupants of the vehicle can make decisions based on this received information and / or can specifically communicate with such service provider ( s ). also , internet and / or telemetry sites and services can be provided at a low cost or free to the driver , and with the compensation to the remote service provider be via advertisements received at the vehicle and displayed to the driver . by linking via the gps system of the vehicle , such advertisements can be customized to suit the particular geographic location where the vehicle is located . also , customized entertainment and / or information can be provided by wireless communication to the vehicle , such as from a digital satellite radio station , and with content , such as advertisements , local news broadcasts , weather data , traffic data , and the like , customized to the particular location of the vehicle via dynamic interactive communication that communicates gps data concerning the vehicle location and heading , generated by an in - vehicle gps system , from the vehicle to a remote receiver ( such as a web site , telemetry service or media station ) via wireless transmission and receiving of data to and from the vehicle , and , preferably , via an irda - port , to a mobile device such as a personal cell phone or pda in the vehicle . another embodiment of the invention is the placement of mobile device communication ports such irda ports in the vehicle cabins of automobiles in a rental car fleet . preferably , the communication port , such as an irda port , is placed at the interior rearview mirror assembly , as this is a central location that is readily accessed by a variety of drivers , many of who will be new to the type of rented model , but who will have had previous familiarity with accessing a mirror - mounted irda port . this would enable the temporary user of the vehicle access mobile communication and services as well as communication to the rental company if the vehicle breaks down or requires servicing . certain vehicles could also be equipped with faxes and keyboards for a mobile office capable of sending and receiving information . in addition to these features , the irda port can serve as the interface to systems within the mirror such as a palm - sized keyboard similar to a handheld pda where the operator can compose , edit , and access systems located in the mirror . this system can be available as an option because , due to the open architecture of the irda port , the operator can also interface the system with the existing pda , phone , or other mobile device capable of composing or editing messages . this provides a useful interface for the operator for entering street addresses and e - mail messages . in addition , the interior rearview mirror assembly can aid in the interfacing of the mobile communication protocol / needs of a particular brand / model of mobile device ( such as , for example , a palm pilot ™ pda ) to a particular vehicle model of a car manufacturer . for example , the vehicle bus system for a gm vehicle may be different than the architecture for a ford vehicle . the interior mirror assembly in the respective model / brand of vehicle can function to allow the palmpilot ™, for example , owned by a person to interact with whatever automobile that person carries that palmpilot ™ into , whether a gm vehicle , a ford vehicle or any other vehicle equipped with a mirror - mounted irda - port . fig1 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention . mirror - mounted wireless communication system 10 includes a mobile device 11 equipped with a mobile device communication port 12 ( preferably an irda - port that transmits / receives data via infrared wireless communication ). when data is input to mobile device 11 via input element 14 ( which may be a keypad or a touch or stylus actuated screen ), a communication signal 16 is wirelessly transmitted to mirror - mounted communication device 18 mounted at interior rearview mirror assembly 20 that is located within the interior cabin of a vehicle ( not shown ). preferably , interior mirror assembly 20 is in electronic / data communication with the vehicle electronic system / accessories schematically represented by control 22 in fig1 . control 22 links to vehicle - based telecommunication system 24 that provides a wireless telecommunication link from the vehicle to an external service / information provider . also , the mobile device may wirelessly communicate with the vehicle when the driver is approaching the vehicle when parked , such as to provide identity to the vehicle in order to activate / deactivate a security system , an entry system such as door locks , and the like . also , the mobile device can take part in vehicle - based remote transactions , such as purchases , banking transactions , and the like , such as are described in commonly assigned u . s . pat . no . 6 , 158 , 655 , the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference . the mobile device , such as a pda , may include driver license , insurance , registration and similar data that can be displayed to the like of a police officer using a vehicle - based video screen . the vehicle can have built - in codes that authorize use of the vehicle by particular drivers / owners of particular mobile devices . an interior rearview mirror system 30 incorporating the present invention is shown in fig2 . interior rearview mirror assembly 32 includes a mirror reflector element 36 that is within mirror casing 34 . reflector element 36 may be a prismatic mirror element or an electrically variable reflectance element such as an electro - optic reflective element such as an electrochromic reflective element such as described in commonly assigned u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 140 , 455 ; 5 , 151 , 816 ; 5 , 567 , 360 ; 5 , 525 , 264 ; 5 , 610 , 756 ; 5 , 406 , 414 ; 5 , 253 , 109 ; 5 , 076 , 673 ; 5 , 073 , 012 or 5 , 117 , 346 , which are hereby incorporated herein by reference , and in publications : n . r . lynam , “ electrochromic automotive day / night mirrors ”, sae technical paper series 870636 ( 1987 ); n . r . lynam , “ smart windows for automobiles ”, sae technical paper series 900419 ( 1990 ); n . r . lynam and a . agrawal , “ automotive applications of chromogenic materials ”, large area chromogenics : materials and devices for transmittance control , c . m . lampert and c . g . granquist , eds ., optical engineering press , washington ( 1990 ), the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties . a communication transmitting and / or receiving data port 38 is located in the front , lower bezel portion of casing 34 , below mirror reflector element 36 . when mirror system 30 is mounted in a vehicle ( such as attached to a vehicle windshield or to a vehicle header , as is known in the mirror art ), communication port 38 is adapted to receive data from and / or transmit data to a mobile device ( such as a pda or a cellular phone ) by wireless data communication . preferably , communication port 38 comprises an ir data port . manually operated controls , 40 , 41 and 42 , facilitate exchange of data between mirror system 30 and a mobile device . mirror system 30 also includes a multi - text display 46 , that preferably comprises a multi - pixel display , more preferably a reconfigurable display and most preferably a display capable of scrolling , such as described in commonly assigned u . s . pat . no . 6 , 477 , 464 , which claims priority from u . s . provisional application ser . no . 60 / 187 , 960 filed on mar . 9 , 2000 , and u . s . patent application ser . no . 09 / 817 , 874 , filed on mar . 26 , 2001 , now u . s . pat . no . 7 , 224 , 324 , which claims priority from u . s . provisional application ser . no . 60 / 192 , 721 , filed on mar . 27 , 2000 , the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference . mirror system 30 also includes a display of compass direction and external or interior vehicular temperature . also , a mobile device in data communication with mirror system 30 can optionally attach to or dock with the interior mirror assembly , and / or can form a pendant accessory thereto , such as is described in commonly assigned u . s . pat . no . 6 , 428 , 172 , the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference . also , the mobile device can link to a vehicle bus system , such as a can or lin system such as disclosed in commonly assigned u . s . pat . no . 6 , 396 , 408 , which claims priority from u . s . provisional patent application ser . no . 60 / 196 , 577 , filed on mar . 31 , 2000 , the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference , via data communication with communication port 38 of mirror system 30 . a vehicular dynamic interactive communication system 50 is shown in fig3 . vehicle 52 includes an in - vehicle gps system 51 that receives gps information from a satellite system ( not shown ) that identifies the geographic location of the vehicle , and its direction while travelling on a highway . this data and other information , such as vehicle type , driver personal information , and the like , is processed by in - vehicle telematic system 54 , which communicates via two - way wireless link 56 with a remote telematic service provider 58 ( such as an onstar ™ system or a dial - in computer server or the like ). telematic service provider 58 , upon identifying the location , identity and direction heading of vehicle 52 , conveys this data via two - way communication link 60 ( also , preferably , a wireless link ) to a service provider 62 ( such as a gas station , store , cinema , web site , toll center , banking center , satellite radio provider , and the like ). service provider 62 , upon receipt of input data from vehicle 52 via link 60 , provides data / information / service back to vehicle 52 via telematic service provider 58 , and preferably with this data / information / service customized to the geographic location and heading of vehicle 52 as generated by gps system 51 . also , many mobile devices such as pdas , cellular phones , and the like , require manual input of data . however , while driving in a car , this may be impractical and / or unsafe for the driver . by linking such mobile devices to a vehicle , as disclosed in the present invention , an in - vehicle voice detection / voice recognition / voice generation system , such as are described in commonly assigned u . s . pat . no . 6 , 428 , 172 and u . s . pat . no . 6 , 420 , 975 , the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference , can be used to operate the mobile device while traveling in the vehicle . for example , by using an in - vehicle voice detection / recognition / generation system , and by linking a pda to the vehicle as disclosed in the present invention , the driver can hear data stored in the pda ( such as calendar information , notes and the like ) by playback via the vehicle audio system ( and with the vehicle voice generation system receiving digital data stored in the pda via wireless , or less desirably wired , link of the pda to the vehicle and then converting this digital data to a simulated voice that reads the digital data to the driver via the vehicle audio system ). likewise , the in - vehicle voice detection / recognition / generation system can receive spoken words from the driver , convert these to digital data , and communicate this to the pda . | 1 |
a first embodiment of the balloon ( fig1 ) of the present invention is broadly denoted by the numeral 10 and includes a balloon body 11 having a pair of hollow , inflatable , non - expandable parts 12 and 14 of flexible material , such as pet or kevlar . parts 12 and 14 have a suction tube 16 therebetween for drawing fats and other debris by suction into tube 16 for transfer to a remote disposal location . catheter 16 has one or more suction holes so that suction may be applied to the open end of tube 16 from a suction source ( not shown ). the parts 12 and 14 are connected together by an adhesive which can be of any suitable type . parts 12 and 14 are doughnut - shaped as shown in fig1 and have tubes 18 and 20 which communicate with and extend away from the parts 12 and 14 , respectively , to a source of inflating liquid under pressure ( not shown ). the liquid can be any sterile biocompatible solution . the liquid inflates the balloon 10 , particularly parts 12 and 14 thereof after the balloon has been inserted in a collapsed condition ( fig8 ) into a bone to be treated , such as a vertebral bone 22 in fig2 . the above - mentioned u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 969 , 888 and 5 , 108 , 404 disclose the use of a guide pin and cannula for inserting the balloon into bone to be treated when the balloon is deflated and has been inserted into a tube and driven by the catheter into the cortical bone where the balloon is inflated . fig8 shows a deflated balloon 10 being inserted through a cannula 26 into bone . the balloon in cannula 26 is deflated and is forced through the cannula by exerting manual force on the catheter 21 which extends into a passage 28 extending into the interior of the bone . the catheter is slightly flexible but is sufficiently rigid to allow the balloon to be forced into the interior of the bone where the balloon is then inflated by directing fluid into tube 88 whose outlet ends are coupled to respective parts 12 and 14 . in use , balloon 10 is initially deflated and , after the bone to be filled with the balloon has been prepared to receive the balloon with drilling , the deflated balloon is forced into the bone in a collapsed condition through cannula 26 . the bone is shown in fig2 . the balloon is oriented preferably in the bone such that it allows minimum pressure to be exerted on the bone marrow and / or cancellous bone if there is no fracture or collapse of the bone . such pressure will compress the bone marrow and / or cancellous bone against the inner wall of the cortical bone , thereby compacting the bone marrow of the bone to be treated and to further enlarge the cavity in which the bone marrow is to be replaced by a biocompatible , flowable bone material . the balloon is then inflated to compact the bone marrow and / or cancellous bone in the cavity and , after compaction of the bone marrow and / or cancellous bone , the balloon is deflated and removed from the cavity . while inflation of the balloon and compaction occurs , fats and other debris are sucked out of the space between and around parts 12 and 14 by applying a suction force to catheter tube 16 . following this , and following the compaction of the bone marrow , the balloon is deflated and pulled out of the cavity by applying a manual pulling force to the catheter tube 21 . the second embodiment of the inflatable device of the present invention is broadly denoted by the numeral 60 and is shown in fig4 and 5 . balloon 60 includes a central spherical part 62 which is hollow and which receives an inflating liquid under pressure through a tube 64 . the spherical part is provided with a spherical outer surface 66 and has an outer periphery which is surrounded substantially by a ring shaped part 68 having tube segments 70 for inflation of part 68 . a pair of passages 69 interconnect parts 62 and 68 . a suction tube segment 72 draws liquid and debris from the bone cavity being formed by the balloon 60 . provision can be made for a balloon sleeve 71 for balloon 60 and for all balloons disclosed herein . a balloon sleeve 71 ( fig9 ) is shiftably mounted in an outer tube 71 a and can be used to insert the balloon 60 when deflated into a cortical bone . the sleeve 71 has resilient fingers 71 b which bear against the interior of the entrance opening 71 c of the vertebral bone 22 ( fig9 a ) to prevent tearing of the balloon . upon removal of the balloon sleeve , liquid under pressure will be directed into tube 64 which will inflate parts 62 and 68 so as to compact the bone marrow within the cortical bone . following this , balloon 60 is deflated and removed from the bone cavity . fig6 and 6 a show several views of a modified doughnut shape balloon 80 of the type shown in fig1 and 2 , except the doughnut shapes of balloon 80 are not stitched onto one another . in fig6 , balloon 80 has a pear - shaped outer convex surface 82 which is made up of a first hollow part 84 and a second hollow part 85 . a tube 88 is provided for directing liquid into the two parts along branches 90 and 92 to inflate the parts after the parts have been inserted into the medullary cavity of a bone . a catheter tube 16 is inserted into the space 96 between two parts of the balloon 80 . an adhesive bonds the two parts 84 and 85 together at the interface thereof . fig6 a shows the way in which the catheter tube 16 is inserted into the space or opening 96 between the two parts of the balloon 80 . fig7 shows tube 88 of which , after directing inflating liquid into the balloon 80 , can inject contrast material into the balloon 80 so that x - rays can be taken of the balloon with the inflating material therewithin to determine the proper placement of the balloon . tube 16 is also shown in fig6 , it being attached in some suitable manner to the outer side wall surface of tube 88 . still another embodiment of the invention is shown in fig3 which is similar to fig1 except that it is round and not a doughnut and includes an inflatable device 109 having three balloon units 110 , 112 and 114 which are inflatable and which have string - like restraints 117 which limit the expansion of the balloon units in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axes of the balloon units . the restraints are made of the same or similar material as that of the balloon so that they have some resilience but substantially no expansion capability . a tube system 115 is provided to direct liquid under pressure into balloon units 110 , 112 and 114 so that liquid can be used to inflate the balloon units when placed inside the bone in a deflated state . following the proper inflation and compaction of the bone marrow , the balloon can be removed by deflating it and pulling it outwardly of the bone being treated . the restraints keep the opposed sides 77 and 79 substantially flat and parallel with each other . in fig1 , another embodiment of the inflatable balloon is shown . the device is a kidney shaped balloon body 130 having a pair of opposed kidney shaped side walls 132 which are adapted to be collapsed and to cooperate with a continuous end wall 134 so that the balloon 130 can be forced into a bone 136 shown in fig1 . a tube 138 is used to direct inflating liquid into the balloon to inflate the balloon and cause it to assume the dimensions and location shown vertebral body 136 in fig1 . device 130 will compress the cancellous bone if there is no fracture or collapse of the cancellous bone . the restraints for this action are due to the side and end walls of the balloon . fig1 shows a balloon 140 which is also kidney shaped and has a tube 142 for directing an inflatable liquid into the tube for inflating the balloon . the balloon is initially a single chamber bladder but the bladder can be branded along curved lines or strips 141 to form attachment lines 144 which take the shape of side - by - side compartments 146 which are kidney shaped as shown in fig1 . the branding causes a welding of the two sides of the bladder to occur since the material is standard medical balloon material , which is similar to plastic and can be formed by heat . fig1 is a perspective view of a vertebral body 147 containing the balloon of fig1 , showing a double stacked balloon 140 when it is inserted in vertebral bone 147 . fig1 is a view similar to fig1 except that tufts 155 , which are string - like restraints , extend between and are connected to the side walls 152 of inflatable device 150 and limit the expansion of the side walls with respect to each other , thus rendering the side walls generally parallel with each other . tube 88 is used to fill the kidney shaped balloon with an inflating liquid in the manner described above . the dimensions for the vertebral body balloon will vary across a broad range . the heights ( h , fig1 ) of the vertebral body balloon for both lumbar and thoracic vertebral bodies typically range from 0 . 5 cm to 3 . 5 cm . the anterior to posterior ( a , fig1 ) vertebral body balloon dimensions for both lumbar and thoracic vertebral bodies range from 0 . 5 cm to 3 . 5 cm . the side to side ( l , fig1 ) vertebral body dimensions for thoracic vertebral bodies will range from 0 . 5 cm to 3 . 5 cm . the side to side vertebral body dimensions for lumbar vertebral bodies will range from 0 . 5 cm to 5 . 0 cm . the eventual selection of the appropriate balloon for , for instance , a given vertebral body is based upon several factors . the anterior - posterior ( a - p ) balloon dimension for a given vertebral body is selected from the ct scan or plain film x - ray views of the vertebral body . the a - p dimension is measured from the internal cortical wall of the anterior cortex to the internal cortical wall of the posterior cortex of the vertebral body . in general , the appropriate a - p balloon dimension is 5 to 7 millimeters less than this measurement . the appropriate side to side balloon dimensions for a given vertebral body is selected from the ct scan or from a plain film x - ray view of the vertebral body to be treated . the side to side distance is measured from the internal cortical walls of the side of the vertebral bone . in general , the appropriate side to side balloon dimension is 5 to 7 millimeters less than this measurement by the addition of the lumbar vertebral body tends to be much wider than side to side dimension then their a - p dimension . in thoracic vertebral bodies , the side to side dimension and their a - p dimensions are almost equal . the height dimensions of the appropriate vertebral body balloon for a given vertebral body is chosen by the ct scan or x - ray views of the vertebral bodies above and below the vertebral body to be treated . the height of the vertebral bodies above and below the vertebral body to be treated are measured and averaged . this average is used to determine the appropriate height dimension of the chosen vertebral body balloon . long bones which can be treated with the use of balloons of the present invention include distal radius ( larger arm bone at the wrist ), proximal tibial plateau ( leg bone just below the knee ), proximal humerus ( upper end of the arm at the shoulder ), and proximal femoral head ( leg bone in the hip ). for the distal radius , a balloon 160 is shown in the distal radius 152 and the balloon has a shape which approximates a pyramid but more closely can be considered the shape of a humpbacked banana in that it substantially fills the interior of the space of the distal radius to force cancellous bone 154 lightly against the inner surface 156 of cortical bone 158 . the balloon 160 has a lower , conical portion 159 which extends downwardly into the hollow space of the distal radius 152 , and this conical portion 159 increases in cross section as a central distal portion 161 is approached . the cross section of the balloon 160 is shown at a central location ( fig1 b ) and this location is near the widest location of the balloon . the upper end of the balloon , denoted by the numeral 162 , converges to the catheter 88 for directing a liquid into the balloon for inflating the same to force the cancellous bone against the inner surface of the cortical bone . the shape of the balloon 160 is determined and restrained by tufts formed by string restraints 165 . these restraints are optional and provide additional strength to the balloon body 160 , but are not required to achieve the desired configuration . the balloon is placed into and taken out of the distal radius in the same manner as that described above with respect to the vertebral bone . the proximal end of the balloon ( i . e . the part nearest the elbow ) is cylindrical in shape and will vary from 0 . 5 . times . 0 . 5 cm to 1 . 8 . times . 1 . 8 cm . the length of the distal radius balloon will vary from 1 . 0 cm to 12 . 0 cm . the widest medial to lateral dimension of the distal radius balloon , which occurs at or near the distal radio - ulnar joint , will measure from 1 . 0 cm to 2 . 5 cm . the distal anterior - posterior dimension of the distal radius balloon will vary from 0 . 5 to 3 . 0 cm . the selection of the appropriate balloon size to treat a given fracture of the distal radius will depend on the radiological size of the distal radius and the location of the fracture . in the case of the proximal humerus 169 , a balloon 166 shown in fig1 is spherical and has a base design . it compacts the cancellous bone 168 in a proximal humerus 169 . a mesh 170 , embedded or laminated and / or winding , may be used to form a neck 172 on the balloon 166 , and second mesh 170 a may be used to conform the bottom of the base 172 a to the shape of the inner cortical wall at the start of the shaft . these restraints provide additional strength to the balloon body , but the configuration can be achieved through molding of the balloon body . this is so that the cancellous bone will be as shown in the compacted region surrounding the balloon 166 as shown in fig1 . the cortical bone 173 is relatively wide at the base 174 and is thin - walled at the upper end 175 . the balloon 166 has a feed tube 177 into which liquid under pressure is forced into the balloon to inflate it to lightly compact the cancellous bone in the proximal humerus . the balloon is inserted into and taken out of the proximal humerus in the same manner as that described above with respect to the vertebral bone . the dimensions of the proximal humerus fracture balloon vary as follows : the spherical end of the balloon will vary from 1 . 0 . times . 1 . 0 cm to 3 . 0 . times . 3 . 0 cm . the neck of the proximal humeral fracture balloon will vary from 0 . 8 . times . 0 . 8 cm to 3 . 0 . times . 3 . 0 cm . the width of the base portion or distal portion of the proximal numeral fracture balloon will vary from 0 . 5 . times . 0 . 5 cm to 2 . 5 . times . 2 . 5 cm . the length of the balloon will vary from 4 . 0 cm to 14 . 0 cm . the selection of the appropriate balloon to treat a given proximal humeral fracture depends on the radiologic size of the proximal humerus and the location of the fracture . the tibial fracture is shown in fig1 a in which a balloon 180 is placed in one side 182 of a tibia 183 . the balloon , when inflated , compacts the cancellous bone in the layer 184 surrounding the balloon 180 . a cross section of the balloon is shown in fig1 c wherein the balloon has a pair of opposed sides 185 and 187 which are interconnected by restraints 188 which can be in the form of strings or flexible members of any suitable construction . the main purpose of the restraints is to make the sides 185 and 187 substantially parallel with each other and non - spherical . a tube 190 is coupled to the balloon 180 to direct liquid into and out of the balloon . the ends of the restraints are shown in fig1 b and 19d and denoted by the numeral 191 . the balloon is inserted into and taken out of the tibia in the same manner as that described above with respect to the vertebral bone . fig1 b shows a substantially circular configuration for the balloon ; whereas , fig1 d shows a substantially elliptical version of the balloon . the dimensions of the proximal tibial plateau fracture balloon vary as follows : the thickness or height of the balloon will vary from 0 . 5 cm to 5 . 0 cm . the anterior / posterior ( front to back ) dimension will vary from 1 . 0 cm to 6 . 0 cm . the side to side ( medial to lateral ) dimension will vary from 1 . 0 cm to 6 . 0 cm . the selection of the appropriate balloon to treat a given tibial plateau fracture will depend on the radiological size of the proximal tibial and the location of the fracture . in the case of the femoral head , a balloon 200 is shown as having been inserted inside the cortical bone 202 of the femoral head which is thin at the outer end 204 of the femur and which can increase in thickness at the lower end 206 of the femur . the cortical bone surrounds the cancellous bone 207 and this bone is compacted by the inflation of balloon 200 . the tube for directing liquid for inflation purposes into the balloon is denoted by the numeral 209 . it extends along the femoral neck and is directed into the femoral head which is generally spherical in configuration . fig2 a shows that the balloon , denoted by the numeral 200 a , can be hemispherical as well as spherical , as shown in fig2 . the balloon 200 is inserted into and taken out of the femoral head in the same manner as that described with respect to the vertebral bone . the hemispherical shape is maintained in this example by bonding overlapping portions of the bottom , creating pleats 200 b as shown in fig2 a . the diameter of the femoral head balloon will vary from 1 . 0 cm to up to 4 . 5 cm . the appropriate size of the femoral head balloon to be chosen depends on the radiological or ct scan size of the head of the femur and the location and size of the avascular necrotic bone . the dimensions of the hemispherical balloon are the same as the those of the spherical balloon , except that approximately one half is provided . | 0 |
in general , cdsd is a spectrum identification technique based on similarities between an established set of spectral signatures and an unknown spectrum to be tested . it is used to discriminate between very similar spectral signatures of non - reacting chemicals within a limited spectral band , and allows for the estimation of the chemical components in a mixture or the presence of unmixed chemicals in a spectrally “ cluttered ” background environment . referring now specifically to fig1 , in one exemplary embodiment , the cdsd system 10 of the present invention includes an active illuminator 12 , such as a laser or other light source , including beam projection optics that are capable of illuminating a “ field ” or cell 14 . the cdsd system 10 also includes light collection optics 16 that are capable of collecting light from the “ field ” or cell 14 . these light collection optics 16 may include , for example , optical systems of lenses and windows ( made from materials like sapphire ( al 2 o 3 ), zinc sulfide ( zns ), zinc selenide ( znse ), silicon ( si ), and / or germanium ( ge )) used in non - imaging configurations . the collected light is run through a plurality of optical broadband beam splitters 18 , such as a plurality of optical plates , with specific optical reflections ( e . g ., 5 - 15 %) and transmissions ( e . g ., 85 - 95 %), made from calcium fluoride ( caf 2 ), silicon ( si ), zinc selenide ( znse ), and / or fused silica ( sio 2 ), that feed a plurality of optical low - resolution filters 20 , such as a plurality of glass filters , made of silicon ( si ), zinc selenide ( znse ), and / or quartz , and a plurality of associated optical detection elements 22 , such as a plurality of thermal detectors ( such as bolometers , pyroelectrics , thermopiles , or golay cells ) or photon detectors ( such as photoconductors , photovoltaics , or photodiodes ). finally , an unfiltered reference detector 24 is provided . the cdsd technique requires first having a collection of well characterized spectra from the desired “ target ” chemical or chemicals to be identified ( see fig2 ). using the set of n - optical transmission filters of finite but limited band 20 , the total detectable spectral power within the filter bandwidth is collected by the set of n detectors 22 , resulting in a list of values representing the total integrated spectral response of the target signatures under the optical filter limits . this list of values is then used to construct n - dimensional vectors of unit magnitude within the n - spectral filter orthonormal configuration space , which has no statistical or physical interpretation ( see fig3 ). it is equivalent only to the relative response of the target spectrum to the optical filter band - pass . for a group of m - chemical targets , there are m normalized vectors of n - dimensions , each uniquely representing a target chemical . these are called “ base ” or “ target ” vectors . the m base vectors define a polygon in the n - dimension configuration space . any test spectrum signature that is collected through the existing n - optical filters 20 , can be expressed as a normalized - magnitude test vector in the same configuration space . if the test vector is a linear combination of any , or all , of the base vectors , it has definite geometrical relations with the base vector polygon &# 39 ; s sides and surface normals . more specifically , if the test vector is only a linear combination of the existing base vectors , then it lies within the polygon volume . further , it has projections to all surface normals of the polygon &# 39 ; s sides ( see fig4 ). if the test vector lies outside the polygon volume , it may be expressed as a linear combination of components internal and external to the polygon . however , it will not have projections to all side surface normals , as it is not possible to be orthogonal to all of them . these orthogonality criteria serve as the discrimination rules for the test vectors ( i . e ., chemicals ). the test vectors are compared to the polygon side surface normal and , based on the comparison results , a “ truth ” table is assembled . the truth table has three possible value entries : 0 , 1 and & gt ;& gt ; 1 ( see fig5 ). in the case of a 0 outcome , the test vector does not have a component within the polygon side defined by the particular base vectors . in the case of a 1 outcome , the possibility exists that the test vector is made of a linear combination of the two base vectors acting as the edges of the polygon side . for an outcome & gt ;& gt ; 1 , there is no possibility that the test vector is made by any component of the base set . the results of the truth table are further compared within the possible outcomes , to discriminate for cases of contradiction in result . at the end of the comparative step between the table outcomes , a likelihood of detection is the output . the operations reduce the possibilities to a binary outcome , of “ yes ” or “ no ” concerning the presence of any of the m target chemicals in the test material . the cdsd method is based on the initial collection of the spectral absorption signal from a set of “ pure ” chemical vapors of interest that have similar absorption bands and therefore strongly overlapping spectra . it then uses optical functions as broad - wavelength extent band - pass filters and computes the overlap of the vapor spectrum with the filter set ( see fig6 ). the filters are not only broadband , but also can be overlapping with each other as well . the resulting numbers form a set of unit vectors in an abstract configuration space , each representing a pure vapor , which is then used to define a volume through the triple vector product operation : a × b × c . the method takes advantage of the fact that any test vapor unit vector ( of a mixture or a pure chemical outside the original set ), will either be inside this volume or outside of it . if the test vector is inside the volume , and can be expressed by a linear combination of the three chosen pure unit vectors , it will have specific vector product relations with the defined volume . if the test vector is not inside the volume , it will have different product relations . the method uses the vector and scalar product operations of the test vector with the pure vapor vectors in order to identify the test vector as a part of the volume or external to it . below are results from experimental measurements of pure and mixed vapors , as well as tests with vapors outside the chosen set . one embodiment of the computer program flow is shown schematically in fig6 . the computer algorithm calculations are based on the following analysis . considering the ir light absorption of as - received chemical vapors , or a mixture of non - reacting vapors from different substances , the spectral signal can be “ filtered ” in wave - vector space using a windowing function f 1 ( k , k 1 , δk 1 ), such that : where s ( k , δk , t ) is the absorption signal in the 2500 - 3500 cm − 1 spectral range , δk , at time t , and v 1 ( t ) is the resulting spectral - filter overlap integral value ; with index 1 identifying the filtering window from a predetermined set of such filters . the filter window function f 1 ( k , k 1 , δk 1 ) can be of arbitrary complexity , as long as it is finite and positive over all wave - vectors , and δk 1 & lt ; δk , i . e ., the spectral extent of filter 1 ( δk 1 ) is smaller than the collected spectral signal extent . the filter window function location within δk is identified by the wave - number k 1 , which is the midpoint of its extent δk 1 . as mentioned above , the original spectral signal sets collected could be changing in time , as gases move through the detection apparatus , or as evaporation changes the finite mixture contents under test . the maximum value of the filtering window function is normalized to unity , with the result v 1 ( t ) as the area under the filtered spectral signal , bounded by the shape of the filter f 1 ( k , k 1 , δk 1 ). the shape of each filtering window function is chosen so that no two filters are identical , even though they could overlap with each other , and also to allow for different broad spectral extents , δk 1 . the cdsd method utilizes an abstract 1 - dimensional orthonormal configuration space , where the basis unit vectors are the filter windowed responses to a uniform background spectrum of unit value over the range δk , i . e ., s ( k , δk , t )= 1 . the area under each filtering window operation generates a set of non - unique values , which are then used to create a configuration space vector for each vapor ( or vapor mixture ) analyzed . in the present case , a set of three windowing filter functions ( f 1 , f 2 , f 3 ) are constructed , so that the result of the spectral “ filtering ” using eq . 1 , at a certain absorption spectrum from an instance t , is expressed as the vector : v m ( t )= v 1m ( t )| 1 + v 2m ( t )| 2 + v 3m ( t )| 3 ( 2 ) where v m ( t ) is the configuration - space v representing the three windowed responses v 1m ( t ) in the basis ( f 1 , f 2 , f 3 ) for vapor m . this representation is abstract , since the configuration space has no physical meaning other than the response of the signal windowed by the chosen filters . it can be considered as a specific “ cataloging fingerprint ” of the vapors tested , representing a set of values with no limitations to the number of filters one can use to construct it . the imposed condition is that the basis unit vectors are purposely constructed with directions that obey vector orthonormality conditions . the cdsd method requires at least three overlapping filter windows , to investigate three chemicals , such as : acetone , hexanes , and fuel oil . further , each vector represents a chemical vapor from the set : acetone , hexanes and fuel oil , and should be uniquely identifiable . since the component values of the vector can only be positive , due to the choice of only positive windowing functions , v m ( t ) exist only in the space of positive values of v 1m ( t ). such a vector is depicted in fig3 a . temporal changes of the spectral signal s m ( k , δk , t ) of a chemical vapor m can be separable from the spectrum , indicating that the spectrum is a scaled function of time t ( t ), such that : since the filter windowing function is chosen to be time independent , this implies that the resulting filtered spectral vector components , v 1m , are also time independent . in the case of a flowing system detecting a specific vapor , t ( t ) could be an exponential decaying function , or an increasing function , completely dependent on the evaporation rate of the chemical and experimental conditions . in the case of a closed stationary gas system , the value of the scaling function can be set to unity , as it is constant . eq . 3 implies that , for data from vapors of chemical m , the time evolution of the representative v m ( t ) can be separated from the components of the vector describing the vapor . therefore , time scaling affects only the magnitude of the vector , and not its direction in the configuration space . if one normalizes the vectors with respect to the maximum magnitude within the set of spectra collected , time evolution is represented as a contraction or expansion of v m ( t ), with a maximum value of 1 . this non - interacting vapor vector normalization allows the removal of scaling differences between different sets of collected data , taken under different conditions , involving the same chemical m . when one uses the vector operation of the scalar triple - product to define a set of selection rules , relating the uniqueness of the as - received chemical vapor vectors for different sets of experiments , the vapors from the three exemplary chemicals tested are stable mixtures of non - interacting components , and are non - interacting between them as well . the set of vapor vectors selected should be unique to identify each as - received chemical vapor , from mixtures of these vapors with each other . for a set of three non - identical normalized vapor vectors a n , f n , and h n , corresponding respectively to acetone , fuel oil , and hexanes , the scalar triple - product is : a n ·( f n × h n )= h n ·( a n × f n )= f n ·( h n × a n )≠ 0 ( 4 ) eq . 4 is geometrically depicted as the volume defined by the three vapor vectors in the configuration space of filters ( f 1 , f 2 , f 3 ) in fig3 b . the volume is bound by the three vectors and eq . 4 is a sufficient condition to imply that the vectors are not co - planar . therefore , one can use the set of predetermined filter windows from eq . 1 to generate the volume by eq . 4 and test measured spectral vectors to determine if they are included inside this volume , or reside outside of it . if a test vapor vector is used as part of the projection operation ( dot product ) into the vector cross products of eq . 4 , the result discriminates with respect to the constituents of the cross product . the terms inside the parentheses of eq . 4 define a geometric surface in configuration space . if the test vector is not contained within this surface , the triple product results in a non - zero value less than unity , indicating that the vector is inside the abstract volume . if the test vector is outside the volume , and by consequence not on any of the surfaces bounding the volume , the projection will be greater than unity or negative . computing the properties of the vapor representing normalized vectors a n , f n , and h n , one finds the orthonormal unit - vector representing each of the surfaces as n ml ( see fig4 ): the vector projections of a n , f n , and h n on each one of the above normal unit vectors result in the discrimination table : the table indicates that the unit normal to each surface , defined by its respective vectors , is perpendicular to both of these vectors and not to the third . eqs . 6 can be viewed as a logical table , where normal vectors discriminate with respect to their generators , but not to another non - identical vector . if a test vapor vector u n contains a linear combination of mixed vapor vectors a n , f n , and h n , such that : u n = α ( t ) a n + β ( t ) h n + γ ( t ) f n ( 7 ) where α ( t ), β ( t ), γ ( t ) are time varying scaling coefficients , the discrimination operation corresponding results can be computed using the normalized projection of the vector set : if all three of the vapors are present in the test measurements , and there are no vapors detected other than from the selected un - mixed vapor group , there may be instances t 0 when α ( t 0 )+ β ( t 0 )+ γ ( t 0 )= 1 . this depends on the vapor reservoir and evaporation properties . however , if the above sum of the scaling coefficients is greater than unity , then the discrimination operation indicates that the projections of the vapor vector under test are outside the configuration volume defined by eq . 4 , and therefore are not a match to some of the members of the group a n , f n , and h n . in the case that any one of the above coefficients α , β , γ , is greater than 1 , and the overall sum is between 0 and 1 , there must be at least another one which will be negative in value , and therefore both are non - matches for the given group . in general the operational vector construct outlined above will not yield absolute zero results in operations like that of eq . 6 . the detection system and the choice of the spectrally filtered vapor vector set will include some experimental uncertainty . this uncertainty will produce matching or mismatching errors . optimizing the functional form of f 1 ( k , k 1 , δk 1 ), meaning : the filter / window extent δk 1 , the position of the filter / window ( k 1 ) in the spectral range of interest ( δk ), and the relative position of the filters with respect to each other , will result in well - defined un - mixed vapor vectors , and this in turn will make the discrimination operations more precise . the ability of the cdsd method to differentiate the presence of any one vapor from a select group was tested as well . to include the effects of the discriminating coefficients sum - result in the computed individual discriminating coefficient values , we chose to display a sum - weighted value for each coefficient , i . e ., normalizing the coefficients to their sum : where α , β , γ are the normalized coefficients of acetone , hexanes , and fuel oil , respectively . this ratio guarantees that the computed results will be a fraction of the total operation calculation , and that large sum values will suppress individual coefficients , thus indicating no matches with the selected un - mixed vapor . in one trial , we used acetone alone and in the other fuel oil alone . the system was thoroughly purged between runs , flowing dry nitrogen through it for a number of hours . the results of the matching indicator ( α + β + γ ) and of each weighted discriminating coefficients ( eq . 9 ) in the test are shown in fig7 . for the first 180 s ( 10 absorption spectra ) of the experiment , cdsd 10 identified one of the as - received chemical vapors present , and from 200 s and beyond it indicated no matches to any of the vapors from the original set . in the fuel oil trial , the indicator was present from 80 s and beyond , whereas no vapor was present earlier . the coefficients did not vary significantly after 360 s , indicating that the vapors flowing through the system had reached a steady state . the individual discriminating coefficients are plotted as fractions to their overall sum for each instance . this allows for clear comparisons between the operations at each instance and through the entire measurement interval . for the acetone trial displayed in fig8 a , the corresponding coefficient ( α ) shows initially a high fractional value , which decays with time to zero . the other two coefficients have in all instances values much lower than α , with the fuel oil coefficient ( γ ) actually taking negative values initially , which further indicates complete absence from this trial . the hexanes coefficient ( β ) shows positive values for the first 80 s of the experiment , however , the comparative ratio to acetone is never higher than 1 : 10 . after 200 s the finite initial volume of acetone vapor has moved through the detection system , and the discrimination results α , β , γ become zero . in the case of fuel oil ( γ ), shown in fig7 b , we observe an initial absence of all detectable vapors , followed by a gradual increase in the detection of fuel oil . this result is reasonable , since the evaporation rate constant for fo is 0 . 04 , whereas the corresponding constant for acetone is 14 . 4 . the data clearly shows that it takes 60 s from the start of the experiment for the fo vapors to reach the detecting cell , and then another 140 s to reach the maximum vapor concentration . for the rest of the data collected the slow evaporation rate is enough to maintain the presence of fo in the cell . the discrimination results show clearly the time evolution of the event , identifying fo and not any of the other vapors in the group . mixtures of acetone , hexanes , and fo vapors from solutions containing 50 % fo with 50 % acetone or hexanes were measured as well . due to their relative evaporation rate differences , and the observations from the un - mixed vapor trials , the expectation was that , if the discriminating comparison was sensitive to each component from the mixture , the system flow - through dynamics should be noticeable . the trial with the mixture of acetone and fo , clearly identified the time evolution of the test . acetone is present from the initial observation , with α decaying thereafter , where fo is steadily increasing its presence in the flowing cell , peaking in value at 120 s . in the first 60 s of the time sequence , the hexanes signal ( β ) is not zero , and after 140 s it becomes negative . this small value of β within the first 80 s of the experiment is attributed to the weak overall signal due to the slow evaporation of the fuel oil . because the signal is weak , the system decides that this “ something ” may be hexanes ( β ) or fuel oil ( γ ) and registers as such . as the experiment progresses , the relative strength of the signal arising from the fuel oil increases ( as more fuel oil evaporates and enters the ftir ) and the system begins to clearly identify the second component present as fuel oil . thus , the value for γ increases while the value for β decreases ( until it reaches zero around t = 100 s ) indicating that the system has clearly identified fuel oil as being present and hexanes as not present . this can be considered as signal “ crosstalk ”, and is related to the minimum discrimination levels ( detectivity ) for the signals measured . fig8 b shows the results from a trial with a mixture of hexanes and fo . the discrimination operation clearly identifies hexanes ( β ) initially peaking in signal , and then decaying to zero after 250 s of observation . during the same interval , fo ( γ ) is simultaneously detected , and its signal persists to a time longer than 400 s . acetone ( α ) is clearly absent . this result , when compared to the acetone / fo mixture is also reasonable , since the evaporation rate constant for hexanes is much greater than fo . further , optimization of the filter windowing functions minimizes the detection uncertainty . the cdsd method of the present invention has high significance in the field of chemical sensing , as it is capable of determining the presence or absence of particular target vapors , even in the presence of highly similar spectral absorption vapors ( interferants ), with only a single spectrum , collected in 10 - 20 seconds . the system used to test out the method consisted of a finite quantity of vapors forced through a gas line , not a static sample cell , and the results clearly identified vapor types at different stages of evaporation and transition . a key aspect is the extension of the configuration space , and the vector operations within it , in contrast to the vector projection methods used by lda or kromoscopy . this new approach allows for simpler computations , in a larger configuration space , instead of a determination of the maximum deviation of projections that lda or kromoscopy are based on . the results can be obtained quickly , with high accuracy and low uncertainty , in a dynamically changing gaseous environment . detectivity of chemical vapors are possible with target presence lower than 1 part - per - million ( ppm ). the operations are limited to finite matrix multiplications , which simplifies the demands for computational power on small , handheld , and portable systems for chemical sensing applications . although the present invention is illustrated and described herein with reference to preferred embodiments and specific examples thereof , it will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments and examples may perform similar functions and / or achieve like results . all such equivalent embodiments and examples are within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure , are contemplated thereby , and are intended to be covered by the following claims . | 6 |
embodiments of the present invention are described herein in the context of a method , system and apparatus for providing a web based communications network with fast , volume , and secure information exchange . those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following detailed description of the present invention is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way of limiting . other embodiments of the present invention will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure . reference will now be made in detail to implementations of the present invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings . the same reference indicators will be used throughout the drawings and the following detailed description to refer to the same or like parts . in the interest of clarity , not all of the routine features of the implementations described herein are shown and described . it will , of course , be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation , numerous implementation - specific decisions must be made in order to achieve the developer &# 39 ; s specific goals , such as compliance with application - and business - related constraints , and that these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one developer to another . moreover , it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time - consuming , but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure . in accordance with the present invention , the components , process steps , and / or data structures described herein may be implemented using various types of operating systems , computing platforms , computer programs , and / or general purpose machines . in addition , those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that devices of a less general purpose nature , such as hardwired devices , field programmable gate arrays ( fpgas ), application specific integrated circuits ( asics ), or the like , may also be used without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventive concepts disclosed herein . where a method comprising a series of process steps is implemented by a computer or a machine and those process steps can be stored as a series of instructions readable by the machine , they may be stored on a tangible medium such as a computer memory device ( e . g ., rom ( read only memory ), prom ( programmable read only memory ), eeprom ( electrically erasable programmable read only memory ), flash memory , jump drive , and the like ), magnetic storage medium ( e . g ., tape , magnetic disk drive , and the like ), optical storage medium ( e . g ., cd - rom , dvd - rom , paper card and paper tape , and the like ) and other known types of program memory . those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following detailed description of the present invention is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way of limiting . other embodiments of the present invention will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure . it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that these specific details may not be required to practice to present invention . in other instances , well - known circuits and devices are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the present invention . in the following description of the embodiments , substantially the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals . while particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described , it will now be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that many more modifications than mentioned above are possible without departing from the inventive concepts disclosed herein . therefore , the appended claims are intended to encompass within their scope all such modifications as are within the spirit and scope of this invention . the present invention can be implemented by a web based system operated in a network infrastructure , such as a central controlled distributed scalable virtual machine (“ ccdsvm ”). fig1 illustrates a ccdsvm in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . the ccdsvm includes a group of provisioned systems 3 , a control management system 2 , console systems 1 , and client systems 10 . the control management system (“ control system ”) 2 is configured to control a group of systems (“ provisioned system ”) 3 . the console systems (“ console systems ”) 2 provide management while client systems 10 (“ client systems ”) initiate accessing the provisioned systems 3 via a web - browser over a network infrastructure , such as a corporate intranet , the internet , and / or a lan . the network infrastructure (“ network ”) includes all necessary hardware and software that facilitate various users from different geographic locations to communicate through the internet , an intranet , and / or a lan . the hardware of the network includes network connection media , wireless media , circuitry components , and communication equipments . the network connection media includes various cables such as ethernet and / or optical fiber . the wireless media are capable of establishing wireless communication links through air . the circuitry components include processor , data bus , memory devices , and / or circuit board . the communication equipments , such as switches , routers , gateways , and / or adapters , are used to provide a communications network . it should be noted that there are other possible elements of communication equipment that may be needed to form a communication link , but they are not necessary to understand the present invention . the software infrastructure includes internet protocol (“ ip ”) addresses and system name identification software such as domain name server (“ dns ”), firewall software , ip gateway set - up software , ip broadcast . the communication protocols over the network could be ip - based standard or non - standard proprietary protocols such as hypertext transfer protocol (“ http ”) over transmission control protocol / internet protocol (“ tcp / ip ”) or simple object access protocol (“ soap ”) over tcp / ip . it should be further noted that some of the ip based protocols are proprietary protocols and some of them are non - ip based protocols . a web - browser is an application program that allows a user to access information over the web , such as windows internet explorer (“ ie ”), firefox , netscape , and / or mozilla . a web - browser could also be any proprietary software , which uses web - protocols such as http , wap , soap for communication over the network . the web - browser can be implemented with any suitable programming languages such as c , c ++, java , or xml , or a combination of the suitable languages . a web page , on the other hand , is a displayable for information resource and is accessible through web - browser . the web page may be hosted by a web server via a web server system and can be transmitted ( or retrieved ) by a web - browser . the provisioned systems 3 , client systems 10 , console systems 1 , and control management system 2 are computational systems , which could be server system , desktop or laptop system , handheld devices such as pda , wireless phone , and so forth . the computational system includes cpus , storage devices , and memory controller . the storage devices include internal memory such as read - only memory (“ rom ”) and / or random access memory (“ ram ”). the storage devices may further include external storage devices such as magnetic disks or tapes drives , include redundant array of inexpensive disk drives (“ raid ”), just bunch of disk drive (“ jbod ”), and memory stick . the associated storage controller can be integrated drive electronics (“ ide ”), small computer system interface (“ scsi ”), fiber optical controller , or a combination of above - mentioned devices . the computational systems also include non - embedded or real - time embedded operating system (“ os ”), which could be linux , or windows , unix , or proprietary os . it should be noted that the present invention may include multiple control systems at different layers of a system configuration topology , where each of the control systems is capable of communicating with each other through a network . the control systems at middle layers play dual roles as both control system and provisioned system in the system configuration topology . fig1 illustrates a ccdsvm platform with multiple clients 10 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . the ccdsvm includes the console systems 1 , a control management system 2 , the provisioned systems 3 , and networks 11 - 12 , wherein networks 11 - 12 are used inter - connecting with all systems of the ccdsvm and the client systems 10 . the console system 1 is a computational system having a web - browser or ( web - console ) 9 wherein the web - browser is used by privileged users for accessing the ccdsvm platform . the web browser 9 , which could be on any system , permits a user to access information from of the ccdsvm by following a web url link . for example , a privileged user enters a url of “ https :// 69 . 107 . 28 . 123 / stt / sttwebos ” on a command line of the web browser 9 and once the link is established , the user can obtain information hosted by the web - based computer user work / operation environment (“ wcuwe ”). the console system 1 , in one embodiment , further includes software modules 13 , where the software modules 13 may be used to facilitate communication between the console system 1 and the control management system 2 . the control system 2 , in one embodiment , is a server system , a desktop or a laptop system with the memory and storage capabilities . the control system 2 includes web server software 7 and console supporting software 6 . the console supporting software 6 includes web server interface software modules 5 and control management software modules 4 . the control management system 2 may also have a web - browser 9 used as a web - console 9 of the control system 2 . the web server software 7 sends / receives data to / from the web - console 9 of the console system 1 or the client system 10 or the control system 2 . the web server software 7 is configured to provide secure sockets layer (“ ssl ”) encryption to encrypting the data before transmission to enhance the security . the web server software 7 could be commercially available software such as apache ™ from open source , or iis from microsoft or a proprietary software . the web server software modules 7 and console support software modules 6 can be implemented by any suitable or a combination of any suitable programming languages such as c , c ++, java , javascript , html , or xml . the console supporting software 6 communicates with the service software modules 8 of the provisioned systems 3 . the web server interface 5 of the console support software 6 is capable of providing special functions that are otherwise performed by the web server 7 . if there is no provisioned system 3 coupled to the ccdsvm platform , the control management system 2 , in one embodiment , is reconfigured to continue monitoring systems over the network while the ccdsvm platform is also reconfigured into a single stand - alone system , as shown in fig2 b . therefore , users can access and / or obtain resource objects or system resources via the web - browser 9 , which can be resided on any client system 3 or console system 1 . the provisioned system 3 , in one embodiment , is a computational system , where the system may contain suitable operating system (“ os ”). the provisioned systems 3 can be automatically provisioned by the control system 2 through an automatic system service pool construction protocol . provision process , also known as pooling process , is a method allowing the control system 2 to control one or more network systems by reconfiguring the network systems . for example , when a provisioned system boots up via said communication protocol , the control system 2 automatically obtains provisioned system &# 39 ; s name , ip address , and system information , wherein the system information includes network information , storage information , file system information and so forth . thus , each provisioned system 3 can be monitored , accessed , and / or operated by a user ( s ) through the web - browser 9 on the console system 1 . in an alternative embodiment , provisional system 3 is controlled by users through client systems 10 via the control system 2 with proper users &# 39 ; authentication . each provisioned system 3 contains service software modules 8 , which is used to communicate with servers over the web . for example , the service software modules 8 of provisioned system 3 can communicate with the control management software 4 of the control system 2 to carry out tasks for viewing or operating resources of provisioned system 3 . the service software 8 can communicate with the web - browser 9 of the client system 10 or console system 1 to transfer data between them or deliver service to them , or to communicate with another provisioned system 3 to send or receive data . the service software modules 8 may include special software modules having compatible functionalities of the web - server software 7 of the control system 2 for dedicatedly handling http protocol or other web protocols if there is needs for web - based communication with the client 10 or with the other provisioned systems 3 or with the control system 2 . the software modules 8 could be commercially available web server software 7 or proprietary software . the service software modules 8 could be implemented with any suitable programming languages such as c , c ++, java , or javascript . net 11 and net 12 are network infrastructures that are capable of providing communication links between the control management system 2 , console systems 1 , client systems 10 , and / or provisioned systems 3 . the client systems 10 may not be a part of the ccdsvm , but with the permission and authorization , a user from the web - browser 9 of the client system 10 can login to the ccdsvm and access the permitted resources of the ccdsvm by following a web url link of the ccdsvm . while the privileged users can obtain , manage , access , and / or operate system resources of the ccdsvm through the wcuwe , regular ( non - privileged ) users at the client systems 10 may be permitted to access only limited system resources of the ccdsvm . the ccdsvm configuration , in one embodiment , includes four data flow paths . first data path is a communication link between the web browser 9 of the client host 10 ( or console host 1 or control management system 2 ) and the web handling software on the control system 2 ( such as web - server 7 or console support software 6 ). with this path of data flow , whenever a user sends a request from the web - browser 9 to the web - server 7 or the console support software 6 , the console support software 6 collects required information from target provisioned systems 3 and converts the information into standard structured information ( web - format ) for web communication . the targeted system could be one of the provisioned systems 3 or the control system 2 . the information collected by the console support software 6 of the control system 2 could be the system status , or the storage information , or the network information , or the user authentication profile , or the file system information , or files & amp ; folders information on the control system 2 , or any targeted provisioned system 3 . the console support software 6 then passes this converted structured information to web server software 7 and further sends it to the web - browser 9 through a communication link of the net 11 and net 12 so that it can be displayed and viewed by the conventional web browser 9 , as shown in fig1 . the communication protocol used between the web - browser 9 of the client system 10 ( or the console system 1 or the control system 2 ) and the web server 7 of the control system 2 could be http , https ( ssl encrypted http protocol ) or any suitable web protocols for web communication , which could successfully transmit the data across the web or could be other standard or proprietary ip - based on non - ip - based protocols . this data path may be referred to as the console support software 6 transmits data to or receives data from the web - browser 9 or web - server 7 . the second data path is the data flow through communication links between the control system 2 and provisioned systems 3 . requests targeted to a provisioned system 3 are passed from the console support software 6 of the control system 2 to the service modules 8 of the provisioned systems 3 through communication link network 12 . when the responses for those requests are received from the control system 2 , the service modules 8 of the provisioned system 3 carry out the requested tasks , and then send the response back to the console support software 6 of the control system 2 . the implementation of the actual products of this invention for the second data path may use proprietary tcp / udp / ip based protocols for the communication between the provisioned systems 3 and the control system 2 . however , other standards or proprietary ip - based or any suitable non - ip - based protocol are also possible . the communication protocols used between the console support software 6 of the control system 2 and the service modules 8 of the provisioned system 3 can be any suitable ip based or non - ip based protocols , whichever is suitable to transmit data between them . the typical data flow through this path could be the boot message , system status , network information , or storage information of the provisioned system 3 as shown in fig1 . the third data path is the data flow between the provisioned systems 3 and the client system 10 or the console system 1 via the communication links of the net 11 - 12 . referring back to fig1 , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 may present a web link , which points to an object on a provisioned system 3 , to a user working via a web - browser 9 on the client system 10 or the console system 1 or the control system 2 . the object pointed by the web link on the provisioned system 3 could be a text file , mpeg video , pdf document , ms power point , word documentation and others . it also could be a link of another web service application program . from the web browser 9 , a user can directly access the information on a provisioned system 3 pointed by the web link without go through the control system 2 again . in this case , the service modules 8 of the provisioned system 3 also include web server software modules 7 or equivalent one to directly support the web browser 9 as mentioned before . the communication protocols with the third path could be web protocols such as http or wap . alternatively , the communication protocols can be other standards or proprietary ip - based or non - ip - based protocols . to simplify the discussion , the data transmitted on this path will be mentioned as the service software module 8 that send data to or receive data from the web - browser 9 and / or vice versa . the fourth data path is data flow through communication link between a provisioned system 3 and another provisioned system 3 . with this path , the service modules 8 of one provisioned system 3 can directly transmit data or information to the service modules 8 of another provisioned system 3 via a communication link of the net 12 without going through the control system 2 . the implementation of the actual products of this invention , for example , uses a proprietary ip - based protocol for communications between the two provisioned systems 3 . the principle of this invention , however , does not rely on or limit to proprietary protocol . it should be noted that other standard or proprietary ip - based or any suitable non - ip - based protocol may also be possible . the data and information transmitted through the fourth data path can be various types of data . for example , a user at a web - browser 9 may open a file folder on a provisioned system 3 . the user can also instruct to transfer a file from a current target provisioned system 3 to another provisioned system 3 by a mouse click . the data file will then be transferred directly between the two provisioned systems 3 without going through the control system 2 . fig2 a illustrates a variation of the ccdsvm platform for the web browser - based communication in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . the ccdsvm platform illustrated in fig2 a is similar to the platform illustrated in fig1 except every provisioned systems 3 includes a web - browser 9 . thus , with proper authentication process , each user of provisioned systems 3 may access , manage their own provisioned system 3 from the web - browser 9 either on their own local provisioned system 3 or on any client system anywhere on the network . it should be noted that when a user is registered with a provisioned system 3 , the user is authorized to access provisioned system 3 locally but not with the ccdsvm . on the other hand , when a user is registered with ccdsvm , the user is then authorized to access the multiple provisioned systems 3 and the control system 2 of the ccsdvm . fig2 b illustrates another example of a variation of ccdsvm , in which there is no provisioned systems 3 in the ccdsvm . the control system 2 can run on its own and the ccdsvm has degenerated into a single stand - alone system ( fig2 b ), and users through web - browser 9 on any client system 3 ( or on console system 1 , or on stand - alone control system 2 ) are allowed to access and operate the permitted resource objects and system resources on the stand - alone control system 2 . unless specifically specified , the console support software modules 6 of the control system 2 , the provisioned systems 3 , the service software modules 8 of provisioned system 3 , and the web - browser 9 on the control system 2 , the client system 10 , and the console system 1 are referred to the ccdsvm platform illustrated in fig1 . a web - based computer user work / operation environment (“ wcuwe ”) of ccdsvm is a software infrastructure , shown in fig3 , which provides each permitted user to log into ccdsvm and further provide each user a private web - browser based operating environment , which is a private work space including the assigned and permitted resources on the control system 2 or on the provisioned system 3 across the network . the wcuwe further provides each user from a single web - browser to perform various permitted tasks and operations over various system resources ( fig5 ), further , the tasks can be performed concurrently from a single web - browser . the tasks include allowing privileged users to create users , groups , assign users to each group , to assign initial associated system resources to each user or group , and to save the information of created users and groups into a database stored on storage media of the control system 2 . the information needed for creating users or groups include user names , user ids , assigned security permissions , passwords , access points , group names , group ids , maximum members in a group , and so forth . the tasks also include various system operations such as manage network , storage , file system , folder , files , messages , user security , and so forth . the database is organized as one or more lists of tables , wherein each of the lists contains information for various resources . the resources could be one or multiple users &# 39 ; information , one or multiple systems &# 39 ; information , one or more network cards , and one or more disk drives information . the storage media could be a system &# 39 ; s internal storage or disk drive , for example . the wcuwe of the ccdsvm includes software modules of present invention . for example , the software includes the console support modules 6 of the control system 2 , the service software modules 8 of the provisioned system 3 , the other service software 13 of the console system 1 . the current implementation of the wcuwe is based on a proprietary design of this invention . however , the nature and spirit of this invention does not limit to proprietary designed software . the wcuwe of the ccdsvm also includes other proprietary software modules or conventional software such as the web - server 7 of the control system 2 , the web - browser 9 of the control system 2 , the client system 10 , and console system 1 . the wcuwe of the ccdsvm can be implemented with any suitable or combination of various suitable programming languages such c , c ++, java , javascripts , html , xml , and so on . to simplify the discussion , the wcuwe will be used to represent software modules in the ccdsvm described above . users of the ccdsvm may be created by the ccdsvm though a given process or any users on the internet , intranet , lan without registering with ccdsvm . the wcuwe of the ccdsvm provides user to access various resources and perform various tasks through a preferred model of mouse clicking on graphically represented resource objects on the browser 9 . the wcuwe is designed to be operated on a ccdsvm platform , and specially is designed to provide dynamic work space ( fig4 a ) to each user associated with the various ccdsvm . the wcuwe further facilitates each user performs tasks of instantly posting or un - posting user &# 39 ; s private resources information to peers in a group or to each peer user of the ccdsvm not in a group or not in same group , or to massive public users on the network , where the massive public users do not have accounts with the ccdsvm platform . the dynamic work space of the wcuwe is a centrally controlled collection of each group &# 39 ; s work space and / or user &# 39 ; s work space . the console support software 6 of the control system 2 of the ccdsvm will assign each user a private work space and each group a common work space when each user or group account is created by a privileged user after corresponding wcuwe software modules on the control system 2 and provisioned system 3 enter into an operational mode . when a user or a group account is created , each user is assigned to a specific user security scope and permission . an important aspect of the wcuwe of the ccdsvm is that it assigns each user and / or each user - group a working space based on user and group security permission . a work space is an organized information structure , which can be saved on storage media of memory or disk drives or both of memory and disk drives by the console support software 6 . a work space is created during a privileged user performing the tasks of creating user or group . the work space will be initiated and assigned with system resources of the ccdsvm as shown in fig5 . various system resources on either the provisioned system 3 and / or on the control system 2 include respective memory , system - groups , computing systems in a system - group , file system , file folders , files , storage media , network media and so on . the common work space 15 , shown in fig4 a and fig4 b , of each group may be initially assigned with information of system resources ( fig5 ) such as users in this group , message area , file systems , folders and files on a specific provisioned system 3 or on the control system 2 , and so on . the resources of the common work space may also be dynamically assigned or allocated by permitted user after creating group account . for example , during an online interactive meeting , a user posts a file to the common work space , so that a new entry of a file node is added to a file and folder tree area of common work space . in addition , each group may be assigned with one or multiple users , wherein each user can also be assigned with a private work space 16 illustrated in fig4 a and fig4 c during user account creation time . the private work space may also be initially assigned with system resources of the ccdsvm during user account creation time . alternatively , the private work space is dynamically assigned with the resources of the ccdsvm after the user account being created . for example , a privileged user can dynamically permit or deny a general user to access a list of storage devices . during the operation , at one second , the user may see the list from the user &# 39 ; s web - browser , and at another second , the general user will no longer see the list . also , if the authorized user can access to the list of the storage devices on a provisioned system 3 , and further can take one of the devices offline so that the device list on the provisioned system 3 will have one less devices to be displayed . in another example , another example , at one second , a privileged user allows a general user to access a file j in a folder n on a system m of the ccdsvm , and at another second , the privileged user resets the previous permission , thereby , the general user can view and access the file j in the folder n of the system m of the ccdsvm at one time , and a second later , the general user can not view and access the file j any more . the actual implementation of console support software 6 of control system 2 has achieved this capability . in addition , each type of resources in the work space is organized as a list of tables and can be stored in storage media in the control system 2 . the integrity of security of each group is protected by limiting different resources to different group . as such , each group is authorized to have a limited view over assigned system resources on the provisioned system 3 as well as on the control system 2 . the same security integrity at user level can be achieved by assigning different system resources of the provisioned system 3 and / or the control system 2 to different individual user based on assigned security permission . therefore , each user is authorized to access and view the assigned resources only . fig4 b has shown an example of assigned resources of users 17 , message area 18 , folders and files area 19 , and other areas 20 in the common work space 15 of a group . the messages , from each user in the user group , in the common message area 18 , and the information of folders and files in common files and folder area 19 can be shared by all users in the same user group . all resources in each group &# 39 ; s common work space can be selectively displayed in the web - browser 9 of each login user , who belongs to the same user group after said resources in said group being converted to presentable web - format ( web - page ) by the console support software 6 of the control system 2 of a ccdsvm . fig4 c has shown an example of resources in private work space ( 16 ) of a user , which has assigned private message area 21 , private file , folder area 22 , and private network or storage or other information areas 23 . the assigned resources only can be exclusively viewed and accessed by the designated user unless he / she agrees to share with peer user crossing group boundary or with peer users in a same group . the folder ( directory ) is a data structure which can hold one more files and sub - folders at logical file system level and at physical level on storage media . fig8 a has shown an example of displaying an actually implemented portion of web - page encoded with assigned resources in private work space of a user x , which includes a system - group - a 33 on said network , multiple provisioned systems 3 under the system - group - a , private folders 32 and 34 of the user x on a system , and files under the folders 32 in the displayed private work space of the user x . fig8 b has shown another example of displaying an actually implemented portion of a web - page encoded with assigned resources in a private work space of a user y , which includes a control system 2 , private folder and files 35 of the user y in the displayed private work space of user y . the private work space of the user x and user y may also include private message area 21 and other resources , which are not displayed in fig8 a & amp ; fig8 b because the wcuwe is designed to dynamically display part of user &# 39 ; s private work space whenever there is needs . it is notable that said user x and user y , may be in same user - group such as in said group - 1 , however , each of them could have a significant different scope of the private work space assigned by the console support software 6 of the control system 2 due to each of them has been assigned with very different resources on the systems depending on each user &# 39 ; s role and security permission , which is setup by the privileged user of the ccdsvm through web - based user interface provided by the console support software 6 . this is the beauty of the invention of wcuwe for ccdsvm . the fig6 c and fig6 d are examples of a web - page displayed in said web - browser 9 of each of the user x and user y in the user group - 1 before an interactive online meeting . as shown in fig6 c and fig6 d , the user x or user y or other users ( who &# 39 ; s web - page / browser did not depicted ) in the same user group - 1 have entered a group online meeting after their login to the ccdsvm from each browser 9 on any system on said network , and all get an identical web - page provided by the console support software 6 of the control system 2 except with different contents in the displayed private work space section of the web - page due to each user has assigned with different resources . the web - page screen layout provided by console support software 6 contains four sections : 1 ) a private user message input area ( section - 1 ), 2 ) a message displaying section for displaying common message area 18 shown in fig4 b for all users in a user group - 1 ( section - 2 ), 3 ) a file or folder display section for displaying group common file and folder area 19 shown in fig4 b for all users in same user group - 1 ( section - 3 ), and 4 ) a file and folder tree displaying and management section ( section - 4 ) for displaying user folder and file tree in private file and folder area 22 of a user &# 39 ; s private work space 16 . initially , the section - 1 , section - 2 , and section - 3 are all empty due to no one has posted any file or message yet . the console support software 6 gets each login user &# 39 ; s portion of assigned folders and files for the online meeting from the stored private file and folder area 22 of the private work space 16 of each user on said storage media , and further converts said file or folder information to presentable web - format ( web - page ) to be displayable in said section - 4 of the web - page in web - browser 9 of each user . the choice of total four sections of the web - page layout and the order of each section on the browser screen 9 is irrelevant to this invention since other choices of designing are also possible , and further , this invention does not have limitation on what web - screen layout shall be . the information of the file or folder includes the system name where the file or folder resided , the name and path of the file or folder , the owner of file or folder , the time stamps , the size of the file and so on without limitation . during the interactive online meeting , the console support software 6 provides each user to post or un - post files or folders to said section - 3 of displayed group &# 39 ; s common documents and contents management section with several steps . first , for example , providing said user x to click on one targeted file “ doc 1 ” 24 or “ sub folder - 1 ” a time in section - 4 of displayed said file and folder management area of said user x &# 39 ; s private work space 16 . second , select the operation of either post or un - post from an operation menu ( see fig9 a , fig9 b , fig1 a and fig1 b ). finally click on the selected operation to submit the task of either post or un - post the selected file or folder . each user with permission may perform un - post operation if such user has at least a previously posted file or folder , which has already displayed in section - 3 of the common document and content management section of said web - browser 9 of each login users in said same user - group , see fig6 a or fig6 b for example . if a file is selected , the file operation menu is used and if a folder is selected , the folder operation menu is used respectively . it is also possible to only provide one menu for both file and folder operation by said console support software 6 . the operation menu either can be pop - up menu for folder as shown in fig9 a or pop - up menu for file as shown in fig9 b , or non - pop - up menu for folder as shown in fig1 a or non - pop - up menu for file as shown in fig1 b . the choice of operation menu is irrelevant to this invention although the actual implementation of this part of invention has used pop - up menu , and as matter of the facts that there is no limitation on how the operation menu is to be designed in this invention . in the example of fig6 a , the user x can post a file named “ doc 1 ” 24 to said section - 3 of the common document and contents display section in said web - browser 9 . in the example of fig6 b , the user y also can post a file named “ picture 1 ” 25 to the common document and contents display section in said web - browser 9 . in addition , another not depicted user z posted a file of “ project code ”. the files or folders could be one on said control system 2 or on any provisioned system 3 of the ccdsvm . in addition , during the interactive online meeting , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 also provides each user to post message to users in same group from said section - 1 of the private user message input section after typing a message and click on the “ send ” button . in the example of fig6 a , the user x posted a message of “ msg 1 of user x ” 26 . in the example of fig6 b , the user y also posted a message of “ msg 2 of user y ” 27 . in addition , another non depicted user z posted a message of “ msg 3 of user z ”. as a result , all of three messages were displayed in the same section - 2 of each user &# 39 ; s browser . in a specific situation , the console support software 6 also provides permitted user to un - post the previously posted message . just for example , in fig6 a , the console support software 6 provides the permitted user x to select a previously posted “ msg 2 of the user y ” 27 from said section - 2 of the common message display section of said web - browser 9 of the user x , and select un - post operation from said operation menu and submit the selected un - post task . the detailed information of how the post or un - post task to be implemented will be discussed in next two paragraphs . in addition , with this invention , the action of the “ post ” information such as posting information of files or folders or messages or other resources is equivalent to the action of “ share ” the information . the action of “ un - post ” information is equivalent to the action of “ un - share ” a previously posted or shared information , in other words , to “ remove ” the previously posted or shared information . after transmitting information data of the post or un - post task from the web - browser 9 of the console system 1 or client system 10 or control system 2 to the control system 2 , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 obtains and parses the information data to determine : who is the original user initiating the task ; what type of task ; what type of associated resources for task to work on ; who is the targeted user ; and what is the time stamp , and may also include other information without limitation . the console support software 6 further determines that if the task is to post a file or folder from said original user , the console support software 6 picks up the corresponding file or folder information that from file and folder area 22 of the private work space 16 of the original user , and then deposits such information to the file and folder area 19 of the common work space of said group 15 in this case . if the task is to un - post a previously posted file or folder , from a specific user , in said common work space 15 of said group , the console support software 6 search for the corresponding information of the file or folder in the file folder area of said common work space 15 of said group and further remove the entry of matched information from said common work space of said group after it is found . if the task is to post a message to users in said group , the parsed message will be stored in the private message area 21 , of the original user &# 39 ; s said private work space 16 , and also is copied to the message area 18 , of the common work space 15 , of said group by said console support software 6 . if a task is to un - post ( delete / remove ) a previously posted message , the console support software 6 searches for a matching message in said common message area 18 , of said common work space of said group , and remove such message entry if it is found based on the message and original user &# 39 ; s identification and other associated information such as time stamp , security permission and so on without limitation . it shall be noticed that the task of un - posting a file or folder of this invention does not actually delete the file and folder from original user &# 39 ; s private work space . in addition , a lock protection mechanism is deployed whenever a message or information of a file or folder is written , stored , or deposited to either said private work space or said common work space , or to said disk drives or other storage media . throughout the rest of discuss , the lock protection is assume to be a default action without further mentioning whenever a write / store / deposit action take place . as matter the fact , each task of posting file , folder , and message as well as the task of un - posting the previously posted file or folder , or message performed by multiple users in multiple groups with this invention can be executed by the console support software 6 instantly with memory speed . fig6 a and fig6 b illustrate that after the console support software 6 of the control system 2 successfully executing the tasks for each user in each group , any user in said user group can get a fresh view of said section - 2 of the common messages display area of the user group - 1 , and a fresh view of said section - 3 of the common documents & amp ; contents display area of in each user &# 39 ; s said web browser 9 on the client system 10 or on the control system 2 or on the console system 1 . user can manually click on a refresh - button , which does not show on the fig6 a and fig6 b , to refresh corresponding part of screen of either said section - 2 or section - 3 in the browser 9 . also said corresponding part of browser screen of said section - 2 or section - 3 can be automatically refreshed . as mater of the fact , optionally , the console support software 6 has encoded a run - time script in said web - page , which is encoded with said presentable web - format and to be displayed in said web - browser 9 after each user login to the ccdsvm and started group online meeting . the run - time script will automatically and periodically perform tasks of refreshing said section - 2 and section - 3 of the web browser 9 screen . the frequency of the periodic refreshing can be adjusted by said console support software 6 of the ccdsvm depending on the needs of the meeting , which typically can range from 1 to 3 seconds and there is no limitation on this aspect . also , with the preferred example , said run - time script provided by the wcuwe is a javascript , however , other type of programming scripts or methods are also possible and there is no limitation on what kind of run - time program shall be used in this invention . in addition , the console support software 6 provides each user the choices of either automatic or manual refreshing their web - browser 9 . upon refreshing said section - 2 or section - 3 of said web - browser 9 &# 39 ; s screen of each user , a request of updating such screen will be generated and sent from said web - browser 9 to the control system 2 . the console support software 6 obtains and parses each request to determine what user group , and which part of said common work space of said group need to be updated . based on information of each parsed request , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 retrieves the updated resources and objectives from said common work space 15 of said user group , which includes recently posted files , folders , or messages from each user in said group , and also includes the updated list of files and folders or messages after un - posting one or more files or folders , or messages by the users in the same group . finally , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 converts retrieved information of the resources and objects to the presentable web - format ( web - page ). if the request is to update the group messages , the converted information is sent to the section - 2 of the group common message display area in corresponding user &# 39 ; s said web - page / web browser 9 . if the request is to update the group common files and folders display area , the converted information is sent to the section - 3 of said web - browser 9 . therefore , after refreshing said sections on said web - browser 9 , each user can have an identical view of all posted files and folders in the section - 3 of group common document display area on said browser 9 , and can have an identical view of all messages in the section - 2 of the group common message display area on said web - browser 9 , which are posted by all other users in a same group . meanwhile said console support software 6 still allow each user kept most of the resources and objects in their own private work space un - exposed to other users in the same group during the online interactive meeting . for example , the user x at his / her web - browser 9 can see “ picture 1 ” 25 , posted by the user y , in the group common file and folder display area but can not see other information in the user y &# 39 ; s private work space area , and can see the “ doc 1 ” posted by the user x himself . also , the user y at his / her web - browser 9 can see “ doc 1 ” 24 , posted by the user x , in the group common file and folder display area but not other information in user x &# 39 ; s private file and folder display area , and can see the “ picture 1 ” posted by the user y himself . a difference between a conventional internet group communication model and the group based communication model described in the present invention is that the console support software 6 of the control system 2 provides each user to control post or un - post said resources from user &# 39 ; s own displayed private work space while the conventional internet communication model are not capable of performing such posting / un - posting task . also , for example , un - posting a previous posted file or folder with the wcuwe of the ccdsvm does not delete the file or folder materials in the user &# 39 ; s private work space while the delete operation with existing internet group communication model will completely delete the file or folder . the dynamic work space of this invention has combined with security protection for the information and , flexibility and efficiency for online meeting provided by the wcuwe of the ccdsvm for each of user and groups in online meeting . in addition , with a preferred example , since posted information of each file is encoded by said console support software 6 with a web link and displayed in said section - 3 of the web - browser 9 , therefore , each user in a user - group can click on said link to download the file , which provided in the private file and folder area 22 of the private work space 16 of their peer users in said group , from a system where the file is physically located . for example , the user x can download said “ picture 1 ”, which may reside on either a control system 2 or provisioned systems 3 , from the user y , while the user y can download said “ doc 1 ”, which also may reside on either a control system 2 or provisioned system 3 , from the user x at same time . this achieves a true peer - to - peer exchanging files on permitted system from permitted users in said user group . in addition , there is no limitation on the file size of the file to be downloaded , which is a gifted benefit from internet technology . besides the exampled and understandable method of download , other methods of retrieve peer users &# 39 ; digital documents or contents are also possible by deploying a more efficient proprietary file transfer mechanism to reach the results of said exchanging file . it shall be noted that the method of download is only applicable to the files and does not apply to folder and other resource information . to get a targeted peer user &# 39 ; s entire folder and the underneath files and sub folders , a special files and folder transfer method is required . as shown in fig9 a & amp ; 9b , and fig1 a & amp ; 10b , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 also provides each user to perform many other tasks during online meeting through said operation menu such as upload , rename , delete , copy / paste and so on without limitation . the upload operation allows each user to dynamically upload files one a time through the web - browser 9 from a local storage of the client system 10 or console system 1 to said user &# 39 ; s private work space on the control system 2 during the meeting , and further to be posted to said common space of a user group that each user belong to . the mouse click driven copy / past operation allows files and folders from permitted folders of permitted provisioned systems 3 to be dynamically physically copied to each users &# 39 ; private work spaces 16 on the control system 2 , and the information of said files and folders could further to be displayed via said web - page in the browser 9 of each user and to be further posted to the common work space 15 of said group which each user belong to in addition to the direct posting these file or folders as described in previously — without physical copying over . as matter of the fact , operations provided by the console support software 6 of the control system 2 have added efficiency to posting or un - posting files and folders for each user depending on the real needs . additionally , said console support software 6 provides each user of each group capability of saving the posted messages in the common message area 18 of said common work space 15 of each group as a file in the common file & amp ; folder area of said common work space 15 of each group . further , the saved file can be viewed , downloaded by each user in each group with same method of posting . besides whenever there is a need , said console support software 6 provides users to reset message area to be empty by removing all message entries in the message area 18 of said user group &# 39 ; s common work space 15 . an important fact is that the designed wcuwe of the ccdsvm has provided concurrent users each from a single web browser anywhere on the network to securely perform permitted various tasks , which could be run concurrently within a single web - browser . because of the console support software 6 of the control system 2 let each users have exclusive view for resource objects in his / her private work space 16 and in said common work space 15 of a group which each user belong to and let each user to manage resource objects in his / her own private space , the multiple users in multiple user groups can concurrently post or un - post files , folders , messages , or other resource objects without interfere users in other user - groups . thus , the work spaces of each user and each group are well protected . hence , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 provides privileged users to perform tasks of creating multiple users and user groups on the control system , and each group can be assigned with variable size of the users for online interactive meeting . the total number of users and the total number of groups , and maximum number of the users per groups of the wcuwe of the ccdsvm can support is an implementation issue and depends on the capacity of the control system 2 . the wcuwe of ccdsvm and the ccdsvm has been designed with unlimited scalability for both users and provisioned systems 3 . on the other hand , the spirit of this invention does not limit to with the boundary issues of the wcuwe and the ccdsvm . fig8 a and fig8 b illustrate that each user x and user y has a different private work space 18 than others , and each has assigned with different system resources . without joining any group or participating any group meeting , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 also can provide user x and user y to peer - to - peer instantly posting files or folders one a time to each other , or instantly un - post the previous posted files and folders through similar steps as posting or un - posting materials in group online meeting model : 1 ) let each user select , via mouse clicking , a source of file or folder for post or un - post ; 2 ) let the user to select a post operation ( task ) if the user want to post any file or folder through an operation menu ; or to select an un - post operation ( task ) from an operation menu if said user like to un - post a previously posted file or folder ; 3 ) upon submitting the operation ( task ), let each user provide input to a prompt of “ who is a targeted user ?” which provided by said console support software 9 , and further submit the selected task ; 4 ) said console support software 6 obtains and parses the task information of original user , source of the file or folder , type of operation , and other information ; 5 ) if said type of the operation is post file or folder , said console support software 6 deposits the information of said source file or folder to said private file and folder area 22 of said private work space 16 of a targeted user . if said operation type is un - post a file or folder , said console support software 6 searches a corresponding file or folder information from said private file and folder area 22 of said private work space 16 of said targeted user to match the source file or folder , if found a match , the corresponding entry of the file or folder is removed from said private file and folder area 22 of said private work space 16 of the targeted user ; and 6 ) upon each user refreshing the web - page in own web - browser 9 , the console support software 6 retrieves and converts the updated information in said private file and folder area 22 of own private work space 16 of the user into a presentable web - format ( web - page ) and transmits said web - page to the web - browser 9 of the user for displaying and viewing . for example , as shown in fig8 a , the user x can follow said steps 1 ) to 3 ) to post his “ folder 2 ” 32 , in the displayed files and folders area 22 of private working space 16 in the user x &# 39 ; s web - browser 9 , to the user y . as shown in fig8 c , upon the user y refreshing his / her web - browser 9 on a system by walking on a corresponding system node or folder node in the displayed tree , the user y will see the “ folder 2 ” 32 in his / her displayed private file and folder tree of displayed private work space of user y shown in fig8 c . as matter of the fact , when walking a system node and / or a file & amp ; folder tree in said web - browser 9 , a refreshing web - page screen request is generated and to be handled as described previously . in addition to post or un - posting messages in the group based communication involving parties with two or more users , the wcuwe of the ccdsvm also provides each user to post message to each other user with non - group based 1 - to - 1 message model . fig7 a and fig7 b have shown an example of a user x and a user y , who may not be in a same user group , however , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 provides each user to share and exchange messages with each other from a three - section web - page in said browser 9 . the section - 3 of the web page in said browser 9 let user to work with same said steps of non - group based 1 - to - 1 posting files and folders or un - posting the previously posted files or folders as described in prior paragraphs - the section - 3 included in fig7 a and 7b just for a demonstration of how flexible of this invention is to display information under private work space of each user . further , the number of sections in the screen layout and the order of each section in web - page display really is not a limitation to this invention . the section - 1 is a user message input area together with an additional input field of “ to who ” due to unlike in group online meeting , the console support software 9 have no knowledge of who is the targeted user in this case . thus , a user can posting a message with similar steps as previously discussed in prior paragraphs - of this invention . nevertheless , unlike with group meeting messaging model , after obtaining and parsing information of the messages from each user , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 will deposit the message to both targeted user and the original sending user &# 39 ; s message areas 21 of the private work space 16 . further , with same said steps of displaying messages in each user &# 39 ; s browser as described in previous paragraphs , each user can view both own message and messages from peer user in section - 2 of the browser 9 . for example , as shown in fig7 a , the user x input a message of “ msg 4 of user x ” 30 and type “ user y ” in input field of “ to who ”, and then submit the message by clicking on “ send ” button . similar as shown in fig7 b , the user y input a message of “ msg 3 of user y ” 31 , and type “ user x ” in input field of “ to who ”, and then submit the message . upon the refreshing the web - page in the web - browser 9 of each of the users , the user x will see the message 30 he / she sent and the message 31 from the user y . also the user y will see both messages 30 and 31 at same time . again , the design choice of three sections of the web - page display and the order of each section is just a preferred example of implementation for non - group based peer user communication . this invention does not limited by web - screen display layout , for example , a screen display only with said section - 1 and section - 2 are also possible and so on without limitation . the wcuwe of the ccdsvm has provided a security hierarchy for members of any team to work together cross multiple locations . with said security hierarchy and said steps of posting or un - posting file and folder , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 can specially let only a team leader with capability of posting folder or file to be viewed , shared , and accessed by all team members or by an individual member in a non - group meeting based environment . in addition , the console support software 6 also let each team member to post or un - post his / her file or folders to only a specific peer user one a time in non - group - meeting based environment . again the said files or folders could be on said control system 2 or on any said provisioned system 3 . it is relatively straightforward for the wcuwe of the ccdsvm , more specifically the console support software 6 , to support massive online users , who do not have account with the ccdsvm and can not login the ccdsvm , yet to view the dynamically posted files , folders , or messages posted by users with account of the ccdsvm . in a preferred example , such as shown in fig6 e , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 provides a web - page to massive online users , who do not have to login the ccdsvm . the web - page could be layout with two major sections with section - 1 to display messages in the sharable message area 18 in a designated user group &# 39 ; s common work space 15 while the section - 2 to display file or folders in the sharable file or folder area 19 in said designated user group &# 39 ; s common work space 15 . meanwhile , for users belong to same said designated user group , each user from a web - browser on any system across said network login to the ccdsvm and get said group online meeting web - page as shown in fig6 a for the user x and in fig6 b for the user y . further as described previous paragraph , each user in said group can instantly post message to said message area 18 of the designated user group &# 39 ; s common work space 15 , or post a file or folder to the sharable file and folder area 19 in the designated user group &# 39 ; s common work space 15 . also , each user in the user group can instantly un - post the previously posted files or folders by removing the corresponding file or folder entry in the file and folder area 19 of the designated user - group &# 39 ; s common work space 15 , or un - post the previously posted messages by removing them from the common message area 18 of the common work space 15 of the user - group as described in previous several paragraph -. meanwhile as previously described and as shown in fig6 e , said web - page in the browser 9 is for access by massive online users , who have no account with the ccdsvm . the web page can be dynamically updated , displayed , and further be viewed by the massive users anywhere through their own browser 9 accordingly with the same pace as dynamically display of said section - 2 and section - 3 of a web - page in the browser 9 as shown in fig6 a and fig6 b . again , the two sections of a web - page display layout is a preferred example and it does not limit this invention because with this invention other layout is also possible , for example , it may be desired to have web - page layout only contains one section , which is either for messages or file or folder &# 39 ; s display depending on the application &# 39 ; s need . as shown in fig8 a , fig8 b , and fig8 c , with non - group based peer - to - peer post or un - post files and folders , people may often do not remember how many files and folders have been posted for sharing . for example , as shown in fig8 a , the user x can select “ folder 2 ” 32 , select a post on operation menu , and provide target “ user y ” to share “ folder 2 ” 32 . as show in fig8 c , the user y can see “ folder 2 ” 32 of the user x in the web - browser 9 of the user y after the user x post “ folder 2 ” 32 . if the user x selects various files or folders for sharing with other dozen people , the user x will have difficult time to remember what has been shared and who are targeted users shared with . as shown in fig1 , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 can provide each user , user x for example , a sharing control list for displaying of how many files or folders being posted by him or her and shared to whom . as shown in fig1 of the personal share management list in the user x &# 39 ; s web - browser 9 , an entry of posted “ folder 2 ” 32 is listed at bottom of said control list and it is posted / shared to the user y . further , said console support software 6 can provide each user to selectively un - post the previously posted files and folders via clicking on a “ delete shared ?” option of an operation menu for corresponding entries in the control list to generate an un - post operation task . for example , the user x clicks on “ delete share ?” to un - post the “ folder 2 ” 32 . thereafter , as described before said console support software 6 of the control system 2 will execute the un - post task . further upon refreshing the targeted user y &# 39 ; s web - page in said web - browser 9 , in stead of seeing “ folder 2 ” 32 as shown in fig8 c , the user y will see an updated view of said web - page as shown in fig8 b , where the “ folder 2 ” 32 has been removed . the operation menu for “ delete share ?” depicted here just for example and it could be displayed in any other form . in addition to let original user in a group to control the un - posting file or folder in a group based communication , the console support software 6 of the control system 2 may also provide a privileged user to un - post the previously posted files or folders in the displayed file and folder section - 3 of said web - page . to support this capability , the console support software 6 will provide an operation menu to associate with said displayed files and folders in said display section - 3 , further to allow privileged user to perform similar un - post operation . after receiving the un - post operation , the console support software 6 will perform similar searching for selected file or folder in the group file and folder area 19 of the group common work space 15 of said group , if there is match , the corresponding entry will be deleted . also , the file and folder section of the web - page in the web - browser 9 can be refreshed accordingly as described before . having briefly described embodiments of the web based network environment in which the present invention operates , fig1 illustrates an example of a computer system 1200 , which is an exemplary client system 10 , provisioned system 3 , control system 2 , or console system 1 in which the features of the present invention may be implemented . process of the web based information exchange can be implemented in any processor - based computer system , such as a pc , a workstation , or a mainframe computer . it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other alternative computer system architectures may also be employed . referring back to fig1 , computer system 200 includes a processing unit 201 , an interface bus 211 , and an input / output (“ io ”) unit 220 . processing unit 201 includes a processor 202 , a main memory 204 , a system bus 211 , a static memory device 206 , a bus control unit 205 , a mass storage memory 207 , and a web information exchange module 230 . bus 211 is used to transmit information between various components and processor 202 for data processing . processor 202 may be any of a wide variety of general - purpose processors or microprocessors such as pentium ™ microprocessor , motorola ™ 68040 , or power pc ™ microprocessor . main memory 204 , which may include multiple levels of cache memories , stores frequently used data and instructions . main memory 204 may be ram ( random access memory ), mram ( magnetic ram ), or flash memory . static memory 206 may be a rom ( read - only memory ), which is coupled to bus 211 , for storing static information and / or instructions . bus control unit 205 is coupled to buses 211 - 212 and controls which component , such as main memory 204 or processor 202 , can use the bus . bus control unit 205 manages the communications between bus 211 and bus 212 . mass storage memory 207 , which may be a magnetic disk , an optical disk , hard disk drive , floppy disk , cd - rom , and / or flash memories for storing large amounts of data . web based information exchange 230 , in one embodiment , is a network control component for facilitating information exchange over the web . it should be noted that web based information exchange 230 could be software or hardware or a combination of software and hardware components . i / o unit 220 , in one embodiment , includes a display 221 , keyboard 222 , cursor control device 223 , and communication device 225 . display device 221 may be a liquid crystal device , cathode ray tube (“ crt ”), touch - screen display , or other suitable display device . display 221 projects or displays images of a graphical planning board . keyboard 222 may be a conventional alphanumeric input device for communicating information between computer system 200 and computer operator ( s ). another type of user input device is cursor control device 223 , such as a conventional mouse , touch mouse , trackball , or other type of cursor for communicating information between system 200 and user ( s ). communication device 225 is coupled to bus 211 for accessing information from remote computers or servers , such as server or other computers , through wide - area network . communication device 225 may include a modem or a network interface device , or other similar devices that facilitate communication between computer 200 and the network . computer system 200 may be coupled to a number of servers via a network infrastructure such as the infrastructure illustrated in fig1 . the present invention has been described in considerable details with reference to certain examples . however , other versions and examples are also possible , therefore , the spirit of this invention shall not be limited to these examples and / or embodiments . also , the claims of this invention will label with numbering and in most cases , the numbering does not represent any sequence or order unless specifically described as the steps of a method . | 7 |
referring now to fig2 the preferred embodiment of a storage box according to the present invention includes a housing ( 1 ), a pair of left and right separate plates ( 2 ), two spring boards ( 3 ), a top plate ( 4 ), and a flexible sliding door ( 5 ). according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention , the housing ( 1 ) has a top wall , a bottom wall , a right side wall , a left side wall and a rear wall , all of which connected together to form a front opening ( 10 ). the housing ( 1 ) preferrably has two opposite front flanges ( 13 ) projecting from the left and right side walls at the front opening ( 10 ). the bottom wall has a positioning groove ( 11 ) and an elongated access slot ( 12 ). each of said pair of left and right plates ( 2 ) has a guide rail ( 22 ) extending along the rear side , the top side and the front side thereof . said guide rail ( 22 ) has a rear end ( 220 ) adjacent to the bottom wall of the housing ( 1 ). said elongated access slot ( 12 ) of the bottom wall is aligned with the rear end ( 220 ) of the guide rail ( 22 ) of each of the left and right plates ( 2 ). the left and right plates ( 2 ) further have inwardly projecting racks ( 21 ) which are spaced vertically , and each rack ( 21 ) of the left plate is aligned horizontally with the corresponding one of the right plate . each of the left and right plates ( 2 ) is further provided with a horizontal groove ( 25 ) above the racks ( 21 ) and below the guide rail ( 22 ). also , each of the left and right plates ( 2 ) is provided with positioning spring members ( 24 ) and the corresponding receivers ( 23 ) at the rear side thereof . a top plate ( 41 ) is then detachably connected to the left and right plates ( 2 ) by engaging the horizontal grooves ( 25 ) and is disposed therebetween . said top plate ( 41 ) has a vertical partition plate ( 41 ) parallel to the left and right side walls of the housing ( 1 ) and extending downward therefrom . said vertical partition plate ( 41 ) has two opposite faces opposing the left and right plates ( 2 ) respectively ; the opposite faces have racks ( 42 ) which are spaced vertically and which are aligned horizontally with the racks ( 21 ) of the left and right plates ( 2 ). furthermore , the bottom side of the vertical partition plate ( 41 ) has a dovetail ( 43 ) which engages in the positioning groove ( 11 ). each of the left and right plates ( 2 ) is further provided with a rear plate - like flange ( 26 ) perpendicularly projecting from between the racks ( 21 ) and the rear side portion of the guide rail ( 22 ), and the top plate ( 41 ) is further provided with a back panel ( 40 ). said back panel ( 401 ) projects laterally from the rear side of the vertically partition plate ( 41 ) and is perpendicular to the top plate ( 41 ). two spring boards ( 3 ) are then mounted between the rear plate - like flanges ( 26 ) and the back panel ( 401 ). one spring board ( 3 ) is fixed to the rear plate - like flange ( 26 ) of said left plate ( 2 ) and said vertical partition plate ( 41 ), and the other is fixed to the rear plate - like flange ( 26 ) of said right plate ( 2 ) and said vertical partition plate ( 41 ). each spring board ( 3 ) has a plurality of vertically spaced spring members ( 30 ) which are substantially horizontally with the racks ( 21 and 42 ) ( fig5 ). in assembly , the left and right plates ( 2 ) are respectively pressed against the left and right side walls of the housing ( 1 ), and the top plate ( 41 ) and the vertical partition plate ( 41 ) are inserted into the housing ( 1 ) by sliding them along the grooves ( 25 ) of the left and right plates ( 2 ) and the positioning groove ( 11 ) of the housing ( 1 ). since the spring members ( 24 ) of the plates ( 2 ) bear against the rear wall of the housing ( 1 ) and bias ( urge ) the plates ( 2 ) against the front flanges ( 13 ), the plates ( 2 ) are firmly press fitted in between the rear wall of the housing ( 1 ) and the front flanges ( 13 ). afterwards , the spring boards ( 3 ) are screwed to the rear plate - like flanges ( 26 ) and the back panel ( 401 ), as best shown in fig4 . the partition plate ( 41 ) divides the housing ( 1 ) into two accommodating spaces , in each of which each pair of the aligned racks ( 21 and 41 ) can cooperatively hold a disc or the like . it can be noted that the spring boards ( 3 ), the rear plate - like flanges ( 26 ), and the back panel ( 401 ) cooperate with the top and rear walls of the housing ( 1 ) to confine an enclosed space to receive the sliding door ( 5 ). referring to fig3 a , 3b and 5 , the sliding door ( 5 ) includes a plurality of elongated parallel rods ( 51 ) of rectangular cross - sections and a joining means including interengageable rounded grooves ( 53 ) and rounded projections ( 52 ) to interconnect the parallel rods ( 51 ) successively and turnably . the flexible sliding door ( 5 ) is pushed into the housing ( 1 ) through the access slot ( 12 ) of the bottom wall of the housing ( 1 ). the sliding door ( 5 ) automatically engages the guide rails ( 22 ) of the plates ( 2 ) and slides therealong until the rear end thereof reaches a position inward of the resilient stop members ( 14 ). the resilient stop members ( 14 ) retract in the holes ( 141 ) of the plates ( 2 ) when they are pressed by the resilient stop members ( 14 ) and project into the guide rails ( 22 ) to stop the downward movement of the the sliding door ( 5 ) after the sliding door ( 5 ) is entirely inserted into the housing . the forwarding end of the sliding door ( 5 ) is preferrably provided with a handle ( 50 ) ( fig2 ). as best shown in fig5 the racks ( 21 and 42 ) are provided with front projections ( 211 and 421 ). when a disc is to be placed on a pair of racks ( 21 and 42 ), the disc must be pushed toward a corresponding spring member ( 30 ) and then downward so that the spring member ( 30 ) is depressed and the disc is held firmly on the racks ( 21 and 42 ) by the action of the spring member ( 30 ) which urges the disc against the front projections ( 211 and 421 ). 1 . the storage box has a strong and durable construction since the housing ( 1 ) has rigid walls which can bear weighty objects and since the sliding door ( 5 ) is constituted by rods rather than sheets or plates ; and 2 . the sliding door is exposed only at the front side of the housing ( 1 ) and can be enclosed in a a narrow space confined by the top and rear walls of the housing , the top plate ( 4 ), the rear plate - like flanges ( 26 ), the spring boards ( 3 ) and the back panel ( 401 ). this arrangement minimizes the problem of dusting the sliding door and facilitates the cleaning of the entire storage box . in a second embodiment of the present invention , the storage box is not provided with the vertical partition plate ( 41 ) of the previous embodiment . in addition , only one spring board ( 3 ) is employed therein . this box has a reduced size . it is to be noted that these and other modifications are apparant to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention . | 6 |
the disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation . in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements . it should be noted that references to “ an ” or “ one ” embodiment in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment , and such references mean at least one . referring to fig1 , an embodiment of an injection molding system includes a mold 10 , a temperature controlling device 20 , an injection device 30 , and an air blower 40 , and a pressure maintaining device 50 . the mold 10 includes a fluid channel 12 and a mold cavity 14 . the injection device 30 can inject a molten material into the mold cavity 14 . the mold cavity 14 determines the size and shape of the article molded by the mold 10 . the mold 10 includes male and female mold parts . the mold cavity 14 is formed between the male and female mold parts . the temperature control device 20 includes a heating system 22 and a cooling system 24 . the heating system 22 can output hot fluid ( e . g ., hot water ) to the fluid channel 12 of the mold 10 for heating up the mold 10 . the cooling system 24 can output cold fluid ( e . g ., ice water ) to the fluid channel 12 of the mold 10 for cooling the mold 10 . both the hot fluid and the cold fluid can be reclaimed after flowing through the fluid channel 12 . referring to fig2 , the heating system 22 includes a fluid storage barrel 221 , a first pump 222 , a heating module 224 , a first valve k 1 , and a second valve k 2 . the first pump 222 is connected to the fluid storage barrel 221 to pump fluid from the fluid storage barrel 221 to the heating module 224 . the heating module 224 includes a plurality heating tubes 223 connected in series . in one embodiment there are four heating tubes 223 . the heating tubes 223 can heat up the fluid flowing from the fluid storage barrel 221 to a predetermined upper temperature ( e . g . 90 ° c .). the first valve k 1 is connected between an output port of the heating module 224 and an input port of the fluid channel 12 of the mold 10 . the second valve k 2 is connected between an output port of the fluid channel 12 and the fluid storage barrel 221 . to heat up the mold 10 , the first valve k 1 and the second valve k 2 are both open . the first valve k 1 allows hot fluid heated by the heating tubes 223 to be pumped into the fluid channel 12 of the mold 10 . the hot fluid then flows out from the fluid channel 12 and flows back to the fluid storage barrel 221 . referring to fig3 , the cooling system 24 includes a cold fluid container 241 , a second pump 242 , a cold fluid source 243 , a third valve k 3 , a fourth valve k 4 , a fifth valve k 5 , and a recycling container 244 . the second pump 242 is connected between the fluid container 241 and the fluid channel 12 for pumping cold fluid to the fluid channel 12 . the cold fluid source 243 provides cold fluid to the cold fluid container 241 . the third valve k 3 is connected between the second pump 242 and the input port of the fluid channel 12 of the mold 10 . the fourth valve k 4 is connected between the output port of the fluid channel 12 and the cold fluid container 241 . one port of the fifth valve k 5 is connected to the output port of the fluid channel 12 , and another port of the fifth valve k 5 is connected to the recycling container 244 . to cool the mold 10 , the third valve k 3 is opened to allow cold fluid to be pumped into the fluid channel 12 of the mold 10 . one of the fourth valve k 4 and the fifth valve k 5 is opened to allow fluid to flow out from the fluid channel 12 into either the cold fluid container 241 or the recycling container 244 . referring to fig4 , an injection molding method based upon above injection molding system includes following blocks . s 01 : the mold 10 is closed and the mold cavity 14 is defined in the mold 10 . s 02 : the heating system 22 causes hot fluid to flow through the fluid channel 12 to heat up the mold 10 . in this block , the first valve k 1 and the second valve k 2 are open . the first pump 222 pumps fluid from the fluid storage barrel 221 to the heating tubes 223 . the heating tubes 223 heat up the fluid and outputs the heated fluid to the fluid channel 12 to heat up the mold 10 to the predetermined upper temperature . the heated fluid then flows back to the fluid storage barrel 221 . s 03 : whether the temperature of the mold 10 reaches the predetermined upper temperature is determined . if yes , go to block s 04 ; if not , go back to block s 02 to continue heating the mold 10 . s 04 : the injection device 30 injects a molten material into the mold cavity 14 of the mold 10 . s 05 : the pressure maintaining device 50 regulates air pressure in the mold cavity 14 to maintain pressure at a predetermined value to compensate for material shrinkage . s 06 : the cooling system 24 causes cold fluid to flow through the fluid channel 12 to cool the mold 10 . in this block , the third valve k 3 is open to allow cold fluid to flow into the fluid channel 12 to the mold 10 . the second pump 242 pumps the cold fluid from the cold fluid container 241 to the fluid channel 12 to cool down the mold 10 to a predetermined low temperature ( e . g . 0 ° c .). one of the fourth valve k 4 and the fifth valve k 5 is open to let fluid flow into either the cold fluid container 241 or the recycling container 244 . s 07 : the air blower 40 blows air into the fluid channel 12 of the mold 10 to dry the channel 12 . s 08 : the material in the mold cavity 14 is solidified to form the article . s 09 : the mold 10 is open and the article is ejected . in one embodiment , the heating system 22 and the cooling system 24 of the temperature control device 20 work in turn to heat or cool the mold 10 at appropriate time during the injection molding process . the temperature of the mold 10 is increased to the predetermined high value just prior to or when the material starts to be injected into the mold cavity 14 of the mold 10 . the temperature of the mold 10 is decreased to the predetermined low value during solidifying the material in the mold 10 . this temperature control manner can improve the quality of the molded article . while the present disclosure has been illustrated by the description of preferred embodiments thereof , and while the preferred embodiments have been described in considerable detail , it is not intended to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such details . additional advantages and modifications within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure will readily appear to those skilled in the art . therefore , the present disclosure is not limited to the specific details and illustrative examples shown and described . depending on the embodiment , certain of the steps of methods described may be removed , others may be added , and the sequence of steps may be altered . it is also to be understood that the description and the claims drawn to a method may include some indication in reference to certain steps . however , the indication used is only to be viewed for identification purposes and not as a suggestion as to an order for the steps . | 1 |
the silylated polymer of this invention is derived from hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene , understood herein to include any hydroxyl - terminated polymer in which at least about 50 weight percent of the polymer is made up of units derived from butadiene . the silylated polymer is obtained ( 1 ) by the silylation ( i . e ., end capping ) of polybutadiene - based polyurethane prepolymer possessing isocyanate termination with a silane possessing at least one hydrolyzable group and functionality which is reactive for isocyanate , e . g ., a secondary aminoalkyltrialkoxysilane , or ( 2 ) by the silylation of a polybutadiene - based polyurethane prepolymer possessing hydroxyl termination with an isocyanatosilane possessing at least one hydrolyzable group . the polybutadiene - based polyurethane prepolymer is obtained by reacting one or more hydroxyl - terminated , optionally hydrogenated , linear or branched polybutadiene homopolymers or copolymers with an organic polyisocyanate , e . g ., an organic diisocyanate , optionally together with one or more other difunctional compounds and / or hydroxyl - terminated polymers , to provide ( 1 ) an isocyanate - terminated polyurethane prepolymer when the total equivalents of isocyanate functionality exceeds the total equivalents of hydroxyl functionality , and ( 2 ) a hydroxyl - terminated polyurethane prepolymer when the total equivalents of hydroxyl functionality exceeds the total equivalents of isocyanate functionality . among the hydroxyl - terminated polybutadienes that are useful for preparing the isocyanate - terminated and hydroxyl - terminated polyurethane prepolymers are those possessing a number average molecular weight ( mn ) of from about 500 to about 10 , 000 , and advantageously from about 800 to about 5 , 000 , a primary hydroxyl group content of from about 0 . 1 to about 2 . 0 meq / g , and advantageously from about 0 . 3 to about 1 . 8 meq / g , a degree of hydrogenation of from 0 up to 100 percent of the olefinic sites present and an average content of copolymerized additional monomer ( s ) of from 0 up to about 50 weight percent . hydroxyl - terminated butadienes of the above - described type , averaging more than one predominantly primary hydroxyl group per molecule , e . g ., averaging from about 1 . 7 to about 3 or more primary hydroxyl groups per molecule , are suitably employed herein . the hydroxyl - terminated polybutadienes will possess an average of at least about 2 , and advantageously from about 2 . 4 up to about 2 . 8 , hydroxyl groups per molecule , the hydroxyl groups being predominantly in terminal allylic positions on the main , i . e ., generally longest , hydrocarbon chain of the molecule . by “ allylic ” configuration is meant that the alpha - allylic grouping of allylic alcohol , i . e ., the terminal hydroxyl groups of the polymer , are bonded to carbon atoms adjacent to double bonded carbon atoms . the ratio of cis - 1 , 4 , trans - 1 , 4 and 1 , 2 - vinyl unsaturation which occurs in the butadiene polymers employed in this invention , the number and location of the hydroxyl groups and the molecular weight of the butadiene polymers will be influenced by the process employed for their manufacture , the details of which are known in the art . hydroxyl - terminated polybutadienes possessing these characteristics are commercially available from several sources and are therefore conveniently employed herein . the useful hydroxyl - terminated polybutadienes herein can also incorporate one or more other copolymerizable monomers which can confer particularly desirable properties upon the silylated polymers herein and the pressure sensitive adhesive compositions prepared therewith . the total amount of copolymerized monomer will not exceed , on average , 50 weight percent of the hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene copolymer . included among the copolymerizable monomers are monoolefins and dienes such as ethylene , propylene , 1 - butene , isoprene , chloroprene , 2 , 3 - methyl - 1 , 3 - butadiene , 1 , 4 - pentadiene , etc ., and , ethylenically unsaturated monomers such as acrylonitrile , methacrylonitrile , methylstyrene , methyl acrylate , methyl methacrylate , vinyl acetate , etc . alternatively or in addition thereto , the hydroxyl - terminated polybutadienes can be reacted with one or more other monomers to provide hydroxyl - terminated block copolymers . such monomers include 1 , 2 - epoxides such as ethylene oxide and propylene oxide which will provide polyether segments , ε - caprolactone which will provide polyester segments , and the like . isocyanate - terminated polyurethane prepolymers , useful in the present invention , are prepared by reacting an excess of organic polyisocyanate with one or more of the foregoing hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene homopolymers and or copolymers , generally , in the presence of a catalyst . as used herein , the term “ polyisocyanate ” means an organic compound possessing two or more isocyanate groups . the reaction temperature is typically in the range of from about 60 ° to about 90 ° c . ; the reaction time is typically from about 4 to about 8 hours . in addition to the hydroxyl - terminated butadiene - based polymer , the reaction mixture can contain one or more chain extenders and / or one or more other polyols . examples of suitable chain extenders are polyhydric alcohols such as ethylene glycol , propylene glycol , propane - 1 , 3 - diol , butane - 1 , 4 - diol , hexane - 1 , 6 - diol , diethylene glycol , triethylene glycol , tetraethylene glycol , dipropylene glycol , triethylene glycol , tetrathylene glycol , dipropylene glycol , tripropylene glycol , tetrapropylene glycol and the like . additional polyols include polyether polyols , polyester polyols , polyetherester polyols , polyesterether polyols , polybutadienediols , polyoxyalkylene diols , polyoxyalkylene triols , polytetramethylene glycols , polycaprolactone diols and triols , and the like , all of which possess at least two primary hydroxyl groups . suitable organic polyisocyanates include any of the known and conventional organic polyisocyanates , especially organic diisocyanates , from which polyurethane polymers have heretofore been prepared . useful diisocyanates include , for example , 2 , 4 - toluene diisocyanate , 2 , 6 - toluene diisocyanate , 4 , 4 ′ diphenylmethanediisocyanate , isophorone diisocyanate , dicyclohexylmethane - 4 , 4 ′- diisocyanate , various liquid diphenylmethane - diisocyantes containing a mixture of 2 , 4 - and 4 , 4 ′ isomers , desmodur n ® ( bayer ) and the like , and mixtures thereof . isophorone diisocyanate is especially advantageous for use in preparing the polyurethane prepolymers herein . suitable catalysts useful in the preparation of the polyurethane prepolymers are dialkyltin dicarboxylates such as dibutyltin dilaurate and dibutyltin acetate , tertiary amines , the stannous salts of carboxylic acids such as stannous octoate and stannous acetate , and the like . to prepare isocyanate - terminated polyurethane prepolymers , at least a slight mole excess of the isocyanate equivalents ( nco groups ) with respect to the hydroxyl equivalents ( oh groups ) is employed to terminate the polybutadiene homopolymer ( s ) and / or copolymer ( s ) with isocyanate groups . advantageously , the molar ratio of nco to oh is from about 1 . 1 to about 4 . 0 depending on the selection of the particular hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene homopolymer ( s ) and / or copolymer ( s ), optional chain extenders and optional non - butadiene based polyols . hydroxyl - terminated polyurethane prepolymers , useful in the present invention , can be prepared by the reaction of an organic polyisocyanate , e . g ., a diisocyanate such as any of those mentioned above , and advantageously isophorone diisocyanate , with a stoichiometric excess of the selected hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene homopolymer ( s ) and / or copolymer ( s ). depending on the reactivity of the respective reactants , a catalyst such as any of those mentioned above can be employed . the reaction temperature is typically in the range of from about 60 ° to about 90 ° c . ; the reaction time is typically on the order of from about 2 to about 8 hours . the reaction mixture can also contain one or more chain extenders and / or other polyols such as any of those mentioned above . to prepare the hydroxyl group - terminated polyurethane prepolymers , at least a slight molar excess of the hydroxyl equivalents ( oh groups ) with respect to the nco isocyanate equivalents ( nco groups ) is employed to terminate the polybutadiene chains with hydroxyl groups . advantageously , the molar ratio of nco to oh is from about 0 . 3 to about 0 . 95 , and more preferably from about 0 . 5 to about 0 . 90 , depending on the specific hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene employed . silylation of the isocyanate - terminated polyurethane prepolymer can be accomplished by reacting the prepolymer with a silane possessing at least one hydrolyzable group and at least one functionality which is reactive for isocyanate , i . e ., an active hydrogen - containing group such as hydroxyl , carboxylic acid , mercapto , primary amino or secondary amino . advantageously , the silane is a primary or secondary aminosilane of the general formula : wherein x is an active hydrogen - containing group that is reactive for isocyanate , e . g ., — sh or — nhr 4 in which r 4 is h , a monovalent hydrocarbon group of up to 8 carbon atoms or — r 5 — si ( r 6 ) y ( or 7 ) 3 - y , r 1 and r 5 each is the same or different divalent hydrocarbon group of up to 12 carbon atoms , optionally containing one or more heteroatoms , each r 2 and r 6 is the same or different monovalent hydrocarbon group of up to 8 carbon atoms , each r 3 and r 7 is the same or different alkyl group of up to 6 carbon atoms and x and y each , independently , is 0 , 1 or 2 . non - limiting examples of aminosilanes for use in the silylation procedure herein include the mercaptosilanes 2 - mercaptoethyl trimethoxysilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl trimethoxysilane , 2 - mercaptopropyl triethoxysilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl triethoxysilane , 2 - mercaptoethyl tripropoxysilane , 2 - mercaptoethyl tri sec - butoxysilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl tri - t - butoxysilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl triisopropoxysilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl trioctoxysilane , 2 - mercaptoethyl tri - 2 ′- ethylhexoxysilane , 2 - mercaptoethyl dimethoxy ethoxysilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl methoxyethoxypropoxysilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl dimethoxy methylsilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl methoxy dimethylsilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl ethoxy dimethylsilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl diethoxy methylsilane , 3 - mercaptopropyl cyclohexoxy dimethyl silane , 4 - mercaptobutyl trimethoxysilane , 3 - mercapto - 3 - methylpropyltrimethoxysilane , 3 - mercapto - 3 - methylpropyl - tripropoxysilane , 3 - mercapto - 3 - ethylpropyl - dimethoxy methylsilane , 3 - mercapto - 2 - methylpropyl trimethoxysilane , 3 - mercapto - 2 - methylpropyl dimethoxy phenylsilane , 3 - mercaptocyclohexyl - trimethoxysilane , 12 - mercaptododecyl trimethoxy silane , 12 - mercaptododecyl triethoxy silane , 18 - mercaptooctadecyl trimethoxysilane , 18 - mercaptooctadecyl methoxydimethylsilane , 2 - mercapto - 2 - methylethyl - tripropoxysilane , 2 - mercapto - 2 - methylethyl - trioctoxysilane , 2 - mercaptophenyl trimethoxysilane , 2 - mercaptophenyl triethoxysilane , 2 - mercaptotolyl trimethoxysilane , 2 - mercaptotolyl triethoxysilane , 1 - mercaptomethyltolyl trimethoxysilane , 1 - mercaptomethyltolyl triethoxysilane , 2 - mercaptoethylphenyl trimethoxysilane , 2 - mercaptoethylphenyl triethoxysilane , 2 - mercaptoethyltolyl trimethoxysilane , 2 - mercaptoethyltolyl triethoxysilane , 3 - mercaptopropylphenyl trimethoxysilane and , 3 - mercaptopropylphenyl triethoxysilane , and the aminosilanes 3 - aminopropyltrimethoxysilane , 3 - aminopropyltriethoxysilane , 4 - aminobutyltriethoxy - silane , n - methyl - 3 - amino - 2 - methylpropyltrimethoxysilane , n - ethyl - 3 - amino - 2 - methylpropyltrimethoxysilane , n - ethyl - 3 - amino - 2 - methylpropyldiethoxymethylsilane , n - ethyl - 3 - amino - 2 - methylpropyltriethoxysilane , n - ethyl - 3 - amino - 2 - methylpropyl - methyldimethoxysilane , n - butyl - 3 - amino - 2 - methylpropyltrimethoxysilane , 3 -( n - methyl - 2 - amino - 1 - methyl - 1 - ethoxy )- propyltrimethoxysilane , n - ethyl - 4 - amino - 3 , 3 - dimethylbutyldimethoxymethylsilane , n - ethyl - 4 - amino - 3 , 3 - dimethylbutyltrimethoxy - silane , n -( cyclohexyl )- 3 - aminopropyltrimethoxysilane , n -( 2 - aminoethyl )- 3 - aminopropyltrimethoxysilane , n -( 2 - aminoethyl )- 3 - aminopropyltriethoxy - silane , n -( 2 - aminoethyl )- 3 - aminopropylmethyldimethoxysilane , aminopropyltriethoxysilane , bis -( 3 - trimethoxysilyl - 2 - methylpropyl ) amine and n -( 3 ′- trimethoxysilylpropyl )- 3 - amino - 2 - methylpropyltrimethoxysilane . for applications such as use in sealant and coating compositions , the polyurethane prepolymers can be substantially fully silylated , i . e ., all , or substantially all , of the isocyanate groups can be reacted with silane to provide a completely silylated polyurethane polymer . however , where the silylated polyurethane polymer is to be incorporated into pressure sensitive adhesive compositions , it is important that the silylation be conducted to less than completion in order that the extent of crosslinking that occurs on subsequent cure of the silylated polymer not be so great as to adversely affect , and even eliminate , the pressure sensitive adhesive characteristics of the crosslinked polymer . in conducting a partial silylation reaction , it can be useful to include a primary monoamine such as n - ethylbutylamine or similar capping reactant together with the silane as the amine will readily end - cap isocyanate groups threreby precluding them from reacting with the silane . the optimal amounts of silane and optional amine for achieving this less - than - complete silylation operation can be readily determined for a given isocyanate - terminated prepolymer employing known and conventional experimental techniques . silylation of not more than about 95 percent , and advantageously not more than about 90 percent , of the total isocyanate groups present in the prepolymer is generally suitable for most pressure sensitive adhesive applications . silylation of the hydroxyl - terminated polyurethane prepolymer can be accomplished by reacting the prepolymer with an isocyanatosilane . suitable isocyanatosilanes are those of the general formula : wherein r 1 is a divalent alkylene group of from 3 to 10 carbon atoms , r 2 and r 3 each independently is an alkyl group of from 1 to 6 carbon atoms or an aryl group of from 6 to 8 carbon atoms , and x has a value of 0 , 1 or 2 . examples of such isocyanatosilanes for use in the silylation procedure are λ - isocyanatopropyltrimethoxysilane , λ - isocyanatopropyltriethoxy - silane , λ - isocyanatomethylpropyltrimethoxysilane , λ - isocyanatomethylpropyltriethoxysilane , λ - isocyanatopropylmethyldimethoxysilane , λ - isocyanatopropyldimethylmethoxysilane and λ - isocyanatomethylpropyldimethylmethoxysilane . as in the case of the silylated isocyanate - terminated polyurethanes described above , the silylation of the hydroxyl - terminated polyurethane prepolymers herein will be substantially complete , i . e ., essentially no hydroxyl groups will be present following silylation , where the silylated polymers are to be incorporated in such products as sealants and coatings . however , silylation will be incomplete , or partial , where the silylated polymers are to be incorporated in pressure sensitive adhesive compositions . in the case of incomplete silylation , levels of silylation of not more than about 95 percent , and advantageously , not more than about 90 percent , of the total hydroxyl groups present in the prepolymer is generally suitable and can be achieved by appropriate adjustment of the amounts of isocyanatosilane being reacted for a given prepolymer . in order to facilitate control over the extent of incomplete silylation , it may be advantageous to include a hydroxyl - reactive monofunctional reactant with the isocyanatosilane . suitable reactants for this purpose include monoisocyanates such as n - butylisocyanate . these and similar reactants serve to cap some of the hydroxyl groups of the prepolymer preventing them from undergoing silylation . amounts of such hydroxyl - reactive monomeric reactants and isocyanatosilanes that can be utilized for partial silylation herein can be readily determined for a specific hydroxyl - terminated polyuretehane prepolymer employing routine experimental testing . pressure sensitive adhesive compositions of superior solvent - resistance can be obtained with the partially silylated polyurethanes described above . in addition to the partially silylated polyurethanes , a solvent - resistant pressure sensitive adhesive composition in accordance with the invention will typically include one or more additives such as fillers , tackifiers , silane adhesion promoters , plasticizers , solvents , thixotropic agents , u . v . stabilizers , antioxidants , cure catalysts , etc ., in the usual amounts . typical fillers suitable for addition to the pressure - sensitive adhesive compositions of this invention include fumed silica , precipitated silica and calcium carbonates . treated calcium carbonates having particle sizes from about 0 . 07μ to about 4μ are particularly useful and are available under several trade names : ultra pflex , super pflex , hi pflex from specialty in minerals ; winnofil spm , spt from zeneca resins ; hubercarb lat , hubercarb 3qt and hubercarb w from huber and kotomite from ecc . these fillers can be used either alone or in combination . the fillers can comprise up to about 200 parts per 100 parts of the silylated polymer component ( s ) with from about 80 to about 150 parts filler per 100 parts polymer being suitable for many adhesive applications . the pressure sensitive adhesive composition can contain from about 20 to about 60 parts , and advantageously from about 30 to about 50 parts , of one or more known of conventional tackifiers per 100 parts of silylated polyurethane polymer . examples of suitable tackifiers are mq silicone resins ( for which a curing catalyst such as benzoyl peroxide will ordinarily be included ), terpene oligomers , coumarone / indene resins , aliphatic , petrochemical resins , and modified phenolic resins . silane adhesion promoters can be employed at levels of from about 0 . 5 to about 5 parts per hundred parts of the silylated polyurethane polymer with from about 0 . 8 to about 1 . 5 parts per hundred parts polymer being especially advantageous . suitable adhesion promoters include silquest a - 1120 silane , silquest a - 2120 silane , silquest a - 1170 silane and silquest a - 187 silane , all of which are available from ge silicones . exemplary plasticizers include phthalates , dipropylene and diethylene glycol dibenzoates and mixtures thereof , epoxidized soybean oil , and the like . dioctyl and diisodecylphthalate are commercially available under the trade names jayflex dop and jayflex didp from exxon chemical . the dibenzoates are available as benzoflex 9 - 88 , benzoflex 50 and benzoflex 400 from velsicol chemical corporation . epoxidized soybean oil is available from houghton chemical corporation as flexol epo . the plasticizer can comprise up to about 100 parts of the silylated polyurethane polymer with from about 40 to about 80 parts per hundred parts of silylated polymer being satisfactory in many cases . useful solvents include aromatic , aliphatic and esters ranging in amounts of from about 25 to about 75 per hundred parts by weight of silylated polyurethane prepolymer . illustrative of useful thixotropic agents are various castor waxes , fumed silica , treated clays and polyamides . these additives typically comprise about 1 to about 10 parts per hundred parts of silylated polyurethane prepolymer with from about 1 to about 6 parts being useful for most applications . the thixotropes include those available as : aerosil from degussa , cabo - sil ts 720 from cabot , castorwax from caschem , thixatrol and thixcin from rheox and dislon from king industries . if the thixotrope is reactive with silane ( e . g ., silica ), adjustments to the amount formulated may be needed to compensate therefor . u . v . stabilizers and / or antioxidants can be incorporated into the pressure sensitive adhesive compositions of this invention in an amount of from 0 to about 5 parts per hundred parts silylated polyurethane polymer with from about 0 . 5 to about 2 parts providing generally good results . these materials are available from ciba - geigy under the trade names tinuvin 770 , tinuvin 327 , tinuvin 213 , tinuvin 622 and irganox 1010 . suitable cure catalysts are the same as those previously described for preparation of the silylated polyurethane polymers . the catalysts typically compromise from about 0 . 01 to about 3 parts per hundred parts polymer with from about 0 . 01 to about 1 . 0 parts per hundred parts of polymer being entirely suitable in many cases . after mixing , the pressure sensitive adhesive compositions are cured by exposure to moisture . curing conditions typically include ambient temperature , e . g ., about 23 ° c . and 50 % relative humidity for 3 days and 37 ° c . and 95 % relative humidity for another 4 days . alternatively water can be dissolved in an appropriate solvent such as isopropanol followed by mixing with the adhesive composition and coated , cured in convensional adhesive cure ovens known in the art . the following examples are illustrative of the silylated polymers of this invention and solvent - resistant pressure sensitive adhesive compositions containing same . to a reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 250 . 0 g of hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene poly bd ® r - 20lm resin ( specialchem ) possessing a hydroxyl number of 101 . this resin was dried using a nitrogen purge at 85 ° c . over night . the resin was cooled to 65 ° c . followed by addition of 0 . 21 g of a 10 wt % solution of dibutyltin dilaurate and agitation for 30 minutes . next , 75 . 2 g of isophorone diisocyanate ( ipdi ) was added drop wise over a two - minute period with agitation . an exotherm to 88 ° c . was observed and the temperature was reduced to , and held at , 72 - 75 ° c . for 45 minutes . the wt % nco was determined by standard methodology and found to be 2 . 74 wt %. at this point , 49 . 7 g of n - ethylamino isobutyltrimethoxysilane was added and agitation continued at temperature for 1 hour followed by cooling to room temperature . an approximately 15 g sample of the reaction product was dissolved in 35 g of toluene containing 0 . 37 g benzoyl peroxide . this mixture was bar - coated onto a 2 mil polyester film to yield a 1 mil dry adhesive thickness , then cured for 5 minutes at 150 ° c . lap shear samples were prepared with 0 . 25 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap onto a smooth surface delrin ® ( dupont &# 39 ; s polyoxymethylene ) plaque with a 100 g weight . the lap shear samples were suspended in xylene that was slowly stirred using a magnetic stirrer and bar . testing was conducted in duplicate and times to adhesive failure were 200 and 165 minutes . to a reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 120 . 0 g of hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene poly bd ® r - 45m ( specialchem ) resin possessing a hydroxyl number of 40 . 4 and 120 . 0 g of a polypropylene polyol acclaim ® 4200 ( specialchem ) possessing a hydroxyl number of 28 . the polyols were dried to reduce their moisture level . to this mixture was added 24 . 5 g of isophorone diisocyanate followed by heating for 2 hours at approximately 80 ° c . which was then decreased to 70 - 75 ° c . for 3 hours at which point 0 . 2 g of a 10 wt % solution of dibutyltin dilaurate was added and the temperature maintained for 1 hour . the wt % nco was determined to be 0 . 8 wt %. at this point , 24 . 5 g of n - ethylaminoisobutyltrimethoxysilane was added and agitation continued while cooling to room temperature . a sample was coated and cured as in example 1 except curing was conducted for 2 minutes at 177 ° c . testing was carried out as in example 1 . time to adhesive failure was found to be greater than 200 minutes . to a reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 200 . 0 g hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene krasol ® lbhp2000 ( sartomer ) resin possessing a hydroxyl number of 46 and 200 . 0 g toluene which was then refluxed to reduce moisture level . to this was added 35 . 9 g of isophorone diisocyanate after cooling to 85 ° c . temperature was maintained at 85 - 95 ° c . for 3 hours at which point 0 . 1 g of a 10 wt % solution of dibutyltin dilaurate was added and continued at temperature for 1 hour . the wt % nco was determined to be 2 . 4 wt %. at this point , 32 . 4 g of n - ethylaminoisobutyltrimethoxysilane was added and agitation continued while cooling to room temperature . a sample was coated and cured as in example 1 except curing was conducted for 3 minutes at 150 ° c . testing was carried out as in example 1 . the wt % benzoyl peroxide based on solids was 1 . 5 wt %. time to adhesive failure on a smooth surface delrin ® plaque was 200 and 316 minutes and on glass slides greater then 24 hours at which point testing was terminated . time to adhesive failure for the sample dried as above without peroxide catalyst was 30 minutes on delran and 35 minutes on glass . this reaction product was blended 1 : 1 on a weight basis with norsolene a - 110 ( specialchem ) resin then cured using 1 wt % benzoyl peroxide for 5 minutes at 130 ° c . time to failure was 210 minutes for the delrin ® substrate . to 15 g of the above sample was added a hydrogen polysiloxane containing 0 . 72 wt % hydrogen , 0 . 05 g of a 1 wt % platinum catalyst and 10 g toluene . this mixture was coated and cured at 135 ° c . for 10 minutes . time to adhesive failure on a smooth surface delran plaque was found to be 83 and 85 minutes and on glass slides was 50 and 50 minutes . to a reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 100 . 0 g hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene krasol ® hlbhp3000 ( sartomer ) resin possessing a hydroxyl number of 31 and 85 . 0 g polycaprolactone polyol capa ® 2302a possessing a hydroxyl number of 38 followed by heating at 100 - 110 ° c . to reduce moisture level . to this mixture was added 8 . 4 g of isophorone diisocyanate after cooling to 80 ° c . the temperature was maintained at 80 - 95 ° c . for 3 hours at which point 0 . 4 g of a 10 wt % solution of 2 , 2 ′- dimorpholinediethyl - ether was added and continued at temperature for 3 hours . the temperature was reduced to 65 ° c . and 8 . 0 g 3 - isocyanatopropyltrimethoxysilane was added and further heated at 70 - 80 ° c . for 4 hours . a sample was coated and cured as in example 1 and time to adhesive failure on a smooth surface delrin ® plaque was found to be 70 and 75 minutes and on glass slides 40 and 60 minutes . to a reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 100 . 0 g a , a , a - trifluorotoluene , 100 . 0 g hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene poly bd ® lf3 resin possessing a hydroxyl number of 49 . 4 and 37 . 0 g hoch 2 ch 2 ( cf 2 ) ˜ 10 cf 3 zonyl ® ba - ld ( dupont ) possessing a hydroxyl number of 92 which was then heated to reduce moisture level . to this mixture was added 27 . 7 g of isophorone diisocyanate followed by the addition of 0 . 1 g of a 10 wt % solution of dibutyltin dilaurate with the temperature being maintained at 65 - 75 ° c . for 3 hours . the wt % nco was determined to be 1 . 3 wt %. at this point , 17 . 6 g of n - ethylaminoisobutyltrimethoxysilane was added and agitation continued while cooling to room temperature . a sample was coated and cured as in example 1 and time to adhesive failure on a smooth surface delrin ® plaque was found to be 30 minutes and on glass slides 145 minutes . to a reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 100 . 0 g a , a , a - trifluorotoluene , 100 . 0 g hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene poly bd ® r45htlo ( specialchem ) resin possessing a hydroxyl number of 45 . 4 and 18 . 4 g hoch 2 ch 2 ( cf 2 ) ˜ 10 cf 3 zonyl ® ba - ld ( dupont ) possessing a hydroxyl number of 92 followed by heating to reduce moisture level . to this mixture was added 22 . 0 g of isophorone diisocyanate followed by addition of 0 . 1 g of a 10 wt % solution of dibutyltin dilaurate , the temperature being maintained at 65 - 75 ° c . for 3 hours . the wt % nco was determined to be 0 . 7 wt %. at this point , 13 . 3 g of n - ethylaminoisobutyltrimethoxysilane was added and agitation continued while cooling to room temperature . a sample was coated and cured as in example 1 and time to adhesive failure on a smooth surface delrin ® plaque was found to be 250 minutes and on glass slides 400 minutes . these examples illustrate silylated polymers prepared from hydroxyl - terminated polybutadienes of different number average molecular weights , blends of hydroxyl - terminated polybutadienes , various nco / oh ratios for preparing the polyurethane prepolymers and pressure sensitive adhesive compositions containing the silylated polymers and optional tackifier . to a reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 100 . 0 g of hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene resin possessing a hydroxyl number as noted in table 1 , 100 . 0 g of toluene . the reaction mixture was dried by refluxing for 1 hour under a nitrogen atmosphere followed by cooling to below 50 ° c . then 0 . 05 g of a 10 wt % solution of dibutyltin dilaurate was added and agitated for 30 minutes . next , isophorone diisocyanate ( ipdi ) was added to achieve the nco / oh ratio as noted in table 1 below with continued agitation . the reactants were heated at 60 - 70 ° c . for 1 hour . a sample was taken for wt % nco which was determined by standard methodology , the results being set forth in table 1 . to the reaction mixture was added n - ethylaminoisobutyltrimethoxysilane , the amount as noted in table 1 , and agitation continued at temperature for 30 - 60 minutes with cooling to room temperature . solids were adjusted to 50 . 0 wt %. a sample of an approximately 15 g sample of the reaction product was dissolved in 3 . 8 g toluene having 0 . 15 g benzoyl peroxide dissolved therein . all samples were bar - coated onto a 2 mil polyester film to yield an approximate 1 mil dry adhesive thickness , air - dried 10 minutes then cured for 5 minutes at 150 ° c . lap shear samples were prepared with 0 . 25 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap onto 1 minute preheated at 135 ° c . to a smooth surface delrin ® plaque and a glass slide with a 100 g weight attached to the opposite end . the lap shear samples were suspended in xylene that was slowly stirred using a magnetic stirrer and bar . times to adhesive failure are set forth in table 1 below . these examples illustrate silylated polymers made with hydroxyl - terminated saturated polybutadienes and with various nco / oh ratios . the procedure of examples 7 - 18 were substantially repeated for these examples . the results are set forth in table 2 below . to a reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 50 . 0 g of hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene resin krasol lbh - p 5000 possessing a hydroxyl number of 21 . 7 , 50 . 0 g of hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene resin krasol hlbh - p 3000 possessing a hydroxyl number of 31 . 4 , 25 . 0 g of toluene , and 75 . 0 g of ethyl acetate . the contents were dried by refluxing for 1 hour under a nitrogen atmosphere followed by cooling to below 40 ° c . then 0 . 03 g of a 10 wt % solution of dibutyltin dilaurate was added and agitated for 15 minutes . next 6 . 2 g of isophorone diisocyanate was added for a nco / oh ratio of 1 . 10 with continued agitation . the reactants were heated at 70 - 75 ° c . until the wt % nco was determined to be 0 . 11 wt %. the reaction was cooled to 40 ° c . then was added 0 . 4 g of n - ethylaminoisobutyltrimethoxysilane and 0 . 4 g of n - ethylbutylamine diluted in 3 . 0 g ethylacetate with agitation . solids were 51 . 7 wt %. a sample of an approximately 15 g sample of the reaction product was dissolved in 3 . 8 g toluene having 0 . 04 g benzoyl peroxide dissolved , was coated . a second sample without benzoyl peroxide was also coated . all samples were bar - coated onto a 2 mil polyester film to yield an approximately 1 mil dry adhesive thickness , air - dried 10 minutes then cured for 5 minutes at 150 ° c . lap shear samples were prepared with 0 . 25 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap onto a textured surface delrin cassette and a glass slide with a 10 g weight attached to the opposite end . time to adhesive failure for the benzoyl peroxide cured adhesive coating was 40 minutes for the cassette and 2 hours for the glass slide . the sample without benzoyl peroxide resulted in adhesive failure in 2 hours for the cassette and 2 . 5 hours for the glass slide . to a reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 100 . 0 g of hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene resin noted in table 3 along with the hydroxyl number , and 100 . 0 g of toluene . the contents were dried by refluxing for 1 hour under a nitrogen atmosphere followed by cooling to below 40 ° c . then the grams of isophorone diisocyanate to achieve a nco / oh ratio of 0 . 67 was added with continued agitation . after 60 minutes agitation 0 . 05 g of a 10 wt % solution of dibutyltin dilaurate was added and agitated for 15 minutes . the reactants were heated at 65 - 70 ° c . until the wt % nco was determined to be 0 . 0 wt %. the grams noted in table 3 of gamma - isocyanatopropyltrimethoxysilane ( silquest a - link 35 ) was added and reacted until 0 . 0 wt % nco was determined . the reaction was cooled to 40 ° c . an approximately 15 g sample of the reaction product was dissolved in 3 . 8 g toluene having 0 . 04 g benzoyl peroxide dissolved therein was used for coating . all samples were bar - coated onto a 2 mil polyester film to yield an approximate 1 mil dry adhesive thickness , air - dried 10 minutes then cured for 5 minutes at 150 ° c . lap shear samples were prepared with 0 . 25 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap onto a smooth surface delrin ® plaque and a glass slide with a 10 g weight attached to the opposite end . times to adhesive failure are set forth in table 3 below . the preparative procedures of examples 26 - 32 were substantially repeated except that blends of polyols and an nco / oh of 0 . 9 to achieve higher molecular weight polyurethane prepolymers were employed . the results are set forth in table 4 below . to a reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 96 . 0 g of hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene resin krasol lbh - p 2000 , 104 . 0 g of hydroxyl - terminated polybutadiene resin krasol lbh - p 5000 and 100 . 0 g of ethylacetate . the contents were dried by refluxing for 1 hour under a nitrogen atmosphere followed by cooling to below 40 ° c . then 0 . 05 g of a 10 wt % solution of dibutyltin dilaurate was added with continued agitation . after 15 minutes 12 . 7 g of isophorone diisocyanate was added . the reactants were heated at 70 - 75 ° c . until the wt % nco was determined to be 0 . 0 wt %. next , 2 . 7 g of α - isocyanatopropyltrimethoxysilane was added and reacted until 0 . 0 wt % nco was measured . the reaction mixture was cooled to 40 ° c . a sample of approximately 15 g of the reaction product dissolved in 3 . 8 g toluene , 0 . 03 g m 0 . 9 m 0 . 1 d 20 . 8 d h 7 . 2 t 0 . 1 m 0 . 1 silicone resin wherein m ′ is a dimethylstyrylsiloxy group , 25 ppm rhodium provided as an ethanol solution of tris ( dibutylsulfide ) rhodium ( iii ) trichloride containing 1 . 4 wt % rhodium , was used for coating . the coated sample was bar - coated onto a 2 mil polyester film to yield an approximate 1 mil dry adhesive thickness , air - dried 10 minutes then cured for 5 minutes at 150 ° c . lap shear samples were prepared with 0 . 25 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap onto a textured surface delrin ® cassette with a 10 g weight attached to the opposite end . time to adhesive failure was 3 . 5 hours . this example illustrates the silylation of an hydroxyl terminated polyurethane prepolymer with an isocyanato silane capping agent . to a resin reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 72 . 5 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene krasol lbh - p 2000 resin containing a hydroxyl number of 46 , 145 . 0 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene krasol lbh - p 5000 resin containing a hydroxyl number of 21 . 7 , 32 . 5 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene poly c bd r20lm resin containing a hydroxyl number of 101 and 400 . 3 g of ethyl acetate . refluxed for 2 hours to dry the mixture followed by cooling to 75 - 80 ° c . to this was added 0 . 27 g of a 10 wt % toluene solution of dimethylbis [( 1 - oxoneodecyl ) oxy ] stannane with agitation for 15 minutes . next 18 . 6 g of isophorone diisocyanate was added for an nco / oh equivalent ratio of 0 . 95 . the reactants were heated at 75 - 80 ° c . until the wt % nco was determined per standard methodology and found to be 0 . 0 wt % followed by drop wise addition of 1 . 34 g isocyanatopropyltrimethoxysilane . heating was continued until wt % nco was 0 . 0 wt % then the composition was cooled to room temperature . a 25 g sample was dissolved in 12 g ethyl acetate , 0 . 2 g of a 1 wt % 1 . 0 g of a 1 wt % toluene solution of dimethylbis [( 1 - oxoneodecyl ) oxy ] stannane was bar coated onto 2 mil polyester film to yield an approximate 0 . 4 mil dry adhesive thickness . the adhesive was air dried 10 minutes , followed by 10 minutes at 80 ° c . lap shear samples were prepared with 1 . 0 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap onto a glass slide with a 10 g weight attached to the opposite end . time to failure was & gt ; 7 hours and adhesive dissolved . shear adhesion failure temperature ( saft ) for 1 . 0 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap and 1 kg weight was determined to be 275 ° c . this comparative example is similar to example 40 except that the polyurethane prepolymer was not silylated . to a resin reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 72 . 5 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene krasol c lbh - p 2000 resin containing a hydroxyl number of 46 , 145 . 0 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene krasol c lbh - p 5000 resin containing a hydroxyl number of 21 . 7 , 32 . 5 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene poly c bd r20lm resin containing a hydroxyl number of 101 and 400 . 3 g of ethyl acetate . refluxed for 2 hours to dry the mixture followed by cooling to 75 - 80 ° c . to this was added 0 . 27 g of a 10 wt % toluene solution of dimethylbis [( 1 - oxoneodecyl ) oxy ] stannane with agitation for 15 minutes . next 18 . 6 g of isophorone diisocyanate was added for an nco / oh equivalent ratio of 0 . 95 . the reactants were heated at 75 - 80 ° c . until the wt % nco was determined per standard methodology and found to be 0 . 0 wt % followed by cooling to room temperature . a 25 g sample was dissolved in 12 g ethyl acetate , 0 . 2 g of a 1 wt % 1 . 0 g of a 1 wt % toluene solution of dimethylbis [( 1 - oxoneodecyl ) oxy ] stannane was bar coated onto 2 mil polyester film to yield an approximate 0 . 4 mil dry adhesive thickness . the adhesive was air dried 10 minutes , followed by 10 minutes at 80 ° c . lap shear samples were prepared with 1 . 0 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap onto a glass slide with a 10 g weight attached to the opposite end . time to failure was & gt ; 7 hours and adhesive dissolved . shear adhesion failure temperature ( saft ) for 1 . 0 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap and 1 kg weight was determined to be 59 ° c . to a resin reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 58 . 0 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene krasol c lbh - p 2000 resin containing a hydroxyl number of 46 , 116 . 0 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene krasol c lbh - p 5000 resin containing a hydroxyl number of 21 . 7 , 26 . 0 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene poly c bd r20lm resin containing a hydroxyl number of 101 and 333 . 2 g of ethyl acetate . refluxed for 2 hours to dry the mixture followed by cooling to 75 - 80 ° c . to this was added 1 . 77 g of a 1 wt % toluene solution of dimethylbis [( 1 - oxoneodecyl ) oxy ] stannane with agitation for 15 minutes . next 16 . 6 g of isophorone diisocyanate was added for an nco / oh equivalent ratio of 1 . 06 . the reactants were heated at 75 - 80 ° c . until the wt % nco was determined per standard methodology and found to be 0 . 06 wt % followed by cooling to room temperature . a solution of 20 g ethyl acetate and 1 . 7 g n - ethylaminoisobutyltrimethoxysilane was added drop wise . a 25 g sample of this composition was dissolved in 12 g ethyl acetate , 0 . 2 g of a 1 wt % 1 . 0 g of a 1 wt % toluene solution of dimethylbis [( 1 - oxoneodecyl ) oxy ] stannane was bar coated onto 2 mil polyester film to yield an approximate 0 . 4 mil dry adhesive thickness . the adhesive was air dried 10 minutes , followed by 10 minutes at 80 ° c . lap shear samples were prepared with 1 . 0 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap onto a glass slide with a 10 g weight attached to the opposite end . time to failure was & gt ; 7 hours and adhesive dissolved . shear adhesion failure temperature ( saft ) for 1 . 0 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap and 1 kg weight was determined to be greater than 281 ° c . this comparative example is similar to example 42 except that the polyurethane prepolymer was not silylated . to a resin reaction vessel equipped with mixing capability , condenser , nitrogen atmosphere and heating was added 58 . 0 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene krasol c lbh - p 2000 resin containing a hydroxyl number of 46 , 116 . 0 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene krasol c lbh - p 5000 resin containing a hydroxyl number of 21 . 7 , 26 . 0 g of hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene poly c bd r20lm resin containing a hydroxyl number of 101 and 333 . 2 g of ethyl acetate . refluxed for 2 hours to dry the mixture followed by cooling to 75 - 80 ° c . to this was added 1 . 77 g of a 1 wt % toluene solution of dimethylbis [( 1 - oxoneodecyl ) oxy ] stannane with agitation for 15 minutes . next 16 . 6 g of isophorone diisocyanate was added for an nco / oh equivalent ratio of 1 . 06 . the reactants were heated at 75 - 80 ° c . until the wt % nco was determined per standard methodology and found to be 0 . 03 wt % followed by cooling to room temperature . drop wise 0 . 4 g ethylbutyl amine and 20 g ethyl acetate solution was added to the prepolymer to yield an organic amine terminated polyurethane . a 25 g sample was dissolved in 12 g ethyl acetate , 0 . 2 g of a 1 wt % 1 . 0 g of a 1 wt % toluene solution of dimethylbis [( 1 - oxoneodecyl ) oxy ] stannane was bar coated onto 2 mil polyester film to yield an approximate 0 . 4 mil dry adhesive thickness . the adhesive was air dried 10 minutes , followed by 10 minutes at 80 ° c . lap shear samples were prepared with 1 . 0 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap onto a glass slide with a 10 g weight attached to the opposite end . time to failure was & gt ; 7 hours and adhesive dissolved . shear adhesion failure temperature ( saft ) for 1 . 0 inch × 1 . 0 inch overlap and 1 kg weight was determined to be 62 ° c . while the invention has been described with reference to certain embodiments , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention . in addition , many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof . therefore , it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out the process of the invention but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims . | 2 |
as illustrated in fig1 , a glass tube ( a ) of a specific wall thickness and inner diameter is the dielectric material . the counter - electrode ( b ) is a conductive film that is in intimate contact with the inner surface of the tube . the active or corona electrode ( c ) is a spiral wound wire of a refractory metal such as titanium ( ti ) of a specific diameter and of known total length . it is fabricated so as to be in close ( but not necessarily intimate ) contact with the glass dielectric a high frequency , sinusoidal high voltage is applied between the electrodes b and c . typical values would be 10 to 50 kilohertz for the frequency and 1 to 1 . 5 kilovolts rms , for the voltage . this results in a corona discharge at the interface between the electrode c and the dielectric a . ozone is produced in this discharge in an amount that can be measured in terms of mg / hr and the overall output of the device can be described in terms of mg / hr / cm of electrode length . this output is a function of several parameters which include the frequency of the applied voltage , the peak value of the applied voltage , the diameter of the wire electrode , the thickness and dielectric constant of the dielectric and the rate of flow of air or oxygen across ( or though ) the device . this device in various configurations can be designed to generate reproducible amount of ozone from 0 . 1 mg / hr to about 100 mg / hr in dry or moist air or oxygen . the dielectric for the device illustrated in fig1 is generally a tube of soft or hard glass or silica , with an inner diameter ranging from 0 . 3 cm to 1 cm and with a wall thickness in the range of 0 . 5 to 1 mm and with a commonly used value of 0 . 5 mm . the length of the tube will depend of the number of turns in the spiral electrode and is typically between 1 cm and 15 cm . the glass tube can be open ended or closed at both ends for the purposes of evacuation and backfilling with desirable gases . this will be discussed in more detail in the section describing the counter - electrode c of fig1 . a glass tube is preferred over ceramic materials due to its lower porosity and reduced adsorption of water vapor which is detrimental to the operation of a high voltage corona device . the counter - electrode as shown in fig1 is a conductive film applied to the inner surface of the glass dielectric . this may be a range of conductive materials such as carbon , silver or other metal compounds generally applied as a continuous film by methods well established in the industry . it may also be a solid metal foil applied by adhesive methods to the inner surface of the tube . generally this technology is well known and widely used . electrical contact to this film is made by conventional methods . alternatively , in a sealed tube , the inner counter - electrode may be a gas plasma of the type generated in devices such as small neon pilot lamps and neon signs . the high frequency , high voltage applied to the device excites the gas into the plasma form , which has high electrical conductivity and this plasma , being in intimate contact with the inner surface of the tube , acts as the counter - electrode . external contact with the plasma is made via a glass / metal feed - through as illustrated in fig2 . here a small commercial neon lamp has been modified to act as an ozone generator . the body of the lamp a 1 is the glass dielectric , the gas plasma is connected to the high voltage power supply via the glass - metal feed - through b 1 and acts as the counter electrode . the active or corona electrode c 1 is a few turns of small diameter titanium wire which in connected to the high voltage supply . this sealed tube configuration can be used for other purposes such as to protect an internal metal film electrode from oxidation and ion ablation by evacuating the tube or back - filling with a gas at a pressure that is high enough to prevent ionization . the corona electrode possibly presents the most likely component of the device that may have a potential for a patent claim . we have selected to use a single wire electrode of a refractory metal such as titanium . other refractory metals are tantalum and niobium . these materials are available in the wire form in the diameter range of about 0 . 004 ″ to 0 . 030 ″, as used for corona electrodes . these materials and can be wound to form spiral electrodes which maintain their shape and can be positioned easily onto ( or into ) the tube dielectric . a property of these materials is that their oxides are highly insulating and the deposition of such oxides on the glass dielectric during operation of the device does not degrade the dielectric properties of the glass . many other metals would produce conducting or semi - conducting oxide films on the glass during operation , with a resulting reduction in ozone production . with a single wire corona electrode , the ozone production of the device can be determined accurately by calibration and is proportional to several parameters such as , the diameter of the wire , the length of the wire and the frequency and voltage of the power supply . from calibration , a quantitative estimate of the ozone production can be determined as mg / hr / cm of electrode . such a number is also determined by the gas environment in which the calibration is conducted . a typical value of 0 . 5 mg / hr / cm of electrode is measured for a 0 . 012 ″ diameter titanium wire on a dielectric of 0 . 5 mm ( 0 . 020 ″) thickness , with an applied voltage of 1 . 3 kilovolts rms at 40 kilohertz . these measurements have been done in air at 70 % relative humidity . in view of the above construction , generators can be designed with predetermined ozone outputs which will be directly proportional to the diameter of the wire and the total length of the wire in the spiral configuration . typical configurations for small generators are shown in fig1 and 2 . in a device such as fig2 , with a ne - 2 neon pilot lamp of diameter 5 . 6 mm , the length per turn is 1 . 75 cm and for 4 turns , the total length of the electrode is about 7 cm . the resulting ozone production would be 7 cm × 0 . 5 mg / hr / cm , or 3 . 5 mg / hr . if larger amounts of ozone are required , the length of the electrode can be increased by increasing the diameter of the glass dielectric tube a and increasing its length and the number of turns used for the electrode . for a tube a 2 having a diameter of 1 . 2 cm , the length per turn c 2 is 3 . 77 cm and for 55 turns the electrode length would be about 207 cm . as shown in fig3 such a device would produce about 103 . 5 mg / hr under the condition mentioned above for 0 . 5 mg / hr / cm . such devices can be mounted in parallel as shown in fig3 to create products with larger ozone production . an alternative configuration for all these tubular devices is that shown in fig4 wherein the dielectric a 3 is of the same type as that shown in fig1 , however the counter - electrode b 3 is on the outer surface of the glass tube and the active or corona - electrode c 3 is on the inside . this electrode is wound in such a way that on insertion into the tube , it springs out to form close contact with the inner surface of the glass dielectric . voltages are applied between the electrodes b 3 and c 3 as described previously and the ozone is produced within the tube . this type of arrangement doesn &# 39 ; t allow for the plasma type counter - electrode described earlier . however , it enables gas to be directed through the tube in such a way that the ozone produced can be confined by external tubing and delivered to specific applications . tube structures of this type can also be made for ozone outputs ranging from about 0 . 1 mg / hr to 100 mg / hr . an advantage of this configuration is that the counter - electrode which is usually at ground potential can be readily cooled by heat sinking of some form , thus allowing for high ozone output without overheating of the device . the present invention permits the use of a single continuous wire of small diameter and of a refractory metal as the active or corona electrode in a small ozone generating device with an output of between 0 . 1 and 100 mg / hr . the use of such an electrode may be on the outer surface of a thin walled glass tube dielectric medium , with an opposing counter - electrode as either a continuous metallic conductor or a gas plasma . the present invention may use alternating high voltage with a sinusoidal wave form and a low peak voltage generally less than 2 kilovolts , which minimizes the possibility of a high voltage breakdown of the dielectric medium . this is a common problem in higher voltage ozone generators . in addition , the present invention permits the use of electrical drive parameters and electrode design that limit the maximum ozone production to less that 1 mg / hr / cm of electrode length and thus eliminate the need for forced cooling of the generator device . the present invention uses either a single wire spiral electrode or multiple straight electrodes of a specific diameter and total electrode length , where it has been established that the mg / hr of ozone produced is a function of : as ozone generator according to an embodiment of the present invention can be designed to produce ozone in well quantified amounts , generally in the range of 0 . 1 to 100 mg / hr . the active electrode : this has been specifically selected so that oxidation products developed during operation have little or no effect on the surface conductivity of the glass dielectric and do not alter the overall dielectric properties . metals suitable for this purpose are : titanium , tantalum , niobium and aluminum and alloys containing various percentages of these metals . the wire diameter of the active electrode determines the local electric field around the electrode and hence the voltage at which the electrode will produce ozone . electrode diameters according to the present invention are in the range of 4 mils to 30 mils , this range being selected for the production of low amounts of ozone in mg / hr with the low voltages and high frequencies used in the generator power supplies . for wire of a specific diameter used with a known applied voltage , the amount of ozone produced is a function of the total length of the electrode . generator using a commercial ne - 2 type neon lamp which includes an active electrode that is wound or mounted on the external surface of the lamp and a counter electrode which is provided by the surface conductivity of the internal surface of the lamp , as developed by the gas discharge . fig2 illustrates two views of a small ozone generator with spiral wound electrodes c 1 mounted on an ne - 2 neon lamp a 1 with b 1 being contacts to the internal gas . a similar general configuration is illustrated in fig3 wherein a thin walled glass cylinder a 2 is used as the dielectric and the active electrode c 2 is wound on the outer surface of the device . the internal counter electrode for this device is a conductive film on the inside surface of the glass cylinder , this is connected to the external circuit . mounting configurations for the above embodiments might be included such as the plug - in type of mount to be used according to the present invention . an arrangement similar to b discussed above may be used wherein the active refractory metal wire electrode is wound in such a way that it is sprung out and compressed against the internal surface . in this case , the counter electrode is a conductive metal film on the outside surface of the glass cylinder . this device has the advantage that the gas to be used for ozone production , such as air or pure oxygen , can be passed through the ozone generator in controlled quantities and the resulting ozone piped to its point of application . in addition , this arrangement permits the cooling of the device via an earthed counter electrode in the form of an appropriate heat sink . other embodiments of the present invention may include tubes of larger diameter with higher applied voltages and electrodes of greater length wherein the ozone production can be increased from values around 10 mg / hr to unit producing some 100 mg / hr or more , as will be required for alternative application of ozone for both air and water treatment . the ozone dispersion from embodiments of small devices according to the present invention is based on atmospheric diffusion rather than forced air flow , thus reducing the rate of contamination of the generators . for larger generators , forced air circulation may be used to prevent overheating of the devices . the invention being thus described , it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways . such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention , and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims . | 2 |
hereinafter , embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . in the following description of the drawings , the same or similar reference numerals are given to the same or similar elements . fig2 is an entire schematic configuration of a mobile communication system according to this embodiment . this mobile communication system is one using the w - cdma scheme . as shown in fig2 , the mobile communication system includes a radio communication terminal 1 , a radio base station 2 , a radio network controller ( called a “ rnc ” below ) 3 and a core network ( called a “ cn ” below ) 4 . the radio communication terminal 1 establishes a radio link with the radio base station 2 when existing in the radio area of the radio base station 2 , and communicates with another communication device via the cn 4 . the radio communication terminal 1 controls the transmission power of the radio base station 2 in a downlink dl by use of the closed loop transmission power control . the radio base station 2 has radio resources controlled by the rnc 3 and performs radio communications with the radio communication terminal 1 . the radio base station 2 controls the transmission power of the radio communication terminal 1 in an uplink ul by use of the closed loop transmission power control . the rnc 3 functions as a higher - level apparatus of the radio base station 2 , and controls the radio resources used by the radio base station 2 . the rnc 3 has a function of executing the transmission power control ( outer loop transmission power control ). incidentally , in some cases , the function of the rnc 3 is incorporated in the radio base station 2 , and the radio base station 2 executes the function of the rnc 3 . the cn 4 is a network for performing position control , call control and service control and is configured of an atm switching network , a packet switching network , a router network and the like . hereinafter , a configuration of the radio communication terminal 1 according to this embodiment will be described by referring to fig3 to 5 . the description relating to the present invention is mainly provided below . fig3 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the radio communication terminal 1 . as shown in fig3 , the radio communication terminal 1 includes a radio transmitter 10 , an operation section 12 , a microphone 13 , a speaker 14 , a display 15 , a controller 16 and a memory 17 . the radio transmitter 10 transmits and receives radio signals in accordance with the cdma scheme to and from the radio base station 2 . the radio transmitter 10 performs processing of converting the radio signals into baseband signals , and performs input / output of the baseband signals from / to the controller 16 . the radio transmitter 10 includes a transmission power controller 11 configured to perform the transmission power control in the downlink dl . the operation section 12 is configured of ten keys , function keys , and the like , and receives user operations . the microphone 13 collects voice , and inputs audio signals based on the collected voice to the controller 16 . the speaker 14 outputs sound based on the audio signal obtained from the controller 16 . the display 15 displays image data received via the radio transmitter 10 and the controller 16 , and information on user operations . the controller 16 controls various functions provided to the radio communication terminal 1 . the memory 17 stores therein various kinds of information used for control in the radio communication terminal 1 , and the like . the description for more detailed functional blocks of the controller 16 and the memory 17 will be provided below . fig4 is a functional block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the radio transmitter 10 shown in fig3 . as shown in fig4 , the radio transmitter 10 includes an antenna 101 , an rf section 102 , a despreader 103 , a rake receiver 104 and a transmission signal generator 112 in addition to the transmission power controller 11 . the transmission power controller 11 includes an sir measuring section 105 , a long - interval quality measuring section 106 , a target bler setting section 107 , a bler comparing / determining section 108 , a target sir setting section 109 , an sir comparing / determining section 110 and a tpc command generator 111 . in the transmission power controller 11 , the long - interval quality measuring section 106 , the target bler setting section 107 , the bler comparing / determining section 108 and the target sir setting section 109 are involved in the execution of the outer loop transmission power control . in the transmission power controller 11 , the sir measuring section 105 , the sir comparing / determining section 110 and the tpc command generator 111 are involved in the execution of the inner loop transmission power control . a received signal received by the antenna 101 is inputted to the rf section 102 , and then is downconverted . the despreader 103 performs dispreading processing on the downconverted received signal by using scrambling codes and channelization codes assigned by the radio base station 2 . the rake receiver 104 performs rake combining , error correction and decoding of the received signal after the dispreading process . a data sequence outputted by the rake receiver 104 is inputted to the sir measuring section 105 and the long - interval quality measuring section 106 . the sir measuring section 105 measures the sir of a communication channel according to the signal power value and the interference power value inputted from the rake receiver 104 . the long - interval quality measuring section 106 measures the bler in the data sequence outputted from the rake receiver 104 . the bler is measured from the data sequence at long intervals such as several hundred milliseconds to several seconds , by using the number of transport blocks determined as correct as a result of the crc . the long - interval quality measuring section 106 notifies the bler comparing / determining section 108 of the bler obtained through this measurement . the bler comparing / determining section 108 figures out an offset value for the target sir as a value proportional to a difference between the measured bler and the target bler value set by the target bler setting section 107 . the target sir setting section 109 notifies the sir comparing / determining section 110 of the target sir value . the target sir setting section 109 has a function of changing the target sir according to a target sir control signal transmitted from the controller 16 . thereby , the target sir is increased when the measured bler value is greater than the target bler value , that is , when the reception quality is low , while the target sir is decreased when the measured bler value is smaller than the target bler value , that is , when the reception quality is high . the sir comparing / determining section 110 compares the sir measured by the sir measuring section 105 , with the target sir set by the target sir setting section , and determines whether or not the measured sir value is greater than the target sir value . the sir comparing / determining section 110 notifies the tpc command generator 111 of the determination result . according to the determination result of the sir comparing / determining section 110 , the tpc command generator 111 issues a tpc command (“ up ” command ) for increasing the transmission power when the measured sir does not reach the target sir , and issues a tpc command (“ down ” command ) for decreasing the transmission power when the measured sir is the target sir value or more . the tpc commands are transmitted periodically in slot cycles ( 0 . 667 ms ). the data sequence from the rake receiver 104 is processed through the quadrature demodulation , decoding , error correction decoding and the like , and then is inputted to the controller 18 . consequently , the controller 18 supplies the audio signal to the speaker 19 and the image signal to the display 15 . the transmission signal generator 112 multiplexes transmission data of various transmission channels . the multiplexed transmission data is supplied to the rf section 102 , is upconverted after being processed through the modulation process and the spread spectrum process , and then is transmitted from the antenna 101 . fig5 is a functional block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the controller 16 shown in fig3 . as shown in fig5 , the controller 16 includes a pdu processor 160 , a pdu loss detector 161 , a status pdu transmitter 162 and a transmission power increase instructor 163 . the pdu processor 160 processes pdus received from the radio base station 2 . note that a pdu ( protocol data unit ) is a data unit managed in a protocol ( for example , rlc ) for controlling data transmission in a radio link . in addition , rlc is a protocol that is located at the data link layer of the osi reference model , is proposed by 3gpp ( 3rd generation partnership project ), and is standardized to control the radio link . in this embodiment , the pdu processor 160 processes pdus ( amd pdus ) used in acknowledge mode data transfer in accordance with rlc . the amd pdu has a field for storing a sequence number and a polling bit in its header . the initial value of the sequence number is 0 , and 1 is added to the sequence number pdu by pdu in the radio base station 2 . the polling bit is set to “ 1 ” ( on ) in the pdu ( called “ the final pdu ” below ) that is located at the final position in the transmit buffer or the retransmit buffer in the radio base station 2 . thus , by setting the polling bit to 1 in the final pdu of a series of pdus , the radio base station 2 requests the radio communication terminal 1 to return a status pdu ( called an “ ack ” below ) for acknowledgement . the pdu loss detector 161 detects a pdu loss according to the continuity of the sequence numbers of pdus . more precisely , when a pdu is missing in a radio communications section , or when a pdu is determined as ng in the crc check even though the pdu is received , the sequence number is skipped . in this case , it is determined that the pud is lost . the status pdu transmitter 162 starts the transmission of a status pdu when a pdu loss is detected , and when the polling bit of a pdu is “ 1 ” ( on ). the status pdu is used to transmit control information ( status information ) that is used in the retransmission control . in this embodiment , when a pdu loss is detected , the status pdu transmitter 162 transmits a status pdu ( list request ) requesting to retransmit the lost pdu . incidentally , the status pdu is a pdu having a higher priority than a data pdu . at a time when or immediately after the status pdu ( list request ) is transmitted , the transmission power increase instructor 163 transmits a target sir control signal to the target sir setting section 109 in fig4 . the target sir control signal instructs to increase the target sir . as a result , the tpc command generator 111 generates a tpc command (“ up ” command ) for increasing the transmission power of the radio base station 2 . hereinafter , operations of the mobile communication system according to this embodiment will be described by referring to fig6 and 7 . fig6 is a flowchart showing a receiving operation flow of the radio communication terminal 1 according to this embodiment . in step s 101 , the radio communication terminal 1 receives a pdu from the radio base station 2 . in step s 102 , the radio communication terminal 1 determines whether or not the pdu received in step s 101 is the final pdu . specifically , the radio communication terminal 1 determines whether or not the polling bit stored in the header of the pdu is set to “ 1 ” ( on ). when the polling bit is set to “ 1 ” ( on ), the radio communication terminal 1 transmits an ack to the radio base station 2 , and terminates the receiving operation . when the polling bit is not set to “ 1 ” ( on ), the operation moves to the processing in step s 103 . in step s 103 , the radio communication terminal 1 memorizes the sequence number stored in the header of the pdu received in step s 101 . in step s 104 , the radio communication terminal 1 determines whether or not a pdu is lost , according to whether or not the sequence number of the pdu lastly received and the sequence number of the pdu currently received are continuous . when the pdu loss is detected , the operation moves to the processing in step s 105 . when the pdu loss is not detected , the operation returns to the processing in step s 101 . in step s 105 , the radio communication terminal 1 transmits , to the radio base station 2 , the status pdu ( list request ) requesting to retransmit the lost pdu . in step s 106 , the radio communication terminal 1 increases the target sir by a fixed value ( for example , 1 db ), and the operation returns to the processing in step s 100 . fig7 is a sequence diagram showing an operation sequence of the mobile communication system according to this embodiment . in step s 201 , the radio base station 2 transmits the pdu of the sequence number “ 1 ” to the radio communication terminal 1 . the radio communication terminal 1 receives the pdu transmitted by the radio base station 2 , and memorizes the sequence number “ 1 .” in step s 202 , the radio base station 2 transmits the pdu of the sequence number “ 2 ” to the radio communication terminal 1 . the radio communication terminal 1 receives the pdu transmitted by the radio base station 2 , and memorizes the sequence number “ 2 .” in step s 203 , the radio base station 2 transmits the pdu of the sequence number “ 3 ” to the radio communication terminal 1 . however , here , assume that the pdu of the sequence number “ 3 ” is missing in the radio communication section due to a change in the radio communication environment , and accordingly is not received by the radio communication terminal 1 . in step s 204 , the radio base station 2 transmits the pdu of the sequence number “ 4 ” to the radio communication terminal 1 . the radio communication terminal 1 receives the pdu transmitted by the radio base station 2 , and memorizes the sequence number “ 4 .” in step s 205 , the radio communication terminal 1 detects the loss of the pdu of the sequence number “ 3 ” on the basis of a fact that the sequence number “ 2 ” memorized in step s 202 and the sequence number “ 4 ” memorized in step s 204 are not continuous . in step s 206 , the radio communication terminal 1 transmits to the radio base station 2 the status pdu requesting to retransmit the pdu of sequence number “ 3 .” the radio base station 2 receives the status pdu transmitted by the radio communication terminal 1 . in step s 207 , the radio communication terminal 1 increases the target sir by a fixed value ( for example , 1 db ) immediately after the transmission of the status pdu in step s 206 . incidentally , the operation in step s 207 may be executed at the same time as the operation in step s 206 . by increasing the target sir by the fixed value , the tpc command periodically transmitted from the radio communication terminal 1 to the radio base station 2 is set to be a command instructing to increase the transmission power , that is , the “ up ” command . in step s 208 , in response to receipt of the “ up ” command , the radio base station 2 increases , by the fixed value ( for example , 1 db ), the transmission power of the communication channel with the radio communication terminal 1 . in step s 209 , in response to the status pdu received in step s 206 , the radio base station 2 retransmits the pdu of the sequence number “ 3 ” having been transmitted in step s 203 . in step s 209 , since the transmission power of the communication channel with the radio communication terminal 1 is increased , the radio communication terminal 1 is able to stably receive the pdu retransmitted by the radio base station 2 . as has been described in detail , when it is determined that a pdu is lost , the radio communication terminal 1 according to this embodiment requests the radio base station 2 to retransmit the lost pdu . the radio communication terminal 1 instructs the radio base station 2 to increase the transmission power either simultaneously at the retransmission timing , or after the retransmission request and before the retransmission timing . accordingly , since the radio communication terminal 1 becomes enabled to stably receive the pdu retransmitted by the radio base station 2 , the resources of the radio base station 2 and the radio resources are not wastefully consumed . moreover , the radio base station 2 and the radio communication terminal 1 are prevented from getting out of synchronization . in a second embodiment , the points different from the aforementioned first embodiment are mainly explained . a mobile communication system according to this embodiment is configured in the same manner as in fig2 . in addition , a radio communication terminal 1 according to this embodiment has the same configuration as in fig3 and 4 except for a controller 16 . fig8 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of the controller 16 of the radio communication terminal 1 according to this embodiment . as shown in fig8 , the controller 16 of this embodiment is different from that of the aforementioned first embodiment in that the controller 16 includes a retransmission timing determining section 164 configured to determine ( estimate ) a retransmission timing in the radio base station 2 . when a pdu loss detector 161 detects a pdu loss , the retransmission timing determining section 164 determines ( estimates ) the pdu retransmission timing by the radio base station 2 by use of the following equation , and determines a time ( target sir update time ) for increasing the target sir , according to the determined retransmission timing . in the equation ( 1 ), tti ( transmission time interval ) denotes a time interval between pdu transmissions . incidentally , the tti for dcch massages is on the order of 40 ms . in the equation ( 1 ), the polling time denotes the maximum time after the transmission of the final pdu until the receipt of the ack . in other words , when the ack is not received from the radio communication terminal 1 within the polling time , the final pdu is retransmitted to the radio communication terminal 1 . the radio communication terminal 1 is notified of the polling time by the network side ( the radio base station 2 ). moreover , the pdu loss detector 161 according to this embodiment detects a pdu loss not according to the sequence numbers of pdus but according to whether or not a period when no pdu is received exceeds a fixed threshold . specifically , the pdu loss detector 161 determines that a pdu is lost when any pdu is not received within a double tti period ( 2 ttis ). next , operations of the mobile communication system according to this embodiment will be described by referring to fig9 and 10 . fig9 is a flowchart showing a receiving operation flow of the radio communication terminal 1 according to this embodiment . here , the redundant description for the same processing as the first embodiment is omitted . in step s 301 , the radio communication terminal 1 receives a pdu from the radio base station 2 . in step s 302 , the radio communication terminal 1 determines whether or not the pdu received in step s 301 is the final pdu . when the pdu received in step s 301 is the final pdu , the radio communication terminal 1 transmits an ack to the radio base station 2 , and terminates the receiving operation . on the other hand , when the pdu received in step s 301 is not the final pdu , the operation moves to the processing in step s 303 . in step s 303 , the radio communication terminal 1 determines whether or not another pdu is received from the radio base station 2 . when the pdu is received from the radio base station 2 , the operation moves to the processing in step s 304 . on the other hand , when the pdu is not received from the radio base station 2 , the operation moves to the processing in step s 305 . in step s 304 , the radio communication terminal 1 determines whether or not the pdu received in step s 303 is the final pdu . when the pdu received in step s 303 is the final pdu , the radio communication terminal 1 transmits an ack to the radio base station 2 , and terminates the receiving operation . on the other hand , when the pdu received in step s 301 is not the final pdu , the operation returns to the processing in step s 303 . in step s 305 , the radio communication terminal 1 determines whether or not the fixed time period ( for example , 2 ttis ) has passed since the receipt of the last pdu . when the fixed time period has passed since the receipt of the last pdu , the operation moves to the processing in step s 306 . when the fixed time period has not passed since the receipt of the last pdu , the operation returns to the processing in step s 303 . in step s 306 , the radio communication terminal 1 estimates the pdu retransmission timing of the radio base station 2 by use of the equation ( 1 ), and determines the target sir update time . in step s 307 , the radio communication terminal 1 increases the target sir by the fixed value ( for example , 1 db ) at the target sir update time determined in step s 306 . thereafter , the operation returns to the processing in step s 303 . fig1 is a sequence diagram showing an operation sequence of the mobile communication system according to this embodiment . in steps s 401 to s 403 , the radio base station 2 sequentially transmits the pdus of the sequence numbers “ 1 ” to “ 3 ” to the radio communication terminal 1 at ttis . the radio communication terminal 1 sequentially receives the pdus transmitted by the radio base station 2 , and memorizes the sequence numbers “ 1 ” to “ 3 .” in step s 404 , the radio base station 2 transmits the pdu of the sequence number “ 4 ” to the radio communication terminal 1 . in the pdu of sequence number “ 4 ,” the polling bit is set to “ 1 ” ( on ). however , here , assume that the pdu of the sequence number “ 4 ” is missing in the radio communication section due to a change in the radio communication environment , and accordingly is not received by the radio communication terminal 1 . the radio base station 2 starts measuring the polling time at a timing of transmitting the pdu of the sequence number “ 4 ” to the radio communication terminal 1 . in step s 405 , the radio communication terminal 1 detects a loss of the final pdu on the basis of a fact that the fixed time period ( 2 ttis ) has passed without receipt of the polling bit . in step s 406 , the radio communication terminal 1 estimates the retransmission timing of the pdu ( sn : 4 ) of the radio base station 2 by use of the equation ( 1 ), and determines the target sir update time . here , the pdu lastly received is the pdu ( sn : 3 ), and the target sir update time is determined on the basis of the receiving time t 1 of the pdu ( sn : 3 ). in step s 407 , the radio communication terminal 1 increases the target sir by the fixed value ( for example , 1 db ) at the target sir update time determined in step s 406 . by increasing the target sir by the fixed value , the tpc command periodically transmitted from the radio communication terminal 1 to the radio base station 2 is set to be the “ up ” command . in step s 408 , in response to receipt of the “ up ” command , the radio base station 2 increase , by the fixed value ( for example , 1 db ), the transmission power of the communication channel with the radio communication terminal 1 . in step s 409 , the radio base station 2 detects that the polling time expires ( times out ), and retransmits to the radio communication terminal 1 the pdu of the sequence number “ 4 ” having been transmitted in step s 404 . in the pdu of the sequence number “ 4 ,” the polling bit is set to “ 1 ” ( on ). since the transmission power of the communication channel with the radio communication terminal 1 is increased in step s 408 , the radio communication terminal 1 stably receives the pdu retransmitted by the radio base station 2 . in step s 410 , the radio communication terminal 1 transmits an ack to the radio base station 2 since the polling bit of the pdu received in step s 409 is set to “ 1 ” ( on ). as described above , the radio communication terminal 1 according to this embodiment determines that the final pdu is lost when no pdu is received for the fixed time period before the final pdu is received . when it is determined that the final pdu is lost , the radio communication terminal 1 estimates the retransmission timing of the radio base station 2 on the basis of the receiving time of the last pdu before the final pdu , the polling time and the tti . in this way , the radio communication terminal 1 is capable of detecting even a pdu loss that cannot be detected from the sequence numbers . moreover , the radio communication terminal 1 is capable of causing the radio base station 2 to increase its transmission power at an appropriate timing by instructing to increase the transmission power at a timing suited to the retransmission timing of the radio base station 2 . although the present invention has been described above by use of the embodiments , it should not be understood that the description and the drawings that are part of this disclosure limit the present invention . from this disclosure , various alternative embodiments , examples and applied techniques are obvious to those skilled in the art . the foregoing embodiments have been described by using , as an example , the case where the radio base station 2 is a pdu transmitting side while the radio communication terminal 1 is a pdu receiving side . however , it does not matter that the radio communication terminal 1 is the pdu transmitting side while the radio base station 2 is the pdu receiving side . moreover , in the foregoing embodiments , the target bler value is not changed while the target sir is increased . for this reason , the target sir automatically returns to the condition before the increase of the target sir . however , the bler value is measured at long intervals , the target sir cannot return to the original condition immediately . accordingly , the target sir may be controlled so that the target sir can be decreased at a timing when the fixed time period times out after the increase of the target sir . in this case , the target sir can return to the original condition immediately . in addition , although the foregoing embodiments have been described for the mobile communication system employing the w - cdma scheme , the present invention may be applied not only to the w - cdma scheme but also to other communication schemes in which the closed loop transmission power control is performed . hence , it should be understood that the present invention includes various embodiments and the like , which are not described here . accordingly , the present invention is limited only by the matters to define the invention in the scope of claims appropriate based on this disclosure . | 7 |
with reference now to the drawings , and in particular to fig1 through 4 thereof , a new fishing tool with illuminated retractable probe embodying the principles and concepts of the present invention and generally designated by the reference numeral 10 will be described . the present invention , designated as numeral 10 , includes a steel housing 12 having a rectangular configuration . as shown in fig1 & amp ; 2 , the housing is defined by a planar rectangular top face 14 , a planar rectangular bottom face 16 and a thin periphery 18 formed therebetween . the periphery is formed of a short front face 20 , a short rear face 22 and a pair of elongated side faces 24 formed therebetween . for reasons that will soon become apparent , a first one of the side faces has a recess 26 formed therein adjacent to and extending through the rear face of the housing . it should be noted that a length of the recess is 1 / 2 that of the housing . next provided is clippers 28 including a pair of planar resilient members 30 each having a perpendicular sharp outboard end and an inboard end pivotally coupled within the recess of the housing adjacent to the rear face . the clippers further includes a control arm 32 pivotally mounted to the outboard ends of the resilient members for selectively abutting the sharp outboard ends . as shown in fig3 the clippers further includes a hook eye line threader 34 . this threader is constructed from a resilient wire bent to form a diamond shape . a tight angled end of the diamond shaped wire is pivotally coupled to the inboard ends of the resilient members beneath the control arm of the clippers . by this structure , the line threader may be selectively pivoted outwardly from the control arm and resilient members of the clippers for use . fig1 & amp ; 2 show a probe assembly 38 including a linear plunger 40 having a square cross - section along a length thereof . the plunger extends within a slot 42 formed in the front face of the housing along a second one of the side faces thereof . the probe has an clip 44 mounted to its end having a width 1 / 2 that of the probe . as shown in fig1 & amp ; 2 , the clip is equipped with a horizontally oriented inboard portion with a first length , a vertically oriented intermediate portion in parallel with an end face of the plunger and a second length twice the first length , and a beveled outboard portion with the first length . in the preferred embodiment , a lateral groove is formed in the end face of the plunger of the probe assembly , as shown in fig1 & amp ; 2 . in use , a hook lodged within a fish may be positioned between the groove and the clip of the plunger for removal purposes . the probe assembly further includes a post 46 with a bulbous end mounted on the plunger . the post extends outwardly from the plunger and slides along a slit 48 formed in the second side face of the housing . the slit has a plurality of lateral recesses 50 formed therein for biasedly receiving the post to maintain the plunger at discrete lengths within the housing . ideally , the post is angled upwardly so that it automatically extends within the recesses when positioned adjacent thereto . as such , the post must angled downwardly manually in order to move the plunger within the slot of the housing . also included is a light assembly with a battery compartment accessible via a cover 54 removably mounted to the bottom face of the housing . mounted to a center of the rear face of the housing is an incandescent lamp 56 which extends therefrom . the incandescent lamp is adapted for illuminating upon the receipt of power . associated therewith is a fiber optic mechanism including a fiber optic line 58 extending through the plunger and terminated at a lower face of the end of the plunger . the fiber optic line is adapted for directing light therefrom upon the receipt of power . it should be noted that another light is mounted on an inboard end of the fiber optic line within the housing to afford the aforementioned illumination . such additional light may be accessed via a cover on the rear face of the housing to which the incandescent light is mounted . the cover on the rear face is preferably pivotally coupled with an associated snap coupling . lastly , it is imperative that a portion of the fiber optic line constitute slack within the housing for accommodating the movement of the plunger . the light assembly further includes a waterproof toggle slide switch 60 with gasket mounted on the top face of the housing adjacent to the rear face thereof and connected between batteries within the battery compartment and the fiber optic mechanism and the lamp . such switch serves for selectively supplying the lamp and fiber optic mechanism with power . for bending hooks per the desires of the user , a pair of hook benders 62 are included each defined by a bore formed between the top face and the bottom face of the housing in perpendicular relationship therewith . ideally , the bores are positioned in close proximity adjacent to the first side face and the font face of the housing . to accommodate hooks of various sizes , each bore has a constant unique diameter . fig2 shows a hook sharpener 66 including a thin planar rectangular strip of sharpening stone 68 mounted on the bottom face of the housing . the strip preferably resides along the second side face and adjacent the front face of the housing . the strip has an outer surface with a linear recess formed along a length thereof for sharpening hooks when slid along the recess . in the preferred embodiment , the strip of stone has a length that is less than 1 / 2 that of the housing . finally , a belt clip 70 is provided including a planar rectangular back strip mounted along a central longitudinal axis of the bottom face of the housing . resiliently mounted to the back strip is a front strip . the front strip has a beveled portion extending outwardly from the front and back strips . ideally , beveled portion has a length about 1 / 3 that of the back strip . it should be understood that the present invention may be constructed in various sizes per the desires of the user . as to a further discussion of the manner of usage and operation of the present invention , the same should be apparent from the above description . accordingly , no further discussion relating to the manner of usage and operation will be provided . with respect to the above description then , it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the invention , to include variations in size , materials , shape , form , function and manner of operation , assembly and use , are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art , and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the present invention . therefore , the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention . further , since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art , it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described , and accordingly , all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to , falling within the scope of the invention . | 0 |
first , in which circumstances the accumulated rounding errors as described in the “ related art ” occur must be considered . an example of an image sequences encoded by coding methods which can perform both unidirectional prediction and bidirectional prediction such as in mpeg . 1 , mpeg . 2 and h . 263 is shown in fig5 . an image 501 is a frame - coded by means of intraframe coding and is referred to as an i frame . in contrast , images 503 , 505 , 507 , 509 are called p frames and are coded by unidirectional interframe coding by using the previous i or p frame as the reference image . accordingly , when for instance encoding image 505 , image 503 is used as the reference image and interframe prediction is performed . images 502 , 504 , 506 and 508 are called b frames and bidirectional interframe prediction is performed utilizing the previous and subsequent i or p frame . the b frame is characterized by not being used as a reference image when interframe prediction is performed . since motion compensation is not performed in i frames , the rounding error caused by motion compensation will not occur . in contrast , not only is motion compensation performed in the p frames but the p frame is also used as a reference image by other p or b frames so that it may be a cause leading to accumulated rounding errors . in the b frames on the other hand , motion compensation is performed so that the effect of accumulated rounding errors appears in the reconstructed image . however , due to the fact that b frames are not used as reference images , b frames cannot be a source of accumulated rounding errors . thus , if accumulated rounding errors can be prevented in the p frame , then the bad effects of rounding errors can be alleviated in the overall image sequence . in h . 263 a frame for coding a p frame and a b frame exists and is called a pb frame ( for instance , frames 503 and 504 can both be encoded as a pb frame ). if the combined two frames are viewed as separate frames , then the same principle as above can be applied . in other words , if countermeasures are taken versus rounding errors for the p frame part within a pb frame , then the accumulation of errors can be prevented . rounding errors occur during interpolation of intensity values when a value obtained from normal division ( division whose operation result is a real number ) is a half ( ½ ) integer ( 0 . 5 added to an integer ) and this result is then rounded up to the next integer in the direction away from zero . for instance , when dividing by 4 to find an interpolated intensity value is performed , the rounding errors for the cases when the residual is 1 and 3 have equal absolute values but different signs . consequently , the rounding errors caused by these two cases are canceled when the expectation for the rounding errors is calculated ( in more general words , when dividing by a positive integer d ′ is performed , the rounding errors caused by the cases when the residual is t and d ′− t are cancelled ). however , when the residual is 2 , in other words when the result of normal division is a half integer , the rounding error cannot be canceled and leads to accumulated errors . to solve this problem , a method that allows the usage of two rounding methods can be used . the two rounding methods used here are : a rounding method that rounds half ( ½ ) integers away from zero ( 0 ); and a rounding method that rounds half ( ½ ) integers towards zero ( 0 ). by combining the usage of these two rounding methods , the rounding errors can be canceled . hereafter , the rounding method that rounds the result of normal division to the nearest integer and rounds half integer values away from 0 is called “ positive rounding ”. additionally , the rounding method that rounds the result of normal division to the nearest integer and rounds half ( ½ ) integer values towards zero ( 0 ) is called “ negative rounding ”. the process of positive rounding used in block matching with half ( ½ ) pixel accuracy is shown in equation 3 . when negative rounding is used instead , this equation can be rewritten as shown below . hereafter motion compensation methods that performs positive and negative rounding for the synthesis of interframe prediction images are called “ motion compensation using positive rounding ” and “ motion compensation using negative rounding ”, respectively . furthermore , for p frames which use block matching with half ( ½ ) pixel accuracy for motion compensation , a frame that uses positive rounding is called a “ p + frame ” and a frame that uses negative rounding is called a “ p − frame ” ( under this definition , the p frames in h . 263 are all p + frames ). the expectation for the rounding errors in p + and p − frames have equal absolute values but different signs . accordingly , the accumulation of rounding errors can be prevented when p + frames and p − frames are alternately located along the time axis . in the example in fig5 , if the frames 503 and 507 are set as p + frames and the frames 505 and 509 are set as p − frames , then this method can be implemented . the alternate occurrence of p + frames and p − frames leads to the usage of a p + frame and a p − frame in the bidirectional prediction for b frames . generally , the average of the forward prediction image ( i . e . the prediction image synthesized by using frame 503 when frame 504 in fig5 is being encoded ) and the backward prediction image ( i . e . the prediction image synthesized by using frame 505 when frame 504 in fig5 is being encoded ) is frequently used for synthesizing the prediction image for b frames . this means that using a p + frame ( which has a positive value for the expectation of the rounding error ) and a p − frame ( which has a negative value for the expectation of the rounding error ) in bidirectional prediction for a b frame is effective in canceling out the effects of rounding errors . just as related above , the rounding process in the b frame will not be a cause of error accumulation . accordingly , no problem will occur even if the same rounding method is applied to all the b frames . for instance , no serious degradation of decoded images is caused even if motion compensation using positive rounding is performed for all of the b frames 502 , 504 , 506 , and 508 in fig5 . preferably only one type of rounding is performed for a b frame , in order to simplify the b frame decoding process . a block matching section 1600 of an image encoder according to the above described motion compensation method utilizing multiple rounding methods is shown in fig1 . numbers identical to those in other drawings indicate the same part . by substituting the block matching section 116 of fig1 with 1600 , multiple rounding methods can be used . motion estimation processing between the input image 101 and the decoded image of the previous frame is performed in a motion estimator 1601 . as a result , motion information 120 is output . this motion information is utilized in the synthesis of the prediction image in a prediction image synthesizer 1603 . a rounding method determination device 1602 determines whether to use positive rounding or negative rounding as the rounding method for the frame currently being encoded . information 1604 relating to the rounding method that was determined is input to the prediction image synthesizer 1603 . in this prediction image synthesizer 1603 , a prediction image 117 is synthesized and output based on the rounding method determined by means of information 1604 . in the block matching section 116 in fig1 , there are no items equivalent to 1602 , 1604 of fig1 , and the prediction image is synthesized only by positive rounding . also , the rounding method 1605 determined at the block matching section can be output , and this information can then be multiplexed into the bit stream and be transmitted . a prediction image synthesizer 1700 of an image decoder which can decode bit streams generated by a coding method using multiple rounding methods is shown in fig1 . numbers identical to those in other drawings indicate the same part . by substituting the prediction image synthesizer 211 of fig2 by 1700 , multiple rounding methods can be used . in the rounding method determination device 1701 , the rounding method appropriate for prediction image synthesis in the decoding process is determined . in order to carry out decoding correctly , the rounding method selected here must be the same as the rounding method that was selected for encoding . for instance the following rule can be shared between the encoder and decoder : when the current frame is a p frame and the number of p frames ( including the current frame ) counted from the most recent i frame is odd , then the current frame is a p + frame . when this number is even , then the current frame is a p − frame . if the rounding method determination device on the encoding side ( for instance , 1602 in fig1 ) and the rounding method determination device 1701 conform to this common rule , then the images can correctly be decoded . the prediction image is synthesized in the prediction image synthesizer 1703 using motion information 202 , decoding image 210 of the prior frame , and information 1702 related to the rounding method determined as just described . this prediction image 212 is output and then used for the synthesis of the decoded image . as an alternative to the above mentioned case , a case where the information related to the rounding method is multiplexed in the transmitted bit stream can also be considered ( such bit stream can be generated at the encoder by outputting the information 1605 related to the rounding method from the block matching section depicted in fig1 ). in such case , the rounding method determiner device 1701 is not used , and information 1704 related to the rounding method extracted from the encoded bit stream is used at the prediction image synthesizer 1703 . besides the image encoder and the image decoder utilizing the custom circuits and custom chips of the conventional art as shown in fig1 and fig2 , this invention can also be applied to software image encoders and software image decoders utilizing general - purpose processors . a software image encoder 600 and a software image decoder 700 are shown in fig6 and fig7 . in the software image encoder 600 , an input image 601 is first stored in the input frame memory 602 and the general - purpose processor 603 loads information from here and performs encoding . the program for driving this general - purpose processor is loaded from a storage device 608 which can be a hard disk , floppy disk , etc . and stored in a program memory 604 . this general purpose processor also uses a process memory 605 to perform the encoding . the encoding information output by the general - purpose processor is temporarily stored in the output buffer 606 and then output as an encoded bit stream 607 . a flowchart for the encoding software ( recording medium readable by computer ) is shown in fig8 . the process starts in 801 , and the value 0 is assigned to variable n in 802 . next , in 803 and 804 , the value 0 is assigned to n when the value for n is 100 . n is a counter for the number of frames . 1 is added for each one frame whose processing is complete , and values from 0 to 99 are allowed when performing coding . when the value for n is 0 , the current frame is an i frame . when n is an odd number , the current frame is a p + frame , and when an even number other than 0 , the current frame is a p − frame . when the upper limit for the value of n is 99 , it means that one i frame is coded after 99 p frames ( p + frames or p − frames ) are coded . by always inserting one i frame in a certain number of coded frames , the following benefits can be obtained : ( a ) error accumulation due to a mismatch between encoder and decoder processing can be prevented ( for instance , a mismatch in the computation of dct ); and ( b ) the processing load for acquiring the reproduced image of the target frame from the coded data ( random access ) is reduced . the optimal n value varies when the encoder performance or the environment where the encoder is used are changed . it does not mean , therefore , that the value of n must always be 100 . the process for determining the rounding method and coding mode for each frame is performed in 805 and the flowchart with details of this operation is shown in fig9 . first of all , whether n is a zero ( 0 ) or not is checked in 901 . if n is 0 , then ‘ i ’ is output as distinction information of the prediction mode , to the output buffer in 902 . this means that the image to be coded is will be coded as an i frame . here , “ output to the output buffer ” means that after being stored in the output buffer , the information is output to an external device as a portion of the coded bit stream . when n is not 0 , then whether n is an odd or even number is identified in 904 . when n is an odd number , ‘+’ is output to the output buffer as the distinction information for the rounding method in 905 , and the image to be coded will be coded as a p + frame . on the other hand , when n is an even number , ‘−’ is output to the output buffer as the distinction information for the rounding method in 906 , and the image to be coded will be coded as a p − frame . the process again returns to fig8 , where after determining the coding mode in 805 , the input image is stored in the frame memory a in 806 . the frame memory a referred to here signifies a portion of the memory zone ( for instance , the memory zone maintained in the memory of 605 in fig6 ) of the software encoder . in 807 , it is checked whether the frame currently being coded is an i frame . when not identified as an i frame , motion estimation and motion compensation is performed in 808 . the flowchart in fig1 shows details of this process performed in 808 . first of all , in 1001 , motion estimation is performed between the images stored in frame memories a and b ( just as written in the final part of this paragraph , the decoded image of the prior frame is stored in frame memory b ). the motion vector for each block is found , and this motion vector is sent to the output buffer . next , in 1002 , whether or not the current frame is a p + frame is checked . when the current frame is a p + frame , the prediction image is synthesized in 1003 utilizing positive rounding and this prediction image is stored in frame memory c . on the other hand , when the current frame is a p − frame , the prediction image is synthesized in 1004 utilizing negative rounding and this prediction image is stored in the frame memory c . next , in 1005 , the differential image between frame memories a and c is found and stored in frame memory a . here , the process again returns to fig8 . prior to starting the processing in 809 , the input image is stored in frame memory a when the current frame is an i frame , and the differential image between the input image and the prediction image is stored in frame memory a when the current frame is a p frame ( p + or p − frame ). in 809 , dct is applied to the image stored in frame memory a , and the dct coefficients calculated here are sent to the output buffer after being quantized . in 810 , inverse quantization is performed to the quantized dct coefficients and inverse dct is applied . the image obtained by applying inverse dct is stored in frame memory b . next in 811 , it is checked again whether the current frame is an i frame . when the current frame is not an i frame , the images stored in frame memory b and c are added and the result is stored in frame memory b . the coding process of a frame ends here , and the image stored in frame memory b before going into 813 is the reconstructed image of this frame ( this image is identical with the one obtained at the decoding side ). in 813 , it is checked whether the frame whose coding has just finished is the final frame in the sequence . if this is true , the coding process ends . if this frame is not the final frame , 1 is added to n in 814 , and the process again returns to 803 and the coding process for the next frame starts . a software decoder 700 is shown in fig7 . after the coded bit stream 701 is temporarily stored in the input buffer 702 , this bit stream is then loaded into the general - purpose processor 703 . the program for driving this general - purpose processor is loaded from a storage device 708 which can be a hard disk , floppy disk , etc . and stored in a program memory 704 . this general - purpose processor also uses a process memory 605 to perform the decoding . the decoded image obtained by the decoding process is temporarily stored in the output frame memory 706 and then sent out as the output image 707 . a flowchart of the decoding software for the software decoder 700 shown in fig7 is shown in fig1 . the process starts in 1101 , and it is checked in 1102 whether input information is present . if there is no input information , the decoding process ends in 1103 . when input information is present , distinction information of the prediction mode is input in 1104 . the word “ input ” used here means that the information stored in the input buffer ( for instance 702 of fig7 ) is loaded by the general - purpose processor . in 1105 , it is checked whether the encoding mode distinction information is “ i ”. when not “ i ”, the distinction information for the rounding method is input and synthesis of the interframe prediction image is performed in 1107 . a flowchart showing details of the operation in 1107 is shown in fig1 . in 1201 , a motion vector is input for each block . then , in 1202 , it is checked whether the distinction information for the rounding method loaded in 1106 is a “+”. when this information is “+”, the frame currently being decoded is a p + frame . in this case , the prediction image is synthesized using positive rounding in 1203 , and the prediction image is stored in frame memory d . here , frame memory d signifies a portion of the memory zone of the software decoder ( for instance , this memory zone is obtained in the processing memory 705 in fig7 ). when the distinction information of the rounding method is not “+”, the current frame being decoded is a p − frame . the prediction image is synthesized using negative rounding in 1204 and this prediction image is stored in frame memory d . at this point , if a p + frame is decoded as a p − frame due to some type of error , or conversely if a p − frame is decoded as a p + frame , the correct prediction image is not synthesized in the decoder and the quality of the decoded image deteriorates . after synthesizing the prediction image , the operation returns to fig1 and the quantized dct coefficients is input in 1108 . inverse quantization and inverse dct is then applied to these coefficients and the resulting image is stored in frame memory e . in 1109 , it is checked again whether the frame currently being decoded is an i frame . if the current frame is not an i frame , images stored in frame memory d and e are added in 1110 and the resulting sum image is stored in frame memory e . the image stored in frame memory e before starting the process in 1111 is the reconstructed image . this image stored in frame memory e is output to the output frame memory ( for instance , 706 in fig7 ) in 1111 , and then output from the decoder as the reconstructed image . the decoding process for a frame is completed here and the process for the next frame starts by returning to 1102 . when a software based on the flowchart shown in fig8 - 12 is run in the software image encoders or decoders , the same effect as when custom circuits and custom chips are utilized are obtained . a storage media ( recording media ) with the bit stream generated by the software encoder 601 of fig6 being recorded is shown in fig1 . it is assumed that the algorithms shown in the flowcharts of fig8 - 10 is used in the software encoder . digital information is recorded concentrically on a recording disk 1301 capable of recording digital information ( for instance magnetic disks , optical disk , etc .). a portion 1302 of the information recorded on this digital disk includes : prediction mode distinction information 1303 , 1305 , 1308 , 1311 , and 1314 ; rounding method distinction information 1306 , 1309 , 1312 , and 1315 ; and motion vector and dct coefficient information 1304 , 1307 , 1310 , 1313 , and 1316 . information representing ‘ i ’ is recorded in 1303 , ‘ p ’ is recorded in 1305 , 1308 , 1311 , and 1314 , ‘+’ is recorded in 1306 , and 1312 , and ‘−’ is recorded in 1309 , and 1315 . in this case , ‘ i ’ and ‘+’ can be represented by a single bit of zero ( 0 ), and ‘ p ’ and ‘−’ can be represented by a single bit of one ( 1 ). using this representation , the decoder can correctly interpret the recorded information and the correct reconstructed image is synthesized . by storing a coded bit stream in a storage media using the method described above , the accumulation of rounding errors is prevented when the bit stream is read and decoded . a storage media with the bit stream of the coded data of the image sequence shown in fig5 being recorded is shown in fig1 . the recorded bit stream includes information related to p +, p −, and b frames . in the same way as in 1301 of fig1 , digital information is recorded concentrically on a record disk 1501 capable for recording digital information ( for instance , magnetic disks , optical disks , etc .). a portion 1502 of the digital information recorded on this digital disk includes : prediction mode distinction information 1503 , 1505 , 1508 , 1510 , and 1513 ; rounding method distinction information 1506 , and 1512 ; and motion vector and dct coefficient information 1504 , 1507 , 1509 , 1511 , and 1514 . information representing ‘ i ’ is recorded in 1503 , ‘ p ’ is recorded in 1505 , and 1510 , ‘ b ’ is recorded in 1508 , and 1513 , ‘+’ is recorded in 1505 , and ‘−’ is recorded in 1511 . in this case , ‘ i ’, ‘ p ’ and ‘ b ’ can be represented respectively by two bit values 00 , 01 , and 10 , and ‘+’ and is ‘−’ can be represented respectively by one bit values 0 and 1 . using this representation , the decoder can correctly interpret the recorded information and the correct reconstructed is synthesized . in fig1 , information related to frame 501 ( i frame ) in fig5 is 1503 and 1504 , information related to 502 ( b frame ) is 1508 and 1509 , information related to frame 503 ( p + frame ) is 1505 and 1507 , information related to frame 504 ( b frame ) is 1513 and 1514 , and information related to frame 505 ( p − frame ) is 1510 and 1512 . when coding image sequences are coded using b frames , the transmission order and display order of frames are usually different . this is because the previous and subsequent reference images need to be coded before the prediction image for the b frame is synthesized . consequently , in spite of the fact that the frame 502 is displayed before frame 503 , information related to frame 503 is transmitted before information related to frame 502 . as described above , there is no need to use multiple rounding methods for b frames since motion compensation in b frames do not cause accumulation of rounding errors . therefore , as shown in this example , information that specifies rounding methods ( e . g . ‘+’ and ‘−’) is not transmitted for b frames . thus for instance , even if only positive rounding is applied to b frames , the problem of accumulated rounding errors does not occur . by storing coded bit streams containing information related to b frames in a storage media in the way described above , the occurrence of accumulated rounding errors can be prevented when this bit stream is read and decoded . specific examples of coders and decoders using the coding method described in this specification is shown in fig1 . the image coding and decoding method can be utilized by installing image coding and decoding software into a computer 1401 . this software is recorded in some kind of storage media ( cd - rom , floppy disk , hard disk , etc .) 1412 , loaded into a computer and then used . additionally , the computer can be used as an image communication terminal by connecting the computer to a communication lines . it is also possible to install the decoding method described in this specification into a player device 1403 that reads and decodes the coded bit stream recorded in a storage media 1402 . in this case , the reconstructed image signal can be displayed on a television monitor 1404 . the device 1403 can be used only for reading the coded bit stream , and in this case , the decoding device can be installed in the television monitor 1404 . it is well known that digital data transmission can be realized using satellites and terrestrial waves . a decoding device can also be installed in a television receiver 1405 capable of receiving such digital transmissions . also , a decoding device can also be installed inside a set top box 1409 connected to a satellite / terrestrial wave antenna , or a cable 1408 of a cable television system , so that the reconstructed images can be displayed on a television monitor 1410 . in this case , the decoding device can be incorporated in the television monitor rather than in the set top box , as in the case of 1404 . the layout of a digital satellite broadcast system is shown in 1413 , 1414 and 1415 . the video information in the coded bit stream is transmitted from a broadcast station 1413 to a communication or broadcast satellite 1414 . the satellite receives this information , sends it to a home 1415 having equipment for receiving satellite broadcast programs , and the video information is reconstructed and displayed in this home using devices such as a television receiver or a set top box . digital image communication using mobile terminals 1406 has recently attracted considerable attention , due to the fact that image communication at very low bit rates has become possible . digital portable terminals can be categorized in the following three types : a transceiver having both an encoder and decoder ; a transmitter having only an encoder ; and a receiver having only a decoder . an encoding device can be installed in a video camera recorder 1407 . the camera can also be used just for capturing the video signal and this signal can be supplied to a custom encoder 1411 . all of the devices or systems shown in this drawing can be equipped with the coding and / or decoding method described in this specification . by using this coding and / or decoding method in these devices or systems , images of higher quality compared with those images obtained using conventional technologies can be obtained . the following variations are clearly included within the scope of this invention . ( i ) a prerequisite of the above described principle was the use of block matching as a motion compensation method . however , this invention is further capable of being applied to all image sequence coding and decoding methods in which motion compensation is performed by taking a value for the vertical and horizontal components of the pixel motion vector that is other than an integer multiple of the sampling period in the vertical and horizontal directions of the pixel , and then finding by interpolation , the intensity value of a position where the sample value is not present . thus for instance , the global motion compensation listed in japanese patent application no . 8 - 60572 published as japanese patent application laid - open no . 9 - 252470 and the warping prediction listed in japanese patent application no . 8 - 249601 published as japanese patent application laid - open no . 10 - 98729 are applicable to the method of this invention . ( ii ) the description of the invention only mentioned the case where a value integral multiple of ½ was taken for the horizontal and vertical components of the motion vector . however , this invention is also generally applicable to methods in which integral multiples of 1 / d ( d is a positive integer and also an even number ) are allowed for the horizontal and vertical components of the motion vector . however , when d becomes large , the divisor for division in bilinear interpolation ( square of “ d ”, see equation 2 ) also becomes large , so that in contrast , the probability of results from normal division reaching a value of 0 . 5 become low . accordingly , when performing only positive rounding , the absolute value of the expectation for rounding errors becomes small and the bad effects caused by accumulated errors become less conspicuous . also applicable to the method of this invention , is a motion compensation method where for instance , the d value is variable , both positive rounding and negative rounding are used when d is smaller than a fixed value , and only positive rounding or only negative rounding is used when the value of d is larger than a fixed value . ( iii ) as mentioned in the “ related art ” section , when dct is utilized as an error coding method , the adverse effects from accumulated rounding errors are prone to appear when the quantized step size of the dct coefficient is large . however a method is also applicable to the invention , in which , when the quantization step size of dct coefficients is larger than a threshold value then both positive rounding and negative rounding are used . when the quantization step size of the dct coefficients is smaller than the threshold value then only positive rounding or only negative rounding is used . ( iv ) in cases where error accumulations occur on the luminance plane and cases where error accumulations occur on the chrominance plane , the bad effects on the reconstructed images are generally more serious in the case of error accumulations on the chrominance plane . this is due to the fact that rather than cases where the image darkens or lightens slightly , cases where overall changes in the image color happen are more conspicuous . however , a method is also applicable to this invention in which both positive rounding and negative rounding are used for the chrominance signal , and only positive rounding or negative rounding is used for the luminance signal . as described in the “ related art ” section , ¼ pixel accuracy motion vectors obtained by halving the ½ pixel accuracy motion vectors are rounded to ½ pixel accuracy in h . 263 . however by adding certain changes to this method , the absolute expectation value for rounding errors can be reduced . in h . 263 that was mentioned in the related art , a value which is half the horizontal or vertical components of the motion vector for the luminance plane is expressed as r + s / 4 ( r is an integer , s is an integer less than 4 and not smaller than 0 ), and when s is 1 or 3 , a rounding operation is performed to obtain a 2 . this operation can be changed as follows : when s is 1 , a rounding operation is performed to obtain a zero “ 0 ”, and when s is 3 a 1 is be added to r to make s a “ 0 ”. by performing these operations , the number of times that the intensity values at positions 406 - 408 in fig4 is definitely reduced ( probability that horizontal and vertical components of motion vector will be an integer become high ) so that the absolute expectation value for the rounding error becomes small . however , even if the size of the error occurring in this method can be limited , the accumulation of errors cannot be completely prevented . ( v ) the invention described in this specification is applicable to a method that obtains the final interframe prediction image by averaging the prediction images obtained by different motion compensation methods . for example , in the method described in japanese patent application no . 8 - 3616 published as japanese patent application laid - open no . 9 - 200763 , interframe prediction images obtained by the following two methods are averaged : block matching in which a motion vector is assigned to each 16 × 16 pixel block ; and block matching in which a motion vector is assigned to each 8 × 8 pixel blocks . in this method , rounding is also performed when calculating the average of the two prediction images . when only positive rounding is continuously performed in this averaging operation , a new type of rounding error accumulates . this problem can be solved by using multiple rounding methods for this averaging operation . in this method , negative rounding is performed in the averaging operation when positive rounding is performed in block matching . conversely , positive rounding is used for the averaging when negative rounding is used for block matching . by using different rounding methods for averaging and block matching , the rounding errors from two different sources is cancelled within the same frame . ( vi ) when utilizing a method that alternately locates p + frames and p − frames along the time axis , the encoder or the decoder needs to determine whether the currently processed p frame is a p + frame or a p − frame . the following is an example of such identification method : a counter counts the number of p frames after the most recently coded or decoded i frame , and the current p frame is a p + frame when the number is odd , and a p − frame when the number is even ( this method is referred to as an implicit scheme ). there is also a method for instance , that writes into the header section of the coded image information , information to identify whether the currently coded p frame at the encoder is a p + frame or a p − frame ( this method is referred to as an explicit scheme ). compared with the implicit method , this method is well able to withstand transmission errors , since there is no need to count the number of p frames . additionally , the explicit method has the following advantages : as described in the “ related art ” section , past encoding standards ( such as mpeg - 1 or mpeg - 2 ) use only positive rounding for motion compensation . this means for instance that the motion estimation / motion compensation devices ( for example equivalent to 106 in fig1 ) for mpeg - 1 / mpeg - 2 on the market are not compatible with coding methods that use both p + frames and p − frames . it is assumed that there is a decoder which can decode bit streams generated by a coding method that uses p + frames and p − frames . in this case if the decoder is based on the above mentioned implicit method , then it will be difficult to develop an encoder that generates bit streams that can be correctly decoded by the above mentioned decoder , using the above mentioned motion estimation / compensation device for mpeg - 1 / mpeg - 2 . however , if the decoder is based on the above mentioned explicit method , this problem can be solved . an encoder using an mfeg - 1 / mpeg - 2 motion estimation / motion compensation device can continuously send p + frames , by continuously writing rounding method distinction information indicating positive rounding into the frame information header . when this is performed , a decoder based on the explicit method can correctly decode the bit stream generated by this encoder . of course , it should be more likely in such case that the accumulation of rounding errors occurs , since only p + frames are present . however , error accumulation is not a serious problem in cases where the encoder uses only small values as the quantization step size for the dct coefficients ( an example for such coders is a custom encoder used only for high rate coding ). in addition to this interoperability between past standards , the explicit method further have the following advantages : ( a ) the equipment cost for high rate custom encoders and coders not prone to rounding error accumulation due to frequent insertion of i frames can be reduced by installing only positive or negative rounding as the pixel value rounding method for motion compensation ; and ( b ) the above encoders not prone to rounding error accumulation have the advantage in that there is no need to decide whether to code the current frame as a p + or p − frame , and the processing is simplified . ( vii ) the invention described in this specification is applicable to coding and decoding methods that applies filtering accompanying rounding to the interframe prediction images . for instance , in the international standard h . 261 for image sequence coding , a low - pass filter ( called a “ loop filter ”) is applied to block signals whose motion vectors are not zero ( 0 ) in interframe prediction images . also , in h . 263 , filters can be used to smooth out discontinuities on block boundaries ( blocking artifacts ). all of these filters perform weighted averaging to pixel intensity values and rounding is then performed on the averaged intensity values . even for these cases , selective use of positive rounding and negative rounding is effective for preventing error accumulation . ( viii ) besides i p + p − p + p − . . . , various methods for mixing p + frames and p − frames such as i p + p + p − p − p + p + . . . , or i p + p − p − p + p + . . . are applicable to the method of this invention . for instance , using a random number generator that outputs 0 and 1 both at a probability of 50 percent , the encoder can code a p + and p − frame when the output is 0 and 1 , respectively . in any case , the less the difference in probability that p + frames and p − frames occur in a certain period of time , the less the rounding error accumulation is prone to occur . further , when the encoder , is allowed to mix p + frames and p − frames by an arbitrary method , the encoder and decoder must operate based on the explicit method and not with the implicit method described above . accordingly , the explicit method is superior when viewed from the perspective of allowing flexibility configuration for the encoder and decoder . ( ix ) the invention described in this specification does not limit the pixel value interpolation method to bilinear interpolation . interpolation methods for intensity values can generally be described by the following equation : [ equation 5 ] r ( x + r , y + s ) = t ( ∑ j = - x x ∑ j = - x x h ( r - j , s - k ) r ( x + j , y + k ) ) ( 5 ) where , r and s are real numbers , h ( r , s ) is a function for interpolating the real numbers , and t ( z ) is a function for rounding the real number z . the definitions of r ( x , y ), x , and y are the same as in equation 4 . motion compensation utilizing positive rounding is performed when t ( z ) is a function representing positive rounding , and motion compensation utilizing negative rounding is performed when the function representing negative rounding . this invention is applicable to interpolation methods that can be described using equation 5 . for instance , bilinear interpolation can be described by defining h ( r , s ) as shown below . then an interpolation method different from bilinear interpolation is implemented but the invention is still applicable . ( x ) the invention described in this specification does not limit the coding method for error images to dct ( discrete cosine transform ). for instance , wavelet transform ( for example , n . antonioni , et . al , “ image coding using wavelet transform ” ieee trans . image processing , vol . 1 , no . 2 , april 1992 ) and walsh - hadamard transform ( for example , a . n . netravalli and b . g . haskell , “ digital pictures ”, plenum press , 1998 ) are also applicable to this invention . | 6 |
it is advantageous to define several terms before describing the invention . it should be appreciated that the following definitions are used throughout this application . where the definition of terms departs from the commonly used meaning of the term , applicant intends to utilize the definitions provided below , unless specifically indicated . for the purposes of the present invention , the term “ adjuvant ” is defined as a substance which enhances the immune response to an immunogen . for purposes of the present invention , the term , “ adjuvancy ” is defined as the ability of an agent to enhance and / or promote the immune response of animal to a particular antigen . for the purposes of the present invention , the term “ biosynthetic material ” is defined as a material that is in part or whole made up from or derived from a biological tissue . for purposes of the present invention , the term “ biological tissue ” is defined as an animal tissue , including human , or plant tissue that is or that once was ( cadaver tissue , for example ) part of a living tissue or organism . for the purposes of the present invention , the term “ extracellular matrix ” ( hereinafter “ ecm ”) is defined as a tissue derived or bio - synthetic material that is capable of supporting the growth of a cell or culture of cells . by way of examples , some particular ecms include sis , rcm and fem . for the purposes of the present invention , the term “ cancer vaccine ” is defined as any preparation capable of being used as an inoculation material or as part of an inoculation material , that will provide a treatment for , inhibit and / or convey immunity to cancer and / or tumor growth . for the purposes of the present invention , the term “ immunize ” is defined as eliciting an immune response in an animal , both a humoral immune response and a cellular immune response . for the purposes of the present invention , the term “ immune provoking amount ” is defined as an amount of the antigen required to elicit an immune response in the animal . for purposes of the present invention , the term “ facial extracellular matrix ” ( hereinafter “ fem ”) relates to ecm derived from the fascia of porcine or other sources . for purposes of the present invention , the term “ renal capsule material ” ( hereinafter rcm ), relates to ecm derived from the renal capsule of porcine or other sources . the description of the present invention is enhanced by the various examples that follow . the present example provides some examples of materials and methods that may be used in the practice of the present invention . small intestinal submucosa ( sis ) was obtained from cook biotech , inc . ( west lafayette , ind .). the material was provided as a sterile , lyophilized sheet of extracellular matrix . experimental grade material was provided for use in the present studies of an sis preparation that was described as having been prepared by harvesting porcine jejunum and placing 10 - to 20 - cm lengths into saline solution ( 31 - 33 ). following removal of all mesenteric tissues , the jejunal segment was everted and the tunica mucosa abraded using a longitudinal wiping motion with a scalpel handle and moistened gauze . the serosa and tunica muscularis were then gently removed using the same procedure . the remaining tissue was disinfected with peracetic acid , rinsed extensively in high purity water , and sterilized using ethylene oxide prior to implantation . rcm was obtained from cook biotech , inc . ( west lafayette , ind .). briefly , renal capsule was dissected from mature pig kidneys immediately following slaughter . it was thoroughly rinsed under running tap water and disinfected using a dilute solution of peracetic acid in ethanol to remove potential contaminating bacteria and viruses ( 34 ). following disinfection , the rcm was rinsed in high purity water to remove the acid , lyophilized into a sheet form , and subsequently sterilized prior to implantation using ethylene oxide gas . the paiii cell line was derived from an autochthonous prostate tumor of an lw rat . paiii cells have been transplanted into lw rats for many passages with no change in pattern of growth or disease . when paiii cells are transplanted subcutaneously into the flank of lw rats , large , metastasizing adenocarcinomas develop within 40 days , though initial tumors are palpable within 10 days . from the primary tumor , the paiii cells metastasize spontaneously to the lungs . paiii tumors are hormone - independent and refractory to most treatments ( 35 ). gft cell vaccine was a glutaraldehyde - fixed tumor ( gft ) suspension of cells harvested from tumors grown in animals . gft cell vaccine was prepared from tumor tissue ( 36 ). specifically , three grams of a subcutaneous tumor tissue was harvested from a lobund - wistar rat and used in the vaccine preparation . the subcutaneous tumor had been produced by administering prostate adenocarcinoma cells isolated from an autochthonous , metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma in a lw rat ( 37 ). the tissue was finely minced , repeatedly aspirated with a 1 cc syringe , and an aliquot drawn with a 20 - gauge needle to eliminate large aggregates to create a cell suspension in modified eagle &# 39 ; s medium ( mem ). the cell suspension was incubated in 2 . 5 % glutaraldehyde ( v / v ) at 37 ° c . for 120 minutes and then washed thoroughly with media to produce the gft cell preparation . lw rats obtained from a breeding colony maintained at the university of notre dame were used for all studies . in this model , large tumors develop subcutaneously following subcutaneous administration of 1 × 10 6 paiii cells in approximately 99 % of rats . in this model , male , 3 - 4 month old lw rats are administered 1 × 10 6 paiii cells subcutaneously into the flank . after 14 - 21 days , a palpable tumor is present , and by 40 days metastatic foci are present in the lungs . for studies involving resection , the animal is prepared for aseptic surgery . the visible tumor is resected , though the resection is not radical and sufficient tumor bed presumably remains , as tumor re - growth occurs in 100 % of untreated individuals . sheets of single - layer sis or rcm are cut into 2 × 2 cm sections and placed into modified eagle &# 39 ; s medium ( mem ). paiii cells ( 1 × 10 6 ) or cells ( 1 × 10 6 ) harvested directly from a paiii subcutaneous rat tumor are layered on the sis or rcm and incubated at 37 ° c . to create the gft cell vaccine on sis , the sis with attached cells then undergoes glutaraldehyde fixation ( gft ) and washing . glutaraldehyde fixation involves incubating cells in 2 . 5 % glutaraldehyde ( v / v ) for 60 min at 37 ° c ., and then washing with media . alum was purchased as alhydrogel ™, an aluminum hydroxide gel adjuvant ( brenntak biosector , frederikssund , denmark ). statistical analysis — results of survival versus non - survival following challenge with tetanus toxin were compared between groups using the chi - square test with two degrees of freedom . differences were considered significant when p ≦ 0 . 05 . results for mean tumor weight were compared between groups with the wilcoxon rank sum test with significance reached when p ≦ 0 . 05 . the present example demonstrates the utility of the present invention as an effective cancer vaccine adjuvant in vivo . tumor cells were cultured on sis . following three days of growth , the sis with attached cells were fixed with glutaraldehyde . subcutaneous tumors grown in the flank of lobund - wistar rats which had been administered paiii prostate cancer cells 10 days earlier were surgically resected . groups of 5 rats then underwent either no further treatment ; treatment with glutaraldehyde - fixed tumor ( gft ) cells applied directly on the tumor bed ; treatment with glutaraldehyde - fixed ( gf ) sis ( without cells ) applied on the tumor bed ; or treatment with glutaraldehyde - fixed sis ( with cells ) applied on the tumor bed . three weeks later , after tumors had re - grown in most rats , tumors were weighed with the following results : the addition of sis to the gft cell vaccine resulted in a greater than 50 % reduction in mean tumor weight and establishes that sis is an effective adjuvant for cancer ( anti - tumor ) vaccination . the present example demonstrates the utility of the invention for providing a method for expanding a cancer cell population on an extracellular matrix material . the present example also demonstrates the utility of the invention for preparing a highly immunogenic population of cells useful in a cancer vaccine preparation . in the case of cancer , it is likely that many key antigens are expressed by connective tissue matrix and involve interactions of neoplastic cells with the extracellular matrix . cancer cell vaccines grown on an extracellular matrix thus may be prepared according to the present example and used as improved vaccine antigen compositions for vaccination . the present example demonstrates another example of the type of extracellular matrix material that may be used in the practice of the present invention . the present example employs porcine fascia extracellular matrix material ( fem ). studies were conducted as described herein to examine the ability of tumor cells to grow on fem . in these studies , it was demonstrated that tumor cells did grow robustly on the fem material , comparable with that growth supported on the sis and rcm . 2 . expansion of prostate cancer cells on sis and rcm in culture previous investigators have demonstrated the ability of pure cell lines to grow on sis in vitro . for example , badylak et al ( 38 ) showed sis is capable of supporting cultures of nih swiss mouse 3t3 fibroblasts , primary human fibroblasts , keratinocytes , endothelial cells , and an established rat osteosarcoma cell line . the present example demonstrates that an extracellular matrix material preparation as describe herein from sis supports cancer cell growth . in particular , growth of a prostate cancer cell line and a mixed cell population harvested directly from a subcutaneous tumor ( the tumor having been produced by inoculation of rat paiii cells into a lobund - wistar ( lw ) rat ), are shown to grow on the ecm materials under the conditions described here . sheets of single - layer sis and rcm were cut into 2 × 2 cm sections and placed into modified eagle &# 39 ; s medium ( mem ). paiii cells ( 1 × 10 6 ), or cells harvested directly from a paiii subcutaneous rat tumor ( 1 × 10 6 ), were layered on the sis and incubated at 37 ° c . for 72 hours , then fixed in 10 % neutral buffered formalin for 24 h , washed in 70 % ethanol , placed in paraffin and sectioned at 4 - 5 μm . sections were then stained with hematoxylin and eosin stain and examined for cell growth . samples which were incubated with pure paiii cells demonstrated a monolayer of cell growth along the edges of sis and rcm ( fig2 ). in contrast , culture of cells harvested directly from tumors showed growth of cells along the edges of sis and rcm . in addition , in the midsubstance ; vascular structures were re - populated with cells ( fig3 ) compared to control sis which had undergone incubation in media but with no cells added ( fig4 ) of badylak et al ( 38 ) showed that rat osteosarcoma cells and endothelial cells grew only on the edge of the ecm , while fibroblasts populated the ecm midsubstance . when co - cultured , keratinocytes and fibroblasts resulted in a distinct spatial orientation of the two cell types and early epidermal structures were formed . this study demonstrated that prostate cancer cells and mixed cell populations harvested directly from tumors can be grown in culture on three types ( fem , sis and rcm ) of ecm . sis as a vaccine adjuvant to prevent regrowth of tumors following surgical resection in earlier work , the present inventors described the ability of glutaraldehyde - fixed tumor ( gft ) cells harvested directly from a paiii rat tumor to prevent prostate cancer ( 36 ). based upon this , the present example demonstrates that vaccination will inhibit the regrowth of tumors following surgical resection . the present example demonstrates that an sis / whole cell vaccine effectively inhibits tumor regrowth following surgical resection and debulking . studies utilized the lobund - wistar ( lw ) rat prostate cancer model which can be used to induce de novo prostate tumors by chemical induction , or it can be used to grow subcutaneous tumors following implantation of a prostate cancer cell line ( paiii cells ). using the latter system , paiii cells were administered subcutaneously to groups of lw rats . fourteen days after administration of paiii cells , tumors were surgically debulked and vaccines applied as follows : vaccine was prepared by allowing tumor cells harvested from a subcutaneous tumor to grow upon sis in culture for 3 days , after which the material underwent glutaraldehyde fixation ( gft ) and washing ( gft vaccine on sis ). glutaraldehyde fixation involves incubating cells in 2 . 5 % glutaraldehyde ( v / v ) for 60 min at 37 ° c ., and then washing with media . one group of 5 rats underwent only resection ; one group had gft cell vaccine applied to the tumor bed ; one group had sis applied to the tumor bed ; and one group had gft cell vaccine on sis applied to the tumor bed . the results in terms of mean tumor re - growth ( tumor weight in grams ± standard deviation ) after 3 weeks are shown in fig5 and were as follows : gft cell vaccine on sis : 3 . 98 ± 0 . 1 . 37 gm , 2 / 5 with lung metastases the tumors in rats vaccinated with the gft cell vaccine on sis were significantly smaller ( p ≦ 0 . 01 ) than those from rats vaccinated with the gft cell vaccine alone and the control groups . in a second study , cells were cultured on sis for 28 days before implantation . the results from this study are shown in fig6 and are as follows : thus , the result is repeatable and demonstrates that the gft vaccine on sis also inhibited metastasis from the primary tumor to the lungs . these data were not quite significant ( probability of 0 . 053 ) due to the small group size . these data support the idea that efficacy of cancer vaccines is improved by growth of vaccine cells on , or incorporation into , extracellular matrices such as sis . sis gel acts as an adjuvant for a vaccine to prevent cancer because implantation of vaccines incorporated onto solid sis matrix would require incision of tissue , it may not be practical for all applications . thus , the present example demonstrates the utility of the invention to provide a vaccine against cancer in a gel form using an extracellular matrix material , such as sis , and the use of same as a vaccine adjuvant . sis gel is supplied by cook biotech , inc . ( west lafayette , ind .) and is produced from sis material via an acid digestion and purification process . sis gel was diluted 1 : 10 with sterile saline . harvested , glutaraldehyde - fixed cells from paiii tumors were mixed into the sis gel dilution such that each 0 . 25 ml dose of sis gel contained 5 × 10 6 gft cells . groups of ten ( 10 ) male lw rats were administered subcutaneously the following : 0 . 25 ml of sterile saline containing 5 × 10 6 gft cells ; or rats were vaccinated 3 times , 7 days apart . seven days after the last vaccination , all rats were challenged subcutaneously with 1 × 10 6 paiii cells . three weeks after challenge with paiii cells , rats were euthanized and tumors weighed . the results are shown as mean tumor weights (± standard deviation ) in fig7 and are as follows : gft cell vaccine = 0 . 86 g (± 0 . 11 ), 6 / 10 rats with metastases to the lungs gft cell vaccine in sis gel = 0 . 19 (± 0 . 14 ), 1 / 10 rats with metastases to the lungs as can be seen in fig7 , treatment with the gft cells alone resulted in a tumor size of approximately 0 . 86 g .+/− 0 . 11 g ., while treatment with gft cells in the extracellular matrix material ( sis ) in a gel form resulted in a tumor growth of approximately 0 . 19 g .+/− 0 . 14 g ., about one - fourth the size . hence , the addition of the extracellular matrix gel ( sis ) in a 1 : 10 dilution significantly adjuvinated the tumor growth inhibiting activity of the gft cell preparation ( fixed prostate cell vaccine antigen ) about 4 - fold to about 5 - fold . thus , it is demonstrated here that the addition of an extracellular matrix material to a cell - based cancer vaccine will significantly adjuvant a tumor cell preparation used as a vaccine , by 2 - fold or greater . sis gel acts as a vaccine adjuvant for the treatment of cancer the present example demonstrates the utility of the present invention for providing an enhancement of immunity effective both as a preventive measure and as a therapeutic measure . in the present example , groups of six rats were challenged subcutaneously with 1 × 10 6 paiii cells to create tumors . animals were vaccinated 3 times , 7 days apart ; rats underwent surgical resection of tumors ten days after challenge , three days after the first vaccination . an additional group was included in which animals were vaccinated by subcutaneous implantation of gft cell vaccine on a sheet of sis . animals were euthanized 21 days after tumor resection and tumors weighed . the results from this study are shown in fig8 and are summarized as : these studies demonstrate that sis gel has vaccine adjuvant activity and can enhance protective immunity to cancer both before cancer cell challenge and as an adjunct to surgical resection . this means that sis gel enhances immunity effective as a preventative measure ( i . e ., as a vaccine ), and as a therapeutic measure ( fig9 ). the present example demonstrates the utility of the present invention as a clinically acceptable preparation for animal , including human , treatment . in particular , the present example demonstrates that the preparations do not induce tissue damage , and does not result in autoimmune disease . both the gft cell vaccine and sis are safe to use in vivo . the present example demonstrates that repeated administration of the gft cell vaccine failed to induce histopathologic or clinical disease in rats . in addition , the present example demonstrates that sis did not promote tumor growth in vivo , and further demonstrated inherent inhibition of tumor growth in the lw rat tumor model . furthermore , sis is already approved by the u . s . food and drug administration as a medical device for a variety of applications . the present study demonstrates that repeated vaccination with the present preparations does not result in histological evidence of autoimmune disease . groups of 10 three - month - old lw rats were each immunized and boosted monthly for 12 months with either mem or gft cells . freund &# 39 ; s complete adjuvant was used for the initial vaccination , and freund &# 39 ; s incomplete adjuvant was used for booster vaccinations . tissues were then harvested at 15 months of age , fixed in 10 % neutral buffered formalin , sectioned at 3 - 4 μm and stained with hematoxylin and eosin . all rats were clinically normal for the duration of the study . kidney , heart , brain , liver , testis , prostate / seminal vesicle , and spleen were examined and all found to be histologically normal . these results demonstrate that repeated immunization with the gft cell vaccines does not induce tissue damage suggestive of autoimmunity . sis does not promote growth of tumor tissue when placed in vivo the present example demonstrates the utility of the extracellular matrix material preparations as providing an anti - tumor activity with a tumor / cancer cell preparation . the present example also demonstrates that the present preparations do not themselves induce tumor and / or cancer growth . because cancer cells showed an ability to grow on sis and rcm in vitro , it is important to determine if an ecm , such as sis , would promote the growth of residual tumor cells if placed on the bed of a resected tumor in vivo . to evaluate this , groups of 25 male lw rats , age 3 months , underwent induction of subcutaneous paiii tumors as described above . animals were then assigned to one of four different treatment groups : sham surgery control ; physical encasement of the tumor with sis ( tumor was not dissected from the underlying vascular bed ); complete tumor resection ( all grossly visible tumor was removed ); or complete tumor resection followed by overlying the resected tumor bed with sis ( approximately 3 × 3 cm ). three weeks later , rats were euthanized and the tumors weighed . the results ( fig9 ) show that sis did not promote growth of paiii tumors compared to sham surgery or resection alone . overlying of the resected tumor bed with sis led to a significant ( p ≦ 0 . 0009 ) decrease in tumor size versus resection alone ( 39 ). the sis alone , with no cells involved , had a significant - tumor effect . in culture , cancer cell lines and cancer tissue from harvested tumor material both grow rapidly on sis and rcm . when inactivated by glutaraldehyde fixation , cancer cells and tissue grown on sis prevent regrowth of tumors following surgical resection . this effect is observed when cells are grown on sis , and also when glutaraldehyde - fixed tumor cells are mixed into a gel form of sis . furthermore , sis gel is shown to act as a vaccine adjuvant to prevent the development of cancer ; that is , to stimulate protective immunity to challenge with live paiii cells . ecm materials , as demonstrated by sis and rcm , both initiate a robust inflammatory response when implanted in vivo . while not intending to be limited to any particular theory or mechanism of action , it is believed that any antigenic moieties carried along , whether adhered to the ecm or present in a gel or a particulate suspension , will be processed by the immune system , thus possibly accounting for at least one theory by which the ecm may act as a vaccine adjuvant . it is known that sis contains a variety of bioactive species , including tgf - β ( 41 ). while tgf - β can act as a tumor promoter in later stages of tumor progression , it functions as a tumor suppressor in early tumorigenesis ( 42 ). thus , administered at the proper time , such as following resection , the utility discovered herein for sis to inhibit tumor growth may be utilized . the present example is provided to demonstrate the utility of the present vaccines in sis for providing a treatment for cancer and / or to reduce / inhibit tumor growth by use of sis in a sheet - like preparation . while vaccines based on an extracellular matrix have not been described , use of a prostate cancer vaccine comprised of inactivated allogeneic whole prostate cancer cell lines has been described ( michael , et al )( 2005 )( 47 ). in that study , monthly intradermal injections for 12 months of 8 × 10 6 inactivated whole cells were administered , the first two in a standard adjuvant , alum , to patients with hormone - resistant prostate cancer . the adjuvant used in the first two doses administered was bacilli calmette - guerin . the first three doses were given at weekly intervals , and once a month thereafter . this approach led to statistically significant declines in psa ( prostate - specific antigen ) velocity with no evidence of toxicity . further , median time to a defined point of disease progression was increased to 58 weeks from approximately 28 weeks . a whole cell prostate cancer vaccine together with a preparation of the extracellular matrix adjuvant ( diluted 1 × 10 from a commercial preparation , such as that commercially available from a vendor such as cook biotech , inc .) would be used according to the present invention under a clinical regimen wherein the vaccine would be administered intradermally or subcutaneously on a monthly basis for approximately 12 months . vaccine preparations which can be easily injected , such as those including sis gel or a particulate form of sis as adjuvant would be administered by percutaneous injection . a vaccine preparation which includes vaccine fixed on a sheet of sis would be administered either percutaneously by trochar into the subcutaneous space or , in other embodiments , by implantation via a small incision made into the skin . few studies have looked at the utility of vaccination in conjunction with surgical resection of a tumor . pilla et al ( 2006 )( 49 ) administered subcutaneously tumor - derived heat shock protein gp 96 - peptide complex vaccine to advanced stage melanoma patients for up to four treatments , two weeks apart , following surgical resection . that approach resulted in stabilization of disease in 11 / 18 patients post - surgically . berd et al ( 1997 )( 50 ) administered an inactivated autologous whole cell vaccine on a weekly or monthly schedule to melanoma patients with clinically evident lymph node metastases ; this approach resulted in survival rates superior to those resulting from surgery alone . while no studies have looked at the utility of vaccination directly on the tumor bed of a resected prostate tumor , nor the utility of a vaccine incorporated onto a solid - phase adjuvant such as an extracellular matrix , the present examples demonstrate specific clinical use applications of the vaccine . some embodiments of the present invention will provide the vaccine incorporated onto a sheet of extracellular matrix , and will be applied as a sheet directly onto the resected tumor bed at the time of surgery ; or administered intradermally or subcutaneously at a site beyond the tumor bed on a monthly basis . a similar approach used with a different vaccine is described by berd et al ( 1997 ) ( 50 ) using a whole cell vaccine for the treatment of melanoma . in other embodiments , a combination approach may be used in which vaccination is made directly onto the tumor bed , and is applied at the time of resection followed by booster vaccinations given intradermally or subcutaneously . the sheet vaccine would be administered percutaneously by trochar into the subcutaneous space or , possibly , by implantation via a small incision made into the skin . vaccine preparations which can be easily injected , such as those including sis gel or a particulate form of sis as adjuvant , would be administered by direct application of the material onto the tumor bed and / or intradermally or subcutaneously by injection . bell et al . ( 2005 ) ( 65 ). the present example demonstrates the utility of the invention for providing a dermally - applicable formulation of the tissue based adjuvant cancer preparations . while transdermal vaccination has been used for diseases associated with infectious pathogens ( kenney , 2004 ( 59 ); skountzou , 2006 ( 60 ); glenn , 2006 ( 61 ), very few attempts have been made to apply this route of administration to cancer vaccines . transcutaneous immunization was used in mice by administering imiquiod , a cytotoxic t lymphocyte ( ctl ) activator , in an ointment applied to shaved skin ( rechsteiner , 2005 ( 62 )); this approach stimulated ctl activity in general and not against any specific cancer antigen . other investigators described an anti - tumor vaccine by delivery to mice of human carcinoembryonic antigen gene in an adenovirus vector via a thin film of vector placed onto the shaved skin and beneath a patch ( huang , 2005 ( 63 )). this approach resulted in immunologic resistance to challenge with murine mammary adenocarcinoma cells . according to use in the present invention , the cancer antigen of interest , such as a glutaraldehyde fixed preparation of prostate cells , may be prepared in a formulation together with a gel form of the extracellular matrix material , sis . in this formulation , the preparation may be applied to an area to provide the anti - tumor effect . sis is an effective adjuvant for vaccines based on allogeneic cell lines as shown in earlier examples , vaccines utilizing paiii prostate cancer cells or cells directly harvested from prostate tumors in lobund - wistar ( lw ) rats stimulate protective immunity in syngeneic animals . in contrast , allogeneic cells are those which are obtained from a genetically distinct individual of the same species . thus , while the paiii cell line is transplantable between all lw rats and is considered syngeneic , the mt - lu and mat - ly — lu cell lines are derived from the copenhagen rat . these latter two cell lines do not develop into tumors when transplanted into the lw rat . the rfl - 6 cell line is an allogeneic rat fibroblast line which we evaluated to determine if fibroblast antigens enhanced protective immunity against tumor regrowth following resection . groups of 6 lw rats were administered 1 × 10 6 paiii prostate cancer cells subcutaneously to generate tumors . the rats then had the subcutaneous tumors surgically resected . the animals then underwent either no further treatment ( rx ); vaccination with either glutaraldehyde - fixed ( gf ) rfl - 6 cells alone or with gf mat - lu or gf mat - ly — lu cells ; or vaccination with gf rfl - 6 alone or with gf mat - lu or gf mat - ly — lu on sis after 3 days of growth in culture . animals were vaccinated once , directly on the tumor bed . the animals were euthanized 21 days later and results are expressed in mean weight of regrown tumor ( s . d .) and number of lungs positive for metastatic foci out of the total number for the group . the mean weights of re - grown tumors 21 days following resection are in fig1 ( may - lu ) and 11 ( mat - ly — lu ). for fig1 , x = resection of tumor only ; r = resection plus vaccination with gf rfl - 6 cells ; r / s = resection plus vaccination with gf rfl - 6 cells on sis adjuvant ; mlu / r = resection plus vaccination with gf rfl - 6 cells and gf matlu cells ; and mlu / r / s = resection plus vaccination with gf rfl - 6 cells and gf matlu cells on sis adjuvant . for fig1 , x = resection of tumor only ; r = resection plus vaccination with gf rfl - 6 cells ; r / s = resection plus vaccination with gf rfl - 6 cells on sis adjuvant ; mlylu / r = resection plus vaccination with gf rfl - 6 cells and gf matlylu cells ; and mlylu / r / s = resection plus vaccination with gf rfl - 6 cells and gf matlylu cells on sis adjuvant . histologic examination of tumor samples showed chronic inflammation and fibrosis surrounding sis with a zone of acute inflammation at the border of the tumor in some rats treated with gf mat - ly — lu + rfl on sis in contrast to samples from other treatment groups . in those other groups , tumors were characterized by varying degrees of acute inflammation , primarily at the necrotic center of the tumor , likely due to tissue hypoxia . since the tumor grows from the border , it can be conjectured that gf may - ly — lu + rlf on sis stimulated an inflammatory response at the growing margin sufficient to interfere with tumor growth . these results show that the ecm adjuvant , sis , effectively adjuvantized a vaccine which utilized allogeneic ( mat - lu and matlylu ) cell lines as antigens . sis is an effective adjuvant for vaccines based on xenogeneic cell lines a common problem with cancer immunotherapy is the issue of immunotolerance . through a variety of mechanisms , the host immune system simply fails to effectively respond to the tumor . often , this is because the tumor is recognized as ‘ self ’. thus , antigens which are similar to tumor antigens and which are vigorously recognized as foreign would be of advantage . in this regard , cell lines from another species ( xenogeneic ) would likely be of value . according to the present invention , vaccines based on xenogeneic tumor cells will provide a robust immune response , one capable of attacking the host tumor . in this study , the utility of the human cell lines du145 ( hormone independent prostate carcinoma obtained from a metastatic lesion in the brain of a human patient ) is examined ; and lncap ( hormone dependent prostate carcinoma obtained from lymph node metastasis of a human patient ) as xenogeneic vaccine antigens . cells were grown for three days either on plastic culture vessels or on sis in culture , glutaraldehyde - fixed ( gf ), and then used in the subcutaneous tumor resection model as described above . results are given in mean tumor weight ( s . d .) and number of lungs positive for metastatic foci out of the total number of lungs . rs + gf du145 / gf imr90 on sis : 3 . 2 g ( 1 . 44 ); 1 / 6 lungs positive rs + gf lncap / gf imr90 on sis : 1 . 9 g ( 0 . 92 ); 0 / 6 lungs positive the mean weights of re - grown tumors 21 days following resection are in fig1 . these results indicate that the ecm adjuvant , sis , can serve as an effective adjuvant for xenogeneic cell cancer vaccines . ability of other extracellular matrices ( ecms ) to act as vaccine adjuvants the present example demonstrates the utility of the present invention for providing a vaccine using a variety of different cell - derived matrices . studies using paiii cells grown on the ecms , renal capsule material ( rcm ) and fascia extracellular matrix ( fem ) were conducted using the subcutaneous paiii tumor resection model in the lw rat . briefly , paiii cells were grown in culture for 7 days on either sis , rcm , or fem and then fixed in glutaraldehyde ( gf ) as described above . groups of 6 lw rats were administered 1 × 10 6 paiii prostate cancer cells subcutaneously to generate tumors . after 21 days of tumor growth in the rats , tumors were surgically excised and vaccine applied directly to the tumor bed . groups of rats either underwent no further treatment ( x ); vaccination with gf cells only ( cells ); vaccination with gf cells on sis ( cells / sis ); vaccination with gf cells on fem ; or vaccination with gf cells on rcm . the animals were euthanized 21 days later and results are expressed in mean weight of regrown tumor (± s . d .) as shown in fig1 . rats vaccinated with gf cells grown on either sis , fem , or rcm had mean tumor weights significantly less than rats which were not vaccinated or those vaccinated with gf cells without adjuvant . there were no significant differences between groups vaccinated with gf cells on sis vs . rcm vs . fem , though the group vaccinated with gf cells on rcm had a notably lower mean tumor weight than the other groups . these results demonstrate that a variety of ecms , including sis , rcm , and fem , are effective vaccine adjuvants . proposed preparation of a conditioned ecm tissue material as a cell - free vaccine preparation the present example demonstrates the utility of the present invention for providing an essentially cell - free preparation of an ecm - conditioned vaccine or vaccine adjuvant . this conditioned ecm may be used as a vaccine or vaccine adjuvant . while the current form of sis - adjuvanted cancer vaccine involves the use of inactivated cancer cells grown on , or attached to , the extracellular matrix ( ecm ) may also act as an adjuvant following detachment of such cells . such a ‘ conditioned ’ ecm preparation would reduce potential autoimmune response concerns from residual whole cell material . the conditioned ecm would comprise , for example , growth factors , secreted stromal material , and other factors , but would be essentially free of whole cells . the conditioned ecm would be produced by allowing the tumor / cancer cells to grow on a sheet of sis , for example , as described before . after a period of growth , the cells would be detached or lysed away from the sis , such as by chemical means ( such as by incubation in potassium thiocyanate ) or mechanically ( such as by exposure to ultrasound ). the growth of the cells would create the elaboration from the cells of various growth factors and additional extracellular substance material . the ecm would thus come to contain antigens that serve as targets for immune destruction of tumors . in this way , then , the cell - free conditioned ecm could be used for vaccination in the same ways as ecm with the inactivated cell component as part of the preparation . proposed combination treatments with ecm vaccine and a second active agent the present example is provided to demonstrate the utility of the invention for providing a therapy that includes an ecm vaccine preparation together with another active agent , such as a chemotherapeutic agent . it is anticipated that the inclusion of agents such as the ones named below , either alone or in combination , as well as others of the same class / biological function / biological activity will also be useful in the various applications presented here for clinical treatment . in some cases , the combination is expected to further improve the anti - cancer activity and / or effectiveness of the ecm . in some embodiments , the selected compounds may be admixed with or linked to the ecm , such as by a chemical link . a few examples of what some of these combination agents may include are provided as follows : cyclophosphamide — low dose cyclophosphamide has been shown to inhibit t - regulatory ( suppressor ) cells , thus allowing the immune system to more effectively target the tumor in response to vaccination . ( berraondo p , et al . ( 2007 ), cancer res ., 15 ; 67 ( 18 ): 8847 - 55 . )( lord r , et al . ( 2007 ), j . urol ., 177 ( 6 ): 2136 - 40 ). cytokines , such as il - 21 , have been described as modulating the immune cell population to favor cells capable of generating an effective immune response . ( li y , yee c ., ( 2007 ), blood . 2007 october 5 ), as well as the cytokine , granulocyte / macrophage colony stimulating factor ( gm - csf ). ( chang e y , et al . ( 2000 ), int j . cancer ., 86 ( 5 ): 725 - 30 ). melatonin — melatonin , a neurohormone produced mainly by the pineal gland , is a modulator of haemopoiesis and of immune cell production and function , both in vivo and in vitro . physiologically , melatonin is associated with elaboration of t - helper 1 ( th1 ) cytokines , and its administration favors th1 priming . ( miller s . c ., et al . ( 2006 ), int j exp pathol . 87 ( 3 ): 251 ), ( subramanian p , mirunalini s , dakshayani k b , pandi - perumal s r , trakht i , cardinali d p . prevention by melatonin of hepatocarincinogenesis in rats injected with n - nitrosodiethylamine . j pineal res . 2007 october ; 43 ( 3 ): 305 - 12 . 1 - methyl - tryptophan — a potential reason for failure of cancer vaccines is immune tolerance due to the immunosuppressive enzyme , indolamine - pyrrole 2 , 3 - dioxygenase ( ido ). 1 - methyl - tryptophan inhibits this enzyme . ( ou x , et al . ( 2007 ), j cancer res clin oncol ., oct . 2 , 2007 epub ). cyclooxygenase - 2 ( cox - 2 ) is a rate - limiting enzyme in the synthesis of prostaglandins . it is over - expressed in multiple cancers and has been associated with diminished tumor immunity . celecoxib is a cox - 2 inhibitor and therefore can improve the immune response to anti - cancer vaccination . ( hahn t , et al . ( 2006 ), int j cancer , 118 ( 9 ): 2220 - 31 ). cpg oligonucleotides — cpg oligodeoxynucleotides ( cpg - odns ) affect innate and adaptive immune responses , including antigen presentation , costimulatory molecule expression , dendritic cell maturation , and induction of cytokines enhancing antibody - dependent cell - mediated cytotoxicity ( adcc ). ( lubaroff dm , et al . ( 2007 ), vaccine , 24 ( 35 - 36 ): 6155 - 62 )( kochenderfer j n , et al . ( 2007 ), clin immunol ., 124 ( 2 ): 119 - 30 ). heat shock proteins — the cytosolic members of the heat shock protein 70 ( hsp - 70 ) family have been shown to elicit protective cell mediated immunity in animal tumor models hashemi s m , hassan z m , soudi s , ghazanfari t , kheirandish m , shahabi s . evaluation of anti - tumor effects of tumor cell lysate enriched by hsp - 70 against fibrosarcoma tumor in balb / c mice . int immunopharmacol . 2007 july ; 7 ( 7 ): 920 - 7 . heat shock proteins might either be added to an ecm adjuvant or expression of heat shock proteins induced by cells grown upon an ecm . the present example is provided to demonstrate the utility of the present invention for providing a proposed customized vaccine preparation of the ecm using tissues from a targeted patient to be treated . among other advantages , this approach to vaccine preparation according to the present invention will reduce and / or minimize potential for untoward effects associated with non - self immune responses , as the preparation is actually created using tissue from the intended patient . further , expansion of the harvested tumor tissue on ecm allows the generation of enough material sufficient for continued booster vaccination as dictated by the clinical progression of the patient . this is accomplished while preserving the anti - cancer activities of the preparations described herein . in addition , because the patients own cancer / tumor tissue will be used in the vaccine preparation process , it is envisioned that a customization of the ecm - adjuvanted vaccine to mimic a particular patients cancer and / or tumor cell population will include specialized and patient - specific factors that are excreted from a patients own unique diseased ( i . e ., tumor or cancer ) cell population . this presents the opportunity to supply specific factors in an ecm that are not typically present in a more generalized preparation of tumor cells from an origin other than the intended patient . in this manner , the vaccine is tailored to a particular cancer cell population in the patient . it is expected that this approach will enhance the effectiveness of the preparation as a tumor inhibiting treatment . by way of example , a patients tumor / cancer tissue would be biopsied , and the biopsied material would then be cultured on an ecm material , such as sis . after an appropriate culture time , the tumor / cancer tissue cells would be removed or inactivated . the remaining ecm material would then be processed as described herein to provide a vaccine adjuvant . this adjuvant may then be used in the treatment of the patient . although the present invention has been fully described in conjunction with several embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings , it is to be understood that various changes and modifications may be apparent to those skilled in the art . such changes and modifications are to be understood as included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims , unless they depart therefrom . the references listed below as well as all references cited in the specification are incorporated herein by reference to the extent that they supplement , explain , provide a background for or teach methodology , techniques and / or compositions employed herein . 1 . edwards b k , et al ., ( 2005 ); j natl cancer inst , 97 ( 19 ): 1407 - 27 . 2 . greenlee r t , et al ., ( 2001 ), “ cancer statistics ”, ca cancer j clin , ( 2001 ); 51 : 15 - 36 . 3 . simons j w , sacks n ., ( 2006 ), urol . oncol ., 24 : 419 - 424 . 4 . fukino k , et al ., ( 2004 ), cancer res ., 64 ( 20 ): 7231 - 6 . 5 . bissell m j , et al ., ( 1987 ), j . cell sci . suppl ., 8 ( 3 ): 327 - 43 . 6 . matrisian l m , et al ., ( 2001 ), cancer res ., 61 ( 9 ): 3844 - 6 . 7 . shekhar m p , et al ., ( 2001 ), cancer res ., 61 ( 4 ): 1320 - 6 . 8 . tatenhorst l , et al ., ( 2005 ), brain pathol , 15 ( 1 ): 46 - 54 . 9 . moschella f , et al ., ( 2003 ), oncol res ., 14 ( 3 ): 133 - 45 . 10 . brewer j . m ., immunol lett ., ( 2006 ); 102 ( 1 ): 10 - 5 . 11 . lindblad , e b , ( 2004 ), immunol cell biol ., 82 ( 5 ): 497 - 505 . 12 . barr , t a , et . al ., ( 2006 ), vaccine , 24 ( 17 ): 3399 - 407 . 13 . hodge , j . w ., front biosci , ( 2006 ); 11 : 788 - 803 . 14 . knoll l . d ., ( 2001 ), urology , 57 : 753 - 757 . 15 . knoll l . d ., ( 2002 ), urology , 59 : 758 - 761 . 16 . mantovani f , et al ., ( 2003 ), eur urol ., 44 : 600 - 602 . 17 . o &# 39 ; conner r c , et al ., ( 2001 ), j urology , 165 : 1995 . 18 . o &# 39 ; connor r c , et al ., ( 2002 ), urology , 60 : 697x - 697 xii . 19 . o &# 39 ; connor r c , harding j n , steinberg g d ., urology . ( 2002 ); 60 : 906 - 909 . 20 . paradiso m , et . al ., ( 2003 ) arch ital urol . androl ., 75 : 116 - 118 . 21 . weiser a c , et al ., ( 2003 ), j . urol , 170 : 1593 - 1595 . 22 . oasis , benbow m ., ( 2001 ), br . j . nurs ., 10 : 1489 - 1492 . 23 . brown - etris m , et al ., ( 2002 ), wounds , 14 : 150 - 166 . 24 . schultz d j , et al ., ( 2002 ), j . am . coll . surg ., 194 : 541 - 543 . 25 . suckow m a , et al ., ( 1999 ), journal of investigative surgery , 12 : 277 - 287 . 26 . badylak , s . f ., small intestinal submucosa ( sis ): a biomaterial conducive to smart tissue remodeling , tissue engineering : current perspectives , bell e ( ed ). burkhauser publishers , cambridge , mass ., ( 1993 ), pp . 179 - 189 . 27 . badylak , s . f ., ( 2002 ), “ the extracellular matrix as a scaffold for tissue reconstruction ”, seminars in cellular and developmental biology , 13 : 377 - 383 . 28 . suckow m a , et al ., ( 2005 ), j . wound care , 14 : 137 - 140 . 29 . suckow m a , et al ., ( in press ), j . mater sci . mater . med . 30 . lantz , g . c ., et al ., ( 1993 ), j . invest . surg ., 6 : 297 . 31 . badylak , s . f ., et al ., ( 1989 ), j . surg . res ., 47 : 74 . 32 . lantz , g . c ., et al ., ( 1990 ), j . invest . surg ., 3 : 217 . 33 . hodde , j . p ., and hiles , m . c ., ( 2002 ), biotechnol . bioeng , 79 : 211 . 34 . pollard m , suckow m . a ., ( 2005 ), experimental biology and medicine , 230 : 520 - 526 . 35 . suckow m a , et al ., ( 2005 ), cancer immunology and immunotherapy , 54 : 571 - 576 . 36 . pollard m , luckert p . h ., ( 1975 ), j . natl . cancer inst ., 54 : 643 - 49 . 37 . badylak s f , et al , ( 1998 ), journal of biomaterials sciences polymer edition , 9 : 863 - 878 . 38 . hodde , j p , et al ., ( 2004 ), j . surg . res ., 120 : 189 - 194 . 39 . culora g a , ( 1996 ), j . clin . pathol , 49 : 844 - 847 . 40 . mcdevitt c a , et al ., ( 2003 ), j . biomed . mater . res ., 67a : 637 - 646 . 41 . bello - deocampo d , tindall d . j ., ( 2003 ), curr . drug targets , 4 : 197 - 210 . 42 . gu , y ., and dai , k ., zhonghua yi xue za zhi . 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( 2006 ) 47 . michael a ., et al ., ( 2005 ), clin cancer res ., 11 : 4469 - 4478 . 48 . pilla l , et al ., ( 2006 ), cancer immunol immunother ., 55 : 958 - 968 . 49 . berd d , et al , ( 1997 ), j . clin oncol ., ( 1997 ); 15 : 2359 - 2370 . 50 . petrovsky n ., ( 2006 ), vaccine , 24 suppl . 2 : s2 - 26 - 9 . 51 . bendandi , m . et al ., ( 2006 ), leuk . lymphoma , 47 : 29 - 37 . 52 . redfern c . h ., et al ., ( 2006 ), j clin oncol ., 24 : 3107 - 12 . 53 . totterman t h , et al ., ( 2005 ), bju int ., 96 : 728 - 735 . 54 . mosolits s , et al ., ( 2005 ), expert rev . vaccines , 4 : 329 - 350 . 55 . he x , et al ., ( 2005 ), vaccine , 23 : 1966 - 1972 . 56 . wei y , sticca r . p ., et al ., ( 2006 ), int . j . oncol ., 28 : 585 - 593 . 57 . rousseau r f , et al ., ( 2006 ), blood , 107 : 1332 - 1341 . 58 . simons j w , sacks n ., ( 2006 ), urol . oncol ., 24 : 419 - 424 . 59 . kenney r t , et al ., ( 2004 ), j . infect . dis ., 190 : 774 - 782 . 60 . skountzou i , et al ., ( 2006 ), vaccine , 24 : 6110 - 6119 . 61 . glenn g m , kenney r . t ., ( 2006 ), curr . topics microbiol . immunol , 304 : 247 - 268 . 62 . rechsteiner g , et al ., ( 2005 ), j . immunol ., 174 : 2476 - 2480 . 63 . huang c . m , et al ., ( 2005 ), proteomics , 5 : 1013 - 1023 . 64 . bell et al ., ( 2005 ), clin . cancer res ., 11 : 4469 - 4478 . 65 . berraondo p , et al . ( 2007 ), cancer res ., 67 ( 18 ): 8847 - 55 . 66 . lord r , et al . ( 2007 ), j urol . 2007 june ; 177 ( 6 ): 2136 - 40 ; discussion 2140 . 67 . li y , yee c . 68 . berraondo p , et al . ( 2007 ), cancer res ., 67 ( 18 ): 884 : 7 - 55 . 69 . lord r , et al ., ( 2007 ), j urol ., 177 ( 6 ): 2136 - 40 ; discussion 2140 . 70 . li y , yee c . ( 2007 ), blood . 71 . chang e y , chen c h , ji h , wang t l , hung k , lee b p , huang a y , kurman r j , pardoll . 72 . d m , wu t . ( 2000 ), int j . cancer ., 86 ( 5 ): 725 - 30 . 73 . miller s c , et al ., int j exp pathol . 74 . ou x , ( 2007 ), j cancer res clin oncol . 75 . hahn t , et al . ( 2006 ), int j cancer , 118 ( 9 ): 2220 - 31 . 76 . lubaroff d m , et al . ( 2006 ), vaccine , 24 ( 35 - 36 ): 6155 - 62 . 77 . kochenderfer j n , et al . ( 2007 ), clin immunol ., 124 ( 2 ): 119 - 30 . | 0 |
reference will now be made in detail to the presently preferred embodiments of the invention , examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings . referring generally now to fig1 through 7 , exemplary embodiments of the present invention are shown . this present invention pertains to enhanced methods to recover data from a data storage devices , such as a hard drive , which has given smart indication . smart indications indicate that a drive is going to fail in near future and thus , a system administrator should address the impending failure . the invention described here automates this process and causes less interruption to use of the data storage system , and hence increases data availability . traditionally , for non - redundant raid systems , the system administrator would put the system offline and backup the system before the drive fails . then , the drive with smart indication is replaced and the system is restored from backup before taking the system online . in case of systems with redundant storage , the system administrators have either ignored the smart indication and waited for the drive to fail or replaced the drive before it failed , and rebuilt the drive from the other redundant storage . however , in utilizing this method , either the rebuild for the drive would fail if the other drive from which rebuild was done includes media errors or the rebuild was allowed to continue but still included the errors . moreover , if one of the drives from which rebuild was taking place failed , the entirety of the logical drive would fail . the main idea behind data recovery in case of smart error for non - redundant raid is to perform the data recovery without using a backup archive , which is usually a slow tape device , and also without putting the system offline . out of six exemplary cases described herein , five methods recover data while the system and all logical drives are kept online , thus making the recovery completely transparent to the user . in the sixth case , it may be possible for the system administrator to do this operation by taking just the affected logical drive offline , while keeping the rest of the system online . in case of redundant raid configuration , the method described herein will recover data from media error and drive failures . also the data may restored faster as opposed to performing a full rebuild . in an effort to help users avoid data loss , some drive manufacturers are now incorporating logic into their drives that act as an “ early warning system ” or “ predictive failure ” for pending drive problems . this system is called self - monitoring analysis and reporting technology or smart . the hard disk &# 39 ; s integrated controller monitors various aspects of its own performance and makes available status information to any software that wants to probe the drive and examine the data . typically , smart works by monitoring certain performance characteristics inside the disk , and looking for trends that indicate a gradual worsening in reliability that may indicate an imminent failure . the actual implementation of the smart utility is usually a function of the goals of the manufacturer , and the specifics of the drive itself . for example , a smart methodology may include monitoring an average number of ecc error corrections performed per sector read from a disk . based on statistical knowledge and through examining trends over time , it may be possible to predict the formation of bad sectors or total drive failure . in raid , rebuild is a process to reconstruct a physical drive from the remaining stripe ( s ) in the row . in case of raid level 1 , the data is read from the mirror drive and is written onto the drive that is being rebuilt . in the case of raid levels 3 , 4 and 5 , data is recovered from the peers and is then written on the disk that is being rebuilt , using appropriate xor operations . replication is utilized in this document to describe copying of data from a drive that gave a smart predictive failure warning , to a fresh new disk before it fails . this may be done online as well as offline . this method is much faster than doing a full rebuild as described earlier , since this method does not require the reading of blocks from all other drives and computing an xor . a hotspare is a drive in a raid configuration that does not take part in raid data storage , but will be used in case of replacing a failed or removed drive . a drive , which has given smart indication , may be a part of a variety of situations , such as one of the following : 6 ) non redundant raid with no available slot in the enclosure each of these situations will be addressed in the following . however , it should be apparent that additional situations are contemplated by the present invention , the following discussion merely an exemplary discussion thereof . when a drive gives a smart indication , it is possible to perform a replication with the logical drive being online . after the drive gives a smart indication , the administrator can initiate a replication of the drive , which has given smart indication , as soon as he can get the replacement entry drive . however , it can also be done offline by using utilities that are provided for configuration during post . the recovery process is explained with the reference to the exemplary embodiment show in fig1 . for purposes of the following discussion , the enclosure has n + 1 slots , a raid system is employed , such as raid 0 or degraded raid 1 or raid 5 with drive 1 , drive 2 , drive 3 , . . . up to drive n . in the following example , drive 1 gives a smart indication , and a new ( or good ) drive , drive x is available . to perform the replication in the following example , a new ( good ) drive x is inserted into an available slot in the enclosure . a replication process is started , to copy the smart indicating drive , in this instance drive 1 , to the new drive , drive x . if a read / write i / o is received by the array for drive 1 , a read is performed from drive 1 , while in the instance of a write , the write is issued to both drives , drive 1 and drive x . when replication is completed , the smart indicated drive , drive 1 , is removed . the raid firmware will write the new configuration automatically , since the disk order has changed . thus , in this example , the array remains available to users of the data storage system while promoting system and data integrity . further , watermarks may be utilized to provided additional functionality . for instance , a watermark may be utilized for load - balancing when performing a read , utilized so that writes would not have to be performed below the watermark , and the like as contemplated by a person of ordinary skill in the art . here the drive , which has given smart indication , may be replicated similarly as non - redundant drive with available slot , as described previously . but , the fact that the logical drive is redundant can be used to resolve any medium errors that the smart drive has . the previous assumptions and steps as described previously to recover data hold well even in this situation . during the replication , if a medium error is encountered in a block of data , it may be recovered using data from other drives . the process is explained below with reference to fig2 . in the embodiment 200 shown in fig2 the enclosure has n + 1 slots , a raid system is employed , such as raid 0 or degraded raid 1 or raid 5 with drive 1 , drive 2 , drive 3 , . . . up to drive n . in the following example drive 1 gives a smart indication , and a new ( or good ) drive , drive x is available . to perform the replication in the following example , a new ( good ) drive x is inserted into an available slot in the enclosure . a replication process is started , to copy the smart indicating drive , in this instance drive 1 , to the new drive , drive x . as before , if a read / write i / o is received by the array for drive 1 , a read is performed from drive 1 , while in the instance of a write , the write is issued to both drives , drive 1 and drive x . if a media error is encountered , data is recovered form other stripes in the row , such as by using raid logic , and the data is written to drive x . when the replication is completed , drive 1 is removed . again , the raid firmware will write the new configuration automatically , since the disk order has changed . this process is substantially similar to the previously discussed examples , except that a drive does not have to be inserted into an empty slot . moreover , the system administrator may configure for this method to occur fully automated without any user intervention . the recovery process will be discussed with reference to the embodiment of the present invention shown in fig3 . in the embodiment 300 shown in fig3 the enclosure has n + 1 slots , a raid system is employed , such as raid 0 or degraded raid 1 or raid 5 with drive 1 , drive 2 , drive 3 , . . . up to drive n . in the following example drive 1 gives a smart indication and hotspare drive x is available with enough capacity to include the desired data . the whole process may be fully automatic , as no user interaction is required . additionally , the process may be performed manually as follows . the replication process may be started manually after getting smart indication , or the raid firmware will start automatically to copy drive 1 on drive x . if read / write input / output comes for the drive giving the smart indication , in this instance drive 1 , the read is performed from drive 1 . a write is issued to both the hotspare drive and the smart drive , in this instance drive 1 and drive x . when replication is over , the new configuration is written by the raid firmware since the disk order has changed . here the drive , which has given smart indication , may be replicated similarly as the previous example , non - redundant drive with available hotspare . but , the fact that the logical drive is redundant may be used to resolve encountered medium errors of the smart drive . additionally , as mentioned earlier , the complete process can be fully automated . during the replication , if a medium error is encountered on any block , it may be recovered using data from other drives . the detailed process is explained below with reference to the exemplary embodiment 400 shown in fig4 . in the embodiment 400 shown in fig4 the enclosure has n + 1 slots , a raid system is employed , such as raid 0 , degraded raid 1 or raid 5 , with drive 1 , drive 2 , drive 3 , . . . up to drive n . in the following example drive 1 gives a smart indication and hotspare drive x is available . the replication process may be started manually after getting a smart indication , raid firmware may start the process automatically , and the like as contemplated by a person of ordinary skill in the art . the smart indicating drive , drive 1 , is copied to the hotspare drive , drive x . again , if a read / write input / output is received for the smart indicating drive , the read is performed form the smart indicating drive , while a write is issued to both drives , in this instance drive 1 and drive x . if a media error is encountered , data is recovered from other stripes in the row using raid logic . the recovered data is written to the hotspare drive , drive x . when replication is over , the new configuration is written by the raid firmware since the disk order has changed . if the logical drive is redundant , the drive , which has given smart indication , may be replaced by utilizing a rebuild operation , so that the logical drive may continue to do perform input / output operations . for example , the drive which has given the smart indication may be failed , so that the logical drive is degraded . the drive is then replaced with a “ good ” drive , and a logical drive rebuild initiated . the above - mentioned three steps are straightforward and simple . but , rebuilding may not be possible for sectors where there are medium errors . for example , referring now to fig5 an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is shown where blocks with “ medium ” errors in storage devices of a raid array 500 are shown . for the four stripes shown , there are some blocks with media error in the shown drives . in this case , for the stripes the media error occurs , the other strips in the same row are good . since this is a redundant raid configuration , the data for the stripes containing the media error block may be recovered by using appropriate raid algorithm . if the drive giving the smart error indication is removed , it will not be possible , typically , to recover the above mentioned media error . hence , before recovering data for a drive with a smart error , a fast check may be performed for consistency using the following steps . a verify command is issued to each block of the drives to find media errors , assuming the logical devices are already consistent . for the blocks where a media error occurs , the blocks are rebuilt by using xor operation from data on other drives , data copied in case of raid 1 , and the like . after this the earlier steps to rebuild may be followed . for example , as shown in the embodiment depicted in fig6 a fast check for consistent for all drives is performed . the drive which has given the smart error is removed and replaced with a new empty drive , drive x . drive x is then rebuilt from the data contained on the rest of the drives . in an online raid configuration , when a drive gives a smart indication , it is necessary to take the logical drive offline to do the replication . after a drive gives smart indication , the administrator may configure a way to perform a replication . for example , the administrator may take the logical drive offline at a convenient time while keeping the system online after physical drive gives a smart indication . additionally , the administrator may wait for a convenient time to make the system offline , after seeing that a drive has given smart indication . the replication may be done utilizing an offline configuration utility . if the drive giving smart indication is part of os drive , the replication should be done from offline configuration utilities only . referring now to fig7 an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is shown a smart indication in a raid array with no available empty slots in the array is shown . for purposes of the following discussion , the enclosure has n + 1 slots , a raid system is employed , such as raido or degraded raid 1 or raid 5 with drive 1 , drive 2 , drive 3 , . . . up to drive n . in the following example drive 1 gives a smart indication , and a new ( or good ) drive , drive x is available . first , the logical drive or drive group is taken offline . any drive other that the drive giving the smart indication is removed , in this instance , drive 3 is removed . a new , i . e . “ good ,” drive is inserted into the slot vacated by the removed drive . the new drive is then replicated with the data from the drive which gave the smart indication , e . g . drive 1 is copied to drive x . the drive which gave the smart indication is then removed . the drive which was previously removed to insert the new drive is inserted into the slot of the drive which gave the smart indication , e . g . drive 3 is inserted into the drive 1 slot . the new configuration is then written after drive roaming is performed , since the disk order has changed . this will also take care of the situation in which multiple replications are performed at the same time . in the current implementation , a replication method is utilized instead of rebuild in most cases for data recovery , which makes this process much faster . also , the logical drive is kept online for most of the cases , thus use of the data storage system is not interrupted . an uninterrupted recovery process even in cases of non - redundant drives is a great benefit to users . additionally , the system administrator does not need to backup and restore the system , thus automating most of the job , thereby making the method much less prone to error . with the improvements in drive technology , the smart error indication has improved tremendously with more than 70 % success rate of predicting a failure . thus , the present invention may greatly benefit system uptime and overall efficiency . it is believed that the system and method of the present invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood by the forgoing description . it is also believed that it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form , construction and arrangement of the components thereof without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention or without sacrificing all of its material advantages . the form herein before described being merely an explanatory embodiment thereof . it is the intention of the following claims to encompass and include such changes . | 6 |
with reference to fig1 a preferred embodiment of the inventive test circuit 10 is shown in the environment of a dynamic random access memory (&# 34 ; dram &# 34 ;) semiconductor device having a memory cell array 12 and a control logic circuit 14 connected to the data address , and control bus of a device ( not shown ). the test circuit 10 is fabricated on the same substrate on which the integrated circuit is fabricated . the test circuit can be externally enabled to temporarily bias the substrate at a voltage between ground and the normal operating voltage . the test circuit 10 includes an enabling circuit 18 that defines a normal - mode and a test - mode based on complimentary control signals en1 and en1 * that are generated by the control logic circuit 14 . the logic state of the control signals en1 and en1 * are controlled by the control logic circuit 14 decoding either the address bus or the data bus in a conventional manner . when in the normal operating mode , the control signal en1 is a logic &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; and the control signal en1 * is a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;. the test circuit 10 also includes a voltage pump system 20 that drives the substrate voltage toward the normal operating voltage , and a regulator circuit 30 that holds the voltage of the substrate at a predetermined test voltage when the test circuit 10 is placed in a test - mode by en1 going high and en1 * going low . in the normal operating mode , the voltage pump system 20 operates intermittently to bias the substrate of the chip at its normal operating voltage . in the test - mode , the voltage pump 20 runs continuously to drive the substrate toward the normal operating voltage . however , the regulator 30 conducts sufficient current to or from the substrate to maintain the substrate at the test voltage which is intermediate ground and the normal operating voltage . one embodiment of the test circuit 10 is shown in greater detail in fig2 . the voltage pump system 20 includes a conventional regulator circuit 50 receiving a v bb signal on input line 52 that is connected to the substrate of the integrated circuit . the regulator circuit 50 has an output line 54 on which a logic &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; is generated whenever the absolute value of the v bb signal is smaller than a predetermined value , such as 2 volts . when the absolute value of the v bb signal is larger than a predetermined value , a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; signal is generated on the output line 54 . in the preferred embodiment , the substrate is biased to a voltage v bb of about - 2 volts so that the output of the regulator circuit 50 is a logic &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; whenever v bb is between 0 and - 2 volts and a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; whenever v bb is more negative than about - 2 volts . the output line 54 is connected to one input of a nand gate 60 that receives the en1 * signal at its other input . as mentioned above , the en1 * signal is a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; during normal operation of the integrated circuit . thus , during normal operation , an output 62 of the nand gate 60 is a logic &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; when the absolute value of the v bb signal is smaller than the predetermined value and a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; when the absolute value of the v bb signal is larger than the predetermined value . the output 62 of the nand gate 60 is connected to an enable input 70 of an oscillator 72 of conventional design . the oscillator 72 is enabled whenever it receives a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; at the enable input 70 . the oscillator 72 then outputs a series of pulses to a conventional voltage pump 76 . as is well known in the art , the voltage pump 76 outputs or draws a current on its output line 78 whenever it receives pulses from the oscillator 72 . the output line 78 is connected to the substrate of the integrated circuit . the voltage pump 76 thus drives the voltage of the substrate toward its normally operating voltage whenever the oscillator 72 is enabled and thus applies pulses to the voltage pump 76 . the following explanation of the operation of the voltage pump system 20 assumes that the normal operating voltage of the substrate is - 2 volts , although other voltages , either positive or negative , could also be used . when power is initially applied to the integrated circuit , the substrate is a 0 volts . thus , v bb is initially 0 volts , thereby causing the regulator circuit 50 to output a logic &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; to the nand gate 60 . since the test circuit 10 is in the normal operation mode , the nand gate 60 is enabled by the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; en1 *. the logic &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; at the output of the regulator circuit 50 thus causes the nand gate 60 to output a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; to the oscillator 72 , thereby causing the oscillator 72 to apply pulses to the voltage pump 76 . the voltage pump then draws current from the substrate , causing v bb to fall toward - 2 volts . when v bb reaches - 2 volts , the output line 54 of the regulator circuit 50 transitions from logic &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; to logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; thereby causing the output 62 of the nand gate 60 to go low . the oscillator 70 is then disabled so that it no longer applies pulses to the voltage pump 76 . the voltage pump 76 then stops drawing current from the substrate so that the voltage v bb does not fall significantly below - 2 volts . the voltage pump 76 continues to operate intermittently in this manner to keep the substrate voltage at about - 2 volts . when the test mode is selected , en1 * goes low and en1 goes high . the low en1 * causes nand gate 60 to continuously output a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; thereby causing the voltage pump 76 to continuously draw current from the substrate regardless of the output from the regulator circuit 50 . under these circumstances , v bb would continue to become more negative after reaching - 2 volts . however , as explained above , with reference to fig1 the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; en1 signal is applied to the enable circuit 18 to cause the regulator 30 to keep v bb from becoming more negative than - 2 volts . the enable circuit 18 includes a nand gate 80 followed by an inverter 82 which together function as an and gate . one input of the nand gate 80 receives the en1 signal while the other input is connected to the output 62 of the nand gate 60 . as explained above , in the test - mode , the output 62 of the nand gate 60 is maintained at a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; to continuously enable the oscillator 70 . also , the en1 control signal is high in the test - mode . thus , in the test - mode , the output of the inverter 82 will be high and the oscillator 72 will be enabled any time the test mode is enabled . the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; at the output of the inverter 82 drives the regulator 30 to maintain the voltage of the substrate at a voltage between ground and the normal operating voltage of the substrate , as explained above . the regulator 30 includes a p channel transistor 90 connected in series with an n channel transistor 92 between the substrate and ground . the source , gate , and drain of each of the transistors 90 , 92 is labeled &# 34 ; s &# 34 ;, &# 34 ; g &# 34 ;, and &# 34 ; d &# 34 ;, respectively . the gate of the n channel transistor 92 receives the output of the inverter 82 so that the n channel transistor 92 conducts whenever the test circuit 10 is enabled . the source and gate of the p channel transistor 90 are connected to each other so that the transistor 90 acts as a diode that conducts at the trigger voltage of the transistor 90 . in the preferred embodiment , this trigger voltage is about 1 volt . thus , when the n channel transistor 92 is enabled by the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; from the inverter 82 during the test mode , current flows from ground to the substrate whenever the substrate becomes more negative than about - 1 volt . as a result , all of the current from the voltage pump 76 is shunted to ground after the voltage on the substrate reaches - 1 volt . in this manner , the regulator maintains the voltage of the substrate at a voltage between ground and the normal operating voltage of - 2 volts during the test mode , and allows the voltage pump system 20 to operate in the normal manner when not in the test mode . variations of the preferred embodiment will be apparent to one skilled in the art . for example , the voltage pump 76 may either draw current from or provide current to the substrate to drive the substrate to respective negative or positive voltages . also , the voltage maintained by the regulator 30 during the test mode and by the regulator circuit 50 during normal operation may be varied as desired . other circuit topographies may also be used without departing from the spirit of the invention . for example , it is not absolutely necessary for the nand gate 60 to be controlled by the en1 * signal since the output of the regulator circuit 50 will always be at logic &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; in the test mode because the regulator 30 will prevent the substrate from ever reaching the normal operating voltage during the test mode . while a specific embodiment of the invention has been described in this application for illustrative purposes , the claims are not limited to the embodiments described herein . equivalent devices or steps may be substituted for those described , which operate according to principles of the present invention and thus fall within the scope of the claims made . | 6 |
in the co - extrusion of food products dough is extruded from a nozzle such that an elongate dough strand is formed . simultaneously with the extrusion of the dough strand a skin ( casing ) is arranged around the dough strand , likewise by means of extruding a material suitable for this purpose , usually a collagen mixture or an alginate mixture . food products 4 ( in particular sausages ) are thus manufactured by means of the simultaneous extrusion ( co - extrusion ). the food products 4 usually consist of meat products , but it is also possible to manufacture vegetarian products with a non - animal casing in this manner . the material with which the casing is manufactured is viscous immediately after arranging thereof around the meat strand . in order to give the casing some strength so that subsequent treatment and processing steps are possible , it is desirable to extract water from the casing as quickly as possible such that it obtains a mechanical strength . for this purpose the casing is usually brought into contact with a salt solution immediately after the extrusion to have the casing acquire a stronger structure ( so - called precipitation in the case of a collagen mixture or gelling in the case of an alginate mixture ). the extrusion product is then divided with a separator , making use of for instance a crimper or a linker . after the separation the separated products 4 are placed in a drying space where the casing is dried further . it is subsequently possible to treat the products with a smoke extract or a liquid smoke , whereafter the smoked products are dried once again with the same process air as applied in the above described drying space . such a process run is described inter alia in netherlands patent publication nl 1007039 . the drying means applied in the prior art are very voluminous . this results in a normal duration of stay in the drying means of about 24 minutes for an extrusion product with a diameter of 24 mm , this at a temperature usually lying between 65 ° c . and 95 ° c . the present invention has for its object to provide an improved method and device with which the drying process can be performed in more effective manner than in the prior art . the present invention provides for this purpose a method of the type stated in the preamble , wherein the co - extruded food products 4 also undergo a drying treatment by being subjected to an airflow 6 , which airflow has a temperature of at least 95 ° c . at the start of the drying process . it is even more advantageous if the initial temperature of the airflow 6 is at least 100 ° c ., 105 ° c ., or even more preferably at least 110 ° c . at such a relatively high temperature of the airflow 6 the drying treatment will obviously proceed more quickly . heretofore the idea prevailed that drying of co - extruded food products at such high temperatures was not possible , and that this would result in damage to the products or the casing thereof . depending on the conditions , a number of specific conditions must however be fulfilled here , of which especially the short contact time with a salt solution is particularly relevant . furthermore , particularly when a casing of collagen is applied , it is desirable to maximize the initial temperature of the airflow at 125 ° c ., preferably at a maximum of 120 ° c . the cause hereof is that the chemical stability of a collagen casing disappears when such a temperature is exceeded . if use is made of a casing of alginate such a restriction of the temperature range does not however apply . the term “ initial ” indicates the moment at which the airflow 6 comes into contact with the co - extruded food products for the first time . another condition with which the drying action of the gas flow can be defined is the air humidity ; initially this is preferably a maximum of 25 grams of water per kilogram of air . an even better effect can be achieved at an air humidity of less than 20 or 15 grams of water per kilogram of air . another important process condition with which the drying time can be shortened is the average flow speed of the air ; this must preferably be greater than 3 metres per second , or more preferably greater than 4 or 5 metres per second . yet another problem which must be resolved is that the carrier means 1 with which the individual products 4 are supported during the drying may not leave any markings , or at least any visible markings , on the products . it is precisely now that the casing is brought into contact with a salt solution for only a short time that this casing will be susceptible to such markings . it is desirable for this purpose that the products are moved relative to the dominant airflow 6 during drying such that they are blown dry from opposite sides . there will hereby be no ( or at least a greatly reduced degree of ) uneven drying of the products . it is also desirable that the co - extruded food products are supported during the drying process by carrier means 1 with a contact surface 3 consisting of a material 2 with a coefficient of conductivity of less than 0 . 25 w k − 1 m − 1 . material 2 with such a limited coefficient of conductivity are less likely to result in visible markings ( also referred to as “ contact marking ”) of the products . in a preferred variant of the device according to the invention use is made for this purpose of product carriers 1 having a contact surface 3 which is heat - conducting to only a limited extent . this is possible for instance by applying product carriers manufactured from plastic , more particularly polyester or another temperature - resistant plastic . yet another measure which , depending on the conditions , can contribute toward an improved drying result at higher air temperatures is that the co - extruded food products 4 are supported during the drying treatment by the carrier means 1 such that they move off the contact surface with the carrier means at changing positions during the drying process . it hereby becomes possible for the airflow 6 to make contact for some time with all positions of the food products for drying , which further enhances uniform drying of the products . it is also advantageous if the co - extruded food products 4 are supported during the drying treatment by carrier means 1 with a contact surface of which at least 65 % is provided with openings for passage of the airflow . the airflow can thus contact the product for drying to a sufficient degree . there are several possibilities in respect of the composition of the casing material in combination with an associated salt solution . a casing manufactured from a collagen mixture can thus be applied in combination with a salt solution comprising one of the substances : sodium chloride , sodium carbonate or dipotassium phosphate ( dpp ), or a casing of an alginate mixture can be applied in combination with a salt solution comprising calcium ions . as already stated above , the present invention also provides a device of the type stated in the preamble , with the feature that the drying means are provided with heating means for heating the airflow 6 to at least 100 ° c . the present invention relates to the combination of such a high temperature of the airflow 6 and a short contact time with a casing which is treated with salt and therefore fragile . this is contrary to the assumption that precisely such a fragile casing cannot be exposed to very severe conditions . a specific shape of the carrier means 1 , c - shaped in cross - section , can herein also be advantageous . by rotating the carrier means around their longitudinal axis through at least a part of the circle using a support construction , a product 4 for drying lying in the c - shaped carrier can roll over the contact surface 3 such that after a period of time the surface of the product comes into contact with the drying air on all sides and will hereby dry evenly on all sides . in addition to a quicker drying , this also has the advantage that the chance of markings of the carrier being left in the product 4 can thus be reduced . the carrier means 1 ( basket ) of c - shaped cross - section can advantageously be rigidly connected to a transporting element such as a chain . by causing the chain to follow a vertically up and downward path the transporting means will then make forced movements , as a result of which the extrusion products will move ( roll ) in the carrier means 1 , which allows drying of the whole exterior of the products . in yet another embodiment variant the device is provided with conditioning means for the air humidity of the airflow 6 . it is possible here to envisage cooling means and venting means for the discharge of process air . for an effective and efficient drying of the products 4 inside the defined process areas , the air humidity must preferably be less than 25 grams of water per kilogram of air , more preferably less than 20 or 15 grams of water per kilogram of air . the invention moreover provides an elongate product carrier 1 of c - shaped cross - section such as forms part of the above described device according to the invention , with the feature that the internal contact surface 3 of the product carrier 1 has a coefficient of conductivity less than 0 . 25 m k − 1 m − 1 . this is possible for instance by manufacturing the contact surface 3 from polyester . in order to increase the effectiveness of the device it is advantageous to give the product carrier ( s ) 1 a relatively long form ; a greater drying capacity directly proportional to the length of the product carriers can thus be obtained with a single drive mechanism ; if desired it is advantageous when the product carrier 1 has the unusually considerable length of at least 1 . 5 m . | 0 |
in fig1 , a seat assembly 12 of the present invention is shown in partial cross section . the seat assembly primarily comprises a seat 60 , an elevation mechanism 13 , and a mounting structure 17 . the elevation mechanism includes an inner post 14 and an outer post 16 , which telescope in relation to one another . the inner post 14 extends downward into the mounting structure , including a sleeve 18 , which is securely affixed to a fiberglass boat deck 20 . for greater stability , a plate 22 may be welded to the inner post 14 and bolted to the deck 20 . the outer post 16 is slidably positioned over the inner post 14 and is equipped with a longitudinal slot 24 . a pin 26 is attached to the inner post 14 and rides in the slot 24 of the outer post 16 , thus allowing the outer post 16 to slide up and down but preventing it from rotating on the inner post 14 . slip rings 15 are mounted on the top outer surface of the inner post 14 and ride on the inside surface of the outer post 16 to reduce friction between the two posts as the seat 60 is run up and down . the top of the inner post 14 defines a cap 19 with a hole 21 through it . a screw or spindle 28 extends through the hole 21 and runs up to a gear box 30 of a worm gear that is driven by a prime mover 32 , described hereinafter as a motor 32 , although the primer mover may also be a hydraulic or pneumatic power source , or even a manually operated prime mover . a nut 34 , which is threadedly engaged with the screw 28 , is mounted onto the upper end of inner post 14 . a motor 32 and a gear box 30 are mounted between a motor mounting plate 38 and a hold down plate 36 . the plates 36 and 38 are joined together by bolts 40 and serve to clamp the motor gear box 30 in a position fixed to the upper end of the outer post 16 . a spacer 42 holds the gearbox 30 and the spindle 28 in a position concentric with the nut 34 and the inner post 14 . thus , in this preferred embodiment , the motor and gear box are located between the seat 60 and the top of the outer post 16 . the seat 60 is secured to the assembly with a seat swivel 50 . the seat swivel is mounted on top of the plate 36 . details of the seat and seat swivel are described below in relation to fig3 . surrounding the lower end of the outer post 16 is a foot platform 70 , comprising a pair of platform halves 72 and an under carriage 74 . the under carriage 74 engages a sleeve 76 which is secured to the outer surface of the outer post 16 . the sleeve 76 also includes an outwardly extending plate 78 which provides vertical support for the foot platform 70 . a foot operated remote control device 90 , described in greater detail below , is preferably mounted on the platform 70 where it can be easily reached by the angler &# 39 ; s foot . the sleeve 76 can be raised along with the platform halves 72 to a position that is higher and closer to the seat 60 , if a person with shorter legs prefers to do so . to hold the foot platform at a desired distance below the seat 60 , a pin 80 engages a selected hole 82 in the wall of the outer post 16 . details of the platform are described below in relation to fig5 and fig6 . in the preceding description in respect of fig1 , the seat 60 is illustrated in a lowered or “ down ” position . fig2 shows the seat 60 in a partially raised position . the remote control 90 has been activated , as illustrated by an arrow 91 , showing that the foot pedal has been depressed . activation of the control 90 energizes the motor 32 , which actuates the gear box 30 . the motor 32 thus rotates the spindle 28 and the spindle raises the seat 60 as it turns within the nut 34 . note that the foot platform 70 , in its desired selected position relative to the seat 60 , also rises along with the seat , as illustrated by an arrow 93 . further details of the seat and the seat swivel are illustrated in fig3 and fig4 . as previously described , the seat swivel is mounted on top of the plate 36 . the seat swivel 50 comprises a hold - down plate 51 , a swivel plate 52 and a seat hinge plate 53 . the plates 52 and 53 , including the seat 60 coupled to the plates , are capable of rotating relative to the hold - down plate 51 . teflon wafers 54 are therefore placed between the moving surfaces between the plates 51 and 52 to reduce friction . near the rear of the seat 60 , a hinge 55 is provided to connect the seat 60 to the plate 53 to allow change of the seat &# 39 ; s inclination , which is accomplished by an adjustment nut 56 and spindle 57 . the spindle 57 is attached to the underside of a seat plate 62 . the seat plate 62 , along with a back plate 64 ( fig4 ) are preferably made from a hard material such as wood or plastic , and are covered by a cushioning material 66 . the seat 60 includes a seat area 69 which defines a recess 68 on either side of the seat 60 , which allows an angler to hold onto the seat with his inner thighs when he chooses to stand up to gain an even more elevated view . fig5 and fig6 show further details of the foot platform 70 in a top view . the platform 70 is split in two halves 72 for easy installation and removal from the elevation assembly described above . the halves 72 are provided with cut - outs 73 for clearance around a mounting plate 78 . each half 72 rests on an undercarriage 74 , which has extending arms 75 for the connection to the plate 78 . as illustrated in fig6 , the extending arms 75 terminate in hook - shaped ends 75 a which can be inserted into a pair of spaced - apart holes 79 formed in the plate 78 . the entire foot platform half 72 can then be lowered as shown in fig6 by an arrow 77 , until the extending arms 75 come to rest on the plate 78 . fig7 through fig1 show details of a presently preferred foot - operated remote control transmitter 90 . the transmitter mainly comprises two u - shaped halves 91 and 92 , which are pivotally connected by a pin 93 . in the center of the inner bottom of half 92 is mounted an electronic switch or transmitter 94 , which is held in position by a pair of opposing clamps 95 . trigger buttons 96 and 98 protrude from the top surface of the electronic transmitter . resting on these buttons are leaf springs 100 and 101 by their center portions 100 a and 101 a . one end of these leaf springs is spot - welded to the bottom 92 , while the other end touches the underside of the upper assembly half 91 . when pressure p is applied to either side of the assembly , as illustrated in fig1 , the upper half tilts down , exerts pressure on either leaf spring , which in turn presses down on either trigger button 96 or 98 of the electronic transmitter 94 , sending out a signal to a receiver , which initiates power supply to motor 32 , as described in more detail below . the electronic transmitter 94 contains a battery , which has to be replaced periodically . this is made easy by removing a retainer spring 102 ( fig9 ) and the pivot pin 93 to separate the two halves 91 and 92 . this allows access to the transmitter 94 , which has to be pulled out from under the clamps 95 , disassembled and furnished with a fresh battery . it should also be understood that a hardwired connection may be provided from the foot operated control to the motor 32 , if desired . fig1 illustrates a preferred electric circuit for supplying dc power to the motor 32 . those of skill in the art will appreciate that the wiring illustrated in fig1 will be assembled to the structure illustrated in fig1 et seq . either inside or outside the elevation mechanism 13 as desired . the circuit includes a receiver 110 , which receives one of two possible signals from the electronic transmitter 94 , which causes the receiver to supply power from a battery 115 to one of two relays 111 or 112 . preferably , the battery 115 is located in an easily accessible compartment below the level of the deck 20 , and wiring is run inside or outside the elevation mechanism to the motor 32 . in the illustrated embodiment , the relay 111 is activated , supplying power to the motor 32 for a clockwise rotation . if the relay 112 is activated by the other signal from transmitter 94 , dc power to the motor 32 is reversed , causing it to rotate the screw 28 in the opposite or counter - clockwise direction , thereby reversing the motion of the seat 60 from “ up ” to “ down ” or vice versa . fig1 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the present invention wherein a motor 200 is located at the bottom of the elevation mechanism . in this embodiment , the motor 200 is located beneath a foot platform 222 , which preferably comprises two platform halves , as shown and described below . this way , the motor 200 is not in the way when a person , sitting on a seat 206 , is rotating around on the swiveling seat . to accommodate the location of the motor beneath the foot platform , a spindle 202 extends above the motor 200 . the spindle 202 is rotated by the motor through a gear box 201 and the rotation of the spindle 202 pushes a nut 204 upwards . by rotating the spindle 202 through the nut 204 , the nut moves in an upward or downward direction ( depending on the direction of rotation of the spindle 202 ), and since the nut 204 is mechanically coupled to an inner tube 208 , the inner tube 208 moves up and down with the nut 204 . the upper end of the tube 208 is connected to an outer tube 210 through a swivel head 212 . the motor 200 is mounted to a motor housing 216 , and the motor housing 216 extends to a stanchion tube 214 . thus , the stanchion tube 214 remains stationary , along with the motor housing , when the spindle 202 is rotated . the stanchion tube 214 is equipped with a keyway 218 , in which rides a key 220 that is part of the outer tube 210 . this way , none of the tubes can rotate while the spindle 202 rotates . fig1 shows the foot platform 222 partially raised to clarify the motion of the individual parts . note that the nut 204 has moved up , staying approximately level with the foot platform , while the tubular elements have telescoped upward . in this way , the seat 206 can be raised in height ( at the “ all the way up ” position ) by slightly less than twice the length of the outer tube 210 . returning briefly to fig1 , the presently preferred embodiment also includes a removable backrest 224 . rather than the unitary structure depicted in fig1 , the backrest 224 , is mounted to a seatback mounting plate 225 , which slides into a receiving bracket 227 and is held there with bolts or the like ( not shown ). in this embodiment , the backrest can thus be removed and stowed away , leaving a backless stool for the use of the angler , if desired . as shown in fig1 , a distance d defines the height of the foot platform above a boat deck 226 . this distance is preferably roughly about the height of a typical stair riser , or about 8 inches , even though the motor takes up additional space beneath the foot platform in this embodiment . to help in this specification , the suspension of the foot platform is preferably changed slightly . support arms 228 are positioned underneath a platform 230 , as illustrated in more detail in fig1 , 15 , and 16 . the support arms 228 rest in a set of hinge grooves 234 of the platform 230 by way of hinge pins 232 . an extension 236 of a support arm 228 protrudes upwards through an aperture 238 in the platform 230 . when both halves of the platform 222 are in place , all extensions 236 are in line , and a set of holes 242 in these extensions line up so that a safety or cotter pin 244 can be installed , preventing an accidental upward tilting of the platform halves , such as for example when someone steps on a platform half at a point between the hinge pins 232 and the center split of the platform . the holes 242 in the upward protrusions 240 of platform 230 accommodate the pins 242 . removing these pins 242 allows the platform halves 222 to be rotated up , as illustrated on the left side of fig1 . the halves can be leaned against tube 210 as illustrated , when it is desirable to have more walking space around the chair , or they can be removed altogether by just lifting them up . fig1 further shows a recessed area 250 which serves to accommodate foot control devices for the commonly used trolling motors . inward extensions 252 keep the foot control in place , while leaving an open space 254 for electrical wires 256 going to the trolling motor and the boat battery . the principles , preferred embodiment , and mode of operation of the present invention have been described in the foregoing specification . this invention is not to be construed as limited to the particular forms disclosed , since these are regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive . moreover , variations and changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention . | 0 |
fig1 shows an induction motor 1 according to a particular embodiment of the invention . the motor 1 can be a two - way rotation motor . it includes a stator 2 and a rotor assembly . the rotor assembly includes a rotor 3 , for example a squirrel - cage rotor . the rotor 3 is fixed to a shaft 4 . the motor 1 is designed to be inserted in the hollow body of a substantially longitudinal actuator ( not shown ). said actuator is intended to be fixed to a building , horizontally , and used in home automation applications , e . g . to roll up and down cloths , screens , blinds and roller shutters . thus , the motor 1 is substantially tubular . in other words , the length of the stator 2 is generally greater than its outside diameter . the stator 2 may include a bundle of plates forming a central bore 6 . the rotor 3 is disposed within the central bore 6 . the stator 2 is centered in the hollow body of the longitudinal actuator . the stator 2 comprises , on the circumference of its central bore 6 , a plurality of grooves ( not shown ) extending axially and opening at each end 7 of the stator 2 . the stator slots define between them the teeth ( not shown ) around which coils are wound . the assembly of the coils forms the winding . a portion of the winding extends generally beyond the ends 7 of the stator 2 , and form protuberances or projections called coil ends . thus , the stator 2 has at each end 7 a coil end ( not shown ). to prevent motor 1 malfunction , the coil ends must be protected and insulated . the motor 1 comprises means for protecting each coil end . in the example of fig1 to 5 , the protection means include a bowl 9 forming a protective casing . the bowl 9 has a base from which an outer skirt 12 and an inner skirt 13 extend . the outer skirt 12 and the inner skirt 13 define between them a space 14 wherein each coil end extends . the motor 1 shown in fig1 comprises two bowls 9 , at each end 7 of the stator 2 . both bowls 9 are similar , and are arranged symmetrically on either side of the stator 2 . the bowls 9 can be made of deformable flexible or rigid insulating material . in particular , the inner skirt 13 is deformable under the action of a centrifugal radial force . the outer skirt 12 includes a bearing 16 . the bearing 16 is shaped to abut against the inner wall of the hollow body of the longitudinal actuator in which the motor 1 is to be inserted . in the embodiment shown in fig3 to 5 , the outer skirt 12 has a cylindrical shape . opposite to the base 11 , the outer skirt 12 has an edge intended to abut against one of the ends 7 of the stator 2 . according to the embodiment of fig3 to 5 , the edge 18 comprises a plurality of legs 19 . the legs 19 extend in the extension of the outer skirt 12 . each leg 19 is shaped to be housed in a recess ( not shown ) formed on the outer circumference of the stator 2 . thus , the legs 19 prevent any relative radial movement between the stator 2 and each bowl 9 . furthermore , the outer skirt 12 is shaped to match the shape of the inner wall of the hollow body of the longitudinal actuator . thus , with the outer skirt 12 , the bowls 9 make it possible to center the stator 2 in the longitudinal actuator . each inner skirt 13 can protect a coil end during and after assembly of the motor 1 . according to the embodiment illustrated in fig3 to 5 , the inner skirt 13 has a frusto - conical shape . the interior of the inner skirt 13 is intended to receive means for supporting the shaft 4 . the support means may include a bearing 21 and a rolling 22 ( e . g . balls ) which will be described in detail hereinafter . the inner skirt 13 is intended to be deformed when the support means are installed . during assembly of the bowl 9 against the stator 2 , the inner skirt 13 is in a rest position : it is not deformed , because the support means are absent . therefore , the space 14 has a maximum opening . the maximum opening of the space 14 facilitates the installation of each bowl 9 without risk of damage to the coil end . as shown in fig3 to 5 , the inner skirt 13 is slit in a plurality of notches 24 . two successive notches 24 define between them a tab 25 . the tabs 25 have one end linked to the base 11 and a free end . they are adapted to be deformed when the support means of the rotor assembly is inserted into the inner skirt 13 . the free ends 10 of tabs 25 define a diameter edge smaller than the diameter of the central bore 6 . the diameter of this edge is also smaller than the largest outside diameter of the bearing 21 . the motor 1 may include wedges 26 shown in fig2 , arranged at each stator end 7 and intended to be used to electrically insulate the stator . these wedges 26 should not be moved or damaged during installation ( under ul and european standards ). the number of tabs 25 can be equal to the number of stator slots and the number of stator 2 teeth . where appropriate , each tab 25 is disposed in the extension of one of the teeth of the stator 2 . the risk of part of the coil end passing through one of the notches 24 and being damaged is thus diminished . alternatively , for the same result , the inner skirt 13 is made from plastic with shape retention memory . it is therefore intended to be deformed when the support means are installed , thereby protecting the coil ends while abutting against the bearing 21 . the motor 1 shown in fig1 comprises two similar bearings 21 , and two similar rollings 22 . the bearings 21 and rollings 22 are placed symmetrically on either side of the stator 2 . the bearings 21 are for example made from sintered metal or machined metal . during the insertion of the bowl 9 over the coil ends , the diameter of the free end of the inner skirt 13 being smaller than the diameter of the central bore 6 , the risk of axially moving the wedges 26 or damaging the coil ends is very low or nonexistent . each bearing 21 is then disposed within the interior of one of the skirts 13 . when the bearing 21 is installed in the corresponding inner skirt 13 , the latter has a substantially radial deformation . the space 14 is then restrained , but the wedges 26 and the coil end were protected during the installation of the support means . as a matter of fact , the free ends of the tabs 25 radially push the wedges 26 and the coil ends without moving them axially . moreover , with this configuration , the support means 5 may be placed as close as possible to the stator 2 for a better guidance . as shown in fig6 to 9 , each bearing 21 can be substantially cylindrical in shape . each bearing 21 includes an outer wall 27 and an inner wall 28 . the outer wall 27 comprises an annular rib 30 . the annular rib 30 is arranged to form a first shoulder 31 . the first shoulder 31 is intended to directly abut against one of the ends 7 of the stator 2 . the annular rib 30 is also arranged to form a bearing surface 32 . the bearing surface 32 is designed to come in direct abutment against an inner wall of the central bore 6 . thus , each bearing 21 is in direct axial abutment , on the one hand , and in direct radial abutment , on the other hand , against the stator 2 . these direct abutments reduce the tolerance stack - up between the rotor 3 and the stator 2 . they therefore allow a better centering of the rotor 3 in the central bore 6 . this limits the noise problems caused by the eccentricity of the rotor 3 and the stator 2 . the inner wall 28 includes a shoulder 34 . each rolling 22 is adapted to come close to or in abutment against the corresponding shoulder 34 . in principle , a clearance is left during assembly between the rolling and the shoulder to avoid the risk of damaging the rolling during stressing as well as during a possible fall of the actuator . the shoulder 34 is oriented outwards , i . e . opposite to the stator 2 , so that the rolling assembly 22 is performed after the bearing 21 assembly . the shoulder 34 marks the boundary of a first section 36 and a second section 37 of bearing 21 . the inner diameter of the first section 36 is greater than the inner diameter of the second section 37 so that the rotor 3 extends partially into the first section 36 of each bearing 21 . said boundaries help to ensure the rigidity of the bearing 21 while housing the end of the rotor 3 . the motor 1 may include an electrically insulating element 39 , as can be seen for example in fig1 to 13 . the electrically insulating element 39 is intended to cover the outer wall 27 of each bearing 21 to prevent electrical contact likely to cause a short circuit between a coil end and an electrically conductive element of the motor 1 . electrical safety can be achieved by the element 39 . as shown in fig1 , the outer wall 27 of the bearing 21 may comprise a second shoulder 41 , also formed by the annular rib 30 , and a third shoulder 42 , formed by a flange 43 . the electrically insulating element 39 is shaped to cooperate with the second shoulder 41 and the third shoulder 42 . the second shoulder 41 and the third shoulder 42 are used to position and axially maintain in position the electrically insulating element 39 . the electrically insulating element 39 may be over - molded . it preferably covers the annular rib 30 and the flange 43 , as seen in fig1 to 13 . to block the rolling 22 within each bearing 21 , the motor 1 may include a support element 44 secured to one end of the rotor shaft 4 , and biasing means , such as a prestressed spring 45 abutting against the element 44 and tending to push the rolling 22 towards the shoulder 34 . at another end of the rotor shaft 4 , a driver 46 , adapted to cooperate with a gear ( not shown ), can be tightly mounted on the shaft 4 , optionally abutting against the corresponding rolling 22 . the assembly of the induction motor 1 is described below . according to a first possibility , it comprises beforehand installing the bowls 9 against each end 7 of the stator 2 in order to protect the coil ends by housing them in the space 14 defined between the outer skirt 12 and the inner skirt 13 of each bowl 9 . at this stage , the inner skirts 13 are not deformed . the space 14 has thus a maximum aperture which makes it possible to safely insert the coil ends . it subsequently comprises installing the means to support the rotor assembly , to one side of the stator 2 . a bearing 21 is then inserted into the corresponding bowl 9 , advantageously by pressing it directly against the stator 2 . the installation of the bearing 21 causes a gradual deformation of the inner skirt 13 in which it is inserted . at contact with the inner skirt 13 , the coil end is carefully pushed back but remains protected from the bearing 21 . the bearing 21 is inserted until the first shoulder 31 and the bearing surface 32 abut against the stator 2 . this step also includes , in the embodiment shown in fig1 , inserting a rolling 22 in the bearing 21 and driving this rolling 22 towards the shoulder 34 . it has to be noted that the bearing 21 and the rolling 22 are inserted from the outside inwards , i . e . in the direction of the stator 2 . it remains to restrain said rolling 22 to hold it pressed in the direction of the shoulder 34 , install on the rotor 3 the support means to be arranged on the other side of the stator 2 , and then insert the rotor 3 on which a bearing 21 has been placed in the other bowl 9 and the central bore 6 of the stator 2 . during this insertion , the bearing 21 previously arranged on the rotor 3 pushes the tabs 25 of the inner skirt 13 of said other bowl 9 . said bearing 21 is , like the previous one , in direct axial and radial abutment against the stator 2 . according to a second preferred possibility , the assembly may comprise the steps below . in one step , two first subassemblies can be achieved by assembling each rolling 22 in the corresponding bearing 21 . this step can be implemented on the same workstation , as the bearings 21 may be identical . such workstation can be separated from the workstation ( s ) used to implement the other steps of the assembly . in another step , a second subassembly is formed by assembling the rotor assembly ( rotor 3 and shaft 4 ), of one of the first two subassemblies formed by assembling one of the rollings 22 in one of the bearings 21 , and possibly the driver 46 , placed in abutment against the rolling 22 . these parts ( rotor assembly , rolling 22 preassembled to the bearing 21 , and optionally the driver 46 ) can be driven . in a further step , a third subassembly is formed by assembling the two bowls 9 of the stator 2 ( a bowl 9 at each end of the stator 2 ). in yet another step , the second subassembly ( rotor assembly , the rolling 22 preassembled to the bearing 21 , and optionally the driver 46 ), the third subassembly ( stator 2 assembled to the two bowls 9 ), and the remaining first subassembly ( rolling 22 assembled to the bearing 21 ) are assembled to each other . said assembly may be accomplished by driving , during a same operation . note also that , to implement this step , the corresponding workstation may include a guide pin intended for positioning in a housing 47 formed on the axis 4 of the rotor 3 . this prevents misalignment of the axis of the rotor with the center of rolling . in a last step , the spring 45 may be installed , in abutment against one of the rollings 22 ( where appropriate other than that rolling against which the driver 46 abuts ) to axially prestress ( according axis 4 ) the assembly thus formed . the spring 45 can achieve sufficient axial abutment to prevent excessive clearances from causing noise during operation . however , the push - in can further reduce existing clearances . although it is more complex than the one previously described , this method is more economical , because the bearings 21 are driven simultaneously ( push - in in a single operation of the second subassembly , the third subassembly and the remaining first subassembly ). of course , the invention is not limited to the embodiment described above , this embodiment having been given as an example . modifications remain possible , particularly in terms of the construction of the various elements or by substitution of technical equivalents , without thereby departing from the scope of protection of the invention . | 7 |
diketodithiopiperazine antibiotics , in particular chaetocin and gliotoxin , are able to inhibit the interaction between hif - 1α and p300 , as it has been possibile to demonstrate with a fluorescency assay adapted from freedman s j et al ., nature structural biology 2003 , 10 ( 7 ), 504 - 512 . chaetocin and gliotoxin are therefore useful for the control of angiogenesis and tumor growth . pharmaceutical compositions of these compounds can be conveniently used for the treatment of a number of pathologies wherein angiogenesis is involved as pathogenesis factor , for example different forms of solid tumors , diabetis retinopathy , rheumatoid arthritis , psoriasis , emangioma , scleroderma , neovascular glaucoma . solid tumors that are particularly sensitive to compounds able to inhibit the binding of hif - 1α with the ch1 domain of p300 comprise lung carcinoma , mammarian carcinoma , prostate carcinoma , neuroblastoma , glioblastoma multiforme , melanoma , central nervous system tumors , oro - faryngeal squamous cell cancer , cervix , ovary , esophageal , kidney , colon , head - and - neck tumor and oligodendroglioma . for the envisaged therapeutical uses , said ketodithiopiperazine antibiotics will be administered through the oral , parenteral , transdermal , rectal , topical or equivalent administration route , in dosages that will be determined by the experts in the field according to the pharmaco - toxicology and pharmacokinetic properties of the selected compound and according to the pathology , its severity and progression stage and to the patient &# 39 ; s weight , sex and age . however , the dosages will be typically comprised between 0 . 1 and 100 mg / kg / die with respect to the weight of the patient . chaetocin and / or gliotoxin will optionally be administered in combination with other chemotherapeutic agents , for instance in chemotherapy protocols with potentially synergistic drugs having different mechanism of action . examples of compositions of the invention comprise capsules , tablets , injectable or oral solutions or suspensions , suppositories , controlled - released forms and the like . said compositions can be prepared by means of conventional techniques and excipients , for example those disclosed in remington &# 39 ; s pharmaceutical sciences handbook , xvii ed . mack pub ., n . y ., u . s . a . chaetocin &# 39 ; s ability to prevent interaction between hif - 1α and p300 has been evaluated using the fluorescency assay ( delfia ™) method disclosed by freedman s j at al ., nature structural biology 2003 , 10 ( 7 ), 504 - 512 , suitably modified . the human biotinylated hif - 1α fragment corresponding to c - terminal aminoacids 786 - 826 ( biotinylated hif - 1α 786 - 826 ) was obtained by anaspec inc ( san josé , calif ., usa ) and used without further purifications . a construct expressing the gst - p300 323 - 423 fragment was transformed in the bl21 ( de3 ) strain of e . coli . such construct was obtained by cloning in the expression vector pgex - 4t - 1 ( amersham n . 27 - 45 - 80 - 01 ) the dna sequence which encodes for the p300 region comprised between the 323 - 423 aminoacids ; the dna sequence was obtained through pcr ( polymerase chain reaction ). the expression of the protein was induced with 1 mm isopropyl - 1 - thio - β - d - galactopiranoside ( iptg ). the bacteria were lysed through sonication in the presence of a suitable buffer ( 50 mm tris . hcl ph 8 . 00 , 100 mm nacl , 0 . 1 mm znso4 , 1 mm dtt , 0 . 1 mg / ml lysozime and a tablet of roche protease inhibitor ) and gst fusion protein contained in the soluble fraction was purified on a glutathione - sepharose 4b resin ( amersham biosciences ; no . 27 - 4574 - 01 ). the protein final concentration was determined according to bradford with the biorad assay ( bradford m ., anal . biochem ., 72 , 248 , ( 1976 )). samples purity was evaluated through sds - page . the samples were stored at − 80 ° c . in glycerol 50 %. the assay was carried out as follows , using 96 - wells nunc maxisorp plates . c96 nunc maxisorp plates ( nunc , product no . 446612 ) were incubated overnight with streptavidin ( sigma ; product no . s 4762 ) at a final concentration of 1 μg / ml in pbs buffer ( phosphate buffered saline 10 mm sodium phosphate , 150 mm sodium chloride ph 7 . 4 ). each well was then washed three times with 300 μl of tbst buffer ( 50 mm tris - hcl ph 8 . 0 , 150 mm nacl , 0 . 05 % ( v / v ) tween 20 ). each well was then added with 100 μl of a 10 nm solution of biotinylated hif - 1α 786 - 826 in tbsb ( 50 mm tris - hcl ph 8 . 0 , 150 mm nacl , 5 % ( w / v ) bsa ( sigma , product no . a 2153 )) and incubated 1 h at 25 ° c . in the last row of each plate only tbsb buffer was added . each well was then washed three times with 300 μl of tbst buffer . the plate so prepared was used for the assay . separately , a plate ( daughter plate ) containing in each well 10 μl of a 10 μm solution of each test compound in dmso was prepared . this plate was added with 100 μl of a 111 pm solution of gst - p300 323 - 423 diluted in incubation buffer ( tbsb added with 0 . 1 % ( v / v ) tween 20 , 0 . 5 mm dtt , 10 μm zncl 2 ), mixing the solutions . 100 μl of the mixture contained in the daughter plate were immediately transferred in the assay plate . each daughter plate was prepared with chaetocin at a concentration of 10 μm , safe for the two last well rows , wherein each well was added with 10 μl of dmso . these two rows represented the positive ( row 11 , + hif - 1 ) and negative ( row 12 , - hif - 1 ) control . after incubation for 1 h at 25 ° c ., each well was washed three times with 300 μl tbst buffer ( 50 mm tris - hcl ph 8 . 0 , 150 mm nacl , 0 . 05 % ( v / v ) tween 20 ). each well was then added with 60 . 8 ng of an europium - labeled anti - gst antibody ( delfia eu - n1 labeled ; perkin elmer ; product no . ad 0251 ) dissolved in 100 μl tbsb buffer containing 10 μm zncl 2 . after incubation for 1 h at room temperature , each well was washed three times with 300 μl tbst buffer , then 100 μl of signal - amplifying solution ( enhancement solution , perkin elmer prodotto no . 1244 - 105 ) was added . the plates were then read with a fusion alpha - fp - ht ( perkin elmer ) reader in fluorescence mode for time resolution . chaetocin activity was calculated as follows . the fluorescence mean value of negative controls in row 12 of the test plate was subtracted to the fluorescence value of all the other wells . the resulting fluorescence value for each well was then divided by the mean fluorescence value of the positive controls in row 11 ( which represented the maximum signal value , 100 %), and expressed as percent value . the inhibition value was the difference between 100 and the signal percentage calculated for each well . using daughter plates where the compounds were present at ten different concentrations comprised between 90 μm and 0 . 178 μm in each row , a dose - response curve could be calculated from which the ic 50 could be derived ( concentration of the compound necessary to cause 50 % inhibition of the signal ). rows 11 and 12 containing the vehicle only represented the controls . in this test , chaetocin showed inhibition of the interaction between biot - hif - 1α 786 - 826 and gst - p300 323 / 423 with an ic 50 of 12 . 5 μm . the compounds of the invention were evaluated using a cellular test on genetically modified human epatocarcinoma hep3b cells ( hep3b - vegfluciferase ) in order to stably express a vector wherein luciferase open reading frame is placed under the control of the rat vegf gene promoter . hif - 1 induction with deferoxamine ( which induces hypoxia ) induces luciferase trascription through activation of the vegf promoter , which in turn leads to an increase of luciferase activity which can be measured with a commercially available kit . the compounds interfering with the hif - 1α / p300 complex cause inhibition of hif - dependent luciferase activation , resulting in the reduction of luciferase activity . therefore , this assay allows to evaluate the activity of the compounds towards the vegf promoter , which is essential to vegf production and subsequent tumor angiogenesis . the hep - 3b - vegf luciferase line was obtained according to the following procedure . human epatocarcinoma hep3b cells ( atcc reference no . hb - 8064 ) were seeded onto 6 - well plates at a concentration of 2 . 5 × 10 5 cells / well in 2 ml dmem / 10 % fcs and the day after were transfected with fugene 6 ( roche biochemicals ®). the transfection mixture in each well contained 6 μl of the transfection reaction fugene 6 , 1 μg of the reporter plasmid pxp2 - vegf - luciferase ( rat vegf promoter , ncbi genbank accession no . u22373 , levy et al ., j . biol . chem . 270 ( 22 ), 13333 - 13340 , 1995 ), and 10 ng of pcdna 3 . 1 (+) plasmid ( invitrogen ) which makes cells resistant to neomycin . transfection was carried out according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . the suitable cell population ( phenotypically resistant to neomycin ) was selected through a cloning approach based on the “ limit dilution ” procedure ( sambrook j ., fritsch e . f . and maniatis t . ( 1989 ) molecular cloning , a . laboratory manual ; cold spring harbor laboratori ). the following test of luciferase expression / activity “ luciferase assay ” and test for the quantification of vegf secreted in the supernatant “ secreted vegf elisa test ”) are carried out with stably transfected selected cells . day 1 . hep - 3b - vegf luciferase cells were seeded onto “ blank ” 96 - well plates ( greiner ) at a density of 1 × 10 4 cells / well / 125 μl of medium , then allowed to adhere overnight in a thermostat ( 37 ° c ./ 5 % co 2 ). day 2 . 75 μl of “ 3 . 2 × working solutions ” of compound ( previously prepared in medium so that dmso concentration amounted to 1 . 6 % v / v ) was added to the cells ( partial volume / well = 200 μl , partial concentration the compound = 1 . 2 ×, partial concentration of dmso = 0 . 6 %). after 1 h incubation in thermostat , hypoxia was induced chemically by addition of 40 μl / well of a 6 × ( 600 μm ) stock solution of deferoxamine ( final volume / well = 240 μl , final concentration of the compound = 1 ×, final concentration of dmso = 0 . 5 %, final concentration of deferoxamine = 1 ×≈ 100 μm ). the plates were then placed in a thermostat for further 18 - 20 h . day 3 . the “ luciferase assay ” and the “ secreted vegf elisa test ” were carried out as described in the following . quantification of secreted vegf was carried out using the “ duoset elisa development system human vegf ” kit ( r & amp ; d systems ). 100 μl / well of supernatant from the “ blank ” 96 - well plates seeded with the cells of the hep3b / vegf luciferase clone were transferred into transparent 96 - well plates ( maxisorp ) and assayed according to the instructions of the kit manufacturer . in the elisa test for inhibition of secreted vegf chaetocin and gliotoxin showed ic 50 of 0 . 1 μm and 0 . 2 μm respectively . quantification of expression of luciferase reporter gene was carried out with bright glo reagent ( promega ). after discarding the supernatant and washing once with pbs , 40 μl / well of bright glo reagent were added to “ blank ” 96 - well plates , i . e . plates without human hepatocarcinoma hep3b / vegf - luciferase cells . the reporter gene expression levels were determined reading the plates with a luminometer . in the luciferase assay for the inhibition of the vegf promoter chaetocin and gliotoxin showed an ic 50 ( concentration of the compound that causes 50 % inhibition of luciferase signal ) of 0 . 04 μm and 0 . 05 μm respectively . | 0 |
the embodiments of this invention will be explained with reference to the drawings . fig1 is a block diagram showing the circuit arrangement of an embodiment of this invention . this embodiment is the case of the parallel operation of two voltage - type , 3 - phase pwm ( pulse width modulation ) power converters using igbts ( insulated gate bipolar transistors ) as automatic turn - off switching devices . in fig1 reference numeral 101 denotes a spatial voltage vector calculator , which operates as follows . initially , a switching period , command amplitude vc and command phase ( electrical angle ) θ are fed to the spatial voltage vector calculator 101 . spatial voltage vectors are to indicate the switching states of the power converters , and there are eight spatial voltage vectors [ v 0 ], [ v 1 ], [ v 2 ], [ v 3 ], [ v 4 ], [ v 5 ], [ v 6 ] and [ v 7 ] for a 3 - phase power converter , with &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; indicating the on - state and off - state of the switching devices located on the higher voltage side of the d . c . lines , as shown in fig2 ( a ). among these spatial voltage vectors , vectors [ v 0 ] and [ v 7 ] are specifically called &# 34 ; spatial zero - voltage vectors &# 34 ; ( or &# 34 ; zero vectors &# 34 ;). the eight spatial voltage vectors have phase differences of 60 ° intervals and have an equal magnitude , with the zero vectors being located at the center , as shown in fig2 ( b ). a command spatial voltage vector [ vc ] has a command amplitude vc and has an electrical angle θ with respect to the spatial voltage vector [ v 1 ]. the spatial voltage vector calculator 101 selects two spatial voltage vectors [ vi ] and [ vj ] depending on the value of electrical angle θ as shown in fig2 ( c ). subsequently , output times ti and tj of the spatial voltage vectors [ vi ] and [ vj ] and output times t 0 and t 7 of the spatial voltage vectors [ v 0 ] and [ v 7 ] are calculated from the command amplitude vc based on the following equations . where θa is the electrical angle of the command spatial voltage vector [ vc ] with respect to the selected spatial voltage vector [ vi ], and it is expressed as follows : and n is a numerical value which depends on the electrical angle θ as listed in fig2 ( c ). the output times ti , tj , t 0 and t 7 provided by the spatial voltage vector calculator 101 are fed to a vector permutation device 102 , by which the order of vector output is determined in accordance with two spatial voltage vector a series p1 and p2 shown in fig2 ( d ). in compliance with this output order , spatial voltage vectors are released for the specified durations . the spatial voltage vector series p1 and p2 are series of spatial voltage vectors established for the first and second power converters 114 and 124 , respectively , with the p2 being derived from the p1 , having its spatial zero - voltage vector [ v 0 ] at the end moved to the top . namely , this invention resides in a control method for a multi - coupled system of parallel - connected power converters , in which , for multiple spatial voltage vectors which generate the on / off commands to be fed to individual power converters , the order of the second series of spatial voltage vectors having different output times and fed to the second power converters is shifted with respect to the first series of spatial voltage vectors having different output times and fed to the first power converter by the amount of the output time of the spatial voltage vector located at the end of the first series . a pwm generator 113 generates pwm waveform voltages in accordance with the released spatial voltage vectors which have been arranged based on the spatial voltage vector series p1 in the vector permutation device 102 , and delivers the resulting on / off commands for the switching devices to the gate circuit ( not shown ) of first power converter 114 . similarly , another pwm generator 123 generates pwm waveform voltages in accordance with spatial voltage vector series p2 , and delivers the resulting on / off commands for the switching devices to the gate circuit ( not shown ) of the second power converter 124 . the first and second power converters 114 and 124 operate the automatic turn - off switching devices in accordance with the pwm output signals produced by the pwm generators 113 and 123 , thereby producing 3 - phase a . c . voltages . both power converters have their a . c . output terminals u 1 and u 2 , v 1 and v 2 , and w 1 and w 2 connected in pairs through reactors 105 , and the a . c . voltage produced by both power converters 114 and 124 is supplied to a load 106 . the foregoing operation of this embodiment will be explained more specifically for the case of a command amplitude of vc = 0 . 3 [ p . u .] and a command phase of θ = 80 ° ( electrical angle ). for the command phase θ = 80 °, the spatial voltage vector calculator 101 selects the spatial voltage vector [ v 3 ]=( 0 , 1 , 0 ) for the spatial voltage vector [ vi ] and the spatial voltage vector [ v 2 ]=( 1 , 1 , 0 ) for the spatial voltage vector [ vj ], and calculates the output times t 3 , t 2 , t 0 and t 7 based on the equations ( 1 ), ( 2 ) and ( 3 ). since the numerical value is n = 1 , as listed in fig2 ( c ), the angle with the selected spatial voltage vector is calculated to be θa = 20 ° based on the equation ( 4 ). the resulting output times t 3 , t 2 , t 0 and t 7 are fed to the vector permutation device 102 , and arranged in accordance with the spatial voltage vector series p1 and p2 . the output times arranged based on the spatial voltage vector series p1 ( shown by a 1 in fig3 ( a )) are fed to the pwm generator 113 , by which 3 - phase pwm waveforms are generated as shown by a 2 , a 3 and a 4 in fig3 ( a ). similarly , the output times arranged based on the spatial voltage vector series p2 ( shown by b 1 in fig3 ( b )) are fed to the pwm generator 123 , by which 3 - phase pwm waveforms are generated as shown by b 2 , b 3 and b 4 in fig3 ( b ). fig4 shows the voltage waveforms produced by the on / off operation in accordance with the pwm signals of the automatic turn - off switching devices of the first and second power converters 114 and 124 , and these voltage waveforms are for the case of the command amplitude vc = 0 . 6 [ p . u .] as another embodiment of this invention . in fig4 a , 4b , 4d and 4e show the waveforms of phase voltages on the output terminals u 1 , u 2 , v 1 and v 2 in fig1 c and 4f show the composite phase voltages at the points u and v in fig1 produced by both power converters 114 and 124 and coupled by the reactors , and 4g shows the waveform of output line voltage between u and v in fig1 produced by both power converters 114 and 124 . fig5 shows the voltage waveforms produced by the conventional system for the same command amplitude vc = 0 . 6 [ p . u .] as fig4 and the waveforms 5a - 5g correspond to the waveforms 4a - 4g of fig4 . the comparison between the waveforms 4g of fig4 and 5g of fig5 reveals that the line voltage 5g of fig5 is formed of the zero - voltage mode and full - voltage mode and has a large voltage variation . in contrast , the line voltage 4g of fig4 is formed of the zero - voltage mode and intermediate - voltage mode and has a smaller voltage variation . accordingly , the inventive system significantly reduces the harmonic components of the line voltage . specifically , the pwm voltage shown by 4g in fig4 has its level varying in three steps of 1 p . u ., 0 . 5 p . u . and 0 p . u ., resulting in a smaller voltage difference from the sinusoidal fundamental voltage waveform , i . e ., it includes fewer high - frequency components . in contrast , the pwm voltage shown by 5g in fig5 has its level varying only in one step of 0 p . u ., resulting in a greater voltage difference from the sinusoidal fundamental voltage waveform , i . e ., it includes more high - frequency components . this superior feature of this invention is based on the sophisticated control scheme of pwm voltage in which the order of the second series of spatial voltage vectors having different output times and fed to the second power converters is shifted with respect to the first series of spatial voltage vectors having different output times and fed to the first power converter by the amount of the output time of the spatial voltage vector located at the end of the first series . according to this invention , the amount of variation of the output line voltage waveform as a result of composition by the reactors can be reduced and , therefore , the harmonic components of the output line voltage waveform can be reduced significantly . consequently , the harmonic components of the output current determined from the harmonic components of the output line voltage are reduced and , in the case of driving an a . c . motor for example , the torque ripple and speed ripple of the a . c . motor can be reduced . the inventive system enables servo calculation control based on the extremely smooth rotation of the a . c . motor , and contributes significantly to the enhanced stability of the control system . fig6 and fig7 are block diagrams showing yet another embodiment of this invention . this embodiment shows the case of the parallel operation of two voltage - type , 3 - phase pwm power converters using igbts as automatic turn - off switching devices . in the figure , 101 indicates a spatial vector calculator having a function similar to the counterpart in the embodiment shown in fig1 . the vector calculator 101 produces and feeds output times ti , tj , t 0 and t 7 to the vector permutation device 102 , by which the order of vector output is determined in accordance with the two vector series p1 and p2 shown in fig4 . in compliance with this output order , these vectors are released for specified durations . the vector series p1 and p2 are established for the first and second power converters 114 and 124 , respectively , with the p2 being derived from the p1 having its zero vector [ v 0 ] at the end moved to the top . a pwm generator 103 generates pwm waveform voltages in accordance with the released spatial voltage vectors which have been arranged based on the spatial voltage vector series p1 in the vector permutation device 102 , and delivers the resulting on / off commands for the switching devices to the gate circuit of the first power converter 114 . similarly , the pwm generator 103 generates pwm waveform voltages in accordance with the spatial voltage vector series p2 , and delivers the resulting on / off commands for the switching devices to the gate circuit of the second power converter 124 . the pwm generator 103 produces vector state signals , which are &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; when the pwm outputs to be fed to the first and second power converters are both zero vectors ( v 0 and v 7 ), or &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in all other cases . switches 8 select the &# 34 ; a &# 34 ; position or &# 34 ; b &# 34 ; position in response to &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; outputs of flip - flops 19 so that the pwm outputs to the first and second power converters are replaced by each other . on - delay counters 9 retard the &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; to &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; transition of the pwm outputs in order to prevent the short - circuiting of igbt pairs in the power converter main circuit . gate blocking circuits 10 deliver the outputs of the on - delay counters 9 intact to the first and second power converters when comparators 16 produce &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; output signals , or deliver &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; outputs to the power converters irrespective of the outputs of the on - delay counters 9 when the comparator 16 produce &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; output signals . the first and second power converters 114 and 124 operate the respective automatic turn - off switching devices in response to &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; pwm outputs , respectively , provided by the respective gate blocking circuits , thereby producing the 3 - phase a . c . power . the power converters have their a . c . output terminal pairs u 1 and u 2 , v 1 and v 2 , and w 1 and w 2 coupled through the 3 - phase reactor 105 , and the a . c . power produced by both power converters is supplied to the load 106 . the output currents detected by current detectors 3 are fed to subtracters 11 , by which the difference in currents of each phase is evaluated . each differential current is averaged with the current in a half pwm period detected by a sample - holding circuit 12 , and each resulting average differential current is fed to comparators 16 and 17 . the comparator 16 compares the absolute value of the average differential current provided by an absolute value circuit 20 with a preset value provided by a setting device 14 , and produces a &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; output when the absolute value of the average differential current is greater or smaller than the preset value , respectively . the comparator 17 compares the average differential current with a preset value provided by a setting device 15 , and produces a &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; output when the average differential current is greater or smaller than the preset value , respectively . the flip - flops 19 produce the command signals of the switches 8 from the pwm state signals and the outputs of the comparators 17 in compliance with the rule listed in table 1 . table 1______________________________________pwm state comparatorsignal ( r ) output ( s ) output______________________________________0 0 01 0 00 1 11 1 0______________________________________ in response to the operation of the comparator 16 , the first and second power converters 114 and 124 have their output waveforms replaced by each other , and the lateral current diminishes without having the variation of the phase voltage waveform applied to the load . in response to the operation of the comparator 17 , the first and second power converters 114 and 124 have their output waveforms cut off , causing the lateral current to diminish immediately , and the magnetic loss created by the reactor to decrease . according to this invention , the lateral current flowing between output phases of the power converters is suppressed without variation of the line voltage waveform , and , accordingly , the magnetic loss of the output reactor which increases in proportion to the lateral current can be suppressed . consequently , it becomes possible to make the output reactor more compact and to increase the motor supply current . the present invention is useful for large - capacity motor drive systems in steel plants , chemical plants , and the like . | 7 |
abbreviations used in the present disclosure include the following : peo - b - plaa , poly ( ethylene oxide )- block - poly ( l - aspartic acid ); peo - b - phsa , poly ( ethylene oxide )- block - poly ( n - hexyl stearate l - aspartamide ); peo - b - pbla , poly ( ethylene oxide )- block - poly ( β - benzyl - l - aspartate ); peo - b - phca , poly ( ethylene oxide )- block - poly ( n - hexyl caprate l - aspartamide ) peo - b - phha , poly ( ethylene oxide )- block - poly ( hydroxyhexyl l - aspartamide ); amb , amphotericin b ; dmso , n , n - dimethylsulfoxide ; dmf , n , n - dimethylformamide ; sec , size exclusion chromatography ; rbc , red blood cell ; pbs , phosphate buffered saline ; mic , minimum inhibitory concentration ; colony forming units , cfu , colony forming units . the solvent evaporation method used to encapsulate amb in peo - b - phsa micelles is shown in fig9 . amb and peo - b - phsa were dissolved in methanol , and a thin film of polymer and drug was coated on a round bottom flask by evaporation of methanol under vacuum with heat . distilled water was added to dissolve the film and form peo - b - phsa micelles with encapsulated amb , and the micellar solution was filtered ( 0 . 22 μm ) and freeze - dried . the level of amb in these solvent - evaporated peo - b - phsa micelles was 0 . 35 mol drug / mol polymer , and the yield of amb encapsulation was 73 % ( table 1 ). in contrast , the dialysis method provided 0 . 25 mol amb / mol peo - b - phsa , and the yield of amb encapsulation was 60 %. in both cases , a higher initial level of drug resulted in higher drug content , but with an increase in hemolysis ( data not shown ). the reconstitution of freeze - dried samples yielded aqueous solutions having amb levels greater than 250 μg / ml . for comparison , the solubility of amb in water is about 0 . 5 to 1 μg / ml , and it is administered intravenously in its standard formulation , which contains sodium deoxycholate at 100 μg / ml . tem provided evidence for the formation of spherical micelles made of peo - b - phsa when the solvent evaporation method was used for micelle formation and drug loading ( fig3 a ). the average diameter of peo - b - phsa micelles was 15 . 2 ± 4 . 0 nm before freeze - drying . an increase in the micellar size to 22 . 3 ± 4 . 7 nm was observed for the reconstituted samples ( data not shown ). peo - b - phsa micelles prepared by the dialysis method were also spherical ( fig3 b ), but significantly larger ( average diameter of 25 . 0 ± 4 . 9 nm ) than peo - b - phsa micelles prepared by the solvent evaporation ( p & lt ; 0 . 0001 , unpaired t test ). sec provided evidence for the encapsulation of amb in peo - b - phsa micelles . aqueous solutions of amb at concentrations of 1 , 10 and 100 μg / ml eluted from the sec column at 17 . 4 , 17 . 3 and 16 . 5 min , respectively . in contrast , amb encapsulated in peo - b - phsa micelles formed by dialysis and solvent evaporation methods eluted at 10 . 6 ± 0 . 1 and 10 . 8 ± 0 . 1 min , respectively , corresponding to a molecular weight of 2 . 9 ± 106 and 2 . 4 ± 10 6 g mol − 1 based on dextran standards . this also indicates that larger peo - b - phsa micelles are produced by the dialysis method ( unpaired t test , p & lt ; 0 . 05 ), consistent with tem images ( table 1 ). the encapsulation of amb in peo - b - phsa micelles at 0 . 25 - 0 . 35 mol drug : mol polymer caused no significant change in the elution time of peo - b - phsa micelles ( unpaired t test , p & gt ; 0 . 05 ). there was no evidence of unencapsulated amb , which elutes at about 17 . 4 min in the chromatography system used in the experiments described herein . the primary advantage of the solvent evaporation method was a reduction in hemolysis caused by amb ( fig7 ). amb itself caused 100 % hemolysis at about 1 μg / ml . after encapsulation of amb in peo - b - phsa micelles by the dialysis method , the drug was somewhat less toxic than amb itself , causing 50 % hemolysis at 3 . 8 μg / ml and 100 % hemolysis at 6 μg / ml . in contrast , amb encapsulated by the solvent evaporation method in peo - b - phsa micelles ( polymer block length 22 - 25 ) was completely nonhemolytic at 22 μg / ml . the results contrast with earlier findings with pluronics , peo - b - poly ( propylene oxide )- b - peo , which solubilizes amb after encapsulation by a solvent evaporation method , but fails to protect rbcs from hemolysis ( d . forster et al . ( 1988 ) j . pharm . pharmacol . 40 , 325 - 328 ). without wishing to be bound by any particular theory , peo - b - phsa micelles are believed to reduce hemolysis by slowly releasing amb over the 30 min time period of incubation of drug with rbcs or by the release of amb in an unaggregated state , unimers , which are known to be non - toxic for mammalian cells ( j . brajtburg , and j . bolard ( 1996 ) clin . microbiol . rev . 9 512 - 531 ). regardless , amb encapsulated in peo - b - phsa micelles by the solvent evaporation method appears to be much less toxic in vitro than the standard formulation of amb , and a similar reduction in toxicity in vivo is achieved . the effects of spacer chain length and hydrophobic core fatty acid chain length were studied to determine optimum combinations on the peo - b - plaa backbone for the encapsulation of amb . the preparation of various fatty acid esters of peo - b - phaa from peo - b - pbla with either 15 or 24 degrees of polymerization in the pbla block was accomplished in two steps . in the first step , 2 - hp was used - as a catalyst to remove the benzyloxy group of peo - b - pbla and replace it with either 2 - aminoethanol or 6 - aminohexanol . as a result , poly ( ethylene oxide )- block - poly ( hydroxyethyl l - aspartamide )( peo - b - phea ) and poly ( ethylene oxide )- block - poly ( hydroxyhexyl l - aspartamide )( peo - b - phha ) were formed , respectively . peo - b - phea and peo - b - phha were then reacted with saturated fatty acids of various chain lengths ranging from 6 to 22 carbons in the presence of dcc and dmap as coupling agent and catalyst , respectively . the general structure of the final product is shown in fig2 . thin layer chromatography using diethyl ether : dichloromethane ( 20 : 80 ) as the mobile phase and 0 . 1 % solution of bromocresol in ethanol as an indicator confirmed the purity of block copolymers from free fatty acids . 1 h nmr was used to estimate the level of fatty acid substitution on peo - b - phaa . because the molecular weight of the peo block was known and the purity of the synthesized copolymers was confirmed by tlc , comparison of characteristic peak intensities of fatty acid substituents ( ch3 , δ = 0 . 8 ppm ) to that of peo (— ch2 - ch2 - o —, δ = 3 . 6 ppm ) provides an estimation of the degree of fatty acid attachment . the substitution of fatty acid is expressed as the percentage of conjugated stearic acid to hydroxyl groups of peo - b - phaa throughout the present application . statistical analysis ( anova , duncan &# 39 ; s test ) of the data obtained for different batches of synthesized polymers ( with varied fatty acid chain lengths ) reveals that the use of longer spacer groups significantly ( p & lt ; 0 . 01 ) increases the level of fatty acid substitution on the phaa block . micellization of the fatty acid conjugates of peo - b - phaa having different core structures was achieved using a dialysis method , and the formation of micelle like structures was investigated by tem . the tem images clearly indicate the presence of spherical particles with nanoscopic dimensions . however , a tendency towards the formation of ellipsoids is seen when longer fatty acids ( myristic and stearic ) attached to c 6 spacer group with higher degrees of substitution ( ca . 65 %) were used . the average diameter of the prepared micelles measured from tem images for 12 - 15 samples was found to be between 14 . 7 - 21 . 8 nm ( table 1 ). increasing the substitution level of fatty acid on the polymeric backbone caused a significant increase ( p & lt ; 0 . 001 ) in micellar size as s shown for poly ( ethylene oxide )- block - poly [ n -( 6 - hexyl caprate )- l - aspartamide ]( peo - b - phca ) in fig3 a ( 7 % vs 44 %). the length of the spacer group showed no significant effect when micellar size was compared in capric acid conjugates of peo - b - phea and in hexyl conjugates of peo - b - phha with the same degree of fatty acid attachment ( fig3 a ). increasing the length of the fatty acid chain caused a significant increase in micellar size ( p & lt ; 0 . 001 ) when polymer batches with similar degree of fatty acid attachment were compared ( table 1 ). the average diameter of stearic acid conjugates of peo - b - phea and peo - b - phha for 12 - 24 samples was measured to be between 23 . 3 to 25 . 3 nm . an increase in the length of the plaa block from 15 to 24 also showed an enhancing influence ( un paired t test , p & lt ; 0 . 001 ) on micellar size when block copolymers with the same degree of stearic acid substitution on the phea or phha blocks were compared ( fig3 b ). the substitution level of stearic acid on the phea and phha block was calculated to be 45 and 60 %, respectively in both peo block length 12 - 15 and 12 - 24 samples . pyrene was used as a fluorescent probe to determine the cmcs and the micropolarities of the core for micelles formed from fatty acid esters of peo - b - phaa . following partitioning of pyrene into the micellar core at polymer levels above cmc , a red shift is seen in the excitation spectrum of pyrene ( fig4 a ). therefore , the ratios of peak intensities at 339 nm over 334 nm are plotted vs . the logarithm of polymer concentration to determine cmc ( fig4 b ). the cmc is measured from a sharp rise in the intensity ratios at the onset of micellization ( r . nagarajan et al . ( 1986 ) langmuir 2 , 210 ; j . georges ( 1990 ) spectrochimica acta reviewes 13 , 27 ; m . winnik , s . t . a . regismond , colloids & amp ; surfaces a : physicochemical & amp ; engineering aspects 118 ( 1996 ) 1 ; g . s . kwon et al . ( 1993 ) langmuir 9 , 945 ). the average cmcs for the polymeric micelles under study ranged from 9 to 50 μg / ml . elongation of the fatty acid did not significantly affect cmc values obtained from this method of measurement ( table 1 ). as it is shown in fig4 c and 4d , no significant effect ( p & gt ; 0 . 05 ) on cmc was observed when block copolymers with longer phaa block or spacer group but similar level of fatty acid substitution were used , respectively . the substitution level of fatty acid on the phaa block seems to be the major factor controlling the onset of micellization . as it is illustrated in fig4 d , a decrease in the level of capric acid attachment from 44 to 7 % results in a reduced tendency for self - association in peo - b - phca . the mean cmc value rose from 29 to 57 μg / ml in peo - b - phca with 7 % capric acid substitution . the fluorescence emission spectrum of pyrene was also affected by the polarity of its environment ( fig5 a ). a sharp decrease in the relative intensity of the first ( i 1 ) to the third band ( i 3 ) was observed at the cmc as pyrene partitions to the non - polar core of the micelles ( fig5 b ). the i 1 / i 3 ratios obtained from emission spectra of pyrene in the presence of 500 μg / ml of fatty acid ester of peo - b - phaa ( 12 - 15 ) are reported in table 1 . a ratio of 1 . 4 was observed for aqueous pyrene , which is in agreement with previous observations ( j . georges ( 1990 ) spectrochimica acta rev . 13 , 27 ). at low polymer concentrations , the ratio was close to what has been found for water . as the concentration of the polymer increased , the i 1 / i 3 ratio dropped to about 1 . 0 . the reduced value of i 1 / i 3 ratio indicates non - polar microdomains in micelles , with polarities similar to n - pentanol in the pyrene scale ( dong et al . ( 1984 ) can . j . chem . 62 , 2560 ). no significant effect on i 1 / i 3 was detected when different structural factors were altered in fatty acid conjugates of peo - b - phaa , p & gt ; 0 . 05 ( table 1 , fig5 b ). evidence for the limited motion of fatty acid esters in the micellar core was obtained from the fluorescence emission spectrum of 1 , 3 -( 1 , 1 ′- dipyrenyl ) propane in the presence of 500 μg / ml of polymeric micelles ( fig6 a ). like pyrene , 1 , 3 -( 1 , 1 ′- dipyrenyl ) propane is a hydrophobic fluorescent probe that preferentially partitions into the hydrophobic micro - domains of micelles at polymer concentrations above the cmc . by changing its conformation , 1 , 3 -( 1 , 1 ′- dipyrenyl ) propane forms intramolecular pyrene excimers that emit light at 480 nm when excited at 390 nm . the conformational change in 1 , 3 -( 1 , 1 ′- dipyrenyl ) propane probe is restricted by a local friction imposed by the viscosity of its environment . therefore , the ratio of the intensity of the light emitted from excited dipyrene excimer ( i e ) to that of isolated pyrene monomer ( i m ) in its emission spectrum is used as a measure of effective viscosity ( georges ( 1990 supra ). as shown in table 1 and fig6 , i e / i m ratios are very low for all the copolymers under study , reflecting rigid structures for the polymeric micellar cores . in contrast , a high incidence of excimer formation in sodium lauryl sulfate ( sds ) reflects the liquid like core of a low molecular weight surfactant ( fig6 a ). no significant change ( p & gt ; 0 . 05 ) in i e / i m ratios was detected for different fatty acids attached to the polymeric backbone in 12 - 15 samples ( table 1 ). however , behenic acid conjugates of peo - b - phha with substitution levels of 65 % showed lowered i e / i m ratio ( 0 . 08 ) in comparison to other copolymers ( table 1 ). beside this specific structure , lower average i e / i m ratios in 12 - 24 samples of poly ( ethylene oxide )- block - poly [ n -( 2 - ethyl stearate )- l - aspartamide ] ( peo - b - pesa ) poly ( ethylene oxide )- block - poly [ n -( 6 - hexyl stearate )- l - aspartamide ] ( peo - b - phsa ) compared to 12 - 15 species indicates the elongation of the phaa block causes more restricted motions in the micellar core environment as well ( fig6 b ). it is known that amphiphilic block copolymers can form supramolecular core / shell structures in aqueous environment through the expulsion of their hydrophobic segments from water and further hydrophobic association of these blocks . supramolecular self - assembled structure plays an analogous role to natural carriers with several advantages such as ease of chemical modification , stability and safety ( kwon et al . ( 1999 ) pharm . res . 16 , 597 ; g . s . kwon ( 1998 ) crit . rev . ther . drug carrier syst . 15 , 481 ). to achieve optimized micellar properties and drug loading capacities we pursued the chemical tailoring of the core structure in peo - b - plaa in our recent research studies . compatibility between the solubilizate and the core - forming block is proven to be necessary for efficient solubilization of water insoluble molecules in micellar systems ( allen et al . ( 1999 ) colloids & amp ; surfaces b : biointerfaces 16 , 3 ; yokoyama et al . ( 1998 ) j . control . release 55 , 219 ; nagarajan et al . ( 1986 ) langmuir 2 , 210 ; yokoyama et al . ( 1998 ) j . control release 50 , 79 ). with this in mind , the chemical structure of the core - forming block in peo - b - plaa was tailored to aliphatic ones to enhance the solubilization of compatible drugs such as the polyene antibiotics , especially amb . chemical modification of the core structure in peo - b - plaa block copolymers was carried out through replacement of benzyloxy group in peo - b - pbla with hydrophobic spacers having hydroxyl termini . these products were further conjugated with different fatty acids to form fatty acid conjugates of peo - b - phaa ( fig2 ). 1 h nmr was used to measure the degree of fatty acid substitution . attachment of a hydrophobic spacer introduces hydroxyl functional moieties to the side chains which could react with the carboxyl groups of the fatty acids . increasing the length of the spacer group from 2 to 6 carbon atoms facilitates an increase in the degree of side chain attachment to the phaa block . without wishing to be bound by any particular theory , this is believed to result in a rearrangement of the hydroxyl groups away from the polymeric backbone , i . e ., reduced steric hindrance , when hexyl spacers were used instead of ethyl spacers . using the same method of synthesis , block copolymers with different structures of the core - forming block were prepared , purified , dissolved in dmf and dialyzed against water to form micellar structures . the micellar properties were determined for each structure by tem and fluorescent probe techniques . the data presented herein show that peo - b - plaas with alkyl core structures mimic certain aspects of biological carriers for hydrophobic molecules . they self - assemble into nanoscopic , supramolecular core / shell structure where the core is rich in fatty acid esters . the shape of these micelles is spherical , except for highly substituted myristic , stearic and behenic conjugates of peo - b - phha , which tend toward the formation of ellipsoids . it is believed this is due to the larger dimensions of the hydrophobic block in those constituents . low cmc values measured for fatty acid conjugates of peo - b - phaa indicate a high tendency of these amphiphilic structures toward self - association in aqueous environments which tendency for self association reflects their thermodynamic stability in aqueous environments . the aliphatic core of the polymeric micelles described herein also appear rigid . micelles with glassy cores tend to disassemble more slowly than those with a mobile core ( kataoka et al . ( 1993 ) j . control . release 24 , 119 ). as a result , even at concentrations below the cmc , the micelles are dynamically stable and survive for a significant time in vivo . the alkyl core of the polymeric micelles in our studies was essentially varied in four structural aspects : the length of the plaa block , the length of the alkyl spacer , the length of the attached fatty acid and the substitution level of fatty acid on the polymeric backbone . the substitution level of fatty acids on the polymeric backbone is the major factor affecting micellar size , shape , cmc and micropolarities . the effect of the fatty acid substitution level was investigated in peo - b - phca block copolymers with two different degrees of capric acid attachment . an increase in the fatty acid content of the micellar core caused an increase in micellar size ( p & lt ; 0 . 0001 , unpaired t test ) and a decrease in cmc ( p & lt ; 0 . 05 , unpaired t test ). average micellar size was enhanced when capric acid content of the core was increased from 7 to 44 %. increased micellar size ( in the dry state ) is believed to be a consequence of larger dimensions of the hydrophobic block in those structures . owing to the hydration of the peo surface , micellar size shows an increase in aqueous environments . however , the enhanced hydrophobicity of the core - forming block may restrict this hydration and affect the final size of the polymeric micelles in vivo . accordingly , the results obtained from tem measurements cannot be simply extrapolated to micellar dimensions in aqueous environments . reduced cmc values for block copolymers with higher levels of capric acid attachment reflects the reduced free energy of micellization for those polymers . preferential expulsion of the copolymers with larger hydrophobic segments from water ( greater entropic driving force ) is assumed to be the reason behind this observation . peo - b - phca with 7 % of capric acid attachment exhibited greater micropolarities at 500 μg / ml concentration ( i 1 / i 3 = 1 . 3 ). the i 1 / i 3 in this case is even higher than values measured for benzyl core in peo - b - pbla at the same concentration ( lavasanifar et al . ( 2000 ) j . biomed . mat . res . 52 , 831 - 835 ). the higher i 1 / i 3 ratios could result from high core polarities due to the expression of oh groups in the micellar core . however , incomplete localization of the pyrene probe in the micellar core could cause the same effect . this , in turn , is a result of reduced hydrophobicity in the core region when polymeric micelles with capric acid substitutions as low as 7 % are used . at 7 % substitution , the amount of fatty acid is not sufficient to overcome the high polarities resulting from the free hydroxyl groups present in the micellar core . polar groups in the micellar core make the drug - loaded micelles more susceptible to dissociation and hydrolysis . interestingly , no difference in micellar core viscosity was observed between the two species . the formation of the 1 , 3 -( 1 , 1 ′- dipyrenyl ) propane excimer was considerably restricted in peo - b - phca even at 7 % fatty acid substitution . this result is in contrast to sds , which shows high ratios of i e / i m ( fig6 ). application of block copolymers with different lengths of the plaa block induced changes in micellar size and core viscosity . average micellar size was increased when length of the phea and phha was increased at the similar level of stearic acid substitution as illustrated in fig3 b . increasing hydrophobic block length showed no detectable effect on cmc measured from partitioning of pyrene in micellar core ( fig4 c ). this finding seems to contradict previous observations ( kwon et al . ( 1993 ) langmuir 9 , 945 ). the presence of hydroxyl groups in the core - forming block might have hindered the effects of the block elongation in reducing cmc . like cmc , micellar core polarity was not affected by block length , as shown in fig5 . micellar core viscosity , however , was influenced by the length of the plaa block . more rigid cores were formed when the length of plaa was elongated from 15 to 24 ( fig6 b ). this , in turn , results in the formation of polymeric micelles with greater dynamic stability , and particle movements into or out of the core region are restricted . collapsed conformation of the plaa blocks in micellar core and difference in aggregation numbers are among factors causing this effect . the length of the spacer group showed no significant effect on dialysis - prepared micellar properties . its effect on micellar size and cmc is compared in fig3 a and 4d , respectively , for peo - b - peca and peo - b - phca having similar degrees of capric acid attachment . the difference observed in micellar size ( fig3 b ) and cmc ( fig4 c ) between peo - b - pesa and peo - b - phsa is , therefore , most likely a result of an increase in the level of stearic acid substitution from 45 to 60 percent . except for micellar size , other properties of the system were not detectably affected when length of the fatty acid attached to the polymeric backbone was changed ( table 1 ), except that attachment of behenic acid ( 22 - carbon chain ) to a hexyl spacer in a high level of substitution caused an increase in core viscosity ( decrease in core mobility ). this unique structure lowered the formation of dipyrene probe excimer reflecting higher local viscosity in the micellar core in comparison to other polymeric micelles ( table 1 ). the same chemical structure with 50 % of behenic acid attachment showed similar i c / i m ratios in comparison to other structures , reflecting similar microviscosities . fatty acid esters of peo - b - phaa can be used for drug delivery as they form nanoscopic , core / shell micellar structures at very low concentrations where the core is relatively solid at room temperature . structural modifications can be made in the core - forming block , and thus , polymeric micelles with optimized structures for the purpose of drug delivery can be designed and prepared using the teachings of the present disclosure taken with what is well known to the art . we have shown that varying the levels of fatty acid side chain and the length of the phaa block are major factors by which the micellar structure can be tailored . changing the level of fatty acid attachment affects micellar size , thermodynamic stability and micropolarities , whereas varying the length of the phaa block in peo - b - plaa copolymers regulates micellar core viscosity , and higher core viscosities are associated with decreased dissociation rates of the loaded micelles . increasing the core viscosity can also be achieved by conjugation of fatty acids having long chains (& gt ; 22 carbon atoms ) at a high level of substitution on the polymeric backbone . encapsulation of amb by peo - b - phsa micelles was enhanced by an increase in the level of stearic acid substitution on the phsa block ( table 3 ). the level of amb encapsulated in peo - b - phsa micelles at 11 , 50 and 70 % stearic acid substitution was 0 . 22 , 0 . 35 and 0 . 36 mol drug : mol peo - b - phsa . the yield of encapsulated amb for peo - b - phsa micelles was 51 , 73 and 77 %, respectively . an increase in the level of stearic acid substitution in peo - b - phsa micelles reduced the ability of amb to cause hemolysis ( fig1 ). at 50 and 70 % stearic acid substitution amb was completely non - hemolytic at 22 μg / ml . however , amb at 11 % stearic acid substitution was almost as hemolytic as amb itself , causing 50 % hemolysis at 1 μg / ml and 100 % hemolysis at 3 μg / ml . the effect on hemolysis was also dependent on the content of amb in the peo - b - phsa micelles ( fig1 ). peo - b - phsa micelles at 0 . 36 mol drug : mol polymer were completely non - hemolytic at 22 μg / ml of amb . on the other hand , peo - b - phsa micelles at 0 . 89 mol drug : mol polymer caused 80 % hemolysis at a similar level of drug . the uv / vis spectra of encapsulated amb in peo - b - phsa micelles prepared by the solvent evaporation method with 11 and 70 % of stearic acid substitution and amb itself in pbs are shown in fig1 . a change in the uv spectrum of amb reflects conformational changes in amb molecule as a result of self - association or interaction with other compounds . the uv spectrum of amb encapsulated in peo - b - phsa micelles with 11 % of stearic acid substitution was very similar to the uv spectrum of free amb . at 4 μg / ml a broad absorption peak centered at 334 and three additional peaks at 364 , 385 and 409 nm were observed ( fig1 a and 12 b ). the absorption peaks for amb encapsulated in peo - b - phsa micelles having 70 % of stearic acid substitution shifted to the red side , showing peaks at 351 , 366 , 387 and 415 nm ( fig1 c ). the intensity ratio at 348 nm ( peak i ) to that at 409 nm ( peak iv ) is a measure for self - aggregation state of amb . the i / iv ratio for amb in pbs was about 1 . 2 at a level of 4 μg / ml ( fig1 a ). at a similar level , for amb encapsulated in peo - b - phsa micelles with 11 and 70 % of stearic acid substitution , the i / iv ratio was 2 . 1 and 1 . 8 , respectively ( table 3 ). the antifungal activity of encapsulated amb was compared to amb itself by estimating mics against the growth of three pathogenic fungi . fungi growth was examined by an inverted microscope (× 40 ). amb in an isotonic solution inhibited the growth of c . albicans , c . neoformans and a . fumigatus at 0 . 3 , 0 . 3 and 0 . 45 μg / ml , respectively ( table 4 ). amb encapsulated in peo - b - phsa micelles was as effective as amb itself in most of the cases . at 11 and 50 % of stearic acid substitution , encapsulated amb was even more effective than amb itself inhibiting the growth of c . neoformans at a level of 0 . 18 μg / ml . ( unpaired t test , p & lt ; 0 . 01 ). peo - b - phsa micelles without amb were unable to inhibit the fungal growth at 5 mg / ml level or below . the importance of compatibility between the core - forming block and the solubilizate has been shown in polymeric micelles ( yokoyama et al . ( 1998 ) j . control . release 50 , 79 - 92 ; yokoyama et al . ( 1998 ) j . control . release 55 , 219 - 229 ; nagarajan et al . ( 1986 ) langmuir 2 , 210 - 215 ). we explored this concept for a model aliphatic drug , amb , and tailored the chemical structure of the core in peo - b - plaa micelles through attachment of aliphatic structures , i . e . fatty acids , to improve micellar properties for drug delivery . the effect of alternations in the alkyl core structure on properties of micelles formed from peo - b - plaa derivatives has been described herein . the effect of structural modifications namely degree of fatty acid substitution on the core - forming block on the encapsulation , hemolytic activity and anti - fungal efficacy of amb has also been addressed herein . the chemical structure of the core - forming block was changed in the peo - b - phsa block copolymers in terms of the degree of stearic acid substitution . peo - b - phsa block copolymers with three levels of stearic acid substitution were prepared and used to encapsulate amb by solvent evaporation . an increase in the level of stearic acid substitution enhanced amb encapsulation ( table 3 ) while reducing its membrane activity toward red blood cells ( fig1 ). under identical loading conditions , the yield of amb encapsulation was 51 , 72 and 77 % for polymers with 11 , 50 and 70 % of stearic acid substitution , respectively ( table 3 ). amb in 11 % substituted polymer caused 100 % hemolysis at 3 μg / ml but it was non - hemolytic at 22 μg / ml after encapsulation in peo - b - phsa micelles with 50 and 70 % of stearic acid substitution ( fig1 ). the extinction of hemolytic activity of amb obtained by encapsulation in peo - b - phsa micelles was acquired at a drug content of 0 . 4 mol amb : mol peo - b - phsa but was not as much at a 0 . 9 mol drug : mol polymer ratio ( fig1 ). fig7 shows that amb loaded in micelles prepared by the solvent evaporation method are significantly reduced in hemolytic activity as compared with micelles loaded by dialysis . the hemolytic activity of amb in an uncomplexed form is also shown . fig8 a and 8b compared amb - loaded micelles prepared by the solvent evaporation and dialysis methods , respectively . the solvent evaporation method is shown in fig9 . despite reduced toxicity toward human red blood cells , encapsulated amb in peo - b - phsa micelles remained active against pathogenic fungi in vitro . the antifungal activity of amb was not affected by the level of stearic acid substitution in the micellar carrier ( table 4 ). amb binds to serum lipoproteins , which have cores rich in triglycerides , and interacts with lipid bilayer membranes ( brajtburg and bolard ( 1996 ) clin . microbiol . 9 , 512 - 531 ). the conformational change in amb molecule as a result of this interaction causes a bathochromic shift in the position of peak iv from 409 nm ( for monomeric amb ) to 414 nm ( for amb complex ) in its uv / vis spectrum ( barwicz et al . ( 1991 ) biochem . biophys . res . comm . 181 - 722 - 728 ). we observed a similar shift in the uv / vis spectra of amb in peo - b - phsa micelles with higher levels of stearic acid substitution ( fig1 a and 12 c ). therefore , a preferential encapsulation of amb in peo - b - phsa micelles with more fatty acid esters in the core appears to be caused by a favorable interaction between the drug and the lipid core . the same reason might have caused a sustained drug release from micellar systems with high levels of fatty acid esters in the core leading to amb delivery in a monomeric state . monomeric amb is non - toxic towards mammalian cells but active against fungal cells . in contrast , amb encapsulated in peo - b - phsa micelles with 11 % of stearic acid substitution absorbs uv light at similar wavelength as amb itself ( 409 nm ) reflecting lack of interaction ( fig1 b ). in comparison to amb itself , a higher i / iv ratio of amb in peo - b - phsa micelles with low levels of stearic acid substitution , instead , indicates the presence of encapsulated amb aggregates ( table 3 ). a rapid or aggregated amb release might be the cause of amb toxicity towards red blood cells in micelles with lower levels of fatty acid substitution or higher drug content . the level of stearic acid substitution in peo - b - phsa can be adjusted to enhance encapsulation and efficacy of amb as a result of enhanced interaction with the micellar core . the attenuated in vitro toxicity of amb in peo - b - phsa micelles with higher levels of stearic acid substitution reflects a crucial role for controlling the rate of amb release . thus , peo - b - phsa micelles with higher levels of fatty acid esters in the core act as a nanoscopic depots with long circulating properties for amb delivery . the efficacy of amb is improved for long - circulating liposomal amb in a murine model of candidiasis ( van etten et al . ( 1998 ) antimicrob . agent . chemother . 42 , 2431 - 2433 ). the long circulating system also reduces the dose , the risk of long - term toxicities and the cost of amb therapy associated with the administration of standard lipid formulations of amb . in sum , chemical tailoring of the core in peo - b - plaa micelles via increasing the presence of compatible moieties , i . e . fatty acid esters , leads to a better encapsulation and reduced hemolytic activity for amb . as a result , the polymeric micellar formulation of the present invention , which is made by solvent evaporation technology , provides effective solubility , reduced hemolytic activity and good antifungal efficacy for amb in vitro and in vivo . peo - b - phsa self assembles into micelles that encapsulate amb by a solvent evaporation method , the overall concentration of amb in water is clinically relevant for use in humans and animals for systemic fungal diseases , and the toxicity of the amb in terms of hemolysis is dramatically decreased over prior art formulations . the encapsulated amb - containing compositions of the present invention are improved with respect to toxicity and with respect to release properties . it has been demonstrated that the present compositions are effective in inhibiting the growth of representative fungal pathogens in vitro . these compositions are similarly effective in vivo after administration by a parenteral route , desirably by intravenous injection , and especially by intravenous perfusion . pathogenic fungi against which the amb of the present invention is effective include , without limitation , species of histoplasma , cryptococcus , candida , aspergillus , blastomyces , mucor , torulopsis , rhizopus , absidia , and causative agents of coccidiodomycosis and paracoccidioidomycosis , among others . anticancer agents such as taxol and the antineoplastic derivatives of taxol are also reduced in toxicity when encapsulated in micelles according to the present invention and delivered by parenteral administration , for example by intravenous injection or infusion . it is preferred that the drug - loaded micelles of the present invention are freeze - dried after preparation and stored in the dry state in a manner consistent with maintenance of the activity of the drug , as known in the art for a particular drug . the dry micelles are reconstituted in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier such as sterile physiological saline or a sterile dextrose solution , e . g ., 5 % dextrose , and after thorough hydration , they can be filtered ( optionally through a 0 . 22 μm filter ) prior to administration . the micelles of the present invention are administered at a similar dosage as is amphotericin b in prior art liposomal forms . all references cited in the present application are incorporated by reference herein to the extent that there is no inconsistency with the present disclosure . the following examples are provided for illustrative purposes , and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention as claimed herein . any variations in the exemplified articles which occur to the skilled artisan are intended to fall within the scope of the present invention . the synthesis of peo - b - pbla block copolymers is described in detail elsewhere ( yokoyama et al . ( 1992 ) bioconj . chem . 3 , 295 ). peo - b - pbla block copolymers were synthesized by ring - opening polymerization of b - benzyl l - aspartate n - carboxyanhydride using α - methoxy - ω - amino - peo as an initiator ( m n = 12 , 000 gmole − 1 , m w / m n = 1 . 05 , amine functionality = 0 . 96 ). based on 1 h nmr spectroscopy , the degree of polymerization of the pbla block in the samples was either 15 or 24 . to differentiate between these samples , a nomenclature of 12 - 15 or 12 - 24 is defined in this paper based on molecular weight of the peo block ( 12000 gmole − 1 ) and the degree of polymerization of the plaa block ( 15 or 24 ). peo - b - pbla ( 0 . 10 mmol bla units ) was dissolved in dried n , n - dimethylformamide ( dmf ) ( 5 ml ) with the aid of stirring and slight heating . subsequently , 2 - aminoethanol or 6 - aminohexanol ( 10 eq ) and 2 - hp ( 0 . 3 mmol ) were added . the reaction mixture was stirred for 24 h at 25 ° c . and poured into vigorously stirred cold isopropanol ( 50 ml ). the white precipitate was washed with isopropanol and diethyl ether and dried under vacuum . the complete removal of benzyl groups was evidenced by 1 h nmr in chloroform - d ( am - 300 mhz ) and by absorption spectroscopy ( milton - roy 3000 ). in the second step , peo - b - poly ( hydroxyalkyl l - aspartamide ) ( peo - b - phaa ) ( 12 - 15 ) was esterified with either hexanoic ( c = 6 ), capric ( c = 10 ), myristic ( c = 14 ), stearic ( c = 18 ) or behenic acid ( c = 22 ). fatty acid ( 5 eq ), dcc ( 0 . 070 mmol ) and dmap ( 0 . 010 mmol ) were added to a solution of peo - b - phaa ( 0 . 003 mmol haa units ) in dried dichloromethane ( 5 . 0 ml ). the mixture was stirred at room temperature for 24 h . the product was precipitated in cold isopropanol ( 50 ml ), washed with either isopropanol or diethyl ether , collected by centrifugation and dried under vacuum . the same method of preparation was used to attach stearic acid to peo - b - phaa ( 12 - 24 ). the products were characterized by 1 h nmr in chloroform - d ( am - 300 mhz ). unless otherwise noted , peo - b - phsa was prepared from peo - block - poly ( _ - benzyl l - aspartate ) ( peo - b - pbla ) as described previously ( lavasanifar et al . ( 2000 ) j . biomed . mater . res . 52 ( 2000 ) 831 - 835 ). the molecular weight of peo and the number of bla units in peo - b - pbla were 12 , 000 g mol − 1 ( m w / m n = 1 . 05 ) and 24 , respectively . briefly , peo - b - pbla was reacted with 6 - aminohexanol at 25 ° c . in the presence of 2 - hydroxypyridine as a catalyst . peo - block - poly ( hydroxyhexyl l - aspartamide ) ( peo - b - phha ) was formed , providing hydroxyl groups in the side chains . stearic acid was then reacted with peo - b - phha in dry dichloromethane with the aid of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide and dimethylaminopyridine . the reaction time was varied between 2 and 72 hr to achieve varied levels of stearic acid substitution on the phha block . the degree of fatty acid substitution ( mol stearic acid : mol reacted and unreacted hydroxyl groups ) was estimated by 1 h - nmr in chloroform - d ( am - 300 mhz ). in experiments carried out to compare fatty acid aliphatic chain length , the dialysis method was used to prepare micelles . micellization of polymers was achieved by dissolving 15 mg of each polymer in 4 . 0 ml of dmf with the aid of slight heat . doubly distilled water was then added to this solution in a drop - wise manner ( one drop per 20 s ) until the final water concentration was 10 - 15 % ( v / v ). a dialysis membrane with a molecular cutoff of 12 , 000 - 14 , 000 gmole − 1 was used to replace the organic solvent with distilled water overnight at room temperature replacing the medium three times . micelles were then passed through 0 . 22 μm filters . in certain other experiments , the dialysis method as described in lavasanifar et al . ( 2000 ) supra was used . amb ( 400 mg ) and peo - b - phsa ( 20 mg ) were both dissolved in 1 . 2 ml of n , n - dimethylsulfoxide . distilled water was added to the solution in a drop - wise manner ( 1 drop / 20 sec ) until the water content reached 80 % v / v . the solution of amb and peo - b - phsa was dialysed against distilled water overnight , filtered ( 0 . 22 μm ) and freeze - dried . the solvent evaporation method for the preparation of amb - encapsulated micelles is as follows . amb ( 470 μg or 2 mg ) and peo - b - phsa ( 20 mg ) were dissolved in methanol ( 5 . 0 ml or 10 ml ) in a round bottom flask . methanol was evaporated under vacuum at 300 mm hg at 40 ° c . in 15 min . alternatively , the solvent evaporation can be accomplished at room temperature at a pressure of about 100 mm hg or at about 33 ° c . and about 200 mm hg . distilled water was added to the polymer / drug film , the solution was incubated at 40 ° c . for 10 min and vortexed for 30 seconds afterwards . the micellar solution was filtered ( 0 . 22 μm ) and freeze - dried . the freeze - dried samples of amb in peo - b - phsa micelles were reconstituted in water and filtered ( 0 . 22 μm ). an aliquot of the solution in water was diluted with an equal volume of n , n - dimethylformamide ( dmf ), and the drug content measured from the uv / vis absorbance of amb at 412 nm ( pharmacia biotech ultraspec 3000 ). as an alternative to the solvent evaporation technique described herein for the incorporation of a polyene antibiotic into amphiphilic polymer micelles , one can also produce micelles having properties about the same as those prepared by solvent evaporation as described herein by rapidly jetting in the polyene antibiotic ( or other compound of interest ) into warm water containing the amphiphilic polymeric material dissolved in a solvent such as methanol or chloroform , with rapid mixing , and subsequent recovery of the drug - loaded micelles . the micelles can then be freeze dried as described herein . samples for tem were prepared by placing 20 μl of polymeric micellar solution ( 1 . 0 - 1 . 5 mg / ml ) on a copper - coated grid . a portion ( 20 μl ) of 2 % phosphotungstic acid in water was added as the negative stain . after 1 min excess fluid was removed using filter paper , and images were obtained at a magnification of 18 , 000 times ( 75 kv ) ( hitachi h 7000 ). apparent micellar diameters were measured , and a mean diameter + sd was calculated based on at least 120 measurements . amb was dissolved in 0 . 10 m phosphate buffer , ph 7 . 4 , with the aid of n , n - dimethylsulfoxide ( dmso ) to provide concentrations from 1 . 0 to 100 μg / ml . the amount of dmso in the final product was & lt ; 1 % ( v / v ). freeze - dried peo - b - phsa micelles with or without amb were dissolved in a 0 . 10 m phosphate buffer to provide a level of 0 . 5 mg / ml for polymer . samples of 125 μl were injected into a hydrogel 2000 ( waters ) column after it was equilibrated with phosphate buffer 0 . 10 m ( ph = 7 . 4 ) at a flow rate of 0 . 8 ml / min ( waters b 15 lc system ). eluted material was detected using a uv / vis detector ( waters 486 ) set at 210 and 410 nm for peo - b - phsa and amb , respectively . the column was calibrated with dextran standards ( 8 . 05h10 5 b9 . 11h10 6 g mol − 1 ) using refractive index detection ( precision detectors 2000 ). freeze - dried samples of amb in peo - b - phsa micelles with 11 and 70 % stearate substitution were dissolved in pbs , ph = 7 . 4 , at 4 μg / ml of amb . dmso was used to solubilize amb in pbs , ph = 7 . 4 , at a similar concentration . the level of dmso in the final sample was & lt ; 1 % ( v / v ). the uv / vis spectra of amb in different samples were recorded from 300 nm to 450 nm . human blood was collected and centrifuged ( 2000 rpm ). the supernatant and buffy coat were pipetted off and the red blood cells ( rbcs ) were diluted with an isotonic phosphate buffer , ph 7 . 4 . the proper dilution factor was estimated from the uv / vis absorbance of hemoglobin at 576 nm in the supernatant after rbcs were lysed by 20 μg / ml of amb . a properly diluted sample of rbcs gives an absorbance of 0 . 4 - 0 . 5 . solutions of diluted rbcs ( 2 . 5 ml ) with varied levels of amb in different samples were incubated at 37 ° c . for 30 min . samples were then placed in ice to stop hemolysis . the unlysed rbcs were removed by centrifugation at 14 , 000 rpm ( about 7000 × g ) for 20 sec . the supernatant was collected and analyzed for hemoglobin by uv / vis spectroscopy at 576 nm . the percent of hemolyzed rbcs was determined using this equation : % hemolysis = 100 ( abs − abs o )/( abs 100 − abs o ), where abs , abs o and abs 100 are the absorbance for the sample , control with no amb and control in the presence of 20 μg / ml amb , respectively . amb in peo - b - phsa micelles was dissolved in isotonic sodium chloride solution giving an amb level of 200 μg / ml . amb was dissolved in dmso and diluted further with the isotonic sodium chloride solution to give the same concentration . the level of dmso in the final solution was & lt ; 1 % v / v . samples of peo - b - phsa micelles in sodium chloride solution were also used as controls . solutions of 20 μl from these samples were diluted with the culture medium ( rpmi 1640 ) ( 80 μl ) in the first microwell . the next 11 microwells had serial two - fold diluted solutions . to each microwell , 100 μl of the inoculum containing 5 × 10 3 cfu / ml of fungal pathogen ( candida albicans , aspergillus fumigatus or cryptococcus neoformans ) in culture medium was added , giving a total volume of 200 μl per well . microwell containers were incubated at 35 ° c . for 24 hr . organism and medium controls were performed simultaneously to check the growth of organisms and sterility of culture medium , respectively . the mic was defined as the minimum concentration of amb that shows a full inhibition of fungal growth in the well , when examined using an inverted microscope ( h40 ). all tests were repeated three times . estimation of the critical micelle concentration and micellar core polarity by fluorescent probe techniques by following changes in the fluorescence excitation and emission spectra of pyrene in the presence of varied concentrations of block copolymers , the critical micelle concentration ( cmc ) and the polarity of the micellar core for each block copolymer were determined , respectively . pyrene was dissolved in acetone and added in a known amount to 5 ml volumetric flasks to provide a concentration of 6 h 10 − 7 m in the final solutions . acetone was then removed and replaced with aqueous polymeric micellar solutions ( 5 ml ) with concentrations ranging from 0 . 5 to 1000 μg / ml . samples were heated at 65ec for an hour , cooled to room temperature overnight and deoxygenated with nitrogen gas prior to fluorescence measurements . the excitation and emission spectrum of pyrene for each sample was then obtained using fluoromax dm - 3000 fluorescence spectrometer at room temperature . for fluorescence emission spectra , the excitation wavelength was chosen at 339 nm and for excitation spectra , the emission wavelength was set at 390 nm . spectra were accumulated with an excitation and emission bandwidth of 4 . 25 nm . the intensity ratio of peaks at 339 nm to those at 334 nm from the excitation spectrum were plotted against the logarithm of copolymer concentration to measure the cmc . a plot of the intensity ratio of first to the third band from the emission spectrum of pyrene vs . logarithm of copolymer concentration was used to estimate micelle core polarity . the viscosity of the micelle cores above the cmc was estimated with fluorescent probe techniques by measuring excimer to monomer intensity ratio ( i e / i m ) of 1 , 3 -( 1 , 1 =- dipyrenyl ) propane at 376 and 480 n , respectively . 1 , 3 -( 1 , 1 =- dipyrenyl ) propane was dissolved in a known volume of chloroform to give a final concentration of 2h 10 − 7 m . chloroform was then evaporated and replaced with 5 ml of aqueous solutions of polymeric micelles with a concentration of 500 μg / ml or sodium lauryl sulfate at 5 mg / ml . samples were heated at 65ec for an hour and cooled to room temperature overnight . a stream of nitrogen gas was used to deoxygenate samples prior to fluorescence measurements . emission spectrum of 1 , 3 -( 1 , 1 =- dipyrenyl ) propane was obtained at room temperature using an excitation wavelength of 333 nm . excitation bandwidth and integration times were set at the same values as the previous experiment . data obtained from cmc , micellar size , polarity and viscosity measurements were analyzed by statistical analysis software ( sas ) using either anova , duncan = s test or unpaired t test . dicyclocarbodiimide ( dcc ), dimethylaminopyridine ( dmap ), 6 - aminohexanol , fatty acids and pyrene were purchased from sigma chemical co ., st . louis , mo . 2 - hydroxypyridine ( 2 - hp ) and 2 - aminoethanol were purchased from icn . 1 , 3 -( 1 , 1 =- dipyrenyl ) propane was purchased from molecular probes , eugene , oreg . all other chemicals were reagent grade . peo - block - poly ( hydroxy - alkyl l - aspartamide block copolymers were obtained from k . kataoka ; they are described in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 449 , 513 ; see also a description of the synthesis of peo - b - pbla block copolymers in yokoyama et al . ( 1992 ) bioconj . chem . 3 , 295 . | 0 |
referring now to fig1 showing a schematic of a cross section through a radial plane of grip surface extension linkage 50 comprised of spokes 51 and spoke guides 52 shown as a plurality of elements disposed inside tubular work piece 53 and are understood to act together as a rigid body ( attached to each other out of the two dimensional plane of view ). spokes 51 are arranged with extended grip surface 54 close fitting with tubular work piece 53 and gripping tool grip or interface surface 55 . force vectors as might typically be applied at gripping tool interface surface 55 by a gripping tool to apply torque through grip surface extension linkage 50 to work piece 53 and the resultant forces at grip surface 54 , are shown on one spoke 51 , where it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the tangential force vectors “ t i ” and “ t o ” will most typically be less than the radial force vector “ r i ” and “ r o ” as required to meet typical frictional grip / work piece interfacial properties , and as such relatively short radial spokes will tend to be stable while relatively tall radial spokes may tend to roll and apply excessive prying loads as rolling is prevented by a radial non - uniform load distribution at interface 56 between the spoke 51 and work piece 53 and interface 55 between spoke 51 and gripping tool ( not shown ). to stabilize and prevent excessive radial prying loads , extension linkage 50 is provided with at least one rigid spoke guide 52 arranged to act between adjacent spokes 51 and providing a parallel guide contact face 57 at each spoke guide interface 58 that is sufficiently close fitting with spokes 51 and also sufficiently rigid such that any tendency of spoke 51 to roll will be prevented by contact with spoke guide interfaces 58 resulting in moment reaction contact stress illustrated by vectors “ w i ” and “ w o ” acting at radially inner and outer locations respectively , while guide contact face 57 is sufficiently smooth so as to facilitate radial sliding engagement at spoke guide interface 58 and to allow for radial motion of the spoke 51 under load and consequently allowing extended grip surface 54 to move radially and engage work piece 53 . it will now be evident that grip surface extension linkage 50 provides a structure that transfers radial and torsional load from gripping tool interface 55 to extended grip surface 54 and prevents the tendency of spokes 51 to rotate or impose undue reaction moments at either spoke guide interface 58 or at the work piece 53 interface with extended grip surface 54 . referring to fig2 through 8 , there will now be described a preferred embodiment of the present invention referred to here as a grip surface extension linkage , previously described in principal with reference to fig1 . referring first to fig2 , internal gripping tubular running tool 100 is shown configured with grip surface extension linkage assembly 400 adapted to mate with and be carried by lower end 109 of grip assembly 120 . assembly 400 is comprised of a plurality of radial oriented spokes 480 ( shown here as five ( 5 ) matching the number of jaws 160 ), primary and secondary spoke guide plates 460 and 470 respectively , segmented retainer ring 520 , and threaded retainer ring 530 . primary spoke guide plate 460 is coaxially located at the upper ends 481 of spokes 480 and similarly secondary spoke guide plate 470 is located at the lower ends 482 of spokes 480 , where the spokes 480 engage with inward facing primary and secondary radial grooves , 465 and 475 respectively , provided in guide plates 460 and 470 , respectively to thus form spoke guides as previously described with reference to fig1 . referring still to fig2 , slots 497 can be provided for the placement of garter springs 507 ( see fig6 and fig7 ) to facilitate spoke 480 refraction . referring now to fig3 , showing a trimetric external view of grip surface extension linkage assembly 400 provided separate from the running tool , spokes 480 are provided as assemblies of radially inner web elements 490 rigidly connected to radially outer die elements 500 carrying extended grip surface 504 configured to engage with a work piece ( not shown ). referring now to fig4 , which shows primary guide plate 460 in an external trimetric view , primary guide plate 460 has top end 461 , bottom end 462 , internal bore 463 and external surface 464 . primary guide plate 460 has a plurality of radial grooves 465 , in this case five , each defined by load faces 466 and 467 on the bottom end 462 extending from internal bore 463 to external surface 464 . located adjacent to and concentric with internal bore 463 and at the bottom end 462 of guide plate 460 is garter spring groove 468 and stroke limit rib 469 . on the top end 461 of guide plate 460 located concentric with and adjacent to internal bore 463 is retaining ring locating groove 459 . referring again to fig3 , grip surface extension linkage assembly 400 is provided with a retainer ring 520 comprised of a plurality of retainer ring segments 521 , in this case five , having upper face 522 , lower face 523 , inner face 524 and outer face 525 . retainer ring 520 is located adjacent to primary guide plate 460 such that lower face 523 mates with and is rigidly attached to retaining ring locating groove 459 on top face 461 of guide plate 460 by bolts ( not shown ). inner face 524 of retainer ring 520 has internal upset section 526 designed to engage , referring now to fig1 , axial retention groove 148 to thus constrain relative axial movement of primary guide plate of 460 on gripping tool 100 . referring now to fig5 , showing secondary guide plate 470 in an external trimetric view , having top end 471 , bottom face 472 , internal bore 473 and external surface 474 . secondary guide plate 470 has a plurality of radial grooves 475 , in this case five , each defined by load faces 476 and 477 on the top end 471 extending from internal bore 473 to external surface 474 . located adjacent to and concentric with internal bore 473 and at the bottom end 472 of guide plate 470 is retaining spring guide shoulder 478 and stroke limit rib 479 . referring now to fig6 , showing a cross section view of assembly 400 , threaded retainer ring 530 with top face 531 , inside surface 532 and bottom face 533 , has seal element 534 on top face 531 and thread element 535 on inside surface 532 . threaded retainer ring 530 is arranged concentrically with secondary guide plate 470 having thread element 535 designed to threadingly engage , referring now to fig2 , cage 144 of tubular running tool 100 . referring again to fig6 , top face 531 of ring 530 engages bottom face 472 of guide plate 470 , thereby axially constraining relative downward movement of secondary guide plate 470 and grip surface extension linkage assembly 400 . referring now to fig7 , a single spoke assembly 480 is shown in a section view , which in this embodiment of the present invention consists of web 490 and die 500 . however , it is understood that the present invention is not limited to this arrangement . the number of spoke components may be selected as desired , to provide ease of manufacture , interchange of parts between sizes , component strength as required by and specifically relating to radial extent of die and length of circumferential overhang . referring still to fig7 , generally elongate web 490 has top end 491 , bottom end 492 , internal surface 493 , and external surface 494 . external surface 494 is provided with a plurality of axial load lugs 496 generally arranged between the top end 491 and the bottom end 492 , while internal surface 493 is provided with a plurality of axial load grooves 495 arranged between the top end 491 and bottom end 492 . web 490 has a plurality of circumferential retaining spring grooves 497 , in this case four , located one at top end 491 , one at bottom end 492 ( both of which accommodate garter springs 507 that directly retains the web 490 ), and two located along internal surface 493 which provide clearance for additional garter springs that directly retain the jaw 160 of tubular running tool 100 ( not shown ), and two retaining lips 498 , one on either side , axially oriented and extending between top end 491 and bottom end 492 . the thickness of web 490 is generally governed by the thickness of jaw 160 and by the requirement to have some non - zero cage thickness between said jaw 160 while maximizing mandrel contact area . referring still to fig7 , die 500 with top end 501 , bottom end 502 , internal face 503 and external grip surface 504 , has a plurality of laterally oriented axial retaining grooves 505 generally arranged on internal surface 503 between top end 501 and bottom end 502 . referring now to fig3 , die 500 is attached to web 490 by bolts ( not shown ) arranged in bolt holes 509 . referring now to fig7 , internal surface 503 of die 500 mates and interlocks with external surface 494 of web 490 , such that axial retaining grooves 505 of die 500 engage axial load lugs 496 of web 490 , and referring now to fig8 , which shows an axially oriented section view of grip surface extension linkage assembly 400 , lateral retaining lips 506 of die 500 overhang and engage with lateral faces 511 of web 490 which collectively provide means to transfer axial , circumferential and radial load between web 490 and die 500 . referring now to fig2 , internal surface 493 of web 490 is designed to mate and interlock with the external gripping surface 164 of jaw 160 of tubular running tool 100 ( not shown ) and provide means to transfer load between the tubular running tool 100 and web 490 in a manner analogous to the load transfer between web 490 and die 500 . referring again to fig8 , extended grip surface 504 of die 500 is generally configured with a friction enhancing surface ( not shown ) designed to provide a balance between surface penetration and friction characteristics and to provide a relatively large contact area to distribute radial contact load and consequently minimize deformation of work piece 401 while tractionally engaging internal surface 402 of work piece 401 , and providing means to transfer axial , circumferential and radial load between die 500 and work piece 401 . referring again to fig6 , stroke limit rib 469 and 479 on guide plate 460 and , 470 respectively act in conjunction with spring retaining grooves 497 on top end 491 and bottom end 492 of web 490 and function as rigid stops by engaging if spoke assemblies 480 move radially past the design stroke limit . referring now to fig3 , spokes 480 of grip surface extension linkage assembly 400 are located axially between primary guide plate 460 and secondary guide plate 470 and aligned in guide grooves 465 and 475 respectively such that lateral faces 511 of web 490 slidingly engage said guide grooves and function to react lateral forces resultant on spoke assemblies 480 due to torsion applied to tubular running tool interface 499 on inner surface 493 of web 490 as previously described with reference to fig1 . referring again to fig2 , grip surface extension linkage assembly 400 is located external to and co - axial with tubular running tool 100 , where gripping tool interface surfaces 499 of spokes 480 are engaged with the gripping surface 164 of jaws 160 of the grip assembly 120 and where spokes 480 can be circumferentially aligned with the jaws of tubular running tool 100 . it is understood also that the number of spokes 480 can be equal to the number of jaws 160 on the tubular running tool 100 . referring now to fig8 , it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the grip surface extension linkage is not necessarily associated with or attached to a specific tubular running tool , and as such said linkage assembly 400 can be provided with an integral link between primary and secondary guide plates 460 and 470 respectively to prevent relative axial movement but allow some relative rotation of each guide plate about the axis of linkage assembly 400 . in this case assembly 400 can be provided a means of axial retention in a work - piece 401 such that the grip surface extension linkage assembly 400 would first be inserted into said work - piece and to grip said work - piece , a tubular running tool ( not shown ) would subsequently be inserted into the grip surface extension linkage assembly 400 and activation of said tubular running tool would activate the grip surface extension linkage assembly 400 . it will be apparent that an arrangement such as this might be beneficial in an application where multiple work - pieces of different sizes were being gripping in quick succession . in this patent document , the word “ comprising ” is used in its non - limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included , but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded . a reference to an element by the indefinite article “ a ” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present , unless the context clearly requires that there be one and only one of the elements . it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that modifications may be made to the illustrated embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter defined in the claims . | 4 |
the phrase &# 34 ; safe and therapeutically effective amount &# 39 ;&# 34 ; as used herein , means a sufficient amount of a drug , compound , composition , product or pharmaceutical agent to abate or reverse or treat a malady in a human or other mammal without severely harming the tissues of the mammal to which the drug or pharmaceutical agent is administered . the phrase &# 34 ; pharmaceutically acceptable derivative ,&# 34 ; as used herein , means any pharmaceutically acceptable salt , solvate , ester , or salt of such ester or any other compound which , upon administration to the recipient , is capable of providing ( directly or indirectly ) the intended active ingredient or any active metabolite or residue thereof . the term &# 34 ; substantially free of &# 34 ;, as used herein , means present in quantities that have less than a material effect on , or confer less than a material advantage to , the pharmaceutical composition . a pharmaceutical composition substantially free of ethanol may contain , for example , less than 30 % ethanol , advantageously 0 - 1 % ethanol . a pharmaceutical composition substantially free of edta may contain , for example , less than 0 . 005 % edta . the term &# 34 ; preservative efficacy &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; preservative effectiveness &# 34 ;, as used herein , means that the composition satisfies usp standards as defined in protocol & lt ; 51 & gt ;, p . 1681 , united states pharmacopeia , 1995 ). the preservative is effective in the product examined if ( a ) the concentrations of viable bacteria are reduced to not more than 0 . 1 % of the initial concentrations by the fourteenth day ; ( b ) the concentrations of viable yeasts and molds remain at or below the initial concentrations during the first 14 days ; and ( c ) the concentration of each test microorganism remains at or below these designated levels during the remainder of the 28 - day test period . similar criteria are defined for bp standards ( efficacy of antimicrobial preservation , appendix xvi c , 1995 ), and pheur standards ( efficacy of antimicrobial preservation , chapter viii . 14 , 1992 ). the term &# 34 ; preservative system &# 34 ;, as used herein , means ingredients and conditions ( for example , ph ) which result in preservative efficacy . it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that reference herein to &# 34 ; treatment &# 34 ; extends to both the prophylaxis and the treatment of an established malady , infection or its symptoms . the term &# 34 ; edta &# 34 ;, as used herein , means ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid , and includes disodium edta ( edetate disodium , ( ethylenedinitrilo ) tetraacetic acid disodium salt , disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate ), calcium disodium edta , sodium iron ( iii ) edta , and the like . the compositions of the present invention employ a safe and therapeutically effective amount of lamivudine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts , solvates and derivatives thereof , together with a safe and effective amount of pharmaceutically acceptable carriers . according to one aspect of the present invention , there is provided a pharmaceutical composition , substantially free of ethanol and edta , comprising lamivudine and parabens , wherein said composition is formulated at ph & gt ; 5 . 5 . the ph of the formulation of the present invention may be in the range of 5 . 56 - 7 . 4 , advantageously in the range of 5 . 6 - 6 . 5 , and most advantageously in the range of 5 . 8 - 6 . 2 , particularly about 6 . 0 . according to the present invention , any ester of hydroxybenzoate ( parabens ) or combination of such esters may be used , including methyl and propyl paraben and butyl and propyl paraben combinations . in a further aspect of the present invention , there is provided lamivudine formulations containing methyl paraben and propyl paraben . for oral solutions and suspensions , the range of methyl paraben concentration may be 0 . 096 - 0 . 2 % ( 0 . 96 mg / ml to 2 mg / ml ) and the range of propyl paraben concentration may be 0 . 01 % to 0 . 02 % ( 0 . 1 to 0 . 2 mg / ml ). advantageously the range of methyl paraben concentration may be 0 . 15 - 0 . 2 % ( 1 . 5 mg / ml to 2 mg / ml ) and the range of propyl paraben concentration may be 0 . 018 % to 0 . 019 % ( 0 . 18 to 0 . 19 mg / ml ). according to a further aspect of the present invention , any suitable buffer may be used to provide a ph & gt ; 5 . 5 . advantageously , sodium citrate or phosphate may be used . the compositions of the present invention may optionally employ diluents , solubilizers , flavoring agents , viscosity - increasing agents ( e . g . polyethylene glycol ), sweeteners , buffers , or any other excipients commonly used in the art . methods for the preparation of lamivudine are described in wo92 / 20669 and wo95 / 29174 both incorporated by reference herein . included in the invention are the pharmaceutically acceptable salts , esters , or salts of such esters of lamivudine , or any other compound which , upon administration of a safe and therapeutically effective amount of the compound to a human subject , is capable of providing ( directly or indirectly ) the antivirally active metabolite or residue thereof . the compositions of the present invention may be formulated using methods and techniques suitable for the compositions &# 39 ; physical and chemical characteristics and that are commonly employed by persons skilled in the art of preparing oral dosage forms ( remington , the science and practice of pharmacy , 19th ed ., 1995 ). the formulations according to the invention may be presented in various forms adapted for direct oral administration including liquid forms , for example , syrups , suspensions , or solutions . the formulations , according to the invention , may include other pharmaceutically acceptable carriers as excipients conventionally used in such formulations . thus , for example , syrups may include sugar syrup , sorbitol or hydrogenated glucose syrup . suspensions may include suspending agents such as methylcellulose , microcrystalline cellulose , croscarmellose sodium or dispersible cellulose . solutions may include sweeteners such as liquid glucose , laevulose , xylitol , maltitol , or lycasin . the formulations may optionally be flavored with artificial or natural flavors . the formulations include those suitable for oral administration . the formulations may conveniently be presented in unit dosage form and may be prepared by any of the methods well known in the art of pharmacy . such methods include the step of bringing into association the active ingredient with the carrier which constitutes one or more accessory ingredients . in general the formulations can be prepared by uniformly and intimately bringing into association the active ingredient with carriers . formulations of the present invention suitable for oral administration may be presented as a solution or a suspension in an aqueous liquid or a non - aqueous liquid ; or as an oil - in - water liquid emulsion or a water - in - oil liquid emulsion . the formulations of the present invention may be made using methods and techniques that are commonly employed in preparing preparations within the pharmaceutical industry . in the formulations according to the invention , the amount required of lamivudine will depend upon a number of factors including the severity of the condition to be treated and the age and condition of the recipient and will ultimately be at the discretion of the attendant physician . in general , however , a suitable , effective dose may be in the range of 0 . 1 - 20 mg / kg body weight of recipient per day , advantageously 0 . 1 - 5 mg / kg / day . the desired dose may preferably presented as one , two , three , four or more sub - doses , for example , containing 0 . 1 - 100 mg / ml , advantageously 5 - 20 mg / ml . the formulations according to the invention may be used for the treatment or prophylaxis of human retroviral infections including hiv infections , and the consequent clinical conditions resulting from such infections , for example , aids , arc , progressive generalized lymphadenopathy ( pgl ) and hiv - seropositive and aids - antibody - positive conditions . the formulations according to the invention may be used for the treatment or prophylaxis of human hepatitis b ( hbv ) infections and the consequent clinical conditions resulting from such infections . the formulations according to the invention may be employed in medical therapy in combination with other therapeutic agents suitable in the treatment of hiv infections , such as nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors for example zidovudine , zalcitabine , didanosine , stavudine , 5 - chloro - 2 &# 39 ;, 3 &# 39 ;- dideoxy - 3 &# 39 ;- fluorouridine and ( 2r , 5s )- 5 - fluoro - 1 -[ 2 -( hydroxymethyl ) 1 , 3 - oxathiolan - 5 - yl ] cytosine , 1592u89 ; non - nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors for example nevirapine , tibo , and α - apa ; hiv protease inhibitors for example saquinavir , indinavir , ritonavir , 141w94 ; other anti - hiv agents for example soluble cd4 ; immune modulators fcr example interleukin ii , erythropoetin , tucaresol ; and interferons for example α - interferon . the formulations according to the present invention may be employed in medical therapy in combination with other therapeutic agents suitable in the treatment of hbv infections , such as α - interferon . the components of such combination therapy may be administered simultaneously , in either separate or combined formulations or at different times , e . g . sequentially such that a combined effect is achieved . the following non - limiting examples are included to illustrate the present invention but are not intended to limit the reasonable scope thereof . ______________________________________ingredient quantity / 1000 l batch______________________________________lamivudine * 10 . 00 kg sucrose 200 . 0 kg methyl hydroxybenzoate 1 . 50 kg propyl hydroxybenzoate 180 g artificial strawberry flavor 800 g artificial banana flavor 600 g sodium citrate dihydrate 11 g citric acid anhydrous 1 g propylene glycol ** 19 . 4 l naoh / hcl , adjust as necessary ph 6 . 0 purified water to 1000 l______________________________________ * quantity may be corrected for purity . ** volume of propylene glycol is calculated by weight using the true density of 1 . 033 g / ml to an appropriately sized auxiliary vessel , 19 . 4l of propylene glycol was added . while mixing , 1 . 50 kg of methyl hydroxybenzoate and 180 g of propyl hydroxybenzoate were added to the propylene glycol and mixed to dissolve . purified water was dispensed into a stainless steel vessel with an attached mixer . while mixing , the parabens and glycol solution , 200 . 0 kg sucrose , 1 g citric acid anhydrous , 11 g sodium citrate dihyrate , 800 g artificial strawberry flavor , 600 g artificial banana flavor and 10 kg of lamivudine were added and mixed . a sufficient quantity of purified water to make 201 . 65 kg was added and mixed . the solution was sampled and the ph was measured and adjusted to ph 6 . 0 . the solution was filtered through a clarifying filter into an appropriately sized receiving vessel . antimicrobial preservative effectiveness testing was performed using the method described in the united states pharmacopeia 23 & lt ; 51 & gt ;( 1995 ), united states pharmacopeial convention , rockville , md ., 1994 , p . 1681 . table 1 . antimicrobial preservative efficacy testing results for lamivudine 10 mg / ml ethanol - free oral solution ( example 1 ) yeast and mold ( a . niger , c . albicans ,): 1 log reduction by day 14 , no increase to day 28 . bacteria : 3 log reduction by day 14 , no increase to day 28 . ______________________________________ log reduction at each test inoculum incubation time ( days ) organism per ml 7 14 21 28______________________________________staphylococcus 9 . 6 × 10 . sup . 5 5 . 50 5 . 98 5 . 98 5 . 98 aureus escherichia 8 . 0 × 10 . sup . 5 5 . 90 5 . 90 5 . 90 5 . 90 coli pseudomonas 1 . 7 × 10 . sup . 5 5 . 23 5 . 23 5 . 23 5 . 23 aeruginosa candida 9 . 6 × 10 . sup . 5 3 . 69 5 . 98 5 . 98 5 . 98 albicans aspergillus 1 . 4 × 10 . sup . 5 4 . 55 5 . 15 5 . 15 5 . 15 niger______________________________________ antimicrobial preservative effectiveness testing was performed using the method described in the united states pharmacopeia 23 & lt ; 51 & gt ;( 1995 ), united states pharmacopeial convention , rockville , md ., 1994 , p . 1681 . table 2 . 14 day log reduction values for lamivudine formulations ( 10 mg / ml ). yeast and mold ( a . niger , c . albicans , z rouxii ): 1 log reduction by day 14 , no increase to day 28 . bacteria : 3 log reduction by day 14 , no increase to day 28 . __________________________________________________________________________ph m - para p - para c . albicans a . niger z . rouxii s . aureus e . coli p . cepacia p . aeru . __________________________________________________________________________5 . 7 0 . 960 0 . 12 2 . 120 3 . 850 3 . 66 5 . 03 5 . 34 5 . 01 5 . 28 6 . 3 0 . 960 0 . 12 1 . 980 5 . 230 5 . 04 5 . 15 5 . 04 5 . 19 4 . 98 5 . 5 1 . 350 0 . 16 5 . 630 ** 5 . 230 5 . 04 5 . 15 5 . 34 5 . 49 4 . 98 6 . 5 1 . 350 0 . 16 5 . 630 5 . 230 5 . 04 5 . 33 5 . 16 5 . 49 4 . 80 5 . 5 1 . 440 0 . 16 5 . 630 5 . 230 5 . 04 5 . 15 5 . 34 5 . 49 5 . 28 6 . 5 1 . 440 0 . 16 5 . 630 5 . 230 5 . 04 5 . 63 5 . 64 5 . 49 4 . 98 6 . 0 1 . 800 0 . 20 5 . 630 5 . 230 5 . 04 5 . 15 5 . 64 5 . 19 5 . 28 6 . 0 * 1 . 800 0 . 20 5 . 630 5 . 230 5 . 04 5 . 63 5 . 64 5 . 19 5 . 28 5 . 5 1 . 200 0 . 15 1 . 36 5 . 5 0 . 960 0 . 12 0 . 77__________________________________________________________________________ * placebo ** bold numbers represent 100 % reduction | 0 |
fig1 illustrates the automated bare board fault verification and repair station , and hereinafter referred to as a flying prober 10 of the present invention . the flying prober includes an angled frame 12 supported upon a base 14 and an input station 16 positioned adjacent the angled frame 12 . the angled frame includes at least one prober head 18 , and preferably two prober heads for movement across the surface of a bare printed circuit board or unit under test 20 . the unit under test is positioned within the angled frame by an automated locating and loading mechanism 22 positioned within an opening 24 in the face 26 of the angled frame 12 . as also seen in fig2 the automated loading and locating mechanism 22 includes an upper housing 28 and a lower housing 30 . the upper and lower housings are positioned within the opening in the angled frame at a distance away from each other corresponding to the width of the unit under test 20 . lower housing 30 is rigidly positioned in the angled frame by mounting blocks 32 positioned on either end of the housing . the upper housing 28 includes a body portion 29 and a cover 31 which are moveable to accommodate varying width circuit boards to be tested by having mounting blocks 34 positioned on either end of the upper housing which are connected to a screw clamp 36 adjustable within vertical slots 38 in the face 26 of the angled frame . screw clamps 36 are adjusted by rotation of knobs 40 to loosen and tighten the screw clamp along the desired location of the vertical slot . both the upper and lower housing have a lip 42 extending along the surface adjacent to the unit under test . the lips 42 can be integrally formed within the upper or lower housing or can be a separate component fastened to the housing by screws , rivets , etc . the lips form a surface for receipt of the unit under test . considering the loading and locating mechanism 22 is positioned within the angled frame , the mechanism is also in an angled position thereby allowing gravity to initially hold the unit under test between the upper and lower housing on the lips . the unit under test is simply placed by hand between the upper and lower housing against a stop 44 located on the left hand side of the housing which is the prober location for registration by the prober heads . the unit under test is held in position between the upper and lower housing by a plurality of finger springs 46 extending from both the upper and lower housing and are positioned along the length of a clamping block 48 positioned within the upper and lower housing . the clamping block 48 is secured within body portion 29 by blocks 49 located on either end of the body portion . the finger springs are positioned along the length of a clamping block wherein each finger spring is positioned within a groove 50 corresponding to the width of each finger spring . preferably the finger springs 46 are secure to the clamping block by screws 52 . the finger springs extend beyond the edge of the clamping blocks . the fingers springs are raised and lowered by a dowel rod 53 positioned within a groove 54 extending along the length of the clamping block . the dowel rod has a plurality of notches 55 corresponding to the width of the finger springs . the finger springs are lowered to their unit under test engaging position by rotating the dowel rod so that the notches in the dowel rod are adjacent the finger springs . the finger springs are raised by rotating the dowel rod thereby moving the notches in the dowel rod away from the finger springs so that the non - notched portion of the dowel rod lifts the finger springs upperwardly and away from the unit under test . the dowel rod is rotated by a liner actuator 56 , such as an air cylinder . the clamping block is moved toward and away from the unit under test also by a liner actuator 58 , such as an air cylinder . the liner actuators for the dowel rod and the clamping block are attached to the upper and lower housing . when the unit under test is loaded into the upper and lower housing the clamping block is in its retracted position and the finger springs are in their raised position . the clamping blocks are then moved forward positioning the bent end of the finger springs over the edge of the unit under test . the dowel rod is then actuated to lower the bent ends of the finger springs on to the upper surface of unit under test thereby securely clamping the unit under test on the lips of the upper and lower housing . the fault verification is then preformed by moving the prober heads over the surface of the unit under test to make contact with the desired test locates on the unit under test . as seen in fig1 first an operator scans a bar code on an error tag generated from a tester for a particular unit under test . a bar code scanner 60 is located on the input station 16 . the fault file 61 is instantly imported to the computer screen 62 . next , the unit under test is loaded into the locating and loading mechanism 22 . the unit under test is slipped into the preset position which eliminates the need for board specific tooling hardware . the prober heads automatically move to the exact location of the first reported fault and make a precise resistance measurement on the pair of failed nodes . when the end points are verified , the reported fault is identified as either false or real . once the fault has been verified a real - time high - resolution video camera magnifies the image of high risk locations . the actual area of the circuit board is viewable on the computer screen for a visual inspection as to whether a defect exists . | 7 |
the present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying figures , in which embodiments of the invention are shown . this invention may , however , be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein . like numbers refer to like elements throughout . in the figures , certain components or features may be exaggerated for clarity , and broken lines may illustrate optional features or elements unless specified otherwise . in addition , the sequence of operations ( or steps ) is not limited to the order presented in the figures and / or claims unless specifically indicated otherwise . features described with respect to one figure or embodiment can be associated with another embodiment or figure although not specifically described or shown as such . it will be understood that when a feature or element is referred to as being “ on ” or “ disposed on ” another feature or element , it can be directly on the other feature or element or intervening features and / or elements may also be present . in contrast , when a feature or element is referred to as being “ directly on ” another feature or element , there are no intervening features or elements present . it will also be understood that , when a feature or element is referred to as being “ affixed ”, “ connected ”, “ attached ” or “ coupled ” to another feature or element , it can be directly connected , attached or coupled to the other feature or element or intervening features or elements may be present . in contrast , when a feature or element is referred to as being “ directly connected ”, “ directly attached ” or “ directly coupled ” to another feature or element , there are no intervening features or elements present . although described or shown with respect to one embodiment , the features and elements so described or shown can apply to other embodiments . the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention . as used herein , the singular forms “ a ”, “ an ” and “ the ” are intended to include the plural forms as well , unless the context clearly indicates otherwise . it will be further understood that the terms “ comprises ” and / or “ comprising ,” when used in this specification , specify the presence of stated features , steps , operations , elements , and / or components , but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features , steps , operations , elements , components , and / or groups thereof . as used herein , the term “ and / or ” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items and may be abbreviated as “/”. as used herein , phrases such as “ between x and y ” and “ between about x and y ” should be interpreted to include x and y . as used herein , phrases such as “ between about x and y ” mean “ between about x and about y .” as used herein , phrases such as “ from about x to y ” mean “ from about x to about y .” spatially relative terms , such as “ under ”, “ below ”, “ lower ”, “ over ”, “ upper ” and the like , may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature &# 39 ; s relationship to another element ( s ) or feature ( s ) as illustrated in the figures . it will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures . it will be understood that although the terms first , second , etc ., may be used herein to describe various features or elements , these features or elements should not be limited by these terms . these terms are only used to distinguish one feature or element from another feature or element . thus , a first feature or element discussed below could be termed a second feature or element , and similarly , a second feature or element discussed below could be termed a first feature or element without departing from the teachings of the present invention . unless otherwise defined , all terms ( including technical and scientific terms ) and phrases used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs . it will be further understood that terms , such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries , should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the specification and relevant art and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein . well - known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and / or clarity . the term “ about ”, as used herein with respect to a value or number , means that the value or number can vary by +/− twenty percent ( 20 %). the terms “ about ,” “ somewhat ,” “ substantially ,” etc ., with respect to structural or functional inter - relations or aspects , apart from values or numbers , are used to convey that an absolute inter - relation is not required , so as the elements satisfy the described purpose within such inter - relation . valve design varies considerably , with many gate or globe valves operated by a moving stem or spindle that actuates or effects the motion of the gate , plug , disc , etc . conventionally , as noted above , cryogenic valves have been designed to handle the extremely cold temperatures of cryogenic fluid . ptfe guide bushings have been generally used to guide extended stems or spindles as it moves within an inner passage defined by an inner surface of the valve bonnet , which then maintains proper alignment of the sealing or controlling plug of the valve . proper alignment aids in the proper operation and sealing of the valve . most materials expand when heated and contract when cooled . ptfe , for example , contracts or shrinks in extremely low temperatures . the application of steam at high temperatures to a cryogenic valve , conversely , causes the ptfe bushing to expand . while in other respects ptfe performs well with such temperatures , thermal expansion of conventional designs can cause the bushing to interfere with other valve components , even to the point of failure . reducing the proportions of a bushing may avoid such interference , but introduces a challenge in preserving proper alignment for the full range of temperatures . for example , in some embodiments , reducing the proportions of a bushing may create lateral gaps between the bushing and the valve bonnet when the bushing contracts . lateral or transverse gaps can contribute to misalignment of valve components . while the present approach described here is for particular application with a ptfe or stainless steel bushing of a cryogenic valve , the principles may be adapted to other structures or materials in which a variance in thermal conductivity necessitates the use of a positioning device for operation . for consistency in reference in showing the inter - relation of components , fig1 illustrates a cross section of valve assembly 100 and substantially orthogonal axes , with a first axis 2 shown substantially orthogonal to a transverse plane formed by second axis 4 and third axis 6 . however , the orientation of a particular embodiment might vary significantly , depending on the embodiment . in other words , first axis 2 being shown vertically in fig1 , an embodiment might have first axis 2 in a horizontal or other disposition . in some embodiments , a cryogenic valve assembly 100 may be provided that includes a valve bonnet 70 that has an inner surface 72 that defines or faces an inner passage 74 . the bonnet inner passage 74 may have a passage length 74 a along a first axis 2 and a passage cross section or width 74 b along substantially orthogonal transverse second and third axes . the assembly 100 may have a valve stem 30 sized to be movably disposed within the inner passage 74 of the valve bonnet 70 . the movement of stem 30 may be longitudinal , i . e ., translational , along first axis 2 , for example , or rotationally about first axis 2 . the valve stem 30 has a stem length 30 a along the first axis 2 and is generally configured to operably move relative to the first axis 2 . the valve stem 30 has a transverse stem width 30 b that is less than the passage width 74 b . included with the assembly 100 is a guide bushing 10 disposed , affixed , or otherwise arranged on or about the valve stem 30 , which may be by securing or mounting in a concentric or surrounding manner . alternatively , bushing 10 and stem 30 may be integrated or manufactured as a sub - assembly 50 , optionally with bushing 10 affixed to valve stem 30 . the guide bushing 10 may have a transverse bushing width 10 b that is greater than the stem width 30 b but less than the passage width 75 b of the inner passage 74 . these components would define a transverse gap 40 between the guide bushing 10 and the bonnet inner surface 72 . the guide bushing 10 may have or present at least one outer surface 15 that may face at least a portion of the inner surface 72 of bonnet 70 . a ball nose assembly 20 may be at least partially disposed in at least one of the at least one outer surface 15 of guide bushing 10 . at least a portion of the ball nose assembly 20 may extend at least partially into the transverse gap 40 . the aspect of extending into the transverse gap 40 enables the maintenance of transverse alignment of the valve stem 30 relative to the bonnet 70 , as discussed further below . embodiments of the present approach may take the form of a cryogenic valve stem sub - assembly 50 with such a valve stem 30 and guide bushing 10 , or of a guide bushing 10 for use in such a cryogenic valve . in some embodiments , guide bushing 10 ( or other similarly functioning component ) of a cryogenic valve assembly 100 may be of a desired transverse cross section or shape , limiting the points of contact of bushing 10 on inner surface 72 . thus , a bushing 10 may be oriented or disposed along a portion ( i . e ., less than entire length ) of the spindle or stem 30 , with the bushing 10 extending somewhat transversely beyond the stem 30 surface or width to present a low friction outer surface 15 that interacts and / or makes contact with the inner surface 72 of the bonnet 70 . embodiments of a cryogenic valve guide bushing 10 may define one or more cavities 12 in the bushing outer surface ( s ) 15 . the cavities 12 may be somewhat aligned along the axis of any gaps or openings exposed or formed in thermal contraction , such as along a lateral or transverse axis ( 4 , 6 ) as described above , such as transverse gap 40 . in such a configuration , the cavities 12 may be distributed about the circumference of a lateral or transverse cross section of guide bushing 10 , for example . in some embodiments , a bushing 10 may have four cavities 12 radially configured or separated 90 - degrees apart . a low friction contact or point , such as a ball nose assembly 20 , may be inserted within the one or more cavities 12 . where an embodiment of a bushing 10 has multiple sides or outer surfaces 15 , a ball nose assembly 20 may be inserted within the one or more cavities 12 in one or more of the sides or surfaces . a ball nose assembly 20 may comprise a body 22 , a bearing point 24 , and a resilient element 26 . in some embodiments , the body 22 may comprise a cylindrical member having an inner annulus or other void . a body outer surface may optionally be threaded or otherwise machined for engagement with the bushing 10 within the cavity 12 . some embodiments of the assembly 20 having cylindrical bodies 22 may also have a resilient element 26 in the form of a spring mounted within the body 22 inner annulus , for example , and configured such that bearing point 24 may expand outward from the body 22 unless depressed . a bearing point 24 may also be moveably mounted within the body 22 at a point outward from the resilient element 26 . in such a configuration , the resilient element 26 and bearing point 24 may operate as a plunger when disposed within the bushing 10 . thermal contraction of the bushing 10 would expose or increase the transverse gap 40 described above , and release the compression of the resilient element 26 . the ball nose assembly 20 may thus be configured or machined so as to permit the bearing point 24 to extend ( or “ plunge ”) relatively outwardly as the bushing 10 undergoes thermal contraction . the bearing point 22 is preferably low friction , such as a bearing or ball rotatably mounted within the ball nose assembly 20 . the bearing point 22 ( e . g ., ball ) may glide or roll against an inner wall or surface 72 of bonnet 70 when stem 30 is movably disposed within the inner passage 74 . use of the ball nose assembly 20 with a bushing 10 thereby overcomes or addresses the dimensional changes occurring from thermal expansion and contraction , including that due to the extreme 750 - f degree changes in temperature from steam to liquid nitrogen . by overcoming the thermal expansion and contraction of the guide bushing 10 , one may achieve proper alignment of stem 30 relative to bonnet 70 ( as well as a sealing plug or disk with a valve body ), which enables a pneumatic valve suitable for use with both media , steam and liquid nitrogen . in some embodiments , one or more stainless steel guide bushings 10 are disclosed . a stainless steel bushing 10 may have a desired shape with respect to the physical profile of inner passage 74 , such as a transverse or cross section square shape with excised corners or chamfered corners 17 within bushing outer surfaces 15 . in some embodiments , one or more ball nose assemblies 20 may be disposed within chamfered corners 17 , configured to make contact with the inner surface 72 of valve bonnet 70 . this may minimize the contact area between the bushing 10 and the bonnet 70 , thereby reducing the frictional force and the potential for galling . this embodiment also allows low friction motion or rolling of the bearing points 24 in the ball nose assemblies 20 . the ball nose assemblies 20 ( or detents ) may be housed in guide bushing cavities 12 in each of the excised corner - sides or chamfered corners 17 . this allows for minimal contact or friction between the bushing 10 and bonnet 70 , yet addresses expansion and contraction issues with having a bushing 10 made of a different material ( e . g ., ptfe ) from the bonnet 70 . in these embodiments , the at least one ball nose assemblies 20 may comprise four ball nose assemblies 20 spaced radially 90 - degrees apart . at the same time , the transverse alignment of stem 30 may be maintained relative to bonnet 70 . in some embodiments , the bushing 10 may include a desired polygonal transverse shape , with for example , three or six sides forming guide bushing outer surfaces 15 in a general triangular shape or , optionally , triangular also having chamfered corners 17 ( or excised corner - sides ) to make six sides , with each chamfered corner 17 having a ball nose assembly 20 . in a triangular embodiment , the ball nose assemblies 20 comprise at least three ball nose assemblies 20 spaced radially 120 - degrees apart . any number of sides to outer surfaces 15 and / or ball nose assemblies 20 may be contemplated , depending on the application and profile . it is desirable to have a minimal amount of contact points between the bushing 10 and inner surface 72 of the bonnet . thus , the transverse or cross section shape of bonnet 10 may advantageously be configured so as to reduce the potentially contacting or galling points of bushing outer surface 15 . in some embodiments , the bushing 10 may include a small or great plurality of sides to outer surfaces 15 , which some ( i . e ., not necessarily all ) of the sides including ball nose assemblies 20 . in many embodiments , the ball nose assemblies 20 may be positioned at outer edges or corners of the bushings 10 , or wherever the closest contact may be made with the inner surface 72 of the bonnet 70 . with the valve stem 30 generally sized with a width or cross - section diameter being smaller that the cross - sectional circumference of the bonnet &# 39 ; s inner passage 74 , the space or transverse gap 40 between the stem 30 when inside the bonnet 70 may be occupied by the bushing 10 and its ball nose assemblies 20 at various temperatures . with specific reference to fig2 - 14 , fig2 is an image of a spindle or stem 30 disassembled from a cryogenic valve bonnet 70 . in this embodiment , the stem 30 includes a ptfe guide bushing 10 . embodiments of the ball nose assembly 20 may be seen in bushing 10 . fig3 is a view of the stem 30 and bushing 10 inserted into an extended cryogenic valve bonnet 70 . the relation of a ball nose assembly 20 to the bonnet 70 is illustrated . a portion of gap 40 may be seen , with bonnet 70 narrowing below . fig4 is an enlarged side view showing the outer surface 15 of a bushing 10 having bearing points 24 of ball nose assembly 20 . in this prototype embodiment , there were eight ball nose assemblies 20 within each bushing 10 . four ball nose assemblies 20 were mounted together , forming two visible sets of four with each distributed 90 - degrees radially / axially . note the extension of the bearing point 24 in the form of a ball beyond the guide bushing outer surface 15 . in this embodiment , the plunger action provides a deflection of about 0 . 048 inches per ball nose assembly 20 , such that this configuration offers a lateral deflection total of 0 . 096 inches ( i . e ., to address or extend into transverse gap 40 in maintaining alignment relative to bonnet 70 during temperature changes ). for this embodiment , thermal expansion and contraction was effectively managed with the modified ptfe bushings 10 as shown . fig5 is an enlarged view of two sample ball nose assemblies 20 prior to installation into a bushing 10 , illustrating assembly body 22 and bearing point 24 . fig6 a - 6c show portions or aspects of an embodiment of a cryogenic valve assembly 100 with an extended bonnet 70 , and illustrating the present approach for addressing gaps due to thermal contraction of the bushings 10 . fig6 b is a view of the cross section of an extended valve stem sub - assembly 50 within bonnet 70 , illustrating stem 30 with two ptfe bushings 10 ( cross hatched ) inside the extended bonnet 70 . the detail in fig6 c is an enlarged view of a portion of this embodiment , showing two installed ball nose assemblies 20 with bearing points 24 . as shown , bushing 10 includes bearing points 24 contacting with bonnet inner surface 72 of bonnet 70 . some of the details of the assemblies or sub - assemblies shown include guide bushing cavities 12 , ball nose assembly 20 bodies 22 with threaded outer surfaces and inner annulus , and the spherical or ball bearing points 24 projecting beyond the outer surface 15 of the bushing 10 . fig7 a - 7d and fig8 are schematics of various views of embodiments of bushings 10 with ball nose assemblies 20 installed . in some embodiments , as was shown in fig6 b , two bushings 10 may be mounted on a stem 30 . the bearing points 24 in fig7 d and in cross section view of fig8 are shown extending beyond the outer surface 15 of the bushings 10 . fig9 a - 9d are schematics of a similar embodiment with bushings 10 installed onto an extended valve stem 30 , forming valve stem sub - assembly 50 , with fig9 c being a cross section of detail section c - c . fig9 d is an end view , i . e ., along first axis 2 , for example . for completeness , fig1 a - 10b illustrate an assembled , inclined cryogenic valves , with assembly 100 inserted within extended bonnet 70 . fig1 is an image of a spindle or stem 30 without the valve bonnet 70 ( i . e ., not shown ). for this embodiment , three stainless steel bushings 10 are shown on the stem 30 . each bushing 10 may be relatively square in cross - sectional or transverse shape , relative to a view down the first or longitudinal axis of the stem 30 , with the corners of the square shape excised or chamfered to make an octagonal shape or square with chamfered corners 17 . the chamfered corners / excised corner - sides 17 are much smaller , and meet the larger square sides at approximately 45 degree angles . in this embodiment , each chamfered corner 17 has a ball nose assembly 20 embedded or disposed in the side or portion of outer surface 15 for extending into transverse gap 40 and making contact with the inner wall 72 of a cryogenic valve bonnet 70 . as such , each embodiment of such a bushing 10 has four ball nose assemblies 20 on each of the chamfered corners 17 of the relatively square cross - section or transverse shaped bushing 10 , which maintains the transverse alignment of stem 30 relative to bonnet 70 . this configuration includes ball nose assemblies 20 spaced radially 90 - degrees apart . fig1 and 13 disclose a close - up view of a ball nose assembly 20 disposed within one chamfered corner 17 of the relatively transverse square block of the stainless steel bushing 10 . installation notches may be seen on each side of the body 22 of the ball nose assembly 20 . fig1 discloses a top , close - up view of the stem 30 and bushing 10 looking down the axis of the stem 30 at the bushing 10 . the bearing points 24 extend radially outward from the bushing &# 39 ; s outer surface 15 at top chamfered corners 17 ( and , when installed , into transverse gap 40 ). fig1 a - 14e are schematics of various perspectives of a relatively square stainless steel guide bushing 10 , according to one embodiment of the present approach , with cavities 12 in the bushing 10 chamfered corner 17 outer surface 15 for housing the ball nose assemblies 20 . the foregoing is illustrative of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting thereof . although a few exemplary embodiments of this invention have been described , those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the teachings and advantages of this invention . accordingly , all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined in the claims . the invention is defined by the following claims , with equivalents of the claims to be included therein . | 5 |
fig1 shows a substrate ( a wafer w in the present embodiment ) measurement system 10 comprising a wafer handling unit ( efem ) 12 provided with a wafer transfer means ( single or multiple robot ) 14 having one or more end - effectors ( not shown ). term “ measurement ” also means inspection in the present invention . a unit 12 as a part of equipment front - end module (“ efem ”) provides interface to the fab and includes load ports for wafer cassettes ( foup &# 39 ; s ) 16 . wafer transfer means 14 provides wafers transferring from the cassettes 16 to load / unload units 18 a and / or 18 b of a measurement unit ( mu ) 20 preferably provided by a x - y stage 21 . system 10 could be provided with graphical user interface ( gui ) 22 and additional optional features such as aligner and id reader ( not shown ). plurality of load / unload units 18 a and 18 b ( two in the present example ) are substantially separated in horizontal plane and designed for receiving / unloading wafers from / to end - effectors of robot 14 . also , load / unload units 18 a , 18 b provides wafers transferring onto / from stage 21 of mu 20 . optionally , each or one of load / unload units 18 a 18 b could include additional means 24 providing additional functionalities such as notch finding and id reading , etc . the vertical transfer of wafers between load / unload units 18 a 18 b and x - y stage 21 could be done either by using loading / unloading units with wafer handling assembly having z - axis movement actuator or by providing x - y stage with additional movable z - axis ( not shown ). examples of appropriate wafer handling assembly and stage could found in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 964 , 276 in the name of nova measuring instruments ltd incorporated herein by reference . x - y stages used in the field are equipped with a mechanism for holding / transferring wafers that has sufficient travel range to enable pick and transfer wafers from / to different locations , in the present invention plurality loading units . common used vacuum , edge gripping or other type chuck could be used for wafer holding . x - y stage 21 generally provides moving wafer w in horizontal plane for bringing each point on the wafer ( within a pre - define area on the wafer , e . g . excluding edge exclusion zone ) to one or more measuring position ( s ) 26 a - 26 f enabling measurement using one or more of the measurement channels ( not shown ) accordingly . optionally , x - y stage 21 could be also equipped with a rotation ( theta ) mechanism , enabling rotation of the wafer by 90 or 180 degrees thereby reducing the range of the x - y travel ( e . g . about radius of wafer w ) and footprint accordingly . rotation is required in order to enable scanning the entire or desired surface area of wafer w . one or more measurement channels 26 a - 26 f ( six in the present example ) could provide either measurement or inspection of at least part of the wafer based on spectral reflectometry , ellipsometry , spectral ellipsometry , a laser - based optical system , vuv , x - ray , etc . measurement channels with measuring position ( s ) 26 a - 26 f could provide various thin film parameters including optical characteristics and other parameters , ocd , defect inspection , overlay measurement , measurement of crystal parameters . additionally , measuring channels could provide vision and / or alignment , etc . circles c in dash lines in fig1 show the extreme wafer positions provided by x - y stage 21 while scanning wafer w . a rectangle r shows the range in which the center of x - y stage 21 ( generally corresponding to the center of wafer w ) should travel in order to cover all required measurement positions , entire wafer surface in the present example . in accordance with the present invention , configuration of system 10 provides a buffering for incoming and outgoing wafers w , potentially separating the operation of mu 20 from operation of wafer transfer robot 14 of the efem 16 . such separation allows optimization of the overall system throughput as will be demonstrated furtherbelow . in accordance with one aspect of the present invention , as illustrated in fig1 the system 10 includes an x - y - theta stage providing a travel range which is slightly larger than the wafer diameter in the x direction and slightly larger than 1 . 5 the wafer w diameters in the y direction . this configuration allows at least six different potential measurement positions where scanning the whole wafer at the central two position is done by x - y and 180 rotation while for scanning the full wafer at the outer four positions also 90 degree rotations are required ( which are not suitable for some measurement channels , such as ellipsometry ). this system is also could be equipped with a dual - blade robot 14 and load / unload units 18 a and / or 18 b providing wafer w notch - finding functionality . fig2 illustrates yet another embodiment of the present invention . in this case a measurement system 100 includes x - y stage 210 with increase range of y - axis motion in order to provide “ pure ” x - y scanning under the measurement position 260 without the need to use a rotation ( theta ) stage . two configurations of fig1 and fig2 could be combined , creating a measurement system that supports one measurement position which is scanned by only x - y motion and addition measurement positions which can be used with the help of some rotation motion ( 90 or 180 degrees ). circles c ′ in dash lines show the extreme wafer positions provided by x - y stage 210 while scanning wafer w . a typical time sequence that utilizes the capabilities systems 10 and 100 is illustrated in fig3 . the sequence includes the following steps : 1 . starting position : one wafer located on chuck of x - y stage 21 ( 210 ) and measurement is performed . second wafer is loaded on load / unload unit 18 a , after optional notch finding ( alignment ). third wafer is held by one of the robot &# 39 ; s 14 arms positioned next to load / unload unit 18 b . 3 . x - y stage 21 ( 210 ) moves to load / unload unit 18 b and unloads the measured wafer thereon . 4 . x - y stage 21 ( 210 ) moves to load / unload unit 18 a and loads a wafer to be measured . 5 . mu 20 ( 200 ) performs measurement and to alignment and measurement . 6 . robot 14 picks up measured wafer from load / unload unit 18 b with empty arm . 7 . robot 14 loads unmeasured wafer from first arm on load / unload unit 18 b . 8 . mu 20 ( 210 ) starts notch finding on wafer located on load / unload unit 18 b 9 . robot 14 moves to one of foup &# 39 ; s 16 and swaps wafers . 10 . robot 14 moves back to waiting position next to load / unload unit 18 a as seen in fig3 , since three different operations could be actually performed in parallel , the system 10 ( 100 ) is optimized for throughput while leaving sufficient time for each operation to be successfully completed . eventually this sequence allows the measurement channel ( the “ effective ” part of the system ) to be the bottleneck , rather than the wafer handling operations ( the “ overhead ”) to be dominant . a limited number of embodiments have been described . nevertheless , it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure . accordingly , other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims . | 6 |
referring to fig1 and 2 of the drawings , there is shown a rear side portion of a motor vehicle , to which the present invention is practically applied . designated by numeral 1 is a fuel tank which is mounted beneath a rear floor panel 11 . a fuel filler tube 2 extends rearwardly and upwardly from a lower portion of the fuel tank 1 and goes through an after - mentioned wheel housing inner panel 13 to a recessed portion ( not shown ) defined by a rear side fender 15 of the vehicle body . a fuel inlet opening 2a of the filler tube 2 is exposed to a space defined by the recessed portion . the inner panel 13 and an outer panel 14 are assembled to form a wheel housing 12 in which a rear left wheel ( r . w ) is housed . as is seen from fig2 an arched portion of the rear side fender 15 is connected to an arched portion of the outer panel 14 of the wheel housing 12 . the inner panel 13 of the wheel housing 12 is connected to the rear floor panel 11 through a rear side member 19 which extends along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle body . an evaporation tube 3 extends forwardly from the fuel tank 1 to a canister ( not shown ) mounted in a front portion ( viz ., engine room ) of the vehicle . although not shown in the drawings , suction and return tubes extend from the fuel tank 1 to an induction system of the engine in order to feel the engine with fuel . another or extra activated charcoal canister 6 is mounted in the wheel housing 12 in the following manner . that is , the canister 6 is tightly received in a recess 16 which is defined by the wheel housing inner panel 13 to face an inner side of the rear wheel ( r . w ). preferably , the recess 16 is so sized as to fully receive therein the entire of the canister 6 . more specifically , the recess 16 is positioned in the vicinity of an axis &# 34 ; o &# 34 ; of the rear wheel ( r . w ) and at a place which is higher than the ceiling of the fuel tank 1 . as is seen from fig2 two brackets 17 and bolts and nuts 18 are used for achieving tight connection between a bottom of the recess 16 and the canister 6 . a ventilation tube 4 extends from the fuel tank 1 to the canister 6 , and a tube 4b extending from an inlet part of the fuel filler tube 2 is connected through a switch valve 4a to the ventilation tube 4 . a discharging tube 6a extends from the canister 6 to an open air . denoted by numeral 20 is a spare tire container which is defined by the rear floor panel 11 , and 21 is a strut type suspension for the rear wheel ( r . w ). as is described hereinabove , in accordance with the present invention , the extra canister 6 is received in the recess 16 defined by the inner panel 13 of the wheel housing 12 . this means that the canister 16 is placed in a relatively safety zone of the rear portion of the vehicle . that is , the place where the canister 6 is located is effectively protected from small stones splashed by the rear wheel ( r . w ) during running of the vehicle . furthermore , since the canister 6 is located in a zone which is enclosed by mechanically tough members , such as the side member 19 , the strut type suspension 21 and the rear wheel ( r . w ), it is effectively protected even when the vehicle is struck from behind and side . | 1 |
a request for movie recommendations is used to illustrate the operation of an on - line recommendation system . fig1 a shows a table listing the user profiles of a number of users of the recommendation system . column 180 lists the names of the users , user - a 181 - user - e 185 . column 190 indicates their corresponding marital status , marital status 191 - marital status 195 , respectively . the values for the marital status attribute are “ y ”=“ single ” and “ n ”=“ married ”. column 1100 indicates their corresponding location , location 1101 - location 1105 . the values for the location attribute are , for example , “ y ”=“ new york city ( nyc )” and “ n ”=“ not in nyc ”. fig1 b shows a table summarizing movie recommendations , based on a request for recommendation submitted by user - a 181 . column 110 lists five movies under consideration , movie - a 111 - movie - d 114 . column 120 lists their respective genres , genre 121 - genre 124 . here , genre - a refers to an action movie , and genre - h refers to a horror movie . column 130 lists the ratings from user - a 181 for movie - a 111 - movie - d 114 , respectively . the values for the rating attribute are “ y ”=“ good ”, “ n ”=“ bad ”, and “-”=“ not rated yet ”. similarly , column 140 contains rating 141 - rating 144 from user - b 182 ; column 150 contains rating 151 - rating 154 from user - c 183 ; column 160 contains rating 161 - rating 164 from user - d 184 ; and column 170 contains rating 171 - rating 174 from user - e 185 . in this example , user - a 181 is single , living in nyc , and likes movie - a 111 . in one procedure , the recommendation system first searches for other users who like movie - a 111 . the target population of respondents is initially all users of the recommendation system . in this example , the recommendation system identifies user - b 182 - user - e 185 as users who like movie - a 111 . the recommendation system then recommends movie - b 112 because it has received the highest number ( three ) of y ratings from user - b 182 - user - e 185 . in another procedure , user - a 181 builds a community with a combination of user attributes . user - a 181 narrows the target population of respondents by limiting the search to users constrained to the attributes ( single and nyc ). the recommendation system then identifies user - d 184 and user - e 185 as users who satisfy the criteria ( single and nyc ). the recommendation system then recommends movie - c 113 because it received a y rating from both user - d 184 and user - e 185 ; whereas , movie - b 112 and movie - d 114 received only a single y rating each . user - a 181 may also specify the type of recommended items by specifying item attributes . for example , user - a 181 is interested in horror movies popular among nyc residents . the constraint of target items becomes ( genre = horror ), and the target population of respondents becomes ( location = nyc ). the recommendation system then recommends the horror movies movie - b 112 and movie - d 114 because they both received two y ratings from the three nyc residents ( user - c 183 , user - d 184 , and user - e 185 ). user - a 181 may also define additional criteria for selecting the recommendations . for example , user - a 181 is interested in popular movies among singles living in nyc . during weekdays , user - a 181 wants to receive only one movie recommendation . but , for weekends , user - a 181 wants to receive all the popular movies that were well rated by more than half of the singles in nyc . the constraint on generating recommendations then may be expressed as ( top = 1 ) on weekdays , and ( popularity ≧ 50 %) on weekends . on a weekday , the recommendation system recommends movie - c 113 . on a weekend , the recommendation system recommends movie - b 112 , movie - c 113 , and movie - d 114 . user - a 181 may also prefer a specific recommendation algorithm . for example , user - a 181 is satisfied with movie recommendations from sitea , but does not like book recommendations from siteb , where sitea and siteb refer to specific web sites providing recommendations . that is , the recommendation algorithm used by sitea for recommending movies provides more satisfactory results than the recommendation algorithm used by siteb for recommending books . user - a 181 wants instead to specify the same algorithm used by sitea for movie recommendations to get book recommendations from siteb , based on the constraints and criteria specified by user - a 181 . an important aspect of recommendation systems is preservation of privacy . a potential privacy risk exists in typical recommendation systems , since personal details of the user are entered into the recommendation system . a recommendation system that explicitly addresses the need to preserve the privacy of user information is advantageous . in an embodiment , a recommendation system provides the features of community definition , item constraints , aggregation , algorithm selection , and privacy preservation . each of these features are described in more detail below . a user provides user information in a user profile . examples of user information include demographic information ( for example , “ nyc resident ”) and ratings about items ( for example , rating of a specific movie ). the user information is entered as user attributes . the number of user attributes changes dynamically ; for example , the number of user attributes increase dynamically as the user rates more items . a user can dynamically define a community by imposing constraints on the target population of respondents . the community is defined by specifying a set of user attributes . for example , consider a user with the attributes of “ nyc resident ” and “ single ” in his user profile . a user can declare the community of singles living in nyc by combining the two attributes ( nyc resident and single ). user attributes fall into three categories : static attributes ( such as gender , region , and ethnicity ); dynamic attributes ( such as item ratings ); and content descriptors ( such as item attributes ). the user community is declaratively defined by a predicate p on user attributes . to maximize expressiveness of users , the definition of a “ predicate ” is recursive : a predicate is either an atomic predicate or an expression using the boolean operators and / or / not on some predicates . expressiveness refers to the degree to which a user may specify the community . an atomic predicate can be any boolean function on the user attributes . there are four types of predicates specified by the following conditions : atomic predicate : predicate p is true iff an attribute is present in a user &# 39 ; s attributes . similarity thresholding : p specifies an attribute vector ( for example , a rating list ) and a threshold . p is true iff the similarity between the attribute vector in p and a user &# 39 ; s attributes ( also in the form of a vector ) exceeds the threshold ( given in p ). linear classifier : p specifies an attribute scoring function ( that maps each attribute to a score ) and a threshold . p is true iff the sum of scores associated with all the attributes that are present in a user &# 39 ; s attribute vector exceeds the threshold ( for example , using a naive bayes algorithm ). general classifier : a general classifier such as a decision tree , a rule , or support vector machine can be applied on the user attribute vector . in the previous example shown in fig1 a , the atomic predicate p :( attribute = single ) forms a community of user - a 181 , user - b 182 , user - d 184 , and user - e 185 . when user - b 182 defines a community with a similarity threshold ( threshold = 0 . 9 ), user - e 185 becomes the only member of the community ( jaccard similarity of 1 . 0 ). jaccard similarity refers to the intersection of two user ratings over the union of the two user ratings . when two ratings are exactly the same , the similarity score is 1 . to support a fine - grained declarative user community definition , indexing structures are created in advance such that the user community can be efficiently determined at run - time . an indexing structure is referred to as an atomic user set ( aus ). an aus is a function of user attributes . for example , each specific attribute can become one aus ( that is , all users with the specific attribute are members of the aus ). attribute - based aus is defined as a function of user feature vectors . for example , one aus can be created for each specific feature ; that is , all users with the specific feature are part of the aus . user - driven aus creation is driven by the user . for example , a book - related to on - line social network may be viewed as an aus . clustering - based aus is based on clusters of users . users can be clustered into a fixed number of clusters based on similarity of users . for example , in minhash clustering , the probability of two users being assigned to the same cluster is same as the similarity of the two . in a distributed environment , users in an aus may be reached in many ways . for example , there may be an overlay multicast tree or a native internet protocol ( ip ) multicast group spanning all users in an aus . as another example , in the case of on - line social networks , there can be edges between users in an aus ; these users can be reached by following these edges . edges in social networks refer to relationships among users . an example of a relationship is a friendship link between two users . by traversing edges comprising friendship links , friends of users may be reached . for a specific user community ( declaratively defined by predicate p ), a superset of the specific user community can be represented as the union , intersection , or difference of atomic user sets . it is advantageous to minimize the size of the superset of users to be queried ( that is , to reduce the number of users unnecessarily visited ). when the network and system resources are limited , the number of aus in the recommendation system may need to be bounded . for the attribute - based aus , the number of aus increases as the number of attributes in the recommendation system increases . in these instances , attribute selection is performed to select only the necessary attributes . attribute selection is performed by discarding minor attributes that are not frequently observed in the query or by mapping multiple attributes into one attribute . note that attribute selection is not needed for clustering - based aus , since the number of aus is bounded by controlling the number of clusters . for example , referring back to the example shown in fig1 a and fig1 b , consider the user query : “ what are popular movies among singles who rate movie - c positively ( y )”? the predicate p becomes [ aus ( single ) and aus ( movie - c )]. the superset of users can be reached through either the aus of aus ( single ) or aus ( movie - c ). the desired community subset is reached by including predicate p as part of the aggregation function ( see below ) such that only those users satisfying p need to respond . the query is sent to the smaller aus [ for example , aus ( movie - c )], and ratings from the subset of the aus who match the predicate are included in the aggregation . in this example , the subset comprises user - b 182 and user - d 184 . a recommendation system recommends items to users , and users provide rating on items . attributes describing items are referred to as item attributes ( for example , the genre of a movie ). a user can specify the set of items eligible for recommendations with an item filter ( for example , all comedy movies or all new movies released within the past month ). the item filter specifies the items eligible to be used for the recommendation . there are two categories of filters : pre - filters and post - filters . for example , consider two requests for movie recommendations : ( a ) “ recommend three popular comedy movies in a community .” and ( b ) “ recommend three popular movies in a community , and , of those three popular movies , recommend a comedy .” request ( a ) utilizes a pre - filter , and request ( b ) utilizes a post - filter . note that there are two different definitions of popularity : topk and popularity threshold . under the topk definition of popular items ( the k most popular items , where k is an integer ), applying pre - filters and post - filters to items may generate different results . in the example above , there may be no movies recommended if the “ comedy ” filter is applied after finding the topk movies ( that is , none of the top 3 most popular movies are comedies ); whereas , “ top 3 most popular comedies ” returns the 3 most popular comedy movies in the community ( assuming at least 3 comedy movies have been rated ), regardless of the overall popularity of those particular movies . to obtain a recommendation , users specify the selection criteria in the form of an aggregation function that specifies how to gather recommendations and compute recommendations . an aggregation function is computed over the attributes of all the items that a ( declaratively defined ) user community has rated . in one example , an aggregation function specifies the list of items that are rated positively ( y ) by at least 90 % of users ( in a specific user community ). the aggregation function ƒ is then ( popularity ≧ 0 . 9 ). in an embodiment , items from different users may be weighted differently in an aggregation query ( for example , to reflect higher confidence in the movie rating from an expert , or to take into account the similarity in the taste of books between two users ). the weights can be specified by the aggregation function itself as a function of user attributes . note that an unweighted aggregation function may be considered a special case of a weighted aggregation function in which all the weights are equal . to simplify the terminology , herein , the term aggregation function refers to any user - defined aggregation function . since users are distributed over a network , an aggregator connects multiple users and has access to information from users . for scalability , multiple aggregators may be used in the network , with a limited number of users ( viewed as a “ logical region ”) being handled by each aggregator ; these aggregators communicate with each other to access information of users in other regions . note that the aggregator disseminates user information only in the form of a summary ; individual information is not visible in the aggregated data . an example of an aggregation procedure is shown schematically in fig2 . the example is based on the previous scenario discussed with reference to fig1 a and fig1 b . the recommendation system includes two aggregators , aggregator - a 202 and aggregator - b 204 . aggregators refer here to network elements ; for example , an aggregator may be implemented by software on a network server . user - a 181 , user - b 182 , and user - c 183 communicate with aggregator - a 202 . similarly , user - d 184 and user - e 185 communicate with aggregator - b 204 . aggregator - a 202 and aggregator - b 204 communicate with each other . a user agent is co - located with each user and controls how user information is shared with the recommendation system . a user agent , for example , may be implemented by software on a user &# 39 ; s computer . the requester ( user - a 181 ) issues a recommendation query q , which includes a community declaration c , an aggregation function ƒ , and an item filter i to get a recommendation of popular horror movies among singles in nyc . the community declaration c specifies the community members ( nyc and single ). the aggregation function ƒ defines the aggregation conditions [ popularity ≧ 0 . 6 ( popular movies with a popularity threshold of 0 . 6 )]. the item filter i specifies the item properties ( genre = horror ) aggregator - a 202 computes summary a1 by merging the ratings from user - b 182 and user - c 183 according to ƒ . aggregator - a 202 then applies item filter i to summary a1 . similarly , aggregator - b 204 computes summary a2 by merging the ratings from user - d 182 and user - c 183 according to ƒ . aggregator - b 204 then applies item filter i to summary a2 . data perturbation methods are used to protect user privacy while aggregating data of individual users . in an embodiment , noise is added to a user &# 39 ; s data with a given perturbation probability . this process ensures that any adversaries cannot easily identify users , even based on other side - channel information ( side - channel information refers to information acquired outside of the computer network ; for example , side - channel information may be acquired by listening in on a user &# 39 ; s conversation ). examples of an adversary include an aggregator trying to break the anonymity of users and an eavesdropper . even when the raw perturbed data is acquired by adversaries , the process gives plausible deniability to users . for example , assume that user - b 182 perturbs his rating with 25 % of probability . most likely , one of his ratings would be changed when data is exported to the aggregator ( assume that the rating of movie - b 112 is changed from y to n ). user - b 182 can deny that he rated any of the four movies , because nobody knows which particular rating was actually changed . data perturbation is discussed in more detail below . since the number of users , groups , and items is typically large and dynamically growing , it is not viable to compute recommendations for every item by every user and every group by querying all the users in the community . in an embodiment , a sampling method splits a community into multiple disjoint sampling groups with exponentially decreasing sizes . a user can specify the sampling policy either by specifying the sampling rate ( for example , one sample out of ten users equals a sampling rate of 1 / 10 ) or by imposing an accuracy level on the result . in the first method , the result is returned after gathering data from a specific sampling set . in the second method , called progressive sampling , polling starts from users of the smallest sampling group , and then moves on to users of the next bigger group until the required recommendation quality is achieved . an example of progressive sampling , using the concept of heavy hitters , is discussed below . in an embodiment , a user may select the algorithm for computing popular items . examples of algorithms include : ( a ) a simple summation of ratings ; ( b ) a summation of ratings weighted by item similarity ( that is , scores from users with similar ratings are more heavily weighted ); and ( c ) a summation of ratings weighted by profile similarity ( that is , scores from users with a similar profile are more heavily weighted ). there are design challenges and trade - offs in solving the distributed privacy - aware constrained data aggregation problem . for example , there is a trade - off between accuracy and performance . as discussed above , the numbers of users , items , and communities are large ; therefore , efficiency in the generation of recommendations is an important factor . consequently , there is a trade - off between recommendation accuracy and the performance achieved . aggregation mechanisms that are both efficient and accurate are advantageous . in the design of a recommendation system , there is also a trade - off between privacy risk and recommendation quality . quality recommendations rely on accurate data provided by users . users desire good recommendations , but also wish to minimize the risk of revealing private information . statistical guarantees on the recommendation results with different privacy awareness levels are advantageous . in an embodiment , the recommendation process is formulated as a case of distributed heavy hitter detection . a user has a binary rating b for each item . an algorithm determines whether an item is popular or not with a threshold p among n users . item i is heavy hitter ( hh ), when in this instance , complete information from all the users is not available . an aggregation technique is used to detect heavy hitters even when data is perturbed ; and a progressive sampling technique is used . the aggregation technique is summarized as follows . a user can perturb a rating bit b with probability p f , resulting in a reported rating b ′. a random variable x is defined as : a random variable s for sampling with probability p s is introduced as : to infer the sum of b using the sampled sum of b ′, a random variable y is introduced as : to decide whether a specific item is a heavy hitter , a normal distribution is used to test whether y exceeds the detection threshold t =( 2ρ − 1 ) n . the progressive sampling technique is summarized as follows . testing is started with the smallest sampling group . whether each item is a heavy hitter or not is tested using the observed popularity . the normal distribution test is run with a user - specified confidence level . since all the items in a community are tested together , the decision whether to poll the next sampling group or not is based on the number of items classified as heavy hitters . in one embodiment , a sampling policy with two parameters is evaluated : c and f , where c is the minimum confidence level , and f is the fraction of items in the recommended list ( for example , heavy hitters ). that is , at least f fraction of items in the result satisfy a confidence level of c . simulation results for an embodiment are discussed below . factors in the simulation include the behavior of users and recommendation calculations by aggregators . aggregation accuracy , communication cost , and privacy risk of aggregation techniques are compared against a centralized system containing all available data ( that is , an oracle ). metrics used to characterize the accuracy of the recommendation system are the false positive ( fp ) rate and the false negative ( fn ) rate . the false positive rate refers to the number of falsely classified items as popular among all items , and the false negative rate refers to the number of items missing among popular items ( when compared to an oracle ). for the simulation , item purchase records from an on - line virtual society were acquired . the dataset contained 26 , 034 users , 6 , 617 items , and 214 , 660 purchases . an item purchase was considered as a user &# 39 ; s preference , since no feedback data after the purchase was available . the goal of the simulation is to recommend virtual items by detecting popular ones ( with detection threshold ρ = 50 %) in a specific ( user - defined ) community . the community for each user is defined by k - nearest neighbor ( knn ) using the jaccard similarity . for a specific user , knn refers to the k users with the highest jacccard similarity with respect to the specific user . the result is the average of randomly selecting 10 % of the communities . fig3 and fig4 show plots of the accuracy of data perturbation as a function of the perturbation probability p (%). each plot corresponds to a specific sampling rate with the detection criteria defined above . fig3 shows plots of the false negative rate (%) as a function of p . plot 302 corresponds to a sampling rate of 100 %; plot 304 corresponds to a sampling rate of 50 %; and plot 306 corresponds to a sampling rate of 25 %. fig4 shows plots of the false positive rate (%) as a function of p . plot 402 corresponds to a sampling rate of 100 %; plot 404 corresponds to a sampling rate of 50 %; and plot 406 corresponds to a sampling rate of 25 %. as the probability p increases , the error rate also increases . however , the false negative rate is less than 0 . 1 %, and the false positive rate is less than 0 . 001 %, even for p as high as 10 %. the communication cost of the progressive sampling technique was evaluated for two sample policies : policy1 ( c = 0 . 75 , f = 1 ). all decisions have to be made with at least 75 % confidence level . policy2 ( c = 0 . 75 , f = 0 . 5 ). at least half of the recommendations have to be made with at least 75 % confidence level . the minimum number of users in the smallest sampling group is set as 10 , and the sampling rate is increased until the observed result satisfies the corresponding requirement . fig6 summarizes the results of the progressive sampling technique . in fig6 , column reference numbers are enclosed in ( ) to avoid confusion with numeric table entries . column ( 602 ) lists knn communities of two different sizes ( k = 100 or 1000 ). column ( 604 ) lists the policy ( policy1 or policy2 ). column ( 606 ) lists the average fn rate . column ( 608 ) lists the average fp rate . column ( 610 ) lists the average number of users contacted with progressive sampling . column ( 612 )- column ( 624 ) list the fraction of communities which end up using the corresponding sampling rate of 1 . 5 %, 3 %, 6 %, 12 %, 25 %, 50 %, and 100 %, respectively . in particular , 52 . 3 % of communities stopped at 12 % sampling rate with policy1 ; whereas 7 . 2 % of them reached the entire population with a 100 % sampling rate . by requiring all items with 75 % confidence level , policy1 achieves a lower fn than that of policy 2 . on the other hand , policy 1 reaches a larger set of samples to meet the stricter requirement on the confidence of the recommendations , thereby incurring the higher cost in network and computing resources . for example , almost 3 out of 4 times , policy 2 receives satisfactory answers from a 12 % sampling rate , whereas policy1 could not be satisfied with a 12 % sampling rate about half of the time . to evaluate privacy risk , it was assumed that an attacker knows a number of ratings , n , by a victim through a side - channel . the attacker &# 39 ; s goal is to identify all the ratings in the victim &# 39 ; s interest profile . since traffic is not encrypted between users and aggregators , it is also assumed that the attacker is able to monitor all the traffic between them ( a conservative assumption ). the attacker tries to narrow down the set of possible users ( for example , candidate set ) by cross - checking monitored traffic and his knowledge . fig5 shows the effectiveness of the identification attack with respect to the perturbation probability p , when the attacker knows n items from the victim &# 39 ; s profile . the plots in fig5 show the escape rate as a function of p for different values of n . escape rate refers to the fraction of users not included in the attacker &# 39 ; s candidate set after data perturbation . plot 502 corresponds to n = 2 ; plot 504 corresponds to n = 3 ; and plot 506 corresponds to n = 4 . the data perturbation technique helps users escape from being identified ( that is , from being included in the candidate set the attacker built ), especially when n is large . in an embodiment , the recommendation system is implemented with sketch - based data structures . a sketch has a sum over a random subset of the original data . the count of the original data can be reconstructed from the sketch . when the sketch is stored in memory , the memory space is saved ( reduced ). when the sketch is transmitted to another place through the network , the communication cost is saved ( reduced ). sketch - based data structures are advantageous because they hide rating data , they merge multiple data structures easily , and they are space - efficient ( low memory requirement ). as discussed above , an item rating is represented as a bit . a bloom filter is used to store item ratings of an individual user . each user maintains a bloom filter for a specific interval of time . when a user rates an item , the user agent computes hash values of the itemid ( identifier of an item ) and turns on the corresponding bit positions of the bloom filter . by using the bloom filter , it is difficult for adversaries to infer itemids which the user rated , since reverse mapping of a bloom filter is difficult . note that the bloom filter introduces small false positives and zero false negatives . in another embodiment , a multi - stage filter is used . when aggregators merge ratings of multiple users , it stores the popularity of items into a multi - stage filter . specifically , an aggregator instantiates one multi - stage filter per item to maintain popularity ( for example , the number of users who rated the item ). aggregators maintain the list of itemids in the interval , too . when merging ratings of users ( stored in bloom filters ), a multi - stage filter stores hash values of the userids ( identifier of a user ) who rated the corresponding item . the advantage of maintaining the entire membership ( instead of user counts ) is that bit - wise or operation for multiple aggregators may be performed . referring again to the example discussed in fig1 a and fig1 b , when the item popularity p1 from aus ( movie - a ) and the item popularity p2 from aus ( movie - c ) are known , the item popularity of aus ( movie - a or movie - c ) cannot be determined without knowing the item popularity from aus ( movie - a and movie - c ). by using summary data structures , the conjunction of two aus does not need to be known to calculate the item popularity of two overlapping aus . similar to the bloom filter case , reverse mapping of the multi - stage filter is also difficult . fig7 shows a flowchart of steps for generating a recommendation . in step 702 , a recommendation system receives a set of user - defined ( user - specified ) input ( also referred to simply as user input ). the set of user input includes various elements , such as the recommendation request ( query ), declarative community definition , item constraint , selection algorithm , aggregation function , and sampling policy . note that not all of the elements shown in step 702 need to be specified by the user ; for example , the recommendation system may have default values . the user may also specify other elements in addition to those listed in step 702 . the process then passes to step 704 , in which the recommendation system searches recommendation databases for rating data . recommendation databases , for example , include databases accessed via websites on the internet . databases may be maintained , for example , by on - line merchants and on - line social networks . databases may also be maintained by providers of multimedia services or content ; for example , by merchants who rent out dvds , providers of video - on - demand over cable , providers of music and video downloads over the internet , and providers of streaming multimedia over the internet . in some embodiments , databases may include private databases ( for example , restricted access or password protected ). rating data includes information on the items being rated and information on the users providing the ratings . user information may be presented as user profiles , containing information such as location , age , ethnicity , occupation , marital status , and education level . the process then passes to step 706 , in which the recommendation system retrieves rating data based on the user input received in step 702 . the process then passes to step 708 , in which the rating data is perturbed to preserve privacy . the process then passes to step 710 , in which the perturbed rating data is progressively sampled . the process then passes to step 712 , in which a recommendation ( or set of recommendations ) is generated . an embodiment of a computational system for implementing a recommendation system is shown in fig8 . one example of computational system 802 is a network server . one skilled in the art may construct the computational system 802 from various combinations of hardware , firmware , and software . one skilled in the art may construct the computational system 802 from various electronic components , including one or more general purpose microprocessors , one or more digital signal processors , one or more application - specific integrated circuits ( asics ), and one or more field - programmable gate arrays ( fpgas ). computational system 802 comprises computer 806 , which includes a central processing unit ( cpu ) 808 , memory 810 , and data storage device 812 . data storage device 812 comprises at least one persistent , tangible computer readable medium , such as non - volatile semiconductor memory , a magnetic hard drive , and a compact disc read only memory . computational system 802 may further comprise user input / output interface 814 , which interfaces computer 806 to user input / output device 818 . examples of input / output device 818 include a keyboard , a mouse , and a local access terminal . data , including computer executable code , may be transferred to and from computer 806 via input / output interface 814 . computational system 802 may further comprise communications network interface 816 , which interfaces computer 806 with communications network 820 . examples of communications network 820 include a local area network and a wide area network . communications network 820 may comprise a wireless network . data , including computer executable code , may be transferred to and from computer 806 via communications network interface 816 . a user may access computer 806 via user equipment 822 which communicates with communications network 820 . examples of user equipment 822 include a personal computer , a laptop computer , a personal digital assistant , and a cell phone . a service provider ( such as the one providing the recommendation system ) may access computer 806 via service provider equipment 824 which communicates with communications network 820 . examples of service provider equipment 824 include a personal computer , a workstation , and a server . as is well known , a computer operates under control of computer software , which defines the overall operation of the computer and applications . cpu 808 controls the overall operation of the computer and applications by executing computer program instructions that define the overall operation and applications . the computer program instructions may be stored in data storage device 812 and loaded into memory 810 when execution of the program instructions is desired . the method steps shown in the flowchart in fig7 may be defined by computer program instructions stored in the memory 810 or in the data storage device 812 ( or in a combination of memory 810 and data storage device 812 ) and controlled by the cpu 808 executing the computer program instructions . for example , the computer program instructions may be implemented as computer executable code programmed by one skilled in the art to perform algorithms implementing the method steps shown in the flowchart in fig7 . accordingly , by executing the computer program instructions , the cpu 808 executes algorithms implementing the method steps shown in the flowchart in fig7 . the foregoing detailed description is to be understood as being in every respect illustrative and exemplary , but not restrictive , and the scope of the general inventive concept disclosed herein is not to be determined from the detailed description , but rather from the claims as interpreted according to the full breadth permitted by the patent laws . it is to be understood that the embodiments shown and described herein are only illustrative of the principles of the present general inventive concept and that various modifications may be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the general inventive concept . those skilled in the art could implement various other feature combinations without departing from the scope and spirit of the general inventive concept . | 6 |
referring to fig1 , a sling system 20 constructed in accordance with the invention is ideally suited for lifting , transporting and tilting a heavy object such as a horizontal reinforced concrete panel 22 which is commonly precast on a horizontal concrete floor and later lifted , tilted to a vertical position and positioned to form a wall panel for a single or multi - story tilt - up building . however , a sling system constructed in accordance with the invention may be used for lifting and maneuvering any form of heavy object with the aid of a lifting device such as a mobile crane . in accordance with the invention , a plurality of upper sling units 25 are used to connect an adaptor member or plate 28 to a horizontal elongated spreader beam 30 . the adaptor plate 28 has a slot or opening 32 ( fig2 ) for receiving a crane hook ( not shown ), and the spreader beam 30 ( fig5 ) is preferably formed of square tubular metal or steel has horizontally spaced adjustment holes 34 . each of the sling units 25 includes a continuous and endless loop flexible sling 40 in the form of a flexible synthetic fibrous sling having a cross - sectional width substantially greater than its cross - sectional thickness when directed over a roller . one form of sling material which has provided satisfactory results is manufactured by lift - all company , inc . in landisville , pa . and sold under the trademark tuflex . this continuous loop synthetic fibrous sling commonly uses a tubular flexible jacket which encloses an intermediate portion of the sling , and forms lifting eyes at opposite end portions of the sling or the jacket may be omitted . each of the sling units 25 also includes a double roller assembly or unit 45 ( fig1 & amp ; 2 ) which connects each endless loop sling 40 to the lift plate 28 or other sling to interface with a single or duplex type crane hook . each of the double roller units 45 includes a housing formed by a pair of side plates 48 ( fig2 , 4 & amp ; 6 - 9 ), and the side plates are rigidly connected by a set of shafts 52 and 54 . each of the shafts has opposite end portions of reduced diameter and is secured to the side plates 48 by snap - type retaining rings 56 ( fig9 ) or other forms of fasteners . the shaft 52 supports a cylindrical bearing 58 which is secured to a spool - like roller 60 preferably molded of a rigid plastics material with the bearing 58 as an insert . as shown in fig9 , the roller 60 has a generally cylindrical center portion 62 , but may be convex or concave , which integrally connects opposite end flanges 64 of larger diameter so that the flexible sling 40 is captured and confined by the roller and opposite edge surfaces of the sling do not contact the side plates 48 . another spool - like roller 70 ( fig9 ) is constructed the same as the roller 60 but is smaller in diameter and is also molded with a metal bearing 74 as an insert within the roller 70 . as shown in fig7 , the lower roller 70 is sufficiently smaller than the upper roller 60 so that portions of the endless sling 40 may loop or extend substantially 180 degrees around each of the rollers 60 & amp ; 70 . as shown in fig2 , the upper end portions of the side plates 48 are connected to the lift plate 28 by a cross - pin 78 extending through a bearing 79 within the plate 28 and secured by a cotter pin . referring to fig5 , opposite end portions of each of the two endless synthetic slings 40 are connected to the spreader beam 30 by a pair of adjustable brackets 85 each including a pair of parallel spaced side plates 87 having a pair of cross - pins 88 or bolts extending through aligned holes within the side plates 87 and the spreader beam 30 . a vertical plate 92 is rigidly connected to each pair of side plates 87 by cross - pins 93 or bolts , and a single roller shackle 95 ( fig5 & amp ; 13 ) connects each plate 92 to the endless synthetic sling 40 , as shown in fig5 . as shown in fig1 , each of the shackles 95 includes a pair of flat or formed side plates 97 having lower end portions with aligned holes receiving a cross - pin or bolt 99 . the bolt 99 also extends through an aligned hole within the vertical plate 92 and receives a nut 102 and retaining cotter pin 103 . the upper end portions of the side plates 97 receive a cross - pin 106 ( fig1 ) which receives a spool - like roller 60 around which a longitudinal portion of the sling 40 extends about 180 degrees . as apparent from fig1 , as a result of the pair of sling units 25 , including the endless synthetic slings 40 and their connections to the lift plate 28 and the spreader beam 30 by the double roller units 45 and the single roller shackles 95 , any load on the spreader beam 30 is uniformly distributed or equalized on each leg of each endless loop synthetic sling 40 with the spreader beam 30 remaining horizontal at all times when being lifted by a crane hook connected to the adaptor plate 28 . this permits the use of a lighter weight tubular spreader beam . referring to fig1 , a set of four sling units 115 extend downwardly from the spreader beam 30 in parallel spaced planes perpendicular to the spreader beam . each of the units 115 also includes an endless loop synthetic fibrous sling 120 which is constructed substantially the same as the endless loop sling 40 except longer in length . each of the flexible slings 120 is connected to each of the adjustable brackets 85 ( fig5 ) by a downwardly projecting welded plate 92 , a u - shaped shackle 121 and a double roller unit 45 . the lower end portions of each endless loop sling 120 receives an upper spool - like roller 70 ( fig9 ) which is supported by the upper end portions of the side plates 48 of a double roller unit 45 . the upper or top roller 70 on each unit 45 is rotatably supported a cross shaft 122 ( fig9 ) including a handle member 124 secured to one end portion of the shaft which has an opposite end portion receiving a retaining cotter pin 126 . referring again to fig1 , each of the double roller units 45 with a top roller 70 connected to an endless loop sling 120 , also receives a lower sling unit including an endless loop synthetic fiber sling 140 which is constructed substantially the same as the endless loop slings 40 & amp ; 120 , except that the sling 140 is longer in length , and there are eight sling units . as shown in fig3 , each of the lower end portions of each sling 140 is connected by a single roller shackle 95 to an attachment member 145 having a base plate 148 secured by anchor members ( not shown ) welded to the plate 148 and projecting downwardly into the precast reinforced concrete panel 22 . a vertical projection or plate 151 is welded to the base plate 148 and has a cross hole which receives a shackle bolt 99 as shown in fig1 . referring to fig1 , a sling system constructed in accordance with the invention may also be used for lifting and transporting a heavy object such as a cylindrical tower section 165 used for erecting a vertical tower for supporting a wind turbine . in accordance with this embodiment , a sling system 170 comprises a pair of sling units each including a flexible endless loop synthetic fiber sling 175 which extends over the roller 60 of a single roller shackle 95 ( fig1 ) having side plates 97 receiving a cross - bolt or pin 99 . the cross - pin 99 extends through an inverted u - shaped non - roller shackle 178 having opposite end portions connected to the lift plate 28 by a cross - bolt 181 extending through a bushing 182 within the lift plate 28 . the lower end portions of each sling 175 have conventional end loops or eye portions 184 ( fig1 ) each of which receives a cross - pin 187 of a non - roller shackle 190 . each of the shackles 190 has side plates 192 pivotally connected by laterally aligned cross pins 194 extending into a swivel ring or collar 196 which rotates about the axis of a screw 197 connected to a tower bracket 198 . the bracket 198 has horizontal base flanges secured to the tower section 165 by a pair of bolts 201 threaded into anchor tubes or fittings 203 embedded in the upper end portion of the tower section 165 . as apparent from fig1 & amp ; 12 , the roller shackles 95 and the synthetic slings 175 provide for evenly distributing or equalizing the load or weight of the tower section 165 or other heavy object and significantly reduce the weight of the sling system 170 . the tower section 165 may be shipped with a horizontal axis and by use of the sling system 170 , including the swivel shackles 190 , and be rotated by a crane to a vertical position with a vertical axis , as shown in fig1 . as apparent from the drawings and the above description , a sling system constructed in accordance with the present invention provides desirable features and advantages . for example , the sling system provides all of the advantages referred to in above paragraph [ 0006 ]. the sling system of the invention is also modular in that any number of combinations of components may be used with the synthetic slings , including a single roller unit , a double roller unit , and non - rolling and rolling shackles . while the sling systems herein described and their method of use constitute preferred embodiments of the invention , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise forms of sling systems described , and that changes may be made therein without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims . | 1 |
fig1 is a block diagram representing a configuration of a mechanical unit and an electrical configuration , of the first embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig1 , in the present embodiment , portions that have limited compatibility between mechanical unit 25 and controller 7 shown in fig6 are accommodated in relays 15 and 16 . more specifically , in the conventional example shown in fig6 , compatibility between mechanical body unit 25 and controller 7 has been limited by position detection sensor circuit 9 , offset adjuster 10 , sensor feedback gain adjuster 11 and filter circuit 12 . therefore , in the embodiment shown in fig1 , the circuit configurations that have limited the compatibility are accommodate in relays 15 and 16 . more specifically , relay 15 includes position detection sensor circuit 151 , offset adjuster 152 , feedback gain adjuster 153 and filter circuit 154 , while relay 16 includes position detection sensor 161 , offset adjuster 162 , feedback gain adjuster 163 and filter circuit 164 . relay 15 is connected to magnetic bearing 41 by means of a cable 81 , and relay 16 is connected to magnetic bearing 42 by means of a cable 82 . further , relay 15 is connected to controller 7 by means of a cable 83 , and relay 16 is connected to controller 7 by means of a cable 84 . only phase compensating circuit 13 and power circuit 14 are provided in controller 7 . respective circuits in relay 15 are finely adjusted in accordance with the characteristics of magnetic bearing 41 , while relay 16 is finely adjusted in accordance with the characteristics of magnetic bearing 42 . therefore , it becomes possible to attain compatibility between mechanical body unit 25 including relays 15 and 16 and controller 7 . when controller 7 fails , for example , repair is completed simply by exchanging controller 7 , which does not require any fine adjustment , and therefore , the adjusting operation can be eliminated . fig2 shows a modification of the mechanical body unit and the controller in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . in the embodiment shown in fig2 , relays 15 and 16 shown in fig1 are combined to be one relay 15 . relay 15 contains position detection sensor circuit 156 , offset adjuster 157 , feedback gain adjuster 158 and filter circuit 159 each having circuits corresponding to magnetic bearings 41 and 42 , the relay 15 is connected to magnetic bearings 41 and 42 by cables 81 and 82 , respectively , and the relay 15 is connected to external controller 7 by cable 83 . in this embodiment also , position detection sensor circuit 156 , offset adjuster 157 , feedback gain adjuster 158 and filter circuit 159 that have limited compatibility between mechanical body unit 25 and controller 7 are accommodated in relay 15 . therefore , compatibility between controller 7 and mechanical unit 25 including relay 15 can be attained . fig3 a and 3b represent configurations of the mechanical unit and the controller in accordance with the second embodiment of the present invention . in the embodiment shown in fig3 a and 3b , position detection sensor circuit 151 , offset adjuster 152 , feedback gain adjuster 153 and filter circuit 154 constituting relay 15 shown in fig1 are provided on an inner substrate 30 within a housing 23 , while position detection sensor circuit 161 , offset adjuster 162 , feedback gain adjuster 163 and filter circuit 164 constituting relay 16 are mounted on an inner substrate 31 in a housing 24 . as respective circuit components are mounted on inner substrate 30 and 31 , relays 15 and 16 shown in fig1 can be eliminated , enabling further reduction in size . in this structure also , compatibility between mechanical body 25 and controller 7 can be attained . fig4 a to 4 d represent a third embodiment of the present invention . when natural frequency of rotary body 3 including main shaft 1 varies because of processing accuracy error in manufacturing main shaft 1 , it becomes necessary to readjust frequencies of filter circuits 154 , 164 and 159 in the relay in inner substrates 30 and 31 , to be in accordance with the natural frequency of rotary body 3 , as described in the first and second embodiments . in contrast , in the embodiment shown in fig4 a to 4 d , variation in proper oscillation of main shaft 1 is minimized , so as to eliminate adjustment of the set frequency of filter circuit 12 . more specifically , in the example shown in fig4 a , a natural frequency adjusting weight 17 is attached to one end of main shaft 1 , and in the example shown in fig4 b , natural frequency adjusting weight 17 is attached on the other side of main shaft 1 . by attaching natural frequency adjusting weight 17 on main shaft 1 , the mass is adjusted such that the natural frequency of main shaft 1 has a prescribed value ( prescribed frequency of filter circuit 12 shown in fig6 ). though natural frequency adjusting weight 17 is attached on one side or on the other side of main shaft 1 , it may be attached to other position . by this method , individual difference in natural frequency of rotary body 3 including main shaft 1 can be eliminated . therefore , it becomes unnecessary to arrange filter circuit 12 in relays 15 and 16 or on inner substrates 30 and 31 , and a filter circuit can be arranged in controller 7 . thus , readjustment of set frequency of filter circuit 12 becomes unnecessary . in the example shown in fig4 c , a natural frequency adjusting screw 18 is attached on one end surface of main shaft 1 , in place of natural frequency adjusting weight 17 . in this example , a female screw 22 is formed on one end of main shaft 1 , and natural frequency adjusting screw 18 having male screw formed therein is engaged therewith . by changing the amount of screwing of natural frequency adjusting screw 18 , the position of the center of gravity of the screw changes as shown in fig4 d , and hence the natural frequency of main shaft 1 as a whole can be adjusted . fig5 shows configurations of mechanical body unit 25 and the controller in accordance with the fourth embodiment of the present invention . similar to the third embodiment , in the present embodiment , when natural frequency of rotary body 3 including main shaft 1 varies because of processing accuracy error in manufacturing main shaft 1 , the filter frequency is automatically adjusted by a digital control circuit 19 of controller 7 . more specifically , in digital control circuit 19 , a filter tuning control circuit 26 sets the frequency of filter circuit 12 to an expected natural frequency of rotary body 3 and activates magnetic bearings 41 and 42 , and the frequency of filter circuit 12 is changed from a frequency little lower than the expected natural frequency of rotary shaft 3 to a frequency a little higher than the expected frequency , while measuring frequency characteristics at respective frequencies . filter tuning control circuit 26 finds the frequency of filter circuit 12 at which the peak of proper oscillation becomes the smallest , and sets the thus found frequency as the prescribed frequency of the apparatus . by setting the frequency of the filter circuit 12 to the prescribed frequency thereafter , optimal control can automatically be attained . therefore , in accordance with the present embodiment , even when there is an individual difference in natural frequency of rotary body 3 , the filter frequency can automatically be adjusted by digital control circuit 19 . therefore , it is unnecessary to take into consideration compatibility of mechanical unit 25 . as described above , according to the embodiments of the present invention , full compatibility between the mechanical body and the controller can be attained . therefore , it is expected that efficiency in operation is improved at the site of production , and maintenance is facilitated . for example , at the site of production , a plurality of mechanical bodies may be adjusted by using one controller . although the present invention has been described and illustrated in detail , it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation , the spirit and scope of the present invention being limited only by the terms of the appended claims . | 5 |
while the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms , a specific embodiment thereof has been shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail . it should be understood , however , that it is not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed , but on the contrary , the invention is to cover all modifications , equivalents , and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims . fig4 is a block diagram depicting typical applications of the present invention as generally known in the art . as applied to storage systems , a storage medium 1 ( often a rotating magnetic or optical medium ) stores encoded data sequences as physical changes to the storage medium 1 . for example , the physical changes may be in the form of magnetic flux changes or sequences of positions having varying optical properties . a write or mastering process 20 applies signals via path 3 to a read / write means 2 ( usually a device capable of reading and writing information on the medium ) to record desired changes in the storage medium . readback process 23 is used to sense the physical changes on the storage medium 1 using read / write means 2 and convert them to signals used in the reading of information stored on the storage medium 1 . in the storage arts , write or mastering process 20 , path 3 , read / write means 2 and readback process 23 are generally referred to collectively as the recording channel 24 . read / write means 2 ( also referred to herein as “ sensor ”) senses the encoded data optically or magnetically and applies the sensed signals via path 3 to read process 23 and thence to read channel 4 via path 21 . read channel 4 decodes the sequences of changes in the signals “ read ” from the storage medium 1 and applies the decoded signals to an error check and data utilization device 6 via path 5 . communication applications may apply similar techniques to transmit data between a transmitter and a receiver . terminology of the communication application tends to differ from that of storage applications . a physical interface 7 receives data transmitted from a transmitting device 30 via channel 31 . channel 31 connecting transmitter 30 and physical interface 7 may be any of several well known media including direct electronic or optical connection as well as electromagnetic radiation transmission ( i . e ., radio frequency transmission ). physical interface 7 receives the transmitted signals and , as appropriate for the medium , demodulates the received signals to baseband signals . the baseband signals are then applied via path 8 to baseband receiver 9 . baseband receiver 9 decodes the sequence of signals received by physical interface 7 and applies the decoded data via path 10 to error checking and data utilization device 11 . baseband receiver 9 performs essentially the same functions as read channel 4 . as used herein , “ read channel ” will refer to either storage or communication applications of a read channel or baseband receiver . fig4 is intended as merely exemplary of typical read channel applications as presently known in the art . those skilled in the art will recognize a wide variety of equivalent applications of read channel technologies . the present invention encompasses improvements in the design and operation of a read channel and application of such an improved read channel as depicted in fig4 . fig1 is a block diagram providing additional details of elements within an improved read channel portion 100 in accordance with the present invention . discrete time samples are received within read channel portion 100 on either of two paths . path 158 represents discrete time samples derived directly from a slicer circuit as known in the art . a slicer circuit provides sampled values of a read / received signal at predetermined , periodic intervals . such circuits are well known to those skilled in the art . path 150 represents discrete time samples values which have been adjusted by a retiming circuit as discussed in commonly assigned u . s . pat . no . 6 , 157 , 604 entitled “ sampled amplitude read channel employing a baud rate estimator for digital timing recovery in an optical disk storage device .” in the preferred embodiment , retimed discrete time sample values received on path 150 are applied to the elements of the read channel portion 100 for further processing . in certain applications and conditions , sampled values direct from the slicer are preferable and therefore both are preferably provided to the read channel portion 100 in accordance with the present invention . read channel portion 100 of the present invention includes reshaping filter 101 , prefilter 102 , dc offset 104 and viterbi sequence detector 106 for adapting the received discrete sampled signal values and for detecting encoded sequences within same . in particular , one aspect of these read channel elements , in accordance with the present invention , lies in their respective processing of multiple sampled signals in blocks . this feature is discussed in further detail below . reshaping filter 101 adapts a center sampled pulse shape in the sampled waveform to a side sampled for the benefit of the viterbi sequence detector . in a center sampled waveform , the sampling phase is such that an odd number of samples represent the pulse shape with the middle sample centered at the peak of the pulse . though such samples are useful as applied to the slicer detection ( not shown ), the viterbi sequence detector target response of the present invention has an even number of samples — half on each side of the peak of the pulse . reshaping filter 101 therefore uses averaging of pairs of samples to shift the effective phase of the sampled waveform . this reshaping shifts the samples by ½ of a sample time to , in effect , convert the center sampled pulse ( odd number of samples ) to a side sampled pulse ( even number of samples ). as shown in more detail in fig2 , sample values applied to input path 149 of reshaping filter 101 are reshaped and applied as output values on path 150 . the reshaping filter circuit implements the following discrete time sample equations : y ( k − 1 )={ fraction ( 1 / 2 )}( u ( k − 1 )+ u ( k − 2 )) prefilter 102 is optionally enabled by a signal applied to path 162 to perform further low pass filtering of the sampled signal values . sample values received as input to prefilter 102 on path 150 are filtered and applied to path 152 as output values of the filter . if prefilter 102 is disabled by a signal applied to path 162 , sample values applied to input path 150 are applied to output path 152 unchanged . details of the operation and design of prefilter 102 are discussed further herein below . dc offset 104 is optionally enabled / disabled by a signal applied to path 164 to add a programmable offset value to the sampled signal values . sample values received as input to dc offset 104 on path 154 are modified by the pre - programmed offset value and applied to path 154 as output values . if dc offset 104 is disabled by a signal applied to path 164 , sample values applied to input path 152 are applied to output path 154 unchanged . in general , samples applied to the viterbi sequence detector 106 may benefit from having a different baseline signal value as compared to signals that bypass the viterbi sequence detection . for example , this is beneficial when there is non - linear distortion in the readback path . for this reason , dc offset 104 is optionally enabled and disabled by a signal applied to path 164 . details of the operation and design of dc offset 104 are discussed further herein below . viterbi sequence detector 106 receives filtered , offset sampled values on its input path 154 and applies decoded data sequences to its output path 156 corresponding to encoded sequences detected on its input path 154 . the output of the viterbi sequence detector 106 is then selectively combined with the slicer output values on path 158 for selection by mux 108 . a first signal applied to path 166 selects the output of the viterbi sequence detector 106 for further processing by the read channel portion 100 and a second signal applied to path 166 selects the slicer output sampled values from path 158 for further processing within read channel portion 100 . the selected values are then applied by mux 108 to output path 160 for further processing within the read channel portion 100 . fig2 provides additional detail of the design and operation of prefilter 102 of fig1 . prefilter 102 is essentially a lowpass filter ( or more generally a frequency selective filter ) with a unit pulse response ¼ { 1 , 2 , 1 } ( also commonly written in polynomial form as : ¼ ( 1 + 2d + d 2 )). as noted above , prefilter 102 is designed to operate on blocks of multiple signals . in the preferred embodiment , two sequential signals are applied as inputs on path 150 . a first signal on path 150 is shown as u ( k − 1 ) on path 250 and a second subsequent sample value is shown as u ( k ) on path 251 . filtered output values are applied to path 152 which , in turn , comprises a first sample y ( k − 1 ) on path 252 and a second sample y ( k ) on path 253 . when a disable signal is applied to path 162 , muxes 210 and 230 bypass the filtration of prefilter 102 and directly apply inputs 250 and 251 to outputs 252 and 253 , respectively . multiplication by 2 as shown by circuits 204 and 224 is preferably implemented by routing of the signal values on paths 254 and 250 , respectively , to the next higher input of the adders 202 and 222 , respectively . the division by 4 and rounding performed by circuits 208 and 228 is preferably implemented by adding 1 and truncating the lowest order bit twice . the circuit of fig2 processes two samples at once . the circuits of fig2 are therefore clocked at half the sample rate . in particular , the two delay registers 200 and 220 , are operable to effectuate a two sample clock period delay on their respective input sample values . in particular , delay register 200 receives u ( k − 1 ) as its input value and applies a twice delayed value , u ( k − 3 ), as it output value . in like manner , delay register 220 receives u ( k ) as its input and applies u ( k − 2 ) to its output path . in view of the half frequency clocking of the circuit of fig2 those skilled in the art will recognize that the circuit is operable to generate output values y ( k − 1 ) and y ( k ) on paths 252 and 253 , respectively , as follows : fig3 is a block diagram providing additional details of the operation of dc offset element 104 . as noted above , dc offset 104 is designed to operate on blocks of multiple signals . in the preferred embodiment , two sequential signals are applied as inputs on path 152 . a first signal on path 152 is shown as y ( k − 1 ) on path 350 and a second subsequent sample value is shown as y ( k ) on path 351 . offset output values are applied to path 154 which , in turn , comprises a first sample v ( k − 1 ) on path 352 and a second sample v ( k ) on path 353 . as noted above , dc offset 104 may be “ enabled ” or “ disabled ” by a signal applied to path 164 . in the preferred embodiment , the signal applied to path 164 is an offset value to be stored in dc offset register 330 . those skilled in the art will recognize that an alternative could supply a multiplexor arrangement similar to that shown above in fig2 to enable or disable the dc offset 104 operation independent of the offset value in register 330 . this approach may be desirable where the application of a dc offset value delayed the signal by a sample clock period or more . such delays ( latency ) may be undesirable in certain applications but is not a factor in the design shown in fig3 . such design choices are well known to those skilled in the art . the viterbi sequence detector 106 and the slicer ( not shown in fig1 ) are both sensitive to dc offsets . when a signal from , for example , a disk storage medium has significant asymmetry , both detectors work best with a “ zero input reference level ” that is different from the average input signal ; i . e ., a linear highpass filter doesn &# 39 ; t set the correct dc level for either detector . further , the viterbi sequence detector works best when it has slightly less “ offset correction ” than does the slicer . for example , for a typical signal with 15 % asymmetry and 15 % resolution , the slicer works best when the dc offset is about 15 % of the peak - to - peak signal amplitude . by contrast , the viterbi sequence detector works best on such a signal when the dc offset is only about 12 % of the peak - to - peak signal amplitude . the dc offset value to be added to the input signals on path 152 is stored in dc offset register 330 . the offset value may therefore be modified for a particular slicer or viterbi sequence detection application . further , as noted above , the dc offset function may be bypassed by applying an appropriate signal to the enable / disable path 164 . the viterbi algorithm assumes an input sequence that is equalized to a specific partial response target . based on various architectural considerations , the partial response target ( i . e ., the unit pulse response of the perfectly equalized channel ) was chosen to be h ( k ) = { 8 0 ≤ k ≤ 3 0 otherwise where the units are in accordance with a preferred numerical scaling . h ( d )= 8 ·( 1 + d + d 2 + d 3 )= 8 ·( 1 + d )( 1 + d 2 ) this target is called pr 1 fs 4 because it has spectral nulls at both the nyquist frequency ( f s / 2 ) and one half the nyquist frequency ( f s / 4 ). if we assume that the initial output of the channel is − 16 , its unit step response is g ( k ) = - 16 + ∑ n = 0 k h ( k - n ) . hence , the equalized response caused by a pit / land transition is {. . . , − 16 , − 16 , − 8 , 0 , 8 , 16 , 16 , . . . }. this preferred partial response target is broadly characterized in that the preferred partial response target is matched to an expected received signal whose output power spectral density decreases non - monotonically across the passband of the read channel when the recording channel receives a maxentropic information sequence or in other words when the read channel receives signals derived from a maxentropic information sequence . from above , we see that our idealized discrete - time channel has three memory elements . if the input sequence were completely unstructured , this would imply that there are eight possible channel states . however , because of the minimum run length constraint of the rll ( 2 , 10 ) modulation code commonly used in optical recording ( d = 2 ), two of these states are disallowed . this leaves six possible states for the pr 1 fs 4 d = 2 channel . in the context of sequence detection , it is very helpful to model the signal generation process using the discrete - time markov chain shown in fig5 . the role of the sequence detector is then to estimate the sequence of states visited by the chain , and in doing this , to estimate the true nrz sequence . states in fig5 are denoted by the number within the circle representing the state . transitions between states are depicted as arrows ( branches ) from a current state to a new state in response to a sensed input to the viterbi detector . channel output / channel input or , from the point of view of the detector , the branch labels are ideal detector input / detector output . for example , if the state of the channel is 4 , and its input is 1 , then its output is + 8 . equivalently , if the state of the detector is 4 , and its input is + 8 , its output is 1 . fig5 depicts the state diagram for a viterbi detector useful for the preferred partial response target processing a single sample at a time . though a useful embodiment for the intended preferred partial response target , the preferred embodiment of the viterbi detector in accordance with the present invention processes multiple samples at once . details of this feature and associated changes in the state diagram are discussed herein below . fig6 shows a section of the corresponding trellis for the 6 - state machine . while much less compact than the state transition diagram of fig5 the trellis representation explicitly shows all possible sequences of states as time unfolds . each column of the trellis diagram shows all possible states for a corresponding time index ( k − 1 , k , k + 1 , . . . ). each possible transition ( branch ) from each state is labeled as above for the state diagram with the input that causes the transition and the output generated by the detector in response to sensing that transition . each of the possible state sequences can be visualized as a path through this trellis . if we associate an appropriate measure of length with each of the branches ( state transitions ) that connect the vertices ( states ), we can identify the path through the trellis that is shorter than all the others . the sequence of “ b ” values associated with the branches that make up this path are then the optimal estimate of the nrz input sequence . the sense in which this estimate is optimal depends on the how we measure the length of the branches . for the additive white gaussian noise ( awgn ) case , a maximum - likelihood estimate results if we define the branch metric e ji as follows . where r ( k ) is the received sample value at the input of the va at time index k , and d ji is the ideal ( i . e ., perfectly equalized , noise - free ) sample value associated with the transition from state j to state i . this is the length of the branch that connects node j at time k to node i at time k + 1 . the length of a particular path through the trellis is the just the sum of the lengths of its constituent branches . this cumulative length is called the path metric for that path . because of the type of metric we have chosen , if we select the sequence associated with the shortest path , we have in effect minimized the euclidean distance between the true sequence and our estimated sequence . as mentioned previously , this constitutes the maximum - likelihood ( ml ) estimate if the noise is awgn . the viterbi algorithm is a fast search algorithm for selecting the shortest path through a trellis . at each time step , the path metrics for the paths entering a particular node are compared . the shorter of the two paths is selected , and the longer is discarded . this selection process is repeated for each of the other nodes . the winning paths are called survivor paths , and the nrz sequence associated with the i th survivor path is the i th survivor sequence s i . for the full pr 1 fs 4 machine , six cumulative metrics and six survivor sequences are updated at each time step . given the above definition of the metric e ji for the branch from node j to node i , the most obvious way to update the path metrics for the single - input states l i ( i . e ., states 1 , 2 , 3 and 4 in fig5 and 6 ) is l i ( k )= l j ( k − 1 )+ e ji ( k ) l i ( k )= l j ( k − 1 )+[ d ji − r ( k )] 2 from an implementation point of view , the squaring operation is unnecessary since the term i 2 ( k ) is common to all candidate metrics and has no effect on the outcome of the minimization process . the usual implementation is then l i ( k )= l j ( k − 1 )+ d ji 2 − 2 d ji r ( k ) where l i ( k − 1 ) is just the cumulative metric of the path that passes through state j and enters the state i being updated . for the states for which there is only one incoming path ( states 1 through 4 ), only a single metric must be calculated , and the survivor sequence s i is updated simply by concatenating the nrz value b ji associated with the incoming branch onto the survivor sequence s i from the previous update cycle . that is s i ( k )=[ s j ( k − 1 ), b ji ] where the comma indicates concatenation ; i . e ., the survivor sequence is increased in length by one sample . for a state having two inputs ( i . e ., state 0 or 5 ), an add - compare - select ( acs ) operation must be performed . this entails calculation of metrics for both incoming paths and then choosing the smaller of the two . denoting the two candidate paths as m and n , the competing path metrics at node i are l i , m ( k )= l m ( k − 1 )+ d mi 2 − 2 d mi r ( k ) l i , n ( k )= l n ( k − 1 )+ d ni 2 − 2 d ni r ( k ) the new survivor sequence s i is formed based on this metric selection . for example , if the winning path is the one that includes path m ( and hence branch mi ), the new survivor sequence at node i is formed by concatenating s m ( k − 1 ) and b mi . s i ( k )=[ s m ( k − 1 ), b mi ] the procedure outlined above is easily extended to the case in which more than one input sample is processed at once . one problem with the path metric calculations is the continued growth of the path metrics as time unfolds . many techniques exist to keep the metrics bounded . the present invention preferably employs the race track method , wherein modulo 2 n arithmetic is used for all metric calculations ( see for example c . b . shung et al , vlsi architectures for metric normalization in the viterbi algorithm , proceedings 1990 ieee international conference on communications ). this is most easily illustrated by example . suppose we have two signed integers a and b that are represented as 10 - bit two &# 39 ; s complement numbers ( i . e ., using cirrus logic notation , these are s9 . 0 quantities ). in this case , n is 10 , and the modulus m for arithmetic operations is m = 2 10 = 1024 . first , consider the add operation . for ordinary arithmetic , 11 bits would be required to represent the sum of two 10 - bit numbers . a simple ( but impractical ) hardware implementation might use 10 full - adder ( fa ) cells connected in a ripple - carry fashion , and the sum would be [ c 10 s 9 s 8 . . . s 1 s 0 ], where c 10 is the carry - out from the most significant fa cell , and s i is the sum from the i th fa cell . for two &# 39 ; s complement addition , c 10 is the sign bit of the s10 . 0 sum . for example , suppose we have the s9 . 0 numbers a = 347 = 01 0101 1011b and b = 285 = 01 0001 1101b . the sum is note that we must consider the carry - out of the result to be the sign bit in order to get the correct result for ordinary arithmetic . however , if we discard the carry - out bit , and instead consider the next most significant bit to be the sign bit , we get 10 0111 1000b =− 392 . hence , the sum has wrapped and become negative . in effect , by retaining only 10 bits , we have actually performed a modulo 2 10 addition of the two operands . that is , 632 and − 392 are congruent modulo 1024 . carrying this a step further , suppose we now subtract two such numbers , again retaining only n bits . we would like the resulting sign bit to be the same as would have been the case had we done ordinary additions followed by an ordinary subtraction . this is vital , since the sign bit is used in the hardware realization to select the smaller of the two competing metrics during the acs operation . what restrictions must the two operands satisfy in order to get the correct sign in the final result ? first , consider ordinary subtraction . suppose that we have two n - bit candidate metrics l a and l b such that if we use a two &# 39 ; s complement representation of these numbers , the sign bit of the difference will be 0 , and l b will be selected by the hardware . suppose that we would like to retain only n bits in the result , and not n + 1 . clearly , the msb ( sign bit ) of our n - bit result is 0 iff for example , if we have s9 . 0 operands ( i . e ., n = 10 ) the difference between two metrics must be less than 512 in order for this scheme to work . similar reasoning applies for l a − l b & lt ; 0 . now suppose that the candidate path metrics have themselves been calculated modulo 2 n . that is , we have s ( n − 1 ). 0 quantities l ′ a and l ′ b , such that if l a − l b & gt ; 0 , we require that l ′ a − l ′ b & gt ; 0 . l a − l b = l ′ a + k · 2 n −( l ′ b + l · 2 n ) for integers k and l . but we stipulated previously that l a − l b & lt ; 2 n − 1 . hence , we can calculate the remainder of each side modulo 2 n without affecting the signs , and in summary , we can use wrapped length - n path metrics as long as in order to represent branch and path metrics efficiently , it is helpful to scale them first . assume that we have a compound branch that connects states j and i , and passes though an intermediate state m . its branch metric is : e ji ( k )= d 2 jm − 2 d jm r ( k − 1 )+ d 2 mi − 2 d mi r ( k ) where d jm and d mi are elements of {− 16 , − 8 , 0 , 8 , 16 }; r ( k − 1 ) and r ( k ) are s5 . 0 values . it is clear that the terms containing d must be integer multiples of 16 . therefore , we can reduce the word length of the result by 4 bits without loss of precision if we scale both the r and d values by ¼ . with this scaling , simulation has shown that 1024 can be used as the modulus for the path metric arithmetic . left unchecked , the survivor sequence concatenation described above would create ever longer sequences . to avoid this , and to avoid indefinite detector delay , some method must be used to keep these sequences finite . the preferred method used in the present invention is simply to truncate the sequences to a fixed length , p . that is , the path memory in which the survivor sequences are stored is only p entries deep . in truncating the survivor sequences to finite length , we can no longer guarantee optimality , but we can make our estimate arbitrarily close to optimal by choosing a sufficiently long path memory . this technique works because the survivor paths from which we will ultimately choose a winner converge to a common path if we look far enough back in time ( relative to the current time k ). for example , for the full 6 - state va , if we examine the six survivor paths at times k − 1 , k − 2 , etc ., we generally see six distinct paths . as we look farther back into time , however , we find that the six paths have begun to merge to fewer than six . if we look far enough back , we see only a single path . the six survivor paths are just offshoots of this common path . the implication is that it is unnecessary to sort the path metrics to determine the winning sequence . it is sufficient simply to choose a state ( state 0 , for instance ) and its associated survivor sequence . we draw the oldest element of this sequence from the path memory and send it to the output of the detector . after having done this , we manipulate the most recent p − 1 rows of the path memory as dictated by the outcome of the latest acs operation : the six sequences of length p − 1 are concatenated with the six most recent nrz values . this involves the following steps . if the new state i has more than one incoming branch , the computed candidate path metrics are compared , and one of the incoming paths becomes the survivor . if there is only a single incoming path , no comparison is necessary . the “ old ” survivor sequence is then associated with its “ new ” state i . if we think of the path memory as consisting of 6 rows and p columns , with the most recent nrz values in the left - most column , this means that the survivor sequence that had previously occupied row j is moved to row i , while at the same time being shifted to the right by one column . the oldest bit of this sequence exits the path memory . if i = 0 , this bit is sent to the detector output . otherwise , it is discarded . the winning nrz value of the acs operation b ji is pushed into the left - most position of row i . the above steps are then repeated for the remaining rows ( i = 1 through 5 ), completing the update of the left - most ( most recent ) column of the path memory . one way to think of the path memory is that it is a “ generalized fifo ”. one possibility for the hardware implementation is to include muxes between each column of the path memory to facilitate swapping of the rows as the contents are shifted to the right . the preferred length of the path memory for the present invention is 32 . the preferred sequence detector used in the present invention has two further extensions to the ideas presented above . it incorporates folding ( also called state sharing ), and it processes two samples at once , instead of just one . in principle , any number of samples can be processed at once . after all , the objective is to choose the path with the minimum cumulative length . for example , if we process n samples at once , each of the possible paths connecting state j to state i has l i ( k ) = l j ( k - n ) + ∑ n = 0 n - 1 e ( a ) ( k - n ) where the branch metrics e ( a ) are those associated with the particular path a . the second step of the algorithm is then to select the shortest candidate from among all the possibilities . but how many possible paths are there ? for this trellis , the number of allowable paths as a function of path length n is a generalized fibonacci sequence : where the first three terms of the sequence are f 1 = 8 , f 2 = 12 , and f 3 = 18 . that is , the number of paths grow exponentially with increasing n . a related measure of hardware cost is the number of acs states . beyond n = 2 , all states are acs states with two or more inputs . in summary , processing multiple samples at once complicates the topology of the graph , as well as increasing the computational burden . clearly , we would like to avoid multiple - sample processing if possible . in order to support higher data rates , the present invention processes two input samples during each update cycle . this state transition diagram is shown in fig7 . as above with respect to fig5 states are referred to by the state number within the circle representing the state . branches are annotated with expected input to cause the corresponding transition and output generated by the transition . it should be noted that multiple transitions are associated with each path . further processing discussed herein below determines the branches taken and the output generated by the two sample at a time detector . for further reference herein , each branch is referred to by a number in square brackets ( i . e ., [ 1 ] . . . [ 12 ]). we now have 12 branches instead of 8 , and 4 acs states instead of 2 . also note that the acs units for states 0 and 5 have three incoming branches , further complicating the hardware design . consider the acs computation for state 3 . there are two incoming branches , one from state 1 ([ 8 ]), and one from state 0 ([ 7 ]). from the single - step trellis shown in fig6 we see that the compound branch connecting states 1 and 3 is made up of the simple branches from 1 to 0 , and from 0 to 3 . hence the composite branch metric for this branch is : e 13 ( k )= d 10 2 − 2 d 10 r ( k − 1 )+ d 03 2 − 2 d 03 r ( k ) the path metric for the candidate path that passes through state 1 is just l 3 , 1 ( k )= l 1 ( k − 2 )+ e 13 ( k ) the metric for the other candidate path ( the one passing through state 0 ) is l 3 , 0 ( k )= l 0 ( k − 2 )+ e 03 ( k ) to reduce hardware complexity , it is advantageous to group the states of the full machine into a smaller number of superstates ( also called hyperstates ). the resulting state machine is often called a folded machine because it resembles what would result if the original graph were folded back onto itself along some line of symmetry . the advantage of folding the machine is that it reduces the amount of computation required at each update , since there are both fewer states and fewer branches . if the states are inappropriately grouped into superstates , however , d min can be degraded , resulting in performance loss . the sequence detector of the present invention is preferably folded in the following way . the folded , two - sample - at - once state machine is shown in fig9 and 10 . for illustration purposes , fig9 shows the branch information in terms of the original machine . this is an intermediate step in constructing the final state machine of fig1 . in the folded graph of fig1 , we must keep track of which state is being represented by a particular superstate at each update time ( e . g ., superstate a can represent either state 0 or 5 , but not both at once ). because of the way the states have been grouped into superstates , this information is carried by the signs of the branch weights . for example , consider superstate a as shown in fig8 a and 8b . if the sign of the exiting branch weights is (+), superstate a currently represents state 5 as in fig8 a . if it is (−), superstate a represents state 0 as in fig8 b . close inspection of fig9 reveals that as superstate a is entered , it always inherits the sign of the originating state . as superstate b or c is entered , however , the new sign is the inverse of the sign of the originating state . hence , three of the possible state transitions result in sign changes , and three do not . furthermore , if we represent (+) as 0 and (−) as 1 ( as in a two &# 39 ; s complement number system ), the output samples b k and b k − 1 for a given branch are directly related to its sign . this information is summarized in fig1 . note that heavy lines are used in this figure to highlight the branches that result in a sign change ( i . e ., branches [ 4 ], [ 5 ] and [ 6 ]). one subtlety of this figure is that we now have two indices : k is the time index , and p is the update index . since we are processing two samples at each update , we have note that this expression is for illustration purposes only and ignores any pipelining that may be done in the hardware realization . an exemplary preferred embodiment of the viterbi algorithm is presented in this section . because of the various constraints ( design choices ) under which the designer must work , the final hardware realization may differ from this example in some of the details . those skilled in the art are familiar with such design choices . from an algorithmic point of view , there are two indices associated with the various data sequences in the viterbi algorithm . the time index has been called k , and the va update index has been called p ( e . g ., see equations above ). in the hardware implementation , the counterparts of k and p are clkd and clkv , respectively . the detector clock ( clkd ) is supplied by the retiming block ( not shown ). this clock is phase locked to the channel symbols , and in general , its frequency is incommensurate with that of the fixed adc clock . the detector clock ( clkd ) is divided by 2 locally to produce clkv , the va update clock . each viterbi update cycle begins and ends with a rising edge of clkv . in the actual implementation , it may prove beneficial to use both edges of clkv , or equivalently , every clkd edge . this is an implementation design choice . an exemplary preferred embodiment of the viterbi detector of the present invention is shown as a block diagram in fig1 . the critical paths are those associated with the processing of the path metrics in the acs units . we assume in this example that only two additions and a comparison ( i . e ., subtraction ) can be completed during a clkv cycle . element 1100 performs a serial to parallel conversion of the input samples received as input to the viterbi detector . two sequential sample values are received and presented to the remaining logic of the viterbi detector ( namely r ( k − 1 ) and r ( k )). these input values are applied to each of three add - compare - select ( acs ) logic units , one for each superstate ( a , b and c ). acs a 1102 performs add , compare and select operations for superstate a . in like manner , acs b 1104 and acs c 1106 performs related operations for superstates b and c , respectively . details of the operation of each acs element are provided herein below . outputs of the acs elements are fed back to other acs units for their respective operations . other output values are applied to sign logic element 1108 to determine the sign of the relative path metrics determined by the acs elements and to nrz logic element 1110 to determine the decoded nrz data corresponding to the encoded sequences recognized by the acs elements . the sign value associated with each superstate is applied back to the acs elements for their respective operations and to nrz logic element 1110 . path memory element 1112 stores recognized output sequences and applies them to parallel to serial converter 1114 to generate decoded output values . further details of the operation and design of each of these elements is provided herein below . the trellis for the folded , two - sample - at - once va is shown in fig1 . as before , the state transitions that result in a sign change are indicated with a heavy line . it is evident from this figure that superstate a has three incoming ( candidate ) paths . these are just the extensions of the survivor paths for superstates a , b and c at index p − 1 . the role of the associated add - compare - select ( acs ) unit is then to : generate control signals for the sign logic , nrz logic and path memory ( discussed below ). fig1 , 14 and 15 provide additional details of the operation and design of acs a 1102 of fig1 . fig1 provides additional detail of the operation and design of compare - select logic element 1300 of fig1 . the acs unit for superstate b ( acs b 1104 of fig1 ) is considerably simpler and depicted in fig1 . since there are only two candidate paths entering this superstate . superstate c has only one incoming path , and has what might be called a degenerate acs shown in fig1 ( acs c 1106 of fig1 ). it merely calculates and stores the new path metric for superstate c -- there are no compare and select operations . consider the candidate paths entering superstate a at index p . let l a , j ( p ) be the cumulative metric for the candidate path that passes through superstate j , where j ε { a , b , c }. that is l a , j ( p )= l j ( p − 1 )+ e ja ( p ) l j ( p − 1 ) is the cumulative metric for the path that visits superstate j at index , and e ja ( p ) is the metric for the branch from superstate j to superstate a at index p . the metrics associated with the three candidate paths are l a , a ( p ), l a , b ( p ) and l a , c ( p ). suppose we rank the metrics in descending order . if we consider the pair - wise differences of l a , a ( p ), l a , b ( p ) and l a , c ( p ), we can construct the following table . to make the table more concise , we will abbreviate the metric names using only the name of the superstate at index p − 1 . that is , in this table 2 , we will make the following substitutions : the first three columns of this table show the possible outcomes of the pair - wise metric comparisons ( i . e ., the msbs of the respective subtractions ). the last two columns are the resulting control signals sel 0 and sel 1 . these signals control muxes path memory , sign logic and nrz logic . since we are using s as a boolean variable in the hardware design , we have substituted σ in the above expressions to represent the sign information from the previous update cycle . that is since we are only interested in the differences between candidate metrics , we can reduce the hardware complexity slightly by subtracting 4 from the right - hand sides of the above equations . l a , a ( p + 1 )= l a ( p )+ 28 − σ a ( p )· 2 ·[ r ( k + 1 )+ r ( k )] l a , b ( p + 1 )= l b ( p )− σ b ( p )· r ( k ) l a , c ( p + 1 )= l c ( p )+ 16 − σ c ( p )·[ r ( k − 1 )+ 2 · r ( k )] multiplication by 2 in these equations can be implemented the same way as in the prefilter ( see above ). also , recall that the final values of the candidate metrics are not saturated , but are allowed to wrap in order to implement the desired modulo 1024 arithmetic . for superstate b , the logic is simpler . there are only two candidate paths , and the associated path metrics are l b , a and l b , c . again using the appropriate tables from fig1 , we have l b , a ( p + 1 )= l a ( p )+ 20 − σ a ( p )·[ 2 · r ( k − 1 )+ r ( k )] l b , c ( p + 1 )= l c ( p )− σ c ( p )·[ r ( k − 1 )+ r ( k )] in order to be consistent with the superstate a equations , we must subtract 4 from the right - hand sides . l b , a ( p + 1 )= l a ( p )+ 16 − σ a ( p )·[ 2 · r ( k − 1 )+ r ( k )] l b , c ( p + 1 )= l c ( p )− σ c ( p )·[ r ( k − 1 )+ r ( k )] note that the term above has already been formed in the superstate a hardware and can be reused here . there is only one comparison to be performed in this acs unit , and one resulting control signal sel 2 . sel 2 = msb [ l b , a ( p )− l b , c ( p )] l c ( p + 1 )= l a ( p )+ 4 − σ a ( p )· r ( k − 1 ) l c ( p + 1 )= l a ( p )− σ a ( p )· r ( k − 1 ) as illustrated in fig1 , an aspect of the present invention is the manner in which the sign information is managed . this section presents an exemplary embodiment of the sign control logic ( 1108 of fig1 ). fig1 depicts such an exemplary preferred embodiment of sign control logic . recalling that the nrz outputs are directly related to the signs , we can construct the logic ( nrz logic 1110 of fig1 ) as shown in fig2 . in principle , the path memory ( 1112 of fig1 ) is an array of 3 rows by p columns whose purpose is to perform the following concatenation operation for all superstates i ε { a , b , c }. s i ( p )=[ ŝ j ( p − 1 ), b ji ( k − 1 ), b ji ( k )] where ŝ j ( p − 1 ) is just the vector of nrz values associated with superstate j at the previous update step , truncated to length p − 2 . the two oldest elements of s j ( p − 1 ) exit the path memory as part of the concatenation process . each row of the path memory corresponds to a superstate and each column corresponds to a time index . since the sequence detector of the present invention processes two samples at once , the path memory is updated only on every other clkd rising edge ( or alternatively , on every clkv rising edge ). that is , each time the path memory is updated , two new samples enter , and two old samples are moved to the detector output circuitry . two implementations are suggested to achieve this purpose . one approach is to utilize a single path memory . as an alternative , and perhaps more efficient design choice , another approach is to utilize two path memories each of half the desired length . a first of the dual path memories is used for even samples and the other is used for odd samples . though this latter approach is disclosed herein and believed to provide some efficiencies , both design choices will perform the desired purpose . fig2 is a block diagram of a section of the even path memory . the odd path memory has an identical structure . all storage elements are presumed initialized to zero . while the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description , such illustration and description is to be considered as exemplary and not restrictive in character , it being understood that only the preferred embodiment and minor variants thereof have been shown and described and that all changes and modifications that come within the spirit of the invention are desired to be protected . | 6 |
hereinafter , an embodiment of the present invention will be described on the basis of fig1 through 4 . fig1 is a schematic side view in which a cover relating to the embodiment of the present invention is removed . in fig1 the arrow fr points toward the front of the vehicle , and the arrow up points toward the top of the vehicle . fig2 illustrates main portions of a buckle pull - out preventing device 19 . in fig1 a main body portion 41 of a buckle pull - in device 40 is mounted by a mounting bolt 42 to a side surface of a seat 50 ( illustrated by the two - dotted dash line in fig1 ) which is supported at an unillustrated vehicle via seat rails 45 such that the position of the seat 50 in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle is adjustable . a buckle 54 is held at the illustrated position , and is movable via a guiding structure ( unillustrated ) toward the bottom and rear of the vehicle ( in the direction of arrow a in fig1 ) due to a drive force of a predetermined amount or more . as illustrated in fig1 one end portion of a first wire 25 is connected to the buckle 54 . as illustrated in fig2 and 3 , the other end portion of the first wire 25 is fixed to a pulley 44 which is an entraining body which is shaft - supported at a plate base 20 of the main body portion 41 and which is disposed at the end in the direction of pulling - in the buckle 54 . one end portion of a second wire 26 is fixed to the pulley 44 . the other end portion of the wire 26 engages a piston 47 of a tension applying means ( to be described later ) which is disposed toward the front of the vehicle . the pulley 44 functions to convert the direction of the transmission of power of the wires 25 , 26 from the sliding direction of the piston 47 which will be described later ( the direction of arrow k ) to the moving direction of the buckle 54 ( the direction of arrow a ). as shown in fig3 a gear 10 , a first wire hitching groove 22 , and a second wire hitching groove 23 are formed coaxially at the pulley 44 from the plate base 20 side . as illustrated in fig1 and 2 , a pawl 27 , which is a portion of the buckle pull - out preventing device 19 , is rotatably shaft - supported via a shaft 27d at the plate base 20 at the vehicle rear side of the gear 10 . as shown in fig2 two teeth 27a which mesh with gear teeth 10a of the gear 10 are formed continuously at the pawl 27 . an engaging projection 27b , which is illustrated by the broken line in fig2 and which engages a guide groove 20a formed in the plate base 20 , projects at the plate base 20 side of the pawl 27 . the range of pivoting of the pawl 27 is limited by the engagement of the engaging projection 27b and the guide groove 20a . as shown in fig2 one end portion 28a of a plate spring 28 is fixed to the pawl 27 at the base portion side of the pawl 27 . the end edge of another end portion 28b of the plate spring 28 usually engages a tooth surface 10b of the gear tooth 10a of the gear 10 as illustrated in fig2 and 4 . the substantial center of the plate spring 28 is disposed so as to engage with an engaging portion 27c which extends further toward the base end side of the pawl 27 than the teeth 27a . in the state illustrated in fig2 the plate spring 28 urges the teeth 27a of the pawl 27 in the direction of meshing with the gear teeth 10a of the gear 10 ( in the clockwise direction in fig2 ). further , due to the engagement of the other end portion 28b of the plate spring 28 and the gear tooth surface 10b of the gear 10 , the elastic force of the plate spring 28 is transmitted to the pawl 27 , and the pawl 27 pivots in synchronization with the plate spring 28 . the position of the shaft 27d of the pawl 27 and the configuration of the teeth 27a are selected such that the pawl 27 is pushed by the gear teeth 10a of the gear 10 and is pivoted counterclockwise when the wire 26 is pulled in the direction of arrow k of fig1 and 2 and the pulley 44 ( the gear 10 ) rotates clockwise in fig2 ( in the direction of arrow l ). when the wire 25 is pulled in the direction opposite to arrow e and the pulley 44 ( the gear 10 ) rotates in the counterclockwise direction , the pawl 27 is pivoted in the clockwise direction by the compressive force or the bending force which the plate spring 28 receives from the gear tooth 10a , and the teeth 27a of the pawl 27 mesh with the gear teeth 10a . in this case , the configurational dimensions of the respective parts are chosen such that , as illustrated in fig4 a through 4e , when the plate spring 28 is pushed by the gear tooth 10a and the pawl 27 pivots , the teeth 27a reliably mesh with the teeth surfaces 10b of the gear teeth 10a , the teeth 27a assume positions at which they do not hit the addenda of the gear teeth 10a , and synchronicity is established . the tension applying means of the wire 26 will now be described . a cylinder 46 extends at a vehicle front side portion of the main body portion 41 , parallel to the seat rails 45 ( illustrated by the two - dotted dash line in fig1 ) which are disposed in the substantially longitudinal direction of the vehicle . the cylindrical piston 47 , which is slidable along the longitudinal direction of the cylinder 46 , is disposed within the cylinder 46 . as shown in fig1 the other end portion of the second wire 26 is connected to the end portion of the vehicle rear end side ( back surface side ) of the piston 47 . an acceleration sensor 48 , which senses the acceleration of the vehicle , is disposed at the top portion of the vehicle rear side end portion of the cylinder 46 . a detonator 49 is provided at the vehicle rear side end portion of the acceleration sensor 48 . a gas generating device 39 is installed at the vehicle rear side of the detonator 49 . when the vehicle suddenly decelerates , the acceleration sensor 48 ignites the detonator 49 . the gas generated by the gas generating device 39 is led to the cylinder 46 , and the piston 47 moves within the cylinder 46 such that tensile force is applied to the wire 26 . the acceleration sensor 48 is formed by an inertial body , a trigger spring , a firing pin ( all unillustrated ) and the like . the inertial body senses the acceleration of the vehicle ( the negative acceleration generated during deceleration ) and inertially moves toward the front of the vehicle . the trigger spring usually urges the inertial body toward the rear of the vehicle . the firing pin is usually urged toward the detonator 49 by a firing spring . due to the movement of the inertial body toward the front of the vehicle , the firing pin can move toward the rear of the vehicle , flying toward the detonator 49 . a booster and a gas generating material ( both unillustrated ) are accommodated within the gas generating device 39 . due to the ignition of the detonator 49 , the sparks therefrom are guided to the booster and are converted into heat energy . due to this heat energy , the gas generating material combusts , dissolves , and generates a large amount of gas . a passage 46a for the gas generated by the gas generating device 39 is formed in the upper wall of the cylinder 46 at the portion at which the gas generating device 39 is disposed . as a result , the generated gas flows in a single spell into the space at the back surface side of the piston 47 of the cylinder 46 via the passage 46a . the pressure at this portion suddenly increases , and the piston 47 is thereby moved toward the front of the vehicle ( in the direction of arrow k in fig1 ). because the wires 25 , 26 are respectively entrained about the pulley 44 ( the wires 25 , 26 are entrained about the pulley 44 in opposite directions ), due to the piston 47 moving in the direction of arrow k along the cylinder 46 , tensile forces in the directions of arrows k , e are applied to the wires 25 , 26 . next , operation of the present embodiment structured as described above will be explained . when the vehicle decelerates normally , the inertial body which receives the vehicle acceleration and forms the acceleration sensor 48 attempts to move toward the front of the vehicle . however , because the acceleration is not very large , the original position of the inertial body is maintained . as a result , the firing pin remains in the state in which the movement thereof is prevented . when the vehicle suddenly decelerates , the vehicle acceleration is large , and the inertial force generated in the inertial body is correspondingly large . the inertial force overcomes the urging force of the trigger spring , and the inertial body moves toward the front of the vehicle . this movement of the inertial body enables movement of the firing pin toward the detonator 49 , and due to the urging force of the firing spring , the firing pin flies toward the detonator 49 and strikes the detonator 49 . due to this striking of the detonator 49 , the detonator 49 ignites , and as described above , the gas generating device 39 generates a large amount of gas . the gas flows through the passage 46a , and due to the increase in pressure within the cylinder 46 at the back side of the piston 47 , the piston 47 is moved in the direction of arrow k . due to the movement of the piston 47 , tensile force is applied to the wire 26 . due to the tensile force of the wire 26 , the buckle 54 is moved in the pulling - in direction via the pulley 44 and the wire 25 . next , the operation and effects of the buckle pull - out preventing device 19 will be described . in the buckle pull - out preventing device 19 in the state illustrated in fig2 when the vehicle suddenly decelerates , the second wire 26 is pulled in the direction of arrow k as described above . as a result , the teeth surfaces 10b of the gear teeth 10a push the teeth 27a of the pawl 27 and pivot the pawl 27 in the counterclockwise direction . more specifically , the teeth 27a of the pawl 27 separate from the gear teeth 10a of the gear 10 . the pulley 44 ( the gear 10 ) rotates in the clockwise direction of fig2 due to the tensile force of the wire 26 , and the wire 26 is wound out from the pulley 44 . at the same time , the wire 25 is taken up onto the pulley 44 . as a result , the buckle 54 is pulled in the direction of arrow a in fig1 tension is applied to the webbing 51 , and the webbing 51 is tightly applied to the vehicle occupant . thereafter , the teeth 27a of the pawl 27 mesh with the gear teeth 10a due to the urging force of the plate spring 28 . however , the teeth 27a do not hamper the rotation of the gear 10 while the gear 10 is rotating in the clockwise direction . when the vehicle occupant pushes the webbing 51 toward the front side of the vehicle due to inertia , tensile force in the direction opposite to the direction of arrow e acts on the wire 25 via the webbing 51 , and the gear 10 attempts to rotate in the counterclockwise direction in fig2 . as shown in fig2 in the state in which the pawl 27 meshes with the gear 10 , the pawl 27 prevents rotation of the gear 10 in the counterclockwise direction in fig2 and functions as a ratchet . therefore , the gear 10 does not rotate in the counterclockwise direction , and the buckle 54 is maintained in the state of being pulled - in the direction of arrow a . as shown in fig4 a , when the gear 10 rotates in the counterclockwise direction in the state in which the teeth 27a of the pawl 27 are separated from the gear teeth 10a , due to the rotation of the gear 10 , the other end portion 28b of the plate spring 28 which is engaged with the teeth surfaces 10b of the gear teeth 10a of the gear 10 is pushed upward by the gear teeth 10a . as a result , as illustrated in fig4 b through 4e , due to the elastic force of the plate spring 28 , the other end portion 28b of the plate spring 28 pivots the pawl 27 in the clockwise direction substantially synchronously with the movement of the teeth surfaces 10b of the gear 10 . as a result , even if the gear rotates in the counterclockwise direction , the pawl 27 is substantially synchronous with or in phase with the rotation of the gear 10 , and the gear teeth 10a and the teeth 27a mesh as illustrated in fig2 . accordingly , even if pulling - out force acts on the wire 25 ( the webbing 51 ) due to the inertial force of the vehicle occupant , the meshed state of the gear 10 and the pawl 27 can reliably be ensured . in the present embodiment , the first wire 25 is pulled in the pulling - in direction of the buckle 54 when the vehicle suddenly decelerates . thereafter , even if the first wire 25 is pulled out in the pulling - out direction due to the inertial force of the vehicle occupant , substantially synchronously with the rotation of the gear 10 , the plate spring 28 urges the pawl 27 in the direction of meshing between the teeth of the gear 10 ( without colliding with the addenda ). therefore , the time over which the pawl 27 and the gear 10 mesh can be shortened , and the phases of the pawl 27 and the gear 10 match so that skipping of teeth can be prevented . the meshing positions of the pawl 27 and the gear 10 do not move out of place , and the pulled - in amount of the buckle 54 can be maintained . in the above - described embodiment , an elastic body may be provided which urges the pawl 27 in the direction of meshing with the gear teeth 10a when the pawl 27 separates from the gear teeth 10a . further , it is not necessary for the entire plate spring 28 to be an elastic body as in the above embodiment . as long as an elastic body which can maintain the plate spring 28 in the state of fig2 is provided , there is no need for the plate spring 28 itself or the entire plate spring to be an elastic body . moreover , in the above - described embodiment , in order to transmit the drive force of the buckle pull - in device 40 from the buckle pull - in device 40 to the buckle 54 , the two wires 25 , 26 are used together with the first groove 22 and the second groove 23 to increase the drive stroke . however , a single wire may be connected from the detonator 49 to the buckle 54 , and the intermediate portion of this wire may be entrained about the pulley 44 . | 5 |
fig1 and 4 shows the invention to consist of an adapter barrel 1 , an adapter sleeve 3 , and a case spinning tool 19 . the adapter barrel 1 is generally cylindrical in shape having a power end 4 , and a tool end 5 . fig2 shows the adapter barrel 1 having a small cylindrical center bore 6 into the power end 4 . this small cylindrical bore 6 is sized to slide onto a round electric motor shaft . while the invention can be made any size , it is noted that small electric motors commonly have half inch diameter shafts . the adapter barrel 1 has one or more tapped holes 7 , which are threaded to accept allen set screws 8 , through the wall of the adapter barrel 1 into the small cylindrical bore 6 . after the adapter barrel 1 is slid on to a motor shaft , the adapter barrel 1 can be secured thereto by tightening the allen set screws 8 . usually a motor shaft has a flat provided , against which the allen set screws 8 may bear . the tool end 5 of the adapter barrel 1 has a large center bore 9 sized to slideably accept a burring tool 10 . the surface where the large center bore 9 and the small cylindrical center bore 6 meet , is designated a shoulder 11 . the adapter barrel 1 has one or more tapped holes 7 which also are threaded to accept allen set screws 8 , through the wall of the adapter barrel 1 into the large center bore 9 . the tapped holes 7 into the large center bore 9 are arranged circumferentially around the tool end 5 . the burring tool 10 depicted , is manufactured by l . e . wilson , inc ., cashmere , wash . 98825 . the burring tool 10 is double - ended , meaning that one end is designed for deburring the inside of the neck of a cartridge , while the other end is designed for deburring the outside of the neck of the cartridge . consequently the depth of the large center bore 9 to the shoulder 11 must be such that the burring tool 10 bottoms yet leaving the desired operating end sufficiently exposed ; and the tapped holes 7 around the tool end 5 situated so that the allen screws 8 bear in the middle of the burring tool 10 , and not on the operative ends . economics and commonality establishes that all tapped holes 7 be similarly sized , as well as the allen set screws 8 . a primer pocket reamer 16 used with this invention is depicted in fig1 and is also manufactured l . e . wilson , inc ., cashmere , wash . 98825 . the primer pocket reamer 16 is shown to have an operative end and a threaded end . fig1 shows an adapter sleeve 3 has a center bore 15 sized to slide over and accept the primer pocket reamer 16 in one end . the other end of the adapter sleeve 3 has a tapped and threaded hole 17 . the surface where the center bore 15 and the tapped and threaded hole 17 meet is designed a shoulder 18 . the shoulder 18 is situated so that when the threaded end of the primer pocket reamer 16 is slid into the center bore 15 and then threaded into the tapped and threaded hole 17 , the primer pocket reamer 16 is securely retained in the adapter sleeve 3 , yet protrudes sufficiently to be functional . fig4 shows the case spinning tool 19 to have a conical section 20 , and a stem 21 . the stem 21 is cylindrical in shape sized to slideably mate into the adapter sleeve 3 . the conical section 20 is conical in shape , the point being sharp enough to be partially inserted into the neck of a cartridge case . the conical section 20 , and the stem 21 may be integrally formed , or they may be separately formed and rigidly attached to each other . the case spinning tool 19 , when inserted in the adapter sleeve 3 which in turn is inserted into the adapter barrel 1 and the adapter barrel 1 is then affixed to a motor shaft , will rotate at the speed of the motor . a cartridge case is applied to the tip of the conical section 20 so that the neck of a cartridge case is placed over the tip . friction then turns the cartridge case . the person who is to clean cartridge cases , holds in his hand a piece of steel wool , in which rests a cartridge case . the person then applies the cartridge , as aforestated , to the conical section 20 . the cartridge case spins rapidly in the nest of steel wool , and the steel wool scours the cartridge case gleaming clean . it was previously thought that applying the neck of the cartridge case to the conical section 20 would enlarge the neck of the cartridge case . this turns out not to be the situation , since only a slight pressure against the conical section 20 is required . the conical section 20 may be made of steel , but also may be made of many other materials such as rubber , synthetic resins , and plastics . with this invention , the person desiring to refinish cartridge cases , simply installs the adapter barrel 1 on the shaft of any convenient electric motor . into the adapter barrel he installs the burring tool 10 with the internal deburring end exposed , and proceeds to internally deburr his cartridge cases . having finished the burring tool 10 is removed from the adapter barrel 1 , turned end for end and reinstalled on the adapter barrel 1 , and the external portion of the neck of the cartridge cases deburred . the burring tool 10 is then removed from the adapter barrel 1 , and the primer pocket reamer 16 installed in the adapter sleeve 3 , which in turn is installed in the adapter barrel 1 . the person refinishing the cartridge cases , thus proceeds to ream the primer pockets . finally , the primer pocket reamer 16 is removed from the adapter barrel 1 , and the case spinning tool 19 installed grasping a piece of steel wool , the person refinishing the cartridge cases , grasps each cartridge case in the steel wool , applies it to the case spinning tool 19 , until the cartridge case is clean and bright . in a matter of an hour or so , thousands of cartridge cases can be refinished , ready to be re - loaded ; in contrast to a hundred or so previously done by hand . because there are undoubtedly numerous people who reload cartridges but do not have access to a small electric motor , the invention is adaptable for use with a hand held small electric drill , which may or may not be mounted in a drill press fig1 shows a drill shank 2 having an adapter end 12 and a drill end 13 , both being generally ajindrical . the drill shank 2 is integrally made . the adapter end 12 is sized to slideably mate into the smaller cylindrical bore 6 of the adapter barrel 1 , and the adapter end 12 has a flat 14 on which bear allen set screws 8 . the drill end 13 is generally lindrical in shape sized to be accepted into the chuck of a hand held drill , for example a quarter inch drill . | 1 |
the preferred embodiment of the device for storing both clean and used baby bottle nipples is depicted in fig5 and 6 and comprises a cylindrical tubular member 10 having a first thread 40 near the open top end and a second thread 42 at the open bottom end . the cylindrical tubular member 10 is preferably of a transparent material to allow viewing of any baby bottle nipples and collars stored within the dispenser and is preferably approximately 5 inches in length with an approximate diameter of 2¾ inches . a flare at the bottom end of the cylindrical tubular member 10 adds approximately ⅛ inches the entire way around the perimeter such that the diameter is 3 ″ at the bottom end . a nipple - shaped top cap 18 has a first interior lip and a top retaining ring 34 tethered by attachment or integral formation of a thin flexible strip to an exterior surface of the top cap 18 . the interior of the retaining ring 34 a thread 38 for engaging the first thread 40 of cylindrical tubular member 10 to attach the top retaining ring 34 and thereby also attach the top cap 18 to the cylindrical tubular member 10 to prevent separation of the two and potential loss of top cap 18 . the exterior of the top retaining ring 34 includes a groove 24 for receiving the interior lip of the top cap 18 to removably connect said top cap 18 to said retaining ring 34 and thereby said cylindrical tubular member 10 . first interior lip is capable of engaging said groove 24 to close said first open end with said top cap 18 . nipple - shaped top cap 18 has a diameter corresponding to the top open end of the cylindrical tubular member 10 allowing for secure engagement of the two elements . a nipple - shaped divider insert has a shape conducive to allowing said insert to be slidably contained within said cylindrical tubular member 10 while segregating the interior of the cylindrical tubular member into clean and used portions for respectively receiving clean and used nipples and collars . in this way contamination which may be present on used nipples or collars in the cylindrical tubular member will not be spread to any clean nipples or collars . the shape and approximate height of 2¼ inches permits relatively close engagement with used nipples and collars on one side and clean nipples and collars on the other . a bottom cap 20 has a second interior lip and a bottom retaining ring 32 tethered to an exterior surface of said bottom cap 20 . the interior of the retaining ring 32 has a second internal thread 36 for engaging the second thread 42 of cylindrical tubular member 10 to attach the bottom retaining ring 32 and thereby the bottom cap 20 to the cylindrical tubular member 10 to prevent loss . the exterior of the bottom retaining ring 32 also includes a groove 26 for receiving the interior lip of the top cap 18 to removably connect said bottom cap 20 to said cylindrical tubular member 10 . bottom cap 20 has a diameter corresponding to the flare at the bottom open end of the cylindrical tubular member 10 allowing for secure engagement of the two elements . tabs 28 and 30 are provided on the top 18 and bottom 20 caps to act as levers for facilitating removal of the nipple - shaped top 18 and bottom 20 caps from engagement with said cylindrical tubular member 10 . another feature of this preferred embodiment is perforations 44 formed in top cap 18 to allow for communication of air inside the cylindrical tubular member 10 with outside air . in still further embodiments , perforations may be provided in the cylindrical tubular member 10 or the bottom cap 20 . as depicted in fig1 - 4 , an alternative embodiment of a device for storing used and dispensing clean baby bottle nipples comprises a cylindrical tubular member 10 having a groove 24 at its open top end and a second groove 26 at its open bottom end distal from said top end . the cylindrical tubular member 10 is preferably of a transparent material to allow viewing of any baby bottle nipples and collars stored within the dispenser and is preferably approximately 5 inches in length with an approximate diameter of 2¾ inches . a flare at the bottom end of the cylindrical tubular member 10 adds approximately ⅛ inches the entire way und the perimeter such that the diameter is 3 ″ at the bottom end . a nipple - shaped top cap 18 has a first lip for engaging the first groove 24 of the cylindrical tubular member 10 to assemble said top cap 18 to the cylindrical tubular member 10 to close its open top end . nipple - shaped top cap 18 has a diameter corresponding to the top open end of the cylindrical tubular member 10 allowing for secure engagement of the two elements . nipple - shaped top cap 18 has an interior diameter corresponding to the top open end of the cylindrical tubular member 10 allowing for secure engagement of the two elements . a nipple - shaped divider insert is of a size and shape conducive to allowing said insert to be slidably contained within said cylindrical tubular member 10 . nipple - shaped divider insert has a diameter slightly less than that of the cylindrical tubular member to allow for unrestricted sliding of the divider insert therein . the shape and approximate height of 2¼ inches permits relatively close engagement with used nipples and collars on one side and clean nipples and collars on the other . a bottom cap 20 has a second lip for engaging the second groove 26 of the cylindrical tubular member 10 to assemble the bottom cap 20 to cylindrical tubular member 10 to close its open bottom end . bottom cap 20 has a diameter corresponding to the flare at the bottom open end of the cylindrical tubular member 10 allowing for secure engagement of the two elements . retaining ring 22 is tethered to the bottom cap 20 and when slid over the cylindrical tubular member 10 at the top end holds bottom cap 20 to cylindrical tubular member 10 to prevent separation of the two and potential loss of bottom cap 20 . retaining ring 22 is prevented from slipping off of cylindrical tubular member 10 by the top cap 18 at the top end and by a flare 21 at the bottom end . tab 28 is formed on an edge of said bottom cap 20 and capable of acting as a lever for facilitating removal of said bottom cap 20 from engagement with said cylindrical tubular member 10 . a second tab 30 is also formed on an edge of said top cap 18 and capable of acting as a lever for facilitating removal of said top cap 18 from engagement with said cylindrical tubular member 10 . a user removes the used nipple and collar from a feeding bottle ( not shown ), opens the dispenser by removing the bottom cap 20 which remains tethered to the cylindrical tubular member by way of the bottom retaining ring . after placing the used nipple cap 14 into the tubular cylindrical member through the bottom opening , the user replaces the bottom cap by snapping the interior lip of the bottom cap into the groove of bottom retaining ring 32 . the dispenser is thereby closed at its bottom end and the used nipple and collar 14 is separated from clean nipples and collars 12 by nipple - shaped insert 16 . the user may now open top end of the cylindrical tubular member 10 by removing the top cap 18 which remains tethered to the cylindrical tubular member 10 by way of the top retaining ring 34 . it is now possible to remove a clean nipple and collar 12 from the cylindrical tubular member 10 and subsequently replace the top cap 18 by snapping engagement of interior lip of the top cap 18 into the groove of the top retaining ring 34 . the clean nipple and collar 12 may now be placed onto the feeding bottle and the infant or toddler may be safely fed . the dispenser is capable of being stowed in a bag or backpack while occupying approximately the same amount of space as a feeding bottle . preferably , all of the components of the storage dispenser would be made of high grade plastic and would be formed via a press that would mold each component separately . components would subsequently be assembled by machine or by hand . it may be desirable to offer gender - preferred transparent colors of cylindrical tubular member . while the invention has been described with respect to certain specific embodiments , it will be appreciated that many modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention . it is intended , therefore , by the appended claims to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention . | 0 |
referring now to the drawings and fig1 , and 6 in particular , there is shown a post 10 for an opto - electronic security fence according to the present invention . the opto - electronic fence consists of identical posts 10 placed in such a manner that they define a line or a perimeter . the maximum number of posts 10 is not limited to any particular value , although a number equal to 2 n , where n is an integer greater than zero , makes the digital design aspect easier to handle . distance between posts 10 is also variable ; typically , a range of between 50 m and 1000 m between posts 10 is expected . the security fence is defined by beams of electro - magnetic energy transmitted in opposite directions from one post 10 to another post 10 . prefered wavelengths for these beams is in the low infrared ( ir ) or millimeter wave region of the electro - magnetic spectrum . each post 10 has a minimum of two transmitters 12 and two receivers 14 . as illustrated in fig1 in the preferred embodiment each post 10 has two transmitters 12 and six receivers 14 . three receivers 14 are pointed at the preceding post 10 and the other three at the following post 10 . the receivers 14 are placed at different heights to increase the detection probability and add redundancy . when an object or intruder passes between two posts 10 , one or more line of sights between one or two transmitters 12 , and one to six receivers 14 will trigger an alarm . a functional diagram for explaining operation in a boundary type installation is shown in fig2 a thru 2d ; where for simplicity , only two receivers 14 per post 10 are illustrated . in fig2 a through 2d there is shown four posts 10 designated p1 , p2 , p3 and p4 . since the detection of an alarm can take place in any post 10 , some means of linking the posts 10 to a surveillance headquarters 20 is required . for communication the disclosed invention uses the inherent advantages of the electromagnetic beam going from one post to the other . data is superimposed on the beam by modulating the beam in a manner well known in the art . the surveillance fence can then be considered a serial communication network . fig2 b shows how data issued by the surveillance headquarters 20 is sent along the fence from one post to the other , in a pass - the - bucket fashion . as fig2 b shows , the communication link starts with line 1 and serially goes around the fence communication link and back to headquarters 20 via line 8 . only one post 10 , designated p4 , communicates directly with the surveillance computer at the surveillance headquarter 20 over a standard electrical cable ; any post 10 in the fence can be used to play this role . end posts 10 are identified during the installation procedure and these posts 10 will activate only one transmitter during normal operation . each post 10 is assigned a different id number . when an interruption is sensed by a post 10 , the post 10 adds this interruption information in the following message it will send . the information consists of the post id from which the signal was lost , the number of receivers 14 on the post 10 which sensed the loss , and the time . the information then cascades down to the surveillance headquarters as illustrated in fig2 c . post 10 , designated p3 , senses the intrusion and transmits this information to the headquarters 20 via the post 10 , designated p4 . a message from only one post 10 is sufficient to locate the intrusion location . this is important since during a prolonged interruption one of the posts 10 , such as p2 in fig2 d , may not be able to relay its data ; in this case , the system is designed to store all interruption data in the isolated post 10 and send it when the communication link is reinstated . this feature is important to detect multiple interruptions between different posts as illustrated in fig2 d . operation of the fence in a perimeter type installation follows the same logic as described for a boundary type installation with the added advantages of the closed loop geometry which enable the immediate localization of simultaneous interruptions in two fence segments . in fact , in a perimeter type installation , only one transmitter 12 and one receiver 14 per post 10 could be used which would establish a single ring shaped communication link . however , since this , the preferred embodiment of this invention is based on the interruption of a mesh defined by a line of sight between a transmitter 12 and one or more receivers 14 , the use of two contra - directional communication links provides a tighter mesh . each post 10 consists of the following elements : two transmitters 12 ; a minimum of two receivers 14 ; an electronic processor 16 ; a battery pack 18 ; a mounting post 22 ; and a tripod support base 24 . the transmitter emits a diverging beam typically a 10 to 200 mrad cone , of electro - magnetic energy . in the micro - wave region , a 10 to 60 ghz emitter can be used . the exact frequency will be chosen according to the amount of atmospheric attenuation that can be tolerated . in certain applications it may be an advantage to use a wavelength which is partially absorbed by the atmosphere since this will make the fence harder to detect at a distance . each ir transmitter 12 consists of either a high power led or a laser diode whose output beam is shaped by an objective . a fresnel lens can be used in such an application since imaging quality is not required ; also , their high numerical aperture makes possible a compact system with large diameter output windows . this is a definite advantage for a surveillance system which must be eye safe . the biasing and analog driver circuits are located in the transmitter 12 casing ; they are linked to the post processor 16 circuits via cables fitted with connectors . the transmitter unit 12 is field replaceable . the transmitter 12 case is a simple extruded and machined aluminum tube . as shown in fig5 it is attached on a two degrees of freedom ( rotational ) mount on the mounting post 10 . each transmitter 12 can be individually aligned to the neighbouring posts without disturbing the other transmitter 12 and receivers 14 . mechanical sights are provided on the outside of transmitters 12 and receivers 14 to facilitate alignment . each optical receiver 14 consists of a lens and a pin photodiode connected to a preamplifier . the pin diode was chosen because of its efficiency in the low infrared , its high speed even for large area devices , and its low cost . the large area enables a larger field of view and eases the alignment tolerance . when compared to an avalanche photodiode , the pin photodiode does not require a temperature compensation circuit and a high voltage biasing supply , which makes its cost advantage even greater . similarly to the ir transmitter 12 , the ir receivers 14 are linked to the processor 16 circuits via cables fitted with connectors , and they are field replaceable . if possible , the receiver 14 case will be identical to the transmitter 12 case . each receiver 14 can be individually aligned to the neighbouring posts without disturbing the other transmitters and receivers . in the microwave region a radar receiver , similar to the radar transmitter described above , could be used . the opto - electronic fence considered in the following paragraphs has sixteen posts , each post has two transmitters 12 and six receivers 14 . these characteristics , as well as the exact communication protocol , can be modified in different versions , however , the basic system principles will remain the same . an electronic schematic of a post 10 is shown in fig3 . components which are not part of each post processor 16 are joined with dotted lines . components and circuitry for constructing a suitable processor 16 are well known to those skilled in the art . the processor 16 contains the analog and digital circuitry required to : detect the presence of a modulated light beam , extract the data from the light beam signal , execute a command from the surveillance headquarter , generate a reply , and modulate a light source . each post 10 has the hardware to communicate with a surveillance headquarter 20 via cable , however , only one post 10 is selected to play this role . processor 16 includes a micro - controller cpu 15 and a power supply 17 which provides power from battery 18 . to prevent crosstalk between posts , each post 10 is assigned an id which corresponds to a specific modulation carrier frequency . with reference to fig2 b , this ensures that the signal transmitted from a post 10 , designated p1 , to another post 10 , designated p2 , along line 5 in the drawing , will not be detected by the post 10 , designated p3 , which is to respond to the communication link along line 6 . there is a detection and demodulation circuit assigned to each receiver 14 , six per each post 10 . an alarm is triggered when a beam is interrupted and one or more demodulation circuits do not detect a carrier frequency . the micro - controller 15 is responsible for the interrupt analysis when an alarm is generated ; a message , or a series of messages if there are multiple alarms , is composed . this message is added to the last valid digital data received from a neighbour post 10 and sent toward the surveillance headquarters 20 . if the communication path between the surveillance headquarters and the post is blocked , as shown for the post 10 , designated p2 , in fig2 c , then the data will be kept in memory until the link is reactivated . in all cases , it is required that the surveillance headquarters 20 sends an acknowledge message to a post 10 from which it received an alarm . after reception of the acknowledge message , the post 10 will clear the intrusion event from its memory . the data packet structure for a sixteen post fence is shown in fig4 a and 4b . since the link is asynchronous , a certain number of synchronization bits , eight for the purpose of discussion , is required at the start of the transmission . this is followed by a ninety six bit message issued by the surveillance headquarters 20 , see fig4 a . this message is separated into two parts : the first part cannot be modified by any post ; when received , it is relayed to the next post . the first part can be further separated into five blocks : the absolute time , sixteen reset bits , one per post ; sixteen status bits , one per post ; sixteen acknowledge bits , one per post ; and an eight bit checksum . the second part , modifiable by any post , consist of a sixteen bit post flag , one per post ; and an eight bit checksum for the flag . once decoded by the surveillance headquarter 20 , the flag indicates which post 10 has sent back an intrusion message . a post message is forty eight bits long in three blocks , see fig4 b . the first block indicates the event time . the second block gives the post 10 status : receiver or receivers 14 , which detected the alarm ; start or end of the alarm condition for a given receiver ; circuit fault ; or low battery . the third block is an eight bit checksum for the post message . the post will also modify the post flag portion of the surveillance headquarter message and compute its new checksum . the revised post flag and the post message will then be added at the end of the surveillance headquarters 20 message and sent to the next post 10 . a data packet is sent from the surveillance headquarters 20 every second . in one second , the packet will be relayed to all the post , and then back to the surveillance headquarters 20 . a post 10 retransmits the data only after it has received data , or after a predetermined time - out period . however , any interruption of a light beam will be detected even if there is no data transmission , because the ever present carrier beam will be interrupted . the registered interruption time resolution will be one second . the maximum number of bits in a message is eight hundred seventy two ; eight sync bits , plus ninety six surveillance headquarters message bits , and sixteen times forty eight post message bits . since there are thirty two relays per round trip and since each post can retransmit the message only after it has received it , the data rate must be high enough to cover the worst case scenario , an alarm on each post 10 . for a sixteen post 10 fence a 40 khz data rate is suggested . the sixteen modulation carrier frequencies have to be separated enough to minimize crosstalk , but at the same time , i recommend using the lowest frequencies possible in order to simplify the electronic design and minimize the system cost . the presence of a cpu 15 in this system makes the addition of built in test equipment ( bite ) circuitry very easy . in particular , any non catastrophic malfunction , such as a faulty receiver or a low battery , can be indicated to the surveillance headquarters via the communication channel . the disclosured security fence requires a battery pack 18 with a long shelf life , a high energy density , and a wide operating temperature range . a primary lithium sulfur dioxide system provides all these characteristics . the battery 18 will be located in the tripod base 24 where its weight will help stabilize the entire post 10 . the post 10 structures are designed to be light , for ease of transport by one man , and sturdy , to resist potential abuse . they are made of welded heavy gage metal sheets and tubes . the post 10 does not need to be concealed and its aspect can be a deterrent . the tripod base 24 provides the means for leveling the post 10 . only a rough adjustment is necessary since the transmitters 12 and receivers 14 have rotational mounts which can compensate for a few degrees of errors in the perpendicularity of each post 10 . the tripod base 24 can be firmly held with spikes driven in the ground . stability is important , especially if the fence is installed for long periods . target applications for the disclosed security fence are border crossings and perimeter intrusion . border crossing surveillance is particularly important in military peace keeping operations , in such operations , the system &# 39 ; s features offer greater reliability convenience and efficiency than typical installation of a wire fence . perimeter intrusion is also often required in the civilian market for applications such as airport grounds , company facilities or to protect potentially dangerous areas from unauthorized access . the opto - electronic fence does not preclude the use of a standard hard fence which can be used in conjunction with the opto - electronic fence if added security is required . main operation advantages of the disclosed opto - electronic fence are : ( a ) rapid deployment and removal , ( b ) configuration in multiple 50 m to 1000 m sections , ( c ) ability to monitor multiple alarms simultaneously , ( d ) continuous operation in a self - check mode , ( e ) multiple detection redundancy , and ( f ) automatic reactivation after detecting an intrusion . | 6 |
with reference now to the figures , and in particular with reference to fig1 a pictorial representation of a distributed data processing system in which the present invention may be implemented is depicted . distributed data processing system 100 is a network of computers in which the present invention may be implemented . distributed data processing system 100 contains a network 102 , which is the medium used to provide communications links between various devices and computers connected together within distributed data processing system 100 . network 102 may include permanent connections , such as wire or fiber optic cables , or temporary connections made through telephone connections . in the depicted example , a server 104 is connected to network 102 along with storage unit 106 . in addition , clients 108 , 110 , and 112 also are connected to a network 102 . these clients 108 , 110 , and 112 may be , for example , personal computers of network computers . for purposes of this application , a network computer is any computer , coupled to a network , which receives a program or other application from another computer coupled to the network . in the depicted example , server 104 provides data , such as boot files , operating system images , and applications to ncs 108 - 112 . ncs 108 , 110 , and 112 are clients to server 104 . distributed data processing system 100 may include additional servers , clients , and other devices not shown . fig1 is intended as an example , and not as an architectural limitation for the processes of the present invention . referring to fig2 a block diagram of a data processing system which may be implemented as a server , such as server 104 in fig1 is depicted in accordance to the present invention . data processing system 200 may be a symmetric multiprocessor ( smp ) system including a plurality of processors 202 and 204 connected to system bus 206 . alternatively , a single processor system may be employed . also connected to system bus 206 is memory controllercache 208 , which provides an interface to local memory 209 . i / o bus bridge 210 is connected to system bus 206 and provides an interface to i / o bus 212 . memory controllercache 208 and i / o bus bridge 210 may be integrated as depicted . peripheral component interconnect ( pci ) bus bridge 214 connected to i / o bus 212 provides an interface to pci local bus 216 . a number of modems 218 - 220 may be connected to pci bus 216 . typical pci bus implementations will support four pci expansion slots or add - in connectors . communications links to network computers 108 - 112 in fig1 may be provided through modem 218 and network adapter 220 connected to pci local bus 216 through add - in boards . additional pci bus bridges 222 and 224 provide interfaces for additional pci buses 226 and 228 , from which additional modems or network adapters may be supported . in this manner , server 200 allows connections to multiple network computers . a memory mapped graphics adapter 230 and hard disk 232 may also be connected to 10 bus 212 as depicted , either directly or indirectly . those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware depicted in fig2 may vary . for example , other peripheral devices , such as optical disk drive and the like also may be used in addition or in place of the hardware depicted . the depicted example is not meant to imply architectural limitations with respect to the present invention . the data processing system depicted in fig2 may be , for example , an ibm risc / system 6000 system , a product of international business machines corporation in armonk , n . y ., running the advanced interactive executive ( aix ) operating system . with reference now to fig3 a block diagram of a data processing system 300 in which the present invention may be implemented is illustrated . data processing system 300 is an example of a client computer . data processing system 300 employs a peripheral component interconnect ( pci ) local bus architecture . although the depicted example employs a pci bus , other bus architectures such as micro channel and isa may be used . processor 302 and main memory 304 are connected to pci local bus 306 through pci bridge 308 . pci bridge 308 also may include an integrated memory controller and cache memory for processor 302 . additional connections to pci local bus 306 may be made through direct component interconnection or through add - in boards . in the depicted example , local area network ( lan ) adapter 310 , scsi host bus adapter 312 , and expansion bus interface 314 are connected to pci local bus 306 by direct component connection . in contrast , audio adapter 316 , graphics adapter 318 , and audio / video adapter ( a / v ) 319 are connected to pci local bus 306 by add - in boards inserted into expansion slots . expansion bus interface 314 provides a connection for a keyboard and mouse adapter 320 , modem 322 , and additional memory 324 . scsi host bus adapter 112 provides a connection for hard disk drive 326 , tape drive 328 , and cd - rom 330 in the depicted example . typical pci local bus implementations will support three or four pci expansion slots or add - in connectors . an operating system runs on processor 302 and is used to coordinate and provide control of various components within data processing system 300 in fig1 . the operating system may be a commercially available operating system such as os / 2 , which is available from international business machines corporation . “ os / 2 ” is a trademark of from international business machines corporation . an object oriented programming system such as java may run in conjunction with the operating system and provides calls to the operating system from java programs or applications executing on data processing system 300 . instructions for the operating system , the object - oriented operating system , and applications or programs are located on storage devices , such as hard disk drive 326 and may be loaded into main memory 304 for execution by processor 302 . those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware in fig3 may vary depending on the implementation . for example , other peripheral devices , such as optical disk drives and the like may be used in addition to or in place of the hardware depicted in fig3 . the depicted example is not meant to imply architectural limitations with respect to the present invention . for example , the processes of the present invention may be applied to multiprocessor data processing system . referring to fig4 a block diagram 400 is presented that illustrates both the method and the apparatus of the present invention . an internet browser 402 is coupled to a java virtual machine ( jvm ) 404 . the jvm 404 contains class data structures for various classes . the jvm is queried ( step 408 ) to get the java class information . the java class information is returned to the browser ( step 410 ), next , the class extensions are set ( step 412 ) in the class shadow apparatus 406 . the class extensions are set based on the class information retrieved in step 410 . during use of the class shadow apparatus 406 , the apparatus 406 can be queried to get class extension information ( step 414 ). when successfully queried , the class extensions are returned ( step 416 ) to the browser 402 . fig5 illustrates the data structures in both the 600 and in the shadow apparatus . the jvm &# 39 ; s data structure 500 contains the class name 502 , the class data 504 , class methods 506 , and the parent class 503 as well as additional data 510 . the class extension data structure 512 contains an array of security principals 514 , the security signature for the class 516 , and a pointer to the signed java archive ( jar ) file that the class was stored in , as well as other data 520 . fig6 provides a flow chart of the method 600 of setting a class extension in the shadow apparatus . first , a hash value is set based on the class name ( step 602 ). next , a search is performed on a hash table based on the value ( step 604 ). next , the method must decide if the class extension is found for the class in question ( step 606 ). if the class extension is found , then an updated entry is made in the hash table with the extension information ( step 608 ). if the class extension is not found , then a new entry is created and filled with extension information ( step 610 ). fig7 illustrates the method 700 of getting a class extension from the shadow apparatus . first , a hash value is created based on the class name ( step 702 ). next , the hash table is searched based on this value ( step 704 ). a decision is made whether a class extension is found for that class ( step 706 ). if so , then the class extension information is returned ( step 708 ). if not , then blank or null class extension information is returned . ( step 710 ). it is important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functioning data processing system , those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in a form of a computer readable medium of instructions and a variety of forms and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media actually used to carry out the distribution . examples of computer readable media include recordable - type media such a floppy disc , a hard disk drive , a ram , and cd - roms and transmission - type media such as digital and analog communications links . the description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description , but is not limited to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed . many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art . the embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention the practical application and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated . | 6 |
fig1 , 3 and 4 show four particular examples of applications of the process according to the invention . in these four figures , the same elements are designated by the same reference numbers . thus , the two pieces to be joined together by electron beam welding are designated 1 and 2 . the line , in the plane of the figure , of the common surfaces over which the two pieces are to be joined together is designated 3 . the broken line bounding the contour of the remelting zone obtained during electron beam welding is designated 4 . in fig1 and 2 , material which has been deposited by means of a traditional arc welding process , respectively on one and on both of the pieces to be joined , is designated 5 . in the embodiment of fig1 a weld bead 5 is initially produced by means of an arc welding process , for example in the factory , on one face of the piece 1 , parallel to the opposed surface of the other piece 2 to which piece 1 is to be welded . the weld bead is then machined to produce a surface 3 , which , in the present case , is planar , and which extends in a plane passing through the bead 5 . the opposite surface of the piece 2 is also machined and is juxtaposed with the machined surface of piece 1 at the time when the two pieces are to be joined by electron beam welding , for example on a building site . it has been found that the seeds contained in the deposited bead 5 favor the formation of acicular ferrite in sufficient amounts to provide a substantial improvement in the mechanical and metallurgical characteristics of the welded joint obtained . in the embodiment of fig2 the piece 2 is treated in the same way as the piece 1 , for example in a factory , and the surfaces 3 are welded to one another on a building site by means of an electron beam . in fig3 an insert obtained from a deposit produced beforehand by means of a traditional arc welding process is designated 6 . this insert 6 is fixed between the two pieces 1 and 2 to be joined , and then the electron beam welding operation is carried out as already described , the remelting region during this welding operation surrounding the entire insert . in fig4 the two pieces 1 and 2 to be joined , whose surfaces 3 which have been duly machined , are brought into contact with one another . a wire prepared from a deposit obtained by arc welding is supplied during the welding operation ; when electron beam welding takes place , the metal of this wire fulfills the function of the insert of fig3 by providing the seeds necessary for the formation of acicular ferrite . fig5 shows three stages in another embodiment of the invention , in which a lateral weld bead 5 is first produced on a metal plate 1 , in the region of one of the edges of the plate , the weld being made by a traditional arc welding process , after which a surface at which the plate 1 is to be welded to plate 2 by means of an electron beam , is produced , the surface lying in a plane passing through the mass of the weld bead 5 . for the remainder of the operations , the situation corresponds to a case fairly similar to that of fig1 the surface of plate 1 being in this embodiment made only partially of the material of the weld bead 5 , although it can be completely produced thereof . fig6 also shows , in perspective , three stages of joining two tubular elements together according to an embodiment of the invention . a first tubular element 10 receives a preliminary lateral weld bead 12 obtained by means of a traditional arc welding process . the element 10 is then machined so as to present a surface 13 in a plane passing through the bead 12 and opposed to the corresponding surface , which has also been trued up , of the second tubular element 11 to be joined to the element 10 . the elements are then brought together and held against one another , and the electron beam welding operation is carried out as before . practical examples of use of the invention are given below for the case of steel plate . the chemical composition of a weld produced in a conventional manner , by means of an electron beam , was as follows : ______________________________________c si mn s p ni cr mo cu______________________________________0 . 0710 . 26 1 . 53 0 . 006 0 . 034 0 . 21 0 . 034 0 . 25 0 . 004______________________________________co al b ppm nb ti v sn pb o . sub . 2______________________________________0 . 0110 . 16 6 0 . 040 0 . 010 0 . 067 0 . 001 0 . 008 -- ______________________________________ the resilience k cv at - 10 ° c . had an average value , over five experiments , of : 2 . 6 daj / cm 2 . in a first example , a process according to the invention was followed . the final composition of the weld was as follows ; ______________________________________c si mn s p ni cr mo cu______________________________________0 . 0790 . 27 1 . 64 0 . 009 0 . 033 0 . 17 0 . 032 0 . 37 0 . 070______________________________________co al b ppm nb ti v sn pb o . sub . 2______________________________________0 . 0150 . 015 8 0 . 028 0 . 009 0 . 050 0 . 002 0 . 010 0 . 0271______________________________________ the resilience at - 10 ° c . had an average value , over two experiments , of : 17 . 8 daj / cm 2 . in a second example using a process according to the invention , the final composition of the weld was as follows : ______________________________________c si mn s p ni cr mo cu______________________________________0 . 0690 . 32 1 . 74 0 . 009 0 . 030 0 . 18 0 . 060 0 . 35 0 . 044______________________________________co al b ppm nb ti v sn pb o . sub . 2______________________________________0 . 0140 . 014 32 0 . 027 0 . 031 0 . 052 0 . 003 0 . 010 0 . 038______________________________________ the resilience at - 10 ° c . had an average value of : 26 . 3 daj / cm 2 . fig7 shows an apparatus for use in carrying out a process according to the present invention , which apparatus is suitable for the electron beam welding of cylindrical pieces , for example of two elements of a tubular pipe . the surface , in the plane of the figure , of one of the tubular elements to be joined is designated 14 . the apparatus comprises an electron gun 15 which is mounted within a chamber 18 and a sheath 16 which extends inside the chamber 18 and receives internally a filler wire 17 which extends to the welding point , that is to say to the point of impact of the electron beam on the welding line . the chamber 18 has the general shape of a torus and in use a high vacuum prevails within the chamber 18 . the space 19 which is located radially within the torus , and in which the tubular elements to be welded are located , is also capable of being evacuated during the welding operation . at various points , the sheath 16 possesses holes 16a which bring it into communication with the vacuum prevailing inside the chamber 18 , in order to make it possible to pump out air which may inadvertently have been drawn in through a gasket 20 which is joined to the sheath 16 at its inlet and to the outer wall of the chamber 18 and ensures leaktightness at the point where the wire 17 , originating from a primary motor - driven feed reel 21 , enters the chamber . the gasket 20 is preferably of an adjustable type , and preferably of the inflatable type , with two positions , namely a sealing position which it assumes between two welding operations when the filler wire has been stopped , and an open position which it assumes throughout the duration of a welding operation . as regards the sheath 16 , it possesses , downstream of the gasket 20 , a part of reduced cross - section closely fitting the filler wire 17 , in order to improve the leaktightness at this point . a secondary motor - driven feed reel 22 receives the wire 17 from the outlet of the sheath 16 and directs the wire towards the welding point . the speed of the second motor - driven feed reel 22 is controlled by the primary motor - driven feed reel 21 . an inflatable gasket 23 , of the same construction as the gasket 20 , ensures the leaktight passage of the filler wire 17 downstream of the feed reel 22 , at the outlet of the sheath 16 , on a radially inner wall of the chamber . along its path , between the electron gun 15 and the welding point , the electron beam passes through a withdrawable nozzle 24 which provides it with magnetic protection , the nozzle also providing the filler wire 17 with mechanical protection up to the point of impact . it will be apparent that the apparatus shown with a single electron gun 15 may be provided with several guns distributed over the periphery of the welding line . it is understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments which have been described above , and it can also form the subject of modifications of detail without thereby going outside the framework of the invention or exceeding its scope . | 1 |
[ 0052 ] fig3 is a block diagram of a system that embodies the present invention . the processor 340 is responsible for the main computations associated with interacting and traversing the graph . the memory 330 contains an internal representation of the graph and also is used for various computations and generating the map diagram . the display 350 is responsible for displaying the generated map diagram to the user . the user input device 360 may be a mouse , trackball , keyboard , or any other suitable means for the user to interact with the system . the external storage device 320 may be a hard disk drive , cd - rom , optical drive , or any other suitable storage device . the network 310 can be the internet , a local network , or another means of accessing and retrieving information from another computer system . additional devices may be added to the system , such as an audio system or a different means of displaying the generated map diagrams . the current embodiment of the present invention has been implemented on a microsoft windows ™- compatible pc , using c ++ as the programming language and the microsoft foundation classes ( mfc ) as the application framework . mfc provides many of the base functions associated with the operation of the memory , external storage device , network , display , and user input device . the application was designed using object - oriented analysis and design ( ooa / d ) techniques , so the design will be presented using the preferred notation for these techniques , the unified modeling language ( uml ). note that any suitable operating system , programming language , and design methodology could be used to design and build this invention . [ 0056 ] fig4 is a uml class diagram for the main classes of the preferred embodiment . a class diagram is the main design artifact of an object - oriented system . it shows the major classes of objects within the system , the characteristics of those objects , and the relationships among those objects . each class has attributes , which are values stored for the objects of the class . each class also has operations that are performed on objects of the class . each class also has relationships that are represented in the class diagram as lines connecting to other classes . note that each class is named starting with a “ c ”, as in “ cnode ”. this is consistent with the naming style used in mfc . two groups of classes are defined : the model classes and the view classes . the model classes 410 are the classes that represent the graph itself internally within the system memory . three classes are used to represent the parts of the graph : the nodes ( cnode 450 ), the links ( cnodelink 440 ), and the container that holds the nodes ( cspace 430 ). these three classes together completely represent the graph . the class cnode represents the nodes , and cnode objects contain the node &# 39 ; s title , body text , any images , and any additional information that may be associated with the node such as an audio clip . each cnode also contains a collection of zero or more cnodelinks , each of which represents a link to another cnode . the cnodelinks contain the link weight as an attribute . all of the cnodes that are interlinked are collected together into a single cspace . the cspace manages various operations for all of the cnodes in the cspace . all of the nodes in a cspace must be able to be saved and restored from a persistent storage device . this device may be an external storage device 320 connected to the computer , or it may exist across a network 310 . the form of storage may be in a flat file or it may be in a database . the means by which the graph can be retrieved from a persistent store is generally understood in the art . the preferred embodiment utilizes the serialization mechanism built in to mfc in order to retrieve the model classes from a persistent store . this mechanism can be used for either external storage devices or serialization over a network . this function is implemented within the cspace :: load function . the view classes 420 are classes that represent the model objects on the display device 350 . the view classes generally also handle user input from the user input device 360 . the two view classes are cspaceview 460 and cnodeview 470 . these represent the views of the entire space of nodes and the individual node , respectively . a cspaceview contains a plurality of cnodeviews , one for each cnode in the cspace . the cspaceview is responsible for arranging the cnodeviews within it according to the layout procedure described below . the cnodeviews are responsible for rendering the contents of the associated cnode , using the drawing procedure described below . the cnodeview contains attributes that represent its position within the cspaceview . this position is determined by the layout procedure described below . each cnodeview also stores the current activation value for the node . the activation value is a value from 0 . 0 to 1 . 0 , and it represents the fraction of the area of the containing cspaceview that the cnodeview occupies . so a cnodeview with an activation of 0 . 1 would have an area equal to one - tenth of the total area of the cspaceview . [ 0065 ] fig5 is a flowchart showing the cspaceview :: initnodeviews procedure , which is responsible for creating and initializing the cnodeviews after a new cspace has been loaded from persistent storage . for each cnode , a new cnodeview is created and added to the cspaceview 510 . then the root cnode ( which is the main entry point into the graph ) is located , and the associated cnodeview for the root cnode is located . this cnodeview &# 39 ; s activation is then set to 1 . 0 , while the activation for all other cnodeviews are set to 0 . 0 520 . the activation value is propagated from the root cnodeview to the others 530 , using the propagation procedure described below . after propagation , the cnodeview activations are normalized 540 so that they sum to a constant value ( 0 . 45 in the preferred embodiment , indicating that the total area of the cnodeviews is 0 . 45 of the total area of the cspaceview that contains them ). then the cnodeviews are laid out 550 using the layout procedure described below . finally , if the change in activation for the cnodeviews is larger than a pre - defined threshold , the process is repeated 560 . this continues until the activation values converge . once the activation values converge , the system presents the cnodeviews at the positions determined by the layout procedure , and then waits for user input . after the initial positions and activation levels for the cnodeviews have been determined , the cnodeviews must draw themselves at the proper position on the cspaceview window . in the current embodiment , a progressive strategy is pursued where incrementally more information about the node is displayed . if the area is very small , only the title or part of the title is displayed . as the area increases , an image ( if present ) is depicted to the left of the title , growing in size as the area increases further . when the area is large enough to contain more than one line of text , the node &# 39 ; s body text is displayed beneath the title ( and to the right of the image , if available ). the body text is displayed in a smaller font than the title text , and it receives most of the additional area as more area is given to the node . more sophisticated layout algorithms are possible . in particular , using a general markup language such as html makes it possible to perform custom layouts based on the size of the display . in this case , statements within the markup code are used to determine which parts of the node should be displayed , what font should be used , and where they should be displayed . this would also provide more flexibility in terms of multiple images per node , background images , etc . two modes of user input are available . both operate by interpreting a user action as indicating interest in a particular node . this results in the activation of the cnodeview for that node is increased . [ 0072 ] fig6 is a flowchart showing the cnodeview :: onmouseclick procedure , which is the first mode of user input . this procedure is called by the system in response to the user positioning the mouse pointer over a cnodeview and clicking the mouse button . alternatively , a different input device could be used ( such as a track ball ) that also has a means of positioning a pointer over a cnodeview and a means of indicating interest . when the button click occurs , the system interprets the click by locating the cnodeview that is to receive mouse clicks ( the one underneath the current position of the pointer ), and then calling the cnodeview :: onmouseclick procedure . the cnodeview :: onmouseclick procedure first computes the new desired activation for the cnodeview 610 using the following formula : act new = act old + click — scale ( max — act − act old ) ( 1 ) where act old is the old activation value and act new is the new activation value . max_act is a constant that indicates the maximum activation value any single cnodeview can have . in the preferred embodiment max_act is defined as 0 . 33 . click_scale is a constant that indicates how much the old activation value should be increased toward max_act for each click . for the preferred embodiment , click_scale is defined as 0 . 33 . the cnodeview &# 39 ; s activation is then set to the new activation value 620 . as can be seen from the formula , the result of clicking multiple times on a cnodeview is that the activation increases , approaching the max_act value . after the increase in activation , the onmouseclick function then propagates the activation increase to linked nodes 630 using the propagate procedure described below . finally , all of the cnodeview activations are normalized 640 , layout is done 650 , and the cnodeviews are drawn at their new position 660 . [ 0080 ] fig7 is a flowchart showing the cnodeview :: onmousemove procedure , which is the other mode of user input . this procedure is called by the system in response to the user moving the mouse pointer over a cnodeview . alternatively , a different input device could be used ( such as a track ball ) that also has a means of moving a pointer visible on the display screen . when the move event occurs , the system interprets the click by locating the cnodeview that is to receive the move event ( the one underneath the current position of the pointer ), and then calling the cnodeview :: onmousemove procedure . the cnodeview :: onmousemove procedure first computes the new desired activation for the cnodeview 710 using the following formula : act new = act old + move — scale ( max — act − act old ) ( 2 ) where act old is the old activation value and act new is the new activation value . max_act is a constant that indicates the maximum activation value any single cnodeview can have . it is identical to the max_act constant in the cnodeview :: onmouseclick procedure . in the preferred embodiment max_act is defined as 0 . 33 . move_scale is a constant that indicates how much the old activation value should be increased toward max_act for each move event . because move events occur more frequently than click events , the move_scale constant will generally be significantly smaller than the click_scale constant . for the preferred embodiment , move_scale is defined as 0 . 10 . the cnodeview &# 39 ; s activation is then set to the new activation value 720 . as can be seen from the formula , the result of multiple move events over a cnodeview is that the activation increases , approaching the max_act value . after the increase in activation , the onmousemove function then propagates the activation increase to linked nodes 730 using the propagate procedure described below . finally , all of the cnodeview activations are normalized 740 , layout is done 750 , and the cnodeviews are drawn at their new position 760 . [ 0088 ] fig8 is a flowchart showing the cnodeview :: propagate procedure . during initialization , click activation , and move activation , activation is propagated from a node to linked nodes . there is a single parameter , called scale , which controls the propagation . the scale parameter is a number in the range 0 . 0 to 1 . 0 indicating the amount of activation increase that should occur during the propagation . propagation proceeds by traversing the list of node links from the link with largest weight to the link with smallest weight 805 - 835 . for each node link , the desired activation for the target node is computed 820 as where weight is the weight of the link connecting the source node to the target node and act old is the targets old activation value . then a test is performed to determine if the desired activation is greater than the current activation 825 . if the desired activation is greater than the current activation , the new activation is computed 830 as act new = prop — scale ( act desired − act old )+ act old ( 4 ) where act new is the target node &# 39 ; s new activation and prop_scale is a constant indicating how much the target node &# 39 ; s activation should be increased toward the desired activation value . for the preferred embodiment this constant is 0 . 1 . as propagation is performed on each node , a flag is used to indicate that the node has been propagated 840 . in this way , the recursive propagation procedure will not result in an endless loop . after all of the links for the source node have been traversed for increasing the target activation values , they are traversed again in order from largest to smallest weight 845 - 865 . this time , the entire propagation procedure is recursively called for each of the target nodes 860 . [ 0095 ] fig9 is a flow chart showing the cspaceview :: layoutnodeviews procedure . this is the procedure for actually determining optimal positions for the node views , given their activation values and link weights . the layout is a numerical optimization that determines the positions of the cnodeviews based on an energy function . the energy function assumes a larger value for cnodeview positions that are not consistent with the desired mapping . so , by changing the layout positions to minimize the energy function , the system achieves an optimal layout for the node views . three possible optimizations can be used . the powell direction - set method is a good general - purpose optimization that can be used for any defined energy function , without requiring gradient information . if gradient information is available , then the conjugate gradient optimization may be used instead of the powell algorithm . also , if gradient information is available , gradient descent may be used for small perturbations to the system . the energy functions that are defined for the present invention have gradient information available , so any of the three optimizations can be used to perform the layout . the energy function is built up out of 2 - dimensional gaussian distributions . g ( x , y ; σ ) = 1 2 π σ exp [ - x 2 + y 2 2 σ 2 ] ( 5 ) one distribution , the spacing distribution g spacing , is used to create space around each of the nodes . the σ parameter of this distribution is proportional to the size of the node . the size of the node is itself proportional to the activation value . a second gaussian distribution , the attraction distribution g attract , is used to pull together nodes with large link weights . this distribution &# 39 ; s sigma parameter is also proportional to the size of the node , and its amplitude is proportional to the link weight connecting the two nodes . these two distributions are summed over all pairs of nodes to create the total energy of the current layout . this energy depends on the node activation values , the link weight values , and the current set of node positions . e = ∑ i = 1 n ∑ j = 1 n g spacing ( x i - x j , y i - y j ; σ ) - w ij g attract ( x i - x j , y i - y j ; σ ) ( 6 ) where i and j are indices over all of the nodes , ( x i , y i ) is the position of node i , and w ij is the weight of the link connecting node i to node j . other objective functions may also be defined for the layout procedure . for instance , a quadratic penalty function could be employed that was at a minimum for optimal node placements , and increased quadratically as node placements deviated from the optimal placement . linear combinations of objective functions might also be used as well , allowing distinct factors to influence the layout procedure . the optimization occurs over a state space composed of all of the positions of the nodes . so , for n nodes , the state space is a 2n - dimensional space . the current state of the system is a 2n - dimensional position vector in this space . the cspaceview :: layoutnodeviews procedure first forms this state vector from the current positions of the cnodeviews 910 - 930 . then the optimization is called 940 with the energy function described above passed as the objective function and the state vector as the initial point . it optimizes the objective function and returns a new state vector , which is the state that has a minimum energy as defined by the objective function . after the optimization , the new positions of the cnodeviews are extracted from the new state vector 950 - 960 . this results in a new layout that minimizes the energy given by the objective function . this layout must be recomputed any time the cnodeview activations or link weights are changed . user operation of the preferred embodiment begins with the specification of the collection of nodes to be traversed . the form of this specification depends on the application configuration : for a stand - alone application , the user may directly specify the file that contains the nodes . for a browser plug - in , browsing to a particular site would trigger launching of the plug - in and loading of the nodes . after the nodes have been loaded , the application determines the initial activations and node positions as described in the detailed description . [ 0109 ] fig1 shows an example of the user interface for the present invention . the nodes are presented in the appropriate position with the correct size , based on the initial activation value . the presentation may include various elements for each node , including descriptive text , images , audio , and video . the presentation may also include executing a computer program associated with the node . the user can now begin traversing the space by mouse - clicking on a node in which they are interested . as a node is clicked , its activation is increased by a determined amount , leading to an increase in size of the node &# 39 ; s presentation on the screen . at the same time , the increase in activation is propagated to linked nodes . the presentations of these linked nodes are increased in size , also , in an amount proportional to the weight of the links . alternatively , the user can put the software in the move - activation state . in the move - activation state , movement of the mouse pointer over a node will move - activate the node . propagation to linked nodes also occurs with move - activation . to activate the node even further , the user can continue to move the mouse pointer over the node in a circular or waving motion . normalization of the node activations occurs after each click - or move - activation to ensure that the total activation for all nodes is at or below a given limit . also , the layout algorithm is triggered after each click - or move - activation , arranging the nodes based on their new sizes so that nodes which are more related ( based on the link weights ) are placed in closer proximity than nodes which are less related . the user can continue activating nodes , traversing the space based on interest in the progression of nodes being presented to them . when the user is finished traversing the space , they may either stop the application or browse to a new location . this invention provides a unique and intuitive user interface for browsing collections of interconnected pieces of information . the information may be world - wide web sites , book summaries , scientific references , music clips , movie clips , personal interests , descriptions of merchandise , and any of a myriad of other possibilities . | 6 |
the major objects of the invention are to provide polymer matrices for isfd which are capable of containing the biologically active substances incorporated therein such that the bioactivity of said substance is essentially maintained during the manufacturing process as well as after administration and matrices for capsules aimed to targeted delivery into specific sites of git . dextran is suitable , perhaps even ideal , matrix material , since it does not need to be dissolved in organic solvents and can degrade into neutral substances , ultimately glucose which is metabolized to water and carbon dioxide and expelled from the body via respiration and urine . very advantageously , dextran is a well - known material , and all molecular weight dextrans enzymatically degrade in gastrointestinal tract by enzymes localized in the small - intestinal mucosa and have been reported to be not toxic . ( see , e . g ., european commission health & amp ; consumer protection directorate - general , scientific committee on food cs / nf / dos / 7 / add 3 “ final opinion of the scientific committee on food on a dextran preparation , produced using leuconostoc mesenteroides , saccharomyces cerevisiae and lactobacillus spp , as a novel food ingredient in bakery products ” from 18 oct . 2000 ). examples of pharmaceutically acceptable dextrans are those of molecular weight 70 kda ( macrodex ®) and 40 kda ( rheomacrodex ®) which are used intravenously as plasma expanders . the dextrans of clinical grade are commercially available and have a purity which is acceptable for the manufacture of a parenterally administrable preparation ( http :// www . dextran . net / buydextran . html ). they are able to form sufficiently stable aqueous solutions in sufficiently high concentration to enable a biologically active substance to be admixed under conditions allowing the retention of the bioactivity of such a substance . carbohydrate polymers including dextran have a glass transition temperature , which is much higher than that of all synthetic polymers of similar molecular weight . one qualitative picture explaining the high glass transition temperature of amorphous carbohydrates is that , in the dry state , the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds between the carbohydrate molecules leads to formation of larger molecular entities , whereas water disrupts the formation of hydrogen bonds between the carbohydrate chains . in accordance with the important role of hydrogen bonding , the formation of the hydrogen bond network proceeds via a complex mechanism involving both hydrogen bond formation and disruption and depends essentially on two parameters — temperature and water activity . manipulating these parameters , different types of polymer matrices based on carbohydrates may be theoretically obtained owing to quantity of hydrogen bonds formed and their specific spatial distribution . several experimental findings made by the inventor have supported his hypothesis that dextran may be used as polymer matrix for oral targeted delivery systems , e . g ., capsules , and for isfds . the present inventor has shown that highly concentrated aqueous solutions of dextran can be readily obtained . for example , mixing of 2 g of dextran with molecular weight 40 kda and 1 g of water in a syringe provides a not extremely viscous solution which can be dosed through 18 - 22 gauge needles . placed between two surfaces ( glass or metal ) the dextran solution provides a thin opaque film that is not adhesive to the surfaces mentioned after about eight hours at room temperature . additional slow drying provides a flexible film which has unique properties . the film can be obtained in the form of cap and body of the standard capsules when glass or metal sticks covered with the solution are used . dissolution comparative experiments showed that capsules based on dextran matrix and standard gelatin capsules have extremely different rate of dissolution in water , pbs ( ph 7 . 4 ) and 0 . 1n hcl . for example , at 37 ° c . and 1 , 000 rpm ( magnet stirrer ) in 50 ml of water , pbs ( ph 7 . 4 ) or 0 . 1n hcl , the time of total dissolution was several seconds for gelatin capsule and about 1 h for dextran capsule . however , addition of dextranase in the pbs reduces time of dissolution to several minutes . these experiments , taken together with the mentioned above fact that all molecular weight dextrans enzymatically degrade in gastrointestinal tract by enzymes localized in the small intestine mucosa , give a basis for a new strategy of targeted delivery to small intestine and colon not based on ph sensitive coatings . it is interesting to note here that there are a lot of scientific publications indicating that dextran can be enzymatically degraded only in colon by bacteria ( see , e . g ., european patent application ep 1 184 032 a1 ). however , the existence of intestinal dextranase is a well known fact from 1963 ( see dahlqvist a . “ rat intestinal dextranase . localization and relation to the other carbohydrases of the digestive tract ”, biochem . j . ( 1963 ) 86 , 72 ). slow water elimination from highly concentrated aqueous dextran solution after the hydrogen bonds net formation process started is a very important aspect of technology influencing the properties of final product , e . g ., capsule shell solubility . without this water elimination the formation of crystallized dextran particles can occur ( especially for low molecular weight dextrans ) and integrity of the homogeneous system will be destroyed . the attempts to use crystallized dextran particles for drug delivery are described in literature , for example in the u . s . pat . no . 4 , 713 , 249 , european patent application ep 1 184 032 a1 , us patent application 20040234615 . however , in these publications , there is no suggestion that articles with homogeneous structure , e . g ., capsule shell and implants or special devices based on dextran matrix could be obtained . according to the present invention , however , monolithic implants based on dextran with excellent biocompatibility and mechanical strength may be readily prepared in form of plates , screws and pins to be used for orthopaedic trauma fixation and biodegradable membrane for dental regenerative surgery . biodegradable implants in orthopaedics , in contrast to metal implants , do not require a second surgical intervention for removal of the devices , but , they have not been universally adopted , which may be due to the high level of local foreign - body reaction . the process of biodegradation of the most popular prior art implants based on pla or pga begins with the polymer chains being broken into smaller fragments by hydrolysis . the molecular weight of the implant decreases first and the mechanical strength of the implant decreases allowing subsequent mechanical fragmentation . absorption of the implant then occurs through the release of soluble degradation products , phagocytosis by macrophages and intracellular degradation . tissue responses to fixation implants made of polyglycolide have been reported in more than 15 clinical studies and adverse tissue response rates of up to 47 % have been recorded . ( ambrose c g , clanton t o : bioabsorbable implants : review of clinical experience in orthopedic surgery . annals of biomedical engineering 32 : 171 - 177 , 2004 ). it may be noted that by the term “ implant ” as used in the present application is meant any foreign object or composition implanted into the body of a mammal , such as a hard medical device , e . g ., plate , screw , pin , or a solid or semi - solid foreign body , such as an implant useful for soft tissue augmentation . it may be added , that the term “ biodegradable ” means that the isfd , which is based on dextran , after parenteral administration dissolves in the body and dextran molecules can be excreted through kidneys or ultimately metabolized by organism to water and carbon dioxide . water elimination from the concentrated dextran solutions during the process of the homogeneous net of hydrogen bonds formation can be provided by water evaporation or water extraction at an optimal rate , e . g . by the process of water extraction from dextran solution with liquid polyethylene glycol ( peg ), polypropylene glycol ( ppg ), and ethanol . the highly concentrated dextran solutions may be dispersed in the liquid low molecular weight peg and after solidification close to monolithic dextran microspheres may be obtained . these microspheres may be used as injectable bulking agent , as depot for controlled release , or as oral preparations for targeted delivery . the active substance mixed with the dextran can be in dissolved form , for example in a buffer solution , or in solid , amorphous or crystalline form , and mixing may be realized at a suitable temperature , which is generally between 0 ° c . and 45 ° c ., preferably at room temperature ( 20 ° c .). it is possible to add the biologically active substance to the dextran solution , or vice versa . since the biologically active substances suitable for use in this system , for example proteins , are generally macromolecules , it is possible , when mixing a solution of a dissolved macromolecule with dextran , that an emulsion can be formed , in which the macromolecule generally represents the inner phase , or a precipitate . this is entirely acceptable , provided that the biologically active substance retains or does not appreciably lose its bioactivity . water insoluble substances may be added in form of powder , emulsion or solution in compatible with water solvents , e . g ., ethanol . a homogeneous solution , emulsion or suspension is then created by agitation , which can be carried out using a suitable technique well known within the field . freeze - drying is often the preferred drying method , since , correctly designed , it is especially mild with respect to the enclosed biologically active substance such as protein . applied to highly concentrated dextran solutions containing bas , it provides preparation that can be stored for a long time at room temperature and readily re - hydrated to initial water concentration before application . the present inventor performed experiments with highly concentrated aqueous solutions of dextran , which are not initially extremely viscous and can be administered by injection into the body of a mammal . these experiments revealed that the dextran solutions may be solidified at physiological conditions in vivo — a fact that has not been previously described in the public area . it has surprisingly been found that when a highly concentrated aqueous dextran solution , e . g ., 67 % aqueous solution of dextran 40 kda , is placed in an aqueous medium , e . g . pbs , or injected into a mammal , gel formation occurring during a relatively short time period after exposure to an aqueous environment and release of biologically active substance ( bas ) out of the implant formed can be obtained . furthermore , an extremely important experimental finding is that the release rate of bas entrapped in implant formed coincides with the rate of the dextran matrix biodegradation ( predominantly by dissolution ) in the broad range of drugs with different molecular weights and solubility . the invention is further illustrated by the below examples , which are not to be construed as a limitation for the scope of the invention . step 1 : 1 g of distilled water was mixed with 3 g of dextran ( 1 kda , pharmacosmos ) in a 15 ml lab tube to obtain about 75 % by weight solution . the mixture was vacuumed at 6 mm hg to remove air bubbles and centrifuged for 5 min at 2 , 000 rpm . a clear solution was obtained . step 2 : three 15 ml lab tubes containing 1 ml of the dextran solution were prepared and 2 ml of water were added to every tube , which was placed in a shaker at 37 ° c . and 30 rpm . 1 ml of buffer was taken every 30 min and 1 ml of fresh water was added . the samples of buffer were analyzed gravimetrically for matrix concentration after water evaporation . close to zero order rate of dissolution during 7 days was revealed and about 50 % of matrix mass were dissolved . step 1 : 1 g of pbs ph 7 . 4 was mixed with 2 g of dextran ( 40 kda , pharmacosmos ) in a 15 ml lab tube to obtain about 67 % by weight solution . the mixture was vacuumed at 6 mm hg to remove air bubbles and centrifuged for 5 min at 2 , 000 rpm , giving a clear solution . step 2 : three 15 ml lab tubes containing 1 ml of the solution were prepared and 2 ml of pbs ph 7 . 4 was added to every tube that was placed in a shaker at 37 ° c . and 30 rpm . 1 ml of buffer was taken every 30 min and 1 ml of fresh buffer was added . the samples of buffer were analyzed gravimetrically for matrix concentration after water evaporation . close to zero order rate of dissolution during 7 days was revealed and about 50 % of matrix mass were dissolved . step 1 : 1 g of distilled water was mixed with 2 g of dextran ( 40 kda , pharmacosmos ) in a 15 ml lab tube to obtain about 67 % by weight solution . the mixture was vacuumed at 6 mm hg to remove air bubbles and centrifuged for 5 min at 2 , 000 rpm . a clear solution was obtained . step 2 : three 15 ml lab tubes containing 1 ml of the dextran solution were prepared and 2 ml of 0 . 1n hcl were added to every tube that was placed in a shaker at 37 ° c . and 30 rpm . 1 ml of medium was taken every 30 min and 1 ml of fresh acid was added . the samples of buffer were analyzed gravimetrically for matrix concentration after water evaporation . close to zero order rate of dissolution during 7 days was revealed and about 50 % of matrix mass were dissolved . step 1 : 1 g of distilled water was mixed with 2 g of dextran ( 40 kda , pharmacosmos ) in a 15 ml lab tube to obtain about 67 % by weight solution . the mixture was vacuumed at 6 mm hg to remove air bubbles and centrifuged for 5 min at 2 , 000 rpm . a clear solution was obtained . step 2 : 0 . 1 ml of insulin solution ( 25 iu ) was added to the dextran solution and thoroughly mixed therewith . 2 ml of buffer were added to the tube containing the mixture of dextran and insulin and the tube was placed in a shaker at 37 ° c . and 30 rpm . 1 ml of buffer was taken every 30 min and 1 ml of fresh buffer was added . the samples of buffer were analyzed for insulin concentration by hplc and elisa methods . close to zero order rate of release of insulin during 7 days was revealed ( fig1 ). step 1 : 1 g of distilled water was mixed with 2 g of dextran ( 40 kda , pharmacosmos ) in a 15 ml lab tube to obtain about 67 % wt . solution . the mixture was vacuumed at 6 mm hg to remove air bubbles and centrifuged for 5 min at 2 , 000 rpm and clear solution was obtained . step 2 : 0 . 1 ml of ethanol containing 4 mg of testosterone was added to the dextran solution and thoroughly mixed with . 2 ml of serum was added to the tube containing the mixture of dextran and testosterone and placed in a shaker at 37 ° c . and 30 rpm . 1 ml of serum was taken every 30 min and 1 ml of fresh one was added . the samples of buffer were analyzed for testosterone by special elisa method . zero order release of testosterone during 7 days was revealed ( fig1 ). the biodegradability and biocompatibility of the isfd based on dextran have been examined through parenteral injection ( subcutaneously and intramuscularly ) and histological examination of the tissue as a function of time . injection is possible through fine calibre needles , e . g . the 22 gauge needles mostly used for intramuscular application . isfd based on dextran disappeared normally from the mammal &# 39 ; s tissue ( mice ) without any inflammation and connective tissue formation . step 1 : 1 g of distilled water was mixed with 2 g of dextran ( 40 kda , pharmacosmos ) in a 15 ml lab tube to obtain about 67 % by weight solution . the mixture was vacuumed at 6 mm hg to remove air bubbles and centrifuged for 5 min at 2 , 000 rpm and a clear solution was obtained . step 2 : isfd formation and its biocompatibility were investigated in vivo by using the mouse as a model . the solution of step 1 was placed in an insulin syringe and administered as intramuscular and subcutaneous injection into mouse at dose of 20 μl of the solution per animal . follow - up was 1 , 7 , 28 , and 49 days . histopathology confirmed isfd formation which was well tolerated : no inflammatory reaction and connective tissue formation induced by isfd was revealed after 7 weeks . because of the rate of implant dissolution in tissue is much lower than in in vitro dissolution tests , experimental results obtained show that the isfd based on dextran can potentially be used as a controlled release depot system and as a bulking agent for soft tissue augmentation . step 1 : 1 . 5 ml of insulin actrapid ( novo nordisk ) was mixed with 3 . 5 g of dextran ( 40 kda , pharmacosmos ) in a 20 ml syringe to obtain about 70 % wt . solution . the solution was dosed in standard hard gelatin capsules # 2 ( capsulegel , usa ) in dose 0 . 25 g ( 7 . 5 iu ) per capsule . the slow water evaporation at room temperature during 12 hours did not influence capsules form and hardness . step 2 : the hypoglycemic effect of the capsules containing insulin was studied in healthy volunteers . capsules containing 250 mg of dextran 40 kda ( pharmacosmos ) were used as placebo . experiments were performed on healthy volunteers after an overnight fasting of approximately 12 hours and in the course of experiments blood glucose concentrations were measured ( glucometer one touch , basic plus , lifescan , johnson & amp ; johnson ). subjects were without food for 3 hours post dose treatment . each subject in course of the study received on the first day ( day 1 ) placebo ( standard gelatin capsule containing 250 mg of dextran 40 kda ). at the next day ( day 2 ), all subjects received two gelatin capsules prepared on step 1 . at 8th day ( day 8 ) each subject took a carbohydrates reach food and at day 9th each took the same food and 60 minutes before food four gelatin capsules prepared on step 1 . blood samples were withdrawn at timed intervals ( every 15 min ) for the determination of plasma glucose concentrations ( mmol / l ) ( fig2 and 3 ). the experimental data obtained show that the capsules provide valuable hypoglycemic effect in fasting state and effectively decrease maximal sugar levels after eating food . | 0 |
in fig1 the rear part 1 , depicted in break - away , of a station wagon or automobile is shown in perspective view , where its luggage compartment 2 is defined by a floor 3 as well as two side walls , of which only the right side wall 4 is shown . above the side wall 4 , a rear side window 5 is located , while the front edge of the luggage compartment 2 forms a rear seat back rest 6 of a rear seat bench . the side window 5 ends at the front on a c - column 7 , which is located approximately at the height of the rear seat back rest 6 and at the rear end in the area of a luggage compartment opening 8 , of which only a side edge is shown . as can be recognized in the figure , there is an opening between the inside roof lining , which can not be recognized in the figure , and the upper edge of the rear seat back rest 6 , by which the luggage compartment 2 is connected to the passenger compartment , which is located in front of the rear seat back rest 6 . so that in a rear - end collision , no objects from the luggage compartment 2 are thrown into the passenger compartment , a safety net device 9 is provided . this safety net device 9 has a housing 11 as well as a safety net 12 to be pulled out of the housing 11 . the housing 11 is a longitudinal housing , which is detachably connected to the rear side of the rear seat back rest 6 and extends almost over the entire width . in the inside of the housing 11 , a winding shaft 13 is located , which is set in bearings so that it can rotate on the end side in the housing 11 . the length of the winding shaft 13 corresponds approximately to the length of the housing 11 . the winding shaft 13 is tube - shaped at least in an end section and contains in this section a coil spring 14 , which functions as a spring motor . the coil spring 14 is connected at its internal end 15 rigidly to the winding shaft 13 , while its outer - lying end 16 is connected rigidly so that it cannot rotate to a bearing journal 17 for the winding shaft 13 , which is affixed to the housing . on the winding shaft 13 , the safety net 12 is attached by a crosswise edge , which leads out through an outlet slit 18 from the housing 11 , which is limited by two lips 19 , 20 that are parallel to each other . a lip of the outlet slit 18 , namely the lip 19 , is toothed , in order to catch the safety net 12 in a crash in the manner described later . the lip 19 is adjacent to the passenger space . the safety net 12 has an edge that faces away from the winding shaft 13 and is affixed to a pull bar 21 . lateral edges of the safety net 12 are bordered with bands 22 . the pull bar 21 is a profile tube with a weather - stripping groove for attachment of the relevant edge of the safety net 12 . in its ends , the pull bar 21 contains mushroom - shaped anchor elements 23 , which are provided for suspending in receptacle bays 24 in the car body . the spring motor 14 attempts to pull the safety net 12 into the housing 11 with a relatively large force . the force is so large that the suspension of the anchor elements 23 can be difficult . in order to prevent the running back of the safety net 12 into the housing 11 during the suspension of the anchor elements 23 , a retaining device 25 is provided . the retaining device 25 includes two stanchions 26 , each of which is hinged at one end of the housing 11 . in the following , the exact description for one of the two stanchions 26 is given . this description applies logically and spatially as a mirror image also for the respective other of the two stanchions 26 . in order to affix the right stanchion 26 to the right side of the housing 11 , a bearing block 27 is attached on the upper side of the housing . the bearing block 27 is located next to the outlet slit 18 on the side of the toothed lip 19 . in it , a hinged bearing 28 is set so that it can be rotated around an axle . the pivot axle of the hinged bearing 28 lies parallel to the longitudinal axis of the winding shaft 13 . on the hinged bearing 28 , the housing - side end of the stanchion 26 is coupled , and to be precise , the stanchion 26 can be rotated in the hinged bearing 28 around an axle that runs at a right angle to the axle around which the hinged bearing 28 itself can turn . the end of the stanchion 26 that lies away from the housing 11 is pivotally connected , to a carriage 29 that can be conducted to slide in a guide groove , not shown , in the pull bar 21 . the connection between the stanchion 26 and the carriage 29 occurs , for example , via a loosely sitting rivet 31 , which allows the desired hinge movement of the stanchion 26 . the guide groove , which receives the carriage 29 , extends over the entire length of the pull bar 21 . on the pull bar 21 , a catch device 32 is provided , which contains a cover 33 . this cover 33 is provided for the purpose of covering the groove in which the two carriages 29 run , and it is connected to a hinge 34 so that it is movable with the pull bar 21 . using a spring that is not shown , the cover 33 is pretensioned in a position in which it projects in the movement path of the two carriages 29 in the guide groove . in order to lift the cover 33 out of this position , an activating clip 35 is present which is rigidly connected to the cover 33 . between the activating clip 35 and the pull bar 21 , a handle ring 36 is located , which is attached to the pull bar 21 . the handling of the depicted safety net device 9 is as follows , where it is assumed that the safety net 12 is first located in the wound up position in the housing 11 . in this position , the two stanchions 26 are parallel to the pull bar 21 and their carriages 29 are opposite each other a short distance apart . the cover 33 is lifted and lies on the respective parts of the carriages 29 , which project out from the corresponding guide groove . the force of the spring motor 14 causes the pull bar 21 to lie tightly on the outlet slit 18 . when the user wants to deploy the safety net 12 , he grasps the pull bar 21 from out of the luggage compartment opening 8 on the handle ring 36 and pulls the pull bar 21 to himself in the direction towards the luggage compartment opening 8 . during this movement , the safety net 12 is pulled out against the action of the spring motor 14 over the smooth lips 20 of the outlet slit 18 , as is shown in fig1 . the movement of the pull bar 21 away from the housing 11 pivots the stanchions 26 out of the position parallel to the pull bar 31 into a position that is at an angle to it , where the carriages 29 move , at the same time , away from the vicinity of the center of the pull bar 31 in the direction towards the respective adjacent end . the pivot movements are accommodated in the hinge 31 and the hinge bearing 28 . as soon as the length of the safety net 12 is pulled out of the housing 11 , as is necessary so that the anchor elements 23 can be suspended in the receptacle bays 24 , the two carriages 29 come into an area of their guide slit which is no longer covered by the cover 33 . the cover 33 is , starting from this position of the carriage 29 , no longer kept away from the pull bar 21 , instead it can be pushed against the pull bar 21 under the action of its pretensioning spring . in this pushed position , it is located in the clearance space of the sliding path of the two carriages 29 . when the user pulls the safety net 12 out of the housing 11 beyond this point and then lets the pull bar 21 go , the spring motor 14 can then pull the safety net 12 only far enough back into the housing 11 , until the two carriages 29 hit against the ends of the cover 33 that are set in the longitudinal direction of the pull bar 21 . further movement of the carriages 29 is prevented by the cover 33 . the carriages 29 are held apart from each other at a defined distance by the cover 33 . this distance defines the angle which the stanchions 26 enclose together and thus also the distance of the pull bar 21 from the housing 11 . the pull bar 21 is then rigidly supported via the two stanchions 26 opposite the housing 11 . the two stanchions 26 run at a slant angle and form a trapezoid , which is stable in shape and has equal legs , together with the corresponding section of the pull bar 21 and the corresponding section of the housing 11 . this is , so to speak , a frame for the safety net . the user can then without additional force exertion , guide the pull bar 21 to the top from the position according to fig1 where it performs a circle movement around the axles of the hinge bearings 28 . at the end of the swing - up movement , the anchorage components 23 , as is recognized in fig2 slide into the receptacle bays 24 . the opening above the rear seat back rest 6 is closed by the safety net 12 . the safety net 12 , which is itself elastic and flexible , and which in addition , is under pretension by the spring motor 14 , can be swung to the top , just like a completely rigid formed body . the stanchions 26 and the pull bar 21 form a rigid frame for the safety net 21 during handling . the catching of the anchor elements 23 in the receptacle bays 24 is simplified even further when the receptacle bays 24 are provided with a type of lead - in funnel that provides for an additional short piece of the safety net 12 to then be pulled out of the housing 11 during the catching movement . as is apparent , the user does not need to constantly apply an opposing force against the pull - back force of the spring motor 14 when guiding up the pull bar 21 into the receptacle bays 24 . the introduction of the anchor elements 23 into the receptacle bays 24 is done almost free of forces . the user must not , as is otherwise customary , lift up the pull bar 21 with extended arms against the action of the spring motor 14 . the retraction of the safety net 12 occurs as is logical in the reverse manner , in which at first the anchor elements 23 are pulled out of the receptacle bays 24 ; where for this purpose , overcoming the catching force is sufficient . then , the pull bar 21 is moved to the bottom , such that the movement is in turn guided by the stanchions 26 . at the end of the movement , the stanchions 26 are set down on the upper side of the housing 11 . the user can now grasp with a finger through the grip ring 36 and press down the clip 35 with his thumb . in this way , he lifts the cover 33 out of the clearance space of the carriages 29 , which can now move freely towards each other . this makes it possible for the pull bar 21 to be guided onto the housing 11 , where at the same time , the spring motor 14 winds up the safety net 12 . the end position is achieved when the pull bar 21 is set down on the outlet slit 18 . in this position , the stanchions 26 again run parallel to the pull bar 21 and to the winding shaft 13 . if a crash should occur when the safety net 12 is deployed and objects fly out of the luggage compartment 3 into the safety net 12 , an additional pulling off of the safety net from the winding shaft 13 is prevented through the toothed lip 19 . its teeth grip into the meshes of the safety net 12 and block a pull - off movement . in the fig3 to 7 , an embodiment is shown , in which the retaining device 25 acts together with the safety net 12 . if structural components and other components reoccur in the figures , which have already been explained in relation to the fig1 and 2 , they will not be described again . in order to simplify the operation of the new safety net device 9 , two mirror - image retaining devices 25 are provided on both sides of the safety net 12 . the structure of the retaining devices 25 is better seen from fig4 which shows an enlarged section of the area framed by the dash - dot circle a . since the retaining devices 25 are equivalent on both sides of the safety net 12 as mentioned , the explanation of the retaining device 25 that faces the observer will be sufficient . the retaining device 25 is a retaining device that is positive locking and has two catch mechanisms 41 and 42 that act together with one another , of which one is attached to the lip 20 as a stationary retaining mechanism 41 and the other is attached to the safety net 12 as a movable retaining mechanism 42 . the catch mechanisms 42 attached to the safety net 12 are the ends of a rod or stanchion 43 that is essentially rectangular in cross - section and stable in shape . the stanchion 43 is attached to the side of the safety net 12 that faces the luggage compartment opening 8 and runs over the entire width of the safety net 12 . on both side edges which are formed from the bordering bands 22 , the stanchion 43 overhangs by a corresponding piece extending further out so that , as mentioned , its ends 42 can form the catch mechanism connected to the safety net 12 . it runs parallel to and at a distance from the pull bar 21 ; the exact distance can be gathered from the functional description . the other catch mechanism 41 is locationally fixed and consists of a spring steel band 44 , which , as is shown in fig5 and 6 , is bent . the spring steel band 44 forms an essentially straight or only slightly bent strut 45 in the state free of force , as is seen in fig5 which on its lower end , for example using a rivet 46 , is riveted fixed on the inside of the housing 11 to the lip 20 . the lip 20 is not shown in fig5 and 6 . on the end that faces away from the attached end , the spring band 44 at 47 is angled in the direction away from the slit 18 , so that a step 48 results . at 49 , the spring band 44 is again bent around in the direction parallel to the strut 45 , and to be precise , at such a distance that the step 48 resulting from this is smaller than that corresponding to the thickness of the stanchion 43 . starting from the bending position 49 , the spring band 44 essentially runs straight to a position 51 and there changes in a 180 ° arc 52 , at the open end of which the spring band 44 is bent to the outside while forming an entry slope 53 in an s - shape . in this way , a hook 54 results , that has a clearance width that is sufficient to receive the catch mechanism 42 , i . e . the projecting end of the stanchion 43 . when it is in the installed position , the strut 45 goes through the slit 18 to the inside , while the hook 54 projects as shown out of the slit 18 . the hook 54 is to open in the direction to the winding shaft 13 and its hook opening is located on that side of the strut 45 , which faces the lip 19 , such that the function described in the following can occur . the functional method of the safety net device described thus far is as follows : in the resting condition , the safety net 12 is completely wound up on the winding shaft 13 . the loop of the safety net 12 with the pull bar 21 contained in it lies on the outside on the two lips 19 and 20 of the outlet slit 18 . when the user wants to suspend the safety net 12 in the receptacle bays 24 above the c - columns when the back rest 6 is erected as it is shown in fig1 he pulls the safety net 12 in the direction towards the luggage compartment opening 8 out of the housing 11 using an activation loop 55 that is attached to the safety net 12 . in this process , the safety net 12 unwinds from the winding shaft 13 opposite the effective direction of the spring motor 14 . during the pulling off or pulling out of the safety net 12 , it slides over the smooth lip 20 and moves essentially in a horizontal plane . in the process of this movement out , at some time corresponding to the distance of the pull bar 21 from the stanchion 43 , the stanchion 43 is pulled out of the slit 18 . during this movement directed to the outside , the projecting ends 42 with the strut 45 of the locationally fixed catch mechanism 41 come into engagement and bend the strut 45 spring - elastically , as fig5 shows , around the lip 20 . during the additional movement , the projecting ends 42 get into the hook 54 , where they are reliably guided by the inlet slopes 53 into the hook 54 . as soon as the catch mechanisms 42 that can be moved with the safety net 12 , in the form of the projecting ends of the stanchion 43 , have hooked into the two locationally fixed hooks 54 , no additional pull - out movement of the safety net 12 is possible . the user feels a correspondingly clear resistance and he is signaled through the retaining device 25 that has now become effective , that the exact quantity of safety net 12 has been pulled out which is sufficient to suspend the anchorage mechanisms 23 in the receptacle bays 24 . the user can now , without observing the suspension operation , using the loop 55 , blindly guide the next adjacent edge of the safety net 12 with the pull bar 21 to the top , where the safety net 12 will perform a pivot movement around the stanchion 43 , or when the movable strut 45 of the locationally fixed catch mechanism 41 is added , around the rivet 46 . the safety net 12 functions as the spacer and provides that inevitably the anchor elements 23 get into the receptacle bays 24 . during this movement pivoting up , the struts 45 become oriented from the position , as is shown in fig5 again into the position according to fig6 . since , furthermore , the distance of the receptacle bays 24 from the housing 11 is somewhat shorter than that corresponding to the quantity of safety net 12 that has been pulled out , the winding shaft 13 pulls the small excess portion of safety net 12 again back into the housing 11 . this movement is a movement out of the hook 54 and is prevented by the step 48 . since , however , the step 48 is not exactly sharp - edged , but instead has a certain residual slope , it acts like a catch mechanism that releases the stanchion 26 after a corresponding force has been overcome , so that at the end of the suspending operation , a position , approximately as shown in fig6 is achieved or a position , in which the stanchion 43 is released completely from the hook 54 . the purpose of the step 48 consists in absorbing a part of the pull - back force of the winding shaft 13 so that the user , when he must move the pull bar 21 to the top to the receptacle bays 24 with his arm extended , must not apply the full opposing force for the pull - back force of the safety net 12 . moreover , the retaining force is smaller than the pull - back force , so that in each case the winding shaft 13 can pull the stanchion 43 out of the hook 54 when the safety net 12 is driven in . when the safety net 12 is deployed and an object is thrown from the luggage compartment 2 into the safety net 12 , it is pressed to the front under the action of this object in the direction to the toothed lip 19 , such that the mesh of the safety net 12 is hung in the teeth of the toothed lip 19 and an subsequent unwinding of the safety net 12 from the winding shaft 13 is blocked . in order to retract in the safety net 12 , it is sufficient to allow the anchor elements 23 to be dismounted from the receptacle bays 24 and to allow the safety net 12 to run back . when the rear seat back rest 6 is laid down and the housing 11 is attached to the floor , and a larger pull - out quantity is necessary , as a rule the handling can no longer readily occur from out of the luggage compartment opening 8 . the housing 11 is located in proximity to the rear seat back rest of the front seat , which is why the operation must occur through the rear doors . in this type of operation , the pull - out direction of the safety net 12 is no longer , as described previously , approximately horizontal , but instead is more vertical . when the strut 45 of the catch mechanism 41 is bent somewhat from out of the housing , the hooks 54 are outside of the movement path of the stanchion 43 during the vertical movement of the safety net 12 and the stanchion will not be suspended in the hooks 54 during the vertical pull - out of the safety net 12 so that the full pull - out length is available . instead of a retaining device 25 that acts in a positive locking manner , which definitively defines the pull - out path , a retaining device 25 can also be used , which can be overcome when there is sufficient activation force . such a retaining device 25 is shown in various operating positions , greatly schematized in fig7 and 8 . belonging to it , are in turn a locationally fixed catch mechanism 56 as well as a catch mechanism 42 that can be moved with the safety net 12 . this catch mechanism 42 that can be moved is in turn , the laterally projecting ends of the stanchion 43 , which is provided on a flat side with a catch trough or catch groove 57 , which runs in the longitudinal direction of the strut 43 . similar to the catch mechanism 41 , the locationally fixed catch mechanism 56 has a flexible strut 58 , the lower end of which is attached to a rivet 46 in the inside of the housing 11 . on the upper end , the strut 58 is provided with a groove 59 that is opened to both sides , and which is limited by two groove walls 61 and 62 that are parallel to each other . both groove walls 61 and 62 are connected to each other as a single piece via a back piece 63 . in the assembled condition , the groove 59 is located outside of the outlet slit 18 . this configuration can be obtained , either in that a corresponding piece is cut and bent or as a flexible elastic plastic molded part . on the groove side wall 62 , a rib 64 projecting to the inside into the groove 59 is located , which is complementary to the catch groove 57 . in the case shown , the cross - sectional design of the rib 64 is approximately in the shape of a partial circle . the functional method of the retaining device that does not act in a positive locking manner according to fig7 and 8 is similar to what was explained previously in relation to fig3 to 6 . when the safety net 12 is pulled out in the horizontal direction , the stanchion 43 comes into contact with strut 58 of the locationally fixed catch mechanism 56 . this catch mechanism stands , prior to engagement , between the strut 58 and the stanchion 43 essentially vertically upright and is bent around the lip 20 through the sliding stanchion 43 in the movement direction of the safety net 12 . during further pulling out of the safety net 12 , the ends of the stanchions 43 reach into the relevant grooves 59 . in this process , the groove 59 expands as soon as the stanchion 43 runs into the rib 64 . during a subsequent pull on the safety net 12 , the stanchion 43 slides through below the rib 64 , continuing until the groove 57 catches with the rib 64 . this signals to the user that now a sufficient quantity of safety net 12 has been pulled out , so that as described above , the anchor elements 23 , guided through the length of the unwound net 12 , can be suspended in the receptacle bays 24 . during suspension , the strut 58 , starting from the position according to fig8 will be extended again . through the corresponding contouring of the rib 64 , as well as the catch groove 57 or the small edges of the struts 43 , the forces can be controlled , which are necessary , in order to maintain or release the catch of the rib 64 in the catch groove 57 . in a functional way , the rib 64 obtains for this an approximately sawtooth - shaped cross - sectional shape , where the more rigid side points away from the winding shaft 13 . in this way , it can be achieved that the catch absorbs a part of the pull - back force of the winding shaft 13 , in order to , as described above , increase the operating comfort . if the described intermediate position of the safety net 12 is not needed , but instead the full pull - out length , the user can overcome the catch between the rib 64 and the catch groove 57 with a correspondingly large force , in order to pull the stanchion 43 , at the end that faces away from the strut 58 , out of the groove 59 , as is shown to the left in fig8 . fig9 shows an embodiment of the safety net device 9 in a greatly schematized diagram , where a timing element 71 is allocated to the retaining device 25 . provided in this embodiment , structural components and other components arise , which have already been described or act or are constructed in a similar manner , these same reference indicators are used , without a further detailed explanation being given . the retaining device 25 in the embodiment example according to fig9 to 13 contains in turn a short bar 43 that is connected to the safety net 12 and projects by its end 42 over the edge of the safety net 12 and is attached in the border band 22 ; it does not project beyond the border band in the direction of the safety net . this bar 43 forms the movable retaining mechanism of the retaining device 25 . the locationally fixed retaining mechanism of the retaining device 25 consists of a locking lever 72 , which is set in bearings so that it can rotate and is parallel to the axis of the winding shaft 13 within the housing 11 on its front side . the locking lever 72 has on one end a drill hole 73 . with this drill hole 73 , it is inserted on a housing 74 of a viscosity brake , which represents the timing element 71 . the viscosity brake involves a commercially available structural component , so that its exact construction must not be explained . essentially , it consists of a locationally fixed part and the cylindrical housing 74 that can be rotated on it , where between the fixed anchorage part and the housing 74 , a gap filled with a high - viscosity liquid is present . the housing 74 is cylindrical on the outside and transforms on a front side 75 into a single piece molded - on toothed ratchet wheel 76 . acting together with this toothed ratchet wheel 76 is a catch ratchet 77 that is molded so that it is spring - elastic as a single piece on the locking lever 72 in the area of its bearing drill hole 73 . the orientation of the teeth of the ratchet wheel 76 as well as the effective direction of the catch ratchet 77 can be gathered from the following functional description . a catch 78 runs parallel to the locking lever 72 at a distance to it , and forms a type of hook together with the locking lever 72 . the end of the locking lever 72 facing away from the bearing drill hole 73 is provided with an eyelet 79 into which a tension spring 81 is suspended , whose other end at 82 is connected to the housing 11 . the effective method of the arrangement described thus far is as follows : at first it is assumed that the safety net 12 is completely wound up onto the winding shaft 13 . in this position , the bar end 43 is located at a radial distance from the axle of the winding shaft 13 corresponding to the roller diameter involved . the locking arm 72 is , due to the effect of the tension spring 81 , in the position shown in fig1 . in this position , the catch lever 78 appears , extending out from the bearing drill hole 73 , approximately in the direction towards the axle of the winding shaft 13 . if , starting from this operating position , the safety net 12 is pulled out of the housing 11 by the pull bar 21 , the winding shaft 13 with the roller located on it is set into rotation by the safety net 12 . it rotates , relative to fig1 , in the counter - clockwise direction . the length of the catch lever 78 is measured so that its free end 83 is a radial distance from the axle of the winding shaft 13 , such that the end 42 of the stanchion can freely pass the end 83 of the catch 78 during the rotation of the winding shaft 13 , and to be precise , as long as the stanchion 43 is located on or in the roller of the safety net 12 . the locking lever 72 is located with its outer end also outside of the circle of motion that the stanchion 43 located on the roller or in the roller defines . as soon as the safety net 12 is unwound so far that the stanchion 43 also is released from the outer side of the roller , its end 42 gets into the hook formed between the catch 78 and the locking lever 72 . this is achieved by a corresponding position of the lip 20 relative to the catch lever 78 . when the stanchion end 43 becomes suspended behind the catch lever 78 , the additional pulling out of the safety net 12 from the housing leads to the catch lever 78 being rotated together with the locking lever 72 out of the position shown in fig1 , into the position shown in fig1 . in this process , these two levers 72 and 78 rotate with the bearing drill hole 73 on the cylindrical outer surface of the housing 74 of the viscosity brake 71 . the free - wheel formed from the ratchet wheel 76 and the catch ratchet 77 is designed so that in a pivoting of the locking lever 72 in the clockwise direction , i . e . out of the position according to fig1 into the position according to fig1 , no obstruction results through the viscosity brake 71 when the safety net 12 is pulled out . at the same time as the pivoting of the locking lever 72 , the tension spring 81 is also tensioned . when the position according to fig1 is reached , the locking lever 72 is recognizable in the movement path of the stanchion end 43 . in this position , so much of the safety net 12 has been pulled off of the winding shaft 13 , that the user can suspend the anchor elements 23 free from tension in the receptacle bays 24 . when the user relaxes the safety net 12 in this position , the pull - back force applied by the spring motor 14 is absorbed by the locking lever 72 , on which the strut end 42 rests . the locking lever 72 is coupled onto the viscosity brake via the combined action of the catch ratchet 77 . the viscosity brake is only to be rotated back slowly , so that the return movement of the locking lever 72 into the release position is greatly slowed . since the brake 71 is a viscosity brake , it does not act as a blocking component , but instead as a delay component , which makes possible a slow rotation by a torque that acts from outside . the viscosity brake 71 will consequently not block a return rotation of the locking lever 72 into the position according to fig1 , but instead only slow it . the locking lever 72 will in the end go back into the position according to fig1 under the action of the tension spring 81 . thus , the winding shaft 13 can stretch the safety net 12 tight without obstruction through the locking lever 72 , in which the stanchion end 43 has been caught . when the user wants to completely allow the safety net 12 to retract , he completely unfastens the anchor elements 23 from the receptacle bays 24 and allows the pull bar 21 to run back in the direction to the slit 18 . thus , the stanchion end 43 slides over the rear side of the catch lever 78 that has in the meantime swung down , and it reaches the outside of the roller made of the safety net 12 that is wound up such that the stanchion end 43 is released from the effective area of the catch 78 . from the explanation given above it results that the user has a limited time available for suspending the anchor elements 23 . this time is measured from the delay time which the locking lever 72 requires until it has rotated back under the action of the forces acting on it in the direction to the position according to fig1 where it no longer prevents a pulling back of the safety net 12 . this delay time is a function of the characteristic of the viscosity brake 71 and the force acting on the catch lever 72 , which is comprised of the pull - back force of the safety net 12 and the force of the spring 81 . fig1 to 18 show an embodiment of a safety net device 9 , in which the retaining device 25 acts between the housing and the winding shaft 13 . also in this embodiment , the same reference indicators are used for structural components and other components that have already been described , without a new detailed functional description being given . moreover , the diagram is limited to the components necessary for the understanding of the invention . the retaining device 25 consists of a stationary retaining mechanism 85 and a follower component 86 connected to the winding shaft 13 . the stationary retaining mechanism 85 , which is not attached in the housing , has the design of a container with a cylindrical collar 87 that is to be adapted to the winding shaft 13 and that extends out from a bottom 88 . a drill hole 89 for a bearing journal 91 of the winding shaft 13 leads concentrically through the floor 88 . within the cylindrical collar 87 , a wall 92 runs in a spiral shape , which begins at 93 and ends radially further inside at 94 . this radially internal end 94 is located at a clear radial distance from the drill hole 89 . because of the progression of the wall 92 , a circular running groove occurs in the immediate proximity to the inside of the collar 87 , while between the adjacent windings of the wall 92 , a groove 95 that extends in a spiral results . this groove 95 changes radially on the inside into an essentially cylindrical area 96 , which is concentric to the drill hole 89 . the follower component 86 , which has the shape of a cylindrical journal , is seated on a slide 97 . this slide 97 contains a longitudinal hole 98 that is closed on all sides and is continuous over its entire length , in which a screw compression spring is housed . an end piece 101 that is t - shaped in cross - section is plugged into a tube that forms the winding shaft 13 and is anchored in the winding shaft 13 so that it can rotate . this end piece 101 carries a journal 102 that projects into the winding shaft 13 and transforms into a cylindrical flange 103 outside of the winding shaft 13 . the flange 103 has a front side 104 that faces away from the winding shaft 13 , onto which the bearing journal 91 is molded as a single piece , which is set in bearings in the bearing drill hole 89 so that it can rotate . in the flange 103 , a hole passing through 105 is located , running through the diameter of the flange 103 , and emerging to the outside at 106 through the circumferential surface of the flange 103 . the cross - section of the pass - through hole 105 corresponds to the cross - section of the slide 97 , so that the slide 97 is guided in the pass - through hole 105 so that it can move longitudinally and cannot rotate . in addition , the flange 103 contains a slit 107 that , starting from the bearing journal 91 , extends up to the circumferential side , i . e . the opening 106 of the pass - through hole 105 . it is aligned with the pass - through hole 105 and functions as a penetration opening for the follower component 86 , when the slide 97 slides more or less deeply into the pass - through hole 105 . in order to receive the compression spring 99 , the cross - section of the pass - through hole 105 is expanded cylindrically in the center , such that the cylindrical expansion 109 ends at one end 111 prior to the circumferential surface of the flange 103 . so that , depending on the rotational direction , the follower component 86 either slides along in the circular shaped running groove on the inside of the collar 87 or finds its way back into the spiral running groove 95 , a spring component 112 , which functions as a distributing mechanism , is provided on the radially outer - lying end of the wall 92 . in the resting position , the leaf spring tongue 112 rests on the cylindrical inside of the collar 87 . finally , a catch recess 113 is provided in the spiral running wall 92 . the functional method of the retaining device according to fig1 to 18 is as follows , where from the functional description , the winding direction of the spiral groove 95 also can be gathered : when the safety net 12 is completely driven in , the follower component 86 is located within the approximately cylindrical section 96 , as is limited by the radially inner lying end area of the wall 92 . in this position , the slide 97 is pressed in at maximum depth , i . e . the follower component 86 is located in practically immediate proximity to the bearing journal 91 . if , starting from this position , the user would like to pull the safety net 12 out , in order to suspend it in the receptacle bays 24 , the winding shaft 14 is set into rotation , as is indicated by the spiral arrow 114 . in this turning , the follower component 86 runs into the spiral groove 95 on its end that lies radially to the inside in the area of the end 94 of the spiral wall 92 . this running in is achieved by the follower component 86 being pretensioned radially to the outside away from the bearing journal 91 as a result of the screw compression spring 99 . as soon as it has run into the spiral groove 95 , it is forcibly guided radially between the walls of the spiral groove 95 . after a corresponding number of revolutions or partial rotations of the winding shaft 13 , the follower component 86 gets into the catch recess 113 . the position of the catch recess 113 corresponds in the case presented here to approx . 2¾ revolutions of the winding shaft 13 . this in turn corresponds to a pull - out length on the safety net 12 , which allows a hassle - free suspending of the anchor elements 23 into the receptacle bays 24 , when the short pull - out length is necessary . since the catch recess 113 is provided with rigid sides , the follower component 86 catches in the catch recess 113 . when the user lets go of the pull bar 21 after the catching , the follower component 86 is set on the relevant wall in the circumferential direction of the catch recess 113 . in this way , a catch force results in combination with the compression spring 99 , which can not be overcome by the pull back force of the angular spring 14 . the user can now suspend the anchor elements 23 in the receptacle bays 24 without exerting force . as soon as this has occurred , he activates a release button 114 that is present on the housing , which is located at a position corresponding to the position of the slide 97 during catching in the catch recess 113 . by pressing down the activation button 114 , which acts on the respective end of the slide 97 , on which the follower component 86 is located , the follower component 86 is pressed out of the catch recess 113 against the action of the compression spring 99 , so that now the angular spring 14 can tension the safety net 12 . after the tensioning of the safety net 12 , the follower component 86 is located in a position , which is between the catch recess 113 and the end 94 of the side wall 92 , which lies radially to the inside . without further activation of the release button 114 , the user can run the safety net 12 back into the housing 11 , such that the follower component 86 is conducted radially in the direction towards the bearing journal 91 as a result of the spiral groove 95 with each rotation of the winding shaft 13 . if the user requires a larger quantity of safety net 12 , for example , because the housing 11 is located in proximity to the luggage compartment floor , it first goes back into its functional position , in which the follower component 86 catches in the catch recess 113 , when the safety net 12 is pulled out . this position is shown in fig1 and 17 . by pressing down the release button 114 , the follower component 86 is lifted out of the catch recess 113 and the user can now pull the safety net 12 further out unobstructed by the catch recess 113 . in the further movement , the follower component 86 passes the leaf spring tongue 114 that functions as a distributing mechanism , and it rests on the cylindrical inside of the collar 87 from then on . after each complete rotation , the follower component 86 runs from the rear side over the leaf spring tongue 112 and presses it away from the cylindrical inner surface of the collar 97 by its free end . the cam follower component passes the spring tongue 112 in this way unobstructed and correspondingly often . for removal , the user guides the pull bar 21 back in the direction to the slit 18 . after at most one almost complete revolution , the follower component 86 is lifted through the leaf spring tongue 112 resting on the inside of the collar 87 and threaded back into the radial outer lying beginning of the groove 95 . after an additional revolution of approx . 90 ° in the embodiment depicted , the follower component 86 in turn gets into the catch recess 113 , out of which it must be lifted in order to drive the safety net 12 further in using the release button 114 . the lifted position is shown in fig1 . from now on , the follower component 86 runs in the circumferential passages of the spiral groove 95 lying further inside to its inside end corresponding to the end 94 of the wall 92 . regardless of how much safety net 12 is located outside of the housing and must be wound on the winding shaft 13 , the follower component 86 rotates in the free - wheel direction in the almost cylindrical inner space 96 , without bringing about an obstruction of the wind - up movement . the advantage of this arrangement consists in that less windings of the groove are necessary than revolutions for the complete pull - out of the safety net . as is apparent from the above description , the spiral groove 95 acts together with the catch recess 113 as a type of counter , which records the revolutions of the winding shaft 13 in order to determine how many complete revolutions plus partial revolutions are made for a pull - out length on the safety net 12 , so that the safety net 12 can be suspended without difficulties in the receptacle bays 24 . fig1 to 23 show in a greatly schematized basic representation , a retaining device 25 , which acts together directly with the winding shaft 13 and is triggered by an acceleration - dependent device 121 . the safety net 12 is connected by an edge to the winding shaft 13 is , as previously , where its other edge is attached to the pull bar 21 . as a locationally fixed retaining component , a locking ratchet wheel 122 functions , which carries saw - tooth shaped teeth in a known way and is coupled to the winding shaft 13 in a rotationally fixed manner . the movable retaining component is represented by a locking ratchet slide 123 . in a schematically indicated housing 124 , the locking ratchet slide 123 is set in bearings so that it can move in a corresponding guide , so that it can be moved on the locking ratchet wheel 122 radially toward and away from it . the locking ratchet slide 123 has on its upper side a first catch 125 and on its rear end , a second catch 125 . the two catches 125 , 125 are extensions or arms that are set off at right angles from the slide 123 . somewhat below the catch 125 , a compression spring 127 meshes in a drill hole 126 , the other end of which is anchored at 128 in the housing . the position of the anchor point 128 is selected so that the compression spring 127 can act as a catch spring for the locking ratchet slide 123 . above the locking ratchet slide 123 , a sensing slide 129 is located , which is guided in the direction parallel to the locking ratchet slide 123 in the housing 124 . the sensing slide 129 acts via a slope surface 131 on its left end together with the pull bar 21 . it pretensions a position , via a tension spring 132 that meshes at the rear end of the sensing slide 129 and finds its abutment in the housing 124 , in which the slope surface 131 of a stopper surface 133 fixed to the housing is as closely adjacent as possible . in this position , an arm 134 that extends to the bottom from the sensing slide 129 lies on a housing wall 135 . the length of the arm 134 is measured so that the open end of the arm 134 can come into contact with the catch 124 . in an inner space 136 of the housing 124 , in which the catch 125 also moves , a hook - shaped catch slide 137 is set in bearings so that it can move . the catch 137 has an arm 138 that points to the top , which is provided so that it can come into mesh with the catch 125 . in the movement direction behind the catch slide 137 , a weight 139 , which is guided in a chamber 138 of the housing 124 , is located , which is pretensioned by a compression spring 141 in the direction towards the winding shaft 13 . the kinematic connection between the weight 139 and the catch slide 137 is created by a coupling spring 142 that is attached on the end of the catch slide 137 that faces away from the arm 138 and towards an arm 143 , which extends out from the mass 139 and projects in the direction towards the catch slide 137 . at first , an operating position is assumed , as shown in fig1 . the safety net 12 is completely wound around the winding shaft 13 , so that the pull bar 21 penetrates into the wedge - shaped space between the slope surface 131 and the housing stopper surface 133 . in this way , the sensing slide 129 is moved in its end position directed towards left , in which the pull spring 132 is tensioned to the maximum extent . at the same time , the compression spring 127 is snapped in the direction towards the winding shaft 13 and presses a catch projection 144 of the locking ratchet slide 123 into the teeth gaps of the locking ratchet wheel 122 . the weight 139 is also brought via the compression spring 141 into the left end position . when the vehicle equipped with this device begins to move towards the left relative to the representations , the inertia of the weight 139 causes it to move against the action of the compression spring 141 into the chamber 138 into the right end position , as is shown in fig2 . in this way , the catch slide 137 is also pulled via the coupling spring 142 to the right relative to the housing 124 . this movement directed towards the right is transferred from the arm 138 to the arm 125 , such that the locking ratchet slide 123 is also bent back to the extent until its catch 124 comes to rest on the arm 134 . this arm 134 can not move out of the left end position , since the pull bar 21 is clamped between the slope surface 131 and the stopper surface 133 . the sensing slide 129 will thus maintain its left end position , which is why the locking ratchet slide 123 can only be pulled back into the position corresponding to fig2 . this slide of the locking ratchet slide 123 directed towards the right is not sufficient to allow the compression spring 127 to reverse . when the acceleration force disappears , the locking ratchet slide 123 will as a result move back into the position according to fig1 , when the force that pulls it back , which is exerted by the catch slide 137 , stops acting upon it . the user can grasp the pull bar 21 in order to deploy the safety net 12 and move it to the top in the direction towards the receptacle bays 24 . in this way , the sensing slide 129 comes free and can get into its right end position as a result of the action of the tension spring 132 , see fig2 . at the same time , through the pulling out of the safety net 12 , the winding shaft 13 is set into rotation in the clockwise direction . in this way , the flat tooth sides of the locking ratchet wheel 122 ratchet past the locking projection 144 of the locking ratchet slide 123 and press it periodically to the right against the action of the compression spring 127 . since the shift does not exceed the transition point of the compression spring 127 , the locking ratchet slide 123 in each tooth gap jumps back to the left in the tooth gaps . when the user has pulled out sufficient safety net and the tension in the safety net subsides , the spring motor 14 acts to move the winding shaft 13 back in the direction of the wind up . it is however , prevented in this by the combined action of the locking ratchet wheel 122 with the locking projection 144 , since the rigid tooth side surfaces rest on the locking projection 144 and can not press them back , see fig2 . the user is now in a position to suspend the anchor elements 23 in the receptacle bays 24 without applying force . if after suspending the safety net 12 , the vehicle is driven for the first time , the operation explained above repeats . the inertia of the weight 139 shifts the mass 139 to the right relative to the housing 124 against the action of the compression spring 131 , as shown in fig2 . this movement will in turn transfer via the coupling spring 142 to the catch slide 137 , which pulls the locking ratchet slide 123 to the right for the combined action of the arm 138 with the arm 125 . since , however , this time the sensing slide 129 is located in its right end position , the movement of the locking ratchet slide 123 is not stopped as described above , but instead can continue further to the right , where the reversal point of the compression spring 127 is exceeded . after this point is exceeded , the compression spring 127 no longer acts to the left in the direction towards the locking ratchet wheel 122 , but instead to the right in the sense that it holds the locking ratchet slide 123 out of mesh with the locking ratchet wheel 122 , even if the weight 139 is then returned into the position according to fig2 . the force applied by the spring motor 14 is thus free and can set the winding shaft 13 into rotation in the direction of winding up and thus tensioning of the safety net 12 . if the user wants to retract the safety net , it is sufficient to allow the pull bar 21 to be dismounted and the safety net 12 to run back . on the end of the drive - in movement , the pull bar 21 again comes into the wedge - shaped space between the sloped surface 131 and the stopper 133 and presses the sensing slide 129 back into its left end position . in this movement , the sensing slide 129 carries with it the locking ratchet slide 123 to the left over the reversal point of the compression spring 127 , so that the starting position is achieved according to fig1 . a safety net device has a housing , in which a winding shaft is set in bearings so that it can rotate . using a spring motor , the winding shaft is pretensioned in the wind - up direction of a safety net attached to the winding shaft . the other edge of the safety net is connected to a pull bar , which is to be suspended in the receptacle bays in the car body . so that the suspension can be done by the user with as little force as possible , a retaining device is provided , which absorbs at least a part of the pull - back force occurring when the safety net is run back into the housing , as soon as the safety net has been pulled out of the housing far enough until the pull bar can be suspended in the receptacle bays . the retaining device can be voluntarily unlocked in order to again make possible stowage of the safety net in the housing . | 8 |
referring to fig1 , an embodiment 10 of a well in accordance with the invention includes a wellbore 20 , which may or may not be cased by a casing string 22 . during the drilling , completion and maintenance of the well 10 , a coiled tubing string 30 may be run into the wellbore 20 to perform a specific function , and thereafter , the coiled tubing string 30 may be retrieved from the wellbore 20 . as a more specific example , to treat the well 10 , the coiled tubing string 30 may be run downhole inside the wellbore 20 for purposes of introducing a stimulation fluid . unlike conventional arrangements , the coiled tubing string 30 is formed from relatively short , connected coiled tubing segments ( segments of approximately 2000 , 3000 , 4000 or 5000 feet , as examples ) instead of , for example , one relatively long continuous segment ( a segment of 10 , 000 feet or more , for example ) that spans the length of the intervention . to accomplish this , the coiled tubing is transported to the well in several reels 35 ( one of which is depicted in fig1 ), each of which may contain one of the coiled tubing segments . each coiled tubing segment that forms the coiled tubing string 30 may be a continuous length of coiled tubing , and connectors are used to concatenate the coiled tubing segments together for purposes of forming the string 30 . as further described below , the coiled tubing string 30 may contain tools that may be added at the end of the string 30 as well at intermediate locations of the string 30 due to the string &# 39 ; s segmented design . in accordance with embodiments of the invention , each coiled tubing segment is transported to the well site on its own reel 35 and may have an attached connector at each end , which is constructed to mate with a connector of another coiled tubing segment or tool . thus , in these embodiments of the invention , a two piece connector assembly ( such as one female connector and one male connector ) is used to join coiled tubing segments and add tools to the coiled tubing string 30 . in other embodiments of the invention , a one piece connector assembly may be used to connect coiled tubing segments and add tools to another segment or tool . many variations are therefore contemplated and are considered to be within the scope of the appended claims . as a more specific example , in accordance with some embodiments of the invention , one end of the coiled tubing segment may have a female connector , and the other end of the coiled tubing segment may have a male connector . thus , to join two coiled tubing segments together , the male and female connectors from the segments are mated together . fig1 depicts two exemplary coiled tubing segments in connection with the deployment or retrieval of the coiled tubing string 30 to / from the well 10 : an upper coiled tubing segment 30 a that is located outside of the wellbore 20 and is partially wound around its associated reel 35 ; and a lower coiled tubing segment 30 b that has previously been unwound from its associated reel ( not shown ), is partially disposed in the wellbore 20 and is connected at its lower end to another coiled tubing segment or tool . the upper coiled tubing segment 30 a is attached at its lower end via its connector 70 to a mating connector 80 , which , in turn , is connected to the upper end of the lower coiled tubing section 30 b . for the state of the well 10 depicted in fig1 , the upper end of the lower coiled tubing segment 30 b is engaged by slips 56 , which secure the upper end so that the connector 80 may be connected to or disconnected from the connector 70 , depending on whether the coiled tubing string 30 is being deployed in or retrieved from the wellbore 20 . the upper coiled tubing segment 30 a is partially wound around its associated reel 35 and extends through a coiled tubing injector 50 and a gooseneck 40 . on the reel 35 , the end of the coiled tubing segment 30 a is secured to an end connector 88 that is mated to a connector 78 that , in turn , is secured to a shorter coiled tubing segment 30 c , which is mounted to the drum of the reel 35 . the shorter coiled tubing segment 30 c has a length that is sufficient to extend over the gooseneck 40 and the injector 50 to the position where the end connector 88 is secured by the slips 56 . thus , when the coiled tubing segment 30 a is deployed , the coiled tubing segment 30 c unwinds from the reel 35 until the connectors 78 and 88 pass through the injector 50 , and the upper end of the coiled tubing segment 30 a is secured by the slips 56 . at this point , the connectors 78 and 88 are disconnected , the shorter coiled tubing segment 30 c is wound back on the reel 35 , the reel 35 containing the shorter coiled tubing segment 30 c is removed ; and subsequently , a coiled tubing segment ( from another reel ) may be unwound and run through the injector 56 and attached to the coiled tubing segment 30 a in a similar manner . more coiled tubing segments may be added to the coiled tubing string 30 in a similar manner . the opposite process occurs for retrieving the coiled tubing string 30 from the well . in accordance with some embodiments of the invention , the connectors 70 and 78 may be female connectors , and the connectors 80 and 88 may be male connectors . to summarize , in accordance with some embodiments of the invention , a technique 100 ( see fig2 ) to deploy coiled tubing in a well includes deploying ( block 104 ) the next coiled tubing segment through the injector 50 and into the wellbore 22 . if a determination is made ( block 108 ) that another coiled tubing segment is to be deployed , then the upper end of the uppermost partially deployed coiled tubing segment is secured ( block 112 ) by the slips 56 so that the lower end of the next coiled tubing segment to be deployed is attached to the uppermost deployed coiled tubing segment , pursuant to block 114 . the technique 100 continues with block 104 to deploy the next coiled tubing segment so that the blocks 104 , 108 and 112 are repeated for each coiled tubing segment . the coiled tubing string 30 may likewise be retrieved from the well in segments by a process that includes , for each coiled tubing segment that emerges from the well , engaging the upper end of the coiled tubing segment with slips , disconnecting the coiled tubing section from the coiled tubing section above , connected the coiled tubing section to a shorter coiled tubing section that is connected to the drum of a reel and then , winding the shorter coiled tubing section and now attached coiled tubing section from the well back onto the reel . this process continues until all coiled tubing segments have been wound onto their respective reels and thus , the coiled tubing string 30 has been retrieved from the wellbore 20 . as depicted in fig1 , among its other features , the well 10 may include a well tree 31 through which the coiled tubing string 30 passes and which seals off the region of the string 30 above the tree from the wellbore 20 . the well tree 31 may include , as examples , a lubricator and a blow out preventer ( bop ) and may include ports to communicate fluids to and from the wellbore 20 . in addition to including coiled tubing sections , the coiled tubing string 30 may include various tools , depending on the particular embodiment of the invention . in this regard , the coiled tubing string 30 may include , for example , a bottom hole assembly ( bha ) ( not shown in fig1 ), which is attached to the bottom end of the coiled tubing string 30 and thus , is attached to the bottom end of the first coiled tubing segment that is deployed into the wellbore 20 . because the coiled tubing string 30 is formed from multiple segments , a tool may also be incorporated into the coiled tubing string 30 at an intermediate position above the bottom end of the string 30 . in this regard , as depicted in fig1 , in accordance with some embodiments of the invention , a tool 60 may be disposed between the upper and lower ends of the coiled tubing string 30 for purposes of performing a particular function relating to the job being performed by the coiled tubing string 30 . for example , the tool 60 may be a swabbing tool for purposes of preventing a fluid that is injected via the coiled tubing string 30 at its lower end from reaching an upper section of the wellbore 20 . in this regard , the swabbing tool 60 may form an annular barrier around the exterior of the coiled tubing string 30 at a particular intermediate location of the coiled tubing string 30 . thus , for example , if a particular zone of the well below the swabbing tool 60 is being treated with a stimulation fluid , the tool 60 prevents the stimulation fluid from reaching the region of the well above the tool 60 , where damage may possibly occur . as another example , a tool that is deployed on the coiled tubing string 30 may include one or more sensors for purposes of detecting when a particular fluid , such as a stimulation fluid , has reached the tool . in this regard , an operator at the surface of the well may monitor results that are communicated uphole from the tool for purposes of determining when to halt pumping of treatment fluid into the well via the coiled tubing string 30 . other tools may be part of the coiled tubing string 30 , in accordance with other embodiments of the invention . depending on the particular embodiment of the invention , a one piece connector assembly or a two piece connector assembly ( as depicted in fig1 ) may be used to selectively connect two coiled tubing segments together . for example , referring to fig3 , a single piece coiled tubing connector 210 constructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention may be used to connect a first section of coiled tubing 212 and a second section of coiled tubing 214 . the connector 210 , having a body 216 having a longitudinal bore 218 therethrough , includes a stiff section 227 and at least one end section 228 . often stiff section 227 is provided between two end sections 228 , as is shown fig3 . in some embodiments , body 216 of connector 210 may be discontinuous , and in further embodiments , stiff section 227 is separable from one or more end sections 228 . in some embodiments of the invention , the body 216 of the connector 210 may be a continuous body in which one region of connector body 216 is stiff section 227 and other region or regions of connector body 216 are end section or sections 228 . the stiff section 227 of connector 210 has an outer diameter that it will fits snugly within the inner diameter of first and second sections of coiled tubing 212 and 214 . the exterior diameter of body 216 remains essentially constant throughout stiff section 227 , excepting in localized areas where a means , such as a groove or indentation , to effect a connection with coiled tubing 212 and 214 are present . in end sections 228 of body 216 , external diameter 229 of body 216 gradually decreases from the end 231 of the end section 228 proximate to the stiff section 227 towards the distal end 233 of the body 216 , such that the external diameter of end section 228 of body 216 is not engaged snugly within the interior diameter of coiled tubing 212 or 214 . when coiled tubing 212 and 214 is straight , end section 228 is not in contact with the inner diameter of the coiled tubing 212 or 214 owing to the decreasing external diameter 229 of end section 228 . this decreasing external diameter , referred to herein as tapered , may be constructed in any variety of ways that provides a smaller external diameter at the distal end 233 of end section 228 ; examples of ways by which a taper may be formed include but are not limited to a single angle , a series of short angle sectors , a constant radius , or a compound radius . as coiled tubing 212 is connected to connector 210 in stiff section 227 and coiled tubing 212 bends as is routine in coiled tubing deployment and operation , only a limited area of end section 228 will be in contact with the interior diameter of coiled tubing 212 as it bends owing to the decreasing exterior diameter 229 of end section 228 . in this way , there is a limited area of contact between coiled tubing 212 / 214 as it bends over the length of end section 228 and that limited area of contact translates along the length of end section 228 as coiled tubing 212 bends . as such , the stress point occurring at the point of contact translates along the end section 228 and overlapping coiled tubing 212 , thereby avoiding the formation of a specific point of stress concentration or hinge point . this characteristic is referred to herein as the restrictive bend feature . the restrictive bend feature avoids the formation of a hinge point resulting from stress repeatedly concentrating in areas . it is known that such hinge points create a weak point in coiled tubing connectors . by design , this restrictive bend feature provides a transition between the stiff section 227 of connector 10 and the coiled tubing 212 or 214 and distributes the strain in the coiled tubing over the length of end section 228 rather than in a localized hinge point . by such a strain distribution , the maximum stress imposed on any particular point of coiled tubing 212 or 214 overlapping end section 228 and the duration of time at which any particular point is subjected to that stress is reduced . this serves to improve the low cycle fatigue performance of the overall coiled tubing and connector configuration . such a configuration is notably different from known flexible internal connectors and is counter to the conventional approach of providing a flexible middle section with stiffer section on either side . thus the coiled tubing connector may be useful to provide a connection that is flexible on both ends and stiff in the middle . in various embodiments , the diameter of the internal surface of body 216 along longitudinal bore 218 in end section 228 may decrease in a similar manner to external diameter 229 , may remain the same throughout end section 228 , or may increase to form an internal tapered surface 230 . in embodiments in which the diameter of the internal surface of body 216 along longitudinal bore 218 in end section 228 remains the same or increases , the cross sectional wall thickness of body 216 in end section 228 decreases toward distal end 233 as a result of decreasing external diameter 229 . this decreasing wall thickness makes end section 228 more flexible at distal end 233 and increasingly less flexible along the length of end section 228 extending to the end of stiff section 227 . in this way , connector 210 is most flexible at the distal end 233 of end section 228 and has diminishing flexibility traversing toward stiff section 227 along the length of end section 228 such that the stiffest area of end section 228 is at end 231 adjacent to stiff section 227 . connector 210 may be secured to the coiled tubing 212 and 214 in stiff section 227 by techniques suitable for use with internal connectors such as roll - on connectors , screws , crimping , and dimpling . in fig3 , the connection between stiff section 227 and coiled tubing 212 and 214 is shown made by indentations 222 on the outer surface of stiff section 227 receiving protuberances 220 on the coiled tubing 212 and 214 . such indentations may be made a variety of ways such as surrounding the coiled tubing with a mold and pressing the mold to form indentations , using a push or screw to form the indentations , or using a pre - pattern of weaker points in stiff section 227 into which coiled tubing 212 or 214 may be easily pressed . in some embodiments , the exterior surface of stiff section 227 may be patterned in a manner to facilitate this connection with coiled tubing 212 and 214 . for example , indentations in the exterior surface of stiff section 227 may spread uniformly about the circumference in a localized area or along the length of stiff section 227 . alternatively , depressions for receiving screws holes may be provided in the exterior surface of stiff section 227 ; such depressions may similarly be in a localized area or along the length of stiff section 227 . in addition , the pattern , shape , or depth of such indentations may be varied and in particular , be varied in such a manner that the stress during bending of the connection is distributed across the indentations and not concentrated in a limited localized area . moreover this variation may be done in such a manner as to vary the relative snugness of the connection between connector 210 and coiled tubing 212 or 214 across stiff section 227 of connector 10 such that the connection between connector 210 and coiled tubing 212 or 214 is relatively snug near the ends of coiled tubing 212 or 214 and the connection is less snug in other areas of stiff section 227 of connector 210 . for example , dimple screws closest to the ends of coiled tubing 212 or 214 of the tubing can be tightened to a different depth compared to those screws furthest from the ends of coiled tubing 212 or 214 . alternatively or in addition to indentations along the external surface of stiff section 227 , indentations may be provided on the internal surface of body 216 along longitudinal bore 218 . in this manner , a thinner wall section of body 216 is provided in desired locations at which coiled tubing 212 or 214 may be pressed or crimped to secure contact between connector 210 and coiled tubing 212 or 214 . in another embodiment , a groove may be provided around the circumference of stiff section 227 or a series of circumferential or partially circumferential grooves may be placed or staggered along the length of stiff section 227 . various combinations of these techniques may also be used and are considered within the scope of the present invention . connector 210 may preferably be provided with one or more seals 224 to prevent fluid leakage between the connector 210 and each of either or both of the coiled tubing 212 / 214 . these seals 224 may be of any known type , including but not limited to o - rings , chevron seals , t - seals , dynamic seals such as polypak ™, and various other elastomeric devices . in some embodiments of the invention , the connector 210 may include an annular lip 226 disposed about the body 216 in the stiff section 227 and positioned such that it is disposed between the respective ends of the coiled tubings 212 and 214 . the diameter of annular lip 226 is the same or essentially equivalent to the outer diameter of coiled tubing 212 and 214 . as such , annular lip 226 does not preclude connector 10 from passing through the wellhead equipment . annular lip 226 provides support for the end of the coiled tubing 212 or 214 or to reduce forces that cause flaring of tubing ends and also to contain and protect the tubing ends . as will be appreciated by those of skill in this art , the annular lip 226 functions to reduce deformation or “ egging ” of the ends of the coiled tubing 212 or 214 during use . in some embodiments , a flow control device , such as a check valve , may be used in conjunction with connector 210 . the flow control device permits fluid flow through in one configuration and restricts fluid flow through in another configuration . methods of switching such flow control devices from one configuration to another configuration are well known and include , for example , exerting an axial external pressure on the connector , dropping a ball , or providing a control signal . such embodiments are of particular use when the coiled tubing is under pressure , such as well pressure or fluid pressure . the flow control device may be placed within stiff section 227 of connector 210 ( see fig9 ), within coiled tubing 212 ( see fig1 ) or 214 adjacent to connector 210 ( see fig1 ). a combination of internal and external flow control devices may be also used . in some embodiments of the invention , the connector 210 is utilized to connect coiled tubing 212 and 214 of different wall thicknesses and correspondingly different bending stiffnesses , advantageously eliminating the need to weld the coiled tubing sections having different wall thicknesses . for example , coiled tubing 212 has a wall thickness different than the wall thickness of coiled tubing 214 . the wall thickness of coiled tubing 212 may be greater than the wall thickness of coiled tubing 214 or the wall thickness of coiled tubing 214 may be greater than the wall thickness of coiled tubing 212 . alternatively , the coiled tubings 212 and 214 have different wall thicknesses and substantially the same outer diameter . alternatively , the coiled tubings 212 and 214 have different wall thicknesses only at those portions of the coiled tubings 212 and 214 where the coiled tubings 212 and 214 are joined by the connector 210 , such as end portions thereof or the like . as shown in fig4 a , 4b and 4 c , the decreasing exterior diameter 229 of end section 228 can be constructed on the external surface of body 216 in a variety of ways , including but not limited to with a single angle , a series of short angle sectors , a constant radius or a compound radius . in some embodiments , the diameter of the internal surface of body 216 along longitudinal bore 218 may increase in end section 228 to form an internal tapered surface 230 . for example , in the specific embodiments shown in fig3 , end section 228 is shown having an outer tapered surface 229 and a tapered internal surface 230 in longitudinal bore 218 . this internal tapered surface 230 similarly may be constructed in a variety of ways , including but not limited to with a single angle , a series of short angle sectors , a constant radius , or a compound radius . in some embodiments , the manner in which decreasing exterior diameter 229 and internal tapered surface 230 are constructed may be the same and in some embodiments , the manner in which they are formed may be different . in the specific embodiment shown in fig4 a , end section 228 includes an internal tapered surface 230 and a tapered outer surface of body 229 . in the embodiment shown in fig4 b , end section 228 includes a plurality of outer tapered surfaces , or short angle sectors , 229 a , 229 b and 229 c , and internal surface 230 is not tapered . in the embodiment shown in fig4 c , end section 228 includes a tapered outer surface 229 formed by a constant radius and internal surface 230 in the longitudinal bore 218 is not tapered . there is shown in fig5 a coiled tubing connector 210 constructed in accordance with the present invention and in use to connect a first section of coiled tubing 212 and a tool string 213 . connector 210 has a body 216 having a longitudinal bore 218 therethrough and comprises a stiff section 227 and an end section 228 . in some embodiments , connector 210 may disassembled by separating stiff section 227 may be separated from end section 228 and assembled by attached stiff section 227 to end section 228 by using any number of connection methods known for connecting while maintaining a flush exterior surface such as threading , patterned jointing , or lock and key . stiff section 227 of connector 210 has an outer diameter that fits snugly within the inner diameter of coiled tubing 212 . the other end 241 of stiff section 227 connects to tool string 213 . such a connection to tool string 13 may be made by any number of connection methods known for connecting while maintaining a flush exterior surface such as threading , patterned jointing , or lock and key . in end section 228 , the external diameter 229 of body 216 gradually decreases from end of the end section 228 proximate to the stiff section 227 towards the distal end 233 of the body 216 , such that the external diameter 229 of end section 228 at the distal end 233 of body 216 is not engaged snuggly within the interior diameter of coiled tubing 212 . when coiled tubing 12 is straight , end section 228 is not in contact with the inner diameter of the coiled tubing owing to its decreasing external diameter 229 . in this way , there is a limited area of contact between coiled tubing 212 / 214 as it bends over the length of end section 228 and that limited area of contact translates along the length of end section 228 as coiled tubing 212 bends . as such , the stress point occurring at the point of contact translates along the end section 228 and overlapping coiled tubing 212 , thereby avoiding the formation of a specific point of stress concentration or hinge point . the restrictive bend feature of end section 228 previously described is present in the embodiment shown in fig5 . a specific embodiment is shown in fig6 in which two coiled tubing connectors 210 constructed in accord with the present invention are shown to connect a first section of coiled tubing 212 , a tool string 213 , and a second section of coiled tubing 214 . each coiled tubing connector 210 has a body 216 having a longitudinal bore 218 therethrough and comprises a stiff section 227 and an end section 228 . each tubing connector 210 is connected to coiled tubing 212 or 214 at stiff section 227 and to tool string 213 at one end 241 . the first tubing connector 210 is connected at stiff section 227 to coiled tubing 212 and the second tubing connector 210 likewise is connected at stiff section 227 to coiled tubing 214 . stiff sections 227 have an outer diameter that fits snugly within the inner diameter of coiled tubing 212 . end section 228 of each of the first and the second tubing connector 210 has an external diameter 229 that gradually decreases from the end 240 of the end section 228 proximate to the stiff section 227 towards the distal end 233 of the body 216 , such that the external diameter 229 of end section 228 at the distal end 233 of body 216 is not engaged within the interior diameter of coiled tubing 212 or 214 respectively when the coiled tubing is not bent . in some embodiments , first or second connector 210 , or both , may comprise a body 216 in which one region of the body 216 is stiff section 227 and another region of body 216 is end section 228 . in other embodiments , body 216 of the first or second connector 210 , or both , may disassembled by separating stiff section 227 from end section 228 and assembled by attached stiff section 227 to end section 228 using any number of connection methods known for connecting while maintaining a flush exterior surface such as threading , patterned jointing . stiff section 227 of each the first and second connectors 210 have an outer diameter that fits snugly within respectively the inner diameter of coiled tubing 212 or 214 . end section 228 of each of the first and the second tubing connector 210 has an external diameter 229 that gradually decreases from the end 231 of the end section 228 proximate to the stiff section 227 towards the distal end 233 of the body 216 , such that the external diameter 229 of end section 228 at the distal end 233 of body 216 is not engaged within the interior diameter of coiled tubing 212 or 214 respectively when the coiled tubing is not bent . this restrictive bend feature of end section 228 previously described is included in the embodiment shown in fig6 . each of the embodiments described has a reduction in the exterior diameter of end section 228 . when bending occurs in routine use , coiled tubing 212 / 214 bends until it contacts end section 228 . as bending continues , the contact point between coiled tubing 212 / 214 and end section 228 translates along the length of end section 228 , thereby avoiding a localized hinge point . in this way , connector 210 of the present invention undergoes lower strain during bending and as a result , suffers lower fatigue and has a longer useful life . advantages of the connector described herein may be seen by referring to fig7 a and 7b in which output from finite element modeling is shown . fig7 a illustrates the output of finite element modeling of a known internal coiled tubing connector having a flexible center section and stiff end sections ; numerous areas of high strain concentration 250 are shown including an extended area of high strain concentration 250 in the flexible center section . fig7 b illustrates the output of finite element modeling having the same inputs as fig7 b , except that the connector is modeled is of the present invention ; few areas of high strain concentration 250 are shown for the present invention connector . as high strain concentration leads to diminished usage life or to greater risk of failure , the advantages of the connector described herein are apparent from a comparison of fig7 b to fig7 a from which is can be seen that connector 210 of the present invention undergoes less strain than the coiled tubing connector having a flexible center section . as shown in fig8 , in another specific embodiment , connector 210 may further be provided with a flow guide / debris barrier 232 disposed at each end of the connector 210 . the barrier 232 may include a body 234 with a tubular section 236 extending therefrom and adapted to fit within the bore 218 of the connector 210 . the body 234 may include a shoulder 238 designed to engage the tip of end section 228 of connector 210 . body 234 may include an annular recess 244 for receiving an annular seal 242 . the body 234 may further include a tapered inner bore 240 . the debris barrier 32 functions to keep debris and solids , which could impede controlled bending , out of the restrictive bend area between external diameter 229 of end sections 228 and internal surface 230 of the coiled tubings 212 / 214 . barrier 232 may be separate from the connector 210 , as shown , or it may be integral with the connector 210 . in various embodiments , barrier 232 may be rigid or flexible . an example of an integral flexible embodiment is an elastomeric cone molded to the end of connector 210 . any combination of these techniques may be used . if barrier 232 is separate from connector 210 instead of integral with it , it may be held in position by a coiled tubing weld bead 246 on one side and connector 210 on the other side . fig8 further illustrates that connector 210 may include an anti - extrusion ring 248 adjacent seal 224 . advantages of the connectors in accordance with embodiments of the invention include a tensile strength similar to the tensile strength of the coiled tubing ; the capability of bending around a coiled tubing reel and an injector gooseneck during operation ; a low cycle fatigue life similar to the coiled tubing ; a pressure tight seal both from internal and external sources ; and the ability to pass through a wellhead assembly . in some embodiments , a flow control device , such as a check valve , may be used in conjunction with connector 210 . the flow control device permits fluid flow through in one configuration and restricts fluid flow through in another configuration . methods of switching such flow control devices from one configuration to another configuration are well known and include , for example , exerting an axial external pressure on the connector , dropping a ball , or providing a control signal . such embodiments are of particular use when the coiled tubing is under pressure , such as well pressure or fluid pressure . the flow control device 260 may be placed within stiff section 227 ( fig9 ) of connector 210 or within coiled tubing 212 ( fig1 ) or 214 ( fig1 ) adjacent to connector 210 . a combination of internal and external flow control devices may be also used . fig1 depicts an embodiment of a two piece connector assembly for joining two coiled tubing segments together , in accordance with other embodiments of the invention . the two piece connector assembly includes a first connector 400 ( an embodiment of the connector 70 of fig1 , for example ), which mates with another connector 410 ( an embodiment of the connector 80 of fig1 , for example ). in some embodiments of the invention , each coiled tubing segment is transported to the well site with the connectors 400 and 410 ( one secured to each end ) already being in place on their respective coiled tubing segments . each connector 400 , 410 has the same general design , with an end connector distinguishing one connector 400 , 410 from the other . for example , in accordance with some embodiments of the invention , the connector 400 is a female connector due to a female end connector 350 that mates with a male end connector 354 of the connector 410 . the opposite ends of the connectors 400 and 408 receive the respective coiled tubing sections 330 a and 330 b , respectively . each end connector 350 , 354 is a non - rotating connector and may be one of numerous different types of connectors , depending on the particular embodiment of the invention . for example , in accordance with some embodiments of the invention , the end connectors 350 and 354 may be threaded connectors , and in other embodiments of the invention , as another non - limiting example , each end connector 350 , 354 may be a crimp - type connector . thus , many variations are contemplated and are within the scope of the appended claims . as depicted in fig1 , the connector 400 has a generally tapered exterior end surface 371 , which is inserted into the end of the coiled tubing section 330 a . the surface 371 establishes a sliding area of contact between the connector 400 and the coiled tubing section 330 a , to prevent a hinge point . between the surface 371 and the end connector 350 , the connector 400 may include a profile for purposes of attaching the coiled tubing section 330 a to a connector body 373 . as an example , as depicted in fig3 , in accordance with some embodiments of the invention , the connector body 373 includes indentations 360 which receive corresponding protuberances 370 of the coiled tubing section 330 a when the coiled tubing section 330 a is crimped into the connector body 373 . apart from having the opposite - type end connector 354 , the connector 410 has a similar design to the connector 400 , in accordance with some embodiments of the invention . in this regard , as shown in fig3 , the connector 410 includes a connector body 383 , which has a tapered end surface 381 that is received into the coiled tubing section 330 b . furthermore , the connector body 383 has indentations 380 that receive corresponding protuberances 382 when the coiled tubing section 330 b is crimped into the connector body 383 . in accordance with some embodiments of the invention , a check valve may be disposed in one or both of the connectors 400 and 410 for purposes of maintaining fluid seal integrity of the coiled tubing string 330 . in this regard , it is possible that during its lifetime , the coiled tubing string 30 ( see fig1 ) may possibly develop a pin hole leak beneath the well tree 31 . this leak , in turn , may cause the communication of well fluid from the annulus into the central passageway of the coiled tubing string 30 , thereby compromising the seal integrity of the well . as depicted in fig3 , in some embodiments of the invention , a flow control device , such as a check valve 390 , may be located in the connector 410 ( i . e ., the bottom connector ), although the check valve may be located in the upper connector 400 , in accordance with some embodiments of the invention . a particular advantage of incorporating a flow control device , such as the check valve 390 , into the bottom connector 410 is that when the connectors 400 and 410 are separated at the slips 56 ( see fig1 ), a seal is maintained on the central passageway of the coiled tubing string 30 . additionally , should a leak develop , additional measures may be employed using the one - way communication path through the check valve 390 , such as injecting a kill fluid through the check valve 390 and into the central passageway of the deployed coiled tubing string , for example . while the present invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments , those skilled in the art , having the benefit of this disclosure , will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom . it is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this present invention . | 4 |
fig1 illustrates a padlock 10 and a padlock combination 12 according to a first embodiment of the present invention . the padlock 10 consists of a lock body 14 and a hasp 16 . the padlock combination 12 consists of the padlock 10 and a seal 20 . the lock body 14 is a one - piece plastics moulding . it has a passage 22 extending through it from one open end 23 to an opposite open end 25 . there is a shoulder 24 adjacent the mouth of the passage at the open end 25 , which opens into a generally rectangular recess 27 . the lock body 14 also has a blind opening 26 spaced from and parallel to the passage . relatively large and relatively small holes 28 and 30 respectively extend tranversely through the lock body the hasp 16 is of 2 mm thick flat mild steel and has the shape seen in fig1 . it is generally of u - shape with first and second legs 32 and 34 respectively , the leg 32 being somewhat longer than the leg 32 . the end 34 . 1 of the leg 34 is dimensioned to be a snug slide fit in the blind opening 26 . the end 32 . 1 of the leg 32 is enlarged and is a slide fit in the passage 22 . it includes shoulders 32 . 2 and is formed with a cavity 36 which is undercut by virtue of opposing , re - entrant , inclined tabs 38 . the tabs 38 have inclined outer surfaces 38 . 1 and similarly inclined inner surfaces 38 . 2 . the seal 20 , which , together with the padlock 10 , makes up the padlock combination 12 of the invention , is made as a one - piece plastics moulding . it includes a tab portion 20 . 1 from which an insertion portion 20 . 2 projects . the insertion portion has a central stem 20 . 3 and resilient arms 20 . 4 which project rearwardly from the end of the stem . in order to close the padlock , the hasp 16 is aligned with the lock body 14 as shown in fig1 . the hasp and lock body are then moved relative to one another so that the legs 32 and 34 enter and slide into the passage 22 and opening 26 respectively . when the hasp is fully inserted the end 34 . 1 of the leg 34 abuts the blind end of the opening 26 , the shoulders 32 . 2 on the hasp abut the mouth of the passage at the open end 23 and the end of the leg 32 abuts the shoulder 24 , as shown in fig2 . in order to seal the lock the seal 20 is positioned in the recess 27 and is slid , in direction opposite to that in which the hasp is inserted , into the opposite end 25 of the passage 22 . when the arms 20 . 4 of the insertion portion 20 . 2 encounter the tabs 38 they are inwardly deflected . when the insertion portion is fully inserted the arms move past the tabs and thereafter , with the insertion portion fully located in the cavity 36 , spring back to locate behind the tabs , i . e . the extremities of the legs 20 . 4 of the insertion portion 20 . 2 locate behind the tabs 38 . the insertion portion is accordingly clipped into the cavity 36 in the passage 22 , with the tab portion 20 . 1 lying flat in the recess 27 . it will be understood that the seal cannot be withdrawn by a sliding action , because this would merely draw the extremities of the legs 20 . 4 against the inner inclined surfaces 38 . 2 of the tabs 38 . thus , with the insertion portion 20 . 2 of the seal clipped into the cavity 36 inside the passage 22 , the hasp is effectively locked to the lock body . in order to open the padlock , it is necessary to break the seal 20 . this is achieved by bending the tab 20 . 1 in a direction out of the recess 27 , as indicated in fig4 by the arrow 44 , so that the seal breaks at a zone of reduced thickness 20 . 5 between the tab and insertion portions . once the tab has been broken off , the hasp can be withdrawn from the lock body and the insertion portion can be removed from the cavity 36 . referring to fig5 and 6 it will be seen that the tab 20 . 1 forms a recessed , upstanding wall 20 . 6 adjacent the root of the stem 20 . 3 . when the insertion portion 20 . 2 of the seal is clipped into the cavity 36 , the wall recess receives portions of the tabs 38 so that the wall lies closely adjacent those tabs . with this feature it is difficult if not impossible to insert a sharp tool past the tab 20 . 1 and into the passage 22 in order to unclip the insertion portion 20 . 2 from the cavity 36 , thereby improving the integrity of the seal . in an application of the padlock and padlock combination to , for instance , an airline trolley , the hasp will be arranged in the normal way to pass through openings in the components of the trolley which are to be locked to one another , eg the frame of the trolley and a door or drawer . it will also be understood that in such applications , a visual inspection of the seal to ensure that it is not broken provides an assurance that the trolley has not been opened without authorisation prior to being brought onto the aircraft . the large hole 28 provides a suspension point at which the padlock , once unlocked , can be suspended from a hook or the like for re - use at a later stage with a new seal 20 . the hasp 16 is formed with a small hole 50 . this hole and the small hole 30 in the lock body provide attachment points for the ends of a thin cord 52 which serves to attach the hasp to the lock body , to prevent inadvertant loss of the hasp . fig7 to 9 illustrate a second embodiment of the invention which does away with the need for a cord 52 to attach the hasp to the lock body . in these figures , components corresponding to those illustrated in fig1 to 6 are indicated with the same reference numerals . in this embodiment , the hasp 16 is permanently attached , in a manner allowing both sliding and pivotal movement , to the lock body 14 . this is achieved by means of a rivet 60 which passes through the lock body , in the passage 22 , and through an elongate slot 62 in the end 32 . 1 of the leg 32 of the hasp . it will also be noted that the side 64 of the lock body is laterally extended and provides a shoulder 66 adjacent the rivet 60 , and that there is only a single shoulder 32 . 2 . fig7 and 8 show the second embodiment in a closed and locked condition . as in the first embodiment , the legs 32 . 1 and 32 . 2 are located in the passage 22 and blind opening 26 , and the insertion portion 20 . 2 of the seal 20 is clipped into the cavity 36 , inside the passage 22 , with the tab portion 20 . 1 of the seal lying flat in the recess 27 . as before it will be understood that the hasp is effectively locked to the lock body by the seal when the padlock combination is in this locked condition . it will also be noted that in the locked position , the rivet 60 is situated at the outer end of the slot 62 . in order to open the padlock , the seal 20 is broken by bending the tab portion 20 . 1 in a direction out of the recess . once the tab portion has been broken away from the insertion portion , the hasp can be slid outwardly as shown in full lines in fig9 . the rivet 60 slides along the slot 62 to its inner end as illustrated . at this stage the insertion portion 20 . 2 of the seal is still retained in the cavity 36 . when the rivet has reached the end of its travel in the slot , the hasp can be pivoted to the broken line position in fig9 , allowing the insertion portion 20 . 2 of the seal to fall out of , or be removed from , the cavity 36 . abutment of the side of the hasp with the shoulder 66 prevents further pivotal movement of the hasp . in order to re - lock the padlock , the opposite procedure is followed , i . e . the hasp is pivoted to the full line position in fig9 and is then slid inwardly to the fig8 position , whereafter a fresh seal 20 can be clipped into place . in both embodiments , the inclination of the tabs 38 is a security feature . the tabs and the upstanding wall 20 . 6 of the seal 20 are so designed that the tabs extend into the recess as will be apparent from fig2 and 7 . the tabs accordingly provide some security against insertion of a sharp tool into the passage 22 with the intention of unclipping the legs 20 . 4 of the seal . | 8 |
a heating / cooling circuit 10 according to the invention for an air - conditioning system for a motor vehicle has an evaporator 14 arranged in an air - conditioning unit 12 , which , as a rule , is arranged in an instrument panel of the motor vehicle , and a heating heat exchanger 16 following the evaporator 14 on the air side . via a blower ( not illustrated ), circulating air or fresh air can be conveyed through the air - conditioning unit 12 , as is illustrated by an arrow , in which case the air can be cooled in the evaporator 14 and heated in the heating heat exchanger 16 . optionally , a further heating heat exchanger 20 is arranged upstream or downstream of the heating heat exchanger 16 on the air side and is connected via refrigerant lines k to an engine , not illustrated , of the motor vehicle , so that hot coolant can flow through the heating heat exchanger . the functioning of this heating heat exchanger 16 can be controlled , as required , for example , by means of a heating regulating valve 40 or else with the aid of flaps ( not illustrated ), by means of which the air is led in the desired ratio to the heating heat exchanger 16 or led past the latter . the air thermally controlled in the air - conditioning unit 12 can be supplied to the vehicle interior via suitable outflow devices . in addition to the evaporator 14 and the heating heat exchanger 16 , the heating / cooling circuit 10 has an exterior heat exchanger 22 and a compressor 24 . these components of the heating / cooling circuit are connected to one another via refrigerant lines l 1 to l 12 in the way described below . a refrigerant collector 26 is provided in the line l 7 on the inlet side of the compressor 24 . the evaporator 14 is assigned on the inlet side a first expansion member 28 and the exterior heat exchanger 22 is assigned on the inlet side a further expansion member 30 . the two expansion members 28 and 30 can be activated preferably electrically and can be controlled continuously . furthermore , valves 32 , 34 , 36 , 38 , 40 and 44 are provided , the functions of which are described further below . the valves 32 , 34 , 36 , 44 are switching valves which can be activated preferably electrically . the valve 38 is preferably a throttle . the valves 32 , 34 , 44 may also form a structural unit ( what is known as a 4 / 3 - way valve ), in which case construction space and cost benefits may arise . in the cooling mode ( fig1 ), that is to say when the air to be supplied to the vehicle interior is solely to be cooled , the heating / cooling circuit 10 is connected up as follows : starting from the compressor 24 , the refrigerant is supplied to the exterior heat exchanger 22 by the lines l 1 , l 2 and l 3 . for this purpose , the valve 32 is opened and the valves 34 and 44 are closed . in the exterior heat exchanger 22 , the refrigerant , taking the form of hot gas , is cooled . the refrigerant flows from the exterior heat exchanger 22 to the first expansion member 28 via the lines l 4 and l 5 . when it flows through the expansion member 28 , the refrigerant expands and is supplied via the line l 6 to the evaporator 14 in which the refrigerant evaporates and heat is thus extracted from the air to be cooled . via a line l 7 , the refrigerant is led back to the compressor 24 via the refrigerant collector 26 . in order to increase capacity , heat exchange between a high - pressure - side section ( line l 5 ) and a low - pressure - side section ( line l 7 ) takes place in an internal heat exchanger 42 , in the present instance heat being transferred from the high - pressure - side section to the low - pressure - side section . in the cooling mode , the heating heat exchanger 16 is inoperative , and the refrigerant is led via the line l 2 to the latter and is let past the second expansion member 30 , so that the line l 2 is used as a heating bypass line . in the heating mode ( fig2 ) where the air to be supplied to the vehicle interior is solely to be heated , the evaporator 14 is inoperative and the heating heat exchanger 16 is operative . the heating / cooling circuit 10 then operates as a heat pump . the refrigerant is supplied as hot gas from the compressor 24 via the lines l 1 and l 8 to the heating heat exchanger 16 , in which the refrigerant discharges heat and at the same time heats the supply air . the refrigerant is supplied via a line l 9 to the second expansion member 30 and is expanded there . the refrigerant is supplied via a line l 3 to the exterior heat exchanger 22 which can then be operated as an evaporator in which the refrigerant evaporates and extracts heat from the exterior air . the refrigerant is supplied to the compressor 24 again via lines l 4 , l 10 ( and , if appropriate , to a small extent l 7 ). the line l 10 , which can be shut off via a valve 36 , serves , in the heating mode , as a cooling bypass line for the refrigerant - side bypass of the evaporator 14 . the internal heat exchanger 42 does not function in the heating mode . in addition , in the heating mode , the further heating heat exchanger 20 can be operated by a heating regulating valve 40 being opened correspondingly , so that hot coolant can flow from the engine to the heating heat exchanger 20 . in the reheat mode ( fig3 ), which serves for dehumidifying and heating the air to be supplied to the vehicle interior , both the evaporator 14 and the heating heat exchanger 16 are operative , so that the air can first cool in the evaporator 14 and the moisture contained in the air can condense out . before the air is supplied to the vehicle interior , it can be heated again in the heating heat exchanger 16 and optionally also in the further heating heat exchanger 20 . in the reheat mode , the refrigerant is supplied from the compressor 24 to the heating heat exchanger 16 via the lines l 1 and l 8 , so that , in the heating heat exchanger 16 , the refrigerant can discharge heat into the air . the refrigerant is led to the expansion member 30 via the line l 9 . depending on the setting of the expansion member 30 , said refrigerant can pass without any appreciable pressure loss or else be throttled to an advantageous pressure . the refrigerant is led to the exterior heat exchanger 22 via the line l 3 . depending on the setting of the intermediate pressure , in the exterior heat exchanger 22 the refrigerant extracts heat from the exterior air or discharges heat into the exterior air . from the exterior heat exchanger 22 , the refrigerant is supplied to the expansion member 28 via the lines l 4 , l 5 and to the evaporator 14 via the line l 6 . the refrigerant is returned to the compressor 24 again from the evaporator 14 via the lines l 7 . depending on the moisture content and temperature of the air , a specific cooling capacity at the evaporator 14 is required for the desired dehumidification . furthermore , depending on whether the interior of a vehicle is still cold at the start of a trip or has already heated up during the trip , a widely differing heating capacity is required for the subsequent heating of the air to a comfortable level . by the variation of the expansion members 28 , 30 , the pressure in the exterior heat exchanger 22 can be set ideally between the pressure at the evaporator 14 and the high pressure at the heating heat exchanger 16 , in which case it must be remembered that the high pressure of the heating heat exchanger 16 is dependent not only on the conveying volume of the compressor 24 , but , in particular , on the position of the expansion members 28 and 30 and must be set to a value advantageous for the corresponding boundary conditions . the expansion members 28 and 30 therefore cannot be set independently of one another . if the pressure in the exterior heat exchanger is high , that is to say , the expansion member 30 is opened wide and the expansion member 28 is largely closed , the exterior heat exchanger discharges heat and the ratio between the heating capacity of the heat exchanger 16 and the cooling capacity of the evaporator 14 is low . such a setting is therefore advantageous in the case of a low heating requirement . if , by contrast , the expansion member 30 is increasingly closed and the expansion member 28 increasingly opened , the pressure in the exterior heat exchanger 22 becomes increasingly lower and the discharged heat capacity of the exterior heat exchanger 22 falls . this results in a falling specific refrigerating capacity in the evaporator 14 . the ratio of the heating capacity in the heating heat exchanger 16 and refrigerating capacity in the evaporator 14 consequently rises . when the pressure in the exterior heat exchanger 22 becomes so low that the boiling temperature of the refrigerant assigned to it undershoots the temperature of the exterior air , the exterior heat exchanger then acts as an evaporator and absorbs heat from the surroundings . this leads to a further reduction in the specific refrigerating capacity in the evaporator 14 . the ratio of the heating capacity in the heating heat exchanger 16 and the refrigerating capacity in the evaporator 14 thus rises with the falling pressure in the exterior heat exchanger 22 . in order to match the available cooling and heating capacity to the current requirements , the expansion members 28 and 30 must be set in such a way that , on the one hand , a high pressure advantageous for the overall capacity is established at the heating heat exchanger 16 and , at the same time , a pressure level suitable for the ratio of the cooling capacity and the heating capacity prevails in the exterior heat exchanger 22 . the overall capacity can be set via the conveying volume of the compressor 24 or else , within certain limits , via the selection of the pressure level in the heating heat exchanger 16 . preferably , the second expansion member 30 can be shut off , so that , in the cooling mode , no refrigerant can pass from the line l 3 into the line l 9 and consequently into the heating heat exchanger 16 . alternatively , this shut - off may take place by means of a nonreturn valve or nonreturn flap arranged upstream or downstream of the expansion member 30 . preferably , the first expansion member 28 , too , can be shut off , so that , in the heating mode , no refrigerant can pass under high pressure from the line l 5 into the line l 6 and consequently into the evaporator 14 . when , in the cooling mode , only the evaporator 14 is operative , the air cooled in the evaporator 14 will cool the heating heat exchanger 16 which follows on the air side , with the result that it may happen that , in the course of time , refrigerant accumulates in the heating heat exchanger 16 and the refrigerant lines l 8 and l 9 and is then lacking in the remaining circuit . moreover , the system being at a standstill , inadmissibly high pressures could occur in the heating heat exchanger 16 at high temperatures as a result of enclosed refrigerant . in order to avoid this accumulation , a line l 11 throttlable via a throttle 38 is provided , which makes a connection between a line , preferably the inflow line l 8 , connected to the heating heat exchanger 16 and a line or component which is at a low system pressure , that is to say is located between the expansion member 28 and the inlet of the compressor 24 . in the exemplary embodiment illustrated , this is a return line l 7 of the evaporator 14 . this throttle 38 may be formed by a valve , as in the exemplary embodiment , a contraction in the line l 11 or capillary , a porous body or the like . in order to avoid an accumulation of refrigerant , the throttle 38 may have very small dimensioning , so that there is not appreciable influence on the further functioning of the circuit 10 . in a mode in which the ambient air serves as a heat source , that is to say when heat is absorbed from the ambient air in the exterior heat exchanger 22 ( heating mode , partially also the reheat mode ), there is the risk of icing - up of the exterior heat exchanger 22 , since , due to the extraction of heat , atmospheric moisture , that is to say water , is precipitated on the exterior heat exchanger 22 , said water freezing at temperatures below 0 ° c . and icing up the exterior heat exchanger 22 . the airstream , indicated by an arrow in fig1 to 4 , is thereby impeded when it flows through . since this airstream also flows via the coolant cooler ( not illustrated ), which discharges the engine heat , a lack of action of air upon the coolant cooler , along with an unfavorable driving state ( high load ), may put the engine at risk due to overheating , and it is therefore necessary to monitor the state of the exterior heat exchanger 22 . for this purpose , the temperature difference between the temperature t 1 of the air at the inlet and the temperature t 2 of the refrigerant at the outlet of the exterior heat exchanger 22 is determined . icing - up occurs , that is to say a defrosting of the exterior heat exchanger 22 is necessary , when the temperature difference becomes too great . conventional reference values for the temperature difference t 1 − t 2 are 5 to 10 k for an ice - free exterior heat exchanger 22 and 10 to 20 k for an iced - up exterior heat exchanger 22 , although there is dependence on the exterior temperature . for the defrosting mode ( fig4 ), the heating / cooling circuit 10 can be operated in such a way that a discharge of heat takes place in the exterior heat exchanger 22 , so that the ice which has formed is removed again . in the defrosting mode , the refrigerant is led from the compressor 24 via the lines l 1 and l 12 to the expansion member 30 where it is expanded to a low pressure . subsequently , it is supplied via the line l 3 to the exterior heat exchanger 22 , in which it can discharge its heat , by means of which the ice can be melted and therefore removed . via the lines l 4 and l 10 , the refrigerant is led via the refrigerant collector 26 to the internal heat exchanger 42 , inoperative in this operating mode , and the compressor 24 . in the defrosting mode , the valves 36 and 42 are open , while the valves 32 and 34 are closed . furthermore , the first expansion member 28 is preferably closed and the second expansion member 30 is controlled . the end of the defrosting operation can be determined as follows : the temperature t 2 of the refrigerant at the outlet of the exterior heat exchanger 22 is determined and is compared with a limit value . the limit value is conventionally around 5 to 10 ° c . if the limit value is overshot , the defrosting operation is concluded and the defrosting mode is terminated , so that there can be a changeover again to the heating mode or reheat mode . according to the exemplary embodiment , the defrosting behavior is assisted in that , during the defrosting mode , the airstream flowing through the exterior heat exchanger 22 is minimized or completely prevented . in order to free the exterior heat exchanger of the melted ice , that is to say of the melt water , as quickly as possible , a large to preferably the maximum airstream is briefly conducted via the exterior heat exchanger 22 at the end of the defrosting mode , so that the melt water is blown out of the exterior heat exchanger 22 and premature renewed icing - up can be prevented . preferably , co 2 is used as refrigerant , since co 2 has good thermodynamic properties which make it suitable for a heat - pump mode . when co 2 is used , for increase in capacity an internal heat exchanger 42 is provided , which brings about a heat exchange between a high - pressure - side section ( line l 5 ) and a low - pressure - side section ( line l 7 ). | 1 |
referring initially to fig1 - 3 , there is shown a orthosis embodying the present invention . the invention can be employed for making a variety of different orthoses as noted above however , for purposes of illustration , an orthosis such as a snore prevention device 10 embodying the present invention is described as one preferred embodiment . the snore prevention device 10 comprises two basic elements including a semi - rigid outer member or holder 20 and a formable filler material 50 within the holder . the holder 20 is generally in the shape of a mouthpiece and includes an arcuate trough 22 ( fig4 - 5 ) at an upper section thereof . the trough is defined by a front arcuate wall 24 , a rear arcuate wall 26 spaced from said front wall , and a floor 28 ( fig4 and 5 ) integrally joining the walls . holder 20 also includes a downwardly projecting pedestal 30 integrally molded to the floor and coupled to the outer lower surface 29 ( fig6 ) of floor 28 by a pair of integral spaced - apart legs 32 and 34 defining an air transmission or breathing slot 40 between the lower surface 29 of trough floor 28 and the upper surface 35 of pedestal 30 . slot 40 extends through the snore prevention device 10 to provide a passageway for air between the lips of the user when the snore prevention device is in place . the holder 20 is typically made of a resilient , semi - rigid polymeric material , such as polycarbonate or methylmethacrylate , although the thermoplastic resin preferred is polycarbonate made by the general electric company and sold under the trademark lexan ®. the three - dimensional shape of the holder 20 is molded in a conventional injection molding machine such that trough 22 of holder 20 is generally semicircular ( as viewed from the top view of fig3 ) and has a generally u - shaped cross section , as seen in fig4 and 5 . the front wall 24 of the trough 22 is curvilinear and generally lip - shaped ( i . e . generally higher toward the middle and shorter at the outer edges ). wall 24 has a concave indentation 25 at the center for assisting in centering the mouthpiece in alignment with the front teeth of a person &# 39 ; s mouth during the molding process described below . the curvilinear top edge 27 of wall 24 curves downwardly toward the ends 42 and 44 , which are substantially flat , and integrally join with the rear wall 26 , which extends upwardly toward the center and is flattened at plateau 29 , which is slightly lower than the notch 25 in the front wall 24 . the holder includes air escape apertures and in one embodiment they are formed in the rear wall 26 which includes a plurality of apertures 31 ( fig1 ) which allow air to escape the trough 22 as teeth displace the formable material during the molding process described below . the formable or moldable material 50 which is positioned in the holder 20 for molding to the shape of the user &# 39 ; s mouth and teeth preferably comprises an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer resin . this material , or its equivalent , has a softening and molding temperature of between about 125 ° f .- 175 ° f . and preferably about 150 ° f . such material is sold by the e . i . dupont de nemours & amp ; company under the trademark elvax ®. the material 50 is injection molded in a second molding step in which the holder 20 is positioned within a mold and the material 50 , in the shape shown in fig1 - 7 , is injection molded to partially fill the trough 22 . the filler material is smaller than the trough 22 , leaving voids 51 and 53 near the front wall 24 as best seen in fig3 , and voids 52 and 54 in the edges adjacent rear wall 26 . this leaves , as also seen in fig5 , voids which allow the material 50 to flow into the trough 22 without overfilling and leaving excess material over the edges of the holder 20 , pedestal 30 likewise has formable material 50 injection molded in a curved pattern having a concavity 56 , as best seen in fig6 and 7 , and a ramp 36 to generally urge the lower jaw forwardly as the consumer forms the formable material 50 in his or her jaw between upper and lower teeth . material 50 , at the interface with pedestal 30 , follows the inclined shape 36 of pedestal 30 , as best seen in fig7 . the concavity 56 likewise represents a void into which the material 50 can be displaced during the fitting process , further reducing trimming . the material 50 in the upper trough 22 includes a raised curvilinear indexing land 58 to provide a guide for centering the device in conjunction with the notch 25 located between the front teeth when placed in the user &# 39 ; s mouth , the moldable insert material 50 also includes an arcuate alignment trough 59 on either side of the center land 58 which extends in an arcuate curve toward ends 42 and 44 for also assisting in centering the edges ( i . e . biting surfaces ) of the upper teeth within the holder 20 in alignment with the moldable filler material 50 in one embodiment of the invention , the arcuate length of the holder 20 along the outer wall 24 was about 3¼ inches and circumscribed and arc of approximately 180 ° and was substantially semicircular . the inner wall had an overall arc length of about 2 1 / 4 inches while the maximum depth of the trough 22 was approximately ¼ inch . voids 51 - 54 have a gap width of approximately from about 0 . 030 to about 0 . 070 inches and in one embodiment were 0 . 040 inches . the voids have a depth of from about 0 . 030 inches to about 0 . 190 inches and in one embodiment had a depth of approximately 0 . 190 inches at the deepest section near the crown in wall 24 adjacent notch 25 . the arc length for the front pair of voids 51 , 53 are about 0 . 70 inches each and the rear pair 52 , 54 are about 0 . 40 inches each . it is important that the sum of the volume of the voids are close to the average sum of the volume of the average teeth that will form the impressions . that can be accomplished by varying the proportions and / or number of voids . the limiting factor to any configuration is that the teeth should be adequately surrounded after forming to maintain the proper position of the orthosis . breathing slot 40 is sized to provide sufficient air for comfortable breathing and is tapered from front to back . in one embodiment it had an opening at the front of about 0 . 75 inches when viewed from fig6 and is tapered rearwardly to an opening of approximately 0 . 06 inches at the rear of the slot . its height ( in one embodiment ) was approximately 0 . 1 inch . these dimensions of the mouthpiece can be varied , although the dimensions given are for a snore prevention device which will comfortably fit most averaged sized mouths . the molded insert material 50 naturally adheres to holder 22 ; however , the floor 28 of holder 22 includes two circular apertures 21 and 23 , as seen in fig3 , for receiving material 50 for locking it securely in place . in use , the orthosis shown in the figures is held by a suitable holder ( not shown ) a vessel of boiling water for a period of time such that the formable material becomes softened . since material 50 has a significantly lower softening temperature than that of the polycarbonate holder 20 , immersion of the device in a heated fluid , such as boiling water , prior to fitting softens the material 50 to accept the user &# 39 ; s tooth pattern . the fitting is accomplished by removing the snore prevention device 20 from the boiling water , allowing it to cool for a short period of time , and inserting the device into the user &# 39 ; s mouth with the notch 25 , indexing land 58 , and alignment trough 59 guiding the positioning of the device into one &# 39 ; s mouth . the tapered concavely curved edge 56 engages the inside of the lower teeth and tends to move the jaw slightly forwardly during the molding process . the user need only grip the snore prevention device between his / her teeth for 30 seconds or so to allow the thermoplastic filler 50 to set in a comfortable , upper and lower teeth engaging configuration , whereupon the device can be removed . it then contains a permanent imprint of the user &# 39 ; s upper and lower teeth in which the lower teeth engage edge 56 of the pedestal to urge the lower jaw slightly forwardly in an amount of typically from about 2 mm to about 6 mm , sufficient to provide clearance between the back of the tongue and uvula to prevent or greatly reduce snoring during sleep . the durable material is employed for the snore prevention device 10 to hold its shape and be useful for a significant amount of time and can be periodically sanitized as desired by the user and stored when not in use . although the dimensions given are for medium sized snore prevention devices , it should be understood that the dimensions can be proportionally varied to make larger or smaller snore prevention devices as desired . the provision of the self - alignment guides , as well as the voids and air escape apertures or vents , provides an orthosis which , upon impressing the tooth pattern , does not result in an excess amount of material which must be trimmed for comfort and allows immediate use without such a step . the formable material 50 and / or the holder 20 can be colored to color code the snore prevention device for an individual user . it will become apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications to the preferred embodiment of the invention as described herein can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims . | 0 |
turning now to the drawings and particularly fig1 thereof , the package 10 of the present invention is shown in its open display mode wherein the cover 12 is disposed in superimposed position over the base 14 . from such view it may be apparent that the cover and base are both of essentially the same or similar configuration , but that the cover is of slightly larger dimensions such that it may be disposed over the base in the manner depicted . alternatively , the cover and base may be disposed with respect to each other to form an essentially fully enclosed package such as shown in fig2 of the drawings . the base and cover components are generally of hollow box - like configuration . the base includes a peripheral platform or supporting pad 16 terminating in a peripheral flange or ledge 18 from which the base proper upwardly extends . such base includes opposed sidewalls 20 , a top wall 22 , a rear wall 24 serving to interconnect said sidewalls and said top wall together , and front wall 26 of minor vertical extent and formed by laterally spaced front wall portions 28 . each of sidewalls 20 is roughly of a l - shaped configuration wherein the rear wall 24 is the stem , the top wall the top , and the front wall the front of said l - configuration . the sidewalls terminate at the forward extent thereof in a front edge 30 having a downwardly forwardly curve and terminating at the front wall portions 28 . a pair of face walls 32 inwardly extend towards each other from the side edges 30 and terminate in spaced relationship to each other so as to define a front access opening 34 . such face walls 32 thus form extensions of said sidewalls and accordingly may be considered portions thereof . the lower end of such access opening 34 is provided with secondary sidewalls 36 downwardly extending from the inner terminal edge of the front faces 32 and at the upper end thereof with an upper secondary sidewall portion 38 . each of the lower secondary sidewalls 36 is provided with an inwardly extending ledge 40 of generally l - shaped configuration . each of the upper secondary sidewalls 38 is provided with a pair of inwardly extending ledges 42 to form an undercut slot 44 having an open bottom both for a purpose which will hereinafter be more evident . the base 14 is usually formed without a bottom wall for ease in molding , however , that area at the bottom of the access opening 34 generally corresponding with or forming a continuation of the ledge 18 is provided with a rearwardly extending tongue 46 connected at the front thereof to such ledge and inwardly terminating in a lateral edge 48 . the base 14 is adapted to receive an article holder 50 having a generally planar foot 52 to which a generally c - shaped upwardly extending loop 54 is connected by means of a connecting wall 56 at one side thereof . the other side of the foot is purposefully left open so as to form an open slot 58 between the upper surface of the foot 52 and the lowermost segment of the loop 54 . the article support foot 52 is also provided with an upstanding forwardly disposed face plate 60 . in addition , pivot means are included in the loop segment 54 in the form of a pair of laterally spaced upstanding ears 62 at the upper extent thereof , that is , the cooperation of the ears 62 and the slots 44 form such pivot means . it may thus be apparent that an article having a closed loop portion such as the supporting wristband of a wristwatch may be disposed over the loop segment 54 and supported thereby as in the fashion illustrated in fig1 . the open slot 58 serves to facilitate laterally sliding such wristwatch band or other closed loop article onto and around the supporting surface of the segment 54 , said loop normally being expandable so as to clear ear 62 . the foot 52 also includes a rearwardly disposed downwardly extending heel portion 64 forming a ledge 66 at the forward portion thereof . in operation , the article holder 50 is adapted to be slidably positioned into and out of the base 14 through the front access opening 34 thereof . initially , the holder 50 is manipulated to a position as shown in fig5 wherein the ears 62 thereof are positioned in the open - bottomed slots 44 so as to fixedly position the upper portion of the holder 50 with respect to the base and thereafter the remaining lower portions of the holder may be pivotably swung about such pivot means by forcing such lower portions rearwardly into the access opening 34 . in such reagrd , the heel portions 64 of the foot 52 are adapted to engage the tongue 46 so as to downwardly flex the same as the holder moves into the access opening 34 . at the same time , lateral edge portions of the foot 52 are adapted to engage beneath the inwardly extending ledges 40 so as to further guide the pivotal movement of the holder and to ensure against the removal of the holder through the access opening except by the reverse of the above described pivotal movement . when the article holder has been fully disposed within the accesss opening 34 as by the alignment of the from plate 60 with the front wall portions 28 , the heel 64 rides over the terminal edge 48 of the tongue such that the ledge 66 coacts therewith so as to provide a positive stop . it should be borne in mind , however , that when it is desired to fully or more closely examine the watch disposed on the article holder 50 , the article holder and the watch supported thereon can be simply removed from the base by the aforementioned reverse pivotal movement , a downward movement of the rear end of the tongue facilitating such movement . in such display position as illustrated in fig4 it should also be clear that the watch cannot be removed from its position within the base except by removing the article holder on which it is supported since there is not room enough between the edges of the loop segment 54 and the terminal edges of the front faces 32 of the secondary walls 36 . in addition , the positioning of the ears 62 within the undercut slots 44 prevents such removal . turning now to the construction of the cover 12 , such is also of hollow box - like configuration and of a shape similar to the outside dimensions of the base 14 , but slightly larger in size such that the cover 12 may be disposed thereover . the cover includes opposed sidewalls 63 , a top wall 65 , a rear wall 67 , and a front wall 68 . the extent of the rear wall 67 is such that it connects both the sidewalls 63 and the top wall 65 together while the vertical extent of the front wall 68 is drastically foreshortened and generally conforms in height to the front wall portions 28 of the base 14 . it may thus be apparent that the cover 12 may be superimposed upon the base 14 in the display mode as shown in fig1 , and 9 such that the top , rear , front , and sidewalls of the cover are disposed face - to - face with the equivalent walls of the base , that is , the cover sidewalls 63 are disposed face - to - face with the base sidewalls 20 , the cover rear wall 67 is disposed face - to - face with the base rear wall 24 , and the cover top wall 65 is disposed face - to - face with the base top wall 22 . in addition , the cover front wall 68 is disposed adjacent to and in face - to - face disposition with the front wall portions 28 but further extends entirely across the lower front of the access opening 34 . in this manner then , the central or intermediate portions of the cover front wall 68 are disposed face - to - face or in contact with the front face plate 60 of the article holder 50 so as to prevent its forward movement in the display mode of the package 10 and accordingly forms an effective barrier or stop means whereby the article holder cannot be readily removed from the base in such mode . such stop means is not immediately noticable to those unfamiliar with the construction of the package such that it forms an effective anti - pilferage feature . accordingly , unauthorized removal of the article holder and the wristwatch supported thereon is prevented . thus when a customer desires to more closely examine the watch , the salesperson may swiftly remove the cover and in an unobvious manner withdraw the watch and its article support and permit the prospective customer to examine such under his or her observation , but without the customer noticing what , if any , barrier normally exists to the removal of the article from the base in such display mode . in may instances it is also desirable to utilize the package as a shipping or storage sontainer and such enclosure mode is depicted in fig2 and 3 of the drawings . when it is desired to change from the display mode to the enclosure mode , the cover 12 is upwardly withdrawn from the base , rotated 180 °, and thereafter is disposed over the base such that the sidewalls , the top wall , and the rear wall ( 63 , 65 , and 67 , respectively ) of the cover 12 serve to fully enclose the cut - away display face of the base 14 . in this regard it should be pointed out that the cover front wall 68 is adapted to contact the lower portions of the base rear wall 24 so as to insure correct positioning of the cover with respect to the base . also , in this regard to top wall 22 of the base is provided with a laterally extending detent 69 which is adapted to mate with a similarly shaped groove 70 provided in the undersurface of the cover top wall 65 . this interaction between detent 69 and groove 70 is present in both the display and the enclosure modes of the package as shown most clearly in fig3 and 4 . to accomplish this purpose and so as to further provide a cover which may be superimposed upon the base , the depth of both the cover top wall 65 and the base top wall 22 are approximately equal and each approximately one - half the depth of their respective side walls . as it may be desirable upon occasion to incorporate instructional or warranty pamphlets with the wristwatch package 10 of the present invention , the rear wall 24 of the base is provided with a forwardly directed step 72 such that the upper portions 74 of the rear wall are spaced from the inner surface of the cover rear wall 67 . the cover sidewalls are additionally provided with a pair of vertically extending inwardly directed ears 76 so as to in effect define a vertical slot 78 between such ears and the rear wall 67 . a pamphlet or other article 80 of generally flat , thin overall planar construction may be slipped behind such ears 76 and maintained within the slot 78 by frictional engagement . the forwardly directed step 72 provided in the rear wall 24 of the base 14 serves to provide the necessary space to accomodate the added thickness of such article 80 . while there is shown and described herein certain specific structure embodying the invention , it will be manifest to those skilled in the art that various modifications and rearrangements of the parts may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the underlying inventive concept and that the same is not limited to the particular forms herein shown and described except insofar as indicated by the scope of the appended claims . | 0 |
after many trials , the inventors have shown that the various requirements reported above can be satisfied by observing the following conditions : as regards the chemical composition of the steel , carbon plays a very important role in the formation of the microstructure : it increases the sfe and favors stability of the austenitic phase . when combined with a manganese content ranging from 17 to 24 % by weight , this stability is achieved for a carbon content of 0 . 5 % or higher . however , for a carbon content above 0 . 7 %, it becomes difficult to prevent the precipitation of carbides that occurs during certain thermal cycles in industrial manufacture , in particular when the steel is being cooled at coiling , and that degrades both ductility and toughness . manganese is also an essential element for increasing the strength , increasing the stacking fault energy and stabilizing the austenitic phase . if its content is less than 17 %, there is a risk of martensitic phases forming , which phases very appreciably reduce the deformability . moreover , when the manganese content is greater than 24 %, the ductility at room temperature is reduced . in addition , for cost reasons , it is undesirable for the manganese content to be high . aluminum is a particularly effective element for the deoxidation of steel . like carbon , it increases the stacking fault energy . however , aluminum is a drawback if it is present in excess in steels having a high manganese content . this is because manganese increases the solubility of nitrogen in liquid iron , and if an excessively large amount of aluminum is present in the steel the nitrogen , which combines with aluminum , precipitates in the form of aluminum nitrides that impede the migration of grain boundaries during hot transformation and very appreciably increases the risk of cracks appearing . an al content of 0 . 050 % or less prevents the precipitation of aln . correspondingly , the nitrogen content must not exceed 0 . 1 % so as to prevent this precipitation and the formation of volume defects ( blowholes ) during solidification . silicon is also an effective element for deoxidizing steel and for solid - phase hardening . however , above a content of 3 %, it tends to form undesirable oxides during certain assembly processes and must therefore be kept below this limit . sulfur and phosphorus are impurities that embrittle the grain boundaries . their respective contents must not exceed 0 . 030 and 0 . 080 % so as to maintain sufficient hot ductility . chromium and nickel may be used as optional elements for increasing the strength of the steel by solution hardening . however , since chromium reduces the stacking fault energy , its content must not exceed 1 %. nickel contributes to the achievement of a high elongation at fracture , and in particular increases the toughness . however , it is also desirable , for cost reasons , to limit the nickel content to a maximum content of 1 % or less . for similar reasons , molybdenum may be added in an amount of 0 . 40 % or less . likewise , optionally , an addition of copper with a content not exceeding 5 % is one means of hardening the steel by precipitation of copper metal . however , above this content , copper is responsible for the appearance of surface defects in hot - rolled sheet . titanium , niobium and vanadium are also elements that may optionally be used to achieve hardening by precipitation of carbonitrides . however , when the nb or v or ti content is greater than 0 . 50 %, excessive carbonitride precipitation may cause a reduction in toughness , which has to be avoided . the method of implementing the manufacturing process according to the invention is as follows . a steel having the composition mentioned above is smelted . after the smelting , the steel may be cast in ingot form , or cast continuously in slab form with a thickness of around 200 mm . the steel may also be cast in thin slab form , with a thickness of a few tens of millimeters . of course , although the present invention illustrates the application of the invention to flat products , it may be applied in the same way to the manufacture of long products made of fe — c — mn steel . these cast semifinished products are firstly heated to a temperature between 1100 and 1300 ° c . this has the purpose of making every point reach the temperature ranges favorable for the large deformations that the steel will undergo during rolling . however , the reheat temperature must not be above 1300 ° c . for fear of being too close to the solidus temperature , which could be reached in any manganese and / or carbon segregated zones , and of causing the local onset of a liquid state that would be deleterious to hot forming . of course , in the case of the direct casting of thin slabs , the hot - rolling step for these semifinished products , may be carried out directly after casting , without passing via the intermediate reheat step . the semifinished product is hot - rolled , for example down to a hot - rolled strip thickness of 2 to 3 millimeters in thickness . the low aluminum content of the steel according to the invention prevents excessive precipitation of aln , which would impair hot deformability during rolling . to avoid any cracking problem through lack of ductility , the end - of - rolling temperature must be 890 ° c . or higher . moreover , it is known that industrial lines include rapid cooling devices , for example those operating by water spray , located between the final hot - rolling step and the coiling . these devices increase the rate of natural cooling of the products so that the length of the industrial lines is not excessively long . in combination with a given end - of - rolling temperature , the inventors have shown , as indicated in fig1 , that a minimum delay must be respected between the end of rolling and the start of rapid cooling , so as to achieve satisfactory recrystallization of the rolled product after coiling . during this delay , the product undergoes natural cooling . thus , a minimum delay of 12 s at 890 ° c ., or 4 s at 905 ° c ., makes it possible to achieve complete recrystallization . more generally , parameters ( temperature and minimum delay ) lying within the region defined by abcdefa in fig1 result in complete recrystallization under satisfactory productivity conditions . recrystallization corresponding to a minimum fraction of 75 % is obtained when these conditions ( temperature and minimum delay ) lie within the region defined by abcd ′ e ′ f ′ a . fig2 shows the influence of the recrystallized fraction on the critical strain for the appearance of cracks in bending . a high bendability , and more generally a high deformability , requires high critical strain values , of greater than 50 %. fig2 shows that this is obtained when the recrystallized fraction after rolling is greater than 75 %. after rolling , the strip has to be coiled at a temperature such that no significant precipitation of carbides ( essentially cementite ( fe , mn ) 3 c )) occurs , something which , as will be seen later , would result in a reduction in certain mechanical properties . fig3 illustrates the influence of the coiling temperature on the surface fraction of precipitated carbides . carbide precipitation essentially takes place at the austenitic grain boundaries , as the micrograph of fig4 shows . fig5 shows the influence of this precipitation on the product p ( the tensile strength multiplied by the elongation at fracture ) after hot rolling , for constant grain size . high values of this parameter therefore express a combination of high strength and high ductility . to obtain a value of p of greater than 45000 mpa ×%, it is necessary for the surface fraction of precipitated carbides to be less than 1 . 5 %. since this deleterious aspect of carbide precipitation applies both to hot - rolled sheet and to cold - rolled and annealed sheet , it is necessary to comply with this these maximum permissible level of precipitation in both these situations . from the results shown in fig3 , it may be seen that this condition is satisfied on hot - rolled product when the coiling temperature is below 580 ° c . moreover , fig6 illustrates the influence of the mean austenitic grain size on strength . in the case of hot - rolled products , this figure thus shows that the grain size must not exceed 18 microns for fear of the strength being less than 900 mpa . the inventors have also demonstrated that even higher mechanical properties are obtained under the following conditions on hot - rolled product : the simultaneous combination of a grain size of less than 10 microns , a recrystallized fraction of 100 % and a surface fraction of precipitated carbides of 0 % results in a value of the product p ( r m × elongation at fracture ) of greater than 60000 . the hot - rolled strip obtained by the process described may be used as such , or may undergo subsequent cold rolling followed by annealing . this additional step makes it possible to achieve a finer grain size than that obtained on hot - rolled strip , and therefore higher strength properties are obtained . of course , it has to be carried out if it is desired to obtain products of smaller thickness , typically ranging from 0 . 2 mm to 4 mm . a hot - rolled product obtained by the process described above is cold - rolled after a possible prior pickling operation has been performed in the usual manner . after this rolling step , the grains are highly work - hardened and it is necessary to carry out a recrystallization annealing operation . this treatment has the effect of restoring the ductility and simultaneously reducing the strength . the annealing heat treatment must therefore be adjusted so as to obtain the ( strength / elongation at fracture ) combination desired for the application . preferably , this annealing is carried out continuously . this annealing is performed at a temperature of 600 to 900 ° c . for a time of 10 to 500 seconds , and the cooling rate at the end of the soak must be sufficiently rapid , greater than 0 . 5 ° c ./ s , to prevent the precipitation of carbides . starting with an initial mean grain size of 18 microns or less on hot - rolled product , the above parameters make it possible to achieve a mean grain size ranging from 0 . 5 to 15 microns on cold - rolled sheet . according to one particular method of implementation , the thickness may be reduced by cold rolling , not by means of a single rolling step but by two or more steps , each of the rolling steps being followed by an annealing operation . the grain size prior to the last rolling - and - annealing step must not exceed 18 microns , for fear of reducing the strength and the deformability of the end - product . for the same reasons as those mentioned in the case of hot - rolled sheet , cold - rolled sheet must have a sufficient recrystallized fraction , of greater than 75 %, in order to obtain satisfactory deformability during cold forming . as in the case of hot - rolled sheet , the surface fraction of precipitated carbides must be less than 1 . 5 % so that the product p ( r m × elongation at fracture ) is greater than 45000 mpa ×%. steel sheets obtained , after hot or cold rolling , by the process according to the invention are characterized by an excellent ductility . owing to the large reserve of plasticity , even higher strength values may be sought , at the expense of a slight lowering in ductility . starting from a hot - rolled sheet , after coiling , or a cold - rolled and annealed sheet according to the process described above , an additional cold deformation operation is applied to it after the final annealing , for example by skin - pass rolling , reverse - bending tension leveling , simple drawing or any other suitable process . fig7 shows the influence of the equivalent deformation ratio on the strength : the influence of the deformation ratio is relatively linear over a wide range — on average , 1 % deformation increases the strength by 10 mpa . however , when the additional deformation exceeds 30 %, the initial ductility of the product is excessively reduced , and this threshold must not be exceeded . as fig8 shows , a mean grain size on cold - rolled sheet of less than 6 microns makes it possible to achieve a strength of greater than 950 mpa . by way of example , the following results will show advantageous characteristics provided by the invention , in particular as regards deformability with or without the presence of a defect , in static or dynamic stressing mode . a steel of the following composition ( contents expressed in percentages by weight ): c : 0 . 6 %; mn : 22 %; si : 0 . 2 % was smelted . a semifinished product was heated at 11850c and hot - rolled at a temperature of 9650c so as to achieve a thickness of 3 . 6 mm . a hold time of 3 . 5 s was observed before cooling . the coiling was carried out at a temperature below 450 ° c . the manufacturing conditions , identified by “ i ” in table 1 below correspond to the invention . the mean grain size thus obtained was 9 . 5 microns , the structure was 100 % recrystallized and the fraction of carbides was 0 %. the static mechanical properties obtained on this hot - rolled sheet were particularly high , namely strength : 1012 mpa ; elongation at fracture : 65 . 4 %; product p : 66184 . starting with this same composition , a thermomechanical scheme not corresponding to the conditions of the invention was performed , which resulted in a surface fraction of precipitated carbides of greater than 1 . 5 % ( condition identified as “ r 3 ”). the steel according to the invention was also compared with a hot - rolled reference steel identified as “ r 4 ”, the strength level of which was very similar . this was a trip ( transformation induced plasticity ) steel with a complex ( ferrite , bainite , austenite , martensite ) structure . this steel had the following composition ( contents in % by weight ): c : 0 . 20 ; mn : 1 . 7 ; si : 1 . 6 ; s : 0 . 003 ; p : 0 . 080 ; al : 0 . 050 ; and cu , cr , ni , mo and n : 0 . 001 . dynamic fracture tests were carried out on charpy v specimens of small thickness ( t = 3 mm ) at temperatures of + 20 ° c . and − 60 ° c . the results of these tests are given in table 1 . the steel according to the invention has substantially better toughness properties than the reference steels . this superiority is manifested at room temperature , and also under severe stressing conditions at very low temperature . it therefore completely solves the problem of how to obtain very good toughness under dynamic conditions . steels with the compositions indicated in table 2 below were smelted ( compositions expressed in percentages by weight ). apart from steels i 1 and i 2 , the composition of reference steels is given for comparison , these being dual - phase steel ( r 1 ) and trip ( transformation induced plasticity ) steel ( r 2 ), the strength level of which ( 1000 mpa ) lies within a similar range . semifinished products of steels i 1 and i 2 were reheated at 1200 ° c ., hot - rolled at a temperature of 920 ° c ., in order to bring them to a thickness of 3 mm , and then , after a hold time of 10 seconds before cooling , coiled at a temperature of 450 ° c . the mean grain size obtained under these conditions was 10 microns . the structure was completely recrystallized , with no precipitated carbides . steel i 1 was then cold - rolled , then annealed under conditions resulting in various austenitic grain sizes ranging from 3 to 100 microns . table 3 gives the annealing and recrystallization conditions ( conditions a ) to d )) and table 4 gives the mechanical properties in tension , namely strength , elongation at fracture and the product p ( strength × elongation at fracture ) obtained under these conditions . under manufacturing condition b ), the grain size prior to cold rolling and annealing at 800 ° c . was 100 microns . it should be mentioned that a cold - rolling reduction ratio of 66 % combined with annealing at 650 ° c . for 1 second results only in a partial recrystallization of 45 %. the grain size of the recrystallized fraction was highly scattered , ranging from 1 to 10 microns . steel i 2 was also cold - rolled with a reduction ratio of 55 %, annealed at 700 ° c . for 120 seconds and cooled in air , at a rate of greater than 0 . 5 ° c ./ s ( condition e ), table 3 ). a 1 . 5 micron mean grain size and a 1 % surface fraction of precipitated carbides were thus obtained . starting from condition e ), a subsequent heat treatment with a soak at 850 ° c . for 60 seconds followed by water cooling ( condition f ), table 3 ), allows this fraction of precipitated carbides to be reduced without excessive grain coarsening . the steel manufacturing conditions a ) correspond to those of the invention and result in high values of strength and of parameter p . under condition b ), the 100 micron grain size before cold rolling exceeds the 18 micron grain size mentioned above , and the final grain size ( 15 microns ) is greater than the 6 micron grain size also mentioned above . under condition c ), the 100 micron grain size in cold - rolled sheet is also excessive . consequently , conditions b ) and c ) result in unsatisfactory values of the parameter p and the strength . condition d ) corresponds to a situation in which the recrystallization is insufficient ( crystallized fraction : 45 %, i . e . less than the 75 % value mentioned above ), which results in a low value of the parameter p . in the case of steel i 2 , the manufacturing conditions e ) are associated with a fine grain size of 1 . 5 microns and an amount of precipitated carbides of less than 1 . 5 %. in the same way as in the case for steel f ), the fine grain size results in high values of strength and the parameter p . furthermore , fracture strength tests were carried out on ct ( compact tension ) type specimens having dimensions of 36 × 55 mm 2 and comprising an initial notch of 8 mm in depth . the tests were carried out at room temperature and comprised a recording of the load and the displacement . the fracture energy of the various steels , determined by the area under the curve of the force - displacement plot , was divided by the area of the fracture surface so as to determine a specific fracture energy . fig9 indicates that recrystallized steels of small grain size , containing no precipitated carbides , have the best fracture toughness characteristics . for a similar grain size , a 1 % content of precipitated carbides reduces the toughness by about one third . a very low fracture toughness is also observed when the mean grain size is increased up to 100 microns , or when there is greatly insufficient recrystallization . fig9 also demonstrates the fact that sheets manufactured according to the invention offer better toughness characteristics than reference steels r 1 and r 2 , since , for equivalent strength , the fracture toughness is two to three times greater than that of these steels . moreover , dynamic fracture tests were carried out on a charpy v specimen of reduced thickness ( t = 1 to 1 . 3 mm ) over a range from 20 ° c . to − 100 ° c . no reduction in fracture energy was observed at low temperatures . the various cold - rolling and annealing conditions for steel i 1 , the variation in fracture energy with grain size is indicated in fig1 . in a similar way to that which was noted in static fracture , too large a grain size or insufficient recrystallization reduces the fracture energy . for comparison , the fracture energy values at 20 ° c . and at − 20 ° c . for the above steel r 2 have also been plotted : it should be noted that the fine - grained steels of the invention make it possible to achieve higher toughness values under dynamic conditions than those of this reference steel . in addition , as mentioned above , the steels according to the invention are practically insensitive to temperature variations , unlike the reference steels which exhibit a ductile / brittle transition temperature . thus , even in the event of very substantial impacts ( very low service temperature , high deformation rate ) the use of steels of the invention avoids the risk of sudden fracture . apart from the notched fracture strength capability , the steels of the invention exhibit great deformability for the manufacture of relatively complex parts . fig1 indicates the bending capability of steel i 1 under the various manufacturing conditions presented in table 3 , that is to say for a mean grain size varying from 3 to 100 microns . as was seen previously , apart from the advantage of achieving a strength of greater than 950 mpa , a mean grain size of less than 6 microns also makes it possible to obtain excellent deformability in bending . here again , insufficient recrystallization leads to inferior results . fig1 also illustrates the benefit of cold - rolled and annealed steels according to the invention under complex deformation conditions such as those encountered in drawing tests using a cruciform tool that stresses the material in expansion and in necking . the tests were carried out on a blank having dimensions of 300 × 300 mm 2 , with a tool of 60 mm in height . fig1 , which illustrates the maximum drawing depth before fracture , indicates that the steels according to the invention , of small grain size , have greatly superior properties to the reference steels r 1 and r 2 . thus , for the same strength , the steels according to the invention are very much more deformable than conventional dual - phase or trip steels , and greater toughness . for the same deformation , their strength level is much higher . when they are used in the automotive industry , they contribute very effectively to reducing the weight of vehicles , while increasing safety in the event of an impact . the hot - rolled or cold - rolled steel sheets according to the invention are therefore advantageously used to manufacture reinforcing parts that require very high mechanical properties under static or dynamic loading conditions . | 8 |
an explanation of the operation of a prior art focus system is first discussed to provide the background for a clear understanding of the invention . an optical system for a typical optical disk reader is illustrated in fig1 . a suitable source of light energy , typically a solid state laser 11 , generates a beam of light energy 12 which is passed through collimator lens 14 to form a collimated beam 15 . the collimated beam 15 is directed to a polarizing prism 17 which includes a beam splitter 16 . the beam 15 is thereby directed to the right and up through a quarter wave plate 18 , circularly polarizing the beam , which is then passed through an object lens 19 to focus on the reflective surface 10 of an optical disk . the light reflected from the disk surface 10 passes through the object lens 19 and through the quarter wave plate 18 to the polarizing prism 17 . the beam splitter 16 allows a portion of the reflected beam through the end of the polarizing prism 17 to a critical angle reflecting prism 119 which directs the portion of the reflected beam onto quadrature diodes 101 . the output signals from the quadrature diodes 101 are coupled to a focus control unit 102 which supplies a drive signal to an object lens focus actuator 103 . a monitor diode 104 detects a portion of the laser beam reflected from the beam splitter 16 back through the collimator lens 14 and through the solid state laser 11 . the monitor diode 104 supplies a feedback control signal used in the prior art to maintain the laser output power at a constant , predetermined value . the portion of the reflected laser beam from the optical disk surface 10 being read is directed onto a quadrature diode arrangement 101 shown in fig2 . because of the lens arrangement and beam polarization , when the beam is focused on the disk surface 10 , the reflected beam is a circle centered at the common junction point of the diodes . for example , in fig2 a , a reflected circular beam 20 is centered at the common junction point of four photodiodes a , b , c , and d . as a result , each of the photodiodes a - d receives an equal amount of energy and the voltage output signal from each diode is equal . when the beam is not at best focus on the optical disk surface 10 , the polarization and lens arrangement causes the beam shape to become elliptical as illustrated in fig2 b and 2c . when out of focus in a certain direction , e . g ., toward , a beam 21 is positioned so that the photodiodes a and d receive more energy than the photodiodes b and c as illustrated in fig2 b . when the beam is out of focus in the other direction , e . g ., away , the beam again becomes elliptical , but with its major axis approximately at right angles to the previous ellipse formed by the beam out of focus in the opposite direction . the out - of - focus - away situation is illustrated as the beam 22 in fig2 c , positioned so that the photodiodes b and c receive more energy from the beam than do the photodiodes a and d . a focus signal can be derived as vf =( va + vd )-( vb + vc ) where va is the voltage output signal from the photodiode a ; vb , from the photodiode b ; vc , from the photodiode c ; and vd , from the photodiode d . when vf = 0 , which would be the result when the beam is circular and centered as shown in fig2 a , the beam is at best focus . that is , when the system is operating correctly , vf = 0 when the reading laser beam is at best focus on the optical disk surface 10 . when the beam is out of focus in the toward direction to cause the beam on the photodiodes to appear as shown in fig2 b , the signal vf will be some non - zero positive value . when out of focus in the other direction , i . e ., the situation shown in fig2 c , the signal vf will be some negative value . the laser beam object lens system 19 is mounted in a frame that is movable in either direction perpendicular to the focusing plane which , in the illustrative system being described , is the disk surface 10 . such a system can use an electrical linear motor shown in fig1 as the object lens focusing actuator 103 . a focus drive signal is supplied to keep the beam in focus . the focus signal , vf , is combined with the focus drive system to keep the beam in focus . that is , when vf is positive , the lens system 19 is offset by the vf value in a direction to bring the beam back into focus . when vf is negative , the lens system 19 is displaced in the other direction so as to bring the beam back into focus . a suitable focus control 102 is illustrated in fig3 . the focus voltage , vf , equal to va + vd -( vb + vc ), can be rearranged to equation ( 1 ) is implemented by the circuit illustrated in fig3 . the difference amplifiers 31 - 33 are coupled as shown using resistors whose values can readily be determined by one of ordinary skill in the art . the circuit output signal , vf , is coupled to the focus actuator 103 to supply a signal having the polarity and magnitude necessary to bring the laser beam into best focus on the disk surface 10 . more detailed explanations of the above - described prior art focus adjustment system are found in u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 163 , 149 and 4 , 368 , 526 . a problem with this prior art system for keeping the laser beam in focus is that misalignment of the optical system can cause errors . for example , if the optical system is misaligned , the beam may not center on the diodes . this will cause the feedback to be other than zero when the beam is at best focus . another cause of error is change in circuit parameters , e . g ., drift in the difference amplifiers values such off - set voltages or gain or change in resistor values . misalignment of parts of the optical system or drift in circuit parameter values will preclude the servomechanism of the focusing system from keeping the beam in best focus . fig4 illustrates the situation where the optics have been misaligned so that the circle produced at best focus does not fall on all diodes equally . as shown , the circle will produce a focus actuator drive signal as if the system were out of focus in the toward direction . that is , the value of va + vd will exceed that of vb + vc . therefore , the quality of the read signal will degrade to the point of being nonfunctional . the invention to be described and illustrated below is directed to correcting the focus drive signal when errors such as those described above begin to affect the accuracy of the focusing system . adaptive focus error compensation requires some indication of optimum or best focus separate from the primary loop so that focus error signal misadjustment can be determined . in addition to the maximum data indicator method , several other techniques are practical , all of which have been successfully used in the prior art . an optically aligned head results in a dc voltage peak of either polarity , depending on amplifier inversions , of the data signal , which is the four - quadrant signal summed , when at best focus . this peak may be sensed as a best focus indicator . in a second method , a test area of a track is reserved for best focus testing and written under varying conditions of focus . optimum write focus , which tends to be a more critical indicator than read focus , can then be determined from the resulting written area based on correlation with a known applied offset correction . in a method with grooved or otherwise prewritten media , such as stamped grooveless data disks , track crossing signals occur prior to closing of the track - following loop . this signal may be utilized for best focus determination in at least two ways . the simplest of these , applicable to all types of tracks , is to look for a peak signal level as with the summed dc data signal . grooved media produce a tracking signal with a &# 34 ; dog leg &# 34 ; as the laser spot tracks open - loop over the groove and land areas . this dog leg is a sensitive indicator of actual focus . when it is flattest or has a slight negative slope , depending on groove width , optical alignment , detector gains , and located properly with respect to signal peaks , the head is servoed to best focus . this best focus dog leg detection can be accomplished by digitizing the tracking error signal followed by an identification of the inflection points . after differentiation , locations of consecutive positive and negative peaks in time are compared , using amplitude comparators to separate major and minor peaks , simplifying the timing logic for interpretation in identifying dog leg duration . since best focus corresponds to minimum laser spot size , read back signals such as tracking or data will exhibit best edge definition at this point . that is , the signals will have the fastest rise and fall times at focus . several types of rise and fall time comparison circuits can be envisioned ; one possibility is the input signal being differentiated at best focus corresponding to that error correction which results in the peak derivative . an optical technique employing track crossings for information and best focus compensation might effectively use a combination of the above described techniques . experiments have shown that the best focus derived from a maximization of dog leg or peak derivative while simultaneously maintaining peak signal amplitude provides ample performance . this approach is particularly valuable because other variables , such as mechanical runout on the disk , bearings or track grooves , reflectance variations , optical misalignments , and so on , result in modulation of the signal around the media circumference . integration of the key indicators over a single revolution is desirable . this invention uses a novel indication of best focus not suggested or shown in the prior art . it is based on detecting peaks in the signal from the laser monitor diode . this is discussed in greater detail below . a system according to the invention is shown in fig5 . the quadrature diodes 101 supply output signals to four adjustable gain preamplifiers 50 . the output signals from the preamplifiers 50 are coupled to the focus control 102 and , via a multiplexor 53 and an analog - to - digital converter 55 , to an input port of a controller 58 . the controller 58 supplies an output signal via a digital - to - analog converter 54 and a multiplexor 52 to the preamplifiers 50 to adjust the gain of the individual preamplifiers . a multiplexor 51 is controlled by an output signal from the controller 58 to couple selectively a focus control signal from the focus control 102 or a step signal from the controller 58 to the focus actuator 103 that positions the head 19 . the monitor diode 104 supplies a signal to a peak detector 56 which supplies a signal to the controller 58 when the signal from the monitor diode 104 reaches a peak value . the multiplexors 51 , 52 , and 53 are commercially available devices . the multiplexor 51 receives two input signals and , depending on the value of the control signal ( mux -- out ), couples one of the input signals to the output terminal which is coupled to the focus actuator 103 . the mux -- out signal is a binary signal , assuming one of two possible values , commonly named true and false . when the value of mux -- out is false , it is assumed that the focus control signal is coupled to the output terminal . when mux -- out is true , the step signal is coupled to the output terminal . the multiplexor 53 has four input terminals and two control signals . the control signals are each independently true or false and the following table shows the input terminal coupled to the output terminal , called the active input terminal , according the values of the control signals . ______________________________________control signalsa b active input terminal______________________________________false false 1false true 2true false 3true true 4______________________________________ for purposes of explanation , it assumed that the output value of the control signals a and b can be designated by the number of the active input terminal . that is , a select output value couples the input terminal corresponding to that value to the output terminal . for example , if the select output value is designated as 1 , then a and b will both be false . this is within the skill of the art and is well known . the multiplexor 52 is sometimes called a demultiplexor in that it couples a single input terminal selectively to one of four output terminals . the multiplexor 52 responds to the control signals a and b in a similar manner as that described for the multiplexor 53 except that the selected terminal is called the active output terminal . the peak detector 56 is also a commercially available device and supplies an output signal when the input signal reaches a peak value . the peak value may be in a positive or negative direction . the peak detector 56 is assumed to be the proper polarity peak detector for the application . the monitor diode 104 which receives a portion of the laser energy and is used to control the energy level of the output of the laser . it has been discovered , however , that the output signal from the monitor diode 104 , because it also receives a fraction of the reflected signal , exhibits a peak value when the laser beam is at best focus on the disk surface 10 ( fig1 ). therefore , it can provide an indication of best focus for supplying a correction signal to the focus error signal if the latter is not zero when the laser beam is at best focus . the four diode preamplifiers 50 have adjustable gain . there are several commercially available amplifier devices that have adjustable gain . one example is a multiplying dac ( digital - to - analog converter ) which is provided with input terminals for receiving a binary number signifying the multiplier . other circuits include converters to supply a binary signal from the input analog signal , arithmetic circuits to perform multiplication , and converters to restore the resulting binary product to an analog signal . other circuits include variable bias amplifiers with means for receiving a gain control signal and converting it to bias signal value which will change the gain to provide the desired value . for purposes of illustration , another version of an adjustable gain amplifier can be used . such a circuit is illustrated in fig6 . an ordinary inverting operational amplifier ( assumed to have negative infinite gain , infinite input impedance , and zero output impedance ) has the usual feedback resistor configuration . the input and feedback resistor , however , share a variable resistance . varying the position of the wiper of the resistance 61 , typically a potentiometer , varies the gain of the circuit . a stepping motor 62 is coupled to the wiper control shaft of the resistance 61 and , in response to a positive pulse , moves the wiper to increase the gain of the circuit and , in response to a negative pulse , moves the wiper to reduce the circuit gain . the resistors 64 and 65 are boundary value limiters to prevent either the input or feedback impedances from going to zero . an ordinary unit feedback amplifier circuit 63 is supplied to provide a high input impedance for the photodiode and a low output impedance to the preamplifier circuit . a separate preamplifier circuit would be provided for each of the four quadrature diodes . an analog averaging circuit is also illustrated and is well known in the art . each of the input resistors 66 is four times the value of the feedback resistor 67 so that the output signal from the amplifier is the sum of the input values divided by four . a unit gain buffer amplifier and an analog - to - digital converter are provided to couple the averaged value to a digital computer . each of the input resistors 66 is coupled to a separate one of the quadrature diodes . the preamplifier circuits invert the diode signals so unit gain inverting amplifiers can be provided to re - invert the preamplifier output signals or the signals va and vc can be exchanged in the focus control circuit and so can the signals vb and vd which will merely reverse the values in equation ( 1 ), supra . that is , the system of fig5 operates as follows . the controller 58 supplies a true mux -- out signal which decouples the focus control signal from focus actuator 103 and couples a zero value step signal . this is presumed to cause the head 19 with the lens system to assume a quiescent position at one limit of its travel . positive value signals cause the head 19 to move toward its other limit , the distance moved being proportional to the magnitude of the signal . the step signal is incremented by a small amount , designated delstep , causing the head 19 to move toward its other limit . when the head 19 reaches the position of best focus , the peak detector 56 supplies a signal to the controller 58 which then holds the head in the best focus position . the output signals from the controller are assumed to be latched , i . e ., they remain the same value until changed by the controller 58 . the output signal value from each preamplifier is sensed and adjusted so as to cause the focus error signal to be zero . one method is to average the values of preamplifier outputs and to adjust the value of each preamplifiers gain so its output signal equals the average . the average can be obtained by using a circuit such as shown in fig6 or by summing the values of preamplifiers &# 39 ; output signals and dividing by four . division by four is easily performed digitally by shifting the binary sum two bit positions to the right . after the average has been obtained , the output signal from each of the preamplifiers 50 is sensed and adjusted to the desired value by providing a + 1 pulse on the preamp 13 adj line or a - 1 pulse . a digital - to - analog converter 54 is supplied to convert the pulse to a negative pulse when the value is - 1 since the controller , preferably a properly programmed microprocessor , uses 2 - s - complement arithmetic . to steer the preamplifier inputs to the processor and the preamp 13 adj signal to the proper preamplifier , the control signals a and b are generated as required . these steps are preferably performed by a programmed microprocessor . the program can be written in any one of several available high level languages . the program can also be represented by a design language from which programmers of ordinary skill in the art can write the program details for use on the particular microcomputer used to implement the invention . the choice of a suitable microcomputer is within the skill of the art and depends on the speed , capacity , and level of mathematical operations required for the particular system to be implemented . for example , in the presently illustrated embodiment of the invention , operations other than those to practice the invention would probably be implemented using a microcomputer . such operations would include the timing and generation of command signals to the components comprising the optical reader and sensing input signals necessary for proper operation of the system . for example , a switch would likely be provided to supply a signal that indicates the door through which a disk is placed on the spindle is open . a command received from a processor to position the head and to read the data would entail starting the motor and positioning the head . the first step might be to sense that the door is shut and provide an error indication if the door is open . the operator would have to close the door before the microprocessor would initiate the steps to read the data . the system might also be used to perform the function of supplying the focus signal , shown in fig3 as an analog system . the program for implementing the present invention would likely be included as a subroutine which could be invoked automatically when the system is powered on , when read errors are detected , or manually by the operator . such applications might require no more computing power and speed than is found in the lower priced , commercially available microprocessors , e . g ., a z80 ( zilog , inc . ), an 8080 ( intel , inc . ), a mc6800 ( motorola , inc . ), or a cosmac 1802 ( rca corp .). these microprocessors are well known in the art and the auxiliary devices such as memory , read - only memories , and input - output circuit components are readily available and well known in the art . each of the microprocessors uses a different instruction set ( although the z80 and 8080 instruction sets are somewhat compatible ). therefore , the exact program depends on the particular microprocessor used . program design languages , however , have been used for some time in the art to describe the details of a program in sufficient detail for the implementer to program the particular microprocessor used . these design languages also permit the program to be systematically designed from the top down leaving the details until last by use of functional statements and step - wise refinement . for implementation of the present invention , a suitable program could be written from the following design language . ______________________________________var boolean mux -- out , a , b ; integer select , preamp -- adj ; real preamp -- in , step , sum , avg ; const real delstep ; equ avg , sum ; [ that is , avg and sum are the same variable . ] proc comp ; mux -- out := true ; write mux -- out ; step := 0 ; repeatwrite step ; step := step + delstep ; until monitor -- peak ; sum := 0 ; i := 1 ; while i & lt ; 5select := i ; write select ; read preamp -- in ; sum := sum + preamp -- in ; i := i + 1 ; loop ; shift right sum ; [ divides sum by 2 ] shift right sum ; [ divides sum by 2 again to get average ] while i & lt ; 5select := i ; write select ; read preamp -- in ; while preamp -- in ≠ avg if preamp & lt ; avg then preamp -- adj := + 1 ; else preamp -- adj := - 1 ; write preamp -- adj ; loopi := i + 1 ; loop ; mux -- out := false ; write mux -- out ; return______________________________________ while the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . | 6 |
for purposes of illustration , the present invention is described in reference to a preferred system architecture as depicted in fig1 . this enterprise application has been designed using a services - centric paradigm and an n - tiered architecture to automate the content analysis of collected online peer - to - peer discussions , quantify and qualify text messages , and produce accurate studies with high analytical requirements . the forums &# 39 ; observation and configuration services ( e . g ., discussion configuration services ) ( fig1 . 1 ) is a modified web crawler . it retrieves information from pre - determined peer - to - peer communications platforms . each discussion platform may contain one or more boards , each board may contain one or more topics , and each topic may contain one or more messages or data units . the structure of each source is described in hierarchical order in an xml configuration file , which , when processed extracts the data into the application &# 39 ; s analysis database ( fig1 . 3 . 3 ) for further analysis . automated database creation ( fig1 . 2 ) is executed by the management central service ( fig1 . 2 . 1 ). the analysis database ( fig1 . 3 . 3 ) represents a collection of databases . the analysis database ( fig1 . 3 . 3 ) schema ( fig1 . 2 . 2 ) is defined in an xml document and includes information on what properties are associated with each entity , and how the entities are related within and across the databases . data storage ( fig1 . 3 ) is spread across several databases . the services ( fig1 . 3 . 1 ) database manages the functions of the following services : management central service ( fig1 . 2 . 1 ) and data transformation services ( fig1 . 5 ). data transformation services ( fig1 . 5 ) deliver clean , searchable , comprehensible data from the unstructured data as it exists at the source . it is itself comprised of two services : word parsing service ( fig1 . 5 . 1 ) and phrase parsing service ( fig1 . 5 . 2 ). the word parsing service ( fig1 . 5 . 1 ) initiates with the dialogue collection service ( fig1 . 4 . 1 ) and parses individual words from the collected messages . the service provides spell check analysis , as well as word grouping and aggregation . the phrase parsing service ( fig1 . 5 . 2 ) follows the completion of the word parsing service ( fig1 . 5 . 1 ) and uses the processed word - based data to reconstruct frequently repeated phrases . the application ( fig1 . 3 . 2 ) database coordinates the entire analysis ( fig1 . 3 . 3 ) database collection related to a particular study or series of studies . the data analysis service ( fig1 . 6 ) is a graphic user interface ( see , e . g ., fig2 and fig3 ), comprised of a set of related components and functions , and represents the front - end of the dynamic search engine , capable of very quickly performing complex text - retrieval and relational data interactions and renderings . in a preferred embodiment , the relational components are : dialogue , word , phrase , author , community , time graph , and query . the application &# 39 ; s compact design allows the creation of complex queries that then present views of the various resulting data sets at the same time in dynamic or in static mode , with the ability to expand , narrow , or eliminate specific data result sets . queries can be created by entering search terms into text boxes within the global search area ( fig2 . 2 ) or by double clicking on any of the presented data dimensions : word ( fig2 . 5 ), phrase ( fig3 . 3 ), author ( fig3 . 2 ), topic , time ( fig2 . 3 ), and query . each query is then preserved in the query analyzer ( fig3 . 4 ), while working data analysis and end - user input is stored in the study working environment ( fig2 . 4 ). final analysis and narrative data can then be exported to the study outline ( fig3 . 5 ) where it is exported to a preformatted ms word document . the dynamic search process relies on the build of the words and phrases catalogs during the data collection and transformation stages . dialogues are essentially text messages , comprised of various words and phrases . each message is processed to extract significant words and populate the collection within the words catalog . each word in that collection is unique and is associated with affixed number of mentions across the entire data set , across individual sets of authors , during any given time , and specific to each source . for example , the word ‘ husband ’ in fig4 is mentioned one time and the word “ home ” is mentioned two times . the fixed number of dialogues associated with various dimensions of the whole data set allows the application to compute the number of times each particular word is mentioned . the phrases catalog is then comprised of words in the words catalog in repeat mode ( fig4 ) where each dialogue , as well as the words and phrases that make up that dialogue , are uniquely identified in the database . some words commonly used in consumer dialogues are excluded from the creation of the catalog . in the current example those words are : “ my ,” “ and ,” “ i ” “ a ,” “ that ,” “ is ,” “ are ,” “ to ,” “ make ,” and “ from .” the words and phrases catalogs and their displays are linked directly to the data entry fields within the global search area . as the search word or phrase is entered into the text box the word or phrase catalog is dynamically adjusted for matches to the entered text . it is looking for significant word or phrase matches character by character until the complete term or phrase is displayed in the first position with an exact match and its quantitative value within the selected dimensions of the entire data set . for example , in fig5 the word “ business ” exists within the catalogue and can be a relevant part of any search criteria . the number ‘ 444 ’ next to it represents the number of mentions of that word , “ business .” if the word “ dog ,” for example , is entered into the input fields , the word catalog will render and display as empty ( fig6 ). this then dynamically represents that there are no words in the data set beginning from the root “ dog ,” and it is not a relevant string within a project &# 39 ; s search criteria . each executed search dynamically updates every displayed component of the data set . data is automatically reloaded and only that data associated with the search criteria is displayed . fig7 demonstrates search execution with the search terms “ building ” and “ business .” fig8 demonstrates search execution with the search terms “ credit ,” “ report ,” and “ personal .” fig7 . 1 and fig8 . 1 display the number of dialogues ( data units ) within the entire database . for any given study this is a constant number . search results seen in fig7 . 2 and fig8 . 2 represent the amount of dialogues associated with each query result . each dialogue is comprised of words and phrases and every search dynamically displays only those related words and phrases . the search result set of 308 dialogues in fig7 . 2 are comprised of 1627 words and 3542 phrases ( fig7 . 3 ). the search result set of 5944 dialogues in fig8 . 2 are comprised of 3858 words and 20958 phrases ( fig7 . 3 ). the numbers of times words and phrases are mentioned are also dynamically updated . for example , the word “ business ” is mentioned 1023 times in fig7 and 5549 times in fig8 . the phrase “ business credit ” is mentioned 286 times in fig7 and 1182 in fig8 . every dialogue has an author that is directly associated with that unique dialogue . after a search is executed the number of authors is also dynamically updated . for example , fig8 . 4 contains 698 authors and fig7 . 4 contains 147 authors . the number of dialogues associated with particular authors are counted and refreshed in the application &# 39 ; s dynamic mode . for example , the author ‘ creditking ’ has 20 dialogues in fig7 . 4 and 213 dialogues in fig8 . 4 . fig8 . 5 , fig7 . 5 , and fig9 . 5 display the number of authors per source community , changing dynamically per search . the system can also identify authors who have actively published dialogues in more than one community within the total source set . fig7 . 7 , fig8 . 7 , and fig9 . 7 display the number of dialogues per community , changing dynamically per search . the time line graph control ( fig7 . 6 and fig8 . 6 ) shows the amount of discussions over a span of time related to every executed query . for example , in fig7 . 6 , the amount of dialogues on 8 / 26 is 1 and the amount of dialogues in fig8 . 6 on 8 / 26 is 77 . graphic depiction over time allows analysts / end - users to quickly identify “ hot topics ” by looking at activity spikes and relating them back to various market events . in a preferred embodiment , there are three modes of time line analysis : monthly , daily , and hourly , with the application defaulting to a monthly view . by selecting one or more days within the time line control a query will be executed , utilizing those days as search criteria . for example , if the date 8 / 26 is selected as a search criterion ( fig9 ) the search result is displayed on fig9 . 2 with the system in day mode . the words catalog then indicates that 580 unique words have been used on 8 / 26 ( fig9 . 3 ), that 82 authors had been active ( fig9 . 4 ), and that 224 discussions took place ( fig9 . 2 ), all comprised of 580 unique words . in day mode the spike on the time line graph control ( fig9 . 6 ) indicates the most active hour , and by selecting “ 8 : 00 pm ” the system will execute it as a search criterion , moving the system to hour mode ( fig1 ). the present invention provides multidimensional analysis services that allow analysts / end - users to view data from within different frameworks ( search criteria and other parameters ) and provide multidimensional analysis of the structured data . search dimensions such as ; words , phrases , authors , topics , and time ( month / day / hour ), and query histories can be executed within one dimension at a time or combined with others in any order . for example , by double clicking on a particular author , “ linda ,” only dialogue published across the data set by that author will be displayed . linda published 284 dialogues ( fig1 . 2 ), which matches the previous search result 284 in fig1 . 1 . “ linda ” participated in two forums and created 283 dialogues in the “ smallbusinessbrief ” forum and 1 dialogue in the “ homebasedworkingmoms ” forum ( fig1 . 3 ). the “ smallbusinessbrief ” community contains 1812 total dialogues ( fig1 . 4 ) wherein 283 dialogues have been published by “ linda ” the data sources play a significant roll in the overall data analysis , wherein one or more communities can be selected for viewing or searching simultaneously . each hierarchical element that represents a unique source can be dynamically utilized as search criteria . for example , where one specific topic is selected , “ business closure — how to tell staff . . . ” the topic contains 10 dialogues ( fig1 . 1 ) and the search result returns 10 dialogues ( fig1 . 2 ). fig1 . 3 displays 10 rows of related dialogues . the query is one of the more powerful elements of the multidimensional analysis services , where a query is auto generated following the selection of any one , or combination of , search criteria . query results and the historical query structure are preserved in the query analyzer . queries can be run and re - run an unlimited number of times and can be combined with any other query or dimension of the data . in a preferred embodiment , the query analyzer entities are : category , query date , filter , and result . the query date is a unique query identifier and represents the actual time of query execution , the filter is comprised of all combined search criteria , and the result is the amount of dialogues affected by query or search result . for example , fig7 , fig8 , fig9 , fig1 , and fig1 demonstrate query composition and execution . several dimensions can be combined in any order for an unlimited number of queries until such combinations return meaningful results . for example , fig1 demonstrates query execution from the query analyzer where the highlighted row represents a stored query from fig8 . after a query has been executed it can still be combined with any other current query . for example , by clicking on the word “ card ” in fig1 . 2 or 14 . 3 , additional search criteria will be added to the existing query . there are two navigation buttons ( fig1 . 4 and 14 . 5 ) that can combine current and historical queries with an ‘ and ’ operator or an “ or ” operator to both expand and to narrow the original result — see fig1 . 1 compared to fig1 . 1 . the present invention also provides for categorization , which represents the process of assigning query results to predetermined project , or segment - based categories . categories are created in the “% quantitative section ” of the study working environment . a query result ( fig1 . 2 ) is assigned to a category by pressing button 15 . 3 , which replaces the default value ‘ none ’ in the category field in the query analyzer with an assigned category name . for example , by assigning a query result to the category “ discover ” ( fig1 . 2 ), “ none ” is replaced by “ discover ” and the query result ‘ 243 ’ appears in the study working environment next to the pre - entered “ discover ” category . when quantifying result sets , for instance , when all assignments to all categories on a competitor section are complete , the section is quantified and automatically computes % and total value of related discussions . using graphic user interface buttons 15 . 4 and 15 . 5 , respectively , verbatim consumer commentary and analyst / end - user generated insights can be assigned to corresponding quantified entities . fig1 . 1 depicts a total search result . every entry in the study working environment is managed through user id control . in the current example user id 2 is a valid user . when the study working environment is finalized , the data will be exported to the study outline and the final study document will be generated . the present invention also provides automated analysis services , which rely on applying existing structures to the analysis databases to quantify and qualify data without any user interaction . the key components of the analysis automation services are : query analyzer ( fig3 . 4 ), study working environment ( fig2 . 4 ), and study outline ( fig3 . 5 ). for example , fig1 . 2 contains current database name , but fig1 . 1 does not contain any data . this study has been created without involving automated analysis services . fig1 demonstrates the automated analysis services , with fig1 . 1 containing a list of analysis databases ready to apply their structures to the current study &# 39 ; s data set ( fig1 . 2 ). when a selection is made the automated analysis services are activated . existing structures are then applied to the new data . fig1 . 4 and fig1 . 4 demonstrate the difference in query results when applying previous study structures to new data . fig1 . 3 and fig1 . 3 demonstrate the same structure , but different results applying to the same categories . the following describes a software application according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention : the referenced software application is a powerful statistical intelligence - based enterprise software application that allows business users to compile deep content analysis and create complex study reports with highly analytical requirements . the application is primarily designed to enhance end - user abilities and automate the comprehensive content analysis of a mass of individual electronic consumer communications , and retain the quantitative dimensions of the data as it is categorized . the application gives users the ability to extract data from various electronic data sources , analyze mass amounts of data by creating dynamic queries , caching relevant data locally to achieve better performance and guiding users to make the best informed study development decisions as the data is being explored . the application is a powerful , fast , and intuitive consumer intelligence software application that was designed to benefit from the cutting edge microsoft . net framework ( c #) services - centric paradigm . the application utilizes several types of services : windows services , analysis services , and web services . formerly known as nt services , the ms windows services enable the creation of long - running executable applications that occupy their own windows sessions . these services can be automatically started when the computer boots , can be paused and restarted , and do not expose any user interface . windows services are currently platform dependent and run only on windows 2000 or windows xp . web services provide a new set of opportunities that the application leverages . a microsoft net framework using uniform protocols such as xml , http , and soap allows the utilization of the application through web services on any operating system . taking advantage of web services provides architectural characteristics and benefits — specifically platform independence , loose coupling , self - description , and discovery — and enables a formal separation between the provider and user . using web services increases the overall performance and potential of the application , leading to faster business integration and more effective and accurate information exchanges . the application &# 39 ; s analysis services represented in the client front - end delivers improved usability , accuracy , performance , and responsiveness . the application &# 39 ; s analysis services are a feature rich user interaction layer with a set of bound custom designed controls — demonstrating a compact and manageable framework . the complexity of back - end processing is hidden from the end user — they see only the processed clean study data that is relevant to their exploration path and activity — enabling them to make better decisions and take faster actions . the major functions of a software application according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention are : application database service : representing a very powerful element within the architecture , as a part of the application &# 39 ; s central management service , this service enables automatic database creation . this component is capable of creating highly complex databases in less than one minute . the application &# 39 ; s entity schema is defined in an xml document that includes information on what properties are associated with each entity , and how the entities are related . this document describes the options provided in the xml document as well as the organization of the document . the master - schema element is the root element of the xml document and is processed by the central management service which parses the xml schema entity to create a new database . the central management service is a windows service responsible for completing several key tasks . ( see discussion below .) data gathering service : currently comprised of web crawlers , this service retrieves information from pre - determined data sources such as online message boards . each message board has its own very specific display characteristics and organization and requires close examination . many message boards follow a tried - and - true pattern of organization : community , boards , topics , and messages . the structure of each community source is presented in an xml file , which is then processed by the data gathering service and the database is populated for analysis . ( see discussion below .) data transformation service : the data transformation service is a critical component of the application &# 39 ; s architecture . it ultimately delivers clean , searchable , and comprehensible data to the end - user . the contained word parse service and phrase parse service are performed during data cleaning , followed by custom aggregation tasks to create the words and phrases catalog ( wpc )— at the heart of the application . the wpc combined with the sql server full - text indexes and the way they function through the user interface produces a graphic view of the core elements of the content of the data itself . ( see discussion below .) data analysis service : the data analysis service enables the application &# 39 ; s unique ability to easily and intuitively perform complex text - retrieval and relational database interactions . the multi - tier client server application allows the end user to query the database using full - text catalogue queries and assign those query results to a predefined study category . at the same time , the application &# 39 ; s words and phrases catalogue presentation is modified by each query result and displays only related words and phrases . this simple drill - down display enables quick identification of granular elements within a category , and leads to the fast recognition of active trends . a graphic timeline custom control shows activity over time and allows drill - down to the minute . data can also be grouped and viewed by source , board , thread , topic , and author and time range . ( see discussion below .) study composition service : this service is comprised of two core components : the study working environment and study outline environment . this is a web service , generated by the activities performed within the data analysis service . the study working environment is a standard tree structured study document object model . there are set of default entities : introduction , executive summary , quantitative analysis i , quantitative analysis ii , study insight , etc . query results and refined data sets are assigned to study specific categories and subcategories in the study working environment leading to a tiered grouping of relevant data and study categorization . the application computes the results of the quantitative elements of the categorization process and generates charts or graphs for inclusion in the study outline environment . the study outline environment houses the final study and can output the study report to multiple report templates for presentation . the software of the preferred embodiment of the present invention represents a rich and comprehensive enterprise application that may be used to provide an array of potential business solutions . it has been designed using a services - centric paradigm and an n - tiered architecture based on a microsoft windows . net platform . the application architecture uncovers new opportunities for extracting and working with large amounts of data from various worldwide data sources . the application analyzes study data by creating dynamic queries to provide quantitative analysis and to produce accurate final study reports with high analytical requirements . all back - end work and processing is managed by services and are invisible to the end user . services are a nascent component in the application &# 39 ; s architecture and perform five major functions : automatic database creation , data gathering , data transformation , data analysis , and study composition . each function represents a set of tasks that are handled through one or more services . the application is primarily designed to automate the comprehensive content analysis of messages in various formats published by different individuals sharing their opinions and beliefs across a vast array of online offerings . business analysts determine which data source ( s ) are most suitable for a particular study , and the operator examines the availability and accessibility of each data source and begins to initialize the crawlers . preparing the crawlers to extract data from a new source can be time consuming . every site and offering is unique , and while some use the same popular message systems and architectures , others use proprietary systems or unique authorization schemes that can create challenges . before actual crawling takes place , each site is tested by the application &# 39 ; s site analyzer tool to uncover the nuances and specific variations to the community , boards , topics , and messages format . the structure of each source is preserved in the “ command - set -[ studyname ]. xml ” file , which is processed by the web crawler unit and data is extracted into database for further analysis . services control manager ( study data control ) represents an operator interface that interacts with the other services , displays the processes that are currently running and reports the status of the study , giving access to the “ start ,” “ end ,” and “ fail ” modes . if any of the services failed , the operator may start them again or examine the log file . the services database ( svc ) retains information about all services , tasks , and their respective status . ( see fig1 .) application database services are part of the management central service and provide the application &# 39 ; s automatic database creation . the structure of the database is defined in the application entity schema — xml document . it includes information on what properties are associated with each entity , and how the entities are related . the service parses the xml document and delivers commands to create the application database . data gathering services can retrieve ( crawl ) information from pre - determined data sources such as community message board , chats , blogs , etc . the display structure of each source is defined and stored within the “ command - set -[ studyname . xml ]” file and the “ config . xml ” file . a separate “ command - set -[ studyname ]. xml ” file is assigned to each study , while the “ config . xml ” file accumulates all of the source configurations in one file . data transformation services are activated during new database population . the word parse service and phrase parse service are active in data cleaning , words and phrases parsing , and words grouping and aggregation to create the application &# 39 ; s words and phrases catalog ( wpc ). the dialogue aggregation and presentation of the source hierarchy also take place through the data transformation services and play a key role during analysis . the final step within the data transformation services is the creation of the dimensional data cube . the application utilizes the multidimensional data analysis principles provided by microsoft sql server 2000 with analysis services , which is also referred to as online analytic processing (“ olap ”). these principles are applied to the data mining and analysis of the text that comprises the dialogue records . the use of multidimensional analysis and olap principles in the design of the application provides a number of key benefits , both for the short and long term . the data analysis services enable the application &# 39 ; s unique ability to easily and intuitively perform complex text - retrieval and relational database interactions . the multi - tier client server application is comprised of : ( i ) presentation layer ; ( ii ) business layer ; and ( iii ) data layer . the presentation layer is the set of custom built and standard user controls that define the compact application framework , successfully leveraging local computer resources such as . net graphics , attached excel , and local storage . this approach has made it possible to develop a very flexible and feature rich application that would not be possible with a web - based application . tabbed controls throughout the interface allow for its sophisticated and highly manageable desktop design . the business layer handles the application &# 39 ; s core business logic . the design allows end users to query the database using dynamic full - text catalogue queries and to assign refined and final result sets to predefined categories within the study . at the same time , the application &# 39 ; s words and phrases catalogue is associated uniquely to each query result and displays only related words and phrases , making it easier to determine the leading consumer concepts and trends within a current study . the data layer of the data analyses services is responsible for all data associations and interactions . the application uses the sql client data provider to connect to the sql server database . microsoft ado . net objects are then used as a bridge to deliver and hold data for analysis . there are two types of data interaction : direct dynamic full - text catalogue queries , which access the database and deliver results and caches data . the cache is a local copy of the data used to store the information in a disconnected state ( data table ) to increase data interaction performance . regarding application services , the application &# 39 ; s data analysis services demonstrate its unique capacity to quickly perform complex text - retrieval and relational database interactions . the compact design allows the end user to create dynamic queries using full - text catalogue query statements . the microsoft sql server 2000 full - text index provides support for sophisticated word searches in character string data and stores information about significant words and their location within a given column . this information is used to quickly complete full - text queries . these full - text catalogues and indexes are not stored in the database they reflect , making it impossible to run them within the dataset ( ado . net disconnected object ). they therefore have to be passed directly to the database . the full - text . catalogue query utilizes a different set of operators than the simple query — more powerful and returning more accurate results . as depicted in fig1 , end users select an active study from the combo box at the top left of the graphic user interface window , and can work with only one study at a time . a new study displays the study working environment , study outline , and query history blank . end user search , grouping , and analysis processes often begin from exploration of the word and phrase panel — wpc ( word & amp ; phrase catalog ). the wpc panel groups and contains the most prolific and significant words and phrases within the data that serves to guide end users toward the most prevalent and significant concepts and themes — without the noise — held in the multitude of dialogue records that make up the source of the study report . by double clicking on a listed word or phrase in the wpc panel the application generates an appropriate query . the status bar displays the total amount of dialogue and query result related to the dialogue manager . the search criteria and query result will be saved in the query analyzer . users may achieve the same effect by typing search word and phrases in the search text box and then pressing the search button . all search words are highlighted in the dialogue manager . it is worth emphasizing that the word and phrases catalog ( wpc ), displayed in the front end word and phrases panel , is fully dynamic and affected by every single search or combination of parameters . the ‘ word count ’ and ‘ phrase count ’ will be different in each instance . this is because each dialogue is composed of regular words and phrases , and the application knows which word and phrase belong to which dialogue unit . by running different queries the application will produce different results and the associated amount of words and phrase will be affected . there is another very attractive component of the system , which is the timeline custom - made user control ( at the top of the active application window ). the timeline control is designed to use gdi + to render graphical representations of dialogue activity over time , and allows users to drill down data sets to the minute . business analysts may select from a variety of search criteria to compose these dynamic queries : all words , any words , all phrases and without words , community source , author , date / time range . the dynamic query is then sent to the data source for data retrieval . while the amount of queries is unlimited , only one query result can be assigned to a study category or subcategory . there are multiple options incorporated into the application &# 39 ; s search interface : the down arrow combines any query from the query analyzer with a current query , using the ‘ or ’ clause , can produce drill down searches and the up arrow — the “ and ” clause , can produce expanded search results . study composition services : the study composition service is a generic component of the study analysis services . the study composition service contains two core components : ( i ) study working environment ; and ( ii ) study outline . as shown in fig2 , the study working environment ( study we ) is a standard tree structured object model with a set of default entities including an introduction section , an executive summary , and one or more quantitative analyses . when the query result is finalized , a business analyst can assign the result and its associated data records to a particular category — data categorization . the quantified elements of a final query result and its hosting category are computed by the application , which then generates appropriate charts or graphs ( see , e . g ., fig2 ). the charts or graphs are generated through the seamless incorporation of microsoft ®&# 39 ; s excel , providing a familiar interface and easy customization . analysts &# 39 ; insights and notes are another type of entity , which can be assigned to any part of the study &# 39 ; s working environment . the study working environment is just that , a free and configurable space for collecting and quantifying findings , keeping notes , and developing the elements that will constitute the final study in the study outline environment . often , and in projects that require recurring delivery of a study , the business analysts will create a new study based upon an existing one , or an existing outline template . the application &# 39 ; s web service allows for this by expanding in xml format all of the data and structure of each existing study , creating a reference for the application &# 39 ; s data analysis service . business analysts can then create new queries against existing categories and produce new studies with updated results with less effort . time line custom control generates a graph to show brand mentions over time . ( see , e . g ., fig2 .) regarding automatic database creation , the application &# 39 ; s database service ( a component of the management central service ) provides automatic database creation , which represents a unique element in the application architecture . it is capable of creating highly complex database in less then sixty seconds . the application &# 39 ; s entity schema is also defined within an xml document , and includes information on what properties are associated with each entity , and how the entities are related . this document further describes the options provided in the xml document and the organization of that document . the master - schema element is the root element of the xml document . the schema element is used to group related entities , and is divided into three specific schemas : dialogue ; application ; and security . the dialogue database contains all of the data that will be analyzed . the application database contains all of the study structure information . the security database maintains users , groups , and permissions . ( see fig1 .) the schema element has three attributes : name , prefix , and type . the prefix will be appended to all table names in that schema to distinguish them from other schema &# 39 ; s tables . the type attribute is informational only , and can be used to distinguish between oltp and olap tables . the entity element describes the specific entities in a given schema . entities are discrete containers of information , but do not directly correspond to database tables . entities can be made up of many different tables . the entity element has five attributes : name , maintain - history , can - be - cloned , is - lockable , and archive . the maintain - history attribute is a boolean that indicates if the system should maintain a revision history for the entity . the revision history permits seeing earlier versions of the data , and who and how it was changed . it also permits rolling back to earlier revisions and processes . the property element is used to describe the specific data that can be associated with an entity . this corresponds to non - foreign key fields in the master table for an entity . the property element has eight attributes : name , type , length , required , is - searchable , unique , value - list , and default . the related - entity element is used to describe relationships between entities . this element has eight attributes : type , enforced , unique - group schema , entity , predicate , asynchronous - edit , asynchronous - edit - history , and asynchronous - edit - lockable . the type attribute indicates what type of relationship should be created between entities . the first type is “ doublet ,” which means that the given entity can be related to only one other entity for that relationship . this describes a one - to - many relationship . the other type of relationship is a “ triplet ,” which means that the given entity can be related to many other entities for that relationship . this describes a many - to - many relationship . the presence of a triplet creates an additional table to relate the two entities together . the management central service parses the application - schema . xml document and related xml transformation files : 01 - create - databases . xslt , 02 - create - tables . xslt , 03 - foreign - keys - indexes . xsl , 04 - full - text - catalog . xslt in order to create and populate the appropriate database . the application &# 39 ; s management central service monitors all of the other active services to determine when the next step in any given process can proceed , allowing the application &# 39 ; s services control manager ( sdc ) to stop running when it is no longer needed . the sdc can also communicate through the management central service to provide detailed progress reports on individual studies . regarding data gathering , the application &# 39 ; s dialogue gathering service is a flexible and customizable content crawler designed for collecting data from blogs , message boards , emails , newsgroups , chats and other “ cgm ” ( consumer generated media ) outlets . it receives instructions from the application &# 39 ; s service manager and begins a threaded set of processes to gather cgm from the specified sources . top level ( which we refer to as the “ root ”) that has links to boards . each of these links is a branch ( see below ). board level ( called a branch ). some offerings comprise multiple branch levels , and the application &# 39 ; s xml schema accommodates such configurations . clicking a board link will advance to the thread level ( see below ) thread level ( called a leaf or topic ) contains a list of the threads within the current board level offering . each thread is a discussion , with a very specific and identified topic . the thread level may be paginated , as there are likely many discussions within a single board level . some threads only contain a single message , and perhaps a response or two ; other , more popular threads may contain thousands of messages . message level ( called the dialogue unit level ) contains the contents and particulars of the messages themselves . most popular offerings , at the board level , contain ten to twenty - five messages per page . the source configuration for the data gathering service requires knowledge of regular expressions , which are used to parse the desired content from the html source of each page . when each web page is requested , the returned source is converted to xhtml using tidy . this cleans up the source in a standard format and makes it easier to write functional regular expressions . the config . xml file is the primary configuration file for the crawlers . it contains the hierarchy definitions for each source , from which the actual hierarchy files can be derived . and from those hierarchy files , the crawler command - set files are created . & lt ; data - source & gt ; [ server , database , username , password ] - the connection details for the application database & lt ; data - destination & gt ; [ path ] - the network path where the command - set files are saved & lt ; communities & gt ; & lt ; community & gt ; [ name ] - the name of the community & lt ; authentication & gt ; ( optional ) [ action ] - the login url , derived from the action attribute of the login form . [ method ] - the http method , derived from the method attribute of the login form . & lt ; headers & gt ; - the http headers , as sent when the login form is being processed . there is a plug - in for internet explorer that can capture the page headers , as they are sent / received . the utility is called httpheaders and is on the network at \\ bbifile \ development \ projects \ application \ iehttpheaders there is also a plug - in for the mozilla / firefox browser that does the same thing . it is a bit more robust . it can be downloaded from http :// livehttpheaders . mozdev . org / & lt ; parameter & gt ; - the name / value pairs being sent to the host . & lt ; content & gt ; - the content of each element of the login form . as javascript can sometimes modify this data , it is easiest to extract this content from the captured http headers as well . & lt ; parameter & gt ; - the name / value pairs being sent to the host . & lt ; region & gt ; - globalization details , to account for time differences on web sites that are based outside of the us . [ culture - code ] - typically set to “ en - us ”. a complete list of iso country and language codes is available from microsoft . & lt ; root - config & gt ; - defines the “ root ”, or starting point of the crawler , for the site in question . [ name ] - the name of the site / message board . [ url ] - the url from which to start crawling ; the “ root ” page . [ site - def - doc ] - the network path of the hierarchy document for this web site . & lt ; branch - config & gt ; - the configuration of a branch - level of the message board . there can be multiple branch - config nodes , and they can be nested infinitely to reflect many variations of message board hierarchy . [ hierarchy - level ] - set to “ b ” for the branch level node . [ regex ] - a regular expression that uses referenced grouping to extract specific information from the xhtml source . [ name - id ] - the grouping number of the name / title . [ url - id ] - the grouping number of the url . [ lastpost - id ] - the grouping number of the timestamp . if the timestamp is not available , set this value to − 1 . the branch - config level can continue indefinitely . there must be at least one branch - config node , but there may be as many as necessary to represent the message board . & lt ; leaf - config & gt ; - the configuration of the leaf - level of the message board . this consists of a list of threads / discussions . [ regex ] - a regular expression that uses referenced grouping to extract specific information from the xhtml source . [ name - id ] - the grouping number of the name / title . [ url - id ] - the grouping number of the url . [ lastpost - id ] - the grouping number of the timestamp . if the timestamp is not available , set this value to − 1 . [ paging - regex ] - a regular expression used to extract the url of the next page ( if applicable ). this regular expression uses referenced grouping . [ paging - url - id ] - the grouping number of the paging url . if there is no paging , set to − 1 . & lt ; dlu - config & gt ; - the configuration of the dialogue unit level . [ regex ] - a regular expression that uses referenced grouping to extract specific information from the xhtml source . [ author - id ] - the grouping number of the author . set to − 1 if there is no author field . [ subject - id ] - the grouping number of the subject . set to − 1 if there is no author field . [ body - id ] - the grouping number of the message body . [ datetime - id ] - the grouping number of the timestamp . set to − 1 if there is no author field . [ paging - regex ] - a regular expression used to extract the url of the next page ( if applicable ). this regular expression uses referenced grouping . [ paging - url - id ] - the grouping number of the paging url . if there is no paging , set to − 1 . [ pattern - reply - to ] - a regular expression that uses referenced grouping to extract any quoted text from the message body . the grouping id is set to 1 . if there are no quoted texts , then leave this attribute empty . [ pattern - signature ] - a regular expression that uses referenced grouping to extract any signature text from the message body . the grouping id is set to 1 . if there are no signatures , then leave this attribute empty . regarding data cleaning process , the dialogue gathering service handles the data cleaning functionality as it crawls , organizing and cleaning up the message portion of each dialogue unit before they are populated into the database . each message may contain the flowing sections : reply - to text , content text ( the “ body ” of the message ), and signature text . it is expected that every message will contain at least one of these — if not , then that message is empty ( or will be considered so , after excess html / garbage content is removed ) and will not be inserted . a blank message is useless to the system and only causes clutter and possible confusion . each message may contain only a single signature section , but multiple content and reply - to sections may exist . when the unprocessed message data enters the data cleaning stage , it consists of the xhtml ( previously converted from the html source ) and content that was recognized by a specific regular expression as being a message , such as the following example : & lt ; blockquote & gt ; quote : & lt ; hr /& gt ; & lt ; i & gt ; originally posted by arkzein & lt ;/ i & gt ; & lt ; br /& gt ; & lt ; b & gt ; would be extremely hard to do ( ie just looking at writing them down ) unless you let poeople pick usergroups i believe .& lt ;/ b & gt ; & lt ; hr /& gt ; & lt ;/ blockquote & gt ; & lt ; br /& gt ; stop using sophistimacated words & lt ; br /& gt ; i don &# 39 ; t get it at all .& lt ; br /& gt ; & lt ; p & gt ; & lt ; br /& gt ; question : what do you do if you don &# 39 ; t like chicken ? & lt ; br /& gt ; & lt ; br /& gt ; answer : you don &# 39 ; t eat chicken ! & lt ; br /& gt ;----------& lt ; br /& gt ; & lt ; br /& gt ; question : what do you do if you don &# 39 ; t like beef & lt ; br /& gt ; answer : you eat chicken !& lt ; p & gt ; & lt ; br /& gt ; & lt ; br /& gt ; & lt ; p class =“ c3 ”& gt ; this text is compared against the regular expressions that define the structure of signature text , reply - to text , and content text within the current site structure . an xml document is then constructed , using & lt ; div & gt ; tags for each node ; where each & lt ; div & gt ; tag has a class attribute , the value of which defines the contents — signature , reply - to , or content . the text content of each xml node is also cleaned and reformatted . block - style html containers are replaced with & lt ; p & gt ; tags , and excess html is removed . at this time , images and links are removed — this is subject to change through pre - defined filter activities . the & lt ; div & gt ; and & lt ; p & gt ; tags are used ( as opposed to proprietary tags ) so that , when necessary , this content can be displayed as html without the need to reformat the text . this xml document is converted to a string , which is inserted into the originalmessage column of the dddialogueunit table ( application database ( dd ), see above ). so the ultimate result is an xml document structure such as the following : & lt ; div class =“ dialogue - unit ”& gt ; & lt ; div class =“ reply - to ”& gt ; & lt ; p & gt ; originally posted by arkzein & lt ;/ p & gt ; & lt ; p & gt ; would be extremely hard to do ( ie just looking at writing them down ) unless you let poeople pick usergroups i believe .& lt ;/ p & gt ; & lt ;/ div & gt ; & lt ; div class =“ content ”& gt ; & lt ; p & gt ; stop using sophistimacated words & lt ;/ p & gt ; & lt ; p & gt ; i don &# 39 ; t get it at all .& lt ;/ p & gt ; & lt ;/ div & gt ; & lt ; div class =“ signature ”& gt ; & lt ; p & gt ; question : what do you do if you don &# 39 ; t like chicken ?& lt ;/ p & gt ; & lt ; p & gt ; answer : you don &# 39 ; t eat chicken !& lt ;/ p & gt ; & lt ; p & gt ;----------& lt ;/ p & gt ; & lt ; p & gt ; question : what do you do if you don &# 39 ; t like beef & lt ;/ p & gt ; & lt ; p & gt ; answer : you eat chicken !& lt ;/ p & gt ; & lt ;/ div & gt ; & lt ;/ div & gt ; the cleanedmessage column of the dddialogueunit table does not need to contain reply - to and signature text , nor are the xml tags necessary . a string is constructed from all “ content ” nodes in the above xml document , retaining the paragraph structure , and this is inserted into the cleanedmessage column , as seen then in this example : & lt ; p & gt ; stop using sophistimacated words & lt ;/ p & gt ; & lt ; p & gt ; i don &# 39 ; t get it at all .& lt ;/ p & gt ; data transformation services : data transformation services are a critical and unique component of the application architecture . these services deliver clean , searchable , comprehensible data through the following two individual services : the word parsing service ( wops ) starts along with the dialogue gathering service and parses the individual words from each individual message . the resulting index is sent to the buls ( text file ) where the application &# 39 ; s management central service provides spell check analysis , word grouping and aggregation . the phrase parsing service ( phps ) initiates upon the completion of the word parsing service ( wops ), and uses the word data to reconstruct repeat phrases . these are used for analysis as well as signature and reply detection . these resulting indexes are sent to the buls ( text file ) where the application &# 39 ; s management central service provides phrases grouping and aggregation . | 6 |
the following description is the best mode presently contemplated for carrying out the invention . this description is not to be taken in a limiting sense , but is made merely for describing the general principles of the invention . the scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the claims . the present invention provides a flexible circuit electronics package and a method of bonding a flexible circuit to a hermetic integrated circuit which is useful for a number of applications , including implantation in living tissue as a neural interface , such as a retinal electrode array or an electrical sensor . the tissue paper thin flexible circuit 18 , fig1 , transmits electrical signals to the eye 2 by means of electrodes that are located in a stimulating electrode array 10 , that are in contact with the retina 14 . it is obvious that in addition to a stimulating electrode array or sensing electrode , the electrodes may be contacts connecting to remote electrodes . fig1 illustrates the electronics control unit 20 in a perspective cutaway view of an eye 2 containing a flexible circuit electrode array 18 . the electronics control unit 20 is hermetically sealed . the electronics control unit 20 may be a hermetic ceramic case with electronics inside , or it may be a hermetically sealed integrated circuit , or any other environmentally sealed electronics package . the stimulating electrode array 10 is implanted on the retina 14 . flexible circuit ribbon 24 connects the stimulating electrode array 10 to the electronics control unit 20 . the flexible circuit ribbon 24 preferably passes through the sclera 16 of the eye 2 at incision 12 . another embodiment of the invention is the flexible circuit ribbon 24 replaced by alternative means of electrical interconnection , such as fine wires or thin cable . the lens 4 of the eye 2 is located opposite the retina 14 . a coil 28 , which detects electronic signals such as of images or to charge the electronics control unit 20 power supply , located outside the eye 2 , near the lens 4 , is connected to the electronics control unit 20 by wire 30 . fig2 illustrates a side view of the hermetic electronics control unit 20 and the input / output contacts 22 that are located on the bottom of the unit 20 . the input / output contacts 22 are bonded in the completed assembly to the flexible circuit 18 . thick film pad 23 is formed by known thick film technology , such as silk screening or plating . fig3 illustrates a cutaway side view of the hermetic electronics control unit 20 . the pad 23 facilitates attachment of wire 30 , and is preferably comprised of a biocompatible material such as platinum , iridium , or alloys thereof , and is preferably comprised of platinum paste . wire 30 is preferably bonded to pad 23 by welding . the microelectronics assembly 48 is mounted on the hybrid substrate 44 . vias 46 pass through the substrate 44 to input / output contacts 22 . electrical signals arrive by wire 30 and exit the electronics control unit 20 by input / output contacts 22 . a top view of the flexible circuit 18 is illustrated in fig4 . electrical signals from the electronics control unit 20 ( see fig3 ) pass into bond pads 32 , which are mounted in bond pad end 33 . flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 is preferably comprised of polyimide . the signals pass from the bond pads 32 along traces 34 , which pass along flexible circuit ribbon 24 to the stimulating electrode array 10 . the array 10 contains the electrodes 36 , which are implanted to make electrical contact with the retina 14 of the eye 2 , illustrated in fig1 . an alternative bed of nails embodiment for the electrodes 36 is disclosed by byers , et al . in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 837 , 049 . in fig5 , the hermetic electronics control unit 20 is illustrated mounted to flexible circuit 18 . in order to assure electrical continuity between the electronics control unit 20 and the flexible circuit 18 , the electrical control unit 20 must be intimately bonded to the flexible circuit 18 on the bond pad end 33 . a cutaway of the electronics control unit 20 ( fig5 ) illustrates a bonded connection 42 . the flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 is very thin and flexible and is able to conform to the curvature of the retina 14 ( fig1 ), when implanted thereon . methods of bonding the flexible insulating substrate 18 to the hermetic electronics control unit 20 are discussed next . a preferred embodiment of the invention , illustrated in fig6 , shows the method of bonding the hybrid substrate 244 to the flexible circuit 218 using electrically conductive adhesive 281 , such as a polymer , which may include polystyrene , epoxy , or polyimide , which contains electrically conductive particulate of select biocompatible metal , such as platinum , iridium , titanium , platinum alloys , iridium alloys , or titanium alloys in dust , flake , or powder form . in fig6 , step a , the hybrid substrate 244 , which may alternatively be an integrated circuit or electronic array , and the input / output contacts 222 are prepared for bonding by placing conductive adhesive 281 on the input / output contacts 222 . the rigid integrated circuit 244 is preferably comprised of a ceramic , such as alumina or silicon . in step b , the flexible circuit 218 is preferably prepared for bonding to the hybrid substrate 244 by placing conductive adhesive 281 on bond pads 232 . alternatively , the adhesive 281 may be coated with an electrically conductive biocompatible metal . the flexible circuit 218 contains the flexible electrically insulating substrate 238 , which is preferably comprised of polyimide . the bond pads 232 are preferably comprised of an electrically conductive material that is biocompatible when implanted in living tissue , and are preferably platinum or a platinum alloy , such as platinum - iridium . fig6 , step c illustrates the cross - sectional view a - a of step b . the conductive adhesive 281 is shown in contact with and resting on the bond pads 232 . step d shows the hybrid substrate 244 in position to be bonded to the flexible circuit 218 . the conductive adhesive 281 provides an electrical path between the input / output contacts 222 and the bond pads 232 . step c illustrates the completed bonded assembly wherein the flexible circuit 218 is bonded to the hybrid substrate 144 , thereby providing a path for electrical signals to pass to the living tissue from the electronics control unit ( not illustrated ). the assembly has been electrically isolated and hermetically sealed with adhesive underfill 280 , which is preferably epoxy . fig7 illustrates the steps of an alternative embodiment to bond the hybrid substrate 244 to flexible circuit 218 by studbumping the hybrid substrate 244 and flexible electrically insulating substrate 238 prior to bonding the two components together by a combination of heat and / or pressure , such as ultrasonic energy . in step a , the hybrid substrate 244 is prepared for bonding by forming a studbump 260 on the input / output contacts 222 . the studbump is formed by known methods and is preferably comprised of an electrically conductive material that is biocompatible when implanted in living tissue if exposed to a saline environment . it is preferably comprised of metal , preferably biocompatible metal , or gold or of gold alloys . if gold is selected , then it must be protected with a water resistant adhesive or underfill 280 . alternatively , the studbump 260 may be comprised of an insulating material , such as an adhesive or a polymer , which is coated with an electrically conductive coating of a material that is biocompatible and stable when implanted in living tissue , while an electric current is passed through the studbump 260 . one such material coating may preferably be platinum or alloys of platinum , such as platinum - iridium , where the coating may be deposited by vapor deposition , such as by ion - beam assisted deposition , or electrochemical means . fig7 , step b presents the flexible circuit 218 , which comprises the flexible electrically insulating substrate 238 and bond pads 232 . the flexible circuit 218 is prepared for bonding by the plating bond pads 232 with an electrically conductive material that is biocompatible when implanted in living tissue , such as with a coating of platinum or a platinum alloy . studbumps 260 are then formed on the plated pad 270 by known methods . step c illustrates cross - section a - a of step b , wherein the flexible circuit 218 is ready to be mated with the hybrid substrate 244 . fig7 , step d illustrates the assembly of hybrid substrate 244 flipped and ready to be bonded to flexible circuit 218 . prior to bonding , the studbumps 260 on either side may be flattened by known techniques such as coining . pressure is applied to urge the mated studbumps 260 together as heat is applied to cause the studbumps to bond by a diffusion or a melting process . the bond may preferably be achieved by thermosonic or thermocompression bonding , yielding a strong , electrically conductive bonded connection 242 , as illustrated in step e . an example of a thermosonic bonding method is ultrasound . the bonded assembly is completed by placing an adhesive underfill 280 between the flexible circuit 218 and the hybrid substrate 244 , also increasing the strength of the bonded assembly and electrically isolating each bonded connection . the adhesive underfill 280 is preferably epoxy . fig8 illustrates the steps of a further alternative embodiment to bond the hybrid substrate 44 to flexible circuit 18 by weld staple bonding the substrate 244 and flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 together . in step a , a top view of the flexible circuit 18 is shown . flexible circuit 18 is comprised of flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 , which is preferably polyimide , and bond pads 32 having a through hole 58 therethrough each bond pad 32 and through the top and bottom surfaces of flexible circuit 18 . the bond pads 32 are comprised of an electrically conductive and biocompatible material which is stable when implanted in living tissue , and which is preferably platinum or a platinum alloy , such as platinum - iridium . fig8 , step b presents section a - a , which is shown in the illustration of step a . the through holes 58 pass completely through each bond pad 58 , preferably in the center of the bond pad 58 . they are preferably formed by plasma etching . the bond pads 58 are not covered on the top surface of flexible circuit 18 by flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 , thereby creating bond pad voids 56 . fig8 , step c shows the side view of hybrid substrate 44 with input / output contacts 22 on one surface thereof . the hybrid substrate 44 is positioned , in step d ; to be bonded to the flexible circuit 18 by placing the parts together such that the input / output contacts 22 are aligned with the bond pads 32 . then wire 52 , which is preferably a wire , but may equally well be a ribbon or sheet of weldable material that is also preferably electrically conductive and biocompatible when implanted in living tissue , is attached to input / output contact 22 and bond pad 32 to bond each aligned pair together . the wire 52 is preferably comprised of platinum , or alloys of platinum , such as platinum - iridium . the bond is preferably formed by welding using the parallel gap welder 50 , which moves up and down to force the wire 52 into the through hole 58 and into contact with input / output contact 22 . this process is repeated for each aligned set of input / output contacts 22 and bond pads 32 , as shown in step e . the weld staple interconnect bonding process is completed , as shown in step f , by cutting the wire 54 , leaving each aligned set of input / output contacts 22 and bond pads 32 electrically connected and mechanically bonded together by staple 54 . fig9 illustrates yet another embodiment for attaching the hybrid substrate 244 to a flexible circuit 218 by using a tail - ball 282 component , as shown in step a . the hybrid substrate 244 is preferably comprised of a ceramic material , such as alumina or silicon . in one embodiment , a wire , preferably made of platinum or another electrically conductive , biocompatible material , is fabricated to have a ball on one end , like the preferred tail - ball 282 illustrated in step a . the tail - ball 282 has tail 284 attached thereto , as shown in the side view of step a . the tail - ball 282 is aligned with input / output contact 222 on hybrid substrate 244 , in preparation to being bonded to flexible circuit 218 , illustrated in step b . the top view of step b illustrates flexible electrically insulating substrate 238 , which is preferably comprised of polyimide , having the through hole 237 passing completely thorough the thickness and aligned with the tail 284 . the bond pads 232 are exposed on both the top and bottom surfaces of the flexible circuit 218 , by voids 234 , enabling electrical contact to be made with input / output contacts 222 of the hybrid substrate 244 . the voids are preferably formed by plasma etching . the side view of fig9 , step c , which illustrates section a - a of step b , shows the hybrid substrate 244 in position to be bonded to and aligned with flexible circuit 218 . the tails 284 are each placed in through hole 237 . pressure is applied and the tail - balls 282 are placed in intimate contact with bond pads 232 and input / output contacts 222 . step c illustrates that each of the tails 284 is bent to make contact with the bond pads 232 . the bonding process is completed by bonding , preferably by welding , each of the tails 284 , bond pads 232 , tail - balls 282 , and input / output contacts 222 together , thus forming a mechanical and electrical bond . locking wire 262 is an optional addition to assure that physical contact is achieved in the bonded component . the process is completed by underfilling the gap with an electrically insulating and biocompatible material ( not illustrated ), such as epoxy . fig1 illustrates a further alternative embodiment to creating a flexible circuit that is electrically and adhesively bonded to a hermetic rigid electronics package . in this approach , the flexible circuit is fabricated directly on the rigid substrate . step a shows the hybrid substrate 44 , which is preferably a ceramic , such as alumina or silicon , having a total thickness of about 0 . 012 inches , with patterned vias 46 therethrough . the vias 46 are preferably comprised of frit containing platinum . in step b , the routing 35 is patterned on one side of the hybrid substrate 44 by known techniques , such as photolithography or masked deposition . it is equally possible to form routing 35 on both sides of the substrate 44 . the hybrid substrate 44 has an inside surface 45 and an outside surface 49 . the routing 35 will carry electrical signals from the integrated circuit , that is to be added , to the vias 46 , and ultimately will stimulate the retina ( not illustrated ). the routing 35 is patterned by know processes , such as by masking during deposition or by post - deposition photolithography . the routing 35 is comprised of a biocompatible , electrically conductive , patternable material , such at platinum . step c illustrates formation of the release coat 47 on the outside surface 49 of the hybrid substrate 44 . the release coat 47 is deposited by known techniques , such as physical vapor deposition . the release coat 47 is removable by know processes such as etching . it is preferably comprised of an etchable material , such as aluminum . step d illustrates the formation of the traces 34 on the outside surface 49 of the hybrid substrate 44 . the traces 34 are deposited by a known process , such as physical vapor deposition or ion - beam assisted deposition . they may be patterned by a known process , such as by masking during deposition or by post - deposition photolithography . the traces 34 are comprised of an electrically conductive , biocompatible material , such as platinum , platinum alloys , such as platinum - iridium , or titanium - platinum . the traces 34 conduct electrical signals along the flexible circuit 18 and to the stimulating electrode array 10 , which were previously discussed and are illustrated in fig4 . step e illustrates formation of the flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 by known techniques , preferably liquid precursor spinning . the flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 is preferably comprised of polyimide . the flexible electrically insulating substrate electrically insulates the traces 34 . it is also biocompatible when implanted in living tissue . the coating is about 5 um thick . the liquid precursor is spun coated over the traces 34 and the entire outside surface 49 of the hybrid substrate 44 , thereby forming the flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 . the spun coating is cured by known techniques . step f illustrates the formation of voids in the flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 thereby revealing the traces 34 . the flexible electrically insulating substrate is preferably patterned by known techniques , such as photolithography with etching . step g illustrates the rivets 51 having been formed over and in intimate contact with traces 34 . the rivets 51 are formed by known processes , and are preferably formed by electrochemical deposition of a biocompatible , electrically conductive material , such as platinum or platinum alloys , such as platinum - iridium . step h illustrates formation of the metal layer 53 over the rivets 51 in a controlled pattern , preferably by photolithographic methods , on the outside surface 49 . the rivets 51 and the metal layer 53 are in intimate electrical contact . the metal layer 53 may be deposited by known techniques , such as physical vapor deposition , over the entire surface followed by photolithographic patterning , or it may be deposited by masked deposition . the metal layer 53 is formed of an electrically conductive , biocompatible material , which in a preferred embodiment is platinum . the patterned metal layer 53 forms traces 34 and electrodes 36 , which conduct electrical signals from the electronics control unit 20 and the electrodes 36 ( see fig4 and 5 ). step i illustrates the flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 applied over the outside surface 49 of the rigid substrate 44 , as in step e . the flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 covers the rivets 51 and the metal layer 53 . step j illustrates the hybrid substrate 44 having been cut by known means , preferably by a laser or , in an alternative embodiment , by a diamond wheel , thereby creating cut 55 . the portion of hybrid substrate 44 that will be removed is called the carrier 60 . the flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 is patterned by known methods , such as photolithographic patterning , or it may be deposited by masked deposition , to yield voids that define the electrodes 36 . the electrodes 36 transmit electrical signals directly to the retina of the implanted eye ( see fig4 ) step k illustrates flexible circuit 18 attached to the hybrid substrate 44 . the carrier 60 is removed by utilizing release coat 47 . in a preferred embodiment , release coat 47 is etched by known means to release carrier 60 , leaving behind flexible circuit 18 . step 1 illustrates the implantable electronic device of a flexible circuit 18 and an intimately bonded hermetic electronics control unit 20 . the electronics control unit 20 , which contains the microelectronics assembly 48 , is hermetically sealed with header 62 bonded to rigid circuit substrate 44 . the header 62 is comprised of a material that is biocompatible when implanted in living tissue and that is capable of being hermetically sealed to protect the integrated circuit electronics from the environment . fig1 illustrates an electronics control unit 320 attached to flexible electrically insulating substrate 338 , which is preferably comprised of polyimide , by bonded connections 342 . the electronics control unit 320 is preferably a hermetically sealed integrated circuit , although in an alternative embodiment it may be a hermetically sealed hybrid assembly . bonded connections 342 are preferably conductive adhesive , although they may alternatively be solder bumps . the bond area is underfilled with an adhesive 380 . rigid stimulating electrode array 310 is attached to the flexible electrically insulating substrate 338 by bonded connections 342 . fig1 illustrates an electronics control unit 320 attached to rigid stimulating electrode array 310 by bonded connections 342 . the bond area is then underfilled with an adhesive 380 , preferably epoxy . bonded connections 342 are preferably conductive adhesive , although they may alternatively be solder bumps . the bonding steps are illustrated in fig1 for a flex circuit assembly that is bonded with rivets 61 that are created in situ by a deposition process , preferably by electroplating . the rivets 61 are rivet - shaped electrical connections . the substrate 68 is shown generally in fig1 . it is comprised of the hybrid substrate 44 , which is preferably a ceramic , such as alumina or silicon . the silicon would preferably be coated with a biocompatible material to achieve biocompatibility of the silicon , which is well known to slowly dissolve when implanted in living tissue . the hybrid substrate 44 preferably contains vias 46 that pass through the thickness of the hybrid substrate 44 , see fig1 , step ( a ). vias 46 are not required to enable this invention , and are not present in alternative embodiments . it is preferred that the hybrid substrate 44 be rigid , although alternative embodiments utilize a non - rigid substrate . the vias 46 are integral with electrically conductive routing 35 that has been placed on the surface of the hybrid substrate 44 by known techniques . the routing is preferably comprised of a stable biocompatible material , such as platinum , a platinum alloy , or gold , most preferably platinum . a flexible electrically insulating substrate 38 is preferably comprised of two layers of an electrically insulating material , such as a polymer . known preferred polymer materials are polyimide or parylene . parylene refers to polyparaxylylene , a known polymer that has excellent implant characteristics . for example , parylene , manufactured by specialty coating systems ( scs ), a division of cookson electronic equipment group , located in indianapolis , ind ., is a preferred material . parylene is available in various forms , such as parylene c , parylene d , and parylene n , each having different properties . the preferred form is parylene c . the flexible electrically insulating substrate layers 38 are preferably of approximately equal thicknesses , as illustrated in fig1 , step ( a ). a trace 65 is also illustrated in fig1 , step ( a ), where trace 65 may be at least one , but preferably more than one , trace 65 that is electrically conductive . the traces 65 are integrally bonded to bond pads 63 . the bond pads 63 each have a bond pad hole 64 therethrough , which is in approximate alignment with first hole 57 in first electrically insulating substrate 37 and second hole 59 in the second flexible electrically insulating substrates 38 , such that there is a hole , with centers approximately aligned , through the thickness of the flexible assembly 66 . the flexible assembly 66 is placed next to the hybrid substrate in preparation for bonding , fig1 , step ( b ). the flexible assembly aligned holes that are formed by first substrate holes 57 , bond pad holes 64 , and second substrate holes 59 are aligned with the routing 35 . in a preferred embodiment , there is at least one via 46 , although no via 46 is required . in a preferred embodiment , an adhesive layer 39 is applied to adhesively bond the assembly together . the adhesive is preferably epoxy , silicone , or polyimide . in alternative embodiments , the assembly is not adhesively bonded . as illustrated in fig1 , step ( c ), a rivet 61 is formed in each flexible substrate hole to bond the assembly together . the rivets 61 are preferably formed by a deposition process , most preferably electroplating . the rivets 61 are comprised of a biocompatible , electrically conductive material , preferably platinum , although alternative embodiments may utilize platinum alloys ( e . g . platinum - iridium or platinum - rhodium ), iridium , gold , palladium , or palladium alloys . it is most preferred that rivet 61 be comprised of electroplated platinum , called “ plated platinum ” herein . referring to fig1 and 15 , a method to produce plated platinum according to the present invention is described comprising connecting a common electrode 402 , the anode , and a bonded assembly 70 , the cathode , to a voltage to current converter 406 with a wave form generator 430 and monitor 428 , preferably an oscilloscope . the common electrode 402 , bonded assembly 70 , a reference electrode 410 , for use as a reference in controlling the power source , which is comprised of a voltage to current converter 406 and a waveform generator 430 , and an electroplating solution are placed in a electroplating cell 400 having a means for mixing 414 the electroplating solution . power may be supplied to the electrodes with constant voltage , constant current , pulsed voltage , scanned voltage or pulsed current to drive the electroplating process . the waveform generator 430 and voltage to current converter 406 is set such that the rate of deposition will cause the platinum to deposit as plated platinum , the rate being greater than the deposition rate necessary to form shiny platinum and less than the deposition rate necessary to form platinum black . because no impurities or other additives , such as lead , which is a neurotoxin and cannot be used in an implantable device , need to be introduced during the plating process to produce plated platinum , the plated material can be pure platinum . alternatively , other materials can be introduced during the plating process , if so desired , but these materials are not necessary to the formation of plated platinum . referring to fig1 and 15 , the electroplating cell 400 , is preferably a 50 ml to 150 ml four neck glass flask or beaker , the common electrode 402 , or anode , is preferably a large surface area platinum wire or platinum sheet , the reference electrode 410 is preferably a ag / agcl electrode ( silver , silver chloride electrode ), the bonded assembly 70 , or cathode , can be any suitable material depending on the application and can be readily chosen by one skilled in the art . preferable examples of the bonded assembly 70 include , but are not limited to , platinum , iridium , rhodium , gold , tantalum , titanium or niobium , preferably platinum . the means for mixing 414 is preferably a magnetic stirrer ( fig1 ). the plating solution is preferably 3 to 30 millimoles ammonium hexachloroplatinate in 0 . 4 moles of disodium hydrogen phosphate , but may be derived from any chloroplatinic acid or bromoplatinic acid or other electroplating solution . the preferable plating temperature is approximately 24 °- 26 ° c . the electroplating system for pulsed current control is shown in fig1 and 15 . while constant voltage , constant current , pulsed voltage or pulsed current can be used to control the electroplating process , pulsed current control of the plating process is preferable for plating rivets 61 , which have a height that approximates their diameter . the preferable current range to produce plated platinum , which varies from about 50 to 2000 ma / cm 2 , is dependent on the whole dimensions , fig1 , where the response voltage ranges from about − 0 . 45 volts to − 0 . 85 volts . applying power in this range with the above solution yields a plating rate in the range of about 0 . 05 um per minute to 1 . 0 um per minute , the preferred range for the plating rate of plated platinum . the average current density may be determined by the equation y = 19572x − 1 . 46 , where y is the average current density in ma / cm 2 and x is the hole diameter in microns . pulsed current control also allows an array of rivets to be plated simultaneously achieving uniform rivet properties . as plating conditions , including but not limited to the plating solution , surface area of the electrodes , ph , platinum concentration and the presence of additives , are changed the optimal control parameters will change according to basic electroplating principles . plated platinum will be formed so long as the rate of deposition of the platinum particles is slower than that for the formation of platinum gray and faster than that for the formation of shiny platinum . it has been found that because of the physical strength of plated platinum , it is possible to plate rivets of thickness greater than 30 microns . it is very difficult to plate shiny platinum in layers greater than approximately several microns because the internal stress of the dense platinum layer cause the plated layer to peel off . on a hybrid substrate 44 , a thin - layer routing 35 , preferably platinum , is sputtered and then covered with about 6 um thick flexible assembly 66 , preferably polyimide , with holes in the range from 5 um to 50 um . on each sample , preferably about 100 to 700 or more such holes are exposed for plating of rivets 61 , see fig1 a . sem micrographs record the rivet surface appearance before plating . the surface is chemically and electrochemically cleaned before plating . the electrodes in the test cell are arranged , so that the bonded assembly 70 ( cathode ) is physically parallel with the common electrode 402 ( anode ). the reference electrode 410 is positioned beside the bonded assembly 70 . the plating solution is added to electroplating solution level 411 . the solution is comprised of about 18 millimoles ammonium hexachloroplatinate in about 0 . 4 moles phosphate buffer solution . the amount of solution used depends on the number of rivets 61 to be plated . the means for mixing 414 , preferably a magnetic stirrer , is activated . a voltage waveform is generated , preferably with a 1 msec pulse width as a 500 hz square wave , which is converted to a current signal through a voltage to current converter 406 . the pulse current is applied to the plating electrode versus anode . the electrode voltage versus ag / agcl reference electrode is monitored using an oscilloscope ( tektronix tds220 oscilloscope ). the current amplitude is adjusted so that the cathodic peak voltage reaches about − 0 . 6 v versus the ag / agcl reference electrode 410 . during plating , the electrode voltage tends to decrease with plating time . the current amplitude is frequently adjusted so that the electrode voltage is kept within − 0 . 5 to − 0 . 7 v range versus ag / agcl reference electrode 410 . when the specified plating time is reached , the current is eliminated . the cathode is rinsed in deionized water thoroughly . typical plating time is in the range of about 5 to 60 minutes , preferably 15 to 25 minutes . the plated surface is examined under an optical microscope . optical photomicrographs are taken at both low and high magnifications to record the image of the surface . the plated samples are profiled with a surface profilometer to measure the dimensions of the plated rivet . the total plated rivet has a total height of about 8 to 16 um . after plating , the pulsing current amplitudes are averaged for the total plating time and recorded . it is has been demonstrated that the current density increases exponentially with sample hole decrease . the smaller the sample holes , the higher the current density required ( see fig1 ). an illustrative example of a plated platinum rivet according to the present invention are micrographs produced on a scanning electron microscope ( sem ) at 850 × taken by a jeol jsm5910 microscope , fig1 a and 17 b . a further preferred embodiment of the invention , illustrated in fig1 , shows the method of bonding the hybrid substrate 244 to the flexible circuit 218 using electrically conductive adhesive 281 , such as a polymer , which may include polystyrene , epoxy , or polyimide , which contains electrically conductive particulate of select biocompatible metal , such as platinum , iridium , titanium , platinum alloys , iridium alloys , or titanium alloys in dust , flake , or powder form . in fig1 , step a , the hybrid substrate 244 , which may alternatively be an integrated circuit or electronic array , and the input / output contacts 222 are prepared for bonding by placing conductive adhesive 281 on the input / output contacts 222 . the conductive adhesive 281 , which includes at least one bump , is cured to become hard . a second conductive adhesive 281 a is applied on top of the first cured conductive adhesive 281 . preferably on each bump of conductive adhesive 281 an additional bump is applied to raise the bumps of conductive adhesive . the rigid integrated circuit 244 is preferably comprised of a ceramic , such as alumina or silicon . in step b , the flexible circuit 218 is preferably prepared for bonding to the hybrid substrate 244 by placing conductive adhesive 281 on bond pads 232 . alternatively , the adhesive 281 may be coated with an electrically conductive biocompatible metal . the flexible circuit 218 contains the flexible electrically insulating substrate 238 , which is preferably comprised of polyimide . the bond pads 232 are preferably comprised of an electrically conductive material that is biocompatible when implanted in living tissue , and are preferably platinum or a platinum alloy , such as platinum - iridium . fig1 , step c illustrates the cross - sectional view a - a of step b . the conductive adhesive 281 is shown in contact with and resting on the bond pads 232 . step d shows the hybrid substrate 244 in position being bonded to the flexible circuit 218 . the conductive adhesive 281 resting on the bond pads 232 and the conductive adhesive 281 a resting on the cured conductive adhesive 281 resting on the contacts 222 , are cured to yield one conductive adhesive 281 / 281 a / 281 . the conductive adhesive 281 / 281 a / 281 provides an electrical path between the input / output contacts 222 and the bond pads 232 . step c illustrates the completed bonded assembly wherein the flexible circuit 218 is bonded to the hybrid substrate 244 , thereby providing a path for electrical signals to pass to the living tissue from the electronics control unit ( not illustrated ). the conductive adhesive 281 / 281 a / 281 is higher than in the embodiment shown in fig6 and the distance between the hybrid substrate 244 and flexible circuit 218 is larger . in step e the assembly has been electrically isolated and hermetically sealed with adhesive underfill 280 , which is preferably epoxy . since the distance between the hybrid substrate 244 and flexible circuit 218 is larger the underfill 280 is higher in this embodiment . the method of manufacturing an implantable electronic device comprises the following steps : a ) applying conductive adhesive 281 on one or more contacts 222 on a substrate 244 , and curing the conductive adhesive 281 ; b ) applying one or more layers of conductive adhesive 281 a on the cured conductive adhesive 281 ; c ) applying conductive adhesive 281 on one or more bond pads 232 on a flexible assembly 218 ; d ) aligning the contacts 222 on the substrate with the bond pads 232 on the flexible assembly ; e ) curing the conductive adhesive 281 connecting the contacts 232 on the substrate 244 with the bond pads 232 on the flexible assembly 218 ; and f ) filling the remaining space between the substrate and the flexible assembly with adhesive underfill 280 , and curing the underfill 280 . each layer of conductive adhesive applied on the substrate is preferably cured prior to aligning with the conductive adhesive applied on the flexible assembly . a biocompatible non - conductive adhesive underfill is preferably applied between the substrate and the flexible assembly . the adhesive connecting the contacts on the substrate with the bond pads on the flexible assembly contains epoxy or polyimide filled with electrically conductive biocompatible metal in dust , flake , or powder form . the electrically conductive biocompatible metal preferably comprises silver , gold , platinum , iridium , titanium , platinum alloys , iridium alloys , titanium alloys in , or mixtures thereof . the adhesive connecting the contacts on the substrate with the bond pads on the flexible assembly can alternatively be coated with an electrically conductive biocompatible metal . the adhesive underfill is cured at a pressure of 50 psi to 100 psi . the adhesive underfill is preferably cured at a pressure of 60 psi to 90 psi . the adhesive underfill is more preferably cured at a pressure of 70 psi to 85 psi . the curing process carried out under pressure yields an adhesive with very limited amount of gas bubbles and improved adhesion . the adhesive underfill is cured under pressure at a temperature of 20 ° c . to 30 ° c . for 3 h to 50 h . the adhesive underfill is alternatively cured at a temperature of 70 ° c . to 100 ° c . for a time of 10 min to 2 h . the height of one or more conductive adhesives on the substrate determines the distance between the substrate and the flexible assembly . the conductive adhesive on the substrate which comprises one or more layer and is preferably in the form of bumps is preferably cured before being aligned with the uncured bumps on the flexible assembly . the hard bumps of conductive adhesives on the substrate push into the soft bumps of the flexible assembly as deep as possible prior to the final curing process . therefore , the higher the hard bumps on the substrate are the larger is the distance between the substrate and the flexible assembly . a ) a substrate 244 having one or more contacts 222 and two or more layers of conductive adhesive 281 / 281 a on the contacts 222 ; b ) a flexible assembly 218 having one or more bond pads 232 and one or more layers of conductive adhesive 281 on the bond pads 232 ; c ) the conductive adhesive 281 connecting the contacts 222 on the substrate 244 with the bond pads 232 on the flexible assembly 218 ; and d ) adhesive underfill 280 in the remaining space between the substrate 244 and the flexible assembly 218 . the substrate comprises a biocompatible ceramic . the biocompatible ceramic comprises alumina . the substrate is rigid and is an electrically insulated substrate circuit . the flexible assembly is a thin substrate circuit . the conductive adhesive provides an electrical path between the input / output contacts and the bond pads . the adhesive underfill is nonconductive and contains epoxy . furthermore , it has been found that because of the physical strength of plated platinum , it is possible to plate rivets 61 of thickness greater than 16 um . it is very difficult to plate shiny platinum in layers greater than approximately 1 to 5 um because the internal stress of the dense platinum layer which will cause plated layer to peel off . the following example is illustrative of electroplating platinum as a rivet 61 , according to the present invention . a flexible electrically insulating substrate comprised of a first substrate 37 and a second substrate 38 of polyimide having a total thickness of 6 um . it had 700 first substrate holes 57 , an equal number of matching bond pad holes 64 , and an equal number of matching second substrate holes 59 , all in alignment so as to create a continuous hole through flexible assembly 66 that terminates on routing 35 , arranged in 100 groups of seven on about 40 um centers , fig4 a . the hybrid substrate 44 was alumina and the routing 35 was platinum . the bond pad 63 was platinum . the assembly was cleaned by rinsing three times in 10 % hcl . it was further prepared by bubbling for 10 seconds at +/− 5v at 1 hz in phosphate buffered saline . finally , it was rinsed in deionized water . the electroplating set up according to fig1 and 15 was comprised of an electroplating cell 400 that was a 100 ml beaker with an electroplating solution level 411 at about the 75 ml level . the solution was 18 millimoles of ammonium hexachloroplatinate in 0 . 4 moles phosphate buffer solution . the means for mixing 414 was a magnetic stirrer , which was activated . the voltage waveform of 1 msec pulse width as a square wave was generated by an hp 33120a waveform generator , which is converted to current signal through a voltage to current converter 406 . the pulse current was 1 msec in pulse width at 500 hz square wave . the pulse current was applied on the plating electrode bonded assembly 70 versus common electrode 402 . the electrode voltage versus ag / agcl reference electrode 410 was monitored using as a monitor 428 a tektronix model tds220 oscilloscope . the current amplitude was increased so that the bonded assembly 70 ( cathode ) peak voltage reached − 0 . 6 v versus the ag / agcl reference electrode 410 . during plating , the electrode voltage decreased with plating time . the average current density was 660 ma / cm 2 , which generated response voltages of − 0 . 5 to − 0 . 7 volts , where the voltage was controlled by the current . a 1 msec pulse width square wave was generated by an hp 33120a arbitrary waveform generator . the pulse was converted to a current signal through a voltage to current converter 406 . the pulse current was typically about 1 msec in pulse width as a 500 hz square wave . the resulting plated platinum rivet 61 was about 32 um diameter on the button end and about 15 um tall , with about 9 um of the height extending above the polyimide substrate . the plated platinum rivet was dense , strong , and electrically conductive . scanning electron microscope ( sem )/ energy dispersive analysis ( edax ™) analysis were performed on the rivets 61 . sem micrographs of the plated surface were taken showing its as - plated surface , fig1 b . energy dispersed analysis demonstrated that the rivet 61 was pure platinum , with no detectable oxygen . the above described is the preferred embodiment of the current invention , however the platinum electrodeposition described in co - pending application “ platinum electrode and method for manufacturing the same ,” application ser . no . 10 / 226 , 976 , filed on aug . 23 , 2002 , now u . s . pat . no . 6 , 974 , 533 , and incorporated herein by reference , is also effective for forming electrochemically deposited rivets . the rivet 61 ( fig1 ) forms an electrically conductive bond with the routing 35 and with the bond pad 63 . it is obvious that the bonded assembly may be stacked with other bonded assemblies forming multiple stacked assemblies with increased stacking density . accordingly , what has been shown is an improved flexible circuit with an electronics control unit attached thereto , which is suitable for implantation in living tissue and to transmit electrical impulses to the living tissue . obviously , many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings . it is therefore to be understood that , within the scope of the appended claims , the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described . | 7 |
fig1 illustrates in a strictly schematic vertical longitudinal sectional view the structure of a tempering device . it contains as an essential component a tempering vessel 2 in vertical arrangement . an amount of mass 4 is present in an interior container 6 and is in heat exchange relation with a heat exchange medium , preferably water , which is circulated in a jacket space 8 between the interior container 6 and an outer container 10 . a conducting helix 12 is provided in the jacket space 8 to increase the flow velocity of the heat exchange medium and thus the uniformity of the heat transfer so that local temperature differentials within the mass 4 are avoided as far as possible . a retractable lid 14 which is also made double - walled and can be supplied with the heat exchange medium ( not shown ) closes the vessel 2 and bears a stirrer 16 driven by a gear motor 18 , a probe body 20 immersed into the mass 4 and serving for measuring the temperature of the mass and possibly also other values of state , and further devices , if required , which are not illustrated in fig1 . during and after the tempering process , the mass 4 is continuously recycled between a discharge conduit 22 via a first three - way valve 24 , a mass pump 26 , a recirculating circuit 28 , a second three - way valve 30 , and a back flow conduit 32 . all these parts are , as well as the vessel 2 , surrounded by jacket spaces 34 through which the heat exchange medium is circulated , and a heat insulation 36 surrounds the vessel 2 and the said parts to eliminate as far as possible any disturbances of the tempering process by ambient temperature influences and heat losses . a heated feed conduit 38 is provided to supply mass to the vessel 2 . the vessel can be emptied via the three - way valve 24 through an outlet 40 , and a discharge line 42 is provided for delivering tempered mass and may be fed by a corresponding setting of the second three - way valve 30 . the heat exchange medium , preferably water , serves for heating and cooling of the mass . it is circulated in its own recirculation path : from the outlet of a recirculation pump 44 , a heat exchange medium feed line 46 is fed which opens into the lower range of the jacket space 8 of the vessel 2 via a plurality of outlet openings 48 . the heat exchange medium flows upwards in the vessel jacket space , under conduction of the conducting helix 12 , and then flows via an overflow container 50 through the jacket spaces 34 of the second three - way valve 30 of the mass pump 26 and the first three - way valve 24 , as well as through a heat exchange medium return circuit 52 connected to those jacket spaces 34 back into the inlet of the recirculation pump 34 . a feed line 55 with a stop valve 56 is provided for feeding or discharging the heat exchange medium . a heating and cooling device 58 is provided in the heat exchange medium feed line 46 , and heat exchange medium temperature sensors 60 and 62 are arranged upstream of the recirculating pump 44 and downstream of the heating and cooling device 58 , respectively , which sensors are connected via conduits 64 and 66 , respectively , to a central control unit 68 . the latter controls the heating and cooling device 58 via a connection 70 so that the temperature of the heat exchange medium is controlled in acordance with a predetermined program . the heating and cooling device 58 is not described here at greater detail , it being noted that this device may comprise for instance two heat exchangers which are supplied with hot and cold water , respectively , and are controlled by means of control valves . in addition to the measuring probe 20 already mentioned , further measuring and monitoring means may be provided , as particularly a level sensor ( not illustrated ) for sensing the filling level of the mass 4 in the vessel 2 , and a separate temperature sensor 72 which is also connected to the central control unit 68 via a connection 74 . furthermore , there will be normally display devices ( not illustrated ) provided for the temperature of the mass , the temperature of the heat exchange medium and other values of state . for instance , a typical tempering process can proceed in the tempering device illustrated in fig1 by the aid of the central control unit 68 as follows : at the beginning of the tempering process , the mass 4 is heated by means of the correspondingly heated heat exchange medium to a constant temperature of approximately 50 ° c , and the mass is continuously recirculated at that temperature by means of the mass pump 26 . the temperature of the heat exchange medium is also 50 ° c . in that condition , the mass temperature is above the melting point of the highest - melting cocoa butter crystal modification so that the mass does not contain any cocoa butter crystals . that molten mass which is held homogeneous by the recirculation is then cooled by first cooling the recirculating heat exchange medium relatively rapidly , e . g . within half an hour , to an intermediate temperature which is not too low , e . g . to approximately 33 ° c . in that first cooling stage , the mass is cooled down with a corresponding delay . the temperature of the mass is communicated to the central control unit 68 , e . g . from the temperature sensor 72 . as soon as the mass has attained the desired intermediate temperature , which for instance may be the case after approximately two hours , the temperature of the heat exchange medium is further lowered to approximately 26 ° c ., and the mass correspondingly cools down further in a second cooling stage . as soon as the mass has attained a definite second temperature , the heat exchange medium is heated to about 34 ° c ., and the temperature of the mass will follow until finally the mass reaches a constant third temperature of also approximately 34 ° c . ; at that temperature , the mass is ready for further processing and can be taken from the discharge conduit 42 . as the second temperature of the mass at which switching to the heating towards the third temperature is effected , the temperature is chosen at which a heat production is observed in the mass , which is due to undesired crystallisation processes . the reduction of the cooling rate of the mass , which is caused thereby , is sensed and measured and transferred into a switching order which initiates the heating towards the third temperature . fig2 shows strictly schematical in a temperature - time graph a cooling curve for the mass , it being assumed that the ordinate corresponds to the temperature . initially , there results a normal exponential cooling curve 76 . without the occurrence of heat - producing processes , that curve would continue according to the dashed line 78 . by the occurrence of a heat production , however , the cooling will be slowed down so that at a certain time t 2 , the cooling rate or cooling velocity will be only a predetermined fraction of the cooling rate which normally would have to be expected at that time . as a consequence of the heat production , the temperature of the mass does not follow the dashed line 78 but , rather , the line 80 . it is assumed in fig2 that the cooling capacity is relatively low so that the cooling rate of the mass can drop due to the initiation of the heat production to approximately zero . however , already at an earlier time , i . e . at the said time t 2 at which the mass has the temperature t 2 , the cooling process is terminated by switching on into the heating towards the third or processing temperature . fig3 shows in a similar representation as fig2 a typical course of the temperature of the mass in the case of a two - stage cooling . at the time t z , the temperature of the water which here serves as the heat exchange medium is rapidly lowered , and the still higher mass temperature follows correspondingly and approximates exponentially the new lower water temperature . the cooling curve of the mass , however , finally does not take the dashed course 78 but the course 80 caused by the self - heating so that again at a time t 2 at which the mass has the temperature t 2 , the cooling rate of the mass will be strongly reduced ; as soon as that reduction is present , the process is switched on to the heating towards the third temperature . fig4 illustrates the principal possibility to obtain a switching order for terminating the cooling from a measurement of the mass temperature . from a probe body 20 immersed into the mass , a temperature signal is delivered to a first amplifier v 1 via a connecting conduit 82 . in the probe body 20 , a transducer is provided , e . g . a thermo couple , a thermo battery or a resistance thermometer . the first amplifier v 1 delivers a correspondingly amplified electrical output signal to a differentiating stage d 1 which in known manner contains as effective components a rc combination consisting of a condenser c 1 and a resistor r 1 . the differentiating stage d 1 supplies to an intermediate amplifier v 2 a signal which is proportional to the first derivative with respect to time of the temperature of the mass . the output signal of the intermediate amplifier v 2 is again differentiated in a second differentiating stage d 2 which contains as effective components a condenser c 2 and a resistor r 2 , and the output signal which thus corresponds to the second timely derivative of the temperature of the mass , is supplied to a switching stage s 1 via a switching amplifier v 3 . in the entrance of the switching amplifier , a signal will appear only if the rate of change of the mass temperature changes , and the appearance of such a signal triggers in the switching stage s 1 a switching process by which the central control unit 68 ( see fig1 ) is caused to increase the temperature of the heat exchange medium and thus initiates the heating of the mass towards the third or processing temperature . fig5 illustrates a simplified possibility wherein the second differentiating stage d 2 is eliminated . in that case , the switching amplifier v 3 or the switching stage s 1 must have a discriminating effect , i . e . must trigger the desired switching process at a certain level of the output signal coming from the differentiating stage d 1 . for example , a schmitt trigger can be used for that purpose . such a device , however , can also be disposed of if for example the switching stage s 1 is provided with a relay which simply drops and thereby triggers the switching process when the exitation current for that relay as delivered from the output of the switching amplifier v 3 falls below a certain value . fig6 illustrates a possible embodiment with a digital evaluating device . in that case , the electrical temperature signal delivered from the probe body 20 via the connecting line 82 is transposed in an entrance stage 86 into a digital signal , and the digital signal is under control of a cycling unit 84 periodically , e . g . every 15 seconds , fed into a store 88 and a delay device 90 . the delay device 90 effects a delay by one cycle period or a plurality of cycle periods . the outputs of the store 88 and the delay device 90 are periodically compared in a comparator 92 , and the digital differential signal appearing in the output of the comparator 92 controls a switching stage s 1 . fig7 illustrates in a somewhat more detailed block circuit diagram an evaluating circuit of the kind shown in fig5 . the probe body contains a resistance thermometer in form of a resistor r 3 . via the two - line connecting conduit 82 , the resistor r 3 is arranged in a bridge circuit the other branches of which are formed by resistors r 4 , r 5 , r 6 and r 7 . the resistor r 6 is an adjustable resistor and serves for adjusting the zero point . the bridge is fed with supply voltage via the terminals 94 and 96 . the measuring voltage taken from the bridge diagonal is connected , in accordance with the schematic illustration in fig5 to the input of a voltage amplifier v 1 the output of which is connected to the input of a switching amplifier v 3 via a differentiating stage d 1 consisting of the condenser c 1 and the resistor r 1 . the output of the switching amplifier is connected to the switching stage s 1 via a filter circuit consisting of the resistor r 8 and the condenser c 3 . the condenser c 1 of the differentiating stage d 1 can be short - circuited with a switch s 2 ; then a signal which directly corresponds to the temperature of the mass will appear at the output of the amplifier v 3 . the switch s 2 may also be used to make the evaluation circuit operative only after the mass has reached a temperature which is only slightly above an expected second temperature . this can be made also automatically , for instance by opening the switch s 2 by means of a relay controlled by the output of the switching amplifier v 3 when the said temperature slightly above the expected second temperature has been reached . re - setting of the switch s 2 into the closed position can be effected by the switching stage s 1 upon triggering thereof . fig8 illustrates a modified embodiment of the circuit according to fig7 in which the input of the switching amplifier v 3 can be biased with an adjustable basic voltage obtained from a voltage divider r 9 , r 10 ; thereby the switching point at which the switching stage s 1 is triggered may be varied . the sensitivity of the differentiating stage will be the larger the larger the time constant of the rc member will be . because of the slowness and low magnitude of the temperature changes sensed , it is to the purpose to select a time constant as large as possible ; a limitation results from the requirement that the response speed must not be too low . in usual tempering processes , a time constant in the order of magnitude of one minute is to the purpose . this can be obtained , for example , with a condenser of 6 μf and a resistor of 10 mohm . of course , also switching means can be provided , if necessary , in order to rapidly switch between different time constants by selecting different condensers c 1 and / or resistors r 1 . in all other respects , the dimensioning of a practically useful circuit according to fig7 will not be in any way difficult for a skilled artisan . for the amplifiers v 1 and v3 , commercial operation amplifiers may be used , the amplification factors of which will have to be selected in accordance with the switching powers required in the switching stage s 1 . for purpose of stabilization , negative feed back can be provided in the amplifiers ; circuit particulars of that kind are not illustrated in fig7 and 8 . the resistor r 3 may for instance take the form of a platinum resistance thermometer of 100 ohm ; in correspondence thereto , the remaining resistors of the bridge may have approximately the following values : r 5 = 100 ohm , r 4 = 100 ohm , r 6 = 50 ohm , r 7 = 100 ohm . the filter in the output of the switching amplifier v 3 can be dimensioned in various ways according to the kind of possible disturbing influences which are to be suppressed ; it being understood that the time constant of that filter should be small as compared with the time constant of the differentiating stage d 1 . if for instance the time constant of the differentiating stage d 1 is approximately one minute , one may select r 8 = 50 kohm and c 3 = 50 μf which corresponds to a time constant of 2 . 5 seconds . fig9 illustrates in a schematic block representation similar to fig4 and 5 the basic structure of an evaluating device in case that a sensing means is provided in the probe body 20 , which responds directly to the rate of change of the temperature of the mass , whereby already the primary signal fed into the connecting line 82 will directly correspond to the rate of change of the temperature . then , differentiating stages are not necessary , and it is principally sufficient to provide an amplifier v 1 and a subsequent switching stage s 1 to obtain the desired effects . fig1 to 13 illustrate various simple possibilities to obtain a signal which corresponds directly to the rate of change of the temperature of the mass . according to fig1 , two sensing bodies 98 and 100 are immersed into the mass 4 , which bodies consist of materials of different heat conductivity and comprise in both cases in the center a temperature sensing element which delivers an electrical temperature signal via a conduit 102 and 104 , respectively . because of the different heat conductivities of the materials of the two sensing bodies 98 , 100 , different time constants will result for the heat transport from the mass 4 to the temperature sensing elements , and the differential of the signals delivered via the lines 102 and 104 thus is a measure for the rate of change of the temperature of the mass 4 . a somewhat different possibility is illustrated in fig1 . there , sensing bodies 106 and 108 are provided which consist of the same material but have different masses . also in those sensing bodies , sensing elements are arranged which deliver electrical temperature signals via lines 110 and 112 , respectively , the difference of which is a measure for the rate of change of the temperature of the mass 4 . fig1 illustrates the possibility of use two sensing bodies 114 , 116 which have different surface to volume ratios ; also thereby , a difference of time constants is obtained . the structure according to fig1 is particularly effective . a probe body 20 has two sensing bodies 118 and 120 immersed into the mass 4 . the sensing body 118 is surrounded by a heat insulation 122 which forms a certain heat resistance between the mass 4 and the sensing body 118 . the sensing body 120 is directly immersed in the mass 4 . it is readily apparent that thereby a large difference of the time constants associated with the two sensing bodies can be obtained . in order to avoid disturbing influences due to local temperature differentials in the mass , it is recommendable to operate devices of the kind shown in fig1 to 13 so that both sensing bodies are in heat - conducting connection with the mass 4 in a common contacting area . fig1 and 15 show embodiments of that kind which moreover offer the advantage of a compact and smooth construction . according to fig1 , a probe body 20 which is fastened to a holder 124 is immersed in the mass 4 . that probe body contains a cup - like housing 126 of low heat - conductive material , particularly plastic as polyethylene or the like , which housing is sealingly closed by a metal lid 128 . that metal lid 128 is directly in contact with the mass 4 and forms a connection of good heat conductivity to a temperature sensor 130 which may be directly soldered to the lid 128 . a second temperature sensor 132 is attached to a second sensing body 134 which consists of a metal block and is separated from the housing 126 by spacers 131 of low heat conductivity , and a heat insulating material 133 . at its end face which is disposed on the left side in fig1 , the second sensing body 134 is pressed onto the first sensing body ( lid 128 ) with the interposition of a separating plate 136 ; rather , there can also be provided a rigid connection , particularly by means of an adhesive , between the sensing bodies 128 and 134 under interposition of the separating plate 136 . the two temperature sensors 130 and 132 are connected opposed to each other via a line 138 , whereby a signal corresponding to the temperature differential between the two sensing bodies 128 , 134 will be delivered via the two - line connecting conduit 140 . the connecting conduit 140 extends through a sealed screw terminal 142 from the housing 126 . it will be appreciated that in the device illustrated in fig1 , the temperature differential which is sensed between the two sensing bodies 128 and 134 will be a measure for the rate of change of the temperature of the mass 4 because the one sensing body ( lid ) 128 is directly in good heat - conducting connection with the mass 4 , whereas the second sensing body 134 is heat - insulated towards the mass 4 and thus is in heat exchange with the mass 4 substantially only via conduction through the separating plate 136 . both sensing bodies 128 and 134 are in heat - conducting connection with the mass via the same contacting area , namely the surface of the lid 128 which is shown in fig1 on the left side of the lid . it will be further appreciated that for devices of the kind shown in fig1 , it is particularly useful to employ thermo couples or thermo batteries as temperature sensors because those devices are inherently responsive to temperature differentials and are free of self - heating . since the heat resistance between the mass 4 and the one sensing body 128 is negligible as compared with the heat resistance between the mass 4 and the second sensing body 134 , the response characteristic of the device shown in fig1 will be substantially determined by the time constant of the heat - conducting connection to the second sensing body 134 . that time constant may be calculated with good approximation if it is assumed that the whole heat exchange with the second sensing body 134 takes place via the separating plate 136 only , the heat capacity of which is negligibly small as compared with that of the second sensing body 134 . on the other hand , the heat resistance is formed practically exclusively by the separating plate 136 . the time constant then is simply the product of the heat resistance of the separating plate 136 , taken acorss the contact cross - section with the second sensing body 134 , and the heat capacity of the second sensing body 134 . for instance , with a second sensing body 134 consisting of 10 grams of copper and having a cross - section of 1 cm 2 , which engages a separating plate 136 of polystyrene foil of 0 . 2 mm thickness , a time constant of approximately 0 . 8 minutes will result . in that case , the sensitivity will be approximately 0 . 8 minutes , i . e . the resulting temperature differential between the two sensing bodies 128 and 134 will be in the maximum approximately 0 . 8 ° c . per degree per minute temperature change of the mass 4 . fig1 illustrates a similar embodiment as fig1 . however , there is a further simplification provided in that a single unitary sensing body 144 only is used . that sensing body consists of a first area 146 which as in the embodiment of fig1 forms a lid of the housing 126 , a second area 148 spaced therefrom , which corresponds to the second sensing body 134 of the embodiment according to fig1 and is heat - insulated from the housing 126 as in that other embodiment by means of spacers 131 and heat - insulating material 133 , and a web - like connecting piece 150 which corresponds to the separating plates 136 of the embodiment according to fig1 and forms a heat - conducting connection between the areas 146 and 148 . as sensing elements , a plurality of thermo couples 149 are provided which are series - connected to form a thermo battery , whereby the signal voltage is correspondingly increased which is delivered via the connecting conduit 140 and which is proportional to the temperature differential between the areas 146 and 148 . fig1 shows at greater detail an evaluating circuit of the kind of the circuit shown in fig7 . instead of the single amplifier v 1 illustrated in fig7 the circuit according to fig1 comprises two series - connected operation amplifiers v 11 and v 12 . ahead of the switching amplifier v 3 , a voltage divider r 9 , r 10 for adjusting the basic voltage is provided as in fig8 . the individual amplifiers are stabilized by negative feed back , as by the negative feed back path including resistors r 12 and r 13 and condensor c 4 in the amplifier v 11 , and by resistors r 17 and r 18 and condenser c 5 in the amplifier v 3 . the bridge circuit is supplied via a series resistor r 16 with a stabilizing diode d 1 . the diagonal voltage is fed into the amplifier v 11 via a protective resistor r 11 . the amplifiers v 11 , v 12 and v 3 are commercial operational amplifiers . in other respects , possible values for the individual circuit components are indicated in fig1 , whereby a closer description of fig1 does not appear to be necessary . | 0 |
referring to fig1 a fluid displacement apparatus in accordance with the present invention is shown in the form of a scroll - type refrigerant compressor 100 . compressor unit 100 includes compressor housing 10 having a front end plate 11 mounted on cup - shaped casing 12 . an opening 111 is formed in the center of front end plate 11 for penetration of drive shaft 14 . an annular projection 112 is formed in the rear end surface of front end plate 11 . annular projection 112 faces cup - shaped casing 12 and is concentric with opening 111 . an outer peripheral surface of annular projection 112 extends into an inner wall of the opening of cup - shaped casing 12 so that the opening of cup - shaped casing 12 is covered by front end plate 11 . an o - ring 114 is placed between the outer peripheral surface of annular projection 112 and the inner wall of the opening of cup - shaped casing 12 to seal the mating surfaces of front end plate 11 and cup - shaped casing 12 . an annular sleeve 15 projects from the front end surface of front end plate 11 to surround drive shaft 14 . annular sleeve 15 defines a shaft seal cavity . in the embodiment shown in fig1 sleeve 15 is formed integrally with front end plate 11 . alternatively , sleeve 15 may be formed separately from front end plate 11 . drive shaft 14 is rotatably supported by sleeve 15 through bearing 30 which is located within the front end of the sleeve 15 . drive shaft 14 has a disk 20 at its inner end . disk 20 is rotatably supported by front end plate 11 through bearing 13 located within opening 111 of front end plate 11 . a shaft seal assembly 16 is coupled to drive shaft 14 within the shaft seal cavity of sleeve 15 . a pulley 132 is rotatably supported by bearing 133 , which is carried on the outer surface of sleeve 15 . an electromagnetic coil 134 is fixed about the outer surface of sleeve 15 by a support plate 135 , and is disposed within an annular cavity of pulley 132 . an armature plate 136 is elastically supported on the outer end of drive shaft 14 . pulley 132 , magnetic coil 134 , and armature plate 136 form a magnetic clutch . in operation , drive shaft 14 is driven by an external drive power source , for example , the engine of an automobile , through a rotation transmitting device , such as a magnetic clutch . a number of elements are located within the inner chamber of cup - shaped casing 12 including a fixed scroll 17 , an orbiting scroll 18 , a driving mechanism for orbiting scroll 18 and a rotation preventing / thrust bearing device 50 for orbiting scroll 18 . the inner chamber of cup - shaped casing 12 is formed between the inner wall of cup shaped casing 12 and the rear end surface of front end plate 11 . fixed scroll 17 includes a circular end plate 171 , a wrap or spiral element 172 affixed to or extending from one side surface of circular end plate 171 and internally threaded bosses 173 axially projecting from the other end surface of circular end plate 171 . an axial end surface of each boss 173 is seated on the inner surface of bottom plate portion 120 of cup shaped casing 12 and fixed by screws 21 screwed into bosses 173 . thus , fixed scroll 17 is fixed within the inner chamber of cup shaped casing 12 . circular end plate 171 of fixed scroll 17 partitions the inner chamber of cup shaped casing 12 into a front chamber 23 and rear chamber 24 . a seal ring 22 is disposed within a circumference groove of circular end plate 171 to form a seal between the inner wall of cup shaped casing 12 and the outer surface of circular end plate 171 . spiral element 172 of fixed scroll 17 is located within front chamber 23 . cup - shaped casing 12 is provided with a fluid inlet port and fluid outlet port ( not shown ), which are connected to rear and front chambers 23 and 24 , respectively . a discharge port 174 is formed through circular end plate 171 near the center of spiral element 172 . a reed valve 38 closes discharge port 174 . orbiting scroll 18 , which is located in front chamber 23 , includes a circular end plate 181 and a wrap or spiral element 182 affixed to or extending from one side surface of circular end plate 181 . spiral elements 172 and 182 interfit at an angular offset of 180 degrees and a predetermined radial offset . spiral elements 172 and 182 define at least one pair of sealed off fluid pockets between their interfitting surfaces . orbiting scroll 18 is rotatably supported by a bushing 19 through a bearing 34 placed between the outer peripheral surface of bushing 19 and an inner surface of annular boss 183 axially projecting from the end surface of circular end plate 181 of orbiting scroll 18 . bushing 19 is connected to an inner end of disk 20 at a point radially offset or eccentric with respect to drive shaft 14 . rotation preventing / thrust bearing device 50 is disposed between the inner end surface of front end plate 11 and the end surface of circular end plate 182 . rotation preventing / thrust bearing device 50 includes a fixed ring 51 attached to the inner end surface of front end plate 11 , an orbiting ring 52 attached to the end surface of circular end plate 181 , and a plurality of bearing elements 53 , such as balls , placed between the pockets formed by rings 51 and 52 . the axial thrust load from orbiting scroll 18 also is supported on front end plate 11 through balls 53 . spiral elements 172 and 182 include grooves 41 on the axial end surface thereof . seal element 40 is disposed in the grooves 41 to provide a seal between the end surfaces of circular end plates 171 and 181 and the axial end surface of each seal element 40 . with reference to fig2 the configuration of the scroll members , particularly the spiral wrap elements , is depicted . the two spiral wraps 172 and 182 are essentially mirror images of each other . spiral wrap 172 includes a step - like portion 201 formed at the axial center thereof . step - like portion 201 substantially divides spiral wrap 172 into a root portion 202 and a tip portion 203 . step - like portion 201 is made so that the cross sectional area is reduced stepwise from root portion 202 to tip portion 203 . with reference to fig3 a profile of tip portion 203 of spiral wrap 172 is illustrated . an outer side wall 204 of spiral wrap 172 is generally formed by an involute curve . the involute curve which forms outer side wall 204 of spiral wrap 172 starts from point a . point a is located at the intersection of the involute curve and the line tangent to the involute generating circle through point p . a first inner side wall 205 starts form point d . point d is located at the intersection of the involute curve and the line tangent to the involute generating circle through point q . angle α is an arbitrary involute angle . p is a point located on the involute generating circle corresponding to involute angle α and q is a point located on the involute generating circle corresponding to involute angle α + 180 degrees . an arbitrary point o 3 is set on the tangent line p - a , and a first connection arc 205a ( a - e ) of radius r 3 is about point o 3 . an arbitrary point o 1 is set on the tangent line q - d , and a first curve 205b ( f - d ) of radius r 1 is about point o 1 . also , point a is a boundary point between outer side wall 204 and first connection arc 205a , where both curves share an identical tangential line , and points e and f , which are located at the ends of linear line e - f , are boundary points between first curve 205b and first connection arc 205a . further , point d is a boundary point existing between first curve 205b and an involute curve d - h , where both curves share an identical tangential line . point h is in an area sufficiently outside of inner side wall 205 . a profile of root portion 202 of spiral wrap 172 is also illustrated in fig3 . the two spiral wraps 172 and 182 are essentially mirror images of each other . a second inner side wall 208 starts from point d . an arbitrary point o 4 is set on the tangent line p - a , and a second connection arc 208a ( a - b ) of radius r 4 is about an arbitrary point o 2 . arbitrary point o 2 is set on the tangent line q - d , and a second curve 208b ( c - d ) of radius r 2 is about point o 2 . moreover , point a is a boundary point between outer side wall 204 and second connection arc 208a , where both curves share an identical tangential line , and points b and c , which are located at the ends of linear line b - c , are boundary points between the second curve 208b and the second connection arc 208a . thus , straight line b - c is parallel to straight line e - f , radius r 1 is greater than radius of r 2 , and radius r 4 is greater than radius r 3 . when radius r 0 is the orbital radius of the orbiting scroll member , radii r 1 and r 2 of this configuration are given by the following equations : further , t ( line g - d ) is the thickness of spiral wrap 172 at point d , l 1 is the distance between points p and a , and l 2 is the distance between points q and d . when radius r g is the radius of the involute generating circle , distance l 1 is given by the following equation : thus , an angular parameter α represents an angle contained between a straight line passing through an origin o and the negative quadrant of the x - axis . the two intersection points of the straight line passing through the origin of the involute base circle and defined at angle α with the base circle are found on the extension of the straight lines d - o 1 and a - o 3 at points q and p , respectively . in addition , lines d - o 1 and a - o 3 are parallel to each other . therefore , first and second inner side walls 205 and 208 , which consist of four arcs and two straight lines , and the outer side wall 204 , which consists of a involute curve , collectively form the profile of spiral wraps 172 and 182 . as a result of possible misalignment of the angular relationship between the spiral wraps which may occur during assembly of the compressor , or dimensional errors in the spiral wraps which may occur during manufacturing , the enlarged inner end portion of both spiral wraps may interfere with one another . referring to fig4 to avoid this possibility , radius r 1 of first curve 205b can be slightly increased by δr 1 and r 2 of second curve 208b can be slightly increased by δr 2 . the previous configuration illustrated in fig3 is shown by phantom lines for comparison . fig5 and 6 illustrate the relative movement of the interfitting spiral wraps with fillets 501 and 502 . fillets 501 and 502 are formed at the place where end plates 171 and 181 join the root or proximal portion 202 of spiral wraps 172 and 182 , respectively . fillets 501 and 502 have a predetermined radius of curvature in the cross - section of spiral wraps 172 and 182 . thus , fillets 501 and 502 can be formed by simultaneously casting them during the forming of the scroll or may be formed by an end mill in a subsequent operation . thus , the outer surface of the spiral wraps is in contact with the inner surface of the facing wraps to maintain a sealed off fluid pocket 503 . referring to fig6 spiral wrap 172 has an actual height h which defines the height of the compressor and height h 1 defined between the inner surface of end plate 171 and step 201 of spiral wrap 172 . similarly , spiral wrap 182 has an actual height h &# 39 ; and height h 2 defined between the inner surface of end plate 181 and step 201 . clearance c 1 is created between the surfaces of step 201 of spiral wraps 172 and 182 according to the following relationship : further , the value of heights h 1 and h 2 is designed according to characteristics of the spiral wraps , such as the coefficient of expansion or rigidity . in the above embodiment , fluid from an external fluid circuit is introduced into fluid pockets in the compressor unit through an inlet port ( not shown ). the fluid pockets comprise open spaces formed between spiral elements 172 and 182 . as orbiting scroll 18 orbits , the fluid in the fluid pockets moves to the center of the spiral elements and is compressed . the line contact formed between spiral wraps 172 and 182 , used to define the fluid pockets , shifts inward toward the center of the interfitting spiral wraps along the involute curve . thereafter , the line of contact becomes a straight line along the common tangent lines e - f and c - b . at this time , the volume of the central high pressure space 503 becomes approximately zero and the compressed fluid from the fluid pockets is discharged into a rear chamber 24 through discharge hole 174 . the compressed fluid is then discharged to the external fluid circuit through an outlet port ( not shown ). accordingly , the thickness of the inner end portion of each of the spiral wraps is increased so that the strength of the spiral wraps is improved , while simultaneously the volume of re - expansion of the fluid is reduced . this improvement can prevent a loss of power and a reduction of compression efficiency . in fig7 - 13 , the same numerals and letters are used to denote the corresponding elements depicted in fig1 - 6 so the description is primarily reserved for differences between the embodiments . fig7 and 8 illustrate a second embodiment of the present invention which is directed to a modified configuration of spiral wraps 172 and 182 of scroll members 17 and 18 . these spiral wraps are similar to spiral wraps 172 and 182 described above . however , some differences do exist . fillets 701 and 702 are formed where step 201 joins the tip portion 203 of spiral wraps 172 and 182 , respectively , so as to be entirely along the first inner side wall 205 as depicted in fig7 . fillets 701 and 702 also have a certain radius of curvature in the cross section of spiral wraps 172 and 182 . in addition to equations ( 4 ) and ( 5 ) of the first embodiment , clearance c 2 created between the surfaces of step 201 of spiral wraps 172 and 182 is designed to be greater than the curvature of both fillets 501 and 701 as shown in fig8 . fig9 and 11 illustrate a third embodiment of the present invention , which is directed to a modified configuration of spiral wraps 172 and 182 of scroll members 17 and 18 . these spiral wraps are similar to spiral wraps 172 and 182 described above . however , some differences do exist . the radial thickness of the inner end portion of the spiral wraps is increased to strengthen the spiral wraps . however , radius r 2 of second curve 208b has to be decreased to strengthen the spiral wraps . the end mill cutter applied must have a radius equal to or smaller than radius r 2 of the second curve 208b . a recessed portion 211 is formed along root 202 of spiral wrap 172 to facilitate the milling operation . recessed portion 211 forms the second curve of root 202 ( second curve 208b is shown by phantom lines for comparison ). an arbitrary point o 5 is set on the tangent line d - q , and recessed portion 211 ( d - i ) of radius r 5 is about point o 5 as shown in fig9 . fig1 and 13 illustrate a fourth embodiment of the present invention which depicts a modified configuration of spiral wraps 172 and 182 of scroll member 17 and 18 . these spiral wraps are similar to spiral wraps 172 and 182 described above . however , some differences do exist . each cross - sectional area of spiral wraps 172 and 182 is gradually reduced from end plates 171 and 181 to the upper surface of spiral wraps 172 and 182 , forming a taper . further , fillets 501 and 502 are formed at the place at which end plates 171 and 181 join the root or proximal portion 202 of spiral wraps 172 and 182 , respectively , similar to fig5 and 6 . substantially , similar advantages are related in all the embodiments , so details of the advantages are not repeated . although the present invention has been described in connection with preferred embodiments , the invention is not limited thereto . it will be readily understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that variations and modifications may be made within the scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims . | 5 |
there will now be described by way of example the best mode contemplated by the inventor for carrying out the invention . in the following description , numerous specific details are set out in order to provide a complete understanding of the present invention . it will be apparent , however , to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be put into practice with variations of the specific . fig3 shows a unified network comprising a public network , the internet ( 16 ) and three private networks , the intranets ( 18 , 20 , 22 ). each intranet ( 18 , 20 , 22 ) is interfaced with the internet ( 16 ). the intranets ( 18 , 20 ) comprise a plurality of network infrastructure elements ( 6 to 10 ), such as switches or routers , connected together by links . the network infrastructure elements may have applications installed on them for provisioning network services . they may also include means , such as an application ( 32 ) for initiating and supporting in - path signaling installed on them . the networks ( 18 , 20 , 22 ) may also comprise additional infrastructure elements , but only those with applications installed on them for providing relevant network services are shown in fig3 . a telephone call is initiated by an intelligent gateway ( 4 ) to an application aware telephone device ( 2 ). the intelligent gateway ( 4 ) is located in a first intranet ( 20 ) and the telephone device ( 2 ) is located in a second intranet ( 18 ). therefore a communication path ( 12 ) for the call must extend from the first intranet ( 20 ) and across the internet ( 16 ) to the second intranet ( 18 ). a voip call agent ( 26 ) located in the second intranet ( 18 ) provides voice services to the telephone device ( 2 ). the call initiation procedure will involve the sending of a message to the voip call agent ( 26 ) [ box a of fig4 ]. in response to this the voip call agent ( 26 ) generates and sends a signaling protocol message ( 30 ) to the telephone device ( 2 ) [ box b of fig4 ]. the signaling protocol message will contain instructions to request the required network services and / or resources required to support the call and an identification of the voip call agent ( 26 ). the signaling protocol message ( 30 ) will specify the resources to be requested from each of the network infrastructure elements along the communication path ( 12 ) of the call . the signaling protocol message ( 30 ) is intercepted by the network infrastructure element in the communication path ( 12 ), which can initiate in - path signaling and which is closest to the telephone device ( 2 ) [ box c of fig4 ]. in the present example , the closest such infrastructure element to the telephone device ( 2 ) is the infrastructure element ( 6 ). each network infrastructure element ( 6 to 10 ) will have knowledge of all of the application aware devices ( 2 , 4 , 24 ) for which it is the closest infrastructure element . for example , it may store a list of all application aware devices directly connected to it , which is updated when new devices are connected to it and existing devices are disconnected from it . on intercepting the signaling protocol message ( 30 ) the closest network infrastructure element ( 6 ) initiates in - path signaling along the communication path ( 12 ) of the call [ box d of fig4 ]. the closest network infrastructure element ( 6 ), which intercepts the signaling protocol message and initiates in - path signaling is referred to herein as the in - path signaling initiator ( ipsi ). the ipsi ( 6 ) has an application ( 32 ) installed on it for enabling the ipsi to initiate in - path signaling . when the ipsi ( 6 ) intercepts the signaling protocol message ( 30 ) from the voip call agent ( 26 ) it analyzes the message to authenticate the voip call agent ( 26 ), ie . it checks that the voip call agent ( 26 ) is authorised to request network services [ box c of fig4 ]. if the voip call agent ( 26 ) is successfully authenticated then the ipsi allocates the services and / or resources requested from it by the voip call agent ( 26 ) or determines that the services and / or resources cannot be allocated [ box s of fig5 ]. the ipsi ( 6 ) also generates an in - path signaling resource allocation message which is sent sequentially to the infrastructure elements ( 8 , 10 ) along the communication path ( 12 ) of the call [ box d of fig4 and box t of fig5 ]. the ipsi sends the in - path signaling resource allocation message to the next network infrastructure element on the connection path ( 12 ), which in the example shown in fig3 is the infrastructure element ( 8 ) [ box t of fig5 ]. the in - path signaling resource message will include requests for network services and / or resource from the infrastructure elements ( 8 , 10 ) along the communication path ( 12 ) and identification of the voip call agent ( 26 ) initiating the request . the infrastructure element ( 8 , 10 ) in the communication path ( 12 ) include means , for example an installed application ( 32 ) for supporting the in - path signaling initiated by the ipsi ( 6 ) along the entire communication path to the initiating intelligent gateway ( 4 ). the next infrastructure element ( 8 ) on receiving the in - path signaling resource allocation message , will authenticate the voip call agent ( 26 ) [ box u of fig5 ] and if the authentication is successful , will allocate the requested network services and / or resources to the call , or determine that the requested network services cannot be allocated [ box v of fig5 ]. as the infrastructure element ( 8 ) is not the last one along the communication path ( 12 ) [ box x of fig5 via ‘ no ’ box ] it adds the information about whether it can allocate the requested services and / or resource to the in - path signaling resource message and forwards the message to the next infrastructure element ( 10 ) on the communication path ( 12 ) [ box w of fig5 ]. the infrastructure element ( 10 ) is the last infrastructure element on the communication path , ie . the closest infrastructure element to the intelligent gateway ( 4 ). the infrastructure element ( 10 ) on receiving the in - path signaling resource allocation message from the infrastructure element ( 8 ), will authenticate the voip call agent ( 26 ) [ box u of fig5 ] and if the authentication is successful , will allocate the requested network services and / or resources to the call , or determine that the requested network services cannot be allocated [ box v of fig5 ]. as the infrastructure element ( 10 ) is the last infrastructure element [ box x of fig5 via ‘ yes ’ box ] it generates a reply message which it sends back to the ipsi ( 6 ) indicating whether the network services and / or resources requested from the network infrastructure elements ( 8 , 10 ) along the communication path ( 12 ) have been allocated or not [ box y of fig5 ]. when the ipsi ( 6 ) receives the reply it will send a message to the voip call agent ( 26 ) notifying it whether the requested network services and / or resources have been allocated for the call [ box z of fig5 ] and , if the resources have been allocated , the call will proceed . thus , in - path signaling is performed by the ipsi ( 6 ) and not by the application aware device ( 2 ) which means that no additional software needs to be installed on the device ( 2 ) to support in - path signaling . the in - path signaling is triggered by an application server or proxy , the voip call agent ( 26 ), located off the communication path ( 12 ). the in - path signaling is initiated by the ipsi ( 6 ), the closest network infrastructure element to the application aware device ( 2 ) which is located in the communication path ( 12 ) and which supports in - path signaling . by using in - path signaling , it is ensured that the network services and / or resources are requested from infrastructure elements that lie in the communication path ( 12 ). therefore , the present invention overcomes the problems associated with known in - path signaling and off - path signaling schemes . | 7 |
methods and systems for enhancing system efficiency in a power amplification , modulation , and transmission system are provided herein . according to embodiments of the present invention , the overall system efficiency can be affected and / or optimized according to , but not limited to , the average or most probable output power levels , maximum power output level , battery voltage and / or changes in battery voltage , amplifier and / or modulator voltage and current requirements , power control requirements , adjacent channel power requirements ( acpr ), adjacent channel leakage requirements ( aclr ), standing wave ratio ( swr ) requirements , in - band noise performance requirements , and out - of - band noise performance requirements such as is required by gsm and other standards based cell phone signals . in mobile or portable battery powered devices , this results in extended battery life , smaller battery size , and increased and / or optimized output power for various power output levels , connectivity range , number of network nodes , and reliability and longevity . according to embodiments of the present invention , the efficiency of all types of amplifiers , including , but not limited to , miso amplifiers can be improved over various output power levels by designing a variable voltage switching power supply based on system criteria , such as , but not limited to , network statistics and / or typical operating conditions . according to further embodiments , an optional bypass switch architecture can be used as part of the power supply design to further enhance the system efficiency , reduce the system noise floor , and increase the available output current of the power supply . these advantages reduce the amount of circuitry required to support multiple modulation methods and output powers . embodiments for enhancing system efficiency can be used with traditional power amplifiers , vector power amplifiers , and multiple - input - single - output ( miso ) power amplifiers . further , embodiments can be applied with various modulation schemes including , but not limited to , gsm , w - cdma , cdma 2000 , evdo , edge , hsupa , and ofdm . systems implementing some of the above described embodiments include a mechanism to bypass the power supply circuitry at a pre - determined threshold , further increasing the system efficiency . in an implementation , a bypass switch control circuitry is used together with the power supply circuitry , to cause the bypass of the power supply circuitry when the pre - determined threshold is exceeded . in an embodiment , the threshold is defined in terms of output power , and the bypass switch is engaged or disengaged when the output power exceeds or falls below the threshold . in another embodiment , the power supply is bypassed when the noise power on or near the output frequency ( frequency of the output signal ) exceeds a threshold . fig1 illustrates exemplary plots 102 and 104 of efficiency versus output current of a typical switching power supply for two exemplary values of output power . as illustrated in plots 102 and 104 , the power supply is most efficient when the output current is between 100 and 200 milliamps ( ma ) depending on the input and output voltages . also , when plots 102 and 104 are extended beyond 650 ma for the output current , the power supply efficiency would continue to decrease as the output current increases . the power supply efficiency directly affects the efficiency of the entire power amplification system using the power supply . further , in the case of mobile or portable battery powered wireless devices including , but not limited to , cellular phones , wireless lan devices , and wimax devices and systems , voltage and current requirements of the radio frequency ( rf ) transmitter are largely determined by the power amplifier technology and system requirements . as such , the efficiency of the power supply of a power amplification system significantly affects the efficiency of the mobile device using said power amplification system . to highlight this problem , consider , for example , a scenario where the battery voltage ( power supply input voltage , vin ) is 3 . 6 v and the output voltage ( power supply output voltage , v out ) is 3 . 16 v , and where the power supply drives a power amplifier that is 50 % efficient generating a + 30 dbm output power . accordingly , the power supply current will be approximately 633 ma . from plot 102 of fig1 , this results in a power supply efficiency of approximately 94 %, which is 4 % less than the optimum 98 % achievable with a power supply current of approximately 190 ma . at lower output voltages ( v out ), as illustrated in plot 104 for example , the problem becomes more pronounced , and the power supply efficiency approaches approximately 80 % at 633 ma , which is 18 % less efficient than when the power supply is operating in its optimum voltage and current range . the effect on system efficiency is significant . for example , when the power amplifier is operating at 50 % efficiency and the power supply is operating at 94 % efficiency , the system efficiency is 0 . 5 × 0 . 94 = 0 . 47 or 47 %. similarly , when the power amplifier is operating at 50 % efficiency and the power supply is operating at 80 % efficiency , the system efficiency is 0 . 5 × 0 . 8 = 0 . 4 or 40 %. in this section , power supply design embodiments to enhance system efficiency are provided . for example , switching power supplies can be designed to operate in pre - determined output voltage and current ranges that result in increased efficiency of the power supply and consequently in increased system efficiency . these embodiments can be used to control both the efficiency and the output power level of traditional power amplifiers ( pas ) and / or multiple - input - single - output ( miso ) amplifiers . one set of criteria that can be used to design both the power supply and the power amplifier for maximized system efficiency include the network characteristics and / or statistics . an exemplary network characteristic of a code division multiple access ( cdma ) network is shown in fig2 , which illustrates a probability density function ( pdf ) 200 of a handset output power used on a reverse link ( handset to base station ) and measured at the power amplifier output of the handset . pdf 200 is shown according to a log normal scale in fig2 and provides the time probability that the handset spends transmitting using a given output power level , according to the transmitted cdma waveform . based on pdf 200 , it would be sufficient to increase system efficiency to design a power supply and / or amplifier system that maintains or increases the system efficiency at power levels below + 30 dbm . indeed , mathematical analysis shows that the mean or expected value of pdf 200 is approximately + 17 dbm or 50 milliwatts ( mw ). further , since the probability of transmission at + 17 dbm is higher than the probability of transmission at + 30 dbm , system efficiency increases at + 17 dbm will have a greater overall effect on extended battery life and / or battery size than system efficiency increases at + 30 dbm . the above described cdma design criteria can be applied in the case of a multiple - input - single - output ( miso ) amplifier , examples of which are described in the patent and patent application cited above . fig3 illustrates exemplary plots 302 and 304 of power supply output voltage and power supply output current , respectively , versus output power of an example miso amplifier . plots 302 and 304 illustrate the power supply output voltage and output current that are required by an example miso amplifier to achieve a cdma power control range . for ease of illustration , the output power range in plots 302 and 304 is limited to 0 dbm to + 30 dbm instead of − 40 dbm to + 30 dbm , since the most probable output power occurs at 1 - 17 dbm . in an example miso amplifier , the power supply output voltage is applied at the collector / drain of the miso amplifier depending on the miso amplifier configuration used . as illustrated in exemplary plot 302 , the collector / drain voltage range of the miso amplifier is + 1 . 39v to + 3 . 6v . also , for an output power of + 17 dbm , the collector / drain voltage of the miso amplifier is approximately + 1 . 39v . accordingly , to achieve the highest system efficiency possible using example cdma pdf 200 , the switching power supply should be designed to operate at its highest efficiency when its output voltage is approximately + 1 . 39v and , correspondingly from exemplary plot 304 , when its output current is approximately 100 ma . note that the switching power supply may be designed to vary its highest efficiency point of operation according to the selected data modulation and transmission scheme . as would be understood by a person skilled in the art , the output power characteristics of transmission schemes ( e . g ., cdma , cdma2000 , gsm , etc .) differ from one scheme to another . accordingly , the most probable output power point of operation also varies from one transmission scheme to another , and , consequently , so does the highest efficiency point of operation of the power supply . based on the above , a method for enhancing system efficiency in a power amplification system is provided and is illustrated in process flowchart 1100 of fig1 . the power amplification system can be a traditional power amplifier , a vector power amplifier , or a multiple - input - single - output ( miso ) amplifier . process 1100 includes steps 1102 , 1104 , and 1106 . process 1100 begins in step 1102 , which includes determining output power characteristics of a selected modulation scheme to be employed in data transmission . in an embodiment , the output power characteristics include a probability distribution function of output power using the selected modulation scheme . in another embodiment , the output power characteristics are determined according to network statistics . the selected modulation scheme can be any one of gsm , w - cdma , cdma 2000 , evdo , edge , hsupa , and ofdm . step 1104 includes determining a probable ( in certain embodiments , a most probable ) output power point of operation for the selected modulation scheme based on the determined output power characteristics . step 1106 includes controlling an output stage power supply within the power amplification system to operate at substantially optimal efficiency at the probable output power point of operation . in addition to designing / controlling the power supply to operate optimally in terms of efficiency at the most probable output power , the overall power supply efficiency can be improved to increase system efficiency . as will be described in the exemplary embodiments below , the system efficiency can be further increased by bypassing the power supply when the required output voltage ( or the output power ) exceeds a pre - determined threshold . for example , referring to exemplary plot 302 , an optional power supply bypass switch can be used to bypass the power supply when the power supply output voltage required by the miso amplifier reaches 3 . 6v , which corresponds to an output power of + 26 dbm or 400 mw . by bypassing the power supply , any loss in system efficiency due to the power supply efficiency can be eliminated . fig4 illustrates an example step down ( buck ) switching power supply 400 having a bypass switch architecture . power supply 400 receives an input voltage signal v in 418 , an output stage voltage control signal 416 , and a threshold voltage signal 414 . input voltage signal v in 418 is typically received from a battery and is set according to , among other requirements , the device using the power amplifier . in exemplary plots 102 and 104 for example , v in 418 takes values of 2 . 7v , 3 . 6v , 4 . 2v , and 5 . 5v . output stage voltage control signal 416 is received from a control module configured to control the power supply voltage provided to the output stage of the power amplifier . in example 400 , output stage voltage control signal 416 controls an aperture generator and control module 404 of power supply 400 . threshold voltage 414 may also be received from the same control module as output stage voltage control signal 416 . the function of threshold voltage 414 is to control a bypass switch control module 402 of power supply 400 . threshold voltage 414 may be fixed or programmable . threshold voltage 414 may vary depending on network statistics and / or network waveforms including , but not limited to , gsm , w - cdma , cdma2000 , evdo , edge , hsupa , ofdm , or others . in an embodiment , threshold voltage 414 can be changed in real time by wirelessly downloading information to the system . for example , threshold voltage 414 can be downloaded to the mobile device or portable unit using power supply 400 from a network provider . in another embodiment , threshold voltage 414 can be pre - programmed based on waveform efficiency requirements and / or modified or adjusted based on battery life requirements . in a further embodiment , threshold voltage 414 is modified based on output power requirements and / or on power supply current output requirements . referring back to fig4 , in addition to modules 402 and 404 , power supply 400 includes a bypass switch 406 , an input switch 420 , a switching transistor 408 , and an output lc circuit comprised of an inductor l out 410 and a capacitor c out 412 . power supply 400 operates in two modes : normal mode and bypass mode . in normal mode , input voltage signal v in 418 is received at input switch 420 , which is controlled by aperture generator and control module 404 . aperture generator and control module 404 is configured to control input switch 420 to couple input voltage signal v in 418 to the collector / drain of switching transistor 408 . as such , v in 418 provides a bias voltage for the collector / drain of switching transistor 408 . aperture generator and control module 404 is also configured to control the base / gate voltage of switching transistor 408 , effectively controlling the point of operation and subsequently the gain of switching transistor 408 . in an embodiment , aperture generator and control module 404 uses output stage voltage control signal 416 to determine the required power supply output voltage and , accordingly , controls the base / gate voltage of switching transistor 408 . in another embodiment , aperture generator and control module 404 receives a feedback signal of the power supply output voltage v out 422 . aperture generator and control module 404 may then adjust its control of switching transistor 408 , if necessary . in example power supply 400 , switching transistor 408 is illustrated as a single nmos transistor . as would be understood by a person skilled in the art , embodiments according to the present invention are not limited by this configuration and may include , among other configurations , one or more nmos , pmos , npn , and pnp transistors . at the output ( collector / drain node ) of switching transistor 408 , inductor l out 410 is an exemplary output reactance that meets the voltage and current output requirements of the supply . the reactance can be inductive or capacitive . c out 412 acts to filter the ac components of the output of switching transistor 408 . as such power supply output voltage v out 422 is substantially a dc voltage . in bypass mode , v out 418 is directly coupled to the power supply output node , which provides power supply output voltage v out 422 . bypass mode operation is described below . bypass switch control module 402 receives threshold voltage signal 414 and output stage voltage control signal 416 . threshold voltage signal 414 determines at which value of the power supply output voltage power supply 400 switches to bypass mode . output stage voltage control signal 416 includes information about the target power supply output voltage and thus allows bypass switch control module 402 to determine the value of the power supply output voltage . bypass switch control module 402 compares threshold voltage 414 and the value of the power supply output voltage to determine whether power supply 400 should switch to bypass mode . when the power supply output voltage exceeds threshold voltage 414 , bypass switch control module 402 controls bypass switch 406 to couple input voltage signal v in 418 to the power supply output node . at the same time , bypass switch control module 402 controls aperture generator and control module 404 to cause it to de - couple input voltage signal v in 418 from the collector / drain node of switching transistor 408 and to shut off switching transistor 408 . accordingly , bypass switch control module 402 bypasses the power supply when the output power exceeds a determined threshold , thereby increasing the efficiency of the power supply for output powers exceeding the determined threshold . in another embodiment , bypass switch control module 402 bypasses the power supply when the noise power on or near the output frequency exceeds a threshold . as would be understood by a person skilled in the art based on the teachings herein , several parameters can be affected and / or optimized using the power supply design of fig4 . for example , the operation dynamic range of the power supply is reduced through the bypass option , which increases the efficiency over the smaller power supply control range . also , since the switching portion of the supply does not have to carry the maximum voltage and current required , the size and value of the switch ( including the switching inductor or capacitor ) can be reduced . additionally , in - band and out - of - band noise can be reduced as switching components typically cause noise . this is especially important at higher power output levels because all cellular phone standards have a maximum “ close in ” ( 20 mhz offset ) receive band noise floor requirement . further , as the battery voltage changes during operation , the higher output power levels can be maintained and controlled over a wider battery voltage range . fig5 illustrates another example step down switching power supply 500 having a bypass switch architecture . switching power supply 500 is similar in several respects to example power supply 400 of fig4 . additionally , switching power supply 500 includes an optional hysteresis control signal 502 , which is received by bypass switch control module 402 , and an optional load current sensing circuit 504 . operation of bypass switch control module 402 is as follows in example switching power supply 500 . bypass switch control module 402 receives threshold voltage signal 414 , output stage voltage control signal 416 , and optional hysteresis control signal 502 . bypass switch control module 402 compares the value of output stage voltage control signal 416 to the sum of threshold voltage signal 414 and optional hysteresis control signal 502 . when output stage voltage control signal 416 exceeds the sum of threshold voltage signal 414 and optional hysteresis control signal 502 , bypass switch control module 402 controls aperture generator and control module to cause it to de - couple input voltage signal v in 418 from the collector / drain node of switching transistor 408 and to shut off switching transistor 408 . at the same time , bypass switch control module 406 controls bypass switch 406 to couple input voltage signal v in 418 to the power supply output node 506 . on the other hand , when output stage voltage control signal 416 falls below the sum of threshold voltage signal 414 and optional hysteresis control signal 502 , bypass switch control module 402 controls bypass switch 406 to de - couple input voltage signal v in 418 from the power supply output node 506 and re - activates transistor 408 by coupling input voltage signal v in 418 thereto through input switch 420 . optional hysteresis control signal 502 can be downloaded or otherwise provided to the mobile device or portable unit using power supply 500 from a network provider . in another embodiment , optional hysteresis control signal 502 can be pre - programmed based on waveform efficiency requirements and / or modified or adjusted based on changes in battery voltage and / or required output power . optional load current sensing circuit 504 is coupled at output node 422 of power supply 500 . in an embodiment , load current sensing circuit 504 senses load current to determine any variations that may affect power supply output voltage v out 506 . further , optional load current sensing circuit 504 provides a feedback signal to bypass switch control module 402 . in an embodiment , the feedback signal includes information about sensed load current , which can be used by bypass switch control module 402 to control the operation mode of switching power supply 500 . the power supply design techniques discussed above have been described with respect to step down switching power supplies . embodiments of the present invention are not limited to these embodiments . as would be understood by a person skilled in the art based on the teachings herein , the power supply design techniques described herein can be applied to step down switching power supplies ( buck ), step up switching power supplies ( boost ), and step down and step up ( buck - boost ) power supplies . fig6 is an example graph 600 that illustrates efficiency enhancement due to the use of a bypass switch architecture in a switching power supply . in example 600 , the switching power supply is optimized for a + 17 dbm output ( 1 . 39v output voltage and 100 ma output current ). efficiency curve 602 represents the efficiency versus the output current of the switching power supply without a bypass switch . efficiency curve 604 represents the efficiency versus the output current of the switching power supply with a bypass switch . note that the two efficiency curves 602 and 604 overlap with each other over the output current range from 0 to approximately 0 . 4 a . without a bypass switch , as illustrated by efficiency curve 602 , the switching power supply has its highest efficiency between 70 and 100 ma of output current , which renders the highest system efficiency of the exemplary miso amplifier in the example network statistics . on the other hand , with a bypass switch architecture , as illustrated by efficiency curve 604 , the power supply efficiency can be further increased when the output current exceeds 400 ma . this in turn increases the network system efficiency when the required output power is equal to or greater than 400 mw (+ 26 dbm ). the optional bypass switch architecture can also be used to increase the maximum current range of the power supply design . for example , if the switching power supply circuitry ( without the bypass switch ) can supply a maximum of 650 ma but the bypass switch is designed to support up to 1500 ma , the power supply can as a result supply up to 1500 ma . the bypass switch has yet another advantage , which includes the suppression of switching noise or ripple presented to the amplifier when the bypass switch is engaged and the switching power supply is turned off . this results in a reduced system noise floor when the bypass switch is engaged . in what follows , the positioning / integration of the switching power supply within a power amplifier design or a system using the power amplifier design is described . fig7 illustrates examples 702 and 704 of coupling a switching power supply to traditional amplifier designs . in example 702 , the switching power supply , represented by voltage signal v out , is coupled ( optionally through a pull - up resistance ) to the collector / emitter node of an npn / pnp - based amplifier . similarly , in example 702 , the switching power supply , represented by voltage signal v out , is coupled ( optionally through a pullup resistance ) to the drain / source node of an nmos / pmos - based amplifier . fig8 illustrates similar examples 802 and 804 of coupling a switching power supply to multiple - input - single - output ( miso ) amplifier designs . example 802 illustrates the coupling of the switching power supply , represented by voltage signal v out , to an exemplary two - input single output bjt - based ( npn / pnp / hybrid ) miso amplifier . the switching power supply can be coupled ( optionally through a pull - up resistance ) to the common collector / emitter node of the miso transistors . similarly , example 804 illustrates the coupling of the switching power supply , represented by voltage signal v out , to an exemplary two - input single output fet - based ( nmos / pmos / hybrid ) miso amplifier . the switching power supply can be coupled ( optionally through a pull - up resistance ) to the common drain / source node of the miso transistors . the switching power supply ( with optional bypass switch architecture ) can be used to increase the system efficiency of the exemplary traditional and miso amplifier designs described above . farther , the switching power supply ( with optional bypass switch architecture ) can be designed to operate with and optimize the system efficiency of any of the miso amplifier architectures and schematics shown in related u . s . patent application ser . nos . 11 / 256 , 172 and 11 / 508 , 989 . fig9 a - 9e illustrate an example d2p vector power amplification system 5900 , which uses an embodiment of the switching power supply described herein to power its output stage . the output stage of system 5900 includes two miso amplifiers ma1 5930 and ma2 5932 . the switching power supply is integrated in system 5900 as output stage power supply module 5906 , shown in fig9 b . the switching power supply receives an output stage voltage control signal 5765 and outputs two output stage supply voltage signals ma1 output stage vsupply 5911 and ma2 output stage vsupply 5913 , which power ma1 5930 and ma2 5932 , respectively . further description of system 5900 can be found in related u . s . patent application ser . no . 11 / 508 , 989 , incorporated herein by reference in its entirety . fig1 a - 10e illustrate another example d2p vector power amplification system 6100 , which uses an embodiment of the switching power supply described herein to power its output stage . the output stage of system 6100 includes five miso amplifiers gma2 6126 , ma3 6128 , ma4 6130 , gmao 6132 , and ma1 6134 . the switching power supply is integrated in system 6100 as output stage power supply module 5906 , shown in fig1 b . the switching power supply receives an output stage voltage control signal 5765 and outputs five output stage supply voltage signals gmao output stage vsupply 6113 , ma1 output stage vsupply 6114 , gma2 output stage vsupply 6115 , ma3 output stage vsupply 6116 , and ma4 output stage vsupply 6117 , which power miso amplifiers gmao 6132 , ma1 6134 , gma2 6126 , ma3 6128 , and ma4 6130 , respectively . further description of system 5900 can be found in related u . s . patent application ser . no . 11 / 508 , 989 , incorporated herein by reference in its entirety . embodiments of the switching power supply and bypass switch design techniques described herein can be applied to any modulation and / or amplification circuitry or stage within a multi - stage amplification system , to enhance the system efficiency . for example , in addition to being applied to the output stage of miso amplifiers ma1 5930 and ma2 5932 , embodiments described herein can be applied to a driver stage and / or a pre - driver stage within each of miso amplifiers ma1 5930 and ma2 5932 . as such , power supplies designed to power up these amplification stages ( e . g ., driver stage power supply 5904 in fig9 b and 10b ) can be configured to operate in optimum voltage and current ranges to provide increased system efficiency . in other embodiments , the driver stage power supply and the output stage power supply can be combined into a single switching power supply design . the combined switching power supply may or may not employ a bypass switch architecture depending on the system design requirements . while various embodiments of the present invention have been described above , it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only , and not limitation . thus , the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above - described exemplary embodiments , but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents . | 7 |
fig1 and 2 show a preferred embodiment of this invention ; fig1 is a front view and fig2 is a side elevation of a tab tape inspection apparatus . as shown in the figures , a tab tape inspection apparatus has a u - shaped housing 1 . the housing 1 has a hollow space inside , in which an optical transmission system 11 described in the following is disposed . a through hole 5 is bored in an upper horizontal arm 2 of the housing 1 . a tab tape t horizontally passes through an opening 7 in the housing 1 . the housing 1 carries inside a first prism 12 , a second prism 13 and a third prism 14 which make up a part of the optical transmission system 11 as shown in fig1 . the third prism 14 is roof - shaped to bilaterally reverse an image of the bottom surface of the tab tape t . a focusing lens 16 is provided between the second prism 13 and the third prism 14 , whereas a field lens 17 is provided on the exit side ( the left side in the figure ) of the third prism 14 . the focusing lens 16 and the field lens 17 produce an equimultiple real image of the bottom surface of the tab tape t on the exit side ( the left side in the figure ) of the field lens 17 . the distance between an objective lens 42 of a stereoscopic microscope 41 and the image surface is equal to the distance between the objective lens 42 and the top surface of the tab tape . provision may also be made so that the focusing lens 16 produces the real image at the field lens 17 . guide grooves 9 are cut in upper and lower horizontal arms 2 and 3 of the housing 1 . a movable frame 21 is horizontally slidably fit in the guide grooves 9 . a fourth prism 15 is fastened to an upper horizontal arm 22 of the movable frame 21 . a pale blue back light 34 is attached immediately below the fourth prism 15 . the pale blue back light 34 illuminates the top surface of the tab tape t . a lighting unit 31 to uniformly illuminate the top surface of the tab tape t is provided beside the back light 34 . the lighting unit 31 comprises a ring - shaped light source 32 and a hemispherical shade 33 . the shade 33 has an open top . a lighting unit 36 having a ring - shaped light source 37 and a hemispherical shade 38 is attached to a lower horizontal arm 23 of the movable frame 21 in such a manner as to face the fourth prism 15 . a back light 39 is provided beside the lighting unit 36 . through holes 25 and 26 are bored in the upper and lower horizontal arms 22 and 23 of the movable frame 21 , coaxially with the ring - shaped light sources 32 , 37 . a lighting unit 36 and back light 39 are analogous to the lighting unit 32 and back light 34 on the upper arm . a rod 29 of an air cylinder 28 is connected to a vertical portion of the movable frame 21 . a stereoscopic microscope 41 is mounted on the housing 1 . the objective lens 42 of the stereoscopic microscope 41 is coaxial with the through hole 5 in the housing 1 . an uncoiling reel 45 , a tab tape sensor 46 and feed rolls 47 are disposed in that order on the upstream side of the housing 1 . the tab tape sensor optically detects each frame of the tab tape t paid off from the uncoiling reel 45 . downstream of the housing 1 are disposed feed rolls 48 and a take - up reel 49 in that order . having teeth adapted to engage with sprocket holes in the tab tape t , the feed rolls 47 and 48 exactly send forward the tab tape t one frame after another . signals initiated by the tab tape sensor 46 are input in a computer ( not shown ). based on the signals from the tab tape sensor 46 , the computer controls the action of the air cylinder 28 , uncoiling reel 45 , feed rolls 47 and 48 and take - up reel 49 . the following paragraphs describe the method of inspecting a tab tape t with the apparatus just described . first , the uncoiling reel 45 pays off a tab tape t one frame after another . when one frame of the tab tape t reaches and stops at the inspection point , only the top surface thereof is inspected first . in this instance , the fourth prism 15 facing the objective lens 42 is retracted from the light - ray path l . the upper lighting unit 31 uniformly illuminates the top surface of the tab tape t , whereas the lower back light 36 dimly lights the bottom surface thereof . this permits the inspector to directly observe the top surface of the tab tape t through the stereoscopic microscope 41 . when the inspection of the top surface is complete , the fourth prism 15 facing the objective lens 42 is returned into the light - ray path l . the four prisms 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , the focusing lens 16 and the field lens 17 of the optical transmission system 11 send an image of the bottom surface of the tab tape t to the objective lens 42 of the stereoscopic microscope 41 . the stereoscopic microscope 41 stereoscopically enlarges the real image of the bottom surface of the tab tape t focused at the field lens 17 or on the exit side thereof . in this instance , the lower lighting unit uniformly illuminates the bottom surface of the tab tape t , whereas the upper back light 34 dimly lights the top surface thereof . when both sides have been thus inspected , the computer issues instructions to automatically actuate the air cylinder 28 , uncoiling reel 45 , feed rolls 47 and 48 and take - up reel 49 to proceed to the inspection of the next frame . inspection continues , examining the top surface , bottom surface , bottom surface , top surface , top surface and so on of the tab tape t . now a second preferred embodiment of this invention will be described by reference to fig3 . of the devices and members shown in fig3 those analogous to ones shown in fig1 are designated by the same reference characters , with detailed description thereof omitted . as shown in the figure , the fourth reflector is a half - coated mirror 51 , which is fastened to the upper horizontal arm 2 of the housing 1 at an angle of 45 degrees relative to a horizontal plane . the upper and lower lighting units 31 and 36 are coaxial with the through hole 5 and equipped with a light controller ( not shown ). using this apparatus , both sides of a tab tape t are inspected as described in the following . in inspecting the top surface of the tab tape t , the upper lighting unit 31 to illuminate the top surface is turned on , whereas the lower lighting unit 36 for the bottom surface is turned off . this keeps the image of the bottom surface out of the sight , whereby the inspector can directly observe only the top surface of the tab tape t through the half - coated mirror 51 and the stereoscopic microscope 41 . when the top surface has been inspected , the lower lighting unit 36 to illuminate the bottom surface of the tab tape t is turned on , whereas the upper lighting unit 31 for the top surface is turned off . then , the four reflectors 12 to 51 , focusing lens 16 and field lens 17 of the optical transmission system 11 send an image of the bottom surface of the tab tape t to the objective lens 42 of the stereoscopic microscope 41 . in this instance , the half - coated mirror 51 serves as a reflecting mirror , thereby permitting the observation of the bottom surface alone . this invention is by no means limited to the perferred embodiment described herein . the feed rolls 47 and 48 may be designed to be elevatable so that the focus of the stereoscopic microscope 41 relative to the tab tape t may be adjusted by vertically moving the feed rolls 47 and 48 . if provision is made to control the amount of light emitted by the lighting units 31 and 36 , the tab tape t may be inspected under the optimum lighting condition . a douser or a shutter placed on the opposite side of the surface to be inspected in the second preferred embodiment described before permits an unblurred observation of the desired surface only . by illuminating both sides of the tab tape t with lights of different colors , it becomes possible to simultaneously inspect the overlapped images thereof . this permits inspecting , for example , whether the leads on the surface agree with the through holes in the base layer of the tab tape . | 6 |
referring now with more specificity to fig1 of the drawings , there is shown a container assembly 10 constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention . the assembly 10 includes a base cup 11 , a plunger cup 12 and a top 13 for the plunger cup . these three parts can be also seen and the assembly more fully understood by viewing fig3 and 4 . the fourth part of the assembly , piston 14 that fits within the plunger cup 12 may also be seen in fig3 and 4 . briefly in operation , when an outside force is applied by manual pressure , as represented by the arrow f , to the top 13 , the plunger 12 starts to move down as noted by the movement arrow a 1 ( see fig4 ). piston 14 remains stationary with respect to the base cup 11 , so that in terms of relative movement the piston 14 moves up the plunger 12 . this relative movement has been depicted in fig4 by movement arrow a 2 . as a consequence of this compound movement , the product in the chamber of the base cup 11 is forced up through an opening 15 in the bottom of the plunger cup 12 and into transfer tube 16 formed integrally along the inside wall of the cup . at the top of the plunger cup 12 , the product will enter the nozzle , generally designated by the reference numeral 17 ( note the flow arrows f 1 at opening 15 and f 2 adjacent the top of the transfer tube 16 ). simultaneously , the relative movement illustrated by the arrow a 2 causes the product in the chamber formed by the plunger or upper cup 12 to tend to flow in the direction of flow arrow f 3 , as also shown in fig4 . when the product is fully expelled , the inward telescoped position of fig5 is reached . all of the parts are made of a suitable plastic , such as a high density polyethylene , polypropylene or any other plastic that exhibits the requisite strength characteristics and is inert to the product being packaged . known injection molding techniques have been found to be suitable for forming the parts . however , it should be understood that other suitable materials , such as metals or the like that may be required by other products and other manufacturing techniques , such as casting and / or machining , can be utilized in accordance with the basic principles of the present invention . with plastic , the container assembly 10 of my invention is not only low cost , but it can also be made so as to easily snap together during filling and assembly . the locking devices are one - way so that after the parts are snapped together , they cannot be easily taken apart to provide the package with the tamper - proof feature . the package is aesthetically attractive and can be provided with any decorative printing , such as by silk screening , directly on the outer wall surface ( such decorative printing not shown ). in addition to cylindrical , other desired shapes , such as rectangular or oval , may be employed to provide additional attractiveness and distinctiveness to the container to enhance customer identification of the product being packaged . as mentioned above , one of the important features of my container assembly 10 is that no modification is required in order to convert from dispensing of a single fluid product , such as hand lotion or medicinal cream , to a codispensing mode where two separate products are dispensed simultaneously and mixed in the nozzle 17 ready for use , such as shampoo and cream rinse . the reason for this is that the product in the upper chamber , that is the chamber formed by the plunger cup 12 , flows through a path f 3 that is separated from the path f 1 , f 2 of the product from the lower chamber , or the chamber formed by the base cup 11 . thus , the upper and lower chambers both communicate directly with the nozzle 17 . more specifically , the product flowing along path f 3 enters a first feed passage p 1 ; whereas , the product flowing along path f 1 , f 2 enters the nozzle 17 along a second feed passage p 2 . at the intersection of the feed passages p 1 , p 2 the products are mixed and then dispensed through the outlet passage p 3 . a stopper 18 may be provided to place over the outlet orifice to seal the container when not in use . this stopper is attached to the cap 13 by a living hinge 19 that is simply a reduced section of plastic material to allow easy flexure to the open position ( see fig3 and 5 ). with the natural memory in the hinge 19 , the stopper tends to stay in the open position of fig3 ( see also fig5 ). a tab at the outer edge of the stopper facilitates gripping by the finger to flip the top to the open position . when either dispensing the same product , or codispensing different products , because of the mechanical interrelation of the parts , the user is assured of receiving from the nozzle 17 equal proportions of product from the two chambers . if one of the products is more viscous than the other , it is desirable to make the two feed passages p 1 , p 2 of different bore diameters . for example , if a relatively viscous product is used in the upper chamber , such as shampoo , and a less viscous product is used in the lower chamber , such as hair conditioner , it is desirable to provide more flow resistance along the passage p 2 than along the feed passage p 1 to assure constant and accurate control of the product when the dispensing force is applied . one method of assuring the proper control is to merely provide mold parts for the injection molds that have the desired diameter to form the bores . however , another way of doing this is to provide insert tubes in one or the other of the feed passages p 1 , p 2 . thus , inserts 20 , 21 in the passages p 1 , p 2 , respectively , may be used , either singly or together . the inserts are secured in position by using plastic weld solvent during the assembly process . the lesser the viscosity of the product , the more restricted the feed passages p 1 , p 2 should be made so as to provide the proper pressure threshold for dispensing of the product . advantageously , a control orifice , such as lateral control orifice 22 in the insert 20 may be utilized to eliminate the need for insert 21 ( shown dotted line in fig1 ). the insert 20 is mounted permanently by simply applying solvent to the interface as the parts are assembled . with precise control of product , not only can the proper threshold pressure be regulated so that the same pressure is required regardless of the material being dispensed , but also the resistance of flow between the two products can be made to contribute substantially equally to the pressure being applied for dispensing . the proportions of the products in the case of codispensing may be regulated by simply providing an inert carrier in one of the other of the fluids . if the carrier changes the viscosity of the product , then the bore size of the passages p 1 , p 2 are adjusted accordingly . once the optimum sizes of the passages are determined , both empirically and by trial and error methods , all containers for that combination of product or products is set and no changes are necessary . under severe variations in climate conditions , products may require different size passages . by utilizing the insert concept , these changes can be readily made from standard container injection molded parts . a mild pressure , of approximately five pounds per square inch , has been found to be optimum . this is comfortable for most persons and in this range the force may easily be controlled to give precise dispensing . for all products dispensed , selecting the feed passage and orifice sizes to hit this optimum pressure is desirable . the piston 14 includes a recess or cut - out portion 25 ( see fig3 ) to accommodate the transfer tube 16 and the nozzle 17 at the top of the stroke ( note also fig5 ). the piston is desirably made with an extended length l in the axial direction ( see fig3 ) and includes integral sealing beads 26 at the top and bottom of the piston . these sealing beads provide good wiping action along the length of the plunger cup inside wall . this extended length piston serves as an important means for stabilizing the plunger cup 12 , especially in the initial position . it can be seen by noting fig4 that the piston forms a solid area support spanning the area of engagement of the plunger cup 12 with the base cup 11 . this means that lateral forces applied at the top of the plunger cup 12 are more effectively resisted . this added support also allows the plunger cup 12 to start at a location higher in the base cup 11 than would otherwise be allowable . the interface between the cups is provided with sealing beads 27 on the internal wall of the base cup 11 . with the proper tolerances , bleed - back around the sealing beads 26 , 27 is minimal . when product does escape through one of the beads adjacent the product chamber , the product will be trapped behind the next bead . the amount of product escape past any single bead is negligible and thus there can be no product expected to work its way through to the opening at the interface between the parts under normal operating conditions . of course , with less viscous products , the greater number of sealing beads and the closer tolerances are desired . on the other hand , with more viscous products , a single bead , or even no beads at all is desirable . the product around the area of the sealing beads 26 , 27 serves to lubricate and thus control the pressure action described above . by providing for less lubrication and more friction , the resistance to movement of the parts can be increased , and vice versa . an important concept of our invention is the structure allowing locking of the four parts together during the assembling process . these locks are designed to prevent accidental dispensing or spilling under circumstances that could normally be expected . just as importantly , the locking of the parts provides a package that is safe to have around children and infants , since once assembled the parts cannot be easily disassembled . the piston 14 , in addition to providing the stabilizing forces at the interface between the base cup 11 and the plunger cup 12 , forms an important part of this mechanical interlock system . the piston 14 with radial reinforcing ribs 30 supports a piston rod 31 having at its distal end formed as a reduced portion 32 . the reduced portion or button 32 has a curved or hemispherical end face to serve as a guiding surface for engaging a snap ring 33 integrally formed on the inside bottom of the base cup 11 ( see fig4 ). just above the reduced portion 32 is an undercut groove 34 ( see fig3 ) in which a peripheral one - way hook or prong element at the top of the snap ring 33 is designed to fit . during installation , the curved face of the portion 32 engages the tapered upper face of the hooks , flexes open the plastic snap ring , and then snaps into the locked position . once snapped together , the piston 14 cannot be withdrawn because the prongs are seated in the undercut groove 34 . as the plunger 12 moves downwardly during the dispensing operation , aperture 35 in the bottom of the cup moves along the stationary piston rod 30 and makes a smooth transition over the snap ring 33 ( see fig5 ). a slight crown is provided around the aperture 35 to insure that the maximum amount of product is expressed out of the product chamber and up the transfer tube , as clearly shown in fig5 . similarly , the interconnection between the nozzle 17 and the plunger cup 12 is continuous so that the relative movement of the piston 14 in accordance with arrow a 2 expresses full product out the passage p 1 . a slight crown may also be provided on the top of piston 14 to assure full flow of the product . the cap 13 is provided with an integral snap ring 40 around substantially its full peripheral extent . the ring 40 has a hook portion that is accommodated in groove 41 ( see fig3 ) formed in the enlarged top shoulder 42 of the upper cup 12 . just below the groove 41 is a lower shoulder 43 that mates with rim 44 of the base cup 11 when the container has been fully telescoped ( see fig5 ). notice should be made that the snap ring 40 also cannot be removed once it is placed in position during assembly . the shoulder 43 extends out flush with the outer face of the ring 40 so that a tool cannot be inserted to forcibly release the hook portion . the nozzle 17 has been formed integrally with the cap 13 so that the second passage p 2 must be connected to the transfer tube 16 during assembly . this is accomplished by providing a reduced nipple 45 having a locking bead 47 adapted to fit in a mating recess within the inside wall of the transfer tube 16 ( see fig5 ). this snap - together joint assures a good seal for the fluid passing from the lower chamber to the nozzle 17 and also provides an additional point of interlock to hold the cap against removal once the container has been filled and assembled . the lowermost bead 26 on the piston 14 serves to properly locate the lower edge against the bottom of the plunger cup 12 and provide a detent mechanism that must be overcome to initiate the dispensing operation . the lower bead 26 is for this purpose positioned between cooperating snap or detent beads 26 . in practice as the dispenser is brought to the operating mode , this snap action requires a travel of only a fraction of an inch but gives the user a definite signal to indicate that dispensing is commencing . likewise , during assembly , a definite signal is given as the bead 26 passes over the cooperating snap bead 46 , thus making assembly of these two parts more controlled . as a final safety interlock and product integrity control device on my container assembly 10 , i provide a safety strip 50 that extends from below the shoulder 43 down to engagement with the upper surface of the rim 44 on the base cup 11 . the strip 50 is sufficiently stiff to resist flexure by pressure applied to the top 13 of the container . this provides an outwardly , visible indicator to the purchaser that the container has not been tampered with since it left the manufacturer . the upper end of the safety strip 50 is notched at 51 in order to provide a convenient break point . the lower end of the strip 50 has a reduced lip 52 that is tucked in behind the rim 44 of the base cup . the strip 50 is molded as an integral part of the cap 13 , and as will be discussed below , is assembled to the container with the cap . a heat shrink band 55 is provided around the girth of the container assembly at the interface between the base cup and the plunger cup 11 , 12 . this band is carried during assembly preferably by a spot weld point 56 on the end of the band 50 . upon application of heat during the assembly process , the heat shrink plastic band contracts , snugly engaging both cups across rim 44 , and thus further locking the cups together . a seal is now formed to provide full sanitary protection of the contents until the moment the container is opened for use . the shelf life of the product within the container is enhanced by having this positive seal at the interface between the parts . to open , the customer simply grips the safety strip along its lateral edges flexing the strip outwardly to release the tucked in lip 52 . as the lip 52 is released , the weakened point at the notch 51 is broken and the strip can then be used to help tear the band 55 beginning at the starting slit 57 which overlies the distal end of the strip 50 ( see fig1 ). the strip 50 and band are removed as an assembly and discarded . in the alternative form of the device of the present invention , shown in fig2 and 9 - 11 , identical parts have been denoted by the same reference numerals as used in the container of the first embodiment with the addition of suffix a . this design has been found to be adaptable for smaller containers , such as purse - size lotion or the like . first , the piston takes a different form , as is denoted by reference numeral 14a in fig9 . the piston has a relatively thin working body with a single wiping bead 26a . the detent beads 46a serve to locate and hold the piston in proper position . a positive act of applying sufficient force f a to cause the piston 14a to snap out of position is required to initiate dispensing . a stop 58 along the center of the piston 14a serves as a positive limit to upward movement of the plunger cup 12a . a reduced portion 32a fits within elongated ring 33a integrally formed to the bottom of the base cup 11a thereby performing the same interlock function as the alternative construction of fig4 . a locking bead is seated within a mating recess in the ring 33a to provide the actual locking engagement . the nozzle 17a of this alternate embodiment is formed integrally with the plunger cup 12 and is an extension of the transfer tube 16a . the same flow pattern as before is provided , as indicated by the flow arrows in this figure . the snap - on cap 13 has the full peripheral snap ring 40a and this ring is provided with a valve port 59 ( note fig2 and 11 ). the cap 13 is rotatable in order to bring the port 59 into alignment with the output passage , as illustrated in fig1 . this provides an extremely efficient cut - off and presents a very aesthetically pleasing container , as will be recognized . a safety strip 50a can be utilized ( fig2 ), with or without a sealing band as desired . if a liquid product having a low viscosity is to be dispensed from our container , suitable check valves may be employed in the outlet passage p 3 of the nozzles . such check valves are shown in fig1 in a modified nozzle 17b . the check valves may include a simple ball 60 , formed of a suitable plastic or metal material . a backup spring 61 may be employed to urge the ball 60 against the cooperating seat in the outlet passage . the spring is selected to be sufficiently strong to resist the static head pressure of the product when the container is turned upside - down to obviate accidental spillage . a sleeve 62 serves to lock the spring in position and during assembly is placed behind the ball and spring 60 , 61 . this sleeve may be permanently fixed in position by previous application of suitable plastic weld solvent applied prior to the insertion . another variation within the more specific concepts of our invention is also shown in fig1 . as will be recognized , two outlet passages with additional check valve combinations 65 , 66 are shown in communication with the chamber of the upper plunger cup 12b . the two passages are useful when dispensing products where two beads b 1 , b 2 of one product are desired to be dispensed on opposite sides of the main product bead b 3 , as shown in this figure . liquid two - part epoxy is one example where this arrangement would be useful to assure a good mix of the product beads . with the mix occurring outside the container ( note product beads ) there is no problem of deleterious hardening inside the nozzle . also , providing the two passages gives the designer of the specific container additional flexibility to gain the proper flow of a product , such as a product with a difficult viscosity to handle . rotatable snap - in ( one - way to prevent removal ) nozzle extensions 67 , 68 can serve to direct the product beads at different lateral locations . separate caps and / or stoppers ( not shown ) may be provided for the multiple outlets , if desired . in order to conserve space within the container , allow maximum product filling , and reduce the overall height of the piston 14 , the nozzle 17b may project above the top of the cap 13b , as shown in fig1 . the outer dimensions of the nozzle are limited so as to fit or nest within the quadrilateral space formed by four containers sitting edge - to - edge , such as in a shipping container . the interlocking system of parts that has been described above as a feature of the invention , complements the filling and assembling process . these two features together greatly enhance the economic feasibility of the package . the first step illustrated in fig1 depicts the first station of an in - line conveyor system . the base cup 11 is being filled with fluid product from a suitable automatic dispensing spout 71 . the base cup 11 may be supported on a suitable flat conveyor c , but it is to be understood that any type of conveyor and automatic filling equipment may be used . the in - line conveyor system is preferred since there are existing in - line machines that can be set up with minimum modification to perform the required container handling , filling and assembling all the way to cartoning of the finished containers . one skilled in the art can recognize that other machines employing rotary conveyors , turret mechanisms or the like could also be used . the second step is concerned with loading the piston 14 into the plunger cup 12 . for this purpose a suction cup handler 72 picks up the piston 14 , moves the piston into the cup to the dotted line position and finally locks the cup in position by the snapping of the bead detents 26 , 46 . with the cup held by the detent , the suction cup handler 72 brings the subassembly into alignment with the base cup 11 and moves the plunger cup 12 down into the product and by alignment of the sides of the two cups 11 , 12 the piston rod reduced portion 32 is snapped into the snap ring 33 . during this assembly step , the product in the container is initially pressurized with the air escaping up the transfer tube 16 and the product finally filling the transfer tube to a position just below its upper lip . the suction cup handler is released and withdrawn and at the next stage a second product filling spout 73 fills the plunger cup 12 . the cup is filled to the upper edge of the nozzle opening in the side of the support ring 42 as shown . in the modified embodiment of fig1 and 14 where the nozzle 17b is located above the top , the plunger cup 12 can be filled all the way to the upper lip . a second suction cup handler 74 picks up a cap 13 with the safety strip 50 attached thereto . the container thus far assembled is now fed between two guide rails 75 , 76 that will support the plunger cup 12 while the cap 13 is being snapped into position . the handler 74 brings the cap 13 down almost to engagement with the top , and aligning finger 77 pivots inwardly against the strip 50 to insure that the lip 52 is tucked in . then the handler 74 moves downwardly with sufficient force to snap the ring 40 onto the cup 12 . lastly , in those containers utilizing the heat shrink band 55 , the assembled container 10 now arrives at a station with heated air nozzles 80 , 81 and 82 , 83 . these nozzles are directed in opposed relationship to each other and have air of sufficient temperature to cause the band 55 to instantly shrink and grip the two adjacent parts of the container and provide a final locking together and sealing from atmospheric conditions . when the nozzles are first turned on , the opposed relationship of the nozzles ( at an approximately ninety degrees included angle ) the aerodynamic forces center the band 55 . of course , additional mechanical helper fingers swinging into position can assist the band aligning process , if desired or necessary . in summary , a container and the process of assembling and filling the container has been provided that will offer manufacturers an exceptional new concept . no force , other than outside manual pressure is required for dispensing ; the container is inexpensive , aesthetically pleasing , tamper - proof and safe to be around children ; and easy and economical to fill and assemble . the interlock system of the four parts of the container assure proper positioning of the parts as well as foolproof locking . when the product has been totally dispensed from the container , the container is easily disposed of by the consumer . codispensing of different products is possible with no modification of the basic container structure . flow control inserts can be used to easily regulate the flow pattern from the dispenser . the container is fully sealed on the shelf for maximum shelf life . products along the full spectrum of viscosities , from a thin liquid to a viscous liquid to flowable granular product can be packaged . in this disclosure , there is shown and described only the preferred embodiments of the invention , but , as aforementioned , it is to be understood that the invention is capable of use in various other combinations and environment and is capable of changes or modifications within the scope of the inventive concept as expressed herein . | 1 |
referring now to fig1 a helicopter 10 has a mounting 11 for a transmission 12 on a fuselage 13 . transmission 12 drives a rotor 14 by way of mast 15 . the helicopter pylon comprising transmission 12 is mounted on resilient supports of predetermined character and operable under all conditions of normal flight . the mounting 11 provides a support of unique character during flight conditions , particularly those conditions involved in deceleration . upon deceleration , a pylon will normally respond to rotor induced vertical shear forces and induce high oscillatory forces into the fuselage 13 . more particularly , the mounting 11 includes a plurality of arms 20 and 21 which are mounted or otherwise coupled to the fuselage 13 by resilient couplings so that the normal fuselage loads experienced during normal flight conditions , including deceleration , are borne by the resilient couplings 24 and 25 . pylon stops are provided to cooperate with arms 20 and 21 , respectively , so that in operation under extreme maneuvers , the loads will be borne by the stops , in which case rigid couplings are effective between the pylon and the fuselage . as shown in fig3 one or more antitorque links 32 may be provided between the transmission 12 and the fuselage 13 , to oppose the torque on transmission 12 . referring now to fig2 the graph illustrates the preferred area of operation . the invention provides what may be referred to as a soft pylon system , or more specifically as a system for attenuating vibration independent of tuning and damping ( savitad ). the relationships depicted in fig2 are oscillatory hub shear forces , mounting spring rate and damping . minimum airframe vibration is achieved when the force to the fuselage is minimized . thus , it is desirable to minimize the forces from the rotor that are transmitted through the mountings and into the fuselage . it has been known that for a rigid structured airframe coupled with zero damping by pylon restraints , accurately sized tuning masses may generate shear forces which will exactly counteract the forces in the pylon mounting springs and result in perfect isolation regardless of the size of hub shear . damping in the mountings will increase the hub shear , but more importantly will change the phase of the loads in the support springs in relation to the forces in the activated mass linkage so that the system will no longer balance , thus increasing transmissibility and the oscillation in the helicopter . further , changes in rotor speed or in mounting spring rate will cause imbalance and increase oscillation . in avoidance of such problems , the soft pylon mounting system of the present invention provides mounting springs in combination with a pylon mass which results in low hub impedance . in fig2 the character of oscillatory shear forces from the rotor is shown as a function of mounting spring stiffness and pylon mass . the vertical axis of the graph of fig2 is scaled in terms of the magnitude of oscillatory shear forces from the rotor . the horizontal axis is scaled as to be in terms of spring rate of the pylon mounting to the fuselage . lower part of fig2 shows the variation of transmissibility with mounting spring stiffness . transmissibility is the ratio of the force transmitted to the fuselage divided by the shear force from the rotor . the vibration in the fuselage is proportional to the force transmitted to the fuselage which is obtained as the product of shear force from the rotor multiplied by transmissibility , both of which are plotted in fig2 . the curve 40 is a plot of theoretical hub shear force versus mounting spring rate . for very stiffly mounted pylon , the shear forces are high , with the ordinate 41 being representative . transmissibility has a value near 1 . 0 meaning that almost all shear force from the rotor is transmitted into the fuselage . as the spring rate decreases toward a point at which the rotor becomes resonant with the pylon / fuselage , the magnitude of the oscillatory shear force increases such as at ordinates 42 and 43 . the forces progressively increase magnitude until at resonance 44 , absent any damping , the oscillatory shear forces become infinite , but the transmissibility is still low . below resonance , forces are initially large , but at point 45 actually go to zero at a point where the pylon is resonant with the fuselage . at this pylon mounting stiffness the pylon / fuselage does not impede the motion of the rotor , i . e ., the rotor could behave as if it is a free rotor with no attachment to the fuselage . at a spring rate such that there is essentially a free rotor , a condition occurs where the oscillatory forces induced into the pylon are very low , but the transmissibility is high so that large vibrations will result . below the point 45 the oscillatory forces increase successively as indicated by ordinates 46 and 47 , and the transmissibility becomes very low . dotted lines 48 and 49 represent curves for progressively increasing damping in the system . a typical operating point for a system such as shown in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 322 , 379 ( davi ) is represented by ordinate 50 . typical of operation of the present invention is in the area of point 51 . the stiff pylon mounting typically characterized by range 53 involves high rotor forces and moderate transmissibility . the prior art mounting near range 54 involves moderate rotor forces and very low transmissibility . the soft pylon of the present invention in a range 52 involves very low rotor forces and moderate transmissibility . thus , in accordance with the invention , the pylon mounting is made purposely soft and of such character as to provide operation near the point represented by ordinate 51 , ( area 52 ), fig2 for normal flight conditions including level flight and deceleration . in the soft mounted pylon system shown in fig1 the transmissibility can never be zero since the motion of the pylon will generate loads in the mounting springs which will be transmitted to the airframe . however , if the mounting springs are soft enough in relation to the pylon mass so that the rotor shear is quite low , then the product of rotor shear multiplied by transmissibility will be low enough to give low vibration levels in the fuselage . changes in mounting spring stiffness or increases in damping will influence rotor shear and / or transmissibility only slightly . likewise , minor changes in rotor speed or airframe structural differences will not alter the vibration of the fuselage significantly , since the oscillatory forces from the rotor will remain low . it should be pointed out that the transmission of the davi system which operates in area 54 of fig2 is not physically mounted on soft springs . in spite of that , the dynamic character shown in fig2 is achieved by the davi system by means of levered - weights which are oscillated by the motion of the pylon itself . because of the high lever ratio , the activated masses increase the effective mass of the pylon . referring now to fig3 a side view of the pylon mounting 11 is shown . the mount structure includes arms 20 and 21 and plate 12a . they are secured to the transmission 12 by bolts 60 . couplings 24 , 25 and two additional couplings not shown in fig3 are all similar . coupling 24 comprises a housing 24a . housing 24a is secured by bolts 24c , directly and rigidly to the fuselage 13 . a bolt 24b is rigidly secured in a hole passing through the end 20a of the arm 20 . bolt 24b extends axially into the housing 24a where it is resiliently mounted as will be shown in fig5 . fig4 is a plan view of the mounting system of fig3 . arms 20 and 21 are integral one with the other . arms 22 and 23 are also provided on the side opposite arms 20 and 21 . the four 20 - 23 arms are coupled to the fuselage by four resilient pads 24 - 27 . thus , the mounting system is more or less symmetrical about the axis 15a of the mast . the pads 24 - 27 are mounted to the fuselage by bolts such as bolt 24c . it will be note that two fore / aft antitorque links 32 and 33 are provided . link 32 is coupled to tab 32a on plate 12a and to a pivotal link 32b on the mounting plate of coupling 25 . it may also be noted that the pylon torque may be reacted without the use of the antitorque links 32 and 33 by means of side forces on the couplings 24 - 27 , if they are sized properly for this load in addition to the fundamental vertical load . fig5 illustrates a sectional view of the mounting taken along lines 5 -- 5 in fig3 at the end of arm 20 . bolt 24b is shown extending above the top of the arm 20 and is of small diameter . bolt 24b has a lower portion 24c of enlarged diameter below which there is provided still a larger diameter shoulder 24d . below shoulder 24d is a disc - like foot 24e . the housing 24a has a central bore 24f of cylindrical shape to which an elastomeric bushing 24g is secured . bushing 24g includes an outer cylinder 24h which is rigidly and securely coupled to housing 24a . it also includes an inner cylinder 24i which is secured to the outer cylinder 24h by the resilient elastomeric body 24g . the lower end of cylinder 24i rests on shoulder 24d and mates with the enlarged section 24c of bolt 24b . the upper end of cylinder 24i bears against washers 24j which in turn bear and are forced against the bottom of the enlarged end portion 20a of arm 20 . a nut 24k is threaded onto the upper end of bolt 24b to rigidly secure bolt 24 and the inner cylinder 24i . the bore 24f has a reentrant portion 24m which is somewhat larger than the diameter of the disc 24e . the mounting plate 24n of the coupling 24 is secured to the lower end of housing 24a and forms a closure therefor with its surface forming a base on which the disc 24e may rest . mounting plate 24n is rigidly attached to fuselage 13 . when the helicopter is at rest on the ground , the weight of the pylon and rotor is transmitted from disc 24e to the mounting plate 24n . thus , the static load of the rotor system is rigidly supported . in normal flight , the disc 24e raises off of the base plate 24n and operates freely and resiliently between the upper surface of the plate 24n and the lower down facing shoulder 24p . the elastomeric body 24g could be preloaded in tension by designing the length of the bolt 24b and by means of tightening bolts 24c . once this is done , the disc 24e will not raise off of the base plate 24n until the preload is overcome by the rotor thrust . under extreme maneuver commands where rotor thrust is generated beyond that involved in normal maneuvers , the upper surface of the disc 24e will engage the shoulder 24p to provide a rigid coupling for extreme maneuvers , the resilient body 24g being elongated under such extreme loads as to permit disc 24e to contact shoulder 24p . in one embodiment of the invention , the preferred system was employed on a bell helicopter aircraft , model no . 206l - m , wherein the gross weight was approximately 4000 pounds . four mountings such as mounting 24 equally shared the load . the elastomeric body 24g was about 1 inch inside diameter , about 2 . 75 inches outside diameter , about 2 . 2 inches in length , and had a spring rate of 1800 pounds per inch . the savitad pylon mounting system made possible very low cabin vibrations throughout the flight spectrum . referring back to fig2 the pylon mounting stiffness should be chosen so as to minimize the vibration , which implies minimizing the product of oscillatory shear force from the rotor , and transmissibility . for a specified mass of the pylon , the softer the spring rate to the left of region 52 , higher will be the hub shear force , but lower will be transmissibility and the product will be lower . it turns out that region 52 is the preferred location , because , even though marginal improvements in vibration could be made with a softer mounting , there are severe practical limitations to softness in the mounts from considerations of allowable pylon deflections . region 52 represents the design of the present invention . after choosing the spring rate , the stops are designed in accordance with the allowable pylon deflections . the present pylon mounting reduces vibrations in high speed flights and maneuvers also , in addition to reducing vibrations in deceleration where its performance is most impressive . if the allowable deflections of the pylon are large , then the window between the upper and lower stops would be made proportionately large . on the other hand , if other considerations restrict large deflections of the pylon , then the window between the stops would be reduced . the stops also function as means by which the rotor thrust could be transmitted to fuselage in case of failure of the resilient coupling . if only a small window is allowed between the stops , then the resilient coupling between the pylon and the fuselage may be preloaded so that the pylon will unseat from the fuselage only if the thrust reaches , for example , 80 % of the lowest gross weight . the upper stop may be contacted when the thrust equals , for example , 120 % of the highest gross weight . this arrangement insures that the pylon will be active for decelerations and high speed flights at all gross weights . in severe maneuvers , the upper stops would be contacted and rigid couplings result between the pylon and fuselage . this has not been of any problem in tests with the bell helicopter aircraft model 206l - m . the transmission case of the pylon may have three or more arms integral to the case and house the pins that are attached to the resilient couplings , and the vertical motion stops may be provided separately from the mounts . an adjustable vertical restraint assembly of fig6 and 7 may be employed to provide this stop . referring to fig6 the inner member 100 is attached to pylon by a uniball coupling 101 . an outer member 102 is connected to the fuselage by coupling 103 . the inner member 100 has a stop limit shoulder 104 . the outer member 102 has a hollow central cavity having an upper small cylindrical bore 105 and a lower large cylindrical bore 106 . diametrically opposite sides of the lower portion 106 are cut away so that the interior portions are accessable . the lower end of the inner member has a threaded section 107 onto which a nut 108 is threaded and secured by a pin 109 . an upper stop sleeve 110 is mounted immediately above nut 108 . a plastic bushing 111 of a nylon type material of cylindrical shape encases the inner member and extends between the upper surface of the stop sleeve 110 and the lower surface of shoulder 104 . in fig7 a side view of the unit is shown . as the pylon moves up , the upper stop sleeve 110 moves up until it contacts the shoulder 112 on outer member 102 . the allowable travel of the pylon is the distance 113 . the assembly of fig6 and 7 provides no vertical restraint at all when the motion of the pylon is between the lower and upper stops . rigid coupling is effective between the pylon and fuselage once either stop is contacted . it may be designed so that in maneuvers involving rotor thrust above a certain value , the upper stop 112 would be contacted so that most of the rotor load beyond that thrust would be transmitted to fuselage through this restraint assembly . this assembly will provide the restraint required in case of failure of one or more of the supports of the pylon . fig8 shows an arrangement where a transmission 120 is mounted together with the engines 121 and 122 as a single unit on resilient pylon supports 123 - 126 . with this arrangement , the engine and transmission comprise the pylon , with much more mass than is possible when the transmission alone is mounted on the mount springs . the attachment of the engines to the transmission should be so rigid as to place the frequency of the engine vertical mode on the transmission above n per rev . as shown in fig8 engine 121 has an air inlet 131 . engine 122 has an air inlet 132 . the engine output shaft housings 133 and 134 extend forward along opposite sides of transmission 120 and with the shafts being coupled through intermediate shafts in housings 135 and 136 which extend into transmission 120 at angles approximately 45 degrees from the axis of the motors 121 and 122 and 90 degrees with respect to one another . tail rotor shaft 137 extends from the rear of the transmission 120 . the mast 138 extends upward from the transmission . it will be apparent that the engines 121 and 122 rigidly mounted to the transmission 120 provide the system of increased mass for support by the resilient mountings 123 - 126 which may be of the type above described . as shown in fig1 , the engine 122 is coupled to the transmission structure by way of an engine support or mount 141 . as shown in fig8 engine mounts 140 and 141 provide support for engines 121 and 122 slightly rearward of transmission 120 with the shaft housings 133 - 136 providing the additional support for the front ends of the engines relative to the housing 120 . the point 51a , fig2 may represent the operating condition with only the transmission being soft mounted . then point 51b will be the operating point if engine is also mounted along with the transmission , and the mount spring rate is not changed . if now the spring rate is increased , then the operating point could be moved to point 51c . transmissibility is approximately equal to k /( mw 2 - k ) where k is the total vertical spring rate of the resilient pylon mounts , and m is the mass of the pylon and w is the n per rev frequency . it is clear that by increasing m and holding k constant , transmissibility will decrease from point 51a to point 51b . also , by increasing k and holding m constant at the higher value thereof , transmissibility will increase from point 51b to point 51c . vibration in the fuselage is proportional to the product of the two functions plotted in fig2 . it turns out that point 51b results in lower vibration than point 51a , and at point 51c the vibration approximately equals the vibration at point 51a . hence the mass of the engine can be utilized either to further reduce vibrations in conjunction with same soft spring configuration , or to increase the mount spring rate for equal vibrations . mounting the engine on the transmission also eliminates the input shaft misalignments and thereby simplifies its design considerably . the present system has an influence on the stability of the helicopter in air - resonance . air - resonance is a phenomenon where the blade lead - lag motions are cyclically excited by the pitch and roll motions of the pylon and fuselage , and also where the resulting shear forces from the rotor excite the motions of the pylon - fuselage system . this phenomenon is potentially catastrophic and is usually avoided by incorporating blade lead - lag dampers . with the present soft pylon - mounting system , the stability of the lead - lag motion theoretically would increase . such an increase was verified in flight tests . the increased damping may be explained as follows : the in - plane rotor shear created by the lead - lag motion results in pitch and roll rotations of the pylon . the magnitude of rotation is increased because of soft mounting . this produces gyroscopic forces which in turn flap the blades . the flapping motion is impeded by the flap - damping aerodynamic forces . thus the assumed lead - lag motion causes blade damping , implying thereby that the lead - lag stability is enhanced . thus the blade motion is stabilized without the incorporation of the lead - lag dampers . | 8 |
the particulars shown herein are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the embodiments of the present invention only and are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the present invention . in this regard , no attempt is made to show structural details of the present invention in more detail than is necessary for the fundamental understanding of the present invention , the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the present invention may be embodied in practice . referring now to fig1 , an embodiment of the invention is shown generally at 100 . at a step 102 , an associated threshold for the number of unanswered questions that are pending , hereinafter a “ low watermark ,” is established for the cat test . the cat system will preselect and ensure that the number of unanswered questions that are resident on a particular testing terminal exceeds the low watermark threshold . if the number of unanswered questions that are resident on a particular testing terminal exceeds the low watermark threshold , the testing terminal will pre - fetch new questions from the remote location until the threshold is exceeded . by way of example , the low watermark level could be set to a value of three ( 3 ). a first question a is downloaded from the remote location to the testing terminal at step 104 , such that there is one ( 1 ) unanswered question on the testing terminal . as noted above , the first question in standard cat methodologies is an intermediate level question ; preferably the instant embodiment uses such a benchmark for question a , but the invention is not so limited . the testing terminal determines at step 106 that having only one ( 1 ) unanswered question is below the threshold of three ( 3 ) resident unanswered questions for the low watermark . the testing terminal thus automatically ( and presumably before the test - taker has answered question a ) returns to step 104 and retrieves from the remote location the next question , hereinafter question b . ( for ease of discussion , in this example the individual question b is obtained ; however the invention is not so limited , and groups of questions could be obtained .) in the prior art cat methodology , the selection of a future question such as question b depends on complete information on the answer to prior questions . thus , in prior art cat , the question b would be based on how the test - taker answered the preceding question a . in contrast , in the instant embodiment , the test - taker has not yet answered question a , such that the ability algorithm has not yet been able to make any adjustment . question b in the instant embodiment is thus based on the same ability level as question a . now having questions a and b resident , the testing terminal determines at step 106 that having only two ( 2 ) unanswered questions is still below the threshold of three ( 3 ) resident unanswered questions for the low watermark . the testing terminal thus automatically ( and presumably still before the test - taker has answered question a ) returns to step 104 and retrieves from the remote location the next question , hereinafter question c . as there still has been no ability update , questions a - c are all at the same level . one more question is needed to overcome the low watermark threshold of three ( 3 ), and thus the cat repeats the above procedure to obtain a question d , which is also at the same ability level as questions a - c . now that four ( 4 ) unanswered questions are present , the low watermark requirement is satisfied , and no further questions are obtained and downloaded at this time . the test - taker will now proceed to answer the questions , preferably in the order received , and thus starting with question a at step 108 . as noted above , the standard cat methodologies would have the testing terminal send the answer to question a to the remote location for evaluation , followed by a subsequent updating of the ability level ; preferably the instant embodiment follows that same sequence for question a . ( for ease of discussion , the further description below will refer only to this methodology , but the invention is not so limited , and other protocols can be used ). a new question is selected based on the updated ability level at step 112 , which is then downloaded to the testing terminal as question e at step 114 . questions a - d are thus based on a fixed test methodology , while question e and subsequent questions are based on adaptive test methodologies . the test taker will now proceed to answer question b at step 108 . the testing terminal sends the answer to question b to the remote location for evaluation . the system subsequently updates the ability level of the test taker based on the answer to the previously unanswered question b . a new question is selected at step 112 based on the updated ability level . this new question is then downloaded to the testing terminal as question f at step 114 . the above process continues iteratively until the required number of questions for the test is complete . at some point the test - taker will be close enough to the end of the test that the number of questions remaining in the test is less than or equal to the low watermark , indicated in the process flow of fig1 at step 110 . at this point the instant embodiment can preferably discontinue obtaining further questions , and process iteratively through step 108 until all questions are answered and the test is concluded . ( in the alternative , it is possible , albeit not desirable , for the cat to maintain its cycle and continue to obtain questions from the pool , even though the questions will not be used ). as noted above , the standard cat methodologies would generate each new question based on the answers to all preceding questions ; each new question is thus based on the most updated and complete information . in contrast , the instant embodiment bases its ability levels on older questions without consideration for responses to the most recent questions , and specifically the most recent number of questions earlier than the current question by the value of the low watermark . stated more simply , while prior art cat updates ability and uses the updated ability on a question - by - question basis in substantially real time , the instant embodiment is several questions behind in applying the ability update for new questions . thus , if the low watermark is equal to three ( 3 ), the cat methodology of the instant embodiment selects a new question without reference to the answers to the three ( 3 ) most recent questions . phrased differently , question e will be based on the answer to question a , but not on the three most recently downloaded questions b - d . application of the instant embodiment minimizes ( if not outright eliminates ) latency found in prior art cat methods . the low watermark level allows for the pre - download of a series of future questions . thus , similar to the “ look ahead ” prior art method , the test - taker can pull up subsequent questions without any latency consequences ( and indeed , as there is no need to confirm answers with the remote location before loading the next question , the instant embodiment can be even faster than the “ look ahead ” method ). yet unlike the “ look ahead ” method , there is no download of alternative questions at different ability levels that will ultimately not be used , and thus no wasted bandwidth or security concerns . the prior art cat method derives its accuracy from the fact that each question is selected based on the most current ability level . since the embodiment of the present invention selects new questions based on responses to earlier questions but without reliance on responses to the most recent questions , the test results of the instant embodiment are not technically as accurate as the prior art cat method . however , if the low watermark level is small enough , the difference in results between the prior art cat method and the instant embodiment is negligible . for example , so long as the low watermark level is less than or equal to about 10 % of the total questions , the differences in scores for a test using the instant embodiment versus the prior art cat method are statistically insignificant . thus , a low watermark of four ( 4 ) or less would be appropriate for a test of 40 questions . in this manner the instant embodiments are quasi - adaptive in that they begin with fixed questions in an amount consistent with the watermark and then transition into adaptive testing methodology in response to answers to the initial fixed questions . the instant embodiment thus provides a cat methodology that is , within acceptable statistical norms , as accurate as the prior art cat method , yet without the latency concerns . there is also no need for the “ cloned ” servers and their corresponding cost and security risks . servers for the instant embodiment may be centrally located in a secure facility . only the optimal number of servers is required to service the test - taker population . only content that will be administered is downloaded to the testing terminal , minimizing test item security exposure issues . item answer keys remain on the server and are never exposed . the selection of the value of the watermark is preferably based on a variety of factors . an important goal of the embodiments is to reduce latency , such that the value of the low watermark needs to be large enough to minimize the onset of latency . this may involve consideration of the features of the questions , in that questions that leverage graphics , audio , and / or animation may present an increase in latency . the larger the value of the low watermark , the less chance there is that latency will influence the environment of the presentation of questions to the test - taker . while this latency parameters counsel extremely in favor of large values for low watermarks , as a practical matter the accuracy of the test will degrade for larger values . as noted above , the low watermark value should be small enough ( e . g ., less than or equal to about 10 % of test size ) to preserve the desired degree of statistical accuracy relative to prior art cat . a larger percentage may be acceptable to the extent that a particular use of the methodology is tolerant of larger statistical deviations , while a smaller percentage may be necessary if excessive accuracy is required . another factor that may influence the value of the low watermark is the presence of “ strands ” in a particular test . “ strands ” refer to common topics of questions within a larger type of test . for example , the test may be a math test , but includes three “ strands ”: algebra questions , geometry questions , and trigonometry questions . cat ability algorithms are based in part upon a test - taker &# 39 ; s ability within strands . to allow this feature of the ability algorithm to function optimally , the low watermark value is preferably less than or equal to the number of strands within a test . by way of example , for a 40 question test with three ( 3 ) strands , a low watermark value of four ( 4 ) may be small enough for statistically accurate results , but a low watermark of three ( 3 ) or less would nonetheless be preferred based on the number of strands , especially when the selection algorithm cycles items among the strands , since by the time a strand selection repeats , all item scores for that strand are available to the ability estimator . in the above embodiment , the system presented individual questions for answers . referring now to fig2 , in an alternative embodiment 200 , questions could be delivered in groups . by way of non - limiting example , the cat may provide a passage for the test - taker to read , along with a group of questions for the test - taker to answer about the passage . in this embodiment , the number of unanswered questions within the group is compared against the low watermark level . if the group has ten ( 10 ) questions , and the low watermark is three ( 3 ), then the cat of the instant embodiment will not obtain a new question ( or group of questions ) until the test - taker has answered seven ( 7 ) of the ten ( 10 ) questions , thus leaving three ( 3 ) unanswered questions . if the group has two ( 2 ) questions , and the low watermark is three ( 3 ), then the cat will automatically obtain and download the next question ( or group of questions ). in this context , question sets are sent , each set including at least one question . the methodology is the same as in fig1 , save that at step 202 a check is made to see whether or not the number of unanswered questions meets the watermark , thus requiring obtaining the next question ; otherwise the system can continue to process answers from the backlog of questions sent in the most recent question set . for ease of discussion , various references are made above to obtaining a new or next question . while this implies single question retrieval , the invention is not so limited . the system could obtain and download several related questions at a common ability level , such as for the reading passage example above . applicant notes that the use of three ( 3 ) as the low watermark is exemplary only . it could be any number as desired , and the above methodology would repeat as many times as necessary to satisfy that number . the number could be fixed across the system for a particular test , or can be fluid and change as test conditions warrant toward an ultimate goal of minimizing latency via pre - fetch of questions . it is possible that for some conditions the low watermark value could be zero ( although this would not be the case for an entire test ). preferably the low watermark number is static for a particular test implementation . however , the invention is not so limited . the system could be programmed to adjust the low watermark under different test conditions , either test - wide or for individual test takers . for example , if the system detected that the network was slow and thus the latency unusually high , it could increase the low watermark for all test - takers on that network . if a particular testing terminal was having specific latency concerns , the system could increase the low watermark for that specific testing terminal . similarly , the system could reduce the value of the low watermark if desired . in the above embodiments , the testing terminal and remote location cooperate after each answer to check the answer and update the ability algorithm . however , the invention is not so limited , in that such near real - time updating may be unnecessary . for example , in the example above for ten ( 10 ) questions and a low watermark of three ( 3 ), the system can defer activity until the number of unanswered questions nears or reaches the low watermark . in the embodiments herein , the system will obtain new questions if the number of unanswered questions exceeds the low watermark . however , other mathematical representations could be used to obtain similar effects . fig3 shows architecture for an embodiment of the invention . a series of computer terminals 302 are connected to a remote location 302 , which may be one or more remote servers . the remote location includes hardware and / or software modules including a memory module 306 to store question sets , an adaptive processor module 308 to evaluate the test - taker &# 39 ; s ability / difficulty level based upon the responses to questions , and a question set selector module 310 to select a new question set from memory to send as the next question set . various functions in the above embodiments are attributed to either the computer terminal 302 or the remote location 304 to which it cooperated with . it is to be understood that such distributed functionality is exemplary , and that the functionality can be distributed at the remote location or the computer terminal as may be desired . also , remote location 304 is used in the broad sense and is not limited to a single or centralized source , but may include storage and / or functionality consolidated on or dispersed over computer hardware components with appropriate software thereon that is not coextensive with the computer terminal 302 on which the test is administered . one or more remote servers are a none - limiting example of a remote location . ability level or difficulty level in the context of the above embodiments refers to categories of questions rather than individual questions . in an absolute sense , two different questions will have some degree of difference in difficulty ( although the distinction may be so small as to be not noticeable ). however , questions are , through known methodologies , classified by certain groups . by way of non - limiting example , a question could be consistent with a 1 st , 2 nd or 3 rd grade reading level , such that an answer to a second grade level question would result in the next question being from the first or third grade groupings , based on whether the answer was incorrect or correct , respectively . the invention is not limited to any particular methodology for determining what questions correspond to what ability levels . preferably , the pool of questions and / or question sets have already been assessed at relevant ability levels before the test is administered . the foregoing description of various embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description . it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed , and modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention . the embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention and its practical application to enable one skilled in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated . | 6 |
as described earlier , there are four vector components to the signals when dealing with qpsk modulation . fig1 a shows the vector positions for qpsk in the ideal case . the coordinates of each vector , ( 1 , 1 ), (- 1 , 1 ), (- 1 ,- 1 ) and ( 1 ,- 1 ), have been denoted by x . each of these vectors have an amplitude of √ 2 . the following graphical representations are examples of the effects that various errors in the qpsk transmitter and receiver portions have on the vector components of the signals . fig1 b shows the vector positions for qpsk in the ideal case after introducing modulation . the bold x for the ideal vector coordinates falls on the crowded x as a result of the random modulation . fig2 shows the vector positions when the i and q channels of the transmit mixers have a ± 0 . 5 db gain mismatch . the deviation from the ideal case ( x ) can be clearly seen . specifically , it has made the q side smaller than the i side . thus , all of the points on the q axis ( x axis ) have moved inward , whereas the points on the i axis ( y axis ) really haven &# 39 ; t changed much . fig3 shows the vector positions when the i and q channels of the receiver mixers have a ± 0 . 5 db gain mismatch . note that the net or end result is the same as that shown in fig2 . thus , when there is a gain mismatch in either the transmit or receive path , the end result is the same , and the vector positions change mostly with respect to the q channel . fig4 shows what happens to the vector positions when the local oscillator ( lo ) signal going to the transmit mixer is not exactly 90 ° ( i . e ., not in quadrature ). a 5 ° phase error has been introduced to show the effect on the vector positions . thus , having an lo signal that is not exactly 90 ° can cause the vertical slanting of the ideal vector positions . fig5 shows the same effect of the lo signal inaccuracies in the receiver end . the end result being the same as that of the transmit end . thus , again , we are showing that is really doesn &# 39 ; t matter whether the error is in the receiver or transmitter , the deviation effect is the same . fig6 shows the effect of the addition of offsets , gain errors , or any other error that shows itself as a phase shift . the effect of these errors rotate the vectors around the origin . for example , an assumed 20 ° phase shift would result due to these effects . fig7 shows the effect of the vector positions when there is a 10 % dc offset voltage in the receiver i and q channels . here the vector positions shift outward and not with respect to the origin . thus , the vectors are actually moving from the origin as opposed to changing shape around the origin . the several error situations demonstrated by fig2 - 6 show the changing vector positions and shape while the origin remains fixed . however , when a dc offset voltage is introduced , the vectors do not just change shape , they are shifted away from the origin . fig8 is an actual case of a received qpsk signal which shows the effect on the vector positions when a combination of all previously discussed errors is made . thus , the deviation from the ideal case ( x ) can easily be seen . it becomes readily apparent that there is a need to compensate the received signal to eliminate the effect of these errors on the cellular transmission . fig9 shows the circuit according to the invention . the circuit has a transmitter block tx on the left hand side , and the receiver block rx on the right hand side . a leak circuit 100 , disposed between the tx and rx blocks , enables the attenuation of the transmit signal and the subsequent feed back ( loop back ) of the transmit signal into the receiver for calibrating the circuit . leak circuit 100 is not a circuit that is included as part of the receiver design , but it provides a feedback of a small portion of the transmit signal into the receiver . for example , two cellular phones are communicating with each other . one phone is transmitting and the other phone is receiving . the correction provided by the circuit is between the receiver and transmitter of the same phone . thus , when one phone is transmitting , that same phone will also receive the signal it is transmitting and thereby enables the corrections to be made in both the transmit and receive blocks of the same phone . the gain of the transmitter and receiver mixers are depicted by t i and r i , respectively , for the i channel , and t q and r q , respectively , for the q channel . the lo input signals that ideally would be 90 °, are depicted by cos ( ωt ) and sin ( ωt ), but because they are not exact , we have introduced α , which is a phase error variable of approximately 5 °. as such , the lo input is now cos ( ωt + α ). a group of detectors 102 , 104 , and 106 are included in the circuit . these detectors are shown as a diode and a capacitor , and the signal of the transmitter mixers can be found on these capacitors . as such , the detectors act as peak detectors . the transmitter ( tx ) block has inputs at pins 3 and 4 of itxin and itxinx , respectively , and pins 9 and 10 of qtxin and qtxinx . since i and q are vectors positions , we have coordinates as inputs for each the i and q channels . the receiver outputs are depicted at pins 15 and 16 as irxout and irxoutx , respectively , and pins 21 and 22 as qrxout and qrxoutx , respectively . it is at these output pins 15 , 16 , 21 , and 22 , that the measurement for determining the errors in the signal and circuit are taken . fig1 a shows an example of one implementation of leak circuit 100 . the input of leak circuit 100 is the output of the transmitter block ( tx ), and the output is the input of the receiver block ( rx ). leak circuit 100 is just an rc network which provides enough attenuation to take the output of the transmit signal and make it very small and feed it back to the receiver . fig1 b shows examples of the envelope detectors 102 , 104 and 106 . detector 104 has an input moutp which goes through a diode where the signal drops by v be , then it continues through the circuit and passes through a buffer ( nmos device ) to provide the needed isolation and buffering required and thereby provides the output poutp . this is an example of the i channel detector . the circuit 102 is identical to that of 104 and is for the q channel . the remaining detector 106 is also similar to the others , except that the input is v cc . the purpose for detector 106 is to provide a reference point for taking measurements with respect to the corresponding parts of the outputs . since the outputs at pins 15 , 16 , 21 , and 22 ( fig9 ) are differentials , we measure the output at pin 15 with respect to the output at pin 16 , and measure the output at pin 21 with respect to the output at pin 22 . thus , the outputs at pins 16 and 22 become the reference points or common points for our measurements . therefore , detector 106 provides the needed dc reference to pins 16 and 22 by not being a variable signal but rather a fixed v cc in this case . detector 106 includes a current mirror consisting of qpk4 , an npn device , and qpk5 , a diode connector . a dc current pkcur ( dc biasing current ) is injected into the circuit at this point , and the current mirror of qpk4 and qpk5 generates a dc voltage at poutb which will then be the difference , or reference for making measurements . so the measurements will then be made between the poutn , for example , and poutb for the q channel , and in the other case for the i channel , the measurement is done between poutp and poutb . the transmitter mixers have unequal gains ( t i & amp ; t q ) and include offset voltages ( v fi & amp ; v fq ) at the transmitter inputs . the respective local oscillator ( lo ) signals are a few degrees off quadrature as indicated by variable α . the communications channels introduce another unknown phase shift indicated by β , and the receiver mixers have unequal gains ( r i & amp ; r q ). moreover , the receivers introduce unknown overall offset voltages v offq & amp ; v offi for the q and i channels , respectively . ( fig9 ) as a result of these variables , we have to come up with a set of measurements that result in the extraction of these variable parameters . for the purpose of this analysis we will assume that the input signals are i and q and the output signals , after the loop back , are i o and q o . we also define the transmitter gain mismatch d t = t i / t q and the receiver gain mismatch d r = r i / r q . it can then be shown that the signals coming out of the receiver blocks ( rx ) before low pass filtering are : expansion of these equations provides multiple components of 2ωt . thus , when we low pass filter these signals , the 2ωt components are canceled out and the resulting signals at the i and q outputs should be : there are 10 unknowns in the above equations ( 1 - 4 ). since there are four possible inputs , one might assume that making appropriate assumptions about two of the variables ( given the four vector positions of i & amp ; q ) all of the unknowns can be calculated by solving the resulting set of 8 equations . unfortunately , however , the resulting equations are not independent . thus , we need further data to solve for the variable parameters . if we were to assume there is a possibility of turning off only one of the i and q channel sides in the transmitter circuit , more equations can be obtained . thus , if we turn off the q side and leave the i side active , we arrive at the following two output equations : then again , expanding these equations and then low pass filtering to remove the 2ωt components , the resulting signals at the i and q outputs would be : now , if we turn off the i side of the transmitter and leave the q side active , we arrive at the following equations : again , expanding these equations and then low pass filtering the signals to remove the 2ωt components , the resulting signals at the i and q outputs would be : again by enabling the i and q path of the transmit section independent of each other , we can determine the receiver offset voltages v offi and v offq for the i and q channels , respectively . in this case we use envelope detectors 102 , 104 , and 106 ( fig9 ) to find the signal level coming out of the transmitter . therefore we define e di as the i channel signal level , e dq as the q channel signal level and e vcc as the reference signal . it is now clear from the above that the transmitter gain ratio will be : where the function ζ extracts a dc level proportional to the ac component of the signal . if we assume that the transmitter input voltages are bg & amp ; 0 ( case 1 ) and 0 & amp ; bg ( case 2 ) then a second way to calculate the same signal is to use the following equation , in this case , the transmitter inputs are driven by static low or high signals as opposed to the previous case where a dynamic input vector was needed . if we assume that the transmitter input voltages are bg & amp ; 0 ( case 1 ) and 0 & amp ; bg ( case 2 ) then the offset voltage can be calculated from calculating the α and β phase errors the base band input signals i and q each may be assigned two values which we call h and l . as such , the following equations are derived : if we define two more auxiliary variables x and y such that the values of α and β can then be easily calculated to be : from the equations obtained above , the receiver gain mismatch d r will be obtained from the following equations : where d t and d r were previously defined to be d t = t i / t q and d r = r i / r q . in order to perform these calculations and determine the unknowns , it is necessary to have control over the i & amp ; q channels independently , in addition to enabling the activation and deactivation of the receiver section . this control is provided by logic control signals tc5 , tc6 , tc7 , tc10 and tc11 . ( fig9 ) these logic signals actually enable and disable the different paths of the circuit and thereby allow more measurements to be obtained . the logic control signals are provided from a microprocessor , or other form of intelligence , within the cellular phone upon initiation of a call . upon initiation , these control signals become part of the input and the measurements are taken to determine what errors are present in the channels and circuit . these error determinations are based on the present conditions such as , for example , temperature , location , etc . once the measurements are made and calibration is complete , the need for the logic signals is complete . control signal tc5 activates the loop back ( feedback ) of a small part of the transmit signal into the receiver , and thereby allows calibration measurements to be taken . a high tc5 signal enables the loop back of the transmit signal . once the calibration is complete , tc5 goes low and deactivates the loop back condition . signals tc6 and tc7 control the turning on and off of the i and q channels of the transmitter block independent of each other . as explained earlier , this enables the determination of additional equations ( 5 - 14 ), and the subsequent calculation of the error components . the signal definition for control signals tc6 and tc7 can be as follows : ______________________________________tc6 tc7______________________________________l l transmit i & amp ; q channel powered upl h transmit i channel powered up , q powered downh l transmit q channel powered up , i powered downh h transmit i & amp ; q channel powered up______________________________________ control signal tc10 enables the discharge of the capacitors in peak detectors 102 , 104 , and 106 . every time a new call is initiated , and a new set of measurements need to be taken , the capacitors within peak detectors 102 , 104 , and 106 must be discharged because there may still be information from previous measurements stored therein . thus , upon initiation of the call , control signal tc10 discharges these capacitors by simply shorting them out . when tc10 is low , the detectors are left open , and when tc10 is high , the detector capacitors are shorted . control signal tc11 enables the deactivation of the receiver section rx in order to take the necessary measurements in the transmitter portion . thus , when tc11 is low , the receiver section is powered up , and when it is high , the receiver section is powered down . while one embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described , it is to be understood that many changes and modifications may be made thereunto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims . | 7 |
fig1 through 13 represent various views of one embodiment of an above - burden probe 10 encompassing certain aspects of the invention . the drawings disclose certain aspects for the various components of the probe 10 that are believed to be preferred or exemplary , but are otherwise not necessarily limitations to the scope of the invention . in fig1 , the probe 10 is shown installed in a wall 12 that surrounds and defines a throat of a blast furnace . the probe 10 is adapted for measuring one or more aspects and / or properties of flue gases flowing upward from a burden material ( not shown ) below the probe 10 and then through the throat prior to exiting the furnace . the probe 10 will be described in reference to measuring temperature , though other or additional measurements may be performed , for example , pressure measurements , gas sampling , etc . to facilitate the description provided below of the embodiment represented in the drawings , relative terms , including but not limited to , “ vertical ,” “ horizontal ,” “ lateral ,” “ front ,” “ rear ,” “ side ,” “ forward ,” “ rearward ,” “ upper ,” “ lower ,” “ above ,” “ below ,” “ right ,” “ left ,” etc ., may be used in reference to the orientation of the probe 10 generally as installed in a blast furnace as shown in fig1 , and therefore are relative terms that indicate the preferred construction , installation and use of the invention , but should not be otherwise interpreted as limiting the scope of the invention . the probe 10 is shown as being cantilevered into the throat and preferably projects along a radial of the furnace . the probe 10 may be one of any desired number of above - burden probes that might be installed in the throat . the probe 10 is cooled with a liquid coolant , for example , water , that flows through a coolant circuit within the probe 10 . as will be discussed in greater detail below , the coolant circuit preferably runs nearly the entire internal longitudinal length of the probe 10 , extending from a base 14 of the probe 10 ( used to secure the probe 10 to the furnace wall 12 ) to a nose 16 of the probe 10 disposed at the opposite cantilevered end of the probe 10 . the outermost structure of the probe 10 is defined by a shell 18 . a preferred construction of the probe 10 is represented in fig4 and 8 through 11 as including weld joints 26 . however , in contrast to prior art probes of the type described previously , the probe 10 does not rely on the shell 18 as the containment for the coolant , and therefore the weld joints 26 are not required to be liquid - tight . furthermore , the weld joints 26 are shown as disposed on the lateral sides of the probe 10 , and therefore have reduced exposure to burden materials being charged into the furnace from above the probe 10 and hot gases flowing upward from the burden materials below the probe 10 . for the purpose of measuring temperature , the probe 10 is represented in fig1 as having multiple temperature sensors 20 located along its longitudinal length that protrude through the shell 18 of the probe 10 . the temperature sensors 20 may be of any suitable type , though are preferably consistent with the description below in reference to fig1 and 13 . as will be discussed , the sensors 20 preferably make use of thermocouples whose tips ( sensing junctions ) 48 do not extend from the probe 10 in a manner that directly exposes the thermocouple tips 48 to the stream of flue gases within the furnace . the general construction of the probe 10 will be described in reference to fig1 through 11 . as represented in fig4 and 8 through 11 , a preferred construction of the probe shell 18 utilizes two housing members 22 and 24 that extend essentially the entire length of the probe 10 to define the shell 18 and an interior cavity within the shell 18 . as will be apparent from fig4 and 8 through 11 , each housing member 22 and 24 can be fabricated from a structural angle initially having an l - shaped cross section , but with one leg bent as shown such that the shell 18 formed by the housing members 22 and 24 has a six - sided polygonal cross - sectional shape . as a result of the housing members 22 and 24 being joined edge to edge in a clamshell - like manner as shown in fig4 , the upper side of the shell 18 is entirely defined by the housing member 22 and the lower side of the shell 18 is entirely defined by the housing member 24 . in a current embodiment , the members 22 and 24 are fabricated from astm a572 , though it is foreseeable that other materials could be used . the housing members 22 and 24 are secured to each other ( and to the coolant circuit ) through combinations of the weld joints 26 and support plates 28 , 30 and 32 represented in fig4 and 8 through 11 . the support plates 28 and 32 generally close the opposite ends of the shell 18 at its base 14 and nose 16 , respectively , whereas the support plates 30 support the housing members 22 and 24 from within the interior cavity of the shell 18 . though the support plates 28 , 30 and 32 are referred to herein as “ plates ,” it should be understood that this term is not intended to suggest a limitation on shape in that a wide variety of support structures capable of providing the support function described herein could foreseeably be used as any one or more of the plates 28 , 30 and 32 . fig4 and 8 through 11 further represent components of the coolant circuit , of which further details can be seen in fig5 through 7 . the embodiment of the coolant circuit shown in the figures comprises two separate coolant passages that are fluidically isolated within the probe 10 . a first of the coolant passages is defined by two tubes 34 that are spaced vertically within the shell 18 and fluidically interconnected by a coupling 36 near the nose 16 of the shell 18 ( fig5 ). the second passage is defined by two tubes 38 that are spaced horizontally within the shell 18 and fluidically interconnected by a coupling 40 located near the shell nose 16 ( fig6 ), with the coupling 36 being between the coupling 40 and the support plate 32 at the nose 16 of the shell 18 ( fig7 ). the tubes 34 and 38 and couplings 36 and 40 are represented as having rectangular cross - sections , though other shapes are foreseeable . as seen in fig4 , the first coolant passage defined by the tubes 34 has two ports 42 located in the support plate 28 that serve as an inlet and outlet to the first coolant passage , and the second coolant passage defined by the tubes 38 has two ports 44 located in the housing members 22 and 24 that serve as an inlet and outlet to the second coolant passage . as evident in fig8 through 11 , the tubes 34 and 38 are in thermal conductive contact with the housing members 22 and 24 so that the coolant within the tubes 34 and 38 serves to cool the probe shell 18 formed by the members 22 and 24 . thermal contact between the tubes 34 and 38 and members 22 and 24 can be promoted through thermally conductive shims 46 , as nonlimiting examples , formed of brass or copper . as shown in fig8 through 10 , the tubes 34 and 38 are supported within the shell 18 by the support plates 30 , which also serve to maintain thermal conductive contact between the tubes 34 and 38 , shims 46 , and housing members 22 and 24 . the support plates 30 are represented as being generally x - shaped to define four legs that extend in diagonal directions , with the tubes 34 nested between the legs on the upper and lower sides of each plate 30 and the tubes 38 nested between the legs on opposite lateral sides of each plate 30 . as noted above , the temperature sensors 20 are thermocouples , each having a sensing element ( junction ) located at the thermocouple tip 48 ( fig1 and 13 ). the thermocouple tips 48 preferably do not extend from the probe 10 in a manner that would directly expose the tips 48 to the stream of flue gases within the furnace . as such , dust generated within the blast furnace cannot accumulate on or adhere to the thermocouple tips 48 , and therefore does not interfere with the ability to remove a sensor 20 in the event it requires replacement . in addition , the thermocouple tips 48 are not in direct physical contact with the coolant flowing within tubes 34 and 38 of the coolant circuit , so that the coolant temperature has a reduced influence on the temperatures read by the sensors 20 . the sensors 20 are depicted in fig1 and 13 as sheathed thermocouples which contain sensing junctions within their tips 48 and interconnecting wiring to the sheathed thermocouple base located outside of the probe 10 . the sheathed thermocouples are inserted through tubes 50 supported by the support plates 28 and 30 . as evident from fig8 - 10 , the tubes 50 can pass through openings in the legs of the plates 30 , such that the tubes 50 are arranged within the probe 10 to define an x - shaped pattern as evident from fig4 and 8 through 10 . the thermocouple tips 48 of the sensors 20 are embedded in a well 52 attached to the housing member 24 , but separated therefrom by a thermal insulating gasket 54 to reduce the influence that the housing member 24 ( cooled by the coolant tubes 34 and 38 ) will have on temperatures sensed by the sensors 20 . additionally , from fig8 through 11 it can be seen that the wells 52 are mounted to portions of the housing member 24 that are between portions of the plate 24 that are in contact with the coolant tubes 34 and 38 , such that the plate 24 is immediately between the tips 48 and a portion of the interior cavity of the shell 18 that contains a gas ( e . g ., air , flue gases , etc .). this arrangement further separates the thermocouple tips 48 from the coolant to reduce the influence that the coolant will have on temperatures sensed at the tips 48 . as discussed above , each of the tubes 34 and 38 of the coolant circuit is nested between the legs on one of the upper , lower and lateral sides of each plate 30 . as a result , each tube 34 and 38 is also disposed between legs of an x - shaped pattern defined by the sensor tubes 50 , so that the tubes 34 are on opposite vertical sides of the x - shaped pattern and the tubes 38 are also on opposite horizontal sides of the x - shaped pattern . the result is a symmetrical arrangement of internal components within the cavity of the shell 18 . in addition to the operational advantages summarized above , the overall construction of the probe 10 provides structural advantages . though high temperatures encountered by the probe 10 may require a large volume of coolant flow through the tubes 34 and 38 , the tubes 34 and 38 account for only a fraction of the total volume of the interior cavity of the shell 18 ( typically less than half , e . g ., about 20 %), and therefore the volume of coolant required by the probe 10 can be considerably less in comparison to conventional probes whose interiors are completely filled with coolant . as such , the coolant within the probe 10 contributes much less to the weight of the probe 10 , and the wall thickness of the shell 18 can be less than that of conventional probes . the profile of the probe 10 can also be less than that of conventional probes having round or rectangular - shaped cross - sections , and therefore present a relatively smaller obstruction to burden material being added to the furnace . in particular , the cross - section of the probe 10 in the horizontal direction can be seen in fig8 through 10 to be less than ( roughly two - thirds ) the vertical direction . the welded construction , which results from the housing members 22 and 24 being fabricated from structural angles to create a six - sided polygonal cross - sectional shape for the shell 18 , is also believed to be stronger and more rigid in the vertical direction than a conventional probe having a round or rectangular - shaped cross - section . the clamshell - like manner in which the housing members 22 and 24 are joined is also structurally advantageous since the upper and lower sides of the shell 18 , which are directly subjected to burden materials being charged into the furnace and hot gases flowing upward from the burden materials below the probe 10 , are entirely defined by either the housing member 22 or the housing member 24 . the construction of the shell 18 from housing members 22 and 24 that extend together along the length of the probe 10 also facilitates the assembly of the probe 10 , including the placement of the coolant circuit , sensors , tubes , and other internal components of the probe 10 . finally , the embodiment of the probe 10 shown in the figures includes protective plating 56 attached to the upper housing member 22 , and therefore serves to provide additional protection to the shell 18 from damage by burden materials being charged into the furnace from above the probe 10 . the plating 56 is shown as having a shingled arrangement , with the distal edge of a plating 56 ( i . e ., the edge farthest from the furnace wall 12 ) overlapping the proximal edge of the next plating 56 located distally from the overlapping plating 56 . shingling of the plating 56 in this manner serves to promote the flow of burden materials over the upward - facing surfaces of the plating 56 , protecting the probe shell 18 from exposure to the burden materials . while the invention has been described in terms of a specific embodiment , it is apparent that other forms could be adopted by one skilled in the art . for example , the probe 10 could differ in appearance and construction from the embodiment shown in the figures , the functions of each component of the probe 10 could be performed by components of different construction but capable of a similar ( though not necessarily equivalent ) function , and various processes and materials could be used in the construction of the probe 10 and its components . accordingly , it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiment illustrated in the figures . it should also be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed above are for the purpose of disclosing the illustrated embodiment , and do not necessarily serve as limitations to the scope of the invention . therefore , the scope of the invention is to be limited only by the following claims . | 2 |
fig1 shows a counting - type pcm coder in accordance with the principles of the present invention for coding analog , typically audio , signals into digital signals for transmission . also shown in the figure are two signal waveforms , identified as ramp and clock , which are generated elsewhere in a system in which this invention may be used . the ramp signal is applied at input terminal 100 to comparator 101 , and the clock signal is applied at terminal 120 . encoding of an analog signal at terminal 102 is accomplished by comparing the analog signal against the ramp signal . in this embodiment of the invention , the sampling period is equivalent to the period of the ramp signal , which is equivalent to the period of 256 clock pulses ; therefore , the clock pulse frequency if 256 times that of the ramp . by means not shown , but known in the art , the average level of the analog signal is biased to approximately midway between the voltage peaks of the ramp waveform . such biasing permits the varying analog signal to be compared against the ramp signal throughout the full amplitude swing of the analog signal . the ramp waveform , as shown in fig1 has been companded on the negative - going slope so as to be nonlinear . note that the slope of the negative - going side of the ramp is steep at the beginning and the end , but is gentler in the middle . since the amplitude gradient of the coding states is related to the amplitude - time function of the ramp signal , the amplitude gradient of the coding states is not linear . the use of a companded reference signal is known in the art and provides a higher density of coding states near the middle of the companded ramp than at either the beginning or end . thus , since the varying analog signals fluctuate about an average signal level which is near the middle of the ramp signal , low level analog signals are encoded with a greater number of coding states than would be possible with a linear , noncompanded ramp signal . with reference to fig2 waveform a shows the main clock signal and waveform b illustrates a typical idle channel noise signal . voltage levels v 1 and v 2 , shown with waveform b , represent the corresponding instantaneous voltage levels of the ramp signal depicted in fig1 at the time of any two consecutive clock pulses . the differential voltage between voltage levels v 1 and v 2 represents any coding state . in an embodiment of this invention where encoding is accomplished during the negative - going slope of the ramp signal , the higher voltage level , v 2 , occurs earlier in time than v 1 . when the noise signal is below v 2 , but above v 1 , it is quantized to a first level ( called r on waveform c fig2 ) and when the noise signal crosses the code boundary v 2 , it is quantized to a second level ( s on waveform c ). waveform c illustrates the quantization of the noise signal , delayed to account for circuit timing . clearly , the quantization of the idle channel noise signal results in the considerable amplification of that signal . in accordance with the circuit of fig1 a sampling signal , ramp , generated elsewhere in the system , is applied to input lead 100 of comparator 101 . the sampling waveform , ramp , shown companded , is illustrated directly on the circuit of fig1 . the second input to comparator 101 is the input analog signal , &# 34 ; analog &# 34 ; on fig1 applied to comparator 101 via input terminal 102 , lead 103 and capacitor 113 . the input analog signal , analog , is compared with the companded sampling signal , ramp , and a signal generated by comparator 101 whenever the two match . the output from comparator 101 is applied to nand gate 108 along with the clock signals . the signals generated by gate 108 are used to control counter 125 . specifically , clock pulses are applied to counter 125 via nand gate 108 while the input from comparator 101 is high signifying a mismatch between the analog and ramp signals . when comparator 101 changes state , however , nand gate 108 inhibits clock signals from being applied to the counter . counter 125 is further arranged to respond to the interruption in the count and inhibit all succeeding clock pulses applied to counter 125 during the sampling interval . obviously , then , the count in counter 125 represents the elapsed time from the start of a sampling interval to the clock pulse immediately preceding the instant at which the ramp signal and the analog sample match . in accordance with the operation of the circuit of fig1 a cyclical sawtooth signal , synchronized to the clock signal a in fig2 is provided . the sawtooth signal is generated as follows . transistor 104 is operated by the clock signal , waveform a in fig2 . capacitor 105 , charged by voltage source 107 and resistor 106 , is discharged through transistor 104 when transistor 104 is turned on by the clock signal . of course , the sawtooth signal , d , can be generated by any conventional means either within the circuit as in fig1 or applied to the circuit from elsewhere in the system . in the circuit of fig1 assume that each sampling interval corresponds to 256 clock pulses . at the start of an interval , the leading edge of the reference ramp signal is applied to input terminal 100 of comparator 101 and the beginning of the analog signal to be sampled applied to the other input lead , lead 103 , of comparator 101 . when the two input signals match , comparator 101 goes low and nand gate 108 inhibits the next occurring clock pulse . the counter , responsive to the absence of a clock pulse , stops counting . the count ( say , 200 ) in the counter represents the time elapsed from the initiation of the sampling interval to the clock pulse immediately preceding the correspondence of the reference ramp and the analog sample . this information is coded , transmitted and decoded to construct a simulated version of the sampled analog signal at the decoder . looking again at fig1 the output of comparator 101 is also applied to differentiator 109 as well as nand gate 108 . differentiator 109 generates a voltage spike corresponding to the leading edge of the negative - going state change produced when the input signals match . several methods are known in the art for generating a positive - going voltage spike in response to a negative - going state change . when comparator 101 changes state , transistor 116 is turned on and the signal at the collector of transistor 104 is applied to capacitor 110 . the signal at the collector of transistor 104 , is again , the sawtooth signal , waveform d in fig2 . in turn , the charge on capacitor 110 is applied via resistor 111 to capacitor 113 . when the input signal comprises a small signal close to , but below , a code state boundary , for example &# 34 ; x &# 34 ; on waveform b , comparator 101 changes state and differentiator 109 operates transistor 116 just after a clock pulse . capacitor 110 is maintained essentially discharged because waveform d is at its lowest value just after a clock pulse . correspondingly , when the input signal is a small signal close to , but just above , a code state boundary , capacitor 110 is maintained at essentially maximum charge . the result is that a bias voltage is effectively added to the input signal at lead 103 when the input comprises a small slowly varying signal . in the preferred embodiment of the present invention , capacitor 113 is chosen such that the bias on capacitor 110 exerts essentially continuous correcting influence and the input noise signal is biased at or near the middle of the code space , and remote from either boundary , such as v 2 in fig2 . thus , no quantizing of this signal occurs unless its amplitude exceeds the correctional range of the voltage on capacitor 110 . of course , when the channel carries speech signals , the analog signal crosses the state boundary often and the values of waveform d stored on capacitor 110 are essentially random . some nominal average charge is stored on capacitor 110 and little or not charge is transferred from capacitor 110 to capacitor 113 . accordingly , such a rapidly varying input signal is not dynamically corrected to be contained within a code state as is slowly varying idle channel noise . in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention , capacitor 113 is chosen sufficiently larger than capacitor 110 to cause the idle channel signal to drift halfway between the code state boundaries v 1 and v 2 when the channel is idle . in addition , resistor 111 is typically arranged to be large enough to delay the transfer of charge over several clock cycles . as indicated , the average voltage of the analog signal is biased by means not shown to a level approximately midway between the voltage peaks of the ramp waveform . in embodiments of the invention , such as that shown in fig1 where the encoding side of the ramp waveform is companded to produce a higher density of coding states near the middle of the waveform , the average voltage level of the analog signal should coincide as closely as practicable with the middle of the ramp waveform in order that low level analog speech signals be encoded with adequate resolution and the positive - going and negative - going voltage swings of the analog speech signals be symmetrically encoded about such average voltage level . however , when the channel carries speech signals which vary rapidly compared to idle channel noise signals , essentially random values of charge from waveform d are stored on capacitor 110 , and a bias voltage level is accumulated on capacitor 110 . this results , in this embodiment of the invention , in a bias voltage added to the input analog signal at lead 103 . such a bias at lead 103 is of course positive because transistor 116 conducts only one way , and if not counteracted , will combine additively with the external bias on the input analog signal so as to raise the average voltage level of the input analog signal away from the middle voltage level between the peaks of the ramp signal . displacement of the average voltage level of the input analog signal will result in reduced low level signal encoding resolution and asymmetrical encoding of the input analog signal . resistor 130 operates only to add a small negative bias to input lead 103 which compensates for the above - mentioned positive bias to as to adjust the nominal average bias on the input lead to a level which substantially coincides with the externally biased average voltage level of the input analog signals . in this manner , when a source of analog signals is connected to input lead 103 , the overall bias comprising the algebraic sum of the above - mentioned external bias , the positive bias generated by the accumulation of positive charge on capacitor 110 , and the negative compensating bias from resistor 130 will cause the analog signal on lead 103 to vary about an average voltage level which is near the middle of the encoding slope of the reference ramp signal . although the negative bias provided by resistor 130 is present when input lead 103 carries idle channel noise , this is inconsequential because the thrust of the invention is not to encode the noise , but to contain it within a code state , and the resistor and battery are not operative to effect such containment . in embodiments of this invention where the reference ramp signal has a linear encoding slope , the amplitude gradient of the coding states is uniformly linear thereby rendering deviations between the average voltage level of the analog signal and the middle voltage of the ramp waveform to be of small consequence , so long as the voltage peaks of the analog signal do not exceed the voltage peaks of the ramp waveform . waveform e of fig2 illustrates the &# 34 ; corrected &# 34 ; noise signal as contrasted to the &# 34 ; uncorrected &# 34 ; noise signal , b , in fig2 . notice that the corrected idle channel noise signal has been biased to a level midway between the state boundaries thereby essentially eliminating any state boundary crossings . waveforms c and f shown the resulting quantized version of the uncorrected and corrected noise signal , respectively . fig3 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the present invention . just as in the circuit of fig2 in the arrangement of fig3 comparator 304 compares the ramp signal applied to one lead with the input signal sample applied to the second lead . the output from comparator 304 is simultaneously applied to nand gate 305 with the clock signal and to differentiator 303 . transistor 302 switches the sawtooth signal produced at the collector of transistor 301 in response to the output from differentiator 303 . the charge applied to capacitor 307 via transistor 302 is slowly bled by resistor 308 . resistors 308 and 309 act as a voltage divider to bias the input signal applied to capacitor 310 . the choice of resistor values determines the bias added to or deleted from the input signal . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . for example , any suitable commercial or other sawtooth generator could readily be substituted with suitable modifications to the circuits of fig2 and 3 . in addition , the biasing arrangement responsive to the differentiator could , again with suitable circuit modifications , be used to shift the ramp signal rather than the input sample when the channel is idle . | 7 |
the high gain wideband omnidirectional antenna of the present invention is shown in fig1 - 8 and is indicated generally at 1 . as shown in fig1 , antenna 1 is typically formed as part of an overall antenna module 3 having antenna 1 encapsulated within a radome protective covering 5 to offer protection from weather elements . antenna 1 is further typically connected to a mast 7 which may be hollow or solidified , depending on the desired configuration . as shown in fig2 , mast 7 may provide a structure for bringing a power cable 9 to antenna 1 to transmit power for energizing antenna 1 . in the preferred embodiment , power cable 9 is a coaxial type of cable having a first power line 10 also referred to as the center lead and a second power line 12 also referred to as the shield , as shown in fig3 a . however , as commonly known in the art , power cable 9 may be of any type of power delivery cable , including twin lead with balun . further , the present invention may include other structures as well or methods commonly known in the art for energizing antenna 1 . as shown in fig2 and 3 a , antenna 1 is comprised primarily of a multi - coned section 11 energized by first power line 10 and a ground plane 13 energized by second power line 12 . coned section 11 is comprised of five cone elements , whereby each cone element 15 is formed in a conical shape and has a side length of approximately ¼ of the wavelength intended to be sent / received by antenna 1 . cone elements 15 are stacked consecutively , transposing the vertical position of an apex 17 of the particular cone element 15 , with adjacent apexes 17 conductively connected to one another . conversely , each cone element 15 further includes a base 19 , which is separated from the next base 19 in the series by way of a non - conductive stabilizing beam 21 . stabilizing beams 21 separate one base 19 from the next base 19 and act to stabilize the overall coned section 11 . in the preferred embodiment , cone elements 15 are made from any conductive material , for example copper , and sized to have an overall side length of generally ¼ of the wave intended to be sent and / or received via antenna 1 . as shown in fig3 a , the apex 17 of each cone element 15 is connected or secured to the apex 17 of an adjacent cone element 15 . as such , this two cone element 15 structure is sized to have an operational resonant length of about ½ wave . as discussed previously , base 19 of each cone element 15 is not directly abuttably connected to the adjacent cone element 15 . base 19 of each cone element 15 is spaced apart from the adjacent cone element 15 . however , inasmuch as the overall coned section 11 is energized in a series fed configuration , adjacent bases 19 are electrically connected via at least one phasing stub 23 . as shown in fig3 a and 3 b , at least one phasing stub 23 extends from the base 19 of a cone element 15 to the adjacent base 19 of an adjacent cone element 15 . this arrangement can be seen more particularly in fig3 b , where cone element 15 b and adjacent cone element 15 c are jointly supported with stabilizing beam 21 extending therebetween . phasing stub 23 includes a first end 25 proximate base 19 b of cone element 15 b which extends to a second end 27 proximate base 19 c of cone element 15 c . as shown in fig3 b , with respect to the overall shape , phasing stub 23 extends from base 19 b and first end 25 in an upwardly and outwardly extending direction to a phasing stub apex 29 and thereafter extends in a downwardly and inwardly extending direction to base 19 c and second end 27 . as shown in fig3 b , phasing stub 23 may extend such that phasing stub apex 29 is approximately co - planer with apex 17 c of cone element 15 c or at least generally proximate an imaginary horizontal plane 31 . phasing stub 23 includes two important features . the first important feature relates to the overall length of phasing stub 23 , and more particularly the distance between first end 25 and second end 27 with respect to the adjacent cone elements 15 in the series . phasing stub 23 is configured such that the operating length is approximately one - half wavelength ( a ). the length of phasing stub 23 ensures that the overall longitudinal wave cycle from the power cable 9 feed to the outer end of antenna 1 is similar for each two cone element 15 block . the length of phasing stub 23 therefore is configured to synchronize radiative phase between the cones it connects . inasmuch as each two cone element 15 structure is sized to have an operational resonant length of about ½ wave and each phasing stub 23 connecting adjacent two cone element 15 structures is ½ wave , phasing stub 23 synchronizes the electromagnetic waves radiating from each two cone element 15 structure . for example , as shown in fig3 b at a given moment m x the two cone element 15 comprised of cone element 15 a connected to cone element 15 b transitions from a negative wave amplitude at base 19 a , to a neutral or zero wave amplitude at apexes 17 a and 17 b , and thereafter to a positive wave amplitude proximate base 19 b . inasmuch as base 19 b and 19 c are conductively separated by stabilizing beam 21 and the overall coned section 11 is a series fed antenna design , cone element 15 b and cone element 15 c must necessarily be conductively connected to continue the series . this is accomplished via phasing stub 23 . to maintain longitudinal consistency with respect to wave amplitude , phasing stub 23 is provided with an operational length equal to one half wavelength ( λ ). as seen in fig3 b , a half wavelength phasing stub 23 allows the wave to conductively connect to the adjacent cone at the appropriate phase to maintain longitudinal consistency throughout coned section 11 . in other terms , at a given moment m x , whatever portion of the waveform base 19 a is experiencing , phasing stub 23 ensures base 19 c is experiencing the same portion of the waveform at the previous cycle of the wave . for example , at moment m x , if the fraction of the wave cycle at base 19 a of cone element 15 a is a negative amplitude , the fraction of the wave cycle at base 19 c of cone element 15 c is also a similar negative amplitude . the second important feature provided by phasing stub 23 is gain enhancement , particularly when compared to other phasing stub solutions which provide a parasitic effect and can diminish the overall gain of the antenna . previous attempts at placing phasing stubs outside of the radiative elements of the antenna were failures due to the parasitic effect of the phasing stub on the electronic field radiated by the antenna . to that end , prior art phasing solutions were directed to making phasing elements more invisible with respect to the electronic field , by placing the phasing elements inside the radiating elements , as opposed to extending outwardly from the overall longitudinal axis of the antenna . these solutions were used to minimize the gain diminishing effects of the phasing elements . conversely , rather than trying to minimize the parasitic effects of a phasing element , the present invention makes use of the phasing element to enhance the gain . phasing stub 23 is designed and positioned to generally continue the angle of the radiating cone element 15 immediately vertically below the particular phasing stub 23 . as shown in fig3 b , one will readily recognize the angle of cone element 15 b is continued by phasing stub 23 up to phasing stub apex 29 , generally along an imaginary axis 32 of phasing stub 23 whereby imaginary axis 32 separates phasing stub 23 into two generally identical halves . phasing stub 23 is preferably angled with respect to plane 31 such that there is approximately a 45 ° to 70 ° angle θ between plane 31 and axis 32 of phasing stub 23 , with the ideal angle being generally where θ is equal to 60 °. positioning a radiating element near another radiating element may result in significant disruption to the gain and overall radiation pattern . however , it has been discovered that by orienting phasing stub 23 at approximately a 60 ° angle and aligning phasing stub 23 generally to continue the surface of cone element 15 b towards phasing stub apex 29 , the gain of antenna 1 is not diminished nor is the pattern disrupted . conversely , the gain is enhanced due to phasing stub 23 and the open nature of this radiating element with respect to cone element 15 b . a phasing stub with axis 32 parallel to plane 31 acts to “ box ” the signal in between the phasing stub and the lower cone element with the phasing stub as an upper bound on the signal . conversely , the orientation of phasing stub 23 of the present invention acts to enhance the interaction between base upward cones , with base downward cones and ground plane 13 . this represents an enormous leap in the art , as phasing solutions of previous embodiments necessarily affected the radiation pattern in a gain diminishing way . as shown in fig3 c , there exists an imaginary longitudinal center axis 30 extending through the axial center of antenna 1 . further , there exists an imaginary middle plane 34 which extends horizontally through the longitudinal middle of cone element 15 c . the longitudinal middle is defined as the general midpoint between apex 17 c and base 19 c . it is one of the primary features of the present invention that phasing stub apex 29 is disposed vertically above imaginary middle plane 34 , as shown in fig3 c . further , phasing stub apex 29 is disposed vertically below imaginary plane 31 , which extends through apex 17 c of cone element 15 c . cone element 15 c includes an outer surface 53 and cone element 15 b includes an outer surface 55 . to further describe the preferred orientation of phasing stub 23 , outer surface 53 in the area most proximate phasing stub 23 extends at an acute angle with respect to axis 32 . further , outer surface 55 in the area most proximate phasing stub 23 extends at an obtuse angle with respect to axis 32 . as shown in fig3 c , one will recognize that phasing stub apex 29 is disposed between a midpoint of phasing stub 23 and second end 27 of phasing stub 23 and is not symmetrically disposed at the midpoint between first end 25 and second end 27 due to the angled and non - symmetrical nature of phasing stub 23 . antenna 1 preferably includes three ½ wave radiating components , with the lower of those three components incorporating ground plane 13 in place of an apex - upward cone . for some background , typical ground planes used in the art may be oriented perpendicular to the axis of the antenna element and disposed generally horizontally parallel with the horizon . other standard ground planes may angle downwardly such as a straight 30 °, 45 °, or 60 ° angle down with respect to the horizon . further , standard ground planes generally are constructed with a radius of ¼ wave length . ground plane 13 operates generally in the manner expected by those familiar with the art and is oriented generally horizontally parallel with the horizon . however , in addition to the expected and commonly known benefits of ground plane 13 , it has been discovered that by making ground plane 13 comparatively substantial more continuous and of greater dimension there is increase in the overall bandwidth and gain of antenna 1 . as shown in fig7 and 8 , a ground plane 113 may be provided on antenna 1 . ground plane 113 is formed in a dome shape that generally resembles the hollow upper third of a sphere , having an apex 114 disposed vertically above a continuous rim 116 . ground plane 113 includes an arcuate outer surface 118 which is generally flat and smooth , although multiple curvilinear wires could be utilized , and formed in a curved or arcuate shape extending from apex 114 to rim 116 . while typical ground planes are constructed with a center - to - edge length of ¼ wave length , it has been discovered that by forming ground plane 113 with an arcuate apex - to - rim length l generally equal to ½ wave length or greater , several beneficial effects are realized . these include a greater frequency bandwidth , particularly with respect to standing wave ratio and performance . the benefits further include an improved signal pattern and overall gain , as the dome shape of ground plane 113 couples and resonate with cone elements 15 and potentially with portions of phasing stubs 23 , as described above . in summary , through extensive experimentation , it has been discovered that by forming ground plane 113 in a general dome shape and setting the arcuate apex - to - rim length of l generally equal to ½ wave length , enormous benefits have been achieved over a standard ground plane . fig4 shows a sample elevation coordinate signal pattern for antenna 1 . the signal pattern provided by antenna 1 portrays the merging of signal patterns provided by antenna 1 by way of reducing undesirable lobes while producing a broad and strong elevation signal pattern at , above , and below the horizon . the signal pattern also reduces signal overshoot problems seen with other designs where a radiated signal may pass over the desired target receiving unit . as shown in fig4 , antenna 1 resonates a high gain wideband omnidirectional signal which may be in the range of 3 db above and below the horizontal and resonated at an angle generally of β . as shown in fig5 , the series - fed collinear high gain omnidirectional antenna 1 of the present invention may be stacked with multiple antennas 1 to increase the gain . as shown in fig5 , antenna 1 a is stacked vertically coaxially with antenna 1 b . antenna 1 b includes mast 7 a connected to a first horizontal arm extending from a tower 35 . similarly , antenna 1 b includes a mast 7 b connected to a second vertical arm 39 extending from tower 35 . first horizontal arm and second horizontal arm are generally similar in length in order to position antenna 1 a directly vertically above antenna 1 b in a generally coaxial alignment . as shown in fig5 , power line 9 extends along tower 35 and into a power divider 41 whereby power cable 9 is divided and split into equal lengths first power line 43 and second power line 45 . first power line 43 energizes and provides power to antenna 1 a while second power line 45 energizes and provides power to antenna 7 b . the configuration represented in fig5 is exemplary and may further include additional antennas 1 disposed about tower 35 . a signal pattern 47 produced by antenna 1 in fig5 is shown in phantom and is representational of the signal pattern produced by the present invention in the configuration of fig5 . as shown in fig6 , antenna 1 may be used singularly as desired and as appropriate for particular applications , for example on a building 49 . the embodiment shown in fig6 includes antenna 1 connected to mast 7 which is in turn connected to first horizontal arm 37 . first horizontal arm 37 extends outwardly from tower / mast 35 which is much smaller and more compact to take advantage of the overall height of building 49 . power cable 9 extends from building 49 up tower 35 and into antenna 1 as described in previous embodiments . a signal pattern 51 produced by antenna 1 in fig6 is shown in phantom and is representational of the signal pattern produced by the present invention in the configuration of fig6 . signal pattern 51 is broader and less far - reaching than signal pattern 47 . in other embodiments ground plane 13 may be for example the sheet metal of a roof of a building or of a vehicle , and may be even larger with similar benefits . as depicted throughout fig1 through fig8 , energized cone elements 15 on antenna 1 include are right circular cones including a longitudinal height 102 measured from the apex 17 through the center of base 19 . base 19 includes a diameter 104 measured from edge to edge through the center of base 19 . each cone element 15 in this embodiment is uniform in dimension relative to the other cone elements ( i . e ., all cone elements 15 are the same size ). the height 102 is about four inches and the diameter 104 is about four inches . these dimensions optimize a frequency range in which antenna 1 receives signals . energized cone elements 15 having the height 102 of four inches and a diameter 104 of four inches receive signals in an operative frequency range from about 600 mhz to about 1000 mhz . more particularly , cone elements receive signals in a frequency range from about 650 mhz to about 900 mhz . even more specifically , cone elements 15 receive signals in a frequency range from 690 mhz to 870 mhz . an alternative embodiment antenna of the present invention is depicted in fig9 generally as 101 . antenna 101 includes similar outer housing elements as antenna 1 but provides a distinct energized cone section 111 including stacked cone elements 115 a , 115 b , and 115 c . cone element 115 a ( also referred to as first cone element 115 a ) is a right circular cone including a longitudinal height 112 measured from apex 17 through the center of base 19 and a base diameter 114 measured edge to edge through center of base 19 . longitudinal height 112 is about five inches and diameter 114 is about nine inches . cone element 115 b is connected apex - to - apex with cone element 115 a . however , unlike cone elements 15 in the first embodiment , cone element 115 b ( also referred to as second cone 115 b ) is a different size than first cone element 115 a . thus , energized cone section 111 comprises cone elements of different dimensions to receive signals at desired frequencies . longitudinal height 116 of second cone element 115 b is about five inches and diameter 118 of second cone element 115 b is about six inches . it may be desirable to keep the heights of each respective cone element an equal size ( e . g ., here each cone has a longitudinal height of five inches ). more particularly , antenna 101 comprises at least two energized cone elements 115 a , 115 b , wherein each respective cone has a base diameter different than the other cone . in antenna 101 , some cone elements may be similarly dimensioned as other cone elements , as long as one cone element is distinctly dimensioned from the rest . for example , the third cone element 115 c is similarly dimensioned to first cone element 115 a having a longitudinal height 112 equal to about five inches and a base diameter 114 equal to about nine inches . alternatively , third cone element may be distinctly dimensioned from either first or second cone elements , resulting in three energized cone elements all of a different dimension or size . it is contemplated that even though the cone elements may be distinctly dimensioned , they are all right circular cones . base 19 on third cone element 115 c is spaced apart from base 19 on second cone element 115 b . phasing stub 23 is connected to base 19 on third cone element 115 c and connected to base 19 on second cone element 115 b . more particularly , phasing stub 23 extends outwardly away from base 19 on second cone 115 b to a first phasing stub apex 29 and extends inwardly from the first phasing stub apex 29 to base 19 on the third cone 115 c , wherein the phasing stub 23 includes a first length configured synchronize radiative phase between the second cone 115 b and the third cone 115 c . the dimensional configuration of cone elements 115 a , 115 b , and 115 c on antenna 101 allows for the reception of signals in an operative frequency range from about 300 mhz to about 600 mhz . more particularly , cone elements 115 a , 115 b , and 115 c receive signals in a frequency range from about 350 mhz to about 550 mhz . even more specifically , cone elements 115 a , 115 b , and 115 c receive signals in a frequency range from 400 mhz to 500 mhz . while the aforementioned cone elements in this application are right circular cones , other cone varieties are contemplated , such as oblique cones , circular or elliptical hyperboloids , or cones having a polygonal base . in the foregoing description , certain terms have been used for brevity , clearness , and understanding . no unnecessary limitations are to be implied therefrom beyond the requirement of the prior art because such terms are used for descriptive purposes and are intended to be broadly construed . moreover , the description and illustration of the invention is an example and the invention is not limited to the exact details shown or described . | 7 |
in studying this detailed description , the reader may be aided by noting definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document . wherever those definitions are provided , those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many , if not most instances , such definitions apply to both preceding and following uses of such defined words and phrases . as noted above , “ bot ” stands for an algorithmic process that can , to some extent , mimic the behavior of a human seeking access to a service or process furnished by a computer . the words “ user ” and “ applicant ” are used more or less interchangeably to denote either a person or a bot seeking access to a computer . moreover , the phrase “ access to a computer ” shall stand for any sort of such access including , but not limited to , access to the operating system of a single computer , access to a computer system , access to a process or service operating on one or more computers or to an information service supplied by a computer , regardless of whether it is supplied locally or remotely . much of the following discussion is couched in terms befitting an internet - based scenario in which an applicant uses a computer to transmit a service request to a remote computer that can grant or deny that request . it will be understood , however , that the methods disclosed herein are not limited to that scenario and do not depend on the details of data transmission . for example , the claimed methods of distinguishing a human applicant from a bot are applicable to a single - computer environment in which the novel method is used to prevent access to a secured program by a viral bot running on the computer . moreover , those skilled in the art will understand that in the interest of clarity of presentation much of this disclosure is presented in terms of what a human applicant would see on a graphical user interface — i . e ., an image or a collection of images — and not in terms of data sets or computer files that a rival bot would process . methods of distinguishing a human user from a bot are described . numerous specific details are set forth in the following description for the purposes of explanation , to aid in a thorough understanding of the present invention . it will be evident , however , to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details . it will be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various other arrangements , which , although not explicitly described or shown herein , embody the principles of the invention , and are included within its spirit and scope . fig1 shows a flowchart of a method for determining whether a given user is a human or a bot in accordance with one illustrative embodiment of the present invention . in particular , an access request is made by the applicant in step 10 . the system generates a data set representative of an image containing reference data in step 12 . this image is divided equally or unequally , with or without rotation , resizing , or inversion into various sub - images ( step 14 ). the various sub - images are displayed to the user in step 16 , generally in a single interface that allows for their position , orientation or size to be individually or collectively manipulated through user input . the sub - images are separated and shuffled , as generally indicated in fig2 - 5 . other means of shuffling can include rotating or flipping of the various sub - images along either the x - axis or the y - axis , or resizing of the individual sub - images . using available input devices , such as a mouse or other input device attached to a computer , the user arranges the various sub - images until the reference data is evident ( step 18 ). the applicant then inputs that data or responds in such a way indicating that the data contained within the reassembled image is recognized ( step 20 ). the input data or the interaction performed by the user is then compared against the data that was contained within the original image step 22 . the decision as to whether or not the data or interaction received from the user matches the data contained within the original image is made step 24 . if the data does not match , then the user is rejected as being a machine or bot ( step 26 ). if the data does match , then the user is accepted as being human ( step 28 ). fig2 shows an exemplary illustration of an image containing data and that is divided into multiple sub - images which are then presented to the user for reassembly . in particular , the original image contains the data for the user to recognize in step 30 . the image is then divided into upper and lower portions in step 32 . these separate sub - images are then presented to the user for reassembly by positioning through drag and drop , which is to say selecting with the mouse , dragging them to another location and releasing the mouse to leave the given sub image in the new location . in this example the upper sub image is aligned horizontally above the lower sub image by the user , after which the user inputs the data contained within the reassembled image . this inputted data is then compared by the system against the data contained within the original image for purposes of making the determination as to whether the user is human or bot . fig3 shows an exemplary illustration of another method of dividing the original visual data - containing image into multiple sub - images , this time by virtue of using image transparencies . again , the original image contains the data for the user to recognize in step 34 . the image is divided in such a way that the horizontal middle section is removed from the original image , and a copy of that middle section is placed on a new image containing a transparent background step 36 . these separate sub - images are presented to the user for reassembly by positioning the sub image created from the horizontal middle portion of the original image directly over the sub image that has the middle section removed . after reassembly the user inputs the data contained within the reassembled image , said inputted data is then compared by the system against the data contained in the original image in order to determine if the user is human or bot . fig4 shows an exemplary illustration of another method of dividing the original visual data - containing image into multiple sub - images , this time through the use of splines or other patterns to create irregularly shaped pieces that fit together to form the whole . in particular , again the original image contains the data for the user to recognize step 38 . the image is then divided in such a way that the upper left , upper right , lower left , and lower right sections are separated from one another , and through the use of transparencies an interlocking pattern is associated with each of the sections . these separate sub - images are presented to the user in a dhtml web page after being shuffled in step 40 . using the mouse to drag and drop the sections , the user positions the upper right ( step 42 ), lower right ( step 44 ), upper left 46 , and lower left 48 sub - images so that the data contained within the original image can be seen . after reassembly the user inputs the data contained within the reassembled image , the inputted data then being compared by the system against the data contained in the original image in order to determine if the user is a human or a bot . fig5 shows an exemplary illustration of another method of dividing the original visual data - containing image into multiple sub - images by dividing the image into diagonal slices . in particular , the original image contains instructions for the user to recognize and follow ( step 50 ). the image is then divided in such a way that the left , middle , and right sections are separated from one another into diagonal shapes . these separate sub - images are presented to the user in a dhtml web page after being shuffled , along with three html buttons step 52 . using the mouse to drag and drop the sections , the user positions the left section step 54 , middle section step 56 , and right section 58 so that the data contained within the original image , in the form of instructions for the user to follow , can be seen . after reassembly the user follows the instructions contained within the reassembled image 60 . the user &# 39 ; s actions are then compared by the system against the data contained in the original image in order to determine if the user is human or bot . thus , methods of distinguishing a human user from a machine , or bot , have been described . although the present invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments , it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention . accordingly , the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense . | 6 |
now , preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to fig1 to 8 . fig1 is a diagram showing the construction of an optical encoder according to a first embodiment . in fig1 , the optical encoder includes two light - emitting elements 11 and 12 disposed in parallel to each other . the optical encoder also includes both an encoder scale having an optical grating and having a movable member at a middle part , and a photoreceptor 14 having photodiodes s 1 to s 4 on a surface thereof , disposed opposing the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 across the encoder scale 13 . as shown in fig2 , the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 have light - emitting windows 11 a and 12 a , receive voltages through wires 11 b and 12 b , respectively , and also receives a common voltage through a common electrode 15 . one advantage of the present invention is that at least two light - emitting windows 11 a and 12 a are provided so that light - emitting states are controlled independently of each other . in contrast , in the related art , windows are provided for light - emitting elements and lights are emitted simultaneously at multiple points . the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 are positioned such that lights received on the photoreceptor 14 are mutually shifted in position by 45 °. thus , the intensity of light received on the photoreceptor 14 when the light - emitting element 11 is turned on is as indicated by 11 ′ in fig1 , and the intensity of light received on the photoreceptor 14 when the light - emitting element 12 is turned on is as indicated by 12 ′. fig3 is a diagram showing the relationships between positions of the encoder scale 13 and signal outputs in cases where the light emitting elements 11 and 12 are turned on , respectively . in fig3 , part ( a ) also shows the relationship between an analog waveform and digitally counted values obtained by multiplying one cycle of the analog waveform by four . when the encoder scale 13 attached to the movable member is moved , a pattern of bright and dark regions moves over the photoreceptor 14 . on the photoreceptor 14 , a set of photodiodes s 1 to s 4 is arranged so as to divide each cycle of the bright and dark pattern by four , and by processing the divided parts of the bright and dark pattern , two - phase signals including phase - a signals ( s 1 - s 3 ) and phase - b signals ( s 1 - s 3 ) are output . for the light distribution of the state 11 ′ with the light - emitting element 11 turned on , signal values shown in part ( a ) of fig3 are output from processing circuits for phase a and phase b . on the other hand , for the light distribution of the state 12 ′ with the light - emitting element 12 turned on , signal values shown in part ( b ) of fig3 are output from the processing circuits for phase a and phase b . when the bright and dark pattern moves over the photoreceptor 14 , the light - emitting element 11 , which is temporally shifted by 90 ° in phase , is turned on , and signals of phase a and phase b by the encoder scale 13 are obtained . thus , the amount of movement can be detected by counting the number of wave cycles of phase a and phase b . when the encoder scale 13 is at a halt at a certain point p 1 , signal levels take two points a in part ( a ) of fig3 . when the light - emitting element 11 is turned off and the light - emitting element 12 is turned on , the positional relationship between the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 and the encoder scale 13 changes as shown in part ( b ) of fig3 . thus , the relationship between positions and signals also changes ; more specifically , the signals at points a in part ( a ) of fig3 change to points b in part ( b ) of fig3 . this is equivalent to moving the encoder scale 13 by 45 ° in the arrow direction . with regard to signals output from the signal processing circuits , when the light - emitting element 11 is on , points a are high for both phase a and phase b . on the other hand , when the light - emitting element 12 is on , points b are low for phase a and high for phase b . the switching for phase b indicates that when the encoder 13 actually stops moving after further moving by 45 °, the signal for phase a switches . that is , phase a and phase b reside in a 45 ° to 90 ° region within the 90 ° region at high level , so that the resolution becomes twice as high . if the signal for phase a remains high , phase a and phase b exist within a 0 ° to 45 ° range in the above 90 ° region at high level . table 1 below shows the relationship between counter values , and digital signal level changes after switching of light - emitting elements , and position . by switching between the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 as described above , the present invention can double the resolution of conventional art systems by reflecting a result obtained to another bit of counter value . fig4 is a diagram showing the construction of an optical encoder according to a second embodiment . in the first embodiment , the two light - emitting elements 11 and 12 are provided and switched to achieve a resolution that is twice as high compared with the related art . in the second embodiment , light - emitting elements 21 and 22 are further arranged on both sides of the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 to achieve a resolution that is four times as high compared with the related art . in fig4 , lines 11 ′, 12 ′, 21 ′, and 22 ′ represent the intensities of lights received on the photoreceptor 14 when the light - emitting elements 11 , 12 , 21 , and 22 are turned on , respectively . the light - emitting elements 11 , 21 , 12 , and 22 are positioned such that lights received thereby on the photoreceptor 14 are shifted in position by 22 . 5 °. fig5 is a perspective view of the light - emitting elements in the second embodiment . the light - emitting elements 11 , 12 , 21 , and 22 have light - emitting windows 11 a , 12 a , 21 a , and 22 a , and are connected to wires 11 b , 12 b , 21 b , and 22 b for supplying voltages , respectively . fig6 shows the relationship between the positions of the encoder scale 13 and phase - a signals in cases where the light - emitting elements 11 , 12 , 21 , and 22 are turned on . when the light - emitting element 11 is on , and when the encoder scale 13 stops at a certain point p 2 , signal a is obtained as a phase - a voltage . at this time , the voltage is at high level . then , the light - emitting element 21 is turned on , whereby a signal c is obtained . furthermore , as the light - emitting elements are switched to turn on the light - emitting elements 12 and 22 sequentially , the voltage changes to low level when the light - emitting element 22 is switched on . the state where the light - emitting element 22 is on corresponds to the state where the encoder scale 13 is moved by 67 . 5 °. that is , a point at which signal level changes correspond to a movement of the encoder scale by 67 . 5 °. thus , it is understood that p 2 is in a range of 22 . 5 ° to 45 ° of the region of the counter value 1 . fig7 and 8 show the construction of an optical encoder according to a third embodiment . in the first embodiment , the two light - emitting elements 11 and 12 are provided and switched to achieve a resolution that is twice as high compared with the related art . in the third embodiment , light - emitting powers of the two light - emitting elements 11 and 12 are changed and the lights are combined to produce a signal . referring to fig7 , when the light - emitting element 11 and the light - emitting element 12 are turned on individually , patterns of bright and dark occur at positions shifted by 90 ° corresponding to one wave cycle on the photoreceptor 14 . the bright and dark pattern indicated by 11 ′ is achieved on the photoreceptor 14 when only the light - emitting element 11 is turned on while the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 and the encoder scale 13 are in a certain positional relationship . when the light - emitting element 12 is then switched on , the bright and dark pattern is shifted by 90 ° on the photoreceptor 14 , as indicated by 12 ′. when the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 are simultaneously caused to emit light at a power of 1 /√ 2 compared with the related art , signals output from the processing circuits are combined as indicated by 13 ′. this is equivalent to the signal in a case where the photoreceptor 14 is shifted by 45 ° with respect to the light - emitting element 11 . fig8 shows a case where the balance of light - emitting powers of the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 is changed . as shown in fig8 , a signal in a case where the photoreceptor 14 is shifted by 30 ° with respect to the light - emitting element 11 can be obtained by setting a ratio such that the light - emitting power of the light - emitting element 11 is cos ( 30 °)=√ 3 / 2 and the light - emitting power of the light - emitting element 12 is sin ( 30 °)= ½ . as for other points , similarly , signals corresponding to shifts in light - emitting position can be obtained by changing the light - emitting powers of the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 . thus , after the encoder scale 13 is stopped , by changing the balance between the light - emitting elements 11 and 12 as if the device is moving , and finding a point where the digital signal level changes , the stop position can be detected at a desired resolution . optical power can be changed by stabilizing optical power while detecting it . or , the optical power can be controlled based on current values assuming a substantially linear relationship between optical power and current . although not discussed , optical power may also be changed by using other methods . although this embodiment relates to a transmissive optical encoder , the same advantages can be achieved by a reflective optical encoder , with the light - emitting elements and the photoreceptor element disposed on the same side . according to one aspect of the present invention , by switching between or changing the power of light sources , a resolution much higher than that of a conventional optical encoder can be achieved . while the present invention has been described with reference to what are presently considered to be the preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments . on the contrary , the invention is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims . the scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions . | 6 |
in fig1 , the reference tp denotes a receiver of the direct conversion type , for example , a cellular mobile telephone belonging to a wireless communications system , for example , of the wcdma type , although these embodiments are not limited to this type of system . the receiver tp comprises an antenna receiving a radio frequency signal which is firstly filtered in a bandpass pre - selection filter f 1 in order to attenuate the out - of - band signals then amplified in a low - noise amplifier lna before being converted directly into baseband within two frequency transposition stages or mixers , referenced mxi and mxq . each of these mixers receives a transposition signal st delivered by a local oscillator whose frequency is equal to that of the desired channel contained in the initial signal si delivered by the amplifier lna . the transposition signal delivered to the mixer mxq is phase - shifted by 90 ° with respect to the transposition signal delivered to the mixer mxi so as to obtain , after mixing , the two conventional processing channels i and q in phase quadrature . aside from the mixers , the two channels i and q also comprise low - pass filters fpb designed to eliminate the mixing residues . the analog stage eta is then connected to a digital baseband processing stage etn via an analog - digital conversion stage can . however , the signal coming from the mixer of each of the channels , for example , the signal delivered on the i channel and referenced sp , which is denoted as “ main signal ” in the following , exhibits a dc voltage offset . by way of example , a main signal sp is illustrated in fig5 . in this example , the frequency of the local oscillator is equal to 2 ghz . the main signal sp delivered on the i channel by the mixer mxi has a peak - to - peak amplitude of around 6 millivolts , but also a large offset ( dc offset voltage ), here having a value of 10 millivolts . if this signal were directly processed as such , the following stages may be be saturated and the reception completely erroneous . for this reason , this embodiment provides for a device capable of reducing the dc component of the main signal sp transposed into baseband to be placed downstream of each mixer mxi and mxq . such a device , which is described in more detail with reference to fig2 , comprises a main input e 1 for receiving the main signal sp transposed into baseband delivered by the frequency transposition stage , that is here referred to as “ main frequency transposition stage ”. the device also comprises processing means mtr comprising , as is seen hereinafter , correction means mcr controlled by control means mctl . the processing means mtr , and more particularly the correction means mcr , possess an output s 1 for delivering an output signal sps having a dc component that is reduced with respect to that of the main signal sp . it goes without saying that the channel q is also equipped with the same processing means mtr . however , the control means mctl can be common to each of the correction means mcr placed in each of the channels i and q . in the following , only one of the two channels i and q , for example , the channel i , may be considered given that everything going to be described hereinafter is also applicable to the channel q . reference is now more particularly made to fig2 in order to describe one embodiment of the device . in fig2 , an architecture of the single - ended type is illustrated . this embodiment is of course also applicable to an architecture of the differential type . the correction means or a corrector mcr of the processing means comprise a main amplifier ap 3 connected between the main input e 1 and the output s 1 . this main amplifier ap 3 has a dc voltage offset compensation input . this input is an additional input for eliminating the offset of the amplifier . the correction means mcr also comprise an auxiliary frequency transposition stage , or auxiliary mixer mxa , structurally analogous to the main mixer mxi . the correction means mcr comprise a transposition input es designed to receive the transposition signal st and to which a first input or transposition input of the mixer mxa is connected . furthermore , the correction means mcr comprise an auxiliary input e 2 for receiving the initial signal si . the second input or signal input of the auxiliary mixer mxa is connected to the auxiliary input e 2 via a first switching means or switch k 1 which , for example , takes the form of a transistor . this first switch k 1 is controlled by a control signal sk 1 delivered by the control means mctl . thus , the first switch can be set either in an open state or in a closed state , depending on the logic value of the signal sk 1 . an auxiliary amplifier ap 2 , also comprising an additional offset elimination input , is connected to the output of the auxiliary mixer mxa . the correction means mcr also comprise auxiliary compensation means capable of compensation for the dc offset voltage ( offset ) of the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 . these auxiliary compensation means here comprise a miller capacitive integrator intm whose input is connected to the output of the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 via a second switching means or switch k 2 . the switch k 2 is controlled by a logic signal sk 2 also delivered by the control means mctl . the output of the miller integrator intm , which delivers an auxiliary compensation signal scmpa , is connected to the offset compensation input of the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 . the structure of a miller integrator is conventional and known . it comprises a resistor r 1 connected to the inverting input of an amplifier ap 1 . furthermore , a capacitor c 1 is disposed between the inverting input of the amplifier ap 1 and the output of the latter the correction means mcr of the processing means also comprise generation means capable of generating a main compensation signal scmpp starting from the output signal of the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 and of delivering it to the compensation input of the main amplifier ap 3 . these generation means here comprise a low - pass resistive - capacitive filter r 2 , c 2 . the common terminal between the resistor r 2 and the capacitor c 2 of the filter is connected to the offset compensation input of the main amplifier ap 3 . furthermore , the input of the low - pass filter , in other words the other terminal of the resistor r 2 , is connected to the output of the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 via a third switching means or switch k 3 controlled by a logic signal sk 3 emitted by the control means mctl . the control means mctl can be formed from logic gates and logic circuits . they may also themselves be controlled or activated by the baseband processor contained within the digital processing stage etn . reference is now more particularly made to fig3 , 4 , and 6 - 11 , in order to illustrate the operation of the device . generally speaking , the operation may be divided into two phases implemented alternately at a given switching frequency , which is the switching frequency of the switches . by way of example , for a local oscillator frequency of 2 ghz , the switching frequency may be chosen as equal to 100 mhz . in a first phase , the input of the auxiliary mixer mxa is open ( switch k 1 open ). thus , the amplifier ap 2 may “ feel ” the dc component created by the leaks from the auxiliary mixer mxa together with the 1 / f noise , then allowing the miller integrator intm to eliminate this offset . this dc component is a kind of image created by the main mixer mxi , since the auxiliary and main mixers have analogous characteristics . in a second phase , the switch k 1 is closed and the output of the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 is connected to the low - pass filter r 2 c 2 . during this phase , the capacitor of the miller integrator continues to compensate the previously measured offset . consequently , if a n denotes the amplification gain of the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 and b m the gain on the compensation input of the main amplifier ap 3 , the signal coming from the auxiliary mixer mxa is amplified by a factor a n * b m and added to the signal of the main channel i . it is then shown that the total gain on the main channel is equal to a m + a n * b m , where a m denotes the amplification gain of the main amplifier ap 3 . this total gain can in fact be approximated to the product a n * b m because this product is much greater than the gain a m . furthermore , the effective offset of the device is then approximately equal to the sum of the offsets of the two amplifiers divided by the gain a n of the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 . thus , the principle according to these embodiments amounts to dividing an offset by the value of the gain a n , in contrast to the systems of the prior art that offer an elimination of the offset by subtraction of a signal . of course there may always be a noise - signal offset , but this may be negligible . after this general explanatory overview , reference is now more particularly made to fig3 in order to describe the first phase of operation of the device . in fig3 , the flow of the various signals , also corresponding to the states of the various switches , is illustrated in bold . more precisely , this first phase corresponds to a phase for elimination of the dc offset voltage ( or offset ) of the auxiliary amplifier apr . in this respect , the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 is disconnected from the main channel ( i channel ) ( switch k 1 open ), and its output is fed back onto its offset compensation input via the miller integrator intm ( switch k 2 closed and switch k 3 open ). the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 therefore receives at its input a first auxiliary signal sax 1 resulting , because of the mixing leaks , from an auto - transposition into baseband of the transposition signal st . in this first phase , a dc voltage equal to the opposite of the dc offset voltage ( offset ) created by the auxiliary mixer mxa may be present at the output of the miller integrator . in this phase , the main compensation signal scmpp delivered to the compensation input of the main amplifier ap 3 is equal to the voltage restored by the capacitor c 2 of the low - pass filter , which capacitor has been charged up during the second phase of the preceding alternation cycle . this second phase is illustrated in fig4 . here again the flow of the various signals , also corresponding to the states of the various switches , is illustrated in bold . in this case , the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 is connected into the main channel ( switch k 1 closed ) and , the voltage accumulated across the terminals of the capacitor c 1 of the miller integrator continues to compensate the offset of the auxiliary amplifier apr . furthermore , while the switch k 2 is open , the switch ks 3 is closed . for this reason , the compensation signal scmpp delivered to the signal compensation input of the amplifier aps is equal to the output signal of the amplifier ap 2 , which is filtered by the low - pass filter r 2 c 2 . in addition , the capacitor c 2 of the low - pass filter charges up . since the switch k 1 is closed , the input of the auxiliary amplifier ap 2 receives a second auxiliary signal sax 2 , which this time results from the transposition of the initial signal si with the transposition signal st . reference is now more particularly made to fig6 - 11 in order to complete this illustration of the operation of the device according to these embodiments . in fig6 , the time variation of the auxiliary compensation signal scmpa , in other words , the output signal from the miller integrator , is illustrated . it can be seen that , after an establishment phase , the latter stabilizes at the value − 10 millivolts corresponding to the dc component of the main signal sp . since , in this example , the switching frequency of the switches is 100 mhz , a value of 1 kω has therefore advantageously been chosen for the resistor r 1 of the miller integrator and for the capacitor c 1 of this integrator a value of 1 pf . the choice of these values allows a time constant for the integrator to be obtained that is much shorter than the duration of the alternation cycles , thus allowing a continuous compensation to be maintained . indeed , the noise - signal offset of the operational amplifier ap 2 may be compensated during the two phases of operation . fig7 illustrates the time variation of the signal ssk 3 at the output of the switch k 3 . it can be seen that this signal ssk 3 is a chopped signal . the low - pass filter r 2 c 2 allows a continuous compensation signal scmpp to be obtained , starting from this chopped signal , so as to be able to deliver it to the compensation input of the main amplifier ap 3 . it is furthermore recalled that , during the second phase , the capacitor c 2 is going to charge up , and thus restore the signal when the device returns to the first phase . the absence of an offset in the signal ssk 3 may also be noted . this filtered signal scmpp is delivered to the compensation input of the main amplifier having a gain b m . it is then added to the signal sp amplified with a gain a m coming from the output of the main mixer mx 1 . fig9 illustrates the time variation of the signal sps present at the output of the amplifier ap 3 . it may be noted that the peak - to - peak amplitude of the signal sps is slightly higher than 800 millivolts . on the other hand , the dc component present in this signal sps has been almost totally eliminated . the fact that the amplitude of this signal sps is higher than that of the signal sp originates from the fact that the auxiliary correction channel has a gain equal to a n * b m , whereas the main channel i has a gain equal to a m being lower than the gain of the auxiliary channel . fig1 illustrates the output spectrum of the signals present in the main channel i . more precisely , the curve c 1 is the frequency spectrum of the main signal s 1 , whereas the curve c 2 is the frequency spectrum of the output signal sps . the output spectrum of the signal sps is of course amplified ; however , the power contained at 0 hz in the signal sp is conserved . if reference is now made to the eye diagram of the i channel at the output of the main amplifier ap 3 , it is observed that this eye is clearly open ( four very distinct and symmetrical groupings with respect to the origin ), which is synonymous with a reception of high - quality thus allowing a faithful demodulation . the device according to these embodiments may allow the static and dynamic dc offset to be corrected in a continuous fashion , which is perfectly suited to “ full duplex ” systems , while at the same time conserving the power of the signal contained at 0 hz . in addition , a partial reduction in the 1 / f noise created in the receiver circuitry is obtained , while at the same time obtaining an almost total elimination of the offsets caused by the leaks from the mixer . | 7 |
turning first to fig1 there is shown an assembly for receiving a concentrated radiation , comprising a receiver chamber 1 with a circular aperture 2 holding a transparent radiation delivery waveguide 3 having a first , cylindrical intake section 4 and a second , tapered hexagonal radiation delivery section 5 . intake section 4 fits snugly into aperture 2 and is integral with a tubular concentrator 6 . the walls 7 of receiver chamber 1 are transparent and they are surrounded by a solar absorber body 8 . the waveguide 3 and concentrator 6 are made of fused silica ( n = 1 . 46 ) while the medium inside the receiver chamber 1 and around concentrator 6 is air ( n = 1 ). if desired , waveguide 3 may be made of a material different from and having a higher refraction index than concentrator 6 . also if desired , waveguide 3 and concentrator 6 may be two distinct bodies . as shown , the tapered hexagonal radiation delivery section 5 of waveguide 3 penetrates into the receiver chamber 1 and the mounting is such that the cylindrical intake section 4 is held snugly in the receiver chamber aperture 2 . the cylindrical intake section 4 is adapted to transfer the light from the concentrator 6 across the receiver aperture 2 with practically no leakage to the surrounding aperture . as shown , in the tapered hexagonal radiation delivery section 5 of waveguide 3 there is a gradual transition from the circular shape of the intake section 4 to the hexagonal shape of the tapered extractor section 5 . the gradual decrease of the cross - sectional area in the tapered extractor section 5 should preferably obey formula ( 5 ) above . for the hexagonal shape the ratio ## equ5 ## has the value of - 0 . 5 . the angle of convergence of the tapered delivery section 5 may vary whereby the rate of reduction of the cross - sectional area in the axial direction is varied . the ratio of the length of the tapered radiation delivery section 5 to its maximum diameter near the intake section 4 should not be more than necessary and depends , i . a ., on the angle of incidence of the radiation on the inner surface of the tapered radiation delivery section , typical values being within the range of from 1 : 1 to 5 : 1 . quite generally , the ratio between the area of the outer surface of the waveguide and its cross - sectional area is derived from the law of conservation of space ( see w . t . welford and r . winston , loc . cit . ), from which it follows that the space available for the extracted radiation must be sufficient to accommodate the phase space it occupied in the waveguide . the phase space e i occupied by the radiation propagating in the waveguide is where a o is the area of a perpendicular cross - section normal to the axis , n is the index of refraction inside the waveguide , and η p is the fraction of radiation that can be guided by such a waveguide when surrounded by air and is described by ## equ6 ## where a e is the area through which the radiation is extracted . from the conservation of space a lower limit for the extraction area may thus be derived : while the above equations apply strictly to a cylindrically symmetric waveguide , for waveguides with a tapered delivery portion according to the invention the conservation of space law referred to above is only statistically correct . in an investigation of the shape of the tapered delivery section 5 of the waveguide 3 , a hexahedral tapered prism was compared with ( i ) a regular trihedral tapered prism and ( ii ) with a circular cone . the investigation was conducted by ray trace simulation in which 10 4 rays were traced on a rectangular four - dimensional grid in phase space and the results , in terms of ray extraction as a function of the length of the extractor section , are shown in fig2 . the initial angle of incidence on the inner surface is assumed to be 90 ° and the waveguide is assumed be uniformly filled with all the radiation it can conduct . at zero length of the tapered section , that is when the waveguide is cut normal to its axis , the fraction of extracted light is 65 %, which corresponds to the maximum concentration in air , while for a one diameter length or more of the tapered delivery section 5 , practically all radiation is extracted from the trihedral prism . the hexahedral prism as well provides a close to 100 % extraction efficiency , albeit only at a length exceeding 5 diameters . in contrast , the circular cone &# 39 ; s maximum extraction efficiency is about 72 %. although the trihedral shape of the tapered section of the waveguide appeared to be very efficient , it is not well suited for association with a circular intake section for which a polyhedral shape with more than three sides is preferable in that it provides on the one hand the required departure of the slope from cylindrical symmetry while at the same time providing adequate transition to a circular intake section which is required in all those cases in which the aperture of the receiver chamber is circular . it should be mentioned that , in general , the tapered section of the waveguide may have other non - circular cross - sections , e . g . elliptic or grooved . it may even be of a basically circular configuration in which the cross - sectional shape at any point along the axis is serrated . thus , out of radiation propagating from the concentrator 6 along the waveguide 3 , those rays that form a large angle with the axis will be extracted first from the large diameter part of the waveguide . the rays forming an initial small angle with the axis will be totally reflected from the inner surface of the waveguide , sometimes repeatedly . however , as the side walls of the tapered section converge , an initially reflected ray gradually increases its angle with the axis until the angle becomes sufficiently large for the ray to cross the side wall and thus be extracted . if the decrease in cross - section is monotonic and sufficiently slow , then the described process may be regarded as being quasi - adiabatic . this means that at each point along the axis all rays that can be extracted will be extracted . therefore , the flux density is constant along the axis . this opens up the possibility of controlling the rate of extraction by controlling the rate of reduction of the cross - section . thus , for constant convergence as in the case of a prism , the rate of radiation extraction is proportional to the perimeter . viewed by a distant observer , the average brightness of the prism is constant . in general , it is proportional to the tangent of the slope angle . thus , the present invention enables to provide a waveguide of a required size , in which power density may be kept constant and the extracted power density outside may be controlled and even reach a value close to the thermodynamic limit . in a particular embodiment of the invention the radiation receiver assembly is part of a solar energy plant and the receiver chamber either holds directly an energy conversion device such as a solar radiation absorber , a light / electricity transducer , a chemical reactor and the like ; or else is made of transparent walls with any such energy conversion devices on the outside . however , it should be noted that the present invention may be used quite generally in cases where it is required to extract radiation from a transparent element made of a material with a high refraction index , into a transparent element having a lower index of refraction , and where the controllable , particularly high , power density is required . | 8 |
the development of a complex , multi catalyst system to properly accommodate a plurality of reactants with its appropriate catalyst and parameters to assure a near - perfect reaction control , with minimal negative impact on environment made possible the usage of the same design after customization on a large variety of applications . a particular case of the catalytic reactor system usage as heater with a plurality of combustibles is creating an interesting development in heating devices for food , tourism , housing , medical interventions , anti - explosive housing thermal assistance emergency and military . most of the catalytic burners have a good behavior with hydrogen oxygen reactants while with the rest of fuels and oxidizers the thermal range for a good operation is reduced . the following supplementary applications are presented as examples of catalytic reactors usage : personal mobile heater — food , drinks , hands and suit coat heater is composed from a personal heater coupled to an internal air circulation deodorization device box heater — in the hydrogen mre device food picnic heater is a converted box heater operating in regime of barbeque device as ir oven or thermostat for food . blood iv heating , blanket heating , emergency tent heating , ir sterilization base on low flammability system vest heater for harsh climate with reduced ir and odor signature tent — shelter heater vehicle start - up or ambient heater in cold climate absorption silent heater - cooler system thermo - electric power generator liquids distillation food heating with hydrogen recovery auto vehicle odor and toxins removal system to habitable space oxygen level control . personal air purifier / deodorizer shelter / tent air cleaner deodorizer medical operation room air sterilization the invention corrects the problem encountered by most of the catalysts at startup and shutdown when toxic products are released , and even improves the steady state regime operation by continuous parametric control . the system according to the invention has the capability to produce a power or reactant flow variation by a special strategy applied to assure a perfect reaction all the time based on : electrical thermal assistance catalytically shutdowns assisted by exhaust catalytic burners that complete the burning . catalyst changing device in exhaust modular start - up multi - fuel startup / shut - down catalyst cleanup and event preparation operation in constant temperature and temperature — flow control assisted system fig1 shows a main embodiment of the invention meant to assure the correct operation of a catalyst system making the perfect parametric matching . main effluent entry processing 00 catalytic reactor unit 20 exhaust of the reacted effluents 40 process control unit 50 the main effluent entry system 00 system takes one or a plurality of effluents 01 that flow through the assigned initial measurement unit 02 that measure all the significant process parameters and is communicating to the specific processor 03 . the processors react to the parameters by introducing corrections 04 in the actuating units 05 . the amplitude of this initial correction is meant to make a coarse adjustment of the effluent parameters in the range of 80 - 90 % of the required adjustment based on previous information updated by the measured values 02 . the timing and flow is important because the adjustments have to appear at the right time and place . the effectiveness of the adjustment is measured by at least one parametric measuring unit 06 that is reintroducing the data in the processor and generates a new timed correction 07 using the corrective unit 08 meant to provide the effluent 109 the right entry values in the first stage of the catalytic reactor 11 . the control unit also uploads the measurement history in a process - supervising unit 50 that may send back corrections 10 . the reactor structure 20 has a perpendicular flow access in the reaction area 11 based on a positive pressure system 12 . a plurality of reactive effluents may be added using the pressure — flow adjustment system 12 , that takes the effluent through a parametric measurement unit 03 in order to make the right predictions for the required changes and adjustments to be applied in order to make it compatible with the fuel &# 39 ; s performances . a plurality of reactors with various catalysts may be stacked together forming various series and parallel effluent flow circuits . the most common adjustments are the pressure , temperature and flow to keep the catalyst in the initial stage in the desired operating regime . then it has to be considered the energetic output of the reaction induced and the fact that this modifies the catalyst 11 properties demanding a new pressure — temperature regime . this adjustment is made under the process automation system 03 by using the parametric corrector system 15 - 16 . the parametric control system 15 is a reaction product output parametric measurement system , acting in parallel with the predictive calculator and taking the abetment values as corrective process parameters , while the module 16 is a dynamic parameter modification that in the simplest case may be a heat - exchanger as heat sink or heat - pipe . in the most cases after the catalytic reaction heat is released that drives to catalyst warm - up taking it out of good operating regime making it generate a plurality of unwanted secondary products . the parametric rectifier unit 16 prevents this out - of - range behavior . as the stage to catalytic reaction is a gradual approach , producing by a unit the coarse reaction and by the second stage 17 we add the fine reaction tuning in order to make the output flow 18 compatible with the process quality requirements . after the catalytic reaction has been successfully finalized the resultant flow is passing into the final processing unit 40 before delivery or exhaust . it has to be noted that a plurality of catalytic stages may be used in order to treat complex gases as smelter or tail gases each catalyst and flows parameters fine tuned to get the best reaction output and maximize the life time . the final stage 40 has similar functions as the primary stage to measure and adjust the parameters of the output flow 41 . the system 42 is correcting the flow 41 parameters under a similar input control unit 03 using an adjustment measurement stage 43 . the measurement stage 43 also assures the quality of the process , as the resulted flow 45 is passing through a final parametric adjustment 44 and delivered or exhausted . a higher rank processor unit 50 that assures the upper level communication and overall process coordination and quality controls the entire process . the whole system philosophy starts from the observation as there is no catalyst tolerant to a wide range of effluents parameters and for a process of quality the right parametric matching is required . for the transitory regimes as start - up , stop , and flow content modifications complex maneuvers like reverse heat - flow , electric warming , multiple adjustment reactants are performed using actuators under controllers control as part of the process optimal customization and programming . fig2 a shows another main embodiment of the present invention the personal mobile heater 100 for food , drinks , hands and suit an application to the system in fig1 . the reaction is exothermic also called oxidation and when the reactants are cold fuels , the reaction holds the common name of burning . there are several combinations of catalysts and fuels that can be used together or separately with the aim of maximizing the ratio performances over cost , classical platinum coated alumina being too expensive for mass usage in such devices . the device 101 works identically with a hot plate with adjustable temperature , having the fluid circuit completely separated from the heating circuit . the system have to be position insensitive or in the second version with a predefined - locked operation position . as a feature of the main system that has controlled flows the position insensitivity is assured . there is a plurality o fuels it may work as function of requirements and availability , and a large variety of catalysts and processes to produce them . the most preferred fuels are in order hydrogen , methanol , acetylene , ethanol , methane , ethane , propane gas , butane , gasoline , etc each requiring its catalyst - temperature — pressure combination . there is no cheap universal combination , but this exists , being mainly based on noble rare materials , the control system being able to easily handle multi - fuels . the temperature range is from 0 c up to 100 c inside depending on application such as : 3 - 10 c for antifreeze , 20 - 30 c for drinkable - eatable foods maintenance in the cold climate , 30 - 40 c for hands heating and mild food heating , 40 - 65 c for food heating , and hot drinks , 70 - 100 for food , water boiling , while over 100 and lower than 200 for backing and cooking . the power level depends on the insulation figure and external surface and leaks . because the power range is varying from several watt in antifreeze regime up to 1 kw in cooking regime , the individual traveler &# 39 ; s pack will have in composition at least 3 catalytic heating devices , and a plurality of fuels , controlled by a micro - processor operation system . the user using a minimized dialogue box is selecting the regime while it sets the desired position of the adjustable heat box that may provide heat inside or on some of the walls . in its operating position is a variable volume rectangle , with modular inflatable walls . the walls have variable shape due to an elastic pliable structure , containing the heating plate . there are pluralities of fuels this system may operate . for temperatures above freezing the hydrogen solid generators as mg , fe water may be used . solid carbide and water may be used for acetylene on spot production as for under freeze temperatures . liquid methanol , ethanol , benzene , benzenes may also be used as well as compressed and liquefied gases with the restriction as their temperature have to be assisted too . another requirement of the application is that to be anti - explosive cased , and to have a perfect burning with clean exhaust separated from the inner air and driven at a certain distance by a tube . using a non - reflective , non - emissive surface materials and a cold external wall , by making the burners air intake all around the external surface made by a porous fabric , may minimize the ir signature . the heating unit 100 is made from flat hot plates 101 and insulator expandable plates 110 up to six or more being combined such as to fulfill the usage desires , from heating hands to barbeque / fry . the air intake 102 is made on periphery and aspirated in a fan 104 inside the utility pack 103 . the air exhaust 105 is driven towards the center of the catalytic hot plate 112 surrounding the fuel and reacting down to complete burning . the heat generated is transmitted by ir radiation , conduction and convection towards the center of the plate to a hard - coated aluminum surface 113 facing the center of the box . the cooled burned gas is then passing the exterior surface giving the remnant heat to intake air via a heat exchanger 115 and is evacuated through a duct 116 . the negative pressure on the borders makes that the box to be odorless and the potential gas leakage to be reabsorbed without contact to the inner surface . the sealing hinges 111 increase the insulation of the central box cavity . inside the utility box 103 there are a plurality of fuel tanks 106 driving to specialized fuel pumps 107 or manual pressurizing system and through a distribution system under the control of the processor 108 is assuring the heaters optimal operation regime . an electric system 109 formed from an electricity harvesting system , battery is powering the controller and actuators . the power variation is made by switching the number of catalytic cell in operation and by smooth continuous variation inside the catalyst operation domain . the lid 117 may hold multiple functions from sealing the box , to secondary deposit for accessories . the box content 114 requirements determines the operation regime selected on process control system 108 . fig2 b shows another embodiment of the invention as a complex application in human heater deodorizer comprising a personal heater functioning also in odor burning regime coupled to an internal air circulation structure embedded in coat and protective equipment for face hands and legs , separating the exterior space from the body space with minimal thermal and chemical signature . the development of this new embodiment was generated by the need to give the proper answer to the question : when body needs external auxiliary heating and the normal coat or cloth is not good enough . usually normal coating is not good in variable effort regime as military , alpinists , cave exploration or cold climate requiring continuous variation of the insulation figure to assure the proper heat flow . the human muscular activity is also accompanied by a high release of odor sweat and breathed air that proved a valuable tracking device and a large ir signature . a complete active suit may minimize all together , while providing the bearer with fresh clean , sanitized air . the second question to be answered was : what are the most appropriate temperature distribution making the human body most healthy and comfortable in agreement with its operating conditions ? the answer to this question is not simple because there is no unique solution and more the body temperature distribution depends on the effort and metabolic stage — digestion , sleep , high effort , being differing by individual therefore requires customization . in relation with environment that requires both cooling and heating . a body level micro = processor is designed to identify the regimes by measuring the breathing flow , heart rate , temperatures movement regime and preset the best acceptable operation temperature — its control being different from the action of blind feedback systems that control a temperature by adjusting the heat flow . this kind of feedback may be dangerous for the body health . due to an intelligent control the suit becomes for the body its first confinement - adjustment chamber , while the presence of the human body signature in the environment is drastically minimized . the extra heat released may be driven in the right places with minimal visibility , being possible that the single exhaust to be oxygen depleted air while water and co 2 being stored . reduced contamination , anti - chemical , anti - bacteriologic suit having in configuration a comfort function regarding the optimal body temperature field distribution . bullet , fire , chemical proof , active chromatic signature minimization coatings may be added and morphed in the system . the protective suit , vest , coat 200 has a multi - layer air circulating system operated by a processor unit located in the technologic unit 201 . the technologic unit is customized as function of the function it has to accomplish as supplementary body cooling - heating , deodorization , anti - chemical and bacteriologic protection , and minimized heat signature . it is based on a catalytic hepa filter and a set of absorption filters for plume signature reduction . usually a human plume is made from an exhaust of water vapors , carbon dioxide and another large spectrum volatile organic compounds ( voc ). the technical equipment usually detects ir and carbon dioxide pulsed plume to identify life presence while the predator insects and animals usually detect the voc to positively identify the target . during various activities the body worms up non - uniformly and sweats , respiration and overcools in different locations . to balance the effect of confinement clothes there is needed to apply a moderate correction to free air body , at optimal ambient temperature — gym - room condition . these conditions are correlated with the effort level and body parameters by the processor unit . the suit has tiles for temperature regulation 202 separated by areas of high material insulator 203 having a role in body parameters maintenance and odor absorption . a section in the suit structure 210 is presented in zoom area in the right of the picture . the conditioning air flow 211 is introduced from the alternate hot - cold tubes using the mems valves 223 that makes the right temperature combination in the space bordered by separators 212 . the local odors are collected in the aspiration tube 213 , and carried to the deodorization catalytic device . the temperature is measured by a set of sensors embedded in each tile of structure . the conditioned air 214 is circulating through set of interlaced tubes 224 carrying hot and cold air . the gas for the catalytic burner is taken from a set of outer tubes 226 carrying the inner gas and preventing any direct communication between the inner and outer side . the external layer 228 is a hydrophobic layer inert to ir emission / reflection having the main role of making no signature in environment 220 and preventing water to pass inside . depending on the state of outer space 220 contaminations with chemical or bacteriologic agents the channels 227 may be used to adjust the outer temperature for ir pattern minimization and to blow clean air to create a pellicle cushion to keep the pollutant away from the suit . in this case the unit 201 , aspirates the air decontaminates and pushes into the circuits . the layer 217 is operating like a thermal insulator having a conductive mesh to prevent em field influencing the person or reflecting on conferring the bearer the stealth and pulsed power shielding capabilities . the inner space 221 may be the bearer skin or lingerie in contact through the layer 222 that is a hairy hydro - neutral layer or hydrophilic to allow the water being absorbed and transmitted in the conditioning system . an alternate of materials as neoprene or gore - tek are recommended to separate the layers and minimize the power . for environments where the human trace have to be minimized or for contaminated environments a head protection - insulation 250 may be wear . it relies on module 253 to catalytically burn the odors from inside to outside and the pollutants from outside to inside separating the human from the environment it steps in . the device is elastically connected to the suit by a light bellow . the entire structure is rigid on head by the belt 251 , 254 . the hearing and visualization is improved by the devices 255 placed aside with direct on - eye projection as ir , thz , radar / sonar , sound / em goniometry stereoscopic imaging . the head may have all the features of the body suit . fig3 a - box heater — in the hydrogen producing device or other fueling device made with distributed heat sources for uniform safe power application . an example of hydrogen producing device is the actual meals ready to eat ( mre ) metal powder sachets . these mres are using a bag of about ½ kg or more of mg , fe , etc . powder flooded with water and during oxidation releasing hydrogen , water vapors and heat . its usage in cold areas releases a plume rising above the eating - place that becomes very embarrassing for special applications , where the fingerprint in environment should be minimized . the usage of an ordinary catalyst barrier ( pt , pd based ) may lead to the reduction of the actual ( year 2006 ) box content from 4 oxidizing material to 1 on the bottom with reshaping the content makes the plume disappear and the released hydrogen to be further oxidized to water that drops the heat on the upper food . the cardboard box 300 containing the meals in parallelepiped trays placed interlaced in the box using a set of cardboard supports having the role to guide the gas flow . a water sachet 301 is containing a plurality of sachets containing variable amounts of water to oxidize the powder sachets . a special box or sachet 302 is containing the oxidizing powder preferably fe , mg that in contact with water 303 induce an exchange exothermal reaction oxidizing and releasing hydrogen and water vapors 304 by boiling . the heat released is heating the food tray above 305 that are slightly tilted such as the water vapors condensing on the upper trays 305 to be recovered and reintroduced in the process . the box may be designed for a variable number of meals and quantities . the standard design may be chosen for a squad or platoon having 18 or 30 servings per box . the boxes 305 contains the basic food a soup and a solid meal , while the third 306 contains a hot cake and drinks 307 . the hydrogen 304 released from the oxidizing reaction slightly depleted of the water vapors reaches a mixer with triangular interlaced shapes 308 that brings new oxygen from outside air 311 and combines with the hydrogen in the shaped catalytic felt 309 area designed for an anti - explosive operation . to have high efficiency the further exhausted gas containing nitrogen and water vapors is heating the upper trays 306 and 307 the water mainly condensing on that . a heat exchanger 310 made from an aluminum foil separating the two ducts of intake air 311 and exhaust air 312 and further recovering heat and water the last drips being driven from the collector 316 into the mg , fe sachet tray 302 . if the exhaust is having still enough moist content in northern scandinavian or alaska climate a na or cao filter may be added to retain the moisture and prevent the fog plume to appear . the air intake 315 , the exhaust gas 311 and the water sachet hole 313 for starting the water 303 flooding the sachet in the sachet compartment 302 may be unsealed from pealing off the label attached over and drawing cords with blades cuts and unseal both the reactive sachet or tray 302 and the water bag 301 starting the process . it is possible that a pyrotechnic cord sealed in aluminum 317 to control the process unsealing the vents 313 and 315 and cut the box at the end of the process transforming it in a serving platform by paper engineering that over bends the facets and drags the trays . a supplementary incineration device may be used to turn the structure into a biodegradable ash . because the verticality is important a water bubble device 318 is showing the user the right position . near the trays or above auxiliary eating instruments and condiments may be placed . fig3 b shows another embodiment of the invention as application of the general structure in fig1 by using the hot plate as individual or unit heater . the logistics philosophy is changed , compared to the fig2 a where a single use device was used for a single feed action , into a multiple use heater for various purposes . the heater is composed from the heating plate 350 that feeds with a plurality of fuels 352 through the tube 353 oxidized by the fresh , warmed up air 354 by surrounding the heating box 351 and the exhausted gas 355 . a filtering device holding the co2 and water may be added together with a tube carrying away the exhaust as to minimize the ir signature . the food tray 356 is delivered as supply without any eating instruments that are for private use and not included in the box , the waste signature being minimized too . fig4 shows another embodiment of the present invention related to the application of a plurality of catalytic heating plate from fig3 b as picnic / campain food heater . the device is formed of a general use box possible of being configured in a plurality of hypostases working in regime of barbeque device as ir oven or thermostat for food . the catalytic heating plates will have a set of holes through to be used for placing various exterior manual or electric actuator units . they will also have lateral hinges in order to be modularly configured . the device 400 is a complete picnic set ready to deploy having a re - shapeable box for shipping purposes maintaining a sizeable cavity 403 warm and another cavity 408 cold during transportation and by a plurality of flexible heat - pipes 409 delivering heat or cold to other boxes . the box 401 transforms into an operational table by extracting legs 402 and taking out the boxes previously used for transportation purposes . from the catalytic heating pads 405 , deposited compact into the box 401 is shaped a barbeque oven 404 attaching an actuator 406 and a handling structure inside 407 also stored in the box may become a “ kebab ” cooker or some other type of kitchen robot or sophisticated on - site cooking device . it may also hold pumps for water , drinkable water , normal , hot and cold , etc . bringing in nature the comfort of a luxurious restaurant being user and environment friendly by deodorizing using an exhaust catalytic filter with heat recovery in the upper box 410 . the system 400 may be conceived as an upper trunk box having aerodynamic shape , or a usual rectangular technologic box . fig5 shows another embodiment of the invention related to the application of the generalized catalytic structure in fig1 as air catalytic cleaner for auto - vehicles odor and toxins removal system to habitable space oxygen level control . the present traffic conditions excels in carbon effluents as carbon dioxide , carbon monoxide , unburned fuel and other intermediary products vapors to which the nitrogen oxides , vocs , etc from the industrial environment are added . to clean the air intake in the vehicle &# 39 ; s habitable in a single step a catalytic air cleaner as described in the previous invention have to be used followed by a carbon dioxide removal system and a humidity and oxygen control system . similar system may be applied for the engine exhaust and habitable and vehicle leaks . the catalytic air cleaning system 500 is designed to clean the air aspirated in the vehicle cabin 540 and breathed by the passengers . the intake air 501 is filtered from dust and small particles and part of chemicals by a hepa filter 502 and introduced in the catalytic deep cleaning device 503 . the air is warmed up at the catalyst operating temperature by the heat exchanger 504 and electric assisting device 505 at the entry . the catalyst is also supplied with external heat by a heat - pipe 506 and extra fuel or reactive chemicals through the same entry 506 . the oxygen is supplied by the specialized entry port 507 with control valves under processor control . the hot reacted gas is cooled down by the heat exchanger 504 and the clean gas 508 flows into carbon dioxide retention unit 509 and a humidity control unit 511 being delivered into the cabin 540 . it is possible that in various environments as forest fires , industrial areas , gas leaks the oxygen to be depleted in the catalytic cleaner 505 if no oxygen is added through the supply pipe 507 therefore a psa ( pressure swig absorption ) unit to be added to control the oxygen content in the cabin 540 . the basic system 510 may be used in a similar configuration 530 for cabin exhaust gas 531 cleanup so its delivery in environment 532 is odor free . the same structure 510 sized in the enhanced drum unit 520 to be used for engine exhaust gas 521 to be further depleted of any pollutant and having the capability of collecting the carbon dioxide in a specialized tank 522 releasing only nitrogen and water in the final exhaust 523 . these units applied to vehicles make them environment friendlier depleting the oxygen only . fig6 shows toilet and technologic rooms exhaust cleanup device as a simpler application from fig4 because it misses the air composition conditioning devices . the catalytic air cleaning system 600 is designed to clean the air exhausted by a technologic cabin 610 such a toilet , rest room , cooking oven using hydrocarbon based fuels or wood , other technologic areas producing toxic effluents . the intake air 601 is filtered from dust and small particles and part of chemicals by a hepa filter 602 and introduced in the catalytic deep cleaning device 603 . the air is warmed up at the catalyst operating temperature by the heat exchanger 604 and electric assisting device 605 at the entry . the catalyst is also supplied with external heat by a heat - pipe 606 and extra fuel or reactive chemicals through the same entry 606 . the oxygen is supplied by the specialized entry port 607 with control valves under processor control . the hot reacted gas is cooled down by the heat exchanger 604 and the clean gas 608 flows into the carbon dioxide retention unit 609 and a humidity control unit 611 being exhausted 612 or reintroduced in the cabin 610 . it is possible that in various environments , industrial areas , gas leaks the oxygen to be depleted in the catalytic cleaner 605 if no oxygen is added through the supply pipe 607 therefore a psa ( pressure swig absorption ) unit to be added to control the oxygen content . fig7 is showing the application of the heating device for liquids heating by circulation as those for medical transfusion . the properties of such a heater have to be uniform controlled temperature under the limit of liquid depreciation , such as the minimal residual volume in the heater to be as small as possible . if the liquid is blood the diameter of the system is limited by the blood viscosity and acceptable cell properties , the maximal flow and temperature gradient being limited . a double stage heat exchange system will be developed . the blood and other liquids heating system 700 is based on the minimum amount required for being heated due to the limiting properties . the liquid comes from a reservoir through a tube 701 and enters into a flow temperature - regulating device 702 that pushes it into a narrow section duct 703 with rectangular or annular shape that maximizes the heat exchange surface with the heating agent . the heating agent is surrounding the liquid to be heated having the same shape flow tubes 704 , 705 and flowing in a countercurrent to maximize the heat flow and to optimize the thermal exchange efficiency . the center of the pipe 706 may have liquid or is solid or empty having a small thermal capacity material . in the rectangular design the central tube 707 does not exist . the heated liquid exits though 707 and is send towards the infusion device . the heating fluid is entering the liquid - liquid exchanger by the inlet 710 splitting in two components inner and outer surrounding all the liquid to be heated and exiting by the tube 716 . the two tubes allow a certain distance being insulated and allowing that the heating device to be placed in the best position . the liquid exchanger system is formed from an electric pump 714 , supplied through the cord 715 from a buffer battery 725 . the liquid enters through the tube 716 and is supplied to two heat exchangers one hot 712 and one cold 713 then a mixer 711 is adjusting the right temperature . a heat source driving a cooling device by gaseous absorption procedure 717 is running the two thermal sources , releasing the exceeding heat into air through a thermopile and a heat sink 718 . the heat is received from the catalytic heating module 720 through a flexible tube heat - pipe 719 . this confers an extra distance and flexibility such as the placement in all terrain conditions and permitting the operation in cold and hot climate with thermal exhaust conceal . the heat module 720 is compact containing the catalytic heat source 721 fueled by a plurality of fuels from the tanks 726 and supplied with ambient air 727 filtered for dust particles . the exhaust 722 is driven through a tube at a certain distance and for small enclosures as aircraft or vehicles it may be equipped with a carbon - dioxide stopper and condenser module by a low temperature heat exchanger . the heat source 722 may also operate a supplementary electric power generator by a thermopile 724 and a heat sink 723 controlled separately . the device is conceived in such a way as to use various fuels and to prevent the contamination of the heated liquid by several heat exchangers having a short response time system and contamination monitoring . the microprocessor system 730 is controlling all the actuators and monitors and records the operation by a set of sensors and interlocks . the usage of an intermediary liquid is to make the probability of contamination of the liquid to be heated smaller and to provide a mild and fast heating with minimal heat influences while the system is light and allows a long term silent operation . it may be applied also for industrial liquids or artic region or cold weather . fig8 presents another embodiment of the invention regarding a clean air cushion for industrial or medical application . warm clothing and air heated blankets have a great importance for medical emergencies to prevent thermal shock of the wounded people if the system is designed to be light , portable and odor - less . the portable heating unit 800 absorbs ambient air 803 , filters it in a hepa filter 804 , and enters the aspiration of a turbine high flow pump 805 that pushes it out in a heat - exchanger unit 806 where it warms up to the desired temperature and is pushed out in the blanket or cloth part ( coat , jacket , etc .) 801 from where it is released through a porous mesh fabric creating a warm , clean air cushion 802 . the heating unit 800 is composed of a catalytic unit 810 that aspirates air 811 , filters for dust and liquid droplets 812 and warms up in a heat - exchanger 813 recovering the exhaust gas energy . the warmed - up gas is introduced in the catalytic burner 814 that may use a plurality of fuels 815 , depending on catalyst type and regime . after burning the exhaust gas passes through the heat exchanger 813 into a carbon dioxide removal drum 816 and a condensed water drip collector 818 . the cleaned exhaust gas is then released through a tube 817 such as to be placed outside the enclosures or far from being breathed or absorbed in the intake gas 803 . the complete optimal burning is assured by a processor 809 powered from the electrical source 808 that includes a buffer battery and a adjusted power feeding system using the thermopile 807 . the system may deliver in any kind of equipment operating as gas spreader 801 , being useful for fast technologic equipment defreezing in winter time or artic conditions . fig9 shows another embodiment of the invention as application for a clean , climate controlled roo , tent , shelter in place , for medical application , emergency operator providing volume heating with sterilized air in white - room regime . the clean conditioned air system is applied in a specialized roof of an emergency enclosure / tent made of hepa filters with pm smaller than 0 . 3 microns . for cold climate the source is also heating while in hot or temperate systems the heating module must be replaced with a cooling system based on fluid - absorption ( ammonia ) and mixer delivering the right temperature . the heating unit 900 is composed of a catalytic unit 910 that aspirates air 911 , filters for dust and liquid droplets 912 and warms up in a heat - exchanger 913 recovering the exhaust gas energy . the warmed - up gas is introduced in the catalytic burner 914 that may use a plurality of fuels 915 , depending on catalyst type and regime . after burning , the exhaust gas passes through the heat exchanger 913 into a carbon dioxide removal drum 916 and a condensed water drip collector 918 . the cleaned exhaust gas is then released through a tube 917 such as to be placed outside the enclosures or far from being breathed or absorbed in the intake gas 903 . the complete optimal burning is assured by a processor 909 powered from the electrical source 908 that includes a buffer battery and a adjusted power feeding system using the thermopile 907 . the emergency tent 901 has double walls kept pressurized with a similar equipment 920 delivering higher pressure 921 and having a slight porous release 922 towards outside to create a clean air cushion around the tent . fig1 shows another embodiment of the present invention referring to medical ir - uv sterilization base on low flammability system being similar with the personal heating unit but operating at higher temperature with water dripping from the top to create a highly vapor dense atmosphere to increase conduction and the antiseptic medium . the heating unit 1000 is made from flat hot plates 1001 and insulator expandable plates 1010 up to six or more being combined such as to fulfill the usage desires , from heating at mild temperature up to hot regimes as those used in medical sterilization devices . the air intake 1002 is made on periphery and aspirated in a fan 1004 inside the utility pack 1003 . the air exhaust 1005 is driven towards the center of the catalytic hot plate 1012 surrounding the fuel and reacting down to complete burning . the heat generated is transmitted by ir radiation , conduction and convection towards the center of the plate to a hard - coated aluminum surface facing the center of the box . the cooled burned gas is then passing the exterior surface giving the remnant heat to intake air via a heat exchanger 1015 and is evacuated through a duct 1016 . the negative pressure on the borders makes that the box to be odor less and the potential gas leakage to be reabsorbed without contact to the inner surface . the sealing hinges 1011 increase the insulation of the central box cavity . inside the utility box 1003 there are a plurality of fuel tanks 1006 driving to specialized fuel pumps 1007 or manual pressurizing system and through a distribution system under the control of the processor 1008 is assuring the heaters optimal operation regime . an electric system 1009 formed from an electricity harvesting system and battery is powering the controller and actuators . the power variation is made by switching the number of catalytic cell in operation and by smooth continuous variation inside the catalyst operation domain . the water , sterilizing material injector 1017 it is placed on the lid that also may hold multiple functions from sealing the box , to secondary deposit for accessories . in the center of the heating box is placed the content to be sterilized 1014 by heat exposure . the specific requirements determine the operation regime selected on process control system 1008 . fig1 shows another embodiment of the present invention application for hydrogen based devices leakage recovery and burnout , that may successfully work for any type of reactant effluent removal from gaseous atmospheres . more with the development of the hydrogen industry based on fuel cells the release of hydrogen in the atmosphere will become an issue as important for the ozone depletion as was in the past the fcc that drive to the ban of freons in refrigeration systems . the system may be applied to other toxic or combustible gas leaking systems 1100 . it is composed from a catalytic combustible or toxic gas oxidizer system 1101 fed by a pump 1102 connected at a collection enclosure 1103 to the volume contaminated by the gas leaking object 1104 . the pump &# 39 ; s exhaust pushes the gas into the catalytic volume by preheating it in the heat exchanger 1108 recovering the heat from the exhaust gas . to maintain the optimal operation temperature the catalyst 1107 is supplied from a plurality of fuels 1105 and reactants to enhance the annihilation process . the exhausted gas is giving the heat to the intake gas through a thermo - pile 1109 loading a battery and feeding the electric actuators , fan 1102 and control system 1106 . the control system is monitoring the contamination level inside the enclosure 1103 and the burning level in the exhaust 1110 of the catalytic oxidizer 1101 . the start stop procedures are also controlled such as the requirements for compliance in any industrial explosive environment to be met . other applications not covered by figures may be enumerated as examples of application of the invention are : air cleaner deodorizer system is equivalent to the one presented in fig2 and in the basic invention application , being composed from a catalytic filter able to burn bacteria and to oxidize and stabilize the chemicals and from a monitoring control system . vest heater for harsh climate with reduced ir and odor signature is the same as presented in fig2 with gradual version for only heating , heating and body odor remover , zonal complex heating cooling to make the ambient of a gym room while in harsh environment , suit ir signature minimization by managing the external thermal emission , anti - bacterial and anti - chemical active protection by managing the gas exhaust of the suit , integration in shielding equipment and supplementary battlefield electronics . tent — shelter heater is similar to that presented in fig9 but with small variations between cold , heat and mix versions as well for ir signature and camouflage development . vehicle start - up or ambient heater in cold climate is a multiple fuel heater similar to the iv solution meant to warm up the engine liquids or similar to a hot plate in fig1 radiating heat on the sensitive parts and keeping them warm . absorption silent heater - cooler system is a general - purpose gas - absorption refrigeration system similar to ammonia - refrigerators powered by a catalytic heat source and developing efficiencies of 50 % such as heat cold source is available at about ½ a power . thermo - electric power generator is a catalytic plate heating a thermopile and producing 4 % of the thermal power as electric power . it is used for supplementary power needs of mobile equipment , being less productive than the fuel cell . liquids distillation as water purification , desalting in similar devices powering the heat source of a distillation column , based on heat recovery , such as the operation power is equivalent to the power lost by insulation and fluids residual heat . personal air purifier is the mobile solution presented in fig2 attached on helmet and delivering fresh air , and conditioning the temperature inside . for increased camouflage other placements might be available . food heating with hydrogen recovery is the meals ready to eat box heat solution presented in fig3 a . the 3b solution also available for military usage . catalytic reactor / oxidizer may exhibit mal - operation regimes when used out of the good operation domain that is mitigated in the design in fig1 . electrical thermal assistance is required at the beginning and the end of operation because any combination of catalysts have a limited optimal operation domain the transition from rest to operation parameters have to be made odor - less and in the fasted way , minimizing any unpleasant effect . a combination of fuel start - up and electric solution can be developed by using a small electric starter , similar to a heat plug , a hydrogen warmup and radial propagarion , while removing the hydrogen from center to borders by the basic fuel in a radial fashion , while the stop is done by stopping the basic fuel , and applying hydrogen and electricity to leave the catalyst clean and dry . catalytically shutdowns assisted by exhaust catalytic burners that complete the burning the concept is of a multiple stage shut - down by maintaining a continuous heat source similar to a safety flame , and facilitating the adjacent zones by a mild increase in temperature of the hot spot , and when the adjacent temperature reaches the minimal operating level switching it on fuel and its chimney to evacuation so a wave of stink less heat is propagating radial like a domino . catalyst changing device in exhaust for devices where in transitory mode is hard to suppress the stink a better catalyst may be used only for assisting the transitory regimes cleaning the exhaust gases . fig1 . main embodiment of the invention meant to assure the correct operation of a catalyst system 00 — main effluent entry processing 01 — effluent 02 — initial measurement unit 03 — processor 04 — correction 05 — actuating unit 06 — parametric measuring unit 07 — new timed correction 08 — corrective unit 09 — effluent 10 — corrections 11 — catalytic reactor 12 — positive pressure system 13 — gas reactants input conditioner 14 — flow intake pressure adjustment 15 — product output parametric measurement system 16 — dynamic parameter modification / heat exchanger 17 — second stage 18 — output flow 20 — catalytic reactor unit 40 — exhaust of the reacted effluents 41 — output flow 42 — correction system 43 — measurement stage 44 — resulted flow 45 — final parametric adjustment 50 — process control unit | 1 |
fig1 and 2 show schematically a data handover unit 1 in which an incoming data stream ds which is synchronized with regard to a first clock signal clk 1 is parallelized to obtain data frames including a predetermined number of data bits which are output with regard to a second clock signal clk 2 . in detail , the data handover unit 1 comprises a selector stage 2 having a pointer 3 in the form of a pointer which is feedback coupled such that a ring register is formed . the pointer 3 comprises a series of register cells 4 1 - 4 7 an output of which is coupled to an input of a next register cell 4 1 - 4 7 of the pointer 3 , respectively , wherein a last of the register cells 4 7 of the pointer 3 is coupled to an input of a first register cell of the pointer 3 . the pointer 3 is coupled with a selector 5 to select a storage element 9 1 - 9 7 of a storage unit 8 for receiving the incoming data streams ds . in detail , the outputs of the register cells 4 1 - 4 7 of the pointer 3 are each coupled to a respective switch 5 1 - 5 7 such that a data applied on the output of a respective one of the register cells 4 is coupled to a control input of one of the switches 5 1 - 5 7 , respectively . the pointer 3 is clocked by the first clock signal clk 1 which is supplied by a first clock unit 6 . the first clock signal clk 1 may also be provided in conjunction with the incoming data stream generated thereof , or may be provided externally of the data handover unit . in any case , the first clock signal clk 1 has a frequency which is synchronized to the data rate / frequency of the incoming data stream ds . the first clock signal clk 1 is applied to the pointer 3 which is initially loaded with a single “ 1 ” which is shifted to a next of the register cells 4 when a next valid edge ( level transition ) of the first clock signal arrives at the pointer 3 . thereby , a pointer circuit can be realized . in the given example , the pointer 3 includes seven ( 7 ) register cells 4 1 - 4 7 each of which is connected to a control input of a respective switch 5 1 - 5 7 . each of the switches 5 1 - 5 7 has a first terminal which is operable to receive the data stream and a second terminal which is connected to a storage unit 8 . the switches 5 1 - 5 7 are configured such that , depending on the control unit , a respective switch is closed or opened , wherein in the given example the respective switch 5 1 - 5 7 is closed if a logical “ 1 ” is applied by the respective register cell 4 1 - 4 7 . thus , the selector stage 2 is substantially operable to sample the incoming data stream ds with regard to the first clock signal and to successively write the data bits of the sampled data stream into the storage unit 8 . the storage unit 8 comprises the storage elements 9 1 - 9 7 each associated to one of the switches 5 1 - 5 7 . the storage elements 9 are operable to latch in a data bit applied via the respective switch 5 1 - 5 7 if the respective switch 5 1 - 5 7 is closed such that the data of the incoming data stream is applied on the storage element 9 . a switch 5 1 - 5 7 which is opened , cuts the data of the data stream ds from the respective storage element 9 1 - 9 7 such that the content of the respective storage element 9 is not changed . as in the pointer 3 , one register cell 4 1 - 4 7 after the other outputs a logical “ 1 ”, the data stream is sampled in the associated switch 5 1 - 5 7 such that on the respective storage element 9 1 - 9 7 the sampled data bit of the data stream is latched in . as the pointer 3 is configured as a ring register the data in the storage element 9 1 - 9 7 is kept stored until it is overwritten again . in the given example , this occurs every seven ( 7 ) clock cycles ( or seven valid edges , respectively ) of the first clock signal clk 1 . consequently , a sampled data bit of the data stream is kept stored in the storage unit 8 for a time period which equals seven times the period of the first clock signal ( or seven active edges ). in case that a falling and rising edge of the first clock signal shifts the contents of the register cells 4 of the pointers 3 , the time period for which the respective data bit is stored in the storage unit 8 equals 3 . 5 times the clock period of the first clock signal clk 1 . furthermore , an output stage 10 is provided which supplies the data frame df having a second plurality of data bits as an output of the data handover unit 1 with regard to a second clock signal clk 2 . the second clock signal clk 2 is provided by a second clock unit 11 . the frequency of the second clock signal clk 2 is lower than the frequency of the first clock signal wherein the multiplication factor between the frequency of the first clock signal and the frequency of the second clock signal is less than the number of the storage elements ( seven in the given example ), preferably less than half of the number of storage elements 9 1 - 9 7 in the storage unit 8 . this assures that all data bits associated to one data frame to be output can be simultaneously stored within the storage elements 9 such that the content of the storage elements 9 can be simultaneously latched into the output unit 10 to provide the data frame as an output which is synchronized to the second clock signal clk 2 . for determining in which of the first plurality of storage elements 9 the data frame is located , a position counter 12 is provided which is operable to supply a position data to a barrel shifter 13 ( also referred to as a bit locator ) depending on the second clock signal clk 2 . the barrel shifter 13 is connected between the storage unit 8 and the output stage 10 . barrel shifter 13 and output stage 10 are also referred to as an output unit . the barrel shifter 13 selects the respective storage elements 9 which contain the current data frame depending on the position data and forward the respective data bits to the output stage 10 . the output stage 10 may comprise output latches 14 in which the data of the register elements 9 1 - 9 7 is latched to avoid an access conflict in the register elements 9 1 - 9 7 when the sampled data bit is written in the respective register element 9 1 - 9 7 which is simultaneously read out which may lead to an indefinite state of the respective data bit at the output of the data handover unit . if it is assured by design that no concurrent access on one of the storage elements 9 1 - 9 7 occurs , the output latches 14 can be omitted and the storage elements 9 1 - 9 7 selected by the barrel shifter 13 can be used instead . the position counter 12 may be initialized in an initialization routine which may be carried out on startup and on a reset wherein the position counter 12 determines the first bit of a data frame to be output when a respective active edge of the second clock signal clk 2 occurs . one main idea of the present invention is to use a storage unit 8 in which data bits of an incoming data stream ds is successively written wherein the data frame to be output is read out from the storage elements 9 1 - 9 7 with respect to the second clock signal clk 2 before the respective storage elements 9 1 - 9 7 are overwritten with a next data bit of the incoming data stream . the output latches 14 of the output stage 10 are able to latch the data of the selected storage elements 9 1 - 9 7 on every active edge of the second clock signal clk 2 wherein the data bits of the data frame df can be output via the output latches 14 . as the storage elements 9 1 - 9 7 are cyclically overwritten after a time period which is determined by the time between the active edges of the first clock signal and the total number of storage elements in the storage unit 8 . thereby , it may be the case that the data bits of a date frame df are split into a first portion including the last storage element and a second portion including the first storage element . by means of the barrel shifter 13 , this separation of the data bits of the data frame is corrected by a selection depending on the position counter 12 . instead , a barrel rotator which locates the data bits of the data frame by rotating them on the predetermined position can also be used . as the frequency of the second clock signal clk 2 is reduced with regard to the frequency of the first clock signal clk 2 , it is sufficient to operate the barrel rotator in a low - speed operation . in fig3 and 4 , a data handover unit 31 according to a further embodiment of the present invention is illustrated . the data handover unit 31 receives an incoming data stream ds which is sampled by means of four selector circuits 32 1 - 32 4 which are clocked by first clock signals clk 1 / 1 - 4 provided by a first clock unit 36 wherein the first clock signals clk 1 / 1 - 4 have the same frequency and are phase shifted with respect to one another . in the case of four selector circuits 32 , the phase shift between the first clock signals equals 360 °/ 4 = 90 °. any other number of selector circuits 32 can be applied . as already described with regard to the embodiments of fig1 , each of the selector circuits 32 1 - 32 4 comprises a pointer 33 in the form of a shift register including register cells 34 which are arranged to form a ring register . the outputs of the register cells 34 are coupled with a respective selector 35 having respective switches 35 n such that data bits of the respective data stream ds applied to the respective selector circuit 32 1 - 32 n is forwarded into a respective storage unit 38 and stored as a sampled data substream therein in a respective storage element 38 n . as described with regard to the first embodiment , the pointers 33 are operated as a pointer which selects one of the switches 35 n to sample the incoming data stream and to forward the sampled data bit of the sampled data substream to an associated storage element 39 of the storage unit 38 . in the given example , each of the storage units 38 1 to 38 4 comprises a six storage elements 39 1 - 39 6 which are successively written with the current data bit sampled in the respective selector circuit 32 1 - 32 4 . as the data stream is applied to each of the selector circuits 32 and therein sampled with respect to a respective first clock signal clk 1 / 1 - 4 having a predetermined phase relation to the other first clock signals clk 1 / 1 - 4 , successive data bits of the data stream are sampled in different selector circuits 32 1 to 32 4 and therefore written in respective storage elements 39 of the different storage units 38 1 to 38 4 . each of the storage elements 39 n of each of the storage units 38 1 to 38 n are coupled to an output stage 40 via a barrel shifter or a barrel rotator 43 such that the content of the storage elements 39 can be latched in the output stage 40 . barrel rotator 43 and output stage 40 are also referred to as an output unit . the content of the storage elements 39 is read out with regard to a second clock signal clk 2 provided by a second clock unit 41 . within the clock period of the second clock signal clk 2 , the barrel rotator 43 selects the read - in data bits such that the data bits of the data frame which are to be output next are stored in a predetermined number of output latches of the output stage 40 . the function of the barrel rotator 43 is supported by a position counter 42 which provides a position data or a data related thereto which allows to select the data bits of the data frame from the storage unit 39 and to forward them into the output latch to output the data frame . as the second clock signal clk 2 has a frequency which is lower than the frequency of the first clock signals clk 1 / 1 - 4 , a write operation from the selector circuits into the storage elements 39 of the respective storage units 38 1 to 38 4 and the reading out of data from the storage elements 39 via the barrel rotator 43 may occur simultaneously , thereby resulting in an indefinite state of the respective storage element . however , as the position counter 42 defines a position of a data frame which has already been sampled and which has not yet been overwritten by one or more successive data bit , the data bits of the data frame can correctly be forwarded by the barrel rotator 43 such that no data loss occurs . in fig5 , an alternative selector circuit 62 is shown which may replace the selector circuit of the embodiments mentioned above . the selector circuit 62 comprises a sampling latch 63 in which the incoming data stream ds is latched with respect to the first clock signal clk 1 provided by a first clock unit or from an external source as described above . the latched - in data bit is provided to a demultiplexer unit 64 which is coupled with a pointer unit 65 which counts the active edges of the first clock signal . depending on a pointer value the latched - in data bit is forwarded to a respective storage element 69 of a storage unit 68 . the pointer unit 65 is operable to successively generate a pointer value such that the data bit is successively written into the storage elements 69 wherein each of the storage elements 69 is cyclically overwritten by the latched - in data bit . the cycle thereof depends on the number of storage elements which are provided in the storage unit 68 . one idea of the present invention is to sample an incoming data stream with regard to a high frequency first clock signal and to latch in the sampled data bit in storage elements which are successively written and cyclically overwritten by following incoming data bit , wherein , in the meantime between writing a data bit and overwriting the data bit by a next data bit , the respective storage elements are latched into a barrel shifter as they are or according to a predefined scheme such that the barrel rotator is able to extract the data bits of the data frame to be output by means of a position counter and the like . thereby , a robust timing for the storage element can be guaranteed that will carry the actually needed data bits of the frame to be output . while the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention , other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof , and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow . | 6 |
communication systems in general frequently share selected resources between system users . high data rate ( hdr ) wireless communication networks , such as those configured in accordance with tia / eia / is - 856 standards , exemplify such sharing arrangements . in hdr networks , the forward link air interface from a network transmitter to a group of users is shared between those users . that is , the network gives each user forward link service for only a portion of the available time . selecting which user receives service via the forward link at any given time is referred to as “ scheduling .” while the present invention has exemplary applications to scheduling the forward air interface link in hdr communication networks , it should be understood that its various embodiments have application in other types of communication systems , and , indeed , in other types of resource sharing applications where resources are time - shared between a group of users . within the context of forward link air interface scheduling , the scheduling technique of the present invention evaluates user utility functions at each scheduling decision point to determine a scheduling metric for each user . the scheduler of the present invention then schedules the user for service that has the greatest or otherwise most favorable scheduling metric . in some embodiments , such as where the air interface allows simultaneous use , the scheduler may select two or more users for service at a given scheduling decision point . the utility functions assigned to the users may depend on desired minimum throughputs for individual users or classes of users , and may also depend on qos constraints . as a practical illustration , fig1 depicts an exemplary communication network 10 , presented in simplified form for clarity . the network 10 , which may be a tia / eia / is - 856 network , or may be another type of network , supports communication between users ( i . e ., access terminals ( ats ) 12 ) and one or more public data networks ( pdns ) 14 , such as the internet . the ats are generally referred to by the numeral 12 , with specific ats designated 12 - 1 , 12 - 2 , and so on . it should be understood that where the specification refers to scheduling or serving users , it is implicit that the user &# 39 ; s ats 12 are involved . the network 10 comprises a rf antenna assembly 16 and an associated radio base station ( rbs ) 18 , a base station controller ( bsc ) 20 , and a packet control function ( pcf ) 22 coupled to a packet data serving node ( pdsn ) 24 through a radio - packet ( rp ) network 26 . generally , the network 10 establishes a set of communication links or channels through the various network entities to permit the exchange of data between the users ( i . e ., ats 12 ) and various systems or servers accessible via the pdn 14 . the pdsn 24 routes packet data between the network 10 and the pdn 14 by directing incoming packet data through the rp network 26 to the pcf 22 . in turn , the pcf 22 directs the data to the bsc 20 , which formats it and provides it to the rbs 18 for transmission to the desired user . data from the users essentially follows the reverse path . the rbs 18 may provide radio coverage for one or more radio sectors . generally , the scheduling of users is performed on a per - sector basis . that is , groups of ats 12 having the same serving sector compete for forward link air interface service within that sector . of course , scheduling may be performed at other than sector levels . the forward link air interface between the network 10 and the users is shared , such that , at a given instant , only selected ones of the eligible users are being served . in the present invention , scheduling which user ( s ) to serve at each scheduling decision point depends on one or more service goals that might be defined by a network operator , for example . fig2 illustrates an exemplary framework for considering scheduling operations in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention . as noted above , scheduling operations may involve a group of users within a given radio sector of the network 10 . as such , user scheduling may be advantageously performed in the rbs 18 . in an exemplary embodiment , rbs 18 comprises at least one processor or processing system 30 and associated memory 32 . here , the term “ memory ” is used generically to refer to any type of memory and / or storage devices . it should also be understood that the processor ( s ) 30 might include a number of entities responsible for not only user scheduling , but also for radio resource management , timing , operations & amp ; maintenance functions , and bsc communications . typically , the scheduler of the present invention comprises one or more computer programs running on processor ( s ) 30 and , as such , may be embodied in one or more stored programs or functions held in memory 32 . in other scheduling schemes , it may be advantageous for the bsc 20 to perform scheduling . in an exemplary embodiment , the bsc 20 comprises one or more processors or processing systems 34 , along with supporting memory 36 . as with the rbs 18 , the term “ memory ” as used in the context of bsc 20 should be understood to encompass essentially any type of memory and / or storage devices . regardless of which network entity performs scheduling , the present invention permits scheduling biased for users &# 39 ; desired minimum data throughputs ( throughput - based scheduling ), for quality - of - service ( qos ) considerations ( delay - based scheduling ), or for various combinations thereof . of course , scheduling as disclosed herein further encompasses a significant number of variations between throughput - and delay - based scheduling . fig3 illustrates an exemplary functional arrangement for the scheduler of the present invention , and details some of the scheduling variables considered in various embodiments of the scheduler . the exemplary scheduler , which may be implemented in software , employs a metric calculator 40 that evaluates users &# 39 ; utility functions to determine scheduling metrics for those users . a comparator function 42 then identifies the best or most favorable scheduling metrics , and the corresponding user or users are scheduled for service . this process is generally repeated at successive scheduling decision points in more detail , a utility function u i ( x ) is formed for each user subject to scheduling , where “ x ” represents one or more variables as explained later . for n users , the scheduler evaluates u i ( x )| i = 1 n at each scheduling decision point to determine a set of scheduling metrics , which may then be evaluated to select the greatest or otherwise most favorable scheduling metric ( s ). the user ( s ) corresponding the best metric ( s ) are scheduled for service . where r i equals the measured or tracked data throughput to the i th user , and r i , min equals the desired minimum data throughput for that user . it should be understood that r i could be determined in a number of ways . in an exemplary implementation for hdr networks , r i represents the updated average served data rate . as such , r i can be expressed as , r i ( t + 1 ) = { ( 1 - 1 t c ) · r i ( t ) + 1 t c drc i ( t ) , i = i * ( 1 - 1 t c ) · r i ( t ) , i ≠ 1 * ( 2 ) where t equals the time at which the served rate value is being updated , which may be at one of the defined periodic 1 . 66 ms hdr time slots , t c equals a filter time constant , and i * indicates the specific i th user selected or otherwise scheduled for service with a desired service rate value indicated via a data rate control ( drc ) channel . in hdr networks , the forward link is rate - controlled rather than power controlled . each at 12 determines the highest data rate supported by current reception conditions and returns a corresponding data rate control symbol value via a drc channel . these drc values are received at the network from individual users at up to 600 hz . with the above utility function , the scheduler of the present invention schedules users in observance of desired minimum data throughput rates associated with those users . in an exemplary embodiment , evaluating the users &# 39 ; utility functions entails differentiating ( 1 ), which yields a fairness criteria expressed as , ∑ i = 1 n r i * - r i r i - r i , min ≤ 0 , ( 3 ) where there are n users , and r i * i = 1 , 2 , . . . , n , represents a feasible solution for the average served rates ( average past data throughput ) and r i i = 1 , 2 , . . . , n , is the optimum distribution of rates . at a scheduling decision point , the scheduler evaluates the scheduling metric assigned to each of the n users eligible for scheduling . note that there may be m & gt ; n users sharing the air interface but m − n users not eligible for scheduling at a given scheduling decision point . for example , one or more users might have been scheduled for service over a number of hdr time slots at an earlier scheduling decision point and still have one or more allocated time slots remaining . in other cases , given ones of the m users might not be eligible for scheduling owing to unreliable drc information . thus , if the scheduler does not have access to a current drc value for a given user , it might not consider that user in its current scheduling decision evaluation . the evaluation of the fairness criteria in ( 3 ) yields a scheduling metric that is expressed as , drc i ( t ) r i ( t ) - r i , min , ( 4 ) where drc i represents the drc value for the ith user . it is apparent from the expression in ( 4 ) that setting a higher desired minimum data throughput for the i th user generally results in a greater ( i . e ., more favorable ) scheduling metric for that user . from ( 4 ), the scheduler can bias scheduling preference based on the desired minimum data throughputs { r i , min } associated with the users . if the network operator desires , users may be grouped according to user class . users in a preferred class might pay higher service charges to have higher minimum data throughput values assigned to them . with the ( r i − r i , min ) differential term in the denominator of the scheduling metric , the scheduling metric varies proportionately with the magnitude of r i , min . that is , a relatively higher r i , min generally results in a higher scheduling metric . in some situations , it might be desirable to define a common r i , min for all users . in this case , r i , min still guarantees users of the network 10 a minimum served data rate provided radio conditions permit meeting at least the minimum served rates , but it does not differentiate between users of different classes . fig4 illustrates the effect of r i , min scheduling biases for a given set of users in contrast to conventional proportional fair scheduling . the graph depicts two curves , with the solid curve corresponding to the average served rate provided to users with proportional fair scheduling , and the dashed curve corresponding to average served rates with minimum - rate scheduling . the graph assumes that all users subject to minimum - rate scheduling are assigned a minimum served rate value of 9 . 6 kbps . one may observe that both proportional fair ( i . e ., r i , min = 0 ) and minimum - rate scheduling are similar at the higher data rates , but minimum - rate scheduling prevents users &# 39 ; average served rates from falling defined minimum rate values . usage of a common minimum rate value can be convenient for the system operator . where a common value is desired , the system operator may define a user variable as follows , u i ( r i )= m i log ( r i − r min ), ( 5 ) where m i equals the user variable for the i th user . the user variable m i might take one of a number of discrete values corresponding to different users or to different user classes . the variable m i may also be defined as a real number corresponding to a desired scheduling bias . from ( 5 ), one can observe that the magnitude of the utility function u i ( r i ) increases with an increasing m i . of course , in other variations , the utility function may be made to vary inversely with m i . differentiating u i ( r i ) with respect to r i yields the following scheduling metric , m i · drc i ( t ) r i ( t ) - r min · ( 6 ) from ( 6 ), it may be observed that class - based user biasing may be accomplished by assigning different r i , min values to different users , possibly based on user class , and / or by assigning different m i values to different users , preferably but not necessarily based on user class . one precaution that is advantageous with the above utility functions is the use of a limiting value , δ i , for use in ( r i − r i , min ) difference calculations . since actual radio reception conditions are beyond control of the network 10 , it is possible that one or more users have average served rates at or below their minimum rate values . in these instances , the denominator term ( r i − r i , min ) can be problematic in that it may result in dividing by zero , or may drive the user &# 39 ; s scheduling metric negative . while the scheduler might be adapted to accommodate either problem , it may be preferable to simply define users &# 39 ; scheduling metrics as , drc i ( t ) max ( r i ( t ) - r i , min , δ i ) , ( 7 ) where the “ max ” function selects the maximum of the differential term r i − r i , min and the limiting value , thereby avoiding zero or negative difference term difficulties . in some instances , however , the scheduler may use negative differential terms advantageously . for example , use of the above limiting value might be used where it is assumed that serving a user below the desired minimum data throughput rate has no utility . however , setting r i , min less than zero biases the scheduler from a more “ proportional fair ” approach towards a maximum carrier - to - interface ( c / i ) approach . maximum c / i scheduling is biased towards serving the user with the best reception condition rather than with the overall fairness of service . setting r i , min less than zero for one or more users assumes that there is some utility in serving a user even with zero throughput , which can be interpreted as saying that the user has some tolerance for zero throughput conditions . in this context , larger | r i , min | values indicate a greater tolerance for not being served . in the limit as | r i , min |→∞, the scheduler using the scheduling metric given in ( 7 ), for example , shifts towards a maximum c / i bias . with maximum c / i scheduling , the scheduler attempts to serve the user having the best c / i ratio . pure c / i scheduling eschews serving fairness and simply schedules the user or users having the best radio reception conditions , thereby maximizing overall or aggregate throughput rather than maintaining minimum user throughputs . with the present invention , a utility function may be formed as the weighted combination of throughput - based and c / i - based terms , and is expressed as , u i ( r i )= τ i r i +( i − τ i ) log ( r i − r i , min ), ( 8 ) where τ serves as a weighting factor that may be adjusted generally or on a per - user basis to bias scheduling between user - throughput and maximum c / i criteria . from ( 8 ), it can be shown that the corresponding scheduling metric is given as , ( τ i + 1 - τ i r i - r i , min ) drc i ( t ) . ( 9 ) with the scheduling metric of ( 8 ), the scheduling priority of individual users ( or groups of users ) may be balanced between minimum throughput and maximum c / i priorities . this approach permits service providers to strike a balance between observing users &# 39 ; desired minimum throughputs and maintaining overall radio sector throughputs at acceptable levels . fig5 illustrates the effect of different weighting factor values . one may observe that by changing the value of the weighting factor τ , this embodiment of the scheduler strikes an adjustable balance between proportional fair and maximum c / i scheduling . in another embodiment , adaptive biasing accommodates radio link conditions insufficient to support one or more users &# 39 ; minimum desired data throughputs . the scheduling algorithm can be modified to account for the r i , min that can be achieved with a “ round - robin ” based approach to scheduling . that is , even where radio link conditions do not support desired r i , min values , the scheduler can be configured to provide service that is at least no worse than that obtained by allocating an equal number of time slots to all users . with this approach , r i , min may be expressed as , r i , min = 1 n ∑ j = 0 l - 1 drc i ( t - j ) l , ( 10 ) where n equals the number of users sharing the same radio link , and l equals the number of drc values over which the adaptive r i , min value is developed . simply put , the minimum desired data throughput for the i th user is adjusted based on the average of the last l service rates requested by that user and the number of users in the system . in this manner , r i , min changes to reflect the i th user &# 39 ; s actual radio link conditions . the aggregate throughput ( i . e ., the overall data throughput to all users ) should be higher with the above approach as compared to a simple round robin scheduler , as the ith user still receives forward link service at peak drc values and / or when the user &# 39 ; s average data throughput is low . fig6 illustrates the effect of the above approach on user scheduling . user scheduling biased for minimum served rates may also be supplemented with qos considerations . fundamentally , qos - based scheduling considers the permissible latencies associated with data packets queued for deliver to various ones of the users . for example , a user receiving data packets associated with an e - mail or an electronic document might desire a high served rate , but might care very little about the maximum latency of individual data packets . conversely , a user receiving streaming media , such as audio or video data , might not care about served rate beyond the minimum required by the streaming media application , but typically cares a great deal about packet latency . without adequate qos management , the user might suffer degraded audio and video quality . conventionally , qos - based scheduling schedules the user having the largest delay - based metric , which is expressed as , where a i =− log ( p i )/ d i , max , and where d i , max means the maximum allowable delay associated with delivering a data packet to the ith user , d i & lt ; d i , max , and p i equals the probability of violating that maximum delay constraint . this conventional approach to qos - based scheduling does not account for varying channel conditions and therefore can lead to low utilization of radio resources . one existing approach that attempts to address at least some of the limitations inherent in ( 11 ) is termed the modified largest weighted delay first ( m - lwdf ) approach , which has a scheduling metric expressed as , where drc i is the current requested service rate from the ith user . in another variant of existing m - lwdf scheduling approaches , the scheduling metric is expressed as , max i drc i e [ drc i ] · a i d i ( t ) , ( 13 ) where e [ drc i ] represents the average of the last n drc values received at the network 10 from the ith user . it is generally believed that ( 12 ) or ( 13 ) provides similar qos levels between users , but it should be noted that neither ( 12 ) nor ( 13 ) provide the same qos for all users even where all users have the same p i and d i values . in yet another existing approach , the scheduling metric takes on an exponential form and is expressed as , max i drc e [ drc i ] · a i exp ( a i d i ( t ) - e [ ad ] 1 + e [ ad ] ) , ( 14 ) where e [ ad ] represents averaged product values . generally , ( 14 ) outperforms both ( 12 ) and ( 13 ) at least for the users experiencing the best and worst radio conditions from among those users subject to scheduling . still , none of these existing qos - based scheduling approaches provides users with the needed qos across changing radio conditions . consequently , existing approaches can forfeit possible service efficiency by overserving some users ( i . e ., providing a higher - than - required qos ) to insure that minimum qos levels are maintained for other users experiencing less favorable radio conditions . the present invention approaches qos - based scheduling in a manner that provides the same ( or desired ) qos to users across varying radio conditions . one aspect of qos - based scheduling in the context of the present invention is to dynamically bias the scheduler based on the current qos provided to one or more users . if the qos is better than needed , qos delay constraints are relaxed , i . e ., more delay is tolerated . conversely , if the qos is below needed levels , the delay constraint is reduced , i . e ., less delay is tolerated . dynamic qos - constraint adjustment introduces a scheduling parameter α i where i indicates the i th user . the parameter α i is included in the i th user &# 39 ; s utility function , and is updated in essentially real - time , preferably using closed - loop control mechanisms . a first closed - loop control mechanism updates α i for each data packet incoming to the network for the i th user ( at time t ) as follows , α i ( n ) = { α i ( n - 1 ) - p i δ i , if d i ( n ) ≤ d i , max , else α i ( n - 1 ) + δ i , ( 15 ) where δ i is a step change value defined for α i , and may be set the same for all users ( all i ), and where n − 1 represents the previous value of α i . in ( 15 ), if the ith user &# 39 ; s qos constraints are being met , the delay constraint parameter α i may be reduced in magnitude . conversely , if the maximum delay associated with delivering the current data packet to the i th user is exceeded ( i . e ., d i & gt ; d i , max ), the magnitude of α i is increased . the magnitude of δ i may be adjusted to balance between stability and tight control of qos relative to the optimum qos value . in a second closed - loop control approach , the delay constraint parameter α i is updated as follows , α i ( n ) = { α i ( n - 1 ) - δ i , if p i , est ( n ) ≤ p i , else α i ( n - 1 ) + δ i , ( 16 ) where p i , est ( n )= pr ( d i & gt ; d i , max ), which represents the measured delay violation probability . significant flexibility is available in terms of implementation . in one approach , the earlier qos scheduling metric given in ( 12 ) is modified to include the delay constraint parameter α i as follows , from ( 17 ), one can observe that the scheduling metric for the ith user is dependent upon the magnitude of the delay constraint parameter α i . fig7 illustrates operation of the scheduling metric given in ( 17 ) for differing values of the delay constraint parameter α i . in other variations , the delay constraint parameter α i may be applied to the exponential scheduling metric given above in ( 14 ). thus modified , the exponential scheduling metric is expressed as , max i drc i e [ drc i ] · a i · exp ( a i · α i d i ( t ) - e [ α ad ] 1 + e [ α a d ] ) . ( 18 ) fig8 illustrates operation of the scheduling metric given in ( 18 ) for p i equals 0 . 01 , d i , max equals 0 . 5 seconds , and e [ αd ] equals 0 . 25 seconds . if qos requirements for user i are violated , the delay constraint parameter α i is increased , and if qos is not violated α i is decreased . with the above foundation in place , an exemplary scheduling metric may be defined that provides for both deterministic and probabilistic qos . here , deterministic qos means no violation of qos delay constraints . two such exemplary rules ( scheduling metrics ) may be expressed as , max ( drc e [ drc i ] ) · ( d i , max d i , max - α 1 d i ( t ) ) ? , or ( 19 ) max ( drc i r i - r i , min ) · ( d i , max d i , max - α 1 d i ( t ) ) ? , ( 20 ) where γ is a constant that determines the aggressiveness of the scheduling rule , and should be optimized in a given network 10 . fig9 illustrates scheduling curves for the scheduling rules expressed in ( 19 ) and ( 20 ) with varying values of the delay constraint parameter α i , and where the constant γ is set to a value of 0 . 5 . applying the delay constraint parameter aids service efficiency by setting qos levels high enough to insure that users in the worst radio conditions receive at least the minimum qos level needed , but avoids providing better - than - needed qos levels to users in good reception conditions . marrying the concepts of minimum rate scheduling and qos scheduling , the scheduler of the present invention may be adapted to use utility functions incorporating both rate - based and qos - based elements . for example , an exemplary utility function that may be assigned to users is expressed as , where the r i term ( throughput utility function ) incorporates the minimum rate associated with the i th user subject to scheduling and the d i term ( delay utility function ) incorporates the qos - related delay constraints associated with the i th user . maximize ∑ i = 1 n u i ( r i ) + u i d ( d i ) , subject to ∑ i = 1 n r i & lt ; c over r i ≥ r i , min , ( 22 ) where c denotes the aggregate data throughput capacity available to serve all users . note that the set of served rates r i for all users may be express as vector r equal to [ r 1 , r 2 , . . . , r n ] for n users . the assumption is that the objective function u i ( r i )+ u i d ( d i ) is differentiable and strictly concave , and further assumes that the feasibility region ( solution set ) of the objective function is convex . assuming a convex feasibility region is essentially equivalent to assuming that the objective function is monotonic . the above optimization problem may be applied directly to scheduling of the air interface link ( s ) in the network 10 . for deterministic qos scheduling , the delay utility function above should be such that u i d ( 0 )= 0 , and u i d ( d i , min )=−∞. for probabilistic qos , however , u i d ( d i , max )=− m , where m equals a large positive number . as shown in scheduling metrics above ( e . g ., ( 17 )), the delay utility function may be made dependent on the delay constraint parameter α i , and a closed - loop algorithm can be applied to dynamically adjust scheduling metrics to maintain the desired qos for each user subject to scheduling . note that closed - loop control may also be applied to the throughput utility function ( i . e ., applied to utility function terms involving r i ). u i d ( d i ) = - log ( d i , max d i , max - α i d i ) , or ( 23 ) u i d ( d i ) = - α i d i d i , max - α i d i . ( 24 ) thus , the utility functions associated with users may be expressed as composite utility functions combining both throughput and delay terms . in ( 21 ), the composite utility function was expressed as a sum - of - terms but it may be formed as a product expressed as follows , where u i ( r i ) is assumed to include a r i , min term . in general , the present invention may be used to implement an air interface scheduler that performs user scheduling biased with respect to minimum desired data rates associated with the users , and , optionally , biased with respect to desired qos levels associated with the users . as such , the above expressions for user utility functions from which the various scheduling metrics were derived are only exemplary representations of scheduling in accordance with the present invention . these examples should not be construed as limiting the present invention rather the present invention is limited only by the scope of the following claims , and the reasonable equivalents thereof . | 7 |
as used herin , the term &# 34 ; virgin residuum &# 34 ; generally refers to the residuum obtained from distillation of crude oil at about 675 °- 725 ° f . ( 357 °- 385 ° c . ), which residuum has not been thermally cracked or otherwise converted . as used herein , the term &# 34 ; unconverted residuum &# 34 ; refers to the residue ( bottoms ) remaining after subjecting a virgin residuum to a thermal conversion process such as visbreaking or to a catalytic conversion process such as hydrocracking or cat cracking . the extent of visbreaking may be measured by the yield of gasoline and distillate obtained , with a higher yield of gasoline and distillate resulting in a more unstable unconverted residuum due to the greater presence of cracked material . it is noted that the unconverted residuum may also be a mixture of residues from cracking different crude oils if desired . the virgin residuum employed as an additive in the present invention must have a high asphaltene content , i . e ., it contains at least 8 % by weight of asphaltenes so as to exhibit the solvency for the sediment in the unconverted residuum which is desired for a particular application . there is a balance , however , as to the maximum amount of asphaltenes which may be present in the virgin residuum because , while greater amounts reduce sediment levels , they also increase the amount of particulates emitted when the fuel oil is burned so that emissions standards may be exceeded . preferably , the amount of asphaltenes in the virgin residuum will range from about 9 to about 35 % by weight , depending on the asphaltene content in the crude oil from which the residuum is obtained and the amount of sediment to be reduced in the unconverted residuum . virgin residuum with the high asphaltene content required by this invention may be obtained , for example , by a solvent deasphalting process wherein a virgin residuum is mixed with a light paraffin such as propane which causes the residuum to separate into two phases . one phase is essentially free of asphaltenes while the other phase , which is the one which may be employed in the process herein , contains a high concentration of virgin asphaltenes . such a residuum is designated herein as a virgin asphalt phase residuum . another way to obtain a virgin residuum with high asphaltene content is to heat the crude oil at atmospheric pressure up to about 675 °- 725 ° f . ( 357 °- 385 ° c .) to obtain a virgin atmospheric residuum , which is then subjected to a vacuum to reduce the pressure to as low as possible , e . g ., 20 mm hg , so as to produce more distillates . in so doing , the asphaltenes are further concentrated in the virgin residuum . such a concentrated residuum is designated herein as a virgin vacuum residuum . in the process herein described , the level of precipitated sediment in the unconverted residuum is reduced by blending it with a virgin residuum as described above in an amount effective to suppress the precipitation of sediment . typically , this amount is from 1 to 20 % by weight of the total blend , depending primarily on the types of crude oil from which the residua are obtained , with particular reference to their asphaltene contents . preferably , this amount is from about 5 to 10 % by weight . the blending itself is conducted at atmospheric pressure at a temperature sufficient to maintain both residuum components during blending in a flowable state , i . e ., at a viscosity of no greater than 100 centistokes , preferably no greater than 80 centistokes , for a period of time necessary to obtain sufficient blending of the ingredients . in a typical process the blending is conducted at about 215 °- 260 ° f . ( 102 °- 127 ° c . ), depending on the particular crude oils being utilized . temperatures outside this range may be necessary to render the components sufficiently flowable so as to obtain complete mixing and to suppress precipitation . it is noted that any suitable equipment can be employed to effect blending of the residua . in the examples which follow , illustrating the efficacy of the invention , the asphaltene content of the virgin residuum was measured by the british institute of petroleum procedure identified as ip - 143 , which essentially measures the amount of material ( asphaltenes ) in the virgin residuum which is insoluble in n - heptane . the amount of sediment produced was determined by hot filtration of the blend and weighing of the sediment retained on the filter . in the examples , all percentages are by weight unless otherwise noted . three blends designated a , b and c were prepared by mixing together the indicated proportions of the indicated residua for one hour at about 250 ° f . ( 121 ° c .). the blends and the amount of sediment measured for each blend are indicated in table i . table i______________________________________ blends a ( control ) b c______________________________________residua ( weight %): dunlin thistle visbroken 70 69 67 ( unconverted ) tarbrent atmospheric 30 29 29 ( unconverted ) residuumiranian light vacuum 0 2 4 ( virgin ) residuum ( 9 % by weight asphaltene ) amount of sediment (% by weight of total blend ): 0 . 19 0 . 11 0 . 05______________________________________ it can be seen from the data that the higher the amount of virgin residuum added the lower the amount of sediment produced . it is noted that levels considered desirable in commercial fuel oils are about 0 . 1 % or less . three blends designated d , e and f were prepared by mixing together the indicated proportions of the ingredients for one hour at about 250 ° f . ( 121 ° c .). the blends and the amount of sediment measured for each blend are indicated in table ii . table ii______________________________________ blends d ( control ) e f______________________________________residua ( weight %): dunlin thistle visbroken 70 69 67 ( unconverted ) tarbrent atmospheric 30 29 29 ( unconverted ) residuumasphalt phase ( virgin ) 0 2 4residum obtained by solventdeasphalting process ( 15 . 9 % by weight asphaltene ) amount of sediment (% by weight of total blend ): 0 . 25 0 . 13 0 . 06______________________________________ the results as compared with those from example 1 indicate that the higher asphaltene content in the virgin residuum more greatly reduces sediment in the blend relative to the control on adding only 2 % of the virgin residuum to the unconverted residuum . in summary , the present invention provides a process for suppressing precipitation of sediment in the unconverted residuum from a virgin residuum conversion process whereby a virgin residuum of high asphaltene content is added thereto . while the invention has been described in connection with specific embodiments thereof , it will be understood that it is capable of further modification , and this application is intended to cover any variations , uses , or adaptations of the invention , following , in general , the principles of the invention and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art to which the invention pertains and as may be applied to the essential features hereinbefore set forth , and as fall within the scope of the invention . | 2 |
a laser system according to the invention symmetrically and simultaneously textures both sides of a such as a magnetic disk substrate . the system could easily be adapted to other applications where two or more beams are needed . reference is made to fig1 for the following . a laser 11 generates a single incident beam 16 which falls on the dcaom 12 . two pulsed beams are serially chopped out of incident beam 16 , by alternately driving the first and second acoustic transducers 13a , 13b on the dcaom to generate corresponding first order diffraction beams a1 14a and b1 14b . the driving signals , beam path lengths and the active optics are identical for both beams to produce equal texturing on both sides of the substrate . the laser may be of any type , pulsed or continuous . crystal 12 has transducers 13a , 13b mounted on opposing faces for producing acoustic waves from electrical signals . the transducers are typically piezoelectric devices which are attached to the crystal by adhesive or mechanical means . each transducer is controlled by it own modulation signal designated as a and b . both amplitude and frequency modulation of electrical signals driving the transducers are possible using standard techniques , but the texturing system only requires that the incident beam be time sliced . a single zeroth order beam 15 emerges from the crystal . when neither transducer is activated the zeroth order beam 15 is the same as the incident beam . activating transducer 13a causes a portion of the incident beam to be diffracted into beam 14a which is a first order beam which will called the a1 beam . likewise activating transducer 13b causes a portion of the incident beam to be diffracted into the b1 beam 14b which is also a first order beam . the zeroth order beam or residual beam will always exist at some level of amplitude even when the maximum amount of diffraction , typically 80 - 90 %, is achieved . fig1 illustrates one possible control means for the driving signals for the transducers of a dcaom which can be used with the system illustrated in fig9 . the embodiment described uses a master 20 khz square - wave oscillator 101 of 50 -- 50 duty cycle to drive positive and negative edge triggered pulse generators 102 , 103 which drive gatable rf generators 104a , 104bto form the envelopes of the modulated signals 23 , 24 . the oscillator 101 serves the function of the channel selector . beams a1 and b1 are controlled by the two pulse trains thus generated from the rising and falling edges of the oscillator . preferably the pulse widths are less than half of the master oscillator &# 39 ; s period so that there is no overlap . assuming a 20 khz rep rate for the oscillator , this means that the pulse width for texturing the substrate typically is less than ten microseconds . both the amplitude and the width of the pulses are used to control the intensity and pulse length of the first order laser beams . to texture a band on each side of the rotating substrate , two alternative techniques are possible . the two laser beams can be moved across the substrate . one way to do this uses a galvo mirror pair and an imaging lens with sufficient clear aperture to telecentrically scan each of the two focused laser spots on their respective sides of the stationary substrate to form the matrix of bumps for texturing . one bump is generated per laser pulse by localized softening and resolidification . the simultaneous nature of the two pulse trains and the equalization of the propagation distance results in texturing of both sides of the substrate . alternatively the substrate can be placed on a rotation / translation stage to move the disk , while leaving the two beams fixed . fig9 illustrates a laser system using a dcaom for texturing disk substrates for use as magnetic disks in disk drives . the system illustrated uses a dcaom to form two essentially identical pulsed laser beams . the choice of laser is determined by the absorption characteristics of the substrate material , since the substrate must absorb enough energy for the softening to occur . for glass substrates which are transparent to visible light , this embodiment of the invention uses a temperature - stabilized 9 . 25 micrometers wavelength carbon dioxide laser 11 . for other substrate materials such as almg , ceramics , etc . other wavelengths might be preferable . the laser 11 has a range of 1 - 50 watts , and operates in this embodiment at approximately ten watts . laser 11 generates a beam 16 which is routed through shutter 101a . steering mirrors 91a , 91b direct the beam to the germanium crystal dcaom 12 which has 40 mhz piezo - electric transducers 13a , 13b driven by signals 23 , 24 which are alternately pulsed to generate alternately pulsed a1 and b1 beams 14a , 14b . the driving signals 23 , 24 are selected to generate the maximum amplitude in beams 14a and 14b which as indicated should be about 80 - 90 % of the incident beam . the zeroth order beam 15 is allowed to strike a wavelength meter 92 . the a1 and b1 beams are routed to opposite sides of the disk being textured 95 through steering mirrors 91c , 91d , 91e , 91f , through beam expanders 94a , 94b and through focusing lenses 98a , 98b . a small portion of each beam is reflected by beam splitters 99a , 99b to power meters 93a , 93b . the zinc selenide beam splitters are approximately 90 % reflective for a 9 . 25 micrometer wavelength beam . the disk is rotated by spindle 96 attached to motor 97 while the beams are pulsed to allow the beams to texture a circular or spiral pattern on each side of the disk . the motor , spindle and disk should be mounted on a translation stage ( not shown ) to allow a band of texture approximately 3 mm wide to be formed on the disk . the described embodiment of the laser texturing system uses a dcaom which can be any of the shapes which are described below . the transducers can be mounted on opposite or adjacent mounting faces of the crystals as described . since conventional aoms are designed to operate with essentially single wavelength light , the material for the crystals are selected based on the wavelength . materials are known which are suitable for use over the wavelength span from 0 . 2 to over 20 microns . selection of the material for the mcaoms of the invention is made according to these known principles . this implies that mcaoms may be constructed for any wavelength for which crystals can be found for aoms . the number of channels for which an mcaom can be designed is limited only by the requirements of the geometry of the acoustic fields in the crystal as will be shown . although it is possible and desirable for some applications to operate an mcaom with more than one transducer being driven at a time , the energy in the resulting beams will necessarily be reduced from the maximum possible from the incident beam , since diffracted beams are fractional portions of the incident beam . if only one transducer is allowed to be activated at a time , the diffracted beam can be driven to its maximum level which is preferable in the disk texturing system . when operated in this mode an mcaom can produce a set of pulsed first order beams which are maximally similar and have 80 - 90 % of the intensity of the incident beam and are thus superior for some applications to a set of beams produced by prior art techniques . note also that the beam size for each first order beam can be made essentially identical , since the path for each beam is extremely similar . it should also be noted that although prior art aoms have two output beams , i . e ., a zeroth order beam and 1st order beam , which have similar paths and beam sizes , they are not well matched in amplitude due to fact that 100 % diffraction is not possible . in a prior art tandem aom arrangement to produce two similar beams there are two possible configurations . it is possible to take the first order beam from aom - 1 as beam a , then direct the zeroth beam to aom - 2 to generate the second first order beam as beam b . beams a and b clearly have very different paths and are therefore , subject to differences in amplitude and beam size making it difficult to achieve highly similar beams using this arrangement . it is also possible to use zeroth and first order beams from aom - 2 as beams a and b by routing the aom - 1 first order beam to aom - 2 . in this configuration the problem of different paths does not occur , since both beams have passed through aom - 1 and aom - 2 . however , the longer path length through two aoms rather than one inherently leads to increased beam size due to divergence . also since it is not possible to diffract 100 % of the beam , the zeroth beam from aom - 2 inherently contains the undiffracted portion of the input beam which can be on the order of 10 - 20 %. this leakage makes it impossible to bring the zeroth beam to zero amplitude when there is an input beam to aom - 2 . a dcaom solves this problem by generating two modulated and spatially separate beams from a single incident beam as will be seen . fig2 illustrates the electronic control functions for an embodiment of a two channel aom , in which the transducers are driven independently , which includes the ability to drive them alternately . the arbitrary modulated signals a and b are generated by separate channels a and b 21a , 21b comprising a function generators 25a , 25b and means to modulate the amplitude and / or the frequency of the signals 26a , 26b . the function generator could be a standard rf signal generator . the amplitude and frequency of the modulated signals a and b need not be equal and use of separate modulation control means for each channel allows the amplitudes and frequencies to be set independently . this feature allows a maximum flexibility for a wide range of applications . channel selector 22 in this embodiment is used to select ( enable ) a and / or b or to disable both . the channel selector is not required to allocate equal time slices to each channel . for example , channel a could be selected indefinitely without activating channel b and vice versa . if equal amplitudes / frequencies and equal time slices are used , then maximum equivalence between the a1 and b1 beams will be achieved as a special case . approximately 80 - 90 % maximum transfer of the incident beam to the selected first order diffracted beam can be expected when only one transducer is being driven . the wavelength of the laser and frequency of the piezo - transducers must be appropriately matched along with the crystal material . for example , a co 2 laser of 9 . 25 microns wavelength can be used with a 40 mhz transducer in conjunction with a germanium crystal . as indicated , any material suitable for aoms can be used for mcaoms . these include quartz and lithium niobate . the rate at which a beam can be modulated is related to the risetime of a modulated pulse and is determined by the ratio of the incident beam diameter to the velocity of sound in the crystal . therefore , a smaller beam size permits a faster risetime and modulation rate . since the zeroth order beam is inherently the portion of the incident beam not diffracted , it is also possible to control the application of the driving signals to result in modulation of the zeroth order beam if desired . from the earlier discussion it is clear that the zeroth beam can be modulated , but not reduced to zero as long as there is an incident beam . the incident beam can , of course , be controlled independently through the use of shutters , etc . in order to illustrate the angular relationships between the sound fields and the incident beam fig3 which illustrates a prior art aom will be used . crystal 31 is typically rectilinear , but the face of the crystal opposite to the transducer 13a may be obliquely angled to dampen acoustic reflections . the incident beam 33 enters the crystal at an angle alpha to intersect the acoustic field ( represented by the dotted lines 36 ) at the angle alpha . the angle of diffraction of the first order beam 35 is then twice alpha . the required angle alpha for the intersection of the acoustic field and the incident beam is called the bragg angle which is given by ## equ1 ## where λ is the acoustic wavelength and λ is the optical wavelength . the acoustic wavelength is determined by the ratio of the velocity of sound in the crystal to the frequency : an example of a calculation of a bragg angle for a co 2 laser λ = 9 . 2 microns , a germanium crystal and a 40 mhz transducer is as follows . the velocity of sound of 5 . 5 * 10 5 cm / sec for germanium is available from tables . thus , ## equ2 ## and the bragg angle alpha is : ## equ3 ## since the diffracted beam typically needs to be physically separated from the zeroth beam by mirrors to be used conveniently , the angle should not be too small . likewise too large of an angle would also present physical problems for the mirror arrangement . therefore , it is suggested that the bragg angle be between 1 and 20 degrees for convenience , although larger and smaller angles are possible . the geometry of a crystal for use in an mcaom is constrained by the requirement that the angle of intersection between the light and the acoustic field be the same regardless of which transducer is being driven . the faces of the crystal on which the transducers are to be mounted are cut at a specific angle relative to the incident beam axis , i . e ., the optical axis , which is typically the central axis of the crystal , but this is not required . fig4 a - b illustrate a dcaom according to the invention . the angles corresponding to alpha are exaggerated in all of the figures in order to make them readily visible . the view is of a cross section along the optical axis of the x - y plane of the crystal which is trapezoidal . in the other planes ( not shown ) the cross section shape is not significant . the four sides of the trapezoid are labeled 12a , 12b , 12c and 12d . the incident face 12a is the face through which the incident beam 16 enters the crystal . in fig4 a the acoustic field generated by transducer 13a is illustrated by the dashed lines 41 and the acoustic field generated by transducer 13b is illustrated by the lines 42 . the acoustic fields 41 and 42 are formed as relatively flat planes parallel to their respective mounting faces . the size of the transducers should be large enough to ensure that the curvature of the sound field is sufficiently small through the beam cross section to be negligible for the application . fig4 b shows the required geometry of the mounting faces by showing that a perpendicular line 43 from the mounting face can be projected to intersect the path of the incident beam 16 , i . e ., the optical axis , at the angle of 90 - alpha . this projected perpendicular line simulates the direction of the propagation of the acoustic field from the mounting face . note that the angle of intersection with the optical axis is maintained when the axis is translated up or down on the y - axis . this will also be true for translation on the z - axis . therefore , the optical axis need not be through the center of the crystal , so long as the angular relationship are maintained . to simplify the design of the crystal it is convenient to have the incident beam enter perpendicular to the incident face as shown , but this is not actually required as will be seen later . the transducers 13a and 13b are attached to mounting faces 12b and 12d . the mounting faces intersect the incident face 12a at angle of 90 - alpha . the exit face 12c is where the beams emerge . the a1 - beam 14a and the b1 - beam 14b are diffracted at an angle of plus and minus twice alpha . therefore , the a1 and b1 beams diverge at an angle of four times alpha . although the incident beam is shown as entering face 12a , the device will function for a beam entering the opposite face 12c , since the geometry of intersection with the acoustic field is essentially the same although mirror imaged . fig5 a illustrates a top view of a crystal for use in a four channel aom according to the invention . the crystal 51 is a frustum of a square pyramid . the four transducers 13a - d are attached to the four mounting faces of the crystal 62a - d which are trapezoidal . the angle of intersection between the trapezoidal faces and the square base and top is a function of the angle alpha similarly to the dcaom . since the geometric requirements can be met with a frustum of a regular triangular pyramid , a pentagonal pyramid , etc . an mcaom can be constructed with any number of channels using frusto - pyramidal shapes . pyramids are also not the only geometric structures for crystals that will work in a mcaom . for example , the base structure of the crystal can be rectilinear or cylindrical and the faces for the transducers can be cut into the surface or edges to form the mounting faces at the proper angle from the axis . fig6 a illustrates a top view of a beveled rectilinear crystal 61 for use in a four channel aom according to the invention . it can be viewed as essentially a rectilinear crystal with bevels for the mounting faces 62a - d cut into the corners forming triangular mounting surfaces for the transducers 13a - d . when four corners on a square face of the crystal are beveled symmetrically , then acoustic fields generated by transducers on these faces will intersect the incident beam axis at a common angle . fig6 b is a perspective side view of the crystal of fig6 a . using the same approach as is illustrated in for a rectilinear crystal , a cylindrical crystal may be used . fig7 a is a top view of a faceted cylindrical crystal 71 with mounting faces 62a - d cut into the top . only two transducers 13a - b are shown on adjacent faces even though there are four mounting faces which can be used . the two transducers may be mounted on opposite faces as well . likewise three transducers could be used with each one being mounted on any of the three faces . in general , the mcaom crystals do not have to have a transducer mounted on all of the mounting face for the others to function . since each transducer functions independently , one or more transducers can be mounted without regard to whether the other faces have transducers . therefore , for example , it might be convenient to manufacture a standard crystal with a relatively large number of mounting faces , e . g . four , realizing that the crystal would also function as a one , two or three channel device . since the requirement is that the mounting faces be cut at a common angle from the axis of the incident beam , the functioning of the crystal is insensitive to other aspects of the shape of the crystal so long as they are not in the optical path and do not induce reflections of the acoustic fields . since prior art aom crystals like that shown in fig3 are used with the incident beam striking the crystal at an angle other than 90 degrees , there is no back reflection of the beam from the crystal into the laser cavity . the mcaoms are conveniently used with the incident beam entering the crystal perpendicularly as has been illustrated and , therefore , back reflection should at least be considered . the inventors have not observed this problem in practice , but if it were a problem in a particular application , one solution would be to introduce an angle to the incident face of the crystal to remove any possibility of back reflection . a dcaom modified in this manner is illustrated in fig8 . crystal 81 is similar to crystal 12 in fig4 with the exception that the angles between the incident face 12a and the mounting faces 12b and 12d are not equal as they are in crystal 12 . if a small tilt angle δ of a few degrees is introduced to the incident face then the angles of intersection with the mounting faces are 90 - α - δ and 90 - α + δ . the angles of intersection between the mounting faces and face 12c are 90 + α and are not affected by the modification and are the same as for crystal 12 , i . e ., 90 + α . fig4 shows tilting in only one plane , but a tilt in any direction will suffice . the tilting of the incident face may introduce sufficient refraction of the incident beam to require that the angle of the incident beam be adjusted to compensate for effect . since the bragg angle is a function of the acoustic wavelength , it is sometimes useful to modulate the bragg angle by modulating the wavelength of the driving signal for the transducer . this frequency modulation can be used to sweep the diffracted beam position linearly through a range of angles . similarly the multiple beams of an mcaoms can be used with frequency modulated driving signals to sweep the beams . for example , if the dcaom shown in fig6 a - b were driven with frequency modulated signals the four first order beams would sweep to form an x - y axis . transducers 13b and 13d on opposite sides would produce tandem beams while the beams for the other pair of transducers 13a , 13c would be at right angles . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . | 6 |
[ 0029 ] fig1 is a design for a simple prophylactic device for cleaning fiber optic connector end - faces showing side , top and bottom perspectives . referring to the figure , the body of the prophylactic ( 2 ) may be constructed of various materials including ceramics , glasses , polymers and metals which may be esd - dissipative or non - conductive to prevent electrical corona arcing during impingement spray cleaning using low - k cleaning agents . the exemplary body ( 2 ) is machined to contain a cavity ( 4 ) which is shaped to accept the exemplary substrate ( not shown ) to be spray cleaned . the prophylactic body ( 2 ) contains a top side surface ( 6 ), a bottom side surface ( 8 ), a right side surface ( 10 ), a left side surface ( 12 ), a back side surface ( 14 ) and a front side surface ( 16 ). a gas port ( 18 ) is drilled from any of the side surfaces ( 18 ) into the upper chamber ( 20 ) of the central cavity ( 4 ). a lower chamber ( 22 ), which is larger in diameter than the upper chamber ( 20 ) and accepts the body of the exemplary fiber optic connector ( not shown ), is connected to the upper chamber ( 20 ) via a smaller central chamber ( 24 ). the central chamber ( 24 ) serves as a guide for inserting and aligning the fiber optic connector tip centrally within the upper chamber ( 20 ). finally , pressure - regulated inert , ionized and / or heated gas ( 26 ) is introduced through an inlet port ( 28 ) into the gas port ( 18 ) which then flows into the upper chamber ( 20 ) of the central cavity ( 4 ). the gas may be clean air , nitrogen , carbon dioxide , argon and mixtures thereof . the pressure of the inlet gas ( 26 ) may be regulated to be between 10 psi to 500 psi and the temperature of the inlet gas ( 26 ) may be regulated to be between 15 c and 150 c . the inlet gas ( 26 ) may be ionized prior to introduction into the gas port ( 18 ) through the use of an in - line ac gas ionization device ( not shown but available from ion systems , inc .) affixed to the inlet port ( 28 ). finally , the exemplary device may be grounded ( 27 ) using a suitable resistor (& gt ; 1 mohm ) in - line to bleed off electrostatic charges without arcing . [ 0030 ] fig2 a , 2 b and 2 c give the insertion ( and de - insertion ) sequences and alignments for a fiber optic connector processed with the exemplary prophylactic device of fig1 . referring to fig2 a , the exemplary fiber optic connector ( 29 ) comprises a body ( 30 ), fiber optic tip ( 32 ), fiber optic end - face ( 34 ) and cable ( not shown ). referring to fig2 a , the exemplary fiber optic device ( 29 ) is inserted into the lower chamber ( 22 ) with the fiber optic tip ( 32 ) centrally aligned and guided through the central chamber ( 24 ) and into the upper chamber ( 20 ). referring to fig2 c , the exemplary fiber optic connector device ( 29 ) when properly inserted into the exemplary prophylactic device will have its connector end - face ( 34 ) flush the upper surface ( 6 ) of the prophylactic device and will have a small annular spacing or gap ( 36 ) about the tip ( 32 ) of the fiber optic connector ( 29 ). [ 0031 ] fig3 gives the various protective gas sheath flow patterns of the exemplary prophylactic device of fig1 and described in fig2 a , 2 b and 2 c in relation to the exemplary fiber optic connector end - face and exemplary impinging cleaning spray . referring to fig3 the fiber optic connector ( 29 ) as fully inserted into the exemplary prophylactic device will have its end - face ( 34 ) flush or slightly above the plane of the top surface ( 6 ) and have a small annular gap ( 36 ) about the fiber optic tip ( 32 ). the fiber optic connector body ( 30 ) will be fully inserted the lower chamber ( 22 ) and pushed up flush against the upper shoulder ( 38 ) of the lower chamber ( 22 ). thermal ionized / inert gas ( 26 ) which has been pressure - and temperature - regulated to predetermined set - points within the preferred pressure and temperature ranges flows through the gas port ( 18 ) and into the upper chamber ( 36 ). the gas builds pressure within the chamber and flows vertically with high velocity out of the chamber as indicated by flow arrows ( 40 ) forming a circular sheath flow about the tip ( 32 ) and above the surface plane ( 6 ) of the exemplary prophylactic device . the exemplary prophylactic device is purposely designed and constructed to not be gas tight with the fiber optic fully inserted . this is done so that the pressurized gas within the upper chamber also flows downward , shown as flow arrows ( 42 ), over the tip ( 32 ) and body ( 30 ) bathing the entire substrate with thermal ionized gas , using this design , microenvironmental gas flow streams are moving in directions which are generally opposite to the plane of the critical surface to be cleaned . as shown in the figure , this provides microenvironments which are located in interior , posterior and anterior regions relative to the substrate being treated . the exemplary cleaning spray ( 44 ) is then jetted into the interior section ( 46 ) of the protective sheath ( 40 ). the protective sheath gas flows continuously prior to , during and following spray cleaning . finally , the entire prophylactic device may be grounded ( 27 ) to earth using a suitable resistor in - line (& gt ; 1 megaohms ) to safely drain away residual electrostatic charges built up during spray cleaning . [ 0033 ] fig4 a and 4 b are exemplary views of a vacuum - assisted prophylactic device for cleaning the surface of a photodiode with exemplary flow patterns for protective gas flows . referring to fig4 a , a prophylactic device may be constructed for virtually any type of substrate . fig4 a shows — a prophylactic device designed for use with cleaning photodiodes . a photodiode ( 48 ), a device that converts light impulses into electrical impulses , comprises a cylindrical electronic package ( 50 ) and one or more electrodes ( 52 ). the exemplary substrate is inserted from the top into the exemplary prophylactic device ( 54 ). the exemplary prophylactic device contains an upper chamber ( 56 ) which accepts and cradles the photodiode electronic package ( 50 ) against a lower shoulder ( 58 ) which serves as a vacuum seal . central and lower chamber compartments ( 60 ) receive the electrodes ( 52 ) during insertion . a gas port ( 18 ) conveys pressure - and temperature - regulated thermal ionized gas into the upper chamber ( 56 ). referring to fig4 b , following insertion of the exemplary substrate , a small annular cavity ( 62 ) is formed about the electronic package ( 50 ). an external vacuum source ( 64 ) is used to create a negative pressure within the central and lower chambers ( 60 ), causing the upper atmosphere to push down upon the electronic package ( 50 ) sealing it against the lower shoulder ( 58 ). pressure - and temperature - regulated thermal ionized gas ( 26 ) is then fed into the upper chamber ( 56 ) which flows at high velocity around the edges of the exemplary substrate and vertically away from the critical surfaces ( 66 ) as shown in the arrows ( 68 ) forming a rising circular sheath flow . the exemplary substrate surface ( 66 ) is flush with or slightly raised above the plane of the surface ( 54 ) of the exemplary prophylactic device . moreover , as with the exemplary substrate treatment operations described in fig3 above , the cleaning spray may be jetted ( not shown ) into the center of the sheath flow ( 70 ) during which the vacuum ( 64 ) and gas ( 26 ) flows are activated continuously . [ 0035 ] fig5 gives the negative phenomenon associated with conventional impingement spray cleaning of small substrate surfaces . referring to fig5 directing a jet spray ( 44 ) against small surfaces ( 66 ), exemplary of substrates such as the photodiode ( 48 ) shown produces a low pressure dome ( 72 ) within which ( 74 ) the pressure is less than that of the ambient atmosphere ( 76 ). streamlines ( 78 ) over the sides of the substrate lower the internal pressure , in accordance with bernoulli &# 39 ; s principle . this phenomenon causes contaminants within the ambient atmosphere ( 76 ) to be condensed within the low pressure zone ( 74 ) and onto critical substrate surfaces ( 66 ). [ 0036 ] fig6 gives the positive phenomenon associated with impingement spray cleaning provided by exemplary features of the prophylactic device and method of the present invention . referring to fig6 directing a jet spray ( 44 ) against small surfaces ( 66 ), exemplary of substrates such as the photodiode ( 48 ) shown , using the exemplary prophylactic device and method produces a high pressure dome ( 80 ) within which ( 82 ) the pressure is equal to or greater than that of the ambient atmosphere ( 76 ). streamlines ( 78 ) created over the planar surfaces of the substrate ( 66 ) and prophylactic device ( 54 ) with the purging gas sheath ( 68 ) do not create a low pressure zone . this phenomenon causes contaminants contained within the ambient atmosphere ( 76 ) to be evacuated from the local cleaning area ( 82 ) and away from critical substrate surfaces ( 66 ). [ 0037 ] fig7 gives a top view and side view of an exemplary prophylactic device for use with rectangular substrates such as dies , ccds and photodiodes . as shown in fig7 top view , the exemplary prophylactic device contains a rectangular central cavity ( 84 ) designed to accept the base of a rectangular substrate such as a flip chip device . a circumferential purge ring ( 86 ) extends about the rectangular cavity ( 84 ), both of which are connected to a common gas port ( 18 ). referring to fig7 bottom view , the exemplary prophylactic device contains a bottom vacuum port ( 88 ) which is ported into the upper central rectangular cavity ( 84 ). an exemplary rectangular substrate ( 90 ), for example a flip chip device , is placed into the cavity ( 84 ) whereupon an external vacuum ( 64 ) creates a negative pressure within the vacuum port ( 88 ), causing the upper atmosphere ( 70 ) to push down on the substrate ( 90 ), creating a gas - tight seal against the lower shoulder ( 92 ) of the upper cavity ( 84 ). pressure - and temperature - regulated inert , ionized and ultrafiltered gas ( 26 ) is fed into and inlet port ( 28 ) which then flows though a gas port ( 18 ) and into the purge ring ( 86 ) and into the upper cavity ( 84 ). two protective and counterflowing , relative to the substrate top surface ( 93 ), purge streams or sheath flows are created ; an interior rectangular sheath flow ( 94 ) and an outer circular sheath flow ( 96 ). while the purge streams are continuously flowing , the impingement treatment stream ( 44 ) may be applied to the substrate ( 90 ) as desired . [ 0038 ] fig8 a , 8 b and 8 c give the automation sequences for an exemplary device having an exemplary impingement spray applicator integrated with an exemplary prophylactic device used for cleaning the end - face of a fiber optic connector . referring to the fig8 a , the body of the prophylactic device ( 2 ) as shown and described using fig1 herein is coupled with an impingement spray applicator ( 98 ), such as a cryogenic spray nozzle or dry steam spray nozzle , using an appropriate clamp ( 100 ). the integrated prophylactic device and spray applicator is connected to a common automation device ( 102 ). in this example , the automation device is a simple stationary y - axis robot which moves the integrated prophylactic device and spray applicator up and down as indicated by the arrow ( 104 ). the exemplary substrate ( 29 ), for example a fiber optic connector , is moved in the x - direction into a position directly aligned with the lower cavity ( 22 ) using a suitable conveyor device ( not shown ) as indicated by the arrow ( 106 ). finally , the exemplary spray applicator is connected to a source of cleaning agent , for example liquid carbon dioxide or steam , via a flexible delivery line ( 108 ) and the exemplary prophylactic device is connected to a source of pressure - and temperature - regulated inert ionized and ultrafiltered gas via a flexible delivery line ( 110 ). having thus described the exemplary features of the integrated and automated prophylactic device and spray applicator using fig8 a , fig8 b and 8 c show the automation and fluid flow sequencing and are described as follows . referring to fig8 b , the exemplary substrate ( 29 ) is positioned under the exemplary applicator ( 112 ), as described above , whereupon the exemplary applicator ( 112 ) moves down as described in fig8 a ( 104 ) over the substrate ( 29 ). during this operation , the purging gas ( 26 ) begins to flow , evacuating the cavities and atmospheres surrounding the critical surfaces of the substrate ( 29 ). referring to fig8 c , the exemplary applicator ( 112 ) is positioned completed over the exemplary substrate ( 29 ) as described in fig8 a ( 104 ), following which the exemplary cleaning agent ( 44 ) begins to flow , treating the exposed and protected end - face ( 34 ) of the exemplary substrate ( 29 ). reversing sequences 8 a , 8 b , and 8 c provides for extracting the treated substrate . [ 0043 ] fig9 is a design for a more complicated prophylactic device for larger substrates using angled purge cavities to form a pyramidal flow of inert gas environment over the top of the substrate . as shown in fig9 top view , the exemplary prophylactic device contains a rectangular central cavity ( 84 ) designed to accept the base of a rectangular substrate such as a wire - bonded ccd chip . two circumferential rectangular purge ports ; an interior angled purge port ( 120 ) and a perimeter vertical purge port ( 122 ). the central cavity ( 84 ) serves as a guide for inserting and aligning the exemplary substrate ( 90 ) within the cleaning zone as well as performing posterior and anterior substrate purging . all ports are connected to a common gas port ( 18 ). referring to fig9 bottom view , the exemplary prophylactic device contains a bottom vacuum port ( 88 ) which is ported into the upper central rectangular cavity ( 84 ). the exemplary substrate ( 90 ) is placed into the cavity ( 84 ) whereupon an external vacuum ( 64 ) creates a negative pressure within the vacuum port ( 88 ), causing the upper atmosphere ( 70 ) to push down on the substrate ( 90 ), creating a gas - tight seal against the lower shoulder ( 92 ) of the upper cavity ( 84 ). pressure - and temperature - regulated inert , ionized and ultrafiltered gas ( 26 ) is fed into and inlet port ( 28 ) which then flows though a gas port ( 18 ) and into the exterior port ( 122 ), interior port ( 120 ) and into the substrate cavity ( 84 ). three protective and counterflowing , relative to the substrate top surface ( 93 ), purge streams or sheath flows are created ; an exterior vertical rectangular sheath flow ( 124 ), an interior vertical pyramidal sheath flow ( 126 ) and an inner rectangular substrate sheath flow ( 94 ). while the purge streams are continuously flowing , the impingement treatment stream ( 44 ) may be applied to the substrate ( 90 ) as desired . referring to the figure , the body of the prophylactic device may be constructed of various materials including ceramics , glasses , polymers and metals which may be esd - dissipative , conductive or non - conductive , as desired , to prevent electrical corona arcing during impingement spray cleaning using low - k cleaning agents such as solid carbon dioxide . the inlet purge gas ( 26 ) may be chosen from clean air , nitrogen , carbon dioxide , argon and mixtures thereof . the pressure of the inlet gas may be regulated to be between 10 psi to 500 psi and the temperature of the inlet gas may be regulated to be between 15 c and 150 c . the inlet gas may be ionized prior to introduction into the gas port ( 18 ) through the use of an in - line ac gas ionization device ( not shown but available from ion systems , inc .) affixed to the inlet port ( 28 ). the exemplary prophylactic device may be grounded to drain electrostatic charges and may be thermally conductive to bank heat within the cleaning zone during spray operations . referring to fig1 a , the exemplary fiber optic end - face cleaning system includes a end - face spray cleaning applicator ( 128 ) utilizing the exemplary prophylactic device of the present invention and is coupled with an exemplary c02 snow spray cleaning system ( microsno model ms2000 , deflex corporation ) ( 130 ). the exemplary spray cleaning applicator ( 128 ) uses an enclosure with a rear - mounted 3 ″ vent port ( 131 ) for connection to a house exhaust system to remove the exhausted contaminants from the cleaning zone . as shown in the figure , a , purge gas line ( 132 ), cleaning spray line ( 134 ), and a control cable ( 136 ) are interfaced between the exemplary cleaning applicator ( 128 ) and spray generation system ( 130 ). affixed to the top side of the exemplary cleaning applicator is a screw mounted purge block adaptor assembly ( 138 ), designed and operated in accordance with fig1 a , 2 b , 2 c and 3 descriptions herein , which can be designed for any number of fiber optic ferrule designs and other substrates to be cleaned . the exemplary purge block adaptor is esd dissipative , resistively grounded , and ported for delivery of a low - medium pressure ( 10 - 100 psi ), dry (& lt ; 1 ppm h 2 o ), ultrafiltered ( 0 . 01 micron ), heated ( 70f - 212f ) and ionized ( 24v ac ) purge gas . also located on the top front of the cleaning applicator are two capacitive finger touch controls for actuating pulse purge ( 140 ) and spray cleaning - priming ( 142 ) operations , described below . finally , the front console contains a fused main power switch ( 144 ) and a purge gas control switch ( 146 ) for continuous (“ on ”) or pulse purge control (“ off ”) as shown . the cleaning spray generator may be located at a convenient location remote from the spray applicator with the cable and fluids connection lines connected to the cleaning applicator as shown . referring to fig1 b , an operator inserts a ferrule assembly ( 148 ) into the purge block adaptor ( 138 ) and specifically into the bottom cavity ( 22 ) and presses the “ purge ” capacitive finger button ( 140 ). this causes the interior of the purge block adaptor and ferrule assembly , and anterior ( 40 ) and posterior ( 42 ) sections of the ferrule assembly to be bathed with ultrafiltered , heated , ionized gas — thermal - ionized / inert gas ( 26 ), as shown . following this , the operator may press the “ clean - prime ” capacitive finger button ( 142 ) as many times and as long as necessary while maintaining the purge ( 140 ) operation to deliver periodic pulses of cleaning spray ( 44 ). following this operation , the ferrule assembly ( 150 ) is left within the purge block adaptor for a few seconds , the “ purge ” button ( 140 ) is released , and the cleaned , dry and deionized ferrule ( 152 ) is withdrawn from the purge block adaptor ( 138 ). the operator may rotate the connector in +/− 180 ° clockwise and counterclockwise rotations during the spray cleaning operation ( s ). the procedure may be repeated as required to produce the desired cleanliness . the purge block adaptor and control buttons are centrally located on the top side to allow for both right and left - handed operation of the cleaning applicator using one hand to insert , rotate , de - insert a ferrule assembly and the second hand to perform the finger control buttons . finally , the purge block adaptor design provides a means for enlarging the apparent surface area of small critical surfaces ( i . e ., end face ) exposed to high pressure impingement cleaning sprays . this feature normalizes and equalizes the cleaning spray pressure across the entire small critical surface . without this feature present , the over - spray and down - draft of the spray particles over the edges of a small critical surface create a low pressure zone over the cleaning target in accordance with the bernoulli principle — causing the cleaning operation to be negatively impacted . [ 0049 ] fig1 c shows a partial side view of the interior of the conceptual cleaning system . contained within the fully - enclosed cleaning applicator are a coaxial snow spray nozzle ( 154 ) mounted in a precision adjustable rack and pinion stage with a ball pivot ( 156 ). the spray nozzle ( 154 ) may be adjusted up to 60 mm in the x - y - z orientations with spray angle adjustment using said control knobs and a ball pivot assembly ( 156 ). the base ( 158 ) and faceplate ( 160 ) may be constructed of passivated stainless steel . the base may contain rubber feet ( 164 ) and a rear - mounted vent port ( 131 ) may be connected to a suitable ventilation pipe to evacuated accumulated gases and vapors within the interior space ( 162 ) of the exemplary cleaning cabinet ( 128 ). although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described , it should be understood that various modifications and rearrangements may be resorted to without departing from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein . | 1 |
the following detailed description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the described embodiments or the application and uses of the described embodiments . furthermore , there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field , background , brief summary or the following detailed description . exemplary embodiments of treated polyimide foam products are described herein with reference primarily to their use in commercial aircraft . however , of course , these exemplary treated polyimide foam products may be used in other applications as well , including for example automobiles , homes , factories , cryogenic pipes and tanks , and the like , in a variety of applications where the properties of treated polyimide foam products may be desirable . the term “ open cell ” as it relates to polyimide foam refers to any foam product that has primarily open cells as opposed to closed cells . the proportion of open cells may vary but should be sufficient to permit penetration of treatment chemicals into the foam product to such an extent as to yield desired properties in the treated foam product . further , open cell polyimide foam products usually have serpentine channels or cells that interconnect throughout an internal body of the foam product . these serpentine channels or cells have surfaces that provide the foam products with large interior surface area relative to external surface area . moreover , the internal cells are filled with air , if in an air environment , and this air filling contributes to the properties of thermal and acoustic insulation . exemplary embodiments of treated polyimide foam products include those foams that are used as thermal insulation foams as well as those that are used as acoustic insulation . of course , many types of polyimide foam inherently have both thermal and acoustic insulation properties . upon treatment , according to exemplary methods , the treated polyimide foam products may be hydrophobic ( water repellant ) or oleophobic ( oil repellant ) or both , depending upon the type of treatment applied . polyimide foam constitutes an embodiment of an open cell foam type that may be treated to make it hydrophobic and / or oleophobic . a particular polyimide foam known as solimide ® ( trademark of evonik industries ag of essen , germany ) has properties of fire - resistance , low smoke and toxic gas production , wide operating temperature range , and very low weight . accordingly , it is suitable for use in thermal and acoustic insulation in commercial aircraft . in general , a treatment chemical to introduce hydrophobic and / or oleophobic foam properties should not be harmful to polyimide foam ; i . e . it should not be deleterious to any significant extent to other desired properties of the foam and should not degrade the foam physically or chemically to any significant extent . thus , for example , it should not adversely affect acoustic properties to any significant extent for foam intended for an acoustic application , and it should not adversely affect thermal insulation properties to any significant extent for foam intended for a thermal insulation application . further , in general , the treatment chemical should be stable and reside on at least those surfaces of open cells of the foam that are exposed to a surrounding environment that contains moisture . the treatment chemical may bond to the foam surfaces ( cellular struts ) through physical and or chemical adhesion . an important class of industrial water repellents are the co - polymer perfluoroacrylates ( co - monomers , being esters of alkyl and substituted alkyl groups containing acrylic and methacrylic acids ), which impart both oil and water repellency ( owr ) to polyimide open cell foams . after application of these perfluorocarbon chemicals , the treated foam may be subjected to heating ( 250 - 275 ° f . or 121 - 135 ° c .) to cause co - polymerizing and annealing of the treatment chemicals into a semi - crystalline configuration , with the fluorocarbon side chains oriented ( aligned ) in a linear fashion . perfluoro side - chain adhesion to the surface of the foam cellular struts occurs through intermediary non - fluorinated polar and bond group chemical species , typically acrylic , vinyl or urethane . the bond group connects the perfluoro moiety to a polar group , which in turn provides solubility and attachment to the foam cell strut . film formation , spreading and wetting of the surfaces results in hydrophobation and oleophobation of the foam surfaces . polysiloxane treatment chemicals may be applied with a bridging ( or “ coupling ”) agent that in turn bonds with the strut surfaces of the foam . in general , the treatment chemical should therefore be selected for the particular property ( or properties ) to be imparted to the polyimide foam . exemplary embodiments of treatment chemicals that introduce hydrophobicity and oleophobicity in treated polyimide foam include , but are not limited to solution , stable aqueous emulsion and aqueous dispersion type fluorinated hydrocarbons ( optimally 5 - 8 fluorocarbon chain ), such as fluoroalkyl esters , perfluoroacrylates , fluorinated acrylate plus vinylidene chloride , modified ptfe dispersions , aqueous dispersions of fluorinated urethanes , etc . some suppliers / brands of fluorinated hydrocarbons for this purpose are ( company / trademark ): daikin / unidyne ™ basf / persistol ®, bayer ag / baygard ®, dianippon ink & amp ; chemicals / dicguard ™, rotta gmbh / dipolit ™, solvay solexis / algoflon ® and dupont zonyl ®, appollo chemical co . llc ./ barpel ®. exemplary embodiments of treatment chemicals that introduce a hydrophobic property to treated foam include , but are not limited to solution , dispersion and aqueous emulsion type silicones ( polysiloxanes , including nonreactive polydimethylsiloxane and reactive polymethylhydrogensiloxane ). some of the suppliers of polysiloxanes for this purpose are dianippon ink & amp ; chemicals / silicone softer ™, bayer ag / perlit ® si - sw , dow corning / emulsions , evonik industries ag , goldschmidt gmbh / sitren ® and degussa goldschmidt ag . treatment chemicals may be applied to the foam in a variety of processes used to coat the surfaces of open cell foams . non - limiting foam treatment techniques include a process that has the steps of dipping , nipping and drying the foam ; and plasma coating . a non limiting example of an embodiment of a batch - type foam treatment process 100 is set forth in fig . in process step 110 the pieces of foam to be treated may each be “ pre - flexed ,” if necessary . “ pre - flexing ” means compressing the foam such that its compressed thickness is reduced to less than about 50 % of its original thickness and then releasing compressive force to allow the foam to recover . the foam pieces are then each subjected to chemicals absorption , in process 120 . in this example , the treatment chemical is dissolved dispersed , or emulsified in a carrier fluid to produce a chemical treatment fluid . the chemical treatment fluid may also include additives such as flame retardants , adhesion promoters , uv radiation absorbers , and other additives as may be required for a particular intended application of the treated foam product . during chemicals absorption , which may take place in a container of the chemical treatment fluid , the foam pieces may be subjected to successive cycles of compression and relaxation to draw the chemical treatment fluid into the open cells of the foam to ensure wetting of internal open cell surfaces with the chemical treatment fluid . the cyclic compression and relaxation may be induced by mechanically pressing down onto a foam piece and releasing , or may be achieved by pressure cycling within a closed container of the chemical treatment fluid , or by another technique . after several cycles of compression and relaxation , the wetted foam may be transferred for expulsion of excess chemical treatment fluid , in process 130 . the removal of excess chemical treatment fluid may be by squeezing the wetted foam to push excess chemical treatment fluid out of the open cells of the wetted foam . this may be achieved by feeding the wetted foam between a pair or pairs of nip rollers , for example . it may also be achieved by subjecting the wetted foam to controlled suction forces that have the effect of “ sucking ” excess fluid from the wetted foam . an exemplary embodiment may require several cycles of chemicals absorption ( process 120 ) followed by excess chemical expulsion ( process 130 ) to achieve substantially complete coverage of open cell surfaces with the treatment chemical . accordingly , once the number of cycles necessary is determined , the treatment process 100 may include a “ number of cycles check ” feature for each discrete piece of foam being treated . this cycle check feature of process 140 may both sense and determine the number of cycles a particular piece of foam has been subjected to chemicals absorption followed by excess chemical expulsion . if the number of cycles meets a preset required number of cycles , the piece of foam passes on to drying , in process 150 . if the number of cycles is less than the preset number of cycles , the piece of foam is returned to chemicals absorption , in process 120 . the piece of foam then continues the cycle from thence to excess chemicals expulsion in process 130 , until the preset number of cycles ( processes 120 , 130 ) is met . during chemical absorption in process 120 , treatment chemicals in the chemical treatment fluid are transferred to the foam open cell surfaces . thus , the treatment chemicals are gradually depleted from the chemical treatment fluid . in addition , wetted foam pieces that proceed to the drying process 150 entrain at least some carrier fluid that is lost through evaporation in the drying process . of course , such evaporated carrier fluid may be recovered and recycled , if necessary or desirable . accordingly , sensors may be used in process 210 to determine parameters of the chemical treatment fluid in the container wherein the chemical absorption process 120 takes place . these sensors may include a chemical treatment fluid level sensor to detect a decline in such levels . in process 220 , the sensed level is compared to a preset minimum level . if the fluid level has declined to the preset minimum level or below it , carrier fluid may be replenished in process 230 . the sensors of process 210 may also include chemical sensors that provide a variety of functions , such as for example detecting the relative concentration or presence of the treatment chemical in the chemical treatment fluid , and the concentration or presence of adhesion promoters , flame retardants , and other additives of the chemical treatment fluid . the treatment chemical and additives may also be automatically replenished in process 230 when sensed levels drop to or below a preset concentration or other indicator of presence . in an exemplary embodiment of the drying process , the treated foam product may be dried at a temperature between about 80 ° c . to about 120 ° c . for about 1 to about 5 hours . this may be followed by about 1 hour at a temperature between about 120 ° c . and about 180 ° c . an exemplary chemical treatment fluid that may be used in the process exemplified above includes a sufficient presence of the treatment chemical either as a dispersed emulsion in a carrier fluid , or as a solute or as a dispersion so that surfaces of the open cells may be exposed to the treatment chemical to allow attachment of the treatment chemical to the surface within a reasonable number of cycles of compression and relaxation . this does not necessarily require high concentration or presence of the treatment chemical in the carrier fluid . for example , if the treatment chemical is perfluoroacrylate or polysiloxane , and the carrier is water , an emulsion of from about 0 . 1 wt . % to about 5 wt . % perfluoroacrylate is suitable and useful . optimal bath concentrations of treatment chemicals may be determined experimentally through process trials . to minimize the addition of dry chemical weight and retain the highest level of fire resistance properties of the treated foam , the concentration may be in the range of 0 . 25 - 1 wt %. after wet chemical treatment , the foam should be heated to dry the impregnation chemicals . drying time and temperature is dependant upon the size and thickness of the foam , the treatment chemical , bath additives and the carrier fluid to be evaporated . the optimal time / temperature curing profile may be determined experimentally through process trials . typically , treated parts should be dried in a forced air oven ( batch or continuous conveyor ) using a prescribed time / temperature envelope . for example , both one and two inch thick sheets of treated polyimide foam of dimensions 24 inches ( 610 mm ) long × 24 inches ( 610 mm ) wide , were dried for 2 - 3 hours at 80 ° c ., followed by a 30 - 60 minute high temperature bake at 120 ° c . to cure any residual chemical and to permit acquisition of the desired water and oil repellency properties . fluorocarbon - treated polyimide foam samples subjected to multiple hot / wet testing or submersion cycles exhibited a reduction in repellency properties . however , subsequent heating ( an hour or less at the drying temperatures ) had a restorative affect on these repellency properties . if foam dimensions are to be retained , then an exemplary process is to treat the raw material ( foam bun , etc .) in sequence by pre - flexing , impregnating and drying , then machining the parts to the desired net shape . this will provide more dimensional stability to the final part vs . net shaping before flexing , treating and drying . another exemplary polyimide foam treatment technique for owr may include plasma polymerization . this is a dry , more environmentally friendly method of coating a surface of a material or altering surface properties of a material . generally , plasma polymerization is performed in a low pressure , low temperature plasma reactor . plasma is , of course , a partially - ionized gas containing ions , electrons , atoms and other species . to be able to ionize the gas in a controlled and qualitative way the process is carried out under vacuum conditions . the polyimide foam product to be treated is placed in a suitably configured and sized vacuum vessel that is pumped down to a base pressure in the range of 10 - 2 to 10 - 3 mbar with the use of high vacuum pumps . this vacuum also pulls air from the open cells of the foam product . a gas , such as a perfluorocarbon or polysiloxane , is then introduced in the vessel and ionized using a high frequency generator to induce plasma formation . the highly reactive plasma species react with the surfaces of the open cells and the outer surface of the foam product to form a coating or to alter the surface properties . in general , plasma species bonds to the surfaces of the open cells and the outer surfaces of the polyimide foam product to form a thin nano - layer on these surfaces . this nano - layer is so thin as not to affect the other properties of polyimide foam , such as acoustic and thermal insulation properties , for example . the following examples are non - limiting and are intended to illustrate aspects of embodiments of the present technology . water repellency was evaluated by subjecting three treated ( up to one volume % fc treatment ) samples to aatcc test method 193 - 2005 , aqueous liquid repellency test . treated polyimide foam samples were assessed as hydrophobic if five drops of aatcc repellency grade number 5 , 50 : 50 / water : isopropyl alcohol ( volume : volume ) evidenced a well - rounded dome ( high contact angle ) per fig1 , grading examples a & amp ; b ( as shown in the aatcc test method ). testing was performed at room temperature . the aatcc repellency grade is the numerical value of the highest numbered test liquid that will not wet the foam within a period of 10 +/− 2 seconds oil repellency was evaluated by subjecting three treated ( up to one volume % fc treatment ) samples to aatcc test method 118 - 2002 oil repellency : hydrocarbon resistance test . treated polyimide foam samples were assessed as oleophobic if five drops of aatcc oil repellency grade number 6 ( n - decane ) evidenced a well - rounded dome ( high contact angle ) per fig1 , grading example a & amp ; b ( as shown in the aatcc test method ). testing was performed at room temperature . the aatcc repellency grade is the numerical value of the highest numbered test liquid that will not wet the foam within a period of 30 +/− 2 seconds . treated samples were subjected to 1000 hours of hot / wet ( 70 ° c ./ 97 % rh ) testing ( similar to astm d 2126 ) with little appreciable weight gain compared to untreated samples . hydrophobated polyimide foam ( up to one volume % fc treatment ) samples were subjected to aircraft insulation fire test protocols ( engineering screening evaluations — not boeing qualification or faa certification ), including radiant panel flammability , toxic gas generation , smoke density and vertical burn . in each case , the treated polyimide foam met the requirements of those tests . while at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description , it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist . it should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments are only examples , and are not intended to limit the scope , applicability , or configuration of the described embodiments in any way . rather , the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments . it should be understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope as set forth in the appended claims and the legal equivalents thereof . | 2 |
fig1 is a block diagram of an apparatus , according to one embodiment of the present invention . optical signal 101 is input to polarization splitting element 102 . polarization splitting element 102 splits the received optical signal into two orthogonal polarizations or modes which are sent to output ports as output signals 103 and 113 . output signal 103 is sent to the input of waveguide 104 . the optical signal received by the waveguide 104 propagates through it and appears as output signal 105 . output signal 105 is input to optoelectronic signal processing system 106 , which processes the received signal and generates output 107 . output signal 113 is sent to the input of waveguide 114 . the optical signal received by the waveguide 114 propagates through it and appears as output signal 115 . output signal 115 is input to optoelectronic signal processing system 116 , which processes the received signal and generates output 117 . waveguides 104 and 114 are fabricated as identical waveguides within the limitations of the particular semiconductor processing technology used to make them . the two waveguides are of the same length , width and height and made of the same materials , during the same semiconductor processing steps . to minimize differences in the waveguides due to local variations in an integrated circuit , the waveguides 104 and 114 can be fabricated in close proximity to each other on the same integrated circuit . in an exemplary embodiment , the waveguides 104 and 114 are no more than five microns apart . just as matched transistors on an integrated circuit have to be built in close proximity to each other , the waveguides 104 and 114 have to be fabricated close together in order to be considered a matched pair of waveguides . in one embodiment , the polarization splitting element and the two waveguides are disposed on the same integrated circuit . in an alternate embodiment , the two waveguides are disposed on the same integrated circuit . if we consider waveguides 104 and 114 as identical waveguides , then their operating characteristics would be identical . two optical modes propagated separately through the two waveguides will encounter the same optical environment , and any change in the two signals due to the waveguides will be the same . optoelectronic signal processing systems 106 and 116 are also designed to be identical in operation , and have the same impact on the two separate optical modes . systems 106 and 116 can be any of a general type of signal processing systems , which can process signals optically , electronically or optoelectronically . the two identical signal processing systems can be any one of the following types of devices , such as : photodetectors , filters , modulators , demodulators , amplifiers , pulse shapers , multiplexers , demultiplexers , etc ., and other kinds of signal processors . the two identical signal processing systems can be output devices , such as chip to fiber couplers . in an alternate embodiment , the two systems 106 and 116 can be replaced by one signal processing system with two input ports and one output port . the outputs of the two signal processing systems can be combined together to generate a single output signal . thus , the two modes can travel down paths , which are very similar before independently reaching the signal processing system , and the sum of the effects of the identical waveguides can be expected to produce a nearly polarization independent effect . a matched pair of optical waveguides can have two basic forms . in the first form , they are exactly identical copies of each other , placed along the same orientation , in proximity to each other . the second form is where the two copies are mirror images of each other , along some line in plane with the substrate , and the two copies are in proximity to each other . a particularly advantageous aspect of the present invention is that splitting the optical input signal into its two orthogonal polarizations and processing the two polarizations in an identical manner enables the two planar waveguides operating together to receive an optical signal without being adversely affected by the polarization characteristics of the optical waveguide . when waveguides are fabricated , there are two main sources of fabrication error : film thickness and etch process variation . both of these two effects are dependent on the distance between two structures that are desired to be identical . the proper distance is best quantified with a number called the autocorrelation length of the variable . the autocorrelation length is a distance over which one thickness , for example , is known to be correlated to another , and beyond this distance , the relative thicknesses become increasingly non - deterministic . this autocorrelation function is well known to those skilled in the art , and can also be applied to the variations in process bias that create asymmetries between waveguides or optical circuits . a particularly relevant way to express the effects of a combination of effects , each with their own autocorrelation length is to combine them as a number representing the autocorrelation length of the phase of the optical signal . fig2 is a block diagram of an apparatus , according to one embodiment of the present invention . optical signal 201 is input to polarization splitting element 202 . polarization splitting element 202 splits the received optical signal into two orthogonal polarizations or modes which are sent to output ports as output signals 203 and 213 . output signal 203 is sent to the input of waveguide 204 . the optical signal received by the waveguide 204 propagates through it and appears as output signal 205 . output signal 205 is input to photodetector 206 , which processes the received signal and generates electrical output signal 207 . output signal 213 is sent to the input of waveguide 214 . the optical signal received by the waveguide 214 propagates through it and appears as output signal 215 . output signal 215 is input to photodetector 216 , which processes the received signal and generates electrical output signal 217 . electrical output signals 207 and 217 can be combined together by summing circuit 208 to generate electrical output signal 209 . in an alternate embodiment , the summing circuit 208 and the two photodetectors 206 and 216 can be replaced by one photodetector with two input ports and one output port . a particularly advantageous aspect of the present invention is the generation of an electrical output signal which corresponds to the total power of the two polarizations of the optical input signals , regardless of how the power is randomly transferred between the two polarizations . although the present invention has been described in detail , it should be understood that various changes , substitutions and alterations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . | 7 |
a first embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to fig1 to fig5 . an engine and a device associated therewith necessary for driving a chain saw blade 4 is housed in a main body 1 of the engine of the chain saw . the chain saw blade 4 which is driven through a drive shaft moves on an endless track along the edges of a guide plate 5 extending rightwardly in fig1 and performs a sawing action by its teeth . in fig1 designates the center axis of the drive shaft . the main body 1 has a front handle 6 and a rear handle 7 attached thereto , so that the operator can positively hold the main body 1 of the chain saw by gripping these handles to manually operate the saw . the front handle 6 is mounted such that it surrounds the top , one side and bottom of a front portion of the main body 1 and is connected at the bottom of the main body 1 to a t - shaped connector 8 made of a rigid material . the connector 8 extends rearwardly from the front portion of the main body 1 and is connected at its rear end portion to the rear handle 7 through a vibration absorber 29 . the connector 8 is secured at its intermediate portion 20b to the main body 1 through a vibration absorber 20 . thus , the front handle 6 is connected to the rear handle 7 through the connector 8 . by this arrangement , the swinging motion of the main body 1 relative to the front handle 6 in a plane normal to the handle 6 can be precluded while a sawing operation is being performed . the front handle 6 is firmly secured at its upper end to a support post 9 which is rigidly connected to the main body 1 by a bolt 11 . an upper vibration absorber 10 is interposed between the front handle 6 and the support post 9 . the front handle 6 surrounding the main body 1 at three sides is spaced apart therefrom a distance sufficiently great to permit the hand of the operator to grip the handle 6 . on the other hand , the front handle 6 is secured at its lower end to the main body 1 through a lower vibration absorber 14 arranged in a lower seat 13 which extends in the form of a rectangle along the center axis 3 of the drive shaft . the connector 8 which extends rearwardly is secured at its intermediate portion 20b to the bottom of the main body 1 through a vibration absorber 20 in a position which is near the rear end of the main body 1 . the connector 8 is further connected at its rear end to the lower end of the rear handle 7 through a vibration absorber 29 . the rear handle 7 is secured to the upper portion of the rear wall of the main body 1 through a plurality of vibration absorbers 25 . as shown in fig2 the upper vibration absorber or shock absorber 10 for the front handle 6 consists of a pair of left and right halves of a resilient member made as of vibration absorbing rubber , and annular plate members 10a and 10b made of a rigid material and secured to outer periphery and inner periphery respectively of the resilient member . the annular plate member 10a is inserted in an annular end portion of the support post 9 , while the annular plate member 10b receives therein a minor diameter portion of the front handle 6 . the upper shock absorber 10 is thus positively secured to the front handle 6 and the post 9 by a mounting bolt 12 . 10c is an annular hollow portion which is formed when the two halves of the upper shock absorbing means 10 are assembled . like the upper shock absorber 10 , the lower vibration absorber or shock absorber 14 consists of a resilient member made as of vibration absorbing rubber and upper and lower rigid plate members 14a and 14b affixed to the upper and lower sides of the resilient member respectively . the lower shock absorber 14 is substantially segmental in shape in its transverse cross - section as shown in fig1 and substantially rectangular in shape in its longitudinal cross - section as shown in fig2 to extend longitudinally along one side of the main body 1 . mounting nuts 15 are secured to one side of the lower plate member 14b which is in contact with and embedded in the resilient member . by threadably connecting mounting bolts 16 on the mounting nuts 15 , it is possible to positively affix the lower shock absorber 14 to the lower end of the front handle 6 . on the other hand , the upper plate member 14a is secured at opposite ends of its longitudinal axis by mounting bolts 17 to the bottom of the main body 1 . 14c is a recess formed in the resilient member to receive therein bolts 18 for interconnecting housing members for the main body 1 . the vibration absorber or shock absorber 20 through which the intermediate portion of the connector 8 is secured to the bottom of the main body 1 consists of a cylindrical resilient member made as of rubber , and plate members 21a and 21b affixed to the upper surface and underside of the resilient member as shown in fig1 . threaded rods 22a and 22b extend outwardly from end surfaces of the plate members 21a and 21b respectively . by threadably connecting nuts 23a and 23b to the threaded rods 22a and 22b respectively and tightening them , it is possible to firmly secure the intermediate portion 20b of the connector 8 to the rear wall of the main body 1 . the front handle 6 is supported at its upper end portion by the upper portion of the main body 1 through the front shock absorber 10 of the aforesaid construction , and at its lower end portion by the front end of the lower portion of the main body 1 at a pressure bearing seat of a substantial width extending laterally . thus , the front handle 6 is supported , as it were at three points . moreover , the main body 1 is supported at the lower portion of its rear wall by the connector 8 firmly secured to the shock absorber through the bolts 16 . this makes it possible to support the sawing machine in a stable manner when a sawing operation is performed . furthermore , the connector 8 extends rearwardly of the main body 1 and is connected at its rear end to the rear handle 7 , thereby ensuring positive handling of the main body 1 during operation . when the sawing machine is handled , the front handle 6 is responsible for movement and support of the sawing machine during its operation , because the front handle 6 is disposed in a position disposed in the vicinity of the vertical and transverse planes passing through the center of gravity of the machine . thus , by virtue of the aforementioned arrangement , the swinging motion of the sawing machine in a vertical direction relative to the front handle 6 is restricted by the connector 8 disposed below the main body 1 , while the swinging motion of the machine in a transverse direction ( leftwardly and rightwardly ) is restricted by the provision of the lower shock absorber 14 which has a pressure supporting seat extending transversely for a substantial distance . thus , the machine can be held firmly when it is supported by the operator gripping the front handle 6 , because the front handle 6 has suitable rigidity as aforementioned . the connector 8 is substantially in the form of a letter t as shown in fig3 . it is to be understood , however , the invention is not limited to this form of connector and that the connector 8 may be of any form as desired . on the other hand , the rear handle 7 is affixed at its front end portion to a shock absorber seat disposed on the upper portion of the rear wall or back surface of the main body 1 through a plurality of shock absorbers 25 ( two in number in this embodiment ) spaced apart from each other in a direction parallel to the center axis of the drive shaft and secured to the rear handle 7 . the rear handle 7 is connected at its rear end through a cylindrical shock absorber 29 to the rear end portion of the connector 8 . thus the rear handle 7 and the connector 8 are interconnected to be shaped in the form of a letter u lying on one side and its open upper portion facing toward and disposed at right angles to the front handle 6 . the rear handle 7 mainly performs the function of deciding the direction in which the machine faces . the upper shock absorbers 25 for the rear handle 8 are similar in construction to the shock absorber for the front handle 6 and consists of a resilient member made as of rubber , and plate members 25a and 25b made of a rigid material and affixed to opposite end surfaces of the resilient member . formed within the resilient member is a hole 25c ( see fig1 ) in which are arranged mounting bolts 28 connected through the plate member 24a to the rear wall of the main body 1 and fastened thereto . mounting bolts 27 are connected to the plate member 25b and nuts 37 are in threadable engagement with the bolts 26 . by tightening the nuts 27 on the bolts 27 , the rear handle 7 can be firmly secured to the main body 1 . the cylindrical shock absorber 29 for connecting the rear handle 7 to the connector 8 is similar in construction to the shock absorber 20 for securing the connector 8 at its intermediate portion to the bottom of the main body 1 . by tightening nuts on threaded mounting rods , it is possible to connect the rear handle 7 to the connector 8 . a second embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to fig . 6 to fig1 . the second embodiment is similar in construction to the first embodiment shown and described above except for the fact that they are distinguished from each other in the construction of the lower shock absorber for the front handle and the upper shock absorber for the rear handle 7 . in the drawings , therefore , like reference characters designates similar parts . the numeral 30 designates lower shock absorbers for the front handle 6 mounted in two positions as shown in fig7 and spaced apart from each other in a direction parallel to the center axis 3 of the drive shaft . the numeral 33 designates a connector secured by mounting bolts 34 to the lower end portion of the front handle 6 . being substantially in the form of a letter t as shown in fig8 the connector 33 comprises a portion 33a connected to the end of the front handle 6 and extending transversely of the machine , and a portion 33b disposed at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the portion 33a or extending lengthwise of the machine . the shock absorbers 30 which are rectangular in cross - section each consists of a resilient member and plate members 30a and 30b attached to opposite end surfaces of the resilient member , and secured to the main body 1 and connector 33 through mounting bolts 31 and 32 respectively . 35 designates bolts for interconnecting housing members for the main body 1 . the rear handle 7 shown in fig9 and fig1 is similar to the rear handle shown in fig4 and fig5 but distinguished therefrom in that a plurality of shock absorbers are provided and arranged in transversely spaced relation in the first embodiment while the shock absorber of the second embodiment designated 36 is rectangular in shape with its longitudinal axis extending transversely of the machine . the shock absorber 36 consists of a resilient member which may be hollow and formed with a bore 36c therein , so that the resilient member is annular in shape . this enables to economize on material and to effect control of the resilience of the shock absorbing means . the shock absorber 36 also consists of plate members 36a and 36b affixed to upper and lower surfaces of the resilient member respectively . the shock absorber 36 is secured to the rear handle 7 by threadably connecting mounting bolts 38 to nuts 37 disposed in bolt receiving openings 38a at the back of outwardly extending portions of the upper plate member 36a , and to the upper wall of the rear portion of the main body 1 through a mounting bolt 39 . the shock absorber for the rear handle 7 shown in fig9 and fig1 is slightly distinguished in construction from the shock absorber for the rear handle 7 shown in fig4 and fig5 . however , they are both connected at one point to the rear end of the connector and at a plurality of points in the mounting seat of the main body 1 . thus , the rear handle is , as it were , supported at three points . thus , the rear handle 7 can remain rigid to a suitable degree with respect to the main body 1 . in the two embodiments , different types of shock absorbers may be used for the different positions . for example , the lower shock absorber or absorbers for the front handle may be used for the rear handle and the upper shock absorber or absorbers for the rear handle may be used for the front handle . further , another modification of the connector 51 as shown in fig1 to 13 may be used in a chain saw of the third embodiment , wherein only the constructions for attaching the lower portion of said front handle and the intermediate portion of said connector to the main body of the chain saw engine are changed from the first and second embodiments . this connector 51 is made of casted metal such as aluminum , and is connected at its front portion to the front area of said main body 1 of the chain saw engine through shock absorbing members 53 and at its intermediate portion to the rear bottom area of said main body through shock absorbing members 53 similar to the former , as shown in fig1 . the rear portion of said connector is connected to the rear end of the rear handle 7 through a shock absorbing member substantially identical to the one 29 of the first embodiment shown in fig1 . as seen from fig1 and 12 , the connector 51 is provided with reinforcement ribs in a suitable arrangement and thus is made rigid unitaty construction . in this third embodiment , the front handle 6 is securely mounted on the seat portion ( 55 ) formed at the front end of said connector . from the foregoing description , it will be appreciated that according to the invention the front handle and the rear handle are connected to each other so that they may function as an assembly of handles and they are secured as a unit to the main body through shock absorbing means . by this arrangement , vibrations caused to occur by the mechanical vibration source can be absorbed by the shock absorbers disposed at various portions of the assembly of the front and rear handles . moreover , the front handle and rear handle can each support the main body of the sawing machine at three points . this enables the handles to be firmly secured to the main body with suitable rigidity and therefore precludes the swinging motion of the machine either vertically or transversely while the machine is being operated . thus , the machine can be moved and held in position by means of the front handle , and can be made to face any direction as desired by means of the rear handle . the invention offers advantages in operating the sawing machine which have never been realized by support systems of the prior art , and contributes to improvements in shock absorbing devices for chain saws , so that the influences exerted by vibrations on the operator can be minimized and a sawing operation can be performed safely without causing any injury to the operator . | 5 |
referring to fig1 , a shipping container blank 10 in accordance with the present invention is illustrated . the blank 10 is shown completely unfolded in fig1 for clarity , and the blank 10 is shown in its inventive , pre - folded and pre - glued form ( described in greater detail below ) in fig2 a - 2 g . it is preferred that the container blank 10 be formed of conventional corrugated fiberboard , although is contemplated that the blank 10 can be formed of any other material that is suitable for making a shipping container or point of purchase display , including , but not limited to folding carton stock , wood , metal , plastic , and various composites . for the sake of convenience and clarity , terms such as “ top ”, “ bottom ”, “ length ,” “ width ,” “ inwardly ,” “ outwardly ,” “ lateral ,” and “ longitudinal ” will be used herein to describe the relative size and orientation of various components of the invention , all with respect to the geometry and orientation of the blank 10 as it appears in fig1 . this terminology will include the words specifically mentioned , derivatives thereof , and words of similar import . the container blank 10 is generally planar with an interior surface 12 and an opposing exterior surface 14 ( not within view ). the blank 10 includes a longitudinal section 16 and two end sections 18 and 20 . three longitudinal fold lines 22 , 24 , and 26 are formed in the longitudinal section 16 of the blank 10 in a substantially parallel relationship for foldably separating the longitudinal section 16 into a base panel 28 , a rear panel 30 , a front panel 32 , and a closure tab 34 . the fold lines 22 , 24 , and 26 may be scored and / or depressed into the interior surface 12 of the blank 10 in a conventional manner that will be appreciated by those skilled in the art . the base panel 28 , rear panel 30 , and front panel 32 are generally rectangular in shape and are preferably equal to one another in dimension to form a container having an equilateral , triangular cross section ( described in greater detail below ). the longitudinal section 16 of the container blank 10 can have any length desired , as indicated by the broken lines in the longitudinal section 16 , although lengths under about 6 feet are generally preferred for forming a container with sufficient axial rigidity . container blanks formed of materials other than fiberboard may , however , offer sufficient axial rigidity at maximum lengths greater or lesser than that of the preferred embodiment . it is generally required that the panels 28 - 32 be of substantially equal length , although embodiments of the invention are contemplated in which the panels 28 - 32 have unequal widths for forming triangular containers that are not equilateral . the closure tab 34 is preferably trapezoidal in shape and has a width that is substantially equal to the widths of the base , rear , and front panels 28 - 32 . however , the closure tab 34 can have any suitable size or shape , including , but not limited to rectangular , triangular , or rounded . alternatively , the closure tab 34 can be replaced by two or more smaller tabs that are longitudinally spaced apart from another . the closure tab 34 can alternatively be foldably connected to the rear panel , as indicated by the phantom line shown in fig7 a . still further , the closure tab can be entirely omitted ( see fig7 a and 7 b ). still referring to fig1 , first and second transverse fold lines 36 and 38 are formed in the container blank 10 in a substantially parallel relationship at opposing longitudinal ends of the longitudinal section 16 . the transverse fold lines 36 and 38 foldably separate the longitudinal section 16 of the blank 10 from the end sections 18 and 20 and allow the end sections 18 and 20 to be folded approximately 180 degrees relative to the interior surface of the longitudinal section 16 . a first angled fold line 40 and a second angled fold line 44 are formed in the end section 18 for foldably separating the end section 18 into a first triangular panel 48 , a second triangular panel 52 , and a first mounting panel 56 . similarly , a third angled fold line 42 and a fourth angled fold line 46 are formed in the end section 20 for foldably separating the end section 20 into a third triangular panel 50 , a fourth triangular panel 54 , and a second mounting panel 58 . it is critical that the edges of the first and third triangular panels 48 and 50 that lie along the first and second transverse fold lines 36 and 38 extend from the top edge of the base panel 28 to the bottom edge of the base panel 28 . it is generally preferred that the first and third triangular panels 48 and 50 be equilateral , with each edge of the panels 48 and 50 being substantially equal in length to the widths of the base , front , and , rear panels 28 - 32 for forming an assembled shipping container with an equilateral cross - section . while the lengths of the edges of the first and third triangular panels 48 and 50 can be made unequal for forming a triangular container that is not equilateral , it is generally required that the lengths of the top edges of the panels 48 and 50 be substantially equal to the width of the front panel 32 , that the lengths of the bottom edges of the panels 48 and 50 be substantially equal to the width of the rear panel 30 , and that the lengths of the edges of the panels 48 and 50 that lie along the first and second transverse fold lines 36 and 38 be substantially equal to the width of the base panel 28 . the second and fourth triangular panels 52 and 54 are preferably identical in size and shape to the first and third triangular panels 48 and 50 , although it is contemplated that the edges of the second and fourth triangular panels 52 and 54 that lie along the first and third angled fold lines 40 and 42 can be shorter than the edges of the first and third triangular panels 48 and 50 that lie along the first and third angled fold lines 40 and 42 and that the edges of the second and fourth triangular panels 52 and 54 that lie along the second and fourth angled fold lines 44 and 46 can be longer or shorter than the edges of the first and third triangular panels 48 and 50 that lie along the second and fourth angled fold lines 44 and 46 . the outermost edges of the second and fourth triangular panels 52 and 54 can alternatively be rounded , notched , or irregularly - shaped . the first and second mounting panels 56 and 58 are preferably trapezoidal in shape and extend downwardly from the second and fourth angled fold lines 44 and 46 to the bottom edge of the rear panel 30 . the first and second mounting panels 56 and 58 can have a variety of other shapes and sizes , as will be discussed later herein . preferably , relief holes 57 and 59 are formed through each of the end sections 18 and 20 at the intersection of the three panels that make up an end section . these holes make is easier to fold the material along the fold lines . referring now to fig2 a and 2 b , the container blank 10 is shown in its inventive , pre - folded and pre - glued form . the end sections 18 and 20 of the blank 10 are substantially identical minor images of one another , and will now be described with reference to the left end section 18 only . it is a first critical feature of the invention that the end section 18 of the blank 10 is folded inwardly , with the interior surface of the end section 18 flatly abutting the interior surface of the longitudinal section 16 . it is another critical feature of the invention that the bottom edge of the second triangular panel 52 is foldably secured against the interior surface of the rear panel 30 for allowing the second triangular panel 52 to fold approximately 180 degrees relative to the rear panel 30 about the second angled fold line 44 . in the preferred embodiment of the invention , both of the above described critical features are achieved by gluing the interior surface of the first mounting panel 56 to the interior surface of the rear panel 30 ( glue is indicated by the dashed trapezoidal outlines in fig2 a and 2 b , and by the shaded trapezoids in fig1 ). although it is preferred that the interior surfaces of the first mounting panel 56 and the rear panel 30 be glued together , the panels 56 and 30 can be secured to one another by any other conventional means , such as by taping , stapling , or by velcro . container blanks are stacked and packaged with both of their end sections folded and secured as illustrated in fig2 a and 2 b . in order to convert the pre - folded , pre - glued container blank 10 into an assembled shipping container , the blank 10 must be folded along the first and second longitudinal fold lines 22 and 24 as indicated by the curved , outlined arrows shown in fig2 c - 2 e . referring to fig2 c - 2 f , the rear panel 30 is preferably first folded inwardly about the first longitudinal fold line 22 toward the interior surface of the base panel 28 . as the rear panel 30 is pivoted , the end section 18 of the blank 10 is caused to automatically fold along the first and second angled fold lines 40 and 44 in the manner of a pop - up book , as indicated by the dashed arrows in fig2 c - 2 e . specifically , the exterior surface of the first mounting panel 56 automatically pivots about the second angled fold line 44 toward the exterior surface of the second triangular panel 52 , and the interior surface of the second triangular panel 52 automatically pivots about the first angled fold line 40 toward the interior surface of the first triangular panel 48 . the first triangular panel 48 is thereby caused to automatically pivot about the first transverse fold line 36 outwardly , away from the base panel 28 . referring to fig2 f , the rear panel 30 is folded until the lateral edge of the rear panel 30 meets the bottom edge of the first triangular panel 48 . optionally , the exterior surfaces of the mounting panel 56 and the second triangular panel 52 may then be fastened together with glue , tape , staples , or any other suitable fastening means . at this point , any items that are to be stored or shipped in the container should be placed inside the assembled portion of the container ( i . e ., within the v - shaped crotch formed by the base panel 28 and the rear panel 30 ). referring now to fig2 f and 2 g , the assembly of the shipping container is completed by pivoting the front panel 32 about the second longitudinal fold line 24 toward the base panel 28 until the lateral edge of the front panel 32 meets the top edge of the first triangular panel 48 . referring to fig2 g , the closure tab 34 is then folded about the third longitudinal fold line 26 over the rear panel 30 until the interior surface of the closure tab 34 is brought into contact with the exterior surface of the rear panel 30 . the closure tab 34 is then preferably fastened to the rear panel 30 with glue , although all other suitable fastening means , such as tape , staples , or velcro , are contemplated . referring to fig3 , the completed triangular shipping container 60 is sealed and ready to be shipped . although it is preferred that the first mounting panel 56 be trapezoidal in shape and that it extends from the second angled fold line 44 to the bottom edge of the rear panel 30 , the first mounting panel 56 can have a variety of alternative shapes and sizes , or it can be omitted entirely . for example , referring to fig4 a and 4 b , the left end section of an alternative embodiment of the invention is illustrated in which the mounting panel 70 is a narrow tab . referring to fig5 a and 5 b , another embodiment of the invention is illustrated in which the mounting panel is omitted , and wherein the bottom edge of the second triangular panel 80 is foldably secured against the rear panel 82 with a piece of tape 84 . referring now to fig6 a - 6 c , yet another embodiment of the invention is illustrated wherein the mounting panel is omitted , and wherein the exterior surface of the second triangular panel 90 is foldably connected to the exterior surface of the rear panel 92 by a piece of tape 94 that extends through a narrow slit 96 formed in the rear panel 92 . although the embodiment illustrated in fig6 a - 6 c is not preferred because it lacks the strength of the preferred embodiment , it is included to show that many different methods for foldably connecting the second triangular panel 52 to the rear panel 30 are possible . if the closure tab 34 is omitted , as in the embodiment of the invention shown in fig7 a and 7 b , one or more pieces of tape 100 or any other suitable fastener can be used to fasten the exterior surface of the front panel 102 to the exterior surface of the rear panel 104 for holding the assembled container 106 closed . as a further alternative , a closure tab 108 , similar to the closure tab 34 , may optionally be hinged along a fold line to the rear panel 110 . this detailed description in connection with the drawings is intended principally as a description of the presently preferred embodiments of the invention , and is not intended to represent the only form in which the present invention may be constructed or utilized . the description sets forth the designs , functions , means , and methods of implementing the invention in connection with the illustrated embodiments . it is to be understood , however , that the same or equivalent functions and features may be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of the invention and that various modifications may be adopted without departing from the invention or scope of the following claims . | 1 |
referring to the accompanying drawings , preferred embodiments of the present invention will be explained below . first , a first embodiment of the present invention will be explained below with reference to fig1 - 5 . fig1 is a front view showing a signal lamp for vehicles according to the first embodiment of the present invention . fig2 is a cross - sectional view taken on line ii — ii in fig1 and fig3 is a cross - sectional view taken on line iii — iii in fig1 . fig4 is a view showing a portion iv of fig3 in detail . as shown in these drawings , a signal lamp 10 for vehicles of the first embodiment is a rectangular tail lamp which is long in the transverse direction . the signal lamp 10 for vehicles includes : a light source bulb 12 ; a reflector 14 having a reflective surface 14 a on which light emitting from a filament 12 a ( light source ) of the light source bulb 12 is reflected frontward ( it is the front side of the lighting device , however , it is the rear side of the vehicle . these circumstances are the same in the following sentences . ); and a lens 16 arranged in the front of this reflector 14 . the above reflector 14 is provided with an optical axis ax extending to the longitudinal direction . the light source bulb 12 is attached to the reflector 14 in such a manner that a center of the filament 12 a extending in the perpendicular direction is positioned on the optical axis ax . the lens 16 is composed of a transparent lens . the reflective surface 14 a of the reflector 14 is composed of a plurality of rectangular diffusing reflection elements 14 s which are arranged at regular intervals in a lattice - shape . surface shapes of the diffusing reflection elements 14 s are formed when the following curved surfaces are formed on a plurality of paraboloids of revolution , the focuses of which are located at the center of the filament 12 a , and the focal distances of which are different from each other , wherein the central axis of each paraboloid of revolution is the optical axis ax . as shown in fig2 the horizontal section of each diffusing reflection element 14 s is set to be a convex curve . due to the foregoing , light emitting from the filament 12 a is reflected being diffused at a predetermined diffusion angle onto the right and left with respect to the optical axis ax . in this connection , the radius of curvature of the convex curve is set at a substantially constant value for each diffusing reflection element 14 s . on the other hand , as shown in fig3 and 4 , a perpendicular cross section of each diffusing reflection element 14 s is set to be the same curve as the perpendicular cross - sectional shape of each paraboloid of revolution in its general region “ a ”. the end region “ b ” located in the opposite side to the general region “ a ” with respect to the optical axis is set at a convex curve which smoothly continues to the curve of the general region “ a ”. due to the foregoing , light emitting from the filament 12 a is reflected on the general region “ a ” as a flux of parallel rays in the direction of the optical axis ax , and at the same time , light emitting from the filament 12 a is reflected on the end region “ b ” so that it can be diffused in a direction separate from the optical axis ax . in this connection , in the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at an upper position of the optical axis ax , the end region “ b ” is formed in its upper end portion . in the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at a lower position of the optical axis ax , the end region “ b ” is formed in its lower end portion . in the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at the same height as that of the optical axis ax , the end region “ b ” is formed in both the upper and the lower end portion . due to the foregoing , in each diffusing reflection element 14 s , only light reflected on the central region a 1 in the transverse direction in the general region “ a ” is reflected in the direction of the optical axis ax . that is , the central region a 1 in the transverse direction of the general region “ a ” becomes an optical axis direction reflecting region , and the region a 2 in the general region “ a ” except for the central region a 1 in the transverse direction and the end region “ b ” become an optical axis non - reflecting region . the higher the illuminance of the diffusing reflection element with respect to the incident light emitting from the filament 12 a is , the lower the area ratio of the optical axis direction reflecting region a 1 in each diffusing reflection element 14 s is set to be . the more distant the diffusing reflection element 14 s is from the filament 12 a of the light source bulb 2 , the lower the value of illuminance decreases . since the filament 12 a is a linear light source extending in the perpendicular direction , even if the distances from the filament 12 a are equal to each other , the value of illuminance of the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at a position upper or lower the optical axis ax becomes lower than the value of illuminance of the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at the side of the optical axis . therefore , the area ratio of the optical axis direction reflecting region a 1 of the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at the side of the optical axis ax is smallest and gradually becomes higher when the diffusing reflection element 14 s is separated from the optical axis ax . specifically , when the boundary l between the general region “ a ” and the end region “ b ” is set at a different position according to each diffusing reflection element 14 s , the ratio of area can be adjusted . fig5 is a view showing a look of the reflective surface 14 a when the reflector 14 is viewed from the front in the direction of the optical axis ax under the condition that the light source bulb 12 is turned on . as apparent from fig5 in each diffusing reflection element 14 s , the optical axis direction reflecting region al is bright as a belt - shaped bright portion b , however , the optical axis direction non - reflecting region a 2 and the end region “ b ” are not bright . in this connection , the densely hatched lattice - shaped region d in the view is a step portion formed between the diffusing reflection elements 4 s , and it is also a light non - incident region upon which light emitting from the filament 2 a is not incident because it is shaded by the step portion . luminance of the bright portion b is different as shown by the mesh in the view according to a position at which each diffusing reflection element 14 s is arranged . this difference in luminance corresponds to a difference in illuminance of the incident light emitting from the filament 12 a of the light source bulb 2 . luminance of the bright portion b of the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at the side of the optical axis ax close to it is highest , and luminance of the bright portion b of the diffusing reflection element 14 s distant from the optical axis ax is gradually decreased . however , as described before , the ratio of area of the optical axis direction reflecting region a 1 of the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at the side of the optical axis ax is lowest and gradually increases when it is separated from it . therefore , luminous intensity of the bright portion b is made uniform between the diffusing reflection elements 14 s . due to the foregoing , when the reflective surface 14 a is viewed from the front of the optical axis ax , each diffusing reflection element 14 s looks bright substantially uniformly . therefore , according to the present embodiment , in a signal lamp for vehicles , the reflective surface of which is composed of a plurality of diffusing reflection elements , it is possible to enhance a looks of the lighting device when the light source bulb is turned on . particularly , in - this embodiment , the diffusing reflection elements 14 s are arranged at regular intervals in a lattice - shape . therefore , when the diffusing reflection elements are bright differently , the lighting device may have a feeling of incongruity . however , it is possible to effectively solve the problem of having a feeling of incongruity . further , in this embodiment , each diffusing reflection element 14 s has a function of diffusing in the transverse direction , and the end region “ b ” has a function of diffusing in the perpendicular direction . therefore , it is possible for the reflector 14 to satisfy a predetermined light distribution performance required for the lighting device . due to the foregoing , the lens 16 can be composed of a plain - glass lens , so that a feeling of transparency and depth can be improved . in the first embodiment , the optical axis direction reflecting region a 1 composing the general region “ a ” of each diffusing reflection element 14 s , and the region a 2 except for that are formed by the same curved surface . due to the above structure , not only when the lighting device is observed from the front side of the lighting device ( in the optical axis ax direction ) but also even when the lighting device is observed from a visual point a little shifted from the front side of the lighting device in the transverse direction , the diffusing reflection elements can be seen as if they were bright at a substantially uniform brightness . next , a second embodiment of the present invention will be explained below with reference to fig6 and 7 . fig6 is a cross - sectional side view showing a signal lamp for vehicles of the second embodiment . fig6 is a view drawn in the same manner as that of fig3 . as shown in the drawing , the structure of the end region “ b ” of each diffusing reflection element 14 s of the signal lamp 10 a for vehicles of the second embodiment is different from that of the signal lamp 10 for vehicles of the first embodiment described before . in this embodiment , a perpendicular section of the end region “ b ” is formed by extending the general region “ aa ” as it is . on a surface of the end region “ b ”, there is provided a non - reflecting coating film 18 . in this connection , a position of the boundary line l between the general line “ a ” and the end region “ b ” is the same as that of the first embodiment . even when the light source bulb 12 is turned on , light emitting from the filament 12 a is not reflected on the end region “ b ” on which the non - reflecting coating film is provided . therefore , as shown in fig7 when the above reflector 14 is observed from the front of the optical axis ax , only the optical axis direction reflecting region a 1 of each diffusing reflection element 14 s looks bright as a belt - shaped bright portion b . accordingly , in the same manner as that of the first embodiment , when the reflective surface 14 a is observed from the front of the optical axis ax , each diffusing reflection element 14 s also looks bright substantially uniformly in the second embodiment . however , unlike the first embodiment described before , the end region “ b ” has no function of diffusing and reflecting in the perpendicular direction in this embodiment . accordingly , as shown in fig6 it is necessary to provide lens steps for diffusion in the perpendicular direction in the lens 16 . in this connection , instead of providing the non - reflecting coating film 18 , the reflective surface processing ( aluminum vapor - deposition ) may not be conducted . due to the foregoing , the same action and effect as that of the second embodiment can be provided . next , a third embodiment of the present invention will be explained below with reference to fig8 to 11 . fig8 is a front view showing a signal lamp for vehicles of this embodiment . fig9 is a cross - sectional view taken on line ix — ix in fig8 . fig1 is a cross - sectional view taken on line x — x in fig8 . as shown in these drawings , the signal lamp 10 b for vehicles of this embodiment is a circular tail lamp , the reflective surface 14 a of the reflector 14 of which is composed of a plurality of sector - shaped diffusing reflection elements 14 s arranged radially and concentrically at regular intervals with respect to the optical axis ax . in the same manner as that of the first embodiment , surface shapes of the diffusing reflection elements 14 s are formed when the following curved surfaces are formed on a plurality of paraboloids of revolution , the focuses of which are the center of the filament 12 a , and the focal distances of which are different from each other , wherein the central axis of each paraboloid of revolution is the optical axis ax . the cross - sectional shape in the radial direction and the cross - sectional shape in the circumferential direction respectively correspond to the perpendicular cross - sectional shape and the horizontal cross - sectional shape in the first embodiment described before . as shown in fig1 , a cross - section of each diffusing reflection element 14 s in the circumferential direction is formed into a convex curve . due to the foregoing , light emitting from the filament 12 a is reflected and diffused by a predetermined diffusion angle onto both sides of the circumferential direction with respect to the direction of the optical axis ax . in this connection , the radius of curvature of the above convex curve is set at a substantially constant value between the diffusing reflection elements 14 s . on the other hand , as shown in fig9 the cross - section in the radial direction of each diffusing reflection element 14 s is determined as follows . the general region “ a ” is set to be the same curve as that of the cross - section in the radial direction of each paraboloid of revolution , and the end region “ b ” located on the opposite side to the general region “ a ” with respect to the optical axis is set to be a convex curve which smoothly continues to the above curve of the general region “ a ”. due to the foregoing , light emitting from the filament 12 a is reflected in the direction of the optical axis ax as a flux of parallel rays in the general region “ a ”, and reflected and diffused in a direction separating from the optical axis ax in the end region “ b ”. due to the foregoing , in each diffusing reflection element 14 s , only light reflected in the central region a 1 of the general region “ a ” in the circumferential direction is reflected in the direction of the optical axis ax . that is , the central region a 1 in the transverse direction of the general region “ a ” becomes an optical axis direction reflecting region , and the region a 2 in the general region “ a ” except for the central region a 1 in the transverse direction and the end region “ b ” become an optical axis non - reflecting region . the higher the illuminance of the diffusing reflection element with respect to the incident light emitting from the filament 12 a is , the lower the area ratio of the optical axis direction reflecting region a 1 in each diffusing reflection element 14 s is set to be . the more distant the diffusing reflection element 14 s is from the filament 12 a of the light source bulb 2 , the lower the value of illuminance decreases . since the filament 12 a is a linear light source extending in the perpendicular direction , even if the distances from the filament 12 a are equal to each other , the value of illuminance of the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at a position upper or lower the optical axis ax becomes lower than the value of illuminance of the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at the side of the optical axis . therefore , the area ratio of the optical axis direction reflecting region a 1 of the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at the side of the optical axis ax is smallest and gradually becomes higher when the diffusing reflection element 14 s is separated from the optical axis ax . specifically , when the boundary l between the general region “ a ” and the end region “ b ” is set at a different position according to each diffusing reflection element 14 s , the ratio of area can be adjusted . fig1 is a view showing a look of the reflective surface 14 a when the reflector 14 is observed from the front of the optical axis ax . as shown in the view , in each diffusing reflection element 14 s , the optical axis direction reflecting region a 1 is bright as a substantially belt - shaped bright portion b , however , the optical axis direction non - reflecting region a 2 and the end region “ b ” are not bright . in this connection , the densely hatched concentric region d in the view is a step portion formed between the diffusing reflection elements 4 s , and it is also a light non - incident region upon which light emitting from the filament 2 a is not incident because of the step and the base of the light source bulb 2 . luminance of the bright portion b is different as shown by the density of broken lines in the view according to a position at which each diffusing reflection element 14 s is arranged . this difference in luminance corresponds to a difference in illuminance of the incident light emitting from the filament 12 a of the light source bulb 2 . luminance of the bright portion b of the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at the side of the optical axis ax close to it is highest , and luminance of the bright portion b of the diffusing reflection element 14 s distant from the optical axis ax is gradually decreased . however , as described before , the ratio of area of the optical axis direction reflecting region a 1 of the diffusing reflection element 14 s located at the side of the optical axis ax is lowest and gradually increases when it is separated from it . therefore , luminous intensity of the bright portion b is made uniform between the diffusing reflection elements 14 s . due to the foregoing , when the reflective surface 14 a is observed from the front of the optical axis ax , each diffusing reflection element 14 s looks bright substantially uniformly . therefore , according to the third embodiment , in a signal lamp for vehicles , the reflective surface of which is composed of a plurality of diffusing reflection elements , it is possible to improve the external appearance of the lighting device when the light source bulb is turned on and viewed from the outside . further , in the third embodiment , each diffusing reflection element 14 s has a function of diffusing in the circumferential direction , and the end region “ b ”, has a function of diffusing in the radial direction . therefore , it is possible for the reflector 14 to satisfy a predetermined light distribution performance required for the lighting device . due to the foregoing , the lens 16 can be composed of a plain - glass lens , so that a feeling of transparency and depth can be enhanced . in this embodiment , the optical axis direction reflecting region a 1 composing the general region “ a ” of each diffusing reflection element 14 s , and the region a 2 except for that are formed by the same curved surface . due to the above structure , not only when the lighting device is observed from the front side of the lighting device ( in the optical axis ax direction ) but also even when the lighting device is observed from a visual point a little shifted from the front side of the lighting device in an arbitrary direction , the diffusing reflection elements can be seen as if they were bright at a substantially uniform brightness . | 5 |
turning now to fig1 and 2 , according to at least one embodiment of the present application , a water treatment unit 10 includes a riser or pump barrel 12 having a lower end 14 and an upper end 16 that is optionally fabricated from plastic , metal ( including , for example , galvanized steel , enamel - coated steel , aluminum , stainless steel , or other malleable metals ), or other materials known in the art . further , according to at least one embodiment , one or more inlets 18 are be provided around lower end 14 of riser 12 . according to at least one optional embodiment , a bottom end 20 is optionally added to lower end 14 of riser 12 , whereby one or more inlets 18 may be fitted to lower end 14 of riser 12 , and may optionally include a ballast member 22 as shown in fig3 to assist in maintaining the water treatment unit 10 upright . it will be appreciated that the weight of ballast member 22 may be adjusted to adjust the height at which the upper end 16 floats above the water level of the lagoon , pond , or tank w . according to at least one embodiment , riser 12 is sized and shaped to be of any required length and cross - sectional area as required by the necessary water flow , amperage requirements , and viscosity of wastewater . one or more water discharge outlets 24 can be provided around the upper end 16 of the riser 12 . a cap 26 can be coupled to the upper end 16 of the riser 12 by fasteners 28 or other means to substantially close the upper end 16 of the riser 12 . the cap 26 can include a peripheral wall 30 that surrounds the upper end 16 of the riser 12 . a mixed wastewater chamber 32 optionally surrounds the upper end 16 of the riser 12 and peripheral wall 30 , formed by a housing comprising a chamber floor 34 that is optionally fixed to a selected portion of riser 12 , located between the upper end 16 and the lower end 14 , by fasteners , welding , fusing or other means of connecting the material comprising riser 12 and chamber floor 34 . mixed wastewater chamber 32 further optionally comprises wall 42 and chamber ceiling 46 , with chamber floor 34 , wall 42 , and chamber ceiling 46 meeting to cause wastewater chamber 32 to attach to , and substantially enclose riser 12 . chamber floor 34 optionally comprises one or more openings 39 in chamber floor 34 , whereby fluid that has been pumped through riser 12 cascades out through discharge outlets 24 , into mixed water chamber 32 , and building pressure forces the resulting mixed fluid down and out through the one or more openings 39 in chamber floor 34 . further optionally , chamber ceiling 46 comprises chamber ceiling opening 54 through which air can be drawn into the chamber 32 . an intermediate wall 58 optionally depends from chamber ceiling 46 outside peripheral wall 30 ( if present in the embodiment ) and inside the outer wall 42 . in operation , turning to fig3 , intermediate wall 58 separates an inner chamber 60 from the remainder of chamber 32 , as intermediate wall 58 is sized to depend from chamber ceiling 46 to reach water level w 1 inside chamber 32 such that no air gap exists between water level w 1 and a bottom portion of inner intermediate wall 58 . while each of the peripheral wall 30 , intermediate wall 58 and chamber wall 42 are illustrated to be portions of right cylinders in shape in fig1 , 2 , and 3 , other shapes may be adopted for one or more of the walls 30 , 42 and 58 . according to at least one embodiment , motor 64 , such as a ¾ hp electric motor or any other properly sized and powered motor , engine , or other revolving powerplant , can be fixed to and supported by the cap 26 as shown in fig2 - 4 , or motor 64 may be attached to a motor plate 110 that is sized larger than chamber ceiling opening 54 , thereby allowing motor 64 , and motor plate 110 ( shown in fig5 ) may be removably attached to chamber ceiling 64 by way of fasteners such as bolts , wing nuts , or other fastener means . shaft 66 is optionally connected to motor 64 by coupling member 65 extending downward through cap opening 68 in cap 26 in general axial alignment with riser 12 . it will be appreciated that by utilizing a motor plate that fits over the top of chamber ceiling opening as shown in fig5 , removal of the motor 64 , shaft 66 , and propellers 70 are readily pulled from riser 12 to allow for inspection of components , sharpening of blades , and general maintenance or repair of the equipment with minimal disassembly effort . according to at least one embodiment , at least one propeller 70 is coupled to shaft 66 to cause rotation of shaft 66 by the motor 64 , thereby creating an upward flow of fluid from a body of water outside waste treatment unit 10 into riser 12 . a buoyant member 72 , such as that shown in fig4 , may be attached to waste treatment unit 10 in any manner to cause waste treatment unit to sit at a specified height in a body of water or fluid such that waste treatment unit 10 sits at a predetermined level w as shown in fig3 . it will be appreciated that level w may be determined as a different height for different embodiments of waste treatment unit 10 , and depending on the application for which waste treatment unit 10 is utilized . it will be appreciated that buoyant member 72 can take many forms , including foam filled buoys , air filled bladders that may be adjusted to adjust where water level w sits in relation to waste treatment unit 10 , or any other buoyant material . for example , two buoyant floats such as two 2 ′× 4 ′ polyethylene coated foam dock floats available from formex manufacturing , inc ., lawrenceville , ga ., can be utilized , along with cross members or other attaching members to hold waste treatment unit 10 in the proper relation to the fluid line . additionally , two or more torque lines can be connected to the outer wall 42 to prevent rotation of the treatment unit 10 when the motor 64 is running . as shown in fig3 , according to at least one embodiment , multiple propellers 70 are employed , whereby a first propeller 70 is included along shaft 66 near the lower end of riser 12 , and a second propeller 70 is included along shaft 66 near upper end 16 of riser 12 . in at least one exemplary embodiment , second propeller 70 is positioned such that the propeller is at least partially exposed to air , thereby allowing second propeller to entrain air into the water or fluid flowing past second propeller 70 and into discharge outlets 24 . according to at least one embodiment , second propeller is positioned relative to the height of the discharge outlets such that air is entrained into the water at a size less than 1 . 0 mm , 0 . 5 mm , less than 0 . 25 mm , less than 0 . 15 mm , or less than 0 . 1 mm in size for the given motor / propeller combination . an alternate embodiment is shown in fig4 in which the water treatment unit 10 is shown to include a riser or pump barrel 12 having a lower end 14 and an upper end 16 . one or more inlets 18 can be provided around the lower end 14 of the riser 12 . a bottom end 20 can be provided that may include a ballast member 22 to assist in maintaining the water treatment unit 10 upright . the riser 12 can be of any required length . one or more water discharge outlets 24 can be provided around the upper end 16 of the riser 12 . a cap or lid 26 can be coupled to the upper end 16 of the riser 12 by fasteners 28 or other means to substantially close the upper end 16 of the riser 12 . the cap 26 can include a depending wall peripheral wall 30 that surrounds the upper end 16 of the riser 12 . a chamber 32 can surround the upper end 16 of the riser 12 and the peripheral wall 30 . a chamber floor or bottom plate 34 can be fixed to an intermediate portion 36 of the riser 12 , located between the upper end 16 and the lower end 14 , by fasteners 38 or other means . the chamber floor or bottom plate 34 can have one or more openings 39 and an outer edge 40 that can be circular . the chamber 32 can be further defined by a shroud outer wall 42 that can have a lower edge 44 that contacts the chamber floor or bottom plate 34 . a chamber ceiling 46 can have an outer edge 48 that can be fixed to or unitary with an upper edge 50 of the shroud outer wall 42 . the chamber ceiling 46 optionally includes chamber ceiling opening 54 through which air can be drawn into chamber 32 . the top wall 46 can be spaced from the cap 26 by means of spacers 56 , which can be adjustable . the spacers 56 are illustrated to be fixed to the cap 26 and contacting top wall 46 , but the spacers can be fixed to the top wall 46 and contacting cap 26 . an intermediate wall 58 can depend from the top wall 46 outside the peripheral wall 30 and inside the outer wall 42 . the intermediate wall 58 can be seen to separate an inner chamber 60 from an outer chamber 62 . while each of the peripheral wall 30 , intermediate wall 58 and outer wall 42 are illustrated to be portions of right cylinders in shape , other shapes may be adopted for one or more of the walls 30 , 42 and 58 . a motor 64 , such as a ¾ hp electric motor , can be fixed to and supported by the cap 26 . a shaft 66 can be coupled to the motor 64 by coupling member 65 to extend downward through an opening 68 in cap 26 in general axial alignment with the riser 12 . at least one propeller 70 can be coupled to the shaft 66 so that rotation of the shaft 66 by the motor 64 can cause an upward flow of water within the riser 12 . a buoyant member 72 can be coupled to the chamber floor 34 or to outer wall 42 to maintain the top wall 46 above the surface of the water surrounding the water treatment unit 10 , particularly in high water situations . in low water situations , the water treatment unit 10 may rest on the bottom 21 of the ballast unit 22 . two or more torque lines 41 can be connected to the outer wall 42 to prevent rotation of waste treatment unit 10 when the motor 64 is running . the operation of the water treatment unit 10 is illustrated , particularly in fig3 . as shown in at least one exemplary embodiment , waste treatment unit 10 is be placed in a body of water w such that riser 12 extends downward to a desired depth . it will be appreciated that the lower portion 14 of riser 12 may be made of a material that allows the addition of segmented tubes or other structures , such as pvc piping , stainless steel piping with threaded extensions , or other such structures that allows the ultimate depth of riser 12 to be determined by a user such that stratified layers of water in a treatment lagoon can be specifically targeted to be drawn up through riser 12 for oxygenation and displacement , thereby allowing water in the lower , anaerobic areas of a lagoon to be drawn up , oxygenated , and discharged . it will be appreciated that when motor 64 is powered on , water or the fluid in the lagoon , pond , or tank is drawn into the riser 12 through inlets 18 and propelled upward through the riser 12 by one or more propellers 70 . exits the riser 12 through outlets 24 into chamber 32 . the continuous flow of fluid into the chamber 32 generally causes the fluid surface level l within the chamber 32 to be slightly higher than the water surface surrounding the chamber , thus providing a hydraulic pressure forcing the water out the openings 39 in the chamber floor 34 . the size of the riser 12 , motor 64 , and propellers 70 are desirably selected so that between about 600 to 1000 gallons of water per minute can be pumped up though the riser 12 into the chamber 32 . furthermore , fluid surface level l within chamber 32 may be manipulated by a user such that the pressure therein is increased , thereby allowing greater amounts of oxygen to be transferred . for example , the surface level l may be manipulated to increase sufficient to create a hydraulic pressure equal to approximately at least 1 . 1 atmospheres , at least 1 . 2 atmospheres , at least 1 . 3 atmospheres , or at least 1 . 4 atmospheres hydraulic pressure , thereby entraining more oxygen therein . this flow of fluid through riser 12 causes a continuous air inflow into the upper end 16 of riser 12 though chamber ceiling opening 54 , the air being mixed with the fluid within riser 12 at the point of discharge of the fluid from riser 12 through discharge outlets 24 . as fluid cascades out of discharge outlets 24 , into inner chamber 60 , out into chamber , chamber 32 and forcefully exits openings 39 , the direction and depth at which the oxygenated fluid is discharged can be determined the optional use of flow direction pipes 74 and 76 , which may be adjustable with respect to each other to selectively determine the depth and direction of flow direction pipes 74 and 76 . by selective direction of pipes 74 and 76 , the fluid outflow from waste treatment unit 10 can at least partially oppose or offset the rotation of the treatment unit 10 due to the torque provided when the motor 64 is running . the flow of water within the chamber 32 may cause the development of foam on the surface of the water within chamber 32 , depending on the fluid conditions . according to at least one exemplary embodiment , accumulating foam can be vacuum withdrawn through pipe 78 , or in another embodiment , the foam will automatically eject through pipe 78 due pressure build - up . additionally , it will be appreciated that an activated charcoal filter may be added to pipe 78 to reduce any odor produced from the treated water as gas is offgased . turning now to fig5 , according to yet another exemplary embodiment , waste treatment unit 10 optionally includes a movable shearing blade 120 attached to shaft 66 , and a fixed shearing blade 122 . both fixed shearing blade 122 and movable shearing blade 120 may comprise metal , including steel , stainless steel , hardened steel , hardened stainless steel , or ceramic , carbide , or other suitable material . in practice , movable shearing blade 120 may be urged into close planar contact with fixed shearing blade 122 through the use of a bushing 124 , whereby the bushing comprises a spring , rubber , or other material able to urge shearing blade 120 toward fixed shearing blade 122 . by urging movable shearing blade 120 toward fixed shearing blade 122 , when motor turns shaft 66 , movable shearing blade rotates , and when passing over the top of fixed shearing blade 122 , any material caught between movable shearing blade 120 and fixed shearing blade 122 is sliced , thereby reducing the likelihood of long , stringy waste from becoming entangled with propeller 70 or clogging discharge outlets 24 . further , bushing 124 allows a slight upward movement of the blade in relation to fixed shearing blade , any hardened or uncuttable objects may pass between the two blades , thereby preventing seizure of the unit and potential damage to motor 64 . in application , at least one embodiment an oxygen transfer rate of at least 0 . 50 kg / hr o 2 transfer can be achieved while utilizing approximately 4 . 5 to 5 amps of electricity at 120 volts . in at least one additional embodiment , an oxygen transfer rate of at least 0 . 8 kg / hr o 2 transfer can be achieved while utilizing approximately 4 . 5 to 5 amps of electricity at 120 volts . turning now to fig4 , it will be appreciated that additional flow direction pipes 74 and 76 may be added to inlets 18 , thereby allowing a user to further control to the source of water collection , and further allowing selective uptake of water at points in the lagoon where the oxygen level is likely to be the lowest . likewise , by selectively placing flow direction pipes 74 and 76 to intake at points in a lagoon that are most likely to have low oxygen levels ( both in terms of height and position within the lagoon ), and by selectively placing flow direction pipes 74 and 76 for dispelling oxygenated water from the waste treatment unit 10 , a more consistently oxygenated lagoon can be developed by developing both inward and outward flow currents that adequately disperse oxygenated water and intake low oxygenated water , thereby allowing permeation of oxygen throughout the lagoon without creating a turbulent flow of water that precludes the settling of organic matter that is required in clarification or settling tanks or lagoons . further , due to the fact that flow can be directed with relative precision and with relatively low pressure , a reduced amperage is required to operate motor 64 , thereby resulting in increased energy efficiency . finally , it will be appreciated that the use of such directional flow allowing slower water transfer to occur further allows the use of propeller speeds to entrain air while not dispersing bacterial colonies known as flock . additionally , it will be appreciated that utilizing the flow direction pipes 74 and 76 , water may be utilized to direct water brought up from warmer strata in the winter to help eliminate ice build - up on the surface of outdoor lagoons , which further allows for additional oxygenation of the lagoon . while these features have been disclosed in connection with the illustrated preferred embodiment , other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art that come within the spirit of the disclosure as defined in the following claims . further , it will be appreciated that in very large ponds or lakes , it may be convenient or necessary to employ two or more water treatment units 10 to ensure a total water flow volume sufficient to provide sufficient oxygen to satisfy the bod of the body of water . | 1 |
fig1 illustrates a plastic one - way beer keg 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention . the plastic beer keg 10 includes an outer container 12 having a removable lid 14 . the outer container 12 has an outer wall 16 extending upward from a periphery of a base 18 . the plastic beer keg 10 is symmetric , such that the side not in view of fig1 is symmetric to that of fig1 . the wall 16 includes a pair of handle openings 20 extending through an upper portion of the outer wall 16 . an annular rib 26 extends outward from the outer wall 16 above the handle openings 20 to increase the rigidity of the container mouth . an annular skirt 28 extends outward from the outer wall 16 below the handles 20 to increase the rigidity of the outer wall 16 and to provide additional grip points . it should be noted that the container 12 is generally in the form of a pail , which provides several advantages as will be described below . it should be noted that , in general , the familiar form factor of the pail with removable lid provides many of the advantages of the present invention beer keg 10 , including nestability of the containers 12 with one another , ease of carrying , removability and replacability of the lid 14 , and reusability of the container 12 and lid 14 . this also provides advantages to the extent that there are existing technologies for the manufacture , labeling and handling of pails generally . the container 12 and lid 14 may be hdpe , polypropylene or other suitable materials . fig2 and 3 illustrate the beer keg 10 of fig1 partially broken away . a liner 40 ( or “ bottle ”) has an outer wall 42 , which generally matches the shape of the interior of the container 12 . the liner 40 may be blow - molded pet or other suitable material . as is known with pet beverage bottles , the liner 40 is provided with a base having a plurality of feet 44 , to make the liner stable for stacking , shipping and conveying . the mouth 46 of the liner 40 is aligned with an opening 30 through the lid 14 . the feet 44 of the liner 40 rest on the base wall 18 of the container 12 . the base 18 of the container 12 includes corrugations 32 that interlock with the feet 44 of the liner 40 . the lid 14 is shown as having a snap - on fit with the outer container 12 , but a threaded attachment between the lid 14 and the outer wall 16 could also be used . the lid 14 has an outer annular wall 36 , or lip 36 that is radially outward of the upper edge 34 of the container 12 . a valve / spear assembly 50 is secured to the mouth 46 of the pet bottle 40 . the valve / spear assembly 50 includes a spear 52 extending downwardly to the bottom of the liner 40 from a valve 54 at the liner 40 mouth 46 . the valve 54 and spear 52 are not shown in detail . in fig4 and 5 , the right side of the drawing shows the liner 40 in its initial state in the outer container 12 , while the left side of the drawing shows the liner 40 in its pressurized state after being filled with a carbonated beverage . as shown , the liner 40 expands when pressurized . the lid 14 is angled downwardly to the opening around the valve 54 . the opening 30 in the lid 14 permits the liner 40 to expand without the liner 40 contacting the lid 14 . at either height , the valve 54 is below the height of the outer wall 16 of the outer container 12 to protect the valve 54 and above the height of the lid 14 to keep the valve 54 in the proper location . there is also sufficient room to place a removable cap ( not shown ) over the valve 54 . referring to fig5 , the lid 14 includes an annular outer portion 62 over the upper edge 34 of the wall 16 of the container 12 and an annular inner portion 64 within the annular outer portion 62 . the annular inner portion 64 is offset downwardly from the annular outer portion 62 . the opening 30 is formed through the annular inner portion 64 . the lid 14 also includes an annular angled portion 66 extending between the annular outer portion 62 and the annular inner portion 64 . the lid 14 includes an annular inner wall 68 adjacent an interior surface of the wall 16 of the container 12 . a plurality of radial ribs 70 on a lower surface of the lid 14 connect the annular inner wall 68 to the annular angled portion 66 . in fig6 and 7 , it is shown that the feet 44 interlock with the corrugations 32 in the bottom wall 18 of the outer container 12 . this prevents relative rotation between the liner 40 and the outer container 12 during tapping of the keg 10 . fig8 illustrates one method for filling the keg 10 . the keg 10 is filled in the inverted orientation as shown . the liner 40 , after being formed , it pressurized with co 2 ( or other suitable fluid ) before or after being inserted in the outer container 12 . this expands the liner 40 sufficiently that the liner 40 bears against the outer wall 16 . the lid 14 is secured to the mouth of the outer container 12 . the pressure in the liner 40 is sufficient to hold the liner 40 inside the outer container 12 when inverted . the empty inverted keg 10 is placed on rails 58 . the filling valve 60 rises to engage the valve 54 , while an upper clamp 63 bears down on the bottom wall 18 of the outer container 12 . if the liner 40 does slide down when inverted , the filling valve 60 lifts it up against the bottom wall 18 . the pressure inside the liner 40 also assists the liner 40 to withstand the clamping force between the upper clamp 63 and the filling valve 60 . optionally , the neck of the liner 40 could be corrugated to increase strength . the liner 40 is then filled by the filling valve 60 . the filling valve 60 then lowers again . the liner 40 when full is pressurized and expanded against the outer wall 16 of the outer container 12 . the friction between the liner 40 and outer wall 16 holds the liner 40 in the outer container 12 even when the liner 40 is full . optionally , portions of the outer wall 16 could be made with a smaller inner diameter to increase the friction between the liner 40 and outer wall 16 after the liner 40 is pressurized . the filled keg 10 is then turned back to the upright position for shipping , sale and use . prior to filling , and after removal of an empty liner 40 by the user , empty containers 12 can be nested within one another , thus reducing their overall stacking height . further , the lids 14 are also stackable and partially nestable . the used liners 40 and valve / spear assemblies 50 can be recycled . the empty outer containers 12 can be returned to be used with new liners 40 , or recycled . the empty outer containers 12 can also be reused for other purposes . in accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes and jurisprudence , exemplary configurations described above are considered to represent a preferred embodiment of the invention . however , it should be noted that the invention can be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described without departing from its spirit or scope . alphanumeric identifiers on method claim steps are for ease of reference in dependent claims and do not signify a required sequence unless otherwise specified . | 1 |
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